Inspiration from a Friend and Colleague

Excuse me for a moment while I step away from Disney and focus on more of the family/personal side of the blog.

In many ways I have become disillusioned with life right now.  That is very easy to do when working in the world of politics and having to work around the craptastic-ness that is this town.  Most of you see it everyday on your local news, but those of us in the political realm in DC get to live in it.  Some of it is our own doing, but the vast majority is just complete disfunction and the self-centered nature of Washington.

Every once and a while I meet someone here who breaks that mold and actually inspires me.  One of those people is a woman I went to Georgetown with named Michelle.

Michelle and I took several classes together through out our Masters program.  Her work in the international development world always amazed me.  You could tell she really cared about the work of her company and was not the typical corporate wonk in it for the money.  She also always talked glowingly of family and you could tell they played a central part in her life-- a trait I really admire in anyone.

Michelle always had a great attitude in class, which often times was not easy for a working professional sitting in class at 10pm at night.  I often found her attitude to be a calming presence when I was about to go off on a professor or classmate.  She probably wouldn't know it if I did not write it here-- but she was one of the people who kept me sane and allowed me to finish grad school... If you've ever gone to grad school I am sure you had a few of those people too, please make sure to thank them at some point.

Well now Michelle has embarked upon a new journey in her life that I find to be inspirational-- she is working to adopt a child from Haiti.  I will not pretend to know the first thing about the state of Haiti right now, but I do know that event drastically changed the lives of thousands of people, to include Michelle, and there are many children who lost their parents in the earthquake.  The fact that she is taking her passion in life to this level amazes me and the child(ren) she adopts will be brought into an amazing home with an amazing mother.

Check out her blog and follow her efforts to adopt from Haiti.  And if you think it is something your family would be interested in doing please reach out to Michelle-- I know there are plenty of orphans who could use a good home in the wake of the disaster and Michelle is the type of person that would love to help.

You are the DVC Weakest Link-- GOOD BYE!

So you go away on vacation for a few days and the entire DVC world blows up around you!

If you haven't heard, over the past week DVC has seen a shake up in its management and news come out that they botched the initial maintenance fee estimates for the new Aulani resort.  And yes folks, one caused the other to happen.  You don't get to make a potentially multi-million dollar 50+ year screw up and keep your job in today's corporate America!

Disney, to its credit, fessed up to the mistake.  Instead of facing the potential backlash of major fee increases in the out years at Aulani sales have been halted while the real costs are determined (someone forgot to carry the zero!).  Good news if you already bought, Disney will subsidize the difference for current owners.  Bad news if your names is Jim Lewis, you're looking for a new gig and what better way to start an interview process then with such a public mess up?

So lets meet the new boss, pretty much same as the old boss.  One difference-- the gig isn't President of DVC, nope its Senior VP.  That's because Stagg's rolled the division in with the Cruise Line earlier this year.  Don't kid yourself folks-- titles matter.  Having President on your business card is a big difference from Senior VP, no matter what your boss may tell you.

Now the rumor mill says that the shake up may cause a delay in announcing DVC Grand Floridian, though work has already begun at the resort with room closings beginning in September.

After several boring weeks in the world of Disney I picked the wrong time to vacation!

Back from Vacation

Family vacation 2011 has officially wrapped up and I am back in the office.

We had an awesome trip to see the family in California, which included a stop at Disneyland.  We then shot up to the Reno area to see more family and made a stop off at Mammoth Mountain in California-- one of the state's best kept secrets in my opinion.  Ended it all with some nice time on my dad's boat and by the pool in Laguna Niguel.

Various trip reports to follow.

Taking your kids out of school for Disney trips

As we get ready for "back to school", I would like to hear your thoughts on taking kids out of school to take family Disney vacations. Do you do it? Are certain ages/grades better than others? I will be giving my two cents as a parent and a school administrator after while.


Take care my friends!

@yensid1970

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Georgetown,United States

BLT Prices Keeps Going Up-- DVC Targets Existing Members (Thanks!)

Thought $140 a point was expensive for DVC at Bay Lake Tower? Well let's try $150 as the new starting point!

With this price increase DVC has brought back promotional pricing up to $12 off for existing members and $10 off for new members depending on points you're buying.  This means if you are just joining the program you are still paying the $140 per point cost.

Existing members, well DVC would love to stick it to you on this one.  While DVC Members traditionally pay less than new members for add-on points, it won't be that way for BLT unless you are buying over 100 points.  And the 25-49 point purchase level, which only existing members can buy at, will be the only level at $150 points while 50-99 (again only existing members can buy) will be at $142 after discount.

So new members, no price change.  Existing members adding on less than 100 points-- you're paying more.

Awesome way to reward loyal members-- thanks DVC!

Free Dining-- Craziness Ensues... DVC-ers Feel Lonely

That time of year has arrived where the late fall and early spring discounts get announced by Disney-- we kick it off with Free Dining from October through next March.  They have also rolled out the Annual Passholder room only discounts.

Of course this leads to some grumbling from DVC owners (like me) who get no real value from any discounts that are rolled out.  Sure if you have an AP you can book end trips and get a nice discount on your cash rooms, but no benefit of the dining.

This speaks to the continually reinforced truth-- Disney has us locked in for life... Or pretty close to it.  No need to throw a bone to us, we'll be coming back as loyal guests and probably infecting our children with the same passion and loyalty.  Free dining and other discounts are geared towards getting travelers who don't come so regularly.

Oh well-- I'll just have to buy more points and invest myself even more I suppose.  Helps eliminate the loneliness I feel on discount days.