Pumpkins and Mickey Mouse! Or, what's happening in the fall in Disney World!

So, it's August 10th now. Does that mean I can talk about pumpkins yet?

Well, regardless, so I'm going to do it!

Fall is a fantastic time to go to Disney World! Here's my list of reasons why!

First, when you go to Walt Disney World, you get to choose magic bands. I like to pick colors that match the season and then decorate them! So cute and exciting!

When you enter the parks, they are all decorated for the Fall from about Labor Day weekend on. I honestly can't get enough of these Mickey Pumpkin wreaths!

If you REALLY can't get enough, there will of course be seasonal merchandise, so you can have your very own Mickey pumpkins at your house!

If you love Pumpkin Spiced Lattes like I do, you can pick them up at the Starbucks in the parks. Ahhhh...PSL and Main Street.....

I can't resist throwing in a fun picture of fun outfits. It is ALWAYS acceptable to have matching and themed outfits in Disney World! Trust me on this one!

Now the first of the two big fall events! First is Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!  This is a "hard ticket" event at the Magic Kingdom. That means a few things. First, it means that if you have a regular ticket to the Magic Kingdom and you use it on a party day, you will be asked to leave before the party starts. Check those dates before you go! If you have a party ticket, they technically start at 7pm, but you are allowed in by 4pm. At the party itself, there are special character meet and greets, trick or treating with LOTS of candy, a special Halloween parade, and Hallowishes fireworks. Though it's not necessary to go, it can be a really fun addition to your trip!

Night during the party is so fun--those Mickey wreaths light up--I mean seriously. Awesome.

Over in Epcot, the Food and Wine Festival is going on! This is included in the price of your ticket. Basically, there are 35 booth around the World Showcase. They each have food and beverages representing different countries around the world. It is a delicious and fun way to experience the park! I would advice avoiding it on weekend evenings, because it can get very crowded! But also very tasty........And if you think it's only for adults, I will say that our boys love circling the World Showcase for "ANOTHER BITE BITE." Yup, that's what it is...

Finally, if you are cruising on Disney Cruise Lines this fall, you can experience a Halloween on the High Seas cruise! Most fall cruising include lots of fun and delightful experiences, decoration, parties on the ship deck, and character meet and greets!

If you are excited about your fall Disney Trip and want to share why, let me know! If you want to plan your next trip, shoot me an email at kacietravelplanner@gmail.com I still have availability and discounts for the fall!

Planning a Sandals All Inclusive Vacation!

Recently, I went to a training and received my Certified Sandals Specialist training! Check it out!

Ok, great, awesome--so what does it mean for you?

Well, most folks know that I book (and love) Disney Destinations. But, I am also working very hard for clients who are interested in other travel destinations. In fact, about half of my clients are going places other than Walt Disney World! So, if you are interested in a Sandals vacation, I am trained and ready to help!

So, who might be interested in a Sandals resort? 

Well, it can be a great choice for many people looking for an all inclusive vacation. They have resorts across the Caribbean including Jamaica, Turks & Caicos, Bahamas, St. Lucia, Grenada, and Barbados.

There are both adult only and family resorts. The Sandals resorts are adult only, and these can be great for couple or even friend group getaway. The Beaches resorts cater to families, and provide kids clubs and adult only sections of the resorts. There are venues across the properties for weddings and great areas for group events. The different resorts have different vibes to them too. So you tell me if you are looking for a more quiet resort or a resort with a party vibe or access to shopping, or a more natural setting, and I can help guide you in your choice!

So, when you say all inclusive, what does that include? 

This is actually a great question. There are many all inclusive options around the Caribbean, and they provide different levels of inclusive-ness, if that makes sense! Sandals tries to offer a high level of inclusivity, so you get a great value for your dollar. All of the dining is high quality, and focuses on authenticity, variety, value, consistency, and modernization.

Your drinks are included, and they provide high level beer, liquor, and a wine that is made for their resorts. There are fitness centers with complimentary classes. Golf courses, and depending on the room level, some amount of golf is included. Watersports are a huge attractor, and most of the sports are included (even SCUBA!). At the Beaches resorts, the kids club activities and childcare are a part of your stay. If you are in a butler level, you can add tip to those servers, but the rest of the tips are included! There are of course places where you can add on, upgrade, or go on additional excursions, but it sure is nice to pay once and not have to keep on pulling out your wallet throughout your vacation. That in and of itself is a vacation!

Depending on the room level, you can actually book to have a private butler. The butler will help you with every detail of your vacation, from room service deliveries to excursions to unpacking if you want!

So how can using you as a travel agent help me out? 

Well, as always, my services are totally free to you! I can help you narrow down what resort will best fit your idea of a perfect vacation. Depending on if you are looking for a family trip, a romantic getaway, or a group trip, I can help you find the right destination. I have worked with folks who have a certain number of frequent flyer miles, and we have found the right place. I can help you plane the right room level. If you are looking for a bungalow or the most economical option, I can help narrow it down.

At the training I went to, I was provided with a huge number of resources, so we can even make sure that the resort you are going to has your favorite kind of beer, or we can ensure that they will have lobster in season if you are a big fan. Basically, my job is to figure out the perfect getaway for you! Send me an email (kacietravelplanner@gmail.com), and we can get started planning a fantastic trip!

HAMILTON! Yes, I Am Totally Obsessed and I want to Help You Plan to See It!

Even though I ended up going the direction of math and science in my education, I pretty much grew up on musical theater. My parents bought us season tickets to the Fox Theater in Atlanta, and we saw the Broadway tour companies come through with all of the big shows. My first ever tape was the cast album of Oklahoma. I practically wore out my Phantom of the Opera two tape set! And I was in every play I could get into put on by my wonderful local director David Beck. It was very much a part of my entire upbringing.

Fast forward to the massive hit to redefine Broadway hits--Hamilton! (I added the !, because that's how I say it!). The original cast was performing in New York before was ready and able to leave the boys. But this May, when the owner of my travel agency asked me if I wanted to do a one day training on Adventures by Disney in NYC, I said yes immediately. And since the Disney folks highly recommended that you get to New York the day before the training, that left me with an entire evening all by myself in the Big Apple. It didn't take too much discussion for me to grab up a ticket to Hamilton. 

This was me packing for NYC--but really, I wasn't checking that beauty. Carry on all the way for that precious piece of paper!

So, first, before I tell you how incredibly mind-blowing/incredible/amazing the show actually was, I'll fill you how I got my tickets. Because it was pretty last minute, I bought it resale on Ticketmaster. It was a mark up, but not a terrible one, really. I have bought other shows on StubHub too, but I was just too nervous about this "investment" to do anything except a direct resale ticket. If you can plan far enough in advance, you can get your hands on them at face value. You can also enter the lottery, which is front row for $10 each. We do have New York friends who enter literally every day, and they haven't won yet. I wasn't willing to put my faith in anything other than having a ticket in my hands when I went. You can also wait in the cancellation line before the show to buy tickets, and that certainly can work! If you have the time and not the cash for a last minute ticket, that's totally a good option too! 

The show itself is at the Richard Rodgers Theater, and for that trip I was staying just a few blocks away, so it was an easy walk (or really skip) over into the theater. A few people asked me if I went alone--you bet I did!

 And it totally didn't matter. I was sitting at the edge of my seat and everyone in the audience was FIRED up! There was a ton of cheering, yelling, laughing, and generally just being totally into the show. My only complaint is that it goes TOO FAST. It was probably the fastest three hours of my life. I mean for real--how do other hours go by so slowly compared to those hours?! It's hard for me to actually review something this great. People with much better words than me have done it. All I can honestly and truly say is that it lives up to all the hype. It is smart, funny, emotional, creative, fun, thoughtful, and fascinating. I don't have the adjectives to describe it....

So all that leads to saying that I had to see it again! It went to fast. I couldn't take it all in! My wonderful mom offered to keep our boys for a long weekend for George and I to celebrate our 10th anniversary. It was the first time we have both left them overnight. We tossed around a bunch of ideas of places we wanted to go. I "casually" threw out that it would be fun to go to New York to go see Hamilton. George loves history and hip hop. It was pretty much a no-brainer ;-). Every other idea seemed pretty lame after that idea. So, then the obsessing over hotel, plane tickets, and theater tickets began, because that's how I roll (and why I am a travel agent now!). 

I had read most of the book Hamilton by Ron Chernow before my first trip to see the show. The play is based on this book, so I had to buy one for George too--this was our only twinning this weekend!

For this trip, we decided to stay in Soho to be farther south closer to the action from the time period of Hamilton (and to be closer to Ansel Dominique bakery!).

One of the main lessons I have learned as a travel agent is that it is my job to design the vacation that works for YOU and not the one that works for me. For me, we like to GO. Our vacations are exhausting. We have always crammed in as much as possible. I plan lots of different styles of travel for people, but this trip was a reminder of what I really love--going and doing tons! 

One of the things we did was a walking tour about Hamilton and Burr. We went with Patriot Tours, and she was just fantastic. She was informative, and interesting, and I would reccomend these tours to anyone!

 On the the show! It was so fun to see it again--live theater is always different, and that is exciting to watch. I also felt like I could actually relax a little and just take it in this time. George on the other hand kept saying "I wish it would slow down!" during intermission! I know how you feel, man.

We got "Rise up Rye" which actually benefits the foundation started by Eliza Hamilton and The Federalist red to drink! We just couldn't resist--it's like the adult version of getting light up toys at Disney World for the fireworks!

 At dinner at Balthazar after the show, George kept saying..."I just feel like I need to say it again." And because I can't keep a secret, or because he is persistent, I spilled the beans that I already have tickets for us to go when we are in Chicago for him to run the marathon in October! I can't wait to see a different cast perform. And you KNOW we are going to get our little hands on some tickets when it comes to Atlanta next year!

So, if you are looking for a Hamilton fix and can't go yet, you can totally listen to the cast album (it's playing pretty much on loop at our house), or read the show book too! I know that people probably feel differently about this, but I would really reccomend doing your reading/listening before you go see the show. It is so dense with words and meaning, that I really felt like knowing the history and being comfortable with the lyrics ahead of time helped me get more from the show itself. I'm sure some people would rather be surprised by it all, but I didn't want to feel like I didn't know what was going on. Lin Manuel Miranda crammed in SO much meaning into each of the lines of the show, that I didn't want to miss it!

Is this a travel agent post--probably not. Did I just want to write about Hamilton, and I have a blog going right now? Pretty much!

But really, if you have questions about Hamilton, or if you want help picking a hotel in New York or Chicago to see it, you know I would enthusiastically help you! My help is totally free to you! Just shoot me an email at kacietravelplanner@gmail.com and I would be happy to help you plan a trip that fits you! I'll be waiting to hear from you :-)

Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa

I was lucky enough to stay at the Grand Floridian in Disney World for our spring break trip in March. It quickly became my very favorite Disney World Resort. I have since had clients visit and really enjoy this property as well, so I thought I would share some pictures and reasons why I love it!


The Grand Floridian is the flagship resort in Disney World. It is located on the monorail across the Seven Seas Lagoon from the Magic Kingdom.

Transportation is one of the main reasons that people stay here. You can take the monorail or a boat to the Magic Kingdom. If you want to go to Epcot, you take two monorail rides. To get to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood studios, you take a bus.

It is a fairly small resort, so any building is a good location!

Our room had two queen beds, and a beautiful porch overlooking the pool. The boys always like when mousekeeping does fun things with their blankets and toys! Our room was technically a "standard view" room. The above picture was from our porch though! There are no parking lot views at the GF, and we could actually watch the fireworks from our room! It doesn't get much better than that!

One of my favorite parts of the Grand Floridian are the flowers! There are flower arrangements inside that are just spectacular. I know this is a strange thing to list as my favorite part of the resort, but it just made me so happy to see these flowers everywhere we went!

The flowers outside are simply gorgeous too! They are everywhere, and they are dense. They just put a little skip in my step every time I see them!

The pools at the GF are fantastic.  There is a 24 hour pool with these fun splashy things (that's a real word for sure).

I didn't take a picture of the main pool, but it does have a great slide. We also enjoyed the awesome splash playground! Note the monorail going by in the back! So fun!

Dining at the GF is absolutely amazing. Starting from the quick service all the way up! The quick service is called the Gasparilla Grill. This is where you go to grab an easy meal and fill your refillable mugs. I loved the mahi mahi rueben and at it many times on the trip! There is also a pool bar by the 24 hour pool, and a walk up counter (with lobster sliders!) at the main pool.

There is character dining at 1900 Park Fare. For breakfast, they have Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Alice, Mad Hatter, and Mary Poppins. At dinner they have Cinderella, Prince Charming, the Stepsisters, and Lady Tremaine. I honestly thing the food at this character meal is one of the best. I mean, they have red velvet pancakes. What else could a person want or need?

There is another table service dining location called the Grand Floridian Cafe. We meant to make it here on this trip, but, well, we weren't hungry!

There are two lounges where you can grab a quick drink and some great light fare--the Citricos Lounge and Mizner's.  There is live music playing outside of the Mizner's loung in the afternoon and evening that just makes the lobby of the GF magical.

Moving up from there, there are two signature restaurants and one that isn't on the dining plan. Narcoossees is situated alone on top of the Seven Seas Lagoon. That means you can overlook the Magic Kingdom, the monorail, and all of the ferries going by. It is a gorgeous location. They also have a Sunday brunch, which we tried out with the boys. The food was spectacular! Also, George got this hilarious bloody mary that was probably enough food for breakfast just with the add ons!

Citricos is inside the main building, and the fare there is lovely. The final dining location inside GF is Victoria and Alberts. This is the only dining location on property with a true dress code and age limit. It is absolutely fine dining, and you should expect to spend a lot of time (and even more money) on the experience. We honestly feel that we can bring our (crazy) little boys to any location for dining on Disney property, but this is the one exception. If you did want to have this experience, and your children are with you on vacation, you can always take them to one of the kids clubs (the closest would be Lilo's Playhouse) or if they are under three, you can call the in-room babysitting line too!

There are other really fun extras inside the GF! On most days in the afternoon, Cinderella and Prince Charming coming out and walk with the children to the lobby.

They have a dance and take a few pictures. At christmas time, they build a life-sized gingerbread house in the lobby. At Easter, the lobby is decorated with Easter Eggs made by the pastry chefs on property. The extra touches just make it even better! I love the sweet Disney nods on the floor!

I hope that this helps folks considering a stay at the Grand Floridian. We loved it, and honestly can't wait until we plan our next trip! If you want any help (and free help!) planning your next vacation, send me an email at kacietravelplanner@gmail.com :-)

My Experience with Adventures by Disney in New York City!

I was lucky enough to go to New York City with Adventures by Disney (ABD). This was a "Fam" trip, which means that it is all travel agents being "familiarized" with a service/product/resort. In this case, it meant that I got to do one day of a three night ABD itinerary. 

Adventures by Disney is a tour company that is a part of the Disney Destinations. They have amazing tours around the world. They also have a long weekend in San Fran and in NYC. They have some tours that are adult only, but they also have family centered programs. It's a great way to have a top-notch travel experience without having to worry about anything. There are two adventure guides on each tour. One is always a local, and one or both of them have deep history with the Walt Disney Company, so you are sure to have the level of service you are accustomed to in other Disney Destinations. As with other destinations, I would be happy to help you plan one of these trips, and my services are totally free to you (kacietravelplanner@gmail.com if you want to talk!). 

Ok! On to the details of this trip! We met at the Intercontinental in Times Square. It is a gorgeous, modern, and clean hotel. It is right by Times Square, but it felt peaceful and calm as soon as you walk inside. ABD is known for contracts with exceptional hotels, and this one was certainly no exception!

I love lobby flowers :-) 

                                          

Check out my awesome "cast member" style name tag!

One of the adventure guides always had a paddle with this logo on it. At first I kind of rolled my eyes at the idea of following someone with a sign in the air. To be totally honest, it really took the effort out of navigating through Manhattan. I got to just relax and enjoy talking to the other agents in my group. As long as that little sign was in sight, I never had to look down at my phone/map. It was actually great!

After a short introductory session, we went on this bus called The Ride. Half of the bus was just huge windows. Our guides here were hilarious! To be honest, this was more of a show than a tour! There were really talented actors along the way on the sidewalks that interacted with us as we went along. We were all laughing and having a great time on this tour. I think that early teens to teens would just eat this up.

We got off the bus and headed into John's Pizza. We had a really tasty and relaxing lunch. Again, the adventure guides were amazing. On top of having tables ready when we walked in, they made sure we knew where all the restrooms were. Plus, they went around and offered hand sanitizer (in multiple scents!) and checked in with everyone.

After lunch, we walked over to the Ripley-Grier studios. This was an amazing experience. ABD had already checked us in through security in the building before we got here, so we just went on up to the dance and voice studios. They were running auditions for the new Broadway Frozen show. I really loved just lingering through the hallways and watching the beautiful and talented people pace the halls and wait for their turn! I could have spent the day just observing out there!

But, we went into one of the dance studios for a dance lesson!

The instructors (in the picture with me), were exceptional teachers. I have met many teachers in my life, and these two clearly have the talent and the passion for education. Along with that, they love Disney, and they were amazing performers!

Because we were going to see Aladdin, they focused our dance session around some choreography from the Broadway play. In just an hour, they took a room of 30 adults that didn't know each other into a happy, sweaty, laughing, singing, and dancing up coming performers (well, maybe not that last part, but a girl can dream!). We had a great breakout session afterwards talking about what we learned from the class and how the guests that we book travel for would enjoy this! It was such a great experience, and it is SO unique. This is the kind of thing that you don't really get when you just go somewhere solo.

We went back to the Intercontinental to have dinner. It was delicious and classy (of course). It gave us all an opportunity to really talk about ABD, about this New York itinerary, and learn as much as we could soak in.

One really fun part of this is that ABD trips all have pins! You get a pin on each day that can only be found on that particular trip (you can't buy them anywhere else). We got the first day pin for the NYC itinerary, and there were a lot of happy travel agents in that room!

From dinner, we walked over the the New Amsterdam theater to see Aladdin. We were in the 4th and 5th row, which was just awesome!  The performance was beautiful. There is nothing like seeing shows on Broadway! The talent is incredible, the set amazing, the crowd excited, and the costumes were stunning. After intermission, our adventure guides had put cookies on each of our seats! No need to stand in any lines on an ABD--everything is taken care of!

All in all, it was a great experience! I love having first hand knowledge of the Disney products, so that I can better guide any of you that want to go!

Oh, and the night before, I got tickets to see Hamilton! I would totally reccomend that as a little "pre-ABD" treat if you want to come into NYC a day early! That might deserve it's own blog post though....

Let me know if I can help you plan your next trip! kacietravelplanner@gmail.com