Celebrate The Magic - June 12, 2010 - Annual Pass Renewal and GADGAD Adventure

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

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

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...

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

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

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?

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.