Disney Vacation Club..What A Great Decision!

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A view from our DVC room at The Boardwalk!
Disney Vacation Club

Once a year our family tries to take a wonderful vacation to Disney World in Florida. Almost fifteen years ago, my husband and I purchased a time share through Disney called Disney Vacation Club. At that time we had a 6 year old and we spent a lot of time in Florida. Well, fourteen years later we now are a family of five, with a 20,12 and 4 year old and we still try to spend time in Florida.
We would not be able to vacation at Walt Disney World without Disney Vacation Club. The club is based on points and different than other timeshares because there is no set time to use your points. It’s not based on a week or a time frame. When you want to visit Disney, you simply call and make a reservation. You can use as little as 10 points to reserve a room, depending on the time of year you travel. We always travel during July and August, so our room generally goes for about 14-20 points. Of course with a larger family you need a larger room, or as we do, we book two rooms. The buy-in to DVC (Disney Vacation Club) is 150 points.
The rooms are beautiful no matter what resort you choose to stay at. You are free to book at any of the DVC resorts on Disney property. Since we booked our vacation just days before we left, we ended up moving from resort to resort in order to stay where we wanted. Other resorts were available for the entire length of our stay, be we chose to skip around! Disney moves your luggage from one hotel to the next, so you just check out in the morning and your luggage meets you when you check into the next resort.
Boardwalk Room
Our View from the Contemporery Resort

Our family loves Disney World, but since it is a little pricey, we tend to spend some time at the resorts which have their own activities and wonderful pools, each with a unique slide! 

The Disney Vacation Club is not just for trips to Disney! We have used our points to stay in NYC, Hershey and other locations. With DVC you can find a location anywhere in the world! The latest resort is in the final stages now in Hawaii. The DVC points can also be used at the Disneyland resorts!
Every year when we visit Florida my husband and I agree that buying into DVC was one of our smartest decisions. Without it, our vacation would be in our living room! 

Our Savannah Room at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

If you want to check out Disney Vacation Club just click on the link. If you have any questions about it, you can write them below or email me at dianes@macaronikid.com . If you do decide to buy in…please tell them Diane Sullivan sent you! 

Disney Blitz. Day #2 of 16

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It’s Day #2 of our vacation in Florida. I really love to stay on Disney property and especially at Animal Kingdom Lodge. It is one of my favorite resorts. This morning we checked out of Kidani Village and headed to its neighbor, Jambo House. We checked into the top floor of the lodge, the concierge or club level. The room is beautiful and so is the view and so are the amenities that accompany the club level.
Tomorrow I will post about our day at the lodge at club level, since we will enjoying a day just to hang back and relax.
As for today, it was our first day in the parks! Our first stop was to buy a 10 day base ticket. Since we only do one park a day, we always stick to a basic ticket with no extra features. Our family tradition is to try to spend our first and last park day at Magic Kingdom. We hopped on the Disney bus and headed to Magic Kingdom. Emily was ready to burst when she got a slight glimpse of Cinderella’s Castle! I must admit, the entire family was pretty thrilled.
We headed directly to Main Street USA for a sight everyone in our family just loves, the castle. Even though it was raining we had to grab a quick photo and then we were off to Adventureland. Of course on the way we had a slight detour to stop and see Snow White. Emily could not resist! A sweet conversation between the two friends and we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean, one of my favorite rides and our first ride of the trip!
As luck would have it, minutes after we exited the ride  the parade was about to begin! The scheduled parade did get cancelled due to rain, but a rainy day version took its place! What a super idea from Disney. No one was disappointed with the substitute! 
The rest of our day was spent running between the raindrops! Some our favorite stops were the Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh Ride, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and The People Mover!
We ended our night by watching the Electric Night Parade then headed back to AKL for some dinner and fun in the lobby! Dare I say, this trip is already going way too fast!
                                                                                                                                                     



To have your own magical vacation check out:
www.waltdisneyworld.com

Disclosure: All opinions are that of 3decades3kids

Disney Blitz Day #1 of 16

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After our big countdown to Disney, the fun day finally arrived! We headed to Orlando via Jet Blue. Not one complaint about the airline. We even landed close to 10 minutes early!
After landing we followed the signs for Disney’s Magical Express. It was the first time we ever used it, since it’s our first trip without a car! We will be renting a car, but not until next week.
Magical Express was easy to find and took us right to the door of Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Kidani Village. The room is themed in African decor and what a view.
Tomorrow we head over to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Jambo House. We are looking forward to experiencing the Club Concierge level for a few nights.
Before that we will be heading to Magic Kingdom for the day! Mickey, here we come!



Screening: Phineas and Ferb:The Movie Across the 2nd Dimension

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Phineas and Ferb
The Movie
Across The 2nd Dimension
Friday, August 5th 8pm/7Central

Over the past weekend my family was lucky enough to attend the screening (thanks to Mommyslinks.com) of Disney Channel’s Phineas and Ferb the Movie Across the 2nd Dimension. Our family, as many of you already know, are huge Disney fans so we could not wait to see this movie.
If you are a Phineas and Ferb fan you will absolutely love this movie. It’s just good Phineas and Ferb fun! All of  your favorite characters are there and the fun is unending. The audience laughed and laughed.


It was great to follow Phineas, Ferb, and Perry as they chased  Dr. Doofenshmirtz through his “Otherdimensionator” and found themselves in an alternate universe where a second, truly evil Dr. Doof ruled over his Tri-state Area. His army of iron-fisted robots really added some intense excitement to the movie!

We have been waiting for weeks to see this movie, especially after being at the kick-off in Times Square to the Platy-Bus tour across the USA.  Phineas and Ferb Across The Second Dimension will not let you down. If you are looking for a great family fun movie, filled with laughs and a great plot, don’t let this one get past you! The best part is it airs right on the Disney Channel. We’ll be there on August 5th watching it again!

The Disney Channel presents Phineas and Ferb Across The 2nd Dimension on August 5th 8pm/7central.
Check out the movie online at http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/originalmovies/phineasandferb/
Meet the cast:

  • Vincent Martella as Phineas Flynn / 2D Phineas

  • Thomas Sangster as Ferb Fletcher / 2D Ferb

  • Ashley Tisdale as Candace Flynn / 2D Candace

  • Dan Povenmire as Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz / 2D Doofenshmirtz

  • Dee Bradley Baker as Perry the Platypus / 2D Perry (Perry the Platyborg)

  • Jeff “Swampy” Marsh as Major Monogram / 2D Major Monogram

  • Alyson Stoner as Isabella Garcia-Shapiro / 2D Isabella

  • Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet / 2D Baljeet

  • Bobby Gaylor as Buford van Stomm / 2D Buford

  • Mitchel Musso as Jeremy Johnson / 2D Jeremy

  • Caroline Rhea as Linda Flynn-Fletcher / 2D Linda

  • Richard O’Brien as Lawrence Fletcher / 2D Lawrence

  • Tyler Alexander Mann as Carl the Intern / 2D Carl

    • All opinions are that of 3decades3kids.blogspot.com

    Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across The 2nd Dimension

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    Phineas and Ferb
    The Movie
    Across The Second Dimension
    August 5th
    on
    The Disney Channel

    I can’t even begin to tell you how excited our family of five is about

     Phineas and Ferb The Movie,
    that debuts August 5th on The Disney Channel.
    We are a total Disney loving family, so you can imagine how exciting it was for us
    to attend the kick-off of The Platy-Bus Tour across America. We have followed the Platy-Bus across America all the way to this year’s Comic Con in California.
    The kick-off event was superb and we were part of the fun! Radio Disney hosted the event,
    as the fans cheered and danced! My son and daughter were chosen to play a fun game of “Squirrels in your pants”, where my daughter held up a pair of gray pants and my son had to toss stuffed squirrels into them! So much fun for the kids.
    The unveiling of the bus was great and the Phineas and Ferb characters
    were on hand for some fun and photos.

    I also had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with
    Dee Bradley Baker- Perry
    Dan Povenmire- Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz (creator of Phineas and Ferb)
    Jeff “Swampy” Marsh – Major Monogram (creator of Phineas and Ferb)
    Alyson Stoner -Isabella
    Dee Bradley Baker was quite a fun guy and ready to make both the children and adults smile from ear to ear when he graced us with his Perry click!

    To keep it simple, I asked the creators, Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh to give me one quote on the upcoming movie. Of course, no one can just give one quote when it comes to a great upcoming movie like Phineas and Ferb The Movie, Across The Second Dimension.
    Diane: Congrats on your upcoming Disney Channel movie.
    Would love one quote about it!
    Dan Povenmire:”I was so pleased to work on this movie. It was so very dear to my heart. I enjoyed creating a movie filled with action and adventure and leaving out any menacing forces. It’s a good clean family fun movie.”
    Diane: How did you come up with the characters Phineas and Ferb?
    Dan: I was at dinner one night and started sketching on some butcher block paper. Triangles were the focus and soon turned into a fun character.Those triangle sketches became Phineas. The next day, I showed them to Jeff and the rest is history!
    Jeff “Swampy” Marsh:
    “The oppurtunity to do emotional things with Phineas and Ferb was incredible. It was wonderful to see the relationships of the characters develop throughout the years and now in a movie. It was inspirational to bring Phineas and Ferb into a full length movie.”
    You can also check out my son’s interview with Dee Bradley Baker!

    What a great day! Be sure to catch Phineas and Ferb: The Movie
    Across the Second Dimension on The Disney Channel, Debuts August 5th!
    For more info on Phineas and Ferb: The Movie please check them out online and on facebook.
    All opinions are that of 3decades3kids.