Mouse Extra

Ahh Labor Day!  It’s the traditional final day of summer.  It means baseball season is winding down.  The kids are heading back to school, and traffic is about to get horrible again.  It means all these things, but what it was “supposed” to be was a day off for the working man.  That tradition has largely been eroded, as evidenced by my wife making me go shopping today.  Those people do not get the “working man’s day” off.  The same can be said for the cast and crew that make Disney’s vacation destinations work so well.  They don’t get today off either, so I thought I would take today and salute those folks.

The “cast members” that work at Walt Disney World are amazing.  From the guy answering questions at Town Hall, to the person cleaning up the ice cream wrappers on the World Showcase Promenade, to the Imagineer who dreamt up the things we love so much, these folks make the Mouse what it is.  But you notice that I used the word “crew” in the pervious paragraph.  That’s because the best experience I had with a Disney employee is from the crew of the Disney Magic.

The problem with this story is that I can not remember the man’s name.  He was our head server and the job he did was impeccable.  It was our honeymoon and this man made sure we had the time of our lives.  And he did so in such a classy and subtle manner as to make sure he didn’t seem like he was intruding.  He went out of his way for us and we can’t thank him enough for it.

When I got home I had all intentions of writing a letter to the Disney Cruise Line praising him for his work.  But you know how that can go.  Life’s schedule invaded my free time and after some weeks the idea had left my mind.  Now I can’t even recall his name, making writing that letter pretty pointless.

The moral of the story is; don’t be like me and forget the people who work hard to make your vacation or honeymoon something truly special.  If you can’t thank them with a generous gratuity, a letter goes a long way to alerting their supervisors as to how good these folks truly are.

Bob Iger announced today that the Disney Cruise Line will double its fleet by adding two new ships, in 2011 and 2012.  Check out the Orlando Sentinel piece the covers this story rather extensively…

The company said it signed a letter of intent with German shipyard Meyer Werft to build new 122,000-ton liners that will be two decks taller than the two original ships known as the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder. Disney would not say how much the ships are expected to cost, but dropped the Italian builder it used in the past.

The Wonder and the Magic were both built in Italy, so these new ones are probably not going to be just a larger version of the existing vessels.  I would expect some significant difference, but that is only speculation. 

More speculation surrounds where the new ships will call home.  Everyone assumed it would be the west coast, serving Alaska in the summer and the Mexican Riviera in the winter.  But Europe is also a very good possibility…

Rasulo (chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts) said the European cruises have sold well and said the company would consider bundling cruise packages with stays at Disneyland Paris if they position a ship in Barcelona full time.

So one in Europe and one on the west coast?  That seems to make sense.  Don’t be shocked, however, if one stays on the east coast.  Cruise out of New York City have become very popular recently, and Disney would certainly make a splash there.

So now we get to the end of the intriguing information in the Wall Street Journal article that we’ve been discussing today.  (Read the two posts below for the rest)  This has to do with further confirmation of an impending expansion to the Disney Cruise Line fleet… Read the rest of this entry »