Disney Family Man

Life Getting in the Way of Disney

2012-02-15T13:17:00.001-05:00

So last fall I did what every neurotic Disney fan does and I planned out my entire 2012 Disney schedule. Short weekend trip in January during school break, Star Wars Weekend in May, long trip in July and top if off with a 4-night cruise in November.

The perfect Disney plan for the year that included friends joining us on multiple trips. Oh man were we fired up and excited...

Then life got in the way!

First, the January trip went bye bye as work expectations meant I could not travel. All was fine with the family-- plenty of other trips on the horizon. We did a little juggling and made sure we could get the Beach Club for May, which was my wife's high point for our January trip.

Well then July goes out the window because of work. That was fine, we'd juggle schedule, check with our friends and move it all to August. No big deal-- actually less crowded and fewer DVC points to stay!

Then my wife has a surprise for me-- we are pregnant... AGAIN! Yes, our youngest son not even a year old and here comes another baby. And when is the baby due? August of course!

So we quickly cancel our summer plans. That is fine, we've still got May and the cruise in November. What was that? The baby must be three months old to cruise? The due date is exactly three months out from the cruise departure? Wife you better not be late on this one... I need the cruise! Yes, I actually told the OBGYN she needed to make sure the baby was out in time.

And the final kicker... Work tells us we're getting moved. Time to re-schedule the May trip as well, but thankfully we pushed it back to June.

So here I am... a few months ago we had planned out 14 days at Disney World and a 4-night cruise. Now all I am guaranteed is four days at Disney World and a prayer that my baby doesn't run late like its mother always does... The joys of life!

And I wouldn't have it any other way...

Diane Disney Miller Discusses Her Father

2012-02-09T16:03:00.001-05:00

I've always found the entire Disney family to be very interesting. One of the most intriguing is Diane Miller, daughter of Walt and wife of former Disney CEO Ron Miller.

This week the Huffington Post posted an interview with Mrs. Miller where she discusses her father, the publics perception of his legacy and even Walt's apartment on Main Street USA.

Several aspect of Mrs. Miller always intrigued me. Despite being the daughter of Walt she could do nothing to stop Roy E. Disney, her cousin, and a few key investors oust her husband in-favor of Michael Eisner. Twenty years later she joined forces with her cousin as Roy led the stockholder revolt that took Eisner down and led to the current Disney leadership.

Mrs. Miller also has been a vocal critic of the biography piece Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, going so far as to penning a letter to Disney Company leadership for giving the author such access to the company archives to only have him produce what she viewed as a slanderous piece of work.

That book, along with pop culture misconceptions, led to the founding of The Walt Disney Family Museum and the production of "Walt: The Man Behind the Myth".

Check out this video of inside Walt's apartment at Disneyland.

Disney Turns $4.8 Bill Profit, Request Tax Breaks

2012-01-26T22:07:00.002-05:00

A little bit of old news, but I saw this tid bit online of Disney joining forces with the owners of NASCAR, International Speedway Corp (ISC) to request big tax breaks from the State of Florida.

Whats the gist of it-- both companies want the state to establish zones for sport venue development that allows for tax breaks when a private company invests in infrastructure. The pitch is simple-- give us some tax breaks to help drive economic development. Normally great policy to help incentivize private investment.

But lets looks under the numbers. Disney is a multi-billion dollar company with a profit of $4.8 billion last year. ISC turned a profit of nearly $55 million. The State of Florida has to close a $2 billion budget gap, the fifth year in a row needing to close a budget gap.

Does anyone else see a problem here? I mean I am a stockholder of Disney and want them to make as much profit as possible, but pushing for tax breaks as Florida continues to slash education funding? Really Disney, are we becoming that greedy?

Hopefully this proposal goes no where.

What Goes into a Presidential Event?

2012-01-19T13:55:00.001-05:00

With President Obama visiting Disney World my real job and hobby have collided. With that several friends have asked me-- what goes into planning a Presidential event. The answer-- A LOT!

I've had the pleasure of directly planning a visit by President Bush and Vice President Cheney during my career. While the President was obviously the bigger deal, both followed the same path in planning and execution. What I can tell you is running such an event can be extremely stressful. As a political operative all eyes locally and in Washington are focused right on you.

1. You Get Word-- the Big Man is Coming! OH #$%*!!!!

For both of my events I got about six weeks notice. When the call comes in from the White House you get this great moment of joy-- the President is coming to do an event with us! Then reality sets in-- the most powerful and protected person on the face of the earth is coming and you've got no idea what to do.

For the next few weeks you will be working 24/7 to execute the event perfectly. No detail is left to chance. The timeline must be executed exactly as planned. You will at a minimum have two calls per day with the White House and at some point the Secret Service will be showing up at your door step with dozens of agents.

2. Select the Location

You think this would be relatively easy-- find a place that looks good, can fit everyone and make it happen. Oh no it is not that easy. First, you have to consider the security implications of the venue. Can the President easily get in/out? What other events are taking place at that locations the day of and the days before the event? Can the venue give you complete access for several days to set up?

Next, you consider the message the venue sends. Does it align with the speech? Will the press have access? Does the location meet the high expectations of the Presidency?

Finally, how the heck does the President get there? What's the implication on local traffic from the motorcade? Is Marine One an option? Is there place to load/unload the President that is secure?

3. Who is Coming?

Now you get to pick who is coming to the event. This isn't just a list of people who get to come to the speech-- that's actually the easiest part. But who gets to greet the President when Air Force One lands? Who greets him when he arrives at the venue? Is there a VIP reception before/after the event? What message does each individual attendee represent?

Send this all over to the White House. Prepare to have it dissected and re-do it multiple times.

On a side note: I actually got a call once and the staffer said Karl thinks person X needs to be shifted to this portion of the event. They meant Karl Rove... Yes these things go up that high!

4. Hell Descends Upon You-- The Advance Team Arrives

So you are about a week and a half out. You've not sleep for weeks. You found the perfect location, mapped out where everyone up to the locally elected dog catcher will sit for the event, sent out invitations, drank heavily. Then the Advanced Team arrives and life as you know it just got destroyed.

The Advanced Team is a group of White House staff whose job it is to make sure the peons on the ground don't screw up their bosses event. The team is a mix of professionals in event planning, media affairs and the Secret Service.

Your entire plan is reviewed from every possible angle-- the event staff is looking at the overall presentation while the Secret Service is doing a walk through of security protocols for the location itself. This may very well include going back and re-looking at your other event location options because the Advance Team is not happy with the choice. Yes, a week out you may have to relocate your entire event for several hundred people.

If you're lucky one of them might get the idea to build a stage that resembles a Bon Jovi concert.

5. Presidential Pipe and Drape

What's pipe and drape? Its the curtain you see behind the President for most indoor events. I give this its own section because this is one of the most difficult things to do-- and you would not think it is.

See you probably did not know that the pipe and drape behind the President is always the exact same color. Not even a slight difference in the shade of the drape is allowed from the standard "Presidential Blue". Will, I was in a major city and had to call every production company within a three hour drive to finally track down the right color drape-- and then it wasn't long enough. Eventually we found a company five hours away that could bring the stuff in, I just had to get their driver a hotel room for two nights.

Finding this stuff was hell!

6. It's Go time

It's the day of the event. You have been living off of fast food and massive amounts of Diet Pepsi for six weeks. You have had zero sleep. An army of volunteers is deployed to manage a crowd of 500, which includes a VIP reception, 100 person photo line with the President and a 30 minute speech. Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and every regional news outlet is setting up and prepared to go live.

The event day is a true test is thinking on one's feet in a stressful situation. Timing must be perfect, security must be perfect. Walk five feet in the wrong direction without the right lapel pin and you will be on the ground in handcuffs. Lose your cool with one irate and rude VIP and you will lose your job. Lose control of this event and you will be hearing from the White House.

No pressure.

When planned properly the event will run smoothly, or as smoothly as possible given the nature of what you are undertaking. At the end you will be able to say you planned and executed an event with the President-- and you will drink lots of beers!

The end pay off is also experiences of a lifetime. I got to talk in an elevator with Vice President Cheney about our families-- his daughter was pregnant that same time as my wife. I listened as President Bush told an intimate room of 10 people what it was like on 9/11. I got to spend five minutes with Karl Rove discussing my campaign strategy and picking his brain for advice.

I also have a group of friends I have been through hell and back with in executing these events. A small group of people I would entrust with any professional endeavour.

Every event was a great experience and one I would do again in a heartbeat-- though I doubt the wife would like to lose me for a month.

President to Visit Disney, Talk Tourism

2012-01-17T10:43:00.002-05:00

After Disney announced changes to park hours for the Magic Kingdom this Thursday, the Facebook/Twitter world was a buzz that the President would be swinging through Disney during his Orlando trip later this week. While they may have nothing to do with one another, it has been confirmed that the President is visiting Disney World.

During the visit the President will address the Administration strategy to boost tourism and travel. The public schedule for Thursday has yet to be released by the White House. When it has we will update you on exactly what will be taking place.

Having helped manage a few POTUS events in the past, I highly suggest avoiding Disney World and any roads between the MCO and Disney on Thursday.

Portobello's in Downtown Disney - Dining Review!

2012-01-10T20:16:00.001-05:00

On our recent trip to WDW during Christmas break, we finally got to take advantage of dining at Portobello’s in Downtown Disney. Portobello’s has been open for 12+ years and primarily has Italian cuisine.

Entering the restaurant, it immediately felt like an “upper class” place by Disney’s standards, nicely decorated, great ambiance and has an “adult feel”, yet is very family friendly.

When we sat down, we were immediately served an assortment of breads, and – my weakness – fresh garlic to spread on the bread. Not sure what the allure is, but it’s been my weakness for years!

We started out with an appetizer of Portobello Mushroom with gorgonzola, polenta and a wonderful rosemary sauce. For a main entrée, I had Linguine with a lemon, white wine and garlic sauce with a very generous portion of clams. This entrée was wonderful, and the portion was definitely plenty. My wife had the Ravioli Gigante (spinach filled) and I can honestly say I have never seen ravioli that big. I tried a bite and it was as excellent as my entrée.

The menu at Portobello’s also includes a number of typical Italian entrees, as well as other chicken, pork, and fish dishes. They also offer an assortment of Pizzas freshly made in a Wood Burning Oven, as well as the “typical” Disney kid’s meals (pizza, spaghetti, chicken, etc).

While we were way too full for dessert, we did scan the menu and they have everything from Gelato to Tiramisu. A full bar is also offered.

Not going to lie, Portobello’s is a little pricy, but worth it. Luckily we had our Tables In Wonderland card, so we had 20% off, but the average entrée is probably about $24 without any discounts. Service was fantastic and the overall experience was fantastic and we WILL be going back. If you haven’t tried Portobello’s, make your reservation next time you are in the area!

Test Track Re-Design is a GO!

2012-01-06T10:45:00.001-05:00

Well folks get your kicks in now at Test Track in EPCOT, because the long rumoured refurb for officially announced today.

Disney and General Motors have signed a new long term sponsorship deal. The initial deal expired in 2009 and has been extended short term since-- the near death of the American auto industry put everything in flux.

Now with a new deal in hand Disney will begin to re-work Test Track. The ride will center around the Chevrolet brand.

I hope they keep the crash test dummies-- those guys really can sing a mean song! "mmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm"

Wordless Wednesday-- Castle in a Garden

2012-01-04T09:30:00.002-05:00

Dining Review: Via Napoli

2012-01-02T15:20:00.000-05:00

During our most recent trip to Disney World I finally got the opportunity to eat at Via Napoli in Epcot. And boy have we been missing some great food!

Via Napoli is located in the back of Italy. Opened in 2010, this authentic Italian pizzeria has an open lay out with brick ovens where you can watch your pizza get made by the chefs. While the speciality is pizza, the menu also offers a selection of pastas and salads making this a place just about anyone can enjoy.

We ate at Via Napoli on Thursday, December 29th. Despite expected heavy crowds we actually walked up and got a table for 11 at 12:30pm. We were shocked that the Cast Members could find seating for us, but the manager was very accommodating and found a table that could fit our six adults and five children.

For the majority of the table we ordered the house speciality-- pizza! We selected a 1/2 meter pepperoni pizza that is listed as able to feed five, but it could easily feed six. The price was reasonable (for Disney) at $41. In addition to the pizza we also selected the family style salad option for $6 per person, which was a nice mixed green salad with tomatoes, olives and peppers.

In addition to the pizza, one table guest also got the Gamberetti Fagioli ($8)-- an appetizer course with shrimp and a cannelloni bean salad. Most of the children chose individual sized pizzas with one eating the Calzoncino-- a ham and cheese calzone. The child entrees all cost $9.50.

The pizza was absolutely amazing. Not only was it excellent by Disney standards, but I believe it holds up to some of the best pizzeria's I have been to across the United States. The salad option receives a "meh" rating in my opinion-- the house dressing really lacked flavor.

The Gamberetti received rave reviews, which shocked me as it was just shrimp and beans tossed in a little olive oil and lemon juice, but all who tried it highly recommended the dish. All of the children items also received strong recommendations for the younger ones in our party.

And as expected with any Disney restaurant-- the service was excellent.

I highly recommend Via Napoli the next time you are looking for a dining option in Epcot.

Back to Reality...

2011-12-31T08:14:00.000-05:00

After spending Christmas week in Orlando it is back to reality for our family-- Jim and Charles will soon return and join that painful reality themselves.

This was a trip of first for our family. We finally made it over the the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (amazing place), stayed in our first off site vacation home (meh) and actually spent a little time diving into the details of EPCOT. All-in-all it was a great trip with time to visit some amazing friends we've developed through this blog and twitter.

Be sure to follow @JimGarth and @Yensid1970 as they spend their final days at Disney World!

Now I need to go get my shirts ironed for work this week... BOO!

New Disney Railroad Merchandise

2011-12-29T12:14:00.002-05:00

While most of the staff of Disney Family Man vacations this week at WDW, new Disney Railroad merchandise was spotted at the Art of Disney at Epcot. Some I have seen on previous trips, but several are new. Now, back to the family vacation at WDW! Follow us on Twitter to catch our adventures: Rob (@RobOnDisney), Charles (@Yensid1970), & Jim (@JimGarth). Happy New Year!

Take care my friends!

Charles
@yensid1970 on Twitter
Charles Aguillon on Facebook

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Walt Disney World

At Disney World It's Always a "Good Life"

2011-12-19T20:47:00.000-05:00

DVC at Grand Floridian-- Its Official

2011-12-08T17:57:00.000-05:00

Today during the annual members meeting for Disney Vacation Club the addition to the Grand Floridian was made official. The worst kept DVC secret is absolutely true!

In total the project will add 147 DVC units in a new building at the Grand Floridian. The project is expected to open in late 2013 to early 2014. This project will follow the path of the successful Bay Lake Tower by adding a second DVC on the monorail loop.

No official word on when sales will begin for the property. With Aulani now at a base price of $135 per point you can probably expect Grand Floridian to be $140+ because of its ideal location and the great reputation of the resort.

For more information on the annual member meeting head on over to the DVC News twitter feed.

Disney Pulls Out of DC Project

2011-11-29T10:49:00.002-05:00

Since 2009, when the prospect of Disney building a resort at National Harbor, I have been excited for Mickey Mouse in my back yard! After years of possibilities we would finally get a Disney property right here in Washington-- and everyone locally actually seemed to be supporting it this time.

Well this past week when we were all comatose from turkey and stuffing Disney pulled out of the National Harbor project. The hopes of a nice resort to visit and the occasional character breakfast only a 45 minute drive away have now been formally crushed.

The Post does not lay out why Disney pulled out of the National Harbor project, but several reasons are apparent to most local observers. The National Harbor project opened in the middle of the economic downturn and seemingly has never fully recovered. The Gaylord convention space is nice and is often used, but the hotel occupancy never seems to be that high and other portions of the project (condos and timeshares) have not sold as quickly as many expected.

For the Disney-philes out there we also know that the Aulani exxperience, championed by the previous head of Parks and Resorts, has not been the best for Disney. Its led to a financial mea culpa that will require DVC to subsidize dues for initial members for the entirety of the project and the firing of Jim Lewis as well as other senior DVC Executives.

Finally, there seems to be a shift in how Parks and Resorts is looking at expanding. The concepts of Aulani and National Harbor were under the old regime. Now we see a focus more towards park development with the Shanghai project, California Adventure Expansion, Fantasyland Expansion and the recently announced Avatar deal. I think this shows that the once hoped for expansion of Disney-themed resorts around the US is no longer in the plans as Disney looks to revitalize their existing assets.

So oh well, no National Harbor character breakfast for our family. Another dream of Disney in DC crushed.

Trip Report Part #4- Cruise Starts, Kid Activities on the Dream

2011-11-28T09:43:00.001-05:00

The next part of our long family Disney vacation (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) was our cruise portion of the trip... Finally we were getting on the Dream!

To get to the cruise ship was actually drove ourselves. Parking was only $60 for three days for the five of us versus $75 per person for the Disney transfer-- EXPENSIVE!!!!!!!! We had a few other friends and family members also arrange private shuttle for around $50 per person. I highly recommend either of these options over Disney transfers, drop Jim a line if you want more info on the private shuttle.

But back to the ship itself!

As we pulled up we were just amazed. The ship is massive and beautiful all at the same time. The concourse for boarding was great as well-- well maintained and not your typical cheesy cruise terminal with the fake palm trees and tiki torches for pictures. Donald was available for pictures and the sign in area for the Kids activities was very convenient. All-in-all an excellent start to the cruise.

Once we were on board the vessel we fell in love with the ship and the service. Our four year old loved that our family was announced as we boarded the vessel. A Cast Member was also right there to speak with our family directly about our Stateroom location, dining options and any other questions we had.

We started out with a quick bite to eat at the Enchanted Garden. The food selection included a salad bar, carving station and lots of shrimp. Great meal to get started with on board the ship.

From there we decided to go take a look at the children features aboard the vessel so that our boys would feel comfortable with their options on the Dream.

We began with the Small World Nursery for the baby. This place was immaculate and had lots of toys, crafts and other options for kids ranging 3 months to 3 years old. The staff was some of the nicest people I have ever met in any daycare environment. My usually hesitant wife was immediately put at ease about leaving the baby behind with the Cast Members later in the day. Remember to reserve nursery time before you board the ship-- you can also change or add time during the tour phase!

Our next stop was the Oceaneers Club and Lab for our four year old son. This place was a kids paradise! Everything is slightly shrunk down to size for the little guys. The Cast Members are constantly playing games and helping with crafts. The kids can also spend time playing computer games, watching movies, driving a simulator of the Dream, conducting science experiments, dressing up as their favorite fantasy characters and many other things I am missing. I stood there wishing I was a kid myself so I could hang out here! We were amazed and later in the cruise I had to rip my son out of the club he loved it so much.

The club featured several themed areas as well like Andy's Room, Pixie Hollow and Monsters, Inc. Really something for every kid in the Oceaneers Club and Lab. And the check-in system for the Club was so great that you could leave your kids there and have no worries at all!

Our final stop was the tween area known as The Vibe. The area was very small and included a small dance floor, some craft areas and video games. I think I rate this as a 'meh'... My 11 year old spent almost as much time time in the Oceaners Club as he did in Vibe. The beauty for kids over 10 is they have the ability to float between clubs and not need to be checked-in/out by their parents.

So the first day was a blast and had us excited for stops Nassau and Castaway Cay-- where my little sister would be married!

"Party for the Senses" Review

2011-11-16T20:48:00.003-05:00

Each year on most Saturdays during the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival the "Party for the Senses" is held at World Showplace located between Canada and the United KIngdom. This ticketed event has several aspects to it.

*BEFORE THE SHOW
Party goers are treated to a private viewing area during the "Eat to the Beat" concert series. You can also check in here and get your wristband which will save you time standing in another line at World Showplace.

*ENTERING THE PARTY
A narration and musical score open the curtains as you enter World Showplace and immediately you are immersed in the first of the senses---the visual landscape of the evening.

*FOOD AND WINE
There are several stations titled "Savory Temptations" and "Beverages." Among the "savory temptations" included:

-Berry Tea Infused Smoked Duke Breast with sweet potato
-Jalapeno Braised Bison Short Rib with Pretzel Bread Pudding
-Chef Allen's Smoked Sable with Dried Winter Fruit Farro and Curried Oil
-Cocoa Spiced Wild Board Ragu with a Goat Cheese Polenta Cake
-Crispy Roasted Pork Shank with Beerkraut
-Vegan Moussaka accompanied by Smoked Tomato Sauce
-Seared Cape Canaveral Cobia

There was also a large selection of cheeses from around the world. The "beverage" selection was extensive including wines from the following wineries and vineyards:

-Graham Beck Wines
-Francis Ford Coppola Winery
-Cono Sur Winery from Chile
-Hahn Family Wines
-Grupo Mezzacorona from Italy
-Wagner Family of Wines

Coffee, teas, and beers were also on hand to pair with the extensive selection of "savory temptations."

*ENTERTAINMENT
Performers from "La Nouba Cirque du Soleil" were on hand to provide music and acrobat acts. We were close enough for one of the bicyclists to nearly graze my buddy Rick Howard (@RickKMV)!

*SWEET TEMPTATIONS
And now to my favorite part of the night---the desserts! We were treated to an incredible chocolate bar along with the following desserts:

-Coconut Pandan Chiffon Cake, Shredded Infused Pineapple, with Kulfi Ice Cream
-Heirloom Apple and Valhrona Milk Chocolate Mouse, Bourbon Maple Jelly, with Apple Jack Ice Cream
-Frangipane Cake with Poached Pears and Goat's Milk Ice Cream
-Pumpkin Bomb with Cranberry Soup and Goat Cheese Fritters

One of my favorites were these Mickey shaped caramel and chocolate bites:

The general admission for this event is $145 plus tax. There is also a private Wine View Lounge available for $260.

In my opinion, the "Party for the Senses" is definitely worth the price! The private entertainment provided by "La Nouba" alone makes it a great value plus all the incredible food and beverage choices put it over the top!
Overall, this is a great event that truly challenges all your senses!

Take care my friends!

Charles
@yensid1970 on Twitter
Charles Aguillon on Facebook

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Charles on Travel with Rick Discussing Party of the Senses

2011-11-16T12:06:00.000-05:00

While Charles write up on the Party of the Senses is forthcoming, check out this great video of him and Rick Howard reviewing the party.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T11:55:00.001-05:00

Epcot's Party for the Senses Review (Coming Soon!)

2011-11-14T22:59:00.001-05:00

Here are a few pictures from my upcoming review of the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival "Party for the Senses."

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Best You Can Do in Life is Enjoy the Ride

2011-11-07T12:15:00.001-05:00

When I began my adult life I looked forward and though life is a marathon, with a few sprints mixed in.

When I completed my Masters Degree last May I was ready for life to calm down for a bit. We had just had our third son, school was over and work was finally allowing me to hire someone on to help out. Easy street here we come!

Then our family got the crazy idea of launching my wife's travel company, Create Memories. That presented a number of challenges as now both parents were working, not normal 9-5 gigs, but a number of personal and professional rewards as well. The joy of hiring someone on at work suddenly came into the reality of having to train that person. At the same time the bosses, and the timing of politics, brought a key issue to head that I'd been working on for a year.

The next thing you know summer is gone, school has begun and life is in fifth gear. Soccer practice. A wedding. The growing pains of a tween. A new family business. Congress debating my area of focus. Everything was on the front burner! AHHHHH!

A personal disappointment brought much of this to a head this weekend. I sat there, feeling let down, and sorry for myself. This was not how I envisioned my life would be a year ago.

Then I realized-- despite all of the stresses in life the marathon really is a constant spring. Being a father, husband and successful professional means life will move fast and it takes work. That work however has a greater pay off than any amount of relaxation or money could ever provide.

The best you can do in life is enjoy the ride and hope everyone keeps their arms, hands and feet inside most of the time... And thank God for providing me with an amazing partner like my wife.

Trip Report Part #3- Bay Lake Tower and an Admission-- I was wrong!

2011-11-03T14:38:00.001-04:00

So onto part 3 of 4 for our recent family trip to Disney-- this time featuring our stay at Bay Lake Tower.

When we first took a tour of DVC in 2009 we were focusing on buying at Bay Lake Tower. After running some financial numbers and analyzing how/when we vacation as well as our long term hopes, we settled on Animal Kingdom Villas. The feel and cost, almost $10 point cheaper, just felt right for our family. We've then spent two years slightly poo poo-ing BLT... We. Were. Wrong.

It started with checking-in to the resort, which is done at the Contemporary Resort front desk. The manager of the entire hotel greeted me as I stood in line and actually helped check my family in. He answered any questions I had about the resort and gave me the wonderful "Welcome Home". The entire staff at check-in was some of the friendliest and most knowledgeable Disney Cast Members I have dealt with.

We then went to the Bay Lake Tower. The interior was beautiful-- especially the entrance of the tower. Nice, clean lines with a simple modern feel to it.

Our room was amazing-- the three bathroom options were great for our party of nine and everyone loved the large windows in the main area. The kitchen was nicely laid out with very convenient storage options. The artwork was amazing as well. I loved the decoration and feel we got just sitting there in the room.

Of course the main focus was the view-- amazing! During the day it was good, you do see a good bit of cars, buses, etc. At night though it was breathtaking. The park, monorail and other resorts illuminated at dark were amazing.

Overall this place is a great resort. Not too big like Animal Kingdom or Saratoga Springs can be. Nice modern feel. Amazing location! However, the point per night costs really make staying her impractical on a regular basis. Bay Lake is probably now my favorite DVC option, but still out of the range of what we can afford.

If money is no object when buying DVC this is the place... For the budget conscious though Animal Kingdom and Saratoga still offer the best value in my opinion.

Trip Report Part #2-- Animal Kingdom Villas and Magic, Memories, and You

2011-10-26T12:33:00.002-04:00

On day three of our recent trip we moved from our off-site hotel to Kidani Village at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Oh sweet baby Jesus it was good to be in our DVC happy place!

While we own at AKV we'd never stayed at Kidani Village, only Jambo House. We primarily picked Jambo because of the Value Category for rooms. On this trip though we had nine people in our Two-Bedroom, so we liked the idea of the extra sleeper chair and the third full bathroom.

We loved our room. We got a standard view two-bedroom around 7940. Officially the view was off the pool area, though that was difficult to see through trees and the buildings around the pool area. But the awesome part was we were on the edge of the Pembe Savanna. So one end of our balcony (Master side) we saw the pool while the other end (Two-queen room) we saw the savanna. Best of both worlds and we only had to pay the standard point rate. One downside of that spot if you saw the fence surrounding the savanna that you do not see in a normal savanna view room, but we were OK with that.

Once we checked in we took my sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law to the Magic Kingdom for Wishes and The Magic, The Memories and You show. It was the first time we saw the latter and it was awesome! The effects the placed on that castle are ridiculous! If you have not seen it yet run, don't walk, to the Magic Kingdom right now.

Late that evening my Aunt and Uncle from Nevada joined us. They had not been to Disney World in over 20 years and they were blown away! We got a scooter from Walker Mobility for my Uncle and they were absolutely top notch in getting it to us. One piece of advice though if getting a scooter while staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge-- specify what building you are in. Our scooter was delivered to Jambo, so we had to take a quick shuttle ride over to pick it up.

Monday and Tuesday we hit up Magic Kingdom (Monday) and Hollywood Studios (Tuesday). Tuesday evening we had dinner at 'Ohana and followed it up with Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We all had a great time and we made sure to pick up a Dole Whip on that way out of the party for my lovely bride.

Speaking of my lovely bride-- she is giving away a Disney Cruise Vinylmation to a randomly selected new follower of her Facebook Page. Check it out, click "like", and you will be entered in to the contest!

Staying Off Site... Trip Report Part #1

2011-10-20T13:14:00.002-04:00

So last week was the big annual family trip to Disney. We spent nine days total at Disney in some form or fashion. All was geared around family time for my little sisters wedding on board the Disney Dream.

Our initial plan was to arrive on Saturday, October 8th, and crash at a Value resort one evening before we checked ourselves into Animal Kingdom Villas with four additional family members. Well of course we had to add days, so instead we arrived on Friday... Unfortunately I waited until the very last minute to book our rooms-- so nothing on property was available!!!! What to do?!

After some searching we settled on the Fairfield Inn at the Marriott Village. Seemed like a decent price at $99/night for a 1 bedroom family suite. The location was great as well-- only about a mile from Downtown Disney. It was also right by the Outlets and plenty of off-site dining options to save a few dollars. So we booked it.

Well, I rate this place a 'meh'. First off the "family suite" was nothing more than a regular hotel room with a 3/4 height wall to seperate the King Bed from a bunk bed for the boys. We tried to find a place to put the playpen for the baby to sleep, but in order to do that you had to climb over the King Bed to reach the left side. Whoever was sleeping on the right side needed to be careful about getting up or you'd face plant into the wall.

You also had to walk FOREVER to get to your room. We are talking Animal Kingdom Lodge distances here folks... It was ridiculous.

They also played up the nice food court they had for the village. A sandwich place, hamburgers, pizza hut, ice cream-- actually a great variety. One problem is the food also took FOREVER and the prices were comparable, and in some cases higher, than Quick Service at Disney.

So, I would not recommend staying there in the future. Was clean and staff was decent, but not much of a savings at all over staying on property. And if you need to use their transportation to/from parks (we had our car) you have to pay for the service. No thanks!

Beyond that we picked a monsoon weekend to go to the parks. All it did was rain, and rain, and rain some more. We were told a record was set for total rainfall in a two day period. This became a theme for many days of our trip.

The bright part of the first part of the trip-- we got to have dinner at Whispering Canyon with our good friends Ryan (@DisneyWidower) and Lea (@MagicalMousecap) and their kids. We love these folks and dinner was great, even if we were all exhausted!

BLT, Wedding, Cake Boss and More... This Year's Family Trip

2011-10-17T13:36:00.000-04:00

Just got home from the family's big annual Disney trip. We were fortunate enough to spend six days at the park, to include our first stay at Bay Lake Tower, and followed that up with a three-day cruise aboard the Disney Dream. While on the ship my little sister for married and we ran into the folks from Cake Boss as they taped a Disney episode for their show.

Will post multiple parts of the trip report in the coming days.

My First Wine & Dine Half Marathon

2011-10-05T19:49:00.003-04:00

A little over a year ago, I ran my first 5K…at Disney. Yes, it was “Epic October” 2010. Right after that I decided I needed to challenge myself a little further, so I signed up for not one, but TWO half marathons. Having avoided athletic activity my entire life, this was quite a challenge I took on. Yes, the first half marathon was the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half Marathon in September, but who thought two weeks later I’d have to do 13.1 miles all over again?

Fast forward to October 1, 2011...the day of the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon…yes, another 13.1 miles. I got up at 5AM that morning to cheer on my wife and quite a few friends, as they were doing to Family Fun 5K. It was quite a busy day after that, including a great breakfast at Whispering Canyon Café, picking up commemorative maps and pins at the Magic Kingdom (40^th anniversary!) and then an afternoon at Hollywood Studios. Yup, a busy day, but the most challenging part hadn’t begun!

At 7PM, I boarded a bus from All Star Sports to ESPN Wide World of Sports (had to catch a shuttle between 7PM and 8PM, and as everyone who knows me knows, I’m early everywhere). I arrived around 7:15PM to find quite a few people there already. All stretching and socializing, while a DJ blared music in the background to get everyone motivated. At first I wondered why I’d have to be there THREE hours prior to the race start, but it was the best thing I could’ve done. This time gave me ample time to stretch and hang out with friends running the race., such as Tim, Amanda, Marc, Nicole and Sarah. Also got to quickly meet some other people I followed on Twitter…turns out going early was so wise!

At 9:30PM, they told all the “athletes” (called that over the loudspeaker…me? An athlete?) to go into their corrals. Yup, I was in Corral C (5 corrals, “C” was the third to start at 10:12PM). The nerves built up, but luckily enough I was in the corral with Tim and Amanda and that was great inspiration, as we coached and encouraged each other. Then came showtime…Corral A at 10PM, B 5 minutes later and then ours….START! Not knowing what my strategy would be (run/walk combo), I knew I wanted to beat my Philly time by at least one second. That was my goal (other than surviving).

We ran out of ESPN Wide World of Sports, onto Osceola Parkway. Seemed like we were on Osceola Parkway forever (yes, even passed McDonald’s, which made me want fries, but that wasn’t an option). It was then I realized this was going to be FUN! Characters lined the streets and around mile 3, there was the music from the Main Street Electrical Parade as well as some of the floats all lit up! YEAH! Now we’re talking! At mile 4, we entered Animal Kingdom. Thought this was going to be tough park, as we would be there for another 4 miles…more fun though…more characters and TONS of Cast Members cheering on. This was a constant theme through all the parks, and running through the parks at night while they are empty is AMAZING!

It was around mile 5 that some of the relay racers “passed the baton” to their partners…yeah, I was jealous…I could’ve been done, but I kept thinking to myself this is MY accomplishment to do…keep going Jim! Eventually we hit Hollywood Studios (mile 8) and wow - ran past Tower of Terror first and then I started to get pumped again - this is COOL! The Osbourne lights were LIT UP…IN OCTOBER!!!! Amazing yet again! Kept going through Hollywood Studios, passed Toy Story Mania and Star Tours (Darth Vader was there for pix!).

Well, we left Hollywood Studios around mile 11, and then I realized we were going towards Boardwalk/Beach Club…this meant one thing…I was going to make it. At that exact moment, I started to feel it in my legs….this was the tough part…you could see people struggling. One woman took a complete tumble right onto her knees, people were stumbling….it was tough. I will say that ALL the runners were super respectful of each other, coaching each other along and helping those who fell get back up. What a great atmosphere. At that exact moment, a woman past me and her shirt said “I lost 125 pounds” for the half. She was pushing herself…she may never know it, but she was my inspiration to keep going to reach my goal of beating my Philly time by at least one second (I was on pace, but at mile 11, I was starting not to care as much). I followed her until about mile 12 and then she took a walk break. I also tweeted to everyone that I was at mile 12, so everyone would know I’m coming to the finish!

The signs the cast members were holding started to become more frequent. “You are almost there”. “Food and Wine Ahead”. My favorite sign was “400 yards to go”…yeah, I didn’t realize how FAR 400 yards were! Thought it was much closer. When I made the last turn and saw the finish, I saw and HEARD a lot of friends saying “JIM”…that was it…I was running to the end…and I was done! I hit the stop button on my Garmin watch and it said 7 minutes faster than Philly…could that be right? This was a much more challenging course with many hills…and then the texts from friends started coming (loved that everyone was tracking me!!!). I did it…beat it by 7 minutes!!!! WOO HOO! I got my medal (and what a medal it was - made it all worth it!) and then had my wife and friends greet me at the exit. I honestly don’t think everyone will ever realize how much it meant to hear the “JIM” encouragement at the finish line.

Around 2AM, we celebrated by going on Soarin'. Yeah, that was cool! Left Epcot around 3AM and got to sleep around 4AM, after a well deserved (and needed) shower....23 hours later (being awake), mission accomplished!

Oh, and yup...I wore the medal all day on Sunday. I am proud of it. I worked for it. I earned it! It means more to me than one would think. It's not just a medal...it's my medal...earned from a Disney race. Yeah, that's as great as it gets! :)

As this was a Disney race, I think this goes down as one of the top 10 greatest moments/accomplishments of my life. Before this race, I said and swore that I would NEVER do a half marathon again. It was out of my system - midlife crisis realized, right? Well, no. I had fun - probably TOO much fun on a great course with great encouragement. All I can say at this point is that I only have 361 days until my NEXT Wine and Dine Half Marathon. Yeah, I will be doing it. Again. Too much fun to pass up! See everyone at the finish line next year!

Food and Wine Festival Opens... The First Tour

2011-10-05T10:53:00.000-04:00

This past weekend saw the opening of the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. This annual event last 45 days and brings together food and drinks from over 25 different regions around the world. The festival is believed to be the biggest food and wine event of its kind in the world.

Beginning at Festival Welcome Center, guests have the opportunity to stroll around World Showcase to visit kiosks set up with various food and drink options from the country represented by the kiosk.

We made the choice of purchasing a small gift card wristlet that wraps around your arm at the Festival Welcome Center. From there we began out journey, with stops in Argentina, China, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Italy and France just to name a few. We sampled everything from fruity slushy options to various meats and cheeses to my personal focus, beer!

Each serving is a small tasting size running from $3.00 to around $5.00. Drinks can start at the same level, but run well over $10 depending on your preference-- I drank a few 22oz beers, which run $11 and come with a souviener plastic mug.

For food my personal favorite was the beef option available at the Argentina booth. It was accompanied by a wonderful mashed potato and garnished with pesto. The beef was amazing and the pesto really pulled the entire tasting together-- we made multiple stops there and will probably do so again!

The China booth was ok... We sampled the chicken option and frankly it was extremely dry.

For beer I would recommend Belgium. they have a wonderful beer flight option and you can rarely go wrong with a good Belgian beer.

We will be heading back this weekend and I will be sure to post a few pictures of various dishes and offer more recommendations as I try new things!

#EpicOctober

2011-10-05T10:28:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was the annual festivities known #EpicOctober. Its a great adults-only weekend of Disney social media fanatics built around the Wine and Dine Half Marathon. We'll bring you some reviews of the event over the next couple of days and start looking towards plans for next year.

The Jake Sully Character Meet Will be at 3pm

2011-09-21T11:01:00.000-04:00

By now I am sure you've heard that James Cameron and Disney Parks are joining together to build an Avatar themed area at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Right now it is hard to find a Disney Parks fan who does not have an opinion on this partnership and you probably don't want to hear mine... But since you came to the blog you'll get it anyways! :-p

On the surface this is an interesting partnership between a cutting edge movie franchise and its creator Cameron and a company that prides itself on being cutting edge entertainer. Cameron has shown an uncanny ability of developing projects with staying power and I think in the long term Avatar and its sequels will become part of our pop culture history in a manner similar, though not as drastic, as other major Sci Fi franchises.

Disney has proven its ability to make sure pop culture history is in many ways maintained via its Parks and make a lot of money doing it. When was the last time you ever watched a Twilight Zone episode? How long had it been since you last saw Jedi, Empire or New Hope when you first rode Star Tours? And how many kids had never even seen an Indian Jones movie before the rode the ride at Disneyland? Many of these franchises have been kept in our conscious by Disney Parks after they've long since ended or had significant breaks between movies.

So this deal seems to make sense. Cameron seems to be an artist very aware of his place in history. Disney will give him the opportunity to take his vision of the world of Pandora to a whole new level who could not imagine otherwise and cement his status for some time to come. George Lucas himself is famous for saying he would do a deal for Star Wars attractions/concepts with no one except Disney due to their ability to bring the imagined into reality (paraphrasing here)-- Cameron is following that lead.

Now on a nuts-and-bolts level, I think this will be an interesting endeavour. Frankly, no one except Imagineering could pull this one off. But I am still a bit skeptical. This seems like it might be Disney's response to Harry Potter at Universal as well as an effort to boost their weakest gate at Animal Kingdom. If done well this could be amazing-- if done poorly (looking at you Disney California Adventure pre-rehab) this could be a flop that costs Disney a lot of money.

One thing we know for sure-- will probably be at least a year before we see firm details and don't plan on heading to Pandora until sometime in 2016. Good lord my son will be driving by then-- hopefully I survive driver training so I can come to the opening.

Oh and Tom Staggs took some time to provide non-answers to a number of questions over on the Disney Parks Blog-- check them out.

So who wants to stand in line for a Jake Sully picture?!

Disney's Aulani Resort-- Mortgage Brokers Rejoice!

2011-09-12T16:49:00.000-04:00

The LA Times has an article up today on Aulani and the food options available on resort.

As I read it I think I went into cardiac arrest folks!

Want a refillable resort mug? How about $32.99 a person.

Dinner for three at the signature restaurant? $200 tab... That does not include the tip.

But no worries-- you can grab the buffet at $43 a person or a nice Angus Burger by the pool at $21.

All of this on top of resort rooms that begin at $399 a night. And lets not mention the several thousands of dollars in airfare you will drop just to get your family out to Hawaii from back east. (It is actually cheaper to fly to Europe most of the year than Hawaii from the east coast).

Aulani is certainly not a resort built for the budget conscious Disney traveler. I suppose if you a trekking all the way to Hawaii you want to go all out on your vacation and Disney is banking on that-- but good lord that is a pricey vacation!

I guess if you're lucky enough to have equity in your home right now you can take out a second mortgage on your house to pay for the trip to Aulani. I think mortgage brokers might be the ones really excited about this new resort.

Want to See DVC Grand Floridian?

2011-09-08T22:55:00.000-04:00

As always DVC News has the latest info-- this time its the first (assumed) artist rendering of the DVC wing at the Grand Floridian.

The normal GF architecture is clear and the size of the balconies clearly fit the size of DVC Villas. The portion pushing out into Bay Lake matches submitted permitting plans.

Have to say I like the look of this resort. A few months ago I was in the 'meh' column, now I think I might be leaning into the favorable side. Maybe we'll swing a few points as long as we avoid BLT prices (though I doubt we will).

Taking your kids out of school for Disney trips, part 2

2011-09-04T20:54:00.001-04:00

So this is a picture of my family and wonderful friends (really more like family) at Walt Disney World during "Reunion 2010" which was the first trip we pulled our kids out of school for. Yes, I said it. A school administrator (me) and a teacher (my wife) had their kids miss school for a WDW trip! Before we decided this there were a couple of issues we had to explore:

1. Time of the year- The boys were in 3rd and 6th grade when we went in December and had already established relationships with their teachers who knew their work ethic, etc.
2. Prior absences- We were fortunate that neither of the boys had been out sick so this was their first absence.

We also made sure to let the teachers and front office know early that they would be gone in case there were any issues that we weren't aware of.

We felt very comfortable taking them out. Plus, there are so many wonderful experiences at WDW that are not during the normal holiday or summer breaks such as "Reunion."

I know as a school administrator that many of my student's parents have specific times of the year that they are assigned vacation and that it doesn't always fall into a school calendar. With early communication and planning, schools can work together to make family experiences memorable. We only have our children at home for so many years. As my boys get older, the day draws closer that they will be going off to college. Sometimes we have to prioritize and balance family time in our busy lives and as long as it's not abused, that may include missing school now and then. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us!

Take care my friends!

Charles
@yensid1970

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Inspiration from a Friend and Colleague

2011-08-22T14:59:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-08-17T22:22:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-17T15:06:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-12T22:44:00.002-04:00

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!)

2011-08-04T15:49:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-03T12:14:00.000-04:00

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.

Song of the Day: Baby Mine from Dumbo (Country)

2011-07-28T08:49:00.004-04:00

Yeah... About that Attraction...

2011-07-25T19:48:00.000-04:00

We've all been used to new concepts rolling out of Disney over the past few years. Unfortunately there have been a few times where concepts have been parred back-- some good changes, some bad.

This past week Disney was back at it.

In 2008 Disney shut down their popular, but financially struggling, Pleasure Island clubs geared towards adults. Many Disney die-hards were not happy with this decision, but at the end of the day Disney is a business and the money just was not coming in the door.

Last year Disney finally announced its refurb of the area-- Hyperion Wharf. This would be an updated area with some family and adult areas that paid homage to the early days of Disney and its original Hyperion Studio. The Pleasure Island die-hards did not jump for joy, but at least they seem pleased.

NOT SO FAST!!!

Disney is now saying the Hyperion Wharf project has been delayed indefinitely. Seems Disney is still struggling to see how an adult-focused area fits into the family-centric resort. So don't expect a Pleasure Island reboot anytime soon-- just expect more family-centirc entertainment updates like the new dine-in option at AMC.

And while Hyperion Wharf was getting shelved Disney announced the stopping of ESPN the Weekend. The public reason is because Disney says their incorporating ESPN year round, such as the renaming of the Wide World of Sports. Who knows, but strike another entertainment option that seemed to be geared to adults as much as anyone.

I think what Disney really needs is more Princesses and Fairies.... Sigh...

Lost and Found at Walt Disney World

2011-07-20T13:22:00.000-04:00

While on vacation in September 2008 we had a terrible mishap after returning to Pop Century on the bus from Downtown Disney. So here’s how it all started.

We decided that on Wednesday evening we would go to Downtown Disney to Once Upon A Toy so our son Daniel (Age 5) could create his very own Lightsaber, and get our daughter Sydney (15 months) a Baby Cinderella Doll and maybe have dessert. It had been a long day at the Magic Kingdom so by 10 p.m. we were extremely exhausted. As we were arriving at Pop Century, a child got sick causing a commotion on the bus. I was trying to keep my kids, my wife and myself from stepping in the “protein spill”. In doing so, I accidentally left our Camera Bag on the bus.

The Camera bag contained our new Cannon DSLR Camera, a video camera, and my son’s Nintendo DS. I didn’t realize I left the camera bag on the bus until we were walking back to our room.

I quickly ran back to the bus loop trying to catch the bus, but it was too late.

I went to the front desk to tell a Cast Member what had just happened, she made a phone call to dispatch at the Bus Depot to see if she could locate the bus I was on. Well as you can imagine the waiting and wondering if you would ever get your camera bag back was killing me.

I was more concerned about the 4 days of memories on the memory cards then I was about the camera and video camera, after all this was Sydney’s first trip to Walt Disney World. The Bus Depot cast member said “He would keep an eye out for it.” I went back to the room completely upset and pacing for 15 minutes before I said, “I’m going back to the bus stop and see if I can talk to one of the bus drivers.” Before I left, Daniel said “Don’t worry Dad, we can make new memories” as he hugged me.

When I arrived at the bus stop I spoke with a bus driver, he told me the bus I was on may be on it’s way to the Bus Depot to be cleaned up. I called the Bus Depot once again and was told there are lots of items that were turned in, but could not specifically tell me if one of them was our camera bag. I went inside and while standing at the front desk waiting to speak to a cast member, a cast member walked in and sat my camera bag on the counter next to me!

My eyes just lit up and I said, “Oh my God!! That is my camera bag!” He said, “Can you prove it?” I said, “I can tell you every item in that bag and I can spell the name on tag so I started to spell my last name, S-Z-C-Z-E-P-A-N-I-A-K, he looked at me and said, “Well buddy this has to be your bag, because anyone who can spell that last name has to be the owner.”

I was so overjoyed to get the camera bag back! I looked to the sky and said a prayer, when I lowered my head the cast member was gone, it was so strange because I didn’t see him walk away and I only took his eyes off of him for a few seconds! I wanted to give him a tip but he vanished. I called my wife who was waiting in our room with our kids to tell her that the camera bag was found, she could believe it. We were so happy to get the camera bag with all of it’s contains we need to celebrate, so we went to Everything Pop to eat some ice cream with the kids.

We else but on Walt Disney World property can you lose your camera bag and get it back without anything missing?

History of the Hatbox Ghost at Haunted Mansion

2011-07-11T22:29:00.002-04:00

http://doombuggies.com/

The folks over at Discussion Kingdom have a great piece up on the history of the Hatbox Ghost at Disneyland.

For those who have never heard of the Hatbox Ghost the video below explains a great deal of the history of the character that is part of the Disney mythology, but few regular people have ever seen. The Hatbox Ghost only existed in Haunted Mansion for two days. Few pictures of the character in the attraction exist and as far as anyone can tell the below footage is the only known video.

We Keep Growing...

2011-07-11T16:18:00.001-04:00

For almost two years this blog has been my personal little space in the digital world where I could share my confessions of my Disney addiction. Through this avenue, along with other social media outlets, I have found out I am not the lone freak of a dad who is obsessed with Disney and raising other Disney addicts... I am sure for some of you that is shocking that there are others like me-- heck you may even be a closest Disney freak too, you just got to admit it!

You may have noticed over the past few weeks that I've begun adding other contributors to the site. They bring great perspectives to the table and their own level of quirkiness too. We're spread out across the country, have different background and lives in the "real world", but we all share a common love of family and Disney.

So please welcome Jim, Charles and Dan to the fold. All three are great guys and I'm lucky to share this space with each of them.

Charles- @Yensid1970

Jim-- @JimGarth

Dan-- @iMacDan

And we are always looking for other contributors to join our team or even just guest post. If you are interested feel free to drop me a line at RobOnDisney at gmail.com or by DM-- @RobOnDisney

EDITORS NOTE: I keep asking Jim for a better Disney picture... Since he won't send me one the one above remains!

Disney Dream Sails with a Full House

2011-07-10T19:55:00.001-04:00

The Orlando Sentinel has a great story up on the Disney Dream sailing at well above industry norms when it comes to guest capacity.

The article states that the Dream is sailing 150% capacity (averaging three people per stateroom). During my time in the Federal Government helping to promote the maritime industry, cruise companies were constantly targeting the 105% capacity average to have strong financial performances.

While the article states that occupancy does not always indicate financial performance I have to think Disney is vastly out performing its competitors in this area. Disney's model is based on charging top dollar for sailings as a significant portion of the revenue pie, while most cruise companies just want bodies on board to gamble and shop.

From our own personal experience both trying to book our family on a cruise, and my wife's new adventure as a Disney Travel Specialist, Disney Cruise's are selling out quickly at the top dollar rate. Few rooms remain available at the last minute to purchase, while the other major companies almost always have openings and provide great last minute deals to fill ships.

So get booking if you want to ride the Dream or the upcoming Fantasy. They are booking up and no one expects demand to slow anytime soon.

Our Love of Disney and Our Love of Space

2011-07-08T12:26:00.000-04:00

Today Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off for the final time-- carrying four brave Americans into the heavens and bringing an end American manned space flight for the foreseeable future.

This is both a historic and sad (will touch that later) moment in the history of our country and all mankind. What struck me though is the number of Disney fans I follow on various social media outlets who bought down the talk of the Mouse today to discuss the Atlantis launch. I wondered-- is there a connection between our love for Disney and our love for space?

I think the answer is yes. The man who built the company we love, Walt Disney, was a big fan of space travel and the mythology of the future. We can see that in many of his movies and we see that in his love for Tomorrowland when he opened Disneyland in 1955.

"Tomorrow can be a wonderful age. Our scientists today are opening the doors of the Space Age to achievements that will benefit our children and generations to come. The Tomorrowland attractions have been designed to give you an opportunity to participate in adventures that are a living blueprint of our future."- Walt Disney at opening of Tomorrowland

In developing the Disneyland series, Walt and his associates followed their model from World War II and the Victory Through Air Power film and developed a number of shows that focused on various aspects of space and the future. The most well-known of these episodes was Man In Space, which debuted in 1955. Urban legend says that President Eisenhower requested a copy to show to top leadership at the Pentagon in the early days of the US space program.

This love for space has also manifested itself in attractions past and present-- Rocket to the Moon, Flight to the Moon, Space Mountain, Missions to Mars, Mission Space... All popular rides at current Disney Parks or well-known in the history of Disney fandom.

But Walt's legacy did not just plant in many of his admirers a love for space itself, but the concept of a better tomorrow for mankind. Even his focus on the past was to help remind us of where we've been, so we can better plan where we are going as a people. The human spirit for adventure and the American dream to provide a better life for our children combined into a push for the future. Space travel in many ways is the next logical, and most captivating, step in that progression. Walt, and most Americans, realized that and embraced space travel.

The spirit and vision of Walt Disney and what his work represents seems to be the perfect outlet for people searching for the great big beautiful tomorrow in our lives and the lives of our children.

With all the being said, today is a sad day for our country. Our lack of vision, or perhaps visionaries like Walt Disney, JFK or other early public supporters of space travel, have caused us to take our eyes of the heavens. Our partisan rancour in Washington, combined with our larger global inability to focus on the betterment of all mankind, has caused us to lose sight of the future and focus on the parochial interest of today.

The lack of future manned space travel is not the primary problem we face in today's world, but rather a symptom of our larger inability to look past our own self-interest to focus on the greater good. What was once American Exceptionalism is seemingly being replace by American Selfishness. My fear is if we continue down this path we will not fulfill the inherent responsibility of all Americans to leave this country in a better place for the next generation.

That would not only be a disappointment to a man like Walt Disney, but let down all of those who have come before us in making this Nation of ours the most amazing country in the history of our small rock.

Happy 4th of July-- Celebrate, but Remember

2011-07-04T08:21:00.001-04:00

One memory of 4th of July that is forever burned into my memory came in 2002. I was at the Army's National Advanced Leadership Course at Ft Lewis in Washington preparing my breakfast (aka warming up a horrid MRE). The sun began to peak over Mt. Rainer in the distance-- this had to be one of the most beautiful scenes I had ever seen and drove home to me what a wonderful place we have the privilege to call home.

4th of July is a great holiday. Fireworks, bbq's, pool time-- we get to enjoy many of the great trappings of life. But we cannot forget why we have those wonderful things. Our independence was fought for and earned by the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands before us and the burden will be beared by many who come after us.

Many of my friends who stood with me that beautiful morning in Washington have been to Iraq or Afghanistan, many multiple times. All come back carrying mental or physical scars from their service-- some today are buried in Arlington National Cemetery having paid the ultimate sacrifice. All join the long line of soldiers who have proudly served our country and fought to maintain our freedom.

We must also recognize the sacrifice of others who have helped at home in making the United States a country of true freedom like no other country. Our educators, police, firefights and other public service workers go above and beyond in making our country great. Each does their part to ensure our way of life thrives. Each plays their part and is just as important in their anonymity as the military heroes we read about in books and see in movies.

So remember today as you celebrate why we are celebrating. Thank anyone you know who has served our Nation or community at some point in their life... And have a cold american brewski for me.

Men Have Issues Packing Too!

2011-07-03T21:30:00.000-04:00

About to leave for 5 days in the WDW parks and then follow it with 6 days on the Disney Dream. One thing everyone at work says (women) is that men have it easy - only have to pack for ourselves...the women pack for themselves and the kids. While that may be true, I do not find my part easy at all!

My list is vast and most of it cannot be bought in a Disney park! I'm in charge of the

electronics chargers (Phone, DS, iPods, etc)
Annual Passes
Tables in Wonderland Card
Plane reservations
Hotel reservations
Rental car reservations
Money
ADR reservations
Stopping mail/newspaper

...and the above are just a FEW of the things I'm responsible for.   I realize it's stereotypical that the guy has it easy, and we do in many respects, but I can't even imagine if the guy does nothing to help!

It's a big responsibility on both parts to pack for a trip. Yeah, I pack way too much clothes (probably double what I need), but if I forget an extra change of clothes, I can buy it.   Can't do that with the rest of the stuff!

My trip is 11 days away (Treehouse Villas and Disney Dream) and I've been "pre-packing", but nothing serious. Just really have some bathing suits together and some shorts.   After all, packing clothes is what the night before is for, right?   RIGHT?    :D

The value of resort mugs & Tables in Wonderland

2011-07-02T23:34:00.004-04:00

My family and I are on the tail end of a 13 day Walt Disney World vacation and much was learned about the value of resort mugs and Tables in Wonderland.

First, we purchased mugs for all us during our stay at Saratoga Springs since we would be there for a week. At first $13.99 plus tax sounded steep but I was able to use my Tables in Wonderland discount (20%) since Artist's Palette takes it! In addition to eating there, we made it a point during our park visits to eat lunch or dinner in one of the many resort eateries that feature the beverage stations. On this trip we ate at Contempo Cafe, Captain Cooks, Roaring Forks, Sassagoula Food Court, and Pop Century. This saved us a ton on drinks plus at the French Quarter and Pop Century Tables in Wonderland provides a 20% discount with NO added tip like the full service restaurants add. It is a TRUE 20% discount! The All-Star food courts also offer this. If you have never ventured out of the parks for lunch, it is a welcome break and these places have reasonably priced options!

I have not added up the savings yet but it has been substantial! Especially for longer trips, it has helped us stretch our dollars!

Take care my friends!

Charles
@yensid1970

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Century Dr,Kissimmee,United States

Private visit with Mickey & Goofy

2011-06-28T20:38:00.003-04:00

Our family at a special Disney Vacation Club event today. It ended with a surprise visit by Mickey and Goofy. We also got some cool DVC swag and a $40 AMC gift card. Downtown Disney here we come!!

"Summer Triptastic 2011"

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Letting the boys loose at Disney for the first time!

2011-06-28T00:41:00.001-04:00

Tonight as we were walking to the Magic Kingdom from the Contemporary Resort (after a great dinner with friends), I jokingly mentioned to our two boys (8 and 12) that I was ready to let them venture off through the Magic Kingdom by themselves. I was surprised to see how excited and serious they were about doing it! They already had where they would go and in what order. After a little time convincing the wife, we decided to give it a shot with a few ground rules. First, they both had to have their phones in hand so that they could hear our calls/texts. Second, they had to text us as they moved from ride to ride. And finally, they would need to be on their best behavior if they wanted this privilege again. We would only be at Magic Kingdom for a couple of hours so this was going to be a good trial. As they walked off, I took these two pictures without them seeing.

What a difference in their attitudes towards each other! They ended up riding the Peoplemover, Buzz Lightyear, Tea Cups, and seeing Philharmagic while my wife, I, and friends saw Main Street Electrical Parade, The Magic, the memories, and you, and Wishes! They finally met us to see Hall of Presidents and we ended up celebrating this milestone with a late night snack at Casey's. I am very excited to have given them this responsibility and hope to do it some more this trip!

Take care my friends!

@yensid1970

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Walt Disney World, FL

Cars 2... Not that Good...

2011-06-25T14:42:00.001-04:00

I know this statement will cause me to be disowned by many in the Disney community-- Cars 2 was not that good.

The story line of the film focuses on the events surrounding a World Grand Prix featuring Lightning McQueen and other top racers from various racing circuits. The intent of the grand prix is to highlight effectiveness of a new renewable fuel option to replace gas. McQueen initially refuses to participate, but with a little help from a trash talking Formula One car and Mater he jumps in the circuit.

From that point the Grand Prix goes into the background and focuses on Mater, through various hijinks we've all come to love, joining with Secret Agents working to stop a plot to discredit the renewable fuel so an international ring can make money off of a recent oil deposit found by the ring.

This film in essence became one giant Maters Tall Tales with a weak story line piecing it all together. Some of the jokes and actions were very funny and enjoyable, but the storyline was weak. The underlying lesson to be learned from the movie was one should never push their friends to change and should accept them for who they are-- but that was only a focus for 15-20 minutes of the entire film. The rest of the time was all Mater and his craziness.

So I'd give this movie a C+. The action was great and Mater as always was very funny. But the plot/story line was not at all what we've come to expect from Disney Pixar. I'd pick it up when it comes out on Blu-Ray/DVD, but I don't think its worth the high ticket prices being charged to go to a movie now-a-days.

Standing by for the incoming hate mail on this post!

Disney Fun at Home- Let the Memories Begin Tour

2011-06-22T20:20:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday I came up with an idea for the family-- let's make it a Disney day without leaving our local community.

We took a trip to Tysons Corner, the local shopping mall with the Disney Store for Northern Virginia. There the wonderful Cast Members of the store were hosting a special Cars 2 Rev Up for Fun event. The kids were shown a special sneak preview of the movie focused on France and then had the opportunity to do a craft project featuring the French flag. The Cast Members even shared some fun educational facts about France and the flag. Awesome event and a great tie-in for the movie and the stores.

After the Cars 2 event we went over to the Let the Memories Begin Tour stop in the mall.

The tour stop is a fun place where you can come and learn more about the Let the Memories Begin campaign going on this year. There are several TV's set up in the area talking about the vacation options offered by Disney Parks. The same commercials many of us see on TV every day, but spliced together in a longer clip.

From there you walk through a giant set of Mickey ears to talk to Cast Members about Disney and visit one of the photo booths set up.

In the booth your family all centers themselves on the camera. Over a minute time period your seemingly transported through Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Disneyland. Your photo is snapped in front of the iconic scenes of each location and a character or two is added to the mix for an extra special touch.

Baby Jacob not as enthusiastic as dad.

My 11 year old thinks I am weird... He's right!

When you're done in the booth you are given a printed copy of one of your four photos and instructions on how to download the rest from the Snapfish website. Cast Members then provide you with some Disney Parks information and a nice fridge magnet to place your photo in at home.

All-in-all it was a great weekend. Doing both events gave us a little bit of a Disney fix-- lord knows we've been going through withdrawls! While not nearly as long, we still saw those big Disney smiles we love on our two older boys... If only baby Jacob would keep the crying down!

The Disney Profit Game...

2011-06-20T13:06:00.000-04:00

We often have to remind ourselves that while Disney provides a great deal of emotional pay-off to its fans at the end of the day it is also a business. We saw this over the past week when Disney announced price increases for tickets to its US-based theme parks.

The Orlando Sentinel has a piece up today on how the pricing strategy for tickets is meant to drive the bottom line for Disney. The concept is simple-- Disney, unlike other Orlando parks, makes its money off multi-day passes. Traditionally Disney, since introducing the Magic Your Way concept, has kept the increase of additional days beyond day four of a ticket package minimal. The past two years though have seen a shift from $3 per day to $8 per day, while also keeping the increase cost of the base ticket below traditional increases.

This accomplishes two things-- (1) The cost for the additional days is still minimal, so the 125% increase should not dissuade many from buying four to seven day packages and (2) keeping the base price down will put pressure on other parks to keep their one day ticket cost down-- putting price point pressure on parks who rely on single day visitors.

With the recession seemingly coming to an end, Disney must begin to find revenue streams to recover investments made in the Parks and revenue lost during the deep discount period we've seen the past two years. This has manifested itself in fewer "Free Dining" periods, a decrease in perks for many of the regular guests programs and now ticket price increases that are both earlier and larger in scale than traditionally expected.

The danger here for Disney is the same as any company-- they may be too aggressively adjusting price points under the assumption of improved economic indicators. If we hit stagnation or a double-dip recession this moves could lead to the need for even deeper discounts in the future to keep people in the parks.

Remembering Cast Preview Days at Animal Kingdom 1998

2011-06-17T12:48:00.001-04:00

Before Disney's Animal Kingdom opened to the public on April 22, 1998, there were Cast Preview Days the month before allowing CM's and guests to experience what the new park had to offer. One of my long time friends and roommate from college (Lonnie P) had been working for Walt Disney World Transportation for about 4 years at that time and invited me to be his guest at one of the preview days. Being the Disney Parks fan I am, I quickly bought a plane ticket to join him over my Spring Break.

My first memory was that it was VERY cold! I had only packed shorts - Florida - Spring Break - hello!!! But I was sadly mistaken. Luckily I had my big coat in my suitcase from a previous trip. This is my excuse for looking ridiculous in a long coat and shorts!! Ok, moving on.....

Our first visit was the Rain Forest Cafe which was providing free food as part of the preview. I remember a bread pudding dessert...... I digress. Next we headed back to Kilimanjaro Safaris. Interesting enough there were few animals out because many of them had just been released onto the property. I recall all the elephants huddled in a circle out of fear of their new environment. I also remember the BUMPY ride since there were NO doors or bars to hold onto. We slid back and forth and almost out of the car! Oh, and the baby elephant's Mom was killed by poachers at the end of the ride which was quickly changed since it was un-Disney.

Next, we were off to the ill-planned Discovery River Boats which was a dismal ride along the long river surrounding the park. It was slow and there was nothing to see!

Countdown to Extinction (now Dinosaur) was the next adventure. It was the first ride of its type that I had ridden. Pretty cool for 1998!

One of the highlights, and still one of our family's personal favorites, was "Festival of the Lion King" which was performing one of it's first semi-public shows. It was so new that the tumble monkey's costumes had not even come in yet! They are seen below in red leotards. Still a great show today!

I'm sure there was alot more going on that day but it was 13 years ago!! I have to say, it was a once in a lifetime experience and Animal Kingdom has changed alot since that day. Although not one of my personal favorite Parks (so dang humid), I was grateful to my buddy Lonnie for inviting me to be a part of this day.

Take care my friends!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

How Disney saved the day!

2011-06-15T10:21:00.004-04:00

At some point as parents we will send our children out on their own for a big trip for the first time. Ours happened to be this past week and without a Disney connection it could have been a bad experience for our son who was attending his first week long band camp. First, let me tell you that careful planning went into getting our son ready for his first band camp. Clothes were laid out days before to ensure that he had what he needed for the summer heat. Snacks and supplies were checked off the list as well as his toiletries and everything else one needs to live in a college dorm for a week. Or so we thought...... After making the trip home from dropping him off my wife received a text saying that he had no towel! My first sarcastic thought was : "Parents of the year." Of course our first inclination was to run one down to him but it would be very late and I hated the thought of him facing embarrassment by not having a towel to shower that night. Enter the Disney connection!

We were lucky that two of the band camp coordinators happened to be a couple we began to travel with to Walt Disney World a few years ago. We even introduced them to DVC and encouraged them to become members which they did this past Fall (Welcome Home!). Because we share this strong Disney bond, it was easy for me to call them and ask them to make a quick run to the store to pick up a towel. Crisis averted! Our son didn't miss a "beat!" (remember this is BAND camp).

One of the most striking things of having made all our Disney friends is how quick we are to take care of each other no matter what. I would (and have) travelled across the country to see Disney friends and they have done the same for us! I can not think of anything we would not do for each other. It is comforting to know this and in this situation it saved the day! Thanks Steve (@lumbercat) and Amanda Stevenson (@amandastevino)!

I am looking forward to sharing more of our family and Disney adventures with you all! Take care my friends!

Bay Lake Tower Close to Selling Out

2011-06-14T14:31:00.000-04:00

DVC News is reporting that DVC has declared the final units at Bay Lake Tower for sale. The only units that remain undeclared at this point are the models on the first floor.

So, what does this all mean? It means Bay Lake should be sold out by the end of the summer or early fall. If you're thinking of buying into this property directly from Disney you need to do it soon! The base price to buy-in is $140 for new members and $130 for member add-ons, minus promotional discounts. For full pricing visit here.

With Bay Lake close to selling out the big question will be where and when does Disney build the next DVC resort at Disney World? Thoughts???

My First (Disney) Tattoo!

2011-06-13T20:20:00.000-04:00

I've thought about it for a long time.   When would I do it?   When would I get a tattoo and what would I get?

Well, this past Saturday I got my first tattoo...and of course, it's Disney!   I went to the tattoo place (recommended by many in the area) a week prior and met the staff, artist and discussed what I wanted. I decided I wanted Mickey Mouse, not just any Mickey, but Sorcerer Mickey.   This is where the internet comes in handy - they looked right then and there and showed me a number of images. There was one that was PERFECT, and we printed it out.   Now, my first thought was there is NO WAY it will come out even close to as perfect as the picture on the internet.

Well, I arrived for my appointment and my artist was waiting for me, with the stencil already printed out, all ready to go. Not knowing what to expect, he told me to get comfortable on my side and DON'T MOVE.   He said he'd start with one line just to give me time to realize what it would feel like.   It really didn't hurt at all.   It felt like little tiny mosquito bites.   The most uncomfortable part was lying on my side!

After an hour, once he had the outline done, he gave me a 2 minute stretch break (much needed), and then started on the color.   One hour later, he was done, and told me to look in the mirror.   Afraid that it was going to be a mediocre attempt, I was 100% pleased that it was EXACTLY what I wanted.   Not cheesy, not amateurish, none of that.   He is a BRILLIANT artist. The attention to detail is amazing.

I think what amazed me the most is that when he was doing the stencil in the morning, he told me he was reading all about Sorcerer Mickey, Fantasia and the whole history of the movie. He was able to talk to me about my interests and why I wanted the tattoo.   Great sign of a great artist.

Now it's aftercare time.  For the first four days, I have to put on Aquaphor (it feels like a light sunburn right now) and then Aveeno lotion for two weeks.   Can't go swimming for two weeks, but I knew that from the research I did.   I strategically did it now, knowing I would be well healed before vacation in 5 weeks.

It was a great experience and I did exactly what I wanted to do - with a tattoo of my love for Disney.   Amazing experience and I'm very, very pleased!

Disney Ticket Price Increase-- Why now?

2011-06-12T19:19:00.002-04:00

This past week Disney announced its annual ticket price increase. Depending on the length and type of ticket cost increased between 3%-10% and regular annual passes increased by $20.

While this is a normal occurence every year the timing is a bit off. Disney traditionally increases ticket cost in early August and provides a good bit of notice-- this year notice was less than a week.

The first thought is Disney is not generating enough revenue, but the most recent earnings report shows a 7% increase over last year. Profit is off slightly, but when taking into account the lose of revenue post-Japan quake and the launching of the Disney Dream the quarter was great. Domestic park spending was up significantly with not only more people coming into the parks, but people are spending more.

It would seem Disney is planning on this trend to continue and they are able to take advantage of a post-recession tourism spike. This might be a risky move given economic indicators showing the possibility of a double dip recession or stagnation.

So ultimately it comes down to business. Disney has been giving out numerous discounts and promotions through out the recession. Now that the domestic economy seems to be climbing out Disney is taking steps to recuperate the potential funds lost during the recession at a quicker rate than many of us assumed.

Tables in Wonderland - Is it worth it?

2011-06-10T20:15:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! VERY happy to be posting on Rob's blog and would like to thank him for inviting me to! While I was thinking this week about what to write, I also started to think about what I'll need for my Disney trip next month.

One of the first things I thought of was my Tables in Wonderland card, which I purchased for the first time this past October. What is the Tables in Wonderland card? It's a card available for purchase to Annual Passholders and Florida Residents ($75 per year/$100 per year respectively).

We decided to get the card, since we had an annual pass, and we knew we'd be going a number of times within a year.   The card entitles you to a 20% off discount at many table service restaurants at the parks and resorts, and some quick service (e.g. All Star resorts, which do not have a table service restaurant). The 20% discount is applicable to food AND alcohol, and is good for up to 10 people in your party.

This could add up to quite a savings!   If you figure the average adult meal in Disney (at a table service restaurant) is (conservatively) $30 per person, and you have 10 people in your party, you could potentially save $30 on just ONE meal.   A few meals and a few trips later, your card is more than paid for!

While the card does have blackout dates - the dates are only major holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc). You can use the card all other days of the year! We have already used the card for our October trip, December trip and will be using it on our July trip.    The card paid for itself in October alone.   There was a big group of us at O'hana (30+) and we saved a few HUNDRED dollars on this meal alone (many of us had the card, keeping in mind each card is only good for 10 people).   Now some restaurants will give you a hard time about splitting the check, but most are accommodating.

One thing we learned the hard way (this is what you get for not reading...meaning me)...when using the card, an 18% gratuity is ALWAYS included, REGARDLESS of party size.   The first few times we used the card, we also tipped (!!!), so the server got quite a nice tip. That's ok though...service was good :)

The card also offers some other privileges, such as valet parking at resorts (with dining receipt) and some special events (dinner at the Great Movie Ride, for example).   I haven't attended any of the events, but hope to one day.

Whatever you do, DO NOT LOSE THE CARD.   There is a $50 (!!!) replacement fee for lost cards.   Oh, and some restaurants ask for your ID, and some don't, so no transferring to other people!

Anyway, as I start to make my list of vacation items, this is one MUST have to accompany us...we will be using it and definitely think it's worth it.

The card can be purchased at any of the Guest Relations sites, so what are you waiting for? Get one!

Disney Blog Weekly Round Up

2011-06-10T10:48:00.000-04:00

Here are a few of the blog postings and Disney community happenings I found interesting this week...

The Be Our Guest Podcast crew held a 12-hour live podcast to benefit Give Kids the World. They did an excellent job and raised $5,300.00.

Jessica (@Lady_Aurora) has a great write-up on the Fantasyland Expansion at the Magic Kingdom.

Jen (@DizneyDreamer) has a piece up on how 'Ohana Means Family.

Todd (@tperlmutter) wrote on the Touring Plans blog about the new Phineas and Ferb Meet Up.

Kristin (@Mom_and_Mouse) has two good pieces up at The Daily Disney on Disney World adding QR codes to Photopass and tips for your summer trip to Disney World.

"My Yard Goes Disney" premiered this past Monday and it was an amazing show. The Disney Parks blog has a great write-up on the show from one of its Producers. Be sure to check it out every Monday on HGTV.

Disney legend Wally Boag passed away-- The Dis Unplugged has a great piece on Wally's impact at Disneyland and across the entire Disney universe.

Right here at Disney Family Man-- We had a write up on Disney's new Kinect game that takes you around Disneyland announced at E3 and we also announced our newest contributor Jim (@JimGarth).

Song of the Day: Circle of Life... Bluegrass Style!

2011-06-08T10:45:00.000-04:00

The Newest Contributor to Disney Family Man

2011-06-08T09:25:00.000-04:00

As many of you know the past six months have been extremely busy in my personal life with the birth of my third son in February and finishing my graduate degree in May. With life finally calming down I have begun working on several new ideas for this blog and other Disney projects I am fortunate enough to be a participant.

The first step in building out the blog is adding new contributors to our ranks-- expanding on the content provided from the perspective of a Disney addicted dad.

I am proud to announce that the first new contributor joining the ranks here will be Jim DeMarco (@JimGarth). Jim is is a family man from New Jersey with an amazing wife (though she drives like she belongs in NASCAR) and two wonderful kids. He has probably been to Disney World more times than 99.99999% of the world and keeps going back for more. Jim is as passionate about Disney and his family as any man I know. He will be a welcome addition to this blog and I hope you all will welcome him with open arms.

Look for more announcement to come in the future for the blog. Our goal is to build up a community of people that love to talk about family life and Disney-- both individually and together. And if you are ever interested in being a part of our team feel free to DM me on Twitter (@RobOnDisney).

Two Disneyland Legends Pass Away

2011-06-06T09:47:00.000-04:00

Over the past weekend two legends of the Disney universe passed away.

Wally Boag and Betty Taylor were both veterans of the Golden Horseshoe Revue, an original Disneyland show that ran for over 30 years.

Before joining the Revue, Boag was an established performer who had participated in travelling revues around the world. He had even performed with Julie Andrews, when she was a child, at the London Hippodrome. Walt was a big fan of Boag and had him voice Jose in the Enchanted Tiki Room, participate in the development of the Haunted Mansion and appear in movies such as The Absent Minded Professor and the Son of Flubber. Boag's comedic skills were well respected and cited as the inspiration for other comedians.

Taylor was the leading lady of the Revue. A trained dancer and musician, she auditioned for the role while living in Los Angeles as a drum player for a musical group. She took to the stage for 30 years performing the role of Slue Foot Sue. She performed for USO Tours and appeared in Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.

The Golden Horseshoe Revue holds the record for the longest running show-- ringing in over 40,000 performances. Walt and Lillian even celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary by watching the show a few days before Disneyland opened to the public.

Both of these individuals had a lasting impact on the history of the Disney we all have come to know and love. May they rest in peace.

Explore Disneyland from Your Home Using Your Kinect

2011-06-06T08:52:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow marks the kick off of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)-- the conference where the latest gadgets, toys and game are rolled out by the electronic entertainment industry.

Following on Bob Iger's comments last week at D9, USA Today is reporting that one of the new games coming to market (and to be debuted at E3) will be Kinect Disneyland Adventures. This game will allow you to use your Kinect to walk through a virtual Disneyland and do a number of activities like meet characters and ride some of the attractions. During the announcement, and at E3, there will be a demo that features Peter Pan's Flight.

This sounds like an interesting concept, but I must say I am a little hesitant to get super excited. If the game is in-depth and the attractions offer some type of game centered around the storyline vs just watching a digital video of the ride it could be lots of fun. Disney does not have the best track record on the gaming side, but if they hit this concept right there is a great deal of potential. And as always with Disney-- if you can leverage your property across platforms you will have much more success beyond just selling a game.

Disney Continues Efforts to Re-Tool Online Presence, Grow Revenue Streams

2011-06-02T16:08:00.000-04:00

This morning Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Company, took to the stage at All Things D to discuss the companies plans for expansion in the digital entertainment field. A few of the highlights from Iger's comments...

On the impact of digital channels for content distribution:

If I look back seven years ago, we were in businesses that were relatively low-growth, and hadn’t changed in a long time. For instance, in movies, not much had happened since VHS, then DVD. Same with TV. But suddenly we were looking at the video iPod. And the lightbulb went off in my head: This could be what VHS was to our business, the same kind of potential. “An entirely new opportunity to monetize our capital investment in content.

The re-launch of Disney.com:

Disney.com will become a “destination to learn about all things Disney, and consume our content directly.” Will have a subscription service available, and advertising, and pay-per-view content, and content available on a micropayment basis as well.

Iger would not commit to a firm timeline on the re-launch of the new Disney.com

On the impact of iTunes to the Disney business and future use of similar delivery services:

It’s been quite successful, but we’re only looking at the tip of the iceberg. Traditional media still makes much more money than any digital. “Pirates of the Caribbean 4″ is about to pass $700 million worldwide. Digital doesn’t do anything like that that quickly.
Tablet is going to revolutionize the filmed entertainment business. On the way here, I was reading ATD on the iPad, and watching the French Open via the ESPN app. A few years ago, you couldn’t do that.

How the digital world has changed the movie business:

It’s become a less forgiving business. There’s no room anymore for mediocrity, and failure is more evident than it ever was.” Home video has changed a lot–you only buy something unless you really like it, because you have a lot more competition for your time. We’re different because kids watch our movies 50, 60 times, and that’s fine with parents, because it occupies their time.

On the new park in Shanghai

300 million people live within hours of Shanghai. It’s going to be huge for us. Investing in tech to make theme parks more compelling. Will create “personalized experiences” in Orlando. Ability to customize stuff in advance–you’ll be able to reserve ride time. Shanghai will reflect changes we’re making in our existing parks, too.

Gaming potential for Disney

Games are growth business. We’ve made some mistakes, which we’ve acknowledged. Some on the creative front, some on strategy. Spent too much on consoles, now trying to catch up on social games, a la Zynga. We’ll do new stuff that won’t be based on existing Disney brands. We took a break because things weren’t good enough, but have since started releasing new stuff. Gardens of Time is a top-10 game, very addictive.

The positive item in Iger's comments is a continued desire to improve and learn in the digital space. Disney has made many disastrous investments in the past with the Go.com project as well as investment in some not-so-successful gaming opportunities. Iger gives the impression that Disney has learned from those mistakes and while they are playing catch up (as would any corporate bureaucracy the size of Disney) they will be smart about their investments.

As Iger hints at, Disney is in the movie business but its model is slightly different due to the family oriented nature of the majority of their products. This will allow Disney to continue to see some success in the video sales area (DVD, Blu-Ray), but to reach full revenue potential they must utilize opportunities like Netflix, iTunes or even a re-tooled Disney.com to capture all business streams.

For the LA Times review of Iger's comments you can also visit here.

It Seems Quiet to Me-- What Do You Want Next?

2011-05-31T20:42:00.000-04:00

The past year or so for the Disney community has been busy...

We've recently seen Disney Cruise Line launch the DISNEY DREAM and announce some great new itineraries.

We've seen the announced expansion and additions of Fantasyland at Disney World and California Adventure-- most coming online over the next year or two.

Star Tours II has launched.

A new Value Resort is under construction at Disney World.

And DVC is about to open the Aulani Resort in Hawaii-- a great addition to the Disney portfolio.

But now I feel like we're in a bit of a lull. We've seen announcement after announcement roll out. One great attraction or event after another. Now it just seems like there is nothing out there-- we're just waiting for all the planned items to be completed.

So what's next? What would you like to see Disney announce next? And what if any rumors have you heard of announcements for the upcoming D23 Expo?

DVC Satisfaction Dropping?

2011-05-30T18:16:00.000-04:00

The fine folks at DVCNews.com are reporting that DVC has recently seen a drop in member satisfaction as measured by Market Metrix. The numbers slid from 92% in the 4th quarter of 2010 to just shy of 88% at the end of the 1st quarter of 2011.

While the current numbers are still high for the time share industry, the drop is more than just a statistical anomaly.

So why have we seen the numbers drop? DVC has made it a point to announce new concepts such as online booking, but have also pulled back in areas like valet parking. DVC also seems to be behind the times in what are now basic items for mid-level hotels like in room WiFi-- or even the online booking option for that matter.

What do you all think? Is your level of satisfaction with DVC declining?

Want to Learn More About DVC? Check Out Webcast on Aulani

2011-05-06T11:28:00.000-04:00

DVC is now accepting sign ups for the Aulani webcast featuring Samantha Brown. Participants get a pretty cool lithograph of Goofy surfing.

My wife and I love doing these webcast. You get to learn all about the newest Disney resorts and the lithographs you receive for participating are actually pretty nice. While the focus will be Aulani, the general concept of DVC is reviewed and the information is great if you want to learn more about the program, but buy elsewhere.

More Rumors on Disney in DC

2011-05-05T09:33:00.000-04:00

Last week Dreamworks and Gaylord made an announcement that the Dreamworks characters would start appearing at select Gaylord locations around the country. This includes the massive Gaylord Conference Center at National Harbor, just outside of Washington, D.C.

This means that while Disney beat Dreamworks to the punch at National Harbor, the lack of activity in construction at the Disney property lets Shrek will plenty of time with the kids of the DC area before Mickey actually shows up. Until there is a clearer picture of the Aulani performance we probably won't hear an official announcement on the Disney National Harbor Project.

On the rumor front-- I have heard from several sources who work at National Harbor and the developer of the property (who will most likely build the Disney site) that the two sides recently made an agreement on "next steps" for Disney's project. No firm design yet, but they appear to have a framework in place to move forward with the concept. The project will almost certainly include a DVC component, but they have not decided how much of the resort will be part of the program.

Wyndham already offers a timeshare program at National Harbor.

Accomplishment, Growth and Appreciation...

2011-04-19T09:47:00.000-04:00

So I have done it... Last night I turned in and pitched my final graduate school project. This time next month I will be handed my shiny new piece of paper that says I have a Masters Degree from Georgetown, unfortunately it will be written in latin so you just have to trust me that is says what I claim.

The past 20 months of life have had their ups and downs-- lots of stress and lots of accomplishment all at the same time. While school was a constant my world kept changing. My professional life changed from being a self-employed consultant to having a full-time regular gig. My family bought a home and moved further into the suburbs. And, most importantly, we welcomed a new son into our lives this past February. At the same time my other boys kept growing into the amazing men they will be one day.

I feel like I have truly grown as a person over the past 20 months. I feel I am a better father, a better professional, someone with a better understanding of the bigger picture in life and, most importantly, a better husband. While I did not get all of that from Georgetown, the combined experiences of the past 20 months helped me grow as a person and for that I am thankful.

While determination and hard work made much of this possible, they were not the foundation of my accomplishment. The foundation of any personal, professional or academic success I have had over the past five years has been my lovely bride. Without her love and support I would not be where I am today. She truly is the love of my life, my soul mate, my best friend and my rock. I am blessed to have her in my life and look forward to celebrating our fifth anniversary this Friday.

And thank you to all of you who read the blog and interact with me on Facebook and Twitter. You guys have helped me a lot through tough class nights, family medical scares and other moments of stress. You've shared with me the joy of my third sons birth and many other personal moments of the past 20 months.

Blogging will pick back up here now that school is coming to a close. Stay tuned for some new projects I will be pursuing beyond this blog and my bi-weekly pieces over at The Disney Driven Life.

Randomness...

2011-04-01T13:02:00.000-04:00

First, the ADR window is quickly approaching for the Epic October 2011 trip. I am really fired up about that! If anyone would like to join in on some of the ADR's my friends and I are planning shoot an e-mail or DM.

With Epic October I have started a new page on the site showing folks who will be attending, their twitter names and what (if any) race they will be running. I think this will be a good opportunity for people to get an idea of how big this trip is and hopefully allow you to reach out and plan stuff with folks. As events get announced by various groups I will add them to the page.

Finally, my good friend and co-contributor on DVC over at Disney Driven Life has a posting up about Wilderness Lodge, her home resort. My family and I are big fans of that resort. I recommend you head on over and check it out.

More Grand Floridian Rumors-- Is DVC Going to Become too Expensive?

2011-03-23T15:53:00.000-04:00

The folks over at the Daily Disney are jumping in on all the Grand Floridian DVC talk that has set many Disney fan websites abuzz this week. This after DVCNews and WDW Magic both posted stories regarding the leaked permit filings for a new seven story building adjacent to the Grand Floridian.

The fine folks over at Mouse Planet also put up further details to include the speculation that several floors of the existing Grand Floridian would be converted into DVC as well. DVC has done that once before with the Jambo House portion of the Animal Kingdom Villas that opened in 2007.

So far though I have seen a tepid response to the proposal. Grand Floridian is the most expensive Disney resort, so I would be shocked if the price per point to buy in were lower than the current BLT pricing. I also expect the point chart to align with the point intensive cost you see at Bay Lake Tower.

My fear here is that Disney will continue to focus on resorts that are both more expensive to buy into and require more points to stay. This will of course maximize the bottom line for Disney, but you will also start to see a wider disparity in who can afford to buy in to DVC and who cannot. I know right now my family could not have afforded BLT, even when it was the same price as AKV, because the cost for the number of points we'd need to stay on a regular basis were just way too high.

I hope at some point DVC takes this under consideration and really looks at developing a location where the economics are similar to AKV. The best thing about DVC for its members is the ability to make regular trips to Disney affordable for the average family over the long term-- I hope they do not lose sight of that quality.

DVC at Grand Floridian???

2011-03-17T22:33:00.000-04:00

So one of our favorite things to do here at Disney Family Man is speculate about future DVC resorts-- a Utah ski resort, a resort by the old River Country, th proposed Disney hotel near Washington, DC, and even some talk of a California themed resort near Coronado Springs.

Today the fine folks over at DVCNews.com ran a story about a Disney permit application for a new building between the Grand Floridian and the wedding pavilion. Could this be the long anticipated next DVC resort at Disney World?

This site presents something that River County and Coronado Springs sites do not offer-- monorail access.

Bay Lake Tower continues to charge both a premium on cost to buy-in and a premium on point-per-night to stay at the resort. Despite this it still vastly out sells Animal Kingdom Villas and Saratoga Springs. Why? Monorail access and the Magic Kingdom views.

From a business perspective it makes perfect sense for Disney to utilize its open real estate on the monorail for a DVC resort that maximizes their profit. It also makes sense to construct any DVC resort to maximize views that allow for premium point charges. The Grand Floridian location and the way the building is set on the property takes advantage of both selling points. This means more $$$$ for Disney!

I for one would look forward to a Grand Floridian or Poly DVC location. Honestly it is probably the only way I'd stay at either location due to the rack rate for rooms.

What do you all think?

Animal Kingdom Review at Mouse Planet

2011-02-28T09:38:00.000-05:00

Steve Russo over at Mouse Planet offers a review of the Animal Kingdom Villas. Great review. And since this is my family's favorite resort (and our main home contract) I thought I would share.

And if you haven't yet, please check out my first column over at the Disney Driven Life.

My Latest Disney Project...

2011-02-22T17:54:00.000-05:00

So as a Disney fanatic I am constantly looking for new channels through which to express my love for all things Disney. This is especially true as it relates to my fondness, and borderline obsession, with the Disney Vacation Club.

Well, as announced on a recent Innermouse vidcast, I will be joining the team over at the Disney Driven Life as one of two DVC correspondents. I am really looking forward to this new challenge and hope you all will stop by to read my columns when they are posted.

And while you're over there make sure to join the DDL community, check out some of the other contributors and 'Be Counted'.

Announcing Jacob Alexander

2011-02-16T10:37:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday our family grew by one as Jacob Alexander was welcomed into our family.

Jake came in at 8lbs, 10ozs and 20.5 inches long. BIG BABY! Mom was only in labor for about three hours-- apparently he was in a big hurry to come out and say hello to the world.

So now we have a third kid to infect with the love for Disney. We're going to do our very best to make sure he follows the path to true Disney-ness! Thank you all for you love, support and prayers over the past nine months.

Disney Announces Changes to Wine and Dine Half

2011-02-09T13:37:00.000-05:00

Today the folks over at RunDisney announced a few changes to this years Wine and Dine Half Marathon. 2011 will be the second year of the event.

Dear Fans. . .

Thank you for being such enthusiastic supporters of Disney events. Our Disney team has been busy over the past few months with the WALT DISNEY WORLD Marathon Weekend presented by CIGNA and this month’s Disney Princess Half Marathon presented by Lady Foot Locker. We’re off to a great start in 2011, and expect to see continued success with the Disneyland Half Marathon in September and then the return of the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend at WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort September 30-October 1.

As a listening company, we constantly seek input from our guests so that we can make the guest experience even better. In the spirit of that commitment, the Disney team has been working on changes to improve your experience at the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon.

First, you may be pleased to note that the post-race party will be expanded to include a variety of Epcot attractions and many more food and beverage locations. In addition, the half marathon finish line will be moved to just outside the main entrance to Epcot. Our intent is to provide more space for the finish itself, a larger spectator viewing area, and a greatly expanded baggage claim operation. Different from the WALT DISNEY WORLD Marathon and Disney Princess Half Marathon events, the Wine & Dine Half Marathon finish area will be in a parking area adjacent to the Epcot main entrance, allowing for easy access to the post-race party inside the park.

I wanted to personally share these updates to assure you that we value your feedback and are committed to making every Disney race a world-class experience for you and your families. We expect to have exciting entertainment enhancements to share among other surprises, both during the race and during the post-race party, so stay tuned for more news on the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon and all Disney events in the coming months. We look forward to seeing you at the finish line.

Yours in running,

Ken Potrock
SVP, Disney Sports Enterprises

During #EpicOctober last year I had the pleasure of attending the Finish Line party in support of a friend who was running the half marathon. The vibe at the event was awesome and we enjoyed the food and drinks. Then a problem happened-- the runners started to finish. All of the sudden the whole place got super packed and the event went from enjoyable to a mosh pit near the finish line.

Needless to say I love these changes. I think it will make for a much better experience for everyone involved in the race, though it may knock out the leg of the run by the Beach Club, which would be disappointing.

Oh and this year I plan on running this race. I am on week 4 of the Run Disney training program. Cannot wait to get out there and run with all my fellow Disney fans!

Disney Income up 54%

2011-02-09T11:20:00.000-05:00

So it looks like the Disney Company is beginning to climb out of the doldrums of the recession. The 1st quarter of Fiscal Year 2011 (October 2010-December 2010) saw a 54% increase in operating income over the same time period in FY 2010. The good news for investors is the performance came from across multiple market segments-- meaning the company as a whole is performing well.

A few highlights of the report:

Performance at ESPN and Disney Channel led to a 47% increase in operating income in the media networks division. This was primarily driven by increase advertisement rates as well as income derived from the BCS Championship game.
Parks and Resorts were up 25%. This was driven by an 8% increase in attendance combined with the beginning of the discount phase out. This number could have been higher had the company not realized some of the expenses for the Dream launch in the quarter as well as a decrease in DCL bookings over the time period.
Studio was up 54%. This was almost entirely due to Toy Story 3 hitting the home entertainment market. During the same period the year prior Up was the focus of sales, which had fewer international markets.
Consumer Products was up 28%. Again Toy Story 3 helped here as well as the incorporation of the Marvel brand and products into the fold.
Interactive Media saw a lose for the quarter. Epic Mickey and Toy Story 3 drove console games, but the acquisition of Playdom was accounted for in this area leading to a $13 million lose on $349 million in revenue (a 54% increase of revenue).

Great results for Disney and some positive things coming down the pike. The demand for Dream bookings seems to be higher than expected and the continued increase in Park attendance coupled with increased fees due to ending of promotions should be helpful. POTC 4 could be the big studio player this year to help keep those revenue numbers near the Toy Story 3 level. All-in-all its a good time to be a Disney stockholder and the positive financials are always good for those looking to see improvements at the Parks.

DVC Continues to Shift Price and Economics

2011-01-30T22:22:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago we saw the long rumored shift in DVC policy towards the resale market. Basically, if you buy DVC on resale after March 21st you will not have access to the Disney offerings outside of direct DVC resorts. Cruises, Adventures by Disney, foreign parks, etc will not be open to book with points. All-in-all I see no huge effect on the use of DVC, but the perceived shift may lower the value of resales.

Now DVC is rumored to be raising the price of Bay Lake Tower to $140 a point. Many existing members who attended sales presentations were being told that BLT would sell out by the end of 2010. The December 1st price increase, along with the upcoming rumored increase, might be Disney's attempt to slow down the sales of existing BLT contracts and push buyers towards Aulani and Animal Kingdom Villas.

As I have said before-- I do not think we will ever see a time when DVC does not have a resort for sale at Disney World. The price increase move, coupled with upcoming resale restrictions, will make Aulani a more attractive purchase for folks and perhaps artificially inflate that resorts sales. It would also help reinvigorate the sluggish Animal Kingdom Villas.

2011 Cast Member Pins Announced... Let the Hidden Mickey Hunt Begin!

2011-01-21T21:46:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Disney World officially announced part #1 of the 2011 Cast Member/Hidden Mickey collection.

It's interesting that they are rolling out only a few of the series in the collection to begin the year. They are returning the "Good Pins" series that debuted in 2010. This years characters feature Daisy, Professor Ludiwg Von Drake, Chip, Dale and Figment (eh...).

There is also a "Cute Yeti" series-- wish they'd focus more time on getting the real Yeti back at Expedition Everest then creating cute pins for the character.

They are going back to another 2010 series, and my personal favorite, a park icon series. I especially love the Adventurers Club icon in the collection.

And the final series that caught my eye-- the "D Series", which features each of the big five characters inside a letter D with "40" behind their face. Obviously this series is focusing on it being the 40th anniversary of Disney World in 2010.

So with another year our family will be out in search of completing these Hidden Mickey series.

What pins catch you eye in the 2010 series?

DVC's New Policy on Resales-- What Does it Mean?

2011-01-18T13:05:00.000-05:00

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know I am a big proponent of purchasing DVC through the resale marketplace. My wife and I purchased a 50-point contract this fall at Saratoga Springs and could not have been happier with the price or the experience.

For a while there have been various rumors about DVC introducing some form of a loyalty program based on number of points owned or the source of purchase (direct vs resale). Well today it happened with the following announcement of the Member Services website:

Disney Vacation Club® has announced a new policy that limits access to certain Member Getaways exchanges for Ownership Interests purchased on the secondary market (also known as the re-sale market).

Under the new policy, Members who purchase from anyone other than Disney Vacation Development, Inc., on or after March 21, 2011, will not be eligible to use those Vacation Points to make reservations within the Concierge Collection, the Disney Collection or the Adventurer Collection. Those Vacation Points will instead be valid only for reservations at Disney Vacation Club resorts, as well as for RCI® exchanges, Club Cordial and Club Intrawest.

The affected collections are special Member benefits programs offered by Disney Vacation Development, Inc., and are not part of Members' Ownership Interests. That said, Members who purchased on the secondary market prior to March 21, 2011, may use those Vacation Points for all Member Getaways.

Note that the policy doesn't impact banking, borrowing or transferring Vacation Points. All Members will continue to have the ability make such transactions, regardless of where they purchased their Ownership Interests.

Now the question at hand is-- what does all this mean?

Resale contracts will see no change in the actual DVC ownership properties and relevant trades through the RCI program. You will lose the ability to book at non-DVC hotels run by Disney, Disney Cruise Line and the Adventures by Disney with your DVC points.

At the end of the day I see little real world loss here. Using points to book at non-DVC resorts on property at Disney World and Disneyland are not the best use of your DVC points. The Adventures by Disney and Disney Cruise options for points are ASTRONOMICAL!

As an example-- Our Oct 13 DCL 3-day cruise would cost us 253 points, more than our annual allotment, but cost us only $1800. For thirty fewer points I can get a week stay in a one bedroom savanna view at Animal Kingdom Lodge. A studio savanna view with cash would cost $3,100. The cheapest Adventure by Disney trip would cost my family over 1,600 DVC points for a five-day trip.

The only real loss here is the ability to use points for the non-US Disney theme parks, but how often will one stay at those? I think the savings from buying a 200 point contract on resale will more than make up the difference in hotel costs for a trip to Disneyland Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong or China (when it opens)

Tables in Wonderland-- A Hidden Secret to Save Some $$$$

2011-01-15T21:15:00.000-05:00

So today on Twitter (@RobOnDisney) I got into a discussion with a follower about the Tables in Wonderland program offered at Disney World. This hidden gem is a great way for Annual Passholders and Florida Residents to save money on food on resort.

So what exactly is the program?

By purchasing a membership in the program ($100 for Florida residents, $75 for Passholders) you are entitled to a 20% discount on most table service locations and a few quick service locations. The quick service locations eligible for the discount are at the Value Resorts and Port Orleans- French Quarter-- none of these resorts have a table service option on site. Here is a full list of current restaurants available in the program.

In addition to the 20% dining discount, members also receive complimentary parking. For restaurants at resorts, members get free valet parking all day. For those eating in the park, you receive free parking after 5pm by showing your membership card at the parking entrance. Separate theme park admission is still required.

On top of the day-to-day benefits of the program, Disney often offers private member only dining events at various locations. These usually involve special menu's with multi-course meals that get excellent reviews from members. Here is the information for one coming up in just a few weeks.

Our family joined the program this past summer and it has been wonderful. As DVC members and Passholders we could never take advantage of the Free Dining offers over the past two years. This program made table service options much more economical. We found that after three meals the card was completely paid for and everything after was pure savings. I'd estimate at this point we've saved nearly $200 through the program. And without the program we probably never would have fallen in love with restaurants like O'Hana.

So there is it-- an often unknown, but wonderful way to help save a few more dollars at Disney World.

UPDATE: A friend on Twitter made an excellent point I forgot to add-- alcohol is eligible for the discount. This means you can use it to buy drinks at the Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower.

This post is part of the Disney Blog Carnival. Head over there to see more great Disney-related posts and articles.

Was 2010 a Strong Year for DVC?

2011-01-11T09:05:00.000-05:00

As any regular reader of this blog or avid Disney Vacation Club fan knows, the best source for info on DVC is the website DVCNews. It is a site I refer to regularly to find out the latest info on the DVC program.

Well recently I began diving into their sales statistics page and I found the information provided very interesting. As you can expect sales have been trending downward through the recession. In 2008, the peak year for DVC sales, 24,790 deeds were filed with the relevant jurisdictions containing DVC resorts. In 2010 that number has fallen to 21,187. If you dig a little deeper you can find out the sales per resort courtesy of forum poster "wdrl".

A few things stick out to me when you look deeper at the numbers.

First, despite claims being made by the fine DVC Sales Staff Bay Lake Tower has not sold out yet and is only about 75% full. Realistically you're looking at an early to mid-summer sell out date for the resort, though that might be too optimistic.

Animal Kingdom Villas sales are very slow. The initial depression seemed to be driven by the drop is the Saratoga Springs price, but with those prices now being equal with AKV the sales are picking up some. Even with the up-tick in sales, DVC essentially only sold three units in the last quarter of 2010, less than 1% of total inventory for the resort.

The question out there is do we see DVC purposefully keeping sales at this resort down while they try and sell out BLT and then bring on line the next DVC resort? As I have said here before, Disney is highly unlikely to have a significant period of time where there is no DVC Resort in active marketing/sales at Disney World. AKV has served as a good stop gap in the period before BLT came on line, is serving as a good alternative to BLT now and would be an excellent secondary marketing option with the current focus on Aulani.

The interesting info I cannot seem to find is the Aulani sales statistics. In many ways that resort is a re-boot of the effort to launch the Disney brand outside of the parks. Many other options are currently waiting to see how these sales numbers shake out in order to pull the trigger on development.

Driven by Profit, DCL Fleet Expands

2011-01-05T13:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the Disney Dream pulled into its home port of Port Canaveral. There it has begun getting the final touches as it preps for its maiden voyage on January 26th.

Over the past several years DCL has turned into a major money making venture for the Disney Parks division of the Walt Disney Company. Outside analyst predict that once the fourth DCL vessel, the Fantasy, debuts in 2012 nearly 25% of all revenue growth in the Parks division will be driven by DCL. This means that the investment in the fleet expansion is paying larger dividends than any landside park investment-- California Adventure, Disney Studios at Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland have all failed to meet profit expectations.

The cruise market does offer many challenges as well though. DCL presents a significant exposure to the global oil market for the company. With oil currently at $90/barrel, most analysts peg the price between $80- $100 over the next year , with some going as high as $110/barrel. As the article points out, Disney took a $40 million hit on fuel hedging in 2009 and ended the practice of hedging in 2010 (a common way for shipping units to try and save money against rising fuel). Since the company ended its hedging practices oil has risen by nearly $20/barrel.

DCL also faces stiff competition in the market place. Along with subsidiary brands, Carnival and Royal Caribbean control nearly 85% of the cruise market in North America, the most lucrative cruise market in the world. Much of this market is based on adult-oriented vacation clients, with some mix of family.

Disney, focusing on more family-centric market segment, has dramatically higher pricing that must make up for the increased sailing of children and the lose of revenue streams for operations such as gambling. While Disney has a higher rate of bookings and revenue for those bookings, they have below-average revenue for on-board spending per passenger. Even if Carnival or Royal Caribbean gave many of their cabins away for free (off-season local resident rates are pretty close!) they can still turn a profit off merchandise and casino revenue. If DCL does not sail near capacity the sailing will lose money.

Now DCL's competition is launching similar cutting edge vessels and bringing on family oriented acts as well. Its the competitions way of targeting the Disney strength to maintain loyal cruise clients as they get older and begin to have families of their own.

In the long run I think DCL will continue to be a great success for the company. Their growth in market share will primarily come from the same place they've always found it-- convincing people loyal to the brand that a DCL cruise is a great vacation option. I do not see them pulling much business away from their competition that have already secured strong positions in the market.

So where do you think the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy will take the company over the next decade? Do you see further investment by the Disney Company in DCL?

Speculation on a DVC in Utah

2011-01-02T09:53:00.000-05:00

The folks over at Stitch Kingdom have an article up on the speculation of DVC building a resort in Utah. Apparently the online arm of Disney recently registered DVCUtah.com as a domain name, this of course will raise a lot of eyebrows!

Prior to the concept of EPCOT, which led to the "Florida Project", Walt Disney was looking into constructing a ski resort at Mineral King in California. The project, much like the local Disney project by my home, was shot down by preservationist. Now the site is part of a National Park.

So what is the chance of this type of a project to get off the ground? A recent article in the Washington Business Journal touched on this within the context of the National Harbor project announced by Disney last year:

The planned Disney resort is still on hold while the company tests the concept at its 21-acre "Aulani" resort in Hawaii. That park on the coast of Oahu will open in 2011. Disney's plans at National Harbor would include a 500-room hotel on 15 acres that it has purchased for $11 million.

So look to the west my friends. If we see success at Aulani we could start seeing new non-park Disney/DVC resorts popping up at some good vacation spots around the US.

Song of the Week-- A Whole New World

2010-12-31T13:58:00.000-05:00

With tomorrow being New Years Day and the start of a brand new year full of opportunity, I felt this would be a good song to kick it all of with...

My 2010 Year in Review

2010-12-31T11:36:00.000-05:00

So this year has been crazy, but amazing year for our family.

We spent most of 2009 stressing about money and security. After I left the government in January finding a full-time job was nearly impossible (bad time to be unemployed AND a Republican professional). So I re-launched my consulting business and set off down the road of finding work. As a whole the year was successful for my business, but we lacked security. And since I just went back into the consulting world, we were stuck in a time when we could finally afford to buy a home in the expensive DC market, but could not get a loan. There was also the constant stress of health insurance and other benefits that provide some level of family security.

New Years Eve last year changed everything when my biggest client hired me on full-time, 2010 was off to a great start!

In the spring we took several steps that will impact our family forever. First, we were finally able to finalize my adoption of our 10 year old son. While we changed his last name right after our wedding in 2006, the necessary waiting periods and paperwork took a while, but it was finally finished!

On the very day the adoption was finalized, we visited the Doctor to find out my wife was pregnant with our third child. How many men find out their kid count jumps by two, with such an age spread, in the very same day?!

The security of the job let us buy our new home. This is our second house we’ve owned, but we’ve been bouncing between family and a small apartment since the summer of 2007 so that my wife could stay home with the kids. We love being in our own place again that we own.

My wife and I also re-focused our attention on our marriage. We took a cruise together for our anniversary and are constantly finding ways to spend time with just one another. While I absolutely love being a dad, my most important job is being a good husband. And I know being good at the latter will make me even better at the former.

Graduate school continued and I am now just one semester away from graduation.

We took a nice long weekend in January and stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. Good lord was it cold then! We had a great time though and I think I fell in love with the Wilderness Lodge, though I don't think I'll ever get my wife away from loving the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Our next trip came in August. We spent a nice, long trip and took in many experiences we’d not done before with the boys. Whispering Canyon, water parks, mini golf… We spent almost as much time outside the parks as we did in the parks!

We also met many new friends through Disney this year. (They began as ‘Disney Friends’, but have become just regular good ole friends now!) These wonderful people have come into our life and really had an impact on our entire family. They’ve been there to celebrate the good times and help us through the bad.

With our new friends we took two more trips to Disney this year. In October, my wife and I went down without the kids and participated in the Halloween 5K. It was a great time being able to run around Disney World with reckless abandon and no kids to worry about.

In December we took a family trip to Disney World and met up with many of the same people we traveled with in October… This time with everyone’s kids! I was expecting pure chaos, but our kids got along as great as the parents have. I think we’ve finally found the Disney vacation buddies we were hoping to meet when we begin our Disney trip addiction just a few years ago.

All-in-all 2010 has been an amazing year for our family. I do not believe we could have asked for God to have given us a more fulfilling year than this one has been.

Next year will bring us many more exciting times… In February we’re expecting our third son, in May I finish graduate school and in October my little sister is getting married and I will be running my first half marathon. In between those big events there will be plenty of smaller and precious moments that create amazing memories for our family.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this a great year for our family. We look forward to spending another year with you in 2011.

Song of the Week-- Give a Little Whistle

2010-12-17T17:57:00.000-05:00

Bloody Mary's for Everyone! It's on the Mouse...

2010-12-13T16:31:00.000-05:00

So today the teaser trailer for the next Pirates of the Caribbean, "Stranger Tides". The front end features Jack Sparrow talking about the latest adventure he is not partaking in and the back end features about a two-minute look at the movie itself. Check it out below.

Song of the Week-- Best of Friends

2010-12-10T20:54:00.000-05:00

After a weekend with my Disney friends down at our favorite place I thought this song would be appropriate for the song of the week.

Whispering Canyon Cafe Review

2010-12-01T16:22:00.000-05:00

So this past summer the family took a long 10 day trip to Walt Disney World. At the time I laid out a few blog posts I wanted to write and I am finally getting to the one on Whispering Canyon Cafe.

Located inside the Wilderness Lodge, Whispering Canyon is a family style restaurant that makes you feel like you're in the middle of a rowdy western establishment. For lunch and dinner you have a number of food options, all BBQ of some type, but you're crazy if you pick anything other than the all you can eat skillet.

The lunch and dinner skillet

Pulled pork, bbq chicken, ribs, potatoes, beans and corn on the cob-- what else could you possibly ask for in a meal?! Frankly, the food is amazing and you will probably walk out of the restaurant EXTREMELY full and bloated.

For breakfast the fare is just as good as the rest of the day. Waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon and biscuits are in the skillet. You can also order buttermilk pancakes, omelette's and other standard breakfast items. Thought I offer the same recommendation as lunch and dinner-- get the skillet!

But the food isn't what makes this restaurant-- its the atmosphere of fun. The servers will get you anything and everything you want, but slide you a little bit of old west attitude and sarcasm in the process. Several times an hour the kids in the restaurant are invited to do pony rides around the restaurant to loud country music.

While you are there you better be careful-- if you step out of line the Whispering Canyon staff will have no choice but to sentence you to jail for your actions.

Princess Aurora (@roraboriealice) in the slammer

I will say this restaurant has become a favorite in our household. We love the food and we love that our children can act like little monsters and we don't get dirty looks from the other patrons! It's also a great time to sit back and watch the first-timers who have no idea what they are in store for.

And one final tip if you want to check this place out-- be sure to ask for ketchup and order a large size drink.

Some of the Disney Dream Depot Crew at Whispering Canyon during #EpicOctober 2010

WARNING BLT PRICE INCREASE IMMINENT

2010-11-30T19:50:00.001-05:00

FYI folks, tomorrow BLT goes up $10 per point. If you want to buy it you better call Member Services right this second!!!!

I still advocate the resale market myself though. ;-)

The Countdown Begins...

2010-11-28T14:40:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a short week-- five days until we arrive for our long weekend trip to check out Disney World at Christmas Time! That means I've only got to work for four days this whole week, and I am sure they will be a very slow four days...

So what's our plan this trip?

Well we're staying at the All Star Resorts thanks to some great rates we found through Lea (@magicalmousecap) at Magical Mousecapades. If you need to book a trip drop Lea a line! We decided to save our DVC points for a HUGE family trip next fall for my little sisters wedding.

We've secured a few ADR's-- we're hitting our family staple of Whispering Canyon Cafe, taking the kids to O'Hana for the first time and meeting some friends for dinner at Paradiso 37 in Downtown Disney.

The highlight of the trip-- other than seeing our amazing friends-- is going to be the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. We're looking forward to the parade, special fireworks and a little snow on Main Street when its 60 degrees outside.

If you're going to be there for Reunion 2010, with the Disney Dream Depot crowd or just on your own leave a comment or DM me on Twitter (@RobOnDisney) and we can meet up.

What We're Thankful For...

2010-11-25T10:34:00.000-05:00

Today is a day to enjoy lots of food and family time, but it also a day to take a step back and reflect on what we're thankful for in our lives. Here are a few things we're thankful for in the Disney Family Man household...

First, we're thankful for all the men and women serving our country in the Armed Forces, especially those currently in harms way in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world. We're especially thankful for the service and sacrifice of Marine 1LT Robert Kelly, a friend of mine who was laid to rest this week in Arlington National Cemetery after he died in combat in Afghanistan. His father, Marine Lt General John Kelly, said it best at the service when he said, "Anyone who is laid out for his final resting place dressed in the uniform of his country's finest, the United States Marines, and wrapped in his country's flag did not need eulogizing and his life's accomplishments are evident to all."

We are also thankful to all the other people who serve our Nation in other ways-- police, firefighter, teachers, government employees-- they are all patriots who deserve our thanks for making our society work.

We are thankful for our family. Their support continues to bolster us everyday as we face life. And we're thankful that God will soon bless us with our third son Jacob.

We are thankful for our friends near and far. Through the ups and downs of the year you've been there for us. We could not ask for a better group of friends. And to all of the new friends we have made this year, thank you for coming in to our lives and blessing us with your friendship.

Finally, and most importantly, we are thankful to God for the many blessing he has bestowed upon us. Both Jenn and I faced many challenges in our early lives, like many people, and his love and guidance brought us to one another.

=======

Now on a Disney nut note (you knew it was coming) Disney Store online is offering some great discounts today and you can get free shipping for over $75 in orders. Epic Mickey is even eligible for the discount! Get over there and check it out.

Walt Disney-- War Propagandist?

2010-11-24T18:14:00.000-05:00

A few weeks back I mentioned that I wanted to begin writing a few blog posts on who was the real Walt Disney. Many of us who are Disney fanatics (and you know you are) have the idealized view of the "Uncle Walt" based on our own self-projection from enjoying his personal works and the many things that have come from his legacy. Well, I hate to break it to you all, we probably have a thick pair of rose colored glasses when it comes to Walt. And frankly many of the nay sayers of the Disney brand have a warped perception of him as well! At the end of the day the people who really knew Walt were probably his wife, daughters and brother Roy. All we can do is try and find little nuggets of information and attempt to develop our own opinions in an educated manner/

So to kick off this series I am going to make the following statement-- Walt Disney was an American war propagandist. Yes, that's right folks... Walt and his studio produced a great amount of World War II propaganda on anything from paying your taxes, to the nazi brainwashing of children, to the need for superior air power in the war. But why would he do that?

For the the vast majority of the early history of the Disney studio the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was well known that Walt was less interested in money and more interested in producing the very best animation possible. As soon as he felt he reached the limit in one area it would quickly be delegated to someone else in the studio and he would move on to the next challenge. He always pushed the envelope of training, techniques and technology. Unfortunately none of this brought added efficiency and cost savings to his productions, in fact they did the exact opposite.

To fund Walt's vision the Disney brothers poured every cent of profit (when there was any) back into the studio. They built up piles and piles of debt to fund projects and their bloated payroll. Walt always believed his job was to be a visionary and that Roy would find the money from somewhere.

All of this early work led to what many people still feel is Walt's greatest movie-- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. With a cost of $1.5 million, Snow White saw a global revenue base of $6.5 million off its first issue. This was an amazing return and rescued the Disney studio from the verge of bankruptcy, but the financial luck would quickly erode away.

Within two years of Snow White being released Europe had been plunged into World War II. The foreign markets for Disney movies and products had all but dried up. The bloated staff and payroll of the Disney studio required the laying off of staff and the cutting of salary. This led to the now infamous Disney animators strike of 1941. Walt fought to keep the union out of his studio, but he lost. The ill will of the strike led to several key departures and the lack of foreign markets continued to put a financial strain on Walt and Roy.

So how did the Disney brothers keep the studio afloat in the dark days of World War II? Like most companies in a war time economy they turned to the Federal government for work. The work begin with productions to encourage the general public to pay their income taxes and was quickly followed by training films for the US Navy.

Then Walt begin to produce propaganda pieces for the general public.

It began with "Der Fuehrer's Face", a cartoon that featured Donald Duck as a German worker under pressure from the Nazi government to work harder for the war machine. After a series of situations Donald awakes to realize it was all a dream and he holds his statue of liberty tightly. The closing scene shows a picture of Hitler's face that soon has a tomato thrown at it.

This short was followed up by a more serious piece that did not feature any Disney character-- "Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi". This short features a young german boy named Hans from his birth to his eventual enlistment in the German Army. The short is mainly done in german dialogue with an american narrator explaining the scenes.

In total Walt was contracted to produce 32 various shorts for the US government. He also went on his own and produced the film "Victory Through Air Power", a live action piece that Walt felt provided important information to the public on how the war could be won. While not paid for by the government, the film drove policy makers to re-look at the strategic use of air power and had a direct impact on the direction of the war.

So the question becomes, how do we judge this portion of Walt's career? While no one would disagree there was a need to build morale during World War II and the Nazi's needed to be defeated, modern day ethics often looks down upon "propagandist". Does the intent of finding revenue to keep the Disney studio open and employees paid negate the negative connotation the surrounds the production of propaganda? Does this time period show a departure of Walt from the artist to the studio owner and corporate executive? Was Walt's primary drive patriotism or the corporate bottom line?

While we each have our own opinions on the impact and intent of this time period in Walt's life, it does add to the fascinating history and growth of the man whose vision we all adore.

DVC Member Webcast

2010-11-17T16:27:00.000-05:00

Last night the wife and I sat down at watched the DVC Member Webcast. These come around every few months and tend to be nice little tours of the DVC resorts up for sale as well as some special, limited time offers for add-ons.

This event was a little different than past ones. Usually these webcast revolve around a new DVC resort. Last year at this time the webcast focused on BLT (which wasn't new), but talked a great deal about Disney around the holidays. This current webcast focused more on the "Let the Memories Begin" campaign and very little on the actual DVC resorts, though a few minutes were given to a brief tour of Aulani.

Overall the webcast was "so so". I went in to this praying they didn't have Dee V. Cee on again, but in reality she would have been MUCH more interesting than the rather bland Cast Members involved this time around. I guess the one plus is you get a free lithogrpah for participating.

Oh, and the add-on incentives...

They are the same discounts they've been for a while-- $12 off 100- 249 points and $18 off for 250 points and over. The extra perk is by buying off the webcast (or the window they offer) you get a Disney gift Basket ($100 value) and a Disney gift card based on number of points you buy.

100-149 points = $350 Disney Gift Card

150 - 249 points = $500 Disney Gift Card

250+ points = $750 Disney Gift Card

Of course if you read the fine print you will notice that you have to pay an extra $100 on top of your 10% down, so if you planned on financing those points the gift basket isn't really free!

If you want to add-on (or event make an initial purchase) do it now. Bay Lake Tower goes up to $130 soon and I imagine Animal Kingdom won't be far behind if its sales pick up after the BLT price increase.

Disney Fourth Quarter Results-- What Does it Mean for DVC?

2010-11-15T20:56:00.000-05:00

Well from time-to-time adulthood and Disney intersect. If you're a stockholder like me that happens four times a year when the latest earnings report is released. Last week Disney put out its fourth quarter 2010 report and the results were mixed. For the quarter earnings were down year-over-year, but earnings as a whole were up from 2009 by 15%-- mainly driven by the success of Toy Story 3, Iron Man 2 and Alice in Wonderland.

On the theme park front for 2010 Disney saw a 1% increase in revenue, but a 7% decrease in operating income. This was mainly driven by a decrease in park attendance, hotel occupancy and bookings on Disney Cruise Lines coupled with increased costs. All to be expected in the brunt of the "Great Recession" as well as the capital cost related to the Disney Dream and Aulani Resort.

Another interesting tidbit is a slow down in Disney Vacation Club sales. I am certain Disney saw this slow down coming and yet chose to raise prices for DVC recently, with an increase at Bay Lake Tower expected soon as well. This, coupled with the recent sell out of the Villas at Grand Californian and expected sell out of Bay Lake Tower in early 2011, makes me think this is part of a larger strategic decision.

There is little business sense behind increasing cost in the face of falling demand. The only time this is sensible is if one is trying to control the inventory by slowing down consumption.

As I've espoused here before when discussing rumored DVC resorts, it makes little sense for Disney to run out of inventory at Disney World without another DVC resort in the pipeline. Seeing the impact of capital expenses for Fantasy Land expansion, new Disney Cruise ships and Aulani this year, with the new value resort to hit books next year, I would not be surprised if Disney is looking to avoid another major capital expense in the near future. A new DVC resort would certainly be a major hit on the bottom line, even with accounting gimmicks to push the capital costs to out years.

One piece of info that would be interesting to know is DVC's rate of exercising the "Right of First Refusal" for re-sale contracts. If that number has gone up significantly while also raising prices against slumping sales, it tells me DVC is trying to control inventory at existing resorts and will not be building a new property at Disney World in the next 12-18 months.

A Great Blog with an Addictive Concept

2010-11-11T09:46:00.000-05:00

I am slowly expanding my world of Disney blogs and websites. I am constantly looking for the latest rumors and tidbits out there to feed our family Disney addiction. I know, I am pathetic, but its a lot of fun!

I have stumbled across a new blog in the past few weeks that I think is a great concept. Josh (@futureWDWCEO) is the purveyor of Visions from the Fantasyland Boardroom. The concept is simple-- if Josh was the CEO of Disney World (see the twitter handle connection) what would he do to improve the parks. He's hit on several concepts I have advocated over the years and thrown out some new ones I really like.

Would love to throw out two concepts for Josh to pontificate on (or take recommendations)-- the next DVC and a fifth gate. I personally would love to see a villains park with corresponding resorts. Monorail access a must!

So I am tossing this blog up on the links. Give it a read...

The Anticipation that Comes with DVC

2010-11-11T09:07:00.000-05:00

So for the past few weeks the wife and I have been really fired up about Disney. We just booked our newest trip to Disney World. It's going to be an awesome combo trip, five days at Disney World staying at Animal Kingdom Villas (for now at least) followed by a three-day cruise on the brand new Disney Dream. On Castaway Cay my little sister is going to get married!

Well what I find funny in all of this is our trip is nearly a year away! The 11-month home booking window always seems to get us REALLY excited for Disney trips long before we end up taking them. For several weeks before the window begins we're planning, pondering, etc. And on the day we can book I am on the phone with Member Services by 9am.

Funny thing is I know without DVC we'd be last minute Disney planners. We've always just gone on a whim (and still do to some extent). Heck our January 2009 trip I went off and booked on my own two weeks before we left. Now I am actually planning things out.

And there are more dates to get us fired up along the way. At the 7 month window we're going to try and switch to Bay Lake Tower. 180 days before our trip we'll be making our Dining Reservations. And there are many other planning steps along the way that have essentially made Disney planning a year round process!

So who else is like us in planning their trips? Do you get fired up with Disney planning year round?

Buying DVC through the Resale Market

2010-11-06T13:31:00.001-04:00

This past week my buddy Jim and I hosted the weekly Disney Dream Depot chat and the topic was Disney Vacation Club (DVC). The podcast version should be available soon and I will post it on the website.

One area of discussion that came up, and I am often asked about, is how do you buy into DVC? Well there are two main options. The first, just call DVC and let them know you want to purchase. You'll pay the current DVC rate minus available promotions, buy a minimum of 160 points and be a DVC member by the end of the day! Your options to buy are generally only what inventory DVC is pushing at the time (today its Bay Lake Tower, Animal Kingdom Lodge and Aulani in Hawaii) For most people this is how we bought into DVC, generally at the park, because it is quick and convenient. Plus, we probably did not know any better about buying in!

Another option exist for buying in to DVC-- buying by way of resale. This means your purchasing an existing contract from someone who is currently a member of DVC. The contract is absolutely no different than one you buy through DVC directly, you'll get the same perks and discounts, just buy in at a lower cost. So whats the process?

Decide what resort and what use year you want to buy. This is important because you want a home resort you like so you can take advantage of the 11-month booking window.
Search the DVC resale websites-- I have bought through DVC by Resale and had a good experience, but I also check out the Timeshare Store and Resales DVC regularly for deals.
Find the right contract for you-- Is it the resort you want? Right number of points? Right use year month?
If you find one you like-- now you make an offer! This usually entails a dollar figure per point buying (My recent SSR contract I paid $70/pt) and some negotiation over maintenance fee payments (my seller will pay all fees through Dec 2011).
Just like buying a house, the sales agent will take your offer to the seller. They may accept, reject or counter.
Once you've settled on a price the contract will be signed and you make a deposit. The contract is then sent to DVC for the Right of First Refusal (ROFR). In all DVC contracts Disney has the option to match the buyers offer and take over the contract itself. This keeps prices from going too low below what they are selling the same contracts at and gives Disney an inventory to sell points for "sold out" resorts or rent out for cash.
If you pass ROFR then you sign the closing paperwork, pay the rest of the funds and the points are yours! Usually 5-10 business days after closing your name will be in the DVC system and able to use your points!

This process can take one to two months from offer to access to the points depending on how long DVC takes to make an ROFR judgment (they have 30 days).

So what are the pros of each purchasing route? Let's start with the resale:

Can be significantly cheaper! A 200 point Animal Kingdom contract after closing would cost you about $17,000 via resale, direct from DVC would cost $22,000.
Larger inventory of "sold out" resorts-- Want Boardwalk Villas or Old Key West? Best chance to get contract you want is via resale.
Smaller initial buy-in-- DVC requires you buy a minimum of 160 points as a new member. As a new member via resale you can buy as little as 25 points.

Pros of buying direct:

Immediate access to points. The day you put in your down payment you can begin reserving rooms. Resale can be up to two months.
Quicker and easier to find the exact contract you want-- on our recent resale we waited three months for just the right contract, would have taken five minutes by calling DVC.
Financing rates are lower via DVC than most timeshare resale finance options. Two percentage points of interest could eliminate some of your savings. A home equity or secured credit line would probably be cheaper than either option though.

So that's a quick run down on buying into DVC via resale. If you have any question leave them in the comments or catch me on twitter-- @RobOnDisney

My Permanent #FF for Twitter

2010-11-05T08:48:00.000-04:00

So every week people post their Follow Friday on Twitter. I go back and forth on the mass follows versus the personal ones. I always worry about leaving someone out. So now I am just going to toss up this page and build it out. That way I've got one location for everyone I recommend you follow.

In no particular order...

@DizneyDreamer -- Ring leader of the Disney Dream Depot crowd and an unedited, blunt, caring person

@MagicalMouseCap -- Caring, funny woman who also happens to be a great Disney Travel Agent... Book with her today!

@JimGarth -- Fellow DVC-er and Disney Dream Depot member. Fun guy to hang around with and an easy target for some friendly harassment!
@Shaene_O_Mite -- This is a guy who needs to be a Disney Family Man himself! He is amazing with kids and just a great guy to hit the parks with. Amazing friend with an inspirational life story.

@SpareGeek -- The man who was (un)lucky enough to land @DizneyDreamer and the techie behind the Disney Dream Depot operation.

@JL_Davis -- My favorite Disney Cast Member in the world.

@CharlesAguillon -- A great educator, fellow DVC member and one of the most caring people out there.

@njoysiscaretti -- Rarely will you find someone who attacks life with such joy and happiness. It is inspiring.

@RoraBorieAlice -- Want to know how things really are with no filter?? Well then follow Rora.

@WDCCDuckman and @Tink302 -- Have to be the nicest Disney couple Jenn and I have ever met. Absolutely love these guys.

@AKL4Me -- I turn to her for info on vinyls, and besides, we both love Animal Kingdom Lodge!

@BeOurGuestMike -- Host of the Be Our Guest podcast. Great podcast, amazing teacher.

@MarkyMarc70 --Fellow DVC owner and dad who always is a joy to tweet with

@ShaggySteve -- Wonderful man and father who has a heart of gold and a resiliency we should all admire.

@StacyThatGirl -- A fellow Disneyphile who is experiencing the pains of grad school just like me. Inspiring runner as well getting ready for the marathon in January.

@WDWFieldGuide -- Great tips on Disney, especially if you've got kids.

@MrBrettYoung -- Inspiring teacher who helps get people motivated for Running

@CosmicReid -- Funny guy (even though he's Canadian) who also runs a great online Disney radio show

@NDM_1 -- Purveyor of the Disney Driven Life and one of the host of Innermouse.