Wonderful thread! May I chime in?
Re: taking time to enjoy the magic of Disney -- on our first trip, my sons were 4.5 and 7. I certainly planned (that's half the fun!), but it involved knowing what rides/shows were top priority in each park and which we could just skip due to their ages, interests etc. (ie., no need to worry about RRC or the Litttle Mermaid show, head to Peter Pans Flight and anything Toy Story!) That's vital to not wasting time and energy in those enormous parks and allows you to proceed through at a more relaxed pace so you can enjoy your surroundings & be available for the unplanned magical moment -- like when Hook, Smee, Peter & Wendy made an unscheduled appearance & played hide and seek and duck-duck-goose with a handful of kids, including mine. Completely awesome memory that wouldn't have happened if we'd hopped off the ride and gone off running to "do the next thing on the list".
Now my awesome CM story: we were hanging out early morning in DHS taking in the amazing details of things & locating Pizza Planet, where we planned to have lunch later that day. It wasn't open yet of course, but as we were walking past, a lovely older gentleman CM opened the door & called to us to come back over (we were the only ones there -- I think it was EMH morning). Anyway, he bent down to my boys, who of course were wearing Toy Story shirts, & asked if they'd like a private tour of Pizza Planet. Did they! He let us in and showed us all the cool details, let them play a few arcade games, told stories about Buzz & Woody, etc. He was so charming and amazing & I could kick myself to this day for not writing down his name & sending a letter of gratitude. I guess I never even knew it was an option back then - duh.
So for our next trip, I plan to write up all great CMs in our autograph book & have them sign it, too. Like this: I'd write, "CM Joe Smith took us on a private tour of Pizza Planet!" at the top of the page; ask for his autograph underneath. Then I'd have his name recorded for future commendation purposes (!) & hopefully give the CM a reason to smile, too. Plus, it is a way to demonstrate to my kids that when you go out of your way to do something nice for someone else, that makes you a hero, too -- just like Buzz and Woody!
Re: taking time to enjoy the magic of Disney -- on our first trip, my sons were 4.5 and 7. I certainly planned (that's half the fun!), but it involved knowing what rides/shows were top priority in each park and which we could just skip due to their ages, interests etc. (ie., no need to worry about RRC or the Litttle Mermaid show, head to Peter Pans Flight and anything Toy Story!) That's vital to not wasting time and energy in those enormous parks and allows you to proceed through at a more relaxed pace so you can enjoy your surroundings & be available for the unplanned magical moment -- like when Hook, Smee, Peter & Wendy made an unscheduled appearance & played hide and seek and duck-duck-goose with a handful of kids, including mine. Completely awesome memory that wouldn't have happened if we'd hopped off the ride and gone off running to "do the next thing on the list".
Now my awesome CM story: we were hanging out early morning in DHS taking in the amazing details of things & locating Pizza Planet, where we planned to have lunch later that day. It wasn't open yet of course, but as we were walking past, a lovely older gentleman CM opened the door & called to us to come back over (we were the only ones there -- I think it was EMH morning). Anyway, he bent down to my boys, who of course were wearing Toy Story shirts, & asked if they'd like a private tour of Pizza Planet. Did they! He let us in and showed us all the cool details, let them play a few arcade games, told stories about Buzz & Woody, etc. He was so charming and amazing & I could kick myself to this day for not writing down his name & sending a letter of gratitude. I guess I never even knew it was an option back then - duh.
So for our next trip, I plan to write up all great CMs in our autograph book & have them sign it, too. Like this: I'd write, "CM Joe Smith took us on a private tour of Pizza Planet!" at the top of the page; ask for his autograph underneath. Then I'd have his name recorded for future commendation purposes (!) & hopefully give the CM a reason to smile, too. Plus, it is a way to demonstrate to my kids that when you go out of your way to do something nice for someone else, that makes you a hero, too -- just like Buzz and Woody!