Essential Tips in Planning a Walt Disney World Vacation

It has always been your childhood dream to hit the Walt Disney World even if you are living at the other side of the globe. You have saved up in the past years to realize such dream, and now you are about to plan for that journey. What should you expect on this trip and what are the things that you ought to do to make sure that you will get the most out of the venture?

Here are some vital tips that you have to bear in mind to make sure that this trip is going to be fun and a truly memorable one.

First off, there are four major theme parks that can be found on the spot. These are the Magic Kingdom, which is in itself bigger than the Disneyland in California, the Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. Aside from being complex, because there are just too many sights to see and rides to try, this trip can also be very expensive. You have to be cautious of your allotted budget for the trip if you wouldn’t want to go overboard as you go through it.

If you are bringing kids with you who are too small to enjoy the rides, take advantage of the baby swap. The scenario goes like this, all parents with kids are going to line up together. One parent will enjoy the ride along with older kids as the other parent look after the under-height children. The parents will swap places once the ride is over.

Choose the park where you ought to go based on the Extra Magic Hour. The other parks may open earlier for the guests of the resort. You have to be there early because all parks can really get filled with many people like the water parks at around noon. The Animal Kingdom also closes early. If the weather is getting too hot to handle, you may want to rest on your hotel or resort in the afternoon. You can go back in the evening and check out the special night-time activities that are being done on three of its theme parks after dusk.

Learn how to use your Fastpasses strategically. This saves you time and effort of standing in long lines on famous rides where most people flock all the time. The Fastpass is free and simple to understand.

If you happen to visit the park during hot weather, you have to bring snacks and drinks with you as you stroll around, especially when you have kids with you. It can get very expensive and time consuming to buy snacks within the area. That is just fine if you are not working around a tight budget, but if you are, then it will help you in this regard to bring something to munch on and quench your thirst as you enjoy all rides at the sight.

For restaurant meals, you have to utilize the Advanced Reservations. These are free and will save you huge time from waiting in line.

There are many more tricks and tips that you can choose to do if you aim to enjoy this once in a lifetime tour at the World Disney World. Aside from saving up and abiding your set schedule, you have to learn how to have pure fun once you have finally realized this dream that you’ve always had since you were a child.

Enjoying A Disney World Resort Vacation

If there was one of the most magical places on earth, it would be the Walt Disney Resort. And what better way to experience the magic it brings that to go on a vacation?

Located in Orlando, Florida in the United States, the Disney World Resort is open every day of the year but the opening and closing hours of the theme park vary by season.

Being the biggest recreational resort in the world, it is assured that the vacation will also give you countless opportunities for dining, shopping and recreation that would definitely satisfy each member of the family.

When you plan for a Disney World vacation, your top priority should be your children. The place is first and foremost must offer the kids and the parents too a magical and exciting vacation experience. Among so many things that the world offers the theme parks would be the amenity anybody could enjoy.

What you should not miss

Indeed, going in a Disney World vacation will give everybody the chance to visit the Magic Kingdom where a storybook of fantasies will unravel before your very eyes. In this particular part of your vacation, Disney classics are brought to life through attractions such as Cinderella’s Castle, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Hall of Presidents and the like.

The Animal Kingdom, on the other hand features various wildlife exhibits and encounters. Another exciting part of the Disney World vacation is the Epcot Center where anybody can touch the future and travel the world with an amazing array of attractions and live performances.

Lastly, one pf the most entertaining parts of the Disney World vacation is the Disney’s MGM Studios that will reveal the behind the scenes in the worlds of movies, music and television.

On-site restaurants, water parks, shopping centers, and fabulous nightlife can be experienced during Disney World vacation by strolling down the downtown area and along the boardwalk.

Important reminders

But, before getting engrossed in the ultimate fun and relaxation that await you in your vacation, here are some important pieces of information on Walt Disney World with some tips that you should carefully consider:

1. Prepare for a long travel. Since your vacation is more for the kids than you, you must be prepared for the long travel with your little buddies. Prepare some sanity savers like putting a box of toys, a soft suitcase, or a diaper bag between two kids in the back seat that will gives them boundaries.

2. Have itinerary. During a Disney World vacation, you must keep your itinerary quite flexible for the interesting sites you want to share with your kids. Since the vacation would require long hours of travel, you should learn to every couple of hours to give leeway to everybody’s needs.

3. Meal plans. When you stop for meals during a Disney World vacation, make sure to eat outdoors so your children can play while you relax. You may also find several interesting spots for your children to explore along the way.

Disney And The Lessons In Customer Relations

Among the many Disney businesses that deals directly with the public at large are mainly its famous theme parks. These are the places where people go to spend a fun-filled week or days, usually with their loved ones or close friends.

Disney developed these places all in the name of entertainment, filling all the senses of the park patrons with top-notch and unique kind of fun. Since these are the showcase businesses of Disney, this is where all their vaunted customer relations would come into full play after some hard training sessions done on their people.

Face to face customer interaction

Most companies require their employees to know the company’s “mission statement”, or to come up and create one for themselves. However, very few employees know or even understand what mission statements actually say or mean.

At Disney, the company spent time training their employees on basic customer care. When a guest shows signs of being in need, the Disney attendant stops at what he is doing and offers to help.

Show signs that you are looking for something and chances are a Disney employee will appear before you and asks if he can help you find what you are looking for.

‘Plussing”

Walt Disney himself coined the word “plussing”. He defined it as “giving people a stellar entertainment experience ‘plus’ constant improvements on it.”

This is the down-to-earth frame of mind where people never rest looking for something better. If something can be improved on, it is improved right away.

When the Euro became the official currency in Europe, Disney immediately changed the name of his European park from Euro Disney to Disneyland Paris.

He did not want his park to have a name associated with money or commerce. Moreover, the uniqueness of the European Disney world would have been “diluted” (and easily forgotten) had it acquired the same name or affiliation as the Euro.

Attention to small details

At Disney, the attention to details is unequalled. John Hench, a former employee, wrote: “What’s our success formula? It’s the attention to infinite details, the little things, the minor picky points that others just don’t want to take the time, money or effort to do.”

Mornings at Disney offices, guests hear upbeat and energetic music. In the evening, the music is changed to decidedly mellow tunes, in deference to guests who are presumed to be tired after a long day.

Disney had invested much time and energy working on this during the company’s long preparation for its theme parks. Aids, such as background music, are one of the things most usually forgotten, or never having been thought of in the first place.

All guests are VIPs

The best gauge on this is how Disney personnel treat guests, specially those with disabilities. Each one is assured of a comfortable stay, at the very least.

Riding public transport is never easy for people who cannot walk. At Disney, the attendants want to make sure that guests with disabilities can turn their trip into something positive or at least neutral.

With Disney’s brand of customer relationship, is it any wonder how the company had grown to its present size?

Disney And The Disney Empire

Founded by the Disney brothers Walt and Roy, the Walt Disney Company started as a small animation studio that grew into the second largest media entertainment group in the world. Beginning with Mickey Mouse, the company later introduced the other world-famous cartoon characters that helped pave the way to the company’s success.

Not long after, they established and acquired several other high-profile movie production studios, went and became a major television studio owner, and later built some of the world’s biggest theme parks, and even became the owner of a couple of major sports franchises.

Right now, the company has four major business divisions contributing to the billion-dollar coffers of the mother company: Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Consumer Products, and Media Networks.

Short history

In 1923, brothers Walt and Roy started the Walt Disney Studio in California with their first series Steamboat Willy featuring Mickey Mouse. Years later, they produce merchandise featuring their animated characters.

In 1937, they did their first feature film, Snow White that became their first hit and went on to become the highest grossing film of all time (before Gone with the Wind).  Its success promptly catapulted them into the big time.

Parks, more studios and television

After doing propaganda films during the World War II years, they resumed making feature films (animated and live action) and television shows. In 1957, they established Disneyland Park in California and Disney World in Florida in 1971.

In the following decades, Disney put up more production companies including Touchstone and the Disney Channel and more theme parks. 1996 saw the company grew significantly bigger with the acquisition of ABC Studios and its affiliated radio and television stations, as well as the newspapers.

Business strategy and accountability

Per its website, the “Walt Disney company and its affiliated companies have remained faithful to their commitment to produce unparalleled entertainment experiences based on the legacy of quality creative content and exceptional storytelling.”

On corporate accountability, the issues are centered in the manufacture of toys (and related products) and the company’s ownership of ABC and other media companies.

Labor

To date, Disney has contracts with over 40,000 factories and 6,000 vendors all over the world. It has an International Labor Standards code and oversight group of independent auditors.

So far, It had resolved its disputes with some labor watchdog groups regarding low wages, unsafe working conditions, long hours, unpaid overtimes, etc. in some of its factories in China.

Environment and product safety

The company has trademarked “environmentality” to refer to the company’s stated commitment to environment-friendly practices, its environmental Policy Division and its brand of the same name.

However, it is facing present difficulties because of the large number of suppliers all over and supervision is getting to be difficult.

Present company directions

Surprisingly, the overall financial health of the Disney conglomerate is robust and resilient considering today’s volatile economic movements. Some problems crop up now and then, like the need for strong copyright protection of its properties in the Internet, for example)

In a world of volatile and fast changing values, the fully-grown Disney empire left by Walt and Roy had been versatile enough to adapt. In the name of millions of children around the world, the Walt Disney Company will hopefully be still around to entertain them as they did for the last 87 plus years.

Disney And Imagineering

Imagineering is actually the design and development arm of the Walt Disney Company tasked in the creation and construction of all the Disney theme parks around the world. It is rather an audacious term blended from the words “imagination” and “engineering”.

However, its employees known as “imagineers” are known for their diversified talents and skills, with over 140 different job titles falling under the group (illustrators, lighting engineers, show writers, architects, designers, etc.).

New concepts, new solutions

Imagineers often use new concepts and solutions to solve specific problems that cannot be worked out with old principles. They are able to come up with ingenious answers, often discovered in the most unconventional ways.

They are also known to return to old ideas that did not push through and rework them in a different form in an entirely different context. (Their old project Museum of the Weird eventually became the Haunted Mansion.)

Blue sky speculation

The imagineers also have the “blue sky speculation”, the idea of generating ideas without limits, only the sky’s (hence, the name).

They would first start out with the “eyewash”, the wildest and boldest idea anyone can come up with. It is presented with attention to the minutest details and should pass the notion that if it can be dreamed of, it can be created.

“Plussing” and innovation

“Plussing” was Disney’s term in improving any work done by the imagineers. He believed there was always room for innovation and improvement, and that “nothing will ever be completed as long as there is still imagination left in the world.”

So far, Disney’s imagineers had been granted over 115 patents over the years. These are all connected with Disneyland’s ride systems, interactive technology, special effects, live entertainment, fiber optics, advanced audio systems, and others.

Audio animatronics

This is a form of robotics created and used in shows and attractions in the theme parks that use 3D animations. The idea was triggered by Disney’s fascination with a mechanical bird he bought.

It led to the development of the attraction The Enchanted Tiki Room which featured singing animatronic birds, which actually was the first to use that kind of technology.
The first animatronic human figure attraction featured Abraham Lincoln who stood up and delivered a part of the Gettysburg address.

Today, there are many animatronic attractions in many popular Disney parks. These include Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Jim Henson’s Muppet Vision 3D, and many others.

Device for storytelling

Imagineering is actually used as a form of storytelling in visual form. Entering a Disney theme parks feel like entering a show. The Disney experience consists of extensive theming, atmosphere and attention to details.

This multi-sensory mood is given clarity by life-like details and props. Aside from atmospheric and ambient sounds, imagineers are likely to add some olfactory ingredients. Guests walking down Main Street are likely to smell some cookies baking somewhere.

Details

What distinguishes the work of imagineers from the others is Disney’s attention to details. His insistence on correct details, no matter how small, made their projects believable in the eyes of the guests.

Since it started, Disney’s Imagineering group had created 11 theme parks, a town, two cruise ships resort hotels, shopping centers, water parks, sports complexes and many other entertainment venues.  Indeed, the Imagineering group of Disney have come a long way.

Deconstruction And Rehabilitation Of Disney

Nobody ever thought a nondescript mouse cartoon character with some humorous adventures would ever catch the imagination of the children way back then (and now). It had swept the Walt Disney Company along and transformed it into an entertainment empire that it is today.

For the last 87 years, the company founded by Walt and Roy Disney had defined the children’s first cultural tastes of likes and dislikes. Through the years, Mickey Mouse and his company of friends would delineate the kind of children’s entertainment for that generation.

Growing together

Through the years, each of the characters, new and old, had grown into the consciousness of the children’s sense of fun and adventure.

In the meantime, the Walt Disney Company grew along with the success brought about by Mickey and friends. The years boomed with more and more success in all the other areas – financial, creative and managerial.

The company’s growth was sideways, too. It did not waste time and started producing more and more children-oriented movies and shows. It also started acquiring production studios and TV properties as well as establishing theme parks for kids and the kids-at-heart.

Growing up

However, children do grow up. With it, they learn to dismiss the artificiality and childish, saccharine quality of Walt Disney and his creations – including those characters they so loved as children.

With post-adolescent cynicism brought about by hard-edged realities of life, these new grown-ups begin to deconstruct Disney and his creations, including anything associated with the company.

Self-styled criticism

Stories would be revived on Walt Disney’s virtual totalitarian corporate managerial style, his so-called exploitation of the “underside of American proletarian values of anti-intellectualism, consumerism” and others.

Most of the scorn is usually widespread among academics and intellectuals. They would reshape conversations to take a dismissive look into the man, bring about a  condemnatory approach to his media empire and wry amusement to the cultural force left behind.

Reanimation

Thankfully, the cynicism does not stay for long, but only for a period of time. Later, these cynics would get married and have children. Soon, they would marvel how their children would embrace the very same characters they had dismissed long ago.

Later, they would do their own examination of Disney’s contribution to America’s culture (nowadays, including the world’s), the man’s life and philosophy and his overall importance.

New myths, new stories, new characters

Scholars and historians have long accepted the Disney phenomenon as part of a child’s search for heroes and mythical friends to assess and compare their acts with. There are other wonderful mythmakers as well whose work will be here for a very long time: Dr. Seuss, Rowling, and many others.

Today’s children have a wider choice of many lovable mythical characters created by new storytellers and mythmakers. They also come in from old and new media  – books, films, television, newspapers, magazines, and even from the Internet.

Many of them have wonderful stories to associate with one’s dreams and aspirations. Some, like the wonderful and ever-growing platoon of Disney characters, have the knack of staying in one’s consciousness longer. Sometimes, for some, it could be forever.

Creativity Lessons From Disney

Before Disney became a dominant corporate brand, a very familiar company name and a respected industry icon, first there was Walt Disney, the man. From having been an animator to being the head of the 2nd largest entertainment organization in the world was certainly one great creative leap.

On hindsight, behavioural experts saw that Disney early on had all the necessary and correct mix of creative drive from the start. In layman’s terms, he was a dreamer, a realist and a critic – a very potent mix of attitudes that with the right mix can be very powerful.

Today, it is being modelled and developed as an NLP tool by Robert Dilts, author of Strategies of Genius. (NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a tried and successful motivational tool used in training company managers and executives.)

Power of passion

In Dilt’s words, Disney’s “ability to connect his innovative creativity with successful business strategy and popular appeal…qualifies him as a genius.” Added to this is the man’s chosen art medium, the animated film.

In animation [and in films, in particular], practitioners have the chance of taking something that exists only in the imagination and create something real to produce a positive experience on others. Again, in layman’s terms, this amply demonstrates the awesome power of passion.

Three roles

With Disney, the three vital roles of being a dreamer, a realist, and a critic were explored separately for better clarity and results. The most important ingredient, however, was his ability to effect the right balance between these roles.

In Disney’s own words: “The story man must see clearly in his own mind how…a story will be put. He should feel every expression, every reaction.” This was the dreaming part.

He continues: “He should get far enough away from his story to take a second look at it…to see whether there is any dead phase…whether…they are going to be interesting and appealing to the audience.” Disney played the realist part here.

Finally, he ends: “[The creator] should also try to see…that his characters are doing [something] interesting.” This was Disney, the critic, assessing the work.

Balance

Experts are of the opinion that Disney’s genius was his innate ability to strike the right balance into this mix.

Dilts wrote: “A dreamer without a realist cannot turn ideas into tangible expressions. A critic and a dreamer without a realist just become stuck in a perpetual conflict. The dreamer and the realist might create things, but they might not achieve a high degree of quality without a critic. The critic helps to evaluate and refine the products of creativity.”

Genius

Many believed Disney was a creative and problem-solving genius. His most interesting ability, however, was his seemingly seamless way of slipping into any creative person or role (dreamer, realist, and critic) on any occasion he decided on.

One remark from a co-worker summed it up: “There were actually three different Walts [and] you never knew which one was coming to your meeting.”

Dilts added: “Those [three different Walts] were the dreamer, the realist and the critic.” Each one played specific creative roles.  Together, they become the “Disney magic.”

A Hassle Free Disney Vacation

For many people, the ultimate Disney vacation would be going to the most popular theme parks in the world, the Walt Disney World Resort.  This is because the place is a one-stop-shop destination where people all ages can do something that they really enjoy.

Where dreams come true

Considered as world's largest theme park resort, Walt Disney World is located southwest of Orlando in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. In 1971, Disney World opened with only one theme park, the Magic Kingdom but now, they have three more: the Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom no to mention water parks and the shopping and entertainment district.

Being one of the most magical and enchanting vacation destinations in the world, a Disney World Resort is the utopia where stress and worries vanish. The Disney World Resort provides not only fantasy and but also exaltation of being in a land of dreams.

Being in a Disney World Resort vacation provides fun entwined extreme and exciting adventure. This is because it includes a tour on theme parks and water parks that will surely immerse you and your kids in a world filled with excitement, thrill, and wonder.

Planning for a perfect vacation

Like in any vacation, going into a Disney World vacation requires you to be knowledgeable about the place. You should conduct a simple research about the place so you would have an idea about the basics. Knowing something about the place would contribute a lot to the success of the trip.

Aside from knowing the basics, there are other things that you should consider to ensure that your Disney World vacation would be a success. One of which is the cost of the whole trip. Knowing and calculating your costs and possible expenditures during Disney World vacation can greatly help you set a realistic budget during your stay. By estimating the possible cost of your vacation, you can set your budget in advance so you wouldn’t be spending more than you can afford to spend.

Another advantage of knowing how much you will spend will also help your leave your worries behind because you have enough money to spend on something during the entire trip. If possible, always make sure that you leave an allowance or you allot at least 10 to 20 percent of the total of your budget to spend on emergency cases.

The most important expenses that you should expect from your from your Disney World vacation is accommodation. This very important in planning your budget because this is where you will stay once the busy day is finished.

Many people make good accommodations a priority because this is their home when out of the house while others are not so much into good accommodations because they think that they should be getting as much exposure as they can get when they are in a vacation destination.

During Disney World vacation, accommodations matters because this is where you will spend most of your time for resting. If you want ultimate comfort, choose a package where everything is laid out for you where you need not worry about anything such as food, lodgings, amenities and entertainment.