Disneyzone News - June 2002 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 & 2002 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.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Character Meals By Lauren I have compiled a list of the various character meals at Disney World that I would like to share with everyone. Character meals are fun because you can eat and interact with the characters at the same time. When you meet up with the characters in the parks there is usually a big group of kids who also want to see that character so you have to rush and take a photo and move on. Its more relaxed at the meals. The characters vary by location and sometimes by meal. You can ask when you make reservations which characters to expect. Call 407-WDW-DINE for reservations and more information, including prices. In Magic Kingdom Park: Crystal Palace has a buffet, characters there for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Reservations are usually not too hard to get. Cinderellas Royal Table serves all meals, but only has the characters during breakfast. Reservations are very difficult to get for this breakfast. Liberty Tree Tavern serves lunch and dinner. Characters are only available at the dinner buffet. Food here served family style. Reservations sometimes hard to get. At Animal Kingdom: Donalds Breakfastasaurus serves breakfast, lunch and dinner but the characters are only there for breakfast, until 10am. Reservations usually available. At Epcot: Garden Grill has the character meal for lunch and dinner. Reservations are easy to get. At MGM: Hollywood and Vine offers all meals. Characters are only present during breakfast and lunch. Reservations are usually pretty easy to get. At the Resorts: Chef Mickeys is in the Contemporary Resort. Chef Mickeys only serves there buffet for breakfast and dinner. Characters are there during both meals. They Reservations are available but go fast for prime meal times. 1900 Park Faire is located in the Grand Floridian Resort. It has a character buffet meal for breakfast and dinner. Reservations are not too hard to get. Wonderland Tea Party is held at the Grand Floridian, too. Its held each day at 1:30. Your child can have snacks with Alice in Wonderland. Some days fill up quickly, but if you are a little flexible you can get reservations for this fun little snack. Mickeys Backyard BBQ is held at Fort Wilderness Campgrounds. It’s an all-you-can-eat BBQ buffet Character Dinner Show. Reservations are easy to get. O’Hanas in the Polynesian Resort has a character meal only for breakfast. They serve breakfast and dinner at this restaurant. Reservations are pretty easy to get. Cape May Café is located at the Beach Club and serves breakfast and dinner. Characters are only available at breakfast. Reservations can usually be found. More character info on the site at: www.disneyzone.net/rustyscupper.htm. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Like Trivia? Visit the message boards !! The RustyScupper offers an ongoing trivia contest! There are prizes, some tough questions and lots and lots of fun! www.disneyzone.net/boards.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 a few weeks ahead of time. I suggest calling (407) WDISNEY prior to your trip to get current hours for the parks! You can also check their site: www.disneyworld.com June E-Ticket Nights are: June 4, 7, 11, 14, 18, 21, 25 and the 28th Call to verify dates, they may be cancelled or changed without notice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Really good advice from DZ Visitors My husband and I went to WDW with his cousins - four adults and four children. One of the best ideas we had was to buy the disposable cameras for the kids. Each day, we gave them a camera - one camera per child per day. We thought this would eliminate them bugging us about pictures, which it did, but it also gave them the chance to take pictures of all the things they really enjoyed. In fact, they were the ones who caught some great shots of the family while the adults were focused on WDW. I would highly recommend this to everyone!! Give the kids their own waist packs and cameras and they will have a blast! Melinda F- Florence, SC Whatever you do make sure you don’t forget medications that you regularly take. With all the chaos of packing last minute objects the morning we left. I completely forgot to pack some medications that we take on a regular basis. I remembered when we were high up in the airplane and my head was feeling woozy! I needed a pill but had none in the carryon. I intended to put them in there at the last moment. I forgot. By the time we landed and got to a place where I could get to pay phone to call our doctor, and have him find a place near disney to call in the prescription, wait for it to be filled, etc. It was easily 3 hours later! Not that this was a life and death issue but it was scary and quite frustrating. So remember those prescription drugs! Anna K - from Montana ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Restaurant Review By Dave We had a wonderful time at Concourse Steak House. You never hear about this restaurant but its wonderful. The restaurant is located in the Contemporary Resort. We walked by it and it smelled so good we decided to try it. Got seated within 5 minutes, we had a great view of the monorail whizzing by. You could also see (and hear) Chef Mickeys, and watch the crowds waiting to eat. The waiter was very helpful and attentive. We didn’t mind the noise from Chef Mickeys, we were glad to see so many people having a good time. We were glad to be sitting in a nice restaurant eating, and not fighting the crowds at the buffet! We ordered steaks, of course, and loved them. Tender, juicy and very flavorful. The ceasar salad was good, too. Our waiter came by several times to refill our drinks and to give us more bread, constantly asking if we needed anything else. We were celebrating my wifes birthday. He brought us out a small dessert with a candle. I asked for no singing, so he didn’t sing. I had gotten my wife some adorable mickey head earings. I gave them to the waiter and he put them on the plate with the dessert. He also gave her a birthday card signed by several characters. It was a very nice experience. Next time you want a delicious steak, try the Concourse Steakhouse! We will go there again, for sure ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Its finally up! The DZ Friends BIO section, its online and ready to use! You can see photos, and info for DZ Friends who have submitted their bios! It’s fun to see what everyone looks like, and to read a little about them. You can add your bio, too! Visit the site, at this link: www.disneyzone.net/friends.htm Can’t wait to read all about YOU :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More Tips! Make sure to bring a cell phone if you have one and make sure to carry a list of emergency numbers with you to the parks. On our 1st trip my 2 1/2 year old spiked a fever and on our 2nd trip she ended up with a severe case of pink eye. Both times we needed to call the pediatrician back in PA. The cell phone saved us the cost of a long distance phone call. (Included in our emergency #'s was Turner's drug store which delivers to all WDW resorts for a small fee. If you're at the park they'll leave the meds at the front desk and charge it to your room. They saved our trip!) Another good thing is 2-way radios to keep in touch if your group splits up. -Jane S. Pennsylvania I have a tip from our recent trip. Buy spiral bound notecards. Get one for each person. On the front decorate it with your name, and date of your trip. On the first page put the specifics of your trip, like your flight info, hotel info, special occasions or whatever. Next page put a itinerary of parks, any meal reservations, etc. Then have each person write notes at the end of each day on the cards following. Kids can draw pictures, put their favorites for the day, random thoughts, or whatever. We got this idea from someone on the boards before our trip and I loved doing it. Now that we have been back a few months we have a great time going back through our cards. It’s a small memory book, cheap and very easy to make! Try it. - Suzette, from Arkansas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New Cinderella Royal Table Policy I am sure you have heard of all the problems people have been having getting reservations for breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table restaurant. Disney has come up with a new policy for reservations for this extremely popular princess breakfast. This information below, is not official, and may change! As far as I can tell it’s the most current information anyone has found online. Beginning June 9, 2002 a deposit will be required when making a priority seating reservation for this character breakfast. A deposit of $10 for adults and $5 for children will be charged directly to your credit card. The name of the reservation can not change once the reservation is made. There will be a 24-cancellation policy put into effect, so if you cancel more than 24 hours prior to your Priority Seating Reservation you will get a full refund. If you cancel under 24 hours in advance, then you will lose your deposit. From everything I have found online, there will be no changes to the reservation allowed. I hope that this new policy enables more little princesses to enjoy breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ask the Experts We got some old tickets from friends of ours. They said they have 2 days left on them. Is it true that we can turn these tickets into new tickets that will be good for our whole stay by just paying the price difference? How do we do this? From Clark Family, Alabama: You can do this at any Guest Services at each park. They will give you the monentary value of 2 days and apply that as a credit to the cost of your new ticket. The only problem is they will give up the value of what was paid for the days when they were bought not what 2 days would cost now. If you can use the tickets as is, you will get an admission to a park for 2 days at the orginial cost which I am sure is less than now. Tickets never expire so we always use up our old ones before buying new ones. - Minnie ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kids Views Last month’s poem must have inspired this young man to write one of his own: I love to go Disney I love Peter Pan I will be reallly good As good as I can. Mom will take us there If we don’t fight I cant wait to go I want to go tonight. That was written by Douglas, age 9 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ask the Experts! Do you have a question regarding planning a Disney vacation? Send it to us via email: advice@disneyzone.net Who knows, maybe your question will be posted in a future newsletter. The e-mails may also be answered via e-mail. But be patient, we expect a high volume of questions! Thanks… We started answering a few this issue, hope you enjoyed reading them! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Happy Birthday to: Arianne, 12, Cailyn, 10, Emma, Sarah, 7, Lonnie, 9, Ryan, 14, Scott, Gina, Wendee, Arlene, Samantha, 2, Terry, 40, Todd, 30, and Lynda 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 Concierge Service - No Additional Charge! Our clients get best prices, insider tips itinerary planning, our free Priority Seating Service & Disney gifts! Advance notice for DZ Readers! Book a Disney Cruise between June 17 & 24 & get up to $125 spending money! 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