...where have you been?

"Where have you been?"

I know a lot of you are wondering what is going on with my weekly blogs.  I admit, life got in the way.  I used the excuse that my daughter (who is my main photographer and photographic editor) has been swamped at school.  But in truth I have been unusually busy!

I have tons to write about, like finishing up my Disney trip and telling you all about my most recent trip.   But today, something came up in my Facebook feed that drove me crazy.  It was all about why you should avoid travel agents and travel professionals.  I tried to read it, really I did.  But the first point this person made was that travel agents are charging you almost double what you can find it for yourself!  Seriously?
If I could charge double for a trip, (and I am assuming this person is saying that we pocket the extra money) well, then I am seriously not making the kind of money I could be making!!  
While it is true that I do charge a service fee on some things, especially when you call me to book your air only; for the most part I get paid by the supplier (like Disney or Universal) for servicing your trip.  The price the supplier gives me is exactly what you are finding it for online.  They don't cut me a deal and sell it to me cheaper, and they don't sell it to you cheaper just because you book direct.  
It is kind of like saying electricians are being paid too much because you can buy the wire cheaper online...but what good is the wire without the knowledge of what to do with it?  You are paying for thier knowledge and expertise, and the peaceful feeling that you get not having to worry about your house burning down because  you wired the fan wrong!
It irks me that some people might read this and believe it.  Then you add in the Multi Level Marketing "Travel Clubs" that say you can travel for free... well it really diminishes our value.  Our value, MY value, comes in my knowledge and training of the specific product and destination.  It comes from the relationship I have with the suppliers I use to plan your vacation.  That relationship may not mean anything to you now, but let a problem arise and I can assure you it will!  
It is the details of your vacation journey that will make or break a trip.  

Anyway, I felt I had to respond to that silly blogger.  I seriously hope she isn't on one of those cheap trips she booked for herself when there is a problem.  On a weekend.  In the middle of the night.  Who is SHE going to call?

Be looking for some more Disney updates.  I promise SOON!

Animal Kingdom

After Thanksgiving Trip Review part 1

After Thanksgiving is our favorite time of year to visit Disney.  Adding the joy of Christmas season with Disney makes for a perfect family vacation.  Of course, planning a trip a year in advance, especially at this time of year, is always interesting.

In years past we have had nice weather, where a jacket was optional at night, as well as a couple times of subfreezing weather (turned out to be record lows for 4 of our 10 days).

This year we had swimming weather.  Shorts were the major outfit for this trip.

Crowds during this time of year have been on the increase.  When we first started, crowds were nonexistent.  Gradually the crowds have gotten heavier and heavier.  Last year we actually opted for an October trip due in part to the steady increase in crowds.

My personal theory on this is quite simple.  While some will say it is due largely to the fact that Disney is busier in general than it was 10 years ago (and I will admit that is part of it); I think it has more to do with the calendar!  When Thanksgiving falls at the end of November, there are fewer weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The fewer weeks, the more concentrated the crowds. 

On this trip we changed things up a bit.  Instead of leaving home on Black Friday and visiting a park on Friday afternoon, we waited until Saturday morning to leave and chilled at the resort the rest of the day.

Our first park day was on Sunday.  After church services, we visited Animal Kingdom.  This is a great start to a trip.  LOW crowds! 

Animal Kingdom Christmas Tree

In fact, the crowds were so low we really didn’t need our Fast Passes.  I felt we wasted them. 

Our last trip to Animal Kingdom was disappointing.  So much was closed and walled off it seemed claustrophobic.  While the construction is still ongoing, the walls felt much less intrusive.  We visited Animal Kingdom twice this trip, and on both times we were able to get everything done we wanted (including multiple rides on Expedition Everest) done in only a few hours. I was very happy to see that Flame Tree BBQ was open in its normal space and we could still sit at our favorite lunch spot in Animal Kingdom.  Of course, there is still a good bit of construction going on but we could still see Everest!

View from Flametree BBQ

On this trip, for our second visit to Animal Kingdom we tried out a new (to us) spot for lunch.  Restaurantosaurus.  My favorite thing about this place is that there is tons of seating inside an air conditioned dining room!  In the past, we normally go to Yak & Yeti, and eat outside.  It was just TOO hot to consider this as an option this trip (yes, in December!)  The food was standard Disney burgers and fries.  The kids made a big deal about being able to refill your drink…but truthfully they never do.  However, they did have a nice Christmas tree in the dining room!

Christmas Tree

I did see that the Avatar land is coming along nicely.  I hear from my daughter that this is definitely recognizable as being from Avatar.  I will have to go with her opinion as I have never seen the movie!

Avatar Land

 On both visits to Animal Kingdom we had rather good Safaris.  Here are a few pictures from them.

My daughter is fascinated with taking pictures of these animals!

The Giraffes seemed to want to visit

Let Sleeping Lions lie!

And of course, the kids favorite ride of all is Expedition Everest.  My daughter/photographer felt brave and actually took a picture ON the ride this time!

Expedition everest

 Over all I felt Animal Kingdom is still not a full day park for our family.  We did two partial days this trip and did every ride, saw every show, and enjoyed all the atmosphere the park had to offer.  Sadly, this was once our family's favorite park.  I know that prior to the opening of Avatar Land I will be watching the movie, but I am not sure this move will make me love Animal Kingdom again...

POP Century Review

Pop Review

After leaving Contemporary Resort (which I loved) it was hard to move to Pop.  I’ve stayed in All Star Sports and Art of Animation before, but everyone raves about Pop.  I thought I would try it.  I had high expectations since Pop is usually a few dollars more than All Stars.

My first impression of the lobby was pretty good.  I had done online check in and we knew we were checking in a little early.  My main concern was that I thought I had left our Magic Bands for this part of the trip at home, so my first order of business was to make sure the bands from the first part of the trip worked.  And we all know about my terrible luck with the Magic Bands!

The Cast Member checking me in told me I had too many Magic Bands, but I already knew that!  Disney now allows for opting out of new bands each trip, but remember the batteries in them only last for two years. She was finally able to get them working and we headed to our room in the 50’s.

First impression of our room prompted a “WHAT was I thinking!” moment!  Small, dark, smelly.  NOT what I was hoping for.

Lighting in this room was useless, even in broad day light!  I knew there would be no overhead ceiling fan, but the lack of air circulation made the room very VERY smelly.

Dark wall did nothing to help make it brighter!

Standard Bathroom area

Small Closet area

Dark.  All lights were on.  Noon

After unpacking, we took a trip to All Star to check on something for a client.  Coming back to Pop, our first clue that something was wrong was our Magic Bands would not open the gate!  Then none of our four bands would open our room door.  Another trip to the lobby and the problem was fixed (after an hour).  Of course, remembering our problem in February, I asked if the PIN was still active on our bands for charging privileges.   After another 45 minutes that was fixed.

Going from a queen sized bed to a double was hard.  Adding a tiny, dark room gave a very claustrophobic feel to the whole stay. 

One thing I found odd was the way the door swung inward towards the bed.  The door almost hit the bed when you opened it.  Made for some very interesting ‘dances’ when someone was coming in or out…especially with luggage!

I did not enjoy the food court.  Seriously, with a million different drink stations, how could they ALL be out of straws, coffee, napkins, hot chocolate…at the same time!  I can only imagine what it would be like if we went during a busy ‘meal time’!  Since we went several times during this trip for drinks, I can tell you it did not matter if it was morning, afternoon or night. 

We found the in room refrigerator/ice box to be way too small for a family of four.  Morning juice and water for 4 people was impossible! 

The worst experience we had was the maid service or ‘Mousekeeping’.  We had the same lady for the whole stay.  She did a good job of cleaning (at least she did the best she could with what she was working with) but she was very adamant that we had to be out of the room each morning by 8:45!  Since most mornings we left at that time it was not an issue.  However on the morning we left it became an issue.

When you do online check in one of the questions it asks you is what time you are planning on checking out.  Don’t worry too much about that answer since it doesn’t get relayed to anyone!  We were in the process of loading up the van, leaving the kids in the room, when she came to our room.  (at the 8:45 mark!)  She yelled at the kids and told them they had to leave.  So of course, my special needs son gets scared and runs out of the room to the parking lot to find us.  He is terrified, doesn’t look at traffic and, luckily, missed being hit. 

My daughter grabbed a couple bags and left the room…however, we were still packing up so I had to go back in to finish…the Mouse Keeper did not want to let me in the room.  She was cleaning and I would have to go away!  It took her a few minutes to realize I wasn’t leaving, so she went out saying something (not in English) but propped the door open!

I did report it to management.  I was told she was a new hire and that they would look into some retraining.  While I did not want her to get into trouble, I did find it important to let Disney know that:  1- I had paid for the room until 11 am, which is check out time; and 2-we were very lucky my son did not get hit by a car running through the parking lot scared!

I don’t want you to think the whole stay was all filled with cons, but the only pro my family had was the laundry was very convenient to our room!

While I know my opinion of Pop was tainted by our stay at Contemporary, as far as Value Resorts go it was my least favorite stay.  Since it runs a couple dollars more than All Star, while quite a bit less than Art of Animation, I would not recommend this resort for my Value conscious guests.  All Star is a much better value for the money.  

Contemporary Resort Review

I have to confess.  I am a Moderate Resort girl.  Values are too small and Deluxe are too expensive for my tastes.  I am quickly shedding that idea!

For the first part of our after Thanksgiving trip I decided to try out the Contemporary.  This was primarily due to the ability to walk to Magic Kingdom.  Yes, THAT was it only charm for me, at least when I booked it!

Driving up to the resort, my husband was regretting my decision immediately!  You have to go through the Magic Kingdom’s parking lot (well actually the booths where you pay to park) to get to Contemporary, and it was a madhouse!  Once he was convinced to go as far right as he could, he decided it wasn’t so bad after all. 

This time, as we checked in with the security guard at Contemporary, he handed us our paper parking pass.  There seems to be a bit of a discrepancy as to what Disney is doing with the paper parking passes.  I think this worked fairly well!

For us, the fact that the parking was convenient to the building was a plus, but we did try the valet parking on our first day, as there were no handicapped parking available.  (a big complaint at most Deluxe resorts.)  I LOVE the contemporary check in.  Ours went very smoothly.  In fact, check in is our worst nightmare at Disney.  It has been so long since one went completely smooth that I was so afraid it would be the same this time, I sent the husband and kids up to the gift shop to look around!

Since we always check in early, there is a good chance that our room will not be ready, even doing the online check in.  So, I wasn’t expecting it to be ready.  And I was right!  ….BUT…. our CM was able to find a room that WAS available! 

From what I had seen online I was not expecting much as far as view.  While it says Bay Lake view, I knew there was a total chance of getting a view of a top of a building or maybe even the side.  The CM said he had two rooms, one with a great view and one with a “meh” view and asked me which one I wanted.  I, of course, said the great view, please!

It took him all of two seconds to complete the transaction!  In fact it was so quick that I was able to catch my family before they got on the elevator, and we went straight to the 10^th floor!

Our Room!

Our room was fantastic!  The view was an absolute dream!  We could see Epcot (as well as the high fireworks at night), the Bay view was to die for (as well as the nighttime water pageant), and the pool was inviting!  Off in the distance we could see the I-drive Ferris Wheel thingy!  Which at night changed colors! 

The room itself was spacious.  I had doubts about it fitting a fifth person, but even with the sofa pulled out into a bed it was perfect!  In fact our ONLY complaint about the room was lack of storage space.  Yes, I KNOW it had two closets, but with five people it would have been nice to have at least five drawers.  The drawers they did have were not very deep.  They did not accommodate my packing cubes very well at all.  We did bring extra hangers so we survived…LOL!

Coffee Station

Sleeper Sofa

Closet 

Large TV

After unpacking, we (being me and the girls) took a stroll over to Magic Kingdom to activate our Military Salute tickets.  By this time it was around 3pm, and I saw the brilliance of my plan take shape!  First, the decision NOT to go to a park that day was perfect.  Magic Kingdom was a madhouse trying to get in!  Of course going through the baggage check just to get to the Will Call desk was crazy! I took my wallet and gave the girls my bag so they could go through it with my bag.  It was a good decision!  The line at Guest Services was VERY long!

After getting our tickets taken care of we took a leisurely stroll back to the Contemporary.  It took us a little less than 10 minutes.  (Right at seven minutes to walk to Magic Kingdom…the difference is it is downhill TO the park and uphill FROM the park!)

I was worried about the noise level staying at Contemporary.  With the noisy Chef Mickey just below us, and the noise from the Monorail going through the building I was afraid it would be bad.  This is where the genius of the design of the building comes in.  Standing at your door, the noise is a muffled hum. If you go over to the edge of the balcony area you heard it all loud and clear.  But standing back the 6 feet or so, at your door you could barely make out what was being heard.  Once the door was shut…it was quiet!  If you walked to your balcony, and opened the door, you could hear the boats, ferry and people playing in the pool.  At night you could hear the fireworks from Magic Kingdom (BOY could you hear them!) and the nighttime water pageant was fairly loud. 

The beds were totally comfortable.  I was pleasantly surprised!  Having just gotten a new bed at home that is super comfy, I was afraid that nothing would make me happy. 

The bathroom was wonderful!  I base that on the fact that the shower was one of the best ones on property!  I absolutely hated the sinks!  While they were stylish, they were useless!  We designated one sink as dry and one as wet.  The dry sink became our counter space.  The wet sink became our mess!  Flat sinks were not designed for kids to brush their teeth in!  Yuck…I’ll leave it at that!

Toilet area

Tub

Sink

The toilet enclosure seems to be an afterthought with a lot of wasted space, even with the barn door style doors.  I would have loved to see some of that space used for more storage. In the floor plans it does show that area as having an additional sink (which would be useful as long as it wasn't the same style of sink!)

Valet parking was nice, but truthfully, not for us.  Since you could see your car, and where it was parked, it was hard to wait the 15 minutes or so for them to retrieve it.  On Sunday morning we had not allowed for that extra time.  After that we just parked it ourselves.  Even though we were not always successful in getting a handicapped parking space, the regular parking was so close it didn't matter!  Of course, remembering to go to the car to get the wheelchair and stroller on our Magic Kingdom days was ...only somewhat problematic! 

I LOVED their food court!  We only ate there one time on our last day, breakfast, but it was so much smoother than other food courts on property!  Since we were having our five plus two others joining us for breakfast, it was difficult finding enough table space.  Once a CM saw us trying to make this work, she immediately solved the problem for us and made sure we had enough chairs/space.  When you order, they give you a menu.  You order from that, pick out your extras (like juice) and pay (or use your band) and they give you a pager.  A few minutes later your food is magically delivered to your seat.  Very similar to the way Be Our Guest lunch and breakfast are now done.  

Over all, it was a HIT with four of our five traveling party.  While my husband loved the size of the humongous TV, there was nothing else he really loved about the resort. 

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. 

However, if you didn’t get that one special gift you were looking for, give me a call.  We can put together a cruise to someplace warm or maybe a Family trip to Disney!

Good bye Osborne Lights

In 1986 Jennings Osborne started a Family tradition.  He decorated in tons of lights for Christmas.  By 1995 it became too much for his town to take, so Mickey decided it would be nice to move it to what is now Disney Hollywood Studios.

In 2003, the Residential Street underwent a major refurbishment and the spectacular went dark, only to return the following year in the Streets of America.  Since 2004, they have been in their new home.  Unfortunately, January 3, 2016 will be its last show as the Streets of America is being refurbished to make way for expansion of Star Wars attractions. 

As we say Good-bye to these fabulous lights, we can only hope that Disney will find another home for them in time for next year

Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas

Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas

Only one more week until Christmas! 

Have you finished your shopping?  Have you even started?  Did you remember to get a Family gift?  What about a gift for that special someone?  Don’t have time to shop?

I have the perfect solution!

Tree at Grand Floridian, Walt Disney World

Put a cruise or a Disney trip under your tree!

Contact me today and we will book that trip.  Then you can wrap a sand pail or a stuffed Mickey Mouse to put under your tree!  Then watch the smiles!

I’ll do all the planning for you, all you have to do is call….and of course you are on your own to find a sand pail or stuffed Mickey!