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Hi Everyone!
In this issue...
Now... lean back, prop up your feet, and take a Disney break!
Deals and Updates as of October 12, 2005 We continuously update our information and you can find these current specials in our Addenda:
WALT DISNEY WORLD
"Hi John, I just joined your affordable Disney group. My wife and I have been planning a trip to Disney World in December. When we saw the prices we were just awed." For those who like to wait until the last minute... Beth, our travel agent, must have the final payment for your reservation by October 21! So you need to book this week! -------------------------------- EXCLUSIVE DEAL FOR SUBSCRIBERS TO THE DISNEY NEWS! Become an Affordable Disney Basic Member by October 18 and we'll extend your membership through December, 2006 at no extra charge! That will give you access to all our money saving information from now until the end of the year for free! Then you will enjoy another 12 months access at no additional charge. Now you can be ready for Disney's deals this January (which will be announced soon) as well as specials for Spring, Summer, Fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas, 2006! This special is for our newsletter subscribers only. Be sure to join by October 18. Enter the promo code: "Disney news" in the comment box on the order form. To see all the benefits of an Affordable Disney membership and to join, click here. -------------------------------- DISNEYLAND CALIFORNIA Disneyland Hotel Special for this group from $89 in November! -------------------------------- DISNEYLAND PARIS Free Nights And Days! Get 1 Extra Night & 1 Day Free! Take a truly magical 3-night break to Disneyland Paris and get an extra night including breakfast in your Disney Hotel, plus an extra day to explore both Disney Parks - absolutely free! -------------------------------- DISNEY CRUISE LINE Disney cruise special for this group from $499! -------------------------------- LAS VEGAS Indulge yourself at this Hotel & Casino October 4, 2005 - October 31, 2005 from $79 per room, per night, based on single or double occupancy! Book by October 14, 2005. Book your stay during BONUS DAYS and receive:
OTHER FLORIDA SPECIALS Spend Christmas at this beautiful luxury resort November 19 - January 2. Two-night Family Holiday Package starts at just $259 including:
Beth writes: "John - As you know, I'm a huge fan of [this resort], and while I haven't seen their [winter] attraction, I hear it's really fabulous. Note that you do NOT have to be staying there to go to [the show]. The resort is just a few minutes from Disney property... easy if you have a car, cheap cab ride if you don't." Affordable Disney Members should log in at our password-protected site (The Disney Reading Room) to access the particulars about the above mentioned specials.
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Universal Entertainment MasterCard® from Chase Bank
NEWS FROM AROUND THE "WORLD" WALT DISNEY WORLD The Orlando Sentinel did a profile of the local miniature golf courses. Here's one you may be familiar with: "Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course The look: Two 18-hole courses, two very different styles, one common theme: lots of imagination, not enough maintenance. We opted for the Gardens Course, a colorful Disney spin on classic mini golf with scenes from Fantasia. The Fairways Course actually looks like a pint-sized golf course..." (Source: Orlando Sentinel, 10/03/05) -------------------------------- "Foolish mortals everywhere will have reason to host their own swinging wakes when SLG Publishing, in partnership with Disney Publishing Worldwide, releases the first issue of The Haunted Mansion, a comic book anthology based on the classic Disney E Ticket attraction. Scheduled for an October 2005 release... SLG's Haunted Mansion comic book will draw from the strong visual elements of the ride for it's stories and will not be based on the feature film... The comic, in a series of stories that will run through the first several issues, will create a new back story for the Mansion and tell the intertwining stories of The Ghost Host, Madame Leotta, and the Bride who resides in the attic. How they all came to be in the mansion, and the mansion's powerful attraction to spirits and ghouls, will all be revealed... Haunted Mansion will be a 32 page black & white comic book with a cover price of $2.95. Covers will be by Roman Dirge. Haunted Mansion will be available at better comic book stores and select book stores this October as well as on Amazon.com and at Hot Topic stores. The comic will also be available through the publisher's web site at www.slgpublishing.com. (Source: SLG Publishing Press Release, 10/05/05) -------------------------------- "Walt Disney Studios is hoping that the same kind of church-based campaign that helped turn 'The Passion of the Christ' into a blockbuster will convert C.S. Lewis' children's classic 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe' into a big-screen franchise - with "Lion King"-sized profits." (Source: Orlando Sentinel, 10/05/05) -------------------------------- "Walt Disney World heads to Houston this week for a Hurricane Katrina job fair... SeaWorld Orlando spokeswoman Becca Bides said that, while SeaWorld is not participating in the Houston job fair, the park does have about 125 part-time and seasonal positions open right now... Universal Orlando also is not participating in the Houston job fair, but company spokesman Tom Schroder said Universal has already hired about 70 people from the New Orleans area who attended Orlando-based job fairs for hurricane victims." (Source: Orlando Sentinel, 10/05/05) -------------------------------- Walt Disney World Monthly Calendar -------------------------------- DISNEY CRUISE LINE "Authorities are investigating accusations of indecent exposure on [the Disney Wonder.]" (Source: WESH.com, 10/07/05) -------------------------------- DISNEYLAND CALIFORNIA New Tour Cruzin’ Disney's California Adventure Tour starts November 7, 2005. Includes a souvenir pin and a one-hour training course on a Segway vehicle. Once trained, you'll take a ride through Disney's California Adventure! -------------------------------- -------------------------------- NOTE: Links to newspaper articles change quickly and without notice. If you receive a "File Not Found" error message, search the newspaper's archives for the story. Certain newspapers require a free registration to view their articles online.
Disney and other new books 50-90% off the list price. Hundreds of books under $1.00! Plus! Over 700 videos have been marked down to $1.99. Exclusively for Affordable Disney Readers: Save $5.00 on an order of $35 or more! Coupon code: bookcloseouts; Coupon password: bargainbooks. Expires December 31, 2005. Click here to check out the bargains.
SeatGuru.com has great info about airplane seating and in-flight services. It provides details on:
With the Orlando Entertainment Book, you can save big on travel, groceries, shopping, movie tickets, and more! Receive a FREE $5.00 gift card from Target when you order the 2006 version. Coupons in the 2006 book are valid through 11/01/06. Save at hotels and restaurants near Walt Disney World, on car rental, airfare, admission to Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa! For details, click here.
DISNEY SECRETS NOW IN HARD COVER! The Hard Cover/CD version of our "Secrets To An Affordable Walt Disney World® Vacation" is now available with a Deluxe Lifetime Membership!
Plus! Our book and all our reports on CD! You'll be able to access our book and reports on your computer without paying for costly Internet access or trying to figure out how to download! Plus! We'll donate $25.00 of each new Deluxe Lifetime Membership to the American Red Cross to help those suffering from Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Click Here to Subscribe to Our Deluxe Lifetime Membership.
Are You Suffering Withdrawal From WDW? You know ... that empty feeling you get when you arrive back home from your vacation at WDW and realize it may be a while before you experience that Disney magic again? We have had that feeling ourselves many times. Yet, we always seem to feel better when we read about the experiences of others who share their trip reports with us. It's almost like being there again. We invite you, our readers, to send us some feedback about your experiences during your latest vacation at WDW. Reports on Disney weddings, honeymoons, cruises, and resort vacations on and off Disney property are all welcome. Send your email to: johngross@affordabledisney.com . Thanks!
Suzan visited WDW August 22-26, 2005. Here is her trip report: Day 1: Arrived at the Coronado Springs to check in around 3:30 pm. A lot of rooms had already been taken. We had a reservation and got a room a bit further out than I would have liked, but all the rooms are nice, and ours was convenient to one of the 'quiet pools.' We walked around the grounds, swam a bit, and got ready for dinner at the Mayan Grill (using our Dining Plan). Although a bit of an upscale restaurant, they were very accommodating to children. The meal was exceptional!! The appetizers, entrée, and dessert were all perfect. We had salmon, mahi-mahi/filet combo, and our son had plain pasta with sauce on the side. After dinner we headed to the Magic Kingdom for a look around. We were able to get in quite a few rides before the parade and fireworks. It was crowded, but we still found nice places to stand for all the action. Day 2: MGM here we come!! This is my favorite park. They didn't have extended magic hours, so we tried to get there as soon as we could. We planned to eat all of our breakfasts in the room, to save on time and money. And that worked out extremely nicely. My son didn't have to sit still in a restaurant and we could still get things together without rushing out. (We bought yogurts, granola bars, cheese, grapes, and crackers at the local grocery store.) We grabbed a map and schedule to make certain we caught as many shows as possible. We also began our search for characters to autograph my son's book and take photos. It didn't take us long before we found Woody, Buzz, and friends. My son's eyes were huge!! We saw the Disney Playhouse show-very kid friendly and involved the audience. The Muppet 3-D was awesome! We also caught Ariel's show. We didn't get to Beauty and the Beast which I heard was fantastic. The stunt show we caught was 'Indiana Jones.' That was terrific. We sat right in front, had no problem in any line. It was really rather fascinating. It does take awhile to get from one show to another, so make certain you account for that time. We had lunch at 'Pizza Planet' using our meal plan. It was very crowded so we sat with another family. (Everyone was doing this.) It does have stairs to the main seating area. There is an elevator, but it is very slow and busy with strollers. We caught many more characters at this park and they were all visible for long periods of time. We spent a bit of time in the 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids' park. My son really enjoyed that, but we didn't want to take too much time there. So much to see! We had 4:30 dinner reservations at Hollywood and Vine for the Fastasmic Dinner package (not included in the dining plan). This was worth it. The meal was good (buffet with Flank steak, peel and eat shrimp, stew, ice cream bar, kids selections, etc.) and we were provided a different entrance to the Fantasmic area. They request that you arrive between 6:30 an 8:00. However, much before 7:30 is too early. You run out of things to do while you wait. And the kids just want to buy light-up toys. We kept busy with the bucket of green army men we bought earlier in the day. Fantasmic was FANTASTIC. Unless you have a great camera, don't waste time taking pictures, they don't come out great - and we were in the front row. The show is amazing. Leaving the show takes awhile and the park is now closed so you really can't stop to do anything on the way out. Day 3: This was going to be a big day for us. We scheduled breakfast with Pooh and his friends and dinner with Mickey and the gang. Breakfast was in the Magic Kingdom at 10:30. So we got to the park a bit early to get some pictures and watch the Cinderellabration at the Castle. What a fabulous show. We also had time to plot out a few more things to do after breakfast. The breakfast was covered under our meal plan. We saw Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger. They each came around to the table, spent time signing autographs and taking photos. After breakfast we headed to Frontierland. We took the Liberty Boat around Tom Sawyer's island. That was a nice way to scoop out our next adventure-The Haunted Mansion. There was no line whatsoever. My son was a bit scared at first, but really enjoyed the 'ghosts' hopping into our car at the end. We also rode the tea cups and got a few more autographs of Tweedle Dee and Dum and White Rabbit. We saw the Hall of Presidents and then headed for 'It's a Small World' as it looked like rain. We waited in line for about 15 minutes and it was indeed raining after we left. We knew it would be over soon. We had an umbrella (preferred over the hot poncho). By the time we got to the castle (to head out for our afternoon swim) the rain had stopped. We got back to our resort and swam for awhile. We had dinner with Mickey (Chef Mickey's) at the Contemporary at 7:10 pm. We had to plan our travel out as we had to take a bus to Magic Kingdom and then the monorail to the Contemporary. We were on time, but still waited for about 25 minutes. They take your picture there. However, it's not with any character and the package was over $25. Again, this was a buffet with a variety of food. We were visited by Chip, Dale, Goofy, Minnie, and Mickey. Donald stood around and signed autographs and posed for photos near the buffet area. This was nice, but took a bit longer than we would have liked. We saw the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the monorail as we were heading back to the Kingdom for the extra magic hours. We went right to the new Stitch ride. The line was extremely long and they were not accepting Fast Passes at this point. We waited for approximately 1 1/2 hours. The ride was relatively short and not worth the time it took. My son enjoyed Stitch's burps; but that still wasn't worth that wait. We headed to Mickey's Philharmagic where there was NO line whatsoever. This was another fantastic 3-D show. We all really enjoyed this one. We then went to learn how to fly with Peter Pan. This line was quite long (although they were taking Fast Pass-we didn't know that). We waited for about 45 minutes, but the ride is really quite nice. After that we ran to catch the Country Bears and then headed back to the resort. It was definitely a long day-and my son's legs were feeling the affects." Suzan's trip report continues below.
Suzan's trip report concludes: "Day 4: We're ready for EPCOT. They have extended Magic hours, so this is another long day for us. We started in the Land of Tomorrow at EPCOT after eating breakfast in our room and arriving by bus. We headed for The Living Sea, which we found was closed for renovations. We went into the Living with the Land and got a fast pass for the ride. We then went over to Innovation to see 'Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.' It was really good, but is getting a bit dated. The other 3-D adventures were much better productions. We then went back for our fast pass for the ride in Living with the Land. It was a nice smooth boat ride and quite informative. It showed some of the projects being worked on by the scientists in EPCOT. After that we headed for the World Market. We took a ferry over to Morocco where we noticed it was about to rain. We ate a fantastic lunch at the 'Tangerine Café.' The rain had slowed by the time we were done, so we started looking around Morocco. We met up with Aladdin and Jasmine. Being five, my son was not very interested in meeting Jasmine, but wanted her autograph. So, I was elected to get this and a picture of them as well. We then headed toward France to work our way out of the park for our afternoon break. We saw Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and later the Beast (from 'Beauty and the Beast'). We got a few more photos and signature (Beast doesn't sign and Belle was busy in the 'castle.') From there were headed to United Kingdom and Canada. We caught the band 'Off Kilter' as they were about to start. A great rock-n-roll band that plays the bag pipes and wears Kilts!! They were terrific. We headed out of EPCOT after Canada and headed back to the hotel for some pool time and relaxation. This scheduled worked out very well. Although it does take longer to get out of the parks then we had anticipated. After our swim we took a short nap, got ready, and headed back to EPCOT. We tried to catch the ferry again to take us to Morocco, but it had just left. We had reservations for dinner at 'Teppanyaki' in Japan for 7:10pm. They still honored our reservation although we arrived a bit late. We were seated with four other people. Our meal was great-and another great opportunity for the Dining Plan. We had Filet Mignon, Chicken, and Sirloin along with fabulous Sushi appetizers and a nice fruit plate for dessert (our choices). We were just in time for the fireworks show on the lake. We had a great view from the balcony just outside the restaurant. It was incredible. Afterwards, we headed out of the park in the other direction catching the USA, Germany, China, ending in Mexico. We got to see the drawbridge raised for the boats on our way through as well. We took a little boat ride through Mexico and then started a quicker paced journey out of the park. It was around 11:30pm by the time we got to the bus area. We got back to the room and began to pack for tomorrow. Day 5: Our last day. We only have time for a half day at Animal Kingdom. We finished packing and had the bell service take our luggage to the holding area for our departure. We did express check-out so didn't have to worry about that aspect. We got to Animal Kingdom and walked a far way to Africa to catch the Safari. It was really wonderful. There was absolutely NO LINE-they were waiting for us. After that we wanted to make certain to catch the Lion King show so we ran down toward Mickey and Minnie's area where the show was about to begin. Again, we got right in with absolutely no waiting. The show was really spectacular. It was about 20 minutes long. We caught a few more autographs right outside the Lion King of Donald Duck, Mickey, Minnie, etc. (We had some of these already, but my son wanted them again.) We took the train to Rafiki's Planet. This was a nice relaxing way to travel. We took photos with Rafiki and Stanley (getting their autographs as well). They have a Kid activity to do at a variety of locations throughout the park (They did at EPCOT too). The kids get a card (at EPCOT it was a mask) and they do an activity at every station and get a stamp, an attachment, etc. on their cards/mask etc. This keeps the kids busy, but got a bit tiresome for us. After visiting the nature building there, we headed back on the train to Africa. We didn't have time for Asia, or any of the other areas, as we were limited on time. We did a bit of shopping and headed back to the Coronado Springs for lunch in the Pepper Market. Again, a great meal on the dining plan and we had time to do some picture taking around the resort and a bit more shopping. The Magical Express Bus came a few minutes late to get us-but got us to the airport with plenty of time to spare. The bus was extremely comfortable-my son even took a short nap. The airport had another store to check out the Disney merchandise. We looked around there, headed to our gate, and our plane boarded about 20 minutes later. We're home now. We took a few days off before actually getting back to work and school-which was a great idea!!! Our pictures are developed and put into the album. We've looked at our Disney Photo Pass Pictures, but haven't yet decided if we want any or not. We do only have 30 days to look at them, so we will decide soon. They are about $14 a print, but are all very nice!" I asked Suzan if she was a member. She replied: "I am indeed a member. As a matter-of-fact, I recommended the site to several friends. One has already been in touch with Beth and has been using the site quite a bit over the last few weeks. It's terrific and help tremendously!" Thank you, Suzan, for the great trip report and your kind comments!
Money Saving Tip Hawaiian Rumble Adventure Golf: 8969 International Drive (Next to Wonder Works), Orlando, FL 32819. Phone: 407-351-7733. Fax: 407-355-3311. Buy 1 mini golf get second at 50% off. Good for 18 or 36 holes. Buy 1 draft beer and receive second FREE. High speed internet computers on site. Click here for coupon.
YOU CAN AFFORD DISNEY WORLD! If you THINK a Disney vacation costs too much ... WE AGREE! That's why we created the ULTIMATE Disney savings site. Save up to 40% on your total trip. Learn about discounts on tickets, food, Disney merchandise, hotels ON Disney property, travel, parking, and MUCH more. Too much to list here. See it all at here. "We just got back from a great trip ... and thanks to you and your great advice, [we] saved money and time! ... In total we saved about $3,000.00 for our group of 6. We are going back within a year to use our passes again, and think our per person cost will be in the $150-200 range, flights and all." Michael Barrett, Wisconsin Rapids, WI
Well, that's it for now. THE DISNEY NEWS is a free service provided by
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See You Real Soon! John
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