Favorite Disney You Tube Videos

Do you remember when you were a kid and your Aunt Hilda would come over for dinner after returning from vacation, and she would show you hundreds of boring slides of whatever distant mind numbing place she had just visited? Well maybe that goes too far back for some of you...

What about when your co-worker gets back from their honeymoon and shows you two hundred Instagram photos of various flowers from whatever Caribbean island they just returned from? Why do these people think we care about their vacation photos? We weren't there, why try and comatose us with these pictures? We don't care!

Unless you are a Disney fan, and the pictures are of a Disney vacation.

Now you have my attention.

It's a funny thing about the Disney fan community... Many of us will go out and search on You Tube for complete strangers vacation videos! For a lot of people this is a great way to keep away in-between Disney trips depression. And there are a lot of these videos out there! In fact there are a lot of great ones, that are really professionally done.

Programs like iMovie and Windows Movie Maker have allowed so many people to produce great videos to share with the world. The quality of these videos have improved so much since I made our first Disney Cruise slideshow back in 2008.

Here are some of the favorites I have found recently...

Phil, Emma and Ben are a British family that travels to Disney often. Whenever they take a Disney trip, they take tons of video and post each day in one or two parts after they return. They have a huge online following, and lots of people have duplicated their style. They chronicle everything even the travel days! When I watch their videos, I really feel like I am there with them! Also, Emma is a member of the Disney World Mom's Panel. This video is from their most recent trip, but there are several more on their You Tube page.

This is a very popular video from a family's 2011 trip. What I love about this video is how professionally it is produced. There are a lot of cool effects, and you can tell that the family had an idea of what they wanted to do before they even got to Disney.

What I love about this video is that you can really see what makes a Disney vacation so special. This family has a great time, and there is a good message as well. I also love the music!

Those were just a few great Disney videos that you can find on You Tube. Do you enjoy reliving your Disney memories by watching other people's videos? Do you use them to get ideas for you next trip? Do you have a favorite, or have you made a video of a recent trip? Share them here in the comments section!

Staying Fit at Disney

I want to start this post with a little confession... While I make my living teaching people to play tennis, and have spent the better part of my life competing as a player, I am in no way a fitness nut. I am not the person who feels bad at the end of a day when I didn't "hit the gym." And I am not that guy that you see running from Beach Club across the Boardwalk towards the International Gateway before breakfast. That person would be my wife, and she will frequently get up early to get in a quick run before we hit the parks. She loves it, and counts these runs as a highlight of her vacation. She also loves running along Deck 4 of the Magic and Wonder while the rest of the family sleeps off the feast of the night before! I am trying to embrace running, but doubt that it will ever become a part of my vacation routine.

When we go to Disney (especially the cruises) I tend to indulge. Regular Coke instead of Zero, steak instead of chicken, a burger instead of a turkey sandwich, a turkey leg instead of, well that one pretty much speaks for itself! I also tend to eat a lot more sweet things. My favorites are Dole Whips, Butterfinger Muffins, and Carrot Cake cookies. The funny thing is, at least with our visits to the parks, I don't gain weight. In fact I tend to drop a couple pounds. 

I wondered why this was, and I initially came up with a couple of ideas... The first was that even though I was indulging, in reality I wasn't eating as much. When we are really hitting the parks we rarely eat three full meals a day. We will usually eat one large meal a day, and kind of have a couple mini meals along the way. For example, if we do a character breakfast, we try and schedule it as late as we can so we can essentially knock out breakfast and lunch in one meal. Since most of the character breakfasts are buffets, everyone getting enough food to hold them over until dinner is no problem! 

The second thought I had was that Disney really is taking their healthy food initiative seriously, and they are serving zero calorie food and beverages! Wouldn't that be some real Disney magic?! Since this probably wasn't the case, I came to the third thought... 

Is it possible that we do so much walking while we are vacationing in the parks that I am actually able to burn off the extra calories I am consuming? So I decided to do a little Disney experiment, or a "Dis-speriment" if you will. 

Thanks to Apple's Generation 1 iPod Nano recall program, we had two brand new generation 8 iPod Nanos, with built in pedometers and Nike+ fitness apps. For a couple weeks I used the iPod to measure my average number of steps in a day. On an average day I would take between 6-7,000 steps (about 3 miles). On days when I would teach a lesson or two the total would go up to 9-10,000 (roughly 5 miles). These might be a little higher than some people, I tend not to take elevators if I can avoid them, and with two kids under 5, I am rarely immobile for very long! The next part of our "Dis-speriment" would be to see how many steps we take a day on a Disney park vacation. 

The testing ground would be a five night vacation to Disneyland Paris. During this trip we would be spending 4 full days in the parks, and one day visiting that big tower thing that they have downtown. For the first time ever, on any Disney trip, we would be staying off property, at the Dream Castle Hotel, just outside the resort proper. Since this was a Dis-speriment, I would only measure our steps on park days. This would be interesting. Behold the results... 

Total steps during four days of touring the parks: 97,455

Total distance covered: 47.24 miles 

Honestly, I was pretty shocked by the numbers! I didn't think that we would do that much walking at Disneyland Paris, where everything is so compacted together, but I think it would be about the same at Disney World where everything is more spread out. Again, we tend to walk more than the average park guest. At Disney World we almost never take the trams from the parking lots. Usually this is because we don't like having to stop and fold up the stroller, but also we enjoy walking. During this trip to Disneyland Paris, we frequently walked to the parks from the Dream Castle Hotel, and almost always walked back. It was about a 25 minute walk, which we found much preferable to waiting in line for the shuttle back. Unfortunately there are only a few resorts at Disney World where you can walk to the parks, that might lower our step count there, but I'm sure we would make it up somewhere. We'll find out for sure when we go back late this year. 

So there you have it. My secret for staying fit on a vacation at Disney... Eat what you want, and walk you tail off! 

Disneyland Paris Annual Passes: 365 Days of Magic... Almost!

With only one day before we leave for our second trip to Disneyland Paris, I wanted to talk about something that we purchased on our first trip, that we will be using on all future trips - or for at least until February 21, 2013 - our Dream Annual Passes! If you are looking to purchase an annual pass for Disneyland Paris there are a lot of options, but I'm not going to go into all of those options, I'll leave that to DLRP Magic's webpage on AP's. They do a great job of breaking down all of your options, including blackout dates, benefits of each category, and of course pricing.

When we were researching which AP to purchase, we eventually decided on the Dream Pass, which is the top level of annual pass. We chose the Dream for two main reasons; no blackout days, and a 35% discount on Disney resort rooms. Another nice benefit of the Dream Pass was that since we were buying 5 of them we got a 20% discount on the passes! Boy I wish that Disney World would institute this!

So on our first day at the resort, we walk up to the ticket booths at the Disneyland Paris Park and take the first step towards Dream Pass ownership, purchasing them. now at Disney World when you buy an annual pass that is allyou do.... You go to the booth, pay your money, and get your pass. You can also pre-purchase your AP, get a voucher and redeem it at WDW. At Disneyland Paris it's not quite that easy! After paying for your passes at the park (there is no way to pre-purchase), you are given a pass to enter the park for that day, and while in the park you are required to go to the "Bureau Passport Annuel." This is where Dream Pass ownership becomes a little less magical!

After entering the park we walked to the Bureau Passport Annuel, to take the next step. Upon arriving at the Bureau, we were greeted by a queue that stretched well outside the door of the office. We decided to go have some fun and let the

line die down a bit. Each time we walked past the Bureau we checked to see if it diminished, and it never did. Finally we reached the point that we could wait no more. The park would be closing soon, and we would not be able to enter the park tomorrow if we didn't finish the process.

This was the longest queue of our day, and we waited 45 minutes for Dumbo, and rode Buzz Lightyear without FastPass! This was also particularly difficult with a 3 and 5 year old, who didn't get the pay off of an actual ride at the end of the line! Finally, we get to the end of the line, and finish the process of Dream Pass ownership. what took so long you ask? Well they have to get some extra information from you - like your address - and take your picture.

Now I like that they put your picture on your pass, but why couldn't all of this be done during the first step of the process? Several years ago we bought "annual passes" at Colonial Williamsburg, and they were able to get all of the same information, and take your picture in a matter of minutes! Not the best introduction to 365 days of Paris Disney Magic! I'll trade the picture on the pass for the biometric ID system that WDW uses for the sake of efficiency! I just think that because there are so many options for annual passes at Disneyland Paris, that just about everyone purchases one, and because of that the lines at the Bureau gets insane! I really think that they need to streamline this process!

The benefit of the Disneyland Paris passes are that you get an actual plastic card, with a clear protective cover to store it in! for those of you familiar with the passes at Walt Disney World you understand why I say this. At WDW your annual pass looks no different than any other day pass, just a paper pass. I was always a little miffed that despite spending close to $500 for an annual pass I couldn't even get a plastic card, like my Key To The World Card. Oh well, I only had to replace it once, and that was my fault...

So while I did not enjoy the process of getting our Dream Passes, I have very much enjoyed using them. And when I walk by the Bureau Passport Annuel, my heart will go out to the poor souls using up part of their magical day, but not for long, because there is a candied apple at a 10% discount calling out my name!

Review: Orlando Stroller Rentals

For our last trip to Walt Disney World back in December we had to do something that we have never had to do on any previous trip.... We had to fly 5,000 miles to get there! We were staying longer than we ever had before, 8 glorious nights! In addition to the 8 nights we would spend at WDW, we had another two weeks of flying across the United States after we left Orlando. Now I don't know about you, but when my family of 5 travels anywhere, we travel much like Washington's Army preparing to live through the winter at Valley Forge! You can imagine the amount of luggage we had to bring for a nearly month long trip to America. And since we weren't going to be renting a U-Haul truck to get around, we had to be somewhat strategic about the amount of baggage we would be bringing.

So with that in mind you can understand why we decided not to bring our double stroller along on the journey. Now we love our double stroller, a Combi Twin Sport 2 side by side.

It has been to WDW more times than I can count, and it has served us well. We knew that we would need a double stroller, so we decided to try a service that I had heard about on many Disney Podcasts, Orlando Stroller Rentals. After some deliberation we chose to rent the City Mini Double Stroller, which was $105 dollars for the 8 nights we would need it. We also paid an extra $10 for the rain cover, which was the best money we spent, because it didn't rain a drop while we were there! Online ordering was without hassle, and as promised, our stroller was at the Port Orleans Riverside bell services when we checked in.

One of the things I had heard about Orlando Stroller Rentals was that their strollers were in great condition. Some people had even said they were in brand new condition. When we received ours I took a look at it and thought, this is not a new stroller. It was well used, and not dirty, but it was showing a lot of wear and tear. It still looked to be in good shape, so I wasn't overly concerned, just a little surprised.

The stroller looked very comfortable, and the little ones jumped right in an were ready to explore! Initially, I felt like the stroller didn't handle very well, but I chalked it up to it being different to what I was used to. As time went on I got used to it, although I never felt like it did as well as our stroller. This isn't really a criticism, in general it handled pretty well, it just wasn't as easy to push or turn as our Combi Twin Sport. Pushing our Combi with one hand is pretty easy, with the City Double, not so much. I think this is mostly because of the placement of the front wheels. On the Combi, the front wheels are situated all the way to the width of the stroller,

making it very easy to keep in a straight line. On the City Double, the front wheels are not placed as wide in the front because the stroller actually tapers from front to back, which makes for a tight turning radius, but makes going straight a bit more difficult. Wow this is really technical! One of the great things was how easy it was to fold up, and how it nearly went completely flat to store in the trunk of our rental. That was the reason we chose the City Double instead of the City Elite Double, which has larger wheels.

So how did it do in the parks? It did pretty well. I was surprised by how many people use stroller rental services! I guess I had never paid attention before, but there were a lot a City Doubles in the parks! Our stroller was well marked with our name on a sign, so distinguishing it from the rest was not difficult, but we still attached a couple of leis that we got from our breakfast at Ohana, to make ours stand out. Moving among the crowd was good, but I did take out my wife's heels a couple of times because I wasn't used to the dimensions of the City Double, and even later in the week I still had this problem. (Sorry honey....) It also maneuvered well in the tight confines of the shops. Weaving in between racks of merchandise, and quick escapes from grabby hands were handled with relative ease. one problem that we did have was pushing the stroller over the tracks that run down the center of Main Street and the Hub. For whatever reason, this has never been a problem with our Combi, but on the City Double the wheels kept getting stuck in the tracks, which would lead to a problem soon.

As we were leaving the Magic Kingdom on our 2nd night our stroller threw a wheel. The outside wheel on the front left literally fell off. Thank goodness it was on our way out of the park! We I was able to get the stroller back to the room by popping a wheelie the whole way back. The kids loved it, but I was not very happy that we has lost a wheel. I was worried about getting a replacement for the next day because at this point it was past 11:00 at night, and I knew I wouldn't be able to talk to a person to get this resolved before the morning.

Attached to the stroller when we received it was a card with contact numbers. As soon as we returned to the room I called it expecting a message telling me, "we're closed, call back tomorrow, chump!" I was wrong. There was a way to leave a message, and I got a call back within 15 minutes of leaving the message. I can't remember the name of the man that I spoke to, but he was very helpful, and told me that this happens all the time, and to throw away the entire wheel mechanism, and they would deliver a new one to me by 7:00 the next morning. I was impressed, but also wondered, if this happens all the time, why would you not use a different stroller manufacturer? After replacing the wheel (which was very easy), we didn't have any more problems for the rest of the trip.

On our last morning we dropped the stroller off at bell services, and Orlando Stroller Rentals picked it up. Easy as 1-2-3!

So after our experience with Orlando Stroller Rentals I feel very confident in highly recommending them. The entire process was very easy from start to finish, and when we did have a problem, they quickly and without hassle, handled it to my satisfaction. While I did not like the City Double as much as our Combi Twin Sport, it is a pretty good stroller, and will serve most peoples needs just fine. You might want to look into the City Elite with it's larger wheels however. I don't think that will ever have to use a stroller rental service again, but if we do I will return to Orlando Stroller Rentals.

Resort Review: Sequoia Lodge

It's hard to believe that it is almost two weeks since we left for our trip... But, here is the first post reviewing Disneyland Paris! This is our review of the Sequoia Lodge. This is also what I posted on Trip Advisor. As you will read, we weren't too impressed with the resort. I'm still trying to recover the photos off of a corrupted memory card, so sorry for the lack of pictures...

Where's the Magic?

We chose this hotel because we really like Wilderness lodge in Walt Disney World and heard this was themed like it - maybe 20 years ago! Our room, which overlooked the water (beautiful) was adequate - but not what I have come to expect from Disney. The room was VERY worn, the blankets actually had holes in them, there was more than a little mold in the bathroom, and the wallpaper was pealing. We were in room 4275 - the view was great, so we

just stuck our heads out the window a lot to avoid the room.

The Staff: no magic here either. Housekeeping was terrible, we never got clean glasses, they never vacuumed (evident in the crumbs left on the floor by my 3 year old) and the tissue was never refilled after we ran out the 1st night. Regarding the front desk staff, I rang to request a late check out (we had a late flight), I was told that it was "not possible." I called the day before check-out so I knew this couldn't be right. So I walked to the front desk and inquired again - request granted. Why couldn't my phone call have been sufficient?

The hotel itself looked like a place that with a little love could be great - but there was no love. The lobby on our floor consisted of one, lone sad table discarded in the corner, giving the space an abandoned feel. The front desk/reception area is nicely themed, and had areas that took me back to Wilderness Lodge and the view of the hotel from the water is beautiful, but never made me feel as though I had stepped into the mountains of North West America. If you've been to Wilderness Lodge, you know that it is possible, it is just that Sequoia Lodge doesn't accomplish that.

The breakfast, again, was just adequate - the croissants were amazing, but this is France, surely our room - hard to put a price on that - but Sequoia Lodge put a high price on it. The proximity the the parks and the village was great. With two little ones, it was easy to return to the room for an afternoon nap or get a quick bite to eat in Disney Village. Also, the character interaction at the hotel was great - nothing like turning around to see Mickey Mouse giving a hug to your they can get that right, oui? I'm glad to hear that breakfast won't be included in the rate anymore as we wouldn't have eaten there if given the choice.What was magical? The view from

daughter.

So, why rate the hotel poor - because I wouldn't return. My husband and I checked out the Newport Bay hotel, and believe we will book that hotel when we return.

We're back!

Well we are back from our first trip to Disneyland Paris! We had a great time, and can't wait to go back! There were some truly magical moments, some frustrating ones, and I'll be sharing a lot of both with all of you.

I took hundreds of photos, and lots of video, but a memory card error has stopped me from sharing them. Hopefully, I'll be able to recover them soon, but rest assured, I will still have plenty of stories, tips and comparisons for everyone.

So in the very near future you'll be seeing this content right here at 3 Dis Kids, but if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment, and I'll be happy to try and answer them the best I can. even though this was only our first trip to Disneyland Paris, we learned a lot, and I can't wait to share it with everyone!

Resort Review: Port Orleans Riverside

In a previous post I mentioned that our December 2011 trip to Walt Disney World would be a trip of firsts for us. Today I am going to share with you our experiences with one of those big firsts, our first time staying at Port Orleans Riverside.

While we had never stayed at Riverside prior to this trip, we are in no way strangers to the Port Orleans resorts. In fact, the first moderate we ever stayed at was Port Orleans French Quarter, and even today, it is the resort we have stayed at the most times. At least once during each of our stays there we made the short walk over to Riverside. We enjoyed the walk along the Sassagoula River (particularly first thing in the morning), and my wife liked running between the two resorts. The big (pun intended) thing that we noticed about Riverside compared to French Quarter was it's immense size, and to be honest, that was my biggest concern when we decided we would be spending 8 nights there.

One of our favorite things about French Quarter was how small and intimate it was, and Riverside seemed so large and sprawling. In my review of Coronado Springs, I expressed how the big downside to the resort was it's size, and how far we ended up from the main building. That was a two night stay, this would be eight, and that could be a lot of extra walking! And as the famous quote about Disney World goes, "If you aren't waiting in line, you're walking!"

We spent a lot of time researching where we should request

our room on Port Orleans.org, an unofficial fan site of the resort. We nailed it down to building 18, but not because of the location, but because it was one of only a couple newly renovated buildings in Alligator Bayou. Riverside is divided into two sections, and the other section is Magnolia Bend, which is fashioned after southern plantation type mansions. We liked the theming of Magnolia Bend better, but we had to stay in Alligator Bayou because we are a family of five, and it is only in that section where you get the trundle bed option for the third kid.

As it turned out we did not get building 18, or a renovated room. Instead we were assigned to building 16, which turned out to be pretty close to the main building, so that was good.

We found the room to be in good order. It was clean, and comfortable. But, after 23 hours of traveling from Romania I would have probably been alright with sleeping on the reception desk! We were just across the path from one of the quiet pools and the laundry facility, and the main pool and playground (both on Ol' Man Island) were a short walk away. We liked the theme of Alligator Bayou better than we thought we would. The landscaping was beautiful! Big, green trees everywhere! It was a big change from Eastern Europe in winter! The room had a rustic feel to it, but as I said before it was comfortable.

The kids really enjoyed Ol' Man Island. After getting some much needed sleep, we woke up and (after breakfast) hit the playground and pool. We spent quite a few hours at the playground on this trip, and it kept the little one's attentions very well. Lots of things to climb up and jump off of! The pool was also very popular. The little ones waded in the kiddie pool, while Alyssa and Mom and Dad enjoyed being able to go down the water slide in December! The pool was never over crowded, which I heard can happen during busy times. A couple of times we got food from the food court and brought it out to enjoy poolside. I highly recommend doing that!

While we are talking food, I want to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the food at Riverside. I had heard that the food court was better than average, but it was true. because it is larger, there is more variety than over at French Quarter. I don't remember ever being disappointed with anything I ordered there. I do however remember LOVING the Beef and Blue sandwich I got once, and the Dream Bar for dessert was amazing! Of course, as usual, the kids ate up the chicken nuggets and french fries like they were going out of style!

We also had a couple of meals from Boatwright's, the table service restaurant at Riverside. We wanted to try Boatwright's even though we had heard mixed (to be polite) reviews of the restaurant. It wasn't the best restaurant we experienced on this trip, but the food was pretty good. We got a couple of meals as take out (which wasn't a difficult task, but not really easy either), and what we ate we enjoyed. The prime rib was too fatty for Lindsey, the former vegetarian, and it could have used some more seasoning, but it was tasty. The kids enjoyed the personal pizzas from the kids menu.

Another first for us on this trip was something that we have wanted to do for a long time, but just hadn't gotten around to it... renting a surrey bike! This was one of our best memories of the entire trip! We had an absolute blast riding along the Sassagoula, dodging unsuspecting pedestrians, and ringing the bell for all to hear. We are planning on doing this again at Disneyland Paris if we have time and the weather permits. I can definitely see this becoming one of our family traditions on future trips!

We did have one really negative thing happen while we were there, and that was at Fulton's, the gift shop. I went in to add $100 dollars to a gift card, and ended up getting charged $400! It was a couple of days before we noticed it, but they did not fight us. It did however take several days after we left the resort, and dozens of phone calls to our bank, and to the store, before it was completely resolved. They were helpful, but considering what they did, not very apologetic. It was a dork spot, but it didn't ruin how we felt about our vacation or the resort as a whole.

So all in all we were very happy with our stay at Port Orleans Riverside. Despite it's size the layout and landscaping of the resort does give you an intimate feel. We were there at a pretty busy time, just before the holiday rush, but it never felt crowded to us. The winding tree lined paths were great for strolling around, and being on the banks of the river was very serene. I don't think that Riverside will top our list of favorite moderate resorts, but it did not disappoint. It was a great home base for what was a really great return to Disney World!

The Jedi Training Academy

Here is the first of the videos that I promised to share with you, some footage from the Jedi Training Academy at Disney's Hollywood Studios!

This was not a totally new experience for us, as Alyssa was chosen to participate in the show back in August 2009, when there was no sign up procedure like there is now. (You can see her battle Darth Vader in flip flops here.) And to be honest, I much preferred it the old way. In my opinion it made for a much magical moment, but I can say that because my kid was picked, and I didn't have to deal with the tears that would have come if she hadn't been! I understand why they changed the procedure... It was, and is, a very popular thing, and there were probably a lot of dissatisfied families chewing on guest relation's ears about how their child(ren) didn't get to participate. But now it has just become another line on the touring plan.

We didn't really plan on doing it, but it occurred to me that we could while we were making our way over to Star Tours: The Adventure Continues (fabulous rennovation by the way, but we'll save that for another day). It was our 2nd rope drop at Hollywood Studios this trip, and it was my wife's turn to make the Toy Story Mania FastPass March. We told her we would meet her at Start Tours after she braved the crowd, and since we had time, we stopped by the sign up for Jedi Training Academy. We were not the first people there, but we got our ticket to return and were on our way, knowing we would be back in a couple hours.

So when the time came I noticed that there were A LOT more kids in the show now! I think there were 12 kids on the stage, and another 12 on the ground in front of the stage! How would they be able to get all of these Padawans (Star Wars knowledge) to battle Darth Vader in the

time they had set aside?

Enter Darth Maul... So it turns out, that the kids on the ground level actually face him to complete their training. It seemed like the older kids were the ones that would face him, and it made sense, he was creepy lookin! Smaller kids could get freaked out!

So even though I wasn't able to get that classic shot of Alyssa dueling against Darth Vader, I was able to get some new footage of her fighting the most feared dude from Episode One! No not Jar Jar Binks...

Enjoy the video!

Christmas Day at the Magic Kingdom

So we are now just 2 days away from our glorious return (after a 10 month absence) to Walt Disney World and the United States!

Isn't it funny how as the number of days until your trip gets closer, the days themselves become longer and longer... That is probably a good thing for this trip as there are a lot of things we have to do before we fly on Thursday morning! As busy as we may be leading up to our trip, we are so excited to finally be returning to Disney, especially so close to Christmas!

In the past we have spent Christmas at WDW as a family for. I was a little worried about the crowd sizes because we tend to visit during quieter times of the year, but the opportunity to be in the Magic Kingdom on Christmas morning greatly outweighed any anxiety that I had! To jump ahead to the end of the story, it was a great day (despite the crowds) due in large part to the planning that we did ahead of time.

First of all we decided to stay close to the Magic Kingdom at Wilderness Lodge. Staying deluxe at Christmas time is an expensive proposition, but if you can do it I highly recommend it. The place is decorated beautifully, and it has such a great Christmas feel to it. By planning at least four months in advance we were able to get a great annual pass rate.

Being so close to the Magic Kingdom was key for Christmas morning. We knew that we would have to get to the gates before rope drop if we wanted to not be crushed in the mass of humanity that would descend upon the park shortly there after. So we set the alarms and planned on getting to the park at 6:45am for 7:00am Extra Magic Hour. Hey, it's Christmas morning, the kids are getting up early anyway! If we're gonna be up, we might as well be riding Big Thunder Mountain! We hit the boat to the Magic Kingdom around 6:30, and we were not the only ones on board, but I thought there would be more people! We made it to the gates just in time to catch the opening ceremony, and used the Extra Magic hour to knock out a lot of Fantasyland, and get some Fast Passes for favorites that we would use later. We hit all of our key attractions, and the little ones got to spend some time playing on the playground in the Splash Mountain exit area.

Getting there early was the smartest thing we did. Since we were able to check off all of our favorites early on, if we did nothing else attraction wise for the rest of the day, we would feel satisfied. One of the cooler things we got to experience was getting to take the first ride down Main Street in the horse drawn trolley! People must have thought we were VIPs because they kept taking our pictures and video taping us! From time to time I check out YouTube to see if we show up in anyone's vacation videos!

We entered the park with the plan that we would

stay as long as we felt it was bearable. We had a great time in the park that morning, and headed back to the resort after we caught mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade at 12:30. We never felt crushed by the crowds, but we could see them growing, and we were ready to head back and open presents! When we got back to the room the Walt Disney World Christmas Parade was on TV, so we kept it on in the background as we opened our presents, and dozed off.

So it was a short but very memorable Christmas Day in the Magic Kingdom, one that I will never forget. Later that night we enjoyed a Christmas feast at The Whispering Canyon Cafe, and took the boat over to the Fort Wilderness campground to see how the RV and camping crowd decorated their spaces.

I know that many people have the same fears that I had about visiting Disney World during the weeks of Christmas and New Years, but I have yet to find another place where Christmas is celebrated so fully. I know that 2010 will not be the last Christmas Day that we spend in the Magic Kingdom!

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party: Time for Redemption!

So last week I wrote about our upcoming trip to Disney World (which is now in only 9 days), and how we will be experiencing many firsts on the trip. One of the things that will not be a first for us-but will be the first in a long time- will be Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

For those of you who are not familiar with it, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party is a separate hard ticket event that runs a few nights a week through all of November and most of December. On party nights the Magic Kingdom closes at 7:00 pm, and only people who have purchased tickets for the party are allowed to stay in the park. The party goes until midnight, and there are special character meet and greets, shows, dance parties, two parades, and a special holiday version of Wishes fireworks.

The Christmas Party was actually our family's first Magic Kingdom experience back in November of 2007. We had just gotten off of a 4 night Disney Cruise, and wanted to add on some park time, but didn't want to rush from the ship to the resort. This was a great way to do it. We got back to the resort and relaxed (and napped) for a couple of hours before we headed to the Magic Kingdom for the evening.

Looking back at that night, I had no idea what the heck was going on, or what I was doing! All I knew was that we could get into the park at 4:00, before the party started at 7:00. When we got there we were given a map and schedule of events, but I had not done any prior research of how to maximize our party experience. What a newbie I was back in 2007!

We got to the park at 4:00 and walked down Main Street. This had been my first time in the Magic Kingdom since 1986, when I was in 3rd grade, so it was like experiencing it for the first time! We didn't really take advantage of the smaller crowds and only hit three attractions, Swiss Family Treehouse, the Haunted Mansion, and Buzz Lightyear. I'm sure we will be taking full advantage of the shorter queue lines this time around, especially since it will be our first time back in the Magic Kingdom in 10 months!

One thing that we did get to experience then that we won't be able to this time was a special stage show that used to run in the now gone Tomorrowland theater, Mickey's Night Before Christmas. I'm pretty bummed by this since it was a very good show and was always filled to capacity. Not knowing how popular it was, we tried to slide in at showtime of the first showing (there were 3 or 4), but were told it was full. So we stayed and waited for the next show. I'm not normally a big fan of waiting on line for a show, but this was really worth the time invested. Here is a video shot by the Dis Unplugged from before the final curtain dropped on this holiday classic...

Something that we tried to do unsuccessfully was grab some dinner at what I had heard (and now agree) was the best counter service location in the Magic Kingdom, Columbia Harbor House. It wasn't open because of the party, so we had to hike over to Pecos Bill's which we enjoyed.

We really enjoyed seeing the Christmas Parade (even though someone spilled hot chocolate on my foot), and the special Holiday Wishes. At the end of the post I'll attach the video I made of Holiday Wishes, which is the same fireworks as they show during the party and in late December now.

So we are really looking forward to returning to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party after a four year absence. I am really looking forward to experiencing it as a Disney World veteran , not a rookie!

Disney Mediterranean Cruise: Palma de Mallorca

So we have come to our final port of call on our Mediterranean voyage. Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Honestly, I was a little more excited about this port of call than I think most people might have been. For as small as Mallorca is, the island has produced two men who were able to rise to number one in the world of tennis, Carlos Moya, and Raphael Nadal! I thought it would be pretty neat to see where they came from. Plus we had a beach excursion booked!

We knew we wanted to finish up our cruise with a relaxing day at the beach, and the Disney Beach Transfer was cheap, and it made our life easy. On all of our other 6 Disney Cruises our last port of call was at Castaway Cay, their private island, or actually island paradise. We knew that Mallorca could never compare with Castaway Cay, but it CC's absence it would work nicely!

We disembarked the ship and hopped on a big tour bus. Thirty minutes later we were dropped off in front of a little shop just a few steps from Palmanova Beach. This was definitely primarily a tourist beach, but not on a large scale. There was plenty to do for the half day, but we primarily just sat under our rented umbrellas and relaxed. there were ocean trikes available for rent, which a few fellow cruisers took advantage of, and there was a diving and sliding platform out in the water, which we had some fun on. My dad took a walk with our son to a playground that was on the beach. There were some touristy shops, and a couple of markets that we looked in, and after a few hours we were back on the bus heading back to the Magic.

One of the things that my wife wanted to do on this cruise was the Alice in Wonderland themed tea party. As soon as we boarded the ship she hustled over to Guest Services to get tickets for the girls, and it was something that she was really looking forward to doing with them. While I wasn't there, from the report I got back it was a disappointment. Alice wasn't even there, and it was just apple juice and cookies. But our 4 year old had a good time playing tea party, and it was good girls time, but I think in the future, they will choose to do their bonding in the spa!

That night we decided to take it easy. After 6 nights of great meals in the dining rooms, we thought it might be nice to have a casual meal by the pool. This was one of our best ideas! There was no one up on the deck. We pretty much had the place to ourselves! I think this is the only time I have ever seen an empty Mickey Pool while it was open! We feasted on chicken fingers, hamburgers, tacos, and french fries while we relived great moments from the week. We got a few more pictures of the ship and headed back to the rooms to start the unenviable task of repacking our bags.

One of the more popular activities on the last night of a Disney Cruise is the "Till We Meet Again" gathering in the atrium. You will not be reading about this in any of my writings, because I will never attend it. Honestly, the last night of a cruise is hard enough, I don't want to be reminded by the entire crew that it is time to say good-bye, especially when they play all that sappy farewell music! It would be far too depressing, and I refuse to participate! So you can read about that from someone else!

Not too much to report on from this day. Just a lot of relaxation and reflection. And all that we have left is dragging ourselves off of the ship on the last morning, and some final thoughts to wrap it all up!

Disney Mediterranean Cruise: Day at Sea

Ahh, a day at sea... A great day to relax and reflect... Even on a Disney ship, where there is so much to do this is possible. We were fully planning on spending a lot of time just enjoying being at sea. While we were able to take advantage of the day, it was not quite as relaxing as we hoped it would be.

Lets start off with the night before. I was up late doing some laundry, and noticed that there was a wet spot on the floor near the pull out sofa sleeper. having two small kids who tend to spill things, I didn't think much of it, until I felt a drip land on my head. even at this point I wasn't concerned, we had the temperature in the room pretty low, so it was probably just some condensation from the air conditioning. The room was dark, and didn't want to disturb anyone by investigating, so I just threw a hand towel on the floor to catch the drippings.

The next morning I noticed the sound of dripping water onto the now soaked towel. Since everyone was awake I investigated further. The water was coming from the sprinkler head in the ceiling. At this point I was starting to get a little concerned. The water was clearly dirty, as the white towel now had a distinct rust colored spot where the water was hitting. In addition a room down the hall has a major leak that required severe staff clean up the day before. Before we headed up to Palo for our first brunch experience we called guest services who assured up they would send someone down to check it out.

After returning from brunch (more on that later), and checking on the little ones in the club, it was obvious that no one had been in the room to check the situation. We called guest services again, as the leak had gotten worse. As a group we had planned to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides so we vacated the room hoping that the problem would be resolved.

During the movie we got a page from the club, so my wife went to see what the kids needed, and while she did that she stopped by the room to see if anyone had come by. Again no one had, so this time she spoke with a supervisor and finally after we got out of the movie, there was someone in the room checking the leak out. The crew member did not seen worried about the problem, but said that they would need to get into the ceiling to fix the problem. As you might expect the leak had gotten worse. We headed to the pool.

At some point during the next couple hours things got bad in our room. The sofa got soaked, as did a lot more of the floor. My wife spoke with the supervisor Jakob, again, who told us that he would get back to us soon. He eventually was able to get us a new room, just a few down from our current one, and he told us that he was going to be talking to headquarters about what else they would do for us.

When we got to the new room we had a little surprise waiting for us. Jakob had sent down a package with a note saying that they were sorry for the delay in responding to our requests. The package was a miniature suitcase (probably a jewelry case) that was obviously a stateroom gift for the Eastbound Transatlantic cruise, there were also Mickey and Minnie Pook-a-Looz. They also gave us a pretty nice stateroom credit to hold us over until he got word from HQ.

The room was OK, but it was obviously left empty because it was a little beat up, an not up to paying guest standards. The furniture needed some love, and there were some fixtures in disrepair, but everything was dry, so we were happy! We would be in this room for the last two days of the cruise.

Outside of that excitement we had a pretty good day! We spent some time by the pool, saw POTC 4 (the 4th time my daughter had seen it) as I mentioned before, and just enjoyed being on the ship. It was a fully booked cruise, so it was pretty crowded, but we never felt it got to crazy, except for the line at Topsider's Buffet.

Now about Palo Brunch... This is one of those things that everyone raves about! I have never heard or read a bad, or even so-so review about brunch at Palo. I really wondered how it could possibly live up to the hype. Well to be honest... IT DID! I was shocked by just how much food they had on the buffet! All of that plus made to order brnch entrees as well? It was great! I had the Chicken Parmesan, and it was the best I had ever had. It was cooked perfectly and served on top of a Parmesan Risotto... I liked it so much I have been having cravings for a month! I tried to recreate it a couple nights ago, but it wasn't close... There were two things that disappointed me though. First the Midori Champagne that I ordered wasn't as good as I hoped, and we were so full after our main course that we didn't have room for dessert! Oh well something to look forward to the next time!

So despite the headache of the leaky ceiling, we still had a great day at sea. While they were slow to react to our problem, once they did, we were taken care of. Jakob was awesome! He made it his personal mission to take care of us during the ordeal. He met us up at the Mickey Pool to give us our room keys, and frequently checked in to see how we were doing. A few days after we got back from the cruise DCL let us know that to make up for our "lost sea day" we would be getting a credit to use on a future booking. All in all I think the issue was handled well. And rest assured that we will be putting it to good use!

3 Dis Kids: Mediterranean Magic

My plan was to finish typing my trip report before I finished the actual video, but I finished the video quicker than I thought I would! I must be getting better at editing! Plus it's not going to give anything away...

So without further ado... 3 Dis Kids: Mediterranean Magic!

Enjoy!

Disney Mediterranean Cruise: Naples, Sorrento, and Pompeii

The next stop on our jaunt around the Med is Naples, Italy. This was one of my most anticipated days of the vacation! Today we would be leaving the 3DisKis with my parents, while my wife and I set of on a Disney excursion named "Timeless Pompeii & The Flavors of Sorrento." This would be a great way for my parents to get some quality time with the grand kids, for the kids to get some quality time in the clubs, and for us to have some quiet time.

When we first started planning this vacation one of my first stops was the DIS's coverage of their Mediterranean cruise, "Magic in the Mediterranean". They had hours of content, and hundreds of photos covering their trip, and they have have always been a very trusted source for planning any Disney vacation, cruise or otherwise. While going through their abundance of videos I came across two that really peaked my interest... These were the videos that made us decide on our excursion!

We had been warned on embarkation day that we would be getting into Naples a little later than planned, and that some excursions would have later meeting and departure times. Ours was one of them, so we got to sleep about an hour longer than we originally thought we would.

As we have always experienced with Disney excursions, getting off the ship and on our way was very easy! After our day in Rome on our own, we very much appreciated the hand holding and ease that came with a booked port adventure! We boarded a large tour bus, and soon we were on our way.

Our first stop would be Sorrento, where we would have about an hour and a half of free time before heading to a local farm for lunch, and then we would finish our day with a guided tour of Pompeii.

We winded our way through the shadow of Mount Vesuvius and made our way to Sorrento. We disembarked the tour bus at a store where they specialize in making inlaid wood furniture, but it was pretty much a very large tourist trap (although a nice one) shop. I bet there were 5 or 6 cruise tours all in this place at one time. We saw a quick demonstration about how they make the furniture, and we headed for town.

We walked around town for a little bit. It was pretty, but most of what we saw were your typical shops with things geared for people on vacation, and there were tour groups everywhere! We came to the waterfront, and saw a long drive with a sign for a spa. There was a guard gate and a private property sign, but we figured that since they were advertising a spa they would allow pedestrians in. So we walked down the driveway. What we stumbled upon was an amazing boutique type hotel that had been voted one of the world's top 500 hotels by Conde Nast, The Excelsior Vittoria. we walked in and asked the concierge if there was a cafe, and he guided us out to a beautiful terrace overlooking the water! It was just us and one other couple out there. It was so quiet and restful, unlike the "outside world" just a couple hundred yards behind us! We enjoyed mineral water and a lemon soda with some mixed nuts before we headed back to the tourist trap to catch our bus. This was one of the highlights of our vacation! we were maybe there for 30 minutes, but we knew that we wanted to return in the future.

We re-boarded the bus and headed for the farm. Now being a city person, seeing the actual farm was not high on my priority list. Having a homemade lunch at the farm made from things grown fresh was! Plus I had seen the video, and the rave reviews from the DIS gang, so I was ready to see some cheese making!

Well, it turns out the we did not go to the same farm as the DIS gang... The tour was kind of interesting, but it was really just an overview to buy time while they prepared our lunch. And the lunch was a disappointment. The anti-pasta they served was pretty good and definitely fresh, but the pasta with tomato sauce and ricotta was boring and bland. The eating area was outside in the shade, but there was no air circulating so it was hot and uncomfortable. We did eat with a very nice family from New Jersey, who tried to sell us on Disney Vacation Club. It was nice to talk with fellow Disney geeks.

Now we were off to Pompeii. We we highly encouraged to take a nap on the bus ride, but we were some of the few who did not. Our tour guide woke up the sleepers about 15 minutes before we got to the site to give us some instructions, and more interesting facts about the region. She explained that this would not be the most in depth tour of Pompeii, but we would hit the important parts, and some things that she found especially interesting. i should say that our tour guide was awesome! I hate that I can't remember her name, because she was so personable, and she did such a great job with everyone.

I wasn't sure what visiting Pompeii would be like. After all, i

t is the site of one of the most famous natural disasters in the history of Earth. It was very interesting to be there. It wasn't a living history experience like I have been so used to growing up in Virginia and visiting Williamsburg, and Jamestown. There weren't people reenacting what life was like at the time of the eruption, it was just a lot of ruins. Some were in good shape, some were unrecognizable to what they used to be. This is where having a guide made all the difference. She was able to point out things that you wouldn't even look at, or know what it was if you did. One of the examples that comes to mind were "streets" of Pompeii. There were huge stone blocks going through the middle of the streets, and grooves running to each side of them. Well the stones were to cross the street without having to step in the sewage that would have been flowing down the street, and the groo

ves were actually for lining up the wheels of the chariot so you could drive over the blocks! There were several others too.

After a shot of Limoncello it was back on the bus one more time for the ride back to the ship. Despite the disappointment of the farm, the excursion was still a great success. It was really nice to have Disney handle all of the logistics for the day. We are now totally sold on doing shore excursions! At least for ports where there is a need to venture out further. I also thought that if this $150 per person excursion was this good, I can't begin to imagine how great an entire Adventures by Disney vacation must be! I definitely see one in our future, and if we do another cruise where the ABD add on is available--and all the kids are old enough-- I will seriously consider it.

As good of a day as this was, and as much as we enjoyed it, there was a downside to our excursion. Because of our late arrival, and awful scheduling by DCL we were unable to attend the Castaway Club party for Gold and Platinum members. The party was scheduled for 5:00, and we didn't get back on the ship until 6:00. Why DCL decided to schedule it on a port day is beyond me. Especially a day where so many people would be going outside of the immediate docking area for the day. I understand that these parties are usually held on sea days, and since there is only one sea day on the 7 night Mediterranean itinerary it would be a busy day, but it just seemed to me like this party had become less and less important to them. The quality of this event has gone downhill over the last few years. I had hoped that when they only opened it up to Gold and Platinum members (no offence to Silver members) they would ramp it up again, but they didn't. It is very disappointing.

Sorry for the rant... So that's it from Naples. Up next, a day at sea. Hang on, this one is about to get interesting!