So, for this week my love of all things Disney has had to take a back seat while I try and sort something out. I’m not one for complaining about customer service but this weekend I have been totally shocked by the attitude of a company I have been a customer of for many years. When has it ever been acceptable to be told that something is not possible and I must have made a mistake when there is clear evidence that the mistake lies with them?

I am in no means saying that the customer is always right; because after all having worked in the retail industry myself I know that it is not always the case, but when there is clear evidence of a mistake someone needs to take responsibility – put things right and apologise instead of causing more damage.

What didn’t help was that after telling me that it wasn’t possible they went on to ask me if I was sure I hadn’t done it myself – what are these people on and who on earth did their customer service training? (I know some great trainers who would completely kick them into shape but maybe I don’t offer their services until everything is resolved as that might not go down too well)

I have already wasted a whole morning trying to sort out this complete mess and I get the feeling that it might not be simple to resolve; would it be acceptable to ask to be compensated for not only all of the phonecalls I have had to make but also my time because after all they would charge me for theirs?

On the complete other end of the spectrum I had some great customer service at Radley; I didn’t buy the most amazing pink bag I have ever seen but the colleague did their utmost to try and persuade me and what was great was that they weren’t pushy in anyway they just seemed to know what my motivation was (I would like the bag though and did contemplate buying it so they haven’t completely failed yet! And before you say it James a girl can never have too many bags!!!!)

But the highlight of the week has to go to the cast member in the Disney store who you could tell loved her job and made it her priority to ensure everyone she served got great service – and that is one thing that I love Disney for; they do put the customer at the heart of their business. I’m not saying that its going to be perfect because after all we are only human so there maybe times when its not all sunshine and pixie dust but to date (and considering how many times we have been) I haven’t yet felt the need to complain about service  at WDW; maybe other companies could learn a few tricks from them……

Fingers crossed that this will all be sorted by next week and normal random Disney talk will return – until then I’m off to watch the 2015 Disney planning video to make me smile (or maybe I might look to see if the pretty bag can be brought online whilst the bloke is at work!) xxx

What kind of question is that – isn’t there only one answer to when is the best time to go to Walt Disney World which is anytime (and as soon as possible pretty please!) But after listening to a podcast and hearing all of the things that other people consider when planning their holidays it got me thinking; when is the best time to visit…..

Some of the things they covered:

• School holidays 
• Special events (food and wine, flower and garden)
• Family celebrations
• Season (Halloween/ Christmas)
• Weather
• Historic park attendance figures

Have I ever taken any of that into account……I did think that we have only ever planned our holiday around season as we wanted to experience Halloween and Christmas but then remembered weather has actually played a part in when we go. For a couple of years we went towards the end of June/ beginning of July; I honestly thought I was the kind of person who liked hot weather which I do but what I don’t like is hot and incredibly humid weather so we gave up on June/ July and swapped to May – however you aren’t guaranteed great weather then but at least you aren’t sweating 5 minutes after stepping outside!

Another sunny day at Magic Kingdom!

So, if the weather – amount of sun, lowest rainfall and all that other weather stuff is important to your holiday when is the best time to go? Typically Florida’s warm season runs from early May to the end of September with average daily temperatures of 30 degrees or above so if you like hot weather this is a great time to visit; however this is also the  time when the probability of thunderstorms increases and unlike at home which after a storm it has a tendency to cool down it is highly likely that it will become more humid. Nerd fact for you, last year 52% of the rain in Orlando fell during a thunderstorm and during the warm season there is a 59% chance of rain each day

What about crowd levels at the parks, the busiest times are quite obvious – christmas, easter, school holidays, thanksgiving but did you know there are other things that affect crowd levels? January and July are typically the times when the South American tour groups descend on the parks and resorts (you can see and hear them coming from a mile away with their chanting and matching shirts). 

Walt Disney World is also the home of many cheerleading competitions and also Pop Warner which takes place at the beginning of December ( a football and cheerleading competition – 64 football teams and 400 cheer teams). James and I still have nightmares about a bus journey back from the Magic Kingdom where the cheerleaders sang and chanted for the whole journey “I said boom chick a boom!!!!” oh my goodness get me off this bus!!!

I’d like to travel on one of these every day!!!

I guess at the end of the day everyone is different when they sit down to plan their holiday; and this is the key here you do have to plan a WDW holiday to make sure that you are aware of what’s going on when, where things are and what you want to do to make sure that you don’t come home thinking “I wish i’d done that” and there are some great websites/ discussion forums around that you can find all of the info you might ever need (or you go on them to cheer yourself up when you don’t have a trip planned anytime soon!)

Well after all of that talk about planning I’m off to price up a holiday – will I take any of my own advice; maybe but not sure that it works for a departure tomorrow 🙂

Don’t worry you haven’t stumbled on a blog all about Glee, not that there is anything wrong with that as I will admit to it being a guilty pleasure of mine 😀 but I was actually talking about my life; as of yesterday I officially became a lady of leisure (although it would be nice if someone told my sleep that as I have been awake at work time for the past 2 days 😡)

Everyone has been asking me about my dream job which of course as we all know would be working for Disney,  I want to spend my whole day making rice crispy Mickey heads! Sadly for me it’s not exactly the easiest commute so I guess I am going to have to find me a proper job a little closer to home

So, I now have all this time on my hands – today I had grand plans of maybe going out and just doing something for me; the going out never happened (neither did the cushion Emmie Lou, but I will be on the case with that very soon) and nope I can’t even say I did my housework either – instead I played games and looked up holiday stuff on the net

We haven’t got anything booked but you can’t stop a girl dreaming – after all I have all of the time in the world and can go whenever I want (now the bloke needs to decide when he can have time off) and then were good to go; I also would love it if Disney announced free dining as it would reduce the cost of the holiday and give me more money to buy stuff for my tiny Disney collection 😁

I have to say it does seem very odd that we are this far into the year with no countdown, although if you have followed my blog for a while now you would remember that I said we probably wouldn’t go this year as there was so much going on that it would be nice to go back once all the building work and new attractions were completed and here I am trying to think of reasons not to go and book it

Things that have happened so far this year:

• The work at Disney Springs is coming on at speed with 5 new stores opening in the past couple of weeks
• The refresh of Planet Hollywood has been announced (about time!)
• The hat is virtually gone at Hollywood Studios,
• Flower and Garden Festival will begin soon at Epcot
• The Tree of Life has grown new roots at Animal Kingdom
• Plus the new hub area is starting to be unveiled at Magic Kingdom

So, in my book I think that about justifies a nice little research trip……now all I need is for the lovely man at the national lottery to call my numbers or someone to invent a teleporter so that I could nip back and forwards whenever I wanted but until such time reality bites xxxx

After 3 years of saving one of my work share plans is due out in a couple of weeks and this is the perfect opportunity for me to treat myself……so what could I possibly do with these extra pennies? There is the obvious answer of course which would be a little holiday (however it wouldn’t be that much so it would only be a quick hop across the channel or under it as I don’t do boats)

So for the purpose of research I thought I would go and price up a cheeky trip to Florida later in the year which included – 10 days at Port Orleans, quick service dining, park tickets, transfers (nope couldn’t persuade the bloke to drive) and the V room

I only priced it up with Virgin (as we get a small discount) and for the 2 of us it was about £4,000; I know that sounds like a lot of money for a holiday but as things go considering Disney is my only vice (oh and Earl of Sandwich brownies) although I think it’s overpriced it’s money I would consider spending

Then the bloke gets in on my “research” and says if you had the money why don’t we come home Upper Class……oh my goodness UPPER CLASS (this man is supposed to be the voice of reason at the moment and here he is acting like he’s won the lottery – or just being himself!)

And what’s even worse I went along with it and updated the search…..as I pressed the button the cost of the holiday went up by £4,500; yes you did read that right a £4,500 upgrade charge (and just in case you were thinking wow what a bargain obviously it must be because when I did the pricing up again just to make sure my numbers were right the price has gone up by another £2,000 😳😳😳😳)

I have absolutely no idea what can justify that price, I know your seat turns itself into a bed but you could give me a bit of floor space and a duvet and return £4,490 of that money as there is no way that is worth it.  I have been asking James for a Tiffany ring for about a month (I don’t want much) and instead of paying £4,500 to sit our backsides in an upper class seat for 9 hours I could get me some serious bling that would last me a lifetime! (are you listening Bungle?)

Now I’m not saying that for some people paying for an upgrade isn’t worth the money as each to their own and after all we have flown Premium Economy a couple of times but when you think what you could spend the money on instead it really does make you think

So, is an upgrade worth the money – I can’t honestly say yes or no; my only advice is research it properly – see if your airline has special offer dates when upgrades maybe cheaper as last year someone managed to bag an upper class upgrade for less than the cost of an upgrade to premium economy

Im off to fawn over the pretty shiny rings, might even take a few pictures and leave them laying around as hints 😀xxx

So, after some technical issues last week I’m now sorted and normal service has resumed……this week someone tried to cheer me up by singing the Mickey Mouse club march to me – now normally it would make me smile as it makes me think of the bus pulling into Magic Kingdom but instead all I could think about was the spiel on the Magical Express bus on the way back to the airport (I bet you are singing it in your head right now cause I know I am)

Anyway back to the reason for my random ramblings this week, this made me think that not everyone would know what I am talking about as there are multiple ways to get to and from the airport to Disney:

• You can drive (hire car)
• You can have a private transfer (like a town car/ limo)
• You can take a taxi
• You can take a shuttle provided by your tour operator (Virgin shuttle bus)
• You can take Disney’s Magical Express to any Disney Hotel (requires pre booking and is only available from MCO)

We have only ever taken the Virgin shuttle to the resort and on the way back we go on the Magical Express (which are both provided by the same company so I don’t know why Virgin don’t book you on the Magical Express going there as well). The only issue with shuttles whether Disney or a tour operator is that you are on their schedule – sometimes you can leave the airport within minutes of getting on the bus and other times you sit there waiting for one family who either have decided to dawdle (like James does anytime we need to be quick) or they’ve got to where ever they want to go by another mode of transport!!!!!!

With so many options, why do we stick to the transfers; I know as a non driver I have no real idea of how difficult it must be to drive on the other side of the road and to be quite honest I am not sure I would want to find out. I asked James about maybe next time if he would want to drive and he was like why would I, we have Disney buses and anyway apart from shopping what else would we use a car for; good point really!

The other thing that I don’t get is this whole, you can turn right on a red light as long as your way is clear; seriously how can a red light not be a red light? I can just imagine me and James sitting at a red light with loads of cars stacked up behind us going but it’s red what is their problem?

But there is one driving rule that I totally think we should have over here which is that cars have to have their headlights on when it rains – seriously people if it’s coming down in buckets other people need to know you are there (and I know we don’t get the kind of storms they have in Florida but rain is rain)

So, would we consider getting a car the next time we go – probably not but I would be open to listen to everyone’s views; I do think one of the reasons James wouldn’t want to drive over there is because he wouldn’t want to put up with me squealing and flinching whilst he was driving as he puts up with that all the time over here (bless him sometimes I wonder how he puts up with me – then I remember he can be just as annoying as me so we are made for each other)

Anyway on a final note, if you are reading this because of my link on Facebook (which I am having issues posting on) I am sure there is an option to follow and if it all works as soon as I post you will get an email telling you it’s here

Until next week……I’m off to drive myself round the bend! Xxx

I swore blind that I wouldn’t be going to Disney this year, after all I have a new job to search for and its a whole lot of money to find in such a short space of time; but when you step outside and realise you would be warmer if you sat in your fridge the mind does begin to wander a little.

After another trying day at work (this leaving lark is a whole lot harder than I thought it would be) I found myself; well it was me and the bloke at Bluewater talking to one of the lovely ladies from Virgin Holidays about peak season and if she thought there would be free Dining again this year.

This isn’t a make or break deal for us to book as I’m quite sure the cost of it is built into the holiday but paying for it up front allows me to make different choices about what and where I eat as it’s not influenced by cost. In the U.S. free dining is available on all levels of resort; value get quick service and I think moderates and deluxe get the normal dining plan (way too much food for me and all that time eating table service meals is time away from the fun stuff) but over here they only offer it from moderates up

Now normally the person who would suggest looking at holidays is my darling husband and I go along with it but then have to be the sensible one who says we can’t really afford that right now but it would appear my sensible self has got up and left which means we are in a whole lot of trouble

So, I am now on a desperate search for reasons why I shouldn’t book this year and to be quite honest I am failing miserably; my Twitter and Facebook feeds are full of Disney updates and my screen saver which is a picture of Cinderellas castle is calling me. I am sure a sensible solution would be to write a for and against list or think logically about how we could pay for it but yet again we come back to acting like a grown up which we have already established is something I am not

It would appear that Disney has become part of me and right now the desire to go back is stronger than it’s ever been; maybe I won’t go back this year but having a countdown to when I do might make these cold nights a little easier to deal with.

Im off to search the net for a holiday ☺️, until next week xxx

I thought as I seem to be embracing change at the moment; that this was a perfect opportunity to make a few changes to my blog – nope I’m not going to start making any more sense than I normally do, and it isn’t going to become all serious but instead I decided that the old one just wasn’t doing what I wanted it to so I went for an upgrade……get me I’ve gone and got my own dot.com!

So, apart from my sparkly new blog what else has gone on – ummmm, well we’re in a new year and as per normal I didn’t make a resolution as I suck at keeping them for longer than a nano second (unless it’s promising myself I am going to reurn to Disney that is).

Work has settled down post Christmas, and already my in box is full of returns to complete for next Christmas (the joys of currently working in retail) so to keep myself occupied I have gone back to podcast listening. There is two reasons for this, one it gives me my daily Disney and bonus I don’t tend to get too disturbed at work as people hear voices coming from the office so they think there is someone else in with me.

Its brilliant to feel so close to my happy place when I am so far away, and yes there are times when I laugh out loud but also when a comment or musical clip bring a tear to my eye like this week when the music that accompanies the tilt shift video from Magic Kingdom came on….

I will admit to being a complete sap and finding loads of things that make me emotional at Disney, I mean I am sure there aren’t many others who well up during Finding Nemo the musical (yes, I’m strange – and we’ve all known it for a while). And don’t even get me started on how Wishes makes me feel otherwise I am just going to be typing whilst sitting in a puddle

But one thing I won’t be crying over is the removal of the Sorcerers Hat from Hollywood Studios, it’s not that I don’t like it, it never really seemed a good park icon to me; Spaceship Earth it’s not! After all if it was going to be the park icon why wasn’t it there when the park opened?

The Disney rumour mill says the hat was placed there after Disney and MGM parted ways, as MGM who owned Graumans Chinese Theatre in Hollywood (which the building that houses the Great Movie Ride is based upon) said that they wanted the view of the theatre blocked. And now, Disney is in some form of partnership with the new company that owns the theatre they don’t have to hide it anymore so the hat is coming down – can’t wait to go and see what they do with the space!

And now just because I can, I will finish with a video of a hidden gem at Disney World – if you ever get the chance make sure you check out the Voices of Liberty who perform in the America pavilion at Epcot; a guilty pleasure

Until next week xxxx