Time is Money at Disney World

Time is Money at Disney World

Planning Ahead

Let’s start out by seeing if we can all agree on the following:

1)      Tickets to Disney World are not exactly cheap.

2)      The more days that you add to your ticket, the more you’ll pay (total cost, that is)

3)      There are only so many park hours to see what your family wants to see (per day).

4)      The more time that you spend waiting in line for each attraction the fewer attractions that you will be able to visit each day.

Assuming that we can all agree on the four points (above), let’s take a look at some ways get more for each dollar that you spend for Disney World tickets.

1)      Check out the park hours:  http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/calendars

2)      Contact Disney to find out what (if any) attractions are closed:  http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/contact/

3)      Write down the attractions (visit  http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/) that you want to visit before your vacation starts

4)      Prioritize each identified attraction into 3 categories

a.       Must visit

b.      Like to visit

c.       It might be fun to visit

5)      Take a look at this handy web site:  http://m.disneyworld.go.com/

a.       Select your Theme Park

b. Select Attractions

c.       Select Browse by Wait Times

d.      Select High Demand

e.       Write High Demand” next to each attraction that you identified (above).  These are the attractions that are most likely to have long lines.

6)      Ok, now that reality is starting to set in, now is a good time to map out attractions that are close to each other.  Take a look at the Disney World maps page http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/maps/

7)       Now figure out where and when you are going to eat at the park.  Of course fast food options will not only save you money, but they will save you precious time as well.

While on vacation

1)      Plan to try to arrive at the park gate at least 20 minutes before they open.

2)      If you have an internet capable mobile phone, check the wait time for each attraction using this web site http://m.disneyworld.go.com/ to get an idea of which of the attractions within each park are “High Demand”, “Moderate” and high demand.

3)      Be flexible and ready to reprioritize which attractions to visit.

4)      Make use of Disney FASTPASS which allows guests to make ‘reservations’ for a popular ride to avoid
waiting in long lines.

Free unusual eCards for Kids

Below is a list of free unusual electronic greeting cards for Kids.  These are great cards for kids to send to friends and family or for family members to send to kids.   You won’t have to worry about your cards arriving late and you end up paying zip for postage.    A side benefit of many of these cards is that they may draw your kids into other fun and educational offerings on the same web site.

American Girl Doll eCards

National Geographic for Kids free eCards

Highlights Magazine eCards

Build a Bear Workshop

Yahoo!Kids eCards

Colonial Williamsburg eCars

Smithsonian Museums eCards

PBS Kids Arthur eCards

Kids and money…

Keeping money in perspective.

One simple idea to help your child to put money into a healthy  perspective is to:

• Ask your kids to close one eye and hold a quarter a few inches in front of their eye.
• Now ask them what they can see out of that eye.
• Next ask them to hold the quarter as far away from their opened eye as possible (still holding it level with the single open eye).
• Next, ask them what they could see when the quarter was close (the typical answer is just the quarter).
• Now ask them what they could see when the quarter was held farther away from their eye (the typical response is that they can see both the quarter and  all the other things in front of them).

So, as you guessed, this object lesson is intended to communicate that if all you pursue in life is accumulating money and wealth, that will block out everything else in your life.  However, if  you keep money in a proper perspective, you will enjoy a more balanced life.

Here are some great ways to teach you kids about money

1. When your kids are young,  consider setting up a weekly allowance for them. There are several considerations that you may want to think out  before offering the allowance.  For example:
   • Do you want the allowance to just be automatic, no strings attached?
   • Do you want to the allowance to be tied to work that they do around the house?
   • Are you willing to consider paying your kids a little extra when they choose the save some of their allowance (paying interest on savings)?   Likewise, are you willing to charge them a little extra money when they ask for an advance on their allowance?
   • Do you want to encourage  (or require) your kids to set aside some money to share (with those less fortunate than them)?
2. Ask your kids where they think money comes from.
3. Ask your kids if they think it is a good idea to save money (and why)?
4. Sit down with them and try out this “what if “calculator to show your kids how fast money grows when invested  (the lesson of compounding).

The follow is an interview with a six year old child regarding their views about money.  You may be surprised by the responses.   Try asking similar questions to your children and you may be surprised as well:

(Q)  What is money?

It’s tender.  A dollar and coins.

(Q) What  do you do with money?

Spend it save or share it.

(Q) What happens when you only have a little bit of money?

You could end up with no money if you keep spending.

(Q)  What can happen when you have way more money than you need?

You can get greedy or rich.

(Q)  How do people get money?

They work at work.   If you’re like a kid you can have an allowance.

(Q)What’s an allowance?

Money that you can either save or spend.

(Q) Can you be happy with just a little money?

Well, kinda, well if you save or spend?

(Q)  What do you do with the money you share?

At church we have like this little bank.  We put money it and give it to people that need it.