One Magical Park at a Time!

I love visiting Walt Disney World SO MUCH that I even enjoy watching other people's videos of the rides...on youtube!  I have not put any of my videos on you tube, but my favorite was videotaping the entire train ride around Magic Kingdom with my Flip Video Camera.

And another great place in Magic Kingdom...the TinkerBell Fairy Gift Shoppe!

And Here is something memorable from Epcot Center:

I HIGHLY recommend the KimPossible Activity for any child 7 and up while visiting The World Showcase!  It makes the walk around this part of the Park way more interesting for kids, whereas the adults are just enjoying taking in the sights and sounds and some food.

Saying good bye is hard to do....Mic (see ya real soon)

key (Why?  Because we love you)

M.O.U.S.EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Walt Disney World Road Trip-Part 2

So once you are on-location at your Disney Resort Hotel, then you must have an itinerary for your fun! It is a good idea to select what park to visit on any given day.  When doing this, refer to the guide for "Extra Magic Hours".  This can be received at the hotel in your welcome folder and it tells you which parks and at what times on what day you, as a Resort Guest ,are entitled to extra hours.  These will be either at the start or end of the day.  This is essential information to have ahead of time.  You can also get it from the website so that you can have these days planned out before you arrive in Orlando!

So armed with some extra hours, you can select certain parks on certain days.  For example, if Animal Kingdom is offering early arrival for Resort Guests on a Wednesday, you will want to plan to wake up a lot earlier.  If you are commuting to your parks by the Busses provided by the "world", then you will need to plan to catch that bus 45 minutes ahead of your park arrival time.  If you want to take advantage of your refillable beverage cup at your resort dining hall, you must wake up early enough to cross the resort from your room to the dining hall and still catch your bus on time!  So there is a lot of detailed planning in order to fully benefit from the opportunities available for FREE.

Don't forget the free benefit of your pool and water parks right on your hotel grounds!  Also, each hotel has a playground and gift shop and an arcade too!  Our hotel, The POP Century had giant Icon statues to entertain kids of all ages!

The POP Playground

The Water Spurts, goofy-themed

Although every one of the Value resorts has similar features...this GOOFY spot was one of my all-time favorites and the main reason I choose The POP over and over again!

If you have arrived at night and did not purchase the extra day of park admission, there are still some wonderful ways to enjoy the "World" for free!  Here is what you do:

1. Hop on the first bus to Magic Kingdom
2. Cross the lot to the Main Entrance but do not go through the gate...instead, head up to the MonoRail.  You may ride the monorail for FREE!  The train arrives and looks like a futuristic space shuttle of sorts.  The doors open to individualized seating compartments where you may board.  The monorail circuit will give you a lovely tour.  It leave Magic Kingdom and enters inside of the Contemporary Resort.  If you would like, you may exit the monorail and explore this resort and then return to catch the next monorail.  Inside the Contemporary Resort, you could visit the Dining areas which include Chef Mickey's Restaurant!  You could also shop at their gift shop. Every resort has specialized gift items with their resort logo that cannot be purchased anywhere else in the "World". 

If you continue on the monorail, your next stop will be The Grand Floridian Hotel.  After that, The Polynesian.  We departed the monrail at the Polynesian and explored the resort, taking many pictures and picking up some complimentary leis which we later used in our scrapbooking!

The monorail will continue running until the parks close and so you may take it back to the Magic Kingdom to catch your resort bus back to your resort.  While doing this, you and your family will see and hear the sounds of the Magic Kingdom!  There are lights and street performances everywhere...magic lingers in the most unexpected places!

Our Park plan included 6 days to vist 4 parks.  We had 7 nights to stay in our hotel, The POP Century.  Because we had driven down, we also had the freedom to drive around and see anything we wanted.  In previous years, when we have flown, we did not have that freedom without an extra cost.

Choosing where and how to eat is an important step in the planning too.  How I did it was to select one special place to eat at each park on any given day.  Then I would choose which meal we would be dining out at.  We never bothered with a sit-down dinner or anything full service since my son was so young for that trip.  Whenever possible, we simply ate our meal at the POP Century dining hall where we could use our refillable mugs and where we were close enough to our hotel room to take the food back and eat it there if we wanted.  Most of our dining experiences in the park were lunches or late lunches.  I personally love Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom.

But when we are in Animal Kingdom, I love just being able to grab a fresh piece of fruit from the jamba Market.

At HollyWood Studios there are plenty of nice restaurants to choose from.  We usually pack a lunch and eat at a picnic spot.  also at Epcot Center there are many great picnic spots!



I have friends who LOVE the dining plan, but for me and my family, al-a-carte works best.  I bring snakcs, sandwiches and water into the park.  I always carry a bag, and I never complain about it.  I like having what we need and saving money.  We splurge when we want something special.

NOW!  Planning what order to visit the parks...very important!
My suggested order:

MAGIC KINGDOM

EPCOT CENTER

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

ANIMAL KINGDOM

If at all possible take a day to rest or halfday to rest between park 3 and 4.  Animal Kingdom is a lot of walking!  So get started...get planning...get to making your family's dreams come true.  Watch for the next part (3)...for more in depth planning topics.

See ya'All!

The Right "STUFF" accessories for your trip

You have to be prepared for a trip to Walt Disney World.  If you have children, you need to be extra prepared!  We loved the ease of our flip camera.  It took very short or longer videos with simple press of the button..  IT could not have been easier.  I am including some clips so you can see how they come out.

This video camera is nice and small and you can easily find a waterproof carrier for it on www.amazon.com
In fact, you can get many accessories for it on Amazon.  You will also need a regular camera.  I do not have one to recommend because I prefer to use kodak disposable cameras.  On the paper wrapper of each camera I write with a sharpie pen what park the photos are from.

You will need ponchos.  Do not be caught unprepared!  Ponchos and raingear purchased inside WDW parks will cost you $8 to $12!  Before our vacation I went to Dollar Tree and purchased ponchos that come in a tiny roll.  We wore them on the day we visited HollyWood Studios because it rained the entire morning until 1pm!  We were rained out of many of the attractions.  In fact, had we not been rained-out, I probably would have missed out on the opportunity to be a contestant on their American Idol Experience Attraction.  It was AWESOME!!!

Ah Disney...so much fun in every moment!

Another accessory you will need are either cell phones or working walkie-talkies to keep in touch with your family.  At the very very least, make a plan for where you will meet up if you become separated from one another.  This happened to us and we lost hours of park time searching and worrying!  Some other handy things to carry with you would be hats, Disney Pins on lanyards and sunglasses.  One last thing that we consider to be of primary importance is to purchase a Souvenir refillable plastic mug from your resort upon arrival.  It will cost you approximately $11 per mug and can be filled freely for the duration of your trip (only at your resort).  But this covers the cost of your coffee, tea, hot chocolate, soda and juice.  Unfortunately milk costs extra.



You can see in this picture that I have our collectable mug attached to my shoulder bag.  Another important accessory is the Autograph Book.  Disney only has a few varieties of autograph books and these can be purchased at the resorts and parks or ahead of time you can buy them online.  They will cost between $6 and $12.  The autograph books can be easily made into a lovely scrapbook when you get home later, by adding favorite stickers, photos and ticketstubs or other memorabilia on pages left over.  We offered the characters only the Right-hand side to write their signature on and then later, when the pictures were developed we glued a picture of the kids meeting the character onto the left-hand side!


Remember, especially if you are flying home, that you will have extra baggage like souvenirs!  Something fun we did in preparation for our trip was to purchase inexpensive disney apparal to wear during the visit to the parks.  We love to shop at Consignment stores and Salvation Army/Savers.  There, we find many unusual garments and make ourselves some fun outfits!

One more thing...Don;t skimp on the "EARS".  They are timeless.  The ones seen in this picture were purchased in 2006 and are still worn on a regular basis at my house (mostly by me)  LOL

See ya'll REAL soon!

Walt Disney World Road Trips - PART 1

My Children, at one of our Stops, "SOUTH OF THE BODER" South Carolina

If you live on the East Coast, this blog should give you some wonderful ideas on how to enjoy a vacation to WDW with your family.  My family and I live in Rhode Island, which is sandwiched between Massachusetts and Connecticut.  Although there are great places for day trips and weekend getaways in the New England area...particularly New Hampshire and Vermont or even New York, it is a very short drive to Orlando!  By very short, of course, I mean 22 hours.  The best way to make this trip is two days of driving.  Some other people may recommend you break it into three days, while others (like my insane sister and her family) will buckle down and forge through without stops.  But on a recent road trip, my husband and I managed to do what might seem impossible to some:  We drove to Florida with an 8 year old and an 18month old and it took us only 2 days.  Here is how we did it, and how our vacation basically only costed us approximately $2000.00.  Bear in mind, this was in 2009.

First and foremost, if you have never purchased one of the "Birnbaum's Guides" to planning a WDW vacation, DO SO!  This one book has all the information needed to plan your own Disney Vacation.  You will not need a professional Agent to do it for you.  I will recommend though to use the internet!

Read the first 4 chapters, about choosing the proper tickets, resorts , time of year to travel, and mode of travel.  These are your most important decisions.  Here is a checklist you will need to consider as you plan your trip:

• What resort will you stay in and for how long?
• What time of year will you visit Disney and for how many days?
• What type of tickets will you need?  Would your family like to visit only one park per day or would you like the freedom to move from park to park on any given day?
• Would you like to prepay for meals that can be included?
• What do you want to experience on your vacation?  There are many extras and add-ons but they can be omitted without taking away from the quality of your trip.

So back to my particular trip.  In 2009, we opted for a road trip!  On past Disney vacations we relied on airflight to travel to Florida.  Coming from RI, on a direct flight is both fast and affordable.  Most people around here prefer to fly Southwest Airlines.  We decided that our total time away from home would be 11 days.  Three and half days total would be spent in commuting to and from Florida.  One of my first considerations would be, "which days of the week do we want to actually be in the parks?"  The reason to ask this question is that Saturdays and Sundays are larger crowds, no matter what time of year it is.  We wanted to use most of our park time on Monday through Friday.  One glitch in the plan was that we wanted to celebrate my daughter's 8th Birthday in the Park because Disney offers a special reward for birthdays in the park!  Her Birthday would fall on our last day of the trip which was slightly awkward but it worked out!  So because her birthday was a Saturday, it was very very crowded and the lines were long!

Ani at Minnie Mouse's House

We got the added (FREE) benefit of visiting the parks during Christmastime when they are decorated for the holidays.  WDW has a special event, a Christmas Party that you can purchase separate tickets for.  We opted out of that event and never felt like we were missing out on the Christmas Spirit.  If you go to WDW anytime between the week after Thanksgiving until the week before Christmas, you can benefit from VALUE SEASON rates at any Disney resort...HOWEVER, bear in mind that the parks are still busier than in a slower season so crowds are larger and lines are longer.

 



One of our favorite traditions in visiting WDW at ChristmasTime is having a family photo taken in front of every Christmas tree we could find.  There are special trees at each of the Major Theme parks.  In the picture above, we were at HollyWood Studios.  Their tree was decorated with movie reels and other tv and movie memorabilia. We also planned our outfits so that we had a theme for the days we visited each park.  See the next picture:  we are dressed for visitng Animal Kingdom.  I put everyone in browns and neutrals.  Lex's shirt had Balou the bear from the Disney classic, Jungle Book.

Animal Kingdom is a beautiful place to visit.  It is expansive for walking.  According to the WDW literature, it covers more ground then the other parks.  A close second would be Epcot Center.  On the day you visit Animal Kingdom, you will want to be freshly rested, wear comfortable shoes and start early in the morning because this park closes earlier than the others.






















Ok, so "Getting There"...that is a title from one of the Birnbaum's chapters.  If you drive, like we did, I found it beneficial to plan meals and sleep ahead.  We packed a cooler with juice, milk and breakfast and kept it in our minivan (not in the trunk) for easy reach.  We left the house at 1am, loaded the kids with the intention of them falling back to sleep immediately.  They had pillows, blankets, soft music and reclined seats.  The one thing we did not anticipate was their excitement!  They stayed awake until hour 4 of our drive!  We drove straight through CT and NY and then stopped in Delaware briefly for a bathroom break before travelling for 4 hours on the New Jersey Turnpike.  It was the Turnpike that finally put the kids to sleep.  By 8am we were in morning rush hour traffic in Maryland.  We pulled off for breakfast (COFFEE!!!) and Gas.  We drove the rest of the day, stopping as needed.  When we reached the famous "SOUTH OF THE BORDER" on the line of NC and SC, we stopped to explore and eat.  We opted to continue driving, resulting in an ill-fated stop at a Days Inn.  We decided then and there that we would stay at the SOB Motel on our way back North.

On our return trip we thoroughly enjoyed the stay at SOB Motel!  There are many cute attractions and inexpensive souvenirs to be found at SOB.  We discovered at WDW that many of the souvenirs we purchased were the same ones we could find there at SOB gift shops only at WDW parks, they costed 3 times as much!  So if you want to bring home a souvenir, choose them at SOB.

So day one, we drove for nearly 17 hours.  After a rest, we left SC and made the last 5 hours of driving, arriving to our Orlando destination at 1pm.  We were an hour ahead of our Check-in but our hotel room was ready and we were able to settle in.  On this trip we had opted to stay in the Value Resort, POP Century.  We had value season rates that I secured at a discount.  We paid $59 night!  We needed a refrigerator because I had planned our food as a means to save us money.  For an extra $10 per night, we had a refrigerator.  Now, there is only one way to get a rate like that.  Use the internet...wait for deals and strike when the dela is hot.  You will not get a rate like this if you are using the meal add-on.  These add-ons and specials work for some people, but make sure they are the right one for you.  What was right for me was the lowest nightly rate, which I secured using www.hotels.com.  You can however, get that rate occassionally using the Disney website too.

Imagine!~All this fun for only $59/night for a family of four!  We LOVE POP Century! 

So we left Rhode Island at 1m on Saturday morning, and we checked-in at Pop Century Resort at 1pm on Sunday afternoon.  We only had to incur the cost of one overnight motel stay and that costed us $65.oo after our AAA discount.

Because I knew we would visit the parks Monday through Saturday (7 days), and it is totally cost-efficient to add an 8th day...approximately $40 more altogether, We purchased
8-day park nonhoppers.  It is fun to park-hop, but with an 18 month old in diapers and a stroller, hopping involves rushing around.  It was going to be exhausting enough lugging the carriage and bags around (and it was!).  So with our 8th day pass, we were able to visit Magic Kingdom that same night.  We love to visit Magic Kingdom at night as our first stop of every trip: Another fun tradition.  There is something extremely magical in doing that...especially at ChristmasTime!

This seems like the perfect pausing place.  Enjoy the majesty of this beautiful sight.  Tune in for my next blog for the second part of planning your WDW road trip!

Disney and the Magic of Christmas!

What a Wondrous place is Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida at Christmastime? 

I never ever grow tired of it!  Even thoughts and memories of it can bring about a burst of magical excitement within me...imagine how it feels to a child?  I have two children young enough to still believe in Santa and so this time of year feels very magical indeed!  When I think about the special movies and programs we watched when I was a child in anticipation of Christmas, the first movie that came to mind for me was the Disney classic, Mickey's Christmas Carol.  The movie hit screens in December of 1983...the year my kid brother was born, so I was 9!  How amazing.  My daughter is nine right now!  My three year old son LOVES all things Mickey Mouse.  So you know where I am heading...yup...off to amazon.com to find me a copy of that wonderful childhood favorite.

It is hard to explain what that movie means to me.  Obviously it is wrapped up in nostalgic feelings from my childhood. 

 Honestly though, I think the beauty of that movie is much deeper than mere nostalgia.  It is a truly touching retelling of this story that is known by just about all mankind.  The classic cast of Disney characters and supporting extras of well-known Disney characters make this movie a delight!  It has a timeless and ageless essence to it in the way that it was created.  These days, there is so much "current" humor, that the classics of this year will have lost their favor in a decade.

Mickey is poor Bob Cratchet, and of course Mr Scrooge is none other than Scrooge McDuck!  My favorite character is played by Pete the Giant.  He is the Ghost of Christmas present.  What makes me laugh is how he really is "present"...simple, in-the-moment, jolly!  I always chuckle because he reminds me of myself!  Chirsitmas is about being in the present and about slowing down from the fast pace of life, if only to give ourselves a day or two to really admire our family sitting altogether for a meal and exchange of gifts. 

There he is...my favorite Giant!  Pete the giant is a beloved character from Disney in the 80's and has made for himself a new place in Disney 2011...appearing in the Disney Junior favorite, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

~Merry Christmas...Every..one!

Whimsy

Ah the whimsy...of art!  There is so much to take in when you stroll up Main Street in the Magic Kingdom.  There are always crowds, and so you do have to really look for some of the sweet and meaningful details that are hidden...along with all the "hidden Mickey's".  The most intriguing bit of information I have read about the Magical world of Disney and it's imagineering was from a book called, "The hidden magic of Walt Disney World" written by Susan Veness.  My copy was gift from closest gal pal because she knows I love these kinds of special details!  In the book, susan tells us how Main Street USA in Magic Kingdom, in Orlando FL is a long stretch of road with an even longer story to tell!  From the positioning of each hidden tribute to the progressive aging from one time period to another...all the way to Cinderella's Castle!

Here is my daughter humoring me about pulling the "sword from the stone".



Disney art is folksy and whimsical...and also realistic too. The endearing quality about Disney films is their ability to evolve with the changing times. For instance, many classics have a lasting quality, like Mary Poppins.  But Disney had to continue to bring new movies to the world.  They could not stop there, having created a beloved classic!  If they had, we would not have High School Musical!  That would be tragic! 

The details are magical...the signage above the shops held little treasures and hidden secrets to show homage to the hard working artists and creators.  The streets are packed day after day, and the parades happen like clockwork.  One of the lovely traditions is the flag ceremony that happens in the Main Square daily.  showing honor to the flag really seals the deal that Disney and America belong together!

Here we are enjoying a statue on Main Street USA.  We love to visit the parks at Christmas time.  there is the usual excitement and then the added overlay of the joyousness of the holidays!  A special passtime of ours on holiday trips like this is to get a photograph in from of every Christmas tree in sight!  we have taken photos at the Christmas trees at Holloywood Studios (when it was MGM), Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center and our Resort...the POP Century!  On our last trip, we had driven down the East Coast and stopped over at the S.O.B motel and took pictures at two of their trees also.

That was SWELL!

THE POP CENTURY HOTEL

ORLANDO FLORIDA

Traveling to Walt Disney world, Orlando is fun!  It is an amazing trip with children!  On my family's second trip to Orlando to WDW, we opted to stay at our favorite of the value resorts : POP Century!





My favorite reason for choosing POP Century is the Goofy Splash Park.  On our first trip there, my daughter had been 5 and she LOVED it.  David and I had more fun just sitting there and watching her play in this splash park than any other part of our trip.  There is just something about it.  They have three pools and they have a kiddie pool too.  We also really enjoyed the children's pool, playground and giant ICONS of our favorite characters!

Our room was always comfortable and perfect.  Our time there was always excellent.  POP Century is the only value resort set on it's own property, near the entrance to THE WORLD.  It is close to Hollywood Studios and The Moderately priced, Caribbean Resort.

Passinate about Imagination

Hello!  I am Ms. A, and I am passionate about imagination ! 

 I follow in the footsteps of a brilliant imagineer and leader in Creativity, Mr. Walt Disney.  I adore all things "Disney".  I love The Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Playhouse Disney, Walt Disney World and DisneyLand.  I am excited about Disney coming to Hawaii and also being in other parts of the world like Paris and Tokyo!  For years, Disney's creation has impacted my life and now I am going to focus a Blog on how Walt Disney's vision lives on and inspires us.  In the words of a beloved character from Meet the Robinsons, "Keep moving forward".  I know this idea was added to that wonderful movie because it was a phrase that Walt himself was a passionate believer in.  His lands and his works have kept moving forward for decades.  People of all ages are renewed and refreshed by the simple, sweet message that comes from the imagination...believe!  dream!  keep that inner child alive!

I have been sharing and writing and journaling about my family Disney World vacations for years now.  A little background on me:  I am 37 years old, born and raised in Rhode Island, and my first time to Disney World was in 2005.  I was 31 years old!  Six years later, I have been there twice.  The first time we brought my daughter for her 5th Birthday.  The second visit we brought our 18 month old son and again celebrated my daughter's (8th) Birthday!  Of course I am planning our next visit already...but even more than that, the inspiration that grew from the first time I visited and kept growing these last  6 years, has created in me the desire to not only visit, but also to build my own world of wonder. 

These days, my life is spent at home while my youngest child is only three and not in school yet.  The children's Dad works and is our main source for providing for the family.  Even on a very small budget, we still dream of visiting Disney world often and the Disney brand plays a very significant role in our lives.  My nine (almost 10) year old daughter was brought up from toddler age, watching only Disney tv.  She never even watched PBS...I kept her tv viewing limited to Disney Channel.  In her generation, she was raised with KimPossible, The Little Einsteins, Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Hannah Montana.  Now she follows Shake it up!  We recently let her start watching two programs on another well-known children's tv network.  One of her favorites is Wizards of Waverly Place.  She is a big Selena Gomez fan!  My daughter also has loved the full-length movies.  Her favorites have been, The Wizards of Waverly Place and Camp Rock 1 and 2. 

Parents always learn from their first child and decide how to improve what they want to improve for their second child.  When my daughter was a preschooler, she loved the princesses and favored them over the principle characters of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto and Goofy.  When we visited WDW for her 5th birthday, she was not as drawn to any of them...although she loved Minnie in her blue dress from the stage show.  We ended up buying her a souvenir stuffed Minnie in the dress. 

But with our second child, I knew right away that I wanted to cultivate a love of Mickey Mouse in him.  For his first Christmas, I gave him the softest and most snuggly Mickey plush doll that I purchased at the Disney Store. When we brought him to WDW, he loved the Disney characters.  He adored having them come over so he could touch them. Fortunately, the Disney Channel came out with a new preschool series, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  This is my son's favorite show.  My son also loves The Little Einsteins.  Recently, he has become fond of watching classic Mickey movies, like The 3 Musketeers.

Here is my son in our hotel room at POP Century Resort in 2008

Well folks, that is all for now!  See you REAL soon!

Ms. A