Monstrous Summer for Disney – new & upcoming Disney fun! {Travel Tuesday}

At the end of May, my friend Becca from My Crazy Good Life and I were at Disneyland for the debut of Mickey and the Magical Map and the monstrous summer kick-off (where 3 Disney Parks stayed open for 24 hours straight)! It was a monstrous good time for sure! And it is indeed a monstrous summer for Disney!! Between the Mickey and the Magical Map event and Disney Social Media Moms, I learned about SO much great stuff going on! Here are some of the highlights…

Disney Movies

First up is Monsters University of course (hence the monstrous summer). It opened in theaters on June 21^st and has been quite popular at the box office since! If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it! It’s fun for all ages! In case you missed it, we had a lot of Monsters University fun around our house! Be sure to check out all these fun Monsters ideas: 

The Lone Ranger

It hit theaters Friday July 5^th, starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer. Since we were out of town, I missed the press screening for this. So, no official opening day review here! But, Mr. Mom Endeavors and I might be able to sneak in a date night to go see it!

Planes

The boys are SO excited for this! As a mom of all boys, I LOVE that Disney has some great movies that the boys love with plot lines & characters different than the typical prince/princess theme. If it’s even half as good as Monsters University, I think we’ll all really enjoy it! Disney’s Planes takes off in theaters August 9th! 

Frozen

Ok…with a release date in November, I know that this isn’t part of the “monstrous summer” fun. But, the teasers came out this summer and from what I’ve seen so far, it looks pretty cute!

Saving Mr. Banks

So, this one isn’t a summer film either, but the first trailer was just released last week and I’m SO excited for this movie. You can head on over to my first post about Saving Mr. Banks to get details and find out about my special love for Mary Poppins! 😉

Disney Parks

Disney’s California Adventure (DCA) just celebrated the one-year anniversary of the debut of Cars Land (which is absolutely amazing) and Buena Vista Street. In addition to all that continued fun, there is a new Monsters University area at both DCA and at Hollywood Studios in Florida. How fun to be able to “attend” Monsters University while you’re in the parks!

Photo credit: Allison of All for the Boys

Across the walkway at Disneyland, Mickey and the Magical Map is a great new show that opened at Fantasyland Theater just in time for the summer! It truly is amazing! Be sure to make time for it in your trip schedule! In case you missed the post, be sure to click over to see all the Mickey and the Magical Map details and my interview with some very special “people”! Also at Disneyland, this is the first summer for Fantasy Faire that opened in March. This area is such a great addition to the parks and in a perfect location right next to Sleeping Beauty castle! While the area is definitely princess focused, don’t rule it out if you’re the parents of all boys! I actually can’t wait to take the boys to this new area of the park! Even if they don’t want to meet the princesses (mine are still at an age where they would LOVE to do that), the Royal Theatre there has two shows that are very well done (and super hilarious too)! At Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, guests are enjoying a number of new offerings! This is the first summer of Disney World’s New Fantasyland (which opened in December 2012). After experiencing a number of these attractions first-hand during Disney Social Media Moms, I can tell you that the new additions are fantastic! We enjoyed dining at Be Our Guest Restaurant and loved the Storybook Circus area! But, the new Disney World fun doesn’t stop with New Fantasyland! In fact, there is also a new interactive “Pirates Adventure” game at Magic Kingdom and the newly re-imagined Test Track at Epcot (we just got to experience this and loved it!!!)!  In addition to the new Monsters University area, visitors to Hollywood Studios will also enjoy the new Disney Junior show (our little guys loved this!), featuring Sofia The First and Doc McStuffins! Plus, there’s the new Wilderness Explorers at Disney’s Animal Kingdom that we can’t wait to check out the next time we’re in Disney World!

While we were there, we also got to see a glimpse of the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train family coaster ride that will debut at Magic Kingdom in 2014! It looks SO cool already!  Whew! SO many amazing things! How incredible it must be to be a Disney Imagineer, dreaming up all kinds of fun, magical things!

And, last but not least, Disney Infinity (a new interactive video game experience) will hit stores in about a month! Gamers and Disney fans everywhere are really excited about this! We’re planning on making it the first real video game experience for our boys. Even more fun? Check this out…. Until 7/31, you can enter to WIN a FULL Disney Infinity Starter Pack HERE!

What new Disney fun are YOU most excited about?

Dis­clo­sure: I was invited to attend a spe­cial media event for the pre­miere of Mickey and the Mag­i­cal Map and the Mon­strous Sum­mer kick­off, as well as attend Disney Social Media Moms. I eeceived dis­counted & com­pli­men­tary items from Disney as part of the expe­ri­ences. How­ever, I was not asked nor told what to write. As always, all opin­ions, expe­ri­ences, and love of Dis­ney are entirely my own.