• Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
Menu

The Orlando DINKs Blog

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
The Orlando DINKS At Disney's Animal Kingdom Park.

Walt Disney World After COVID Reopening Part 1: Visiting the Parks

July 10, 2020

With the parks closed for the last few months we have been anxiously awaiting to see what they would be like once open again. Well yesterday we were fortunate to get that chance as we attended an Annual Passholder preview day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park. Honestly leading up to this visit we have had so many thoughts in our head. While we weren’t concerned about Disney properly handling safety we did wonder:

  • Can we last in a park, in the heat with a mask?

  • What will crowds be like? Will they comply with rules?

  • Will Disney still feel magical?

  • At the end of the day is paying for a ticket to Disney still worth it?

Read on for a full review of our park experience including plenty of info on new safety measures and changes…

Read More
In Parks Tags Walt Disney World, Animal Kingdom
Comment
Pizzafari Animal Kingdom Park

Pizzafari Family-Style Dining Review (2020)

June 20, 2020

While we find Disney’s Animal Kingdom to have some of the best dining options in the parks (like Tiffin’s!), on our last visit we decided to try something a little different: a pizza joint. Pizzafari is located in Discovery Isle and offers a dinner option that is a cross between quick service and table service. We were in the mood for carbs and the price seemed reasonable so we ventured over to try out this spot. Read on for a full review of the Family-Style Dining offering…

Read More
In Foods & Drinks, Parks Tags Walt Disney World, Animal Kingdom, Dining Review, Dinner
Comment
Completing the Disney "4 Parks in 1 Day Challenge".

Conquering Disney's "4 Parks in 1 Day" Challenge: Our Summer Survival Guide!

August 5, 2019

It is time for another Disney Friends Blog Hop! The theme for this month is “Summer”. We weren’t super sure what to write about as we had never actually been to Walt Disney World during the summer season (hard to believe right?). But that fact has recently changed. Since we moved to the Orlando area, it was a no brainer for us to become Disney Annual Pass (AP) holders. We decided to celebrate acquiring those little yellow cards by taking on a little bit of a crazy challenge: hitting all four parks in one day….in the middle of summer. Read on to hear about our long day and for a few of our tips for surviving the heat… (Also make sure to check below for a list of other fun Disney blogs in this hop to go check out!)

Read More
In Parks, Things to Do, Planning Tags Walt Disney World, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Park Hopper
Comment
PANDORA - A World Like No Other

Pandora – The World of Avatar: An In-Depth Review of Disney's Animal Kingdom Land (with Gorgeous Pics!)

March 21, 2019

It’s funny, back in the day we went on a date where we both were able to see our first 3D movie, which happened to be “Avatar”. While it may not be one of the top movies from a story perspective, it most definitely was a milestone in visual movie technology at the time. When Disney announced it was creating a new world based on the movie it seemed a bit odd and unrelated at first. But overtime we got used to the idea and we realized a storyline about the environmental could fit in well at the Animal Kingdom and the source material could lead to new technology and creativity for the Imagineers. After many years of waiting, anticipation kept growing as opening date approached. And this winter it was finally time for us to take a visit to “Pandora – The World of Avatar”. Read on for our review and lots of beautiful pics…

Read More
In Parks Tags Walt Disney World, Animal Kingdom, Pandora, World of Avatar, Attractions
Comment
Animal Kingdom River of Lights

A Look Back: Our Review of the Tiffins & Rivers of Light Dining Package at Animal Kingdom

February 6, 2019

For many years Disney’s Animal Kingdom had been known as just a partial day park. Even so it had grown on us over the years with the exotic theming and the ability to explore nature trails had become a very relaxing and enjoyable experience for us. Recently there have been some newer additions to the park to include some offerings that have even extended the park hours longer than before. On our recent trip to the world we were excited to check out some of these newer offerings and for the first time stay in Animal Kingdom later than a 5pm close time. We decided to book a dining package to experience the River of Lights night show for the first time. Read on for a review of our meal and the show…

Read More
In Foods & Drinks, Parks, Special Experience Tags Walt Disney World, Animal Kingdom, Restaurant Review, Dining Package, Show, Rivers of Light
Comment
No results found
Newsletter Block
This newsletter signup form needs a storage option. Edit the block and enter a storage location via the Storage tab.

Sign up for emails from The Orlando DINKs.

Thank you!

Popular Blog Posts from The Orlando DINKs

Featured
_MG_9667.jpg
Update: Why We Changed Our Name to The Orlando DINKs

Yup, you read that correctly, after 6 years of being known as The Disney DINKs, we are officially changing our name to The Orlando DINKs.

While changing one word doesn’t seem like a huge change, it feels pretty huge to us since this has been our identity for so long. There are a few reasons why we decided to make the change, some of which are directly related to Disney and some that aren’t. Before we really get into it, we want to be very clear that this article isn’t an intent to bash Disney by any means. We have had amazing experiences related to Disney, from our wedding, multiple Anniversary trips on both coasts, and Disneyland Paris. Being Disney Vacation Club members has allowed us to experience some amazing destinations including Hawaii, Hilton Head Island, and Vero Beach. None of these would have been possible without DVC. We have also had the pleasure of sharing these experiences with friends and family throughout the years. So while it may seem like we are quitting Disney, we certainly are not (and please note we are even keeping our fun mouse ear branding!) Read on to learn more…

Read more →
Moving Near the Mouse: Moving to Orlando to be a Disney Local
Moving Near the Mouse: Moving to Orlando to be a Disney Local

Everyone dreams about moving to their happy place whether it be the country, the mountains, or, in our case, near the house of the mouse. Last year we were able to make our dreams a reality and left Maryland to start a new chapter in Orlando. It’s hard to believe it, but we have now been Floridians for one year! We wanted to take a look back at this last year and chat about:

  • How we pulled off a big cross country move last year

  • What we are loving and missing now being in FL

  • A peek into our home (with several before and after projects!)

  • and finally, how our Disney habits have changed now being locals

Read more →
IMG_8228.jpg
Setting Sail on a Disney Specialty Cruise with a Private Fireworks View

With the July 4th fireworks at Walt Disney World canceled this year, we figured it was the perfect time to reminisce about a special fireworks experience we had last fall. We are always amazed at the amount of special activities and tours available at Disney and booking a private specialty fireworks cruise was one awesome time. Technically our friends Max and Niki had booked the experience for their honeymoon, but they let us crash the party and come along (how nice are they right?). One night last fall our group of four enjoyed some drinks at the Top of the World then set sail on our private pontoon. Read on to hear all about our enchanted evening sailing.

Read more →
Is Disney Vacation Club Worth It? A DVC Review & Guide
Is Disney Vacation Club Worth It? A DVC Review & Guide

If you have read some of our resort reviews before, you may have figured out that we are Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members. We have been blue card holders since 2013 and have used our membership in various ways. We find that we get a lot of questions about DVC, with the most frequent being “Is DVC worth it?” It can be a bit confusing at first to figure out how the membership exactly works so we wanted to break it down for our readers. With this article we will be covering…

Read more →
Our Story: Why We Started The Disney DINKs Blog (Dual Income, No Kids & Disney Travel!)
Our Story: Why We Started The Disney DINKs Blog (Dual Income, No Kids & Disney Travel!)

We were recently asked to participate in a “Disney Friends Blog Hop” for people to discover other Disney blogs in the community. (You can learn a little more about that at the the bottom of this post!) We also realized with many new visitors recently it may be a good time to share a bit more about the two authors behind the posts. There are two things we tend to get asked pretty frequently. Many people are curious of how we decided to launch a Disney based blog geared towards an adult crowd. Many people are also curious about the term “DINKs” (Dual Income No Kids) and we wanted to touch a bit on our journey to decide to be childfree. So here is a little peek into the world of Julie and Andrew…

Read more →

Follow @theorlandodinks on Instagram

🐾 Saying goodbye to our sweet little James… 

We brought James (and his brother Jesse) home as tiny kittens on Valentine’s weekend in 2010. We were lucky enough to raise both of them from playful little kittens into old, delicate gentle
I lava you… 🫶

Loved that @disneyphotopass was able to capture some beach photos for us on our recent trip to @disneyaulani. We always have such magical memories thanks to @disneyvacationclub, and Disney’s Aulani resort in Hawaii is one

© 2015-2023 theorlandodinks.com (a JK Creative brand) All rights reserved.