Disney Vacation Planning

Tuesday Disney Tips: Ten Reasons Why I Love Disney’s Moderate Resorts

Brenda Affordable Disney Vacations, Disney Vacation Planning, Saving Money on Accommodations, Tuesday Disney Tips , , , , , , 8 Comments

Although we are happy we splurged on a great new experience this year by staying in the theme-park view room at Disney’s Contemporary Resort (the iconic deluxe resort of Walt Disney World) my husband and I both agreed that we would not do that again anytime soon. The trip was quite expensive for us to manage and, truthfully, we enjoy the moderate resorts. What is so special about them? Here are my top ten reasons you gotta love the moderates:

1.         Mousekeeping: Mousekeeping is awesome at moderates. They always do a great job at keeping everything clean and they are very friendly.

2.         Wide-open spaces: We like the wide open spaces at the moderate resorts. The grounds are beautiful at the Port Orleans; the Caribbean Beach Resort is tropical and tranquil and we enjoy being outdoors so this is perfect for us. Also, rabbits, squirrels, and sometimes a chipmunk or two can be seen lurking about.

3.         Special touches: There are little special touches you receive at the moderates, like towel animals. There is nothing that says “Welcome back” like little towel animals in your room. Regrettably, we did not see any sign of a towel animal at the Contemporary.

4.         Stairs: I do not like waiting for elevators only to find that 1000 other people will rush in even when you were waiting first. Truth be known, I prefer to take the stairs. Granted, some of the resorts are three stories, but they are an easy trek.

5.         The Staff: The cast members at the moderates are friendly and courteous. Of course, some are cast members extraordinaire but, generally, all are very friendly.

6.         The Guests: I like the guests that stay at moderate resorts. They are friendly and easy to start a conversation with and are usually very happy to be enjoying the resort as well.

7.         Theming: I enjoy the theming at the moderate resorts. From the detail in the building design, to the plants and flowers adorning the property and chosen specifically for that landscape, to the themed-pools. I also thoroughly enjoy the way music appropriate to the theme is piped in around the resorts such as calypso music at the Caribbean Beach Resort or Cajun music at Port Orleans French Quarter. Disney has done a fantastic job with the theming.

8.         Entertainment:  There is great entertainment at one moderate property in particular. If you have not been to Bob Jackson’s show at the Port Orleans Riverside, add it to your list for your next trip. He is awesome. You can read a previous blog article for more detailed information on Bob.

9.         Resort-specific foods: You can find foods specific to the resort when at the Port Orleans Riverside (pralines) or French Quarter (beignets). Mmm, these deep-fried donut-type treats, rolled in powder sugar, just melt in your mouth and they can ONLY be found here.

10.     Boat Rides: Both the Port Orleans properties offer a boat ride to and from Downtown Disney, which is a very enjoyable little trip.

These are my top ten reasons for loving Disney’s moderate resorts. To find out more about any of these wonderful resorts, visit Disney’s resort page. Let me know your thoughts on your own preferred resorts.

Brenda is a native Texan born and raised on the Gulf Coast. She visited Disney World twice as a teenager and always dreamed of growing her family Disney. She took her first-timer husband and their three children to Disney World in 2000 and they now spend every Thanksgiving there. Brenda writes with a comedic twist on various Disney topics. She will be sharing tips she has learned during her travels and also hopes to enlighten people on little-known freebies that Disney has to offer. She wishes she could have met Walt Disney and considers herself to be a student of Walt. In parallel to his dream it is her wish that everyone would take at least one trip to Disney World in order to share in its magic with their families.

Splurging on a Theme-Park View Room at Disney’s Contemporary Resort

Brenda Disney Vacation Planning, Saving Money on Accommodations , , , 2 Comments

Many thanks to Brenda for keeping you company today while my family and I are on vacation at Walt Disney World…. 🙂

During our trip to Walt Disney World in November 2009, we made a decision that we would splurge on our November 2010 trip and booked a Theme-park View Room at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. My youngest child is a senior in high school this year and we really don’t know how long we will be able to continue having all of our family together every year during this time, so we decided to stay in a room we certainly could not afford to stay in every year and go all out.

We generally like the Contemporary Resort and we always spend some time walking around the resort when we dine at Chef Mickey’s.  I must say there were many things we really enjoyed about our stay in the theme-park view room at the Contemporary. I am really glad we splurged just this once. Here are the top ten things we enjoyed most:

1.      The view: waking up to the view of Cinderella’s castle each morning and having coffee out on the balcony some nights to watch the fireworks was by far number 1.

2.      The monorail: being able to go down the elevator and hop on the monorail was so convenient.

3.      The room-size: we had a room with two queen beds and a sofa bed. This provided ample room and was very comfortable for us.

4.      The bathroom: we enjoyed having a private area with the toilet that was separated by a sliding door from the sinks and shower. This design was much more efficient for a family of 5.

5.      The convenience: having everything from restaurants to shopping located inside the building was great. We didn’t even have to leave the building to get coffee.

6.      The beach: we enjoyed vegging out by the beach. We live by the beach so for us this is relaxation time.

7.      The boat ride to Fort Wilderness: we took the boat from the Contemporary to the Fort Wilderness Campground for the Hoop Dee Doo Revue. That was a very enjoyable ride.

8.      The staff: all the staff at the front desk, as well as other areas of the resort, were very accommodating.

9.      Activities: there are many free activities offered at the resort, such as games by the pool and movies under the stars.

10.    Fitness Center: I must admit that I do not work out at Disney, other than walking several miles a day at the parks, but my eldest son works out every day no matter where he is. Each morning he was down at the fitness center and he was very impressed with the facilities.

As I said, I am really glad we splurged just this one time. We have decided that we will stick to our more economical room choices in the future, but it was nice to stay in this wonderful location this year. I hope everyone will be able to stay in one of these rooms at least once. It truly is quite an experience.

Brenda is a native Texan born and raised on the Gulf Coast. She visited Disney World twice as a teenager and always dreamed of growing her family Disney. She took her first-timer husband and their three children to Disney World in 2000 and they now spend every Thanksgiving there. Brenda writes with a comedic twist on various Disney topics. She will be sharing tips she has learned during her travels and also hopes to enlighten people on little-known freebies that Disney has to offer. She wishes she could have met Walt Disney and considers herself to be a student of Walt. In parallel to his dream it is her wish that everyone would take at least one trip to Disney World in order to share in its magic with their families.

Tuesday Disney Tips: What – No Bounce Back?

Brenda Disney Vacation Planning, Tuesday Disney Tips , , , 1 Comment

A strange thing happened during my visit to Walt Disney World this past November. Unlike previous years, there was no bounce back offer in my resort room. There was a flyer for the free dining program running through September 2011 but it expires before we are due to return. There were no specials to thank us for staying by offering us a good deal to come back at the same time next year. This leaves me in a much different position during this time of year than in the past.

Usually at this time, I have already booked our package for next year’s trip. So that means I am usually investigating all the information about the new resort where we will stay and gathering information for my travel folder. We like to choose different resorts each year so we can experience each of them, although we do have our favorites. Having no idea where we will be staying is certainly a change.

I am going about everything backwards now; researching the resorts before we will book our choice. I am “on hold” for several more months, waiting for next Fall’s specials to be announced. In other words, I am not only suffering from Post-Disney-Trip Depression, or as I like to call it PDTD, but I DO NOT HAVE A WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT RESERVATION FOR NEXT YEAR.

This gives me two options: either curl up under my princess blanket with my Mickey pillow and wallow in self-pity OR make the next several months a full-out adventure — really looking at every resort from every angle and preparing to know exactly what we will book when the time comes. I have to choose the latter option, being the eternal optimist that I am.

There are many other exciting and new things to look forward to this year that will be different from previous years:

1.      A December Visit: We have visited during Thanksgiving for many years but this year’s visit will be in early- to mid-December. This will give us the opportunity to experience some new events, such as the Candlelight Processional at Epcot which we have only seen once because the first night it is offered is usually our last night at WDW.

2.      Newbie Travelers: We will be taking at least one additional person, possibly two, with us this year – newbies. So I will research 2 rooms at a moderate vs. the Fort Wilderness Cabins with golf cart rental. This is one reason I will have to wait for special offers to come out. I’ve noted that the Fort Wilderness area has many Christmastime visitors who live at the campgrounds during the holiday season and decorate their spaces as well as the golf carts, which sounds like a great thing to experience.

3.      Voluntourism: This year will be our first year to stay an extra day or two in order to be able to serve as voluntourists at Give the Kids the World Village. GKTW is a resort for children ages 3-18 who have life-threatening illnesses and their families. GKTW partners with wish-granting organizations, like the Make-a-Wish Foundation, to provide a full week’s vacation for the entire family in Central Florida. The vacation includes accommodations at the Village, all theme park tickets, and all of their meals at no cost to the family. There are almost 1,300 volunteers needed at the Village every week, year round and we are all very excited about being able to add this wonderful opportunity to our trip this year. Each member of my family, as well as our additional travelers, will need to complete a visiting-volunteer application and be approved by the GKTW Volunteer Services Office before we can add this to our itinerary and travel plans.

So this is where I am in my planning. Basically, I am at square one. I have lots of thoughts and ideas and absolutely NOTHING in concrete yet, while I am usually booked on a bounce back offer already. Hakuna Matata, I will make the most of this unfamiliar territory, and will keep you posted on how things progress. Let me know your thoughts, especially if you have a particular favorite!

Brenda is a native Texan born and raised on the Gulf Coast. She visited Disney World twice as a teenager and always dreamed of growing her family Disney. She took her first-timer husband and their three children to Disney World in 2000 and they now spend every Thanksgiving there. Brenda writes with a comedic twist on various Disney topics. She will be sharing tips she has learned during her travels and also hopes to enlighten people on little-known freebies that Disney has to offer. She wishes she could have met Walt Disney and considers herself to be a student of Walt. In parallel to his dream it is her wish that everyone would take at least one trip to Disney World in order to share in its magic with their families.

Our Evolving Disney World Vacation…and Learning to Adjust

Nancy Christmas Holidays, Disney Vacation Planning, Travel Tuesday Tales , , , , 1 Comment

I am a planner by nature….and I love planning a Disney World vacation more than just about anything.

So planning a Disney trip 7-12 months in advance provides plenty to think about prior to the trip, and for the most part, this is a good thing. For example, having the chance to pour over menus, researching various accommodation options, finding fun, new, interesting things to see and do…. all make the time spent while waiting to leave fun…and it goes faster that way too.

The downside of this is when things change. Sometimes they change in minor ways that simply involve changing things like an advanced dining reservation time. On the other hand, sometimes a lot of things end up changing…and changing plans make us planners…well….a little uncomfortable.

Unless you learn, as I am learning on this trip, to just go with the flow. 🙂

Back in May I started documenting my vacation planning for our New Years trip to Walt Disney World. Since that time, there have been a few minor changes to our trip. We have changed:

  1. The number of people going
  2. Where we are staying for all 4 nights (this has changed several times)
  3. Where we are eating (this has changed several times as well)

And we haven’t left yet.

But it’s all good, because it has been a great lesson in flexibility for me. 🙂 I am adjusting as we go, learning to be ok with change, and trying to focus on what really matters: spending a few days with my family in a happy, carefree place.

So, here is what I know about our trip at this moment, 3 days before we leave:

  1. Our flight leaves (weather permitting…yes I worry about this in December) at 6:15 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 30
  2. We are now staying the first two nights at Yacht Club. A big surprise and a long story about how this occurred…but we are quite pleased to be within walking distance of Epcot for New Year’s Eve.
  3. We will eat at San Angel Inn our first night and then see the final Candlelight Processional.
  4. New Year’s Eve will be at Epcot (day and evening) and we are eating at Chefs de France.
  5. We are starting New Year’s Day with a big breakfast at Cape May Café
  6. Dinner that evening is at ‘Ohana and then we will visit Magic Kingdom for the last night of Holiday Wishes.
  7. We move to Saratoga Springs for the last 2 nights of our stay on Jan. 1
  8. Dinner our last night is currently at the Turf Club Bar and Grill at Saratoga Springs and then we’ll visit Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.
  9. And our flight leaves for home at 6 p.m. on January 3.

This is, of course, all subject to change….which at this point, I am fully expecting it to. 🙂

Beyond this, we will see how things go, which usually works best during this very busy season anyway.

As to my preparations for leaving, seeing that we depart in 3 days? Well, we had that little Holiday over the weekend, so there is a lot left for me to do this week. But I have done our online check-in, ordered our Dining Plans, and cancelled our papers and mail. And I have our DME luggage tags, and Park Hopper passes in hand, so that’s kind of important.

So with daily checks of the weather forecast, we’re in the homestretch and planning for packing has begun. It’s definitely been a “different” kind of trip for me so far…..and to be honest, the planning changes have been kind of fun!

(But shhhhhhh don’t tell anyone, I don’t want to lose my membership in Planners Anonymous! 🙂 )

Want to follow along on our trip? I’ll be posting periodic updates and pictures on our Facebook Page.

Celebrating the New Year with the Disney World Crowds…and Why We’re OK With That

Nancy Christmas Holidays, Disney Vacation Planning , , , , 1 Comment

In ten days we will be at Walt Disney World, getting ready to ring in the New Year at the Happiest Place on Earth. We will, of course, have a lot of company, and I have written in the past about what the parks are like during this busiest week of the year. Yes, we know what to expect….and still we choose to go then, even though things would be much calmer, less crowded, and we would see/do a great deal more if we went at another time.

So if we know all this, why are we making a conscious decision to visit at this time anyway?

Well there are a couple of reasons. Partly it is because if we want to experience the wonderful Holiday atmosphere at Disney World as a family, this week is our best chance to do that, due to our daughter’s college schedule. And while we don’t go at Christmas every year, we try to visit at this time of year every few years if we can….and we miss Disney World a lot on the years that we don’t.

But there is more to it than that.

Honestly, to me, there is just no better place to say good-bye to one year and welcome a new one. There is something inherently hopeful about Disney World that makes people, no matter their age, believe in that happily-ever-after that seems so elusive in real life. And when that is combined with the hopes and dreams that everyone has when a new year begins, well it makes Walt Disney World a very special (and yes, magical) place to ring in that New Year…despite the crowds, and the noise, and the lines…..

And I have to say that my feeling about this somewhat stems from personal experience.

In 2003, just a few days after Christmas, my wonderful father was diagnosed with leukemia. He ultimately passed away just a few weeks later. During those weeks, as we struggled to comprehend and deal with this tragedy, we also struggled to provide care for my mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease. My dad had been her primary caregiver, and the loss of my dad took its toll on her health as well.

Not to overly dramatize the situation…I’ll just say that the New Year’s Eve that we observed that year was heartbreaking.

As the end of 2004 approached then, we were prepared for our Christmas season to be a difficult one, filled with some very sad memories. But we didn’t want to focus on the sad, we wanted to say good bye to that horrible year, and bring in the new one, in a way that focused instead on looking forward. We wanted to create new, happier memories…and we realized that for New Years, it was important for us to be someplace other than home.

The one place that we knew would help us create happy memories was at Walt Disney World.

So that year, New Year’s Eve 2004/5, we celebrated the holiday at Disney: we watched that terrible year end, and welcomed the start of a new one in a way that truly honored my parents, who always believed in the importance of faith, and belief, and hope, and optimism.

Always at its best when helping to create happiness, Walt Disney World remains for us, a place to focus on the joyful, the special, the hopeful, and the promise of something better. And that is why we are looking forward to ringing in the start of this next year in the best place we know to do so.

Wishing you and yours the most wonderful, magical, and hope-filled Christmas and New Year!