Annoucing the Birthday Club!

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Hope you had a nice weekend a great start to your week.

We're just a few short days from Christmas - wrap up those lists (get it, wrap up?) so you have hopefully have a few days of relaxation before the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

About a week ago, I mentioned an idea in our Facebook group about starting a Birthday Club in 2016. The response was very positive, so let's do it!

Here are the details of the Birthday Club:

* Everyone who signs up will get a card from me, during their birthday month.

* From that month's birthdays, I will draw someone to get a special birthday PRESENT as well! Yay!

And the only thing you have to do is sign up! That's IT!

To sign up, please email me (katie@mouseworldtravel.com) your birthday and your mailing address. Also please include your spouse, kids, etc - - anyone else in your family would like a card on their birthday and a chance to win the birthday prize each month!

I always like getting birthday cards in the mail; even in the age of Facebook and computers and email and texts, getting that physical card in the mail is so much fun. I would love to bring a little joy to your birthday with a special card (and maybe a gift, too)!

Have a magical day!

My Travel Planning Services for 2016

Hello, friends! As we're nearing the end of the year, I wanted to lay out my new/revised travel planning services as we go forward into 2016. Thank you to all my past clients, and I can't wait to work with you new clients in the coming year!

Remember, I plan more than just Disney travel so keep me in mind for your hotel stays, all-inclusives resort travel, international travel, etc. If you can travel there, in 90% of cases I can help you!

(Please note - this post was edited on August 11th, 2016.)

My full planning services are included at no extra charge when booking one of the following vacations:

 - Room and ticket package at Walt Disney World or Disneyland with a minimum of a 3 day park ticket and 3 night hotel stay.

 - Room only booking at Walt Disney World or Disneyland of $2,500 or higher.

 - Cruises on the Disney Cruise Line. Please get in touch about my policies for other cruise lines.

 - All-inclusive resort vacation, or a non-inclusive resort vacation booking of $2,500 or above.

 - International travel package bookings of $2,500 or above.

In the following scenarios, a fee of $250 will be charged for my full planning services:

 -  Room and ticket package at Walt Disney World or Disneyland under a 3 day park ticket and 3 night hotel stay.

 - Off-site hotel stays at Disneyland.

 - Room only reservation at Walt Disney World or Disneyland of under $2,500.

 - Park Ticket-only bookings for Walt Disney World or Disneyland

 - Where a Walt Disney World, Disneyland or Disney Cruise Line vacation has already been booked by you (and cannot be transferred to me) but you would like planning services.

 - All-inclusive resort vacation or a non-inclusive resort vacation booking under $2,500.

 - International travel package bookings under $2,500.

In the following scenario, a fee of $400 will be charged for my full planning services:

 - A Walt Disney World vacation where the stay is off-site (not at a Walt Disney World Resort)

The planning fee will be due upon our agreement to work together on your vacation; if the vacation is canceled, the refund of the service fee will be dependent on how much work had been done on the booking.

I also have the following a-la-carte service fees for smaller trips, business travel, etc:

 - Booking hotel rooms only: $50
 - **Advice for airline bookings: $50
 - Booking rental cars: $50
 - Any combination of two services listed above: $85
 - All three services listed above: $125

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The above travel planning information is for my personal planing services and does not reflect the business model of other agents with Mouse World Travel.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions. As always, I am happy to provide no-obligation quotes for you!

Have a magical day!


** Please note, I do not book airline travel. I will advise about choosing flights, my tips for finding the best prices and times, etc but the flights will be booked on your own.

Braving the Holidays at a Disney Park

Good morning! Hope you're all having a great start to your week. The countdown to Christmas is ON, folks...in just a few short weeks, we'll be opening our gifts, spending time with our families and enjoying the festivities.

Oh, you mean you're not done shopping / wrapping / yet? Yeah, me either. We still have time, right?

Since it's the holiday season, I wanted to share some tips about visiting the Disney theme parks during these times of the year. The holidays at Disney are MAGICAL - no doubt about it. The decorations, sights, smells..if you weren't in the holiday spirit already, you WILL be by the time your vacation ends!

But, you do have to go prepared and know what you're up against. You can still have a wonderful, incredible vacation - but here are some things you'll want to know / do when traveling to a Disney park over the holiday season.

* Pack your patience.

If you have patience, you can go up against anything, right? Make sure to allow extra time to get to and from the parks, and know that you'll be dealing with higher crowds everywhere (resorts, Disney Springs, the parks, etc). You'll also have longer waits at the attractions, as well as places like stores, bag check, etc.

Also - be EXTRA nice to the cast members. They are the recipients of a lot of bad attitudes during these busy times, so make sure to be extra sweet to them.

* The crowds WILL be higher during the holidays - no exception.

I've heard a few people who think that the holidays are pretty quiet, since people are at home with their families, right?

Yeah.....nope.

A good rule of thumb is anytime that schools are out of session, the parks will be busier. This is especially true for the holiday season. For instance, the week between Christmas and New Years is THE busiest time of year at Walt Disney World. On New Years Eve last year (2014), Magic Kingdom and Epcot were closed to capacity by 10AM.

Again, you can have an AMAZING vacation during the holidays but know that crowds will be heavier.

* Make some time in your day for relaxing / de-compressing at your resort.

For me, the key to not getting overwhelmed by crowds is to build quiet and rest time into my vacation. After hours of touring the parks, I love to go to the resort and swim (if it's warm enough), read, do puzzles, wander around the resort and take pictures, etc. Allowing yourself some down time will REALLY help your sanity and your mood.

* The same adage applies as during other busy times - get to the parks EARLY.

I always advise my clients - anytime you're encountering crowds, get to the parks at rope drop (opening time) or very soon after. It's amazing how much you can get done, even with just an hour or two before the larger crowds start to descend. 

* Want to get out of the parks for awhile, and not head back to your resort? Go and tour the holiday decor at other resorts.

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is seeing all the varied decor at the resorts. Each resort takes their look/theme and applies it to the decor, so each is a bit different. For instance, at the Beach Club you'll get a, well, beach-y vibe. Animal Kingdom puts a different twist on their decorations, featuring animals and tribal prints and objects.

If you're looking to get some non-park time but don't want to head back to your resort, ride the buses or monorail and head to some different resorts. You might just find a new favorite!

How do you enjoy the holidays at Disney parks? What are some of your favorite things to do?

Have a magical day!

Hey You Guys! I'm Still Here!

Well, LONG time no see, folks! You might have thought - did she fall off the face of the Earth? Did she go on a month-long vacation? Did she FORGET that she has a website to maintain?!

I have no good excuses, but between travels to Hawaii and Disneyland, and getting ready to go to Florida in late December...it's been a zoo. A fun zoo, but a zoo nonetheless.

I wanted to give you a general update quickly, and just keep you posted on some items.

* Yes, I am still doing the Movin with Mickey posts; some of you have asked me about that. Unbeknownst to be, my FitBit was not working for about a week (grrrrr) but now I'm up and running, and just walked for three days at Disneyland so that should prop up my numbers.

I am also looking for folks who would like to share their fitness and health stories, suggestions, tips etc so please get in touch if you'd like to be featured!

* I've been traveling a lot in the last few months and am getting ready to head to Florida after Christmas. I had all these grand plans to really hunker down in October and get my ducks in a row. Then October came and went.....and no ducks. Sigh.

BUT the good news in all this is that I have literally THOUSANDS of pictures to share with you here and on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram so that's fun. Some days, I might just post 10 pictures from Disneyland. Something to look forward to.

* The newsletter will be back in December so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Thank you for continuing to read and comment on past blog posts - I love getting those email notifications when people comment. It makes my day!

I hope you and your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!

Have a magical day!

Travel Agents: How We Get Paid

Happy Thursday, everyone! I hope you've had a good week so far. The weekend is upon us, friends, get excited!

On occasion, I will get questions about how we travel agents (TAs) make money, and how we get paid for our services. If you've not worked with a TA before, you might wonder how we earn our living. Well it's your lucky day because I am here to share that top-secret information with you!

(It's not at ALL top-secret, but that just sounded more fun to say.)

A few months ago, I did a post about Travel Agent FAQs (you can find that here) but I wanted to go a little deeper, and give you more information.

* We don't get paid unless we're your travel agent. We're happy to do no-obligation quotes and answer questions if you're considering a vacation, but if a trip is not booked by us, we don't get paid.

One common misconception is that our agencies and/or the suppliers (such as Disney) employ us and pay a salary. There might be some agencies out there who do (such as brick-and-mortar travel offices that might pay a salary instead of commission) but in general, the vast majority of travel agents are commission only.

We also get paid after your trip is over, so we might work with you for months or even a year, and we're paid after your vacation is done.

Think of travel agents as you would your realtor. If you decide to sell your home, they'll spend time with you taking pictures, listing the house, getting it ready to sell, running open houses, etc - but he/she doesn't get paid unless they sell your home. 

We're always happy to do quotes for you, truly; but if you get quotes and then book the vacation yourself, we won't get commission for that vacation. Deciding not to work with a TA is absolutely fine, but please keep this in mind if you're asking for multiple quotes, special information, etc.

* We are not able to give advice, help you plan, take care of your vacation without you booking the vacation through us as your travel agent.

Often, I've quoted travel options and I've not ended up booking the vacation. Which happens, and is no big deal. Sometimes plans change, or people can't take a vacation right now, etc. I never mind doing quotes for people, even if a trip doesn't work out for them right now.

However, on a rare occasion I've also heard back from people who didn't using me as their TA or pay an ala-carte planning fee but still wanted me to give advice about their vacation and help them plan. This is something that I am not able to do.

What most people don't realize (I didn't know this before I became a TA) is that in addition to it not being a great business decision to answer questions for non-clients, it's also a liability issue. Many agencies carry Errors and Omissions Insurance but the insurance only covers clients who we've booked.  If, God forbid, there's a big enough problem that a possible E and O claim would need to be filed, that could hurt the travel agent personally and result in a judgement against them, vs being filed with the agency's E and O insurance.

*I LOVE what I do, and I have fun doing it - but this is still a job.

As I've said 1,000 times here on this blog - I LOVE Disney. Obsessed. I am on some sort of Disney vacation (parks or cruise) at least four times a year. But - I still have bills that need to be paid. If I could pay my mortgage and keep the lights on via a money tree in my backyard, perhaps that would be a different story. But until that money tree sprouts, I need to have income from my job.

Think about a friend or relative who's an accountant. You might ask one or two quick questions but you wouldn't ask them to prepare your taxes for you each year, for free. Their time is valuable and they need to be compensated for doing your taxes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hopefully this was helpful information and gave you some insight on how travel agents work and are compensated.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more posts about my Hawaii cruise, as well as my next adventure - going back to Disneyland!

Have a magical day!

Word Paralysis - Yes it's a Thing

from Pinterest - and my nightmares

Did ya miss me?

Seriously, I apologize that I have been gone for so long. I have no excuse, other than I sit at my computer and feel like I have nothing to write about. Which is lame and not true, but I sit here and just stare at the keyboard, willing it to type on my behalf. (Apple, if you're reading this and could get working on that technology, that'd be great.)

So the other night, I was perusing Pinterest and other blogs that I read in order to hopefully get inspired. Of course, this turned into a time-suck black hole of unproductivity where I mostly found funny memes, recipes I'll never make, and YouTube clips of babies and animals. Seriously, watching a baby paw at a dog who paws back never gets old.

Luckily for me, in the midst of nonsense a gem shone through. I was checking in with one of my FAVORITE sites / favorite people, Glennon Doyle Melton over at Momastery. If you're looking to get both inspired and joyful, while snot crying at the same time, Glennon is your gal.

One of her most recent posts (which you can find here) struck a real chord with me.  Glennon does amazing work, she's a great writer and speaker, and I found we might have a tiny something in common. To my shock, I discovered that we are both sometimes scared to write.

(Like how I just lumped myself in there with a master like Glennon?)

She writes, "After the Alabama event, Sister and I stayed up late in the hotel talking about the fact that here on the blog, I’ve been writing directly from my heart less often than I used to. I think I just started putting weird pressure on myself. This place has gotten so big, and over time I convinced myself that everything I wrote needed to be shiny and shareable and big and amazing. So I started writing essays instead of love letters. Meh. That’s not what we need all the time is it? We just need to show up for each other. Tired, full, broken, sparkling heart to tired, full, broken, sparkling heart. I am not here to prove myself, I’m here to serve you....Showing up > Showing Off. So anyway, here I am. I’m going to write directly to you once a week. Nothing fancy. Just: Here I Am. Also sometimes I won’t. No problem."

The point of her post is MUCH greater than just this section, and I implore you to read it all because she has a really beautiful message. But this particular section hit me over the head.

Let me preface the following by saying: In NO way am I comparing my writing to hers. We're here sharing about travel and Disney and beaches and cruises and all that, and she's literally changing people's lives. But when she says, "I started putting weird pressure on myself...", I felt my stomach drop and the cartoon light bulb was over my head. That's why I haven't been pushing the Publish button - I've been nervous/anxious/scared about it not being good enough.

I've told you all before but we're going to do this again. I LOVE writing this blog. I love sharing with you, and to my shock and amazement, you've loved it right back. Which both excites me, and if we're being honest, scares the crap out of me. I know there are SO many choices out there when it comes to blogs (especially blogs centered on travel and Disney) and the fact that you continue to read mine is really humbling to me. None of you lovely people pressure me in the slightest, but I feel like I have to REALLY deliver the goods so you'll keep reading. Which is weird and bizarre and truly, a total waste of time on my part. I can't make anyone read, or keep reading, so I'm going to (try my hardest to) give that up that pressure.  As a recovering people-pleaser, it'll be a hard road but I'm walking down the path.

From now on, I'll just write. Some days it'll be War and Peace (there I go again; trust me, it'll never be War and Peace) and some days it'll be just me, here I am. Writing about what I love and the places I love. As Glennon says, Showing Up IS greater than Showing Off. So I am committed to Showing Up, and if the only person who reads that day is me, that's OK too.

Have a magical day!

Movin with Mickey Update!

Happy Monday, folks; hope you all had a great weekend!

This will be a quick post, but I wanted to update you on my Movin with Mickey progress. I was able to get in quite a few steps on the cruise so it really bumped up my total! Right now, I'm over 390,000 steps.

I did pretty good on my cruise in terms of getting in exercise and eating well. I still had dessert, ice cream, etc but I also kept an eye on the choices I was making. I came home the same weight as I left, which I consider a win!

I will update you more in another post on my other goals and how those are going, but I wanted to get the steps update out right away this morning.

Have a magical day!