2018 was quite the year for us here at Castle Party! We TRIPLED our average monthly visitors from 2017, and have made so many great connections this year and we just can’t thank you all enough! We have some really big things planned for 2019, and while we just can’t wait to share those with you, we’re taking a quick trip down memory lane and sharing some of our favorite posts from 2018:
10 Free Things to Do at the Walt Disney World Resort | January 5, 2018
Free and Disney? In the same sentence? It may be hard to believe, but we’ve found plenty of things to do for free at the Walt Disney World Resort, and we share them all in this post! (Some of them don’t even require a park ticket, so you can totally hang at the resort without dropping any $$ on things to do for the day.)
Find out what’s free!
3 Animals You Can Help with the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund | January 17, 2018
The Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund was a huge part of my Disney College Program (I worked in Animal Kingdom!), and it’s really stuck with me ever since. The DWCF supports so many animals all over the world by funding nonprofits and conservation programs, and Disney even covers all overhead costs associated with the fund AND they double all guest contributions. There are tons of animals that benefit from this program, and I shared some details for three of them in this post.
Learn how you can help here!
How to DisneyBound on a Budget | February 19, 2018
I’ve always had such a difficult time getting into DisneyBounding, and part of what always held me back was that I assumed I’d need to spend hundreds of dollars on outfits I’d only wear once or only wear while I’m in the parks. When Caitlin started writing for us she shared a bunch of posts about DisneyBounding, but one of my favorites was how to do it on a budget! I never realized how easy and inexpensive it could be to get started before this post.
Get ready to DisneyBound!
5 Reasons to See a Ballet When You Visit Boston | March 8, 2018
One of our 2018 goals was to expand this blog to include more than just Disney. I think in the past I’ve over-niched, and while I obviously LOVE Disney there is so much more I want to write about. Some of the first non-Disney travel posts we shared were about visiting Boston, and one of my favorites to this day is this one where we shared why we love seeing a ballet while we’re exploring the city.
Plié this way!
I Survived My First runDisney 5K (& You Can Too!) | April 5, 2018
Ashleigh wrote this post for us, and it’s one of my favorites on the whole blog. Any race, nevermind a runDisney race, can be so intimidating for non-runners, but the whole experience is truly incredible and worth it, and this post is something I wish I read before I tried a runDisney race for the first time. If you’re on the fence about it, or just feel like you’re not enough of a “runner,” sign up for the race you’re thinking about and read this post!
Get your run on!
Everything You Need to Know About Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party | May 9, 2018
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is easily my favorite ticketed event at the Walt Disney World Resort, so it’s really no surprise that I was writing about it in May! I like to think I have my game plan down in that I know how to get the most out of these parties while still seeing everything we want to see without rushing around or stressing over it during the event. If you’re new to the party, or just want to make sure you don’t miss anything, this post can be helpful to read before you fall trip. (And if you’re looking for just a quick look at what our 2018 party was like, you can read our review here!)
Let’s get spooky!
A Complete Guide to Boston’s Freedom Trail | May 22, 2018
In another installment of our “non-Disney travel posts,” we decided to see if we could walk the whole Freedom Trail in Boston in just one day. Distance-wise you can definitely do this, and at only 2.5 miles we knew this going into it. But we really wanted to test out how much you could actually plan to see in one day, and figure out what the most efficient way to see the whole trail was so we could share it with you guys! If you ever make it over to Boston give this post a look before you head out to one of the city’s most popular attractions.
Follow the red line!
Experience 35 Global Marketplaces at the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival | June 7, 2018
Chaz and I LOVE Food & Wine Festival, so this is one post you can count on being updated each year! We’re always tracking which dishes we love, which ones return, and what new offerings are added each year. Plus this post is loaded with tips for getting around the festival and where to splurge and what to skip. (Check back in this post in the spring as we’ll update the menus for 2019 once we have them!).
Let’s eat!
LOST in the Disney Blogging Community | July 13, 2018
This post is probably the realest I’ve ever gotten on this blog, and not what I was planning on writing in July of this year but I guess it had to be done. In case you missed it, I asked for clarification for something on another Disney site, and the owner not only (quite rudely) dismissed my question and others like it, but he also screenshot it and made fun of me personally on his own Twitter account. He’s honestly just a bully, whose behavior (and ego for that matter) are completely unwarranted, but it’s things like this that make me feel out of place in this community sometimes. This post is simply a reflection of that, and worth the read to catch you up if you don’t really hang out on DisTwitter.
Want some spilled tea?
7 Tips for Choosing Roommates on the Disney College Program | August 12, 2018
To be totally honest with you guys, I’m trying to get away from writing as much about the Disney College Program. I loved it obviously, and I’m so thankful for the experience because it really helped jump start my writing career and this blog, but I’m growing further and further apart from that time in my life and I’m really ready to start focusing on something else. Still, choosing roommates is something I ALWAYS get questions about, so this post is definitely something to keep in mind if you’re planning on doing the program…
Vista Waaaaayyyy
What I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Blog | December 10, 2018
This post was really just something I needed to get down on paper (errr keyboard?) just to get my thoughts out there and really think them through. But I’ve heard from a few other bloggers that they could relate and this post was helpful! So at the very least I’m glad it helped a couple of other people, and it really did help me just organize my thoughts while I’m now preparing for the New Year.
Want to start a blog?
That just about covers 2018 here at Castle Party! We have some really exciting things planned for 2019, and I’ll have a whole post about everything new that’s coming soon but for now I can tell you that you can expect:
- More giveaways! Books, merch, who knows what else. Maybe monthly, bimonthly, quarterly… not quite sure yet, but we’ll get the details figured out soon!
- New post topics! We’re not going to leave our Disney roots at all, in fact the majority of the posts will still be Disney, but we’re planning on working in some more topics that our audience (basically Disney-loving millennials) would also be interested in.
- A new community. Details coming soon, but expect greater ways for you to get involved, and for you to connect with us and the rest of our readers!
We can’t thank you enough for following along with us this past year, and we’re wishing you all a magical 2019!!
I run a travel and lifestyle blog, and I LOVE blogging about Disney! My husband and I had a really good Disney year. One day split between EPCOT and Animal Kingdom, two days at the Tokyo parks (one day per park), and one day at California Adventure.
We also tried Disneybounding for the first time, using clothes we already owned. One day he wore a green shirt with yellow shorts and I wore a purple floral headband, a lavender shirt, and a pink tulle skirt. We were Pascal and Rapunzel. The other day, he wrote a white shirt with black stripes and white-ish shorts while I wrote a black tank top over a purple t-shirt and blue shorts. We were Olaf and Anna. Subtle Disneybounding, but we wore comfortable clothes, and we didn’t spend any money!
How was Tokyo!? We can’t wait to go someday! Also what’s your blog? 😀