Kissimmee CVB Archives

Spring Break with Disney’s Chimpanzee: What Would You Ask Jane Goodall?

March 25, 2012 by Momstart 19 Comments

In less than 3 weeks I’m going to be having my first Spring break since 2002. I’ll be traveling to Kissimmee with the Kissimmee Convention & Visitors Bureau staying with Global Resort Homes celebrating the opening of the Earth Day Movie Chimpanzee.

I don’t know all the details about Chimpanzee. I’ve seen the preview and read the synopsis and can’t wait to see it with my box of tissues. I’m one of those people that cried and the drop of a hat, so I know I’m going to cry for this poor chimpanzee. Something happens and he’s separated from his family and left all alone until he’s found by another chimpanzee that adopts him. I already feel like I have to know what happened to his family and what happens with his new family. Plus I’m really excited at the chance to talk to the experts behind the movie.

During the visit I’ll have the chance to interview Dr. Jane Goodall and I can’t tell you in words what a treat that experience is to me. All also be speaking with Directors Alastair Fothergill & Mark Linfield and Dr. Beth Stevens, Senior Vice President of Corporate Citizenship Environment & Conservation for The Walt Disney Company.

What would you ask Jane Goodall?

This trip is mostly paid for by Disney, Kissimmee CVB, and Global Resort Homes.

The Fly Girls: Waldo Wright’s Flying Service

January 21, 2012 by Momstart 5 Comments

Just outside the Fantasy of Flight in Kissimmee Florida is Waldo Wright’s Flying Service. There you get to fly above Florida in a little bi-plane and relive adventures of the 1930’s.

That’s what we did back in December of 2011. Thanks to Kissimmee CVB, Fantasy of Flight, Global Resort Homes and Waldo Wright’s Flying Service, I got to dress the part of someone who took a little joy ride in a bi-plane. We heard the history of the plane, as it was used to smuggle alcohol at one time, a fact I found to be really cool. Plus flying through the air in bi-plane was much easier and much more fun that I ever thought it would be.

I was a bit scared because I’m used to small planes being quite shaky, this wasn’t it was a smooth ride and the weather was perfect for us. I loved the wind in my hair and seeing the water and orange groves below me.

So here are the fly girls.

Kas – Southern Bellas Ways To Save

Crystal – Simply Being Mommy and Becca – Mamabblog

Jen – The Mom Reviews

Now here are the planes. Waldo Wright’s Flying Service offers a variety of vintage biplane experiences. Travel back to the 1930s to enjoy an authentic barnstorming ride in a New Standard D-25, or the 1940s for a more hands-on WWII adventure at the controls of a Boeing Stearman N2S-3.

Here’s a little history:

The New Standard airplane was designed specifically for barnstorming at the request of Ivan Gates, the proprietor of the famous Gates Flying Circus. Gates, with Clyde Pangborn, formed and operated one of the largest groups of barnstorming airplanes from the middle 1920s and into the 1930s. Carrying 4 passengers in a large front open cockpit, the airplane was instrumental in introducing hundreds of thousands of people to their first airplane ride, when aviation was in its infancy. Many still remember flying out of a pasture near their hometown when they were young. There are very few of these magnificent airplanes still operating today; in fact, Waldo owns two of the seven presently airworthy and flying.

My husband had told me a while back that he was going to take our son up and I said. NO WAY. You are not taking my son on a bi-plane. Now that I’ve been on one as soon as I know my son can stay in his seat, he’s allowed to fly with his dad and a professional pilot of course. Waldo Wright’s Flying Service is located in Polk City just outside Fantasy of Flight. If you ever are in the Kissimmee area you should consider going up in one of his planes.

Travel expenses were covered by Global Resort Homes and Kissimmee CVB.