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Concierge Sailing

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On our most recent voyage on the Disney Fantasy we had what I thought would be a once in a lifetime experience; sailing in concierge.  After staying in these accommodations I now believe that this experience is something we will strive to attain again.   Concierge was wonderful!  Yes, it was more expensive; much more so for me since I usually sail with DVC points instead of paying cash, but it was amazing!

Booking these accommodations was impulsive and since we booked about 18 months or so before sailing I wasn’t even sure we would hold on to the room, and instead thought we might move down to a more standard cabin.  We’ve previously stayed in just about every type of statement there is with the exception of a standard inside, a suite or one of the “royal” suites.   Frankly we’ve been satisfied with all of our rooms, though we do believe bigger is better and a balcony is nice to have.   But as time progressed I managed to come up with the necessary funds and decided to go for it.

How did this come about?   We have a group of eight individuals; simply amazing friends, who sailed together in 2013 for my 60th birthday.  Six of us within the group initially met on the Disney Magic in 2008 and have been traveling together ever since.  Along the way we added my best friend and her husband to the mix and this year our number increased to nine with the addition of a lovely young girl who came with one of our regular couples.  We call ourselves the “crazies” and have become well known among the cast members.  But I digress.   At the end of our voyage last year we decided we needed to celebrate the next big birthday in the group in 2014.   Since one of the couples had previously sailed in concierge and was in concierge on that particular voyage, we all marched up to the concierge lounge, made our reservations and dove right in.  We had one more surprise to come, but I’ll tell you a little more about that later.

So what makes it different and why was it worth the extra money?  The first benefit is getting to book shore excursions, spa appointment, Remy and Palo before other passengers and through the stateside concierge agent.   I didn’t personally experience this because one of our group is a travel agent and handled all of our arrangements, but I know it’s much easier than booking online.  One phone call does it all.  The second thing we were looking forward to was getting onboard the ship first.  Concierge guests are the first to get on; boarding only after back to back sailing guests have been allowed to board.   But that was just the beginning.   Not only do you get to board first, but we were escorted directly to the concierge lounge where cocktails and snacks were waiting for us.  The wonderful staff included Amanda, Kemisha and PJ.  They welcomed us onboard and asked if we had any last minutes requests that we still wanted to book.   We had decided just the night before that we wanted to dine in Palo and like magic PJ was able to get us a reservation.   We’re not really a very demanding group and had planned most things way in advance so we didn’t have much else we needed them to do for us, but it was still wonderful to know they were there when we needed them.   Additionally, we never needed to go to guest services because all of our billing questions could also be addressed directly through the concierge staff.

Drinks and snacks were provided each day throughout the day with specific cocktail hours in the evening.   Shel typically spends each morning at the Cove Cafe with her morning coffee, so this was a really nice bonus for her.   Coffee, tea, water and soft drinks were offered during all the hours the concierge lounge was open and our staterooms were stocked with both water and sodas; all included in the cost of the cabin.  Another item that people might not think of that was quite handy to not have to pack was sunscreen, which was also made available to us.

The lounge is not large but served our group quite well.   We regularly used it as a meeting place as everyone was individually getting ready for meals, shows, etc.  We probably would have used it even more except for our big surprise.  The birthday girl actually secretly changed their cabin to a one bedroom so that became our private lounge for the trip.   WONDERFUL!   As much as I loved he whole concierge experience, I covert that one bedroom.  I don’t know that I will ever be able to afford to stay in one myself, but one can always dream.  One additional benefit that was not specific to concierge is that we booked three out of our four cabins together (sadly the fourth was in a different location).   I don’t know why we never did that before, but from this point on I know we’re going to try to stay close together.

Bottom line is all of us loved it!  I don’t know if dollar for dollar it’s worth the extra money, but it sure felt like it.  I always feel somewhat pampered on a cruise, but this made me feel even more so.   Everyone within the area knew us by name, always wanted to help, and were incredibly friendly.  We may not be able to do this on every cruise, in fact our next cruise is only ocean view, but I believe we felt the value and experience combined would well worth what we paid.

Of course we were with some of the most amazing people in the world, so concierge or not our trip would have been wonderful.   Thank you to my very good friends (daughter) Shelley, Pam & John, Steve & Allison, Tina, Steve & (our birthday girl) Mary.   I am so lucky to have met all of you!

Here’s a few picture of our cabin.   Concierge cabins are more formally decorated than others, with nicer finishes, bigger sofas and tons of storage.  Just lovely.

My first view of our room

My first view of our room

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Looking toward the cabinetry – double what we normally have and that was only half of the room. We also had two more cabinets and two closets.

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Our very large sofa and an occasional chair. You’ll also see the extra room between the chair and sofa.

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Normally I have to move all this stuff just to get it out of our way and give us more storage. Not this time!

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Instead of this being our standard TV, it was TV number two! Shel and I each had one to ourselves.

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The VERY large main TV at the end of the bed. The two sections of the cabin, as always, can be separated by a privacy curtain. The round wall you see in the background is my favorite round tub and shower.

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Duffy and Shellie Mae had a place of honor on the sofa. Good thing we had extra storage space because they require their own luggage!

Jo Scholl, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

Jo is also co-host with fellow columnist Darlene Nagi of the new WDW Fan Zone Radio Blogcast – DVC Edition. 

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Wilderness Lodge Villas

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As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, it’s been one of my goals to eventually stay in all of the Disney moderate or deluxe resorts; maybe even eventually including the value resorts. We’ll see. To that end on our most recent trip to Walt Disney World we stayed at the Disney Wilderness Lodge Villas (WLV).

Map WLV

I never expected to like WLV.   We had of course seen it before since one of the things we enjoy doing is to visit the different resorts and do a walking tour of them. Of course these walking tours don’t typically include the rooms, only the main buildings, grounds, pools, etc.  Although I love the décor and warmth of the Wilderness Lodge, the Villas just seemed a bit too remote for me.   You need to keep in mind that from a location standpoint, I think Bay Lake Tower just can’t be beat. Having monorail access to not only the Magic Kingdom, but to all the three properties on the monorail line have to offer, just can’t be beat.   Or so I thought.   I thoroughly enjoyed our time at the WLV and will definitely want to stay there again.

Yes, the building itself if a little remote from the main lodge.   It is a beautiful walk however and the villas themselves are actually closer to the bus stop, which is always a bonus for us. I was very worried about access to everything, almost exclusively by bus, since this trip required me to use an electric convenience vehicle (ECV) for the entire visit. One of my concerns was getting to Camp Wilderness since we had an advanced dining reservation (ADR) at Trail’s End.   Since we normally take one of the small boats over to the campground, I wasn’t even aware that bus service was available between the two resorts. Long story short, although we needed to allow a little more time for bus transportation, we never really encountered any problems. Of course, one of reasons was we weren’t on a severe timeline on this particular trip.  Shel and I were vacationing with our close friends Steve and Mary and were taking a pretty casual approach to trip; we only had two ADR’s so we really didn’t need to be in a hurry to get anywhere. We only had one occasion in which a bus took a significant amount of time to come, but of course you can experience this at any bus stop, whether it be at a resort or a park.  If you are not limited by ECV use as I was, the boats to the Magic Kingdom, the Contemporary Resort or Camp Wilderness are another great option. But enough about transportation.

Why did I love this resort so much? It was actually for a reason I would have never considered… the calm. The lobby of WLV is somewhat of a circular area with offshoots for the elevator banks, health club (Sturdy Branches) and the Carolwood Pacific Room. The entire area is filled with extremely comfortable couches and chairs and a special surprise of two fireplaces; one in the main lobby and one in the Carolwood Pacific Room (this may actually be a double sided fireplace but I really couldn’t tell as it didn’t seem to open up inbetween). What was most surprising was no one ever seemed to be using these areas. Both Shel and I enjoyed sitting down here curled up with a book or an iPad. Everyone always seems to be busy every minute when visiting WDW and we are typically no exception. But this environment seemed to encourage guests to take a little time to just relax. My only disappointment was that we were too early for the Christmas decorations. So sad! We had hoped we would be immersed in Christmas everywhere we went, but this year the decorations came out a little later than expected; particularly at the resorts. I saw a picture of the WLV fully decorated right after we returned home!   It was beautiful and I soooo wish we would have been able to enjoy it ourselves.   But decorations or not, we loved this lobby area.

One of the beautiful fireplaces!

One of the beautiful fireplaces!

What a great window seat!

What a great window seat!

That's Shel enjoying one of the wonderful quiet areas available

That’s Shel enjoying one of the wonderful quiet areas available

The main lobby.  You can see someone else enjoying some time here.

The main lobby. You can see someone else enjoying some time here.

The amazing elevator doors!  I love all the detail Disney puts into everything!

The amazing elevator doors! I love all the detail Disney puts into everything!

The room was the second reason I could see myself staying here again.   Since we do love Bay Lake Tower so much, we are used to the smallest of the studio units in any Disney Vacation Club resort. This doesn’t typically bother me because we really don’t spend any significant time in the room anyway. Still it was really nice to have such a spacious studio accommodation. Remember we had an ECV with us on this trip, and although in the end we decided to charge it overnight out in the hallway, the room was actually large enough that we could have pulled it into the room each night. Note to Disney engineers, architects and imagineers…. You need more electrical receptacles in resort hallways! The setup was pretty typical in a normal studio, but everything was just bigger. We had a queen size bed and a queen size sofa sleeper with a small table and chair set. The biggest surprise was a pull down bed in the cabinet that held the TV.   I knew this was here (similar to what DVC put into the rooms at the new Grand Floridian Villas), but I had forgotten about it. We didn’t need to use it, but I just had to take it down and see what it was like. We both thought it was primarily designed for children, but the bed seemed to be a standard twin, certainly large enough for one adult. The only thing I didn’t like about it was a ledge above one side of your body as you were lying down. Perhaps this is why it’s designed for children as they wouldn’t come as close to the ledge as an adult body. Regardless, it was very cool and definitely makes the room easily accessible for five individuals. The kitchenette was also larger than normal. Situated directly across from the bathroom sick there was a lot of open space between the two. This seemingly wasted spaced really added to the open feeling of the room overall.   A separate room enclosed the toilet and tub. Rounding out the room were two large closets for clothes, suitcase storage, etc.

Décor is dark woods and darker colors as you might expect in a “woodsy” environment, but unlike the Animal Kingdom Villas which felt very dark, our room was filled with a sense of light. It certainly wasn’t any more light coming in from the outside than any other room, but somehow the mix of wood, fabric and lighting fixtures resulted in an open and airy feel to the room. I loved this because it felt warm and cozy all at the same time.

Queen size bed.  The detail in the wooden headboard and posts was incredible.

Queen size bed. The detail in the wooden headboard and posts was incredible.

Shel unpacking by the coucn

Shel unpacking by the coucn

The pull down bed hides underneath the TV

The pull down bed hides underneath the TV

Surprise!  A beautiful Bambi mural!!

Surprise! A beautiful Bambi mural!!

Bathroom sink area directly across from the kitchenette

Bathroom sink area directly across from the kitchenette

ECV parked right in front of the kitchenette

ECV parked right in front of the kitchenette

One note to those thinking to book a stay here… the resort has some very long hallways. If you want to be closer to the elevators, pool, bus stop, etc., you’d better request it because some of the rooms are far, far away! The distance didn’t make any difference to me this time due to the ECV use, but poor Shel, we were in the absolutely farthest room from the elevators that you could possibly be.   Although I’d certainly prefer to be ambulating on my own two feet versus using the ECV, I’m not sure I could have the stamina to make that long, long walk every night after a long day in the parks!

A very minimal complaint regarding this resort would be food options. Due to the remoteness of the resort I believe they need a few more options for where to eat. It sounds as if there is a lot there. After all they have Artist Point, Whispering Canyon Café, Roaring Fork, the Territory Lounge and the Trout Pass Pool Bar. As with all of the other DVC resorts, there is also a small market inside the resort’s gift shop. Unfortunately for us we couldn’t get into the Territory Lounge whenever we tried as it was always full.   We didn’t want a fine dining experience on this trip so that left out Artist Point. Likewise, Whispering Canyon Café is a bit of an “experience” type of restaurant and not someplace you’d typically just step into after coming back to your resort after a long day. The Trout Pass Pool Bar was closed (along with the main feature pool) due to renovations. That just left Roaring Fork. I wasn’t impressed with Roaring Fork initially, but I have to admit that the food there wasn’t bad. We had dinner there one night and breakfast on two occasions. All of the food was good but I didn’t think there was a big selection.   Probably more important was the area is pretty small overall.   There is some inside seating, some seating out in the hallway, and an outdoor seating area open (weather dependent). We were limited by the ECV use so perhaps the area wouldn’t feel quite so inadequate if I wasn’t using it. But it is deep into the main building of the Wilderness Lodge and therefore a long, long walk from the villas. I don’t know where Disney would find the real estate, but I sure would like to see another casual food venue closer to the villas. Very small complaint and nothing that would keep me from staying there again!

Bottom line, I LOVE the Wilderness Lodge Villas! If you’re planning on spending every minute in the parks and will only use your resort for sleeping maybe you’d like somewhere slightly more convenient to transportation. But, if you want a beautiful, comfortable, relaxing resort this may just be the place for you.

 

Jo Scholl, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

Jo is also co-host with fellow columnist Darlene Nagi of the new WDW Fan Zone Radio Blogcast – DVC Edition.

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Dining Decision Dilemma

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I was in a bit of a creative slump this morning and having a difficult time deciding what Disney topic to write about. Of course, my mind went directly to food! I’m sure that food is not the first thing that comes to mind for everyone when thinking about Walt Disney World, but it certainly always ranks very high on my list. So here’s why I’m thinking about it today……

I currently have an annual pass (AP) to WDW that is burning a hole in my pocket! I bought my AP due to a significant discount offered by Disney Vacation Club (DVC), and more than one trip scheduled within the year. Of course, even though my AP has been utilized probably to the point of breaking even (AP versus buying multi-day passes for each trip); I want to use it more. So I have persuaded one of my travel partners that we need a trip this fall.

We started talking about when and where we would like to stay, and for both of us the discussion quickly turned to food. We had several trips together when our children were young, and for those trips the plan was always created around the parks, rides, attractions, etc. Once we started traveling without the children we started branching out and trying new restaurants and a new tradition was born; planning the entire trip around food!

The first restaurants that came to mind were Narcoossee’s, Citrico’s, and California Grill. Of course, there’s also Be Our Guest, O’hana, Grand Floridian Café and The Wave. And on our last trip we were going to go to Pecos Bill’s and Columbia Harbor House, but never made it to either location. Do you see a theme here? All of these restaurants are either in the Magic Kingdom or in one of the hotels on the monorail line. What are we supposed to do if we want to go to Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom? Did I mention that we are probably only taking a four day trip? Oh what’s a girl to do? There are nine restaurants listed just within the Magic Kingdom alone!

So we haven’t actually decided, but if we stay within this area, here’s my solution. We’ll probably pick the first three restaurants listed as dinners and add O’hana as the fourth. Be Our Guest, Grand Floridian Café, Pecos Bill’s and Columbia Harbor House could all be lunches, and we just have to go to The Wave for their breakfast buffet. Can anyone say cheese grits? I don’t even like grits, yet I’ll make a trip here just to eat grits!

If you’ve read this far you can ascertain that the restaurants mentioned are some of my favorites. But the point of the article is really to bring your attention to Walt Disney World as a food destination. This brief list barely scratches the surface of the amazing food WDW has to offer. One year we actually stayed for three weeks and still didn’t feel we got to experience all of the restaurants we wanted to try! So on your next trip, take a break from rides and attractions and try a restaurant you’ve never eaten at. You’ll enjoy some of the best food you’ll ever experience!

Grilled Wagyu Beef Burger from Brown Derby at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Photo Courtesy of Shelley Scholl

Grilled Wagyu Beef Burger from Brown Derby at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Photo Courtesy of Shelley Scholl

Jo Scholl, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse! Jo is also co-host with fellow columnist Darlene Nagi of the new WDW Fan Zone Radio Blogcast – DVC Edition.

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The South Pacific in Central Florida

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Photo by fellow WDW Fan Zone Columnist, Shannon M

If you follow Disney Vacation Club (DVC) development at all, you know that Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows (DPV&B) will be opening sometime this spring; with the current release date of April 1. Pre-sales to current DVC members opened on January 12, 2015. Although I personally didn’t feel there was any chance of me adding onto my membership, I was very curious as to what the points would cost, and perhaps even more so, to finding out what the breakdown of the rental points would be. Both have now been released, and I find myself both more and less interested than I was before I had this information.

First, the purchase price is currently $165 per point. This certainly wasn’t a surprise to me as the per point price goes up with every new DVC property. Of course, since I bought in the second year of DVC existence, this is a LOT more than what my initial purchase was! I believe DVC members got a $5.00 per point reduction during the first phase of sales, but that has now ended. I really have no idea what the minimum point purchase allowed is right now, but an easy example would be 100 points would cost $16,500; 300 points would be almost $50,000. WOW! Of course, these dollar amounts used as examples are purchase price only and do not include annual maintenance costs which go up proportionate to number of points held. All in all, an expensive proposition to own this new property.

Let’s talk a little bit about the actual accommodations first. New to DVC and done for the first (and possibly only) time at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows is a limitation to the size of the rooms available. Most DVC properties have studios, 1-bedroom units, 2-bedroom units, and 3-bedroom grand villas (the 3-bedroom grand villas are not available at all properties). The DPV&B offerings will be comprised of just studios and 2-bedroom bungalows. The bungalows appear to be the big draw of the resort; resembling the individual over the water buildings you typically see in areas like Tahiti. Major features will be outside deck seating facing the Magic Kingdom with spectacular views of fireworks, plunge pools built into the decks of the bungalows, and of course more privacy than you’re likely to get in any other accommodation around Walt Disney World with the possible exception of the Treehouse Villas, individual cabins or your own tent/trailer at Wilderness Campground. What’s missing, at least in my opinion, is the ability to get in the water directly from your private bungalow. Maybe I’m the only one that feels this way, but I know one of my fantasies in thinking about ever having a room like this anywhere in the South Pacific was the ability to dive right in to the crystal clear waters directly from my room. Swimming in Seven Seas Lagoon hasn’t been allowed for quite some time. As I said; maybe it’s only me. But the second thing I wonder about the bungalows is, are they big enough? You can fit a lot more people in a 3-bedroom grand villa than in a 2-bedroom accommodation so I’m just surprised Disney didn’t opt for the larger size. I’m sure they did plenty of research before they decided what to build so I’m sure they had their reasons why they went in this direction.

Now about the studios; this is where I’m really excited. In the construction of the studios at DPV&B Disney decided to adopt the split bathroom idea from the Disney Cruise Line. If you’ve sailed with Disney at all you’re probably already familiar with this concept. Let me tell you it works great for two, and probably is even better for bigger groups of people. Studios are obviously by nature smaller than 1, 2 and 3-bedroom units so you’re probably always going to be running into your roommate a bit more than you would in a larger accommodation. But who doesn’t want some privacy while getting ready? Since just about everyone who visits WDW is always anxious to get up and get out, having the additional bathroom space can go a long way toward making that happen. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this! Now if they would just go back to two queen beds (in at least SOME of their studios!) versus a bed and a sleeper sofa, I’d be really, really thrilled! I can’t say much more about the actual accommodations at this point since I haven’t had the opportunity to see them. Hopefully I’ll be able to rectify that sometime soon.

However, now that you know a little bit about the rooms available, the second important part of the equation is, once you own the points, can you afford to use them at the resort? In the case of the studios, I’d say it’s a resounding YES, with weekly point values ranging from 118 to 269 depending on view and time of year. However, when you look at the points for the actual bungalows, I’m not so sure. For those of us who hold points toward the lower end of the spectrum I don’t know that I will ever be able to come up with enough points to stay here. The weekly points range for the bungalows is 841-1,439. That’s a lot of points! For me, it would take almost all of my points for three full use years to be able to accomplish this. I will tell you that I already (and regularly) utilize my points this way for the cruise line. However when I do that I’m also getting all of our meals included in the cost, which makes it seem like a much more reasonable use of my points. I’m questioning whether it’s worth saving up points just to experience a bungalow.

Even though I’m questioning the value, I’m sure at some point down the road I will try to stay in a bungalow just so I can say I’ve done so. I also have no doubt that Disney will have no trouble at all filling them; probably every single day of the year! I will say I know at least one couple that will be taking advantage of this new property soon. My very close friends had been waiting very impatiently for the points to be announced and the resort to begin selling. They of course, have purchased and will already be staying there in April!

Jo Scholl, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse! Jo is also co-host with fellow columnist Darlene Nagi of the new WDW Fan Zone Radio Blogcast – DVC Edition.

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2015 Epcot Flower and Garden Festival

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Although I never need a reason to visit Walt Disney World, I was very excited that my last trip was planned around the 2015 Flower and Garden Festival. All of the women from my group of cruise friends (thank you Disney!) decided to have a girls only trip to experience the festival this year. Although not everyone was able to come, five of us managed to get away for four amazing days the first week of the festival.

Mickey and Minnie welcome us to the festivities!

Mickey and Minnie welcome us to the festivities!

There’s so much I’d love to say about the festival that I really don’t know where to start. However, I will start by saying four days in WDW just wasn’t enough to fully explore Flower and Garden. Due to our love of all things in the World, we just had to spend time in both the Magic Kingdom and at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, leaving only two days for Epcot and the festival happenings. Two days definitely was not enough time, but when I started going over what we had accomplished I was surprised to see that we actually had covered quite a bit of ground.

Convenient list of topiaries to find

Convenient list of topiaries to find

For the first time ever when visiting the Flower and Garden Festival I picked up the Garden Passport 2015. This handy little booklet has a wealth of information inside and gives you a way to track all that you have seen and done. The topiaries are one of the highlights of Flower and Garden for me and there is a great checklist with the names of all. There is a bit of a challenge though because the locations are not listed with the names, but finding them is certainly half the fun. I was surprised to discover that I managed to see just about every one of them on this trip. Make sure and scroll to the bottom of this article today as I’ll include pictures of many of my favorites. What we didn’t see a lot of this time was all of the various garden destinations. There were 22 themed gardens this festival and I can only remember specifically visiting about five of them.

Flower and Garden 2015 Festival Booklet

Flower and Garden 2015 Festival Booklet

Now, one of the big reasons we wanted to come to the festival this year was the continued effort to include Outdoor Kitchens, very similar to what occurs at the Food and Wine Festival each year. Twelve food booths were scattered around World Showcase and I managed to eat at just five of them. The food was delicious! So much so that I never even thought about taking food pictures as I normally do and simply just scarfed everything down immediately. Two items tied for my favorites; the shrimp and stone ground grits with andouille sausage, sweet corn, tomatoes and cilantro at Florida Fresh, and the tacos al pastor (corn tortilla filled with achiote marinated pork and garnished with grilled diced pineapple, onions, cilantro and salsa verde) from Jardin de Fiestas. The only thing better than the food was some of the delightful cocktails that were served and in Italy at the Primavera Kitchen I somehow managed to try three different ones! Delicious!!

The outdoor kitchens I visited!

The outdoor kitchens I visited!

The festival began on March 6th this year and runs through May 17th. If you’re already headed down, have a great time! If there’s any chance of scheduling a last minute trip; go for it! I wish I could head back right now!
IMG_0013 Cogsworth[/caption]

Lumiere

Lumiere

 

Belle and the Beast

Belle and the Beast

 

Captain Hook

Captain Hook

 

Tink

Tink

 

Cinderella

Cinderella and Prince Charming

 

Bambi favorites

Bambi favorites

 

My favorite part of the trip... my AMAZING friends!

My favorite part of the trip… my AMAZING friends!

Jo Scholl, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse! Jo is also co-host with fellow columnist Darlene Nagi of the new WDW Fan Zone Radio Blogcast – DVC Edition.

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Behind the Seeds

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After many years of waiting and wanting; longing really, I finally managed to go on the Behind the Seeds tour at Epcot’s The Land pavilion.

A not so hidden Mickey, but one I had never seen before taking this tour!

A not so hidden Mickey, but one I had never seen before taking this tour!

If you’ve ever ridden the Living with the Land boat tour in the pavilion, you might have caught a glimpse of one of the tour groups. These days I think most people flock to The Land in order to ride Soarin. I do too, but I’ve always had a particular fondness for Living with the Land. This ride never gets old for me as I find it interesting, peaceful (in what can often be a very hectic day), and a cool respite on a sweltering Florida summer day. However, I’ve always wanted to do the behind the scenes tour; Behind the Seeds. Occasionally, depending on who I was traveling with, we might have thought about going, but never quite pulled the trigger. That finally changed during my most recent visit to Epcot during the Flower and Garden Festival. Quite spontaneously my group of five all decided they wanted to go on the tour. Yay!

The tour runs daily from approximately 10:30 AM through 4:30 PM and runs approximately 45-60 minutes. Reservations can be made in advance by calling 407-WDW-TOUR (407-939-8687) or by stopping by the tour desk outside of the Soarin queue. Cost of the tour is $16 dollars for children and $20 for adults though we were able to use our AP (annual pass) or DVC (Disney Vacation Club) discounts for a slightly reduced cost. After we made the decision to go, we were fortunate to get in on the very next tour. However, if you really want to participate in this tour, don’t count on getting in on short notice. I’m thinking they may have had a cancellation because the tour before us was full as was the tour that started after us. There are approximately 12-15 guests on each tour though it appeared the number was somewhat flexible. Except for one brief stop when everyone got to sit down for about five minutes, the tour is standing and walking the remainder of the time. I was in a scooter on this trip and was a little worried about an hour of standing, but luckily we discovered that the tour is fully accessible and I was able to remain in the scooter for the entire tour. And as far as accessibility is concerned, there was even a crate for service dogs to take a rest, since they are not allowed within the confines of the actual tour.

It was really exciting to see guests riding in the boats from an entirely different perspective.

It was really exciting to see the boats guests riding in the boats from an entirely different perspective.

Our tour was led by a college intern studying bioscience, Baylor (I think). The tour was broken down into a few different areas including a lab area covering the science of bugs (entomology) and how they assist in growing crops, a biotech lab where plants were being propagated, the hydroponic area, aquaculture area, and of course the greenhouse itself. Other than the bug lab, these are all areas you visit on the Living with the Land tour; the difference is instead of being on a boat, you get to get up close and personal. Although you are not allowed to touch anything on the tour (with the exception of one plant whose leaves transform when you touch it), you really are very close to everything.

Baylor was wonderful (as I’m sure all the guides are). She seemed to really enjoy what she was doing, was very knowledgeable and interacted well with everyone. Although she was a vast wealth of information I have to admit I was very distracted (in the best possible way) but being right in the middle of the action so to speak. If you’ve been on the boat tour you’re probably already familiar with the nine pound lemon, tomato tree and cucumbers or pumpkins grown in the shape of Mickey’s head. However, standing within touching distance of these items was extraordinary. We even got to taste one of the cucumbers! One last thing we got to do was smell and try to identify several foods or spices, all of which were grown within the greenhouse.

One of my favorite veggies - brussels spouts - grown hydroponically.

One of my favorite veggies – brussels spouts – grown hydroponically.

 

These were called tower gardens (the plant on the left) and you could get information on how to do this at home to save space when gardening in small areas such as patios.

These were called tower gardens (the plant on the left) and you could get information on how to do this at home.

 

Another favorite of mine, cherry tomatoes, grown sideways on a vine.

Another favorite of mine, cherry tomatoes, grown sideways on a vine.

 

Watermelons and other heavy fruits and vegetables are grown in nets because of their weight.

Watermelons and other heavy fruits and vegetables are grown in nets because of their weight.

 

One of the famous nine pound lemons.

One of the famous nine pound lemons.

 

Coffee (the bright red berries) and peaches grown  right next to each other!

Coffee (the bright red berries) and peaches grown right next to each other!

 

Creepy!  Never seem quite so many alligators in one spot!

Creepy! Never seem quite so many alligators in one spot! This was just a couple out of dozens!

 

A brand new bunch of bananas grown out of that huge banana flower

A brand new bunch of bananas grown out of that huge banana flower

I would take this tour again, not only to give myself a chance to listen to all of the facts again, but because there really is so much to see and hear that I don’t think once was enough. In fact, just like Living with the Land itself, I think this is an “attraction” I could do over and over and over again. Try it out on your next trip. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

A true hidden Mickey!   I was so excited when I spotted it!

A true hidden Mickey! I was so excited when I spotted it!

Jo Scholl, co-host with fellow columnist Darlene Nagi of the new WDW Fan Zone Radio Blogcast – DVC Edition, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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A Wonderful Cruise Experience

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I recently returned from my first voyage through the Panama Canal on the Disney Wonder. It was a truly amazing, once in a lifetime experience. I chuckled just now when I wrote that because we met many individuals on board who have done it time and time again. For me it was a first, but I can see how it could become an addiction.

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To begin with, the cruise was 14 nights long! It’s difficult for both Shel and I to get away for that length of time but somehow we both managed. Allowing for a travel day on the front end of the trip we were both gone for 12 work days. That alone probably would have made the trip worthwhile! With busy, stressful jobs it’s hard to get away and actually forget about work for a while, but on this trip that seemed extremely easy to do.

First, some basics. The Wonder sailed westbound from Miami to San Diego. We’ve heard that some people prefer an eastbound voyage over the westbound one, but aside from the travel time back to the Midwest or east coast for each of us, I couldn’t really ascertain why one direction would be better than the other. We had four stops scheduled; Cozumel (Mexico), Cartagena (Columbia), Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas (also Mexico). Just four times off the ship in 14 days! As much as I love the sea, even I wasn’t sure about all this time onboard. I shouldn’t have worried as there was more than enough to keep us entertained. In fact, due to reports of unrest in Puerto Vallarta, the Captain made the decision not to stop there at all, so we ended up only getting off the ship three times!! A side note to those who may be new to cruising…. Your cruise contract gives the cruise line and the Captain the ability to makes changes as necessary due to weather, difficulties with ports, political unrest, etc. If this happens to you, try not to let it worry you. Just go with the flow and enjoy the ship.

For us, the ports on this trip ended up being very secondary to just enjoying our time onboard. We’d been to Puerto Vallarta before and to Cozumel on many occasions. Cartagena and Cabo San Lucas were both new ports for us and one I’d skip next time and the other I’d like to explore further. Although Cartagena offered a beautiful skyline, old world town and historical forts we were greatly taken aback by the traffic, crowded streets and aggressiveness of the street vendors/peddlers. We actually spent the majority of the day at a local resort and frankly it was just nothing special. However, those who took walking tours reporting enjoying the atmosphere with the exception of the aggressive vendors. Almost always when we visit someplace for the first time I want to go back and explore more. Not so much here.

Cabo San Lucas on the other hand may be the most beautiful port we’ve ever sailed into. Nestled into the hillside mountain ranges with water all around you, it’s simply glorious. We did a harbor tour here which was very enjoyable, but should have skipped the second leg of the tour which was a bus ride to a hotel property under construction. The route the bus took to the hotel didn’t offer a lot to see and the entire point of the ride seemed to be the view once we arrived. Beautiful, but not worth the hour or more we had to wait for the bus to come back to get us! The harbor tour alone was worth the price of the excursion though so we didn’t feel as if we made a bad choice. But I really would like to go back sometime and explore just the point area itself. Also, one of the excursions offered was horseback riding on the beach, which two of our tablemates thoroughly enjoyed. I’d love to do that sometime too!

Speaking of tablemates, dining was one of my favorite things to do on this trip and not just because of the food! We loved, loved, loved who we were seated with! We’ve had the great fortune to previously meet two couples onboard the Magic and they’ve (along with a few additional add-ons) become our regular traveling group. Well we hit the jackpot again with this table!! A big giant hank you to Brian and Danielle and Mike and Scott. The six of us hit it off immediately and not only ate together every night but as Mike put it one night, “hung out with the table people”. I don’t know if there’s a method or strategy on how Disney seats people or if it’s just dumb luck, but we couldn’t have been any happier with the pairing. We also had the most amazing servers ever taking care of us. Freddy and Gigi were incredible; simply the best we’ve ever had! Disney is number one where customer service is concerned and Freddy and Gigi both exemplified the best of the best!

Our amazing tablemates!

Our amazing tablemates!

Shelley has written previously about the fact that we went on this cruise with a big group of individuals who met through a Facebook group, so in addition to our table companions we had friendly and familiar faces just about everywhere we went. Everything about the cruise was just so special!

Next month I’ll focus on the actual trip though the canal and tell you how Disney helped prepare us for the experience. Until then, if you’ve been thinking about this as a possible itinerary for a future trip, stop thinking and book it! It was truly amazing!

Jo Scholl, co-host with fellow columnist Darlene Nagi of the new WDW Fan Zone Radio Blogcast – DVC Edition, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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Traversing the Panama Canal

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As described in my article last month, I thoroughly enjoyed our recent voyage onboard the Disney Wonder through the Panama Canal. In that article I talked about what an amazing experience that trip was overall. Today’s feature will be all about preparing for the traversing of the Canal and the actual day spent doing so.

Deep below the Canal

Deep below the Canal

I fully expected that Disney would bring some sort of expert onboard to give us facts about what to expect during our day moving through the Panama Canal. Not only didn’t they disappoint, but true to Disney form, they provided us with the most amazing individual; and mesmorizing speaker. I really didn’t expect to attend a multitude of lectures on this trip, but that’s exactly what I did most every day they were held. Captain Ken Puckett, former Panama Canal Pilot with over 1,800 voyages under his belt, provided a wealth of knowledge in a highly informative and entertaining way. Not only did we learn many facts and figures, but we were regaled with a multitude of personal stories by this fascinating man. The first several lectures were held in the Walt Disney Theater and it was always packed. When a few days into the lecture series we had to move to the Buena Vista Theater, this became a standing room only event.

First, do you know what a “pilot” is? I thought I did; the guys that fly planes, right? Well it turns out there are nautical pilots too, and these are the individuals with very specialized knowledge that actually assure that ships travel through the Canal without mishap. The Captain turns the ship over to the Pilot who then takes on full responsibility for the ship making its way through.

The first lecture in the series dealt with a brief history of the world, transportation and the shipping of goods and how that practice led to more and more exploration. I really didn’t think I came onboard the Disney Wonder for a history lesson, but Captain Ken definitely made it entertaining. Subsequent lectures dealt with the building of the canal, facts and figures on usage and costs, what the Canal means to the people of Panama, an engineering overview and finally timing and outlook for the new canal currently in the process of being built. There were a total of eight lectures in all and every single one of them was terrific. If you take a trip through the Canal, I hope you have the good fortune to hear Captain Ken.

Now onto Canal day…. I was up at probably 4:30 or so just because I was so excited to be going through. I am not an early riser so my adrenaline was already pumping. We had been told by others that it really wasn’t necessary to have a balcony cabin on a PC cruise because you wanted to make sure you were viewing all of the action from up on top throughout the day. Although I did agree that a balcony was not necessary for the actual Canal day; due to the length of the cruise itself (14 nights), I wish we would have had one. That being said, there’s something very special coming up about our actual cabin and the passage through the Canal.

Anyway, up and out and on the bow of the ship by 5:00 AM. I’m not a coffee drinker so I wasn’t worried about having anything to drink before going out, but I also didn’t have anything to eat. NOT a good idea! Since I ended up staying out on the bow of the ship for the next five hours or so, not eating was not a particularly good decision. Here’s a couple of other bad decisions I made…. Don’t make them yourself! I specifically brought with a large insulated cup and one of those neck scarfs you soak in water to keep you cool… and promptly left both of them in the cabin! Don’t do this! At the very least make sure you have water with you. I can’t describe how hot the day was; heat, humidity, bright sun and a crush of people for most of the day. We had been told that there would be drink stations to keep people hydrated, and there were; but they consisted of hot coffee and hot water for tea. I don’t know about you, but when I’m blistering hot and ready to faint, hot water is not what I want. Side note to Disney: PLEASE provide ice water! However, even if ice water had been there, I’m not sure what I would have done. You see, I was fascinated by everything occurring, along with just about everyone else on the ship, which meant I wasn’t willing to “give up” my spot at the rail. I was able to step away twice. The first time I was dangerously close to fainting due to the heat, etc., but was lucky enough to reclaim a spot where I had been. I will tell you the two individuals who were there were not happy to have me back, but my stature is pretty small, so I convinced them they could easily see over me (sadly, very true!). The second time a very lovely and caring woman behind me noticed I was again looking pale, and she told me she’s save my spot and give it back to me when I returned. So sweet of her! I’m sure I sound fanatical here about not leaving my spot, but EVERYONE was! This was prime real estate, and if you were as “geeked” out about going through, you just didn’t want to miss a minute.

Getting lined up to enter the Canal

Getting lined up to enter the Canal

Those tracks to the right and left are where the locomotives will join us

Those tracks to the right and left are where the locomotives will join us

On our way in!  The crew had one of the best viewing areas - from the crew pool deck.

On our way in! The crew had one of the best viewing areas – from the crew pool deck.

Our first gate is about to open for us to enter the next chamber. Notice the higher level of water up ahead. Soon we'll be lifted to that same level!

Our first gate is about to open for us to enter the next chamber. Notice the higher level of water up ahead. Soon we’ll be lifted to that same level!

There are three sets of locks your ship travels through. Heading westbound these are the Gatun Locks, Pedro Miguel Locks and finally the Miraflores Locks. The approach itself from the Atlantic to the first set of locks seemed to take well over an hour. The Canal has two lanes of traffic and in the AM of the day we were sailing through, both lanes were headed westbound. The area leading up to the locks is quite large and there were ships everywhere. Disney had paid for “priority passage” and therefore we didn’t have to wait too long for our turn, but it seemed as if getting into that first lock took forever. First you line up along a rather long peninsula to make sure that the ship is aligned with the actual canal. The ship actually travels through the Canal on its own power, but is connected to several locomotives which help to steer the ship; steering in this case means keeping the vessel as straight as possible. The Disney Wonder had only two feet of clearance on each side of the ship and was connected to eight locomotives to ensure we would stay appropriately aligned throughout. Getting the Pilot onboard (remember he’s in charge of the ship going through the Canal), aligning the ship properly, and hooking up all the necessary cables to the locomotives took quite a bit of time. Once all of that was accomplished we were on our way into the first lock. I can’t begin to explain the engineering of the locks, but the basic premise is that ships are raised or lowered as necessary to allow for passage from the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean to the opposite ocean. Since the two oceans are not at the same sea level, this raising and lowering process is necessary for the passage. This first set of locks we sailed through had three individual chambers. The time to approach this first set, make our way through and arrive at the second set of locks was approximately 5-6 hours. Except for the heat, it didn’t seem this long. In fact, I was so fascinated by everything that was happening that it really seemed like mere minutes. So be forewarned, don’t be an idiot like me! Have water, a hat, a cool cloth, etc. to be prepared for a long time out in the heat and sun. Of course maybe you don’t want to watch absolutely every second, but I didn’t think I did either and then that’s exactly what happened!

Now for the second set of locks, I actually had to get out of the heat and sun for a while. I had heard that it was quite interesting to see the process through a Deck 2 cabin. Since that’s where we were located on this trip, I headed on down to watch from the comfort (and coolness) of our cabin. First I was really kind of bored and debating going back up on deck. However, patience was rewarded when the ship started lowering in the chamber. I got the most amazing views from inside the Canal! From this perspective I was able to see tie-offs, exit ladders and damage caused by previous ships. I know that might sound boring to you, but it was actually thrilling! It was such a different vantage point than from up on top! So although I would have preferred a balcony on this sailing simply due to the amount of time spent onboard, I’m so happy I got to see the Canal from this perspective.

From our cabin on deck 2... The sky is disappearing!

From our cabin on deck 2… The sky is disappearing!

The wall about 10 feet down. Couldn't find out what this actually was but it was still fascinating!

The wall about 10 feet down. Couldn’t find out what this actually was but it was still fascinating!

Interior ladder - the way up!

Interior ladder – the way up!

 

Damage on the wall of the Canal from many previous ships.

Damage on the wall of the Canal from many previous ships.

Yes, by the time we got to the third set of locks the process was somewhat repetitive, but surprisingly it really didn’t get old and was still exciting. I’d say the major difference was I didn’t feel compelled to stay rooted to one spot in order to not miss a thing. In fact, my advice to anyone going through the first time is DON’T stay in one spot. In hindsight, I wish I would have moved around more, and that’s one of the reasons I can’t wait to do it again! Yes, I want to do it again and probably more than once. Certainly, I’d be in good company as we met many, many individuals who have done the Canal multiple times.

I can’t remember exactly, but I believe it took us about 9-10 hours to get through the Canal entirely. My only complaint was we didn’t make it to the Bridge of the Americas (the gateway to the Pacific Ocean) until so late in the day I actually missed seeing it because I needed to get cleaned up for dinner. If you have a late seating, this probably wouldn’t present a problem for you.

Bridge of the Americas - onward to the Pacific Ocean

Bridge of the Americas – onward to the Pacific Ocean

We made it!!!

We made it!!!

Jo Scholl, co-host with fellow columnist Darlene Nagi of the new WDW Fan Zone Radio Blogcast – DVC Edition, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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Panama Canal Dining & Entertainment

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One of the things I enjoyed the most about our Panama Canal cruise with the expansion of the normal dining and entertainment venues. After all on a 14 night voyage you have twice as much time to experience all the options as when you travel for just a week, or (GASP!) less than a week.

I think the food is always wonderful on the Disney ships, regardless of which one you might be sailing on. However on the Disney Wonder for the 14 night Panama Canal sailing we had lots of options for “special” dining; themed nights that you might not experience on a shorter trip. It was fun to experience some new menus and get to try some options we hadn’t seen before. You’ll see in the chart below that although there are still some regular “rotational dining” nights, the themed nights really took over the menu almost every night. On a 14 night cruise only 4 of the menus were standard rotations.

Dining Theme / Feature Entertainment
Day 1 Let the Magic Begin / All Aboard: Let the Magic Begin
Day 2 Taste of Caribbean / Avengers: Age of Ultron
Day 3 Standard rotation / The Magic & Illusion of Kyle Knight & Mystie
Day 4 Golden Mickeys / The Golden Mickeys
Day 5 Standard rotation / The Ricky Kalmon Hypnosis Show
Day 6 Prince & Princesses / Chuck Wagner – Living the Dream
Day 7 Panama Canal / Avengers: Age of Ultron
Day 8 Pixar Toy Story / Toy Story the Musical
Day 9 Pirates IN the Caribbean / The Music and Comedy of John Charles
Day 10 Standard rotation / The Magic Dave Show
Day 11 Standard rotation / Paperback Rider
Day 12 Captain’s Gala / Crew Talent Show
Day 13 Freezing the Night Away with Anna, Elsa & Friends / Comedy & Ventriloquism of Taylor Mason
– AND Freezing the Night Away Deck Party
Day 14 Til We Meet Again / Disney Dreams

I’m not sure I could name a favorite menu during the cruise because every meal was delicious. But, because we’ve had the great fortune to sail on Disney nine times before, I was really excited to experience many new food items.

I religiously took pictures of all my meals and when I’d forget to take one my table mates would remind me. Unfortunately I didn’t get great shots this time. But I will share some of the dessert pics.

Molten chocolate lava cake.  Yum!

Molten chocolate lava cake. Yum!

 

This was an apple cobbler.  I'm not a big fan of apple, but this was delicious.  Just the right amount of sweet and crunchy.  The spoon is actually a sugar cookie!

This was an apple cobbler. I’m not a big fan of apple, but this was delicious. Just the right amount of sweet and crunchy. The spoon is actually a sugar cookie!

 

Crepes Suzette - though they didn't flame this at the table, it was still delish!

Crepes Suzette – though they didn’t flame this at the table, it was still delish!

 

I trio of desserts.  Disney combines desserts into trios almost every night.  Passion fruit cheesecake, a chocolate brownie cake and in the middle a repeat of the amazing apple cobbler.

I trio of desserts. Disney combines desserts into trios almost every night. Passion fruit cheesecake, a chocolate brownie cake and in the middle a repeat of the amazing apple cobbler.

 

One of my favorites - plain cheesecake with a very tasty cherry sauce and the most wonderful whipped cream ever!

One of my favorites – plain cheesecake with a very tasty cherry sauce and the most wonderful whipped cream ever!

 

Palo's incredible chocolate soufflé.  Above the soufflé you'll see a birthday plate for me.... for my 21st Birthday!  A surprise by the waiter.  He said I looked 21.  LOL!

Palo’s incredible chocolate soufflé. Above the soufflé you’ll see a birthday plate for me…. for my 21st Birthday! A surprise by the waiter. He said I looked 21. LOL!

 

Shel and I really indulged at Palo and for the first time ever each got a second dessert with our soufflé.  This was some sort of chocolate mousse tower and the presentation was wonderful.

Shel and I really indulged at Palo and for the first time ever each got a second dessert with our soufflé. This was some wort of chocolate mousse tower and the presentation was wonderful.

That excitement continued with the vast array of entertainment we were able to experience. I realize that some people may not agree with me, and that’s certainly okay, but I get a little tired of seeing the same shows on all of the Disney cruise ships. Because I’m sure that Disney experiences a lot of return cruisers such as me, I’ve always hoped they would broaden their selections or rotate the shows more often between ships. We certainly were treated to variety on this cruise, and I couldn’t have been happier. Not only was there more variety, but the quality of the entertainment was better than ever. Although I’ve seen several of these entertainers before, I went to every show but two; not sure what I did instead on those two nights, but I missed the hypnotist and the ventriloquist. Remember that the shows listed in the chart are only the shows in The Walt Disney Theater. There are plenty of other entertainment options in other areas of the ship including a long, long list of movies to choose from.

Three of the shows that were new to me, and that I particularly enjoyed were Chuck Wagner, Paperback Rider and the Crew Talent Show. I have to admit that I had never heard of Chuck Wagner, though I probably should have since he has appears multiple times on Broadway, even performing the role of the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. He was a super talented and charismatic individual and gave a simply fantastic show. Paperback Rider ranked high for me because I tend to believe that the Beatles are simply the best band there ever was! However, even if you don’t agree with my assessment of the Beatles, this Beatles cover band did an amazing job. Lastly, but perhaps the best of all was the Crew Talent Show. When I saw this on the schedule for the night of the Captain’s Gala I thought it was a strange choice and probably just “filler”. Well I couldn’t have been more wrong. Crew members from just about every area and department of the ship gave us wonderful performances of dancing, singing, music, magic and comedy. But the scene stealers were definitely the deck band; those guys in the yellow jumpsuits that you probably walk right by while they constantly clean the ship and make sure it is in tip top shape. They were a rock band that simply blew everyone away! No one expected these guys (who performed in their yellow jumpsuits!) to really be that great, but they were FANTASTIC! Definitely the surprise of the evening and I feel privileged I was able to attend their concert!

I mentioned movies previously and here’s the list of options we had over the course of our trip:

• Big Hero 6
• Strange Magic
• Movie Classic: Meet Me In St. Louis
• Iron Man
• Monkey Kingdom
• Movie Classic: King Kong
• Thor
• Cinderella
• Into the Woods
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Frozen
• Disney Nature: Bears
• The Incredible Hulk
• McFarland, USA
• Movie Classic: 42nd Street
• Iron Man 2
• Movie Classic: The Wizard of Oz
• Movie Classic; Casablanca
• The Avengers
• Iron Man 3
• Thor: The Dark World
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Les Miserables

Although several of these movies were shown multiple times we still couldn’t seem to see all of them even on a 14 night trip. Wow! Could they provide any more? It was a movie lover’s paradise!
I think I said it before, but if you shy away from a longer cruise on Disney…. Don’t! You’ll have lots of delicious yummy food to enjoy and tons of entertainment options available to keep you busy.

Jo Scholl, co-host with fellow columnist Darlene Nagi of the new WDW Fan Zone Radio Blogcast – DVC Edition, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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Animals at Sea

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Of all of the little special touches I enjoy when cruising one of the things I like the most are the towel animals that are so thoughtfully created for you by your stateroom attendant each night. I know it probably seems silly to some, but I look forward each night to seeing what new surprise there will be. And although we’ve now cruised many times, it’s always so much fun when a special animal I haven’t seen before appears!

On our recent Panama Canal cruise on the Disney Wonder we were treated to more examples of these amazing towel sculptures than ever before. Occasionally on a voyage your stateroom attendant might miss a night or two, but that was definitely not the case this time as he faithfully created his artwork each evening. I’ve already shared some of these creations from previous trips so in today’s article I’m just going to highlight some of the rarer examples.

Snail - moving along the bed at night

Snail – moving along the bed at night

The towel animals are the perfect vehicles to highlight whatever information your stateroom attendant needs to leave behind.

The towel animals are the perfect vehicles to highlight whatever information your stateroom attendant needs to leave behind.

This one stumped us a bit. We think it's a heart... maybe? Couldn't quite tell. It was the decoration for Freezin the Night Away

This one stumped us a bit. We think it’s a heart… maybe? Couldn’t quite tell. It was the decoration for Freezin the Night Away

One of my favorites and the surprize of the trip. An Alligator!

One of my favorites and the surprize of the trip. An Alligator!

One of my favorites and the surprize of the trip. An Alligator![/caption]

Alligator eating the remote

Alligator eating the remote

Cobra - I think I've shown this one before, but the candy eyes always crack me up. Stateroom attendants will also regularly use sunglasses, hats or other small items you leave lying about.

Cobra – I think I’ve shown this one before, but the candy eyes always crack me up. Stateroom attendants will also regularly use sunglasses, hats or other small items you leave lying about.

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Flower

Flower

I think this one is a teddie bear. What do you think?

I think this one is a teddie bear. What do you think?

Small turtle. We've also had one that was five times this size!

Small turtle. We’ve also had one that was five times this size!

Bunny

Bunny

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If you truly enjoy these sea creatures and want to re-create them for yourselves at home, watch the daily Navigator for towel folding classes. They are typically offered at least once on every cruise; sometime more on longer lengths. For me, I’ll just continue to wait anxiously onboard every night to see what magic is created just for us!

Jo Scholl, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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A Review of the Grand Floridian Villas

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I recently came back from a visit to Walt Disney World. On this most latest trip I was fortunate to stay in the Grand Floridian Villas (GFVs) for the first time; in a one-bedroom villa. Of the 31 resort properties which make up Walt Disney World, this was the 13th resort I’ve tried. Unlucky 13? Absolutely not, as this could easily become one of my favorite properties.

For those of you who may have read previous articles of mine, you’re probably aware that I am a very happy, long-time owner (1993) of Disney Vacation Club (DVC). I certainly never have any problem utilizing my points, but this particular stay was due to the generosity of a good friend who had points that were about to expire. The two of us decided we couldn’t allow that to happen! Seven months ahead of time we had to decide if we wanted to stay in a property we were already familiar with, or try someplace new. It was quite the decision because not only had we not stayed in the Grand Floridian Villas yet, but the new studios at the Polynesian Villas & Bungelows were also available for booking. For anyone not familiar with DVC, owners can book at their home resort 11 months in advance, but all other DVC properties only 7 months in advance. To be quite frank, since neither of these resorts is a home resort for either of us, we were very surprised at the availability. Very, very happy, but certainly surprised. We chose GFVs because we decided to go in the order in which the resorts opened; hopefully leaving a trip to the Polynesian in my future! It was a wonderful choice!

This same friend and I had previously stayed at the Grand Floridian Resort several years ago on the hotel side; utilizing points from both of our accounts. Resort amenities are basically the same for both the hotel and villa guests with the exception of daily cleaning service and perhaps a longer walk to the monorail. When utilizing the property, there is no distinction between guests. We both loved our experience on the previous trip, and the luxurious feeling of the Grand Floridian Resort. We really didn’t think anything would be quite as nice, but we were wrong. The GFVs are amazing! As I mentioned previously, we were in a one-bedroom unit. Certainly that contributed to our love of the villas since our accommodations were huge! I don’t know if the square footage is actually larger than other DVC properties, but perhaps due to the design choices that were made for the property, it certainly felt like it. We had a very large foyer and hall upon entering the room, which opened up into a large great room encompassing the kitchen, sit-down eating area and the living room. All of the décor is in light woods and fabrics and makes the space feel very open indeed. The bedroom is enormous and the villa comes with a split bath with the shower, toilet and sink in one section and a sink and soaking tub in another. Because we’ve stayed in both Bay Lake Tower and Kidani Village one-bedroom units and they have two full bathrooms, this was perhaps the only minor complaint we had. Although only two of us were in the room, it would have been lovely to have two completely separate and private areas. However, that being said, I loved loved loved the bathroom!! I’m both a shower and a bath kind of girl and I utilized both every day. Sometimes twice! The shower was definitely the nicest I’ve experienced on property; very large with great lighting and both a handheld shower and a large rain-head shower. It was only surpassed by the soaking tub!! I was in this tub every night of the trip and I didn’t want to leave. Seriously, if you added a second bedroom onto the unit and moved it to where I live now, I could be happy living here for the rest of my life! LOL!

The attention to detail typical of Disney was everywhere and one of the things I loved was the combining of multiple colors, prints and fabrics. I have another friend that would probably go nuts with this mix and match style (a basic beige type of girl), but I adored it! The only thing missing was the hidden Mickeys. Gasp! We couldn’t find a single one! However there are shadow portraits of both Mickey and Minnie and a hidden Duffy! I vaguely remember reading about the GFVs in development and hearing that the hidden Mickeys just didn’t seem appropriate for the period styling of the resort. I had forgotten this though and was thoroughly surprised at no Mickeys!

Instead of Mickey, Mary Poppins was part of the inspiration behind the décor. I didn’t know how I felt about this before arriving, particularly the penguin statue I had heard about which graced the lobby. I shouldn’t have worried as it was beautiful, charming and delightfully fun. My biggest surprise was that no one ever seemed to be in the lobby. I know this is typical of DVC resorts as everyone is busy rushing around the parks, but it seemed a shame that such a beautiful and serene spot wasn’t being used. But, oops! Now I’ve given it away and maybe soon everyone will flock (pun intended!) there!!

Entrance with lots of storage

Entrance with lots of storage

First half of split bath

First half of split bath

Shower - the largest I've had on property

Shower – the largest I’ve had on property

My favorite tub!

My favorite tub!

Second -master sink

Second -master sink

Master bedroom

Master bedroom

Great room

Great room

Mickey & Minnie

Mickey & Minnie

Hidden Duffy!

Hidden Duffy!

I'd like to have this kitchen at home

I’d like to have this kitchen at home

Amazing penguins!

Amazing penguins!

Penguin in chocolate!

Penguin in chocolate!

The villas are quite a hike away from the main resort, the monorail and the pool areas, but then again so are some of the outer buildings which comprise the Grand Floridian Resort. There is a covered walkway between the villas and the main building so at least if the skies open up un-expectantly as Florida weather is known to do, you won’t get soaked.

One additional plus that we didn’t utilize (partly because we had set plans for the entire stay, but secondly because we didn’t read our in-room literature until the day before we left!) was a full room-service menu. I don’t recall this being offered at any of the other DVC properties. Again, it may just be that I haven’t paid close enough attention, but I don’t think anything but pizza is normally offered at the other DVC resorts. Anyway, it was a very nice touch and something unexpected. We actually debated on whether or not to keep our plans one evening as storms were raging, and perhaps had we known about this ahead of time we might have given it a try.

Similar to the Wilderness Lodge Villas, all of the eating establishments at the Grand Floridian are located in the main building, at the pool, or in the case of Narcoosee’s, on the lakefront. Unfortunately for us on our first night we discovered that Mizner’s Lounge was closed. Due to refurbishment of Gasparilla Island Grill, and the resort’s efforts to make sure guests still had a quick service option available to them, Gasparilla’s had taken over the space normally occupied by Mizner’s. Not having any kitchen facilities there it was mostly a grab and go setting with a coffee station and a cooler for some pre-made items. Getting a late night cocktail wasn’t a problem as we were redirected to Citrico’s lounge. Sadly Citrico’s only stayed open until 11:00 PM and didn’t serve any food past 10:00 so late night snacks were out of the question. This was really only a problem for us the first night as we were unprepared and looking for a late night bite. Hats off to Dave though at Citrico’s, as he took very good care of us.

Similar to our previous stay at the resort, the GFVs felt comfortable, calming, and luxurious. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but we thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and that sense of vacationing in a by-gone era. Although I prefer the location of Bay Lake Tower a bit and it’s convenience to the Magic Kingdom, I find I’m really drawn to this resort and hope to stay there many more times.

Jo Scholl is a long time Walt Disney fan, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner, and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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Kilimanjaro Safaris

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A must do for me when visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a trip through Africa on Kilimanjaro Safaris. You never know what you will encounter on this amazing trip, but I’ve never had a bad experience. I’d always heard that your best chance of seeing the most animals was the first safari of the morning. Even though I jumped online at the first possible allowed moment to book our FastPass+ for this experience, I wasn’t able to get a time until almost 10:00 AM. This being our first planned activity of the day we were able to take our time getting up, having breakfast and getting to the park, but I wasn’t anticipating having a very good experience. Would all the animals already be taking morning naps? Or otherwise engaged? I needn’t have worried as this later time slot gave us one of the best safari experiences I have ever had.

I wasn’t able to get a good picture of the animal spotting guides that are hung in the front of every safari vehicle, but when I asked about obtaining an identifying guide after the safari finished I was directed to the Mombasa Marketplace and they supplied the following list. Of the 26 animals listed on this guide, we spotted at least 16 species; and probably a bit more though the 16 are what I was able to identify through my pictures. Please forgive me if I’ve gotten some of the names of the species wrong while trying to identify them. This was not easy working from a very grainy copy of a copy!

But here goes!

Female Bongo

Female Bongo

We had seen more giraffes than ever before on this safari. Off camera and to the left were five more!

We had seen more giraffes than ever before on this safari. Off camera and to the left were five more!

Up real close and personal again!

Up real close and personal again!

Ankole Cattle

Ankole Cattle

Black Rhinos

Black Rhinos

Male Bongo

Male Bongo

Male African Lion sunning with his mate

Male African Lion sunning with his mate

Male African Lion watching over his land

Male African Lion watching over his land

Greater Flamingo

Greater Flamingo

Mama and baby playing in the water

Mama and baby playing in the water

Mandrill - the hardest image to capture all day as he kept hiding in the trees

Mandrill – the hardest image to capture all day as he kept hiding in the trees

The Smitar Horned Oryx getting tired of everyone starting at him and leaving us behind.

The Smitar Horned Oryx getting tired of everyone starting at him and leaving us behind.

Smitar Horned Orynx - That black line at the bottom of the picture is the door of the safari vehicle. That's how close we were!

Smitar Horned Orynx – That black line at the bottom of the picture is the door of the safari vehicle. That’s how close we were!

Zebra & Greater Kudu

Zebra & Greater Kudu

Zebra & Greater Kudu

Zebra & Greater Kudu

White Rhino

White Rhino

More and more when in WDW, I try not to be taking pictures all of the time and prefer to try and see things “right in the moment”. I’ve been pretty successful with this, but on this particular safari that tactic went right out the window with every new animal I spotted. I would get so excited that I would just have to grab the iPhone and take a picture right then. We saw so many animals that I didn’t feel like I missed a thing; getting to not only document the ride, but also enjoy every minute of it.

One final thought… I’m not a zoo person. I know a lot of people still think of Disney’s Animal Kingdom as a zoo and my opinion is that couldn’t be further from the truth! As with all things the imagineers come up with, Kilimanjaro Safaris really hit the mark! I “feel” transported to Africa; grateful for being given the opportunity to watch these magnificent creatures in their natural habitats. The Kilimanjaro Safaris never disappoints and is a must do on any trip to Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Jo Scholl is a long time Walt Disney fan, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner, and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. And a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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Farewell and Thank You!

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Much as been written lately about the departure of The Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights. In fact the Spectacle was the subject of a former post of mine as well, long before we knew it would be leaving.

I think just about everyone would agree that the word “spectacle” described the lights perfectly. Although I myself preferred the original setting of the lights back on the residential street, I certainly couldn’t complain about how it grew and completely encompassed the entire backlot streetscape.

819I’ll greatly miss this wondrous display of the Christmas season; the sound of the music, the twinkling of the lights, the snow and of course, finding all those hidden Mickeys.

But this article today is specifically to thank the Disney Company. Thank you for letting us enjoy this Spectacle for so many years, and thanks most especially for keeping to Walt’s vision of the World ever growing and changing. We all have favorite attractions we may have lost over the years, but we all keep going back too. Why? Because not only is Walt Disney World the Happiest Place on Earth, but because it’s also always new and fresh. I haven’t been closely following all the news and updates about all of the Disney expansions currently in place, but I have to assume that the lights have to dim to make room for the highly anticipated Star Wars land. Whether or not this is the case, I’m looking forward to whatever will land in its place as I know it will be just as “spectacular.”

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I hope you have one last chance to go see the display. Sadly, I will be unable to, but my memories of the awe and delight experienced by my children (and who is kidding, me too!) will last forever.

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My Force Awakens – My Thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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d23-expo-recap-star-wars-cast_780w-463h

Photo by Ron Thompson

I know I’m one of the few people on the planet who isn’t obsessed with Star Wars. It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed the movies, but I’ve just never gotten into it all that much. I think I’ve only seen the original six movies once (or maybe in the case of the original three, and only because of Harrison Ford) twice. But something happened to me when Disney brought Lucas Films and the entire Star Wars empire into the fold. I actually became a little excited to see the next segment in the story; Star Wars: The Force Awakens!

Although we didn’t attend opening day, we were among those in the first couple days of release to see the film. I was uncharacteristically excited, but again it probably had something to do with Harrison Ford once again appearing in the film. Harrison is only about ten years older than I am so I’ve been following his career since the very beginning and he has never disappointed me. I must say that in the past couple of years I don’t think he has been aging all that well, but this movie must have revived him in some way because he looked fantastic! But I digress from the point of this article. More importantly, he was wonderful in the role of Han Solo; just as he was in the original film! Returning characters from the original definitely made this more of a hit for me, and it was lots of fun to watch Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison, but Harrison really made it special for me because he IS Han Solo.

However, the new cast members are receiving just has much praise from me. Although I’m a little on the fence about Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, I couldn’t be happier with the casting of Daisy Ridley as Rey or John Boyega as Finn. I tried hard not to see or hear any spoilers for the film before seeing it (and I’ll endeavor to not include any in this article for anyone on the plant who hasn’t seen the movie yet), but I did see one thing that confused me a little bit about Finn. Luckily my confusion was cleared up in one of the first scenes of the movie. Rey and Finn were perfectly cast (IMO). I was drawn to each of them immediately and (GASP!) can’t wait to see both of them in the next installment!! Who knew?!! I certainly didn’t expect to be drawn into this seventh movie of the series any more than I had been to the previous six. I was wrong as I loved this movie!!

The combination of old and new characters was absolutely a part of why I liked the film, so I am unsure if I will feel the same way going forward if that formula should change, but it was definitely fun this time around. Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia was very reminiscent of her original portrayal although obviously older (as she should have been). The older Han Solo was just soooo the same character that I almost felt as if I was watching the original. The chemistry between Leia and Han was still there and we discover some things about their relationship that we never knew. What was fun for me was that there was almost an alternate (and similar) chemistry between Leia and Han and Rey and Finn. I had read several reviews of the movie before seeing it and read many comments about the lack of chemistry between the two. I don’t agree with that opinion and thought they were wonderful together. Again, I don’t want to spoil anything here for anyone, so I’m not saying they are necessarily romantic, but they “play” off of each other extremely well.

Since I don’t want to spoil anyone’s first viewing, I’m going to wrap up here with just a couple of statements. GO SEE THE MOVIE! Now! Even if you are not a major Star Wars fan I think you might just enjoy this movie. The special effects were great as was the 3D we saw it in. I loved it so much that we almost went and saw it a second time within two days and only (sadly) missed doing so because I wasn’t feeling well. It may be that the addition of Disney to the brand clouded my opinion some (since I am pretty crazy about all things Disney, but even if that’s the case, I’m happy I now have a renewed interest in Star Wars and can’t wait to see the next episode!

Jo Scholl is a long time Walt Disney fan, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner, and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. Jo is also a first time grandma to a new Disney fan, Reese Ann! And resides with a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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Cruising 101

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imageThe most important piece of information I can provide to anyone considering a cruise, regardless of whether or not you are cruising with Disney or another cruise line, is to read your cruise contract.

This past week the Disney Fantasy had to skip its Castaway Cay stop due to mechanical issues with the ship. It just so happened that I had a friend on that itinerary who was affected. On Thursday afternoon an announcement was made and a letter was delivered to everyone’s stateroom. Disney apologized for the inconvenience and offered a $200 stateroom credit available immediately and 20% off a future cruise. My friend confirmed that many individuals on the ship were outraged at the change of itinerary and missing Castaway Cay and that was certainly the case all over social media. She, of course, shook it off and moved on to other things because she knew that was the right thing to do. Although perfectly understandable to be disappointed, no one should ever be surprised or angry about itinerary changes. Read your contract! Every cruise line has the same ability to change your itinerary and you agree to this when you sign your cruise documents. Cruise lines don’t do this to be mean (or to make a bigger profit as alleged all over social media!); they do it for your safety. There are many reasons why a ship’s itinerary could be changed: weather, mechanical problems, high seas, medical emergencies, and civil unrest in the port you may be traveling to are just a few of the examples. Would you rather the Captain took you into a danger zone?

I’ve been on almost twenty cruises on both Disney and other cruise lines and been affected in some way on probably about half of them. Once on a two week back to back cruise during hurricane season we didn’t get to any of the scheduled ports on the days we were supposed to and didn’t make it to many of the ports at all, but we were safe and had a great time. Some of you will say that’s because it was during hurricane season, and while yes that’s true, I choose to go during hurricane season because the fares are normally much lower. Regardless of that fact, I’ve still agreed on every cruise to put my safety in the hands of the Captain and abide by whatever decisions he makes.

BTW, on that two week cruise we received no compensation for the changes. And why should we? We still had an amazing two week cruise. Disney certainly didn’t have to do anything this past week simply because Castaway Cay was off the schedule, but they offered significant compensation to their guests to apologize for an unavoidable change. I’ll bet some of the guests who were complaining onboard still spent their $200 right away!

So here’s my final piece of advice. Whether this happens to you on your first cruise, your fifteenth or every one you ever take, know the change is occurring to keep you and your fellow passengers safe, and ENJOY YOURSELF!

To the Disney Cruise Line, please note that I have my next cruise booked already and regardless of whether or not you change one, two or all of my ports, I’ll be back again, and again, and again! Bravo to the Captain of the Fantasy for doing the right thing!

Jo Scholl is a long time Walt Disney fan, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner, and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. Jo is also a first time grandma to a new Disney fan, Reese Ann! And she resides with a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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Visit Zootopia

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Visit Zootopia now!

Visit Zootopia now!

Disney has done it again with another animated feature that has something for everyone in the family. As they have oftentimes done in the past, Disney has included several strong messages within the confines of this movie, including the themes of prejudice and stereotyping. Although I sincerely doubt that these messages are necessarily understood, or even received by the younger individuals seeing Zootopia, the message came across loud and clear to me; don’t pre-judge anyone for what they look like or where they came from and don’t assume you know what someone’s character is like simply by the color of their skin (or in this case, what type of animal they are!). Those very important messages aside, Zootopia was simply a lot of fun to watch.

The movie follows the story of Judy Hopps, a small town bunny who from a very young age believes she can do and be anything she wants to; and Judy’s dream is to leave behind her parent’s carrot farm to become a cop in Zootopia. Judy is able to attain her goal and is the first bunny cop in Zootopia, but isn’t treated exactly like she expected to be. Raised believing that Zootopia is that magical place where no matter what you are or where you are from, you can be anything, Judy finds this isn’t exactly true when she is assigned to parking tickets. However, with her never ending optimism she makes the best of the situation and soon finds herself embroiled in perhaps the biggest crime to ever hit this bustling metropolis. Along the way Judy runs into sly fox Nick Wilde, and Nick becomes critical to Judy finding her way around this new big and unfamiliar city and discovering who exactly is behind this nasty crime.

As always Disney has perfectly cast this feature, though I must admit not all of the voices were instantly recognizable to me. Perhaps that is actually a good thing meaning that they played their characters so well that I had no idea who the actors were. However, for me it was a real mix of who I knew and who I didn’t. Judy Hopps is played beautifully by Ginnifer Goodwin who embodies her cheerful optimism and absolute pluckiness. Nick is voiced by Jason Bateman, and although he was instantly recognizable to me it didn’t deter at all from believing him as the character. Additional standout performances that I just KNEW who they were, but I couldn’t put my finger on it, were voiced by Idris Elba and J.K. Simmons. Tommy Chong portrayed quite a character who although I wasn’t 100% sure of what he was (llama I think), but he kept me laughing the whole time he was on screen. And Shakira kind of steals the show at times as an entertaining gazelle. Make sure you stay through the end when you see the portrayal of the gazelle and the tigers is a bit different than you might expect.

I am always astonished, amazed, and a little envious of the creativity it takes to develop a movie like this and a place like Zootopia. I think the group of minds that come up with this stuff are simply genius!

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Although I have to admit that it seemed a little bit long, it had me chuckling through almost all of it. I spoke to a couple of families after the movie with children ranging from 2 to 14 and it was a big hit to everyone except the 14 year old. It appeared that the adults enjoyed the laughs, the moral and strong messages within, the younger children simply took delight in the animals, but the teen was caught in-between the two groups and seemed a bit bored. All in all though I would recommend you go see Zootopia, if for no other reason than you’ve never seen a place quite like this! And make sure you don’t miss the sloths!! They are a highlight among the animals and a late appearance by one of them toward the end of the movie had me really cracking up.

Jo Scholl is a long time Walt Disney fan, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner, and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. Jo is also a first time grandma to a new Disney fan, Reese Ann! And she resides with a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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Disney Magic Kingdoms

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I’d like to say that I am mildly obsessed with the new Gameloft game put out in conjunction with Disney and Disney/Pixar; Disney Magic Kingdoms. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be accurate, as the truth is I’m totally obsessed!

Welcome screen
Welcome screen

I’m not going to describe the game itself in this post as Shelley Scholl recently wrote a very through article on the subject which you can find here. Instead as an avid gamer I’m going to give you some of my impressions of the game and my humble opinion as to whether or not this might be the game for you. Because, as obsessed as I currently am with this game, I’m not sure it’s an obsession which can stand the test of time.

The very BEST thing about this game IMO is the virtual world you inhabit. The team that developed the game (and I have no doubt that Disney imagineers had to have a strong presence in the work done with Gameloft) have created a world so beautiful and immersive that you can totally get lost in the environment. The characters are so realistic that you’ll feel as if you stepped directly into a kingdom inhabited by Mickey and friends. Regardless of whatever else I might think about this game, it’s possible that I might be able to wander around the kingdom forever just to keep me in the Disney mood. It really is so realistic that it’s a wonderful substitute for those times you really need a Disney fix but simply cannot make it to one of the parks. You’ll see what I mean when you look at the following screenshot of the Walt & Mickey statue.

The iconic Walt & Mickey statue!
The iconic Walt & Mickey statue!

The kingdom(s) don’t duplicate actual parks, but mimic elements of them. Characters are sent on quests to up their skill levels and unlock other characters and elements of the kingdom. Rides and attractions we are all familiar with will become available as you progress in the game, including a parade!

Two parade floats to the left of the castle and in front of the blue tent.
Two parade floats to the left of the castle and in front of the blue tent.

The parade is the first example of what you might not like about the game. You might notice that the parade has only two floats in it. I know that eventually it will be able to have more, but for now it’s taken me days and days to get that far. You see you can only run the parade once per day (yep, only once every 24 hours) and you have to have a specific amount of “happiness” to be able to run it at all. Happiness is determined by how many visitors you have in your park and whether or not you are granting enough of their wishes to promote happiness. It’s quite involved and more than anything takes a lot of time.

Your ability to do almost anything within the game depends on magic and gems. The magic is free and obtained through building things and completing quests. The gems are also “free”. I’m put that second free in quotes because it’s only sorta, kinda free. You may receive a small amount of gems for completing an action, but it takes a lot of gems to really do anything, including completing quests that must be done before you can make your way onto another quest and expand your park.

The picture below shows an example of directions to a quest; I Lost My Baton! Pt. 3. Yes, that means there were at least three steps to complete this particular task.

Instructions for something Mickey needs to do.
Instructions for something Mickey needs to do.

Any action you take may take anywhere from between 60 seconds and 24 hours to complete. While this is happening your character (performing the task or being leveled up) can’t do anything else. Now 60 seconds is a pretty reasonable time to wait and a lot of the quests are one to two hours; also fairly reasonable. However, once they start getting into the 4, 6, 8 hour range or more, my patience tends to run a little thin. Quests, building properties or leveling up a character almost always have the option to pay to speed things up by using gems. I swore that I wasn’t going to buy a single gem for this game and would just wait everything out, but that really took all the fun away for me when I couldn’t do anything for long periods of time. So I broke down and bought some gems to advance me in the game! Yes, I swore I wasn’t going to do it!! But I did! If you really, really don’t want to spend ANY money in this game, then it may not be a good fit for you.

So here’s really the only piece of advice I have before you allow yourself to become addicted to this game (as I have already hopelessly done)….. Either be a very, VERY patient individual, or be willing to spend some real hard cash. I don’t mind that the developers are trying to make some money as is the case with a lot of games available on your phone, tablet or computer. After all you have the choice to play and pay or not. But with most other games that I’ve played (or are currently playing) that give you this option, the wait times are MUCH shorter. The typical wait time I’ve experienced is 15 minutes to gain a new life and be able to resume your game. Wait times of up to 24 hours (and maybe even longer as you progress in the game… eek!) are just too darn long. Hopefully developers will listen to complaints made by the community during this initial rollout and perhaps tweak some elements of the game. Shortening wait times would definitely be my number one request!

Finally on a humorous note, sometimes characters get a bit mixed up in the game. In the example below Woody and Jesse seem to have morphed into one character. I’ve seen as many as four characters become one. It’s pretty funny.

Woodsee?
Woodsee?

So, try it for yourself and see what you think. The download is free so it’s pretty easy to start and see if this is something you’d like to participate in. Just be forewarned that once you start you may become addicted too!

Main Street!
Main Street!

Jo Scholl is a long time Walt Disney fan, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner, and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. Jo is also a first time grandma to a new Disney fan, Reese Ann! And she resides with a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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The Evolution of Trip Planning

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I’m happy to say that in exactly 10 days I will be back home, or as most of you might know it…. Walt Disney World!

My daughter Shelley surprised me about a month ago with a text that stated she had a proposal for me. I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, but when I called her she suggested a rather spur of the moment trip to the most magical place on earth. This is pretty unusual for us as we normally plan trips far in advance. However the past few years we have purchased annual passes due to trips of longer lengths or 2-3 visits in one year, and this in conjunction with our Disney Vacation Club (DVC) points makes it much easier to even consider this type of a trip. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again…. Thank goodness I bought DVC! My DVC membership has really changed my life and enabled me to enjoy so much more travel than I ever would have thought possible.

But back to the planning. This trip will only be four nights and three and a half days. We are flying in on a Thursday evening and leaving on Monday evening. My preference has always been for a longer trip, but more and more I’m finding that these short trips can be just as exciting. To extend this trip just as much as possible we are taking advantage of the new special ticket event for late night access to the Magic Kingdom. We may be totally exhausted from this short trip, but not arriving until evening on Thursday, this seemed one of the best ways to maximize our time. Yes, it was an extra fee (since we already have full access through our annual passes), but we justified that we would be able to accomplish so much that first night with the limited access to the park. Although I really don’t think we approach the parks commando style anymore (racing to do every show and attraction in every park every day!), it seemed to make a lot of sense with the short length of this particular trip to take advantage of the opportunity to squeeze a lot into a very short period of time. We’ve already decided if needed, we’ll sleep in a little bit longer on Friday, but my guess is we probably won’t!

In addition to the limited ticket event at the MK on Thursday night, we are very excited to be in WDW during the Flower and Garden Festival and be able to access all of the wonderful food booths for a second year in a row! And, several new food venues are going to be opening up at Disney Springs the few days we are there. I told Shel, it sounds like we are going to be doing nothing but eating on this trip! To mitigate all that food consumption just a bit we are also going to be participating in a virtual 5K while there. Shel has really been getting into Run Disney events this past year and now I’m committed to two as well; the virtual run we will be doing on this trip and the 5K during the Wine and Food Festival in the fall in conjunction with our next trip.

So perhaps there’s a theme here….. racing around the parks during a very short trip, and racing in a Run Disney event! As I said, evolution. I won’t actually be running either of these races since I’m the proud owner of a brand new knee and not approved to actually run. I am however VERY, VERY excited to be participating as it’s been almost four years since I’m been able to be in the parks without some sort of mobility assistance. Yay me!

I’ll recap our trip in next months article and let you know how our three and a half day whirlwind went!

Jo Scholl is a long time Walt Disney fan, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner, and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. Jo is also a first time grandma to a new Disney fan, Reese Ann! And she resides with a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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My First Disney 5K

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We recently came back from a trip to Walt Disney World. This particular trip was intentionally a bit of a whirlwind; arriving on Thursday and leaving on Monday. However, we packed in an enormous amount of activity during this short trip including my first ever (in WDW) 5K!

If you follow my daughter Shelley on this website, you know that she is becoming a runner. In my sixth decade (for some strange reason) I kind of decided that I wanted to begin running too. Unfortunately with one brand new knee and another on the way my physician has not cleared me for running.

This particular trip however occurred when Shelley proposed we do the runDisney virtual running shorts 5K. Although unsure if I’d actually be able to accomplish this task, who was I to turn down an opportunity to visit the World! I can’t say that I trained per se, but recovering from a total knee replacement (and achilles surgery the previous year) is a type of training all in its own. Until recently obtaining a new job I was actually going to the gym every day and had regularly walked two to two and a half miles on the treadmill. I had never completed the entire length of a 5k though in this process and had previously only participated in one about five years ago prior to losing my mobility. I was definitely game though because as I said it involved a trip to WDW!

Part of the enticement was also where we were staying. We spent this trip at the Wilderness Lodge Villas. Previously we had done a segway tour from the Wilderness Lodge to the campgrounds and knew that this was a lovely area to walk/run in. Leaving directly from our room we were easily able to access the marked trail right where the pathway from our building joined with the pathway to the bus stop.

Trail Map
Trail Map

Though it was a fairly hot morning, the walk was lovely. Beginning with a beautiful section through the woods where we encountered several deer, into the Fort Wilderness Campground area through the horse barn area, in front of Pioneer Hall and Trail’s End Restaurant and onward through one of the campsite loops which ended by a beautiful view of Bay Lake. To be truthful, I stopped twice; once for a very brief (15-45 second) stop on a bench, and once for a restroom break at the Pioneer Hall restrooms. That second stop at the restrooms was due more to the heat I think as I just felt I had to get out of it for a minute and wet my face. But overall, I was really happy! I felt sorry that Shelley had to slow down her pace to remain with me, but really happy that she did because we had a really nice quiet time together in the middle of the hustle and bustle that is WDW. No our time wasn’t great (solely due to me), but I finished! You’ll see from our picture that I’m not the littlest thing on the planet, so doing something this physical in the Florida heat was really quite an accomplishment for me!

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That's Bay Lake Tower waaay behind us! Now time to turn around and head back!
That’s Bay Lake Tower waaay behind us! Now time to turn around and head back!

Although disappointed that I’m not physically able to run, there are definitely health benefits to walking as well. I must have enjoyed doing this because not only did I commit to the Mickey’s Holiday 5K in Animal Kingdom this fall (I actually committed to that one first!), but I’m also considering doing the Disney Princess 5K with Shel in February of next year. I may never be a runner, but doing one of these races in Walt Disney World is definitely a motivator toward accomplishing health related goals.

End note, I was exhausted when I arrived home on Monday. The total time of my trip (including airport travel time) was from around noon on Thursday until 11:00 PM on Monday. During this time and including the 5k I walked a total of 35 miles! No wonder I was tired! But energized and revived too because Disney always does that for me.

Shelley & Jo - Thanks to Shelley for encouraging my first Disney 5K!
Shelley & Jo – Thanks to Shelley for encouraging my first Disney 5K!

Jo Scholl is a long time Walt Disney fan, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner, and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. Jo is also a first time grandma to a new Disney fan, Reese Ann! And she resides with a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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Morimoto Asia

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On our most recent recent to Walt Disney World we ventured over to see all the changes at Disney Springs. Quite a few changes have taken place since I was last there in 2015. I love (LOVE!) to eat at WDW and Disney Springs is becoming a mecca of wonderful food choices. Prior to leaving for this trip Shel and I were constantly trading emails we had received regarding new food offerings opening in Disney Springs.

Shel and I ventured over to Disney Springs somewhat on impulse. We were on a short four day trip and I really didn’t expect we would be eating a meal over there on this trip. However our impromptu visit worked our perfectly for me as after we were done shopping I convinced Shel to go to Morimoto.

I was fascinated by the lighting in Morimoto Asia... BEAUTIFUL!
I was fascinated by the lighting in Morimoto Asia… BEAUTIFUL!

On my previous trip I missed the opening of Morimoto Asia by two days! Being an avid fan of The Food Network and many years earlier the original Iron Chef Japan, I’ve been a fan of Chef Morimoto for ages. I desperately wanted to dine at this restaurant and was really disappointed I couldn’t dine there during the opening.

First let me just say that the restaurant is stunning done up in black, red and white. It’s decorated very simply and elegantly with both small and large photos everywhere. I wasn’t able to find out if the photos are of friends/family of the chef or just random individuals, and I would still be curious to know the answer to this. However, regardless of the subjects, the photos were beautiful. My favorite feature though was the lightening. The chandeliers were just gorgeous!

But onto the food! It was really hot out and we weren’t super hungry so we decided to focus on just Dim Sum. We started with a shared order of chicken dumplings and followed with a sushi roll each. The dumplings were steamed to perfection and the filling was seasoned just right. The only problem with the dumplings was that we shared them! They were so good that I could have easily eaten 4-6 of them myself! Shel had a vegetable roll and I picked the shrimp tempura roll. Both were delicious with my shrimp nicely crisp. Speaking of crispy….. When we finished our sushi we decided that everything was so delicious we just had to have one more item and chose to get the pork egg roll. This egg roll was undoubtedly the crispiest egg roll I’ve ever had. The egg roll wrapper was paper thin, filled to the brink with tasty pork, cabbage and ginger and just sooooo yummy! Because we were only interested in a light meal, these items were the extent of what we tasted on our first visit.

Simple & Elegant place settings
Simple & Elegant place settings
Vegetable Roll
Vegetable Roll

However, the menu is vast and covers several categories including dim sum, sushi, soup, salad, meat & poultry, noodles & rice, vegetables, fish, two specialty seafood/sushi towers, and of course, dessert. All of the items on the menu are based on Chinese, Japanese or Korean specials, which makes it easy for everyone to find something they like. My only disappointment on this visit was that we weren’t hungrier and didn’t make our way through several courses.

I wanted to experience a sit-down dining experience, but for those of you who only want quick serve you can now also visit Morimoto Asia Street Food, or just sit down at The Sushi Bar.

On a final note, we had heard that service was sometimes inconsistent at Morimoto Asia, but this couldn’t be further from the truth the day we were there. Service was excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. This restaurant could easily become a new favorite for me and I can’t wait to go back.

Sorry there aren’t more photos. We were quite honestly enjoying ourselves and the food so much that it didn’t even occur to me to take more!

Jo Scholl is a long time Walt Disney fan, grateful Disney Vacation Club (DVC) owner, and proud mom to three amazing adult children, one of whom is fellow columnist Shelley Scholl. Jo is also a first time grandma to a new Disney fan, Reese Ann! And she resides with a small black dog named Mickey Mouse!

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