How to Deal With the I'm not at WDW Blues...

Hello, I am an addict. If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time you already know that, it is in the title. I have covered a ton of information about my second "home" and now I am going to attempt to bring us down from the ledge because we are not there. I assume you are not there because if you were why would you be reading a stupid blog when you could be heading to rope drop.

This post may continue into a series because I have so many thoughts running through my head that if I wrote them all down in one entry you could become like Dug and yell "squirrell" and miss something.

First of all there are multiple stages of what I am going to call Disney Depression or DD for short. The first is post trip blues, where you go home and wonder why your magic band won't unlock your door and are amazed at how short the que lines at Wal-Mart are. During this time if you are like me you are busy editing photos and penciling in the details of your next trip. After the shock of not being able to get to work on the monorail wears off you begin to come back to reality and are able to function in "normal" society.

The next stage is the jealousy stage. It happens every time one of your Facebook friends posts their countdowns or pics from the airport with their Mickey ears on or pics of them at Cinderella's castle or in front of Spaceship Earth (you get the idea). Before I go much further I apologize to anyone that I have made jealous in the past by the aforementioned actions. This is about the time I TRY to avoid Disney things which lasts about a day or two, except that a good portion of my wardrobe and drinking vessels remind me daily about my second "home." This is when I begin in earnest planning our next trip.

As I am planning I will begin to seek out WDW pacifiers as I like to call them. You Tube is good for this because I can either search videos that are general Disney or specific to where we plan on staying. For instance I searched resorts, individual parks, rides and/or attractions in the past. These not only calm me down they also give me ideas. Other pacifiers are visiting the Disney Store, which is about an hour and a half away from our home so I cannot go everyday which is beneficial to my travel fund.

The final stage I will write about today is the plans are made and all there is to do is wait stage. This one is pretty self explanatory. Waiting for a Disney trip is like waiting for Christmas which is at the time of this post is 197 days away which means my next WDW trip is 147 days away. Have a magical day even if you are not in the most magical place on Earth.

Dining

I have written on this subject before but as I was making my ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations)  this past Monday for our trip in November (180 days out) I wanted to update the information. The Disney Dining Plan costs $63.70 per night for an adult (10+) this includes one table service meal, a quick service meal, a snack, and the refillable mug. A cost analysis can be made fairly easily. I checked out the menu at Cape May Cafe where we are planning to eat for the first time this trip for dinner and an adult meal (buffet) ranges from $40-$60 (seasonal variations) and that is just for one meal add to that a snack and a quick service meal somewhere else and you definitley saved money on that $63.70 you paid.

Now that I got that out of the way let us look at where to eat. I have had the priviledge dining at a few of the neatest eateries at WDW. I have had pasteries in France, fish and chips plus bangers and mash in the UK, lamb in Morrocco, pizza in Italy, schnitzel in Germany, and Mexican food in, wait for it... Mexico. All of those experiences occurred in EPCOT. Dining elsewhere in WDW has included Ohana's, Tusker House, Flame Tree BBQ, as well as dining with characters across the parks and/or resorts along with eating inside Cinderella's castle. My family and I have eaten on a boat (Fulton's Crabhouse) at Downtown Disney oops I mean Disney Springs. We have experinced the Hoop-de-doo Revuew and gnawed on turkey legs, I have tried Tonga Toast, Dole whips and the aforementioned turkey legs I have even tried the "grey stuff" and yes it was delicious. Casey's Corner and Gaston's Pub has fed us also. What I am trying to hint at is I have a bit of knowledge when it comes to places to eat at WDW and yet I have not ate it all, by any stretch of the imagination.

My family and I as I have stated before are going back home in November and there are some places we have never ate at among our ADRs. Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club Resort along with Whispering Canyon at Fort Wilderness Lodge and 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian are three of our choices that come highly recommended by our travel agent and others. I am going to end this post with my top ten eateries at WDW. Remember it is just an opinion...

10.  Liberty Tree Inn (Magic Kingdom)
9.    Ohana's (Polynesian Resort)
8.    Yak and Yetti (Animal Kingdom)
7.    Crystal Palace (Magic Kingdom) * more for the characters
6,    50s Prime Time Diner (DHS)
5.    Earl of Sandwich (Disney Springs)
4.    Chef Mickey's (Contemporary) (see #7)
3.    Hoop-de-Doo Review (Fort Wilderness)
2.    Biergarten (Germany World Showcase)
1.    Fulton's Crabhouse (Disney Springs)

Well that is it and now I am hungry so I have to make like a banana and split... The rankings as I said were an opinion and when I was done I felt I didn't do my list justice. I left out Boma's, Sci-Fi- Drive Inn along with Raglan Road along with other fine dining experiences me and my family have had over the years.

Thwn again after November my list might change...

How to Plan your OWN vacation to WDW!

Let me begin by saying I am not a travel planner or travel agent, I like to plan my own trips with the input of my family. I am NOT saying in this entry that you shouldn't use a certified Disney travel planner which costs you nothing extra than the cost of the trip, however, I think you should have the opportunity to plan your own trip if you so choose to and you shouldn't feel intimidated in using the Disney website. At the end of this entry there will be a series of video tutorials on how to use the planning website.

First thing I do after we figure a budget is choose a time we'd like to go to WDW. This part includes checking school schedules and possible conflicts. The next thing we like to do is choose which resort we'd like to stay at and check availability for a family of five. Most every WDW resort will accomodate a family of four or less while families of five or more have fewer choices, they have plenty of choices but fewer. Also when choosing where you want to stay keep in mind how you will get to the parks. The closer you are to the Magic Kingdom the more expensive your resort will be (only exception is the Animal Kingdom Lodge) The three monorail resorts, Contemporary, Polynesian, and Grand Floridian are three of the four most expensive resorts. They all have monorail access to the Magic Kingdom and in the case of the Contemporary it is an easy walk to the MK. There are then what Disney calls Moderate resorts and then Value Resorts. When choosing a resort keep in mind how much time you plan on actually spend in the parks versus the room. Another thing to decide is whether or not to get the Dining Plan. I am pro-Dining Plan but it may not be in the best interest for all people. You probably need to do more in-depth research into this but there are three levels or plans Quick Service Plan which gives you two quick service meals and one snack per person per night of your stay, the Disney Dining Plan which includes a table service meal and a quick service meal plus a snack per person per night of your stay, then there is the Deluxe Dining Plan which offers three meals (either quick or table) and two snacks per person per night. Each plan is pre-paid and includes a re-fillable mug per person which can be used at any Disney Resort to fill up with soda, coffee, or tea at no extra cost, they also make great souveniers, we have a bunch of these in our cabinets. One thing to keep in mind is that the plans only include meals and snacks for the number of nights you are staying so plan accordingly, it will include your check-in day but not your check out date. You can use any left-over meals or snacks on your check out day but plan accordingly.


When you have decided all of the above now it is time to actually book the trip.

As promised before here are some links to instructional videos that I hope will help you...
Disney Travel Planning
Disney Travel Planning II
Disney Travel Planning III
Disney Travel Planning and FAQ

I hope you learned a little bit more than you knew before. Until next time have a great time...

Welcome 2016!

It is the middle of January and I am sitting here at my Mac and pondering what to write about. I enlisted the help of my older two children, Nick and Corri, by surveying them about their favorite parks, attractions, and resort at Walt Disney World. Even though I got some good answers I wasn't inspired so I will sit here banging on the keyboard about my first idea that came to me by listening to the WDWRadio podcast soon after the new year began. As are many broad and/or podcasts are in late December and/or early January it was partially retrospective about the previous year, 2015, so I began to jot down my favorite moments of 2015 as it pertained to Disney and my family. I also began to think about the upcoming year, 2016, and of course I began to jot down for ideas about our next trip to WDW. So, with the planning process complete, sort of, I begin to see some route to go in this my first entry of 2016 of this blog. Before I start I resolute to at least update this blog monthly throughout 2016 and beyond.

Last year my family and I headed down to WDW on Good Friday and spent Easter in EPCOT and the rest of the week exploring DHS, AK, and the Magic Kingdom while staying at the wonderful Port Orleans Riverside. Some of my firsts were the Tiki Room, Dumbo's ride, Star Tours and Test Track. We ate at a new eatery called The Spice Table in the World Showcase at EPCOT (Morocco) which was good although I was pretty hungry so any bit of food would have tasted fantastic.

This year we are switching our routine. Instead of our usual Spring Break trip we are going to experience WDW in the fall. We will head out on a Friday after school/work and drive into WDW early the next day and spending the next week experiencing the transformation of WDW into a Christmas Wonderland.

Everytime we have gone to WDW there have been some subtle changes, sometimes not so subtle. My wife and I went in 1994 in a period I like to call BK, before kids, during that time WDW consisted of the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and MGM Studios. Since then MGM has changed to Disney Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom became the fourth theme park and Downtown Disney has transformed in to Disney Springs. There also has been the closing of one water park, River Country, closed in 2001, and the opening of another, Blizzard Beach opened in 1995. We returned with our children in 2008 and have gone back five times since. Since 2008 we have seen a change in the parks and as I mentioned before Downtown Disney has become Disney Springs, Mickey's Toon Town is gone to make room for a huge overhaul of Fantasyland which added a fourth Magic Kingdom roller-coaster, Seven Dwarves Mine Train. There have also been changes in the resorts including the addition of the Art of Animation.

This brings me to my final part of this entry. With all of this change going on I hear or read of how people are upset over the constant changing. My only answer to this is you better get used to it. Since 1971 Walt Disney World has gone through all of the aforementioned changes as well as tons more, too many to mention in this entry. In 1955 when Disneyland opened in California there were only eighteen attractions and there wouldn't be a WDW for another sixteen years. If there wasn't change we couldn't enjoy what some of us call home.

Wyatt and the Wonderful World of Disney!

For those loyal readers of this blog you know I have a son who has special needs. Wyatt has the chronological age of eleven years. However, his development age is around four so he encounters the world with the innocence of a child and probably always will. One of the reasons my wife and I like to go to WDW anually is that they accomodate our family's special circumstance. I am not writing this as an expert of the policies and procedures concerning guests with special needs, I am writing this as a parent.

We began to realize that there is something different about Wyatt around two years of age and soon began to have tests run and found out he has a rare brain disorder called pacchigyria (forgive my spelling) which is a form of Lyssinselphia (smooth brain syndrome). The easiest way t o describe it is to say the brain has folds which holds memory and stores it, "normal" people have a certain amount of memory holding folds, people with Wyatt's disorder have less, some have a few some have even less which makes the brain seem smoother (hence the name smooth brain syndrome). How does it affect Wyatt? Well, it causes delays in development. Everyday tasks like toileting, walking, talking, and even eating  along with other things are affected. A new word is cause for celebration at the Dragstrem household or throwing away his trash is accompanied with a clap and a smile from my sweet boy. Another problem which started around the age of four has been seizures. He takes a multitude of medicine to curb the seizures. His seizures are not flailing ones but ones where he just zones out and flops (which has caused a few bumps and bruises on his forehead plus times getting stitched up becuse of a split lip or chin). Wyatt wears a helmet to protect his head, which I'll explain later.

So how does this relate to Disney? We went to WDW in December of 2008 for the first time, Wyatt was four and it was Christmas. He was startled by Winnie the Pooh at the Crystal Palace and the next two days he loved but the character experiences were at a distance until Minnie Mouse at Camp Minnie Mickey on Christmas day where he let her approach and he tweaked her nose and she acted like she was giggling which made Wyatt laugh. We weren't sure how he felt about it until we started to see commercials about Disney World and his face lit up and squeals of pure pleasure came across his whole body. We knew we had to go again and we have multiple times since. One other thing we learned that first trip was just how great Disney is with special needs people.

Just how good is Disney? It has recently caught flack regarding their policies because they have changed. They have caught flack not because they have bad policies, they have caught flack because they made it more selective. They are still the best "in my opinion" with dealing with special needs. The changes came about because certain people abused the previous policies. There have been instances where people "hired" special needs people to allow them to skip in line or get preferred seating for a performance. Also, there had been people to rent wheelchairs for the same reasons and switch riders (I have witnessed this myself) because someone is tired etc... So Disney changed policies. I am not getting into the specifics but we haven't noticed  problems with the new policies. I will say however, that Wyatt has more visible disablities, one of the problems I hear about with the new policies concern those with non-visible problems like autism (which by the way my oldest son has been diagnossed with but it is controlled with meds). Back to the question, they are great (again my opinion). Walt Disney World not only is patient with a screaming child but they will accomodate special dietary needs. One time while waiting  at a Pooh and Tigger's character meet and greet the photographer reminded me that he was just being a child and was a little excited. He taught me a lesson that day. That same day the photographer was at the castle and my oldest and I walked by and he wanted to know where Wyatt was (he was with his mom and sister). Here was a guy who had seen thousands of people that day and he remembered a little boy, by name. There are other examples like how Rapunzel spent some quality time with him also Smee and others. By the way, Wyatt still thinks of Rapunzel as "Ytta's..." Which is his way of saying Wyatt's girlfriend.

Has Wyatt been treated special? Yes he has but so has every guest that swipe their magic bands each and everyday at WDW. Wyatt and family get special seating for shows and parades, we don't sit in line as long as most, however, we have been in long lines with Wyatt at WDW and he has handled it better than some adults.

The Family in their happy place!

Wyatt's first encounter...

Wyatt's girlfriend...

Wyatt is my ride guy. He likes to ride the rollercoasters (I think he likes Seven Dwarves Mine Train the most although Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Goofy's Barnstormer are fvorites also...) On our Hollywood Studios day this past April we were about ready to call it an early day before we hit our afternoon fastpass for Toy Story Mania and Wyatt wouldn't have it. He began a tantrum for what we thought was no reason until we realized he wanted to ride it. We sometimes think he doesn't understand but he does, the mini tantrum stopped as we agreed to ride TSM and didn't head out until we had finished the ride.

Is a trip doable with a special needs child or adult for that matter, YES. WDW is the one place where we trust that Wyatt will have the least amount of problems compared to other comparable places (okay there really isn't comparable places, again my opinion) Have a magical day!

Disney Dining Plan

Ever since Christmas 2008 my family and I have made six trips to Walt Disney World, which those of you who have read previous posts already know. Over the last seven years we have learned the ins and outs of WDW and I can truthfully say even though I am not an expert I do have enough information to make recommendations. So that is what brings me to my latest post. A friend of mine was asking me about a trip they are planning and wanted my input about the Disney Dining Plans and how they work. Even though I have touched upon these plans in previous posts and I have ALWAYS recommended them for anyone who asks, I never did research the subject UNTIL NOW.

First let us look into each of the three "major" plans. The Quick Service Plan allows you two "Quick Service" meals and a snack per person per every night stayed plus a refillable mug that can be refilled at your resort's dining area's fountain drink area with either soda, coffee, tea, or hot cocoa. The Disney Dining Plan which offers a "Table Service" meal a "Quick Service" and refillable mug per person per every night of your trip. The other plan is called the "Deluxe Disney Dining Plan" which  allows each guest three meals (eaither Quick or Table) per night, two snacks, and of course the mug. There is also a Premium Dining Plan which includes all of the benefits of the Deluxe but includes opportunities beyond. (I will not look into this plan because it is beyond my fathomable price range)  As you may have guessed each plan have a corresponding cost involved. The "Quick" plan costs an extra $42.84 per adult (10+) and an extra $17.47 per child (3-9) per night. The Disney Dining Plan (which is probably the most popular) costs $61.84 per adult and $20.96 per child per night. The Deluxe plan is $111.73 for adults and $32.86 for children. Now your dining plans do not include tips and or "adult" beverages. Table meals include and appetizer and dessert  or a buffet while Quick Service meals are much like fast-food meals.  Character meals (where some of the beloved Disney characters come and visit at your table) are table service meals. Now there are some dining experiences require two meal credits, but they are few.

Are the plans worth it? I would say yes. However, I also know my family and that we have sat down at a buffet at the Crystal Palace and ate at Fulton's Crabhouse in Downtown Disney plus other fine restauraunts in which one meal costs more than what we paid for the day's plan. (For our family of five costs an extra $309.20 per day) Throw in that we still would be able to eat another meal that day on the plan and a snack PLUS the mug (which is my daughter's favorite part of the plan) and you definitley have come out ahead. Then there is in my opinion the best aspect of the plans. I don't have to worry about the sticker shock. My first time I took my family to WDW in December of 2008 and we ate at the Crystal Palace a character meal and we didn't use a dining plan. When the bill came to our table and there was a 2 after the dollar sign and two more digits before the decimal point. So on one meal in 2008 we spent over $200 and that didn't include tip. We have always used the dining plans since and have never regretted it. Even though I say yes you could still research the restaraunts at WDW and view the menus (all online) and figure it for yourself and your family and make up your own mind.  DINING at WALT DISNEY WORLD!

ALL OF THESE WERE CAPTURED WITH THE AIDE OF A DISNEY DING PLAN...

I'm Back...

It has been awhile since I last posted and not for the usual reasons of nothing to write about. The reason it has been awhile is that I have had a conflict of interest that would not allow me to post things and be objective. My wife was an employee for a travel agency that dealt with Disney vacations and now she is no longer one it allows me to be more objective. She left the company on good terms so I have no beef with them and if asked I would recommend their services for anyone wanting to book a Disney vacation.
Enough of the formalities, let us get to the matter at hand, Disney (actually Walt Disney World). My family and I took our anual "pilgrimage" to the House of Mouse or Domicile of Duck as I like to call it, because I feel Donald is the underrated star of the show. We spent seven days and six nights at Port Orleans Riverside and enjoyed two days at EPCOT, one day each at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, while finishing the last two park days in the Magic Kingdom. We went during the Easter week rush of humanity. As a "spoiler" alert to the readers we are looking into a trip next year during the fall season.
WDW has gone through, and is going through more, refurbishments, construction, etc. to the parks and resort areas since our trip in 2014 and we expect to see a bigger change when we travel in 2016. From the construction around the hub at Magic Kingdom, to the removal of the hat at Hollywood Studios and the construction of Avatarland at Animal Kingdom there were and will be plenty of barrier walls set in place. Probably the biggest change we noticed was at Downtown Disney, oops I mean Disney Springs. With new shops and a large parking garage plus new food opportunities, Disney Springs is in a mode of transition with no end in sight for the near future.
With all of the changes some of my favorite times were spent in the "old" favorites. The Enchanted Tiki Room and the Carousel of Progress are two of my favorite spots to cool off in Magic Kingdom, while at EPCOT my two boys and I spent a relaxing time in the American Adventure. Ironically I must say I experienced the Tiki Room and the American Adventure for the first time this trip. Other firsts for me were Test Trak, the Flights of Wonder (where I got to be a volunteer) Astro Orbiter and Dumbo along with the new Seven Dwarves Mine Train.
I can now say I have been in a WDW park on both Christmas Day (2008) and Easter Day (2015) and "Yes Virginia, it IS crowded..." This is one big reason why we are looking to the fall for our next trip. However, despite the crowds Disney does holidays right! We were in EPCOT for Easter and there were many opportunities to remember the day, including a Easter church service.
I will end this post with some new pics of WDW... (TO BE CONTINUED)

Yes, it was crowded!

Love this attraction!

Only Donald and I think it should be called The Domicile of Duck instead of the House of Mouse:) 

I find it hard after all the time I have been at WDW that I finally rode DUMBO!

We actually got stuck on this ride...