Mary's Pop-ins: The Skinny on Minnie...and Mickey, too!

My Disney Blog is moving

2011-02-23T19:32:00.000-06:00

You may have already seen the first post on the new blog home...but in case you haven't, I'm moving my Disney blog over to http://www.maryalbright.com/blog. If you get to MaryAlbright.com, click on DisneyBlog and all the posts from this blog are archived there.

So visit me and subscribe over there. This will be the last post on this blog.

WDW Scavenger Hunt News - Finally!

2011-02-14T13:29:00.000-06:00

So with all the excitement last week, I just hadn't had a chance to talk about the fact that FINALLY....D23 announced that tickets for the WDW Scavenger Hunt will be available starting February 24.

I've had this event on my radar since it was announced. Two days to go through all four parks.

It's like the Amazing Race for Disney World!

I feel like that classic Disney commercial - "I can't sleep - I'm too excited!"

The dates have been announced for what seems like for-e-ver. I book a villa at BCV and sat tight because I was not going to book airfare until I know this event was for sure going to happen.

Now that I know it's happening, I'm sitting tight, biting my nails, watching for an airfare sale. I rarely plan last minute trips. Waiting this long to buy airfare gives me the willies. But I'm playing chicken with Delta and we'll see when I flinch.

DD and I will be a team. The boys have their trip to BSA SeaBase in June so I can kinda justify a girls adventure. A little.

I'm a little excited to see if this plays out the way I want it to. I need Tink to send some pixie dust this way!

DCL Online Check-In Determines Port Arrival Times

2011-02-04T19:23:00.000-06:00

DCL has some new check-in and port arrival time information:

Each arrival time slot has a limited number of spaces. Therefore, Guest should complete their online check-in as soon as possible in order to have access to the largest selection of available arrival times.

•This is not applicable to Concierge and Platinum Guests, who can arrive at any time.
•Guest who purchase Disney Cruise Line Air or Ground Transportation will not need to select a time.
•For Guest with independently purchased air, only times appropriate for their flight arrival time will appear.

If you have already fully completed the online check-in process for an upcoming cruise (prior to these enhancements), any submitted information will be transferred over. However, Guests are encouraged to login and select a Port Arrival time.

Also

New Online Cruise Check-In Process

Enhanced online check-in process for Disney Cruise Line, “My Online Check-In.”

From DCL: You now can look forward to a more intuitive and streamlined input with improved technology that makes it easier and quicker to complete the necessary forms. In addition, a new animated video has been created featuring Goofy, who can help you walk through the process.
Here are some of the enhancements:
• More easily understood, smaller sections to simplify the process.
• Ability to easily enter information for the entire traveling party.
• Ability to enter shared information (such as home address) once and apply to additional members of the traveling party.
• If a Guest has cruised with Disney before some information automatically populates, such as address or passport information, reducing input time.

Guests are given access to “My Online Check-in” as follows:

•Concierge and Platinum Castaway Club: 120 days in advance
•Gold Castaway Club: 105 days in advance
•Silver Castaway Club: 90 days in advance
•First Time Cruiser: 75 days in advance

So...if you want that early arrival time, you need to get online and get yourself checked in as soon as you can.

Star Wars Weekends Dates Officially Announced!

2011-02-04T12:50:00.000-06:00

It's that time again!

From the latest Star Wars Beacon Newsletter:

The official dates for 2011 Star Wars Weekends are:

May 20-22

May 27-29

June 3-5

June 10-12

If you've never been to Star Wars Weekends (and you are a fan), it's a MUST-SEE!

I'm currently torn between doing Destination D the week before opening OR doing a quick weekend in May just for SWW.

Stay tuned! More announcements will be forthcoming!

Mary's Magical Meanderings?

2011-01-28T18:02:00.000-06:00

Good grief that doesn't sound very appealing...

I'm thinking that my original title for this blog was just too cutesy and I need something different. Got any ideas?

I'm currently working on maryalbright.com (nothing much there yet, so don't meander over there until there's something worth looking at.) and I might see if I can re-direct this blog over there OR maybe export the content and start with a fresh URL.

I can't just do news all the time...I guess I haven't as my trip reports are interspersed between news and gossip discussion.

So, please comment here, on Facebook or Twitter or even send me an email.

How should I re-brand this blog?

Thanks for your input!

This Week: The Disney Dream, Fantasyland Updates, Star Wars 2.0 News

2011-01-28T11:17:00.000-06:00

Lots of great news came out this week and boy, it's been fun to read! Especially since before a couple of days ago, Minnesota was really living up to its "Great White North" nickname in terms of cold! It's been a bear of a winter this year. We've had a boatload of snow (love it) and some serious Arctic cold for a while (hate it).

Disney Dream Takes Its Maiden Voyage!

Last week, the Dream did a two-day media preview, but this week it left on the "official" Maiden Voyage. So far, I'm seriously impressed with all the stuff I'm seeing. And that's saying something, because I'm not a fan of cruising. I'm sooooo not in love with being stuck on a boat, even though I know there's supposed to be tons to do. And I'm not a sit-by-the-pool-and-read type. I'm a get-in-the-pool-and-swim type and I know that the pools on ships are teeny-tiny.

But I'm digressing...Anyway...I'm really thinking that I could handle a 5-Day Double-Dip on the Dream for next Spring Break. I'd have to get 2 cabins (ouch) because the last cruise we did, my son was all upset to hear his parents snoring! So I'm thinking that I'd get an inside cabin and a verandah cabin across the hall from each other. We'll have to see if I can talk the lone holdout into giving it a shot.

Fantasyland Update

So Disney announced a ton of Fantasyland updates to its current expansion.

I'm all about the food so I was pleased as punch to see a snippet on the Be Our Guest Restaurant that will be in the "mysterious" West Wing of the Beast's Castle. Here's what Disney had to say about it:

Set in the halls of the Beast's Castle, this location will seat up to 550 guests and offer "great food fast" service by day and be full table service in the evening.

Sounds pretty exciting to me! Not your usual fast food, but maybe a step up from that. And I'm just dying to see what the menu looks like!

I'm also very intrigued by the re-imagining of Snow White's Scary Adventures as it becomes the Seven Dwarves Mine Ride. The ride vehicle is supposed to be state-of-the-art and able to swing side to side to the fun music as you visit the mine! Sounds like fun!

Star Wars 2.0 and Star Wars Weekends

Meg Crofton announced that Star Tours will open in 3D on May 20, 2011, which will also be the first Star Wars Weekend of this year.

There are usually four weekends, so if that pattern holds, the following should be the Star Wars Weekends this year:

May 20-22
May 27-29
June 3-5
June 10-12

So, what do you think about all of this?

Disney Marathon, 5K, or Obstacle Course?

2011-01-17T09:34:00.000-06:00

So Disney just did the Disney Marathon last weekend at Disney World.

Actually, there were several different races:

Marathon
Half Marathon
Marathon Relay
Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge
Buzz and Woody's Best Friends 5K
Mickey's Marathon Kids Fest

Basically, if you want to run, there's something for everybody in this Marathon weekend. And what better venue than running through Disney Parks!

I'm soooooo not a runner. Meaning, I don't run just to run. I need more motivation than that. I can't just run down the road, on a treadmill, around a track. It's boring. Now, if I had to run through Disney World where I could be completely distracted from the fact that I'm running miles and miles because I get to see the parks at the same time...well, I might be open to that.

Disney has several other endurance events during the year.

The Princess Half Marathon at WDW in February (and the related shorter races)
The Wine & Dine Half Marathon at WDW in October (and the related shorter races)
Expedition Everest Challenge at WDW in May

I'm not a fan of E:E at AK. Love the theming; the drop is not my thing. So I almost overlooked that last event there because to me, that sounded like riding E:E over...and over...and over again.

Then I looked a little deeper. Obstacle course? Scavenger Hunt? Through AK? Only 5K (~3 miles)?

Hmmm...that sounds more like my type of thing.

I'm all about obstacle courses and scavenger hunts. Make it interesting! This sounds like a very lite Amazing Race-type thing. (Though can you imagine what a real Amazing Race type thing would be like at WDW! I'd be on top of that in a heartbeat!)

I regularly do 5 miles on the elliptical at the YMCA. I know, I know...it's not that same as running on hard ground.

Dude...don't care. I'm not road racing...I'm racing at WDW!

Plus, if the scavenger hunt is the same concept...the clues you get are totally based on your knowledge of Animal Kingdom. Shouldn't be a problem.

So...I'm seriously thinking about it.

Should I do it? What do you think?

Southwest Revamps Rapid Rewards. More Free Seats or Not?

2011-01-07T09:19:00.000-06:00

Southwest had quite the fan following. Many travelers love their operation and they have quite the presence in Orlando. Lots of WDW visitors come in on a Southwest jet. Loyalists are members of the Rapid Rewards program where you earn "credits" toward free flights.

Changes were rumored to be coming and yesterday, Southwest announced the New Rapid Rewards Program effective March 1.

Summing up what's new:

Now you earn "points" instead of credits for every dollar you spend
Any seat is available on any plane at any time. No blackouts.
Points don't expire. Ever.
The amount of points you earn depends on the number of dollars you spend on your fare.

Lower fares require fewer points.

If you still have credits, don't worry - they are still there and you can still use them.

Want the deets? Check it out.

A Look Back at Disney 2010

2011-01-01T07:42:00.000-06:00

Before I get back to my photo posts, I thought it would be fun to talk about some of the interesting news/happenings with Disney in 2010.

The Art of Animation Resort was announced and is moving along nicely. In fact, some new concept art was just released:

This one is from the Lion King section

And we also have Cars, Finding Nemo and Little Mermaid

Expansion was the name of the game this year. Both Disney World and Disneyland worked on expanding different areas of their respective parks.

Disney World started the Fantasyland expansion and re-introduced the Main Street Electrical Parage in Magic Kingdom. We also saw the return of Captain EO to Epcot and the long-awaited Star Wars 2.0 upgrade was announced.

Disneyland launched World of Color and made progress on CarsLand among other things.

DVC made progress on Aulani, its resort in Hawaii. It welcomes its first guest in August 2011.

The long awaited Disney Dream cruise ship was completed and as we speak, is making its way toward Florida for its first voyage.

I had two great trips to Disney in 2010 and enjoyed them both! The private parties in June were fantastic, but Christmas season at Disney World is my absolute favorite.

As we start off 2011, I'm excited for Destination D and the WDW Scavenger Hunt in May and we'll just have to see what happens as the year moves on.

I'm actually going to be moving the blog in January to a new platform and website. Look for more announcements on that in a week or so.

Have a fabulous start to 2011!

Photo Post from our Disney Trip - Part 2

2010-12-27T13:36:00.000-06:00

That's right...near midday and what's the wait time for the Jungle Cruise?

Hey, let's head to Pirates of the Caribbean. WAIT! Pirate Goofy!

Just for Aunt Mikey...Davy Crockett Donald Duck!

What's the wait for Buzz Lightyear? Yeah, that's 40 minutes. Thank goodness for magic Fastpasses.

Finally! Tomorrowland Terrace is actually open and serving!

and I don't like it, but they even have sushi!

and just because I like Christmas and this lamp is just so dang cool...

Photo Post from our Disney Trip - Part 1

2010-12-27T13:28:00.000-06:00

I'm going to try and post some photos this week from our trip that was right after Thanksgiving. I'll try to keep them succinct so that you aren't scrolling all the live long day.

We did a portrait session. Here's a family shot:

My crazy kids with their Key To The World Cards:

Just getting off the monorail to go to Magic Kingdom. This was around 10:30am the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

It's really not too crowded.

My boys...walking to Adventureland...

On Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse

Hindu Caitlin...in line for the Magic Carpets of Aladdin.

The boys getting ready to fly on a magic carpet.

Bryan realizing that, yet again, Stefan will be driving the carpet toward the spitting camel trying to get his dad wet.

Joy To The Small World

2010-12-22T19:41:00.000-06:00

I know, I know...I owe you all pictures. There's at least one video as well. Everything is in my photobucket account...I just need to get it organized.

Since we're days away from Christmas, and since you are a part of my small world, I thought I'd totally jump on Disney's theme ~ Joy to the Small World ~ and share a couple of things.

First, you need to watch this video of last year's commercial. I'm pretty sure I posted this last year, but even if I did...it's worth repeating...

Second, this year, you can make this cool video greeting card with the Joy to The Small World theme. The cool part you can create Small World dolls for each person in your family. I did one for mine and posted it to Facebook. If you aren't connected to me on Facebook yet, here's the video greeting card:

If I don't see you or talk to you, in person or in cyberspace, have a Merry Christmas!

Mary

I have Test Track Hair

2010-12-05T15:39:00.000-06:00

December 2.

Oops. I somehow skipped over December 2. Sorry!

This morning, we had some breakfast in the room before heading to Epcot for the morning.

The kids were hot to trot to get on Test Track so we headed there first.

I have to say that there's nothing like walking through Epcot in the morning, with no one else around, while the Christmas music is playing. Priceless.

We got the Future World just before the official rope drop. We got to see the first family to get to ride Test Track get in a Test Track car and ride on over there.

Once the rope dropped we and about 25% of the other people in line headed to Test Track, while the rest of the group headed the other way for Soarin'. More power to 'em.

The wait time said 20 minutes, which we knew was bogus because it just opened up. We walked in, through the prep room and seriously, right onto a vehicle.

Let me tell you, it was a little cold on the loop out there. The kids were all, "woo-hoo" outside and when the vehicle came back in, Stefan said, "Hey. My teeth are cold."

We got off, pondered getting a fast pass, but the CM said it was still like a 5 minute wait. He was right. We rode again. Then we got Fastpasses and headed over to Mission:Space.

Both the green and orange sides were 5 minute waits. That was pretty much the case.

Seriously, go on the orange side. It's the closest experience you'll get to real lift-off. It amazes me every single time.

We got off and headed to do the Mission:Space race. We ended up being Team Orion and were facing a teenage team as Team Triton.

I was about to blow a gasket because our mission support people were not giving us the correct fixes and we couldn't boost as many times in the first half of the game.

Yeah...I'm a little competitive.

Somehow, in the second half, we caught up, and despite my thinking that we were completely out of it, we ended up winning by 2 percentage points. Not sure I'm buying it, but it was still fun.

The Mission:Space store was starting to get lots of TRON stuff! The kids are super excited for it. We got Stefan the TRON warm-up jacket for his birthday to wear for swim meets. It glows in the dark like the light cycle rider suit. It's wicked cool.

After an environmental break, we headed over to Test Track to use our Fast Passes and rode for the third time.

Even though my hair is shorter, I totally had Test Track Hair.

The kids headed for Soarin' and Bryan and I decided to shop. We were on a mission to find a few things that we hadn't found yet.

Cate texted that she and Stefan had detoured to The Sum of All Thrills and were making a custom rollercoaster. So we headed over there to wait for them.

By the time they got out, I was starving and so was Bryan. He wanted to eat around the world. We went ahead to World Showcase and the kids caught up just after Bryan had gotten his Rice Cream from Norway.

Then we stopped at China and the kids had orange chicken and fried rice.

Finally, Cate and I got to stop at Karamel Kuche in Germany. We picked up a chocolate and caramel covered marshmallow skewer (yum!), chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and caramel drizzle (Cate ate this) and a German Chocolate Caramel, which was a caramel mixed with coconut, coated with milk chocolate and drizzled with dark and white chocolate.

Can you say sugar buzz?

I only at the marshmallow thing at that time because I still hadn't eaten a real lunch.

I decided I wanted the shawarma platter at Morocco. Yum. Chicken - good. Hummus - good. Moroccan bread - good. Couscous salad - good.

The boys had meandered off, but they caught up to us at Morocco.

We headed to France. The boys stopped to get a chocolate crepe. I wanted to see if anything in the Boulangerie Patisserie tempted me.

Nothing did. So we headed home.

We had a relaxing afternoon. I tried to register for a conference. (Didn't get in.)

We had dinner in and some extra pool time. All in all...a nice day.

My Brush With Fame & Our Last Full Day

2010-12-05T15:15:00.000-06:00

Friday, December 3.

Well, we'd made it to the last full day of the week. Usually, we plan on using that last day to be a catch-up day. It's the opportunity to do any attractions we had missed during the week or to catch our favorites one last time.

I sent Bryan and the kids off to Animal Kingdom - they wanted to hit Kilimanjaro Safaris.

I was on my own this morning and this was a good thing. I finally had worked out a time to meet with Lou Mongello of WDW Radio.

If you haven't caught Lou's show, you need to boogie on over to WDW Radio and listen. He does a weekly show and it's pretty darn good. You'll see...lots of awards, lots of followers and lots of fun.

Lou had a meet at Epcot at 9am so we decided to connect for coffee afterward.

He texted, "Let's meet on the Epcot side of the fountain."

I texted back, "Can do. For reference, I've got a periwinkle jacket on."

I got a little grief from him..."Periwinkle? Guys don't know what color periwinkle is."

We found a bench, in the sun (as it was cool that morning), under the monorail and had a nice business chat.

The bonus: Lou only had two fans stop by during our chat. Seriously, I'm surprised it was only two times. Hence, my brush with fame.

I'm bummed that I missed out on attending the 200th show shindig that's happening today, December 5. It sounds like a lot of fun and it's a live show at Ariel's at the Beach Club to boot! Attending (or hosting) an event there is on my bucket list.

Why was I meeting with Lou? Well, send me an email. I'm not ready to put this out in open forum.

Stefan had texted me and asked where I was...there was on their way back from AK. It was almost lunch time so we decided to head to Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel at Downtown Disney for lunch. I met them at the front of the Beach Club and we headed out.

Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel are in the building that formerly was McDonald's at DTD. Pollo Campero has some pretty famous chicken and different side dishes. Fresh A-Peel makes fresh salads, wraps, burgers and hot dogs.

Caitlin and Stefan each got the 2 piece meal from Pollo Campero. Cate got the white meat and Stefan got the dark meat. It came with your choice of side. Stefan ordered french fries and Cate ordered black beans and rice. Bryan chose the 1/4 Citrus Grilled Chicken and got the Sweet Baked Plantains as his side dish.

I went over to Fresh A-Peel originally thinking burger, but I changed my mind and ordered the Citrus Grilled Chicken Chopped Salad as a wrap. It came with chopped lettuce, roasted corn, black beans and a pineapple vinaigrette. I passed on the red peppers. It was also freakin' huge. Think 6" Subway-sized.

My grade: Yumatrocious! Fabulous flavor. Definitely a must-do again for me.

While I didn't get specific reviews from the rest of the family, the "ums" , "yums" and quickly emptied plates are indications that their Pollo Campero food was more than passable.

Stefan wanted to hit the Lego store so we went through there on the way to World of Disney.

I have to say I was a little surprised at how busy it was on a Friday at noon. Maybe because it was a Friday is why it was so busy. But it sure felt like a Saturday or something with all the people there.

After we browsed through World of Disney, we went over to Basin so Cate could get her annual tube of bath bombs. As she was looking around, I tried out the salt scrub samples. Big mistake. That stuff made my hands so smooth...now I really want some. But even though it was a huge jar, I was not ready to pay $30 for it. We'll have to leave that one on the wish list.

After Basin, we decided to head home for one last swim. The kids and Bryan headed down to the pool while I foolishly allowed myself to get distracted with all the Disney Social Media Moms Conference chatter. The short summary is they didn't accept me as an attendee. If you want the long story, email me.

I headed down to the pool and swam a few laps in the "doughnut" - the lazy river part of Stormalong Bay. Against the current. Which was hard, by the way. But I was trying to work some of my frustrations out.

You know how sometimes you just know that chocolate will make you feel a little better? I was hoping swimming my butt off, against the current, would get rid of some of that lingering adrenaline that was coursing through my veins.

Since I didn't have chocolate, and I was so not in the mood to make spaghetti, I asked Bryan to see if he could find out if there was any prayer of getting into Cape May for dinner.

This was at 4:30pm and Cape May opens at 5pm.

Bryan came back and there were no ressies available, but he was going to stand in the check-in line and see if he could get us a walk-up ressie. I ushered the kids out of the pool and back to the room to get changed, just in case.

Stefan changed first and headed to the lobby with Bryan's clothes so he could change. Cate and I arrived shortly thereafter to find that Bryan had gotten us in and we already had a beeper-thingie.

A few minutes after 5pm, our beeper-thingie went off and we were seated.

Seriously, folks, if you've never been to Cape May Cafe for dinner, give it a try. Not only do they have all you can eat crab legs, but the rest of their buffet offerings are just yummy.

Here's just a few of the things I had myself:

Baby Red Potatoes
Mashed Potatoes
Corn on the Cob
Steamed Cabbage
Beef Tips in a spicy sauce
Multi-Grain Rolls and butter
Roast Beef
Pork Tenderloin
Tomato and Mozzarella Salad - I had to visit this one twice
Citrus Chicken Orzo Salad - I had to visit this one twice AND I'm searching out the recipe. Freakin' good!
Fresh fruit

The kids, my teenagers, love the fact that you get crayons and can draw on the paper that's on your table. Hey, whatever makes you happy, kiddo.

There happens to be a lot of choices for dessert here. I had an Oreo BonBon and a Key Lime Tart. But there were also mini cheesecakes, caramel flan, brownies, cookies, mini cupcakes and more.

For someone staying at the Beach Club, this is uber-convenient. It's also a pretty popular place. I don't like it. I shouldn't be telling you how good it is because then it will be even harder for us to get into!

We were thinking of heading to MGM to take in the Osbourne Family Lights, but alas, the full-tummy-sleepies were kicking in and I hadn't even started packing yet.

So we headed back to the room and watched The Polar Express.

After the kids went to bed, Bryan and I started packing up.

Bad news: We did too much shopping. So much so that we couldn't fit everything in the bags we had brought with us.

After researching the options, it was most cost-effective to hit the UPS Store on the way to the airport and ship the rest of the stuff home.

We had one really large Disney bag full of stuff and a medium sized bag of stuff to ship home. I didn't ask Bryan how much it weighed at the end, but I'm guessing we shipped home 20lbs or so of stuff.

Good gravy train.

Well, that's all for the text version of this report for now. I'll do a series of photo posts so you can put pictures with the stories you've already read.

Dec 1 - Dining with an Imagineer

2010-12-02T12:50:00.000-06:00

Yep, that's right we had lunch with a real Imagineer!!!!!!

I'm on a break right now so I'm getting caught up from yesterday.

I had scoped out dining with an Imagineer a while back. They don't have these opportunities very often. As we found out during our lunch, it really depends on the availability of the Imagineers. They try to have it once a week for lunch at the Hollywood Brown Derby at MGM. They also have a dinner at Flying Fish on the Boardwalk, but that's really hit or miss. It's maybe once or twice a month. I would have loved to have done the Flying Fish thing because we've never eaten there, but hey, any opportunity was great.

We headed to MGM for the morning, thinking we'd take in the park for a couple of hours before lunch. We got up, drove that super long drive to MGM (like 2 minutes), parked in the front row and walked to the park entrance.

We and hundreds of our new closest friends waiting to make the fast walk to Toy Story Midway Mania at rope drop...only to find that the ride was down for "technical difficulties" and no one had any idea when it would be back up.

They weren't even going to start a queue. We waited for 10 minutes and decided to move onward. Bryan wanted to do the Animation Academy. Stefan had zero interest in doing that so he headed to Rockin' Roller Coaster and was going to ride that until we showed up there.

Bryan, Cate and I walked over to the Animation Academy area and got in the holding area to wait for the first class at 9:30am. Meanwhile, Stefan texted me to say that RNR was down with "technical difficulties." I felt bad for the people who didn't have Park Hoppers. Toy Story down. RNR down. Star Tours under refurb. That's three main attractions out of commission.

Anywho...we got in to the class and the animator was so nice...she let the class pick which character we'd like. We were in a class with a lot of repeat classmates so trying to find a character that everyone hadn't drawn was a challenge for our animator. We ended up drawing Dale.

After the class, we texted Stefan to find out where he was. It turns out RNR was running again, but he was stuck on it. More technical difficulties.

Cate joined up with Stefan while Bryan and I shopped a bit. Then we decided to check and see if Toy Story was up yet. It was and it had a 50 minute wait. No thanks. We decided to go see Voyage of the Little Mermaid since we hadn't done that for a real long time. Very enjoyable show.

We still had a little time before lunch so we checked out Pin Central.

Then Chip & Dale came out and Bryan thought it would be cool if Dale signed his picture. So we got in line for that. By the time we were done, it was time to check in at the Brown Derby.

There were a total of 10 of us at this dining experience. We were seated in the exclusive Bamboo Room inside the Brown Derby. It was a beautiful room off the side of the restaurant. There we met our Imagineer, Dan Flynn.

Dan was a great Imagineer to have for this event. He was very engaging and willing to talk about details (that were public knowledge, of course.) which was completely fun.

Our lunch started with the manager taking a group photo, like she always does for all diners in the Bamboo Room.

Our server handed out our personalized menus and took our drink orders.

We all had the same Lobster & Mussel Soup and the famous Brown Derby Cobb Salad.

For the main dish, we had the choice of an Oak Grilled Filet of Beef, Thai Chicken Noodle Bowl or Blackened Grouper.

For dessert, we could choose from the famous Grapefruit Cake or Chocolate Creme Brulee.

Bryan, Stefan and I chose the filet. Caitlin had the noodle bowl, which was gigantic, by the way!
Cate & I had the Grapefruit Cake. We both thought it was a good blend of sweet and puckery.
Bryan & Stefan had the creme brulee. I didn't really ask them about it, but both dishes were scraped pretty clean so I'm pretty sure it was yummy!

Back to our Imagineer...Dan is in show development. That means if it's not a ride vehicle or the building the vehicle houses, he's involved. I got the impression that it involves all those thematic pieces that gives us the Disney "magic."

Right now, he's working on the new resort in Hawaii, Aulani. He was telling us about this one effect that's in the lobby that they were currently constructing that is a series of bowls in the stream. Each bowl has a fountain. Inside each fountain is an LED light. But it's been designed so that at night, it doesn't just light up, it looks like the bowls are on fire. How wicked cool is that?

He also told us about how they've taken great pains to make this resort reflect the Hawaiian culture. That Hawaiian comes before Disney.

I asked him about what he thought was a cool aspect of the resort that he's been involved in. He told us about the "Hawaiian Adventure" game that they are constructing around the resort. He described it as a next generation Kim Possible game. Woo-hoo! Love that game!

Anyway, they are going to use wireless technology for it. Dan said, "Think iPad, but smaller" in terms of the handset you'll use to play the game. And it's going to be smart tech. Your game will be tied to your room key so you'll never play the same elements twice. So if you are in room 123, and you check-in to the game with that room number, you'll always have new stuff to find.

I also asked Dan about the Star Tours refurb and what he knew about it. Since he's not on that project right now, he didn't have anything new to say. But what he did have to say rocked my world.

At one point, he was part of that project. He was out in LA and got to experience a "draft" of the ride in one of their simulators. I say "draft" because Dan said he only got to experience the visuals. There was no audio whatsoever - that's how early in the process this was. Keep in mind that this is going to be 3D.

Dan said that he was blown away by what he experienced...WITH NO SOUND. He knew the programmer and asked if the guy would set him up once more.

Here's another juicy tidbit...the programmer said that that was the first draft ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) sent over and that they were embarrassed by it. Embarrassed by it!

Oh my gosh...if that was ILM's draft, and they were embarrassed by it, and the Imagineer said he was blown away by the draft with no sound...

Can you freakin' imagine how cool Star Tours 2.0 is going to be? I get a sugar rush thinking about it.

I commented that I had read that there were something like 53 different permutations one could experience on the new Star Tours. Dan replied, "Something like that."

Stefan asked him if there was a Tron ride coming to Magic Kingdom. Dan replied, "I don't know." in a pretty monotone tone of voice. Hmmmm...was he messing with us? Who knows?

At the end of the meal, we were each presented with a commemorative plate that Dan had signed and dated for each of us. Way cool!

I loved this experience. My only thoughts on improvement would be to make it even smaller. A group of 10 was really too many. We were at a long table and it felt awkward making conversation. It also was rather lengthy. Our ADR was for 11:30am and we didn't leave until shortly after 2pm.

We had to scoot because I had made Photopass portrait reservations for 2:30pm at the Beach Club. We still needed to change and get there on time!

Thankfully, we made it. Our photographer was a peach to work with and very accommodating with the shots I asked for. We got the DVC discount and just got everything put on CD. I'll share some pics later.

We had a relaxing rest of the afternoon. After dinner, we headed over to Fantasia Gardens for some mini golf. The sun had gone down and it was a little brisk, but we had a good time.

Coming up: December 2!

Tues. Nov. 30 ~ Lazy Day

2010-11-30T18:15:00.000-06:00

Tues. Nov. 30

We had very few firm plans for today. Which was fine because yesterday was long. My feet and legs were still a little sore when I got up this morning.

Bryan headed out to SuperTarget to pick up a few more groceries...but that was the cover reason for going out to pick up The Sorcerer's Apprentice that came out on DVD today.

After breakfast, the kids decided to go swimming. We headed to the quiet pool since Stormalong Bay didn't open until 10am. We were the only ones in the pool. There's something cool about watching your kids race to be the first to get Dad's watch from the bottom of the pool. The simplest things entertain my kids.

It got to be 10am and we headed for SAB, though Bryan decided to stay at Dune's Cove for that hot tub. The kids and I played around for a bit, but I wanted to head back and make some cookies with my new edible pixie dust. :-) Sugar cookie dough was on Bryan's shopping list this morning so I made that.

They came back to some cookies with their lunch. We watched the opening gambit of the Sorcerer's Apprentice and then decided to head to MGM Studios.

Whew. Long drive. (FYI...it's like a 5 minute drive if you hit the lights right. I'm not kidding.)

We decided to use our last set of magic Fastpasses from our volunteering since we were arriving after midday. We headed to Will Call and got those taken care of.

And off we went to Toy Story Midway Mania. Thanks goodness for the instant Fastpasses. Regular FPs were gone for the day and the stand-by line was 70 minutes. (Insert smilie pulling its hair out.)

After that, the boys decided they'd go to the Great Movie Ride and us girls went to the Magic of Animation show. Very cool show that was about 15 minutes long. After that, you can meet two sets of characters or head to Animation Academy to learn from a real animator. Score!

Cate loves to draw and I knew she would love this class. For 25 minutes, we had an animator walk us through drawing a character. This class was doing Tigger. It was very cool, very fun and highly entertaining. We got to bring out drawings home, signed and all!

We met up with the boys at Rock N Roller Coaster so Cate could go with them. They used a magic fastpass, but really didn't need to. Wait time was posted as 20 minutes...Bryan said it was virtual walk on. When I walked by Tower of Terror, it was only 5 minutes. This was like at 2pm in the afternoon. Crazy.

I headed to the shops on Sunset Blvd. I'm on a mission to find what all is part of this "Nerds Rock" line that Disney is carrying. It has Minnie and Mickey with glasses on and lots of quotes like, "Nerds Rock", "Party with the Smarty" and Cate just loves them! So far, I'm only seeing some shirts, eyeglasses case, wallet and pajamas. I'm hoping for a notepad. But so far, no luck.

We all met up one more time and hit Toy Story again with another magic fastpass. Bryan and Cate wanted to go to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show. I went with them and Stefan went back to RNR. Stef rode RNR four times using the single rider line while we were in the show.

Then we headed home. We were all bushed. We had reservations for Garden Grill but I just did not want to walk anymore today. We settled for burgers from Hurricane Hannah's in the room while finished the Sorcerer's Apprentice.

I might head down to the hot tub to soak my feet and legs, but that's about as far as I'm planning on going tonight.

Tomorrow is loosely structured. We're doing the Lunch with an Imagineer and then we have a Photopass Portrait session in the afternoon. I'm really hoping that the rain has moved out before our photo session as I'd like to do a few outside shots.

Mon. Nov. 29 ~ It was Magical!

2010-11-30T17:59:00.000-06:00

Mon. Nov. 29

Today was our morning to have our traditional breakfast at Crystal Palace before the park opens. I always make a reservation at 8:05am so we can eat, see characters and be out of there before the rest of the park opens.

We've got this one down to a science:

Everyone is up at 7am
We leave the room at 7:15am.
Get in the car and drive to Magic Kingdom.
Park in the first row and walk to the monorail.

Funny thing happened this time. We were wearing matching shirts today - the painted Mickeys I had made for a past trip. As we were walking to the monorail, Cate was just plain wound up. I asked her if she was a little excited. Her response, "Of course, I'm excited. It's Crystal Palace Day." Of course, it was more funny because she was hopping along while talking. A Cast Member saw us and decided to play along. He said to Cate, "Ma'am this is the Magic Kingdom. We don't allow that kind of excitement before 8am here." It was classic.

Anywho...rode the resort monorail around to MK and it was 7:45am. They were already letting people through the turnstiles so we walked right in I have to say, there's nothing like walking down Main Street with all the Christmas decorations and like only 20 other people in your field of vision. Wicked cool.

Bryan checked us in at CP. I took some pics of the kids with the castle as a backdrop and then we were called in. We were actually the first family to be sat on the left half of the restaurant.

Food is always good here. We saw Piglet and Tigger, but didn't wait for Pooh and Eeyore so we paid for our meal and meandered off.

At this time, it was around 8:30am and still very empty in MK. Remember, official opening isn't until 9am and the only people inside the park are those with breakfast ressies.

Since we never really have time to see Walt and Mickey at the hub (because it's always so crowded), we took the time to do that. I never had noticed the smaller statues of eight other characters that surround the hub either. The benefits of it not being wall to wall people and being able to take in those details. I took a few pics of the kids by the poinsettia trees and Cate took a pic of Bryan and me. We also got to see the old time fire engine drive by. Very cool!

We always head for Frontierland, so I thought for a change of pace, we'd head to Tomorrowland instead. We took the roundabout way through the Rose Garden. I think I'd only walked through there one time before. Again, it was so nice to be able to do it when it was so quiet.

Tomorrowland was roped off so we just hung out there. I took a couple of pics of an empty Tomorrowland. We decided we'd get Fastpasses for Buzz, ride Buzz and then the other three would hit Space Mountain before we all did Buzz again.

Well those plans got pitched because as the Cast Members walked up to the rope, we were asked if we'd like to be the first family to ride Buzz Lightyear! Heck, yea!

So they motioned us under the rope and took us, and only us, through Tomorrowland and over to Buzz. We got on Buzz and rode by ourselves completely! At the end, they gave us souvenir ride photos, which we have never done on that ride. Very cool!

We went over and got Fastpasses for Buzz. The kids headed for Space and I suggested that Bryan and I shop. Well I ended up shopping by myself at the Merchant of Venus for a bit and I had five Cast Members falling all over themselves, asking if I needed help. Seriously, that needs to happen everywhere!

I found a few things that I put on my must-have list before Cate texted me wondering where I was. What was funny is that each of us, at that moment, was waiting for the male member of our party to get out of the bathroom. Talk about weird synchronization.

Anywho...we headed over to the Mad Tea Party and spun around before going to Philharmagic, which was fabulous as always!

Bryan has always wanted to head back to Tom Sawyer's Island so he and the kids headed over there and I went back to the ye Olde Christmas Shoppe and made some acquisitions. My favorite so far: Edible Pixie Dust aka Mickey Head Christmas Cookie Sprinkles!

I love my family, but it was nice to shop unencumbered or worrying about who was antsy to leave or what.

I wandered through Adventureland's shops and then came upon the Golden Goose of character meet and greets for Bryan - Ariel. And not just any Ariel...this was Ariel in her blue dress, which is not easy to find. I texted him about it and then headed down Main Street.

Did a little more browsing and identifying things for my own personal wish list while listening to a great acapella group singing Christmas carols on Main Street. Love. It.

By that time, it was approaching noon and we were bushed and ready to head home. Except for Bryan. He was still in line to meet Ariel. I took the kids home and Bryan came back on the bus.

We had some leftovers and then hit the pool. Great pool day. Temp was around 80 degrees and it was mostly sunny. Fun times.

Cate, Bryan and I made Mickey Tye-Dye T-shirts at the pool activities table. They're being washed right now. I'm a little disappointed in mine...not very distinctive ears. But we'll see what the others look like.

We came back and got cleaned up because we had another dining experience waiting for us. I made a reservation for the new La Hacienda de San Angel, the new table-service place in Mexico in Epcot that's right on the lakeside.

We walked around and got checked in. Nice open restaurant and very well themed. We were shown to a half circle booth facing the water. I had scoped out the menu earlier and we had decided to get both the mixed grill items that were for 2 people each so we could sample a lot of stuff.

I was a little leery because I don't do onions and I didn't want to be picking onions out of my food. No worries. The food was fabulous. Amazingly yummy. It had a bit of a kick, but it wasn't a four-alarm fire or anything.

It had been a long day and we were pretty bushed. Stefan headed home, but Cate and I thought we'd hit the Karamel Kuche in Germany for a dessert.

Didn't happen. We got distracted saving the world, a la Kim Possible style, got tired and headed home.

Bryan, meanwhile, made a stop and saw Mexican Donald before heading home, too.

All in all, a very fun day.

Sun. Nov. 28 - Animal Kingdom and More

2010-11-28T17:51:00.000-06:00

Sun. Nov. 28

I have to say, it's a great vacation when you don't "have" to get up early every single day. It's been nice to not feel rushed.

We got up and I made pancakes for breakfast today. No one had any other preference, so we headed to Animal Kingdom.

We got there about 9:15am and headed for Dinoland. We love Primeval Whirl and figured that just about everyone else heads for Everest or Kilimanjaro Safaris. We waiting maybe 5 minutes before getting on PW. Seriously fun. We were going to do it again, but by the time we exited, the line was too long. Ok, too long that I didn't want to wait in it. It said it was only 10 minutes, but this one looked way more than 10 minutes long to me. PW is a slow loader, too. But I digress...

Stefan needed his first Mickey head ice cream of the day. He got his treat, which Cate & I did some quality control on. :-)

Cate & Bryan wanted to do Dinosaur; Stefan and I had zero interest in that so we decided to walk to Asia in preparation for Kali River Rapids.

Once Bryan and Cate caught up, the kids and I divested all out stuff on to Bryan and headed to Kali.

Thank goodness we gave him all our stuff. We've ridden Kali many, many times and we've gotten wet. We don't mind being wet at all, but this was a colossal soaking! The wettest we've ever gotten. I think our ridemates were a little appalled at how wet we were. Thank goodness is was warmer today than it was on Saturday.

Cate wanted to do the Maharajah Jungle Trek, so we meandered through there. Nice easy walk.

Stefan was hungry again when we got out of there. Seriously...I'm not kidding when I say this kid has a hollow leg. He got the side order of chicken fried rice from Yak & Yeti. He thought it was a little dry, but ate the whole thing.

He wanted to get on the safari, but it was a 60 minute wait by that time and we didn't want to wait an hour for a Fastpass return time so we headed out of the park.

Once we got back, we had leftovers for lunch. That's a bonus thing for cooking in the room - leftovers!

We're having turkey dinner tonight so we needed to get that in the oven. We got one of those dinners from SuperTarget. Basically, cook from frozen without babysitting.

We headed for the pool and spent a good, long, enjoyable time just fooling around. It was never crowded. Stefan actually volunteered to help herd a mama duck and her ducklings out of the pool area, but it wasn't working too well. At least he did his Boy Scout good deed for the day.

Bryan decided the kids needed ice cream so he went over to Beaches & Cream and got Stefan a cone and Cate a hot fudge sundae.

Once we got back to the room, I started a load of laundry and then Bryan and I headed for Downtown Disney. That place was crazy busy. But we were target shopping/browsing. We headed to Mickey's Pantry to check out the Spice & Tea Exchange. Wicked cool place. If you like to cook, you'll love what this place has to offer.

We popped in to the Christmas store, but it was just too busy for browsing so we left. I wanted to stop by the new Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel and see what it looked like. Pretty cool place. We didn't eat there, but I stopped into the little corner that is Babycakes.

Babycakes makes gluten free treats and uses agave sugar in its frostings. I bought two chocolate cupcake tops with chocolate frosting, a banana bread cupcake with chocolate frosting and a frosting shot. Yes, that's right - a frosting shot. What a great idea!

I'm sorry to say that I'm not a fan of Babycakes. The flavor just was not right and while agave is natural, it just tasted artificial to me. My kids didn't like it either and that's saying something. Sorry, Babycakes.

Back at home, we had the turkey dinner and right now, I'm so stuffed I can barely see straight. I'm going to pull up a piece of couch and watch some TV for a while. Stefan says he wants to head to MGM...I just don't think I can make it tonight. Though walking off some of this turkey is probably a good thing. We'll see how it goes.

One final thought for today...that I should have included in the post for yesterday...you know it's a great vacation when your teenage daughter randomly says to you while walking through Epcot, "Mom, I'm so happy. I don't know why, but I'm so happy."

Checkmark in the Awesome column for me.

Nov. 27 - Welcome to Magic Kingdom

2010-11-28T17:32:00.000-06:00

Sat. Nov. 27

I've never been a park commando. I just don't like scheduling every single second of a day. I am one to make plans, but this is probably the loosest set of vacation plans I've ever had.

We got up and the kids watched a little TV over a breakfast of cinnamon streusel muffins. Stefan asked where we were going to go today. We had no firm plans, but I'd scoped out predictions and found that Magic Kingdom was a good day.

That's right. Magic Kingdom. On a Saturday. The Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.

We didn't leave the room to be there at rope drop and I thought that might be a problem. As we drove to MK and saw the sheer number of cars pulling into the parking lot, I started to wonder a little bit more.

After we got off the tram, we headed to Will Call because I figured that just in case it was crazy, we could use one of our Give A Day, Get a Day Fastpass Cards here. Just to review: These cards give you 6 Fastpasses on your choice of major attractions within your choice of park on one day.

After getting the FP cards, we headed to the monorail station. The Express Monorail line was really backed up, but no one was waiting for the Resort Monorail. We hopped the line and got on the Resort Monorail as it had just pulled in to the station.

After entering Magic Kingdom, we walked down a pretty busy Main Street. For the first time visitor, you might have looked at those crowds and thought, "I'm toast. There's no way I'm getting on any rides today."

I could not believe the number of things we did... without the Fastpasses.

For the first 60-90 minutes...everything was a walk-on. I'm not kidding!

Bryan and the kids wanted to do Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Once they walked off, we had to have the traditional ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpets so that Stefan could try and get Bryan wet from the spitting camel. He was successful, by the way.

The kids and I walked right on to the Jungle Cruise. Sara, our skipper, was a freakin' hoot!

Bryan joined back up with us and we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. Whoa! Pirate Goofy was out so we had to jump in line to meet him.

Both side of POTC were open, but everyone else was walking onto the left hand side. We walked through the right hand side and, you guessed it, walked right on to the next boat.

We headed to Frontierland to hit Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR). The wait time said 20 minutes. I looked at how fast people were walking in and I did not want to use a FP...I totally thought it wouldn't be a wait. The kids wanted to, and since we had 6 FPs, we used one.

That was a total waste! We walked in, joined back into the line and walked right into an empty spot to await the next train to arrive. It was not anywhere close to a 20 minute wait.

Stefan had the munchies when we were done; he was in search for his favorite Mickey head ice cream bar. We mosied in the direction of Liberty Square. Bryan decided he needed a funnel cake. He and kids headed to Sleepy Hollow and I wandered over the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe.

Lots of fun new stuff in the Christmas shop; I'll be back on Monday to make some actual purchases.

For all our luck in no lines for attractions, we waiting the lonnnnnggggest time for that darn funnel cake. I'm not kidding. I think we waiting 10 minutes and that was after I rejoined Bryan and the kids.

By that time, everyone was getting a little more hungry than snacks could cover. We decided we'd do Philharmagic, Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain before heading home.

Philharmagic, oddly enough, had a weird waiting line and seemed rather long. We decided to ditch it and do it on another day.

Another odd factoid: The Fastpass machines for The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh are near the Philharmagic Stand By Entrance. I'm sure it has to do with the Fantasyland construction, but that was just plain weird to me to have the FP machines so far from that ride.

We headed over to Tomorrowland. Buzz had a listed wait time of 30 minutes. Fastpass! By the way, those GADGAD Fastpass cards give you instant Fastpasses. No waiting! We got right on.

Bryan and the kids headed over to Space Mountain (Mary does not do Space.) and I decided to do the TTA, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, or Wedway People Mover. I did a short video, which I'll upload to YouTube and link here in a later blog post.

Once I was done, I decided to take advantage of not having my tribe with me and I'd do a little shopping on Main Street. I texted Caitlin where I was going and headed in that direction.

I cut through Tomorrowland Terrace and it was open! It seems like this place is never open and I was glad to see it!

It's sporting a different menu - not just Asian food, but a smorgasbord of stuff, including sushi.

I shopped for a bit before the tribe caught up with me. At that point, the natives were restless for some food so we headed back to BCV and made hot ham and cheese sandwiches.

After lunch, it was time to hit the pool!

It was a bit of a cold day today so the pool was a bit empty. Bryan camped out in the hot tub and the kids and I swam about a little. But we were the star family of the day at the poolside games that afternoon. That means we were the participatory ones that weren't afraid to make fools of themselves in a t-shirt relay and pool deck dancing. Seriously, though, I think the lifeguards and recreation staff were glad to have participants. They wanted to make sure we'd be back for the campfire and the movie under the stars, which was Toy Story 3.

We headed back to the room and had a little down time before making chicken stir fry for dinner.

After dinner, we were a little antsy, so we headed to the Beach Club lobby and checked out the gingerbreak carousel. There are 11 hidden Mickeys within the structure. So far, I've only found 9. We'll take a crack at it again.

We headed outside and Cate decided to go pearl diving. She got a beautiful blue pearl and decided to get a silver ring for it. Good grief, they suck you in with the jewelry part...but she doesn't ask for much so when she sees something she really gets into, you kinda have to jump on it.

The movie didn't start until 8pm so we decided to walk over to Epcot and waste a little time. That's the nice thing about the Beach Club Villas...great location.

The kids wanted to head to Test Track so Bryan and I headed to MouseGears. It turns out TT had a pretty long wait and the kids didn't want to do single rider so we headed back to the World Showcase.

Bryan needed coffee so we stopped in one of those gift shops and got the Disney Holiday Cheer. We'll see if he likes it tomorrow. He's finishing up the coffee in the room today.

We caught up to the kids in Norway and it was around 7:30pm. We figured we better hoof it back so they could get to the movie on time. We had a brief stop in Germany - Bryan to the Christmas Brewmaster's stall and Cate and I to Karmel Kuchen. Stefan wanted to head off to Japan.

Karmel Kuchen was packed! We walked through so we could look at the diabetic-inducing goodies and wow! We're going to stop here on another day when it's not packed.

Cate & I headed out toward Japan. Good grief, was it crowded. Hello...it's opening weekend for Candlelight Processional, knucklehead. What were you thinking?

Bryan caught up with us in Japan, we picked up Stefan and headed home. The kids lasted a little bit, but got tired and came back to the room. We vegged until it was bedtime.

Tomorrow: Sun. Nov. 28 - Animal Kingdom

We're Here at Disney World!

2010-11-27T12:29:00.000-06:00

Here we go! My attempt at blogging from The World!

Cast of Characters:
Mary ~ The planner
Bryan ~ My DH (aka the 3rd child)
Stefan, 14
Caitlin, 14

November 26 - Arrival Day

Grandma Z picked us up at 7:30am and we headed to MSP for our 10am flight. The airport was not busy, at all. I'm seriously think that Black Friday is the day to fly.

I checked a bag this time around because I was bringing a Pampered Chef pan and a good knife to leave in my Owner's Locker. Since it's free to check a bag as a Delta Amex holder, I figured I'd just do that because people would need to eat and I could wait for the bag while they ate.

I've been traveling carry-on for years now...Oh.My.Gosh...it was murder waiting for that bag to come out! Seriously...I could have been half way to WDW by the time the bag showed up. Thank goodness this was a one-time bag checking.

Once we got the bag, we headed over to National Car Rental. I'm an Executive Emerald Aisle member so we got to choose from both sides of the EA. Lots of Suburbans, Expeditions and other larger SUVs. However, we already knew that we needed a Gibbs car. For those of you who aren't NCIS fans, that means we were looking for a Dodge Charger.

We had black, steel grey, silver and white to choose from. Took the black one!

Exited with no problem, as usual, and went on our way.

Our plan was to stop at the SuperTarget on Orange Blossom Trail to get groceries for the week. This time around, I made a menu for each day, added in the 3 ADRs we're doing, and planned meals for everything else.

We even got one of the Small Turkey Dinners from their deli...except they were out of the small turkey breast. So they gave us the 12Lb turkey but only charged us for the Small Dinner. Great customer service!

Had a small hiccup at checkout...my credit card wasn't working. I used another method of payment, but was fuming because I had just used this card and it wasn't for Black Friday! It was one of those afternoons. We got out of the store and it's raining. Everyone else loaded up the car in the rain while I'm going through the calling tree at the credit card co. It turns out that they put a hold on it because I hadn't called them to tell them I was in FL and they were concerned that someone had stolen my number. Yet another good case of customer service in that they were looking out for me, the customer. So now I know I need to call them when I travel with this specific card.

We made it to BCV and checked in quickly. We're in room 452 which is way at the end of the hallway that's perpendicular to the main BCV hallway.

Nice quiet location. But a bear to have to haul all the groceries to. Should we have gotten a bell cart? Absolutely. My arms are still a little sore from hauling everything to the room. I'm not kidding.

We didn't hit a park on Friday. I made sloppy joe's for dinner and man, did that hit the spot! We lounged in the room for the night, with the exception of Cate and I hitting Dune's Cove for a swim and hot tub soaking.

Next up: Saturday morning at Magic Kingdom .

Using Google Calendar and Android for Park Touring

2010-11-20T15:37:00.000-06:00

So I'm a week or so out from departing for land of Mickey and I decided to mess around with an idea for keeping track of park hours that I'm sure someone has already done before.

I have an Android phone (love it, BTW) so I'm a Google girl. (Ok, that looks soooo funny, but I'm just going to run with it.)

I use Google Calendar for my VA practice so I was thinking why not make calendars for each park for the time I'm at Disney World, color code each park and that way I can see at a glance what the hours are, when the special activities (eg parades, fireworks, etc) are, and so on.

So I sat down and I did it this afternoon. I have to say, it's pretty cool. I didn't go commando with every possible little thing on the schedule. Here's what I have:

How late each park is open
If a park has EMH and if it's AM or PM
Fantasmic, Wishes, MSEP, AK Xmas Parade - I already know Illuminations is every night at 9:30pm
The pertinent ADRs

So if I decide I want to hop, I don't need to worry about carrying a times guide or whatever since I already have my phone with me.

I'll see how it goes, but here's my initial impression:

For a newbie who's never been and has the smartphone as an umbilical, it's probably a cool way to stay organized and informed.

For a veteran who's been at this time of year many, many times...it probably wasn't necessary because I could probably recite the hours and special events with pretty good accuracy.

We'll see how it goes when I'm actually down there.

Interesting Tidbits...Should they be added to the visit list?

2010-11-17T18:21:00.001-06:00

Ok, I'm a total slacker when it comes to keeping this blog updated. I fell off the wagon, but I'm getting back on because I'm in single digits before my next trip to Disney World!

But before I dive into prepping, I have a few news bits to throw out for discussion:

Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel just opened this week at Downtown Disney where McDonald's used to be.
I'm ready to try this place. I'm not a huge McDs fan, and the menu sounds pretty interesting. Looks like these two eateries share the space. Pollo Campero is known for having delicious, hand-breaded, fried (not in trans-fats) chicken that's supposedly moist, and yummy. Fresh A-Peel features fresh ingredients and made to order burgers, sandwiches, salads and more.

The Spice & Tea Exchange opened at Downtown Disney as part of Mickey's Pantry.
I can already tell this will be a dangerous place for me. I love love love variety in spices, teas and stuff like this. After browsing the online store, I turned to DH in our home office and said, "I'm pretty sure you can do most of your Christmas shopping for me at this store." The sheer variety and reasonable prices are so appealing. I can't wait to shop there.

So, the conclusion is, "Well, duh...of course, you're adding those places to the must-do list."

Now I've just got to get through the rest of the time before we leave. I've got several work things on my plate, including trying to schedule a short meeting while I'm down there in FL, plus two Thanksgivings and then the usual packing stuff.

So far, no further movement on my rental car, but I've already adjusted twice so I'm not sure if I'll get anything more. However, I've got it down to $180 for 9 days and that's after taxes so I don't think I have much to complain about. $20/day, after taxes, is pretty good.

Right now, my plan is to blog from the world in all its Christmas glory.

OH! And guess what...last I checked, the Space Shuttle is launching while I'm down there! Super sweet!

This Day In History...A Look Back at Epcot

2010-10-24T11:28:00.000-05:00

It's one of those historical days...today, in 1982, Epcot was dedicated.

I have to say that Epcot is ties with MK as my favorite park at Disney World. I'm reminded so much of Walt Disney and his vision for tomorrow. Most of us Disneyphiles know that EPCOT is short for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. I wonder how many visitors even comprehend that?

I think certain sections of the community don't get that "amusement parks" and "theme parks" are distinctly different. In certain circles, Epcot is snubbed for not having enough "rides" to make it "worth it" to buy a ticket to go there. Sure, Soarin', Test Track and, to some extent, Mission:Space, have their fans, but the people who are only looking for "rides" are missing the point of Epcot.

We'd do better to follow Walt's example: look for and pursue innovation of all types.

One of my favorite non-fiction books that sits in my office is titled, "The Quotable Walt Disney." Here's a couple direct quotes that I feel really apply to Epcot, even though Walt died before he could see it opened:

"I believe in being an innovator."

"I can never stand still. I must explore and experiment. I am never satisfied with my work. I resent the limitations of my own imagination."

If you spend any time in Future World, especially Innoventions, you'll find that while some exhibits could be considered mainstays, there always seems to be a new kid on the block.

If you've always breezed by these buildings and never taken the time to "take it in" because you are in a rush to hit the "rides", take a step back and check out all that Future World has to offer.

You might be surprised at what you find.

Hello! I'm back!

2010-10-15T10:37:00.000-05:00

You probably thought I fell off the face of the earth right?

Or maybe that I snuck off to WDW and didn't tell you?

Fortunately, I didn't fall off the face of the earth.

Unfortunately, I wasn't at WDW.

Welcome to my world of two teenagers in fall sports and activities, and a busy VA practice.

So what do I have to talk about today...Lots of news in the past couple of weeks. Bear with me if I've covered something that's old hat for you:

Duffy the Bear appears in Epcot
You may be asking yourself, "Who the heck is Duffy the Bear?" Well he's no other than Mickey Mouse's own teddy bear. He's now making character appearances at Epcot. I think his likeness may end up coming home with us the next trip.

Food & Wine Festival is in full swing
Seriously, I have to make time to go...without my kids. I love them to pieces, but I'd really love to do to F&W Fest and just pig out on all the goodies that are available. Eating and Drinking Around The World...doesn't that sound fun?

Food &Wine Fest happens every year at Epcot. It usually starts around the first of October and runs through mid-November. Not only are there food and beverage samplings from around the world, but there are also the Eat To The Beat Concerts. Classic 80s groups. Gotta love it.

Rejected...again.
Earlier this week, I found out I was on the Disney Moms Panel reject list...again. I didn't let myself get too hung up on it this year so it wasn't the devastatingly crushing blow that it was last year. You'd think after four times, I'd at least get through the first round. Good gravy.

Let's see...what other news can I share with you...

Still no word on Destination D at WDW. I need those dates. Scheduling people...if by some chance you've found my teeny little blog, please don't schedule Destination D on April 9 or May 21. My sister's getting married and I have to ground crew the air show.

As I look at my handy-dandy Firefox add-on countdown timer on my taskbar, I'm approaching 40 days to my next trip home.

I can shamelessly say that I'm in full Disney Christmas withdrawal and I can't wait to get there. I'll save the dissertation on WHY I love Christmas at Disney for a later post. Otherwise, you'd probably be scrolling and scrolling....and scrolling.

Check out the Holiday 2010 Planner. Lots of fun stuff!.

Random Disney Musings

2010-10-02T11:58:00.000-05:00

It's been one of those weeks where there have been a lot of little tidbits of information and I'm just now getting to posting here about it.

This time of year is when we tend to see a lot of announcements from Disney because Oct. 1 begins its year.

So here are a few random musings about what I've heard this week:

Destination D is coming to WDW Spring 2011

So. freaking. excited. I really wanted to go to Destination D and its associated scavenger hunt at DL in August, but with two teens in high school sports, it just wasn't going to fly in August. I watched the reports come in and I was just wishing I could be there.

THEN...D23 announces that they are bringing Destination D, the scavenger hunt AND an Ultimate Disney Trivia Contest to WDW in the Spring 2011!

I'm SO booking as soon as they announce the dates!

Ok...small caveat...I can go if it's not April 9 (my sister is getting married that day) or May 21 (I'm in Civil Air Patrol and we're ground-crewing for an air show). Pixie dust that D23 stays away from those dates!

Karamel Kuche in Germany at Epcot

The new Caramel Kitchen is open at Epcot. Get a paper towel and have it handy. Then head over to the Disney Food Blog because they talked about it way better than I could and there are pictures.

I want the Apple Pie Apple.

Food and Wine Festival

It started yesterday and I'm already wishing I was there. The food booths offering sound amazing. I haven't been to a F&W Fest for a couple of years and withdrawal has definitely set in. If you ever have the opportunity to visit WDW during F&W Fest, do it. You won't regret it.

Countdown to my next visit

We're sub-60 days. I'm SO ready for a vacation. My DD asked if we could make a chain yet. She's 13 and she still loves to make the paper chain. I told her when we hit 50, she can make the chain. Otherwise, it's too long and hangs on the floor.

That's all for now. It's a beautiful fall day today and I'm off to have some girl time with my DD.

Have a good one!

Mary

Disney's Big Announcement - Let The Memories Begin

2010-09-23T12:32:00.000-05:00

I just watched the live Ustream announcement from DisneyParks and it's official:

Let The Memories Begin is the new Disney campaign.

Disney is inviting guests to share memories with their photos, stories and videos online. Tom Skaggs coined a new phrase ~ Guest Generated Content.

You can send them in advance or that same day while you are in the DisneyParks.

They want to celebrate the memories and experiences of their guests. Because that's what DisneyParks are all about.

Check out the Let The Memories Begin website!

What do you think!?!?!?

More on Disney's Art of Animation Resort

2010-09-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

WaltDisneyWorld.com supposedly has made some improvements.

One of the new bits of information is an official page for the NEW Disney Art of Animation Resort.

Be sure to visit the page for the details, but here are some highlights:

Located in across the bridge from Pop Century on the previous Legendary Years site.
Four different room themes: Lion King, Finding Nemo, Little Mermaid and Cars
A whole bunch of rooms will be family suites, suitable for up to 6 people

Disney isn't taking reservations yet for this new resort, but they have announced that it will open Summer 2012.

Random Tips for First Time Travelers

2010-09-12T15:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I survived the first week of "back to school." On one hand, I think I got a lot more done now that my kids are back at school. On the other hand, this first week seemed pretty hectic with work. Not that having a lot of work to do is a bad thing. It just makes me want my vacation that much more. ;-)

One of the things I absolutely LOVE is being asked to help plan a Disney vacation. One of my college friends happens to be on Facebook. She posted on Thursday, "Help! I think I'm going to Disney World on Oct. 1."

She booked her family for 10 day trip (she has 3 days where she's at a conference in the middle) for Free Dining at Pop Century. It's the first time she's been there since 1989 and neither her kids nor her spouse have been there ever.

I LOVE helping this type of vacation traveler! Rookies are so much fun to help! Not that we veterans are like old dogs, but someone who's never been is so much fun to guide along the way.

So, in honor of Janet's family trip in less than a month, here are my random tips for first time travelers to WDW:

1. Don't be a park commando.
No matter how long you have, you'll never see it all. I've been to Disney nearly 20 times and I still haven't done everything there is to do there.

2. Make a list of "must do's."
This goes along with #1. Use a guidebook. Look on the internet. Watch a video. Do what works best and find out what each person in your party really wants to see and do. Then make sure you hit everything on that list. Anything else after that is gravy and just make the experience that much more fun.

3. It's not just about the rides.
Disney is not just about rides. There's so much more to it than that. Not only are there shows, but it's the whole immersive experience. Yes, I will say it; you should live and breathe the Disney Magic while you are there.

4. Look for those small things that can be so easily overlooked.
Pressed penny machines are everyone. In the parks and on the property. Sword in the Stone? Jedi Academy? DeVine? Mulch, Sweat & Shears? Sum of All Thrills? The Jammitors? If you haven't experienced all of these things, you are missing out on some pieces that make up the experience!

5. Make Dining Reservations
There have been times where I have planned the rest of my vacation around my dining reservations. Even if you aren't doing that, you'll want to take time to make some reservations. Walk-up reservations can be hard to get in many table service restaurants. Some of the most popular placed won't even take walk-ups. I understand wanting to be on vacation and not be "scheduled", but if dining is important to you, then take the needed steps to enjoy it.

6. Take a break.
This goes along with #1, too. We always go out in the morning, come back to the resort for a pool and rest break and then we might go out again in the evening. It's a great way to manage everyone's stamina, especially in the hotter months of the year.

7. Pack outfits for kids
When my kids were younger, I'd pack outfits in large ziploc bags. Then in the morning, when it was time to get dressed, we'd just pull out one bag and go for it. So much easier than picking out a shirt and shorts and arguing about it.

8. Use that camera
Not just for the scrapbook. Take a picture of the kids each day before you head out to the parks. That way, if by some strange chance you do get separated and the Cast Members ask you, "What was Johnny wearing?", you can pull out that digital camera and show them rather than go, "Huh?"

9. Get a Passpouch
Don't mess with fanny packs. And unless you really need to carry a lot of crap with you, leave it in your room. Disney has security outside each of its parks. If you have a camera bag, diaper bag, backpack...any kind of bag, you have to go through security before you even reach the turnstiles.

We all have something similar to the Passpouch that Passporter offers. It's goes around your neck, has space for your ID, room key, cash, and a pen. Hands-free so you don't leave it on a ride. Love it. Won't travel without it.

10. Get a water bottle strap
We have several. You can wear it over the shoulder and across the body. Instead of hauling a bag to carry a beverage for each person in your party, give everyone a strap and they can carry their own water, soda, whatever.

Bonus: With a water bottle strap and a Passpouch, you can skip security and go through the "Guests with no Bags" entrance.

Well, I hope this has been helpful.

Wouldn't it be great if Disney Transportation had this app?

2010-09-04T08:34:00.000-05:00

I know I've been lax in posting here at the end of summer, but I'm hoping once we get back in the fall routine, I'll have more time to chat with you all.

I came across this website from Mississippi State University.

They have an application that shows the locations and arrival times for the buses in this system.

Now, Mary rarely takes the bus at WDW (remember, I'm a control freak in that department.), but so many WDW Resort Guests rely on the Disney Transportation System to get them to and from their locations.

Live Maps to see where the buses are. Arrival Times to see when the bus will arrive at a given stop.

This wouldn't be valuable just to the information junkie, but also to the mom whose kids are getting a little wiggly who can say, "The bus will be here in 6 minutes."

What do you think?

You mean there are things for BOYS to do at WDW?

2010-08-27T18:11:00.001-05:00

Here I am...back from an unintended hiatus. My kids go back to school in 10 days and in the last two weeks, we've started all the high school sports practices. Unfortunately, up until 3 days ago, swimming practiced in the morning and soccer in the afternoon. I've been in the car A LOT! So, I've had to use all my free time to work and haven't been able to stay current on my postings! First some news and then my main article.

NEWS:
Well, Candlelight Processional Packages went on sale yesterday. Odd setup this year; Disney claims to not have a tiered system, but when you look at restaurants and pricing, it certainly seems tiered to me. That, and the week after Thanksgiving still doesn't have any narrators lined up.

After all the hubbub that's been running the online community gamut on whether Disney will let you into MNSSHP or MVMCP at 4pm or make you wait until 7pm like the ticket says, an email from someone at Guest Relations has come out that party ticket holders will indeed be allowed in as early as 4pm.

I got my official mailing from DVC about Aulani taking reservations (and the accompanying teaser to bu points there) earlier this week. I'll have more to say on that front later, but let's just say for now that it's not high on my priority list.

MAIN EVENT: Stuff for Boys at WDW!
Doesn't it seem like there are SO many things for girls at WDW? I mean, there's Princess and Fairy "stuff" galore. And I'm saying this as a parent of a daughter. And a son.

If you have a son, I'm sure there's only so much "princess stuff" that he can hack. Heck, if you have a non-princessy daughter like I do, you might be thinking, "What can I do?"

Mary to the rescue!

Top 7 Things for Boys to do at WDW

1. The Pirate Cruise
This wonderfully fun activity is available at several marina locations including the Grand Floridian, Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans and the Yacht&Beach Club. Kids 4-12 join a pirate crew (Disney lifeguard and recreation staff) on a pontoon boat and travel around the lake looking for clues and eventually finding the pirate treasure! Each location has its own schedule. The Pirate Cruise lasts a couple of hours ~ long enough for some leisurely parent time!

2. Jedi Training Academy at MGM Studios
Who wouldn't get a kick out of learning from a Jedi Master and then getting to lightsaber battle Darth Vader? This activity takes place several times a day on most days out of the year. Head towards Star Tours to get signed up.

3. Hoop Dee Do Revue
It's the type of corny comedy that boys just love.

4. Frontierland Shooting Arcade
My Boy Scout is 14 and still loves going here to "hone his skills." ;-)

5. SeaRaycers
These fun little boats can be rented at the on-site resort marinas

6. Swimming in the pool
Make time for some downtime!

7. The Pirate League!
The answer to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique! I'll have to post on my family's adventure here! It was fantastic!

Well, I hope that gives you some new ideas, besides rides, on what you can steer your boys towards on your next trip to WDW!

Mary

Disney Releases Discounts Through 2011

2010-08-16T15:55:00.000-05:00

This is some interesting stuff to talk about.

Disney has never released so many discounts over a long period of time all at once. There are discounts out now through October 2011.

Typically, Disney has released discounts in 2-3 month spurts, usually a few months or so in advance of the opening date. The company probably has wanted to see how much they can eek out before offering a discount at all.

So perhaps future bookings are looking a bit softer than expected? Who knows?

Here's the scoop:

It's not available every day for the next year. It's a hodge-podge of dates here and there. Look to the bottom of my post of the dates or head over to Mousesavers for a more detailed skinny.
You have to book by December 20. So you have a lot of time to think it over
You have to pay for a non-discounted room and ticket package and then you get a FREE dining plan. Stay at a Value Resort, you get the Quick Serve Plan for free; stay at a Moderate, Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resort, get the regular Dining Plan for free.

Make sure you crunch the numbers to see if it works out to benefit you or not. See my previous post on why the Free Dining option isn't always the best choice.

Here are the dates that this deal is available:

For 2010:

10/1-10/7
10/22-10/28
11/12-11/18
11/27-12/2
12/10-12/21

For 2011:

1/1-1/5
1/9-1/13
1/21-2/3
2/11-2/17
2/25-3/3
5/27-6/2
8/19-9/29

So, are you going to book a trip with this special? Or did you already plan booking a trip and this is the icing on the cake for you? Or does it make any difference?

Rumor - New Theme Rooms at Port Orleans?

2010-08-10T14:42:00.001-05:00

How flipping exciting is this!?!?!?!?

First, Disney gives us Pirate themed rooms at Caribbean Beach:

Now, Disney is sending out surveys asking people who've recently stayed at Disney World what they would think about staying a "Royal" themed room or a "Haunted Mansion" themed room.

Here's the concept art:

Royal Room - rumored to be going into some renovated rooms at Port Orleans French Quarter.

Haunted Mansion room concept art - rumored to be going into some renovated rooms at Port Orleans Riverside.

The Disney survey apparently asks how likely the respondent is to pay an extra $30 per night to stay in one of these themed rooms.

This seems to be a trend for Disney to charge for preferred views or themes. The 2011 room and package rates were recently released. Disney added a new category at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge - Arusha Savannah View - and it's $30 more per night for that specific view.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the Haunted Mansion. It's just not my thing. But I LOVE the Royal Room concept. Talk about feeling like royalty, even in a Moderate resort. Some people felt it might be too girly or princessy...until they saw the art. I LOVE this concept.

Is it worth an additional $30 per night? My opinion - No. For a week's stay, that's an additional $230+ after you tack on the hotel taxes just for an uber-themed room. Now, if it was more like an extra $100+ tax, I'd consider it for the experience. But if you think about it...$30 is the cost of a counter service meal for a family of four. And you'd have to pay that much extra each day to have that theme.

I have to say that I do love themes and being immersed in the magic can definitely be worth it. There will be those who would pay it no matter what. For me, I'd have to wait for just the right occasion or just the right deal.

What do you think?

~Mary

New Kids Menu at Garden Grill

2010-08-09T19:10:00.000-05:00

It's the Picky Eaters vs. the Healthy Horde.

Well, maybe not that drastic. But there are some interesting changes afoot at the Garden Grill in Epcot.

Disney has a pretty standard kids menu and chicken nuggets and fries take center stage in most places. I mean, come on; chicken nuggets are something even the pickiest eater will chow down on, right? That way, Mom and Dad can feast on the regular menu that Garden Grill offers (which rocks, by the way).

But now, the Garden Grill has changed things up a bit. The standard kids menu is refreshed and includes the following:
* Oven Roasted Chicken Drumstick
* Sweet Potato Sticks
* Baked Macaroni & Cheese
* Broccoli
* Mickey "Mousse" Cookies and Cream

Now it seems that there are some elements that are upset that chicken nuggets have been swapped for a drumstick.

Really? My kids have always loved drumsticks! Are we the odd ones?

And while I can see where a kid would turn up his nose at orange French fries, seriously have you tasted sweet potato fries? Yumatrocious!

Broccoli...I get this one. A lot of adults don't like broccoli. But the beauty of the Garden Grill is its all family-style so you don't have to take it if you don't want to.

And the Mickey Mousse...it's like good old fashioned worms-and-dirt, baby. My teens would rather eat that then the fruit cobbler dessert any day of the week.

By the way, the kids can still eat off the adult offerings at the Garden Grill:
* Roasted Turkey Breast
*Sustainable Fresh Fish of the Day
*Beef Strip Loin
* Farmer's Market Salad - seriously, this is eat-the-whole-bowl yummy
* Bread and Maple Butter
* Vegies, potatoes, dressing, dessert!

So what are your thoughts on the new kids offerings from the Garden Grill?

Hey, if they bring me some of that stuff, I know I'll be eating some of it.

Mary

New Knight Package at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

2010-08-07T07:28:00.000-05:00

I have to tell you, Disney really needs to get on the bandwagon and have more stuff geared toward boys or non-princessy girls.

We all know that there are princess meets galore, several different dining options to eat with princesses and more.

The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique was a bit progressive is having a "Cool Dude" package available for boys. But seriously...how can you compare that to a Princess package.

Now, granted, boys in general are usually not that hyped about getting "dolled up" (figuratively speaking, of course), but hey, at least they have an option.

Well now, the "Cool Dude" package is making way for the "Knight" package. Boys get hair styling plus a sword and shield.

That's more like it!

While my "little boy" is 14 years old and aged of something like this, I'm excited that younger boys have this new option that fits with the Fantasyland persona that goes with Bibbid Bobbidi Boutique.

Mary

Top 5 Things To Do Beyond The Parks

2010-07-31T13:59:00.000-05:00

Beyond the parks? What the heck does that mean? You mean there are other things to do?

Heck, yeah! I LOVE doing all the other things you can do without having to use a day on your park ticket. Now, it really doesn't matter for me because I always get an AP, but I really want people to see that there are a lot of things you can take in outside the big 4 parks.

1. Miniature Golf

Disney has two fabulously fun mini golf courses on property! And these just aren't your run-of-the-mill mini golf spots from back home. You get fabulous theming!

Fantasia Gardens is located near the Swan and Dolphin Resort. It's themed to...you guessed it...the classic Fantasia! Actually, the classic themed course is just one of two 18-hole courses at Fantasia Gardens. The other course I haven't actually done. It's supposed to be fairly challenging. But it's also pretty popular because supposedly this course can have the longer wait times.

Cost is around $12 for adults and $10 for kids under 10. Last I checked, if you played a second round right away it was half price.

Winter Summerland is located right near Blizzard Beach waterpark. So it's a little closer to the Animal Kingdom park area. It too has two 18-hole courses: one is covered in "snow" and the other is more tropical and holiday themed. Both courses are probably equal in difficulty, which I'd say is not terrible.

Prices are the same as Fantasia Gardens.

2. Resort Hopping

Resort Hopping means you visit other resorts and just check them out. This can be as simple as deciding to eat at the counter service place at another resort and doing a Hidden Mickey hunt while there.

Keep in mind that pool hopping is not allowed at some resorts. Some resorts allow it, but you need to call ahead and ask about availability.

3. Waterplay

There are lots of water options you can take advantage of.
* Fishing excursions are available. You go out on a pontoon boat and do a little catch-and-release.
* Pole fishing is available at some resorts.
* Rent a SeaRaycer. These little two seaters are available at several resort marinas. Kids age 12+ can pilot with an adult in the same boat. Ages 16+ can drive solo.

4. Dinner Shows

Ahhhh...here we are, back to food! There are three dinner show options on property and all of them are outside the parks.

* Hoop Dee Doo Revue is an old West Vaudeville type show at Fort Wilderness. It's all you care to eat ribs, chicken, salad, corn bread and strawberry shortcake for dessert. There are usually three shows each night.

* Mickey's Backyard BBQ is a bit of a character experience and located at Fort Wilderness as well. It features more of your picnic type foods. Chicken, hot dogs, ribs, salads, corn on the cob...stuff like that. This one is not held year round nor is it every day. It's usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays and is on hiatus for part of the winter months.

* Spirit of Aloha Luau is held at the Polynesian Resort. You get the whole nine yards: hula dancing. tiki torches, fire dancing, etc. You can expect the food to feature salad, pineapple, chicken, rice vegetables and a "volcano" dessert. There are usually two shows each night the show plays, which is Tuesday through Saturday.

5. Shopping at Downtown Disney

I think this is probably an obvious answer, but sometimes people forget that Downtown Disney is on the Disney Transportation System and is easy to get to. You can take a leisurely shopping day, but it window shopping or buying the stores out. Plus, the people watching can be very entertaining!

A couple more tidbits... It's sounding like Disney is NOT raising ticket prices tomorrow. They may be waiting for the first full weekend in August to do that. Stay tuned!

Also, it seems that Rapunzel and Flynn from the new Tangled movie will be moving into the space where Storytime with Belle used to be in Magic Kingdom later this year. I'll be interested to see that. From the previews, Rapunzel and Flynn look like a hoot. They could be hugely entertaining.

Have a great weekend!

Mary

Tasty Tidbits Update - plus a reminder to get your tickets!

2010-07-30T15:32:00.001-05:00

Sorry for my recent hiatus. It's been one of those weeks where work gets in the way of play! ;-)

Here's a bit of news to digest:

* Disney announced earlier this week that the Main Street Electrical Parade will stay in Florida with no specific end date! Great news for those of us who just couldn't make it there this summer.

* Via Napoli, the new Italian restaurant at Epcot, is soft opening on August 5. Have you seen the menu yet? It's definitely tantalizing. See AllEarsNet.com and check the menu (with prices) out.

* Disney announced HP is taking on a larger corporate role and there's a new field house at the WWoS involved.

* Have you heard about the Taste of Africa? It's this new street party at Animal Kingdom that's in a trial run this summer.

The scoop is that there's a lot of entertainment in Harambe with specific food vendors and even some wines you can taste. You can get a tasting card and try a certain number of wines during the festivities. The pics I've seen so far make it seem like a great family-oriented (Yes, stuff for kids, too!) activity in the latter part of the day at AK.

I'm staying tuned to this one because I hope it's still around OR becomes a permanent fixture in time for my next trip in a few months.

* Get your tickets by tomorrow. Disney typically raises its ticket prices on the first Sunday in August. And rumors seem to support that happening again this year. So if you know you are traveling to WDW and need your tickets still, consider ordering them before Sunday.

* Disney has confirmed that it will not offer Wishes Dessert parties on hard-ticket event nights. So if you are planning on attending an MNSSHP or an MVMCP, don't expect the Wishes Dessert party to be available.

I'm going to get my act together more here in the next week.

Have a great weekend!

Mary

Passporter Giveaway Results!

2010-07-28T19:55:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm pleased to announce that Beth G is the winner of the Passporter! Congrats, Beth!

Please send me an email so I can get your mailing address and get the Passporter out to you.

Thanks to those who did submit a comment.

Here's my next challenge for you, gentle readers: I want to hit 100 followers for my blog in the next week.

This is definitely do-able! I helped a friend on a Facebook (she writes a cat-oriented blog) and in the space of a week, she and nearly 200 followers found each other! If you find my blog to be valuable and/or entertaining, I'd love your help in spreading the word!

Here's a couple of suggestions:

- "Friend" me on Facebook, if we aren't already friends.
- Click the Facebook Share and/or the Tweetmeme button to share with your friends if you are on Facebook and Twitter.

If there are other topics you'd like to see my blog about, please post a comment or send me an email! I fixed the comments section so everything should show up now.

Have a fabulous day!

Mary

Holiday Happenings Announced & Passporter Giveaway!

2010-07-23T14:41:00.001-05:00

Disney released a bunch of information regarding the Christmas Holiday Happenings at Walt Disney World.

Here's the pertinent information:

Castle Lights at Magic Kingdom - Nov. 8 through Jan. 3
This is has been a huge hit in the past few years. Imagine Cinderella's Castle full of icicle lights that shimmer in blues and whites. It totally puts you in the Christmas spirit. I've been fortunate to see the Castle Lights each year since it's inception. Here's a picture from one of my visits:

The show that leads up to the lighting of the castle is very sweet. It's one of those things where everyone is gathered around Main Street to take in the show.

Mary's Rating: Totally Awesome!

The Osbourne Family Lights at Disney's Hollywood Studios - Nov. 8 through Jan. 3

I won't repeat the history of the Osbourne Family Lights, but read about it here if you aren't familiar with it. The Backlot of the Studios is decked out with more than one million lights. Be sure to check out the section that's set to music a la Transiberian Orchestra.

Mary's Rating: Must See!

Holidays Around The World at Epcot - Nov. 26 through Dec. 30

I love Epcot at Christmastime. There are just so many things that you can take in. I could go to Epcot every day over Christmastime. Here are a few of my faves:

Holiday Storytellers - Each country in the World Showcase has its own traditional storyteller based on the Christmas/ New Year time of year. Each story is usually less than ten minutes and it makes for a really great way to tour Epcot.

Christmas Tree at the World Showcase Lagoon - While there is no longer a Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, this tree is very cool because it has not only versions of the traditional ornaments, but banners with the words, "Merry Christmas" in many different languages.

Candlight Processional - Every day, at the American Gardens Theater, the Story of Christmas is read by a celebrity and the music of Christmas is sung throughout the reading by different choirs from around the country. There are three performances each day and the theater tends to fill quickly. Want to guarantee yourself a seat? Purchase the Candlelight Processional Dinner Package on the day you want to attend the CP. Reservations aren't being taken as of yet. But stay tuned; word is July 25 is the currently rumored opening day for those reservations.

Holiday Illuminations - Epcot's fireworks show usually has an extra 12 minute ending choreographed to, "Let There Be Peace On Earth." I'm not hugely emotional to fireworks shows, but if you don't tear up during that holiday ending...well, you are a much stronger person than I.

Mary's Rating: Totally Must-Do!

Jingle Jungle Parade at Animal Kingdom - Nov. 26 through Dec. 30

The parade at Animal Kingdom gets a holiday makeover in this parade. When we've taken this parade in, we've had great Cast Member interaction and a seriously enjoyable time. The fact that Animal Kingdom closes earlier in the day at that time of year makes it easy for you to take in this parade and be able to hop to another park for the rest of the day.

Mary's Rating: If you aren't a parade person, then you probably could pass on this.

This is just a snap-shot of some of the bigger happenings. Like everything else at Disney World, all the little touches make the experience.

You know that O.D.D. I have...I'm a total believer in that Disney World IS the Place Where Magic Lives. But I especially live and breathe it at this time of year.

Now that I have gotten the news out of the way, let's get on with the giveaway.

I'm a huge planning type person. Maybe you aren't or maybe you know you should be. Maybe you are going to Disney soon, or maybe you know someone who's thinking about planning a trip. Or maybe your friend is planning a trip and they haven't really done any planning.

I LOVE the Passporter! I have a brand spanking new Passporter to give away. AND you can choose if you want the Passporter for Walt Disney World OR the Passporter for Disneyland!

I know what you're thinking...how can I get one?

It's totally easy! Make a comment on this post of the blog with your first name and first initial of your last name (e.g. Mary A.). On July 28, I'll take the list of names and use Random Name Picker to select a winner. I'll post the winner's name in a post after July 28 and we'll connect to get you your choice of Passporter!

Let me know if you have questions!

Mary

Random Resort Ramblings

2010-07-20T14:44:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had one of those days where everything that can go wrong does? Or what you want to have happen seems foiled at every turn?

It's only Tuesday and I'm having one of those weeks.

So in an effort to perk up my outlook on life, I've decided to do some Random Resort Ramblings. Hopefully my little bit of trivia perks you up and makes you say, "Cool! I didn't know that!"

*Did you know there was going to be a 4th monorail resort?
Way back when, there are some old plans for a Venetian themed resort between the Polynesian and the Contemporary.

*'Ohana, one of the table service restaurants at the Polynesian, used to be called Tangeroa Terrace.

* Port Orleans French Quarter and Port Orleans Riverside used to be called Port Orleans and Dixie Landings, respectively.

* There are 25 two bedroom dedicated villas with two queens in the 2nd bedroom at the Beach Club Villas. Rumor has it that an architectural mistake made the rest of the dedicated rooms too small to have the two queens in the 2nd bedroom of the rest of those room types.

* Some Grand Floridian rooms have Alice in Wonderland wallpaper.

* The Polynesian and the Grand Floridian both have boats that can ferry guests to and from Magic Kingdom in addition to the monorail.

* You can take the boat to Fort Wilderness from Magic Kingdom. Take advantage of visiting Trail's End Buffeteria and exploring the campground.

* Boardwalk Inn has 14 Garden Suites that look like a two story cottage.

*Archery classes are offered occasionally at Fort Wilderness.

* In Caribbean Cay at Caribbean Beach, once you get through all the foliage, in the center are gazebos, hammocks, and picnic tables.

Stay tuned for a future blog post with a Disney giveaway.

Southwest Airlines - New Favorite Airline...Or Not?

2010-07-17T08:09:00.000-05:00

Sorry for my recent absence. It's been one of those things where work and life got in the way of posting here.

Earlier this week, I headed to Chicago for a business conference. For those of you who don't know, my home airport is MSP (Minneapolis) and Delta is the major player in town. I rarely get the deals that airports, say on the east coast, tend to offer.

I would usually fly NWA-now-Delta into Chicago-Midway for my conference because they had a time schedule I liked and usually met the prices of the "other guys." Well all the other airlines had dropped the route for this year.

Until Southwest came to town.

Like all WDW fans, I'm well aware of the reputation that Southwest has among the flying public. Low fares, on-time, friendly, etc.

So when Southwest came to town, I was glad they finally entered the MSP market. Initially, I was hoping SWA would influence fares to MCO.

But since I needed to head to MDW and Southwest flew there, I thought I'd check the schedule and see if it would work for me.

Actually, it turns out Southwest worked way better than Delta. I didn't want to spend any more money on the expensive conference hotel room than I had to. But I needed to be to McCormick Place in Chicago by 9am. Delta's first flight didn't leave MSP until after 7am. But SWA had a 6am flight that got me into MDW at 7:25am. The return flight options were good so I booked with SWA.

Since I was on a time schedule, I paid the $10 Early Bird fee so I didn't have to get up and check-in to get the coveted "A" boarding pass.

"What's that?", you say? Well, SWA doesn't have assigned seating. You board in three groups: A, B and C. Obviously, if you get to board with the A group, you have the best choice of seats.

Like all airlines, you can only check-in online 24 hours ahead of time. And it's first come, first serve. So you need to be online at the right time, with everyone else, to get a "good spot."

If you don't care where you are on the plane, then SWA is definitely your deal. I am totally anal about where I sit on the plane. I need to be in an aisle - it's a control thing - and I want to be as far forward as possible. So that's why I did the Early Bird.

Anyway, back to the flights themselves.

I wasn't sure how I'd like what the traveling public refers to as the "cattle call" that SWA uses to board its planes.

At the gate in Humphrey Terminal, there were six posts in the floor, spaced equally apart. Each post had a set of numbers on it on each side. One side went: 1-5, 6-10, etc. through 30. The other side was 31-35, 36-40, etc. through 60. As each group is called, passengers line up in the order that is printed on their boarding pass.

Each flight, I had A20. FYI, A1-15 is reserved for Business Select - essentially the biz traveler who's paying the higher fare.

I honestly thought it would take longer with people seeking out an open seat. But it went REALLY fast.

Let me repeat that: It went REALLY fast.

I don't know exactly what time we pushed back from the gate, but I can tell you, we arrived at our gate in Chicago at 7:12am - almost 15 minutes early. And it wasn't because we caught a tailwind.

The flight back boarded a lot slower. But there were issues beyond SWA's control. The usual people carrying on a bag that's too large seemed out of place for SWA. I mean, come on, you can check two bags for FREE with them! Check your big honkin' bag already!

Now, here's what I didn't like about SWA:

1. Seats.
The seats were very uncomfortable for me. They seemed permanently reclined even when fully upright. If I leaned into the seat back for any length of time, my lower back was killing me. I felt like I needed a pillow or something for some lumbar support. I can't imagine how bad my back would have felt on a flight to MCO that's three times the length of a flight to MDW.

2. Check-In Reminder Email
Maybe I didn't get this because I signed up for Early Bird. But I never got one reminding me to print out my boarding pass. I'm not one to need it, but it would have been nice when I was traveling to receive one.

Bottom Line: Southwest's operations made a favorable impression. But the uncomfortable seats combined with no available non-stop flights to MCO means that they'd have to have a seriously low fare for me to fly them on a Disney vacation.

Could It Be...Disney Finds A Way To Do Italian?

2010-07-09T13:15:00.000-05:00

Disney and Italian food?

I've never been a fan of Disney's attempts at Italian.

Tony's Town Square in Magic Kingdom:
To me, the menu seems limited and uninspiring. Is it a cute environment? Sure. But why should I pay Disney prices for what is basic Italian that I could get at a chain restaurant?

Tutto Italia has some interesting items, but frankly, I'm not interested in spending $24 for what is essentially a vegetarian pasta. Oh, and that's the lunch price.

But the new Via Napoli is raising eyebrows all over the place. Today, the Disney Parks Blog released some details on the menu and to me, it just sounds like a breath of fresh air.

Here's a snippet:
Appetizers: Sicilian eggplant with olives and raisins; salad of lettuce, fagiolini (string beans), fennel and tomatoes; arancini (fried saffron risotto balls) with meat ragù, mozzarella and pomodoro sauce; corn-crusted fried calamari; and minestrone with basil pesto. Or share a plate of arancini, mozzarella, calamari, portobella mushrooms, asparagus, zucchini and carciofi (artichokes).
Main course salads: Manzo (filet of beef) with greens, red onion, gorgonzola, apple and cucumber with a red wine-mustard vinaigrette; chopped salad with lemon chicken, greens, cantaloupe, cucumber, red pepper, green beans, onions, almonds and pasta crisps with honey-citrus vinaigrette; calamari with arugula, carrots and fennel with orange vinaigrette.
Pastas: candele (long, tube-shaped pasta) with sausage ragù; linguine with seafood; malfadine (ribbon pasta) with guanciale (unsmoked Italian bacon) and pomodoro sauce; lasagna verde.
Piatti alla Parmigiana: (dishes topped with Parmesan and mozzarella gratinée): veal, chicken and eggplant.
Wood-fired pizzas: made with caputo flour imported from Southern Italy, San Marzano tomatoes, handmade mozzarella and water from a local spring just like in Italy’s Campania region – 10-inch, 20-inch or 1/2 meter to share: a dozen choices, from a simple pizza Margherita with tomato, mozzarella and basil to carciofi with artichoke, potato, pecorino cheese, prosciutto and cantaloupe.
Sweets: tiramisù, zeppole di ricotta (ricotta cheese-fried dough, whipped cream and chocolate sauce); apple cake with almond sorbetti; gelatie; and vanilla gelato with almond cookies and amarena cherries.
*~*~*~*
Can I just say that I'm highly interested in how cantaloupe tastes on a pizza? I never in a million years would have tried that!

And the risotto balls just sound divine ~ but I love rice, too.

I'm particularly interested in the chopped salad ~ minus the onions. Follow me long enough and you'll soon find that onions don't exist is my world. Ick on all fronts.

Here's the other news: Via Napoli opens next month! August 2010! No firm date yet, but keep following and I'll share as soon as I know.

I can't wait to try this place...

Star Tours 2.0 will be an ever changing journey at DL and WDW

2010-07-07T07:29:00.000-05:00

Too excited to do more than quote the LA Times...

Imagine a theme park ride that is never the same experience twice.

Riders aboard the new Star Tours attraction coming to Disneyland in Anaheim and Disney’s Hollywood Studios near Orlando, Fla., in 2011 will have the power to change the storyline throughout the simulator ride, resulting in a different beginning, middle and end for every journey.

Star Tours 2.0, taking place between the “Star Wars” prequels and the original trilogy, will update the 1980s simulator ride with high-definition 3-D technology and special effects.

In the new ride dubbed “The Adventures Continue,” riders on board the StarSpeeder 3000 transport ship will join a pod race on the fictional planet Tatooine; fly above the skyscrapers of Coruscant, another fictional planet; and visit other destinations in the “Star Wars” universe.

Although not yet confirmed, those other destinations may include the Wookie planet of Kashyyyk, the unfinished Death Star space station and Queen Amidala’s home planet of Naboo, according to images released by Disney and LucasFilm.

A top-secret Star Tours film shoot in West Hollywood reportedly included action sequences featuring bounty hunter Boba Fett, a holographic communiqué from rebel alliance commander Admiral Ackbar and scenes involving familiar “Star Wars” aliens, according to Slashfilm.

*****

All I have to say is that it sounds amazing!

Free Dining? Should you do it?

2010-07-06T08:01:00.001-05:00

Well, the word has leaked today that Free Dining has been extended into December at Walt Disney World.

Not familiar with Free Dining? Here's a quick summation:

When you purchase a full price resort room package of at least 3 nights plus a 2-day theme park ticket, you can get a Magic Your Way Dining Plan for free.

If you stay at a Value Resort, you can get the Quick Service Plan for free. If you stay at a Moderate, Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resort, you get the regular Dining Plan for free.

Now the question becomes: Is this a good deal?

Here are 5 things you need to ask yourself:

1. What's my total out of pocket cost going to be?
Crunch your numbers! There are many people out there who have crunched the numbers and found that the "free" dining you are getting is not offset by having to pay rack rate for the room you are staying in.

As always, your mileage may vary. So crunch the numbers and don't get caught up in the buzz of getting free food.

2. Be aware of the cancellation policies of packages.

Unlike room-only reservations, package reservations require payment in full 45 days in advance. And unless you buy trip insurance, you have to cancel more than 45 days in advance if you decide not to go.

3. Can you get a better deal with a room-only discount?
Many times, room-only discounts come out and are 20%-40% off rack rate. This can be a greater savings for you overall, depending on how you like to dine. There aren't any of that type of public discount out right now, but if you sit tight, you might get one.

4. Are you really going to use all those food credits?
People go for the dining plan for convenience or because they feel like they are getting a "deal." I know two families, personally, who did their best to use the dining plan to its extent and still had oodles of snack credits left on departure day. One family used their credits on some fruit to take with them on the plane, but they had so many credits leftover that they left my family a full grocery bag of bottled waters just so they could use up the credits.

Again, don't get caught up in the "deal" just because it's "free."

5. Do you want to be tied to a meal schedule?

This kind of goes with #4. I'll be the first one to tell you that I have done trips where I did schedule our touring plan around where we were eating.

This was before the dining plan was born.

When you have all these credits and you are trying to get the most our of your free dining plan, you may have to sacrifice touring time to waiting for your ADR, leaving a park early to meet an ADR, or getting out of line for an attraction to meet an ADR.

Only you can decide if you want to be ruled by your dining plan.

Bottom line: Look at the big picture. Take the emotion out of this decision. In these economic times, it's so easy to just jump on the first thing that says "FREE" on it. Like everything else, you need to look at the fine print. With this free dining offer, you need to assess how well it will work for your individual travel party.

Celebrate The Magic - June 15, 2010 - It's Party Time!

2010-07-02T08:07:00.002-05:00

The after-hours party at MGM Studios was set to start at 7pm. Sorry, I still can't call it Hollywood Studios. Using the acronym DHS makes me think of Homeland Security and I can't think about that at Disney.

Anyway, the info I had was that the buses would be leaving CSR at 6:30pm. I figured it would be a good idea to leave the room around 5:45pm so we had time to walk to El Centro and find out where we would be catching these buses.

We left a little later than I wanted and got to El Centro around 6pm.

I need to back up a little and talk about our shirts. I mentioned in an earlier post that we make tie-dye Mickey t-shirts for our trips. Well, I also make what I call "Paint Mickey" shirts. I have a foam cutout of a Mickey head and I get paint in a spray bottle from Michael's craft store. I spray the paint colors randomly over the template and tada! Paint Mickey.

Here's Bryan and the kids in their Paint Mickey shirts:

and the boys being goofy:

We got into El Centro and followed the sea of people that were going to this event. I heard from a couple of different sources that there were 5000-6000 people traveling with this incentive group. Now, I wonder if it was 5000-6000 people or 5000-6000 consultants plus their traveling parties. I never did find out.

We wandered down the same hallway that we took to go to our special Extra Magic Hours. And then we came to a stop. I guess everyone else thought to get there a little early, too.

Here's the sea of people in front of us:

And here's the sea of people behind us:

We slowly got to the place where they were handing out these cool light-up cakes with the company logo on it. It was on a string and meant to wear around your neck. Stefan decided he wanted to be a walking light bulb and put Bryan's and Cate's on with his at the same time.

We slowly moved outside to what seemed like a huge number of buses to take us all to MGM. Once we got on the bus, I'm like, "Come on! Let's go." As we waiting, I looked out the window and saw that my friend Laurie was on the bus right next to ours.

Finally, I could see some movement at the front of the line. The buses were moving. Wait a minute! Laurie's bus is moving! Mine isn't moving! Ack! Waiting on a bus is like waiting in line and Mary does not wait in lines!

Our bus finally made it out of CSR and was on it way the short distance to MGM. We crossed over the bridge and...wait a minute...we're going in the back way! The entrance that says, "Cast Members Only"...seriously, I just about died with excitement. Getting to see backstage at Disney is not something you get to do everyday.

Of course, I am on the wrong side of the bus to get the best pics, but here are some I snapped as we are driving backstage.

We're behind Tower of Terror. I don't even like that ride. But we're behind Tower of Terror! It's SO cool!

We finally come to a stop and as I look out my window, I can see where our entrance to the park will be. See all the Disney Security people?

Here we go!

It turns out we are entering right by Rockin' Rollercoaster! It was a really fun way to enter the park. Disney was handing out beverages and we had a choice of bottled water or cans of pop. We had a special map just for our event showing what was available to us. And since it had rained earlier in the day, Disney was also handing out ponchos for anyone who wanted them, just in case.

These cool banners were all over the parks. It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but the girl in the lime green shirt was part of a group of cast members dressed up as Aerosmith groupies. They were very funny.

And even though it seemed crowded as you walked into the park, you can see how quickly people dispersed to where it felt like there was practically nobody there.

Here's a shot looking down Hollywood Blvd. toward Mickey's Hat.

The cool part about this night is that while there were two specific sites for a dinner buffet, there were these dessert tables all over MGM with birthday cupcakes. I think I may have mentioned that this year is the 30th anniversary of this company and June 15th happens to be the founder's birthday, too.

Stefan and Cate had to grab one of those for quality control purposes as we were walking. Two thumbs up.

We're still meandering down Hollywood Blvd.

If you've ever been to MGM, you know that they have some serious "Streetmosphere" going on. Cast Members in character that probably came from the kitschy 50s and 60s. Well, we ran into a couple of ladies with some seriously cutting edge fashion costumes. They had some of the tools from our product line added in for effect. It was hilarious!

Well, we were hot to trot to get back to Toy Story Midway Mania. As we made the turn to go past the Mickey Hat, there was a stage and a funky sort of fairy godmother on it.

It's a little blurry. But I was walking a little fast.

Here she is on the big screen that was also right there.

She was there to welcome us and tell us about different special activities that were coming up.

As we headed to Toy Story, we discovered that there was another back entrance that people were being let off at...right there by Toy Story.

So it got to be a little crazy there. Thankfully, we were there early enough that we probably only waited 15 minutes to get on. We thought about getting on again, but the line was already long and we were hungry.

One of the dinner buffets was supposed to be near Playhouse Disney. We walked in that direction, but once there were told that location was totally full and we should head to Indiana Jones for the other buffet location.

So we headed over to Indy:

How cool is this? We get to eat on the set of the Indiana Jones show!

This was probably my least favorite part of the night. They really needed to have more locations for eating. It was packed. I got into a side buffet line with no people, but it was for salads and then there was some mashed potatoes and steamed tilapia. My kids had gotten into the main line which was huge. I fed them from my plate because I knew they were hungry.

I found out that the reason that line was so big was because it fed into the grill section. Disney was grilling steaks and shrimp skewers.

45 minutes later I got a plate of food. It tasted good, but the wait was just not cool. Then as I'm sitting there eating, they announce that all counter service eateries are open for eating. If only we knew that earlier, we wouldn't have wasted 1/4 of the time on eating.

Anyway, it is what it is.

Cate thought it was so cool to be eating on the Indiana Jones set and needed pictures.

Stefan headed off to Star Wars while I was finishing. After I was done, Cate, Bryan and I headed out to find him.

As we got close to Star Wars, all of a sudden this yellow truck comes out from backstage.

It turns out it's Mulch, Sweat and Shears. Now, here's another first for me! I had never seen these guys in all the times we'd been to WDW. I told Bryan I was following them to see what they were going to do. So he and Cate headed over to Star Wars.

Mulch, Sweat and Shears pulled over near the entrance to Indiana Jones. Turns out, they are a band. Check out the truck.

Bandscaping! I love it!

Anyway, the truck is pulling a trailer that looks like it's supposed to be full of landscaping tools but it's really a portable stage!

Pretty soon, they are playing all kinds of 70s and 80s type songs and those of us who gathered are dancing around and semi-head bangin'. I can't even tell you what all they played right now because I was just totally into it. I remember the last song they played for that set was "Come Sail Away."

Here's a pic:

They were super fun and I'm going to make a greater effort to see them on future visits.

Everyone else caught up with me after that and we decided to head toward the Great Movie Ride. As we walked in that direction, we say the birthday cake all lit up. Sorry it's a little blurry...again, it was me walking to fast while shooting.

The Great Move Ride was yet another first for us. We just hadn't made the time to see it before this. The kids really liked it, except they were a little nervous going through the Alien set.

At that point, Cate and I were ready to head back. The boys decided they wanted to ride Rockin' Rollercoaster.

She and I angled our way through the sidewalks because the parade was going on. She stopped to watch for a second, so I snapped this shot from one of the marquees:

There were lots and lots of these types of things all over the park.

We headed out of the park to the buses for CSR. We waited a little bit for the bus to fill up, but we were shortly on our way. The bus dropped us off at the convention center so we had a short walk to the room.

Cate and I were both a little sweaty so we took showers before climbing into PJs and waiting for the boys. They arrived not long after that. Turned out they got to ride RNR twice in a row because nobody was there.

All in all it was a very enjoyable party!

Next Post: Going Home and Summing Up

T

Celebrate The Magic - June 15, 2010 - The Purple Van and AK

2010-06-29T15:17:00.000-05:00

I know I said I'd talk about the party, but this update got a bit longer than I anticipated. Since I know I'll have a lot to say about the party, I'll save that for the next posting.

We went to bed early and slept in a bit today. A bit meaning that people got up after 7:30am. We're early risers at my house anyway so sleeping in, even for my teens, doesn't happen frequently.

Over breakfast in the room, we decided that we'd head to Animal Kingdom since we hadn't been there yet. Plus, the kids were clamoring for Kali River Rapids, especially since it was soooo hot.

Stefan was not in the mood for Cheerios, so we headed down the road to the McDonald's by the All-Stars since it was on the way to AK. Stefan loves their breakfast burritos. At the intersection, I had my first sighting this trip of The Purple Van from Owner's Locker!

Hi John!

So we got the food and drove the short distance to AK. We had a fairly front parking spot, but there were a lot of people waiting for the tram. We decided to walk it rather than wait for another tram to come along. As it was, we got to the front area at about the same time.

It was just after opening, so it was still a little busy.

We got in and decided to head for Kilimanjaro Safaris. The stand-by wait said 10 minutes, but the line was already outside the actual entrance. We decided to get Fastpasses so we had about 40 minutes to kill.

Tip for AK: Utilize every shop with A/C you can. I do that everywhere, but it's darn near essential here. The tropical-like nature of this park seems to condense the humidity and just makes it blech.

Stefan and Caitlin decided they needed a drumming break:

And then we happened to run into Flik with no wait.

We headed to Kali River Rapids. Bryan took care of all the stuff because he doesn't ride rides where it says, "you WILL get wet." Scoutmasters melt in water, don't you know?

So here's a few shots he snapped below. I rode Kali once - the kids rode it three times in a row.

And the two of them totally soaked after their water adventures.

We headed back over to Kilimanjaro Safaris, used our Fastpasses and got right through. I think we maybe waited in line 5 minutes before getting on a truck. We saw fellow incentive group achiever Karen Z. there as well!

Here's a few shots from the Safari:

Birds on top of hippos under water

Hippo coming up for air

Baby Giraffe

Another baby giraffe lounging around

Baby elephant and mama

After the safari, we were hungry so we headed to our favorite counter service in all of Disney World - Flame Tree BBQ. Bryan and Cate had the ribs and I had the BBQ Chicken Salad. Stefan was still full from breakfast burritos.

We headed home after that for a break.

Since dinner was at the party and not until after 7pm, we did some grab & go at the Rix Cafe and ate in the room after a brief pool break.

Next up: The private party at the Studios!

Celebrate the Magic - June 14, 2010 - Rise & Shine! It's Mickey Time!

2010-06-27T17:34:00.000-05:00

June 14, 2010

It's early entry day for our incentive group. Well, even though we hit the hay early the night before, it was a bit of a rude awakening to get up at 5:30am Eastern, especially when our bodies were probably still thinking it was 4:30am Central.

And it was going to be a steamy one again. Here's the photo from our room doorway as we left around 6am:

It was red shirt day today. As we headed to the ballroom for our buffet breakfast, it was a sea of red shirts.

The family sitting down to breakfast. Yep, Stefan was not awake yet.

I saw my friend, Laurie, and her family but as you can imagine, there were a lot of people there.

After breakfast, we headed down the hallway to get on special buses that were taking us to Magic Kingdom. We got on about 6:30am and arrived at MK just before 7am. They were just opening the turnstiles as we got up there.

We entered and I had to take a castle pic:

It looks more crowded than it was. Seriously, we walked on to everything.

We didn't have a specific plan. Being veterans, we've done just about everything. We headed toward Adventureland since, as usual, everyone else headed for Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.

We came up to Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride and Stefan decided we needed to do this.

This is tradition. Stefan and Bryan ride in the same magic carpet vehicle and Stefan tries to get the camel to spit on his dad.

I had to stop and take this picture:

In all my years of going to Disney World, even when we've been there at rope drop, I have NEVER seen a ride that says it has a ZERO wait time! I needed to document that for posterity!

Once we got off of that, I used my coupons and got two bottles of water. It was already steamy.

We headed through the tunnel to Frontierland and who did we run into: Jessie & Woody! As face characters! First time for that one!

Here's one of me and Woody - terrible, I know - that's how humid and icky it was.

Stefan wanted to hit the shooting gallery so Bryan waited with him while Cate and I made a beeline for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR). It wasn't up and running yet. So we jumped on Splash Mountain and walked right on. It was refreshing to get wet, even that early in the morning.

We got off and got on to BTMRR and then met the boys as they had gotten on the train just before ours.

We decided to head to Tomorrowland since the kids wanted to do Space Mountain.

We got a little sidetracked and had to walk on to Buzz Lightyear. After I scored 700,000+, Bryan wanted to go again and try and score higher. So the kids went off to Space, and he and rode Buzz again. 5 times. Seriously. We just kept walking on.

Bryan, the little snot, maxed out at 999,999. I took a picture, but my flash makes it hard to see. His console is the one on the left:

and mine at 809,000

We took a break to watch for the kids and then Bryan had to go meet Buzz Lightyear

We finally met up with the kids and they decided they wanted to ride Buzz again. So we rode two more times.

Then it was approaching 8:30am and we needed to use our coupons before 9am. We headed over to Cosmic Ray's and got some water and juice.

Even by 9am, it was so humid. We decided we'd just do two more things: Jungle Cruise and Mickey's Philharmagic.

On the way to the Jungle Cruise, we saw the "other" Woody and Jessie, and the Lotso Bear from the new Toy Story 3. (Honestly, I don't know how long Lotso will last in the parks once people see the movie.)

Then Alice toodled by and said we were going the wrong way and we should follow her for all the fun!

We headed off and did the Jungle Cruise and Philharmagic. Then we headed for the bus area to head back to CSR.

Once we got back, the housekeeping elves had been there and had Bear and Kitty all waiting for us.

We had a pool break and then decided we'd head to the Pepper Market for lunch.

Not a fan of the PM. It took them 10 minutes to get me a burger. I should have ordered the Shrimp Paella that Cate had because it was ready and it looked fabulous. But I didn't. The boys had something Mexican and were happy. Overall, I felt it was overpriced. Even for Disney. I miss my villas kitchen.

Yeah, I'm a hotel snob and not afraid to admit it.

We decided to hang in the room and just watch some TV. It was truly too hot and humid for us. Plus, having been up since 5:30am, we were ready for a break.

Dinner time was much better this time. We headed to the Crossroads and went to Sweet Tomatoes. I had head a lot about this place online and thought it would be okay to try. I was a little worried because I have teens...teens who are meatosaurus-like. I wanted to make sure they were full.

I had a coupon for BOGO...could I find it? No. At least not until after we came home.

Everyone agreed that it was good. Thankfully, there was more than rabbit food once we got through the salad bar or my kids would have disowned me. But even Bryan, who's not a huge vegie fan, thought this was a good place.

We headed home and packed it in for the night.

Next up: June 15 - Animal Kingdom and the big party at MGM Studios!

Celebrate The Magic - June 13, 2010 - Group Incentive Stuff and Epcot

2010-06-26T18:24:00.000-05:00

Ahh...a new day at Disney World!

I got up early because I was able to pick up our group incentive packet starting at 7am. While everyone else was snoozing, I got dressed and went out to El Centro.

I headed over to the conference center area:

I entered the ballroom and our group pretty much had it all to ourselves. The check in area was to one side and there were some snacky-type buffets in the middle of the room. Lemonade is one thing, but potato chips and pretzels at 7 am was just not what I was looking for.

I headed back to the room and thought I'd take a picture of this very clear day:

Here's my building as you walk from El Centro along the lake path:

I got back to the room with our cool red t-shirts (we have a special day for those) and people were getting around. So we had some breakfast and headed to the car to drive to Epcot.

I wasn't sure what to expect. Sunday was Morning Extra Magic Hours and we didn't arrive at the turnstiles of Epcot until 8:50am.

I was prepared with a second GADGAD voucher so we could get special Fastpasses for Epcot today as well.

(Aside: I don't know what we would have done without those GADGAD Fastpasses. We certainly would have been spending much more time in line or not seen what we wanted to see. I'm very glad we had them.)

We entered the park and split up. Stefan wanted to go on Spaceship:Earth, one of his fave attractions on property and Bryan wanted to do Sum of All Thrills. I went with Stefan and Cate went with Bryan.

Stefan and I finished first so we walked over to Innoventions to see how they were doing. Bryan and Cate were in the simulators when we walked up. There was a lot of upside-down going on so I think they had a lot of loops in their custom designed roller coaster.

When they got out, we decided to use our Fastpasses for Test Track. We got the passes, entered the Fastpass line and in less than 10 minutes, were in a ride vehicle.

Now, this was a first for me. I had never ridden Test Track before. The lines had always discouraged me. Plus, part of me was, "What IS the big deal here?" I don't stand in lines. It's not part of the fun for me. So I just haven't done it.

Well, I see what the big deal is now. It was very enjoyable, snarled hair and all. I don't know if the speed readout is the same for all cars, but ours read 65.8 MPH as we flew by.

I was just reading the Disney Parks Blog and the update on the Radiator Springs Racers that is being constructed at DL. It's using the same ride tech as TT and looks super fun.

Anyhow, back to the story...After TT, since we were there, we decided to walk over to Mission:Space. We all LOVE M:S. It was a 10 minute wait for Orange so we just walked on.

If you aren't familiar with M:S, there are two ways to experience this attraction: Green and Orange. Orange is the original setup with the centrifuge, feeling the G-forces, etc. It's labeled as "more intense." Green has none of that; you just see the stuff on the screen. At least as far as I know; I've never ridden on the Green side.

As usual, we all enjoyed it. It's probably the closest I'll ever get to spaceflight in my lifetime.

And, of course, we stayed in the Advanced Training Lab to do the Mission Space Race. As a family, we rock this game. We've never lost whether we've been Team Triton or Team Orion. It's just too much fun. We stayed for the game after to be mission control support.

At that time, Stefan needed a Mickey Ice Cream Bar so we had a minor snack break before heading off to the Land pavilion for Soarin'.

Again, thank goodness for those FastPasses. Although I was surprised that the return times were before 4pm, it was great to be able to walk right through. We still had to wait probably 15-20 minutes before getting on the ride itself.

While it's a nice experience, it just doesn't jazz me. I know a lot of the online fans seem to think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I agree that it's a great attraction, but the wait times for this thing really are not justified.

By the time we got done, people were seriously hungry. We just headed to Sunshine Seasons Food Court. Wow. It was crazy busy. But it was also noon. Let's see: Cate got the Salmon, Stefan got the quarter chicken and Bryan and I had some sort of Asian platter.

Bryan wanted to take Stefan to Sum of All Thrills and Cate wanted to go to Living Seas. So we split up again.

Did I mention it was freakin' hot? Seriously, I know I sound like a broken record, but good grief, it was hot and humid.

Cate and I hooked up with the boys once they were done with Sum of All Thrills. That attraction has a two-thumbs up from everyone in our family. If you haven't had the chance to check it out, give it a try.

We headed over to World Showcase and it was dead. I mean, there were very few people walking around. Hello; it's 1pm on a Sunday in June. All the smart people are staying out of the heat and humidity in the middle of the day and here we are, doing the opposite.

We took in Maelstrom and then Bryan decided he needed Rice Cream from the Kringla Bakery. So did everyone else, it seemed. Or they were in there pretending to order so they could get into the A/C. By the time Bryan got out, I was ready to head out.

Stefan wanted to hit Japan for some ridiculous YuGiOH something or another. Ugh. The boys raced ahead. Cate and I stopped for A/C and water on the way. Then she wanted a Funnel Cake. Really? In 100+ degrees, you want a Funnel Cake?

We got that, met the boys and walked around the rest of the World Showcase and back to the car.

Here's a picture of what World Showcase looked like:

Not very busy.

We got back about 2:30pm-ish. The kids went to swim. I jumped in long enough to get wet, but again, the pool was very warm and not refreshing at all.

I headed back to the room, took a shower and just reveled in my A/C and watched some TV.

Dinner time approached. I didn't have a plan for dinner - or at least no reservations. I suggested we head out to 192 and see what grabbed our fancy.

Big mistake on my part. I was actually thinking a Ponderosa would be great. In MN, we have this one Ponderosa that was fantastically clean, great service, above average food and that's what I was thinking about.

I'll admit that I never really got what the online Disney people were griping about when they said that they wouldn't be caught dead at a buffet, Disney or not. I can honestly say that I've never been to a buffet that has been sub-par.

Well, I have now.

I have to give two-thumbs down to the Ponderosa on 192 that's closest to Animal Kingdom. While the entrees that we ordered were passable, the buffet was just not good-looking. And talk about over-priced.

So I get what people are saying about icky buffets now. But I have to say that I have never seen anything like that at a Disney buffet. I will definitely continue to patronize my Disney favorites.

Now I know to just stay away from 192 unless I'm going to Olive Garden or something.

We ended up going home and feasting on our snacks. Thank goodness for that grocery run.

We needed to head to bed early tonight because tomorrow was going to be very early. We needed to get up at 5:30am because the buses were leaving at 6:30am to take us to Magic Kingdom for our exclusive early Extra Magic Hours.

Celebrate The Magic - June 12, 2010 - Kona Cafe and Magic Kingdom?

2010-06-25T09:06:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I'm still on that first day. Sorry for the delay, but I actually had to get some work done before I could get on with the story here.

Once the kids got back from the pool ~ without my room key. So while they were changing, Bryan headed down the front desk to get me a replacement.

Then the subject of food came up. I asked if people wanted to stay at CSR and eat there or do something else. I got something like, "Um...well...I don't know." Thankfully, Mom is prepared. "Well, I made a reservation for Kona Cafe. Anybody want to do that and then go to Magic Kingdom afterward?"

Well, that was all I had to say and people were ready to go.

Now if you aren't familiar with the Kona Cafe, it's a table-service restaurant at Disney's Polynesian Resort. 'Ohana, the other table-service restaurant on premises, is more sought after. At least it has much longer lines and wait times than the Kona Cafe ever has.

That doesn't mean Kona is a bad place to eat. On the contrary, I think it's a hidden jewel with wonderful service and fabulous food.

I planned on parking in the Magic Kingdom lot and then just taking the monorail to the Polynesian. When we were done eating, we would take the monorail or the boat over the Magic Kingdom.

After pulling into the Magic Kingdom parking lot and seeing it was literally almost to the back of one side, I turned around and decided to park at the Polynesian for dinner. It was just too hot and humid for me to even consider riding the tram at that point.

Before anyone jumps on me, my new plan was to eat dinner, send the family on to Magic Kingdom and then I would go move the car back to the MK lot. Hopefully by then, I could move up a little farther than the back 40.

After parking at the Polynesian, we walked up to the second floor to check in at Kona Cafe. My kids headed over to the gift shop while I waited to get my pager. By the way, already at 5pm, the line to check in at 'Ohana was almost all the way back to the Kona Cafe entrance.

Since Kona had just opened, I think we waited maybe five minutes before the pager went off and we were seated.

We had a great meal. I had the shrimp and scallops with sticky rice and salad, which is fabulous. My son had the Teriyaki Chicken Wings Appetizer for Two...for his entree. My daughter had the Chicken Pan Asian noodles. And Bryan has the Ginger Crusted Ribeye.

Bryan likes his meat medium rare and it came out a little pinker than he liked, but our server was prompt in getting that fixed for us. All in all, a great meal from Kona Cafe as usual.

Everyone was drooping a bit. I'm sure we had a little bit of the full-tummy-sleepies, but when I asked if people still wanted to head to Magic Kingdom, I could see the energy level just wasn't there. So I exercised a mom-veto and said we'd just head back to the resort to settle in for the evening. That seemed to make everyone happy.

We stopped in at the main shop on the ground floor of the Polynesian. This store had some great mint foot cream that I've been looking for. If you don't have something like that, mint foot/leg cream is awesome for sore feet and legs...like the kind you get when you walk in the theme parks too much.

And, we had to take a follow up picture with the Tiki statue...This is the nice one...

And this is the silly one...

Teenage boys...what would you do for entertainment without them?

Caitlin and I went to look at something and I can't even remember what it was. When we came out into the lobby to find the boys, here's what I found:

They are watching channel 96, which at Disney World, shows all these old-time, classic Disney cartoons.

You used to be able to get channel 96 in your resort hotel room, but in the last couple of years, it seems that they have filtered it out.

I want it back! My kids love the old toons and I bet lots of Disney fans, whether newbies or veterans, would love to have it available all the time!

So we headed back to CSR, watched some TV and crashed for the night.

Next up: Sunday, June 13. Picking up the group incentive stuff and heading to Epcot.

Celebrate The Magic - June 12, 2010 - Scouting Out The Pool Options at Coronado Springs Resort

2010-06-23T11:58:00.000-05:00

The kids and I got back to CSR and decided to hit the pool right away.

Being at Casitas 3, we were probably an 8-10 minute walk to the main theme pool - The Dig Site.

I didn't take my camera with me, but there are tons of pictures out there at disneyworld.com.

There's not a lot of shade at CSR. We had to walk the perimeter path around Lago Dorado to get to The Dig Site. If it wasn't 95 degrees and super humid, it probably would have been a nice walk. As it was, we were steaming by the time we got there.

The Dig Site is a nice sized pool with a decent water slide. CSR has a nice pool bar with snacks and beverages and the arcade is in a building at the Dig Site. Children have a splash area and a playground to explore. If it was a little less hot, I imagine that the on-site volleyball court would have been in use.

My one complaint: The water was too warm. So warm that it made me a little queasy. When you are hot, you'd like a "cool" pool to cool you off. I think it just gets so hot so fast and that Disney doesn't have cold water flowing into this pool. It bothered me the most; my kids are fish and will play in any body of water. But they both felt it was too warm as well. I suggested we go back to our quiet pool and see if it was any cooler.

We trudged through the heat and humidity to get back to the Casitas pool. We all pretty much agreed that we would not be going to The Dig Site again as long as it was this hot.

The Casitas pool was a bit cooler, but not very refreshing. Bryan caught up with us after having gone to The Dig Site first to find us. He got in for a bit and then we both decided air conditioning would be more comfortable. I gave the kids another 20 minutes and told them to head up to the room after that.

That's one thing about having teenagers...I don't have to watch them in the pool and can trust them to get up to the room on time. Plus, they are both good about taking care of the other.\

I can't tell you how good it felt to take a shower and just sit in the A/C and watch some TV. I'm so glad we had a fridge with lots of cold water and Gatorade. We needed it this trip.

Next up: What's For Dinner?

Celebrate The Magic - June 12, 2010 - Star Wars Weekends & Toy Story Mania

2010-06-22T18:46:00.001-05:00

At the end of my last post, you probably thought, "How is this girl going to get through this day?"

When you last left me, I was headed into the park to find the family. I had to abandon my plan of leaving everyone at MGM to head to Magic Kingdom for the WDW Radio Show Meet of the Month. We just didn't arrive early enough and get going enough for me to do that. Which bummed me out completely because I wanted to participate, meet Lou Mongello (because he's got an awesome show and some great books) and have him meet me. I'm on a mission to work with the guy as I think he's sorely in need of a skilled virtual assistant so he's not constantly working! But I digress here...

I suppose I should introduce the family AKA Cast of Characters:

Bryan: My husband. The total Star Wars geek of the family. The one who doesn't want to vacation anywhere else but Disney World. The one who doesn't care where we eat as long as there are characters. In his real life, he's a systems architect.

Stefan: Teenage boy. Eagle Scout. Walking eating machine. Loves Star Wars. Loves to swim. Loves to make trouble. Loves Disney World.

Caitlin: Teenage girl. Bookworm. Unintentional, sometimes deadpan, comic. Recently discovered she loves Space Mountain. Loves hidden Mickeys.

and then me.

Anyhow...I called Bryan and found out they were in Star Wars shopping area ~ I think it was called Boba's Warehouse ~ waiting to get the passholder stuff. Since I had all the Fastpass cards, I headed over to Toy Story Midway Mania to get fastpasses.

By the way, with these Fastpass cards, Toy Story was in the same group with Rock N Roller Coaster. So I know I needed to leave at least one on that group for RNR. But my plan was to get multiples for Toy Story.

I walked over to the Fastpass line for Toy Story and it was already getting a bit long. I have to say the CMs rocked in getting people organized and keeping them moving through the 6 Fastpass stations that were there.

If you haven't been to Toy Story yet, it's hugely popular and Fastpasses run out before the end of the day. At the time I got into the Fastpass line (9:50am-ish), the return time for regular Fastpasses was 3:10pm. By the time I got up the Fastpass machine (which really wasn't long ~ maybe 5-8 minutes), the return time was 4:05pm. Crazy.

Once I got up there at 10:00am, I fed the Fastpass cards in twice and got those instant Fastpasses that were good right away at 10:00am.

I walked toward the Backlot to find the family. Just as I got there, they were coming out and so was Boba Fett!

But we were on a mission to get to Toy Story!

I have to say, it was awesome to just walk into the Fastpass line. We had a small wait where the lines came together, but all in all, we maybe stood in line for 10 minutes, if that.

We got right back in the Fastpass line and did it again. It was really funny...we were all wearing our tie-dye Mickey shirts that day...

The ham and his sister in line for Toy Story...

Anyway, the CM did a double take when we got back there and was like, "How'd you get up here so fast?"

It was great fun to do that ride twice in a row.

But they were hot to trot to get to Star Tours. So we mosey in that direction and people are starting to line up for the Star Wars Parade at 11am. We turn the corner and Star Tours has a 10 minute wait time in the Stand-By Line. I hesitated, thinking, "This is Star Wars Weekends. There's no way it's really 10 minutes." One of the CMs seemed to read my mind. He said, "There's no wait right now."

He was right. We walked right in and waited 2 minutes to get in the ride vehicle. Now we've been on Star Tours dozens of times and we are super pumped for Star Tours 2.0 that comes out next year. But it's still fun to ride, especially when everyone else in your vehicle has obviously never been on the ride before. Lots of laughter and stuff from our fellow space travelers.

At that point, people are hungry. We headed over Backlot Express, our usual standby for MGM.

I will say that of all the parks, MGM has the fewest number of eateries that jazz me. But Backlot Express is safe in that it has burgers, chicken strips and hot dogs - the safe food for any family of picky eaters. I, however, absolutely LOVE the Southwestern Chicken Salad. It's huge! It comes with lots of chicken, mixed greens, a tortilla wedge and a cilantro-lime dressing that is just yummy. It really was enough to fill me up without weighing me down on a hot and humid day.

At that point, I had the full-tummy sleepies. Plus, I was ready for a break from the heat and humidity. I'm from Minnesota. We rarely ever have 95 degrees AND 70+ degree dew point. The kids were ready for some pool time, too. Bryan wanted to do a little more shopping and decided to take the bus back to CSR.

We had to make one more stop, however, at this really cool set that looks like it came out of Star Wars.

The kids and I hopped on the tram, got to the car and drove the short distance back to CSR.

Next up: The quest to find the best swimming hole at CSR.

Celebrate The Magic - June 12, 2010 - Annual Pass Renewal and GADGAD Adventure

2010-06-22T16:36:00.000-05:00

The one thing about travel days is you either sleep like a rock or you have one of those "transition" sleeps where you are getting used to a different bed.

I think I had one of the latter. I slept fine, but I was up early. That was probably because I was ready for the first day of vacation actually in Disney World.

There were a few things on the agenda for today, but the important part was to get to Disney's Hollywood Studios (which I will affectionately refer to as MGM Studios) for the last of Star Wars Weekends.

First, I needed to pick up our Park Hopper Passes from the Hospitality Desk. This was one area of the trip that frustrated me. You could only pick up your passes between 8am and 10am OR 3pm and 5pm. Kind of inconvenient for people who's flights come in later or who want to hit the parks early...like me.

Anyway, I traipsed down to the Hospitality Desk and got the tickets as well as our snack coupons for our Magic Kingdom day. I'll tell you about those later.

I got back to the room and people were just starting to get around. So I got them up, fed and dressed so we could get to MGM Studios before the park opened.

Now you might be thinking, "Um, Mary, why do you need to be there before the park opens?"

1. You always want to get there before the park opens. It's the best time to get your attractions and shows in before the rest of the world gets there.

2. It's Star Wars Weekends and MGM. It's going to be busy no matter what.

But #3 is most important for our story here: I needed to get my Annual Passes (APs) renewed.

With Annual Passes, you have up to 30 days after the expiration to renew them at the discounted renewal rate. Seriously, it's saves you like $70 per person. Our APs expired on June 6 so we were good.

Even better: I could put the value of my 3-Day Park Hopper passes towards the renewal of my APs. In the end, I paid less than the cost of one AP to renew all four of the APs for my family. That rocks.

Unfortunately, it took a bit of time because there were a lot of people in line at the ticket booths outside MGM.

Now you may be thinking, "Mary, why didn't you just do that at your resort with the Concierge?"

Because you can't. The Concierge can add days and add plus options, but he can't give me an AP. APs are only available for purchase at the ticket windows at the park.

It's a little sucky. I could have saved a lot of time.

I got those done, but I wasn't done yet. I needed to get my special Fastpasses.

Earlier this year, my family did some volunteer work under the "Give A Day, Get A Day" promotion from Disney. Basically, if you fulfill a volunteer need, then you get a certificate that can be exchanged for a one-day, one-park pass. If you have multi-day passes already, you can exchange the certificate for a special Fastpass.

Here's how this works:

You turn in the certificate and you get a special Fastpass card for each person in your party, up to 8 people, I think. Each card has a total of 6 Fastpasses on it: 3 Fastpasses from the Donald group and 3 Fastpasses from the Daisy Group. Each park has its own list of attractions in each group that the special Fastpass is good for.

The cool part about this card is that it gives you "instant" Fastpasses - even if the Fastpasses at a given attraction are gone for the day.

Yeah, this rocks. Especially in the summer, at MGM, during Star Wars Weekends.

The problem: The person who did my APs said I had to get in yet another line to get my Fastpasses. Puke. I got in that line and told the family to go into the park and I'll call them when I get the Fastpasses. I got to the front of the line and the Cast Member says she needs the APs for my whole party to give me the Fastpasses. At this point, I've probably been standing in lines for 30-40 minutes in the FL heat and humidity. I called the family and they were already headed to Toy Story Midway Mania.

I got out of line, entered the park, met them, got their APs and headed to Guest Relations inside the park. By this time, I was sweating bullets and had already sucked down the bottle of water I had brought with me. Thankfully, Guest Relations was in the A/C. I grabbed a CM and asked if there was any way he could get my Fastpasses. He was a gem and took off right away to do it.

Whew. What an adventure. Now I could go off and actually enjoy the park.

Next post will have more pictures and adventures as we head to Toy Story Midway Mania!

Celebrate The Magic - Arriving at Coronado Springs

2010-06-21T14:40:00.000-05:00

Did I mention I really liked the Dodge Charger? Very smooth ride.

Anywho...we headed down 417 to Exit 3. It seems the roundabout way to get to Coronado Springs Resort (AKA CSR), especially in the dark, but it got the job done.

I had done Disney Online Check-In. By the way, it rocks...most of the time. It probably rocked on June 11, too, but I was too tired and too impatient with the front desk people to register that feeling at the time.

Here's the scoop with Online Check-In:

You can go online 10 days out from check-in and essentially pre-register yourself. You plug in your reservation number and put your credit card on file, if you want privileges on your room keys. The big key feature, in my opinion, is that it asks you for your arrival time and departure time. When you arrive at your resort, you go to the special check-in line that says, "Online Check-In" to get your room keys and stuff.

I think this is a key service for people who check in early in the day. My theory is they ask for your arrival time so they can assign you a room right when you arrive and not make you wait for a room. As rooms as cleaned, they are assigned to the online check-in people based on arrival time.

That's my theory anyway. Since I arrived at 8:45pm at night this time, it probably didn't make a difference for me.

BUT...I will say that in the last two times I've traveled to WDW since online check-in went live, I've checked into the resort between 12:30pm and 1pm. Official check-in time isn't until 3pm or 4pm, depending on your resort. Each time, my room was ready to be occupied.

Back to CSR check-in...Only one person was at the front desk and I probably had to wait 5-8 minutes (thought it seemed like 10-15 minutes) just to pick up my keys. It was a little aggravating, but I admit that I am not a patient person.

We stopped at Bell Services to have them bring our Owner's Locker and Garden Grocer order to our room.

We got in the car and drove around to Casitas 3 - exactly the location that I had requested. It's centrally located between El Centro and the theme pool, The Dig Site. Plus, the Casitas quiet pool was right there next to us.

Finding the elevator was a challenge. The signage was a little weird and we went on a trek just trying to find one. Again, one more strike against arriving after dark. Had we arrived during daylight, we probably could have found it sooner.

Got up to our room - #3360 - and it was conveniently located around the corner from the elevator and also in its own little corner.

If you haven't been in a room at CSR, most rooms have two queen beds, as ours did. We had a nice large flat screen TV plus a small refrigerator and coffee pot. I also called down to Housekeeping to request a microwave. If they have them available, they'll bring one to your room for the length of stay for FREE. Very nice for microwave popcorn.

Bell Services came with our Owner's Locker and groceries. Turned out I somehow didn't order the special muffins I wanted for my daughter. I thought I had typed it in the notes box, but apparently I didn't because it wasn't on the enclosed invoice nor was it in their system when I called. Crap. So she was stuck with Cheerios for most breakfasts.

Since it was late, we hopped in our PJs, got out the Aero bed and hit the hay for the next day.

More in the next post!

New Aulani Model Room Pictures

2010-06-19T08:07:00.000-05:00

I'm back from my trip to WDW and am working on organizing my info to start a series of blog posts.

But this bit of news was too good to let it pass. Many of you are probably aware that Disney is building a new DVC Resort in Hawaii called Aulani.

Well, the model room pics have now been released. What are your thoughts?

I think it looks pretty cool! What do you think?

Two Days and Counting...

2010-06-09T13:51:00.000-05:00

I'm so ready to get the heck out of dodge.

I did my check on the rental car and, lo and behold, saved $45 by re-booking with National. I'm an Emerald Aisle - Executive member so I'm all set to walk to the EA, pick my car and go on Friday.

I went ahead and placed my grocery order with Garden Grocer. The forecast is calling for iffy weather here at home on Friday. If we get delayed, I don't want to be grocery shopping late at night. Plus, I'm not even sure how late stores in FL are open. That way, I have my groceries and I can worry about just having some fun at the resort when we get there!

That's the sucky part about taking an afternoon flight. I did this once about 8 years ago. I hated it then. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up not liking it again. I'm so a get-up-and-go type person. But I decided to save a few bucks and take the itinerary I chose. Yeah, I'm a freakin' moron. Next time, I'm just biting the bullet and paying for my usual routes.

Phase I of laundry is done. For now, it will just be staying on top of it. I hate coming home to a mess.

I've got our APs (Annual Passes) out and ready for renewal. The cool part is I'm getting free 3-Day Park Hoppers with this incentive trip. I can put the value of those tickets toward my AP renewal. Since I have the DVC AP, I have an even better price. I'm paying less than the price of one DVC AP to renew all four for my family. Rock on awesome.

My daughter informed me that she needs more shorts. This is after me pestering her about it weeks ago and her telling me she doesn't need anything. Did I mention I hate last minute stuff?

So after I pick her up from school today, we'll be stopping to get a couple more pairs of shorts. Those darn teenagers and their growth spurts.

Flights: Checked my itinerary and found that our departure gate has been assigned. It's no surprise that we're leaving from the G concourse at MSP. The flights to MCO usually leave from the same bank of four gates. I also printed off the coupons for shopping and eating at MSP. Gotta be prepared just in case people get hungry or need a book or something. I should probably check and see if MCO or MEM has coupons for our return flights.

Signing off for today!

Pre-Trip Prep

2010-06-08T10:01:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the comments on the video post. I promise that next time, I won't shoot a video on the same day that I'm working out. I just had been meaning to do that video and figured I better get it done. I'll plan ahead better so I won't stick myself in the "ugly faces" category.

As I'm composing this post, Countdown Clock in Firefox says I have 3 days 21 hours 23 minutes and 3 seconds until I leave for Disney World.

Being a veteran Disney traveler, a lot of preparing for a trip is automatic and instinctive for me. It's like breathing - I don't have to think about it, I just do it.

So this is a first for me to actually document prepping for a trip.

On the docket for today:

Login in to USPS.com and put my mail on hold.
LOVE this feature. I don't have to physically go to the local post office to do this. I can set the date I want mail to be held and the day I want it stopped. I can even tell the post office to deliver my held mail once I start delivery again. It's so much easier than trying to arrange for someone to pick up my mail.

Finalize my grocery list.
I usually go grocery shopping myself at SuperTarget once we get settled into the resort. I'm thinking about using Garden Grocer, a grocery delivery service in Central Florida. This is so not me. I'm so Type-A - it's a huge control thing. Plus, I'm one of those shoppers where I might think my list is finalized, but once I'm on the store I think of other things that I forgot. And if I order groceries and then realize I forgot something, then I have to make a run to the store anyway. So why not do it myself?

I need to decide today before all their delivery slots are filled. I'm thinking about doing it this time because our flight doesn't get into MCO until 7pm-ish. We're going carry-on and getting a rental car from National so we'll be out of there tout suite, but I'm thinking that we won't be in the room before 8pm. Now, I'm kinda wanting to check out the pool and get settled in. But I might also be wound up because I'll be at Disney World.

So I need to decide that and place the order if I'm going to do it.

Schedule newsletter delivery.
I own two businesses. I send out a newsletter for one of them on the 15th of the month. I need to finish that draft and schedule it in Constant Contact to go out on the 15th. By the way, I'm a Constant Contact goddess. If you need Email Marketing, Constant Contact rocks and I know the ropes.

Check Rental Car Prices
Remember what I said previously about rental cars? You can cancel reservations at any point without a penalty. I've probably canceled and re-booked the rental car for this trip 3 or 4 times as I find better prices. It's a daily thing now until I leave.

Stay on task.
Yeah, right. I'm a pretty focused person - I don't usually need motivation to work. My discipline borders on military. That's part of the reason my virtual assistant business is called Can Do Virtual Assisting. "Can Do" is part and parcel of my makeup.

But throw Disney World into the mix and I have to expend a little more energy on working.

What can I say; my O.D.D is in overdrive and I can't wait to indulge it.

Travelling Carry-On to Walt Disney World

2010-06-04T18:44:00.000-05:00

Yes! You can travel carry-on to WDW!

I did my first video on tips to travel only carry-on for your Disney World vacation. Since it's my first one, I didn't realize I was too far from the camera so the sound is a little quiet. Turn up your volume all the way and it should be okay. I'm a little over-casual, but I hope you'll judge the content and not the goofy looking person in the video. : -)

Entering the Theme Parks: Park Hopper or Not?

2010-06-03T13:14:00.000-05:00

Disney's ticket media is known as Magic Your Way because you can choose what features you want.

One of the main options, aside from the number of days you want on your ticket, is the Park Hopper option.

With the Park Hopper option, you have the capability of visiting more than one park on any given day. Without the Park Hopper option, you can only visit one park.

In a recent survey, I found that 65% of respondents usually choose the Park Hopper option. Since I polled Disney veterans, this number is much higher than average.

In reality, the numbers are probably flipped. Most people don't choose the Park Hopper because they don't want to pay for the privilege and think that they can just do one whole park each day.

While that is certainly an option that can make for an enjoyable time, I know that I find I'm in the camp that feels, "I don't know what I'd do without park hopping!"

There have been many times where I go to one park in the morning, take an afternoon break and then go to a different park in the evening. I love the flexibility that a Park Hopper provides.

You'll find that the people without hopping privileges will be at the park for Wishes, Fantasmic, etc. This can work to your advantage if you have a Park Hopper. Let's say Fantasmic is showing only on Monday and Thursday. People that don't have Park Hoppers will most likely be at Hollywood Studios on one of those days so they can see F! If you are hoping for more time and less crowds at Toy Story Midway Mania, go to DHS on days after F! shows and you'll probably see fewer people.

And what about dining? (Here I go...back to the food again.) What if it was your Magic Kingdom day and you just had a hankering to go to Epcot for dinner? Without Park Hoppers, you couldn't do that.

So weigh all the features and benefits of Park Hopping. Decide how valuable it is to you and your travel party. I know for me, I need that flexibility to make my vacation that much more enjoyable.

New Online Dining Reservation System on disneyworld.com

2010-05-28T15:36:00.000-05:00

It never fails, does it? Here I am talking about food...again.

But this is some pretty cool news.

In case you didn't know, advanced dining reservations (ADRs) can be made online at disneyworld.com. The cool part is there is a new version in beta that is live right now.

Here are a few of the high points:

1. I can search all restaurants on any given day.
Love this function! There's nothing more sucky than having to search each restaurant individually if the first choice is not available. Plus, it tells me all the available times within the search window for my party size.

2. Larger search window.
Previously, it would only search an hour on either side of the time you wanted. So if I wanted lunch at 12 noon, it would search 11am-1pm for that date and specific restaurant. Now it searches two hours on either side. Love it.

3. A few more search parameters are available.
I can search by specific location (resort or theme park) or by cuisine/dining experience. I could search this way before, but the new setup is much more user friendly.

The only downside I've seen so far is that you can't search a range of dates like before. This was handy if one of those hard-to-get ADRs (Le Cellier, Crystal Palace, etc.) is on the must-have list. Since it's in beta, I'm hoping that people request that functionality be reinstated.

So check it out and let me know what you think.

Personalized Disney Gift Cards at disneystore.com

2010-05-27T10:27:00.000-05:00

With the demise of Disney Dollars (sniff), I was thinking about what I could give my kids to spend in the parks.

The "well, duh" solution is to give them cash. Forgive me for wanting to be a little less mundane, but I wanted to do something a little more...well, magical.

The Disney Store sells gift cards online and in its brick-and-mortar stores, but nothing was really jazzing me. I was resigned to grabbing a plain old Mickey card when what do my eyes see but a new card category.

Personalized Gift Cards!

Well, let's look into this. I can upload a picture of whatever and have it added to the card, load it with cash, order it and it's sent off to me. And it doesn't cost me extra to use that personalized template.

I can choose to have a card carrier with a personalized note inside added to the order for $4.95 (which I think is pretty reasonable, all things considered).

Here's the important stuff: It takes 10-15 business days and you can't pay for expedited shipping. Since I'm within that time frame, I can't order these for my trip next month. But you can bet your money that I'll be ordering these for the next trip and each kid will have his/her picture from the Pirate's League on it.

One other note: This card can be used at "select" locations at the Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort. That means it won't be accepted everywhere. For example, there are probably a few unique vendors in Epcot that aren't part of the system. Just be aware that you may run into those oddball places where your card isn't accepted.

This is rock-on awesome and I can't wait to do it.

Here's the link to get the personalized card without the carrier: Personalized card with no card carrier
Here's the link to the gift card section in general where you can access the personalized template with the carrier. Gift Card Main Page

You've Decided to Rent a Car. Now what?

2010-05-25T13:46:00.000-05:00

You already know that I'm a huge fan of renting a car on a Disney World vacation.

But maybe this is your first foray into the world of renting and you just don't know where to go, what to do, how to get it done AND get a good deal in the process.

So here's my rental car quick reference guide:

1. Know the players in the game.

Most likely, you are flying into Orlando (MCO). Most of the big names in car rentals are right there are the airport. That means you save more time when you don't have to take a shuttle to a rental car company's lot.

I love National Car Rental. While all companies have some sort of preferred renter program, I'll take the Emerald Club over all of them. National is not always the cheapest, but I feel it's the best overall value when you add in convenience and service to the picture.

Here's the deal: With Emerald Club, you can make an Emerald Aisle reservation. What that means is you are guaranteed a midsize vehicle. But you get to select your vehicle from the Emerald Aisle which could have midsize, full size, SUVs, convertibles or minivans. And no matter what vehicle you select, you only pay that Emerald Aisle price.

Now, this wouldn't be a smart choice if you absolutely needed a minivan because you were traveling with a larger party. If that's the case, book the size you need. You still get to choose your own vehicle at National. But in this case, you'd just select from the Minivan aisle.

The other major rental car companies at MCO are: Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise and Hertz. Each have their own preferred renter programs. Check them out and see what fits you best.

A couple tidbits of information:

*Alamo, like National, will let you select the car you want to drive. You don't get that option with all companies. If that's important to you, ask before you reserve.
* If you need the extra space of a minivan, be wary of booking with Dollar. They tend to have better prices but what's not well known is they tend to carry the shorter wheel base minivans. Like a Caravan instead of a Grand Caravan. This could make a big difference for you if you want or need that extra space in the back.

2. Check rates often

Unlike airfare, you can cancel and re-book a rental car reservation with no penalty. I often will book a vehicle and then check back on a regular basis to see if I can get a better deal.

3. Sometimes it pays to book early...

There have been times where the best deal I got on a car rental was when I booked more than six months out.

4. And sometimes it pays to book later.

More often than not, I tend to see the biggest downward movement in prices within 4-6 weeks of departure. Of course, this is all dependent on time of year, the size vehicle you are renting and a few more factors.

5. You don't have to pay to park if you are staying at a Disney Resort

I hear from people so often that a main reason they don't rent a car is because they don't want to have to pay for parking at the theme parks.

If you are staying at a Disney World Resort, you get a parking pass that gives you free parking through your departure day!

6. Getting a good deal.

Look for codes and coupons. There are a lot of resources out there. The two I usually refer to are Mousesavers and RentalCars.com.

It make take a little investment of time, but it can give you so much freedom on your vacation when you have your own wheels!

9 Disney World Cell Phone Applications

2010-05-21T10:39:00.000-05:00

It's a given; people have cell phones. (There's a "well, duh!" statement if I ever heard one.)

With more and more people having smart phones with all the cool and funky applications, I thought I should review the applications that are out there for Disney World vacationers.

Some of these apps are open market and some are limited to certain carriers. Since I have an Android phone, I'll have more info on that than on apps for Blackberry phones or the iPhone. I'll touch on some of the details, but in the end, it's up to you, the user, to decide what works best for you when you are on your Disney World vacation.

1. Mobile Magic
This is an exclusive application from Disney. It's available only to Verizon Wireless subscribers. Users can see wait times, FastPass distribution availability as well as a digital list of events and character autograph locations. Cost: $9.99 for 180 days of use.

2. ReadyPath - Disney World.
This is an application for your Blackberry device. You can access highly interactive maps and find rides, attractions, restaurants and more. It claims you can get phone numbers for restaurants and stores and even the golf courses to get tee times. It seems relatively new and reviews are not great. YMMV. Cost: one-time fee of $4.99

3. Ride Hopper Full
This one is on my Android phone. It shows times and hours for Disney World and other parks. The nice things about this one is it's based on user submitted wait times. Cost: one-time fee of $0.99

4. WDW Maps Box Set
This is an Android application. You get maps of all four major parks. You can search for attractions, restaurants and more. You can mark what you are looking for, mark where you've been, customize your maps and it even has built-in menus for restaurants. Cost: one-time fee of $2.99

5. Disney World Lines
This is an Android application from TouringPlans.com. This is a members-only app for their subscribers that shows wait times and helps you plan for FastPasses. You can download the app for free, but the features will be limited without the subscription. I think the online subscription to be a member is $7.95 per year.

6. Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom Mini Guide
From the same people who bring the WDW Box Set, they have an app just for MK. Cost: one-time fee of $0.99

Since I'm not an iPhone user, I can't see everything that an iPhone user can get nor can I see prices.
The following are iPhone apps:

7. Walt Disney World Maps
Use the GPS in your phone to find your way around the parks.

8. Walt Disney World Dining
See what restaurants are available in each park and what the prices are. This app also has the phone number to make dining reservations.

9. Walt Disney World Wait Times
Check current wait times as posted by other iPhone users.

I'm sure there are other choices out there based on the type of phone and carrier that you have. Do some research and find out if there are any apps that will fit with the way you like to vacation.

Freebies at Walt Disney World - Part 2

2010-05-18T10:28:00.000-05:00

I'm a bargain hunter just like everyone else. It's nice to find some free options when I'm on vacation. I'm sure you feel the same way.

Here are a few more to consider on your next visit:

1. Free Movies.
Fort Wilderness has a campfire program where they roast marshmallows and make s'mores followed by a movie on a large outdoor screen. You can bring your own marshmallows, buy the kits at the General Store or bring your own snacks if you like. This is open to all Disney Resort Guests.

2. Visit Downtown Disney
This might seem obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs to be stated. It doesn't cost you anything to do to Downtown Disney and walk around. Your kids can do some creating at the Lego Store. Ghirardelli tends to give away small pieces of chocolate. You can even take the boat down to Old Key West or Port Orleans. Bottom line - there are a lot of free options here.

3. Tour Wilderness Lodge
Inquire at Guest Services about their guided tours. You can ask about the Hidden Mickey Hunt as well. Guest Services should have a list for you to work with.

4. Discovery Club Passport at Animal Kingdom.
This is at the park, not the resort. You can get the passport and head to the different learning stations throughout the park. Each time you finish a station, you get a stamp. When it's all done, you have a cool. educational memento to take home.

That's all for today. I'm sure I'll re-visit this subject later on!

Rumor: Le Cellier to become Signature Restaurant

2010-05-17T18:02:00.001-05:00

I always seem to come back to food. I can't help it; dining at Disney is part of my vacation.

This rumor hit a couple of discussion boards in the last few days.

It seems that the staff at Le Cellier has been told they will re-categorize as a Signature restaurant as early as fall of 2010 or early 2011.

What does that mean for the average Disney vacationer?

The obvious one is an increase in price. Given the huge following Le Cellier seems to have, this might make it easier for those who've yet to experience it to acquire that oh-so-hard-to-get ADR. But it will set you back a bit more, either in cash or in dining credits.

Le Cellier will probably re-vamp its menu to make it more unique. This would put it in line with other Signature locations which tend to offer a more specialized menu.

Given that Signature locations tend to be more intimate and quiet, it's also possible that seating would be shifted around to accommodate fewer tables and that a Resort Casual dress code would be put in place.

What do I think? I think it's not just possible, but highly probable.

Le Cellier is very popular. Demand for seats at this restaurant vastly outweigh supply. Make it a Signature and raise the prices will make Disney more money and probably not affect demand significantly.

Don't worry about having fewer one credit choices at Epcot. We have those two new restaurants coming online shortly. Well, one new and one refreshed option. Cantina de San Angel will open later this year with more space, especially for outdoor dining. And the new restaurant in the Italy pavilion, Via Napoli Pizzeria, will certainly draw in crowds with its pizza.

Stay tuned! We'll see how this all plays out.

Star Wars Weekends!

2010-05-14T09:55:00.000-05:00

Did I mention that we like Star Wars here at my house?

Photo Courtesy of Disney(C)

The Star Wars bug is firmly entrenched in this family. Seriously.

It's so bad that Liam Neeson doesn't have a real name in my house. My son, who's 14, saw a commercial for some movie Mr. Neeson is in and said, "Hey, Qui Gon Jinn is in that movie. Let's go see it."

We all love Star Wars Weekends.

I'm so excited to see our new droid, R2-MK, with Jedi Mickey. How cute is that?

Some of you may be wondering, "What is the big deal?" or you may just not be up for rubbing elbows with the Rebel Alliance and the Evil Empire.

I could go on and on about why this is such a fun event, but in the interests of time, I'll leave you with a few items to peruse:

AllEarsNet's Guide to Star Wars Weekends

Studios Central

and a YouTube video that shows you why you want to be at Disney's Hollywood Studios well before opening to see what I refer to as "The Stormtrooper Show. It's nine minutes long and totally worth it.

I'll be there later in June!

Have a great day!

New Family Suites Resort Announced for Walt Disney World

2010-05-12T09:59:00.000-05:00

The Disney Parks Blog announced yesterday that the Disney Art of Animation Resort will open in 2012.

This is the first non-DVC resort for Walt Disney World in the last seven years.

Even as a DVC member, I have to say I'm freakin' excited by this new resort! To me, this resort concept is the epitome of being immersed in the magic of Disney while on a Disney vacation.

Here are some tidbits:

This resort will be most appealing to families who want more space
There will be nearly 2,000 units
1,124 family suites with a living room and separate bedroom will have one of the following themes: The Lion King, Cars, or Finding Nemo.
864 rooms will be themed to The Little Mermaid
The resort will be adjacent to Pop Century Resort - most likely across the Generation Bridge where the Legendary Years buildings have been standing.
A 35-foot-tall King Triton will great guests at the resort's entrance

No word yet on if this resort will be considered Value, Moderate or Deluxe. My gut feel is that it will be considered a Value category since it has rooms and family suites like All-Star Music.

Stay tuned for more info!

Why I Rent a Car at Disney World

2010-05-10T09:58:00.002-05:00

After reading that title, you may be thinking, "Why would I rent a car when I can use Magical Express and the bus system for free?"

Believe me, I'm a bargain hunter just like you are. I understand the value of "free."

But for me, it's not just about the money.

I rent a car every time I go to Disney World. That's right; every single time.

I won't go into a long dissertation, but here are the salient points:

1. Control.
I'm so Type-A, it's not even funny. I never sit by the window on the plane. Never. If I'm not driving, there's no point. I need to be in control of my transportation.

Waiting for the Magical Express when I could be in my own car, on the way to Mickey's place? Why would I waste that time?

Waiting in line for a bus at the park to take me back to my resort? I really don't want to wait in a line for the bus, only to have to wait for two buses because there were so many people that it filled the first bus. I could have taken the tram to my car and been out of there and on my way faster.

Control for me also means freedom. I'm not a slave to the system. Did you know that Disney tells you to plan for an hour to get from one place to another - one way - using their transportation system? An hour! Now, it may not always take that long, but it gives me a headache just thinking about that.

2. Flexibility.
Flexibility straddles control in some ways, but it has its own part of this picture.

I always stop at the grocery store on the way to Disney World from the airport. Sure, I could use a grocery service or use the limited selection that Disney has in its resort gift shops. I like to pick out my own food and beverages. I know what brands and off-brands are acceptable to me when I see them. A grocery service could ask me what's acceptable and half the time, I wouldn't know unless I was in the aisle looking right at it.

You might argue that shopping for my own groceries wastes my time. I don't consider it a waste of my time if I know that I'm getting everything I want and I don't have to go back because I forgot to put something on the list.

I also enjoy eating at Disney Resort restaurants. There is no direct transportation option between resorts. For example, if I was staying at the Beach Club and I wanted to have dinner at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian, and I didn't have a car, it would probably take me at least an hour (as Disney suggests) to get there. I'd walk through Epcot, get on the Epcot monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center, transfer to the Resort Monorail and ride it to the Polynesian.

Sounds cumbersome, doesn't it?

I could get in my car and drive from the Beach Club to the Polynesian and be there in ten minutes.

Another plus is that if I want to go off-site (gasp!) to Discovery Cove or maybe just hit 31 Flavors for some Daquiri Ice, I can do that.

3. Privacy and Comfort
Let's face it; no matter when you go to Disney World, there are other people there.

When I've been on my feet for several hours, the last thing I really want to do is get on a crowded bus and stand some more. If I happen to be on a bus that services multiple resorts, I may have to wait through a couple of stops before I can get off, much less sit down.

When I have my own car, each person in the party has their own seat and we have only one stop.

Now you probably all think that I'm bashing Disney's transportation system. I'm really not. Considering the number of people, the number of resorts and the number of square miles Disney World covers, their transportation system is really quite good.

I'm just an odd duck that has to have a rental car to be happy on my vacation.

We are a family of 5. Now what do we do?

2010-05-06T10:01:00.000-05:00

Disney seems predisposed to the notion that families of four are the only ones who travel to Disney World.

Why?

Well, all of their regular resort rooms usually sleep only four people.

You might be thinking to yourself, "Well, I'll just get a rollaway." Most Disney resort hotels don't even offer that option.

So what do you do?

The obvious choice, and the one Disney probably would prefer you to make, is to purchase two rooms. I'd like you to think about that one for a minute. With two rooms, you have two bathrooms. If you have five or more people in your party, wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to share one bathroom?

If you scored connecting rooms, you could leave the connecting doors open for a more spacious feeling. But watch how you make the room request. Don't make the mistake of asking for adjoining rooms. To Disney, adjoining means next to each other. If you want an inside door connecting your two rooms, you need to request connecting rooms.

However, I fully acknowledge that some budgets may not find that a workable option. The fact of the matter is when you have a larger family, you have more expenses. It is what it is.

Here are some options for you to consider:

1. Reserve two rooms as discussed above.

2. Reserve a Family Suite at the All Star Music Resort
A few years back, Disney converted the rooms in one of the buildings at All Star Music into Family Suites. It's roughly the space of two regular hotel rooms and sleeps up to six people. There is a queen bed, full size sofa and two chairs that convert into twin beds. You get benefits of space, two full bathrooms and a kitchenette. Many families find the kitchenette handy because they can manage snacks and some meals in the room.

3. Cabins at Fort Wilderness.
Each log cabin sleeps up to 6 people. The living room has a pull-down double bed. The bed room has a double bed and a set of bunk beds. The space you have here is amazing! It not only has a living room, but also has a full kitchen. Cabins receive full housekeeping. You don't have to do the dishes!

4. Port Orleans - Riverside
In some rooms at POR, trundle beds pull out from under one of the double beds in the guest room. However, this trundle is small. If you have a party of all adults or even older children, it may not be the best choice. Be aware of its limitations.

5. Select Deluxe Resort Rooms
Some rooms at Deluxe Resorts have two queen beds and a day bed and can sleep up to five. Inquire at the time of reservation if these rooms are available for your dates.

6. Deluxe Villas Resort Rooms
The larger accommodations are part of the Deluxe Villas Resorts which are Disney Vacation Club properties. For families of five or more, you can select a 1-bedroom villa at Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas at Kidani Village. There is a king bed in the bedroom plus a pull-out queen sofa and twin convertible chair in the living room. These units also include a full kitchen and two bathrooms.

The other Deluxe Villas properties do not have the same 1-bedroom villa configuration. Technically, those units will only sleep four, though reservations for five can be made. In general, Disney will not provide bedding for a fifth person.

The other options are the 2-bedroom and Grand Villas units. Each has a full kitchen and living areas. A 2-bedroom unit sleeps 8 or 9 people and a Grand Villa sleeps 12 or 13 people, depending on the resort.

These tend to be the highest priced rooms on property, but can be cost-effective if you have a large party.

You can stay at a Disney Resort if you plan ahead. Evaluate all your options and see what works for you. If in the end, it doesn't feel like a good fit, then you can look at off-site options.

Top 10 "Hidden Jewel" Eateries at Disney World

2010-05-04T13:34:00.001-05:00

I'm a fan of Top 10 lists. Don't be surprised if you see some here from time to time.

Today's list is about good eateries that tend to fly under the radar screen of most Disney guests. Didn't get the oh-so-coveted Le Cellier for dinner in Epcot? (By the way, I wouldn't waste my time trying to eat there, but that's for another blog post.)   There are plenty of great places that, thankfully, don't have a lot of hype and still deliver great meal experiences.

1. Kona Cafe
A true hidden jewel, Kona Cafe tends to be forgotten because its neighbor is the popular 'Ohana at Disney's Polynesian Resort. Kona is that rarity among table-service resort restaurants in that it is open for lunch. It's a great place to stop on your way out of Magic Kingdom if you happened to be there at rope drop.   My favorite is the Mahi-Mahi. If you like coconut, try the Coconut Crusted Chicken.

2. Starring Rolls
Located in Disney's Hollywood Studios, this counter service eatery has unique options for its visitors. Stop here first thing in the morning for a pastry and make your plan for the day. Or check back later in the day for the Turkey Focaccia Sandwich or Whole Wheat Veggie Pita.

3. Biergarten
Even if German food isn't on your radar, you should give this location a try. It's an all-you-care-to-eat buffet with a cold and hot side plus a dessert buffet. Join everyone else celebrating Oktoberfest and you might catch the performing oompah band!

4. Earl of Sandwich
If you are looking for a quick, filling meal on a reasonable budget, this is the place to go! Earl of Sandwich is located in Downtown Disney and makes all their sandwiches fresh and warm. You can even get a warm PB&J.

5. Restaurant Marrakesh
I think maybe people don't know what Moroccan food is like and avoid this because they just don't know what to expect. Can I just say that the food here is amazingly flavorful? Yumatrocious, to use my daughter's favorite word. It's off in its own area of the Moroccan pavilion at Epcot, but I think that serves to give everyone a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the park.   Oh, and don't miss the belly dancer.

6. Tusker House
Some of you might be going, "What? Tusker House? There's a character breakfast there! How can you say it flies under the radar?" But it's just a regular restaurant for lunch and dinner. This is not the place where you'll get hamburgers and hot dogs. So if you are looking for plain-Jane food, this isn't it. I'd call it African-inspired. There are some great dishes here and everyone in my family has always been satisfied.

7. Trail's End
This one could definitely be a "hidden jewel" because if you have never visited Fort Wilderness, you would miss it. This is probably the best deal on-property. It's an all-you-care-to-eat buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can even pop in to Trail's End To-Go for pizza, chicken dinners, nachos and a few other items. It's not the easiest place to get to, especially if you are commando touring, but it's a great value.

8. The Plaza Restaurant
Odds are you have probably walked right by this restaurant in Magic Kingdom and didn't even realize it was a table-service establishment. I'd describe it as a twist on the old ice cream shoppes of yesteryear. The main menu isn't terribly fancy, but the sandwich selection is quite good. I love the fact that you can choose to have broccoli slaw as your side item instead of chips.

9. Grand Floridian Cafe
This one is on my list to try on my next trip. I think it gets forgotten when mixed in with all the other restaurant options at the Grand Floridian Resort. I'm personally on a mission to try the Lobster-Topped Burger.

10. Captain's Grille
You may not know that this table-service restaurant at the Yacht Club has a fantastic all-you-care-to-eat breakfast buffet for only $15.99 per person.

Do you have a favorite eatery that you feel is under-appreciated by the Disney community at-large?

Please share your comments!

2011 Disney Dining Plan Rumors And Dining Plan Bits To Think On

2010-05-02T12:40:00.000-05:00

We love to talk rumor, don't we?

I'm a member over at MouseOwners and one of the recent topics of discussion has surrounded the Disney Dining Plan at Walt Disney World and some purported changes that are afoot for 2011.

One of the members saw information on a British travel website talking about 2011 and the dining plan.

Supposedly, the dessert is now being removed from the table-service credit on the regular dining plan and the prices are increasing again across the board.

I always advocate number-crunching when it comes to the Disney Dining Plan. Disney would love it if you all paid for your food up front and didn't use it all. Believe it or not, folks, this happens a lot.

While it may make you feel justified in getting the most expensive item on the menu because you've already paid for the plan, odds are that some of you may have gotten a better deal and a better experience had you number-crunched and eaten only what you wanted and where you wanted to.

I also encourage you to not be sucked in by the offers of "free dining" that are sometimes offered. You have to pay "rack rate" - this is, full price - for your Disney resort room to get that "free dining" part of the deal. Do the math. Ask yourself if you'd really eat all that food that comes with the plan. You also need to remember that you have to add in gratuity for all those table-service meals that you use because that's not included in the plan.

Now, I won't say the plan doesn't have its place. For some people, they like the convenience of having their meals pre-paid. Just make sure you evaluate all the options and decide what works best for you and your family, not just what might appear to be the better deal.

Captain EO returns to WDW on July 2

2010-05-02T12:27:00.000-05:00

Captain EO returns for a limited run at Epcot in Walt Disney World!

I believe it last was shown at Epcot in 1994 or thereabouts. And yes, it stars Michael Jackson.

It's a 17-minute long 3D show that can probably be best categorized as a space-fantasy-adventure-musical. It's been a long time since I've seen it and while I wasn't ever the biggest Michael Jackson fan, I do recall enjoying this attraction.

So if you plan on heading to Epcot later this summer, make sure you check out Captain EO and report back with your thoughts!

Party Tickets for MNSSHP and MVMCP on sale Thurs. 4/29

2010-04-27T11:09:00.000-05:00

Call 407 - WDISNEY to place your order.

MNSSHP Dates (as of today):

Sept. 14, 18, 21, 23, 25, 28, 30
Oct. 1, 3, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31
Nov. 1

MVMCP Dates (as of today):

Nov. 11, 12, 16, 18, 19, 28, 30
Dec. 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17

I'm thinking of taking in MVMCP this year! How about you?

New Disney Films!

2010-04-23T17:11:00.001-05:00

From BBC News, April 23, 2010

New Disney Films are coming! And I have the skinny on some of the details!

* Sequel to Monsters, Inc will come out in November 2012
* Another from Pixar, Brave, will be out in June 2012. It tells the story of an 18th Century Scottish princess who wants to be an archer.
* AND a new Muppets movie is in the works!

This is on top of Toy Story 3 due out this year and the sequel to Cars due out next year!

Lots and lots of fun to look forward to!