How do you improve an old classic?

Disneyland - Space Mountain "Ghost Galaxy"

If you have the time and ability to travel to Anaheim before October 31st, I recommend spending some time at Disneyland.  I've been to Disneyland more times than I can count, but never around Halloween.  

I just got back and wanted to share how Disneyland changed an old classic which actually improved the experience!  You can imagine that at this time of year, Disneyland is decorated for Halloween with all the typical decorations and that the Haunted Mansion is updated for the Tim Burton movie, but something I didn't expect was the update to Space Mountain.

They added a new and surprising element to Space Mountain.  For a short time through Halloween they renamed it Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy.  What's different?  Typically Space Mountain has a 70's vibe of what we thought space travel would be like.  You can faintly see the tracks and other rockets because they have florescent lighting that illuminates as you race by each other with beeping noises that supports the 70's theme.

Disney found a way to make the ride completely black, no lighting at all.  They changed the music to a creepy and scary soundtrack.  As you climb up the track in pitch black, a devil ghost is projected on the walls of the ride which makes you feel as if this evil ghost is chasing you.  It's intense as you get distracted on what's the next twist and turn of the ride to ask, "when will that evil ghost show up next?"  As you continue to race in the dark, the ghost's claw tries to grab you, then the evil eye is staring at you tying to see if it can get a glimpse of you....it's thrilling.

At the end of the ride you realized that you experienced something different and thrilling, only to hope that you can get 1 more fast pass to ride it again before the end of the day.

Hope you can make it there and experience it yourself before it converts back to the original.

Happy Traveling!

Why wear the pin?

I would be remiss if I didn't take a minute to talk about Disney's customer service.  I mentioned in the Anniversary blog about the Disney employee who gave us the pin when checking into the Grand Floridian Hotel.  I had already been told by the customer service rep when booking the vacation online that I should take one of the pins and wear it, so I happily explained it was our Anniversary.

What I wasn't prepared for was the level of customer service the employees would show us by wearing the pin.  Such a simple thing that made a typical vacation into something really special.

Everyone who greeted us from the hotel staff, to the theme park staff to all the transportation employees in between would congratulate us on our milestone Anniversary and ask us if we were having a good experience.  Wearing the pin also came with perks.....who knew?

During our meals, the waiter would surprise us with a dessert or glass of champagne.  There was one special event that I really wanted to share.

One night, we ate dinner at the California Grill (top floor of the Contemporary Hotel) around 5 PM.  We went back to our hotel to change and hit some of the rides at the Magic Kingdom at night.  We only had a couple of hours before the fireworks show at 10 PM.  The restaurant had invited us back to see the fireworks from the rooftop facing the Magic Kingdom.  This is something special that they do if you eat dinner at their restaurant, and we didn't want to miss it!

Wouldn't you know that we got stuck in the fast pass line for Space Mountain.  It took an incredible 45 minutes to get through the line and then the ride.  When we stepped out of the building and into Tomorrow Land we could see all the guests lining up in front of the castle to see the 10 PM show.  We had 15 minutes to run through the park, get on the monorail to the Contempoary Hotel, make our way to the 2nd floor to access the elevator to the top floor.  They have an elevator that shoots you straight up to the 15th floor where the restaurant is located.

This would be our one and only chance to see the fireworks show and I didn't want to miss it.  Have you ever gone the wrong way when all the other people are trying to get to something?  It takes a lot of bobbing and weaving to avoid the traffic, not to mention the strollers.  As we made our way through the crowds in the dark, I could hear the employees say, "Happy Anniversary".  We started to laugh that even when we were running past the employees, they would still remark on our pins.

When we finally got from the monorail to the hotel, my heart sank because it was 9:59 PM and I knew that there would no way for us to make the final stretch of the run in 1 minute.  As we made our way around the corner from the escalator to the elevator my breath was taken away by what I saw waiting for us.  It was our hostess in the elevator holding the door open as she said, "I knew you would make it back, I've been waiting for you."  She whisked us up to the 15th floor, escorted us outside the restaurant on the rooftop to an unbelievable view of the fireworks show.  It was if Disney was waiting for us to arrive and then queued the music.  The restaurant has speakers located outside so we could hear the narrator and music.  Here's one of the photos we took that night.

Leave it to Disney to continue to raise the bar on what makes excellent customer service really outstanding.  

Happy Travels!

Walt Disney World - gain special access

Have you heard about the new wrist bands available at Walt Disney World?  Here's a picture of what they look like.  

What makes them so special?  Everything if you're a Disney fan, an organized planner and travel veteran or just a person who likes to save time & money.  Who doesn't like that?

This year we took advantage of these new wrist bands offered at WDW and wanted to share what makes them so special.  Before you even leave your house, the wrist bands arrive customized with the color you've pre-selected and your name.  You can go online and load them with the following information:

• Flight information - the Disney shuttle is waiting for you to transfer you from the airport to the WDW hotel.  No need for a rental vehicle that will only sit in the hotel parking lot.
• Hotel reservations - When we arrived at the Grand Floridian the bands contained our hotel reservations.  They scanned our credit card and this allowed us to use the band to charge anything and everything back to our hotel bill.
• Hotel room key - we didn't have to carry a separate key for the room.  The band was our room key.  We just put our wrist in front of the door pad and it unlocked our room.
• Park passes - no need to have a park pass/ticket.  The band was loaded with our hopper park passes - we just went directly to a special line to enter and leave the park.
• Fast pass to rides:  We pre-selected 3 fast pass rides a day.  We got to ride all the new rides along with our favorite rides that we didn't want to miss.  We literally ran past 2 hour lines of guests to jump directly on the ride.  No wait time!  During the Summer months and Florida heat, why would you want to waste time standing in long lines?
• Meal plan:  We purchased the deluxe meal plan so the band contained our restaurant reservations.  We jumped from park to park to enjoy lunch at one place and dinner somewhere different.  From the Brown Derby for lunch to dinner at Epcot's Monsieur Paul's restaurant in France.  Don't want to carry a wallet or purse?  Great - because you don't have to!  We just scanned our wrist band and the restaurant had our reservations, deducted our meal from our plan and we charged the drinks to our hotel bill.  The meal plan gave us a crazy number of "snacks" which we used for cold bottled waters throughout the parks at the kiosks.  The employee just scanned our band and deducted the water - no need to have anything else with you.
• Photos:  no need to take a camera.  When the employees took our photo throughout the parks they scanned our bands and added the photo to our Disney plan.  When we got home all the photos were available to us online.
• Buying souvenirs:  Anything we purchased - we charged to our bands and had them deliver the items to our hotel room.  No extra charge!  We didn't have to carry bags of stuff around with us, loading and unloading them from each ride.  Hands free - no stress - JUST FUN!!! 

These bands made everything easy & enjoyable.  Question is..."When will the other Disney Parks get them?"

Happy Traveling!

Celebrating a milestone anniversary?

Like most modern couples, it's difficult to come up with new ideas on ways to celebrate a milestone anniversary.  It's not like generations past where you give each other paper, silver, crystal, etc.  Now days we like to travel - to get away from the hustle and bustle of our regular working lives and find a way to reconnect.  What better way to do this than travel?

This Summer we decided to take advantage of Walt Disney World's 30% resort stay discounts.  It had been over two decades since we stayed on property and thought why not take advantage of the discounts.  

Here's what we recommend if you plan to travel to WDW in 2014 - 2015:

1.)  Stay on the property - why?  

• They have a Disney Destinations airport transfer system in place.  They bused us directly from the airport to the Grand Floridian.  No extra stops - directly from the airport to the hotel check in.  No need to a rental car - saving you money and time.
• We got extra park hours.  They allow you to get in early or stay later than the other guests.  For us - getting into Animal Kingdom an hour early meant we got on all the rides during the first 1 - 1 1/2 hours of the park opening up to us.
• Convenience:   When it started raining, we jumped on the monorail and went back to the hotel to rest and try again in an hour.
• Modes of transportation: We took the monorail into the parks in the morning and then a boat back to the hotel.  On one morning we took a bus to the Animal Kingdom directly from the hotel lobby to the park.  No extra stops!!  Saving travel time means more time in the park!

2.)  Wristbands:  WDW now offers a customized wrist band.  For the organized traveler, it's the way to go.

• These wristbands can be loaded to include your hotel room key, contain your meals plans, restaurant reservations, fast pass rides and so much more.  Next blog will contain everything you need to know about the wrist bands.

3.)  Have fun:  Try to hit the parks in the morning to enjoy the rides before it gets too busy.  Make dinner reservations for somewhere nice where you can get dressed up and celebrate.  At night, go back to the parks and see it in a completely different way!  The rides feel different when it's dark.  

Build time to enjoy the amenities at the hotel.  Each of the WDW resorts are different.  Find the one that fits you best and what you like to do!

4.)  Consider purchasing the meal plan:  I know, I wasn't sure about doing it either.  Would there be restrictions so I couldn't use it the way I wanted to?  There wasn't!  We enjoyed fantastic lunches and dinners each day.  We ate at some of the best restaurants Disney had to offer with all the perks of staying on property.  

When we checked into the hotel they asked us if we were celebrating anything special.  In our case it was our anniversary.  They gave us each a pin and encouraged us to wear it.  Why?  Disney employees went out of their way to congratulate us and make our time a special one.  The customer service was really special.  Blog worthy to mention.

What if Disney isn't your ideal way of celebrating an anniversary?  My suggestion is to set planning time aside to select a travel destination that's right for you and your partner.  Just spend time planning it before you get there, so when you arrive all you have to do is relax and enjoy each other.  

Happy travels!