Disneyland Will be Insane this Summer

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Paul

As I stated elsewhere, one of the things I’m looking forward to on my Disneyland trip this September is the brand new “World of Color” show at Disney’s California Adventure.  This is a gigantic new light/water/movie show happening every night, starting in just a few weeks.  From all accounts, this is going to be huge.  How huge?  Well, huge enough that viewing it is apparently going to be a problem.  According to a recent post on the Disney Parks Blog, there are several ways they’re offering to get reserved seating for this show every night.  You can get a FastPass as soon as the park opens.  You can book a “picnic” dinner.  Or you can book a table-service dinner at either Ariel’s Grotto or Wine Country Trattoria.

Now, Fantasmic! on both coasts has a dining package that gives you reserved seating.  And FastPass is available for many attractions (including a couple shows) on both coasts.  And the Animal Kingdom has a “picnic in the park” program, designed to alleviate crowding at the restaurants.  But this is the first time I’ve ever heard of a show having so many options for getting a reserved seating for something.  That tells me that Disney is expecting the crowds for World of Color to be completely insane.  If you don’t do one of these three things, you will not be admitted to the specially-built dining area.  You’ll have to find your own location – and hold it – on the Boardwalk side of Paradise Bay.  I’m willing to bet people will be stalking out there locations here as soon as the park opens.

Personally, I plan on doing either the picnic or the dinner package.  I need to talk to Mike and Casey to get their thoughts.  I don’t want to be one of those people who has to camp out for hours upon hours beforehand, and I definitely don’t want to miss this show.  I don’t know when I’ll get back to Disneyland after this trip.  World of Color is beyond a doubt a must-do.

Posted in dining, Disneyland | 2 Comments

The Benefits of a Disney Travel Agent

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Paul

Up through August 2008, I booked all my Disney trips myself.  Then when Charlene and I decided to do our resort-hopping vacation, I decided that it was maybe a bit more than I wanted to handle on my own (Disney doesn’t let you book separate hotel rooms in one reservation, so I actually had to have three separate reservations created and managed individually).  I decided to try out a Travel Agent specializing in Disney vacations, as I’d heard so much about on various podcasts.

The Travel Agency I contacted was MEI & Mouse Fan Travel.  I filled out their quote request form, and within a day or so, got a call from Stephanie Hudson.  I explained our situation to her, and she gave me the forms I needed to have her agency take over my three reservations.  Since then, I’ve used Stephanie for all on-property Disney reservations.  I email Stephanie and tell her when and where I want to stay, and what restaurant and special event bookings I want.  She takes care of the rest.  Neither she nor her agency charge any fees for this service. They get paid by Disney.  It is completely free to us the end user.

I’ve found that whether or not a Travel Agent is right for you depends largely on the type of personality you have, when it comes to planning your Disney vacations.  If you are the kind of person who just knows what they want to happen, and doesn’t want to have to plan it out in detail, the Travel Agent will quickly become your best friend.  If you are the kind of person who needs to be completely in charge of every detail of your vacation at every step of the way, it might not be the best option for you.  I have a tendency to fall into the latter category.  When I decide what hotel I want and when, I want that reservation made now. I want to have the reservation exist in Disney’s systems now, I want to have the confirmation number now.  That won’t happen with a Travel Agent.  You contact your travel agent, usually via email, and tell her what you want.  Then she takes care of it, and gets back to you with the relevant confirmation numbers and payment requirements.  If you want to make a change to your reservation, you have to email your travel agent again.  You can’t call Disney directly and have any modifications made.  For the kind of personality I tend to fall into, that is close to nervous-breakdown-inducing.   But that’s my failing, not the Travel Agent’s.

The other huge benefit of using a Disney-specializing travel agent is that they are constantly on top of all new discounts that come out, and can and will apply them to your reservation automatically.  That very first time I used Stephanie, I got a phone call one day.  She told me “Hey Paul, guess what, Disney released a discount for the Beach Club.  You just got $150 back for that reservation.”  With no input and no work on my part, she basically had Disney give me a hundred and fifty dollars.  Nice!

If you are the kind of anal-retentive must-be-in-charge need-to-know-every-detail planner, a Travel Agent might not be the best for you.  If you can remember to check MouseSavers.com every day, if you don’t mind spending all the time navigating Disney’s incredibly annoying phone tree to get those discounts applied, if you can remember to set your 180 day countdown calendar to make dining reservations, if you can remember to book Magical Express separately, then more power to you.  If any of those “if”s don’t apply to you, allow me to suggest you head over to http://www.mousefantravel.com, and fill out their no-obligation quote request form.    Or just email Stephanie directly at stephanie@mousefantravel.com and tell her I sent you. 🙂

Posted in Resources, Walt Disney World | 3 Comments

Why We Book Early

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Paul

I know a lot of people who go to Disney don’t quite get the concept of making reservations for dining months in advance.  How absurd, right?  I mean, it’s a theme park, why would I even have to make a reservation to eat at all, let alone months in advance?!

My sister Jessica and her boyfriend Maciej recently took a day trip to the Magic Kingdom.  It was pretty spur-of-the-moment, so of course they had nothing planned in advance.  She texted me early in the day asking where they should eat dinner that night.  I told her that finding anywhere with open availability would be pretty difficult at this point.  I eventually suggested she try Trail’s End.  That’s a buffet dinner at the Fort Wilderness resort & campgrounds.  I figured that was their best bet, as it’s pretty out of the way.  You have to leave the Magic Kingdom and board a boat to go across the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake, and then walk from the dock over to Pioneer Hall to get to the restaurant.  But to be safe, I told Jess to go to Guest Services before they left the Magic Kingdom, to ask if there was any availability.  It turns out there was – at 9:30pm.

That’s why we book restaurants early.

Posted in Restaurants, Walt Disney World | 2 Comments