Author: Amber Fordham

Amber is a nurse, travel planner, college professor in public health and also works in non-profit. She is wife to Bryan, mother to 4 children, one dog, 5 chickens and a varying number of cats. She is lover of all things Disney, musical theater and considers herself a public health nerd. She prides herself on helping people plan magical vacations, keeping up to date on the latest public health news and being and advocate for foster care and vulnerable populations. If you are interested in having help with planning a magical vacation please contact Amber at amber@magicofmickey.com or 912-421-9126 To contact Amber for any other reason please email her at amber.fordham@gmail.com

If you haven’t been to Disney lately, you haven’t been to Disney.

I’m always amazed at the changes I see whenever I go to Disney World and I admittedly go to Disney World a lot (for both work and pleasure). It always seems like there’s something new going on there, even if it’s only been a couple of months since I last visited.

I think the catch phrase taken from the recent movie (and one of my favorites), The Greatest Showman, is true of Disney World, as well, “If you haven’t been to the circus lately, you haven’t been to the circus.”

If you haven’t been to Disney World lately, you haven’t been to Disney World!

I had the privilege a couple of weeks ago to go to an AEP at Disney World, which stands for Agent Education Program. It’s a training opportunity for a select group of Travel Agents. At this training, I had the opportunity to tour a number of resorts and get a pretty thorough update on the latest Disney happenings. I wanted to share some of those exciting “happenings” with you all.

Transportation of yesteryear…

Like Atlanta interstates, there always seems to be construction going on at Disney World. One of the biggest new projects they have going on is the SkyLiner construction. If you remember the old Skyway at Magic Kingdom from much earlier in the park’s history (see accompanied picture), the new SkyLiner is this same idea but on a much larger scale.

The new SkyLiner will connect Epcot with Hollywood Studios, Caribbean Beach Resort, Disney’s new Riviera Resort, and Art of Animation and Pop Century Resorts. There isn’t an estimated opening date for this cool, retro transportation option yet, but you can view some of the construction for it below. Also, check out a recent post from the Disney Parks blog with more information about the SkyLiner transportation option.

Construction and Skyliner passthrough station.

Times they are a-changin…

Another thing that Disney seems to be constantly in the process of doing is refurbishing the hotel rooms. Some of the resorts such as The Contemporary and The Polynesian have been around for close to 50 years. (Here’s a cool website about some of the history of the construction of Disney’s Contemporary resort). As you can imagine, with so much history, some of the resorts have become a little outdated and in need of a facelift. From the updated rooms at Pop Century resort, which includes a change from 2 double beds to a queen bed and a queen size Murphy bed to a completely new Disney’ Vacation Club resort, called Disney’s Riviera Resort, to updated rooms as Disney’s Coronado Resort-“Times they are a-changin”.

Coronado resort is a really great example of the updates taking place. Disney is in the process of updating the rooms there. They are adding a brand new over-the-water restaurant, plus a 15 story tower which will add 500 new rooms to the resort. The tower will have a roof-top dining option which will allow for panoramic views of the various fireworks shows throughout Disney property. You can see a rendering of the new tower on the Disney Parks blog .

Below are a few before and after pictures of the updated rooms at Disney’s Coronado Springs. The changes are pretty dramatic including a completely renovated bathroom, new colors, new linens, updated entertainment center and new Keureg coffee pots in each room. They also have changed from carpeted floors to hardwood floors(this makes the rooms look a lot fresher and will help the rooms stay a lot fresher in the Florida humidity) and they have raised the bed heights to allow for under-bed storage.

Other fun facts…

In addition to the above updates, here are a few others:

Re-imagined Caribbean Beach resort
Yacht Club Resort room refurbishment
Yacht Club Convention Center expansion
Fly over road to streamline traffic at Magic Kingdom
Speedway gas station outside of Magic Kingdom refurbishment
New NBA experience at Disney Springs
The Void at Disney Springs-Star Wars experience for adults
Pixar Play Zone at Contemporary Resort-kids interactive child care center

And that doesn’t even cover the festivals, concerts, seasonal activities and openings of new rides and lands happening on a regular basis throughout the Disney World property.

The magic continues…

As you can see, things are constantly changing at Disney World. So, whether you’ve never been there or you’ve been there more times than you can count, there’s always something new to see and experience.

Walt Disney is quoted as saying, “You don’t build it for yourself. You know what the people want and you build it for them”. This mentality is readily apparent in the constant updates being made at Walt Disney World. Constantly moving forward, constantly creating new dreams and new memories to make.

Review of Disney Minnie Vans

Monorails, Buses and Boats. Oh my!

If you’ve ever been to Disney World, you know that they have a variety of transportation options for getting around property. From the three resorts that the Monorail actually runs through, to the resorts that offer boat transportation to and from the parks and Disney Springs, plus the buses that run continuously to and from pretty much every place on property, there are a lot of transportation options available. Yet, there’s still room for adding more options.

Minnie Vans, is the latest transportation options being offered on Disney World property. For this option, Disney has partnered with the company Lyft to provide a great transportation option throughout the Disney World property.

App instructions

In order access the Minnie Van service, there are a couple of options for how you can access the Minnie Van service specifically. For any of the options you will need to have the Lyft app on your phone.

You can go to the front desk of your hotel to have a cast member add the Minnie Vans option to the Lyft app for you.
You can use the notification that shows up in My Disney Experience that’s prompts you to add the Minnie Van option once you arrive on Disney property
You can go to this website and it gives you step by step instructions for how to update the Lyft app to include the Minnie Van option before you get to Disney property (https://dvcinfo.com/minnie-van-service-now-available-dvc-resorts/)

Once you have the Minnie Van update added to the app installed your app will look like this:

You will want to select the one that looks like the red with white polka dots like Minnie Mouse, otherwise you will get a regular Lyft vehicle that comes to pick you up instead of the specific Minnie Van option. You will then confirm your pick up location and you can put in your destination, as well. The app will give you an estimated arrival time for the Minnie Van. Be sure you have your payment method, such as PayPal, set up on the Lyft app, for easy payment at the end of your ride.

No matter where you are going on property the fee for the Minnie van service is $25 one way.

Experience the Minnie Van service

A fellow travel agent and friend of mine recently utilized the Minnie Van option to get to and from Magic Kingdom and to and from Hollywood Studios from Animal Kingdom Lodge. I have to say after the experience I’m spoiled by the experience. 😊 The Minnie Vans we took were super nice! They we nice and new Chevy Equinox SUVs. My friend and I both wanted to go out and buy a Chevy Equinox after the experience. The vehicles can seat up to 6 passengers plus the driver. There is the front seat, two middle bucket seats and a third row for 3 people which is actually quite roomy.

The vehicle comes equipped with two available car seats and a universal phone charger to charge your devices when they have gone dead after a long day at the parks or shopping at Disney Springs.

The Minnie van drivers are actually Disney cast members and are super nice and informative. We took the Minnie Van a total of 4 times and each time the driver had actually worked as a cast member in another part of the company before working as a Minnie Van driver. Each had their own flavor to add to the conversation depending on where they had worked before. Some of them gave us updates on current happenings at the Disney World resort while on our way to our destination. They were definitely well informed with any questions about Disney that we had.

Siskel and Ebert say?

Overall, I would definitely give my experience with the Minnie Van service an enthusiastic 2 thumbs up. Not only was the vehicle itself comfortable and clean, it was an enjoyable ride due to the friendly cast member drivers. It was also a cool (temperature-wise) ride, with a really nice working air conditioner-which is definitely important in the Florida heat and, of course, there was Disney music playing on the radio. All of these things helped to maintain that “Disney feeling” even on the ride to and from our resort.

The Minnie Van arrived in about 5 minutes or less in each situation and it was a quick way to get to where we were going. For example, when we went to Magic Kingdom, the Minnie Van picked us up about 5:30pm and we were getting on Splash mountain at 6:06pm. So, it was actually a really quick option, definitely quicker than the buses, in our experience. The Minnie Van drops off where all of the Disney buses drop you off. This is especially important for Magic Kingdom park. Something to note: if you take a regular Lyft vehicle to Magic Kingdom, they drop off at the ticket and transportation center, which means you still have to take the ferry or the Monorail to actually get to the entrance of Magic Kingdom park. With Minnie vans, they drop you off at the bus depot, which puts right at the entrance to the park and the Minnie Van bus stop is actually #11, which is the first bus stop in the bus depot, so it is the closest walk to get to from the park entrance.

Other Tidbits

The Minnie Vans do come equipped with two optional car seats but, if you need more than two, these have to be specially requested and this can delay your pick up time.
The Minnie vans can accommodate those in wheelchairs or ECVs but the Disney website says that “an additional wait time may occur” for those needing these accommodations. I can see this being especially true for those with ECVs. Although we did see a Minnie Van that was more of the van variety, which was able to load the ECV onto the vehicle.
I would consider this to be a premium transportation option, as it costs $25 each way. Obviously, it’s not free like the bus, boat or monorail.
The drop off location for Magic Kingdom is really close and convenient. The drop off location of Hollywood Studios was less convenient. It was all the way out at the very end of the bus depot. It was a short walk but still it was further away than the buses and the tram.
It runs from 6:30am to 12:30am to anywhere on Disney property. It does not transport to off-Disney property locations (this is the same as other Disney transportation options)
Because you knew the estimated arrival time of your Minnie Van, there wasn’t as much waiting around at the bus stop like there is with a bus or boat. This can especially be beneficial with tired kids (or adults 😊)

Final Thoughts

All in all, I think you have to decide whether this is a good option for you and your party. There is an added cost to it, but there is also a lot of value in the convenience and comfort of it, so it’s definitely an option that I will utilize again in the future, especially when it comes to Magic Kingdom. If you’d like more information about the Minnie van service, you can visit the Disney World website here.

So what do you say? Is the Minnie Van service something you’d use? Why or why not? Have you used it before? What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

“You can design, and create, and build the most wonderful places in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”-Walt Disney

Due North and the compass (why I believe what I believe)

Lately God has been bringing me back to the idea that he is ever present and ever constant. If you’re “lucky” in life you find that one person who is your constant, your rock, your calm when everything around you is chaotic. How comforting is it to know that you have that one person you can come back to no matter what? You feel like you can face the worst of circumstances when you know you have that “person” to come back to at the end of the day. I would call myself blessed to have found that in the person of my husband. He is my “person”, my safe place, yet this blog post isn’t about him.

Immeasurably more than the blessing I have in my husband, I consider myself to be infinitely blessed to have a relationship with the God of the universe. I could have my relationship with God and have no earthly possessions and lose everyone that I love and still be infinitely blessed. How is that possible? Why would I say that?

You see, as much as Bryan is my constant, my safe place, God is that times a hundred million billion.

Recently, I was in church during the music time and God kept bringing the phrase “due north” to my mind. This is where God really brought the idea of His constancy home to me. It made me think about why am I a Christian? And what’s so special about all this God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit stuff. Why does it matter that I’m a Christian? Not that I just believe in God but, why does it matter that I have placed my faith in Jesus Christ and claim to be a follower of Him?

It’s more than just believing in some distant far off God who we ask for things occasionally and hope that we will have done enough good things to please him. Or that we have done few enough bad things to keep him from getting mad. It’s about believing in a God who is not only “due north” but is the internal compass who constantly points you back to that due north “coordinate” that keeps you headed in the right direction.

God himself is “due north”. He is the Constant, the Rock, the Ultimate Calm when everything around me is chaotic and falling apart, yet He also puts the Holy Spirit within me to constantly point me back to the due north position. God has been around since the beginning of time. He created everything we can see and can’t see. He sacrificed His only son so we could be with him and He never changes, never fails, never makes mistakes, never stops loving us and is always with us.

Just ponder that for a minute. He never changes, never fails, and is always with us. If I consider myself to be blessed by having a husband who is my constant, my safe place, then how much more am I blessed to have the God of the universe call me his child and makes his home in my heart? How much comfort and calm and joy should that bring to my life?

Even further, being a child of God and having him make his home in my heart not only means that I can put my faith and hope in the one who controls the moon and the sun and the stars and everything on earth for this life, but he also controls eternity and says that if I put my faith and trust in him, I will get to be with him after I die, for eternity.

That’s why it matters. When you know the God of the universe and you know that no matter what He will never not be God then that changes everything! It’s that doesn’t necessarily always mean it’s easy, it’s not that bad things won’t happen but when you compare it to the unfailingness or who God is, the bad stuff pails in comparison. You always know, no matter where you are or no matter where you go “due north” is always there and, if you allow Him to, He will always point you back towards that cardinal position.

The hymn “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” (see below) puts it so much more poignantly than I can. I hope this post reminds you of what you have when you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

O soul are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free:

Turn you eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face;
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.

Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion
For more than conquerors we are!

Turn you eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face;
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.

Ephesians 3:14-20

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,… that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

I hate running…so I signed up for a half marathon.

I hate running. At least I used to.
I was always the kid in school who dreaded the days in gym when we had to run laps. I wasn’t particularly out of shape, per say. I took dance and even wanted to grow up and be a choreography at one point but I always hated running. I hated the way it made me feel like a couldn’t breathe. I hated the monotony of it. I hated everything about it.
So how in the world did I go from hating running to voluntarily signing up to run a half marathon?
It’s been a journey, but a much different, much more meaningful one, than I expected.
At certain times in the past, I’ve dabbled with trying to get into running. My sister and I even did a 5k a few years ago but it’s never really “stuck”. So why now? Why has it stuck this time?
One of the things God has really shown me across the past few years is how important it is to do hard things-to do things that seem very difficult or that I’m afraid of. Getting my doctorate, traveling to different countries and even choosing to pursue adoption are all examples of this concept. Instead of just saying no, I’ve deliberately tried to make a habit of saying, “why, not?” That’s not to say, that my fear or nervousness about the situation went away. It was still there. I just made a deliberate decision to put the thing I knew I was supposed to do as higher priority than my fear.
When this type of situation has come up in my life, I’ve sense God telling me, “Just make the decision to do it, put the work in that it requires, and I’ll take care of the rest.” God has grown me more during the times when He’s prompted me to pursue something out of the ordinary than at any other time in my life.
So, I guess about a year ago, a light bulb went off. What would happen if I applied the same, “do hard things”, “why, not?” concept to my health and fitness? Well I guess you can figure out where that path led me. I decided to put my dislike of running and anxiety about being able to run for 13.1 miles as a lower priority than something I felt was a worthwhile thing to do. Honestly, it was a thing I ultimately needed to do make myself a more healthy person.
The experience of training for and then running a half marathon changed me in more ways than I could have imagined. Here are just a few of the things I learned:
1. I know it seems trite, but I really learned the meaning of the phrase, “anything worth doing is worth doing well”. Before beginning the training for the half, I hadn’t ever really stuck with an exercise routine for more than a couple of months. The fact that I ended up putting about 6 months’ worth of training into the race really helped me to see how worthwhile setting and reaching my goal was.
2. Perseverance isn’t really perseverance unless you actually stick with something even when it’s tough. You have to keep on even when you don’t want to do it. There were many times during my training that I didn’t want to run but I knew I had a race I had paid money for and a goal I wanted to reach. I didn’t want to waste that. I had a prize before me and I was the only person who could stop myself from getting that prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24)
3. Developing strength requires resistance. I set a deadline and a goal for myself. When we don’t use our muscles, they become weak and wither away. As much as the deadline of the race was pulling at me to get my workouts in, it was also pulling at me spiritually to build my faith in knowing God would give me the strength to complete what I’d set out to do.
4. Even though we technically compete as individuals we are all a part of the big crowd of those running the race. In both a literal and an abstract sense you have however many people moving towards the same goal. Some get there faster than others but, ultimately, we all are moving in the same direction with the same goal in mind-to finish the race. This so represents how the body of Christ should function. There’s comfort, strength and inspiration in knowing you’re not alone.
5. The things I do, have far more impact on others around me than I realize. It was a pretty inspiring thing when that first person came back past us towards the finish line. I may have gotten a little choked up. We all cheered and kept moving forward. We all knew, personally, how much work crossing that finish line represented. It wasn’t just about crossing a finish line but about all of the work and sweat that led up to that particular moment in time. That first person provided, even though he may not have known it, inspiration for all of us slow people who finished a couple of Kathleen in "running socks" hours after he did. By God’s grace, He has allowed me and my husband to provide a little inspiration to our own children. Every time we go running or even dress like we might go run, they each say, “I want to go running” or as Presley says, “I go running which you.” 🙂 They seek to emulate us so much so that they even want to dress like us when we run (see included picture of Kathleen. She put on her rainbow leg warmers the other day because she wanted to be “like daddy” when he wears his compression socks for running). Kathleen will even be running in her very first 5k race with us and other members of the family during the 2017 Disney Princess half marathon weekend.
6. In doing hard things, God does two important things-He develops our faith in that specific situation but also sets us up to continue on the journey past that particular circumstance.
There’s more that I could share but I should probably save it for another time.
I hope in some way this rant has set off some sort of light bulb moment in you. I hope it makes you think, “maybe I could do that thing that I think is impossible.” I hope it makes you remember that God is the one who sets these things in motion and gets you through tough times (Hebrews 12:2).
Mostly, I hope it inspires you to not run away from the hard stuff but to welcome it and see where God takes you. I’m living proof that God can do some pretty amazing things if we will step out in faith, put the work in and trust God with the rest.
Adventure awaits. Step out. Don’t be afraid. God will definitely use your step of faith to grow you to be more like Him. You may get an added bonus and find that that thing you hated or were afraid of is something you actually enjoy if you will just trust God to use it as He sees fit.