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When is the best time to go to Walt Disney World

Feb 20th, 2010
by Steve.
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One of the questions I’m asked most often is “When is the best time to go to Walt Disney World?”. Well there’s a short answer and a long answer.

The short answer is: When the kids are in school.

The long answer is that years ago when I worked there it was much easier to predict. Spring Break and Summer were bad times to go, any time else was good. Sunday through Wednesday were the best days of the week, Thursday through Saturday were busier.

But now thats changed so much. The best times to go are getting fewer and fewer and traditional vacation times have morphed. Plus Disney actively tries to get people to come in slower times to even the attendance and cash flow.

Recently I ran across a great site which has a super planning tool called: The Disney World Week Picker App. It helps you select the best time to go to Disney World for your family. It’s located on the The Walt Disney World Instruction Manual web site.

By answering a series of questions you’re guided to picking the best times to go based on your likes and dislikes.

The Week Picker App is located here.

There is also page listing 2010 Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World, Ranked in Order.

The main focus of this site is for first time visitors to WDW but there’s a vast amount of info for everyone. Take some time and look it over!

The Walt Disney World Instruction Manual – yourfirstvisit.net

Universal Orlando Offers Military Vacation Packages For 2010

Feb 1st, 2010
by Steve.
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Here is the most current post on Universal Military Discounts

As part of their Military Salute Offer Universal Orlando has created vacation packages available at discounted rates for the military.

Here is what their offer includes:

EXCLUSIVE MILITARY 4-Day/3-Night Getaways starting at only $217* per adult
• 3-Night accommodations at a Universal Partner Hotel
• 2-Day Base Ticket^ to both Universal Orlando theme parks – one theme park, per day
• Access to the live entertainment^^ at Universal CityWalk®
• PLUS, Early Park Admission† to experience some of Islands of Adventure’s most popular attractions before the rest of the general public!

Upgrade to one of three AAA Four-Diamond On-Site Hotels and SKIP THE REGULAR LINES^^^ for FREE!
EXCLUSIVE MILITARY 4-Day/3-Night On-Site Hotel Getaways starting at $493 per adult!

Create your own vacation package and SAVE UP TO 40% on:

• Hotel Stays
• Rental Cars
• And much more!

To book your vacation call 1-888-340-4614

Universal Orlando has also extended their Military Salute for 2010 until 26 March.

For full details click: Universal Military Vacation Package details

Universal’s web site

Haiti Relief

Jan 22nd, 2010
by Steve.
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Well I’m just back from a week in D.C. I was at FEMA Headquarters coordinating DoD Search and Rescue efforts with our civilian partners. The Haiti telethon is on TV now and I just wanted to say that this is going to be a long effort to rebuild. It could even end up better than before.

If you can donate something, there are so many ways! Pick the one you like best. Here are some that I’ve seen:

Text Haiti to 90999, this sends $10 to the Red Cross (charged to your phone bill)
Make a donation through iTunes “It’s as easy as buying a song”
Donate your Holiday Inn Priority Club Points
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
I even had a link on my Tivo to donate

These are just a couple that I’ve seen from companies that I do business with. I’m sure you’ve seen more!

Take a moment and give what you can!

FEMA’s Website
AFNORTH’s Haiti Website

2009 EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival

Sep 19th, 2009
by Steve.
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I’m getting really excited! We are heading to Disney World in just 8 days. We’ll be there the first week of the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival. We absolutely love the Food and Wine Fest. We focus on slowing down enjoying the beautiful scenery at EPCOT, and sampling all the wonderful foods and wines. We don’t worry about getting on every ride, we will ride a couple of the big ones at EPCOT, but we’ll spend most of our time strolling around the World Showcase Lagoon enjoying the day.

The Food and Wine Festival opens this Friday, 25 September and runs through 8 November. This will be our first time going so early in the festival’s run. We usually go in November around Veterans Day weekend. We’ll be arriving at Disney World on Sunday afternoon and won’t be going to the Festival till Monday. I imagine the opening weekend will be very busy but hope it will have slowed down by Monday.

We’ll be using our Disney Military Salute park tickets. Five days free for me and $124 for my wife. these tickets would normally run over $267 each so we’ll be saving more than $410!!! We’re just going to use three days this trip and will still have 2 days remaining to use before 23 December when the offer ends. We’ll probably go back late November or early December to see all the Christmas decorations in the parks and resorts.

We’re also taking advantage of the Military Salute Disney Hotel discount. I called my friend Amy at Ears of Experience and she took care of all the resort hotel research. She provided me several quotes on the different levels of hotels that Disney World offers. Amy found a fantastic price on a Disney moderate resort for us of only $301.74 for three nights. That’s a great deal it would regularly be over $490 for this time of year. Another great thing about Ears of Experience is that the price Amy quoted me is the same I’d pay straight to Disney if I did all the work myself. But I didn’t have too! Because Ears of Experience is a Fee Free Travel Agency, owned and operated by a military family, and they specialize in Disney vacations. If you’d like to try using Ears of Experience please let Amy know you heard about them here. Their toll-free number is 1-877-80MOUSE or check out their website
I’ll be posting reports and pictures of the F&W Fest. when I get back!

Here’s some more info on the Food and Wine Festival:

EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

2009 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival info

2009 Food and Wine Festival Guide (large .pdf download)

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Hurricane Operations

Sep 21st, 2008
by Steve.
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Wow I’ve been so busy this month… I’d wanted to really get going on the site but Hurricanes Fay, Gustav, and Ike had other ideas. This week we finished up an intense almost month of high tempo operations for the hurricanes. Working mostly every day and numerous 12-hour plus  shifts. Getting rescue forces ready, positioned, and then and moved around again for each different storm culminating in the the rescues the night before and the day after Ike’s landfall.

In two weeks I go TDY to a two month long school. I’m going to try to work on the site some before I go and definitely while I’m at school. I’ll have a lot of free time there.

Well going to get to work…

I’ve been thinking about doing a piece on the tunnel under the Magic Kingdom.

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