Walt Disney World 101 Recap

I figured it would be a good idea to go back and post all of the videos in the series called "Walt Disney World 101." This gives you a chance to watch them in sequence so you can see that about every aspect of a Walt Disney World vacation was covered.

As you will see, they are posted in chronological order.

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4



Part 5


 Comments? Questions? Is there a part of a Disney acation that you would like to see covered that I did not talk about?

Walt Disney World: Dining Cost Budgeting

A short video addressing the very popular question of, "how much should I budget for food during our Walt Disney World trip?"  This assumes again that you are staying onsite in a Disney resort.  Do you agree with my numbers?  Have any additional questions?

Walt Disney World 101 Part 5

For those of you who may not have seen parts 1-4, please follow this link to my Youtube account where you can find the first 4 videos in the series.  I hope you find these helpful, especially if you are a first time visitor to "the happiest place on earth."

Vacationing to Better Mental Health

Are you or someone you know seeing a therapist on a regular basis?  Wondering why everyone seems so stressed out and agitated these days?  Let me give you some statistics to ponder:

• A study done in 2006 showed that the average male US worker worked an average of 42.5 hours per week, not including commute time.  Australian men average 36 hours per week and France enacted a 35 hour work week by law (source info: US Workers and French Workers)
• A 2009 CNN Poll showed that the Countries most stressed about money were the US, Malaysia, Singapore and China.  The least stressed were France, Italy and Russia
• A 2004 WHO study showed that the USA ranked the highest in mental health disorders with 25% suffering from some form of mental illness. (source info: MSNBC article  
• France is ranked as the best Country for quality of life.  The USA is ranked 7th out of the world’s industrialized nations

Now, as you are processing those stats, consider the fact that the US is near the bottom when it comes to the average number of days of vacation that the American worker takes per year.  Italy leads the pack with 42 days of paid vacation.  France comes in second with 37 and Germany rounds out the top 3 with 35.  Here in the good old USA, we average 13 days of paid vacation (source info: Vacation Stats).

Hmm...are you seeing any correlation here between mental health and the time we American’s take to wind down and “vacate?”

And to prove that we continue to be among the worst when it comes to taking time for ourselves and our families, a recent article in the USA Today explained that we now are leaving some of our earned vacation time on the table and taking less time off than in previous years.

This is not rocket science.  We work more hours and take less time off.  Some will argue that we are being more productive.  Possibly true, but that comes at the cost of our quality of life.  And what are we gaining by being more productive?  Job security? Ha!  I think not.  Larger bank accounts?  Our nation’s debt statistics would beg to differ.  Maybe we all should stop, take a look around, and realize that maybe there is more to life than our work and take some time for ourselves.  Maybe we should learn from other nations and see that life is not defined by where we work, but is truly defined by who we are away from work.

Maybe a little vacation time is just what the mental health doctor ordered.

If Coffee Could Fly

If coffee could fly, we would all be flying first class.  This will be a brief look into the psyche of the American traveler. Proceed with caution, I may be talking about you.

We live in an age where everyone wants Ritz Carlton accommodations at Motel 6 prices.  Americans will spend hours searching high and low for the absolute cheapest price on every aspect of their vacation.  Travelers will opt for flights that leave at 5:00am with connections in 3 different airports and that does not arrive at their actual destination until 11:00pm that night to save $100 on airfare and then complain about not getting a bag of pretzels for free.  That same traveler will book a room at a hotel that they found on patheticallydirtcheapgetaways.biz and then spend 45 minutes with the motel’s manager complaining about the fact that the room is located near the hotel’s trash compactor.

But get this; that same traveler, the one who just nickeled and dimed every part of their “dream vacation,” will then march down to their favorite coffee venue and order a double-shot, no foam, non-fat, latte with a hint of cinnamon sprinkled on top and pay over $3.00 for a Venti and never complain a bit about not getting a free muffin.  Oh…and they do that 5 days a week or more.  You do the math.

Go figure…

Travel Safety: Why Mexico Gets a Bad Rap

This article is being contributed by guest blogger Matt Smith.  Matt owns and operates Detour Travel and you can visit his blog by clicking on this link.

Many people hear that Detour's tour destinations include Mexico, and they seem surprised. They think the whole country must be like the ugly stories that make the news.

Meanwhile, I've never heard anyone say they wouldn't visit Philadelphia, New Orleans, or Washington, DC... even though they're all in the top ten "Most Murderous Cities" in the U.S.

I had this conversation with my grandfather. He was freaked out by the word Mexico. Once I explained that it's a great place, he still wanted me to cover Detour's website with assurances that you'll survive our trips in one piece.

This is the same guy who took my family on a trip to DC last year in honor of his 90th birthday. We went to museums and restaurants, rode the subway and walked the streets - without once fearing for our lives. Simply being within the city limits doesn't get you shot. There are other factors involved.

Mexico is similar. Setting foot in Mexico doesn't automatically put you in the middle of the drug wars. Our tours, to Guadalajara and a few nearby communities, stay far from the border areas and major drug corridors. We pay attention to the U.S. State Department's recommendations on what areas are safe, and we ask our friends in Guadalajara. (They all feel it's a safe place to be unless you're personally involved in the drug trade.)

We recommend the U.S. State Dept as a resource on travel safety no matter where you're going. They offer country-specific information as well as general tips on traveling safely.

Common sense disclaimer: Safe is a relative term. Nothing is certain. We could go to the safest place and still encounter random violence... just like we could bundle up, wash our hands, pop vitamin C pills, and still catch a cold.

What is your impression of traveling to Mexico?

Disney's Beach Club Resort

I am long overdue for this review.  We traveled again to Walt Disney World back in January of this year (2012) and we had the privilege this time of staying at the Beach Club Resort.

The Beach Club is in the deluxe category per Disney’s own classification system.  The resort is located adjacent to Epcot and is also extremely close to Holly Studios.  It offers amenities for all age groups.  It has 1 table service restaurant (Cape May), 2 quick service food locations, 2 pools (1 awesome water slide), 2 lounges, 1 pool bar, spa, fitness center and much more.

The decor will remind you of turn of the century resorts that dotted the eastern seaboard landscape; elegant, but casual and relaxing.  Lots of soft blues and yellows and rich wood accents. 

The grounds are chalked full of beautiful flower beds everywhere you turn to look. It is well worth the time to just simply walk the grounds with your camera and take advantage of all of the photo ops that it offers.

So you can probably tell already that this is going to be a positive review overall.  But as I always try to do, I will mention the good and also point out areas that may need improvement or at least something you should be aware of before you go.

So let’s get the negatives out of the way first. 

There are 3 areas that I want to quickly address.  First, the shopping at the Beach Club is not the greatest.  We found the selection of merchandise to be quite a bit smaller that some of the other deluxe category resorts such as the Contemporary, the Grand Floridian, the Polynesian etc. 

Second, the quick service venues offered far fewer choices than again some of the other resorts within the deluxe category.  This can be a bigger disappointment for those guests who are using one of Disney’s dining plans.  I again am comparing the one marketplace area inside the Beach Club to such places like Captain Cook’s inside the Polynesian or the Contempo Cafe inside the Contemporary.

The third and final negative would be the layout of the hotel itself.  There are a lot of lefts and rights that you will most likely make before ever getting to your room once you leave the main lobby.  My advice, blaze a trail on the way to your room and pack a few snacks to eat along the way.

Those are really the only negatives that I feel are worth noting.  Now I have read other reviews where some like to point out the age of the resort and claim it is looking worn and tattered.  But what most of those naysayers fail to mention is that Disney does dispatch personnel to fix major issues outside of their normal maintenance and sprucing up schedules.  In fact, I observed one guest getting a close up of a broken door hinge on one of the doors leading from the rooms out into one of the courtyard areas.  I am sure that person was making sure everyone saw how old and broken things are.  But what they probably will not tell you is that the door was fixed during our stay as well.  Every resort has times of the year that are more advantageous for routine fixing of things and that usually corresponds with off-seasons.  We were there during the off-season and I witnessed major repairs going on every day from painting to replacing door handles and locks on every room. 

I say all of that to say...please take the negative reviews with a grain of salt.

So now let’s move on to the positives.  There is a big one for this resort that, to me, trumps, some if not all of the negatives...LOCATION!  If you are a fan of Epcot and Hollywood Studios, then you cannot beat the location of this resort.  Our room was located in such a way that we would walk out the door downstairs, hang a left and be in Epcot within 5 mins.  Or...if we were feeling a tad more adventurous, we would take the bridge over to the Boardwalk Resort and walk the trail from it over to Hollywood Studios and be in the park in about 20 mins. 

Now this benefit also applies to the Yacht Club, Swan and Dolphin and also the Boardwalk resort which are all deluxe resorts in the same area, but only the Beach Club is that close to one of the parks (5 mins or less).  That makes this area of resorts my first choice when looking at staying a one of Disney’s deluxe resorts.

That means that you only need to take a bus to the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom.  And that means you will be maximizing your time in the parks and not spending as much in transit.

The resort was beautiful.  The staff was gracious. The grounds were immaculately manicured.  The standard rooms are clean, offer double vanity sinks in the bathroom, have decent sized balconies and have very comfortable bedding.  The pool and water-slide were a blast, but all of those were just nice add-ons to me.  The location alone would make us choose this resort again in a heartbeat.

So you are probably sitting there saying...is that it?  Is that the full review?  Yes it is.  We were so pleased with the location that it really did make our trip one of the best so far.  It helped us relax more knowing we could simply walk back to our resort if we got a little tired (the days we were in Epcot and HS naturally).  We were able to do everything we wanted to do and feel fairly refreshed after our trip.  What more can you ask for after a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth??