Disney Trip Planning Is An Education

It's been over 10 months since I began planning my 50th birthday trip to Walt Disney World in 2010. I started in July and we went on the trip in September. It was 2 months of intense and extensive planning.

Luckily there are more resources to help plan a visit to Disney World than there are for any other vacation destination. These resources include guide books, Disney specific travel agents. websites, and podcasts.

The most valuable book I found was the "Unofficial Guide To Walt Disney World." But it was just one of the many resources I used for help coordinate my days at Disney. The reason you need a plan for visiting Disney World is to maximum the quality of your experience.

You see the expense involved in taking a Disney World vacation is high. With such a high price point, to be considered a worth the price, a visit to see Mickey & his friends needs to be a vacation experience unlike any other. One that makes the financial investment worth it. The word for this is  is "value."

Now the management and operators of Walt Disney World do their best to set things up to make your experience a true value. Cast Members are given the mission to make a daily effort to make the guest experience as exceptional as possible.  But there's only so much they can do in a general way to help the guest have a good time. It's up to the individual to make their own personal effort and plan to do what maximizes their fun and accomplish what they want to do while in "The World."

I did this for my trip last summer. I made a spreadsheet of the attractions and shows I wanted to see as well as things I wanted to do in each park. I used the website, Touring Plans.com, to prioritize which attractions to go to first to keep my waiting time and walking distance to a minimum. I also noted and organized the restaurants and snack places I wanted go to as well.

Now the fact that I have an obsessive compulsive personality and "have" to be overly organized helped me in planning my 50th birthday Disney trip. But also having all the resources available gave me an education on just exactly how to plan and organize a trip. This made the 5 days we were in Orlando the memorable experience that I wanted it to be.

Now I've written all of that to write about this. This past week my wife, Paula, and I went to Chattanooga, Tennessee for a 4 day vacation. This was the first part of Paula's 50th birthday trip. (yes, her birthday trip gets to be a 2-parter. I mean she gave me a trip to Disney World for my 50th birthday. She deserves any type of trip she wants this year.)

For a few years now she has been saying that she wanted to go to Chattanooga to visit the aquarium and see Rock City. She did some research on the tourist attractions and things to do in the city. She discovered that there was enough to do there to keep us busy for 4 or 5 days.

Once we agreed that the last week in May was the when we would take our vacation we began to plan what we were going to do. We found one website that listed all the trip planning resources for Chattanooga:www.chattanoogafun.com.  This was convenient but it was just one website. Although we did get some planning guides from AAA the resources for information about Chattanooga were not as readily available those for Walt Disney World. I had to really search for information.

I realized that I had been a bit spoiled because of the saturation of trip planning help available for Disney World compared to other destinations. Luckily the Disney trip planning I've done in the past has honed my skills for looking for information on the Internet and taught how to plan a vacation.

I gathered as much information about the Chattanooga area as I could. I then composed a couple of spread sheets with information about the tourist attractions and places to eat. I set up a daily calendar listing what we wanted to do each day. I prioritized the attractions and historic sites into "must see" and "just interested" rankings. I also scouted the locations, prices, and menus of the area restaurants. All of these were things I learned to do while planning for my two Walt Disney World trips.

So thanks to my love, passion, and obsession for Disney World I've gained a general education in trip planning. I'm no travel agent or money saving travel genius by any means. However the plans and information I gathered for my 2004 & 2010 Disney vacations helped me know what to do to make the 5 days of our Chattanooga vacation enjoyable ones.

Thanks Disney World.

My Disney Dentist

Most people who are Disney World fanatics tie the start of their passion to their first trip to Walt Disney World or Disneyland Park when they were young. This isn't true in my case.

I didn't really become interested in going to Disney World until I was in my late 30's. How my interest in Disney began is a long and involved story that I won't go into in this post. Let's just say that in 1997, when I began thinking about taking my first trip to "The Happiest Place On Earth"; it came out of wanting to surprise and impress someone important to me at the time.

My interest in Disney was sidetrack by a more intense desire to buy my first PC. For 6 months I put aside my plans to save for a Disney trip to finance the purchase of my first home computer. After I had my new portal to the Internet set up in my living room, I planned on getting back to my Disney planning. But before I could do that a series of drastic changes in my life brought me to Kentucky. Once I was here my reason for wanting to go to Disney World was no longer important or relevant.

Just let me pause to say that even though I wasn't determined to go to Disney World above everything else it was still on my radar. I kept it in the back of my mind. Disney World had caught my attention and a degree of fascination about going to "see the mouse" stayed with me even though it wasn't a top priority.

In 2001 with Paula's encouragement I decided to go to a dentist and get my teeth fixed. Nearly 1/3 of them were missing including my two front teeth. In addition the teeth that I still had were loaded with cavities. Getting my teeth fixed or replace was going to be a major long term proposition.

Because I was new to the area and did not have a dentist of my own, Paula sent me to hers. His name was Dr. Timothy Whitaker. Over the next 8 months he would give me back my smile. While his professional work would make a drastic improvement in the quality of my life, his personal interests would have a life changing effect on me as well.

At that very first appointment while sitting in the waiting room I decided to read a magazine. The only one I was even vaguely interested in was a copy of Disney Magazine. It was a quarterly publication that featured articles about Disney World. An example of one of the Disney Magazine covers is at the top of this post.

I paged through the magazine and skimmed some of the articles. They focused on the most recently released Disney movies or spotlighted a popular Disney World resort, restaurant, or attraction. I read some of the letters to the editor. They were written by Disney fans who shared their magical experiences they had in the Florida parks or with something Disney at home. Reading these things sparked something deep inside of me that I had forgotten about. It reignited my Disney flame.

Soon I learned that the reason the copies of Disney Magazine were in the waiting room was because Dr. Whitaker was a big Disney fan. Almost as soon as I sat down in the examination chair we started talking about Walt Disney World and for the last 10 years we haven't stopped.

Although I'd had a peripheral on going interest in Disney ever since August 1997 I can pinpoint the start of my current period interest (you could very easily call it a "period of obsession") in my life to the day I picked up that copy of Disney Magazine and met my new dentist.

Over the last decade everytime I go to see Dr. Whitaker, usually about 3 or 4 times a year, we share something about Disney. It could be a conversation about the latest Disney World news, plans for an up coming trip to Orlando, a book, magazine article, a referal to a newly discovered Disney website, or podcast. Whether my interest in Disney was "hot" or "cold" (there was a time around 2007/2008 that I was upset with Disney World for it's wedding policy but I'll save that for a different post) my dentist and I always connected through our common bond. 

So there you have it some of the backstory about how I came to be as crazy about Disney as I am. Since that day in 2001 in the dentist's office I have visited Disney World twice and spend countless hours studying and learning about it's history, magic and more. Whenever I come across something I think Dr. Whitaker would be interested I make a note of it or put it aside to make sure the next time I go to get my teeth cleaned I'll be able to share it with my Disney Dentist.

September Temptations

My Favorite View From The Fifties Building

One of the things about being a fan of Walt Disney World is that very soon after a vacation there you begin to think about going back. This can happen at any time after you leave South Florida; perhaps as early as when you're driving away. 

It's been 8 months since my last trip to Disney and I've been thinking about going back ever since.

I've written about our plans for our next Disney vacation; an anniversary cruise on "The Dream". But I'd also love to go back to the parks as well. 

In a perfect world I'd vacation in WDW every year. But of course the cost to go makes that almost impossible. Unless you want to put yourself into debt and charge the trip on a credit card (making the cost of your trip even more because you pay interest); you have to plan and save to pay for the vacation up front.

The main reason we went last September was because of special hotel discounts and free dining plan that was offered by Disney on dates that included my birthday.   

Yesterday I heard the news that Disney is offering the dining plan free between August 24 and September 24. Again, those dates include my birthday. I couldn't help myself. My heart started beating a little bit faster and the Disney fanatic in me immediately asked, Is it possible I could find myself looking out over the bowling pin pool at the Pop Century resort on my 51st birthday like I did on my 50th (see picture above)? "Could this discount be enough to get the wife to agree to go to Walt Disney World again this year?"

Sadly the answer is "no." The only way she would go again this year is if the entire trip was free and included airfare. She wouldn't pass that up. This is why I enter every Disney vacation giveaway sweepstakes that I see or hear about. But like they say on commercials aimed at kids on Saturday mornings: "Millions enter, few win." But I digress.

Take my reaction to the news of the free dining offer at Walt Disney World and multiply it by millions of Disney fans all over the country and throughout the world. This discount is going to result in thousands of families deciding to come to Disney World because it "saves them money". This is the motive behind the promotion and it will work.  

Like I said, I could never convince my wife to spend our vacation money on going to Disney World again this year. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't be willing to, at least, plead my case with her if there the cost  was the same or less than going somewhere else. The late summer "free dining" promotion pushes the cost in that direction...but not anywhere near enough.

So thanks for the momentary rush of excitement, Disney Travel Company. You got me thinking about coming back to "Mickey's house" much sooner than realistically possible. But you've also got me doubting the "across the board" validity of one of Walt's most infamous quotes: "If you can dream it, you can do it." Well, in some cases that's not true; especially when you did it last year.

Disney's April Showers



The Disney Dream

 Here in south central Kentucky the term "April Showers" was extremely appropriate. Our area received over 10 inches of rain. Precipitation and severe weather were part of almost every day of the month.

It seems that in April, the same can be said for news, rumors and announcements in the "Land of Disney." A saturation of announcements and rumors had produced a garden of possibilities and promises for the Disney fan. There were so many things going on it would take a record long post to mention them all. I will, however, touch on some of them. Especially the one that directly effects me.

If you want all the details on all that went on with Disney during April, I would suggest checking out "WDW Radio.com" , "Inside The Magic.net" and "allears.net" for the scoop on all the rumors and look to the official Disney blog at "disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog" for a review on the news.

Some of the news that doesn't interest me very much is the premiere of the Star Tours 2 attraction later in the month during the first of the annual Star Wars Weekends. I'm not a Star Wars fan so this isn't all that interesting to me. Don't get me wrong I'm excited that there will be a new attraction at Disney World to ride next time I visit. There's also been rumors of an expansion of the Hollywood Studios Park to create an entire Star Wars section of the park.

Speaking of adding to a Disney Park, there's been a report in a South American newspaper that Disney has begun working with the Brazilian government to prepare to add a Brazil pavilion in Epcot. This is just the most recent in a long line of rumored World Showcase additions over the last couple of decades. So far none of those rumors have turned out to be true. Disney fans will have to wait this one out as well.

In April came the announcement that the construction phase of the Aulani DVC resort in Hawaii has been completed. The theming and the interior decorating can now begin in preparation for its opening in the fall of this year.

Also in the world of the DVC is a rumor that there is going to be a new DVC section at the Grand Floridian resort. This is based on permit requests, plans and other documents filed and submitted by Disney with local governments. There has been no public announcement.
Since I am not, nor will I ever be, a DVC member these stories have no direct effect on me.

A change at Disney's Port Orleans: French Quarter resort, which could possibly have an effect on my future visits to Disney world, has been announced. Some of rooms at this popular moderate resort will be changed to "Royal Guest Rooms".

This means that some of the rooms will be part of Princess Tiana's Guest House. They will be decorated for specific guests the main character from the "Princess and the Frog"  has invited to stay there. Along with the announcement came the information that these rooms will cost extra. 

After staying in the Pop Century value resort last September I don't know if i would ever pay the extra to stay at a moderate again. And I doubt very much that I'd pay extra just to stay in a themed room. But you never know. If we do decide to stay at a moderate on our next trip Port Orleans: French Quarter will be my choice. So depending on what the new "storybook" rooms have as a theme and how much extra they are I may consider staying in one.

I think that this is a good idea for families with children who are making a "once in a lifetime" trip to Disney. The kids will love staying in these types of themed rooms and it will created a lasting memory for them.

The other resort announcement made in April was the themeing of several suites on the 14th floor of the deluxe Contemporary resort hotel into "health and wellness" rooms. This means nothing to me because I will never pay the price for staying at a deluxe resort. In addition when I'm on vacation I want to focus on fun and not anything else.

Finally, the one announcement that has the greatest effect on my future Disney vacation plans. In the first week of April the Disney Cruise Line announced their 2012 Itineraries. These include excursions for all 4 of their ships that will be sailing by then: The Magic, The Wonder, The Dream and the, yet to be launched, Fantasy.

Paula and I have been discussing a Disney Cruise to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary at the end of 2012. The announcement of cruise dates, destinations and choice of ships was something I'd been waiting to see for about a month.

As I have stated in a previous post the December 2012 voyage of the Disney Dream is the cruise that will fit into our plans. I have already started to save in anticipation of our decision to book our reservations for this trip in the near future.

So there you have a brief recap of some of the news, rumors, and announcements in the "World of Disney" officially released in the month of April. It truly was a "shower" of information and changes.

As Disney is a company always in a state of progress and development I'm sure there will be more news during this month. Other than the opening of Star Tours 2 in Walt Disney World and the start of Star Wars weekends the most anticipated event coming in May is the opening of the movie: Pirates Of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides. That happens on May 20. This film promises to continue the successful momentum of this very popular Disney franchise.

With the summer tourist season on the horizon I'm sure there will be more happenings and announcements and, as always, more rumors bursting onto the scene before Memorial Day.
If any of them have an effect or prove exciting to me I promise I'll post about it when it happens.

Disney's "African Cats" Is True Adventure

For the 3rd year in a row the Disney Nature division of the Walt Disney movie studios has released its latest animal documentary on Earth Day. This year's film is titled: African Cats.

As with "Oceans", Disney Nature's release for 2010, I went to the very first screening on Earth Day, Friday April 22. There were about a dozen other people in the theater so it wasn't very crowded. There were several young children as well. I enjoyed hearing them ask questions to their parents about what they were seeing on screen as the movie ran. 

The projector was misframed for about the first 3 minutes of the film. We could only see the bottom half of the frame. I went out to the concession stand and alerted the staff to the problem.

Unlike the previous pair of Disney Nature movies, which moved from a variety of locations to tell their stories, "African Cats" focuses on one place; a savanna in Kenya's stunning Masai Mara National Reserve. The savanna is divided into bisected by a crocodile infested river.

Likewise the story is divided in two. One of them is about a pride of lions ruled by an aging battle scared male named "Fang". There's also an aging lioness named, Layla, who is taking care of her female cub, Mara. The mother lioness is getting older and her demise is immanent. Her focus is to make sure Mara is accepted by the pride before she is not around to protect her.

This pride resides in the "northern kingdom" of the savanna and is threatened by the ruler of the southern kingdom, a rival named, Kali. Kali along with his 3 large and powerful sons are driven to take over the northern pride. The lion's story follows this battle between the two prides.

The 2nd plot of the film is about a mother Cheetah and her effort to raise her 5 cubs. Her struggle includes finding food, protecting them from hyenas and other predators including trio of male cheetahs. Her efforts are difficult but successful for the most part.

Although I've only described them briefly these two story lines along with the beauty of the savanna and its many animal inhabitants keep "African Cats" moving along at an exciting and enjoyable pace. I loved this movie.

The film does include some harsh glimpses of the realities of the animal kingdom. Death is a key element. There are no on screen killings or deaths but they are directly and clearly referenced as key plot points. I would not recommend it for children under 8 years old. For children under that age and those who are sensitive to such things, this film could be very confusing and possibly create some emotional reactions.

But for those who are old enough and mature enough to handle the seeing the reality of life on the savanna I highly recommend this film. "African Cats" is a return for Disney films to the quality "true life adventures" of the 1950's and 60's.

Much to my delight this movie does not have any hidden agenda or between-the-lines environmentalist messages. It just shows life on the savanna as it really is.

The trailer for next year's Earth Day release titled, "Chimpanzees" is similar in style to the one I saw last year for "African Cats." It previews a specific story about an orphan chimp who is adopted by a lone male chimp, which raises the youngster as his own. It looks very promising.

In conclusion I want to restate how much I enjoyed "African Cats." It is very well done and includes a strong mix of education, adventure, natural beauty, and humor. The closing credits are especially humorous in regard to matching savanna animals with the creative aspects of its production.

Since my wife didn't go with me to see this movie I may convince her to go with me as a means of getting to see it a 2nd time. If she agrees that will be great. If she doesn't, I'll begin to look for the announcement of a DVD release date. I'll mark it on my calendar to make sure that on the day comes out I'll be able to once again enjoy "African Cats."

Planning, Saving, & Booking

This past week I received information for the Disney Cruise Lane dates that we're looking at for our 10 anniversary trip in December 2012.

The information was sent to me by Stephanie from Mouse Fan travel. She's the agent who booked our Disney World vacation for my birthday last September. I highly recommend the use of Mouse Fan Travel for all your Disney booking needs. There's no fee for any of their services. They earn their money from Disney.

After getting this information I've caught Disney Cruise fever. I've started researching and reading all I can about taking a Disney Cruise.

The cruise we'd be booking would be a 4 night cruise to the Bahamas. We'd leave on Sunday December 9 and return on Thursday the 13th. The 2 ports of call for the voyage would be Nassau in the Bahamas and Disney's own Castaway Cay.

Now most of the Disney Cruises that leave from Port Canaveral stop at Castaway Cay. What I like about the itinerary for this cruise is Nassau. The Atlantis resort is on that island and you can book an excursion to that resort for the day the ship docks at Nassau. I've always wanted to go to Atlantis because its theme is based on the legendary Lost City of Atlantis; something Paula has always been interested in.

From what I've seen on the Disney Cruise website we will probably want to book a stateroom with a veranda. The price is a bit above the basic rate but is still within our budget.  From what I've read and heard that an ocean view is worth it. A picture  of the room and veranda from the website is at the top of this post.

I'm ready to pull the trigger on booking this trip right now. The advantage of booking so far in advance is that the price is as low as it will ever be. From what Stephanie wrote to me the price goes up as the ship's rooms are booked. So now would be the best time to book. But that means a down payment of 20% of the total price. That's a rather large investment for a trip so far away.

But first thing's first. My wife wants to take an early birthday trip in late May (her 50th birthday is July 1). She's said that before we think about our anniversary trip we have to plan and pay for her birthday trip.

But I know from past experience that it's better to start saving sooner than later. So I've planned out an estimated budget to estimate the cost of the trip. In addition to the cost for the cruise we will have to have transportation. We could drive to Florida like we did last September but it would be nice to fly. In addition you have to pay for any excursions you decide to take at the ports of call.

As I explained in one of my previous posts the one thing that sold Paula on a cruise on the Disney Dream was the opportunity to go to the spa. The cost of those visits will be extra as well. Then there's souvenirs and any other extras we would want on or off the boat.

So in preparation for making it a bit easier on us I've devised a savings plan that includes daily and weekly savings amounts. If I follow the plan by the time our cruise comes around we will have the money we need to pay for it saved.

So the way it looks for now I'm going to be able to do plenty of planning, some saving, but the actual booking and commitment to the cruise will have to wait. I look forward to the day I can post the fact that we've made our deposit and booked our reservation for our 10th Anniversary cruise on the Disney Dream.

"Rescuers" Sequel Leads To Digital Success

Last month Disney’s latest animated feature based on a fairy tale, Tangled, was released on DVD. During its time in the theaters, the film made close to $500 million at the box office worldwide. By standards set by the film industry that makes it a “blockbuster” .

The popularity of Tangled  is for Disney animation a return to credible status in Hollywood.  That’s something that hasn’t been acclaimed to this part of Disney since, what’s often referred to as, the 2^nd golden age of Disney animation. The time period between 1989 and 1995 when Disney released the animated hits: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and The Lion King.  

Tonight I watched a documentary called “Waking Sleeping Beauty”. Produced by former Disney animators Peter Schneider and Don Hahn (who also directed) this film tells the story of the Disney animation studio between the years 1985 & 1995. It’s done with archival footage actually shot within that timeframe.  There are no “talking head” shots in this film only narration by Hahn and voiceovers by people who worked for Disney throughout those years.

I highly recommend this documentary to anyone who is interested in learning the story behind some of the most recent classic Disney animation features. But this post is not intended as a review of “Waking Sleeping Beauty.”

What I want to write about is a conclusion I’ve developed based on a statement made in “Waking Sleeping Beauty” and fleshed out using facts I’ve collected along the way.

The blockbuster animated feature that launched Disney’s success in the late 80’s/early 90’s was “Little Mermaid”. It was released in 1989. The following year Disney released a sequel to the successful 1977 animated film, "The Rescuers". The film made $48 million at the box office in the USA alone. The 1990 sequel was set in Austrialia and entitled “Rescuers Down Under.” Not familiar with this movie? Not surprising.

This movie holds the record for the lowest opening weekend box office take in the history of Disney Animation. In its first weekend it only made $5 million dollars. After that poor performance Disney animation president, Jeffery Katzenberg, pulled all the company advertising for the film. It quickly faded away into Disney animation history. But failing miserably at the box office is not the “Rescuers” sequel's true legacy. This dark cloud in Disney film history has a very important silver lining.

According to “Waking Sleeping Beauty,” “Rescuers Down Under” was the first digitally animated film ever created. It was made using a specially built and very expensive computer developed by a then fledgling animation company known as Pixar.

As “Waking Sleeping Beauty” director, Hahn, states if it hadn’t been for the digital technology developed for “Rescuers Down Under” none of the other mega hits that followed would have been possible.

So a bit of a hindsight life lesson learned courtesy of Disney animation. Despite it being the greatest failure in the 74 years of Disney animated features most of Disney’s successful films during its 2^nd Golden Age of animation were built on the shoulders of “The Rescuers Down Under".

I was a little disappointed to learn about the film's financial failure. I have fond memories of it from when it was playing in the movie theater where I was working at the time of its release. I've always liked the movie but its not on the list of favorites for many other Disney fans. But now that I've learned of its place and importance in Disney animation history. I feel like my enjoyment and adimration for it is validated.

The lesson here is: don’t be afraid of failure. Just as Walt Disney used to say keep moving forward and learn from your mistakes and use it to build success for the future. That’s something we all need to remember.