Day 384: Fastpass+

Since my HS Band is going to Walt Disney World in June, I've taken it upon myself to spend a bunch of time learning about the system to make reservations and the My Magic Plus system in general, just so if there are any questions when we get closer to the trip, I can hopefully help answer them. It's one of the reasons I'm going to WDW In March, just so I can learn a little bit about this stuff and have some hands on experience.

Not long before my parents left on Vacation, I learned all about Advanced Dining Reservations: How to book them and so on and so forth, including the creation of instructions for the band if they want to make reservations for when we're down there. But there's the other aspect of My Magic Plus that I have yet to learn at all, and that's Fastpass+.

Our day to make Fastpass+ Reservations was before my parents came home, so after some instructions from mom I made the reservations myself. To say it simply, the system is like one of the most brilliant things I have ever seen. The entire site is super high tech, and it takes absolutely everything into account from your entire trip.

This is how it works: You pick the day you're getting Fastpasses for and then choose up to a certain amount of them depending on where you're staying. There may be more than one category, where you can only choose one in the one category but two in the other. It all makes sense, and then it gives you time selections, which you can change later if you want, and if you have a dining reservation stuck in there at a time that will conflict with a fastpass, it lets you know about that too!

And everything is just so beautiful! There are incredible graphics that totally do the parks justice and I honestly sat there and texted my friends like "This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen."

Now, do I think Fastpass+ in general is a good idea? Yeah, once everything is worked out I think the system is going to work great when combined with everything else. I guess I'll really miss the original Paper Fastpasses, just because that's what I've grown up with and now it's all changing, but ultimately change is good sometimes, and I'm going to hold my faith in this one. We'll see what happens in March when everything finally works out, and then let's cross our fingers that everything will work perfectly come June!

Have a magical day!

Day 179: Baskets

It's our technical last full day of camp, although we don't leave until tomorrow morning. This morning was super exciting though, since we had an opportunity to do something that I've never done before, and I think it was really awesome.

We got to weave our own baskets! A lady named Kayla came in and taught us how and while it took a bit of patience, it was really a lot of fun. And I really have new respect for baskets because each and every one of them in this world is made by hand. It took time, but it wasn't necessarily hard, and I got it down pretty quickly. My basket isn't perfect, but really it wouldn't be ever because I'm not that talented. Plus, nothing is perfect (that seems to be my new motto recently. I'll have to do a blog post on why sometime after I go to Florida).

You start by getting the reeds wet and then you just start weaving basically. We got to choose which colors we wanted, and I went for the blue and green that I really liked. They are my favorite colors after all. In fact, everything for the week kind of matched too because I did everything kind of Goofy colored. It started with a friendship bracelet that I really still need to finish for myself before I go to Florida so I can wear it when I'm down there.

I honestly think that basket weaving was one of the best things I've ever done at camp because I really loved getting to do something brand new, which kind of goes back to the whole being adventurous thing that I continue to talk about that goes along with my Memoir. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to weave a basket again, because I probably won't have the resources, but that was seriously a ton of fun and I do HOPE that I will get to do it again someday.

Here's today's Disney History: 1988: The opening of Disney's Grand Floridian Beach Resort ushers in an era of accelerated hotel building at WDW, during which 10 new resort hotels have been added to date. The Grand Floridian is the third Magic Kingdom monorail resort located on the beaches of the Seven Seas Lagoon between the Polynesian Resort and the Magi Kingdom.

Have a magical day!