Hasses aren't only avocados.

But something as massive as a trip to Disney World should not be approached lightly.  You can't just tell the kids over supper and hope they'll realise how amazing it will be and how lucky they are.  So, like with everything that is Disney, we did some research on how best to let them know.  And, like with everything that is Disney, the answer is not obvious but is pretty darn amazing.

So it turns out that your local Disney store has an actual opening ceremony every day.  That's right - whomever is first in line at the store gets to officially open it to fanfare and a large Disney key.  Why can't my office start each day like that?  So off Mater went bright and early to Yorkdale Mall on a Sunday morning (a weird feeling for her - visiting her Mecca while all the places of worship were closed) to be first in line, with Pater following closer to opening time with the Avocado Juniors and Grandma Toronto.  There'll be enough chances to stand in line at the parks, no need to do it at this early stage!

Getting the large key as a memento wasn't on the cards, but a smaller version was.  Nice touch!

But the fun didn't end there.  The Avocado Juniors just thought this was a great way to start a pretty ordinary Sunday morning in September.   Grandma Toronto kindly offered to buy each of them a toy, but other than that, they had no idea that their day was about to get a lot more exciting.  You see, we found out that the Disney Store will also make a large announcement about your upcoming trip and blazon your name across their big TV screen.  Not to mention give you loot bags with some Disney goodies in them.  So we sat our kids down and waited.

Admittedly, AJ1 was the most excited and AJ2 & AJ3 didn't really get what was going on.  

Either that or they were just overwhelmed by the Star Wars robots that their Grandma had bought them. 

But Mater and Pater carefully explained the delayed implications of the announcement, and when that didn't work, all subtleties were dropped.  WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY ON NEW YEAR'S DAY.  Finally the penny dropped and we could now sit back and wait four uneventful months until it was time to leave, right?  Wrong!  And Pater's not even talking about the hours spent researching hotels in the park (Pater booked the Animal Kingdom Lodge but forgot the marriage rule about suspending belief in his ability to choose; Mater helpfully reminded him of this when she cancelled the booking and chose the Bay Lake Towers at the Contemporary resort), how much time to spend in each park, what rides to do in each park, what Disney purchases to make ahead of the trip (as many as possible!) or even that morning, exactly 60 days before we were due to arrive, when we sat at our laptop at 6.45am, in order to lock in our preferred rides for the Fastpasses when the option to book opened at 7am.  No, that was all going on in the background, without the Avocado Juniors being aware, so what could we do to build their excitement?  

The best advice we found, was to set up a reward chart, with every sticker earned being equal to half a dollar, which could then be spent in Disney World as they chose.  Obviously our only motive was to build anticipation and so that each Avocado Junior would have some spending money to buy whatever they wanted while on vacation.  Anyone who says we just wanted an easier way to get them to do their chores is, quite frankly, suspending belief in our purely honourable intentions.  And it certainly wasn't done so that they would each get a finite amount of spending money each (about $60 in the end) and therefore not nag Mater and Pater for the five days, to buy something in every gift store Disney sneakily puts at the end of each ride.