It's time for the Frog Family's weekly roundup of Disney and Orlando theme park tidbits from the interwebs.
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This week’s highlights:
After months of refurbishment, Bistro de Paris has re-opened albeit with a new menu and a new name, Monsieur Paul (after the world-renowned Chef Paul Bocuse). The new restaurant in Epcot’s France Pavilion has been described as “upscale but less formal” than its predecessor and will serve classic French dishes as well as contemporary interpretations of them. If you have a reservation for Bistro de Paris, it will carry over. We would love to hear about the food and dining experience for those of you who have been able to dine there.- Disney World is introducing “touch to enter” RFID technology at the entrances of its parks this week for resort guests with Keys to the World cards. Instead of finger scanning and inserting a ticket at the gates, guests will swipe their cards across the sensors. The cards can also be used for purchases -- at select locations for now, with plans to expand it across the theme park.
Disney is making it easier for you to shop for the super-hard to please by rolling out personalized gift cards. While Mommy Frog, the big shopper in our house, generally dislikes the impersonal nature of gift cards, she is making an exception for these on account of the customization.- Of course, there was much to-do made over last week’s grand opening of New Fantasyland, and one little thing Mommy Frog begged me to include from it was Beast and Belle being joined by “Dancing With the Stars” pros Chelsie Hightower and Tony Dovolani in the ballroom of Be Our Guest.
- For those of you considering a Disney cruise, all four of its ships are moving to Florida for the first half of 2014.
- Last week’s appearance of a dragon over Cinderella Castle was just “a little sneak peek” of some of the things Disney has up its sleeve.
- The folks at MiceChat have offered a look at the progress on construction for Transformers 3-D and over in Springfield at Universal Studios.
If you're looking for family fun, bowling alley Splitsville is set to open Dec. 19 at Downtown Disney. The Orlando Sentinel has given us a look at the eats.- SeaWorld has taken in 20 hypothermic Kemp’s ridley sea turtles that were rescued along the Cape Cod coast.
- Last but not least, Cheryl Leung of Kids On A Plane is planning her family's 12th trip to Walt Disney World this coming year, and we are so very honored that she is sharing her tips on how they make it affordable with us.
That’s all for this week. Until next week, happy planning!
— Leap
