by Tiki Diva, Pink Diva, Canadian Diva, JollyFrogger Diva, Disney Magic Diva, and Soarin’ Diva

“A new year, a new you!” “The sky is the limit!” “Change your life in 30 days!”

Yes, you’ve heard the hype.  As we usher in 2019, Disney fans around the globe are setting New Year’s resolutions, and the Disney Divas and Devos are no different! With December coming to a close, we have put on our thinking caps to set House of Mouse resolutions for the next 365 days.  Read on to see our plans– both big and small.

Pink Diva Flips for Guardians

My New Year’s Resolution is to be at Epcot in the days leading up to the opening of the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride.  I’m excited to see the first Marvel ride at Walt Disney World.  It has been revealed that it will be the world’s longest indoor roller coaster.  I love roller coasters and can’t wait to see what this one has in store.  While that is all very exciting, I’m hoping to see Chris Pratt-The Star Lord himself.  Tim Allen showed up for the opening of Toy Story Land, so anything is possible!  While I’m waiting for Chris Pratt– I mean the Guardians of the Galaxy Ride– I fully intend on training for my first half-marathon, the Princess Marathon.  I would like to train all throughout 2019 so that when it’s time for the marathon I’m ready to run!

Canadian Diva Sails the Seven Seas

My New Year’s Resolution is to save up for a Disney Cruise! It may not be this year or the next because a Disney Cruise is very expensive but in the near future. We may have to forgo a trip to Disney World to save up for a Disney Cruise. One of the big reasons why our family wants to go on a Disney Cruise is because, of course, we heard it’s AMAZING! But also, as you may have read from some of my articles, my 4 year old has severe anaphylactic food allergies. It’s very hard for us to travel anywhere. Disney World is incredible and we heard Disney Cruiseline is even better when accommodating food allergies. With my son’s allergies, we cannot visit a lot of ports so my dream is to visit Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island, where they prepare food in advance for people with allergies and serve it on the island for them. We have gone on non-Disney Cruises and had a great time and they were accommodating to my son’s allergies. A Disney Cruise is definitely a dream and a Resolution for us to work towards!

JollyFrogger Diva Puts on her Planning Cap

My Disney Resolution for 2019 is to learn to fully plan my own trip. With the exception of one trip, I have never visited Walt Disney World without my father. He is the one who taught me how to properly plan a trip, which he always printed on blue paper. In fact, when he retired, he got a ream of blue paper from work to bring home with him so we could continue this tradition for future Disney World trips. He taught me to look at park hours, decide which park to visit which day, and to include the reservation number for all hotel and dining reservations on the printed schedule for easy access (of course, back when we started visiting, there was no such thing as the My Disney Experience, so if you didn’t write it down, you didn’t have a way to find it later). It was in visiting with him that I learned our family’s preference for closing down a park but not necessarily being there for rope drop (he’s never been a morning person). In fact, the one time I went to Walt Disney World without my father, it was with some friends in college, and I earned the nickname “Drill Sergeant ” for trying to keep everyone on a schedule (they wanted to do 4 parks in 3 days- a daunting task even for the most seasoned and well-organized Disney veteran).

Our next trip, however, will be different. We lost my Mom about a year ago, and Dad feels that his health is to a point where he would not be able to meet the physical demand of spending that much time in the heat and crowds that are found at Disney World. This will be the first trip where I am fully responsible for creating our schedule. Sure, the veterans in our group (my sister and my husband) will want to contribute their preferences for where webfuygf  eat and what special events we do (Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party, Food & Wine Festival, or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party, depending on when we visit), but the majority of the planning will fall to me. I will be the one creating and printing the infamous blue schedule (yes, I still print a hard copy including our FastPass+ information for each day even though I can access it all through MDE). So now, all that’s left to do is actually plan our trip. We have two tentative dates in mind, but since Star Wars land is scheduled to open “late Fall 2019” and we’d like to avoid that mayhem, we had our travel agent reserve a second set of dates as well incase our preferred dates fall close to the opening. Since Disney is being so tight-lipped about a more precise date right now, that will like mean making two sets of dining reservations and possibly even two sets of FastPass+ reservations depending on how far out a final date is announced. I guess I’ll definitely meet my resolution this year- perhaps even twice over.

Disney Magic Diva is Living on the Edge

As anyone on this side of the galaxy knows, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will open in Disneyland Summer of 2019, and at Walt Disney World Resort Fall 2019. While I’m still a padawan when it comes to all things Star Wars, my son is a Jedi Master. In fact, he has already booked a hotel room for EVERY weekend in November 2019 in anticipation of an opening day announcement. (He assures me he’s only going to keep a reservation for the weekend closest to the opening date, but I’ll believe that when I see it!) So my Disney Resolution for 2019 is to  brush up on my Star Wars knowledge, and join him as one of the first guests to visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Every Han Solo needs a Chewie, right? See you on the Millennium Falcon!

Soarin’ Diva Flies High

My New Year’s Resolution is pretty simple.  So simple, some of you may ask, “Why on earth hasn’t she done it before now?”  My resolution is….drum roll…to ride Astro Orbiter at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom for the second time in my life.  And I’ll happily explain why we have chosen thus far to bypass our second experience on Astro Orbiter.  I remember our first time visiting Walt Disney World very well.  We were inexperienced and up to try anything and everything that we could.  That included an interminability long wait in line for Astro Orbiter.  See, we were newbies and just didn’t know.  We didn’t realize we were waiting and melting in the heat only for a ride that lasts literally one and a half minutes.  Seriously.  One and a half stinkin’ minutes on a ride that people wait an hour for.  It’s madness.  It’s insanity.  So we have never ridden it again.  This year, however, I plan to take the bull by the horns, try to plan meticulously for the proper time to jump into line so as to not die of boredom while waiting (or worse, be overcome with the vapors from the prolonged exposure to the smell of body odor near me) and ride Astro Orbiter.  I haven’t fully convinced my husband yet, so I guess I should add convincing my husband to ride it with me to that resolution.

Tiki Diva Stops Dreaming and Starts Doing

As for myself, I’m not sure if we have a trip to Walt Disney World coming up in 2019.  I know, that sounds sad.  But, we actually may have some pretty exciting things on the horizon.  My son is applying for the Disney College Program in January, so all our vacation plans are on hold until we find out whether or not he gets accepted. (Fingers crossed and happy pixie dust, please) However, that doesn’t stop a diva from dreaming!  I must admit, I am quite fond of wasting time on Disney’s website, pricing out trips that I am not sure if we will be taking.  As a spreadsheet guru, this girlie has spent many an afternoon running the numbers, trying to decide between staying at Beach Club or Pop Century, for how many nights, and whether or not we will be partaking in the dining plan when we go on any number of imaginary trips.  Therefore, I resolve to stop researching, planning, and wiling away the hours on the computer, step outside, and enjoy each day as it comes.  Does that mean I won’t be a Disney fanatic?  No!  It just means that my kids won’t get cereal for dinner quite so often.  Of course, once he gets accepted into the program (so we hope!) all bets are off.  I have to figure out when we will go, where we will stay, and how long we will stay when we visit him during his Orlando adventure, after all!

How about you?  Do you have a Disney resolution?  Will. you plan your first trip or your fiftieth this year?  Will you try a new destination? Aulani? Adventures by Disney? A cruise?  Tell us, so we can share in your excitement!  And, above all, Happy New Year from the Diva and Devo family to yours!