On Mother’s Day

If you are in the central Florida area on Mother’s Day, there are other options than just going to church and lunch or doing a BBQ in your backyard.

               There are many other options on Disney property including Downtown Disney, the Beach& Yacht Club, or Disney’s Boardwalk. Some Additional options include some more of Disney’s hotels. As a child, we use to spend Mother’s Day with my mother and her mother, my grandmother, and we use to walk around the Grand Floridian Hotel lobby, have lunch on the premises and walk the gardens afterward. If we were feeling overly ambitious, we would walk to the Cinderella themed wedding chapel to watch the bride and groom leave in the white pumpkin carriage.

Photo taken from The Disney Food Blog

               Without spending a dime in a Disney theme park, you can have a nice afternoon at Disney on Mother’s Day and enjoy the beautiful atmosphere. Many of the Disney hotels are the perfect place to bring you mother because they are filled with pretty flowers and happy people. The whole idea behind the Disney brand is to take its visitors out of reality and into a fantasyland.

               The Grand Floridian Hotel will remind you of scene from Mary Poppins or Hello Dolly. Clean lines and white accents, this Victorian style resort is a refreshing blast from the past of simpler times. Disney says it best:

               “Disney'sGrand Floridian Resort & Spa is a Victorian-style Disney Deluxe                       Resort distinguishedas the flagship hotel of Walt Disney World Resort and offering world-class dining, entertainment and luxurious accommodations in shores of SevenSeas Lagoon.”

               The Grand Floridian Hotel has several great restaurants like Victoria & Albert's, Narcoossee's, Citricos, and many more. 1900 Park Fare has Disney characters, including those from Alice in Wonderland and Marry Poppins, come in for both breakfast and lunch if you are looking for a more kid-friendly environment. BE AWARE: The Grand Floridian Hotel is Walt Disney’s World premiere resort and the price tag matches the prestige. Most of the restaurants are $30 plus. The Grand Floridian Café and Gasparilla Grill & Games are less expensive, but they are similar to the other restaurants you can find in your neighborhood. 

               If you do not want to stop and have a full meal, you can have tea at the authentic English Tea room. After tea, there are options to rent paddle boats where you can sit and relax with your mom while paddling around near the shore. The spa is also a great option; however, it is currently closed due to renovations until the month of September of this year. Whatever you decide to do, this is a good alternative to your Mother’s Day plans without paying a hefty price for admission to one of Disney’s theme parks.    

Links used:

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/grand-floridian-resort-and-spa/

http://travelwithkids.about.com/od/disneyworld/tp/Disney_World_vacations.htm

http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2012/01/30/guest-review-grand-floridians-afternoon-tea-at-the-garden-view-lounge/

Business Plan

Taking advice from Bobby Flay and Steve Ells, judges on NBC's new show America's Next Great Restaurant, having a strong business concept is vitally important. The main concept of my business plan for my company, H. H. Horror, is to solely focus on the Halloween holiday. One of the strongest points that Ells made through his company is to focus on one thing and do it well.

Ells’ restaurant, Chipotle, focuses on burritos and they have some of the best burritos compared to the other Mexican oriented restaurants around. “For example, a bar-b-que jointneeds to remain focused on bar-b-que and not stray from the concept to grilledmeats.” It is important for consumers not to be confused on what is the purpose/product/service of your company.

Another important point to consider when starting a business is your logo. It needs to actually portray your product or service. Color and word combination needs to be clean, but it also needs to pop on digital and print marketing. Flay suggests that being too wordy with both your logo and company slogan will turn people off to what your company has to offer. It is a large market out there and your business needs to stand out.

Taking this into consideration and applying it to the nature of my company, I believe it is important to keep the image of horror, our company persona, nothing more than a shadowy figure.  With a Halloween focused business, it is important to illustrate to investors how your business will stand out compared to others and how consumers will remember you.

I believe the financial section of a business plan is the most important especially when taking into consideration the nature of my own business. I have to be able to prove to investors that a holiday oriented company can make enough profit within one season to support the company throughout the entire year.

Links used:

http://www.fastcompany.com/fast50_04/winners/ells.html

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/53/07celebrities_Bobby-Flay_LS13.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/02/americas-next-great-restaurant-winner-soul-daddy_n_856324.html

Food with Integrity

Have you ever walked into a Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. around noon? You may see a scene similar to this one.  Chipotle filled with hungry workers and college students on their lunch break.

Steve Ells founded the company in 1993 as a small Mexican grill in Denver, Colorado. After working in Stars restaurant in San Francisco, he decided to try out his own food visions. In 17 years, Chipotle has not only expanded to over 1,000 restaurants, but also has strived to make good tasting food that comes from responsibly raised livestock and grown produce.  Ells has made it one of his goals to change the way American food is grown and raised.

To have good tasting food, it needs to come from people who care about their product. The entire concept behind the Chipotle brand is to have good tasting food that is affordable and time convenient. Ells states to achieve these goals “[he] meet with ranchers and farmers dedicated to raising livestock and growing produce using responsible, respectful, and sustainable techniques.” Ells has become a large influencer on working with local farmers to produce better food.

This concept has flourished into our local area influencing “gastropubs” in the Winter Park and Downtown Orlando. They too only use the finest ingredients that are grown and raised responsibly in the local area. You can even see the similarities in design between these restaurants and Chipotle.  The Ravenous Pig. The Rusty Spoon. 

Steve Ells’ calls it “food with integrity” which is what was the foundation of the success of Chipotle. Chipotle serves more naturally raised meats than any other company and pushes for more improvements in the food industry. Ells speaks of the importance of leadership and keeping the integrity of your brand as two good ways to make a business plan into a successful business. Ells was appointed Chairman in 2005 and is the Co-Chief Officer. He is also the largest share-holder of the company.

Links used:

http://people.forbes.com/profile/steve-ells/19160

http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/chipotle_story/steves_story/steves_story.aspx

http://www.rd.com/money/dreamers-chipotle-founder-steve-ells/

http://bpexpertviews.blogspot.com/

A little A&A: What's new in Downtown Disney?

Photo taken by Lyndsay Fuller

Downtown Disney is always a hot spot to go for a fun afternoon or a nice evening with the family. There some new things to see if you have not been there recently.
Please Island is still slowly becoming more shops and themed restaurants like Disney had planned when they closed the 6 nightclubs in PI back in 2008. Many of these shops are similar to those you would find in a mall or outlet strip. Some of the shops include:

-Apricot Lane Boutique: which sells Vera Bradley, clothing, and more
-D-Street: an urban clothing store
-Harley-Davidson: which is not new, but has moved to the West Side
-Something Silver: an assortment of silver jewelry
-LittleMissMatched: a funky sock shop that requires you to mismatch your socks



Lego land has updated their installations outside of their store and has a new look inside. You should check it out. See images above and below.

Photo taken by Lyndsay Fuller

There are a lot of other updates currently going on in the Marketplace area. The most noticeable is the Rain Forest Cafe. They will be updating the Rain Forest Cafe design to attract more visitors into their store and restaurant. But no worries, this renovation has not shut the restaurant. You can still come on in and have drink or a bite to eat.

Spring activities include nightly street performances that begin at sundown. Also, do not forget to check out the main stage in front of World of Disney for daily performances from theater and dance troops across the nation. 

More information check out Downtown Disney.