WDW Tips

So, we have had our trip planned for months now and it was only this evening after the Giants won that I realized that we would be at Disney for the Super Bowl. Seeing as either the Giants or the Pack will be playing in the SuperBowl, watching the game is a given. Now I just have to figure out where. The ESPN club at the Boardwalk seems like the logical choice, however I am not sure how early we are going to need to be there. I have seen several message board posts which says that All Star Sports and POP century both have big parties in their food court area. On a side note, I also had to cancel my ADR for LeCellier seeing as they were for kickoff on the 3rd.

If you are not signed up for twitter I strongly suggest that you look into it. I am really enjoying keeping up with the Disney parks via other people’s experiences. Some of the people I follow are The Disney Blog, Window to the Magic, Digital Steve, and the Big D . Several of these also have blogs and/or podcasts that I read/listen to on a regular basis. Oh and by the way you can find me on twitter at shelleyg74.

Holiday greetings to everyone. I hope Santa brought you everything you wanted and more.

For Christmas my husband and I decided to upgrade our CBR reservations to the Polynesian. We are using the money we would have spent on Christmas presents for each other and are now staying somewhere we have yet to stay at. I am really excited!!! We have only stayed at a MK/monorail resort once and it was only 1 night at the Contemporary. I am crossing my fingers for an upgrade to a MK view but you know I am not holding my breath.

Jim and I were at breakfast the other morning and noticed 2 ladies sitting at a table going over plans for a WDW trip. It was obvious that one of them had planned out the trip for the other. They were going over transportation, dining, and ticket options. The biggest shocker to me was that the book that the “planner” was using was the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. Now, don’t get me wrong I have used this book in the past, however I find that a Passporter is much more useful.

The entire time while were were eating I was wondering if I should go over and say something to them…just offer my help. I didn’t but trust me I wanted to.

I have always offered to friends and family that I will plan out trips for them. I have been the master planner for several group trips as well as the trips that Jim and I take. I am wondering though if I should expand who I help. I mean I guess my first response normally is to send them to Allearsnet.com but should I start doing more? What do you think?

Just booked a 4 night trip for late Jan/early Feb. We are currently booked at Caribbean Beach Resort, but we are still trying to figure out if we want to upgrade to a Deluxe. This will be our first trip on our new annual passes. I’ll keep you updated.

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I pre-purchased a Photopass CD before our trip. We split the cost between the 4 of us which made the $100 price very reasonable. It also ensured that all 4 of us would be in the pictures and not have 3 of us in the picture and 1 taking the picture.

While at Disney we made sure that everytime we saw a PhotoPass Photographer we stopped to take our picture. Since beginning this service several years ago, Disney has increased the number of photographers. No longer is it just the person taking your picture when you enter the park. They pretty much have someone anywhere you might want to get your picture made. We took pictures in just about every country in world showcase (drinking our way around the world), in front of several attractions, and with just about every character. When you visit a character most of the photographers take more than just the standard “pose” picture. We have pictures of us walking up to the characters, getting hugs, and even kisses on our hands. The photographers seem to make sure that the casual aspect is covered as well.

After we got home we had around 100 pictures that had been take on our Photopass card. After we cropped and added boarders it came to around 220 pictures that were included on our CD. The boarders are pretty neat. You can add a generic “2007″ banner across the bottom or depending on what park you can add a dated logo for that location. I thought it was pretty neat that for EPCOT you can add either the EPCOT banner or a special 25 Years EPCOT logo with Figment and Mickey. Also when you take a picture with certain characters (Fab 5) you can add a signature like “love, Mickey Mouse” to the corner of the picture. You can’t however add 2 boarders. We got a magical moment picture with Donald, Goofy, and Pluto and it would only let us add one autograph to the bottom.

One thing I did not like about the Photographers is that they were usually insistent that you take your sunglasses off for the picture. In several of our pictures you can’t even see our eyes because we were squinting. I think next time I will just leave my sunglasses on. I think the pictures will be better that way.

Also since we went to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, we were given a different Photopass card which offered a special discount of 40% off any pictures that we purchased from that night. We were told that we would not be able to add the MNSSHP boarder to those pictures if we did not do it that night. However, I did not have any issues with adding them to my account/CD.

I ordered the CD on Friday and received notification that it has shipped today and would have it by the end of the week.

Just got back from 5 great days at WDW. I had the pleasure of attending the festivities on Monday for EPCOT’s 25th. I arrived at EPCOT around 7:30am and was about 1 of 100 or so people who had lined up to be there at park opening. It was pretty neat being there around all the other disneyphiles while waiting in line. They opened the turnstiles around 8am and everyone entering recieved a retro guide map and a 25th anniversary button. I walked quickly with the rest of the people to the gift shop on the left hand side of Spaceship Earth. I purchased a Figment (#999 of 1200 cool number huh) and a T shirt. The watch had the wand on it so I wasn’t really interested in it. Of course there were pins, but I don’t really collect them either so I didn’t even see what they were. Although there had been speculation that Disney would have several limited edition items which would include some mouse ears, the only things that were available were a opening day replica T shirt (edition 1982), a Figment Plush (edition 1200) and a watch (edition 250).

While I was standing in line I saw Deb Wills of allearsnet.com After I purchased my items I walked around Innoventions Plaza and waited for the rope drop. I ran into Deb while I was out there and told her how much I loved her web site. She gave me an all ears hat and pen.

After the rope drop I went straight to the front on the stage to wait for the 10:01 am re dedication ceremony. I was surrounded by several guys who have Disney podcast (the big D podcast and Beyond Main Street) I also think I saw Rickey Brigante (Inside the Magic). The ceremony started and the 2007 Disney Ambassador Michael Kelly introduced Jim McPhee who then introduced Disney Legend Marty Sklar. I didn’t realize this but Marty is the only castmember who has been involved in all 11 Disney theme parks. They had castmembers representing all the Future World attractions and then they had castmembers international castmembers bringing water from the different lands to pour into the fountains of nations. The ceremony was pretty much over after that. After the ceremony was over, I booked it over to the Land Pavillion to get my spot for the Marty Sklar lecture. I cannot begin to tell you how amazing it was. Marty had several old photos and lots and lots of original videos/music. I was pretty choked up by the end of it. I was strange to be that close to someone who has had such a huge impact on the Disney company and theme parks in general.

I do have to say that although it was pretty neat to be there for the 25th anniversary, I think that the Disney company really could have done much a better job. It was clearly thrown together at the last minute. I was very disappointed that Bob Iger was not there and the selection of merchandise was horrible. The other thing that I felt was odd was Spaceship Earth was not open and still under refurbishment. Horrible planning on Disney’s part.

Here is what I have come up with for my upcoming trip

Wednesday September 26
My friends fly into Sanford Airport and arrive in Orlando at approx 8pm.
Staying offsite with a friend for the night

Thursday Sept 27
I fly into MCO and arrive approx 11am
Meet at All Star Sports around 1pm
Tour Boardwalk, Contemepary, Poly, and Grand Floridian
Dinner at Downtown Disney
Pleasure Island after dinner

Friday September 28
Start at Animal Kingdom
Early Evening Magic Kingdom-Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

Saturday September 29
Epcot morning
Dinner LeCellier 7pm

Sunday September 30
Morning Magic Kingdom
Evening Disney Studios-Extra Magic Hours

Monday October 1
Check out of hotel
Me-head to Epcot for Rededication Ceremony
Everyone else-sleep in check out of hotel
Meet at Beaches and Cream for lunch
Everyone else-shuttle/taxi to airport
Me leave at 5pm for airport

Trip over! BOO!

So that’s the plan. Pretty quick trip just to get my “fix” Hopefully next year there will be several trips now that we are living close to a major airport.

Got an offer from Disney earlier this week for 20% off the purchase of a Photopass CD before we began our trip. The cost is normally $125 and you can pre-purchase for $99. You get all the pictures that Disney takes as well as any cropped pictures on your CD. It also arrives with a copywrite waiver so you can make as many copies in any size that you might want. Although I have not had much use for the Photopass photographers until now, we decided that splitting the cost by 4 and knowing that all 4 of us would be in all the pictures this is worth it. I can tell you that knowing I have already spent the $$ for the CD I will no longer walk past a Photopass Photographer without getting them to take my picture. It’s a pretty smart move on Disney’s part if you ask me. It keeps the Photographer’s busy and sells the CD’s for them. I have heard of people having 300+pictures on their CD. I think if we can manage 150-200 we will be doing good.

Magical Express is a service Disney offers which allows guests of the resort to have shuttle transportation to/from the Orlando International Airport and the Walt DisneyWorld Resort. On trips prior to this service it would cost us anywhere from $25 pp for Mears Shuttle Service to $80+ tip for a towncar service. We only did the shuttle service once; it was horrible we were crammed onto a 15 passenger van with people who were going to several different hotels. It took us over an hour to get to the hotel. For later trips we switched to a towncar service. It was very nice. We were greeted at the gate and assisted with our luggage. We also were given a 30 minute grocery stop to pick up water, cokes, pop tarts, etc. They also picked you up for your return trip home.

When Disney started the Magical Express I was a little worried. I thought it would be more like the Mears shuttle, but hey this is Disney, they are not going to cut corners right? My first experience with Magical Express I was flying Southwest, which is not one of the preferred airlines. However, we had a very little wait time and in no time were on the very nice motor coach on our way to Caribbean Beach Resort. Our luggage was delivered to our room within an hour to our room. Since we were not a preferred airline we could only hold our luggage on the way home at the end of our trip but it was a very pleasant experience. Our next trip we were flying a preferred carrier and let me tell you the $20 or so that you save by flying a discount airline is no longer worth it. I always take that into consideration when I am looking at airfare now. Basically you check you luggage when you arrive at your home airport and don’t deal with it again until you get back to your home airport at the end our your trip. Disney has the hotels which each motor coach services grouped together well and the wait is not bad at all. This is a great added value to your Disney vacation.