Remember the Magic

Thar she blows?

Watching Walt Disney World deal with an approaching hurricane is like watching a well orchestrated ballet, albeit one that takes place over a couple of days. That they can begin to implement emergency procedures, secure risky areas and think ten steps ahead and still manage to preserve "the show" while doing it is fascinating and impressive.

Back in 2004, we slid into WDW between Hurricanes Frances and Ivan. The memory of Hurricane Charley from a few weeks prior was still fresh in everyone's mind, and Dsney didn't appear to be taking a whole lot of chances. Crews were busy clearing debris, popcorn carts and benches were still tied down, and lamposts were wrapped in bubble wrap to forestall breakage. Flying into Orlando, I remember seeing squares of blue dotting the terrain and thinking to myself, "I knew there were a lot of swimming pools in Florida, but look at them all!" As the plane drew closer, I realized the "swimming pools" I was seeing were actually blue tarps covering damaged roofs.

The first day we were there, they were still clearing tree branches, and due to staffing glitches created by Charley and Frances, we were checked in at French Quarter by a lovely young lady wearing a western costume. On Day Two, the untying began all over the property. On Day Four, as we were preparing to head for home, they'd begun tying up again as Ivan approached.

With Tinkerbelle doing the International College Program this summer, I've taken to checking NOAA every day. So far, Florida hasn't been in the line of fire, although the word from Tinkerbelle is that it has rained sideways from time to time. However, we leave to retrieve her in 13 days, and I'm watching a yellow tropical mass move across the Atlantic - if it continues its path and doesn';t fall apart, it may arrive in Florida at the same time we do.

Maybe I'm better off not checking NOAA quite so obsessively.

Learning my POPs and DVCs

One of the things that brings people back to WDW again and again is a desire to recapture whatever it was they found there in the first place. Often, this "whatever" is hard to describe - some call it magic, some call it Pixie Dust, and some don't call it anything at all - they just know where it was when they last experienced it, (the World) so they figure they'll start there and hope for the best.

LIke the real world, The World is always changing. Walt himself intended it that way; sometimes the changes are so small that any repeat visitor would hardly notice them and other times the changes are large and impossible to ignore - the disappearance of a favourite attraction, for example, or the opening of a new one. And whether those changes are good or bad is often a matter of opinion more than anything else. Like the darn Tiki birds; truth be told, I barely remember what they were like when I was 13, so I couldn't say with any conviction whether the Under New Management version I first encountered at 26 is better or worse.

But trying to replicate the experience step for step, moment for moment, can leave you feeling like the Magic isn't quite as Magical as it was the first time.

I think the key to this is not to try to have the SAME trip, but to make each venture a little bit different. This time around, as we travel to deliver our girl to the Disney College Program, we're going to be spending part of our stay in a new-to-us resort: Old Key West. We've been able to finagle some DVC points, otherwise it would NEVER be in our budget, and we'll be spending three nights in a studio.

This is a new experience for us - I'm dreading telling my little Shop-a-holic that there won't be any towel animals for her, since the Mouse-keeping system works differently for DVC. But I'm excited to experience what so many have chosen to spend their life savings on (or at least their borrowing limitations). After passing that lighthouse so many times on the way to and fro, it's intriguing to think we'll be turning down that drive and entering what Disney calls its Home Away From Home accommodations. (at least I think they still call it that, that keeps changing too)

Queen-size beds. Fridge AND microwave. A patio. I can hardly wait.

Running on that grass over there

We fell in love with The Unofficial Guide To Walt Disney World shortly before our very first family trip to WDW. It's chock-a-block full of objective, insightful information that has saved us money and time, again and again through the years. Plus, the writers, Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa, and their team, are just funny. The book has entertainment value as well as being useful. I think we've even bought it a time or two when we WEREN'T planning a trip, just to keep tabs on what the UG guys were saying about the ever-changing World. One of the nicest things about the book -and sometimes the funniest - is the comments they include from readers and WDW guests.

Plus, Len Testa wrote back to me once.

So, once upon a time, feeling all team-spirity, I dropped the UG an email, sharing some of what WE'VE learned while wandering the World.

Today, the 2008 edition arrived in my mailbox, as part of our prep for handing the child over to the Mouse. (I think this is the fifth copy of the book we've owned since 1997) I started to read immediately, while Captain Planner pouted a little at not getting his hands on the book first. Naturally, I read the funniest bits out loud, at least the new ones. And then, I got to page 287, in the section titled Walt Disney World With Kids.

But even somewhat older kids will surprise you, as this Windsor, Ontario mom relates:

On day three, as we pursued our "Around the World In 80 Minutes" through the World Showcase, our two girls suddenly stopped in their tracks between Italy and Germany. They looked around for a mminute, and we asked them what was wrong, thinking they might need a bathroom visit. Turns out they'd finally seen something other than characters that apealed to them. "Could we just run around on that grass over there for a few minutes?" they wanted to know. "We won't take too long."

So away they went to chase each other on the grass for ten minutes, and now, ten years later, that is what they remember about the trip. Ever since, we've tried to include time in each trip plan to "run around on that grass over there," wherever "there" might be.

They used our comment! And two others, that they included at the back of the book. I've had my own book published, and had articles and essays in a dowzen mainstream magazines, but the inclusion of this uncredited snippet just tickles me. We're in the book!

So thanks, Len and Bob, and whoever else you are. And just to let you know that I didn't let the original moment go by unrecorded, here's the pic that we've held onto since the early days of 1997 - the girls running around on that grass over there.

To everyone else, I will repeat what I've said so often- if you're going to the World, DO NOT GO WITHOUT READING THIS BOOK. It's truly a gem.

This is going to take forever

In the last whatever number of years I've been asked if I collect Air Miles at approximately 9,247 cash registers. Always, my answer was "No." I've never been particularly warm to systems where you collect points, although I do like cashing in on Double Optimum Days at Shoppers Drug Mart. However, I've always figured Air Miles weren't worth the bother - after all, I've heard that it's nigh on impossible to cash them in for actual airfare, especially in Canada. And since I don't often shop at the A & P, which is the primary grocery store that gives Air Miles, well...

I can commence kicking myself now. Do you know why?

YOU CAN TRADE AIR MILES FOR DISNEYWORLD PARK PASSES.

Why did no one ever tell me this? I mean, if once, just ONCE, someone had said, "Do you collect Air Miles, you can use them for Disney passes," I would have signed up right then and there. But Oh. No. Never did I hear tell of this wonderful system that would let me save on Disney trips simply by buying groceries, putting gas in the car or shopping at Chapters.ca

So yesterday, flush with my new knowledge, I signed up right then and there. Today, I put gas in the car, AND used my nifty double Air Miles coupon that was available, and earned a whole 4 miles.

Only 2120 miles to go, and I get a pass. At this rate, the trip we take in 2015 should be covered.

Faith, trust and a little bit of pixie dust

Well, so. This blog returns.

I've started by deleting the first two installments of The Trip Report That Would Not Write Itself. My absence from this blog was seriously affected by its presence; couldn't just skip the rest of the trip and go on with something else, couldn't seem to recapture the memory in any words that I found satisfactory. And since there has been yet another trip SINCE Halloween Adventure 2005, it all just seemed a little overwhelming.

But I wanted to come back; much like the siren song of the World That Walt Built, I wanted to blog about Disney. It gives me something to do when people are done listening to me talk about Disney but I'm not quite ready to stop talking yet. And there is news on the personal Disney front.

During that Halloween Adventure, our then almost-16-year-old Tinkerbelle started seeing the World through new, more mature eyes. A flirtatious boat driver mentioned the Disney College Program to her on that trip, and the seed of an idea was planted, took root, and began to grow at an alarming rate. So here we are, two years and a bit later, celebrating her acceptance into the Disney International College Program for Summer 2008. That's right, we love Disney so much, we're giving them our child.

Cynics think this is just our way of justifying future trips to the World. But it is so, so much more than that. The World, we think, is an excellent place for her to begin to learn about the world, and the people in it. She will live and work with people from all over the globe, and come into daily contact with guests from all walks of life. I'd rather see her do this than backpack across Europe.

You can follow her own Disney adventures at her blog, So There's This Bench.

And while she learns how to be a Cast Member, we'll be learning how to be the parents of a Cast Member. It's going to be an interesting summer.

Halloween Adventure 2005

Pre-Trip Report – Are we experts yet?

The Cast:

Me – Mom, (34), perpetually exhausted control freak, but I’m working on it

Captain Planner – Dad, (37), former naysayer who has embraced Disney wholeheartedly

Tinkerbell – DD (15), moods are like the weather in Southwestern Ontario –wait five minutes, it’ll change

Dory – DD (13),  a bit absentminded, but game for anything

Shopaholic – DD (8), can’t decide if her favourite attraction was Space Mountain or the gift shop

Planning for this batch of Disney Days began in January 2005 with a room-only reservation at the Port Orleans Riverside (POR). Friends of ours also booked a trip, with the assurance that we’d be right there to help them navigate their first trip to the World. We were going to be a Magical Gathering, and thought it was just Grand.

Flash forward six months – free dining? FREE? You bet your mouse ears! We sacrifice our $19 dollar a night AAA discount and switch over to the free dining package. At the same time we discover the perils of trying to fly home on Columbus Day – adding a night to our package saves us an estimated $400+ in airfare.

July rolls around. Friends decide they can’t swing the trip, so we’re on our own again. My dad, teenage brother, sister and her boyfriend decide free dining sounds good, so they book to go along with us. We’re a Gathering again! They will ultimately cancel, and we’ll be back on our own again.

The airline offers a 24 hour seat sale, and we pounce. Online booking screws up, and it takes an entire day to unravel the mistake. I call corporate and complain, and they give us a further discount. Most-used quote of this debacle: “My credit card has been charged three times and I still don’t have plane tickets! All I’m trying to do is take my family to Disney World!”

I’m booking Advance Dining Reservations at this point – free dining is going to be great! Disney’s madness in offering free dining is becoming apparent, as I am heard to say several times, “Since we don’t have to pay for meals, we can afford…”

Captain Planner doesn’t seem to be doing as much planning, but that’s okay. This is slow season, and we’ve been there before – plans aren’t as vital.

Hurricane season steps up, and we become addicted to the NOAA web site. I also become a suitcase Nazi – Tinkerbell insists that her entire wardrobe is necessary. With five of us, a wheelchair, and golf clubs, I stand my ground – one bag apiece, and one group bag, and that’s it!

We’re running out of Days Before We Go. The kids protest my suitcase check, but I refuse to let them go looking like the Clampetts Do Disney. Why must they pack their oldest, shoddiest clothes?

Bags are packed, car is loaded, and the living room is vacuumed. (I refuse to leave a dirty house behind) Captain Planner has produced a plan for each day. The kids are hustled off to bed for a few hours sleep before our 4:30 a.m. departure for the airport. NOAA is checked one more time – there are no storms on the horizon.

We’re going to Disney World!

You can get there from here- sort of

One of the perks of staying on Disney property is the use of Disney transportation. I simply don't understand those who stay on site, yet choose to spend upwards of $300 on a rental car for the privilege of driving from parking lot to parking lot.

And with fairly vivid memories of how well five people and a wheelchair fit into a rented Pinto, (childhood Trip The First) well, let's just give thanks for the accessible buses, shall we?

That's not to say that Disney Transportation (DT) is simple. If you want to do anything other than travel from resort to park, you need to do a little figuring. The UG suggests that you not use Downtown Disney as a transfer point between buses. Having ignored this good advice once, I cannot repeat often enough:

DO NOT USE DOWNTOWN DISNEY AS A TRANSFER POINT

You wait forever for buses, and then, when they do come, it takes half an hour just to get out of the parking lot.

On our last trip, we experimented with a little walking and were pleasantly surprised. From the lobby of the Contemporary, pushing a wheelchair, it was a five minute walk. From the Boardwalk to the back door at Epcot, ten minutes.

Walking gave us a new perspective on Disney. Previously, those paths were something we just glanced at as we travelled overhead on the monorail. Up close, you can really appreciate some of the landscaping, and it was surprisingly quiet. Hard to imagine that we were just a hedgerow and a bridge away from the hustle and bustle of the parks.

If you go, and can bear to spare the time, try out the different ways of getting from there to here. Next time, we'll be taking the boat to FW for the first time. All these years, and we've never seen the campground!

Going in circles

Dear Disney:

Please, oh please, could you open another restaurant that revolves? Because if I have to go the Garden Grill AGAIN, I might just end up going spinny myself.

Thanks to FREE dining on our next trip, the plan allows for each of us to choose a dining location. We gave the kids the Dining Plan Brochure, and the Unofficial Guide and told them we'd guide them through the menus at AllEars to help them make their choices.

The eight-year-old immediately fixated on the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast at 1900 Park Fair. She remembers being there last trip, and practiced the name until she had it practically perfect.

We'd already told the kids that Garden Grill was off the list. It was Captain Planner's favourite restaurant, but the menu changed, and didn't appeal anymore. Except that last week, word got out that the menu has changed BACK, making the old menu the new menu, and the new menu the old new menu. Got that?

However, our dining plan was made, and none of us were prepared to give up our choices, even Captain Planner. (got his heart set on Le Cellier, a new one for us) But then the eight-year-old began to waver. The conversations since have gone something like this:

Child: I changed my mind. I want to go to the spinning restaurant.

Me: You can change your mind. How about the castle in Norway?

Child: No, I don't like princesses.

Me: How about the Biergarten? There are accordions.

Child: I HATE accordions. I want one with characters.

Me: We've already got two Character Meals. How about the Sci-Fi Dine In?

Child: What if I don't like the movie?

Me: How about sticking with Park Fair?

Child: No. Even though saying the name makes me quite precocious, you know.

Me: (trying not to laugh) Crystal Palace? You could see Winnie the Pooh!

Child: But Mom, it doesn't SPIN!

It's not that I dislike the Garden Grill. I just don't get all goony about it. We always end up with a booth, and the sides and back of the booths are very high. For short people like me, this is an issue. The kids sit on the edges so they can interact with the characters, which leaves me stuck in the middle of this semi-circle booth. I can't see OUT of the booth at all, and I always feel like there's this whole world going on out there in the rest of the restaurant and I'm missing it. Plus, with the seat back behind my head, I get a crick in my neck.

Plus also? We're already dining with Mickey and Chip and Dale twice that week. I'm all for character meals, but how about some different characters?

So, Dear Disney, a spinning restaurant with, say, Donald and Daisy, or maybe the gang from Peter Pan would be a good place to start. Heck, even accordions would probably be okay. Just as long as it SPINS.

The Tale of the Tiki Birds

As we plan our next trip, the kids are insisting we put the Tiki Room on our itinerary. I think this has less to do with their affection for the attraction than it does with the fact that the visiting the Tiki Room has become a vacation challenge.

Let me explain.

When we first took the kids to WDW, I was the only one in our party who wasn't a Disney Rookie. It had been about ten years since I'd been to WDW, but I remembered liking the Tiki Birds, and begged Captain Planner (my husband) to put in on the agenda. You'll recall that this was the week between Christmas and New Years, so every minute counted, and we followed the Unofficial Guide's touring plan very carefully.

Finally, the time came for the Tiki Birds. Unfortunately, we arrived just as a show had been filled. Faced with a 20+ minute wait for the next show, we moved to the next attraction on the plan, and vowed to try again later.

Later, we had about a ten minute wait, but we were determined. Eight minutes into the wait, my four-year-old informed us that she had to go RIGHT NOW. Not wanting to split up (we'd had a "where in the World is Mom? hour the evening before at Epcot. More on that later.), we all left the waiting area and proceeded to the facilities.

In spite of my "hurryuphurryup", we returned to the Tiki Birds some ten minutes later to discover that once again, the theatre was filled.

On Day Two, we tried again. We had time for one more attraction before we said goodbye to WDW, and rushed to fit in the Tiki Birds. Wait, wait, wait: "Mom, I have to go NOW."

The restrooms in the passageway between Adventureland and Frontierland are legendary for their tendency to cause a Lost Child Problem. Later, we took a certain amount of pride in being able to validate the UG's warnings about that passageway. At the time, however, it meant no Tiki Birds.

The following year, when we announced that we were tackling the World again, we promised - SWORE - that we would see the Tiki Birds. Upon arrival, while hordes were stamepding toward the Mountains, we raced to the Tiki Birds.

Closed for refurbishments for the length of our stay.

The kids finally did get to see the Tiki Room - Under New Management last trip. And they vow to do it again, every trip, just to make a point. Unfortunately, I think I'll skip it next time - I've sat through it twice now, and it's just not the same as the Tiki Birds we never got to see.

I'm sorry, could you repeat the question?

Disney is notorious for requiring a specific question in order to give a specific answer. When dealing with Disney - whether you're inquiring about the price of hotel rooms, the hours at Mama Melrose's or the benefits of "hopping" with your tickets - you must ask specific questions.  It was the much-loved Unofficial Guide that first alerted us to this challenge. It's not enough with Disney, whether by phone or by email, to be vague about anything.

For example:

Question: How much does it cost to golf at Magnolia Walt Disney World? (sounds pretty specific, right?)

Disney Answer: The standard cost for at Magnolia is X.

The answer you won't hear because you didn't ask the right question: Right now, we are offering a summer price slice that costs much less than X if you book a tee time after 2 p.m. And Magnolia is closed during the time you will be visiting.

We first learned of this Disney quirk from the much-loved Unofficial Guide, which offers many helpful suggestions of how to effectively communicate with Disney. It's become a running joke in our house, with teenagers who ask "What are you doing?' when what they really mean is "Will you drop everything and drive me to the mall?" Ask specific questions.

Disney often responds to questions with questions, which can seem frustrating at times. However, it really does help them to narrow down exactly qhat kind of information you're looking for. I'm finally starting to understand this practice. We're gaining a reputation among our friends and family for being Disney experts, so we get a lot of questions. The problem is, I'm not so adept at answering them.

Just today, a friend asked, "How far in advance would we have to book a Disney trip?"

Twenty minutes later, having barely paused for breath, I had explained room-only vs. package, passed judgment on several Disney resorts, told her how much her tickets would cost and informed her of holiday blackout days on the calendar. And warned of the danger of travelling without dining reservations.

I'm still not sure I answered her original question. If I were a true Disney expert I would have determined when she wanted to travel, whether or not she wanted a package, calculated her 45-day mark for her, and informed her, "You can book any time you want, but the balance will be due in full on such-and-such a date."

Which, in the long run, would have taken less time and given her the exact information she wanted. Instead, once again I've overwhelmed her with a whole lot of things she didn't need or want to know.

If Disney did it my way, those 45 minute calls to CRO would easily drag into the hours.

Oddly enough, there is one question you can ask at Disney that will give you the answer you were looking for, even though you asked the wrong question. According to our tour guide last year, the most-asked question at City Hall in the Magic Kingdom is:

What time is the three o'clock parade?

Think about it - what would you answer?