Meet me

Hi -- my name is Clare Swindlehurst, and I’ve been an avid Disney World fan since I was a kid. Here’s the story behind my love for all things Disney and the reason for Operation Pixie Dust.

My first encounter with a Disney theme park was back in 1985 when my family spent a couple of days at Walt’s original park; Disneyland in California.

In the early nineties we made our first trip out to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and it was then that my whole family caught the Disney World bug. When it came to choosing a destination for our summer holiday my dad would say that we would go to France or Spain. Then he’d come back from the Travel Agent with an arm full of Orlando brochures!

Over the years we took many more holidays in Orlando; always staying in a private rental in the Kissimmee area and touring the parks -- not just Disney World, we were fans of Universal Studios and Sea World too.

In 2001, we headed back out to the West Coast and spent three days reacquainting ourselves with Disneyland and getting to know Disney’s California Adventure Park.

Fast forward to November 2003 and I convinced my then-boyfriend (now my husband) that we should take a trip to Disney World. I think he thought I was nuts; eight hours on a plane to spend two weeks in a theme park -- aren’t they for kids?

Magic Kingdom - Liberty Square Stocks

It took some persuading but eventually he agreed to it. Then of course I had to persuade him to book a rental car, and to get up early so that we could hit the parks and beat the lines. He didn’t see why he had to drive on vacation and why he should get up early since holidays are supposed to be for sleeping!

A year later he proposed and I of course said yes… then I asked if we could get married at Disney World! Neither of us wanted a big church wedding so to me it seemed like the perfect location -- and luckily he agreed.

Now, where most brides-to-be throw themselves into planning their weddings I was a little different. Since the ceremony was to be very small there wasn’t too much to plan -- so instead I threw myself into planning the ‘Disney vacation of a lifetime’ for our families who were joining us on our two week holiday in the run up to the wedding.

I think this was when I officially became a Disney World vacation-nut. I spent hours scouring the Internet for information, and chatting to people on forums. I was amazed at all the things I didn’t know about Disney World despite the number of times I’d visited in the past.

Our Fairytale Wedding was more magical and memorable than I could ever have hoped, and everyone had a blast during the holiday.

Since then Disney World has become the holiday destination of choice for me and my husband; we’ve been six times in the eight years we’ve been together. Our shortest trip was for ten days and our longest was 21! One year we went three times in 12 months.

In 2007 we invested in the Disney Vacation Club and set ourselves up for many many years of Disney World vacations to come. Some of our friends and family don’t understand why we would want to keep going back year after year; but the truth is even after all this time there are things that I still haven’t seen or experienced. And the Resort itself is constantly changing, each year there are new shows and attractions. Each time of year is different too, from the holiday festivities at Christmastime and Halloween to the Food and Wine and Flower and Garden festivals -- you could go every month for a year and experience something different!

I love our Disney World vacations but there is always one thing that makes me unhappy -- and that is seeing countless families looking tired and cranky wandering aimlessly around the parks or standing in long lines with wait times of 60 minutes or more. It is these people who go home from their once-in-a-lifetime vacations thinking that Disney World is the worst place in the world.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. My husband and I rarely spent more than 20 minutes waiting in line for anything; and I can guarantee that we’ve ridden most of the popular attractions before the majority of people even make their way through the turnstiles.

And this is the reason behind Operation Pixie Dust. A Disney World vacation isn’t like any other. You can’t just book a flight and a hotel and turn up and expect to have a good time. To make a Disney World vacation really magical you need to do a little planning. Disney vacations don’t often come cheap so invest a little bit of time and effort ahead of time to make sure you get the best deal there is, and then learn the simple steps you need to take to beat the lines and treat your family to a magical vacation they’ll remember forever. There is only one downside to planning -- you’ll have such a good time you’ll want to go back again and again