ILLUSTRATION: Belle and Charlotte with [Mickey Mouse]
DESCRIPTION: 'Shopped photo of B&C with Mickey IP obscured.
CAPTION: Belle and Charlotte in 2003 may have been the only people to wish Mickey a happy 75th on his birthday.
A pennywise journey through
the land of fun on a meter,
with an emphasis on quality of
family experience and stress
reduction for young and old;
strategies for those who have
to work hard the rest of the year
to pay for it all.
Surviving Orlando —
A Guide For Dads
by Alan B. Scrivener
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BACK COVER: around edge fake posters and coupons
in style of Captain Dinosaur's Pirate Rip-off
* Public Domain Character Meal
* The Queue of Terror
* Timeshare Salespitch Escape Room
* More Boats Past Dolls
* Vomit Coasters and Batting Cages — I-Drive & Kissimmee
* Vampirates Dayglo Dar Ride
* Ride the Futuristic Quadrail
* Time Reversal Dinner Theater — Eat Dessert First! See Lincoln Unassasinated!
* Can You Survive the Cute Overdose?
bogus coupons
* Eastside Crusatean Feast and Fungus Buffet — free ice with coupon
* Bumper Hovercraft at the Old Mercado — 2 for 1
* Sneaker by the Dozen — Whosale Athletic Shoes — 15% off 12 pair
* Jilted Jills Saloon — No Happy Hour — cheap drinks all day — free jukebox play with coupon (sad songs only)
* Alligator Astronauts, Titusville — 4 admissions for price of 3
* Boiled Peanut World, St. Cloud — drive on over — free gas with minimum purchase
* Turkey Lake Slip and Slide Park — free towel with coupon
in middle sales pitch and endorsements
"One of the most useful pieces of advice in this book was to seriously
consider not going to Orlando at all!" — Grampa Grumpy
ILLUSTRATION: Belle and Charlotte with [Mickey Mouse]
DESCRIPTION: 'Shopped photo of B&C with Mickey IP obscured.
CAPTION: Belle and Charlotte in 2003 may have been the only people to wish Mickey a happy 75th on his birthday.
To Belle and Charlotte, the next generation.
Thanks to Charlotte Scrivener for the artwork, my wife Dixie for being supportive, and also to them and Wayne Holder, Belle Holder, Will Ackel, Eric and Stinne Lighthart, Trish Simonet, Bob Brost, and others (who I must apologize to for leaving you out) for many enjoyable theme park outings and discussions about what made them special.
|
Everything here should be confirmed on the internet and/or by phone before you commit resources.
My hope is that you can take away a bigger picture: a set of priorities, and strategies for achieving them. |
White Rabbit discovers he's late in 1865 illustration by
Sir John Tenniel from "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland"
Though I love books I must admit they are obsolete. This is especially true of a book about Orlando, one of the fastest-changing built landscapes in the world.
For example, after I began writing this book I became aware of the following construction projects announced or in process in Orlando:
Clearly to review these additions in person I would have to make another trip to central Florida, and then return to write about them, by which time more additions would probably be announced, making a never-ending cycle. And of course, once the book is published the details immediatly begin getting stale.
And we all know that prices, hours, policies and availability can change in an instant. Everything here should be confirmed on the internet and/or by phone before you commit resources.
My hope is that you can take away a bigger picture: a set of priorities, and strategies for achieving them.
| This book is for anyone who finds it useful. |
ILLUSTRATION: Carrot Top's sculpture
DESCRIPTION: Carrot Top holding Mickey doll with hose from mouth to wallet
CAPTION: Comedian Carrot Top made a sculpture he called "A Trip to Disney World"
The idea for this book came to me when I realized that often the person who least enjoys an Orlando vacation is the one paying for it.
I use the word "Dads" in the title as a shorthand for anyone who earns all or some of the money spent on an Orlando vacation. Traditionally the dad role also includes taking responsibiity for a family's physical safety, handing out discipline when needed, and serving as a source of (hopefully) wisdom. At least that's what was going in in the old TV sitcoms like "Father Knows Best" (1954). And it my own circle of friends, it has always been dads who were the most leery of theme park vacations.
Please don't get the wrong idea: I'm not advocating for traditional gender roles. I was just looking for a catchy title, and the dad role is still pretty common. But alternate family structures are also common. Among families who've visited theme parks and shared their experiences with me, I know gay couples, hetero couples in which the man is the primary child rearer, and the woman the primary breadwinner, blended families of all types and many other combinations. It's all good. Ultimately this book is for anyone who finds it useful.
ORGANIZATION
The book is structured in approximate chronological order, dealing with things as much as possible in the sequence you will encounter them. Also, the sections are broken into short chunks that each have a primary message. Forgive me if I love to tell stories that aren't always fully relevant; to make them easy to skip I've enclosed them in grey boxes, like the one below.
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STORY: "They're Doing It To Us Again"
I have a friend I'll call 'E' who is dubious of many things, and theme parks are one of them. This is funny because we went to high school together in the San Diego area and had many enjoyable trips to Disneyland in our teens, through our 20s, and even a trip to Walt Disney World back then. But he soured on theme parks later. When he was married and had young two sons we convinced the family to go with us on a kid-friendly trip to Las Vegas. (As crazy as it sounds, Vegas is a great place for kids if you do it right. Maybe I'll write a book about it someday. But it does share with Orlando that feeling of having money sucked out of your wallet.) One place we visited was a mini-theme park behind the MGM Grand Hotel, called the MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park.
( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM_Grand_Adventures_Theme_Park )
This place had "ripoff" written all over it. On the way in we passed ticket booths with signs telling us to be sure to buy our tickets. The signs made it seem like we had to buy an admission to get in, and we also had to get a package with a bunch of ride tickets. But I knew from my research that admission was free, so we charged ahead. Sure enough, once inside we also found we could buy individual ride tickets. We ended up not riding any rides, since they all seemed pretty bogus, and just doing some shopping at a joke shop and wandering out. Frankly, it put us — especially the dads — in an slightly aggravated mood to have experienced such a blantant attempt to separate us from our money. They did have a belly dancer on a stage, which seemed like an attempt to mollify the dads, and I suppose it made some happy, but it also annoyed some wives which in the long run probably made the husbands less happy. Later we decided to go to the top of the Stratosphere hotel for the great view of the Las Vegas strip.
( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratosphere_Las_Vegas ) But before we could take the express elevator to the top (which we paid a hefty price to do) we had to walk up a spiral ramp that made several complete circles around the building past a bunch of retail opportunities. "They're doing it to us again!" complained E, and he was right. That phrase became a shorthand for surviving yet another ripoff attempt. This is probably why I could never get E to visit any themed attractions after that. I can't say that I blame him, but there are techniques to hang on to more of your money and your good mood in such places. Perhaps this book will change his mind about trying it again. |
After the main chapters I've placed tabular and extraneous material in the appendices.
| "Everything is so enhanted and horrible." |
Mad Tea Party in 1865 illustration by
Sir John Tenniel from "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland"
"Disney placed his not inconsiderable talent in the service of ... the search for 'an infallible program to invoke automatic reactions.' By the time he died, he and his associates had found this formula and managed to adapt it to every medium of communication known to man. They had even invented a new and unique medium of their very own -- Disneyland. What was even better about Disney's machine, what made it superior to all of its competitors, was that it had the power to compel one's attention to a product it particularly treasured. All its parts — movies, television, book and song publishing, merchandising, Disneyland — interlock and are mutually reciprocating. And all of them are aimed at the most vulnerable portion of the adult's psyche — his feelings for his children."— Richard Shickel (1968) The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney [ISBN-10: 1566631580]
I realize there's some pretty thick prose in the above quote, but it has an important message. Read the last sentence again. This is the blessing and the curse of Disney. It is good that we have feelings for our children; I wouldn't have it any other way. Disney and the other illusionists can help us with the labor and the joy of parenting. But they have been able to get very skilled at manipulating those feelings in us.
Or to put it another way, consider this spontaneous description. In a March 5, 2018 article in the New York Times entitled "On a Disney Cruise, It's a Stressful World (After All),"
( www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/travel/disney-cruise-magic-bahamas.html )
travel writer David Saltzstein described a Disney cruise with his wife Nancy and 5 1/2 year old daughter Anna. He was reluctant, having never taken a cruise before and having not been on a Disney property since his age was in the single digits. At one point, while reviewing a list of Wi-Fi prices on the ship, Nancy said to him, "Everything is so enhanted and horrible." In the moment this described the experience of running out of all-you-can-eat soft serve for the kids beore the ship left port, and of fending off the constant barrage of "up-sell" offers that Disney marketing always seems to hit you with. Taking a longer view, it's the whole quandry right there.
A splendid example of the manipulation is found in a thirty second commercial that the Walt Disney Company put at the beginning of the commercial videotape of the feature-length cartoon "Cinderella" when it was re-released in the 1990s. It's usually called "Wake Up Call" and it can be found on YouTube.
Walt Disney World Ad- Wake Up Call (1995)
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wwll0Jt1Uo )
I guess the comnpay doesn't issue a takedown notice because the ad still works to bring them visitors, and they've never collected any revenue for showing it, so they have nothing to lose and much to gain by leaving it be.
It begins by fading up on a view of a hotel room interior. Early morning light is streaming in, and there are two beds. Sitting on the end of the bed on the left is a girl of about six, fully dressed for a theme park day except shoes. She does have her Mickey Mouse purse over her shoulder, and behind her is the Mickey Mouse doll she slept with. At her feet is her suicase, open with clothes spilling out, like she dressed in a hurry. We hear the sound of the hotel phone ringing. The camera pans over to show the parents alseep in the right bed. Dad raises his head in confusion. Cut to the little girl picking up the phone. We hear a cartoon voice giving the wakeup message. "It's Goofy!" the little girl exclaims.
I should note that if you stay in a Disney hotel they offer a free wakeup call from one of their characters, but you never know which one you'll get.
Cut to exteriro morning shot of the little girl pulling her parents through the hotel grounds. It's the Grand Floridian, the most deluxe resort on Walt Disney World property. "C'mon!" she shouts, almost quoting Peter Pan, urging them to get going.
The next few cuts show their day at the Magic Kingdom, as the little girl rides a carousel with Donald Duck, sees Jasmine (and Aladdin) riding a magic carpet in a parade, and talks to one of the seven dwarves, Bashful, telling him that she saw his movie three times. (He reacts by covering his face shyly.)
At last it is night and they are all tired and leaving the park, walking away from Cinderella's Castle towards the Main Street train station and the exits. Dad (in his only spoken line) says he guesses that she's seen just about everybody, but we see a sad expression forming on her face.
Then, in the emotional finale, Mickey Mouse appears, standing in front of the train station, the backlighting like a halo around him, and the little girl breaks into a smile. Then she delivers the "punch line" of this ad, "I've been waiting my whole life to meet you."
It closes with a title card that says "Walt Disney World. Make the dream come true."
There's a lot to unpack in this thirty seconds. First I'd mention that mom is sort of a blur in this, and has no lines. It's a story of a dad's relationship with his daughter. And I have to ask myself, did he not know that Mickey is her favorite? He clearly wants to make her happy, and it seems like he's just thrown money at the problem. They're staying in the most expensive resort. And he might say it was all worth it to see the look on her face when she finally met Mickey. But it almost didn't happen! And I have to point out the meet-up was entirely unrealistic. There is always a line to meet characters in the park, and a handler for crowd control. But they didn't have to wait for chance or fate to deliver the mouse. By 1994 the Magic Kingdom had Mickey's Country House, which was expressly designed to gurantee you a one-on-one visit with Mickey. Alternately, there were character meet and greet meals at several locations, including Chef Mickey's lunch or dinner just a monorail ride away at the Contemporary Resort, and a breakfast at the Empress Lily steamboat at Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs), reachable by boat. But all of this would have required awareness and planning. (I'll show you in Chapter _3_: Planning To Go To Orlando how to arrange your special character encounters today. Currently you can see Mickey at the Town Square Theater on Main Street, and you can reserve it with a FastPass, but that could all change.) Instead Dad spent all this money and risked failure — actually he didn't exactly know what success was — and could've have ended up with a tearful scene as the left the park, or even as they boarded the plane home.
The implicit promise here from Disney is, "you take care of the money, we'll take care of the magic." Well, I'm here to tell you that is's a trap. To make this work, you really have to take care of both. You can't just charge the card, show up, and hope for the best.
And it's gotten much, much worse in the last 35 years since this commercial was released. Using variable pricing and special events, Walt Disney World has managed to "load balance" their attendance so there is almost no slow season. The character meals now require reservations months in advance. Planning is more essential than ever.
Maybe there was a hidden message in the ad: the "Wake Up Call" was for Dad: Get more involved in your daughter's life! And improve your trip planning skills while you're at it.
Well, you've decided to research and plan your Orlando theme park trip. The next challenge you face is that the TV channels and the internet are absoultely chocked full of bad avice on visiting Orlando theme parks.
For humorous effect, newspaper writer Dave Barry gave some especially bad advice in his book, "Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need" (1991), which included these tips:
Obviously, this is all presented sarcastically, but I'm going to nit-pick anyway and point out the flaws:
Unfortunately, none of the other bad advice I have seen was played for laughs. And what makes it worse is that some of this tomfoolery is presented as if it is a consensus — that no sane person would do it any other way. I worry about all of the poor souls who fall into these traps.
One of the first things I saw that made me irate at all the misinformation was a special on the basic cable Travel Channel called "Season of Disney: On a Dime" (2009). It was more like on a hundred thousand dimes.
More recently I saw a video on the Time Magazine web site, called "What's cheaper, Disneyland or Walt Disney World?" (2017). I wasn't very concerned with the question; I think the answer is really "It depends." But for comparison purposes they made some assumptions that seemed crazy to me.
And just a few months ago I saw a ReviewTime video called "Our Cheapest Disney World Vacation Plan" (2019) which again repeated the insanity of unneccessary expenditures labeled "cheap."
Among the bad advice all these sites shared are these (I've put them in gray to remind you not to take the advice!):
Now, put on your cynical hat for a moment. Most of these information sources owe more favors to Disney than they do to you. Disney may give them access, freebies, even stock footage to use, and in return they want their agenda pushed. What you'll notice about all of this advice is that it's designed to keep you away from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. If you're on property without a car, all your days booked and all your meals pre-paid, when are you going to break away and go to Universal?
But theres another insidious side-effect of this plan. Let me break it down for you. Let's say your plane arrives at noon, which is only likely if you're flying in from the East Coast of the U.S., but whatever. The Magical Express bus takes you to your resort by about 1 PM. They also take your luggage, hopefully. But your room isn't ready until 3 or 4 PM. You don't have your bags, except your carry-ons. You kill time hanging out in the lobby until you can get into your room, then wait for your luggage (it doesn't always arrive right away), and by the time you are all ready to go have theme park fun it's 5 or 6 PM. Are you going to go to a theme park now? You're getting of third of a day. And if you paid for park-hoppers, the hopping isn't happening. And yet, I see these cheerful videos that somehow imply you fly in, visit your room, and head off to a park while it's still morning. It's a trap!
This isn't as big a deal, but another source of misinformation is the video bloggers (vloggers) with channels that cover the Orlando theme park beat. Now, don't get me wrong; I love these folks. I'll have more to say about them in Chapter _3_: Planning To Go To Orlando. But their world is not your world. They usually live nearby and have annual passes. They can eat breakfast at home and splurge on a big lunch in a park, then be back home for a small, cheap dinner. They can afford to pop into a park to ride one ride — maybe the newest ride — and it doesn't cost them much. Their priorities are different than yours and you need to take that into account.
What motivated me to write this book was all of this bad advice. When I think about what I do with own family, and what I recommend to others, I've come to realize that almost nobody else is giving this advice.
(For those of you not up on the latest internet abbreviations, the above stands for "Too Long; Didn't Read" and flags a summary of the material.)
If you're thumbing through this book and thinking about buying it, I don't want to discourage you from making the purchase, but here is the short version.
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My Top 10 Advice:
|
This book will offer these and other tips, as well as explaining why you should follow them.
I have experienced the Walt Disney Company and its offerings in a number of ways in my life: as a fan of Walt's TV shows, watching from a very early age; as a wide-eyed enchanted child visiting Disneyland, mesmerized by the magic; as a theater goer swept up in the beauty and emotion of the Disney films; as an older child figuring out how the illusions worked, a past-time I still enjoy; as a teenager enjoying the freedom of visiting with friends and no parents; as a young adult revisiting fond emories of childhood enchantment; as a "cast member" (employee) working at Walt Disney World in the 1970s; as a fascinated nephew hearing stories from my Great Uncle Alfred about being a Disney animator; as a Walt Disney Stockholder, reading the annual reports and following corporate news; as a vendor to the company, working for Steve Jobs at NeXT and calling on the Burbank stuios to help make software sales; as a parent sharing the magic with my child and my friends' children; as a frequent business traveler to Orlando for trade shows and customer visits, in which I usually squeezed in some kind of fun; and as a self-published author, passing on what I've learned from over fifteen visits to Orlando and countless visits to Disneyland in California.
The long version of this story can be found in Appendix -11-: About the Author.
| It depends a good deal on where you want to get to. |
Alice and the Cheshire Cat
in 1865 illustration by Sir John Tenniel
from "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland"
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where —" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
— Lewis Carroll (1865) "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland"
Sure, there are plenty of times in life when you can, and should, do things impulsively, with no plan, and just wing it. But an Orlando vacation is expensive, time-consuming, and possibly quite stressful, and I submit to you that it is a good idea to know why you are doing it.
Why visit Orlando with your family? I've observed six main reasons:
They call it R&R in the military, and it's consider a necessity for sustainable armed forces. Your family, too, needs R&R, for the parents who've been working hard to earn money, maintain a household, raise the kids, plus any community activities, and for the kids who have been doing their part: school, chores, and whatever else. A vacation allows you all to trade in your everyday problems temporarily for new ones, and escape your routine. In the UK they have a saying:
"A change is as good as a rest."If all goes well you return to your regular life rejuvinated and ready to get back into the familiar daily challenges.
Often a family is going in different directions much of the time. Working parents usually have different jobs, and unless kids are twins (or step-siblings) they always have different ages, meaning they are usually in different classes or even schools. I'm told it's sometimes a struggle just have dinner together. As a break from busy schedules a vacation provides an opportunty for family bonding, adding shared memories of good times to the "treasure box" of family history.
Going on a theme park vacation in Orlando constitutes a huge win for most kids. This makes it an effective reward. If you're proud of your kids for their hard work, responsibility, courage and/or good-heartedness, this can be a great way to show it.
Folks don't talk about this much because it's nearly invisble, but nearly everything parents do with kids acts to reinforce the values of the family, which are passed on to the next generation a little bit by what you tell them, and a whole lot by what they see you doing. An expensive vacation should be no different.
Chances are somebody told you how magical the experience of theme parks can be, especially the Disney parks. Maybe you feel like it's worth experiencing yourselves. Sure, go for it. But as an amateur magician I feel I must reveal this truth: the magician doesn't get to experience the magic, because it happens in the heads of the audience.
Believe it or not, the Orlando trip offers a great amount of educational experiences packaged with fun; in the '90s they called this "edutainment." The possibilities are so great I've devoted Chapter _4_: Making It Interesting and Educational, to them.
Of course, you can do all of these things without going to Orlando. You can also go to Orlando without doing these things. There are six ways from Sunday to mess this up, and actually move away from these six goals. That's why I think it's important to focus on the goals, not the destinations.
This may sound like "Mom and apple pie" when you consider it in isolation, but when you're in the thick of things and trying to decide whether to get the fireworks view dessert package, it can help you feel grounded to think about the decision in terms of your goals. I encourage you to work with your family to get clear on your vaction goals before you begin planning a trip.
Most people don't like to think much about worst case scenarios, but I'm going to bring them up now to emphasize that an Orlando trip does involve a degree of risk, and that risk is magnified by bad planning.
I've divided these scanrios into four categories, from mildest to most severe:
Things may not go as planned. You may miss opportunities, waste time and money, or do something you end up not enjoying.
There can be natural or human-caused disasters: hurricanes, tornados, wildfires (yes, even in rain-drenched Florida), floods, severe traffic jams, power failures, environmental hazards, and who knows what else that can derail your vacation.
Worse than what Disney calls a "bad show" experience is something that damages your relationships. If instead of family bonding you experience alienation and feuding, the effects can last far beyond your trip.
Of course, injury, harm and damage are terrible outcomes on vacation. Luckily they are rare.
I know this all sounds bad, but there can be some surprising reversals of fortune involved. Lets take a closer look.
4. terrible tragedy
I want to start with the most severe (and least likely) to get it out of the way. There's not much to say about severe tragedy, except that we all want to avoid it. See sections ___ and ___ in Chapter _9_: General Suggestions, for details on safety and security.
But there's a difference between damage, which has permanent effects, and injury, which can be temporary. Sometimes it is possible to find a silver lining in a dark cloud.
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STORY: Telling Minnie All About the Accident
When my daughter was four we went to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World while her mom was nearby at a conference. It was a great father-daughter experience overall. But something did go awry near the end of the day. When we left the Magic Kingdom there were long lines to get on the monorails and ferries that would take us back to the parking lot where our rental car was parked, so I suggested that we walk to the Contemporary Resort Hotel instead, which is less than half a mile away. I ended up carrying her on my shoulders. This might have worked out okay if there's been a paved walkway, but there was a dirt path with construction. I guess they were upgrading the path. I think I tripped over an unfinished curb when I fell to my knees and dropped her, cutting her lip. I was mortified. The last thing a parent wants to do is to hurt their kid due to their own stupidity. I carried my crying child in my arms the rest of the way to the Contemporary, and asked a cast memeber where I could find first aid. After cleaning up her lip and applying a bandaid, I told her we'd find some ice cream. A walk-away location had some, but I didn't hink it was good enough, so I made our way up escalators to Chef Mickey's, a character meet-and-greet and buffet, and inquired if we could get just a dessert buffet. They said yes. (This may or may not be available in the future.) So we got all-you-can-eat desserts, and when Minnie Mouse came by to meet and greet us, my daughter told her the story of what had happaned. Minnie (who can't talk in the costume) reacted with gestures, conveying surprise, dismay and comforting. On the next several trips to Orlando we went back to Chef Mickey's, and each time we sat in the same spot and my daughter told Minnie the same story. It became a family tradition. When I reviewed the details with my now grown daughter, she said "It was one of my favorite childhood memories." |
1. minor misadventure
Now back to the top of the list.
The least terrible of these scenarios is that you will be disappointed. Things may not go your way. A "must see" attraction may be closed, or have a line so long you can't do it and still do other things you planned. You may feel like you paid too much and got too little. A food item you saw on the internet may not taste the way you expected, surprising you in not a good way. The weather may be worse than forecasted, or if you didn't check the weather report, worse than you hoped.
I recommend you take a two-pronged approach to these issues:
If you do your research and plan for contingencies, you can ward off most (but not all) of these misadventures. That's what this book is for.
Below a certain threshold it's best to just "be chill" about minor misadventures. Don't be a spoiled princess or prince that gives theme park tourists a bad name. If you line up at City Hall at the Magic Kingdom, where people go to make complaints, you can experience some of the most cringeworthy whining about trivialities, along with attempts to get "comps" (freebies). Honestly, it would make good click bait. Now, I'm not saying that if you receive poor service you should do nothing. Gosh knows here in the internet era there are more ways to complain than ever before. Besides complaining to management, I prefer Yelp as a place to vent. But make sure you aren't blowing things out of proportion, for the sake of your fellow travelers if nothing else. And remember not to "blast" employees — often they are the ones who can fix it.
And speaking of complaints, it can be very educational to read on-line posts at forum-style complaint sites, such as:
Walt Disney World Resort Consumer Reviews
( www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/walt-disney-world-resort.html )
You'll find page after page of stories of people who spent a lot of money to visit Walt Disney World and were very unhappy with the experience, because of extreme crowds, long lines for rides and restaurants, lack of roaming characters, high priced and low quality food, and other issues. Often these visits were in the summer, and most folks seemed surprised when they arrived and found they should have reserved things ahead of time. I didn't see anyone mentione that they showed up early, and some left after a short visit.
Quite a few of these folks had visited years before and say it's changed. They're right. You have to work harder now to have fun.
You also may find posts like this one that say it is possible to beat all these challenges with research and planning:
Every single thing reviewers are complaining about (price of food, price of tickets, price of hotel rooms, crowds, and long lines) are all easily researched to make an informed decision about whether visiting Disney is for you. We're now on our 6th trip since February '17 and have had none of these issues. We monitor hotel prices religiously, know how much food costs thanks to Google, and reserve FastPasses and gauge lines efficiently by using My Disney Experience. It seems there are a plethora of folks here that never did their homework expecting magic when they arrive unprepared.
2. declared disaster
Fortunately, it's been my experience that when a natural or unnatural disaster strikes, most the time most people nearby are fine. But one of these big emergency events can shut down your vacation.
The documentary movie "Woodstock" about the 1969 music festival shows a disaster area where 25,000 people were initially expected and almost half a million showed up, plus the roads in and out were jammed and it rained much of the time. In one scene a guy known as Wavy Gravy is at a microphone instructing the crowd on how the distribution of donated breakfast was going to work, with people helping to feed each other. He quipped,
"There's always a little bit of heaven in a disaster area."
This can be true in Orlando as well. For example, in those rare cases where a hurricane passed nearby and hotel guests were told to "shelter in place," some good things happened as well: people gathering, singing, talking, getting the kids to play non-electronic games, and often a family bonding experience came out of the mix.
As a framework for thinking about events like these, I'd like to grab an idea from a childhood book my wife introduced me to, "It's a Wise Woodsman Who Knows What's Biting Him" (1969).
In Chapter 1: "The Path Less Traveled By" he immediately dives into the concept of "red blood density points" which you accumulate by camping. He says "Flush toilets are the kiss of death," and points out that campers must be masochistic, because they brag so much about their hardships — giant mosquitos, flipping a canoe in a lake, losing all their food to bears... You get the idea. All of these things give you red blood density points, as do pioneering crafts like sharpening axes, tying knots, ditching tents, and going on hikes, which he defines as walking away from development for long enough that you need to bring food.
This idea can also be applied to an Orlando vacation. Every disaster zone experience gives you red blood density points, and most of them make great stoeies. With the right attitude you can turn them into family bonding experiences as well.
3. family calamity
Some of the most heartbreaking stories in the above-mentioned consumer forums say things like "I'm still not speaking to my sister after that trip." I like to think that for most of us this is not a desired outcome. Theme parks these days can be very stressful, and this stress can boil over into damaged relationships. I think this is one of the biggest unacknowledged risks of a big theme park trip.
Outcomes like this sadden the heart and sap our aliveness. There are innocent bystenders who are affected. I can be painfully ironic to have such sad things happen in a "happy place," and sour people on future visits. I've seen it happen in my own family.
One of my primary goals in writing this book is to help prevent these kinds of calamities. I'll show and tell you how to stay connected to your family as you navigate the theme park challenges with reduced stress, and raise your red blood density points at the same time.
| How to save 100% on theme park tickets? Don't go! |
Now that you are appraised on the risks, and hopefully clear on your goals, you have to admit it is possible to achieve your goals without going to Orlando. (It's also possible, of course, to go to Orlando without achieving your goals. So don't do that.) Some alternate ideas might be:
Probably the toughest goal to meet without visiting a Disney theme park in particular is experiencing the magic. Yet, it can be done. Other avenues include:
A big reason to not go to Orlando is if your kids are too young. Most rides are for ages four and up, so those zero to three won't have much to do. If you have older kids in the family it might work, but don't take a toddler for their sake. They'll have as much fun at a neighborhood fun center like Boomer's with air hockey games and bumper boats.
Another reason not to go is if your kids haven't earned it. If there have been recent problems with discipline or schoolwork, it may not be a good time. If an important at-risk grade is coming just before the trip, this might not be a good idea. If they get an F will you cancel? Both options are not so good.
You might give them goals to achieve in order to get there. Don't underestimate what a huge reward this will be for them (unless, maybe, if they are teenagers).
But if, given what I've told you, the family still wants to go and you're going along, enter with eyes open and make a plan that will work for you and yours.
| How to save 50% on theme park tickets? Go every other day! |
Self-help guru Tony Robbins has said that caring too little or too much about money can lead to unhappiness. This matches my experience. So be sure to care just enough about money to master it, so it can become another tool for achieving your life goals.
Below are some specific steps for making the money work on a theme park vacation.
An expensive vacation shouldn't be a high priority in your financial plans. In answering the question "Can we afford the trip?" you not only need to have the money to go, but you need to make sure other, higher priority items are handled:
Oif your do not have your "house in order," and don't know where to begin, I recommend the classic book "The Richest Man in Babylon" (1926) by George S. Clason as a good, enjoyable introduction to the philosophy of financial planning. Make it a goal to achieve the above milestones, and then take a theme park vacation as a reward.
Magic Kingdom ticket prices
I want to draw your attention to the trend in admission pricing to the Magic Kingdom over its lifetime, as seen on the graph above and the table below.
1971 — $3.50 1972 — $3.75 1973 — $4.50 1974 — $5.25 1975 — $6.00 1976 — $6.00 1977 — $6.00 1978 — $6.50 1979 — $7.00 1980 — $8.00 |
1981 — $9.50 1982 — $15.00 1983 — $17.00 1984 — $18.00 1985 — $21.50 1986 — $26.00 1987 — $28.00 1988 — $28.00 1989 — $29.00 1990 — $31.00 |
1991 — $33.00 1992 — $34.00 1993 — $35.00 1994 — $36.00 1995 — $37.00 1996 — $38.50 1997 — $39.75 1998 — $42.00 1999 — $44.00 2000 — $46.00 |
2001 — $48.00 2002 — $50.00 2003 — $52.00 2004 — $54.75 2005 — $59.75 2006 — $67.00 2007 — $71.00 2008 — $75.00 2009 — $79.00 2010 — $82.00 |
2011 — $85.00 2012 — $89.00 2013 — $95.00 2014 — $99.00 2015 — $105.00 2016 — $110.00 2017 — $115.00 2018 — $119.00 2019 — $125.00 |
I present this for more than its "gee whiz" appeal. It gives very good clues as to prices in the future. Spoiler alert: they will rise! The web site
Blooloop. "Networking the Attraction Business"
( blooloop.com/cost-admission-disneyland-disney-world )
matched this data to an algebraic curve, and predicted the following future prices:
2020 — $141 2025 — $185 2030 — $242
More detailed analysis can be found in an article from 2015 in the Orlando Weekly newspaper.
Washington Post discovers that Walt Disney World tickets are expensive
by Seth Kubersky Jun 15,2015
( www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2015/06/15/washington-post-discovers-that-walt-disney-world-tickets-are-expensive )
There have been similar upward trends, though not as extreme, in the prices of airfare, car rental, lodging and food over the years, and I'm sure they will continue.
One of the lessons of the above data is that theme park tickets will be a big chunk of your trip budget, typically from a quarter to a third of the total, ignoring airfare (which will vary widely depending on where you are coming from). The other big chunks will be food and lodging.
There is obviously an interplay between the budgeting process and the planning process. But in a sense the budget comes first: you have to know how much you can afford to spend, and you have to jiggle everything until the total you plan to spend adds up to less than this target amount. I'm going to suggest that you use a spreadsheet program, like Microsoft Excel or Open Office, or a cloud-based solution like Google Docs, and draw up alternate budgets based on various possible choices.
What you'll find is that your costs determine your decisions, while your decisions determine your costs. If you begin playing with budgets like the one below in a spreadhseet, working with the material in this chapter and the next, you will begin to get a feeling for the sensitivity of the budget to different decisions.
I'll walk you through a few budgets to show you some of these effects. Specifically I want to look at how decisions affect the bottom line cost, the cost per person-day (bottom line divided by people times days), and a pie chart showing the balance of expenditures.
Charts from:
Meta Chart
( www.meta-chart.com )
Travel Channel — Season of Disney: On a Dime from April 2008
This is one of the things that motivated me to write this book. Almost a dozen years ago I saw a show on the basic cable Travel Channel, entitled "Season of Disney: On a Dime." It was slickly produced, had a lot of Disney-supplied content, and offered what I considered flawed advice that served the Walt Disny Company better than the typical Travel Channel viewer. I was irate. I referred to it as "Disney on 50,000 Dimes."
This budget exemplifies the bad advice I mentioned in the Introduction: Just Because I'm a Fan Doesn't Mean I'm Gullible, with a family of 2 adults and 2 children (ages 10 and 3) staying on Disney property, in a moderate resort (more on that below), and getting 3 days of park hopping for everyone for the 3 days they will be present in Orlando. Later on I will explain how insane this is, and how hard it can be on your family. And don't get me started on how they should have waited for the 3-year-old to be at least 4.
Back then Travel Channel priced this trip at $1362. Boy does that sound cheap, but it excludes airfare, food, other fun, souvenirs, taxes, and tips, plus if you get a car the tolls, parking, gas and vehicle rental.
To update this budget I noted there was a 67% increase in Disney park ticket prices in the intervening years, and so I used that as a rough multiplier for Disney park and lodging costs, getting $2,275. I then repriced a plan on the Walt Disney World web site and it came to $2290, within $15 of my rough estimate, so I figured that was close enough. Then I proceded to fill in the holes.
For this and every budget I need to identify 4 numbers:
| name | description | amount |
|---|---|---|
| days | total number of days | 3 |
| nights | number of nights (one less) | 2 |
| people | total number of people | 4 |
| non-toddlers | number of people 4 and older | 3 |
I then use those number to feed into estimates:
airfare = people x 250
food = non-toddlers x days x 100
resort days = 0 (spending all day every day park-hopping)
souvenirs = non-toddlers x days x 20
taxes = ( lodging + parks ) x 10%
tips = people x days x 10
vehicle costs = 0
I will mostly use these same formulas for all the budgets, to compare "apples to apples." Of course these numbers can be tweaked, and hopefully lowered, by fine-tuning your decisions.
Here's the updated Travel Channel budget, in a table and a pie chart. Note in the pie chart that red shows the lodging and parks combined in a special package from Disney. Clearly this piece, almost half the total, is the "low hanging fruit." Anything you can do to drop parks and lodging costs per person-day will make the biggest difference.
| category | item | 2008 price | 2019 price | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| airfare | round trip for 4 | $1,000 | (estimated at $250/person) | |
| food | food for 3 for 3 days | $900 | (estimated at $100 per person-day over 3) | |
| lodging | 3 days 2 nights moderate resort — Port Orleans Riverside | vvv | vvv | |
| parks | 3 day park hoppers | $1,362 | $2,275 | lodging and parks combined |
| resort days | $0 | |||
| souvenirs | $180 | (estimated at $20 per person-day over 3) | ||
| taxes | $227 | (estimated at 10% of lodging and parks) | ||
| tips | $120 | (estimated at $10 per person-day) | ||
| tolls, parking and gas | $0 | |||
| vehicle rental | $0 | |||
| TOTAL | $4,702 | |||
| PER PERSON-DAY | total divided by (3 people times 3 days) | $522 |
Time Magazine on March 2, 2017
Time posted a video entitled "What's cheaper, Disneyland or Walt Disney World?" (As of press time it is no longer available.) The goal was to compare Disneyland and Walt Disney World costs, but what I noticed was the assumptions they made when drawing up the budgets to compare. Once again it was assumed that a family would park hop every day they are in Orlando. The plan was for a family of 4 (all over 3) to spend 5 days and 4 nights at a Disney Vacation Club (DVC) deluxe villa hotel (I'll explain that below), combined with 5 days of park hopping and Disney dining plan.
| name | amount |
|---|---|
| days | 5 |
| nights | 4 |
| people | 4 |
| non-toddlers | 4 |
The Time calculations are in the table below. I thought they seemed low I so I repriced them with current information on the internet. Again, the cost I computed ($8,767) is much larger than the partial total they gave ($4,675), which excludes airfare, other fun, souvenirs, taxes, and tips.
Note that the parks and lodging slices in the pie chart are by far the largest.
| category | item | their price | my price | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| airfare | round trip for 4 | $1,000 | (estimated at $250/person) | |
| food | 5 days Disney dining plan | $915 | $1,510 | |
| lodging | 5 day 4 night Saratoga Springs resort | $1,980 | $2,720 | |
| parks | 5 day Disney park hopper | $1,780 | $2,670 | |
| resort days | $0 | |||
| souvenirs | $400 | (estimated at $20 per person-day over 3) | ||
| taxes | $267 | (estimated at 10% of lodging and parks) | ||
| tips | $200 | (estimated at $10 per person-day) | ||
| tolls, parking and gas | $0 | |||
| vehicle rental | $0 | |||
| TOTAL | $4,675 | $8,767 | ||
| PER PERSON-DAY | total divided by (4 people times 5 days) | $438 |
Disney Food Blog (DFB) Budget from Jul 22, 2019
Very recently Disney Food Blog released a vlog (video blog) episode entitled:
How Much Does It Cost To Go To Disney World Right Now?
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oPLUk5uxZQ )
For their analysis they assumed a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids, 10 and 7), visiting in late January, stayed 7 days 6 nights, in a moderate resort (this time one that's low on theming and kids activities for some reason), with 5 day park hoppers and posibly the Disney dining plan, calculated both ways.
| name | amount |
|---|---|
| days | 7 |
| nights | 6 |
| people | 4 |
| non-toddlers | 4 |
They priced this at $4869, but left out airfare, souvenirs and taxes. They added in a charge for "Memory Maker" photo pass service.
Note in the pie chart the biggest pieces are food and parks.
| category | item | price | notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| airfare | round trip for 4 | $1,000 | (estimated at $250/person) |
| food | Disney dining plan | $1,790/$2028 | with/without |
| lodging | 7 days 6 nights Coronado Springs | $1,066 | 15% off |
| parks | 4 5-day park hoppers | $1,981 | |
| resort days | $284 | Frozen Ever AFter Dessert Party $71 x 4 | |
| souvenirs | $560 plus $169 Memory Maker (photos) | $729 | (estimated at $20 per person-day over 3) |
| taxes | $305 | (estimated at 10% of lodging and parks) | |
| tips | $205 | (their estimate) | |
| tolls, parking and gas | $0 | ||
| vehicle rental | $0 | ||
| TOTAL | $7,360 / $7,598 | ||
| PER PERSON-DAY | total divided by (4 people times 7 days) | $307 / $317 |
My hypothetical budget in May 2018
I was determined to show that there is a better way, so I put together my own hypothetical budget for a family of 4 all over 3 (2 kids aged 15 and 10), spending 7 days and 6 nights mostly in an off-site hotel, buying 3 theme park days, doing other fun stuff on the other days, and renting a car.
The last night is spent in an on-site Disney hotel.
The food is estimated assuming a free breakfast at the hotel, a table service lunch and counter service or snacks for dinner. Meals outside theme parks will cost less, and bring the average down.
I've allocated $20 per person per non-theme park day for alternate fun.
| name | amount |
|---|---|
| days | 7 |
| nights | 6 |
| people | 4 |
| non-toddlers | 4 |
This resuts is a more varied and relaxed trip, with the lowest cost. Note how balanced the expenses are in the pie chart.
(In comparing all the pie charts, note that the airfare amount, shown in blue, represents $1,000 in every chart.)
Savings vs. DFB budget: about 21%.
Savings vs. repriced Time budget: about 43%.
Savings vs. repriced Travel Channel budget: about 52%.
| category | item | price | notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| airfare | round trip for 4 | $1,000 | (estimated at $250/person) |
| food | sit down lunch + snacks for dinner | $1,145 | |
| lodging | 5 nights Fairfield + 1 night Disney | $1,134 | |
| parks | 2 days Disney + 1 day Universal | $1,296 | |
| resort days | $20/day per person for 3 days | $240 | for each of the non-theme park days |
| souvenirs | $480 | (estimated at $20 per person-day over 3) | |
| taxes | $233 | (estimated at 10% of lodging and parks) | |
| tips | $240 | (estimated at $10 per person-day) | |
| tolls, parking and gas | $120 | estimated $20/day for 6 days | |
| vehicle rental | Priceline | $79 | |
| TOTAL | $5,967 | ||
| PER PERSON-DAY | total divided by (4 people times 6 days) | $249 |
In the sections that follow I will "drill down" into each category, to give more detail on how to budget for these amounts. In Chapter _3_: Planning To Go To Orlando, I'll revisit these categories to talk more about the overall planning.
The Disney Food Blog says the average round trip flight in and out of Orlando is $255 as of June 2019, so that's a first approximation of your airrfare costs.
For a second approximation, I'm going to suggest a choice startegy from mathematics, known as the "Secretary Problem." It proves that when you are choosing from a sequence of N choices, and must accept or reject each choice in turn ("irrevokable choice"), then the strategy with the highest chance of success is to look at the first 37% of the N choices, and then take the next choice that is better than what you have seen.
|
STORY: Optimizing Irrevokable Choice, or, The Secretary Problem
The problem in its current form was published by Martin Gardner in the February 1960 issue of Scientific American, in his "Mathematical Games" column. It's said to have originated with a procedure used by German astronomer Johannes Kepler to select a wife after he became widowed in 1611.
A brief explanation is in the video "The Mathematics of Love" with
Hannah Fry, at TEDxBinghamtonUniversity: ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=N37x4GgDVBM ) The proof involves some gnarly math, but the basic steps are to write a formula for chance of success using probability theory, then using calculus to find the maximum of this value, which turns out to be 1/e (e = Euler's number, 2.71...), i.e. about 37%. For example, when choosing from 100 choices, look at the first 37, then take the next one better than any you've seen. Your chance of finding the best choice will be 37% as well, and there's no way to get this higher without changing the assumptions of the problem. |
To do this, first pick a budget travel website, such as:
(My research indicates they all have about the same level of prices.) Decide how long you are willing to look at prices. Say its once a week for 20 weeks. Keep track of the lowest price you see each week, and the lowest price so far, for 7 weeks. Then, starting on the 8th week, whenever you see a price lower than the lowest so far, stop, and use that price in your budget. (You might also book it, depending on where you are in your planning and what the cancellation policy is.)
If you use a travel agent (discussed in Chapter _3_: Planning To Go To Orlando) they will do most of this work for you, but they may not be willing to book you on budget airlines which are less favorable to travel agents.
Also, bear in mind that driving is sometimes cheaper, even with overnight stays along the way; do an alternate spreadsheet to be sure. Also it eats up trip days, and that may not be worth the savings; it's something you'll have to decide.
Things that impact food cost:
When analyzing a dining plan, be sure to run a spreadsheet and compare it to other dining options. You might want to pretend to go to dinner someplace like Cinderella's Royal Table, look at on-line menus, have everyone "order" and then run a total, including tax and tip. (Make sure you're sitting down for this one — there may be some sticker shock.) Use a similar technique to estimate breakfast, lunch and dinner costs at various levels of dining in and out of the parks.
I put together the chart below to illustrate the range of lodging pices available in the Orlando area. I've sorted the facilities into two columns, based on whether they are off-site (not on any theme park property) or on-site (located on Disney or Universal land). The prices are extremely approximate, but they show how Disney on-site prices are much higher. A deluxe name-brand hotel off-site is often less than a Disney Value Resort!
Of course the cheapest option is staying with friends or relatives. You can also sometimes find bargains on services like Air B'n'B. If you have a large group that includes several fasmilies you may find that an off-site timeshare rental (of an unsold unit) may be extremely cost-effective per person-day.
| off-site | approx. price | on-site |
|---|---|---|
| friends/relatives | $0 | |
| Air B'n'B | $?? | |
| motel example: Flamingo Inn Kissimmee | $69 | |
| name brand motel example: Fairfield Inn and Suites International Drive | $99 | |
| $123 | Disney Hotel Plaza (D4) example: Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista | |
| $124 | Universal Value Hotel (U3) example: Universal's Endless Summer Resort | |
| name brand hotel example: Gaylord Palms | $143 | |
| $149 | Universal Prime Value Hotel (U2) example: Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort | |
| name brand hotel example: Orlando Marriott World Center | $161 | |
| timeshare rental example: 1 br deluxe villa at Reunion Resort | $161 | |
| $187 | Universal Preferred Hotel (U1) example: Loews Sapphire Falls Resort | |
| luxury name brand motel example: Waldorf Astoria Orlando | $191 | |
| $200 | Disney Value Resort (D3) example: Pop Century | |
| $280 | Disney Moderate Resort (D2) example: Port Orleans Riverside | |
| $339 | Universal Premier Hotel (U0) example: Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando | |
| $555 | Disney DVC deluxe villa (D1) example: Copper Creek Villas and Cabins | |
| $706 | Disney Deluxe Resort (D0) example: Grand Floridian |
Also be sure you know if there is a resort fee, that sneaky little category invented by hotels to "game" the system offered by budget travel web sites like Expedia. When you select what looks like the cheapest hotel you don't even know yet about the resort fee.
Here are the best explanations I've found for the Disney hotel tiers:
DVC stands for Disney Vacation Club, their version of a timeshare. I'll go into detail in Chapter _3_: Planning To Go To Orlando, but for now just note that you can rent them without buying into the "club," and they are usually attached to another resort. For example, the Copper Creek Villas and Cabins listed above are part of the Wilderness Lodge complex.
The Four Seasons is in a class by itself, and is part of the Golden Oak residential complex on Disney property that nobody seems to know about.
For preliminary budgeting decide on the tier of lodging you will be getting and price that for the time of your visit, then refine it later.
It is very hard to find discounted park tickets that aren't a scam. Here are a few that do work:
I recommend you price the park tickets at full retail, and look for discounts as part of the planning process. If you follow my advice and only visit theme parks every other day this keeps the cost down better than any discount. I also don't recommend park hopper options. More detail on this in Chapter _3_: Planning To Go To Orlando.
You'll need to pin down the exact days of your visits, because Disney and Universal now have variable pricing based on anticipated crowding. For example, Disney prices these three days in August of 2019 thusly:
You might also look into getting an Annual Pass for one person in your party. In addition to covering park tickets for one person, you may get discounts on parking, food, merchandise, and special events that your entire party can use. Research the benefits and run the numbers to see if this makes sense fopr you.
On the days when you're not at a park you can stay at your hotel, swim, watch TV, play games, explore, shop and visit minor attractions like Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf. Since you're saving up to $125/person-day, you can afford to splurge a little on things like rides, museums, and what-not, and still come out ahead. I've used $20/person-day (over 3 years old) for planning purposes.
I recommend as much as possible buying souvenirs before you go, at discount storeas and on-line, but you're still going to see little things you want to take away, including perhaps commemorative popcorn buckets.
For planning I've earmarked $20/person-day.
If your kids are old enough you can have them spend their own budgeted amount.
SOmetimes deals and packages will be quoted without taxes added in. Until you have confirrmed that a quote includes all taxes, add in Florida and Orlando sales tax of 6.5%, plus for lodging an additional Resort tax of 6.5%.
Here are things you will sometimes need to tip for:
If you are using a Dining Plan that includes table service meals, tips are not included. I recommend budgeting about $40 (range $12 to $64) in tips for each table service meal for a family of four.
If you're renting a car, research and budget for:
If you're planning a year out you may still need to save money for the trip. When you have a credible budget you should open a special targeting savings account for the vacation fund. Set up autodeposit from your checking account. Pretend it's not there until the vacation expenses arrive.
| Failing to plan is planning to fail. |
ILLUSTRATION: A cork board map (photo?)
DESCRIPTION: Photo of a AAA map stuck to a cork board with push pins in it.
CAPTION: A map stapled to a cork board with push pins is a great planning tool.
"No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy."
— David Detzer (2005), paraphrasing Field Marshall Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Molke (1871)
Rest assured that no matter how carefully you budget and plan, things will turn out differently. So what's the point? Why do all the work?
Well (if can get you to believe this) planning can actually be a lot of fun, and bring your family together. But on a practical note, it can help prevent you from having a terrible time. I refer you again to the complaint web sites such as
Walt Disney World Resort Consumer Reviews
( www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/walt-disney-world-resort.html )
There you will find the sad, sad stories of people who had no plan, and suffered for it. My wife likes an old gag about an auto repair shop whose motto is "We rip off the other guy and pass the savings on to you!" This is sort of what Disney is doing lately. If you plan a year ahead, learn to use the MyDisney App, Mobile Ordering (of food) and the FastPass system, show up off-season and at low-crowd times of day, and set your expectations correctly, you get to benefit when they "rip off the other guy." Or you can be the other guy. This may sound calloused but you and I didn't set it up this way. We just have to deal with it. Nowadays, even since five years ago, it is critical to manage all this stuff in order to enjoy your increasingly expensive Orlando theme park vacation.
You hear a lot about "Disney Magic" and "pixie dust" being one big reason you and your kids should experience the Disney parks. Well, many of these magical moments occur through serendipity, which I guess is a fancy way of saying luck. But, "chance favors the prepared mind," as Louis Pasteur once said. To improve your odds of having magical moments you need both opportunity and attitude. Your schedule needs to be loose enough and have enough slack to stop and smell the flowers, or whatver the magical thing is, and you need to be in a receptive mood, not stressing trying to save money or hurry to a scheduled event, or dealing with family friction that comes from fatigue.
So you not only need a plan, you need the right kind of plan.
When you are planning a trip nothing has gone wrong yet. Usually everyone is getting along, there is no bad weather, no missed flights, no lost reservations,no unbearable crowds. Just your happy imagination. I have learned to treasure this phase of the journey. You do need to accept that a majority of the things you consider doing will not actually happen, and that's okay. Life is mostly missed opportunities, but that's no reason to pout. Embrace the glory of "what if" as you expore your possible journeys!
I recommend setting a "Planning Room" (or a corner of a room) with several cork boards and a long table, as a place to accumuluate information and have planning sessions. Hang up maps, brocures, a tasks list and a planning calendar. (More on maps in Chapter _7_: Learning the Lay of the Land) It's also useful to have a sheet of paper labeled "decisions" to list the things you've pinned down, such as travel dates, lodging tier, and which parks to visit, as you go through the process.
Later in the process you will want to transfer some of this information to your electronic devices (or the cloud), but for the early stages it's nice to have big things you can all look at together, and point to.
Selecting the time of year is a vital early step. With Disney and Universal's new variable pricing, they are bribing you to come when it's less crowded. Take the bribe. They are doing you a favor.
Early on you also need to decide: will you use a travel agent? There is no charge to you for this service, and they are knowlegable and useful (if you pick the right one). But be aware they do have an agenda. Since you aren't paying them somebody else is, and they will steer you away from places and things that are a bad deal for them. Definitely don't pick one at a random if you decide to use one; go woith recommendations for Orlando experts.
Involve the kids in the planning. I suggest you get the latest edition of the book "Birnbaum's 2019 Walt Disney World for Kids" [ASIN: 9781368019347] and have them read it, if they are old eanough. Parts of ot are written by kids, and it presents all the Disney park choices from a kid's point of view.
Whenever possible, in attractions, lodging and food, move from worse to better over time. This should make every change or step seem positive. This is also an argument for saving the on-site lodging choice for a future visit.
Strat collecting songs and sounds for audio mizes. Back in the day I made cassette tapes for Florida vacations. Later I moved to burning custom CDs. Now I just create mixes in my iPhone. This may be something you dlegate to an older child. Make sure they get feedback from everyone else. See Appendix -4-: Music Mixes, for more detailed advice.
You also might let the older kids plan and budget one day; be sure to review it well in advance to make any needed adjustments.
When my brother-in-law took our daughter to Universal Resort Orlando to see Wizarding World of Harry Potter, he had her plan all the meals. (She was ___ years old.) This gave her something to do, had her involved, and worked out fine.
In addition to a spreadsheet of the budget, begin listing what I call a "decision analysis" spreadsheet, with each attraction along with cost and ratings by all the family members. I'll explain this more thoroughly in Appendix -10-: Decision Analysis With a Spreadheet.
We're not kidding when we say start planning a year ahead of time, and neither are all the other people who give this advice.
On your timeline you need to list important dates, especially Disney dates, since they have the most complicated advanced planning requirements. Double check all of this, but as of press time here are Disney's constraints:
There are things you will want to do periodically, maybe once a week:
Here are some other things you may need to schedule:
Shortly before you leave, you may want to print out special envelopes from ___ Disney web site, for tips for your housekeeping staff, or as Disney calls them, "Mousekeeping."
As departure day approaches, make a detailed calendar for the time you are traveling, It should look something like this (don't worry about the details; we'll get in to them later):
|
Key:
B: = breakfast
A: = attraction
DAK = Disney's Animal Kingdom |
| SUN | MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [off] | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [off] laundry, last minute shopping, pack |
| fly as early as possible shop for groceries and sundries M: motel pool A: IDr attractions D: IDr debrief, story time (1st night at motel) | B: motel, homework A: IDr L:IDr M: motel pool UCW D: UCW snacks debrief, story time (2nd night at motel) | B: motel, homework A: IoA A: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey L: Three Broomsticks, WWH M: motel pool D: IoA snacks debrief, story time (3rd night at motel) | B: motel, homework DAK A:Expedition Everest (FP) L: Tusker House, DAK w/ character dining (R) M: motel pool A: Kilimanjaro Safaris D: DAK snacks debrief, story time (4th night at motel) | B: motel, homework A: monorail loop L: DS House of Blues or Grand Floridian M: boat ride to Ft. Wilderness Campground A: Circle D/bikes D: DS snacks A: DS shopping debrief, story time (5th night at motel) | B: motel, homework A: DMK A: Little Mermaid L: Liberty Tree Tavern (R) M: motel pool check out of motel, drive to hotel, check in, Disney transp. to MK D: MK snacks for kids, date night for mom & dad A: Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin debrief, story time (1st night in hotel) | B: hotel expore hotel grounds, pool L: hotel check out of hotel, ship box home, drive to airport D: airport snacks fly home as late as possible |
| [off] sleep in, unpack, laundry | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [off] |
The biggest decision you will make about your trip is what time of year you go. Summer is when it the hottest and most humid, and the most crowded, since Eauropeans often get their vacations then, and most kids are out of school. And yet that's when most families decide to go, ensuring worst-case crowding and discomfort. (By summer I mean Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day.) Other crowded times are the Halloween season, the Christmas/New Years season, spring breaks, and whenever a new ride or land opens.
Don't do it. Don't go then. Disney will help you figure this out: they charge you more to go at these times. Go when it's the cheapest not just for the money but for the space and time it will give you. Pull the kids out of school. Some schools are easier to work with than others on this, but you often can set up a learning contract with homework for the kids to do on the trip.
Now, the parks during holidays are quite charming, and some time you might brave the crowds to see them, but definitely not on your first visit. You shoudl also be aware of and avoid 3-day weekends.
One thing I like to do freqently on vacation is to ask everyone, at the end of each day as well as at the end of the trip, what their favorite thing? If they say they can't figure out what was best, I just ask for something they liked, or a few things. What I've found interesting is that the answers very rarely involve something inside a theme park. Some of the answers I've gotten were:
Now I know you wouldn't be going to Orlando if it wasn't for the theme parks, and you should definitely spend some time in them, but be prepared to find that activites outside the parks can often have the most pixie dust
In fleshing out your plans you need to decide which theme parks and major attractions you will visit, and then narrow down on which exact days.
Below is information you should uncover in your own research, but here are some thumbnial descriptions of the theme parks and major attractions in central Florida:
The Disneyland of Disney World.
Sort of like a permanent World's Fair, with technology, corporate and country pavilions; lately adding character-based rides.
Movie studio themed park.
They say "it's not a zoo." It's a zoo with rides, and an Avatar movie themed land.
Tropical theme.
Winter snow themed.
Movie studio themed park.
Fantasy, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Dr. Suess and comic book themes.
Tiki theme.
Sea life and rides, with Sesame Street characters.
Interacting with sea life and other animals.
South Pacific theme, with Australian and New Zealand wildlife.
Not a theme park but an actual space port; highly recommended. Enough things to do for an all-day trip.
It's a zoo with rides; more rides (especially "big iron" coasters) and less theming than Disney's Animal Kingdom.
LEGO themed park, aimed at smaller kids. Includes much of the old Cypress Gardens historic Florida attraction.
LEGO theme. Inside LEGOLAND so you must buy admission to theme park as well as admission to the water park.
Lightly pirate themed. Admission includes Weeki Wachi Springs State Park, home of the famous mermaids.
In deciding which attractions to visit, you need consider these factors:
For younger kids, especially under ten, LEGOLAND is an excellent choice, and you can be sure they won't be interested in it when they get older.
For kids younger than teenagers, here's how I would rate the "big seven" parks in terms of kid-friendlyness:
They certainly all have things for kids, but the adults will inevitably want to ride other rides and take the kids along, or have them sit them out, and that adds up to a drag for the little ones. See Appendix ___, ___ for more detail.
For the Disney and Universal parks I recommend you show up at "rope drop," which is what they call the park openings. (In the Magic Kingdom they used to drop a rope at the beginning of Main Street and people would run to Space Mountain, but later for safety's sake they modified it to have a slowly moving rope that keeps the crowd at bay.)
But if you're visiting a Disney park while staying off-site you don't want to do this on a day that has Extra Magic Hours (EMH), a program for letting the on-site guest in early, because the park won't be empty when you arrive. Alternately, if you are staying on-site be sure to use EMH where available. Sometimes there are also EMH times in the evening.
In addition Disney has a program called Early Morning Magic (EMM) which allows on-site guest to pay extra to get in even earlier. Look into this if you're on-site at Disney and avoid it if you're not.
As I write this Disney has just announced Extra Extra Magic Hours, which I think gets you in at dawn. This just goes to show how fast the rules are changing. Be sure to get recent informaton.
Universal has a program similar to Extra Magic Hours called Early Park Admission (EPA), at Universal Studios and Volcano Bay.
Also, I cannot emphasize enough that you need to know for sure what time each park you're visiting will close.
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STORY: OUTATIME
Our first visit to Universal's Island of Adventure in Orlando was in 2000, when our daughter was seven. She had asked to see Seuss Landing in that park, and so we started in that land when we arrived in the early afternoon. We spent a lot of time exploring that one land, and stuck around for a tree lighting show by the Whos from Whoville, menaced by the Grinch. It got chillier, and I went back to the rental car to get he coats — actually twice, because I forgot the key the first time, but that's another story. Finally we moved on to the next land. Islands of Adventure is laid out in a ring around a lake, so we only had one choice at the beginning, which way to go, and from there we just followed the path around. We visited a land based on fantasy and mythology, ___ (now gone, replaced by Wizarding World of Harry Potter), and moved on to the land based on Jurassic Park. At this point we were halfway around the lake. Thetre looked to be some really fun interactive stuff in a dinosaur play area, but suddenly the park closed at about 6 PM. We exited the rest of the way around the lake and saw a bunch of coool looking attractions, shops, restaurants and play areas, all comic book and funny papers themed, that were no longer open. We had to see them the next time we vivisted. We were caught be surprise because, somehow, we assumed the park would be open to midnight or therabouts, like Disney parks often are. Who knows, there may have been a separately-tiked evening event. All I know is we had less fun than bargained for, and all because we didn't check the closing time, and wasted a lot of time in our ignoraance.
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One option to consider is to attend a so-called "hard ticket event" at one of the parks. These events usually ocur in the evening after a park has closed early. The duration is less than a typical day in the park. Sometimes only a limited set of rides are open. The cost is sometimes less, but occasionally more than a regualr park day. So far this probably doens't sound that appealing. But here are the potential advantages:
If you do your research and pick an uncrowded event, you can often go on more rides during a limited visit than you would accomplish all day during a busy park day. If there are obscure characters you are your family want to see this can also work out well.
The big hard ticket season is Halloween, which in theme park country starts in late summer. The main events are:
As the name says it's a non-scary event. Lots of candy. No spook houses, mazes or scare zones. A special parade. I well-liked show in fron of the castle based on the movie "Hocus Pocus" (____). Though the event usually starts at 7 PM, you can often get in as early as 4, extending your fun time. (Also Cruella's Hide-A-Way is a hard ticket event within the hard ticket event, with special food and parade viewing as well as a long line to meet Cruella de Ville from 101 Dalmations. Pricey. Lets you stay 30 minutes later.)
Grisly, horrifying, very popular, not for young kids, possibly not for older kids, high production values and use of famous characters.
Lower production values, no famous characters, still well done, lots of heart, lower prices and crowds, still quite scary.
There are other hard ticket events throughout the year:
This summer event now inludes hard-to-find Disney Villains (but so far only in shows, not in meet and greets).
This well-received nightime water park event is like a beach dance party with rave-like features (mostly glow sticks).
This Star War themed hard ticket event was last held in 2018, and it's not clear if it will ever return, but who knows?
Just whhat it sounds like.
Often Disny will have special events, hard ticket or someyimes free, for these special groups. At least one member of your party must qualify, depending on the event rules. Look into it.
Another way to get uncrowded park access is to participate in a fun run race for charity, and attend an after-run event.
If you reserve breakfast at a Disney park before it opens, you can get let in for your breakfast and then be already in the park when rope drop happens.
If you take a behind the scenes tours during a regular theme park day they will take you on a curated list of rides with no waiting.
Universal offers an extra charge Front of the Line Pass to shorten your wait times, and for some time Disney has offered early FastPass reservations if you stay on property; recently they added the ability to buy extra FastPasses.
The Disney parks also have official Festivals and unofficial fan-organized events that occur during regulr operating hours and offer extra fun opportunities along with extra crowds. (Every time Disney adds a festival it seems like attendance goes up, so now they ar almost year round). You should know when they are whether you want to seek them or avoid them:
gathering of people who like to dress very snappy, usually inspired by turn of the last century or mid-century styles
( dapperday.com )
not endorsed by Disney, but they do sell pride snacks such as rainbow popcorn
( gaydays.com )
annual Goths meetup
( spookydayintheparks.com )
So this is all information you will need to juggle in deciding which parks to visit and when. But as I said above, the biggest factors will be the rides (and other attractions) you want to experience, as I detail in the next two sections.
"Are we going to have to ride more boats past dolls?"
— our friend Bob, 1989, complaining after several days at Walt Disney World
If you look at the history of "dark rides" in amusement parks, they evolved from "scenic railways" and "pleasure railways" in the late 19th century to a classic boat ride called "the old mill" in the early 20th century. This 120-year old technology has had incremental improvement in lighting, robotics, sensors and most recently projection techniques, but still manages to be "boats past dolls" with a limited ability to surprise and amaze us.
An inventory of boat-based dark rides in Walt Disney World would include:
No wonder out friend Bob revolted!
And when I again review what people have told me was a highlight of their theme park day, even the rare things they mentioned that happened inside a park never actually happened on a ride. Park highlights have included:
The only memorable highlights I can recall on rides were things that don't happen for every rider. For example, once while on the stern wheeler steamboat on the Rivers of America we played poker; another time we watched a YouTube video of jazz great Louis Armstrong singing "Up the Lazy River" on a Disney park steamboat. But as for the actual ride content, it has usually been enjoyable, but never a highlight.
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STORY: The Talking Heads
Sometimes things work out great. While working at Walt Disney World in 1976 I was always looking for new ways to amuse myself. One time while exiting the Country Bar Jamboree I noticed the three animal heads, which sang as we departed, were duplicated in the adjacent Pepsi restaurant (once the Mile Long Bar, now Pecos Bill's). I also noticed that when the exit doors opened those other 3 heads were already singing. I got to figuring, at some point those heads have to start singing. I wondered if anyone was surprised by this. So began a vigil I later called "the talking heads" after the '80s rock group. On many occasions I sat nearby and watched the heads "wake up." They had a short conversation before they began to sing. Usually folks ignored them. But once, with my girlfriend (now wife) beside me at a table enjoying a Pepsi, we saw an amazing sequence of events. A young couple was waiting in line to order, standing right below the buffalo. She asked him, "Is it real?" and he said, "Why don't you touch it and see?" She tugged on Buff's beard, and at that exact moment, he opened his eyes to start the conversation. She shrieked and jumped into her date's arms! It was definitely worth all the times I'd waited and nothing happened. (I staked it out a few more times, but nothing like it ever happened again..) |
Okay, I get it, your kids think you're going to Orlando theme parks for the rides. I would expand this to "attractions," which includes shows and other things that people wait in line for.
Get the whole family involved in selecting your "must see" attractions. Again I'd suggest using the latest edition of "Birnbaum's Walt Disney World for Kids," combined with YouTube videos of the rides where necessary. You might want to avoid spoilers, but on the other had you might have nervous kids who want reassurances about what they're getting into. Scaryness, and how your kids deal with it, will be a factor in selecting attractions.
You'll also need to check your kids' heights to make sure they will be allowed on thre rides they're interested in. The cut-offs start at 30" to 48" in most parks.
Another fctor is whether you've seen the movie the attraction is based on, where relevant. Many rides don't have a backstory movie, like space mountain for example. Some have a classic movie, like Peter Pan and Star Tours. Some have a movie that was made after the ride opened, like "Tower of Terror" and "Haunted Mansion," which both are not very well done. Others have post-ride movies that turned out very well, like the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Just about all of the shows are based one or more movies, and the parades and fireworks reference a bunch of them.
Of course you can also see movies as you are planning and anticipating your trip. In Appendix ___, ___ I have a table to help you figure out how attractions connect with movies.
You also will probably want to give lower priority to any attraction you've already experienced, either in Orlando or in another area. For example the Simpson's rides at Universal Studios in Florida and California are nearly identical, as are the Buzz Lightyear rides.
I recommend you have each family member select only two attractions that go on their must-see list, to reduce the risk that you will fail to ge through everyone's choices. It's also very useful to have a maybe list, so you have things to jettison, just like a hot air balloon carries sandbags to toss overboard when necessary.
Raise your hand if you've heard of FastPass at Disney parks. This innovation was tolled out in 1999, over twenty years ago, and many people are familiar with it. But in the last half-dozen years the system has changed, and it is now virtually impossible to enjoy a day of rides at a park in Walt Disney World without mastering this new system. Some salient features:
The consumer complaint boards have stories of popel who showed up, often from far away, paying many thousands of dollars, and couldn't ride any rides because they hadn't made advanced FastPass+ reservations. All Disney cast members can thell them is, "You should have done your reseach and planned ahead."
It is vitally important that you understand the current system in order to have a sucessful trip. Because the system changes frequantly and books are updated rarely, there is probably no book that can help you. Find a recent web page or vieo to brief you. The most recent ones I have found are from January 2019:
Everything You Need to Know About FastPass+ at Disney World
( www.travelingmom.com/top-destinations-disney/ultimate-guide-fastpass-plus-walt-disney-world )
and September 2019:
Disney World FastPass Tips The PROS Use; and You Should, Too!!
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAe0SPlh-FU )
Universal has a program called Universal Express Pass which is much simpler: you pay extra and wait in shorter lines. ___ The Unlimited Express Pass is included in some on-site rooms.
I've harped before about what a bad idea it is to go to parks every day, and I will again. Everywhere I've looked people say that if you're going for 6 days and 5 nights (for example) you should buy Disney park admissions for all six days. I feel like I'm the only one calling shennanigans. I'd like to put all the arguments against this folly in one place, so here they are.
Argument #1: You Really Can't See It All
Walt Disney World property is the size of the island of Manhattan. Granted, half of that is a wildlife refuge, but the other half is still as big as San Francisco.
As evidence I offer this observation. Tim and Jen Tracker have done a dialy vlog (video blog) on YouTube for over five years. They visit Orlando theme parks as much as several times a week, and sometimes several times a day. And yet, they occasional say, "We've never done this before," referring to restaurants, shops, shows, end even sometimes rides. On a few occasions they've spent a day lettlew Siri (on the iPhone) pick their itineraries, and this always results in something they've never seen before. So, I assert, if they can't see it all, having made upwards of a thousand theme park visits, there is no way that you can. But you can try, and end up having a "death march" vacation.
Argument #2: If You Get Sick of the Magic, It Isn't Magical Anymore
In a typical week how many times do you see a parade? How about fireworks? How many roller coasters do you ride? These events are unusual in our daily lives, and so it doesn't take very many of them to add up to a special week. You don't have to experience them every day for a week in order to have a fabulous time.
Okay, here's an analogy. Remember this when you find yourself thinking, "Disney will let us add a fifth day for only $25 per person!" Have you ever had a dessert at a restaurant called "Death By Chocolate" or something similar? It often involves a mixture of chocolate cake, chocolate chips, chocolate sauce, chocolate pudding, and choclate sprinkles. Well, imagine if after your delicious dinner at Olive Garden (or wherever) you were offered several of these desserts to be consumed one after another. What if after eating four servings you could get a fifth for only 25 cents? Wouldn't that be great? Obviously not.
Okay, here's another analogy. I apologize in advance for how grisly this is, but I still think it's valid. Unfortunatley, in today's world there are still countries where torture is legal. There are people who are authorized to perform state-sponsored torture. Governments have training programs for these people. One of the things they are taught in this trsinng is not to torture people every day. Why? Because they start to get used to it, and it becomes less effective. This also applies to the magic of theme parks: if go every day you start to get used to it, and it becomes less effective.
One of the few beacons of wisdom on this topic is the book "The Unofficial Guide: Walt Disney World With Kids 2019" by Sehlinger et. al., which says:
Trust us — you cannot go full tilt dawn to dark in theme parks day after day. First you'll get tired, then you'll get cranky, the you'll adopt a production mentality ("We have three more rides and then we can go back to the hotel"). Finally you'll hit the wall, because you just can't maintain the pace.
I should also warn that the mind is a wonderful thing, and it works to protect the body. I've witnessed people, including myself, getting migraine headaches, colds, injuries and sunburns which resulted in a needed break that didn't seem availiable any other way. Don't push things that far.
Argument #3: There Are Other Things Worth Doing
First of all, the Dsney and Universal resorts are quite fabulous, and worth exploring. Also, the dining and shopping experiences available outside the parks, at the resorts and at Disney Springs and Universal Citywalk, are world class. And throughout the greater Orlando area there are a seemingly endless parade of businesses competing for the tourist dollar, ranging from goofy buildings, themed dinner theaters and exotic miniature golf, to indoor skydiving, high-tech driving ranges, an aquarium and a giant ferris wheel.
See Chapter ___, ___ and Appendix ___, ___, for more details.
Argument #4: Save Some Things for Next Time
If it turns out you and your family like the Orlando theme park experience, trust that there will be a next time. (If you don't like it, why are we having this conversation?) It's nice to always have something new to see, and if you save things for next time you won't be dependent on the parks to always build something new before your next trip.
Argument #5: On Your Travel Days You Won't Have Enough Time Or Energy for a Park
I've already walked through this argument in Chapter ___, ___ Budgets. But to review, if you're coming from another time zone in the U.S., this will add one or more hours to your arrival time. Check-in at most hotels is 3:00 PM. This means it is probably impossible for you to visit your room to freshen up and then pop into a theme park in the morning on your arrival day, let alone park hop despite what you see in the infomercials. If you do decide to attempt this anyway, work out a detailed timeline to mke sure it's going to work. You might have more time slack on your departure day, but will you have the energy? Re,,eber that the average person walks over ten miles during am Orlando theme park visit.
Argument #6: And Of Course You'll Save Money
If you do a "bang per buck" calculation, determined to get the most for your money, be sure you are measuring level of satisfaction, not number of attractions. Avoid that production mentality.
This is one piece of advice that you will find all over the internet that is actually spot on. This is the key to stamina. Arriving early and staying late, both crucual to finding shorter lines, works best whne combined with that midday break. The best thing to do is to go back to your hotel. This will allow you to:
If returning to your hotel is too difficult, try to accomplish as many of the above as you can. Traveling anywhere by boat is also refreshing. Sometimes you can accomplish te mission by visiting the lobby of a hotel and just "chilling" in comfy chairs for a while.
The heat of the day tends to be from about 1 PM until dusk; this is the window in which to take your break. Sometimes it's tough to leave when you're still having fun, but if you are perceptive you will notice the first warning signs of burn out in your family, yourself, and even other guests. Shorter tempers, slower walking, and the beginings of droopiness are all signs. It's best to not wait until these all become extreme.
Depending on your family dynamics, it may be useful to take breaks from each other. This is often best done at the hotel. You don't want to leave kids alone at the pool (unless they are older, have a buddy, are good swimmers and responsible) but you can leave them alone in the room, to watch TV or play games while you expore the grounds or the gift shops. If one parent is willing to stay with the kids th eothrer can take off for a while to play a round of golf, watch a sporting event on TV, or other "down time" away from the family chaos.
My favorite food plan is as follows:
Modify this plan for parks that don't allow food to be brought in, by buying snacks after you get inside. (Be sure to use any discounts you have. Buying from a store instead of a food service may give you more discount options.) On days not in parks, go ahead and have cheap meals in casual dining locations.
At Disney parks always use mobile ordering for counter service food wherever available. It saves so much time.
The other extreme is to go for the Disney Dining Plan, preferrably as a free offer from Disney. (Note that this will require that you buy an on-site room and a bunch of park-hopper tickets, but it can still work out to be a deal. Run the numbers.)
The Disney Food Blog web site has resources for analysing your family and your trip to see if the plan makes sense for you.
( www.___.___ )
One problem with the Disney Dining Plan is that you still have to figure out how to get into the restaurants you want; the plan doesn't help. If you go for the cheaper counter service plan you can just use Mobile Ordering and be done with it. But on the deluxe ___ plan, you'll need those 180 day in advance restaurant reservations for table service meals.
If that doesn't work out, there are a few options at Disney parks:
If you're planning to make a character meal part of this plan, I recommend you watch a recent video on them, such as this one:
We Went To Every Disney World Character Meal (So You Don't Have To!)
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPfo0A4cEFk&t=118s )
You might also look into Disney's "Tables in Wonderland" program, which offers 20% off some table service restaurants (food and beverages, including booze) for about $175 a year; available to Florida residents, Annual Passhoilders and Disney Vacation Club members.
The Universal Parks have secret menus for Annual Pass holders, which can be fun.
Especially when you're on a non-theme park day, the Yelp website (and smart phone app) is your friend. I like to say it may not get you into the best place in town, but it will keep you out of the worst.
While it's nice to have occasional treats, I recommend you don't deviate too much from your food habbits at home. This can sap your energy as your body struggles to adapt.
I recommend you don't keep too many leftovers in "doggy bags." Think about exactly when you will eat it. Do't end up with your little hotel fridge full of garbage.
If you have special dietary needs the Disney reservation site on web has a special diets area. You can also ask for a meeting with the chef. I've found this to usually turn out very well. Outside of Disney be sure to tell your server your needs. This used to be much more of a problem, but Orlando restaurants are extremely competitive and deal with vast numbers of visitors from all over the world, so they've goten really good at this.
In planning your lodging, the biggest question is: on or off property? In addition to staying on-site in one of Walt Disney World's 36 hotels, you can also stay on-site in one of Universal's 5 hotels.
For a first visit I would especially recommend off-site. Not only will it give you something to look forward to on future visits, but it will save you money and, since you will probably need to rent a car, give you more freedom. And for me, at least, a big bnefit of off-site hotels is that it is usually a much, much shorter walk to that rental car than it would be on-site. It seems the grander the Disney resort, the farther away the parking lot and bus stops are. And if there are boats, the dock is far away too. But at a budget name brand hotel like Fairfield by Mariott, you can often park a few feet from your room. It makes it much easier to go back and get the phone cord you left plugged into the lighter.
Another argument I hear in favor of the Disney resorts is that their housekeeping staff (which they call "mousekeeping") makes cute animal scultures made of towels and leaves them for your kids to find. If the kids have s=tuffed animals sometimes the towel sculptures will interact with them. Well, that's utterly charming, but is it worth an extra $300 per night? At those prices you should learn how to make towel scultures yourself, and leave them for your kid while staying at the Hampton Inn.
But if you decide to stay on-site at Disney, here are a few tips:
If you decide to stay off site, the least expensive options (starting with almost free) are:
If you live in a tourist town and you have friends or family in the Orlando area, you may be able to do an exchange where you stay with them and they stay with you. Be sure to bring a gift or take your hosts out (or both), and help with chores.
My experience is that the adults are often slightly uncomfortable with thre loss of autonomy, personal space and privacy, while the kids tend to love it like it was a grand adventure.
Don't take offense if your hosts don't want to go do tourists things with you — they've probably already seen it all.
Look for a deal.
The prioces for a family of four tend to be comparable with Disney's budget resorts; without the proximity and amenities, but with more space and a full kitchen (sometimes laundry too). The numbers start to get better when you have a larger group, say three adult couples and a dozen kids. This is the kind of group that can find major savings in condo rentals, plus you can save on food by cooking.
For me, the hotels in the AAA guidebooks (or online or app versions), and the properties in the Best Western chain of franchisees, represent a "floor" of quality that I'm not willing to go below. The both have inspections to assure continuing quality.
To step up a little, I've noticed that the bottom tier brands that are part of chains that have a top tier brand offer a "sweet spot" of value. For example, if you look at the table in Wikipedia,
List of Chained Hotel Brand
( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chained-brand_hotels )
which categorizes hotels into 5 tiers:
The thinking behind this is that if you stay at a bottom tier brand of a chain that has a top tier option, they will not want to sully their brand with poorly maintained, dirty or unsafe properties, plus they have those deep pockets in case of lawsuit. (I'm not saying anybody needs to sue, only that the possibility of some bad publicity keeps them on their toes.)
Using this approch we find Hilton is a great choice, offering the Luxury brand of Waldorf Astoria and the Budget/Economy brand of Hampton Inn. IHG is another great choice, with the Luxury brand of InterContinetaland the Budget/Economy brand of Holiday Inn Express.
Wyndham as a pretty good chice with the Upper upscale brand of Windham Grand, the Midscale brands of La Quinta, Wingate, Wyndham Gardeni and Ramada, and the Budget/Economy brands of Days Inn, Super 8, Howard Johnson and Travel Lodge.
Mariott is a fairly good choice with Luxury brand of Ritz-Carlton, the Upper upscale brands of Renaissance and Gaylord, and the Upscale brand of Fairfield. (Actually I have been very pleased with the Fairfield properties overall.)
A poor choice using the formula would be Choice Hotels, with no Luxury or Upper upscale brands. Their highest tier is the Upscale Clarion Hotel. Thier Upper midscale barnds are Comfort Suites and Clarion Inn, their Midscale brands include Quality Inn, Comfort Inn and Sleep Inn, and their Budget/Economy barnds are Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn. (Come to think of it, I've had some of my worst name-brand lodging experiences in some of these brands.)
As always, check the reviews of individual locations on Yelp, TripAdvisor or a similar site. And be sure to check for discounts, including coupons and AAA or AARP membership.
And, For Dessert...
Having talked you out of staying at Disney, I'm now going to suggest that you do it after all, but just a little. My friend Wayne H. thought this up near the end of a trip when we were staying at a Fairfield by Mariott. It was during the 2001 slow-down and at the time Disney had a policy of letting you swim at any of Walt Disny World's pools if you stayed in one of their resorts. (When business picked up this policy was ended, but it never hurts to ask.) The plan was to stay in a Disney resort for one night to get access to their pools. The price worked out to about the same as our whole group going to a Disney water park for one day. Part of the fun was when we decided to visit a bunch of resorts one evening and check out all the pools before we made a decision where to stay. We ended up selecting Disney's Coronado Springs Resort (Southwestern US and Colonial Spanish theme), with its jaguar pool and sand play area fashioned after an archaeological dig into Mayan ruins. We ended up swimming twice at that resort and taking a field trip to Stromalaong Bay at the Beach and Yacht Clubs, considered by many the best pool area in Walt Disney World.
You can use this hack by planning to spend one or two nights at a Disney resort (preferably at the end of your trip, because "always trade up") and seeing if you can fit that into your budget. I included one night in a moderate Disney resort in my sample budget in Chapter ___, ___. If you stay two nights you can have a resort day at your Disney hotel, which can be great fun. You can also possibly use Disney theme park amenities where available.
ILLUSTRATION: Surrey Ride
DESCRIPTION: The J-son family rides a 4-person surrey together, kids in front
CAPTION: Self-propelled surrey bike rides at Disney's Port Orlanes Riverside are surprisingly fun.
If you've researched the amenities at your hotel, you know what you can choose from without driving away. There may also be attractions within walking distance.
In addition, all of the Disney and Universal resorts welcome visitors and have things for them to explore, and of course there are the big retail zones of Disney Springs and Universal CityWalk ___.
Beyopnd that, the great big world of Central Florida's cheesier attractions await your discovery. I don't mena to sound condescending — I love this stuff. You will find a vast array of:
How you pick from this sea of amusement will depend on you and your family's likes (and silikes). More on this in Chapter ___, ___ (edu)
To figure out how these wonders are distributed across the Florida peninsula, see Chapter ___, ___ (maps).
And for more specific location information, refer to the hopefully updatable Appendix ___, ___ (hot spots).
A generation ago, part of the fun (for me at least) was picking up the free brochures and pamphlets that seemed stacked in every public place in Central Florida. The always seemed to have these out of scale maps that made it look like their attraction was nearby and others were far away. I used to collect them and make collages of them. But now they are mostly gone, replaced by web sites.
But the advantages of the web sites are many: They are generally searchable using search engine like Google or Bing. They are updated frequntly (usually). Though there are fewer maps due to naviation apps on smart phones, they have something that used to be in the pamphets: coupons. You can find the most deals for the cheeseiest attractions.
See Appendix ___, ___ for specific web sites to use in your coupon search.
I know this isn't easy, but make an effort to imagine what you are going to want to buy on your trip, and then buy as much as you can ahead of time for less. You still buy things you didn't anticipate when you're on the trip, but it can cut down on the overall souvenir cost. For example, if you have a favorite park or ride, or are attending a special event, look for logoware in advance. Places to shop:
I have found that character-emblazoned beach towels are an affordable souvenir at Disney stores, and you probably need some anyway.
Box stores, such as Target, Walmart, and Kmart always seem to have Disney themed merch at cheaper prices than the parks. Also, in summer of 2019 Disney announced they would be opening mini-stores in select Targets.
The Orlando area has two Disney Outlet Character Warehouses, which come highly recommended, but there are other similar stores in other cities. See if one is near you.
it's worth a shot, and probably fun to boot.
Disney's own site sometimes has deals.
Amazon is the king of on-line retail, but there are many others. One way to find them is to search for a product on Google's "shopping" tab.
Sites such as Craigslist (for local items) and and eBay (for auctions) will have used items, including harder to find Universal logoware.
Sites like etsy can offer unique, one-of-a-king=d custom items, like obscurely themed mouse ears.
See Appendix ___, ___ for other specific web sites to use in your souvenir search.
I highly recommend you give your kids a daily souvenir budget as soon as they are old enough to add 4-digit numbers. We did this with our daughter when she was six. ___ She had been running into gift shops and immediatley hugging the 7-foot, $700 stuffed giraffe and begging for it. (Not gonna happen no matter how much she begs.) So we gave her a $10/day vacation allowance. Next thing we knew she was looking at the $4.99 keychains. (We told her we might be willing to fund clothing and educational items, and she got better at making pitches for these items. Be mindful of what behaviours you reward.)
And give the adults a souvenir budget too.
If you're staying on-site at Disney you will have the opportunity to decide if you are going to use the free Disney's Magical Express service to get you to your resort and your luggage to your room. Also, are you going to use Disney transportation (monorail, boats and buses) to get around within Walt Disney World? If not, will it be taxi, rideshare (like Uber or Lyft), Disney's Lyft partnership which runs the polk-a-dotted Minnie Vans, or a rental car?
If you are going to need one or more car seats, figure out how that's going to work. In Florida as of Jan. 2019 ages 0 to 3 need a full car seat and ages 4 to 5 need a booster seat. Who will provide it? Is there a cost? If you are renting one, when and where will that happen, and for how much?
If you are planning to use Lyft or Uber on the trip, load the app and set it up, and try it out on a short ride before you leave home. Sign up for the Loyalty Program for which ever one you use, and allow up to a month for it to be working.
If you have any interest in using Disney transportation, learn the monorail routes and hours, get an idea of the overall bus routes, and learn the boat options. These days Google Maps on a smart phone will let you rehearse these trips. For example, last time I checked, during most of the day the red flag boats will take you from the Fort Wilderness Dock to the Magic Kingdom in about 40 minutes. Give each other some challenges.
"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass; it's about learning to dance in the rain."
— Tony Robbins
My short version of the weather speech is: "don't fear the rain, fear the sun."
If you're not from the Southeastern US, or a similar climate, you probably don't realize what a challenging thing it is to exert yourselves in high het and high humidity.
I grew up in arid California. I have a friend from even more arid Arizona, and she likes to joke, "But it's a dry hell."
Living in an arid cimate we get used to being to dry things by leaving them out, and to cool things by getting them wet. Neither of these works in high humidity. One of the stories you hear often about newbies to Florida is that they took laundry out of th drier when it was almost dry, put it away, and came back to find it covered in mould, because it stayed damp. Meanwhile, visitors from Florida to arid western states are sometimes amazed at misting sprays set up outdoors to cool people off. "Back home," they will say, "this would just get y'all wet."
The popint is you may have to retrain your intuition about clothing, shelter and strategies for dealing with the weather. As far as rain goes, be prepared to add clothing and umbrellas to protect you from it, and then carry on. Theme parks can be wonderful in the rain.
|
STORY: Fond Rainy Day Memories
My first visit to Disneyland without my parents was a middle school trip about 1965, organized by the local YMCA. We took a bus ride of about 90 minutes from my town in San Diego up to Orange County, California, where it rained hard all day. I bought a coonskin cap to keep the rain off my hair, which I proudly owned for years. Me and a buddy visited every indoor attraction and exhibit we could find. The lines were short. I remember we spent a lot of time at a Bell Labs exhibit, at the exit to CircleVision 360 sponsored by Bell Telephone. (I notice now that both the attraction and the corporation are long gone.) The exhibit was a demo of videophones, conducted by young women in powder blue dresses and hats that looked like stewardess uniforms. It was a magical day. A dozen years later, my wife asnd I were bicycling through Central Florida, as part of a transcontinental journey, on our way to Walt Disney World where we would work for the next ten weeks. Passing though a grocery store parking lot astride our overpacked bikes, we saw a man stick his head out of a station wagon window and ask, "What do you do when it rains?" Without missing a beat, my wife answered, "We get wet!" (This is also what we do in theme parks when it rains.) In 1995 my wife and I went to Disneyland in the rain, one day before the official opening of the new ride Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. We were hoping for a "soft opening," which is when they open the ride early to test it. (Disney likes to have these unadvertised openings because if the ride breaks down no guest has a claim that they were promised something they didn't get.) Sure enough, there was a long line outside the new Indy ride, and it wasn't moving. We huddled together under our umbrella to keep warm, and stood waiting for close to an hour. Every so often a Disneyland cast member came by to tell us the ride was not open, it wasn't scheduled to open, and though it might open there was no guarantee that it would. Unlike the hot summer rains of Orlando, this was cold winter rain in Anaheim. Finally the couple ahead of us in line gave up snd left. About a minute later the line began to move, and we were let into the ride! Of course we raced through the queue, which had some cute stuff we didn't really appreciate until later, but we walked right onto the ride. As we wlaked back ou the exit we noticed that the ride queue had pretty much swallowed the whole crowd, and so the ride looked closed even though it was open and hardly anyone was in line, so we immediatley rode a second time. The wonderful thing about this experience was that we suffered for our fun, and it seemed more like an adventure. (See the discussion of red blood density points in ___,___). In 1989 we visited Walt Dieny World with another couple and on our first day there we went to the Polynesian Resort for lunch. As we waited for our table lightning struck, thunder rolled, and it began to pour rain. I dashed outside and began dancing in thre rain. People thought I was crazy. I explained to who would listen that I was from Southern California, where rain was a big deal. (I also found later that cheaply printed documents in my pockets stained my white shorts, so wach out for that.) In 2018 our family made a visit to Didneyland on a day during Christmas season when corowds would normally been extreme, but buckets of rain falling most of the day chased people away, and we had 5 to 10 inute waits for every ride, including the most popular ones. We got waterlogged we sat by the fireplace in the Grand Califonrian lobby — similar to the one at the Wilderness Lodge in Walt Disney World, and dried out. And while I was writing this section, in September of 2019, Hurricane Dorian blew past Florida and Walt Disney World's theme parks closed early one day. A heartwarming story in USA Today told about how the lifeguards at the Wilderness Lodge shut down the pool and went into essentially camp counselor mode, entertaining guests with indoor activities. Kids especially loved it because it was something different. How Disney World kept the magic alive as Hurricane Dorian threatened Florida |
So, hopefully you get it, rain can be your friend. It can make the lines shorter. But you still have to deal with it:
Okay, on to the sun. The closer you get to the equator the more deadly sunlight is. You efinitely need to plan for sun protection. This includes:
Most of this advice is geared for the hot humid weather in Orlando, which isn't confined to summer. But do research the average temperatures year round. The web site ___ has good information on this.
Also, get a weather app on your smart phone if you don't already have one, and as your trip approached check the weather in Orlando at different times of day, to get used to the patterns.
Oh, the joys of shopping before a vacation! Some say the women folk enjoy this more, and maybe they do; hard to say. But it's a treat for all if done right. Just do a video search for "What to wear to Disney World" and you will find an avalanche of advice, mostly by and for women, on how to put together outfits that balance fashion and comfort. I don't have much to say about this, except to add:
On the backpack front, I recommend a coordinated plan: have one big backpack with changes of clothes, layers, sweatshirts, towels, glow stuff, etc., and put it in a locker on arrival at a theme park. Have one smaller backpack which you take turns carrying for ponchos, snacks, wipes, and other must-have-on-you items for the group. (If you have a stroller you can stash it there, but don't go overboard, and bring a light locking cable to lock it shut and to the stroller.) Then have each person carry a very small backpack, fanny pack or small purse (over the shoulder) for personal items like phone, sunglasses, chapstick, etc.
If your family can't have fun observing an anthill, you may
need to work on your fun-having skills before visiting Orlando.
To enjoy an Orlando theme park vacation you will need to properly prepare yourselves, mentally and physically.
To mentally prepare, one of the best steps to take is to commit to having a good time. This may sound odd to some of you, and it's not going to be workable with small children, but what I'm suggesting is that you all promise to make having a good time together your highest priority. In my experience this actually works. It clears your mind of the urge to embrace greivances, or be super critical, or try to somehow triumph over family members who bug you. As Elsa says, "Let it go."
Another thing you can do is practice having fun together. No, really. Daily life has a tendency to get mission oriented, with jobs, school, homework, meals, chores, and a routine that often is low on slack. It isn't always that easy to just "throw a switch" and move into vacation mode. Plan some outings to get in the habit of having fun together. And look for unexpected opportunities, like when you suddenly have to wait for something.
|
STORY: The Anthill Experiment
Once long ago my wife and I were taken to an old-school steakhouse by her parents and siblings near her home town. After a nice meal we returned to the family station wagon to find that it wouldn't start. The auto club was called (it turned out the battery had died, and a jump-start got us on our way.) While we waited, and began to get board, my wife and I explored the immediate area and found a large anthill nearby, crawling with red ants. We hit upon the idea of performing an experiment to see how ants reacted to artificial sweeteners. I popped back into the steakhouse and grabbed four packs of sweeteners: white (real sugar), pink (saccharin — Sweet 'N Low), blue (aspartame — Equal), and yellow (sucralose — Splenda). We made four piles of sweeteners equidistant from the entrance to the anthill, and then watched what happened. Ant scouts randomly stumbled upon each of the four piles. The treated the three artificial sweeteners the same way thyw treated sand — they ignored the piles. The scout who found the sugar pile hurried back to the hill and brought other ants to the pile, and they began carrying grains of sand back to the hole to take underground, in a very excited way. It entertained us for the time it took for the tow truck to arrive and jump start the station wagon, and we also learned something. |
A theme park day will always include short burts of entertainment, fun or thrills seperated by longer stretches of boredom and fatigue. Your family needs to develop the skill of being entertained in the lulls.
Prepare yourselves culturally. In our family we talk about how we like to read the book (and the comic book), see the movie, play the video game, eat the cereal, play with the kid's meal toy, and so on. Now, you don't have to go that far, but many of the attractions at Walt Disney World, and almost all the attractions at Universal, are based on movies. As you refine your planning and decide on which attractions you will likely experience, figure out which movie (if any) is relevant for each one, and make plans to see the movie before your trip. Nothing will better prepare your kids, or you, to enjoy a theme park experience than to have gotten the back story and met the characters right from the movie.
For extra credit, you can also have your family read, or read aoud to them, the original books that the movies were based on. See ___, ___ for a table of information on which movies correlate with which rides, shows and other attractions.
To get hold of everything, you can buy movies on disc, new or used, or check them out of the library, or buy or rent digital copies, or stream them. The new Disney+ streaming service promises a lot of good material. You can buy books in paper or digital form, and your local library will loan books to you too.
If you haven't already taken family vacations recently, you may want to rehearse traveling together. Using the same forms of travel you will use going to Olando, visit someplace closer and cheaper, for less time. Cram yourselves into a similar hotel or motel. This is a great opportunity to find out what problems come up, with budgeting, logisitics, health, discipline, energy levels, security, and family dynamics. This will give you a "to do" list of problems to addess and prevent or solve.
One possibility is to visit a regional amusement park. See Apprndix ___, ___ for a partial list. There are also local parks, such as the Boomers chain of family fun centers (with arcades, food, rides and mini golf). If you're flying and your kids havent flown before, I also recommend you take them to the airport ahead of time, and show them planes boarding and flying.
Unless your family is very athletic, you probably need to train for the physical exertion of a theme park vacation. The average American walks between 1.5 and 2 miles per day. A theme park day will typically involve walking six times as far, or more. I recall decades ago running into an estimate of 5 to 7 miles per day of theme park walking, but this was based on cruder measuring techniques. (For example, the perimeter of all four Walt Disney World parks is just 8.5 miles, which is a misleading low number.) Since the advent of smart phones with GPS we've beean able to get more precide numbers, which are about twice as big. One blogger recorded a day at the Universal Orlando Resort that began and ended at Cabana Bay, and included CityWalk and both theme parks. Total distance: 28 miles. Another blogger offered the rule of thumb that you can expect to walk 1 to 1.5 miles per hour of theme park visiting. Excpet for the Magic Kingdom, most of the parks are ridiculously low on transportation options. Wlat;s original "hub and spokes" layout of Disnyland has more recently given way to giant donuts with lakes in the middle, such as at Islands of Adventure and World Showcase, EPCOT. A cast member once told me in jest that EPCOT stands for "Every Person Comes Out Tired."
SO it should be pretty obvious that if you are living a more sedentary lifestyle and just leap into a vacation with this high level of activity, that it could be uncomfortable. Even worse if you are visiting in the warmer months, and coming form a less hot and humid area. This is why you should probably train for your vaction, by taking many long hikes in heat and humidity. (This also further evidence why the "six parks in six days, with park-hopper option" plan is insane.) If this sounds like too much work, consider that your vacation will probably seem like too much work too.
Another thing worth doing is to acclimate to the time zone change. If you are coming from western North America, you could be gaining three hours or more; if coming from Europe you could be losing 5 hours or more. One strategy for dealing with htis is to just stay on your home time, which is less stressful, but will severely reduce your options. If you are coming from Pacific time this plan will have you hitting the parks after noon. (And plenty of people do this, which is why showong up for rope drop is such a good strategy.) The other extreme is to acclimate before you go, which is best done slowly. If coming from the west start a few days ahead, and go to bed an hour earlier every night than the night before. Have dinner earlier too, so you don't have grumbly tummies in bed. Extra physical activity in the afternoon will help you feel more tired, and be sure to get up earlier too. Maybe have something fun to do first thing in the morning, to make it easier. The middle path is to show up and "wing it," getting up earlier than you are used to and yawning a lot.
According to a Wikipedia article on bad things happening at Walt Diensy World,
List of incidents at Walt Disney World
( en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_at_Walt_Disney_World )
the most common cause of guest deaths in adults is undiagnosed medical conditions. In children it is drowning.
Therefore I recommend you get medical checkups before a trip, and tell your doctor what you're planning. And, for the kids, if they haven't alread learned, give them swimming lessons. They should be able to open their eyes under water, tread water, drownproof, and swim to the side of the pool before you go. The Red Cross and the YMCA offer lessons.
You may also need to practice special skills. If you're bringing a folding stroller, practice folding and unfolding it with one hand while holding a child. Same if you are bringing an umbrella. Practice finding your ID, money, credit cards, tickets, etc. with the purse or pack you will bring.
Practice using the MyDisneyExperience app, especially using FastPass and Mobile Order. Practice getting around Orlando with your navigation app, such as Google Maps. Practice taking group pictures and selfies. More about the elctronics in ___, ___.
| "Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." — Will Rogers |
ILLUSTRATION: Thaumatrope
DESCRIPTION: Illustration of a handmade Thaumatrope
CAPTION: Make some Thaumatropes with your kids,
to learn about animation and the persistence of vision.
"It can educational, but don't label it as such."
— Walt Disney
In the last chapter I focused on planning in terms of what is most availbale and most popular. But there's another way to look at planning — if you flip it around and ask what you are looking for, you can then proceed to search for what you are after among the theme parks and other attractions of Orlando.
This, of course, requires that you understand yourself and your family well enough to know what you like, and what your interests are. Make sure you are aiming at making it interesting for the adults as well.
Do you and your family have any hobbies? What do you do with your spare time at home? Popular hobbies in the USA include:
Just about all of these activities are available in Orlando. I haven't found a way to work musical performance into your trip (say, if you like to play guitar), but of course there is karaoke. But for every other activity listed above you will find ways to enjoy it in central Florida; see Appendix ___, ___ for details.
In addition to the things you know about, are familiar with, and like to do, it can be useful to ask yourself, and your family, what do you want to learn anbout, or learn more about? Don't pitch this as an educational exercise, because that's like, "yuck," but if you're pulling the kids out of school you might want to balance it out with some actual field experiences that broaden their education. And if you learn something as well, science says this will add to your mental acuity and even longevity.
Another point to ponder is that doing the most popular things in Orlando (especially at the most popular times) guarantees that you will face the biggest crowds, longest lines. If you can find a way to do things that few other people are doing you can usually have an uncrowded time, for less money, with plenty of time to enjoy it. Just sayin'.
Here are some suggestions of areas of interest you can explore in Orlando. Some are unique places to visit, and some are different ways to look at the theme parks and attractions you might visit anyway.
"Disneyland will never be completed, as long as there is imagination left in the world."
— Walt Disney
Imagination is practically a slogan of the Walt Disney Company. Walt called his theme park designers "Imagineers," combining imagination with engineering. One of the early attractions at EPCOT was the Journey into Imagination. Though it has been through two "reimaginings," it has always celebrated the human imagination. The original and current versions have a cute little purple dragon named Figment who is a sort of imaginary mascot for those who imagine, along with a song by the famous Disney songwriters the Sherman Brothers, called "One Little Spark," which celebrates various objects and experiences that stimulate the imagination.
Shows, parades and fireworks at Dieny parks have thrown around the words imagination, dreams, wishes, fantasy and wonder. There was a fireworks sjow called: "Imagine ... A Fantasy in the Sky." One popular multimedia show (live action, projection, animatronics and fireworks) is called "Fantasmic." The current Disney cruise line ships are named Magic, Wonder, Dream and Fantasy.
Accordingly I have always found Disney attractions have a subtext of encouraging guests to exercise their own creative imaginations. Wheter you like to draw, sculpt, write, create music, coreograph dance, design clothes, assemble collages, build furniture, weave, blow glass or juggle, or any other creative activity that requires imagination, the Disney products can fucntion as "cheerleaders" for your efforts. Take advantage of them.
Though the Universal Parks don't sloganeer about imagination in the same way, they also celebrate the concept with their emphasis on movie making, comic art, and fantasy literature.
This is among the reasons why I always like to have drawing paper and colored pencils along on a theme park vacation, in case inspiration should strike someone in your party.
The Walt Disney Company was built on drawing. It pervades the corporate culture, especially in the theme parks. And it's contagious: some people come to the Orlando area parks just to draw. It's a great place to let your inner graphic artist loose.
Some relevant videos to watch are:
Types of graphic art that Disney uses:
All of the above are featured on books of Disney art. Look for them at your library. (See Appendix ___.)
As you wander the Orlando area parks and other attractions, be on the lookout for paintings, murals, mosaics, stained glass, and inspirational scenes which you can sketch (character studies, still lifes, landscapes). It also isn't cheating to photograph scenes to draw later.
It's never been easier to make a movie. Director Robert Rodriguz has said that everyone has 12 lousy movies in them, which they must make first before beginning to make good movies. If anyone in your family has an interest in moviemaking, the best advice I can give is shoot, shoot, shoot! (Followed by edit, edit, edit!) It's also never been easier to distribute a movie, thanks to sites like YouTube. Many people from casual tourists to full time vloggers shoot videos at Orlando theme parks and post them. You might consider doing so yourselves.
Kodak Picture Spots 1955-2012 >>>
>>>
>>> cosplay Disney bounding
>>> Science — Gravity in Space Mountain and Mission Space "Man In Space" ; paleontology in "Jurassic Park"
botany and zoologoy at Animal Kingdom
>>> Geography — Adventureland and Animal Kingdom, World Showcase "People and Places" "True Life Adventures"
>>> 2nd grade plan
History — Johnny Tremain and Ben & Me
>>> Literature — Grimm & Andersen
>>> Toot Whistle Plunk Boom
Disney's All-Star Music Resort
Disney facilities, Swan & Dolphin, Celebration
Urban Planning — New Urbanism
"Disneyland must be regarded as the most important single piece of construction in the West in the past several decades."
"Of course Disneyland, in spite of the skill and variety of its enchantments, does not offer the full range of public experience. The political experience, for instance, is not manifested here..."
https://placesjournal.org/article/you-still-have-to-pay-for-the-public-life/?cn-reloaded=1&fbclid=IwAR19EO5PaV9ox10zOcZXGC3m3R5Hu7VbJy96EV_vXYdGhoo008LHGQUVcDU
American Experience: Coney Island [Dreamland Hellgate fire]
"The Great American Amusement Parks: A Pictorial History" (1976) by Gary Kyriazi
"The Disneyland Story" (1990) with Harry Anderson
Buzz Price essay
"The Wave Maker: The Story of Theme Park Pioneer George Millay and the Creation of Sea World, Magic Mountain and Wet 'n Wild" (____) Tim O'Brien
"Realityland — True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World" (2007) by David Koenig
roller coaster tech
hangars
audio-animatronics
digital ride audio
tree of life
CGI/stereo
monorail
ethnic and national background
source: 2000 US census
| origin | number |
|---|---|
| Germany | 49,206,934 |
| Africa | 41,284,752 |
| Ireland | 35,523,082 |
| Mexico | 31,789,483 |
| England | 26,923,091 |
| America | 19,911,467 |
| Italy | 17,558,598 |
| Poland | 9,739,653 |
| France (except Basque) | 9,136,092 |
| Scotland | 5,706,263 |
| Scotch Irish | 5,102,858 |
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 4,920,336 |
| Holland | 4,810,511 |
| Puerto Rico | 4,607,774 |
| Norway | 4,607,774 |
| Sweden | 4,211,644 |
| China | 3,245,080 |
| Russia | 3,060,143 |
| India | 2,781,904 |
| West Indes (excpept Hispanic groups) | 2,625,306 |
| Phillipines | 2,549,545 |
| Canada (French Canadian) | 2,087,970 |
| Wales | 1,888,383 |
| Cuba | 1,764,374 |
| El Salvador | 1,733,778 |
| Arab nations | 1,620,637 |
| Vietnam | 1,576,032 |
| Czech Republic | 1,573,608 |
| Hungary | 1,511,926 |
| Portugal | 1,423,139 |
| Korea | 1,422,567 |
| Netherlands | 1,420,962 |
| Domincan Republic | 1,414,551 |
| Greece | 1,414,551 |
I wish there was a simple answer to this. Some of the dolls are dressed in traditional/stereotypical garb of specific countries, where others could be more or less gathered in less specific citizenship.
But to give some definite inclusions (in order at Disneyland, using their normal [non- holiday version] layout):
Hispanic: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela
Africa: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, São Tomé and Príncipe, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Arabia: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, the Palestine Liberation Organization, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen
Polynesia: Hawaii, New Zealand, Easter Island, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Niue, Wallis and Futuna, and French Polynesia
others (cull):
from https://mommymouseclubhouse.com/free-disney-ringtones-for-iphone
>>>
pick avatars
Hidden Secrets in Disney World's App!
DFBGuide
Aug 15, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pWBDKaiTSg
My Disney (line wait accurate? __) Find my phone Yelp is your friend Snapchat geo filters Google Docs spreadsheet to access from smart phone (see Appendix ___) Fuel Rods YouTube:
- Wally Boag, jazzman of comedy, "Must been..."
- Michael Iceberg
- If You Had Wings
- Luau ___
- Hoop Dee Doo Review
- Captain EO
You can use thick twine or nylon line to tie a water bottle to a lanyard.
>>>
Staging Area
pack or shopping list?
Wikipedia: two half-hitches
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_half-hitches )
ILLUSTRATION: How could you forget a thing like your hat?
DESCRIPTION: Assortment of Disney world appropriate hats: Indy Jones, women's gardening, straw skimmer, pith helmet, racetrack extravaganza.
CAPTION: "How could you forget a thing like your hat?" — Shamus McFly
Our Lists
7/27/94
Alan
Disney tickets
travel info/maps
boom box & tapes
phone list
cell phone
bungee cords
rugs
Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent puppet
clothes
favorite tee shirts (AVS94, SIGGRAPH, Vegas Dead, Tar Pits)
khaki pants
white shorts
putty shorts
socks
white sneakers
hats
swimsuit and towel
Dixie
airline tickets
stroller
car seat
grooming stuff
bottled water
Orlsndo trip folder
Disney Magic Kingdom Card
clothes
light-colored sun dress
light shorts
long pants
1 pair Alan's khaki pants
sun hat
cathead hat
briefcase
water bottle
wet cloth in baggie
makeup, brush, comb, deoderant
book/magazines
cards
wallet
plane tickets
confirmation #s, phone #s
Charlotte (11 months, 5 day trip)
formula x2, diapers x2
bottled water x2 (buy 2 more gallons)
food: 18 jars
wipes
sunscreen
bathing suit
reclining stroller
4 blankies
stuffed toys [LAST MINUTE]
pacifiers
diaper bag
sunscreen
diapers
wipes
plastic bags
change of clothes
blankie
pain ointment
travel toys
bottles and familia
1 jar food
spoon and bib
bathtub
soap, shampoo, q-tips
scissors [LAST MINUTE]
plastic bags: all sizes
clothes washing stuff x2
dish washing stuff
toys
rash ointment
car seat and bag and toys [LAST MINUTE]
sunhat and dark glasses
extra bottles (leave 3 clean)
stroller net bag
washcloths, towels
outfits and socks
1 warm outfit, last blankie [LAST MINUTE]
bath toys
first aid
bath seat
Cecil
Airplane
diaper bag
6 diapers
4 8 oz bottles and water
full formula powder
sleepy stuff
2 blankies (lite)
woolie
for day of flight add toys [LAST MINUTE]
>>>
Terminology:
Abbreviations:
https://www.wdwmagic.com/acronyms.htm
http://allears.net/walt-disney-world/wdw-planning/common-abbreviations-and-acronyms/
http://forums.insideuniversal.net/threads/common-theme-park-forum-abbreviations.277/
Dave Barry: mouse map
DVC map
Florida cartoon map from uniquemedia.com
AAA maps, especially Orlando, FL viscinity series (greater Orlando, airport &
downtown on 1 side, Orlando attractions and space coast are on back)
http://ontheworldmap.com/usa/city/orlando/orlando-islands-of-adventure-map.jpg
Google Earth
Google maps "want to go"
ILLUSTRATION: The lay of the land #1.
DESCRIPTION: __
CAPTION: foo
ILLUSTRATION: The lay of the land #2.
DESCRIPTION: __
CAPTION: foo
Downtown Disney
hotels:
* Magic Kingdom Resorts
4 Contemporary
4 Grand Floridian
4 Polynesian
3 Wilderness Lodge
2 Fort Wilderness Campgrounds
* EPCOT Resorts
3 Boardwalk
3 Boardwalk Villas (DVC)
3 Swan & Dolphin
3 Yacht and Beach
2 Caribbean Beach
* Downtown Disney Resorts
3 Old Key West (DVC)
3 Saratoga Springs (DVC)
- Treehouses
2 Port Orleans Riverside (former Dixie Landings)
2 Port Orleans French Quarter (former Port Orleans)
0 Hotel Row:
- Hilton
- Royal Plaza Hotel
- Doubletree Guest Suites
- Holiday Inn
* Animal Kingdom Resorts
2 Coronado Springs
1 All Star Sports & Music & Movies
1 Pop Century
* Misc.
? Villas at Disney Institute
- Shades of Green
Uni
US
IoA
Citywalk
hotels:
Bali
Rock
| resort group | monorail loop $$$$ | $$$ | $$ | $ | etc. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magic Kingdom Resorts |
|
|
| _ | _ |
| EPCOT Resorts | _ |
|
| _ | _ |
| Downtown Disney Resorts | _ |
|
| _ |
|
| Animal Kingdom Resorts | _ |
|
|
|
_ |
http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/wdw-sb03.htm
To get out onto the water and discover the lakes' charms, the Paddling Center at Shingle Creek is a great place to start. Renting out canoes, single and tandem kayaks, and stand-up paddleboards, the center has something for everyone craving a day in the sun exploring the headwaters of the Everglades.
For a moderately challenging but comprehensive introduction to the area, consider renting a kayak or canoe from the concessionaire at Lake Kissimmee State Park and making the 10-mile trek around the Buster Island Loop Paddling Trail. After a short walk from the rental pickup to the water, you'll put in at the Zipperer Canal and make your way through Rosalie Creek, Tiger Lake, Lake Kissimmee and back around to your starting point in a perfect loop, which can take up to a full day to complete.
>>>
pre-trip party
stay together, don't believe everything the airline says
while renting car have kids collect brochures
beach ball, videos, water, food
after arrival -- shopping for necessitites!
remove old barcodes from luggage
>>>
story: hypothetical battle for resources followed by meet and greet
Make a note of places that are air-conditioned or get afternoon shade, so you can seek them out when needed. When it is hot, move from oasis to oasis.
energy is scarcest resource
plenty of water, snacks, and bathroom breaks
move from oasis to oasis
stay out of Tomorrowland until after dark
"Beat the Heat at the Magic Kingdom" Super Enthused
fast pass, must-sees, dark ride fears(Vampirates, dolls with tapes)
don't end up on YouTube
SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics and Interactive Technologies
boats past dolls
Rafiki's Planet Watch - The Animation Experience at Conservation Station
TurtleTalk with Crush
pressed pennies, autographs, pin trading
names on windows
fluid filled placemats with fish at Dolphin
Exploratorium, Griffith Observatory seismograph, Kitt Car
Devine ___
Virtual Magic Kingdom quests ___
right after breakfast
have a backup rendesvous in the shade
give everyone a card with all your #s
talk about Lost Parents
no kidnappings at theme parks
phone lock screen contact info
matching tees
phone number on bracelets
gators
pizza scam
keep a log and a list for "next time"
daily debrief
http://www.attractionsmagazine.com/blog/2009/12/09/all-disneyana-show-and-sale-this-saturday-at-the-regal-sun-resort/
after-hours parties
free and virtually free stuff
cheap and cheaper stuff
visiting Disney hotels
date nights
ILLUSTRATION: The castle view from Narcoosee's
DESCRIPTION: Night view, castle reflected in lake.
CAPTION: The bar at Narcoosee's restuarant at the Grand Floridian has a great view at night of Cinderella's Castle reflected in the Seven Seas Lagoon.
bad news and good news
NLP — Tranformations; anchors and triggers; upsells; the voice, parking, language
not surviving the hypnotist.
ILLUSTRATION: "The regrets as they check out of the hotel"
DESCRIPTION: __
CAPTION:
>>> cartoons in the lobbydate night — Narcoosee's bar
TV
swim, arcade, rent surry, fish, board games, vieo games, movie do laundry, repack, sort souvenirs, make shopping lists
ILLUSTRATION: Boiled peanuts.
DESCRIPTION: Goober in a ball cap sells boiled peanuts out of a 55-gallon drum from a closed Esso gas station on Floriday Highway 520.
CAPTION: Make time to enjoy some of the non-Disney features of Old Florida, such as boiled peanuts ("caviar of the south") sold in disposable cups by the side of the road. They taste sort of like chili beans!
whatscookingamerica.net/History/BoiledPeanutsHistory.htm
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw_FpneX--c
ILLUSTRATION: Attractions in Kissimmee
DESCRIPTION: Cartoony drawings of Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf, Gatorland, Shell World and Orange World
CAPTION: Some of my favorite attractions in Kissimmee, FL
>>>
ILLUSTRATION: Rope drop
DESCRIPTION: __
CAPTION: If you make it to rope drop, you'll meet other very savvy travelers there.
no ice at Disney; no smoking
Spotify
rent a locker
Remember the Cast Members Who Helped Make Your Vacation Magical
rendevous spot in case of phone failre (e.g. Casey's Corner odd numbered hours) see Appendix ___, ___
go left
story: Down and Out..., 50th; every titp will stop working
single riders
babies like water shows; not animatrons or characters
bathroom before line
goodnight kiss
ILLUSTRATION: "Leaving the park at midday"
DESCRIPTION: The F-stone family are waiting on line; mom is trying to get BB down from a light pole while P cries over a dropped ice cream cone; F looks like he's saying "hoo boy." The J-son family passes them on the way out all chipper; G is whistling.
CAPTION: As you leave the park at midday, as temperatures and crowding are rising to unbearable levels, observe your fellow guests who are staying, and how you can sometimes see the "deathmarch" attitude appearing on their faces.
best case: swim, shower and change, nap or at least put your feet up
also good: ride a boat, lounge at Fort Wilderness
from DAK you can drive to Cracker Barrell, rocking chairs
baby station end up on the correct side of the parade
>>>
shipping stuff home
don't turn in rental car until sure you won't need it
"Have I Stayed Too Long At the Fair?" (Lucie Arnaz)
>>>
Hypothetical Trip With a Family of Two Adults and Two Children
I was inspired to write this section after seeing a video from Time Magazine that asked "What's cheaper, Disneyland or Walt Disney World?"
I'm not actually very concerned with the question, but I was shocked by the assumptions that went into their calculations. They assumed that if a family of four (two adults and two children) are going are going for six days and five nights, they will stay in a Disney hotel on-property for five nights, and buy each person five park-hopper tickets. Another article in the UK about rising Disney prices discouraging the middle class did some calculations using the same assumptions, concluding you can buy a new car for the price of a Walt Disney World vacation. Yes, prices are going up, but staying on-site for five days of park-hopping is not only the most expensive way to go, I think it's also insane. The term "death march" comes to mind. I find it disamying that videos I see from The Travel Channel also recommend this approach. They also say, "Your kids will have a melt-down," and I say, "They will if you follow this crazy plan."
So to show a saner alternative I offer this analysis of a hypothetical trip. I've imagined thirtysomething parents, Geroge and Jane, with their two kids, Judy (15) and Elroy (10), from Phoenix, Arizona, planning an Orlando trip. George works for a sprocket manuafacturer and Jane is a part-time employee at the state's Department of Redundancy Department and does most of the housework. They planned this trip a year in advance, which is a good idea.
First the numbers. The Time calculations are in the table below. I thought they seemed low I so I repriced them with information on the internet.
Time budget (family of 4, 5 days):
| category | deluxe item | their price | my reprice |
|---|---|---|---|
| lodging | Saratoga Springs | $1,980.00 | $2,720.00 |
| food | 5 days Disney dining plan | $915.50 | $1,509.80 |
| parks | 5 days Disney park hopper | $1,780.00 | $1,580.00 |
| total | (souvenirs not included) | $4,675.50 | $5,849.80 |
I assumed that they will follow the advice in this book, including:
After research and discussion (described below) they selected decided on Universal's Islands of Adventure, Disney's Animal Kingdom and Disney's Magic Kingdom as the parks they would visit, and the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Orlando International Drive/Convention Center [Address: 8214 Universal Blvd, Orlando, FL 32819] as their motel. Fairfield is the low-price brand in the Marriott family. (The company's reputation assures the place will be clean and secure, but it lacks the luxuries of other Marriott properties such as Mariott Marquis, Sheraton, Ritz-Carlton, Westin, Gaylord, Four Points or W.) They also decided to stay six days instead of five. Here is the budget for this trip:
my budget (family of 4, 6 days)
| category | budget item | price | notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| lodging | 5 nights Fairfield + 1 night Disney | $1,134.00 | tax included |
| food | sit down lunch + snacks for dinner | $1,145.28 | free breakfast at Fairfield |
| parks | 2 days Disney + 1 day Universal | $1,296.00 | no park hopper |
| car rental | Priceline | $78.84 | gas extra |
| other fun | $20/day per person for 3 days | $240.00 | for each of the non-theme park days |
| total | (souvenirs, gas, tolls and parking not included) | $3,894.12 | actual total probably $300 more plus airfare |
Savings vs. original Time budget: about 17%
Savings vs. repriced Time budget: about 33%
So they will pay less and not go crazy!
http://time.com/money/4680523/whats-cheaper-disneyland-or-disney-world/
ReviewTyme video 2/22/19 "Our Cheapest Disney World Vacation Plan"
family of 4, on-site 5 days 4 nights accom 290.00 12% campground 58 Music 115 = 580 tickets 1555.10 69% no park hopping 1540 + 112 tax or 3rd party (397.04*2 + 380.51*2) breakfast 115.80 \ Mickey waffle $5.79 lunch/dinner 260.00 > 17% uncrustables snacks 23.95 / Mickey pretzel shared $4.79
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BruatwJATU
12 months
George asked the family to draw up lists of their 5 favorite Disney or kids movies. Here is what everyone came up with:
George
Jane objected that The Blues Brothers wasn't a kid's movie, so George substituted Who Framed Roger Rabbit, even though it also has a few scenes that might not be for kids.
Jane
The parents were surprised they both listed Despicable Me. George wondered what the heck The Horsemasters was: it was a live-action Disney movie that aired on the old Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color show in 1961, about an English riding school. She said she saw it late one night on the Disney Channel when she couldn't sleep, and thought it was fabulous. It reminded of her old English-style riding days as a teenager.
Judy
When Jane saw Judy's list, she said she almost put The Lion King on her list as well. Judy said it was a tough choice between that and Frozen.
Elroy
Elroy kept changing his mind, cycling through Cars, Planes, and Monster, Inc. before settling on this list. He was suprised that he and his dad both like the Pirates movies. He added the Davy Crockett series after his dad bought a DVD set and they watched them together.
9 months
> short trips and hikes (Texas)
Uncle Henry and Aunt Rosie
Johnson Space Center
Nassau Bay Peninsula Wildlife Park, Sam Houston Park to Buffalo Bayou Park — Houston Police Department Memorial
6 months
> final dates
> hotel and car reservations
> dining reservations
> shopping for airfare
3 months
> watching YouTube
> watching videos
> first and second choices
George
Jane
Judy
Elroy
1900 goat rope...
> fast passes at 30 days
> __
|
Key:
B: = breakfast
A: = attraction
El1 = Elroys's 1st choice
DAK = Disney's Animal Kingdom |
The Plan
| SUN | MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [off] | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [off] laundry, last minute shopping, pack |
| fly as early as possible shop for groceries and sundries M: motel pool A: IDr attractions D: IDr debrief, story time (1st night at motel) | B: motel, homework A: IDr L:IDr M: motel pool UCW D: UCW snacks debrief, story time (2nd night at motel) | B: motel, homework A: IoA A: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Ju1) L: Three Broomsticks, WWH M: motel pool D: IoA snacks debrief, story time (3rd night at motel) | B: motel, homework DAK A:Expedition Everest (Ge1) (FP) L: Tusker House, DAK w/ character dining (R) M: motel pool A: Kilimanjaro Safaris (Ja1) D: DAK snacks debrief, story time (4th night at motel) | B: motel, homework A: monorail loop L: DS House of Blues (Ge2) or Grand Floridian (Ja2) M: boat ride to Ft. Wilderness Campground A: Circle D/bikes D: DS snacks A: DS shopping debrief, story time (5th night at motel) | B: motel, homework A: DMK A: Little Mermaid (Ju2) L: Liberty Tree Tavern (R) M: motel pool check out of motel, drive to hotel, check in, Disney transp. to MK D: MK snacks for kids, date night for mom & dad A: Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (El2) debrief, story time (1st night in hotel) | B: hotel expore hotel grounds, pool L: hotel check out of hotel, ship box home, drive to airport D: airport snacks fly home as late as possible |
| [off] sleep in, unpack, laundry | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [workday] | [off] |
1 month
buy merch on-line — matching mother and daughter Minnie purses
How It Went
Uncle Henry and Aunt Rosie came to house/dog sit
SUN
MON
Fogo de Chão
Waffle House
TUE
WED
THU
Citricos
FRI
date nite: Sam's Narcoosee's, room patty cake
SAT
>>> bring distractions — "the surprise bag" (fun bag)
8 1/2 x 11" Hex board graph paper race 3D or 4D tick tac toe board other squirt bottle and fan puzzles in sealed liquid wooly willie spirograph blasters walky talkies world's smallest... fuzzies clip on buddies ball & cup clackers annoying noises car bingo wind up cars horses dinos marble mazes paper dolls
>>>
Here are sources of information I recommend.
newspapers
web sites
that combo ticket ___ (Universal, SeaWold, etc.)
I-Drive trolley ___
UG: WDWWK - hotel shopping online
YouTube channels (video blogs, or vlogs)
In a YouTube channel, click on "uploads" to see the latest videos.
videos
apps ___
DISCOUNTS: Perkspot (Postmates, Toys 'R' Us), coupons; Sam's Club; DVC; AP mousesavers.com
money log
money tips (Target card)
https://www.internationaldriveorlando.com
https://wheretraveler.com/orlando
| author | title | date |
|---|---|---|
| coffee table books | ||
| Thomas, Frank and Johnston, Ollie | The Illusion of Life | 1981 |
| Schroeder, Russell | Disney The Ultimate Visual Guide | 2002 |
| Finch, Christopher | The Art of Walt Disney — From Mickey Mouse To Magic Kingdom | 1975 |
| Culhane, John | Walt Disney's Fantasia | 1983 |
| Marling, Karal Ann | Designing Disny's Theme Parks — The Architecture of Reassurance | 1997 |
| Thomas, Bob | Disney's Art of Animation — From Mickey Mouse To Beauty and the Beast | 1991 |
| Broggie, Michael | Walt Disney's Happy Place | 2001 |
| France, Van Arsdale | Window On Main Street — 35 Years of Creating Happiness At Disneyland Park | 1991 |
| Canemaker, John | The Art and Flair of Mary Blair — An Appreciation | 2003 |
| Disney Productions, Walt | The Story of Walt Disney World | 1976 |
| Dunlop, Beth | Building a Dream — The Art of Disney Architecture | 1996 |
| Imagineers, The | Imagineering — A Behind the Dreams Look at Making the Magic Real | 1996 |
| guidebooks | ||
| Sehlinger, Bob | The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and EPCOT | 1985 |
| Birnbaum | Birnbaum's 2000 Walt Disney World For Kids By Kids | 2000 |
| Birnbaum, Steve | Steve Birnbaum Brings You the Best of Walt Disney World | 1988 |
| Imagineers, The | The Imagineering Field Guide to ____ | 20__ |
| Barry, Dave | Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need | 1991 |
| reference & how-to | ||
| Neary, Kevin and Smith, Dave | The Ultimate Disney Trivia Book | 1992 |
| Cotter, Bill | The Wonderful World of Disney Television — A Complete History | 1997 |
| Imagineers, The | The Imagineering Way — Ideas to Ignite Your Creativity | 2005 |
| Capodagli, Bill & Jackson, Lynn | The Disney Way — Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company | 1999 |
| biographies | ||
| Hammontree, Marie | Walt Disney — Young Moviemaker | 1997 |
| Schickel, Richard | The Disney Version — The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney | 1969-97 |
| Thomas, Bob | Walt Disney — An American Original | 1976-94 |
| Mosley, Leonard | Disney's World | 1985 |
| Disney Company, The Walt | Walt Disney — Famous Quotes | 1994 |
| Eliot, Marc | Walt Disney — Hollywood's Dark Prince | 1993 |
| Kinsey, Leonard | The Dark Side of Disney | 2011 |
| Iwerks, Leslie and Kenworthy, John | The Hand Behind the Mouse — A Intimate Biography of Ub Iwerks, the Man Walt Disney Called "The Greatest Animator In The World" | 2001 |
| Disney business, corporate & commentary | ||
| Price, Harrison "Buzz" | Walt's Revolution! By the Numbers | 2003? |
| Haden-Guest, Anthony | The Paradise Program — Travels through Muzak, Hilton, Coca-Cola, Texaco, Walt Disney, and other World Empires | 1973 |
| Taylor, John | Storming the Magic Kingdom — Wall Street, the Raiders and the Battle for Disney | 1987 |
| Koenig, David | Realityland — True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World | 2007 |
| Foglesong, Richard E. | Married to the Mouse — Walt Disney World and Orlando | 2001 |
| Hiaasen, Carl | Team Rodent — How Disney Devours the World | 1998 |
| Frantz, Douglas and Collins, Catherine | Celebration, U.S.A. — Living In Disney's Brave New Town | 1999 |
| Masters, Kim | The Keys To the Kingdom — The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else | 2000 |
| misc | ||
| Disney Treasures, Walt | Disney Comics — 75 Years of Innovation | 2006 |
| Doctorow, Cory | Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom | 2003 |
| Lawson, Robert | Ben and Me — An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos | 1939 |
| __ | Johnny Tremain | 19__ |
| Pryor, Karen | Don't Shoot the Dog! | 1984 |
| Frisbie, Richard | It's a Wise Woodsman Who Knows What's Biting Him | 1969 |
>>>
coming soon:
| pic | park | land | attraction | movie/show | book | country | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Magic Kingdom | Main Street | Walt Disney World Railroad ride | So Dear To My Heart (1949) | Midnight and Jeremiah (1943) by Sterling North | USA | Walt Disney one said this was his favorite movie that he'd made.
The train depot in the film was later relocated to Ward Kimball's Grizzly Flats Railroad in his backyard. After the railroad closed, John Lasseter relocated it to his property. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Main Street | Meet Mary Poppins at the Main Street Train Station (upper level) | Mary Poppins (1964) Saving Mr. Banks (2013) | Mary Poppins (1934) by P. L. Travers | England | Eight Mary Poppins books by Travers were published from 1934 to 1988.
A movie sequel and ride at EPCOT's United Kingdom pavilion are rumored to be in the works. The Mary Poppins meet and greet may also be in Town Square or at the Chappeau (hat store). She is also available daily at EPCOT's United Kingdom pavilion. Check the daily schedule of characters or the My Disney Experience App on your smart phone. To see Mary in a character meal setting there is Princess Storybook Dining (breakfast, lunch, & dinner) at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in the Norway Pavilion of EPCOT, and her own Supercalifragilistic Breakfast in the 1900 Park Fare Restaurant at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort. |
| Magic Kingdom | Main Street | Meet Mickey Mouse at Town Square Theater | Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color (1935-1938) | (original stories) | USA | Over 130 cartoons feature Mickey Mouse. This collection was released in 2001. | |
 | Magic Kingdom | Main Street | Tony's Town Square Restaurant | Lady and the Tramp (1955) | Happy Dan, The Whistling Dog (1943) Cosmopolitan magazine story by Ward Greene (later novelized) | USA, Italy | There isn't much Italian culture at Tony's besides the food. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Adventureland | Jungle Cruise ride | The Jungle Book (1967) The Jungle Book (2016), and Tarzan (1999) | The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling and Tarzan of the Apes (1912) by Edgar Rice Burroughs | India, Congo | These movies don't directly relate to the ride, but they're as close as you can get. A movie based on the ride is reportedly in the works.
The nearby Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen restaurant has Jungle Cruise theming and memorabilia. You can often meet Baloo and King Louie from The Jungle Book at Disney's Animal Kingdom; be sure to check the character schedule or the My Disney Experience App on your smart phone. Tarzan and Jane are sometimes at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Adventureland | Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room show | Lt. Robinson Crusoe, USN (1966) and Moana (2016) | (original stories) | Polynesia (Hawaii, New Zealand, Easter Island, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Niue, Wallis and Futuna, and French Polynesia) | These movies don't directly relate to the show, but they're as close as you can get. Moana is carefully based on Polynesian culture. Lt. Robinson Crusoe, USN is the opposite, but amusing.
At the Polynesian Resort, Trader Sam's Grog Grotto (adults only after 8 PM) and Trader Sam's Tiki Terrace (kids allowed) have more amusing tiki stuff. The resort has a Moana Mercantile gift shop in the Great House. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Adventureland | Swiss Family Treehouse walk-through | The Swiss Family Robinson (1960) | The Swiss Family Robinson (1812) by Johann David Wyss | Switzerland | Also has a connection to New Guinea; for another Swiss-related movie see also Third Man on the Mountain (1959). |
 | Magic Kingdom | Adventureland | Pirates of the Caribbean ride | Treasure Island (1950) Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and its 4 sequels (2006-2017) Muppet Treasure Island (1996) Treasure Planet (2002) | Treasure Island (1883) by Robert Louis Steveson | England | Also Jamaica and other Caribbean nations; see also non-Disney movie Captain Blood (1935). |
 | Magic Kingdom | Adventureland | The Magic Carpets of Aladdin ride | Aladdin (1992) The Return of Jafar (1994) Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996) | Aladdin and the Magic Lamp in A Thousand and One Arabian Nights Aladdin (Les Mille Et Une Nuits) by Antoine Galland (1706) | Arab nations (Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen) | The book is considered by many to be a classic of great literature.
Many think that the city of Agroba is based on Bahgdad in Iraq and Agra in India. As with many Disney animated features followed by direct-to-video sequels, critics and audiences like the original much better. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Frontierland | Tom Sawyer's Island play area | The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993) Tom and Huck (1995) | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain | USA | Be aware that Mark Twain's Tom and Huck books, though written with an anti-racist point of view (very enlightened for the 19th century), contain harsh racist language and stereotypes presented satirically; proceed with caution.
See also non-Disney movie Tom Sawyer (1973) and non-Disney animated video Tom Sawyer (2000), plus many others. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Frontierland | Splash Mountain flume ride | Song of the South (1946) | Uncle Remus (1881) by Joel Chandler Harris | USA | It's sad to me that this movie, with its charming animated animal tales, Oscar-winning song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" and popular rides based on it in several parks, is currently not available from Disney in the US, because of controversy over the portrayal in the live action sequences of rural poor African-Americans after the Civil War. It also suffers from the fact that the book it is based on, inspired by African-American folk tales, was written by a white man. I wish Disney could fix it somehow. African-American actress and Disney Legend Whoopi Goldberg agrees.
There are ways to find and view the movie if you are resourceful. The ride has signs warning you will get wet; you may get soaked. True that. |
| Magic Kingdom | Liberty Square | The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History show | Ben and Me (1953) | Ben and Me (1939) by Robert Lawson | USA | Released on DVD as a short film in the Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts: 1920s—1960s volume of the Walt Disney Treasures collection (2005). | |
 | Magic Kingdom | Liberty Square | The Christmas Shop (formerly Paul Revere's Silver Shop) | Johnny Tremain (1957) | Johnny Tremain (1943) by Esther Forbes | USA | See also A Guide for Using Johnny Tremain in the Classroom (1994) from Teacher Created Resources, especially if you are a teacher or home schooler. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Liberty Square | Meet Princess Tiana on the Liberty Square Bridge | The Princess and the Frog (2009) | The Frog Princess (2009) by by E. D. Baker The Frog Prince in Children's and Household Tales also known as Grimm's Fairy Tales(1812) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm | USA, African ancestry | Some of Grimm's fairy tales are very grim, and not suitable for young children.
There is also sometimes a seperate-price Tiana's Riverboat Party – Ice Cream Social & Viewing Party at the Magic Kingdom. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Liberty Square | The Haunted Mansion ride | The Haunted Mansion (2003) | (original story) | USA | See also non-Disney movie The Haunting (1963), which has some of the ghostly effects seen in the mansion. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Liberty Square | Sleepy Hollow refreshments | The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949) | The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820) by Washjington Irving, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. | USA, Holland | Cartoon collected in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, released in 1949. Note the Dutch-inspired Upper Hudson Valley architecture, also seen in the Haunted Mansion building.
The character the Headless Horseman usually appears in the parade as part of the annual seperate-ticket event "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party." |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland | Cinderella's Castle structure, Prince Charming Regal Carrousel ride, and Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique makeovers/costumes | Cinderella (1950) and Cinderella (2015) | Cinderella (Aschenputtel) in Children's and Household Tales also known as Grimm's Fairy Tales (1812) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm | Germany | Also versions in Italian (Cenerentola), French (Cendrillon), Polish (Kopciuszek), Russian (Zolushka), Dutch (Assepoester) and Spanish (Cenicienta).
Some of Grimm's fairy tales are very grim, and not suitable for young children. You can meet Cinderella at Princess Fairytale Hall and at Cinderella's Royal Table Princess Meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). |
| Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland | Sword in the Stone minor attraction | Sword in the Stone (1963) | The Sword in the Stone (1938) by T. H. White (part of the Once and Future King tetrology) | England | This cute little bit of business, where guests can attempt to remove the sword and become King of England under Merlin's supervision, is unfortunately rarely used any more. | |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland | Peter Pan's Flight ride | Peter Pan (1953) Return to Neverland (2002) | Peter and Wendy (1904) by J. M. Barrie | England | First it was a play (1904), then a novel (1911). Kids 8 and above might enjoy the non-Disney movie Finding Neverland (2004) starring Johnny Depp. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland | Mad Tea Party | Alice in Wonderland (1951), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871) by Lewis Carroll | England | Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice has both books, and footnotes that provide ananlysis and context, including original versions of poems parodied by Carroll. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland | Pete's Silly Sideshow at Fairytale Gardens | Steamboat Willie (cartoon short, 1923??) | (original story) | USA | Peg Leg Pete, alternately called a dog, cat and bear, has been in Walt Disney cartoons since the "Alice" comedies in Kansas City, long before Mickey Mouse appeared.
At Pete's Silly Side Show you can meet Goofy, Donald Duck and often other characters. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland | Meet Merida at Fairytale Gardens | Brave (2012) | (original story) | Scotland | I would love to see Disney add princesses (or other characters) who are Welsh, Irish and Scots-Irish. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005) Winnie the Pooh (2011) | Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928) by A. A. Milne | England | This ride replaced the beloved Mr. Toad's Wild Ride in 1998, based on the book The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame. The ride is still at Disneyland California. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland | Pinocchio Village Haus restaurant | Pinocchio (1940) | Pinocchio (1883) by Carlo Collodi | Italy | In the book Pinocchio kills the cricket and is then haunted by its ghost. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland | Tangled Tower rest area | Tangled (2010) | Rapunzel (1812) in Children's and Household Tales also known as Grimm's Fary Tales (1812) by by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm | Germany in the book; possibly Turkey in the movie | Some of Grimm's fairy tales are very grim, and not suitable for young children.
Look for Pascal the lizard and his friends. You can also charge phones here. Very occasioanlly Rapunzel is here, and even less often Flynn Ryder. You can meet Rapunzel at Princess Fairytale Hall. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland: Enchanted Forest | Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride roller coaster | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Snow White in Children's and Household Tales also known as Grimm's Fary Tales (1812) by by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm | Germany | Some of Grimm's fairy tales are very grim, and not suitable for young children.
The movie was the first feature length animated cartoon. The ride is the only one at the Magic Kingdom in Florida which is not also at Disneyland California. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland: Enchanted Forest | Under the Sea — Journey of the Little Mermaid ride Meet Ariel in Her Grotto | The Little Mermaid (1989) | The Little Mermaid in Fairy Tales Told for Children (1837) by Hans Christian Andersen | Denmark | Like Grimm's Fairy Tales, some of Hans Christian Andersen's stories are a bit extreme for small children. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland: Enchanted Forest | Be Our Guest Restaurant, Gaston's Tavern quick service, and Enchanted Tales With Belle storytelling | Beauty and the Beast (1991) | Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) (1740) by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont | France | The storytelling is especially worth doing.
There is a Beauty and the Beast window display with moving parts in the Emporium on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom. You can sometimes meet Belle at Cinderella's Royal Table Princess Meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), at Princess Storybook Dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in the EPCOT's Norway Pavilion (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), and in EPCOT's France Pavilion. The France pavilion also has the Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland: Enchanted Forest | Meet Elena of Avalor at Princess Fairytale Hall (sometimes) | Elena of Avalor TV show (2016) | (original stories) | Hispanic countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela) (Avalor is fictional) | I'm still confused whether Elena of Avalor or Sofia the First is really the first Latina Disney Princess.
Princess Elena is only sometimes at the Princess Fairytale Hall. Be sure to check the character schedule or the My Disney Experience App on your smart phone. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland: Storybook Circus | Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride Casey Jr. Spash 'N' Soak Station water play area | Dumbo (1941) | Dumbo (1939) by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl (Roll-A-Book) | USA | The original scroll-like Roll-A-Book is extremely rare; Disney published the book in a more traditional format in 1941. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland: Storybook Circus | Goofy's Barnstormer Starring the Great Goofini roller coaster | Disney Treasures: The Complete Goofy (1939-1961) | (original stories) | USA | Over 57 cartoons feature Goofy. This collection was released in 2002.
You can meet Donald at Pete's Silly Sideshow (along with Donald, Daisy and Minnie). |
 | Magic Kingdom | Fantasyland: Storybook Circus | Donald's Boat play area | Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume One (1934 - 1941) | (original stories) | USA | Over 152 cartoons feature Donald Duck. This collection was released in 2004.
You can meet Donald at Pete's Silly Sideshow (along with Goofy, Daisy and Minnie). |
 | Magic Kingdom | Tomorrowland | Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin ride | Toy Story (1995) | (original story) | USA | The first Pixar full-length feature.
This ride allows you to compete while firing rayguns at targets. "Toy Story Midway Mania!" at Disney's Hollywood Studios is another interactive ride based on the movie. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Tomorrowland | Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor show | Monsters Inc. (2001) and Monsters University (2013) | (original story) | USA | Prior to the performance, guests are invited to use their cell telephones to send text messages with jokes that could be used during the show. |
 | Magic Kingdom | Tomorrowland | Stitch's Great Escape show | Lilo and Stitch (2002) | (original story) | Hawaii, USA | This attarction is now only open seasonally, and rumors of its impending demise persist. You should be able to have a character breakfast at Ohana (Polynesian Resort) with Lilo, Stitch and some others; be sure to check the character schedule or the My Disney Experience App on your smart phone. |
 | Disney's Hollywood Studios | Echo Lake | Gertie the Dinosaur statue | The Story of the Animated Drawing (1955) | (original story based on Winsor McKay and other pioneering animators) | USA, France | Included in Disney Treasures: Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studios (2002). I would say this is the "must-see" video on the list, for tweens and up. |
 | Disney's Hollywood Studios | Echo Lake | Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! show | Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull (2008) and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV show (1992) | (original story) | USA | The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was the best TV show ever, in my humble opinion.
The gift shop near this show has great hats. |
 | Disney's Hollywood Studios | Animation Courtyard | See Sofia the First and others in Disney Junior – Live on Stage! | Sofia the First (2012) | (original story) | Spain, Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland) | Sofia's mother from is from Galdiz (based on Spain) and her father is from Freezenberg (based on Scandinavia). I'm still confused whether Sofia the First or Elena of Avalor is really the first Latina Disney Princess.
This show may change soon, probably becoming the Disney Junior Dance Party, with different characters. |
| Disney's Hollywood Studios | Animation Courtyard | Voyage of the Little Mermaid show | The Little Mermaid (1989) | The Little Mermaid in Fairy Tales Told for Children (1837) by Hans Christian Andersen | Denmark | Like Grimm's Fairy Tales, some of Hans Christian Andersen's stories are a bit extreme for small children. |
 | Disney's Hollywood Studios | Sunset Blvd. | Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride | Tower of Terror (1997) | (original story) | USA | Based on the series by Rod Serling.
The made-for-TV movie has no Twilight Zone references. A better idea might be to watch a bunch of Twilight Zone TV epsiodes from the 1950s & '60s. |
 | Disney's Hollywood Studios | Echo Lake | Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway ride | Get a Horse! (3D cartoon short, 2013) | (original story) | USA | The short originally was shown in theaters before "Frozen." Thet stereo 3D version is awesome. |
| Disney's Hollywood Studios | Toy Story Land | Slinky Dog Dash ride, Alien Swirling Saucers ride, Toy Story Mania! ride, Woody's Lunch Box restaurant | Toy Story (1995) and three other movies (1999, 2010, 2019), plus many short subjects | (original story) | USA | "Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin" at Tomorrowland, Magic Kingdom is another interactive ride based on the movie. |
 | Disney's Hollywood Studios | Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge | Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge land, including Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run ride, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ride, and Ronto Roasters restaurant | Star Wars (1977), __ | (original story) | USA | See also Star Tours in Grand Ave. and Star Wars Launch Bay in Animation Courtyard |
 | Disney's Hollywood Studios | Grand Avenue | Muppet*Vision 3D attraction, PizzaRizzo restaurant | The Muppet Movie (1979), 8 movies ((1979-2014), The Muppet Show (1976-'81) 12 TV series and 32 other TV productions (1955-2018) | (original story) | USA | |
 | EPCOT | Futureworld: The Seas | The Seas with Nemo & Friends ride and Turtle Talk with Crush virtual meetup | Finding Nemo (2003) | (original story) | Australia | You can also see "Finding Nemo: The Musical" at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
There is very little Australia going on with all the Nemo stuff at Walt Disney World. |
 | EPCOT | World Showcase: Norway | Frozen Ever After ride | Frozen (2013) | Loosely based on The Snow Queen (Snedronningen) (1844) by Hans Christian Andersen | Norway | Like Grimm's Fairy Tales, some of Hans Christian Andersen's stories are a bit extreme for small children.
Though the book was Dutch, Disney recast the story as Norwegian. Because it was the top grossing animated feature in the history of the world, Frozen gets a lot of play. Near the ride meet Anna and Elsa at their Royal Sommerhus. You can also sometimes meet them at Princess Fairytale Hall in Disney's Magic Kingdom. Lines can be long and fast passes are recommended. Be sure to check the character schedule or the My Disney Experience App on your smart phone. Disney's Hollywood Studios has "Frozen — For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration" and an Olaf meet and greet. You can play Frozen Games at Disney's Blizzard Beach water park. |
 | EPCOT | World Showcase: Mexico | Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros ride | Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1945) | (original stories) | Mexico | Oddly, the films were mostly about South America, especially Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru.
Older children may enjoy the documentary Walt and El Grupo (2008) about the trip that inspired the film, and the political context in World War II. |
 | EPCOT | World Showcase: Mexico | 'Remember Me!' La Celebración del Día de Muertos exhibit | Coco (2017) | (original story, based on Mexican Day of the Dead folklore) | Mexico | This is a temporary exhibit. |
 | EPCOT | World Showcase: Canada | Meet Kenai and Koda in the Canada pavilion | Brother Bear (2003) and Brother Bear 2 (2006) | (original story) | Canada, Inuit | Be sure to check the character schedule or the My Disney Experience App on your smart phone. |
 | EPCOT | World Showcase: China | Meet Mulan in the China pavilion | Mulan (1998) | The Heroine Mulan Goes to War in Her Father's Place (~1550) by Xu Wei | China | Be sure to check the character schedule or the My Disney Experience App on your smart phone. |
 | EPCOT | World Showcase | Phineas and Ferb: Agent P World Showcase Adventure interactive game | Phineas and Ferb TV show (2007) | (original stories) | USA | This temporary activity closed February 17, 2020. |
 | Disney's Animal Kingdom | Tree of Life | It's Tough to Be a Bug! show | A Bug's Life (1998) | based loosely on Akira Kurosawa's movie The Seven Samurai (1954) | Earth | The Western movie The Magnificant Seven (1960) also borrowed this plot.
This attraction is "4D," which my daughter at age 10 explained means "3D and they squirt you." |
 | Disney's Animal Kingdom | Africa | Festival of the Lion King show | The Lion King (1994) | (original story) | Africa | Some have noted the similarity to the Japanese cartoon Simba the White Lion. |
 | Disney's Animal Kingdom | Discovery Island | Meet Pocahontas at Discovery Island | Pocahontas (1994) | (original story based on history) | USA, Native American, England | There are many books about the history; most recently The True Story of Pocahontas: the Other Side of History by Dr. Linwood "Little Bear" Custalow and Angela L. Daniel "Silver Star." |
 | Disney's Animal Kingdom | Pandora — The World of Avatar | Avatar Flight of Passage ride and Na'vi River Journey ride | Avatar (2009) | (original story) | space | One of the few Disney attractions based on a non-Disney movie.
Pandora is especially beautiful at night. |
| Disney Resorts | Disney's Pop Century Resort | Roger Rabbit statue | Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) | Who Censored Roger Rabbit? (1981) by Gary K. Wolf | USA | There are also numerous Roger Rabbit "Easter eggs" at Disney Hollywood Studios, including a Maroon Cartoons billboard and Eddie Valiant's office. | |
 | Disney Resorts | Disney's All-Star Movies Resort | 101 Dalmations wing | One Hundred and One Dalmations (1961), 101 Dalmations (1996) and 102 Dalmations (2000) | The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956) by Dodie Smith | England | Not an attraction, but a nice place to visit and take pictures. |
 | Disney Resorts | Disney's All-Star Movies Resort | The Love Bug wing | The Love Bug (1968), Herbie Rides Again (1974), Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977), Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) and Herbie: Reloaded (2005) | (original stories) | USA | Not an attraction, but a nice place to visit and take pictures. |
 | Disney Resorts | Disney's All-Star Movies Resort | The Mighty Ducks wing | The Mighty Ducks (1992), D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994) and D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996) | (original stories) | USA | Not an attraction, but a nice place to visit and take pictures. |
 | Disney Resorts | Disney's All-Star Movies Resort | Fantasia Pool, and Fantasia wing | Fantasia (1940) | (original stories) | Germany, Russia, France, Austria, Italy, Netherlands, Israel | Not an attraction, but a nice place to visit and take pictures.
Fantasia (1940): Bach (Germany), Tchaikovsky (Russia), Dukas (France) — based on "Der Zauberlehrling" by Goethe (Germany), Stravinsky (Russia), Beethoven (Germany/Austria), Ponchielli (Italy), Mussorgsky (Russia), Schubert (Austria) Fantasia 2000 (2000): Beethoven (Germany), Respighi (Italy), Gershwin (USA), Shostakovich (Russia) — "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" Andersen (Netherlands), Saint-Saëns (France), Dukas, Elgar (England) based on Noah (Israel), Stravinsky (Russia) The Fantasmic! show at Disney's Hollywood Studios also has elements from Fantasia See also Fantasia Minature Golf on the Walt Disney World property. |
 | Disney Resorts | Fort Wilderness Campground | Crockett's Tavern counter service restaurant | Davy Crockett Indian Fighter (1954), Davy Crockett Goes to Congress (1955), Davy Crockett Goes at the Alamo (1955), Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race (1955), and Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1955) | (original stories) The series American Frontier: Davy Crockett was released by Disney in the 1990s. | USA | Released on DVD in Disney Treasures: Davy Crockett (2004).
In the "Hoop Dee Doo Review" dinner show at Fort Wilderness Campground a child from the audience gets to go onstage and play Davy Crockett. At the Magic Kingdom Davy inspired two river rides, now gone: the canoes and the keelboats. Excerpts from "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" can sometimes be heard at the Magic Kingdom entrance, and the intrumental theme from "Bang Goes Old Betsy" can sometimes be heard at the entrance of "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad." Look for the old keelboat docked at Tom Sawyer Island as you sail the Rivers of America on the Liberty Belle. In Frontierland's Pecos Bill Cafe look for Davy's hunting bag, powder horn and plans for "Old Betsy," and George Russell's "And that's the truth" letter dated May 25, 1825. Davy's pal Jim Bowie has a "Bowie knife" there too. You can also buy a coonskin hat (synthetic) at a Frontierland shop such as Big Al's or the Settlement Trading Post, or check on the My Disney Experience App on your smart phone (which should also allow you to buy it on-line). As a boy I loved mine. |
 | other | Disney Springs (Downtown Disney) | Raglan Road Pub restaurant | Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), The Fighting Prince of Donegal (1966) | (original stories) | Ireland | As far as I know neither of these movies has anything to do with the pub, but it's slim pickings for Irish heritage at Disney World.
For what it's worth, in the Enchanted Tiki Room at the Magic Kingdom, one of the animatronic macaws that hosts the show, "Michael" (in the white and green colors of the Irish flag) speaks with an Irish brogue. |
Also, for direct mini-emersion in various countries, visit EPCOT's World Showcase and see:
On occasion there will be temporary displays for other countries or regions.
| pic | park | area | attraction | movie/show | book | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universal Studios Florida | Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone | Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster | ...Woody... (19__) | __ | ||
| Universal Studios Florida | Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone | A Day in the Park with Barney show | ...Barney... (19__) | __ | ||
| Universal Studios Florida | Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone | Curious George Goes to Town play area | ...George... (19__) | Curious George by Hans Augusto Rey and Margret Rey ___ by Sergio Pablos | ||
| Universal Studios Florida | Production Central | Despicable Me Minion Mayhem ride | Despicable Me (20__) | __ | ||
| Universal Studios Florida | Production Central | Shrek 4D ride | Shrek (20__) | __ | ||
| Universal's Islands of Adventure | Marvel Super Hero Island | Doctor Doom's Fearfall ride | Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), and Fantastic Four (2015) (20__) | comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby | __ |
GONE (?):
Jimmy Buffet impersonator, from www.legendsinconcert.com/barry-cunningham-jimmy-buffett
|
STORY: Sponge Bob Saves the Mood
traffic jam and Sponge Bob "Fun" |
>>>
CD vs BlueTooth phone
Music for Central Florida (1990)
Gator Jum-A-Roo (1993)
Serious Fun (1994)
Have You Any Dreams You'd Like to Sell?
I Have Known This Much Longer Than I've Known You
It All Started With a Mouse
I Thought I Got a Signal
I Was Still In Orlando
singles:
albums:
>>>
>>> attractions, size, walkways, shade
160 acres = quartersection
YouTube Disneyland Magic Kingdom
why is the ocean here? treehouse
Apocalypse Now — "I was Still in Orlando" * "take your child to work day" at a trade show{1.10.6} The Tandem Business/Vacation Trip
When I'm trying to convince people that business travel is no picnic, I tell them that it's sometimes like taking a tour of the great restaurants of Europe, and seeing people eating all this gourmet food, but not being able to taste any yourself.
That's what it feels like going to Las Vegas but not seeing a show, going to Orlando but not visiting a theme park, going to New York but not taking in a Broadway play, going to Minnesota but not paddling a canoe, going to Snowbird but not skiing, going to San Francisco but not riding the cable cars, and so on.
But sometimes you have to break down and "taste the food," just avoid feeling excessively deprived. This is when you cash in your frequent flier miles and vacation days, and arrange a combination business and pleasure trip, and bring your loved one(s) along.
There are two ways to do this: have them with you during the business portion of the trip (concurrent) or have them join you before or after the business potion (overlapping).
Concurrent is harder to pull off, and I recommend it only for the seasoned business travel who is a senior member of the corporate team, since it risks affecting your job performance and coworkers more. If you do take this approach, be sure to attend any team dinners that are scheduled — they're part of the job. Overlapping is easier, especially if your loved ones join you after an event is over and almost no-one knows they've come. (Of course you don't want to lie if asked directly, but just don't brag about what a great time you'll be having.) In either case what you want to do is to minimize coworker envy (which is only natural if they perceive that you are playing while they are working). The side trip should have either zero impact on your performance, or if your coworkers all know about it, an obvious net positive, like you being able to run an extra after-show errand for the company or for another employee, or one of your loved ones bringing lunch for the team or helping with trade-show tear-down and packing.
Most airlines offer steep discounts for a Saturday stayover with three weeks advance purchase. What they really want to do is charge a different price for tourists, who can afford to be picky if and when they go, and the business travelers, who have to go at a certain time. But legally they can't do that, so they try to catch the profile of a business traveler, which is weekday-only, short notice. So plan ahead and get those cheaper rates for you, and anybody else in your party you don't have enough frequent flier miles to send for free.
Begin before the trip by talking to your boss, and to the person in accounting responsible for expense guidelines. Tell them what you want to do, tell them there will be zero adverse impact on cost and your job performance, and make sure they approve what you're doing. Get clear on what they're paying for. If you rent a car at a weekly rate and use four days for business and three for vacation, are they paying 4/7? If you save the company a bunch of money on airfare by doing a Saturday stayover, will they pay for your extra hotel nights? Confirm everything by email.
Second, tell others on a need-to-know basis. The person in your company managing the trade show booth (usually in Marketing Communications, or "Mar-Comm" for short) needs to know, in case of an emergency or change in plans. But don't ever put someone in a position of thinking they are being a killjoy by asking you to do extra work. You shouldn't expect any special treatment just because you brought your family. Let your coworkers know you are committed to getting the job done first. And make sure your family knows that you may have to pre-empt them. If they can't deal with that, maybe the tandem business/vacation trip isn't right for your situation. After all, you can always take a separate vacation and make them the highest priority. (And I recommend you do that on occasion as well, for a change, even if the tandem business/vacation trip works well for you.)
Once you're off on your own, keep checking email and voicemail. Some other time, you can take a vacation where you go white water rafting (or something else remote) and are unreachable for a few days, which is good to do now and then, but this kind of trip requires that you keep in touch. What if someone has an urgent question about one of those hot leads you initialed on the show floor, or how the computers were shipped to the next event?
Otherwise, have a great time. That's the whole point. I find that going to a beach or water park very early in the vacation portion of the trip and hurling myself into the water helps me achieve "escape velocity."
Sponge-O-Rama, from RoadsideAmerica.com
>>>
How to Survive Disney World With a Disney Hater
( https://www.google.com/search?q=How+to+Survive+Disney+World+With+a+Disney+Hater&oq=How+to+Survive+Disney+World+With+a+Disney+Hater )
Wanyama Safari Tour
Backstage Magic Tour
Wild Africa Trek Tour
Behind the Scenes Tour at EPCOT Tour
see DFB Guide... for more tours
3 18-hole championship golf courses: Magnolia & Palm near Polynesian, Lake Buena Vista near Saratoga Springs
9-hole walking course near Poly
1-om-1 lessons
Orlando has ___ other courses; plus driving ranges, mini-golf, Golf Pro ??? ___
Oak Trail 9-hole foot golf course, golf played with a soccer ball
EPCOT Festivals (Garden, Food and Wine, Holidays)
Broadway shows
Ft Wilderness: canies and kayaks, trail rides, Segways
year round bass fishing 2 & 4 hour for up to 5 on 21 foot pontoon boat
tournament style for 2
Port Orleans Riverside Old Man Island dockside fishing
4 Seasons and Ritz Carlton
pool tables
Disney Springs
NBA Experience
http://attractionguide.com/orlando/
SeaLife Aquarium
Orlando Eye ___
Paul Frees tomb at Haunted Mansion
The Secret Backstory Behind Your Favorite Walt Disney World Ride
AllEars
9/11/19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOlBeo9UXwk
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beers-ears-walt-disney-world http://bites.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/03/11519892-where-a-dad-at-disney-gets-a-brew-an-oasis-of-craft-beer?lite "There's an oasis in the desert that is the Disney beer scene: Nestled in the bosom of Disney's Boardwalk hotel is the Big River Brewing Company, an honest-to-goodness brew pub, complete with a 10-barrel brewing rig and, depending on the season, five or more very good craft beers on tap. The brew pub has been at the Boardwalk since 1997, when Disney approached Big River's parent company, Gordon Biersch, about creating a brewery in the park."
The Train Thing
Magic Kingdom
"If you sit in the very last car, the one that is the little platform
out the back, they will ask you to be the guest conductor. They get
to yell, "All Aboard!" into the microphone and announce the different
lands."
http://www.wdwinfo.com/best-kept-secrets_mk.htm
Disney's The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains Tour ($49/per, 10 & up)
(407) WDW-TOUR
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/tours-and-experiences/steam-trains-tour/
Carolwood Room at Wildreness Lodge
Monorail
Ft. Wildreness rail bed
Trainland International Trolley and Train Museum
8990 International Dr. Orlando, FL 32819 (407) 363-9002
Central Florida Railroad Museum
former Taveres & Gulf Railroad Depot, built 1913
101 S. Boyd St, Winter Garden, FL 34787, (407) 656-8749
Church Street Station
Gatorland train
Orlando Star Clipper Dinner Train
{1 hour from DVC water tower}
51 West Magnolia Avenue
Eustis, FL 32726
352-589-4300
Mt Dora Lunch and Dinner Train
{1 hour from DVC water tower}
150 W. 3rd Ave.
Mount Dora, FL 32757
(352) 383-8878
http://findlocal.orlandosentinel.com/listings/mount-dora-lunch-and-dinner-train-mount-dora
Train Disney Movies
"Dumbo" (1941)
"So Dear To My Heart" (1949) (24/7 cartoons)
"The Great Locomotive Chase" (1956)
|
Liberty Square, tree old, poo river, Johnny Tremain + Ben & Me connections, Sleepy Hollow
Adventurer Outpost, Discovery Island
Character Spot, EPCOT
Cinderella's Royal Table
Garden Grill
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater
Tusker House
see DFB
Boggy Creek Airboat Rentals https://bcairboats.com/
https://www.yelp.com/biz/boggy-creek-airboat-adventures-kissimmee
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g34352-d637959-Reviews-Boggy_Creek_Airboat_Adventures-Kissimmee_Florida.html
see also Yelp for a page of other airboatother airboat locations
Kissimmee — Gasoline Alley
0.4 mi apaprt:
Aku Aku, 431 East Central Blvd., Orlando, FL
https://critiki.com/location/aku-aku-orlando-849/
Waitiki, 26 Wall St., Orlando, FL https://critiki.com/location/waitiki-orlando-490/
Playgrounds and Play Spaces Inside the Walt Disney World Theme Parks
wear out the kids:
an oasis inventory
(see MousePlanet: Chilling Out at Walt Disney World)
Disney
MK
Town Square
Aunt Polly's (rocking chairs)
Hall of Presidents [INDOOR ATTRACTION]
by Sleepy Hollow
Rapunzel bathrooms
Laughing Place
former smoking area by Thunder Mtn.
Country Bear Jamboree [INDOOR ATTRACTION]
Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe [INDOOR]
Casey's Corner
EPCOT
D23: more shade coming to central Future World -> ___
galleries
Morroco
France
China
Japanese garden
Mexico [INDOOR]
Frozen Sing-A-Long [INDOOR ATTRACTION]
United Kingdom - outside Rose and Crown
Seas [INDOOR]
DHS
Sunset Blvd./Farmer's Market
DAK
RESORTS
lobby chairs
bars and lounges
Polynesian east side
Grand Floridian Cafge [INSIDE]
Dixie Landings -> P.O.R.
AKL pool
MISC
House of Blues [INDOOR]
House of Blues lakeside porch
Rainforest Cafe [INDOOR]
D23 events (D23 23-25 Aug 2019 Anaheim; 21 Sep 2019 "In. Jones & the Temp. o Doom";21 Oct 2019 WDW sip and stroll; 16 Nov 2019 "Up"; Dec WDW holiday event)
d23.com
Disneyana events (July meetup 14 July 2019 picnic area Disneyland resort; October 6, 2019 Anaheim; D23 2019 booth #510E ; 11 Aug 2019 Ch
disneyanafanclub.weebly.com
Megacon (16-19 Apr 2020 Orlando)
megaconorlando.com
Star Wars convention (Orlando 2010 2012 2017, Chicago 2019, Anaheim 2020 2021)
starwarscelebration.com
IAAPA
http://www.iaapa.org/
"Legend Lessons"
OC Convention Center
calendar.occc.net
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amusement_parks_in_the_Americas
alphabetical by location, within each list
Six Flags parks:
Cedar Fair parks:
SeaWorld parks:
other parks:
ILLUSTRATION: The Adventurers Club
DESCRIPTION: Drawing of the Adventurers Club entrance, with plane crash
CAPTION: The Adventurers Club at Pleasure Island (both now gone) offered the tag line, "Come in a stranger, leave a little stranger."
>>>
what can you do with this info? learn; watch videos; design your own; collect artefacts, pins, etc.
collectibles
YouTube
>>>
college course I thought was pretty useless utility function mileage costs bang per buck include each person's fave
Alan B. Scrivener has enjoyed a 40-year career >>>
I literally grew up with Disney. Disneyland opened when I was not
quite 2 years old. At the time I was living with my family in
Florida, which seemed a long way from the Disney empire (!). But
I do remember when we got our first TV. (Time may have added some
magic to this memory, I confess.) Our dad brought it in and fussed
with the antenna for a while, and then managed to tune in the Mickey
Mouse Club. Yay! We watched the roll-call, some skits, and then the
Mees-ka, Moss-ka, Mouse-cartoon. It was a Donald Duck cartoon about
Donald bringing home a TV for his three nephews. After fussing with
the antenna for a while he managed to tune in the Mickey Mouse Club.
"Wow!" I thought. "This gizmo is really something!" You see, I
thought a television showed cartoon characters doing the same things
you did.
In 1959 my family moved to the San Diego area. Though we would be
leaving behind all of our friends and family, my sister and I were
sold on the idea because we would be close to Disneyland. We knew
about the "Magic Kingdom" from watching the TV show "Disneyland"
every Sunday night on ABC. Six months after the move we were finally
able to make our first pilgrimage to the "Happiest Place On Earth" (TM).
Our grandparents came to town and came along on an overnight trip
to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. (Knotts was pretty undeveloped
at the time — the high point in my recollection was a chicken that
played the piano when you put a nickel in a slot. Our family never
went back to Knotts, but we made annual visits to Disneyland after that.)
The "Disneyland" show later became "Walt Disney Presents" and then
"Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" on NBC, the network with
a peacock to show off its new color broadcasts. I still remember the
day our dad brought home our first color set. One of the first shows
we watched was Walt's.
A few years ago the Disney Channel showed a bunch of the old
Disney TV shows in the dead of night under the title "Vault Disney."
I taped many of them, and ended up posting my tape listings on the
web as an off-site backup. Google found them, and I have received
more email requests for copies of those tapes than all others in my
collection combined. If the Walt Disney Company would ever re-release
them I'm sure they'd find an eager audience.
( www.well.com/~abs/MediaDoc/VHS/disney_tv.html )
An excellent guide to these shows is in in the book "The Wonderful World
of Disney Television: A Complete History" (1997) by Bill Cotter.
( www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786863595/hip-20 )
( www.billcotter.com/tvbook )
He has made the appendix listing all the shows and their air dates
available on-line (bless him).
( www.billcotter.com/tvbook/appendix-b.htm )
|
STORY: A Life With Disney
MAGICAL DISNEY TELEVISIONfirst TV, Mickey Mouse Club Disney shows: Zorro, MMC, Disneyland watching Disneyland get built on TV
Tinkerbell mimes:
3/02/55 From Aesop to Hans Christian Andersen (C) 11/30/55 Story of the Animated Drawing, The (C) 2/15/56 Our Unsung Villains (C) 1/30/57 All About Magic 4/04/56 Where Do the Stories Come From? 4/11/56 Story of the Silly Symphony, The 4/17/57 More About the Silly Symphonies 3/27/59 Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (C)
CALIFORNIA HERE WE COMEDisney in space -> Einsenhower, me in SD Walt Disney Treasures: Tomorrowland ANIMATED THEATRICAL RELEASES Pinocchio (1940) Fantasia (1940) Dumbo (1941) Bambi (1942) Song of the South[S] (1946) Cinderella (1950) Peter Pan (1953) Lady and the Tramp (1955) Sleeping Beauty (1959) One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) The Sword in the Stone (1963) LIVE ACTION THEATRICAL RELEASES 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) Old Yeller (1957) The Shaggy Dog (1959) Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) Third Man on the Mountain (1959) Toby Tyler (1960) Pollyanna (1960) Swiss Family Robinson (1960) The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) The Parent Trap (1961) Babes in Toyland (1961) Moon Pilot (1962) In Search of the Castaways (1962) Son of Flubber (1963) The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964) The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964) Mary Poppins (1964) The Monkey's Uncle (1965) That Darn Cat! (1965) Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. (1966) Follow Me, Boys! (1966) The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968) The Love Bug (1968) Scrappy Doo effect
THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTHBriar Patch, letter from Walt annual pilgrimage w/ family, from enchanted to figuring out the magic 2nd grade (1960-'61) monorail to Hotel '61 I-5 '63+ Disneyland dreams Carnation: Disney News '65+ teenage freedom
10/23/59 Swamp Fox, The - Part 1 - Birth of the Swamp Fox, The 10/30/60 Zorro - El Bandido 10/01/61 Horsemasters, The - Part 1 12/17/61 Backstage Party 1/07/62 Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates - Part 1 4/15/62 Disneyland After Dark 8/12/62 Prince and the Pauper, The - Part 1 9/02/62 Chico, The Misunderstood Coyote 6/09/63 Golden Horseshoe Revue, The 11/17/63 Truth About Mother Goose, The 2/09/64 Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, The - Part 1 11/22/64 Toby Tyler - Part 1 1/17/65 Chico, The Misunderstood Coyote 1/24/65 Gallegher - Part 1 4/18/65 Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates - Part 1 8/22/65 Kilroy - Part 1 2/19/67 Boy Who Flew With Condors, The 1/21/68 Disneyland: From the Pirates of the Caribbean to the World of Tomorrow 4/14/68 Ten Who Dared
PREVIEW OF THE MAGICthe preview center
YOUNG ADULT SHENANIGANSwater under the mill
INSIDE THE MAGICworking at WDW; the Ray Bradbury artefact; Disney newspeak
MAGIC IN THE FAMILYUncle Alfred
TECHNICAL MAGICshuttle trip visit
THE MAN BEHIND THE MAGICWalt as role model "Nobody has done it but Disney. It is the most imaginative and most effective piece of urban planning in America." — David Brinkley, NBC News, 1972
LA IS A GREAT BIG THEME PARKDisneyland annual passes: date night — health club — pregnancy walks
DISNEY MAGIC: THE NEXT GENERATIONannual pass w/ C
THE MAGIC RETURNSbusiness and pleasure trips
WHERE THEME PARKS COME FROMstockholder visiting WD Studios for NeXT/Apple, working for Steve Jobs meta-Disneyland dreams
MAGIC WITHOUT THE DISNEY PARKSlast AC, Wizarding World
ORLANDO WITHOUT THE MAGICtrade shows, dinner w/ Beth's husband, theme parks alone
PASSING ON THE MAGICOrlando Tip O' the Day
|
|
STORY: The Talking Heads
Buff, __ & __ |
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Postscript
FOUND IN THE HANDWRITING OF MR. KNICKERBOCKER
THE PRECEDING Tale is given, almost in the precise words in which I heard it related at a Corporation meeting of the ancient city of Manhattoes, at which were present many of its sagest and most illustrious burghers. The narrator was a pleasant, shabby, gentlemanly old fellow, in pepper-and-salt clothes, with a sadly humorous face; and one whom I strongly suspected of being poor, he made such efforts to be entertaining. When his story was concluded, there was much laughter and approbation, particularly from two or three deputy aldermen, who had been asleep a greater part of the time. There was, however, one tall, dry-looking old gentleman, with beetling eyebrows, who maintained a grave and rather severe face throughout: now and then folding his arms, inclining his head, and looking down upon the floor, as if turning a doubt over in his mind. He was one of your wary men, who never laugh, but upon good grounds — when they have reason and the law on their side. When the mirth of the rest of the company had subsided, and silence was restored, he leaned one arm on the elbow of his chair, and, sticking the other akimbo, demanded, with a slight but exceedingly sage motion of the head, and contraction of the brow, what was the moral of the story, and what it went to prove?
The story-teller, who was just putting a glass of wine to his lips, as a refreshment after his toils, paused for a moment, looked at his inquirer with an air of infinite deference, and, lowering the glass slowly to the table, observed, that the story was intended most logically to prove: —
"That there is no situation in life but has its advantages and pleasures — provided we will but take a joke as we find it:
"That, therefore, he that runs races with goblin troopers is likely to have rough riding of it.
"Ergo, for a country schoolmaster to be refused the hand of a Dutch heiress, is a certain step to high preferment in the state."
The cautious old gentleman knit his brows tenfold closer after this explanation, being sorely puzzled by the ratiocination of the syllogism; while, methought, the one in pepper-and-salt eyed him with something of a triumphant leer. At length, he observed, that all this was very well, but still he thought the story a little on the extravagant — there were one or two points on which he had his doubts.
"Faith, sir," replied the story-teller, "as to that matter, I don't believe one-half of it myself." — Washington Irving, 1917
my idiosyncracies:
( disney.fandom.com/wiki/Jack_Wagner )
my bucket list:
DOING MY THINKING FOR ME
"Take for example when you go to the movies these days.
They try to sell you this jumbo drink 8 extra ounces of
watered down Cherry Coke for an extra 25 cents, I don't
want it, I don't want that much organization in my life.
I don't want other people thinking for me. I want my
Junior Mints! Where did Junior Mints go in the movies?
I don't want a 12 lb. Nestles Crunch for 25 dollars.
I want Junior Mints!"
— Jimmy Buffet, 1994
"Fruitcakes" (song) on "Fruitcakes" (CD)
( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002OS8/hip-20 )
"best":
also love:
Pixar:
DFBStore.com
DFB: SECRET Spots [Places...] to Relax in Disney World
DFB: 16 IMPORTANT Things You'll Totally FORGET To Do Before You Go To Disney World
DFB: The Worst Disney World Advice You'll Ever Get
DFB: 20 Unwritten Rules
SEE: Orlando Tip o' the Day: people.well.com/user/abs/WDW.html
our trip notes
| date | place | $ | notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ? Dec 2018 | Disneyland | $117 | Regular/Value |
| 21 Jul 2012 | Anaheim Disneyana | _ | _ |
| 19 Aug 2011 | Anaheim D23 | _ | _ |
| ? Feb 2010 | lodging: Hard Rock Universal? | _ | C to Wizarding World w/ Jim |
| 15 Sep 2008 | lodging: Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista | _ | last Adventurer's Club |
| 13-15 Jul 2007 | Disneyland resort Anaheim | _ | _ |
| 29 Aug 2006 | WDW | _ | _ |
| __ ___ 20__ | lodging: Tampa? | _ | visited Adventurer's Club |
| ? July 2005 | Disneyland | _ | 50th |
| __ ___ 20__ | lodging: Fairfield SOBT | _ | Mark Allen seminar at Royal Pacific |
| _ Nov 2003 | WDW | _ | 11/17/03 Disney 2 parks? 11/22/03 Isl. of Adv.; lodging: Port Orleans Riverside |
| 8-9 Mar 2003 | Disneyland | _ | Club 33 |
| ? Jul 2002 | WDW | _ | _ |
| 21 Jun 2002 | Disneyland | _ | lodging: Embassy Suites Frontera Anaheim - ___ our 25th; Lilo & Stitch AMC 12 Downtown Dixney 6/22/02 3:20 PM |
| 15-20 Jan 2002 | WDW | _ | Lodging: Fairfield SOBT |
| ? Aug 2000 | Disneyland | _ | _ |
| 1-8 Dec 2000 | WDW | _ | _ |
| 31 Dec 1999 | Disneyland | _ | _ |
| 10-21 Oct 1997 | WDW | _ | _ |
| ? Jun 1997 | Disneyland | _ | ___ our 20th, w/ W & B |
| ? ___ 1996 | WDW | _ | Martin Marrieta; saw cousin Beth |
| ? ___ 1995 | Disneyland | _ | 40th ? (C was 2) |
| 29 Jul 1994 | Disney MGM? 1 day park WDW [ticket] | _ | SIGGRAPH '94 |
| ? May 1993 | Dolphin Hotel, Dixie Landings 27-29 | _ | AVS '93 |
| _ | Disneyland [ticket] | $41.00 | _ |
| ? ___ 1992 | Disneyland | _ | first Fantasmic (muddy) |
| ? ___ 1985 | Disneyland | _ | 30th (30 hour party) |
| ? Apr 1981 | WDW | _ | before 1st shuttle launch |
| ? ___ 1976 | WDW first visit | _ | _ |
| ? ___ 1971 | preview center | _ | _ |
| ? Jun 1971 | Grad Night Disneyland | _ | w/ MJ |
| ? ___ 1961 | Disneyland | _ | 2nd grade trip |
| ? Sep 1959 | Disneyland | _ | _ |
Last update
Fri May 22 16:25:31 PDT 2020
by ABS.
_ILLUSTRATIONS_