Archive for the ‘Convergence’ Category

Since Family and Disney are the perfect match, we’re always on the lookout for family-friendly resources for our readers.  Parents Randa Clay and Laura Groff are flagging the funspots on a great website, FunPlace Database.

Visitors can click on the map to learn about entertaining options all around the country, or right in their own back yard!  Do you have a favorite fun place?  You’re invited to add your own pushpin with a description of a park, play area, restaurant, museum, or other happy place that’s a hit with your family.  Of course, Walt Disney World probably packs more smiles per square mile than anywhere else on earth, so we’ve added one of our own picks, Disney’s Tri-Circle-D Ranch, Farm & Stables!

Our company has been blessed with a wonderful group of clients, many of whom began as, or have become, dear friends.  Because Walt Disney World is a complex and time-consuming trip to plan, we spend a great deal of time and energy working to ensure that each guest has the best possible vacation experience, whether they’re a first-time visitor, or veteran of the parks.  In order to make this time available, we’ve learned to offer our services in such a way as to discourage those folks who are merely whiling away a Sunday afternoon with no intention of traveling anywhere.  It’s one of the reasons that visitors will not find a “quote request” form on our website.  We believe a relationship with our clients is fundamental, and this requires far more than a series of drop-down boxes. 

Since the prospective Disney visitor can’t shop for price, they need to be shopping for service and we want to be sure that we have the resources to offer the very best service available, anywhere.  When Amber Riviere asked me about our customer service practices, I realized that coming up with ways to provide a prompt, friendly, highly-informed product had been easier than finding the time to deliver it.  

Our decision to focus on “clients” rather than “browsers” has been a key component of our service philosophy.  It allows us to initiate and support a planning process that may last for many months between first contact and departure date.  It means that we can respond quickly to questions and concerns.  It gives us the opportunity to keep track of each client’s needs and preferences on a very individualized, personal level; to be the kind of organization we, ourselves, would want to deal with.  And, it lets us enjoy, vicariously, the fun and excitement of many Disney vacations.  A thank you to Amber at www.brownbugproject.com for the guest post opportunity!

 

My thanks to Paul Banas for the opportunity to write a guest article for his website www.greatdad.com  We offer some tips  specifically for Dads traveling with their families, but anyone planning a vacation with kids will find some helpful suggestions and ideas for a memorable trip. 

Exploring parenting from a uniquely paternal perspective, Paul’s site is chock full of helpful information about the challenges of child-rearing, and also provides advice and support for dads; by dads. Featuring forums, a dad blog, news and recommendations, even dad-designed products; it’s a valuable resource for the father in every family. 

Blogging is, first and foremost, a means of personalizing a small segment of a vast and very impersonal arena.  While we want to convey useful information and share things that are of interest, we hope to speak with a more authentic, intimate voice than the one used for sales copy and press releases. 

This week, I was so pleased to be a guest blogger for Liz Hover; web design, online branding, and social media maven who writes about tweets, and tumblelogs, and many things technological.  She also offers a wonderful, idiosyncratic short list of interesting links. 

Smart and funny, she has an engaging style that’s knowledgeable, but not over the head of the non-tech reader.  She represents a growing population of the internet socially-adept who understand the difference between being connected and making true connections.  Visit her site, Diary of a Web Gal, at www.lizhover.com