Disneyzone News - December 2001 Issue - TEXT VERSION This is the text-only version of the DZ News. This version will not include any photographs, special charts, calendars, or graphs. Please note that Disneyzone is not affiliated with Disney in any way. We are a group of Disney World enthusiasts who want to assist you in making the most of your next Disney World vacation Newsletter and content Copyright © 2000, 2001 Disneyzone - Please do not alter or copy any or all of this material, or use it on a website, or printed media without prior written permission, from Disneyzone or from the individual article's author.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More Changes! Recent Resort closures and the various changes at Disney are ruffling the feathers of even the most-seasoned Disney travelers. Lets step back and look at the whole picture. My opinion is: Disney is a business and they are out to make a profit. The travel industry was hit hard by the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Occupancy rates are very low, and prices of running first class resorts/theme parks is at an all-time high! In order to consolidate visitors into concentrated areas, they have closed some resort areas. This will allow Disney to maintain its high level of service to all guests. The fewer areas to keep staffed the easier it is to keep the magic flowing! They have now scheduled to close most of Port Orleans Riverside, along with Port Orleans French Quarter and Disney Institute. If you have a trip planned in the next few months, please don’t let any of these changes and/or closures discourage you. Disney has always been a wonderful place to vacation, and that has NOT changed! If you have been recently, and would like to write up a trip report—they are always welcome! Post on the message boards at: www.disneyzone.net/boards.htm Speaking of the message boards, today a wonderful post was submitted on the boards by our own RustyScupper. It is so good that it must be shared: Enter stage-left, stepping onto soap box. We all know there are changes at WDW due to the economy and effects of Sep-11. But let's look at some postings on this friendliest of boards: 1a) Announcements of upcoming births. 1b) Resort closings and reservations changes. 2a) Individuals surviving or fighting cancer. 2b) Park hours are reduced. 3a) Glorious trips with relatives who have since passed. 3b) Character meals that are postponed or terminated. 4a) Wonderful daughter/mother trips. 4b) Early Entry day concellations. 5a) Family reunions with several generations. 5b) E-Night postponments. 6a) Children seeing the Castle the first time. 6b) Quantity of show performances being reduced. I fully agree that the "b" items are irritating, but they pale in comparison to the "a" items. If we keep things in perspective, and remember this is a vacation, I believe that the irritants will no longer carry much weight. After all, these tight times may take a while to pass, but pass they will. We can still complain (and I expect even me to do so), but let's consider the relative importance. OK, I am now off of my soap box. Exit stage-right. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Visit the Message Boards! One of the most popular sections on DZ just happens to be the Message Boards! You can post questions/answers/advice or just hang around and read what others say! We have a very friendly, helpful group on the boards! Give it a try www.disneyzone.net click on the FORUMS link! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Park Hours Theme Park Hours will be omitted from the DZ News for the next few months, or until Disney goes back to a regular schedule. Park hours are being released about a week ahead of time. I suggest calling (407) WDISNEY the day before you leave to get current hours for the parks! You can also check their site: www.disneyworld.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tips for Families with Young Kids More Tips from Allison I have been to Disney World 4 times in the past 3 years with my family. We have small children and I have been there pregnant, too. So I have a lot of tips to share. This month will be a mishmash of tips. First one is to make your hotel room your home. Bring as many things as you can to make your child feel like this is home, and comfortable. We go as far as bringing pillows and their own blankets. We bring our own videos that they love. We bring nightlights which are lifesavers!!! Imagine waking up in a strange place and forgetting where you are and its pitch black! Nightlights help little ones find their way to Mommy! Visit the room several times during the day, as a home base. Let the kids play, nap, take baths, whatever—make it a comfortable place for them. Now about childcare. We have not used any of them, but I know something about this issue. If your kids are old enough for one of the resort childcare clubs, that would be the ideal situation. They have a fully stocked play area, videos, games, snacks, and plenty of adults to watch the kids. The most popular one seems to be the Neverland Club at the Polynesian Resort. It has a Peter Pan theme and kids love it. They charge an hourly fee and it includes everything. We have always had kids younger than the accepted age, so Kindercare or private child care were our only choices. Even though I had heard some good things about these private agencies, I didn’t feel comfortable with leaving my babies alone with complete strangers. If you decide to use a private agency, ask the same questions as you would ask of a child care provider in your home town. Ask for references, complete costs up front, hourly minimums, credentials, insurances, etc. My husband wanted me to add to let your children go as slow as they want. Let them play on whatever that interests them. Let them explore the resort areas, as well as theme parks. Don’t rush around trying to get on all the rides, but take your time and let the kids lead you to what interests them. Remember something that interests one of your children probably will not interest them all, so let each child do a few things that they want. Another great thing is to give your kids a chance to retell the day. We have brought a small tape recorder with us, and have had the kids tell us about the day into the tape recorder. Or have them draw a picture of their favorite thing that day and you can ask them about it and write what they say. I know that on one day the thing that most impressed my son was a lizard we saw that was missing a tail. Ok, not exactly a Disney memory, but it was very important to him! It is fun to see what they remember from each day. You can even do this a few times a day to get more data! Last thing for this issue is food. Try to order things for your child that they eat at home, or have eaten before. Don’t make this be a time to try all sorts of new foods. It will upset their stomachs and cause problems! Kids need to have things as close to normal as can be! More next time! *****************CHAT ******************* Come Chat!!! The Chat room is up and running again and we have a brand new night for chat! Each Saturday, at 9pm EST there will be a moderated chat. The topic is, what else? Disney Vacations! Come spend an hour or so chatting with other Disney lovers! We have a very friendly group that visits chat, and everyone is welcome! The link to the chat room is: www.disneyzone.net/chat.htm See you there!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Restaurant Review By Jean F. The restaurant that always makes my mouth water is the Yachtsman Steakhouse. This restaurant is located in the Yacht and Beach Club. We try to visit at least one time each trip and have never been disappointed in the service or the food. I do think reservations are necessary if you would like to eat during prime dinner time. This place is not a rush in and rush out sort of restaurant. They take their time serving. They bring out the food in stages so that you can enjoy each. You can sit and chat, relax, and enjoy your meal to the fullest. They have some delicious appetizers that we usually don’t order. You get a lot of food with your meal so if you have the appetizers too, you might not be able to finish your meal. I do order a dinner salad each time. For some reason their plain dinner salad is just delicious. For the main course they offer a huge variety of meats, poultry, fish, and even one or two vegetarian type meals. I personally enjoy the fish, last time I had a salmon meal that was delicious. With your meal you have a choice of baked potatoes, garlic smashed potatoes and a cheesy potato. I always get the smashed potatoes, they melt in your mouth. My husband is a red meat lover and he recommends the Porterhouse or Filet Mignon dinners. This restaurant is not cheap, in fact it’s a bit pricey. But we find it is worth the money. The average price for a meal is probably $25-$35 unless you get the steak and lobster, which I think was close to $50. The service is spectacular in this restaurant. You will have more than one waiter serving you. One person is in charge of drinks, they never let it get less than half way down and its refilled. A nice touch. We have always had our food cooked exactly as we have requested. Special occasions would be a wonderful reason to try it! It’s a 5 star place for sure. For Priority Reservations, call 407-WDW-DINE. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Too Vain for Wheelchairs By D. Rollings I am an active 63 year old man. My wife and I walk each morning, about a mile or so. Last summer our family decided to all get together at Walt Disney World. I have 3 sons, who are all married with children of their own. My wife and I knew we would have a hard time going strong for 7 days solid. The first day we arrived, it was just my wife and I and one of our sons’ families. We stayed at the Yacht Club. The other 2 families were arriving the next morning. We had a nice leisurely night. We went to Epcot and ate at Le Cellier with our sons family. Then we had a nice walk back to the resort. My son commented that I should get a wheelchair for the next day. That we would be doing a lot of walking and it might be hard on me. My wife is younger, so I guess he felt she would be ok. I plain out refused the wheelchair because I am an able bodied man! My wife, on the other hand, agreed that she would like to have one, because she felt like she might overdo it, and would like to have one. The next morning we all met for breakfast at Cape May Café. This place was great by the way. We decided we had to do Magic Kingdom first. We hopped on the bus and headed over. My wife got an electric wheelchair so that no one would have the burden of pushing her. She enjoyed it. We used her basket to put the kids water bottles and such in. We strolled around the park chasing the kids around and taking them on the rides. I hated to admit it, but by about lunchtime I was very tired. I didn’t say anything. My wife, on the other hand, was fine. She was raring to go. She would park her wheelchair and hop off to go on rides, then hop back on to drive to the next ride. She was perky as could be but I could sense myself slowing down and I was very tired. I was getting a bit jealous, but wouldn’t dare say anything. My oldest son pulled me to the side and suggested that I get myself a wheelchair and give the kids rides! Grandma was giving rides, and if I had one too, that would be two kids at a time that could get a ride. My wonderful son gave me the excuse I needed. So I went and got myself an electric wheelchair. I was so full of pride that morning that there was no way I was going to have one. By days end, I was sure glad I had it! I seriously think that wheelchair added 100% enjoyment to the trip for me! So if you think you are too full of pride, but getting up there in years, give yourself the gift of renting an electric wheelchair. You wont be sorry. The nice part is that you can still get up and walk around, but you also have the wheelchair to get you to the next spot. We saw many ablebodied older people with the wheelchairs and they all seemed to be enjoying them as much as we were. I seriously don’t think I could have survived the week without one ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kids Views By Troy I am 12 and have been to Disney World over 10 times. I am a expert on all the rides. I go on them over and over so that I know every turn and every design in the ride. I try to draw them at home and someday I want to design rides. I love rollercoasters the best but I also love anything that goes fast. The ride I like most at Disney World is Rock ‘N Roller Coaster. It goes fast and has great design, great music, great ride altogether. There are many great rides at Disney World. Other ones that I like the best are Tower of Terror and Test Track and believe it: Dumbo. Dumbo is a very pretty ride at night. I can draw the Dumbo Ride really good. The End. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Travel Polls There is a Poll on the DZ Resort Biographies Page on the site. In November we asked if money was no object, which type of resort would you stay? Here are the results : Deluxe with Concierge: 57% Home Away from Home: 22% Moderate : 5% Value: 8% Off Site Hotel or Condo: 8% We’ll have a new Poll for December! The more people who participate, the more accurate the poll will be—so visit the link below TODAY and submit your vote! www.disneyzone.net/resortbios.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Happy Birthday to: Megan, 15, Bob, a very young 51, Christine, Theresa, Matthew, 6, Blossom, Erick, 8, Shayan, 11, and David the big 40, ! . . . and every other DZ’er that has a birthday in November! If you would like a birthday announced in the DZ News, send name, and birthday (and age if you want that in, too) kimmi@disneyzone.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THANKS to all the Disneyzone visitors for their help with the newsletter and the site!!! Tell your friends about Disneyzone! They can get their own copy of the Disneyzone News emailed to them each month, all they have to do is go to the site and register. They will automatically be put on the list. If you would rather, you may print it out or forward it. Newsletter and content Copyright © 2000 & 2001 Disneyzone - Please do not alter or copy any or all of this material, or use it on a website, or printed media without prior written permission, from Disneyzone or from the individual article's author.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CLASSIFIEDS DZ now has a DZ Classifieds section! Please visit our advertisers, and tell them that you saw their ad in the DZ News :) If you are interested in advertising, or would like to comment regarding this issue, please email me at: kimmi@disneyzone.net Articles, restaurant reviews, kids articles always needed for the newsletter! E-mail if you would like to contribute! ***********TRAVEL AGENTS AND COMPANIES ******** MouseEarVacations.com Unparalleled attention from Disney Experts will make your vacation extra magical! Best Prices plus: Insider tips- Suggested daily itineraries - Disney gifts Visit www.MouseEarVacations.com A division of Cruising Co Etc Look at our customers' comments - see why they come back to us for every Disney vacation! Disney World - Disney Cruise - Disneyland Free online quotes or call toll free: 800-886-8601 to request that a Disney specialist contact you. Magical Journeys invites Disney Zone Readers to join our Disney Cruise June 16-20, 2002. Group Rates start at $804 pp./dbl. Price includes: Cruise Only All onboard meals and activities All taxes/fees Special Amenities. Don't Delay, Only 6 Cabins left. http://www.yourmagicaljourneys.com **********GIFT IDEAS*********************** Disney Character Watches. Mickey, Minnie, Daffy, Donald, Pluto, Movie Themes and More. Wholesale prices available to dealers. Individual watch sales to collectors and retail customers. Visit our site and order on-line. www.watchcloseouts.com **************RADIO STATIONS****************** KMIN980 is an oldies radio station that broadcasts live on the internet. Not the same old songs over and over. Come listen to our Sound Souvenirs while you are surfing on DZ ! www.kmin980.com ***************HOME SERVICES********************* Interior Redesign Industry Specialists. You can have a beautiful, comfortable, and inviting home that is easy on your wallet and you can have it in just one day. Your rooms undergo a stress-free transformation with the finished product being a stunning new look - at a tremendous savings to you! www.weredesign.com *********DISASTER SERVICES/CHARITIES ************ RED CROSS The Red Cross will continue to need blood and monetary donations as the weeks go by. However small your donation, it all adds up! Please visit their website at www.redcross.org to see how to help! A memorial fund has been created to help provide for the families of police, fire and emergency workers who were killed during rescue efforts. The Twin Towers Fund General Post Office P.O. Box 26999 New York, NY 10087-6999 HELPING.ORG is a website dedicated entirely to helping the victims of the Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks. Relief organizations tell us that they most need cash donations to fund special resources and personnel. To make a donation or learn more about these different organizations visit www.helping.org ********************************************* Put your ad in the DZ News and reach Disney fans! Email us for info! Advertising@disneyzone.net Please note that all ads on this page are paid advertisements and DZ, Disneyzone does not endorse their products or services.