August 2010 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 5

9-1 Our Quest to be Family of the Day

This was the day we would do everything we could to be the Family of the Day at Magic Kingdom. But first, a little back story…

Before our trip to WDW in February, DW called around to different Disney Reservations phone numbers, to see if she could “schedule” us for being Family of the Day as a surprise to me. Of course, she quickly found out that you can’t reserve that magical experience – you kind of have to get lucky. But we all really wanted to do it. So between our Feb and Aug trips, I did the research and decided that if we were going to try, we were going to give it our best shot.

I found a number of trip reports where families had been chosen as the Magic Kingdom Family of the Day (or “First Family,” as it’s officially known). The experience sounded incredible. Allowed into the park before it opened, greeted in ToonTown by a dozen or more characters. Riding the train with all of them to the front of the park, where the dancers would be singing “Zip a Dee Doo Dah,” awaiting our arrival. Helping Mickey countdown from ten to one to mark the opening of the park.

All of the families had apparently been chosen at random. But I noticed some common threads between them all and started making a list of little things we could try to improve our chances at being selected.

First – they were mostly families with children. Some families without children are selected once in a while, but in most of the stories I read, there were children as part of the family. Some were older, some were toddlers – no consistent pattern there. But already we had met one of the criteria.

Second – they usually wore matching outfits. Now, in August I always, always, always wear a performance-type wicking shirt. The breeze blows right through them and they never get sweaty. But for our mission I agreed that I would forgo comfort for the (potential) experience of a lifetime. I scoured the DISigns thread on disboards.com and found animal-print mickey heads (we love animals and were staying at AKL). We each got a yellow T-shirt on sale from Target, and using transfer paper from amymickey.com (which I had bought for a previous trip) I made the shirts – leopard for DD, tiger for DW, giraffe for me.

August 2010 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 4

Day 4 – Reunited with Cousin Joey

The plan for the day was to do a three-quarters day at Hollywood Studios. Unlike the other three parks, it’s tricky to take a midday break at DHS. That’s because the various shows and performances are staggered in such a way that you can’t do more than one or two unless you stay a while. At the same time, because more of the in-park time at DHS is spent watching shows and performances, it’s not as draining a day as the other parks.

We started the morning off with breakfast on the balcony, overlooking a relatively vacant savanna.

We arrived pre-rope drop and found a turnstile all the way to the right that was uncovered with a green arrow – but it was not staffed by a cast member. This is usually the sign that the turnstile will, in fact, be operational once the park opens. Typically, no one lines up there, since it’s not readily apparent that the turnstile will be open. We are usually the first people to form that line, and we have never been left in the cold.

After we staked our claim, a woman and her two sons got in line behind us, a little sheepishly. We soon discovered that it was another member of TourGuideMike’s August Vacation Club. We chatted a little bit as our daughter contemplated trading pins with her sons. Soon enough, we were let into the park.

August 2010 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 2

Day 2 – Check-in to Kidani and “Let the Adventure Begin” at Animal Kingdom

I woke up about 6:00am, showered and headed over to Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani Village to check in. I had used a similar strategy in February to snag an available room by being early to check in. When I arrived I had to wait about five minutes behind another guest checking in, and then it was my turn.

The front manager was training one of the new Cast Members on the check-in procedure, and he asked if it would be OK if she checked me in with him right there to help. I said it would be fine.

It took a little longer than usual, especially since we had done Online Check-in, but the best news was that we had gotten our request for a room close to the pool on the Sunset Savanna.  They told me we would be on the same floor as the lobby, just a handful of rooms away from the Lobby, and that it was a great location. The room wasn’t ready, though, so we’d have to wait to find out exactly what room we’d be in.

Armed with my packet of check-in material, I headed back to Pop Century to finish re-packing, gather up the family, and head over to our park for the day - Animal Kingdom.

We got there about 8:30, plenty of time for a Photopass picture in front of the Animal Kingdom sign. The photographer told us to make claws and growl, so we did. As you can see, I really wasn’t into it so much, while DD give it her all…

We found an unattended but “green arrowed” turnstile where no one was waiting and got in line. It was here we discussed our rope drop strategy.