Disney hopes the “Give a Day. Get a Disney Day” promotion will inspire 1 million people to sign up and volunteer through HandsOn Network, and in turn, visit its theme parks. All volunteers must first pre-register online, and only after they are certified as having completed the service do they receive their free pass reward.

HandsOn Network has 250 on-the-ground volunteer action centers across the country and connects volunteers to more than 70,000 nonprofit agencies that need their help. Many of the volunteer opportunities are projects that can involve the entire family. Volunteers must be at least 6 years of age to participate.

For details and to sign up, go to www.DisneyParks.com, or click here.

Photo, Flickr, Ivva

Post from: Blisstree

Disney To Give Free Passes to Volunteers

Day 1

After we attended a timeshare presentation just for the discounted Disney tickets and ended up buying a timeshare (it was an offer we couldn’t refuse, really!), we had just a few hours left in the day, so we went to Animal Kingdom and rocked it. First stop, hotdog stand. Second stop, Escape from Everest — because what better time to ride a roller coaster than immediately after consuming a hotdog? I screamed so much my throat still hurt the next day. Then we did some river ride that soaked us, hit up a safari, wandered through some walking safaris (one had TIGERS!), visited the bird sanctuary, and rode the railroad to the petting zoo, where we met several sheep and goats (we were disappointed — they promised us llamas) before heading back to the hotel for the night. Or so we thought. We ended up staying that night at the home of Jesse’s friend’s wife’s aunt, about 20 minutes away. She had a pool that turned out NOT to be heated — thank goodness we figured that out before jumping in — and lived near an AWESOME restaurant where we stuffed ourselves. Mmm…

Day 2

Because we were suckers — I mean smart investors — and purchased a timeshare, we and our friends and their two daughters and Jesse’s mom were all invited to a schmancy breakfast the next morning, and they sent a limo to pick us up. (Like I said, schmancy.) After we stuffed ourselves AGAIN, we dropped off the friends and the kiddos and headed to Magic Kingdom. I was so excited, I think I was actually vibrating the entire way there. Jesse deserves kudos for not smacking me or throwing my off the ferry, as I’m sure my mindless chattering about what rides I would go on and what characters I wanted to see must have been as annoying as when 5-year-olds do it.

Included with our fabulous timeshare Disney tickets was Fast Pass which is basically a get-out-of-jail-free card for waiting in lines. You go to the ride, swipe your Fast Pass, and then get a ticket with a time when you can come back and jump to the front of the line. Woohoo!

We went on Space Mountain (holy CRAP!), Splash Mountain (totally not what I expected but SO FUN), Thunder Mountain Railroad (the wildest ride in the wilderness!), It’s a Small World (Horrible, horrible, horrible. Let’s take every cultural stereotype in the world, turn it into a doll, and set it to obnoxious music! Great idea!), Peter Pan’s Flight (so cool!), Pirates of the Caribbean (Johnny Depp looked so real, I felt like if I touched him his skin would be warm), the Haunted Mansion (totally not scary, despite being “newly enhanced”), and the Carousel of Progress (cool, if you like cheezy animatronics, which I totally do). There are more things we wanted to do (like get our pictures taken with Mickey, whom we didn’t see once the whole day!), but we didn’t want to miss the SpectroMagic parade which I loved so much that I totally cried because I’m cool like that. Same with the fireworks. It was truly magical.

More next week, when I’ve rested up a little.

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King

Post from: Blisstree

We’re Back, and Disney Was All I Dreamed and More!