The View from Scopa Towers

I’ve received many responses from that $1,696 commercial blog I had written a few weeks back. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write and I apologize if I have not gotten back to all of you.

I thought I would put together a mailbag blog filled with some of the notes I’ve received. Here is Part 1 of the Mailbag!

Barbie writes:

“Thanks for your entry about the Magic Your Way commercials. It's great to read a fair commentary on what is and is not included in a very non-critical presentation of facts. We love Disney and vacation there often - "we" are a family of four just as Disney defines it: 2 adults, 1 child, and 1 junior. We have found many ways to make our Disney vacations affordable, so that we can visit multiple times in a year. (We spent a weekend in February, 11 nights in May/June, and will spend 3 nights in December.) We often run into people we know when we visit - I don't know exactly how that happens, but it nearly always does - and when we compare resorts and/or vacation lengths, our friends often comment something like, "How can you afford it?" or "Wow, that's an expensive hotel, isn't it?" or "You must really take Disney World seriously." Well, we work hard to make it affordable and appreciate when all the costs of any particular element of the vacation are well-known to us. Thank you for helping other families know what they are getting into so that they, too, can enjoy and relax without the constant shock of more spending. (We usually end our vacations under budget, and that's the way we like it.)”

Barbie’s point is simple….we all need to work hard to make our vacations affordable. That means always being on the lookout for deals, discounts, and ways to slice expense here and there.

From Crista…

“I will agree on the cost from the commercials. I have a family of four. When we went to WDW the commercial "cost" was $1400. We had two adults, one 7 year old and one under the age of 2. We stayed at the Pop Century for 7 days and six nights. We did get the park hopper tickets and ate at one restaurant a day. We brought snacks or ate once a day at our hotel. We packed suitcases full of food including breakfast. We only drank water at the park and spent an average of $20 a day. We bought souvenirs almost everyday. And last but not least we flew to the Park and parked our car at our airport for the week. So in the end our cost for our vacation was $3432. Even if that seems like a lot, with the right planning it can be the vacation of a lifetime and I would do it all again. This was the first WDW trip for my husband and two boys. My husband felt like a little kid again. Priceless.”

Crista and her family made choices that helped them make their vacation affordable. Young families should take note of how Crista’s family saved money. There’s a bonus here…teaching the children some lessons on how to be frugal.

I was excited to read this from Chica…

“I was really interested when this post popped up on my feed-reader, as my GF and I are planning our first trip to Disney together right now. For a while, we thought we absolutely couldn't afford it, and we're not exactly the norm (no children) for a Disney Trip, but we crunched the numbers and figured out we could do it.

We're going December 14-20th, flying from Philadelphia and spending one day at each park, with a break one day for Downtown Disney and a movie.

Here's our budgeting:

Package from Disney - $1009.82
This Includes:
- 6 nights Pop Century Standard Room
- 4 days park admission (non park hopper)
- Disney Meal Plan for 6 nights (this was a special promotion that was emailed to us after we signed up for the mailing list)

Flight Round trip from Philadelphia - $365.00 for both (including all fees)

Alcohol and Tip money for expenses not covered by Meal Plan - $150.00

Souvenir money (including our Christmas present budget for friends/family/each other) $300 ($150 each)

Now, we can always guarantee some unexpected expense, so we've built in an extra $150 cushion into our budget

Grand total comes to $1975.00

Now, we like to over budget and have extra left-over. So we doubt we'll max out all our budgeted areas. We also plan to use the envelope system. 7 days, 7 envelopes ($50 for the first and last days, $100 every other day). No credit cards, no charging to the room. Only one envelope out of the safe on any given day. At the end of the day, whatever is left can get moved to the next day or later. But once you empty an envelope, you're done.

Now, for the experienced Disney traveler, our plan might not be ideal. But for two girls going on our first 'real' vacation together post college (because spring break doesn't count...), it's a pretty good plan with a reasonable budget. It works out to just about one paycheck for each of us.

I'll definitely agree that the Disney ads are a bit misleading and that if you're serious about budgeting, double the quoted Disney price is just about what your final cost would be.”

It does come down to choices and how you choose to best afford your vacation.

Chica, please look for me when you are in WDW. It just so happens that while you are there I’ll be there for Mousefest.

Amy talks about her family’s planning process…

“I just wanted to take a moment and say that for our family we find WDW to be a great value for our vacation dollars. We are preparing for our fourth trip and once again, we are really impressed with how affordable it is.

We are staying at a moderate resort (with a discount code) this time and paying out of pocket for the DDP for 8 nights. We don't do park hoppers - just base tickets because with enough days we just don't have the need to hop. All said, including airfare, this trip cost us LESS THAN $3000. Breaking that down for our family of 4 we are spending less than $100 per day for food, entertainment, lodging and transportation.

Our last trip we were on the free dining and we stayed at POP (which we LOVED) - that trip we were spent less than $50 per person per day.

We have a very basic theme park and water park here in the Kansas City area and you can't go to either of them for that little money when you factor in food, gas and admission. When you compare the cost to a trip to a family resort destination like Beaches (which we also LOVE) - WDW is about 1/2 the cost!!

I think that given the magic you are a part of and the memories you create, WDW provides a great bang for your buck. For families that are willing to look for discount codes, don't mind the value resorts and forgo park hopper options; there are very affordable options for planning a great WDW vacation!”

Hmmm, it seems one way most people are cutting costs is to forego that park-hopper option. At $53.25 per ticket, the savings can be significant for a family of four.

Jennifer also opts to not include the park hopper option…

“Mike,

Great comments on that promotion.

I think things like park hopper are not that big of a deal to leave off if you only get to the parks every few years. I know we skip the hopper option because we don't like to waste the additional travel time between parks. We get down there every 2 years or so and just set our own expectations that we'll do one a day and if we get done early (say on our second day at a park) we explore other resorts (free) or Downtown Disney, or our own resort.

The food too can be controlled if appetizers and dessert are left off. We eat almost entirely at table service for lunch and dinner as we use these times as our breaks from heat/being on our feet. We've been able to eat at table service restaurants for 25 per person or less 80% of the time and it usually works out to about the same or less than we would have spent a la carte at counter service.

Not ideal for everyone, I know, but I thought I'd concur that it can be done if people are serious about Disney AND serious about having to budget...

Keep up the great blog!! Jennifer”

Jennifer adds another great tip…forget the appetizers and desserts. They too can add up quickly. If you crave for something sweet there’s always a counter service somewhere offering a decent snack....like a Dole Whip.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of the Reader Mailbag on Disney's $1,696 Commercial!

Have you seen the recent television commercial aimed at families thinking about going to Walt Disney World?

You know, the mom is at her computer and calls to her husband with, “Honey? Look at this!”
Dad comes over and looks at the screen and asks, “For all of us?”

Then the rest of us are informed that these two were looking at a screen that had information about a vacation package for a Walt Disney World family vacation for (US) $1696....not $1700. but $1696.

Now before you pick up the phone and make that call let’s take a closer look at exactly what this $1696 really means.

According to the WDW site this package includes the following:

• 7 days and 6 nights at a Walt Disney World Value Resort
• The price ($1696) is based on a traveling party made up of two (2) adults, one (1) junior, and one (1) child.
• The quoted price includes a standard room.
• The offer is good between Jan. 11th and Feb 12th, April 19th and May 21st, and Aug. 9th and Dec 17th...all in 2009.
• According to the site the package also includes “Theme park admission to one Park per day.”

For a family who has always dreamed of going to Walt Disney World but never has due to the thought of it being too costly, this does sound appealing and if anything, at least it gets them to say to themselves, “Hmmm, this may be doable.”

So I decided to look at this offer and think about what those first time families need to realize before taking that leap..

Well, we know that you are limited to going only certain times of the year and depending upon the school year (and of course how you feel about taking your children out of school ) you may have even more limitations as to when you can go.

Keep in mind that this package includes a Value resort (All-Stars and Pop Century) and that means different type amenities than you would experience at a Moderate or Deluxe resort.

Then again, if you’ve never been to Walt Disney World or have never stayed at a Walt Disney World resort this may be a moot point.

One key point I’d like to address is the admission media included with the package. The tickets that come with this package offer each person in the travel party the ability to visit one (1) theme park per day. That means if you go to The Magic Kingdom today then that is your theme park for the day. It does not mean you can visit The Magic Kingdom in the morning and then visit Epcot later on to watch Illuminations.

So, if you want the park-hopper option then the price of this package would then go up approximately another $212 dollars.

We are now at $1908...and we have more to cover.

Let’s not forget that not included in this package is the cost of meals for the family. It’s always difficult for me to suggest to those who ask what they may expect to spend on meals at Walt Disney World. Eating habits vary from individual to individual and family to family.

Let’s assume that each member of this four person traveling party enjoys one quick-service meal, one table service meal and one snack per day as defined by the basic Disney Dining Plan.

To try and be as realistic as possible I’m going to attach a price range to each particular meal.
For the quick-service meal I’m thinking about an entree, a beverage, and a dessert and I am assuming the cost would range from $12 to $15 a person. So for the whole traveling party that would amount to between $50 and $60 per day...just for one quick service meal.

Table service meals are quite tricky and the price range can be very wide. I may be under pricing but my estimate would be that for a table service meal the range would be from $25 to $40 per person. This amounts to a range of $100 - $160 per day for one table service meal.

Snacks can also vary. I will apply a range of $2.50 - $5.00 for snacks. This translates to between $10 and $20 per day for snacks.

Let’s add these all up.

We are looking at a range of between $160 and $240 per day for meals for this family of four. For the sake of argument let’s hit a “midpoint” and says the average daily food expense is $200.

Now, in the interest of trying to be as fair as possible let’s say this family replaced their one table-service meal with a second quick-service meal.

Now the daily range falls between $60 and $140 per day or an average of $100 per day.
Now let’s take the two averages...add them together and then divide by two (2) to come up with an “average” average for the cost of feeding a family of four per day at WDW.

The number I come up with is $150.

Now I realize there may be many of you who are looking at this and are saying, “Mike, that is still too high.” Or even some of you that see it as too low. Keep in mind this is an average daily cost and it amounts to about $38 a person. Ironically, that’s about the cost of the Basic Disney Dining Plan. Go figure.

Let’s see...we already added $212 for the park hopper option and now $150 per day for seven (7) days...$900.

So we’ve added $1112 to the original $1696 and we are now at $2808...again...an estimate.
Let’s assume the family is using the free Magical Express benefit. That eliminates rental car/limo costs.

What about souvenirs? Another tough line item to budget. Is $25 per person for souvenirs too little or too much? It’s a toughie ain’t it?

It’s even tougher when you think this is someone’s first WDW vacation. So for the sake of argument let’s say this family agrees to spend somewhere in the range of $100-$200 for souvenirs...that gives each person a shot at a piece of clothing and a trinket. Let’s add $150 to our sub-total....we need to add something.

We are now looking at $2958.

Do I dare even attempt to look at airfare? Nope...not going there. The cost range is too widespread.

Okay...so we are looking at a grand total of $2958 for this family of four to spend 7-days and 6-nights at Walt Disney World in a value resort with park-hopper admission, eating, and of course getting that WDW souvenir.

The only other cost which is not included is the cost of getting there.

My point in all this?

It’s simple.

I’m not here to make any snide remarks towards this marketing campaign and say it’s misleading...because it really isn’t.

The Walt Disney World resort is in fact doing whatever it can to let everyone know that there are affordable packages out there. The $1696 deal is a base that they are offering potential guests. It is that portion of the vacation which they are controlling and doing their best to let you know how affordable the vacation is.

What they cannot control is your particular needs for park–hopping, dining, and (souvenir) shopping.

It would not be wise for the resort to make assumptions in this area.

So I guess I want to say to those out there who criticize these commercials and say they are misleading...it's quite the contrary...they are not misleading you.

This commercial gives the bottom line as to an "affordable" base for a WDW vacation. These are the costs they can control to help you get there.

The commercial is saying....here is a basic package we can offer a family of four for a certain amount of time....this includes the basic room and admission.

If you want more it’s in your control.

That’s what this is all about....a vacation plan is a partnership between WDW and you...they can control some costs but for those they cannot they try to empower you to make the decisions that best suits you and your family.

It’s as simple as that.

Now you know where the “Your Way” fits in when you hear or see the phrase “Magic Your Way."

Yesterday I took you on an Epcot Film Festival Tour. Many of the films are ones that I (and I'm sure others) don't watch very often. Ones we, take for granted.

Today, I'll expand that topic to include other attractions around Walt Disney World which we may take for granted.

In the Magic Kingdom there is…

…The Carousel of Progress, simply because it has been around for over 40 years and it represents one of Walt Disney’s leaps into the world of audio-animatronics.

…The Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management. I wonder how many guests have not visited this attraction since it has enjoyed it’s makeover within the last decade.

…The Hall of Presidents. It is scheduled to be closed for a while, we have an election coming up you know, but be advised that we are hearing that when it reopens that we’ll see some changes.

In Disney’s Hollywood Studios there is…

…The Magic of Disney Animation. Just as Walt said, “Let’s not forget that this all started with a mouse.” In the same fashion let’s not forget how big a part was played in all this by animation.

…One Man’s Dream. This attraction is never crowded yet it holds so much more than every other attraction in the park.
I love this mural.

…Studios Backlot Tour. I think the most underappreciated portion of this attraction is the American Film Institute exhibit with props and costumes from so many movies. However, I love spending time in the prop shop. Where else would you find a life-sized wooden sculpture of Mulan's horse?

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the “baby” of the Walt Disney World theme parks yet there are some attractions which are already being taken for granted and they are…

…Discovery Island Trails which offer a relaxing change from the hustle and bustle of your basic Disney attraction, yet the trails are never really crowded.

…Conservation Station – Rafiki’s Planet Watch is often overlooked and probably visited by less than half the guests who enter Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Families with young children should make it a point to visit this portion of the park.

…Maharajah Jungle Trek is probably one of those attractions which is either not visited enough by guests or is wasted because guests speed through it. There’s a reason why it’s there and we should all enjoy it to the fullest.

So as you can see, by visiting with some friends who had not been to Walt Disney World in oh so long and said to me, “Mike you can be our guide.” It turned out that they were the one’s who opened my eyes to the EPCOT Film Festival and how so many of us are taking certain attractions for granted.

I won’t ever again.

Just thought I'd let everyone know that tusker House is AWESOME.

This eatery recently switched from a quick-service location to a sit-down restaurant and offers a buffet for guests.

In its quick-service days Tusker House was very good and now it's even better.

If you love the food at Boma's at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge you will love Tusker House's offerrings.

Here are some pictures of the food area.

Notice the amount of space...it's huge.

This area offered breads, salads, and fruits.

This area offers hot foods like salmon and veggie dishes.

There is a generous amount of space devoted to the children's selections.

The carving station was very popular...beef and pork roasts were the offerrings on this night.

At the center of the food area was "dessert circle" and it was decadent. It had everything....except zebra domes.

Tusker House is most crowded for dinner during Disney Animal Kingdom's Extra Magic Hour Evenings...especially as the evening goes on.

On rainy nights, like the night we were there....thanks Tropical Storm Fay...the crowd as you can see by my photos...were down.

I may be going out on a limb here but Tusker House may be my favorite buffet offerring throughout the WDW resort. It may not have as many choices as the others on the resort but there are two factors that have made an impression upon me.

First of all the quality of the food is exceptional. It just seemed so much better than other places.

Secondly, and this is important to me...the food is fresh because the containers at the food stations are not very big...thus the food is replenished quite often and made fresh.

For instance, the bowl containing the Ceasar Salad...which is a salad to die for in Tusker House...was replenished three times while we were there.

Quality and freshness...two words to describe Tusker House.

It was another rainy day in Walt Disney World…my wife’s birthday. However we would not let the weather “dampen” our spirits.

On this day shopping was the priority and we shopped at several places, including Downtown Disney.

While in the World of Disney store a promotion caught my eye.

That made me think about a fantasy that has come to mind in the past.

I'm guessing that some of you may have had this fantasy too so come along and let's fantasize together.

So here it is.

Imagine that some day you would fly to Orlando with just a carryon piece of luggage and in that carryon is basically just toiletries. Your "mission" is to purchase all you would need for your vacation.

Shall we begin?

Okay, the first purchase would be this...

...to hold everything I would be purchasing.

Now that we've got that taken care of let's buy a few shirts. I'm here for a week so I'm buying seven shirts.

Here are my choices...

...and 2 shirts from here...probably one dark and one light one...

I need a few pairs of shorts...

Of course I need some of these...

...and of course these (blush)...

And of course I need something for those sunny days...

That's about it. Sure I could get some swimwear and flipflops for the pool but I usually don't hit the pool so no need to buy anything else.

One point to make is that everything I would purchase I would purchase at Downtown Disney at the World of Disney shop because if you are an Annual Passholder you receive a 10% discount.

Also, I would probably visit the Character Warehouse shops off property to look for a few bargains.

Anyway I always say to myself, "Hmmm, if I ever came down with just the clothes on my back, what would I get?"

It's a fantasy so who knows if it will ever happen.

Earlier this week there were all these reports about Tropical Storm Fay and how it had potential to develop into a huricane. All of Florida was bracing itself for a day of two of heavy rain, damaging winds, and who knows what else Mother Nature had up her sleeve.

For those who are visiting Walt Disney World during times of bad weather, the uncertainty can surely impact their vacation plans.

For instance, in a case whereby a tropical storm or huricane is to hit some folks may cancel plans to visit the theme parks that day, possiby cancel plans to also dine at a theme park restaurants, and even just decide to hunker down in their room and ride out the storm....

...and then there's me.

When it comes to bad weather I have a tendency to be more curious than safe. I remember one February day we were in the midst of a blizzard and I went outside to check on how the trees were holding up around the house. A 20 foot tree limb missed me by about 10 feet as it came crashing down behind me.

There are other stories I can tell but I don't want to tell you how careless I REALLY am in bad weather.

Anyway, I've been in WDW for such storms as Hurricane Charley and Hurricane Dennis and for a while it looked like TS Fay would be added to my list.

But Fay pretty much fizzled out....so far.

Our morning started off with a drive to Fort Wilderness and breakfast at Trail's End. I expected the restarant to be filled. Not so. Only about 25 patrons there while we ate.

We then went to Disney's Animal Kingdom and did a few things there. At 11 A.M. we walked onto Kilimanjaro Safaris as there were hardly any guests in the park. There seemed to me more animals on the Savannah than guests in the park.

BTW, I had never seen so many animals out...could it have been the weather?

Thanks to Fay we enjoyed a morning at DAK that had fewer than the normal number of guests.

Every attracton had a wait time of 10 minutes or less and at Finding Nemo: The Musical I'd say only about 120 or so guests watched the show with us.

Around Noon we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom because there was still the feeling that the storm would hit between 2 and 4 P.M. and I wanted to see what measures would be taken to secure the park.

Here are the umbrellas tied down at Casey's...

Take a look as to how dark it was around the castle...

Rumors were floating around all day that the parks would close in the late afternoon.
Signs were being tied down to protect from potentially dangerous wind conditions...like at Columbia Harbor House...

Cinderella's Round Table sign under the castle was secured...

Guests were notified that the resort was monitoring the storm and telling us that there was a possibility of a change in the operaring hours.

More signs tied down....Sir Mickey's...

...and the Yankee Trader.

We made our way to the Magic Kingdom and sometimes it rained and sometimes it didn't. It was breezy all day with temps in the 70's.

At Magic Kingdom we did about eight or so attractions...all were either walk-ons or ten minute waits.

At around 5 P.M. the winds DID pick up a bit but the rains still held off...steady rains that is.

It wasn't until around 7 or so that the sky began to transition into a hazy, grey chunk and the rain and wind picked up.

That's when we decided to leave the park.

But all in all thanks to Fay we were able to get a lot done.

Look at Haunted Mansion....10 minutes to get on...

I think this is a comment that when the weather is not so perfect during your stay at WDW that you should make the best of it.

Of course in any weather you need to be aware of potential conditions. ALWAYS BE SAFE!!.

I always see rainy days as the best days to go to EPCOT and Animal Kingdom. Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom offer more hiding places from the rain and thus guests tend to go to those parks on rainy days...not to mention Disney Quest.

So thanks Fay for an interesting day. ...and it may continue to be an interesting week as Fay seems to want to hang around.

Well I'm back in Orlando for 10 days of willfull suspension of disbelief and along the way we all know that I'll be sharing some observations with all of you and hopefully also provide some insight and some tips to help you on your next visit to Walt Disney World.

And of course it would not be any fun unless from time to time I place a photo in this blog and ask you to guess as to from where I snapped this photo.

Here's one...and a hint...it's from an attraction.

Any guesses?

Now on to other things.

One observation that I need to share with you is best shown in the following picture. I had just enjoyed a performance of the Festival of the Lion King and when Carol and I exited the theater she pointed out this group of strollers.

Notice anything?

It sure seems that there is a larger percentage of personal strollers in the theme parks than in the past..at least on this particular morning.

Here's something new for all of you who are planning to visit Walt Disney World in the next few months and are on one of the Disney Dining Plans.

Le Cellier in Epcot is currently running a "pilot" as it was described to me, which offers guests a special menu.

This menu has a yellow box at the top and in this yellow box are appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

Here's the deal. If for instance you are on the basic Disney Dining Plan you know that appetizers are outside the plan.

However, if you choose your appetizer, entree, and dessert from those offerrings in this yellow box then Le Cellier will honor all three, yes that includes the appetizer, on the Dining Plan.

Is there a catch? Well, I will tell you that the entrees offerred in the yellow box are certainly not their signature entrees so that's something to consider.

For the record, I did order an appetizer and paid for it and then ordered a signature entree and dessert.

The entrees and desserts in that yellow box just did not appeal to me.

Anyway, if you are lucky enough to have an Advanced Dining Reservation at Le Cellier be aware of the yellow box pilot.

Here's another observation and that is if you are using Disney transportation while in Orlando be sure to always, always, always double-check the bus routes whenever possible.

Some of them are very specific.

For instance, as of the date of this blog entry if you are staying in Pop Century and want to go to Blizzard Beach you would take the bus that goes to Disney's Animal Kingdom from Pop Century. From DAK that bus will continue to BB.

However to get from Pop Century to Typhoon Lagoon you would take a bus that goes to Downtown Disney which will then continue to TL.

Those two routes may change without notice so just be sure you ask before assuming that a particular bus will be going to a particular destination.

That's it for now....

....except for one more photo for you to ry and figure out just where it came from.

Are you ready?

Here it is...and a hint....this cannot be found in a theme park.

Any ideas?

Watch for more from me as I make more Orlando Observations in the days to come.

The question was “Should we continue with our annual price increase or delay it?” It probably took about 1 nanosecond to decide.

I guess I don’t have to tell you what that decision was…you’ve seen the reports; read the internet; heard the podcasts…yes it will cost more this week to walk into a WDW theme park than it did last week…unless of course you have an Annual Pass.

Well, that decision led to another question in my mind.

Why?

Sure historically over the last few years we’ve seen price increases in August but this year is quite different from other years….and I mean more than just the economy.

Let me point out a few things:

Airfare is up…the cost of flying to Orlando is much higher in August 2008 than it was in August 2007.

Do I have to remind you of the stroller rental increase?

If you have been paying attention you may have noticed that average price of dining at a Walt Disney World restaurant has risen since last summer.

Some character meals offered by restaurants like the Liberty Tree Tavern in the Magic Kingdom will soon disappear…hmmm does less characters mean a lesser fare to dine? What do you think?

Oh yes and recently Trails End has changed their lunchtime offerings to soup, salad, and sandwiches…no more additional hot food items. Has the price gone down along with the number of offerings? Take a guess.Surprise...it has AllEars colleague Jack Spence,who knows WDW restaurants better than anyone else, has rinformed me that the price HAS gone down from $12.99 to $11.99. Should it have gone down more? Let's be thankful that it has gone down at all. Thanks for the info Jack.

Let’s not forget that for 2008 the Disney Dining Plan has been adjusted...and for some of you who have emailed me; you have found the sdjustment to be so subtle that you did not realize the change until your first meal.. Sure the price went down slightly but don’t forget…you no longer get the appetizer with the plan nor the gratuity. So if the price goes down $1 and you lose both the appetizer and gratuity then you are getting less for...uh a litle bit less...it's tough to put a value on this but I'm sure we all agree that we are getting less value for our Dining Plan dollar.

Sticking with the topic of dining and subtlety, over the last year or so we've seen holiday "surcharges" added to the cost of at least a dozen of the most popular WDW restaurants such as Chef Mickey's, Boma, and Liberty Tree Tavern. These surcharges are found during Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break (Easter), and Memorial Day times of the year.

The reason for the surcharges? Well apparently if there is an increased demand for services during those times for food and beverage then a surcharge is in order. Huh? I'm thinking about the restaurants I frequent at home and you know...I cannot think of any one restaurant that does the same thing.

Are those CMs who work in those restaurants during those times being paid extra? I am not privy to that information but do realize that these seasonal surcharges are part of the cumulative effect of the overall cost of a WDW vacation....and as such contributes to the changing guest the dynamic during those times of the year.

We recently heard that the schedule for the nighttime spectaculars, i.e. fireworks will be changing; read that “less shows” yet the price of admission goes up. So this is a case of paying more for less.

I could go on and on but the whole point here is that guests are now finding they must reach down deeper to enjoy yet shallower returns.

At the onset it appears as though this hurts the guests. My feeling is that the Walt Disney World Resort may…and I emphasize may because this is strictly my opinion….find that they may be shooting themselves in the foot.

I can hear everyone screaming “Mike, are you feeling okay?”

Hear me out.

Let’s all admit it. You know that the increased ticket prices may not impact your thoughts on visiting WDW, nor will the increased airfare. You will still visit. However how often; for how long; plus other decisions may be impacted by the cumulative effect of what has been happening since January.

Here are the adjustments I foresee some guests may take:

I think the number of trips the average person takes to WDW over the course of the next year will be reduced but perhaps the number of days will remain as is or be reduced slightly. For instance, if I normally take several trips a year to Orlando with each one being an average of 4 to 5 days that may change to maybe 2 to 3 trips a year with each one being 5-7 days. Why? Well to make the most of the trip; and to especially justify the cost of the airfare it may be wise to look at longer stays if possible.

The price increase will most likely motivate guests to stay longer on each visit because it will magnify the fact that the longer you stay the cheaper the cost per day…for admission. Again, airfare prices may play a part in this decision as well.

Of course staying more may mean that the resorts will enjoy filling those beds with heads but not necessarily. I expect that there will be other adjustments to offset the cost of the airfare and tickets. First and foremost some folks, rather than increase their WDW budget will keep it as is and perhaps “downsize” their trips by moving down in class from let’s say a Deluxe resort to a Moderate or from a Moderate to a Value…or may be even either dividing their stay to on and off the property or possibly stay off the property altogether.

Also, the Disney Dining Plan may take a hit because folks may find themselves eating less in a table-service restaurant and instead go for more quick-service meals. In fact perhaps the powers that be assumed this would happen; thus the recent announcement regarding the Quick-Service Dining Plan in which those participating will receive two (2) quick-service meals and two (2) snacks per day....hmmm sounds like a plan that may work best for Mousefest.

Although we hear all this official information about attendance being up, I’m not totally buying the fact that an increase in attendance equates to an increase in revenue.

I’ve been seeing some interesting signs. Earlier in the year I had to call and make adjustments to some Advanced Dining Reservations. I made a total of 15 changes and had no problem at all getting what I wanted…less than two months from my trip…and actually called for more changes this morning. Last year I could not have done this. What does this mean? Either less people visiting WDW or less people taking in the table-service restaurants.

I keep thinking that the combination of airfare, restaurant, and ticket increases will impact the “extras” that guests have gone for in the past and they won’t be dishing out Disney Dollars for come the near future.

Here are some examples:

It’s possible that an extra like Hoop Dee Doo, Cirque Du Solei, Disney Quest, and even water parks like Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach may take a hit. Some concessions may need to be addressed to keep the trip cost down. “Honey, let’s use the hotel pool instead of spending the time and money to go to Typhoon Lagoon.”

Tours such as the Steam Train Tour or any of the backstage tours may not get the bookings as they have in the past. For some vacationers they may see that as not worth the extra money.

But here is what came to mind first. Here is where I’m thinking that WDW may feel the pinch. Merchandise. Have you been to WDW this year? I’ve been visiting Walt Disney World since 1975. Don’t ask how many times. I’d say 99% of my trips have always found places like Magic Kingdom’s Emporium and EPCOT’s Mouse Gear packed with guests; ready to grab that special souvenir, toy, shirt, or whatever. A few months back I noticed that it was eerily sparse in these shops. The best way to measure this is to check out the shops an hour before the park closes…it was different…I saw idle cast members standing behind cash registers. To the average person the store may have appeared to have a healthy crowd but to the crusty old WDW veteran he or she may say, “Hmmm, not as many people in here as I’m used to seeing.” This is a big deal because of the markup on merchandise. A 10% drop in the daily merchandise revenue is big. Let’s face it; folks will say, “I don’t need that souvenir” or “I don’t need as many souvenirs.” What’s odd is that I continue to see t-shirts and other pieces of clothing continue to be priced in the stratosphere…not sure why but I’m looking forward to getting those $40 t-shirts for $10 next summer at the off property character shops.

This is just my opinion and I will be the first to admit that the prices won’t keep me away but will play a big influence as to how my entire Walt Disney World budget is divided. If more of my budget will go to getting there and getting into the park then something’s gotta give.

You and I don’t have to deny ourselves of visiting the land of Talking Mice and Ducks because of these price increases. Instead we have to become better informed consumers and make the adjustments we need to make in order to feed our Disney fixation.

Remember, sometimes demand can influence changes so as the behavior of guests dictates a need to change, perhaps those in decision making positions at Walt Disney World will be watching and will recognize what needs to be done to continue the revenue streams.

I say streams because there are several, as I have mentioned, that will feel the impact of the increase in airfare, admission, and other goods and services.

So Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Chip & Dale if you're reading this…don’t worry…I’ll still be coming down to visit…but I won’t be buying your shirts; doing that Backstage Magic Tour; eating much in your restaurants, or maybe even staying on the property as much…but I’ll still be coming.

When we last left I was retelling the Sip and Snack Around the world challenge that was taken on by Annette Owens, Len Testa, Mike Newell, and myself.

We had just finished Germany and were now on our way to China.

China: Joy of Tea Stand

Ah the Joy of Tea Stand was finally opened. At this point everyone was thinking about something to drink. This stand offered some interesting choices and the day before Annette had convinced me to try the Peach Oolong Tea Schnapps Slush. It was good the day before, but then again I wasn’t eating my way around World Showcase.

Everyone had tea except me. I opted for the green tea ice cream simply because it was one fourth the size of any drink offered at the cart.

Poor Len, he DID NOT like his tea and ended up nursing it for a considerable long time…you’ll see.

Italy: Arcata D’Ariga

Remember, we had a deadline of 2:30 so we had to keep moving. We were just about a third through the pavilions and we needed to maintain a pace of eating every 15 to 20 minutes.

Now obviously Tutto Italia was out…unless of course a stomach pump came with the Pasta e Fagioli (pronounced “Pasta Fa-ZOO”). Len and I had the same idea. We walked into Arcata D’Ariga, the store that has wine and candy and pastries.

Len, Annette, and Mike opted for biscotti which is an Italian cookie, often made with almonds. I wasn’t too sure about that so I went to the area in the middle of the store where they had candy. I was able to find a small package that had one kind of jelly bean candy…and it was only thirty cents. SOLD!

Oh yeah…with the help of the biscotti Len was able to get a bit more of his tea down…as they say, he would have given all the tea in China to not have to drink that stuff.

At this point we started to seriously wonder about the insane task we had charted ourselves to do.

However, once again…we were in EPCOT…with friends…and having a good time…and that pretty much cancelled out any second thoughts of quitting…heck, we were having too much fun and laughing too much to stop now.

We could almost feel the spirit of Walt Disney putting his arm around our shoulders and saying, “Hey gang, I love this idea.”

American Adventure: Liberty Inn

This could have been a challenge. Remember we were limited to only those items unique to that pavilion and the Liberty Inn did not have many choices.

Two of us, Len and Annette opted for the Kids chicken nuggets meal. However they had to take two sides with the meal AND a small bottle of water.

Len opted for grapes and carrot sticks and Annette went with carrots sticks and the fruit punch gelatin. Yes when they each sat down they both had a “What was I thinking?” look on their faces.

Mike and I scanned the menu and decided to have a Sam Adams beer. As much as I thought this was the right choice it did take an effort on my part to finish it.

At one point Len had excused himself to visit the rest room. Upon his return he announced to everyone that he was a failure. He was trying to convince his stomach to, let’s say, “return” what he had eaten to that point so he would have an empty stomach to finish this challenge.

Alas…he just couldn’t get his stomach to comply…oh yeah…he still had the tea.

I challenged Len to guzzle the tea and I would guzzle my bear. He held his nose and tried to guzzle his drink…we let him stop once he got to the virtual 75% mark.

Annette could not eat the gelatin…so she took it with her…to finish off somewhere along the way.

We all started laughing…at ourselves…it was great.

Japan: Mitsukoshi Department Store

From here on out we were all on the same page. Our objective from this point on was to find the smallest item in each pavilion and also one that would go down easy. We checked the menu for the Yakitori House. Most of us had the same idea…Miso soup.

However, the thought of consuming green onions and seaweed at this point convinced us otherwise. Everything else looked to either have large portions, including the Kirin Beer, Hot Sake, and Plum Wine.

Oh if only Masayo was here to help us.

The Mitsukoshi Department Store sort of wraps around the pavilion and in the back is an area with food and most importantly, small packages of food.

Of course someone found a package of dried fish….no thanks…although Annette still had her Jell-O so at least she could dunk the fish….sorry…that the mind plays tricks on you and I had this image.

Actually Annette made a great choice. She purchased what looked to be a package of three chocolate lollipops. Each “pop” was the size of a dime…good choice.

Mike Newell chose this small package of grape cotton candy with pop rocks, and Len grabbed something best described as Japanese Gummi Bears.

I had a small candy bar in my hand and was in line to pay when I spotted a much better choice. It was a small energy drink. The bottle could not have held more than 6 oz. It tasted like flat Diet Sprite. It went down smooth and no after taste. This was my best choice of the day as it really had no impact on me.

Morocco: Tangierine Café

We sauntered in to the Tangierine Café and checked out the menu. I had eaten here in December and I recalled that the portions were somewhat HUGE and I cautioned everyone to “choose wisely.”

We all agreed that it was too risky to order even something like a kid’s meal. We had three countries left after this one and we were running out of time on the clock and space in our tummies.

Then almost at the same time we all said “Baklava” and we went to the pastry counter.

At this point Annette looked at the cast member behind the counter and quipped, “I never thought I’d hear myself say this but please give me the smallest piece you have.”

She was speaking for all of us.

I’m not sure how to explain how we all enjoyed the Baklava. Mike Newell felt there was too much filling in his and I felt mine did not have enough and was dry.

Annette seemed to have a challenge getting hers down…and at this point she could have
washed it down with her melting Jell-O.

Len, still reeling from his cursed tea after taste, welcomed anything that would mask that lingering flavor in his palate.

Tick-Tock, time was marching…I looked at my watch…we had just about an hour left to do France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

France: Boulangerie Patisserie

Imagine you are standing in front of a French pastry and there are many, many, too many wonderful combinations of sugar, flour, and fillings waiting for you…and you are stuffed.

What to do.

When we started this little adventure I had thought all along that I would look forward to France and enjoy a nice Napoleon.

No…not this little guy…

…this guy.....

...believe me...he looked much bigger in the display.

However, as we made our way around World Showcase the issue of size and portion very much influenced our choices and the Napoleons were sort of outside my portion range at this point.

I opted for a lemon tart…less pastry and more gel and I washed that down with light lemonade.

Mike Newell could not resist the cream puff. When he picked it up the weight kind of made him nervous. It was made with heavy cream. We let Mike knock off about 75% of that baby and call it a done deal.

Call it “portion pity.”

The best choice in France was made by Annette and Len who both opted for a Croissant. Also, Annette was able to consume 75% of her Jell-O while at the same time getting down the Croissant.

But I have to tell you…by now we’re all thinking we’re not going to eat for at least a decade or two…but before then what lies ahead was the United Kingdom and Canada.

United Kingdom: The Tea Caddy

Ahh… the Tea Caddy.

Annette and I wandered in to check out the offerring in there. It was, what we felt, our only option.

We all steered clear of the fish and Chips counter service area.

Len and Mike made a “pit stop” and returned to find Annette and myself munching on something I remember being called a “Flakey” or something like that. It was recommended to us by the CMs in the shop because it was “flaky and light”

Well...sort of…it was flaky alright but when you put layers of flakes together and fused them together with chocolate…the word “light” does not come to mind.

Len opted to try one too…but Mike Newell’s dry throat drew him to the Rose and Crown and Bass Ale…which did not go down as smoothly as he had hoped.

Okay, here we were, we had about 25 minutes before our deadline and we had just Canada left in our sights.

We were all praying the same thing…”Please let there be small bear claws” as we all assumed those pastries would probably be our choice.

Canada: Northwest Mercantile

There was good news and bad news waiting for us in Canada.

The good news was that there were no bear claws to be found.

The bad news was that there were no bear claws to be found.

On the one hand we were relieved. It was going to be a challenge to get those babies down…but then again…NOW WHAT?

We went into the Northwest Mercantile and checked it out.

Lots of stuff but hoo boy…not easy to make a choice. There were packages of Maple candy and cookies and biscuits and stuff like that.

We looked for a LONG time before finally succumbing to yet another candy bar.

Len, of course, always thinking, came up to me and said, “I need a ruling”

“What?” I said.

“Is this legal?” and he held up…

wait for it….

wait for it…

a small bottle of maple syrup.

“You’re kidding!” I said.

“Hey it’s small…should go down easy…and I’m done”

I chuckled and said, “Go for it.” Thinking that I was about to witness a sugar high that would be unequaled in history.

So while Mike, Annette, and I forced down the last of our World Showcase buffet, Len guzzled, yes guzzled, his bottle of maple syrup.

Well, we all looked at each other and said, “Okay, that was crazy!”

We looked at our watches…2:20 P.M.

We had come within 10 minutes of our target time.

On average, each of us had spent about $35 as we weaved our way around World Showcase.

As we were walking out of World Showcase we were joking and remarked. “Well, that’s been done.”

A curious smile came over my face and Mike Newell looked over at me and he said, “Oh no! He’s thinking again.”

He was right!

When the next opportunity arises I’ve got some new wrinkles to throw into this little challenge…and it’s going to be different, challenging, and most of all…fun.

So next time everyone may be a bit more prepared.

It was a spur of the moment idea…an idea that probably has been in the back of a lot of WDW guest minds but unfortunately never surfaced to the point where they can try it.

What am I talking about?

Well on my recent trip to Walt Disney World while walking around World Showcase with Annette Owens of MEI and Mouse Fan Travel we found ourselves discussing interesting things to do in Walt Disney World that the usual guest would probably either never think of nor have the time to do.

We had just finished the third leg or our four Parks in One Day Adventure and before heading off to dinner we were obviously thinking of this challenge and what other interesting challenges we could come up with that would make for an interesting day at one of the parks.

Of course what is World Showcase known for but its diversified cuisines and the offerings of food from around the world?

So we began to wonder out loud what it would be like to try and get a little taste of what World Showcase pavilions have to offer…all 11 of them.

Now unless you are either Takeru Kobayashi (world famous Japanese competitive eater) or a 350 lb. National Football League interior lineman you probably don’t have the intestinal fortitude to sit down in every pavilion and eat a meal in one day.

So the problem was to throw in enough wrinkles so that the average person could in fact stand a chance at doing this.

That night over dinner I threw out some ideas to some friends and after some discussion we came up with the following challenge that we were going to attempt the very next day.
We called it….”Sip and Snack Around the World.”

Rules of the Game

Here they are:

• The goal is to consume either food or drink from every pavilion in World Showcase.
  
• Since this was a bit of a competition we said that it was every man (and woman) for him/herself. That meant no sharing.
  
• Each participant was responsible for purchasing his or her own “stuff.”
  
• Whatever is consumed had to be unique to that pavilion and not available anywhere else.
  
• Whatever the choice, be it food or drink, at least 75% had to be consumed for that pavilion’s offering to count.
  

There were four of us who took up this challenge, the aforementioned Annette Owens, Len Testa Co-Author of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and one of the co-hosts of the WDWTODAY podcast, his fellow WDWTODAY co-host Mike Newell, also of MouseWorldRadio, and yours truly.

We decided to do it the next day.

Now keep in mind that this is an unusual way to spend your day at Walt Disney World. On a normal vacation day in Orlando you would not find yourself spending an entire day doing this…well after reading this you might.

Good Morning

When I got up the next morning I made sure I had nothing for breakfast…well maybe some juice…but no food.

We all arrived at EPCOT just about opening time and knew that World Showcase would not open until 11 so we strolled around and checked out Future World before our “Feast.”

We visited The EPCOT Legacy Museum...

and Mission Space and Test Track...

...and Club Cool before heading over to World Showcase.

I was a little hungry but held off eating anything but a small granola bar.

I cannot say the same for Len. About 10:30 or so Len decided he needed something so he decided to grab a cherry Danish and coffee at the pastry cart in Canada.

Hmmmm….would this impair his gastronomical ability for the day?

We decided to help Len out so we walked from Canada to Mexico where our challenge would begin. This would give him some time to walk off the Danish and prepare for the challenge.

Just before we got started Len dropped a bomb…”Uh guys I have to be somewhere by mid afternoon so we need to do this by 2:30.”

“What?!?!?!

Hoo boy!

I had expected that we would be looking at an eight to nine hour ordeal. Not now.

Len’s schedule meant we had to covering 11 pavilions in 3 ½ hours…do the math…that means we had to consume something every…drum roll please…20 minutes. Yikes.

Now I was REALLY glad I had not eaten breakfast.

Mexico: La Cantina de San Angel

First stop was Mexico. Now think of the strategy one could go with on such a challenge. You could go one of several ways. We all had our own ideas as to how best to approach this challenge.

My plan was sort of a two plans in one kind of an approach. My primary objective was to think small. I was going to look for the smallest item in every pavilion.

I was also thinking that I would also need to space out any liquids I would have. I knew that during the challenge I would need to wash down any food I consumed so I needed to constantly monitor myself for dry throat.

Well for Mexico at La Cantina de San Angel three of us decided to start off light. Len, Annette, and yours truly opted for the child’s meal…a few nachos and a small beef burrito…and a small bottle of water.

Then there was Mike Newell. Mike has also not eaten breakfast so he assumed that having a regular sized meal to start off the challenge would be fine.

Well, take a look at the following picture and you will see how much of a difference the child’s meal was from a regular meal. It would be a choice Mike would regret.

Remember, we all had to eat 75% of whatever we chose at each pavilion so size was a consideration.

Norway: Kringla Bakeri og Cafe

I can tell you that one of the reasons I was excited about this challenge was that I knew that it would be a fun day. After all, I was in Walt Disney World with some friends and I knew…I just knew that we would laugh during this whole ordeal.

Well, you can imagine how much we laughed when Mike Newell, after eating his Mexican dish, turned around and decided to get the chocolate mousse. Now ordinarily, I’m sure many of you would leap at the opportunity of enjoying a chocolate mousse. However, would you really want one after eating a huge plate of nachos? I guess we all knew, especially Mike that his choice was let’s say questionable when he took his first swallow.

The rest of us were on this small food kick and opted for the smallest thing we could get…like the Lefse or the cloudberry horn.

We were two pavilions in and already we knew we were in for quite a day.

We skipped past China because our target, the Tea Wagon, was not open for business just yet.

Germany: Sussigkeiten (Sweets and Treats)

In Germany we thought that Sommerfest would have some good options. Right off the bat we all agreed that a German beer is definitely the wrong shoice so we looked at other options.

We were thinking Strudel. Sure, a little treat and some sugar to give us energy.

Well the problem was that the apple strudel offered at Sommerfest was more like dessert for three and none of us was brave enough to attack it. In fact all the desserts offered…including the Black Forest Cake and Cheesecake, although delicious, was looking just a bit too much to have on this day.

What about the pretzel? Well, that too looked huge, and in Len’s words by then his stomach had convinced him that the pretzel was about the size of a piece of fence.

So we went into the store called Sussigkeiten. It did not get any easier.

Think of it this way. If any of us bought a small package of cookies we’d have to eat 75% of the package. That WASN’T going to happen.

This pavilion was about to be the first pavilion in which we were looking at candy bars. Most of us looked around for a candy bar that appealed to us and that meant not just ingredients but size.

I was adventurous and tried this one candy bar that looked innocent.

Of course when we all got different items we would ask one another how they tasted.

So when Annette said, “Hey Mike, how is it?” I went into my Rod Serling impression and said calmly, “Imagine if you will…chocolate covered Play-Doh!”

Well you can imagine that we knew right then and there that we were risking getting sick from either eating too much food that day or laughing with each other. It was great.

Next Time: Part II: Tea, Nuggets, and Dried Fish, Oh My!

This is the second of two parts in which I describe how a number of friends and I did the four Walt Disney World theme parks in one day.

Park #3: Epcot

Everyone knew this park would be a challenge. It was early afternoon and we figured the crowds were peaking. We arrived at 2:00 P.M. and decided to do Spaceship Earth first. This was a toss-up… we had been thinking all along to do Spaceship Earth either first or last but decided to get it over with as soon as we got into the park.

The line was fairly long but we managed to exit that attraction by 2:30.

We then needed to make a decision regarding which attraction to do next. It came down to either Soarin’ or Test Track. The time board near the fountain told us that Soarin’s wait was 10 minutes less than Test Track. We had to do Standby… as FastPass distribution times were looking like early evening, 6 P.M. and later.

We entered the Soarin’ queue at 2:40…

…and waited for 75 minutes before getting on our glider.

It was to that point the longest wait of any attraction.

We left Soarin’ and The Land about 4:10 and headed over to Mexico to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour.

Unfortunately even though there was a short queue we had some problems. The CM overloaded our boat and we got stuck for a few moments.

Eventually we got the boat moving again…

We had finished our third park and it was only 4:35 P.M. It had taken us two hours to do DAK, two hours to do the Studios, and two and a half hours to do Epcot.

We had one park to go… Magic Kingdom… and that had EMH evening hours so we were looking pretty good… we had seven-and-a-half hours to do three attractions.

A number of us wanted to rest while others stayed at Epcot… staying at Epcot was dangerous because we came up with another challenge… I’ll tell you about that later.

While walking around World Showcase we stopped and enjoyed Jamie and the boys from Off Kilter.

We all met up at Saratoga Springs for dinner at 6:30 and took our time and talked about our day and our prospects for MK.

Park #4: The Magic Kingdom

Now up to that point we all had some challenges to meet. My colleagues on the WDWTODAY podcast and I were challenged to do attractions we are not too crazy about.

Matt Hochberg was dragged onto Dinosaur, an attraction he really has no love for and actually dislikes; Mike Newell sucked it up and went on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and Mike is not a big fan of what the Tower does… but he went on; and Len Testa who gets dizzy on Star Tours gutted it out and just closed his eyes and covered his ears.

So everyone then turned their attention to me and I opened my big mouth and mentioned the dreaded Tea Cups.

“We’re doing that first!” shouted my “friends.”

That was followed by, “Whose favorite ride is the Tea Cups?”

Annette Owens of MEI-Travel and Mouse Fan Travel shouted, “I love it and love to spin!”

So it was decided that Annette would accompany yours truly on the Tea Cups.

We all got in line and I was thinking, “Me and my big mouth!” But I had a plan… and hoped it would work.

When we got into the Tea Cups Annette let out a sinister chuckle.

Just as the attraction started I said to Annette, “I guess we’ll see who the stronger of the two of us is!” She started to spin the tea cup and I countered her actions by spinning the cup the other way. Basically it was a standstill until my hands started to slip and Annette put everything into it.

I then noticed something… I did not get dizzy or sick… for some reason this ride did not find me light-headed and nauseous. It had been at least 14 years since I had been on this attraction.

Guess I had finally grown out of getting sick from spinning.

Not sure if everyone was happy for me or not... I know I was.

We then headed off to do either Splash Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain.

Those who did not want to get wet went to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and those who were still reeling from the mid-90 temps of that day went to Splash Mountain.

There was an approximate wait time of 15-20 minutes for all the attractions that evening.

Our 12th and last attraction of the day was Pirates of the Caribbean. There was an interesting queue going on for Pirates. All the guests were going to the left queue and Mike Newell and I decided to go to the right queue and we had a boat all to ourselves.

To celebrate our accomplishment Len treated everyone to a Dole Whip.

We finished just before 11 P.M. and we were tired.

I think we lucked out in Hollywood Studios. Had we not been able to do that park so quickly we would not have had the luxury of waiting a few hours between Epcot and MK.

It was also proven that you need either an Extra Magic Hour morning or evening to help with extending the operating hours of your first or last park of the day.

Another important factor is the time of year you try this challenge. Early May seems a lot more accommodating than Easter Week, the 4th of July, and Christmas Day.

When we started the day there were at least a dozen of us… throughout the day some dropped off and others came on.

The four of us Len, Matt, Mike, and yours truly made it through the entire day.

Only two others were with us for the entire day so a tip of the Mickey Ears goes out to Danielle DeCerbo and Marissa Daurio for putting up with our shenanigans and keeping us company for all four parks. Special kudos go out to everyone else who at one time or another joined us and energized us along the way.

Hmmm, I wonder if this could be done if the challenge was four attractions per park.

Oh, I almost forgot. Remember when I said Annette Owens and I walked around Epcot and thought of another challenge? Well, we proposed this idea to the gang and a few days later we all tried it and we ended up more wiped out from that challenge than doing the four parks in one day.

Curious?

I’ll have to tell you about it sometime... like maybe next time.

I think it was just over a month ago that the idea of doing four parks in one day came up. It started out as an episode on the WDWTODAY podcast with me, Matt Hochberg, Len Testa, and Mike Newell tossing around ideas as to how we envisioned doing that kind of a challenge.

Then I decided to toss the challenge your way and give you some rules and regulations and guidelines as to how to make each park visit viable on that day.

Many of you, including Anita Answer, wrote to me and said you are accepting the challenge and even some of you told me of your escapades trying to do so.

Then I gave you my thoughts on how I would do this little challenge and some of you pointed out a mistake in my plans. I did not check to see if Kali River Rapids was open during Extra Magic Morning Hours at the Animal Kingdom and it is not so you would not be able to do that attraction until later in the morning… some have said it doesn’t open until 9:30.

The solution is to switch and do Kali River Rapids as your third attraction.

Anyway, all this talk about doing four parks in one day got us to thinking about doing it and just over a week ago about 14 of us started out to do just that… visit all four parks and do at least three attractions in each park.

This is how it went:

Park #1: Disney’s Animal Kingdom

We got to DAK 15 minutes before the gates opened. When the turnstiles opened we immediately headed to just in front of Discovery Island and waited for the rope to drop.

We immediately headed to Expedition Everest and got FastPasses for that attraction. We then went to Dinosaur to open that ride.

Oh no… problems. While waiting in the queue we noticed the attraction seemed to be having troubles starting up… tick tock.

We finally boarded our Time Rover sometime around 9:25. Our trek had started. There was one point during the attraction in which the ride slowed down for about a minute... but it quickly started up again.

Here we are.

From there we went to Kilimanjaro Safaris…no FastPass but it didn’t really matter as the crowd level was not too bad.

We loaded onto our vehicle about 10:00. Then everything seemed to slow down. This attraction seemed to take forever to finish. We did not get off our vehicle until 10:30 and it was off to Everest.

Our FastPasses came in handy here and there was a little excitement too. As we waited to board we noticed several members of the Dream Squad mulling around the dock where guests get off the train. Was someone about to win a dream? Was it someone from our train? Was it to be one of us?

Uhhhhh.....no!

We got off our train at 10:30 and saw that the Dream Squad had awarded some dreams (FastPasses) to a family on the train ahead of us. Well, if one of us HAD received a dream in the form of DAK FastPasses for that day we couldn’t use them because we were done with that park and headed off to park number two -- Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

It was 11:00 A.M.

Park #2: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

We headed straight for Sunset Blvd. and noticed that the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was virtually empty. The wait time said “13 minutes” but that really means no wait at all.
We managed to all get on the same elevator. It was 11:30.

We needed to do the Tower before considering lunch.

Lunch was quick… a bite to eat on Sunset Blvd. and then it was off to either the Great Movie Ride or Star Tours. We took a chance and did The Great Movie Ride first.

We were on our vehicle at around 12:30 P.M. This park had been kind to us to this point. We think that the reason for the short lines was that a lot of people, at least Annual Passholders and Disney Vacation Club Members, were at the Toy Story Mania preview.

After TGMR we rushed over to Star Tours… again we walked right on. The time was 1:00 P.M.
After that attraction we headed for the exit and jumped on the tram to the parking lot. I got into my rental car around 1:30 P.M.

We had completed half of the challenge in about 4 ½ hours and things were looking good.

Part II will talk about the second half of this challenge.

Do me a favor. Don’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you. Just keep it between you and me okay?

Promise?

Okay…(Mike looks over both shoulders.)

I’m in Walt Disney World.

Yep.

I flew in on Thursday afternoon.

I decided to surprise my partners in crime on the WDWTODAY podcast. They decided to come down for the Annual Passholder’s Preview for Toy Story Mania.
For a long time I really wasn’t sure if I could come down…for many reasons.

Then for many more reasons I decided ON MONDAY to fly down.

So on Thursday afternoon I found myself lining up ate gate 15 to fly to Orlando

On Friday I surprised everyone and we all went over to Toy Story Mania for the Annual Passholder’s Preview.

When you first enter this renovated area of Mickey Avenue you immediately see the huge Pixar sign.

There was also the sign announcing the sneak preview.

The FastPass machines looked like something right out of the film.

The Green Soldiers were working hard across the street.

The queue for many people will be a stroll down Memory Lane with images of Candy Land…

…Viewmaster…

…Chutes and Ladders on the ceiling…

…Barrelfull of monkeys…

…and Tinkertoys.

There are some other old time favorites but I'll let you discover them for yourself.

The star of the show was Mr. Potato Head. This audioanimatron was amazing and via the use of soundboard technology, interacted with the guests.

He can produce many expressions.

However, this is what is truly amazing...I asked him to remove his ear...AND HE DID!

Mr. Potato Head was illuminated by the Pixar Lamp.

I found a Hidden Mickey

I also found the 3-D glasses needed for the attraction.

Here’s a glimpse of the ride vehicles.

That’s about as far as I could go with the photos. Once in the ride vehicle guests must put on their 3-D glasses and secure the lap bar.

The vehicles begin to spin and from time to time stop in front of a video wall and guests will try their luck at some arcade games.

I won’t spoil it for you but suffice to say this attraction goes by faster than any attraction I have ever seen at Walt Disney World.

Each guest has this cannon and on the back of the cannon is a cord with a knob on the end of it. For each arcade game guests must pull on the cord to go after some targets presented to them.

It is very fast paced and the music and action is non-stop.

You will find yourself a bit tired after riding this attraction.

The Annual Passholder’s Preview saw many people go through this attraction and I noticed that as each day came and gone the scores improved.

On Saturday the highest score was around 160,000…then on Sunday 300,000 was reached and on Monday the highest score I saw was around 560,000 so everyone is learning how to play this game.

There is a single rider line but I really do not recommend using this line as I know of people who waited almost an hour in that line. Besides if you use that line you'll miss all the neat stuff in the queue.

Toy Story Mania is a lot of fun and I would say pretty contagious. Some may argue this point but I think it’s the first real video game like attraction ever to show up in Walt Disney World

I feel badly for Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom…he just won’t feel the same after riding this.

Next Time

Remember the four parks in one day challenge? Oh yes, I know all about Kali River Rapids…no big deal…you can adjust that to attraction number three for that park.

Anyway, a dozen of my friends attempted four parks in one day this past Sunday.

How did we go about attempting g this challenge?

Were we successful?

I’ll tell you next time.

This is a continuation of the discussion regarding the issue of taking children out of school for a Walt Disney World vacation.

I've asked fellow AllEars Staffer Michelle Scribner-MacLean to join me in discussion.

Let's move on to another angle in the discussion.

The Question of Educational Priorities

I (it’s Mike again) am the first one to recognize that life is one big educational journey and that we get life lessons from outside the classroom as well as inside those four walls.

Walt Disney World, especially EPCOT, has coined the phrase “Edutainment” which is defined as a process by which guests are simultaneously entertained and educated.

Of course I’m not sure how much education one receives while riding Soarin’ but for sure there is some merit to Ellen’s Energy and the American Adventure…no denying that.

What must also be said is that there is some education taking place regarding the fine art of traveling…security checks, safety, preparedness, yadda yadda ya.

However, let me present the argument can be made that there may not be enough “education” waiting for the children as to offset what they would be missing in the classroom.

Also, the argument can also be made to say, “This education they are receiving in March could also be realized during school vacation times.”

So this is another debate that takes place; “Are we sending a mixed message to children when we take them out of school to have fun?”

Something to ponder.

Michelle makes the following great points:

” No one is arguing the value of having students stay in school, but travel has a lot of educational value, as well. Students can learn about what is involved in travel planning, mapping routes, and seeing what different climates are like. In addition, parents can enhance the educational experience by having the students take digital photos and do scrap booking or journaling or by having them turn digital movies into a narrated trip report – each of which could be shared back at school as a class presentation. Also, while parents don’t tend think of WDW as a substitute for school, there are a lot of places at WDW that make learning come alive. Perhaps the student is studying predators and prey in science – Animal Kingdom can provide a chance for students to do some animal observations in the park. Maybe they are studying European culture in social studies – at EPCOT they can interview natives of many countries.”

General Considerations

If you do decide to take your child out of school to visit WDW, here are some general questions and thoughts to consider:

Will it be difficult for your child to make up the work?

Consider how well your child is doing in school. Is every week a struggle for your child to keep up with the work?

In this case, parents should think about whether their child can make up the work upon their return from vacation. If your child keeps up with schoolwork with no problems, then leaving for a vacation and doing subsequent make-up work will probably not be a problem.

Length of time students will be away from school:

Parents should consider the amount of schoolwork the student is able to make up. Depending upon the student and the workload, missing a few days to a week’s worth of work might be “do-able.” There are definitely “busy” weeks in school, just as there are “slower” weeks. Parents should check with the teachers to find out if there are any large projects being introduced, if the school will be doing standardized testing that week, or if there are any scheduled school events that would be difficult for their child to make up.

What do you expect from the teacher?

Teachers have a lot to do and, for many, pulling together a week’s worth of work ahead of time for your student can be tricky. In fact, it is more and more prevalent in school districts that teachers are not required to provide work for students who are going on vacation while school is in session. Many teachers, however, encourage students keep a travel journal and share their experiences upon a student’s return.

See…now you know why I bribed Michelle (besides the Dole Whip I had to toss in a picture of Bill Nye the Science Guy) to help me with this issue. …I knew she had put a lot of thought into this issue.

Age of the Child

I need to once again credit Michelle with a very important point when she says, “When this issue does come up, regardless of what side of the debate people fall on, there is almost total agreement that any impact from missing class time is felt more in the upper grade levels than the lower levels.

School work at all grades is important. Preschool and elementary work is equally as important as middle and high school – but at the upper grades, where students have multiple teachers, extended lab periods, and where block scheduling is prevalent, it can be more difficult to make up work for a student. For this reason, careful consideration of how feasible it is to make up work at the upper grades needs to be considered.

At the upper grades, parents might consider including their son or daughter in the decision-making process. Perhaps they are involved in a sport and don’t want to miss a week or maybe added work upon their return will stress them out. It might be, however, that they feel that they can take on the added responsibility of making up work.”

I echo Michelle’s points.

It’s not just age of the student that must be considered when making this decision but also the type of student your child has become. Some children can rebound and catch up better than others. Parents hopefully know what type of students their children are.

The Answer

Well there is no easy answer, at least not from me.

There is however, what I had said at the outset of this discussion and that is that no one can make this decision for the parent or the child EXCEPT the parent and the child…not just the parent.

Obviously no one knows children better than their parents and for the most part parents make the right choices for their families.

I think the parents need to discuss this issue with the children and make sure their children understand what may be expected of them upon their return from Walt Disney World.

Walt Disney World is an amazing place to bring children and no doubt that all guests young and old find their trips to be both entertaining and educational….consciously or subconsciously.
It’s important that we don’t allow others to influence what we feel is best for our own children.
For some of us we prefer not to interrupt the traditional educational process and take our children out of school but for others the decision is quite the opposite.

My advice is to do what’s best for you and your family…but I would also go as far as to say if some time other than the rational school vacation time is the only time you can bring your family to Walt Disney World then my gut feeling is to go for it...after all…remember…life lessons occur both outside as well as inside the classroom.

Remember, do what’s best for you and yours.

Now if you excuse me I have to catch a plane to WDW and somehow get a Dole Whip and get it to Michelle before it melts…there are such things as refrigerated planes right?

I know one person who would know…Bill Nye the Science Guy.

When folks plan their WDW vacation and drop me an email I am often asked for advice on one or more aspects of their upcoming tripp.

While I usually enjoy offering suggestions, I must admit that sometimes when someone asks for certain advice on an upcoming Walt Disney World trip I get a bit nervous..

The demographics for Walt Disney World’s guests are all over the map…young, old, wealthy, not so wealthy, Dole Whip fans, non Dole Whip fans, yadda yadda ya.

So due to this demographic diversification (I love alliteration) it’s obvious that one size does not fit all and what may work for me and my family may not work for Mr. John Traveler and his family.

It comes down to the basic rule of thumb that says each one of us knows what works best for us and our family and we should use that knowledge to craft the best possible trip…for us. No one should make that decision for us…except us.

This philosophy really comes into play when I’m asked the dreaded school question.

Hide your children, lock your doors and windows and draw the shades…better light a candle too…this is BIG….are you ready for the question?

“Mike, do you think it would be okay if I took my children out of school for a few days for a trip to Walt Disney World?”

(Shudder)

I’ve been able to handle this question better in recent years…there is no longer need to secure a smelling salt tablet to my forehead for my friends to revive me after fainting from being asked this question.

Having a background in education and training, as well as a deep love and appreciation for all things Disney, I have always had mixed feelings about this issue.

It really depends upon the child…and a few other things.

For the sake of this blog entry I will take the “Nevermore!” position and suggest some reasons for not taking the child out of school. I don’t think I will be successful. I sense I will end up walking the fence, so to speak.

Remember, this is for entertainment purposes only and please keep in mind that no harm should come to this author in the aftermath of the posting of this blog entry.

Since I didn’t want to go down this road alone I‘ve invited (actually pleaded on bended knee) fellow AllEars Staffer Michelle Scribner-MacLean to help me sort out some of the issues here and also hopefully provide some counterpoint opinions to help make for a healthy discussion. I tempted her with a Dole Whip.

Okay, here we go.

Best Time of Year

The argument can be made that parents don’t like to limit themselves to school vacations for trips to Walt Disney World…especially if they would like to bring their family down during the less crowded times of year or for a special event like the International Food and Wine Festival.
Okay…I understand the point.

I had a choice and elected to stick with summer family trips. I actually gave my children a choice.

“Okay Holly and Mike, let’s see what’s behind Door #1. Oh wow, it’s a five to seven day trip to Walt Disney World during the school year. That’s nothing to sneeze at right kids? But there’s another door.”

Then I show them Door #2.

“Okay Kids let’s look at what’s waiting for us behind door #2. Holy Mickey Mouse, it’s a 10 day to 2-week trip to Walt Disney World during summer vacation. Wow…the choice is yours….sorta.”

Here is what they said.

They told me that they did not relish the idea of doing homework while on vacation or trying to catch up when they returned. There was also the feeling that not all their teachers would warm up to the notion that they were out of school on vacation and not because of illness.

They also argued that they knew that the summer months meant more things were open and for longer hours.

So their argument was…less stress and more quality fun in the summer then let’s say November or March.

Again, those were the words of my children who at the time were 12 and 10 years of age when this discussion took place.

I felt the same way. It’s easy as a parent to say, “Oh well the kids can make up the work.” Sure…parents don’t have to deal with the teacher(s) and make up work waiting for the children after the trip.

I actually believed it was more enjoyable for my children to have an extended trip in the summer than any other time of the year.

Also, there was more to miss than just school. My children were involved in school athletics and other school activities, plus dance, piano lessons, and so on.

Sure, the argument is that it’s only for a few days or just a week; but think of what’s waiting for the kids when they return.

Again, just my opinion…and it pertains to my family.

Now let’s hear Michelle’s take on this issue:

” Although there is always plenty to do while you’re there, there are many special events that happen only during specific times of the year at WDW. If you limit your visits only to school vacations times, you might miss out on some really fun events such as the Flower and Garden Show (May), the Food and Wine Festival (October and November), and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (October). For example, during the past several years we’ve visited in May and the entire family looks forward to seeing the spectacular topiaries, the butterfly garden, the ladybug release, and seeing the dozens of different types of roses during the Flower and Garden Show.

Here’s another consideration, school vacation times tend to be more crowded than other times of the year. Families may find that they are able to see more attractions, obtain Advanced Dining Reservations, and not spend their vacation standing in lines if they take their students out of school to visit WDW. Cost can also be an issue for families. School vacations are considered “peak season” at WDW, which translates to higher room charges, airfare, etc. For some families, this is a “deal-breaker.” Families traveling during the school year can often find “non-peak” prices, making a trip to WDW more feasible.”

Remember those points…Special Events….crowds….cost…all part of the equation.

Stay tuned...there's more...Part II is right around the corner!

I recently had an opportunity to talk with Thomas Tryon who serves as a Show Producer for Special Events and Projects at Walt Disney World.

Tryon was given the task of bringing the Block Party Bash Parade from Disneyland’s California Adventure Theme Park to Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park.

The parade debuted in California on April 5th, 2005 and just three years later it is ready to take the East Coast by storm.

Of course moving a parade of this magnitude from California to Florida involved looking into the logistics of such a move.

The first order of business was to decide where the parade should land.

Right from the start there was no question that the Block Party Bash Parade’s new address would be the Hollywood Studios. After all it is a Pixar-based parade and don’t we find most Disney/Pixar characters in the studios theme park? I don’t expect that Disney’s Animal Kingdom or EPCOT or The Magic Kingdom had a shot at hosting this parade.

From a parade organizer’s viewpoint however, there’s much more to consider.

Once the Studios was deemed the appropriate new home for the parade, the next order of business involved the parade route itself.

Actually a complete assessment of the theme park’s parade readiness for the parade was necessary.

When you think of a Disney themed parade you think of the floats, the characters, the music, the dancing, the fanfare, and everything else that you see and hear during the course of the parade.

Keep in mind that when the Disney creative forces designed this parade they did so with Disney’s California Adventure theme park in mind, Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios theme park was not on their radar.

We’re talking two completely different animals here.

Everyone involved realized that they just couldn’t say, “Okay let’s just pack up everything and move to Orlando.”

There were so many things to consider.

The primary concern was the parade route.

The parade route for the Block Party Bash Parade had to have two important features. The first is that the parade route had to be able to accommodate the parade floats. Size and width was a consideration and with that comes the importance of maneuverability. The Hollywood Studios was far from being ready for this particular parade’s floats.

Some adjustments in the area of concrete had to be made along the parade route.

For those of you who have been visiting Hollywood Studios over the last year and a half you may have noticed some changes along Hollywood Blvd. and other portions of the Studios parade route. Changes have been somewhat subtle but importantly they have been parade-friendly.

It was important to alter the route so that the sides of the route would allow the floats to move through the route with ease with special considerations for turning corners.

The next time you are in the Studios stroll along the parade route and see if you notice where these changes were made, especially in front of Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat.

Now this is just for the parade route. There were other issues that had to be resolved.

Are there adequate spots along such a route in which the floats could stop and entertain guests?

Because of the nature and personality of this parade, specifically the highly specialized floats and their interactivity with the guests, the parade route had to offer some very convenient parade stops in which both the parade performers and the guests would be able to safely enjoy the “party” portion of the parade.

Stop points had to be focused on for safety concerns as well and adjustments in the concrete topography had to be made along the route where these stops would best take place.

So are you with me so far?

There are two more major concerns that had to be addressed.

The first concern was in regards to the garaging of the parade floats. Was there ample space to house these huge floats?

In a word, no!

Tryon noted that expansion of the current parade building was needed so that there was a proper storage facility for the parade vehicles. So that piece of business was added into the overall project for moving the parade east.

There was yet another consideration that I had not thought of.

Think of this, a parade is made up of floats and performers.

A storage facility for the floats was needed and how many of us would ever think that along with the floats there is the matter of parade costumes?

Parade performers wear parade costumes specifically designed for that parade and it appeared that the Studios did not have an adequate or as Tryon put it “proper” costuming facility to handle the additional costumes that came with this parade.

A decision was made to build a new costuming facility that would be able to handle all the anticipated costuming needs once the parade arrived.

Now think about all this stuff….changes in the parade route…expansion of the parade building…construction of a new costuming facility…all these issues had to be addressed just because a parade was moving from one theme park to another.

Because of these issues the actual original planned move was delayed one year.

So the obvious question that came to mind was “Why?”

I asked Thomas if there was ever any consideration to just altering the parade instead of going through all the trouble and expense of altering the route, expanding current buildings, and putting up a new building.

It was his answer that reminded me as to why Disney is Disney.

In so many words Thomas said that we all have to remember that what sets a Disney theme park aside from all the rest is that Disney has cornered the market on storytelling.

Be it attractions, fireworks, or parades, the important thing is the storytelling and most noteworthy, the creative process.

He mentioned how Disney values the creative process and once the creative process has generated something worthy of Disney quality it’s basically “hands off.”

When he mentioned this to me I was reminded as to why the name Disney always seems to be synonymous with quality.

Why change something that has already been proven as being something loved by the guests?

Why tamper with success?

It says quite a lot when a company is more concerned with the quality of its products than the bottom line. And when you think of it, aren’t the returns greater when you put a premium on quality?

It also makes sense to make the venue fit the product rather than the product fit the venue.
Thus the original creative content for the parade was meticulously maintained.

Oh, and about the actual physical move from the west coast to the east coast….

…it took 15 semi-tractor trailers to haul the parade from California to Florida.

So the next time you are in Hollywood Studios and you get a chance to enjoy this parade with the other guests you can relish in the fact that now you know…

…the rest of the story.

For more Block Party Bash Photos, check out our Photo Gallery!

The other day I was asked what I do to combat withdrawal I suffer when returning from a trip to Walt Disney World.

That question raised another question in my mind and that was when does Disney saturation come into play to prevent Disney withdrawal?

It gets dangerous when I start thinking this way but bear with me and hear me out.

While thinking about something like Disney withdrawal, I realized that unlike most people, my withdrawal symptoms are kind of, well, they are somewhat strange.

For a long time my trips to WDW were either once a year or even (shudder) once every two years.

There is a good reason for this particular frequency of trips...F A M I L Y.

The expense of bringing a family down several times a year just didn’t make fiscal sense to me so when we would go as a family we would go during the summer and usually spend about two weeks in Orlando. One trip…go crazy…then save and come back in two years.

Yup…sounds pretty cool erh? But remember that we would go either once a year or once every other year. There were just so many things going on in our lives as we were growing up as a family that we had to pay attention to priorities and as much as we loved Walt Disney World we needed to keep everything in perspective.

However, you can well imagine that going either once a year or every other year would generate withdrawal symptoms like you would never believe.

On top of that since we drove down we were on a rollercoaster of emotions…as we drove from New Hampshire and past specific areas like D.C. and of course South of the Border in Dillon, S.C. we would get excited.

Nothing got us more excited than crossing the Florida State line and stopping at the Welcome Center.

So the excitement would build and build as we neared Orlando.

Of course the drive back was no fun at all….that’s when the withdrawal symptoms would REALLY begin.

So how did I combat the withdrawal symptoms?

Well, knowing what the frequency of our trips would be we decided we would do our best to capture our memories as best as possible.

Back in the pre Digital Camera days we would take tons of film down with us and Carol would do the picture taking while I carried around the huge VHS camera to capture video. On average I would tape 36 to 40 hours of video and this included parades, fireworks, and shows.

There was always an opportunity to have a family photo and we never hesitated. Here’s one from the Scopa family archives….I’m guessing 1990.

I almost fell into the trap of never videotaping the family but I was careful and got everyone on tape as best as possible…especially when interacting with characters and Streetmosphere.
We would also buy videos and musical CDs…anything involving the sights and sounds of Walt Disney World…stuff that would tie us over for the next trip.

Once back from our trip we would sit down and watch all the videos with friends and family and
relive the trip.

I myself would take it another step and write a trip report that would account for everything we did.

The report would be written from some notes I took every day of our trip.

Writing a trip report is the best way to slowly ease off the withdrawal symptoms because as you write the account of your trip you get to relive each moment and you will find yourself leaning back, closing your eyes and recalling what you experienced.

I have approximately 1000 hours on video tape of all my trips and from time to time I will pull out an old tape and enjoy some memories…and chuckle at my sense of fashion.

What’s nice about watching these videos and that you can see old favs like Horizons, Tapestry of Dreams, Fantasy in the Sky, and also take note how things have changed…like Main Street USA, the castle forecourt, and other areas in all the parks.

For those of you who are not able to visit WDW as frequently as you would like you may want to think about doing as much as you can to capture your trip memories to help bridge the gap between previous and upcoming trips.

Okay, so you’re thinking, “So Mike, what does all this have to do with the word “Saturation” at the top of this blog?

Well, first I wanted to mention about how I dealt with withdrawal back in the day.

Now that I visit WDW more frequently I really don’t have withdrawal symptoms.

Actually, I’m lying. I DO find myself going through withdrawal but I’m sure not in a way that you would expect.

My withdrawal symptoms do not appear until I’m within about three or four days of returning to WDW.

How’s that for weird?

I guess all along I expect to return and thus don’t think about missing the place but when it gets close I start to get antsy and want to get there ASAP…mostly because I know that beyond talking mice and ducks waiting for me will also be my friends.

I know…I know…you keep saying, “Mike!!!! Saturation!!! What is Saturation?”

Okay, NOW I can talk about what I mean by Saturation.

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “Too much of a good thing…yadda yadda ya?”

Well this can be said of WDW.

I see you shaking your head and thinking, “I can never get enough of WDW!”

Uhhhh…yes! Yes you can.

I think that the lack of withdrawal symptoms is directly related to the number or the frequency of one’s trips.

But it goes deeper than that.

If you constantly visit a certain restaurant near your home many times because it’s your favorite restaurant after a while you may not appreciate the food, the service, the atmosphere, or whatever it is that draws to you to the establishment.

Same for Walt Disney World.

It’s called the saturation point….or the level at which your appreciation for whatever we are talking about is no longer at the level of appreciation it should be for your individual taste.

Once you hit that saturation point your level of appreciation drops because, very simply you are not attaching the same value to the place that you normally would…basically in a subliminal manner you may also become desensitized to the wonder that is Walt Disney World. Yup, it’s true.

Obviously the more you go the less you will miss it when you are not there.

Also, and this may be a subtle thing that you may not realize…without knowing it you will find yourself appreciating less and less what is waiting for you in Orlando.

That’s my explanation.

Do you want some signs which may indicate you are approaching the saturation point?

• You don’t go out of your way to do as many attractions as you did during your first several trips to WDW and possibly you are saying to yourself, “I’ll do them next time.” There is no sense of urgency to do Haunted Mansion, Soarin’, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, or Expedition Everest.

• You don’t find yourself as disappointed in not being able to get an ADR for one of your favorite restaurants. In this case you may find yourself settling for someplace else…hoo…bad sign.

• You find yourself avoiding character meals…big sign.

• You find yourself cutting an evening short and not bothering to watch fireworks at whatever park you are in. Are you nuts? Does anyone do this? Yes. Even your humble author.

• You find yourself not bothering to make it into a park by rope drop. In fact, you may find yourself sleeping in at times rather than waking up with the chickens and being at the park turnstiles some 30 minutes before park opening.

• You do not take advantage of Extra Magic Hours at least half the time during your visit. Oh the humanity…but it’s true.

Now there is really nothing wrong with this as it may very well mean that you are comfortable with your frequency of visits and you are there for the purpose of relaxing and taking in the atmosphere.

I understand.

I myself, on my solo trips, have no problems if I’m not in an attraction queue at least once every hour…in fact over my last three trips I averaged something like 1.3 attractions per day.

Hmmmm.

I would hate to think that I have fallen into the saturation trap and no longer appreciate what is waiting for me at Orlando.

I hope not.

I do realize that my trip frequency has a lot to do with it as well as my trip objectives, be it Mousefest, a race, or a special event.

Every person is different.

Every person has different thresholds of saturation and thus has different withdrawal points.

For eight year old Jimmy it’s a chance once more to help Buzz Lightyear fight Zurg; for nine year old Samantha it’s to see Tinkerbell fly from the castle as the beginning of Wishes, and for 17 year old Jake it’s to once more come face to face with the Yeti on Expedition Everest.

For others, like myself, the appreciation of the attractions may in fact have leveled off but in their place a new appreciation has emerged.

There is a pronounced appreciation for the atmosphere and environment that has been established these last 30 plus years.

I find myself sitting down on a park bench and watching children interacting with characters…to me that’s an attraction.

I find myself leaning up against a fence and watching a young family, wide-eyed, enjoying their first WDW family vacation…to me that’s an attraction.

I smile as I see cast members enjoying the fact that they are making a guest feel extra special and making a special gesture to perhaps create a memory in that guest’s mind as to how enjoyable their visit was to this particular park.

No…my withdrawal symptoms or lack thereof…or even what I thought was a possible saturation point for me is not that at all.

It’s a shift….a shift of appreciation for what Walt Disney World now represents to me.

As the years and the trip go by you may find yourself that there is a shift occurring in you as to what you look forward to when you next visit Mickey and friends.

What matters most is that you realize that saturation will never settle in….but instead a shift in appreciation for what brings you back to what you as an individual considers as the happiest Place on Earth.

For those of us who keep coming back we may also find that withdrawal symptoms may never surface because quite simply we take a little part of Walt Disney World home with us.

Monday! Monday!

You would have thought that I would have slept in on Monday but no. I was up early, as in 7:30 A.M., which is pretty early if you fell asleep around 2:30 A.M.

I attended to quite a few emails from friends and relatives who had sent emails about the race. It took time to answer most of them and before I knew it the time was 10 A.M.

I did a little packing, then hopped into the shower, got dressed and then stopped short of heading out the door. I really hadn’t put together any plans for the day.

I called Mike Newell and told him that due to the night before I was getting a late start.

I had to laugh when Mike told me he was on the same schedule as me and he was just getting started as well.

I asked him if he was hungry…silly question…of course he was.

I suggested we meet at Boardwalk and head over to the Dolphin so I could introduce him to The Fresh Mediterranean Market for lunch.

I headed over to Boardwalk somewhat quickly and took a stroll over to where the Breathless II was docked. I was looking for a friend who does Illuminations Cruises but the CMs there told me his shift started at 6 P.M. that night.

I made a mental note to come back that night and see him.

I didn’t as plans would eventually change….so Mike Scibetta. if you’re reading this we’ll see you on the next trip.

Stormalong Bay is so peaceful in the morning.

I met Mike Newell near Big River Grille & Brewing Works and we walked over to the Dolphin.

Mike enjoyed Fresh. I need to thank Deb for introducing me to this little restaurant. It’s on my list as a must do from now on for either breakfast or lunch.

During lunch my cell phone told me that the battery was low. I had talked with some friends that morning and had used the speakerphone option and that had pretty much drained the battery. I knew that I would either have to go back to the room to charge it or find some portable charger in the Dolphin store…highly unlikely for the latter.

During lunch Mike and I decided it would be fun to send some photos of the chocolate desserts to our chocoholic friend Annette. I’m sure she appreciated the gesture.

While eating lunch I got a call from a friend who I had made arrangements to meet at Beaches and Cream that day. Yikes…I had completely forgotten.

It was now about 1 P.M. and we were supposed to meet around 2ish. I was stuffed but I knew it may be the last time I would see my buddy David from the UK until we were both in WDW so Mike and I walked to Beaches and Cream, met David, and had another dessert.

More pictures sent to Annette...the things I do for my friends (sigh).

While we were there we witnessed not one but two Kitchen Sinks being delivered to booths with eyes bigger than their stomachs.

After the dessert I decided I would shoot back to my room and give the phone a charge and also buy a sweatshirt as that night was supposed to be a bit chilly.

We said good-bye to David. I had tentative plans to meet David and family at the Biergarten that evening.

Mike had to do something too so we agreed to meet later in the day.

I went back to my room and charged the phone. I did more packing and then took a stroll to the resort store to shop for a fleece top for that evening.

Nothing there caught my eye; especially pricewise so I decided to wear one of my long-sleeved shirts I had packed just in case the weather would be chilly.

Before leaving the room I checked with Mike Newell again. We made plans with Beci Mahnken to meet at the Magic Kingdom to watch Wishes and we also agreed to have a late dinner at Kona’s.

I began to realize that the trip was winding down.

It was the third leg of a whirlwind set of trips and everything that had happened kept flashing in my mind.

I drove to the TTC and managed to get a parking space so close that I was just a five minute walk to the TTC ticket booths.

I took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom and sent a message to Mike and Beci that I was in the park. They were standing just outside the Crystal Palace.

I snuck up on them...shhhhhh.

I was looking forward to Wishes…hadn’t seen it in ages.

Mike and Beci were thinking about doing a few attractions so I sent them off to do so while I waited for fellow AEN staffer Michelle Scribner-MacLean. Michelle wanted to see Wishes that night too.

The Crystal Palace looks so majestic at night.

I sent a txt to Michelle, she was almost at the park. While waiting I watched the castle show from the Crystal Palace area.

Michelle arrived just as the show was ending and we talked about our trip until Mike and Beci returned.

We watched Wishes from that spot which was an interesting experience. I would not recommend this unless of course you’ve seen Wishes many times and wanted to see it from a different point in the park.

We waited until most of the crowd left and we started out.

I then said, “Wait, I want to see the Kiss Goodnight!”

I got some looks.

“What’s that???” they almost said in unison.

This wasn’t the first time I had mentioned Kiss Goodnight to friends and had received stares as if I was sporting a third eye.

I began to explain that Kiss Goodnight is a traditional signoff for the Magic Kingdom and it involved a combination of music, light, singing and…

…as I was into my explanation lo and behold “KISS GOODNIGHT”” began and I got pretty excited.

I dragged Michelle, Beci, and Mike, up close to the Partners Statue and they all witnessed their first Kiss Goodnight.

If you’re interested in what Kiss Goodnight is all about look for more information in my All Ears newsletter article later this month.

After Kiss Goodnight we headed out of the park.

The queue for the monorail was just too long so we took the ferry.

Good choice.

At the TTC we Mike, Beci , and I bid farewell to Michelle who was off to Downtown Disney to get her son who had enjoyed the evening at Disney Quest.

Mike, Beci, and I enjoyed a quiet meal at Kona’s before the final goodbyes and we called it a night and a trip.

Now you may have noticed that this was yet another day in the life of yours truly in which I was not going from park to park and enjoying attraction after attraction.

It just didn’t work out that way and what’s amazing is that it didn’t bother me. When I return to WDW in three, six, or nine months from now I’m pretty sure my favorite attractions will be
there…but there is never a guarantee as to when you’ll catch up again with friends.

It was a good trip in many ways.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

This trip represented so much to me. There were so many people who made the trip to experience their first Walt Disney World Half-Marathon and they brought with them so many dreams of doing something important for themselves and accomplishing a feat that perhaps they never thought was in their reach.

I wanted to be there to see these people bask in their happiness and see the glow and pride in their faces as they proudly wore their medals around their necks.

By the way, I sent this photo of my medal to Steve Barrett and mentioned the Hidden Mickey…do you see it?

I was also amazed and warmed from the fact that so many people came down to support their friends in this quest.

There is no question that nothing matches the feeling of running and finishing the WDW Half-Marathon for the first time.

No matter how many times you do this race crossing the finish line is never the same as the first time.

However, you can do this race many times over and every time you turn up Main Street USA you will get a chill and a thrill as the crowd cheers you on…as you run towards the castle and through Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.

As you come through the castle you find yourself saying everytime , “This is what it’s all about.”

So looking back on the several times I have done this race I can undoubtedly say that the Walt Disney World Half-Marathon holds for everyone a little bit of Disney magic.

Be it your first one or you twenty-first one, there will always be something waiting for you and that something more often than not is the opportunity to say to yourself, “I did it.”

For me this time around I got to see so many friends participate in this race and so was given the opportunity to say to myself, “They did it!”

As I look forward I am hoping more of you get to experience what many experienced this year.

Congrats to all.

Next Time: I'll discuss the Walt Disney World 2008 running events.

Friday, January 11th

Knowing I had to get up real early Saturday morning I decided to get up real early this morning.

I got up and headed to Disney’s Animal Kingdom to root for some friends running the 5K Race. It was a fairly chilly morning but one which I was hoping for when it was my turn to cross the Start for my challenge.

I ran into a friend, David Barrett from the United Kingdom, and the two of us cheered our friends.

Approxiamately 4500 runners lined up for this race. The race is especially appealing to those who are fans of Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park as the majority of the course flows through the park

The race went off and in the early dawn hours the 2008 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend had officially begun as the runners sprinted towards the entrance to Disney’s Animal Kingdom park.

Just look at the smiles on these runners. It’s true..this IS a Fun Run!

Rafiki was in the house for those who wantred a photo with him.

Patience is a virtue and we waited patiently for our friends to finish and eventually they came around the corner. Congrats to Sheryl, Margaret, Betsy Anne and Izzy.

After hugs and congratulatrions it was time for me to determine my schedule for the rest of the day.

I decided to spend the rest of the morning and the early afternoon at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This was an easy decision. The Studios is the smallest, most compact theme park and thus would be easiest on the legs. I also think it has the most benches per linear foot which is also appealing to anyone who is planning to run an extended distance race the following day.

Did I also mention shade? It’s important not to let the sun drain your energy.

So I spent a few hours in this park.

I watched a little of the High School Musical 2 show.

I then took in a performance of Beauty and the Beast.

Then watched some of my favorite Streetmosphere…oops…I mean Citizens of Hollywood…do their thing. Here is pose #327

I had an Asian salad at the Commissary and then headed to Muppetvision 3-D.

I never noticed this cutout of Sweetums…see the paddle ball?

I sat in the pre-show area for a long time just taking in the atmosphere and the jokes. Eventually I went in and enjoyed Muppetvision-3D.

When I came out of the theater I noticed work being done on what used to be the theater that was home to the Hunchback of Notre Dame stage show. Apparently that theater was being retrofitted to house several different events.

It was time to meet Lou and Deanna Mongello at the World of Sports to pick up our race packets.

On the way out of the studios I stopped at Sid C’s. There was a quiz on the chalkboard. I was in a hurry so I did not go in and give all the answers for a certificate. A few guests from the United Kingdom were having a problem with two of the questions so I gave them the answers…then I was off to World of Sports.

Do you know the answers?

I met Lou and Deanna at WoS and we were pretty surprised at the crowd we found there. This was the first time I had picked up my packet on a Friday and although it was much less crowded than previous Thursdays it was still wall to wall people.

The lines to pick up the race packets were pretty long.

We picked up our packets and then went downstairs to get our goody bags and shirts and check the Expo. The Expo can be very helpful in that runners can purchase various things to help them in the race…wicking socks…nutrition gels…headbands…sunglasses…throwaway running suits if rain is an issue, assorted ointments, and other running gear.

We left the WoS and bid each other a good night…we had specific plans for that evening and tried to coordinate meeting the next morning…actually middle of the night…at EPCOT.

I headed for the Polynesian Resort and Ohana for a pleasant meal with about a dozen friends…six of whom were also doing the half on Saturday. This evening was devoted mostly to protein. I ate a light meal and then bid everyone a good night and headed for my room.

At my room I selected my running shorts…I brought several pair down because of the question of the weather, decided on my running shirt, and socks, and put my number on my shirt.

I set my room clock radio and cell phone for 2 A.M.

I also arranged for a wakeup call at 2 A.M.

My head hit the pillow at 9:30…trying to fall asleep the night before running the WDW Half-Marathon is about as difficult as it was falling asleep on Christmas Eve as a child.

Next Entry: Race Day

First an apology for my absence.

Buckle your seatbelts however, because from here until the aftermath of the d2008 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend we are on for quite a ride.

Thoughts on my Tower of Terror Trip

On Friday of my trip Len Testa and I took in the newly refurbished Haunted Mansion. If you plan to go to WDW soon and want to be surprised about the new enhancements to HM then you may want to skip the upcoming bulleted list, if not then read on:

• The first notable change was in the stretching room. The audio seemed to completely surround me. Also as the room starts to “stretch” you could hear squeaking sounds. Oh and our ghost host showed us (with better lighting) his way out.
• One more thing about the stretching room…are those gargoyles saying something?
• Once in the doom buggies the fun really began. As we entered the corridor we saw some stairways with candelabras…that’s new.
• The left side of the corridor/hallway has very long windows and it seems it was thundering and lightning outside.
• There were many new pictures adorning the walls.
• There also seemed to be eyes following us on our journey.
• Then there were the stairs…seemed taken out of an M.C. Escher painting with footsteps appearing and disappearing at the same time…upside down.
• The séance room had a fresh well lit assortment of instruments and Madame Leota…the new Leota…was floating in her crystal ball about four feet higher than I recall in the past. There is a flaw in this room…look for it.
• The attic was very different as special photographs told us about the famous Masey family and we learn quite a bit more about the Widow Masey.

From there we toured the Caribbean with some swashbuckling pirates. We noticed that this attraction has some deliberate debris placed in the water. Look for it the next time you ride this attraction.

We then strolled over to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz Light-Year.

Here's proof...

Then while I made a few phone calls Mr. Testa rode Astro-Orbiter.

As we were leaving the Magic Kingdom I was accosted by some wild woman.

Here is one of the scarecrows that adorned Town Square.

We then took off to visit the monorail resorts…first stop the Contemporary…work coming along fine on the new DVC addition.

From there we shot over to the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. Neither one of us had ever seen Victoria and Albert’s so we ventured over and looked into the restaurant. If you ever saunter over to V&As to check out the menu bring some smelling salts… for when you gaze at the prices.

From the GF we walked to the Polynesian as were we were meeting friends for lunch.

Along the way as we past by Luau Cove we checked the Scopa family brick…looks worn.

Lunch was at Kona.

From there it was time to head to Pleasure Island to pick up the race packets.

I ran into many friends there.

From there I drove some friends to All-Star Sports to check on the refurbished rooms.

Check them out.

From there it was onto TMK and the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party where I ran into my friends Matt, Marissa, Sara, and Josh.

The party was just like the last two years. We did our trick or treating and did a few attractions and saw the fireworks...

...the Villains Mix and Mingle....

...and the BOO-To-You Parade.

I was kind of fading and had a race to run the next day so I headed back to my room. I did run into Batman and Robin at the Ticket and Transportation Center.

I fell asleep about 12:30 A.M.

Saturday morning I spent in Epcot with a friend who I hadn’t seen in almost two years.

One of the "Can't Miss!" off the beaten path places everyone should visit is the mini-museum devoted to the history of Epcot. It just behind Club Cool.

Be sure to visit this exhibit, especially if you are a Horizons fan.

By mid day we each had commitments to attend to. He went to PI to get his race packet and I met a young lady by the name of Deb Wills for lunch at Fresh at the Dolphin…highly recommended….both Ms. Wills and the restaurant.

After lunch I went looking for some pins in Epcot before going back to the room to rest before the race.

I tried to nap but it must have been the rolling thunder that kept me awake.

The Race

I headed to Disney MGM/Studios around 7 P.M. and met about a dozen of my friends at the start line.

The race was really building up…thought it was going to rain. The weather was mild.

The race was late in starting because of traffic snarls and runners being held up.

The race began just about 9:50 P.M. or 20 minutes later than scheduled. But if you want to be real technical the race started 50 minutes late from the originally scheduled start time.

As expected it was a dark and at times a challenging course. Somewhere around Mile 2 the course was diverted into a gravel road. Thanks to some rain a few days earlier there was a portion of this road that offered a few sections with mud.

It was along this portion of the course that the runners were provided with entertainment in the form or volunteers who were dressed as insane asylum escapees. I’m sure it was entertaining for many of the runners but for me I questioned why this entertainment was focused on this area of the course when it was most important for the runners to concentrate on the footing…the uneven ground…the mud…and those poorly lit portions of the course.

The 13k (8.2 mile) course finished in the MGM Studios theme park. Runners came in through near Sid Cahuenga's then turned left to go up Hollywood Blvd and down towards the Commissary and the Sci-Fi Drive-In restaurant before heading toward the Lights! Motors! Action! Stunt Show stadium. From there we weaved our way through the Backlot Tour route.

The course also winded through some off-stage areas before coming out somewhere near Sunset Blvd. and then taking a right to go to Hollywood Blvd…then once on Hollywood Blvd. the course headed towards the front of the park and took a left at Crossroads and then made it’s way up the hill to the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater and then eventually finishing just behind the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Courtyard.

This race was described as the first Annual Tower of Terror 13K which suggests it will return in 2008.

Hopefully the feedback the race organizers get from this race will provide some improvements in next year’s race.

If in fact this race returns next year here are some suggestions I have for the race directors.

• Regardless of whether packet pickup is at Pleasure Island or Disney’s World of Sports the setup should be such so that the line flow should be packet pickup, shirts, and tickets. This year there was some backtracking involved and people were bumping into one another. I truly think the pickup should be at the WoS.
• Begin the race earlier in the evening. I would suggest moving the start time to 9 P.M. or even 8 P.M. Most of the runners struggled because let’s face it, it’s Walt Disney World and curbing your daily activity to save energy for a nighttime race doesn’t work for everyone.
• Also, for those participating in the race, there was little time to enjoy the party afterwards. With an earlier start there is more opportunity to enjoy those attractions which are open for the party.
• Some consideration should be given to the medals. The 13K participants and the 6.5K participants both received the same medals even though the 13K participants ran twice the distance and paid more for registration. At least maybe change the ribbon color and décor to identify the course covered by the medal wearer.
• Regarding the course, there should be two corrals at the start with the 13K corral up front and the 6.5K corral at the rear. When the race started there were 6.5K participants in the midst of the 13.5K participants. This made for an awkward start.
• I’m sure I speak for most of the 13K participants when I say to scrap the gravel road portion of the race. It is difficult enough to run at night without worrying about an uneven surface. A slight adjustment in the course still allows the finish line to remain where it is.

After the race several of us had a late dinner/early breakfast at Picabu’s at the Dolphin Hotel…at around 2:30 A.M.

I got back to my room around 3:30 A.M. and after a much welcomed shower hit the pillow about 4 A.M. but never really got into a deep sleep.

I was up at 7:30 and spent the morning strolling around Pop Century in search of information regarding the beginning of the Legendary Years Phase for this resort. All I could find was some refurbishing of the Generation Gap Bridge.

I called up Disney Dining and was surprised that I was able to make an ADR at Boma for dinner that evening. I was planning to dine with some friends from the United Kingdom who favor the restaurant.

I headed into Epcot and had lunch with Beci Mahnken of MEI & Mouse Fan Travel®
At the Garden Grill in the Land pavilion. It was a very enjoyable and restful lunch.

I then went on a search to locate a special Halloween pin for my wife but came up short.

In the late afternoon I left Epcot and drove over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge where I met my friends for dinner.

We checked into Boma and waited to be called.

When our little gizmo buzzed and flashed we went to the podium where we were surprised to be announced as “Boma Family of the Night.” This meant we were escorted into the restaurant serenaded by drums and were seated at the front center table and made our way to the food before everyone else.

It was a nice final meal for me as Boma is one of my favorite restaurants and my company was exceptional

We then went to Epcot with plans to watch Illuminations before finishing the night at Beaches and Cream where my companions had visions of attacking the Kitchen Sink.

However after seeing the Oh Canada! film I felt the fatigue suddenly hit me. The past two days were finally catching up to me. I knew that sleeping just seven hours over two days while touring the parks and putting in an eight mile race would lead to fatigue at some point. This was that point.

I bid my friends farewell and would see them again in January for the WDW half-marathon.

I passed through the International Gateway and made my way along Boardwalk, stopping to capture my last photograph of the trip.

It was one of my shortest yet most intense WDW trips because of many factors, mostly of trying to squeeze so much into a few days. If I could have done it over I would not have done the MNSSHP the night before the race. I hope someone besides myself learns from this experience.

However, I came away from the trip with the satisfaction of knowing that I made each moment count as I spent 90% of my time with friends and it seems that more and more that seems to be the most important part of my WDW trips…to share the joy of the Disney culture with those with whom I care about.

One thing for sure….it made me even more excited to look forward to Mousefest.

Speaking of Mousefest

Are you ready? We are less than a month away and those on the Mousefest Organization Committee, Sponsors, and everyone else are working very feverishly to get everything in place for this annual event.

I’ve been making a list of things I have to do and this is the week I need to complete some tasks.

One of my tasks is to prepare for a new meet this year. It takes place on Thursday, Dec. 6th at 1 P.m. at the Tomorrowland Terrace in the Magic Kingdom. The meet is called “Mousefest 101” and it is geared towards helping first time Mousefest attendees understand what Mousefest is all about and how to get the most out of the event. I will be joined by Mark Goldhaber who is co-hosting the event with me.

If you are coming to your first Mousefest please try and attend this meet. I’m sure it will help you enjoy Mousefest.

A Word about January

We are about eight weeks from the Walt Disney World Half-Marathon.

Where should you be? Well, I’m thinking that for those of you planning to run in your first half-marathon that you should be in the 8-9 mile mark right now.

At this point you should be taking note of your pace.

Over the next few weeks we’ll talk about what you should consider as we close in on the race, be it your first half or full marathon.

For now as you get into the 8 or 9 mile workouts consider giving yourself an extra day or two of rest between these workouts. Your body will appreciate the gesture.

Sometime in the next few weeks we will all be receiving race information from the race organizers. This information will include a waiver sheet and a booklet that explains just about all you will need to know about the race.

Keep your eye out for that chunk of mail.

I’ll be back in a few days, and that’s a promise!

Greetings from Walt Disney World!!!!!

Thursday was a long day. It started for me at 2:30 A.M.

I landed in Orlando around 9:30 A.M.

My first stop was EPCOT where the 2007 Food & Wine Festival is starting to wind down.

You know what comes after Food & Wine don’t you? Why the festive Christmas holidays of course and lookie here…the Christmas decor is going up already.

Ahhhhh Christmas in October...ya gotta love it.

I found this Hidden Mickey in the bushes near the Japan pavilion. Honest, I did not do this but my guess is that someone took the time to clear the shrubs and arrange the rocks.

Had lunch at Biergarten with Brian Bennett and was close to the stage and the band. You know what that means don't you? It means no more talking at the table 'cause we can't hear each other.

In mid-afternoon we were joined by Len Testa of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. Len wanted so much to try the food in…

...but we just had lunch some 90 minutes before. So we ordered ALL the appetizers and one pasta dish. Honest folks, this was research. We do it all for you. We were all in agreement that the food was relatively good but overpriced. I will say that the service was nothing less than excellent.

We were soon joined by Beci Mahnken of MEI Travel, and Mike Newell, and Matt Hochberg from the WDWTODAY Podcast and we all went over to check out a new film at an attraction known as….

Here’s Matt and Len, obviously up to no good.

The new "Oh Canada!" film was received with mixed emotions. The new version has added some humor to it but I was longing for some of the scenes from the original movie. I expect that for every two guests who watch this movie one will like it and the other will prefer the original.

We then took a stroll around World Showcase in search of dessert. Len treated us to caramel and ginger ice cream at China. Very tasty.

No...not research...call it "carbo loading" for Saturday evening's race.

BTW, the freaking out has begun because depending upon who you listen to the chance of rain for Saturday evening falls anywhere between 50% and 70%. Lovely.

We then took in The American Adventure before heading to Canada where we ran into our good friend Masayo Kano who made the long trip from Japan..

You're saying, "Mike, what's that shirt you're wearing? That's not a Disney shirt is it?"

No it's not. I live in new England and the Boston Red Sox are in the World Series...do the math.

We finished the night watching Illuminations. If you have not seen Illuminations since early 2007 you are in for a pleasant surprise. The video globe is brighter and more distinct. Also, you may find the fireworks to have more color.

It was quite a long day but nothing beats enjoying a day and evening in Walt Disney World with friends.

Friday is the day for packet pickup and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. I hope it's a BOO-TIFUL night tonight.

Stay tuned as there is more to come!

Since we got in real late we got a late start off to our last day.

As always the question is “What do we do on our last day?”

I’m sure for most people there are traditional objectives like perhaps visiting a special park or doing a special attraction or having the last meal at a certain restaurant.

Not for us…at least in recent years.

We went to EPCOT and found the stars gone from Spaceship Earth.

The star spikes were still there.

Carol was still on the lookout for some Halloween pins so we checked a couple of places before taking the Friendship boat to WS.

At Noon we walked up to one of our favorite restaurants…

…and grabbed a reservation for lunch.

We had a five minute wait so we strolled into the shops near the restaurant.

Hey look…princesses...

After lunch we strolled around WS. Carol was hurting. She had developed a blister the size of Spaceship Earth on one of her toes. This would be not only our last day but our shortest day.

There’s always a crowd checking out the trains at Germany.

We visited the American Adventure and of course saw the Voices of Liberty.

The woman on the far left is Deb Johnson. Her husband is Derric Johnson who created the Voices of Liberty and has quite a hand in the vocal arrangements for the Candlelight Processional.

After we watched the American Adventure I scooted around the side to hit the ATM.

Chip & Dale and a few CMs were hamming it up for me.

Oh yes…my favorite Disney character was in France…but was accompanied by some guy who needed a shave real badly.

We watched Off Kilter. Jamie was back….and these guys hammed it up for me too.

Year of a Million Refurbishments: Take 22

Look at these little men they were selling (or should I say NOT selling) in one of the Canada shops.

Our last meal of the trip was dinner at Rose & Crown. Now I have eaten at this restaurant several times and each meal has been decent. There are some WDW restaurants which I associate with certain entrees and I usually will not sway from those entrees.

For example, pot roast at Prime Time, New York strip at Le Cellier, and Teriyaki tips at Kona Café, to name a few…catfish is good at Garden Grill and if possible….turkey stew and crusted salmon at Hollywood & Vine.

Anyway, in recent years I’ve settled on the bangers (sausage) and mash (potatoes) at the Rose and Crown but today I thought I’d try something different so I ordered the Steak and Fish which is described as “Grilled Steak with black and tan demi-glace, Harry Ramsden's Battered fresh cod, green beans and mashed potatoes”

When the entrée showed up at my table it looked to be a very tempting dish. I was pleased with my selection, especially as it was a different entrée that I could say I’ve tried.

Let it be said that on August 22nd, in the year 2007 that I, for the first time in my life, did not clean my plate. As a matter of fact, I ate only one piece of my steak.

It was cooked the way I like it to be cooked but there was something about the taste...that I didn't like....I've had "gamey" tasting meat before but not like this.

I had the beans and potatoes and cod….but the steak remained in my dish when our server, Carrie, returned.

She looked concerned and asked if there was anything wrong. I tried as hard as I could to explain why I did not care for the steak without hurting her feelings. She wanted to bring me another one or a free dessert but I graciously said no.

I explained to her why I didn’t like the steak and she began to tell us that in her past life as a chef she learned that when you order a steak from a menu that it helps to know what cut of beef it is.

She went on to say that the word “sirloin” covers a large area on a cow and that taste is very much influenced by distance from bone and muscle and that for some cuts it’s next to impossible to guarantee consistent taste.

So I looked at her and I said, “So Carrie, are you saying that I may want to be careful about ordering a sirloin entrée when at a restaurant?”

She smiled at me and said, “I’m careful.”

The only problem of course is when you come across a menu that does not tell you "Where's the beef" coming from.

Next time I’m in the Rose & Crown it's Bangers and Mash for me.

Carol’s toe was really bothering her so we headed back to the room. It was close to 7 and we did not plan on staying for Illuminations.

When we got back she soaked her foot while I tried to grab a few pics of the resort, like the pool area…

…and the boat dock.

Later that night I took some evening shots of the resort.

Here’s what I see when I run in the pre-dawn hours at POFQ

Here’s another shot of the pool slide….at night

Yikes, it was almost 1 A.M. What was I doing?

Then I realized that I was carrying out my own personal tradition. For as long as I can remember on the last night of any Walt Disney World vacation I always found myself wandering the resort way past midnight.

In fact one night at Mousefest 2004 I spent an hour from 12:30 to 1:30 just sitting and swinging in a swing while glancing across the Seven Seas Lagoon at the Magic Kingdom.

It's important for me, as as frequent guest, to sort of sit back and smell the roses on the last evening of any trip.

During the course of any trip to Walt Disney World there is bound to be a day in which you just can't get away from a long line, can't find an acceptable dining time at your favorite restaurant, or just feel like a sardine waiting for the afternoon parade at Magic Kingdom.

Those little irritants can easily obscure the fact that there is something that keeps bringing us back, year after year, that we can never put our finger on.

It's an intangible for sure...but it's there nontheless.

For me, it may not be as much theme parks, characters, fine restaurants, and nighttime spectaculars but maybe the overall reminder that life is way too short to not pamper yourself from time to time with a trip to Walt Disney World...and a reminder to stop and smell the roses before either they are no longer there for us to smell or we are no longer around to appreciate their scent.

Yup…the trip had ended…but the tradition will continue…for the next trip…and the next trip….

Finally the day came when Carol could “legally” wear her “Happy Birthday” button.

We decided to try something different today so we went to the dock to take the Riverboat Cruise to Downtown Disney, as mentioned on the WDW Today channel in our hotel room.

The CM who was driving the boat asked us where we wanted to go. We actually wanted to go to Downtown Disney. He said, “Well obviously you didn’t read the schedule because the next boat that goes to Downtown Disney leaves in an hour. I’m going to Riverside.”

I almost said, “Well obviously you didn’t read the fine print in your Disney Employee’s Guide as to how to address guests but I’ll make sure that your supervisor won’t forget to remind you to refresh your memory on your customer skills.”

Of course I didn’t say that but would it have hurt him too much to say, “Well folks the next boat to Downtown Disney won’t be here for about an hour but I’d be happy to take you to Riverside.”

Not only that, you think with Carol wearing her birthday button he would have been a bit more dare I say, “cast memberlike?”

We decided to take the boat to Riverside and checked out the General Store.

We decided to walk back to POFQ and drive to Downtown Disney.

We were spending the morning doing our “official shopping” to get a few gifts for friends, and use our 10% discount from our Annual Passes.

We found a few things but not as much as we have in the past.

By the way, I’m amazed at the success of the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique.

Next month a second one will open in Cinderella Castle.

We finished our shopping and came back to POFQ to drop off our stuff and grab a little bite to eat. It was that time in the trip when all guests begin to say, “Y’know, I’m not that hungry, but I need a little something.”

After our quickie lunch we headed off to the Magic Kingdom.

We had not really hit Fantasyland yet on this trip so we headed straight for Peter Pan and walked right on thanks to some special Attraction Re-entry passes given to us by a friend.

It was another warm day so we were looking for any relief…and it came in the Carrousel of Progress.
Look for that abstract painting of Mickey as the Sorcerer’s apprentice in the last scene.

We rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority a few times and then checked out a few shops for some Disney Halloween pins. Carol likes to be the Disney pin teacher at her school and likes to wear a different Disney Halloween pin every year.

We were meeting friends…I’ll keep it a secret for now…at the Contemporary for dinner.

We took the monorail over to the resort and walked around.

Wow, things were happening.

Take a look at the activity we saw just beginning on the fourth floor.

Some new shops are going in and you may have seen the artist renditions in Jack Spence's report earlier this week.

We met up with our dear friends Steve and Vickie Barrett and had a wonderful dinner at the California Grill.

How’s this for a view of the sunset?

The California Grill folks came over and took our photo because of Carol's birthday.

The folks at CG also gave Carol a special birthday dessert.

We had some very high quality time with Steve and Vickie. We had hoped they could stay to watch Wishes with us both both had an early morning and they also had a fairly long drive home. See you at Mousefest guys, if not sooner.

Another view from the CG

We went out on the observation deck to watch Wishes.

The photos I took do not do Wishes justice simply because of the angle from which we watched the nighttime spectacular. Remember that during Wishes there are several sets of fireworks being fired….those around the castle and those from a barge well in the rear of Magic Kingdom. The best angle to watch Wishes is from directly in front of the castle on Main Street USA.

So Carol had a nice birthday.

Put your hands together because I actually got out of bed on this morning at around 5:30, put on my running gear and went out at 5:45 to run around the resort.

It had been at least a week since my last workout and I had no idea what to expect. My whole body was screaming at me until I hit Alligator Bayou over at Port Orleans Riverside.

I ended up running a bit over 40 minutes and felt great at the end of the run. However I am definitely behind schedule for the Tower of Terror 13K and when I return home I will be working hard to train for that race.

I had finished my run, showered, and got dressed in time for us to shoot over to EPCOT for Extra Magic Hour Morning

Here’s the latest on the deconstruction of Mickey’s arm/wand from Spaceship Earth.

There were two lines to get into EPCOT. We got into the line on the right side…it went almost to the bus depot….want to see?

The lines moved fairly fast.

Once we got in we went over to Soarin’ and grabbed a FastPass and then went in line. For the third time in a row Carol got us top row center. I may have to start renting her out to folks who want that top row center experience.

After Soarin’ we had a light breakfast and then rode “Living with the Land” to kill some time before using our Soarin’ FPs.

This time our luck ran out and we ended up center but second row instead of top row.

By the way, the next time you experience Soarin’ I suggest you watch the screen very carefully. If you count only 8 hot air balloons then you are not watching close enough.

If you do not see six fighter jets then you are not watching closely enough.

We walked over to see Nemo and Crush. Does anyone else out there just love that Starfish?

From there we went over to visit Figment. We took in “Honey I Shrunk the Audience" since it was the Imagination Institute’s annual....

We then walked back to the Land for lunch at the Garden Grill. We were early so we watch “Circle of Life” first.

Then we had lunch with farmer Mickey…

After lunch we visited Innoventions. We checked out the Rockin’ Robots…

…we played that IBM game and that pizza game (think goodness it was virtual pizza) and a few other things before checking out Mouse Gear. You never know when a neat new WDW shirt will show up.

Now since this was a surprise birthday trip for Carol I tried to get ADRs for all of her favorite restaurants. In order to do so I had to sometimes book meals a bit close together….like a late lunch and early dinner.

This was one of those days. We tried to eat light for lunch because we were going to the Kona Café for dinner.

We got into the car to drive over and when I started the car up look what I saw on my rear view mirror…

That explains the two glasses of ice tea and two glasses of water I had at lunch.

We drove over to the Polynesian Resort. My three favorite resorts are Pop Century, Port Orleans, and the Polynesian Resort.

Here’s a cute picture.

Look again, the tiki on the left is outside and the tiki on the right is inside.

Did I mention why the Polynesian Resort is one of my favorite resorts? A picture is worth a thousand words.

Let me take this opportunity to put in a good word for the Kona Café. It is one of the better restaurants in all of WDW and especially when it comes to teriyaki ANYTHING.

It is one of the few sit-down restaurants in WDW I love so much I will actually dine there alone when I do solo research trips. The bread is very decadent.

So Carol and I are eating and we are thinking about where to go and what to do next. The heat of the day (remember what the mirror said) had really taken some energy out of us so we decided to return to POFQ and do some laundry and check up on email and try to recoup some of that energy that the sun was draining from us.

Besides tomorrow was Carol’s birthday. You always want to be well refreshed when waking up in WDW on your birthday.

Well, the good news is that I woke up early enough on Friday to go out and run. The bad news is that I said to myself, “Let me close my eyes for just another 15 minutes.”

We call that a “mistake.”

Next thing I know its 6:47 and we have an 8:10 ADR at the Grand Floridian Café.

Arrrghhh, another morning without a run.

When we got to the Café they told us that our ADR was for the day before! Huh? First at Hollywood & Vine the night before they had us down for two ADRs at the same time now this!

They honored our time and we had a very nice breakfast. We did not eat everything as we turned down the final course which was Mickey waffles.

We had visits from Tigger, Pooh, Mary Poppins, the Mad Hatter, and Alice.

1900 Park Fare will soon reopen. Our server said that they are hoping that the new 1900 Park Fare will open in late September and it will be able to serve even more guests as the restaurant will be bigger.

We left the Grand Floridian and headed back to Pop Century to do our final packing as we were moving to Port Orleans French Quarter.

We didn’t think our room was going to be ready but surprise, surprise it was.

We tossed our bags onto the bed, stashed our water in the frig, and headed over to the Magic Kingdom.

As we entered the town square I scooted over to City Hall to ask for a birthday button for Carol and also a brochure for the Pirate & Princess Party.

We are not going until Tuesday evening but it’s never too early to plan how best to navigate the park for this party.

There are some general guidelines I suggest to families going to any of the MK parties, be it Pirate and Princess, Mickey’s not So Scary, or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

Here they are:

• First and foremost grab a party brochure a day or two before going to the party.

• Review the brochure and put together a plan as to how you will navigate the park during the party.

• Get your MK attraction fix the day before the party because you don’t want to put attraction touring at the top of your list…remember, you are paying extra to get into the park at this time for the special events…not the attractions.

• If possible do the Extra Magic Hour Evening the night before the party. Stay out late because you really should think about sleeping in on the morning of the party.

• Take it easy in the morning, perhaps go to DisneyQuest for a few hours, and then have an early dinner, say no later than 5 P.M.

• Wear a watch with a lighted dial so you can keep track of the time.

• Try to arrive at the Magic Kingdom at least 30 minutes before the start of the party.

• If you can, do the later scheduled events such as a show or a parade because it will be less crowded than the earlier ones.

• Plan any attraction touring around the special events. That is, if you can fit in Big Thunder Mountain or Pirates of the Caribbean around your schedule then go for it. Remember that you are paying for these special events so make sure you get the most of the party.

The last few days have been somewhat hot and we have felt the need to hydrate as often as possible. We grabbed light lemonade at Casey’s.

We then made our way over to Adventureland to finally ride Pirates. The wait time was about 75 minutes. No thanks.

We rode Aladdin’s Magic Carpet and then took in the Tiki Room.

There was a guest sitting next to us who had what looked like baby who was no more than a few weeks old.

Not only was the baby probably the youngest person to se the Tiki room, he/she may have been one of the few chosen to be nursed by his mom too….yes…but discreetly.

Homework Assignment: next time you're in The Magic Kingdom look for this sight.

Pirates was still full so we visited the Country Bears.

We then watched the “Disney Dreams Come True” parade.

It was getting close to our Crystal Palace ADR time so we strolled over to Main Street and looked in the shops.

I was selected by a cast member to participate in the flag lowering ceremony. Unfortunately I am not a veteran so I had to turn them down.

Dinner was at Crystal Palace.

After dinner we watched the castle show…twice.

We then took in the Hall of Presidents. It’s a favorite of Carol’s because it was one of the first attractions we ever saw. Back in the mid-70’s when the HoP opened it was FREE. Back then you used tickets A thru E and HoP was free for a whole year.

From the presidents we went to Mickey’s Philharmagic.

Then we got our wristbands for EMH and then took in Small World.

Are you as tired as we were becoming?

We grabbed lemonade and made our way to Tomorrowland. We rode the TTA and when we got into the Space Mountain potion of the ride all of a sudden the lights in Space Mountain came on…pretty spooky.

We asked to stay on the ride and we rode it again and once again got to see the insides of Space Mountain.

Then the TTA broke down for about 10 minutes…seemed it was not the night to be in Tomorowland.

We headed to Main Street to watch “Wishes.” About 4 minutes into the show someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to move because his girl friend could not see.

Huh?

I was stunned at first but decided to hold my tongue and I stood behind Carol instead of next to her.

As I stood there watching:”Wishes” I thought, “Okay, now what do I do if I’m blocking someone else’s view?

Gee, do I ask the dad in front of me to take his son of his shoulders because I can’t see?

Carol had a good point. No one is tall enough to block the fireworks; she wanted to see the castle.

I’m such a softie.

After the fireworks we headed to a special spot to watch Spectromagic, the late parade.

It’s been some months since I’ve seen Spectro but I noticed the Spectro Men are gone, and I could have sworn the three fairy godmothers used to be on one float not three separate floats and finally Chernobog’s horses used to be all one color…blur, right? Now they are different colors.

Wow, it was late. My day was already 18 hours long and it wasn’t over. Also, my aching ankle, yes the one I broke during the 2006 WDW half-Marathon was talking to me and saying, “Mike, I thought we had an agreement. I would give you no problem while running if you refrained from walking on me in excess of 12 hours a day!”

He had me there.

We went over to Pirates. There was no line….because the attraction was down.

So we decided it was time to call it a day.

We got back to our room around 1:15 A.M. and found this waiting for us.

It is a very thoughtful birthday gift to Carol from some very dear friends and I thought I'd just post a picture before we "made use" of this wonderful gift.

Thank you dear friends. You know who you are!

So now you know why this blog entry is a little late.

More tomorrow.

Looks like no running for me at Pop Century on this trip. Missed it again this morning and tomorrow we move to Port Orleans French Quarter.

Today we got a late start (wrote my blog until 1 A.M.) and went to EPCOT.

We decided to visit Figment first and then we stroled into World Showcase and rode the Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico.

When you next experience this attraction look for the Donald Duck pinata.

From there we walked around World Showcase and walked right onto The Maelstrom.

We saw drawbridge up to allow the Illuminations barges into the lagoon.

And from another angle...

And of course one of the aforementioned barges.

We made our way to Canada and had lunch at Le Cellier.

We overheard one of the castmembers say that the restaurant was fully booked up to January.

BTW, new Canada film in late September.

After lunch we took in Off Kilter....sans lead singer Jamie Holton who is on vacation.

Hey look...it's Lou Mongello of WDWRadio on the fiddle.

From there we enjoyed Brisith Invasion at the United Kingdom pavilion.

Looks like Food & Wine is already being celebrated at Japan.

We just had to see American Adventure one more time...I almost made it through "Golden Dream" without shedding a tear.

Homework assignment. Where can you find this in World Showcase?

We had dinner at Alfredo's. It would be our last dinner there as the restaurant will be closing at the end of the month.

After dinner we took in Ellen's Universe of Energy and decided to call it an early night for a change.

We got back to Pop Century and I finally visited my favorite spot at the resort, Generation Gap Bridge.

More tomorrow.

Arrgghhh....slept until 6:36 and since we had an early ADR at Donald's Breakfastosaurus another morning went by the boards without me running. Not good.

Anyway, we headed out to Disney's Animal Kingdom and made our way to Donald's.

Here's me...awake for only an hour, with Mr. Goofy.

We left breakfast and went to see Festival of the Lion King. It's always a joy to see this show and a great first attraction of the day.

We then went to see "Nemo - The Musical."

I've heard that people who have seen this show either love it or hate it. Those who dislike the show complain that they don't like to see the puppeteers. However, I think that's the charm of the show.

The larger puppets were amazing to see, especially Crush.

When you see this attraction my advice would be to sit in the rear portion of the theater, behind that main aisle. Otherwise you will miss some very entertaining parts of the show.

Again, the main charm is seeing the performers do their thing.

We then decided to leave DAK and head over to the Studios to catch a few attractions there.

The first order of the day in MGM was Beauty & The Beast. I know. I know. You're thinking, "Okay Mike, where's the gazillion pictures of Belle in her blue dress?" Well, I don't know. I just watched the show.

I've noticed over the last two years that the performing Belle for this attraction is always short, perhaps to emphasize the size difference between her and the Beast!.

From there we went over to the ABC theater steps to watch the "Stars and MotorCars" parade.

The middle sections of those steps are reserved for those who are hearing challenged and there are two people who "sign" the sounds of Stone Granite, Gabriel Huffington (I think that's her name) and other parade sounds to these special guests.

We saw Remy in the parade.

Oh yeah, these guys too.

We then saw the High School Musical Pep Rally, that is before the rain cut it short.

A word about this show, if you are a High School Musical purist you may not particularly enjoy the show as the performers put their own personalities into the songs which I noticed bothered some of the guests.

However there are those who loved the show and these guests, mostly the pre-teens, seem to be quite fanatical towards this show.

Before I forget, here is a homework assignment. Now where can you find this in MGM?

Also, this...

We then had dinner at H&V. Somehow they had us down for two ADRS with one of them being part of the Fantasmic Dinner Package, who knows.

After dinner we got our Extra Magic Hour wristbands.

We then took in the Backlot Tour.

I discovered something. If you sit in the back half of car #5 you will get soaked at Catastrophe Canyon...trust me.

At the AFI Villains portion of the tour...

...I checked on a special Hidden Mickey that Steve Barrett pointed out to me last year.

Consider this another homework assignment and look for this Hidden Mickey on your next trip.

We next did Muppetvision 3-D.

Here's another homework assignment. The next time you visit Muppetvision 3D watch the film very closely ans see if you can find the 3D glasses on the bust of Mozart.

We finished the night taking in Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

We thought about doing The Great Movie Ride and Indy but we were beginning to run out of gas.

Plus I had to write this blog entry.

Boy I hope Deb is using her sunscreen out West.

Help, I’m beginning to panic. I woke up at 4:30 Tuesday morning. Hmmm, too early to run. I’ll just close my eyes and then wake up at 5:30 and then go out and run.

Big mistake.

It’s been almost five days since my last run and I need to run Wednesday morning…but we have an 8:10 ADR at Donald’s Breakfastsaurus…..yes I’m panicking but anyway….

…we headed to EPCOT this morning and here’s an up to date picture on the state of Spaceship Earth…at least regarding Mickey’s Arm and wand…

…yep…practically gone.

A Soarin'

We headed over to Soarin’ and as always, I head over to the leftmost FastPass distribution box and that box is never crowded.

I noticed the huge pictures in the queue area had changed quite a lot. See for yourself.

After we got the FastPasses We got into line and hen we got to the loading area we ASKED to sit in the top row…we were guided to the next area and we were top center row…cool

After our first ride we needed to burn 30 minutes so we did “Living with the Land” and that attraction no longer has a Cast member riding with you.

Get a load of this…

We returned to Soarin'; and Carol AGAIN asked for the top row. This time not only did we get top row center but I was sitting in seat #6. That is the best seat in the house folks.

So there’s your second tip of the day…if it looks like you can get into the top row then ask.

We then did the Nemo attraction at the Living Seas. We got a kick out of this t-shirt

A Sailing

After Nemo I called my buddy Matthew from Reedy Creek emergency Services. Carol and I had plans to spend some time with Matthew and his fiancée Kristen today.

We planned to meet at DTD and take a pontoon ride to Old Key West.

As Carol and I left EPCOT we cut through Innoventions.

Now here’s a Segway I’d like to try.

We met Matthew and Kristen at the Marina at DTD and we took off for Old Key West. On a pontoon boat like this one which was docked at the Old key West Marina.

Along the way we past Saratoga Springs and Port Orleans

It was a nice comfortable quiet boat ride. It was refreshing too because the high for the day in Orlando set a new record…98 degrees.

We helped, or I should say Matt and Kristen (they both work for Reedy Creek Emergency services) helped a woman whose small boat kind of conked out on her.

Kristen edged the pontoon boat close to the woman’s boat and Matt got her boat working again.

We returned and had lunch at the Rainforest Café before heading our separate ways.

We made arrangements to get together again next week

Carol and I checked the stores.

Here’s a homework assignment. Where in DTD can you find a bee’s nest with bees?

We then headed back to EPCOT and took in American Adventure. I was very curious about the new “Golden Dream” and I was not disappointed. As much as I would like to say they just tweaked it I’d have to say it was more than a tweak and it will move you even more than its predecessor.

Also, look for a slight change to the ending of the AA attraction after ‘Golden Dream”

AA is my favorite WDW attraction.

I’m always the last one to leave the theater.

A Soaking

As we made our way around World Showcase everyone jumped as without notice a huge crack of thunder came out of nowhere. We were surprised because half the sky was sunny…we didn’t notice what was behind us.

Then the rains came ans we got soaked.

Here’s proof that half the sky was rainy and the other half sunny.

We watched Illuminations and it looks as though the video globe has been given some enhancements.

I took some pictures but they don’t do the globe justice so here’s a token torch picture.

We checked out Mouse Gear before leaving the park.

Hmmmm, I kept seeing the following logo on a lot of merchandise…

…could this be the new EPCOT logo?

We’ll see.

That was it for Tuesday.

Travel days take a lot out of me. The proof was that I didn’t wake up until 6:45 Monday morning…at the time I’m usually just back from my morning run…not on this morning.

What was worse was that I closed my eyes and didn’t really wake up until 8:30.

We had breakfast at Chef Mickey’s with several of our friends.

We celebrated two birthdays.

Here are some exclusive pictures I took of the current DVC work going on where the old Contemporary North Garden wing used to be. The work has only just begun.

For those of you who used to visit the Belz outlet it’s now the Prime Outlet.

There are some unusual stores like…

..and like….

…I was in the market for some new running trunks so I visited this store...

The Disney Character Warehouse store was not open yet….arrrrrggggh!

We then went to the Premium Outlets to visit the Disney Character Premium store.

Hey…I know someone who would be interested in this merchandise they were selling….

…do you know of whom I speak?

From there we shot over to Publix to get a case of water for our room.

From there we went over to Disney’s Animal Kingdom to catch the afternoon parade.

By the way….the ice tea sold at the quick-service restaurants comes in sugar and sugar-free but not is decaffeinated.

We had a dinner ADR at Boma and weren’t sure if it would be too late for us to return to DAK for EMH but we got our bands anyway.

As it turned out after Boma we thought it best to go to MGM.

MGM was very crowded.

Here’s some homework….next time you’re in MGM look for this billboard.

Make that two assignments….look for this Mickey Mouse rocking horse too.

Here’s a clue…

We did a few things in MGM and finished the night watching Fantasmic…always entertaining.

By the way, speaking of Fantasmic, I no longer do the Fantasmic dinner package because I think that the prices are a bit much. So I eat at my favorite MGM restaurant about 2 hours before the Fantasmic show time and then head over to the Hollywood Hills about an hour before the show.

We had left center seats, about 15 rows up.

Tips that come to mind from today…

• Don’t go by the printed schedules you pick up at the parks. If there is a greeter board, like the one at the beginning of Sunset Blvd. check that for late changes in the park. For instance, today the printed schedule said MGM was holding only one showing of Fantasmic…the board said otherwise….so check the boards.

• Also, have you ever made an ADR (Advanced dining Reservation) yet was hungry an hour before the time of your ADR? Well, if it’s just the two of you then you have a very good chance of having your ADR moved up…just show up at the restaurant and ask if your time can be moved up.

As I write this entry the weathermen down here are starting to mention the possibility of a hurricane hitting Florida sometime late this weekend. If so I’ll be here to report it.

It’s time for me to head over to Deb’s blog to see how her Southwest Adventures are going.

That’s all for now.

So here I am in Walt Disney World and I thought I'd share my trip experiences with you for the main purpose of helping you plan your next trip to Walt Disney World.

I'll reflect on some things that work for me that save me money, time, and stress. Call them tips if you like.

I'll also mention a few interesting things I have noticed on this trip that you may want to look for or experience on your next trip.

The Early Bird

Yes I am an early bird. I take the ealiest flight I can. Why? Well if I plan on taking a later flight there is a better chance of that flight being delayed simply because of the domino effect that occurs when flights are delayed.

Also, for some reason early morning flights seem to make better time than the later ones.

Join the Club

If you rent a car while in Orlando always try to join that car agencies club or whatever allows you to bypass the counter.

As we rolled along with our luggage Carol saw the line at the National Car counter and said, "Yikes! Look at that line!" She forgot i was an Emerald Aisle member. We went right up and grabbed our car and was off.

How much time did this save? Well we were rolling our luggage into our room at Pop Century approxiamately 75 minutes after our plane touched down in Orlando.

It is well worth it to do whatever you can to save time.

As an Annual Passholder (and I realize not everyone is) I always try to get AP rates for the room. This vacation has me spliting my time between Pop Century (I know...blasphemy...but Pop Century should not complain...i'm approaching my 100th night there) and Port Orleans French Quarter...both with AP rates.

Another AP advantage is the Disney Dining Experience card which offers me a 20% discount at most of the sit-down restaurants and also Everything Pop (Pop Century's foodcourt).

When we got to the TTC we took the Admiral Joe Fowler Ferry to The Magic Kingdom

Here's a few topiaries for you to look for on your next trip to the Magic Kingdom.

The Haunted Mansion

Now look at this photo...tells you that Haunted Mansion is really closed for refurbishing erh?

However, Master Gracey left us this note...

...which informs us that he's traveling the netherworld in search of new spirits.

Here's another picture of the Haunted Mansion "under wraps" and going through a face change.

Keep yer fingers crossed that this attraction will be up and running in 6-8 weeks.

Be on the Lookout for...

Here's something for you to look for the next time you ride the Magic Kingdom riverboat. Look for the dog standing in this boat and watching this fish jump out of the water...and I mean this fish does jump out of the water.

I have two other bits of information to share with you before I end this very long day.

The next time you visit the Carrousel of Progress you may want to check out each scene very carefully. One of them includes an image of Mickey as the Sorceror's Apprentice...but which one? And where in the scene is this image?

Finally, the next time you are in The Magic Kingdom and you see this sign in front of the City Hall...

...please take it with a grain of salt.

I suggest that you both call Disney Dining and also take a chance and walk up to the restaurant's podium and check for an opening. It actually works more often that you would think.

That's it for now. See you next time everyone.

The response and questions regarding "The Letter" I read at MagicMeets has prompted me to share the entire letter with everyone.

So here in its entirety is the letter, written by Lee Cockeral, WDW Operations Manager, a few years ago:

Why We Do What We Do...

We do it for the children of all ages from around the world.

And for the lifelong memories we create for our welcome Guests and
cherished friends from all around the world . . . that is WHY WE DO WHAT WE
DO.

Well there have been some interesting developments regarding the Tower of Terror 6.5K and 13K races. I know that many people were hesitant to register for either one of these races because for awhile there were no indications as to what the minimum pace would be for each course.

Considering that there are entry fees involved can you blame anyone for not jumping forward blindly without first determining if in fact they can do the pace that the Disney race folks will require for each distance?

Well I’m happy to tell everyone not to worry. The pace requirements have been posted and they have made everyone smile.

Regardless of which race a participant enters the pacing requirement is the same. The requirement is to complete the course in 2 and ½ hours.

That means those doing the 6.5K distance are looking at about a 38 minute per mile pace and those doing the 13K race are looking at about a 19 minute per mile pace.

My guess is that once everyone saw that pace requirements the registrations started pouring in.

A little bird told me that the longer course may have quite a few surprises for the participants and I’m looking forward to that myself.

By the way, the start time for the race and party at Disney/MGM-Studios has been pushed back to 9:30 P.M.

For those who usually run in the morning or mid-day that start time makes for even more of a challenge

Every race that I have run at WDW has started anywhere from 6:00 to 7:30 A.M. so this will be quite different for me.

Oh yeah, don’t let me forget to tell you that there is a Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party event scheduled for the night before the race on Friday, October 26th and if you’re wondering, yes I plan to go and I already have my ticket in hand.

I figure that I might as well stay out late Friday night and sleep in on Saturday morning because I’ll need to be well rested for the race on Saturday night.

Will I see YOU there?

Training Tip

If you are new to running or are returning to running after a long layoff your first priority should be to find the best running shoes for your needs.

The absolute best way to insure that you will select shoes that will work for you is to go into a store that specializes in running shoes and do the following:

• Tell them of your running plans. Let them know what your goals are and how far you plan to run per week.
• Have them measure your feet so that you will be sure to get the proper fit.
• Let them know if you have and issues with aches and pains in your legs, ankles, back or feet. That can help with the selection. Running shoes fall into classes that are designed for special needs such as cushioning and stability.
• Finally, have them observe you walking so they can see how your gait works and how you naturally land on your feet.

A running store staffed with knowledgeable people will go far in getting you off on the right foot…no pun intended.

Try all the shoes suggested and go with the most comfortable fit.

It may take a week or so before you know if they are the right shoes for you.

Once you know you have the “right” model for you it may be worth getting a second pair and rotate them as you train.

There’s so much more to talk about as we train.

Mike’s Training Notebook

If you’re interested my training regimen now has me at the point where I’m running one hour a day at least three times a week. I’m not worried about pace for now. My objective is to slowly build up my stamina. I’m taking my time and so should you.

Let me ask one more time...

…Will I see YOU in October?

Thirteen years later it was all coming back to me, the anticipation, the excitement, and the thrill of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. As I read through my trip report of 13 years back what struck me as most interesting was my observations as my daughter, son, and I came to the bottom of that crazy elevator shaft and how the rest of that day went for all of us.

So allow me to wrap up this trip down memory lane with the final installment of The Day the Tower Opened with my own words from my trip report of July, 1994.

Carol was there waiting for us....along with a dozen cast members and several EMTs standing by to assist any visitors having problems. Needless to say, what other Disney attraction needs EMTs standing by? That says it right there that this attraction is major league.

It was a very satisfying day.

That was thirteen years ago. It was a very satisfying day and I’m looking forward to a very satisfying night…race night that is.

It's always exciting to do a soft opening of a Walt Disney World attraction. such was the case back in 1994 when my family and I were among the first to experience the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

When we left off in Part 1 we were sitting in the elevator. My son, daughter and I were about to experience the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

Let’s get back to my trip report and see what my observations were as we sat down, buckled up, and wondered what would happen next.

Back we go...back to 1994.....back...back...

(Cue the dream sequence fog)

I checked my watch. It took but 20 minutes to get to this point. I couldn't help but notice how many cast members were staffing this attraction. They were all over the place. Just before we got on a small boy (barely made the 42" requirement) asked about the drop. "What drop?" asked the CAST MEMBER, "We have good elevators here at the Hollywood Hotel." Good job.

Thank goodness the drop is in darkness. I would think that if we could see outside as we dropped we'd be in serious trouble at the bottom. I know there are coaster people out there who are saying, "C'mon Mike! It sounds like a coaster!" Nope. Coasters are always moving. This vehicle TOOK OFF FROM A STANDING POSITION. I wish I had looked up as we plummeted.

So what happened next? That's called Part III: The Ride Aftermath!

When I had read about how the upcoming Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 13K is to commemorate the 13th year anniversary of the opening of this attraction, I could not help but think about my first encounter with the Tower 13 years ago.

I remember that July trip back in 1994 and wondering when I took off for Orlando if I'd get chance to experience this much heralded new attraction during my visit.

The following excerpt comes from my trip report that recollects that vacation and especially my first visit to the old Hollywood Hotel.

On that particular day while we were in MGM-Studios we noticed that the Tower was....

...wait a minute...let me share with you the exact written words from my trip report.

Come with me…back to July 1994 on a trip with my wife Carol, daughter Holly, and son Mike Jr.…back…back….

(Insert clouds and wavy dream sequence effects)

We were sitting on a bench along Hollywood Blvd. and I couldn't help but notice how empty the park was on this day. Little did I know how we would benefit from the lack of guests.

You can exit just before the elevators if you chicken....erh prefer to bypass the actual ride. We get up to the elevator and we are directed to stand on certain spots just outside the elevator. This is done for loading purposes. The elevator comes and we file in. The elevator contains benches. We sit in the front row and a lap bar is pulled down. Note that the middle seat in the rear row does not have a bar but a seat belt (lap...not shoulder).

Next time it's Part II: The Ultimate Elevator Ride.

Hi Folks.

First allow me to thank Deb for inviting me to participate in this new phase for AllEarsNet. I’m pretty excited on the opportunity to share some insights with all of you and hopefully help in any way I can to assist you in your Walt Disney World Trip planning activities.

So what’s new? Well recently Walt Disney World announced yet another race in their Endurance Series and I’m pretty excited about running in it.

This brand new race is called The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 13K (8.01 miles).

This race is to commemorate the 13th Anniversary of the opening of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction at the Disney/MGM Studios theme park. Actually my family and I were there the first day the cast members donned their bellhop costumes. I hope to tell you what that day was like.

This race is pretty cool because it takes place on Saturday, Oct. 27th at 9 P.M. That’s right…at night.

I’ll talk more of this race next time including how to register and recommend how to prepare to run in a WDW sponsored race. Over the last 18 months I've run in eight WDW races and have learned a lot and I want to share my "education" with you.

Oh there’ll be other topics we’ll cover and I hope you’ll feel free to contact me here as to what you would like to hear from me. As I prepare for my trips, experience them, and learn from them I will share my experiences with you in the hope of helping you with your own trips.

Just as Deb has graciously invited me to share my thoughts with you I’m inviting you to my blog and to encourage you to let me know what you think of it and of course WDW.

Mike