Disney Princess Etiquette

There are rules to be followed when meeting Disney Princesses. This isn't something simple like meeting the Queen or Prince Charles...these are the Disney Princesses, and most likely the highlight of your daughter's day (or your wife's if you're doing Disneyland without kids). To be sure of a memorable experience, here are a few pointers that should help you maintain the proper decorum when you're lucky enough to meet Disney Royalty.

Rule #1: Always show the Princess where she is on your shirt.

Rule #2: Maintain eye contact with the Princess, no matter how high up you have to look.

Rule #3: Never stand in front of the big, ballroom dress.

Rule #4: When a Princess signs your autograph book, try not to read over her shoulder.

Rule #5: When you finally do get to have your picture taken with your favorite Princess...

Remember that she's the Princess, not you. Try not to get too carried away.

This post is a part of Wordless Wednesday over at Focused on the Magic. If you didn't get here from there, you should really head on over and check out some of the fantastic people that hang out there on Wednesdays. Most of them probably have Princesses on their shirts, and they'd be happy to point them out to you.

The Sweet Seats

Box Seats at The Centre in Vancouver

One thing I didn't mention when I was talking about Rock of Ages yesterday, was that we were fortunate enough to get to sit in a private box for the show. I'd always wanted to try sitting in one, so when there was a five seat box available for the show we wanted to see, I grabbed it. Having comfortable seats that we could position any way we wanted was a huge bonus, but the sight lines from the box were terrible. The far left hand side of the stage and a good chunk of the video screen at the back were obscured by speakers, although they also managed to block out the bathroom romp between Stacee and Sheri, so maybe it wasn't all bad.

Sitting in the box got me thinking about some of the other places we've sat for shows. We've spent our share of time in the front row, and we've sat far enough away that you had to check your ticket stub to see who was on the stage, but the most memorable places we've sat all had something extra that made them stand out from the others. These are some of my favorites:

Staples Center Los Angeles - Section 318, Row A
I don't know why they did this, but for some reason they started the press boxes in the Staples Center in row 2 of the balcony, leaving one row of seats in front of them. These seats are right at center court, giving you a perfect view of the game, and with nobody in front or behind you (they don't use the press boxes during basketball games) your only opportunity to be annoyed is by the person on one side of you. Or the people you came with, which actually seems far more likely.

 
Blue Man Group Las Vegas - Front Row
You can probably get a slightly better view if you back up a couple of rows, but the real fun of the Blue Man Group in Las Vegas is sitting in the front row for the final act. Added bonus: If you want to see your kids squirm, point out the place in the program where it says that all of the toilet paper in the show is recycled, and watch their minds go down the wrong track for a few seconds.

Prospera Place Kelowna - Hospitality Suite
Prospera keeps one suite that they rent out on an event by event basis. We rented it out for a Kelowna Rockets game to have a surprise party for my wife, and we got a great space that had lots of room for 36 of our friends. Not sure how we ended up on the stools though. You'd figure the birthday girl would at least rate one of the cushy seats out front.

Chase Field Phoenix - Friday's Front Row Outdoor Seating
My kids don't really have much of an interest in baseball. They do, however, have a great interest in food. That's why I love the outdoor seating at Friday's Front Row Sports Grill. Sitting in Left Field at a Diamondbacks game while my kids are preoccupied with chicken wings and cheesecake is one of the best (and definitely one of the most relaxing) baseball experiences I've ever had...and it probably didn't hurt that our food credit was more than the five of us could possibly eat. I should have ordered more of that cheesecake to go.

Harlem Globetrotters - Courtside
I'm imagining that courtside for any basketball game is a blast, but the Globetrotters are all about fan interaction, so getting the chance to watch my kids talk to the players was a pretty cool experience. That being said, while the courtside seats were pretty sweet, one of us managed to find an even better place to sit....

 She looks nervous. She's probably wondering if we're going to eat all the cheesecake before she gets back.

Rock of Ages

When they arise, I like to take opportunities to explain to my kids what life was like when I was their age. Not the "10 miles uphill, both ways" stories that my parents used to tell me about their youth, but some of the serious hardships that we faced like having no internet, cell phones that needed to be wired directly into the car, and the inexplicable popularity of the Volkswagen Rabbit. My kids do their best to grasp these lessons, but there's one part of my youth that they just can't understand....the 80's. For some reason it's hard to explain the attitude of the 80's (and it's impossible to explain the hair), so when the Rock of Ages tour came through Vancouver, I made sure to get us all tickets. Hopefully the professionals would have an easier time explaining spandex pants than I did.

Rock of Ages is a Broadway musical set on the Sunset Strip during the late 1980's, where a lot of the Glam-Metal bands got their start. Bands like Poison, Guns N Roses, and Motley Crue all learned their trade in the clubs along the Sunset Strip, and anybody who was young, had a dream, and a decent amount of hair, found themselves there at one time or another. It was one of the first places that I ever traveled without my parents, and thanks to the notoriously slack I.D. requirements of the Sunset Strip nightclubs at the time, I got to experience the birthplace of Hair Metal twenty five years before my kids got a glimpse of it at The Centre for Performing Arts in Vancouver this weekend. Somehow it seemed much cooler twenty five years ago.

There's always one troublemaker...

If you're worried about the appropriateness of exposing my children to the 80's lifestyle (and if you were alive in the 80's, I'm sure you have valid concerns), I should mention that Lori and I saw the original Broadway version of Rock of Ages in New York shortly after it opened in 2009. We knew that there were a couple of parts that might embarrass our kids (especially while they were sitting with their parents), but considering where the bar had been set with the Lady Gaga concert last year, we felt pretty sure that they could deal with a little bit of sexual innuendo. Besides, we keep the line of communication pretty open with our kids. If they had some questions, we were more than willing to answer them.

Of course the only question they had was "Did you really wear that?" Apparently 80's music has stood the test of time far better than 80's fashion. I was never the lead singer in a Glam rock band, thus ensuring that there is no photographic evidence of my ever donning leather pants and a tiger stripe tank top, but I can't deny the wind blown, feathered hair look. Of course, thanks to the cost of developing 35mm print film, there are very few pictures of that era floating around, so I can deny all I want. Today's youth are screwed, as every bad outfit they ever wear will be presented eternally on the internet for their grandchildren to look up and shake their head at. Good luck with that kids.

Since my kids weren't asking questions though, I decided that I'd better take this opportunity to make sure that they were paying attention. I remembered a scene that was upcoming in the play about being too "friend" oriented in your dating quests. I looked over to the boy and told him that there was a valuable life lesson coming up in the play, and that he should pay attention. Of course, touring versions of shows aren't always the exact same as their Broadway counterparts, and the producers added in a scene during which Stacee Jax effortlessly snatched the shirt off a cocktail waitress. I knew it was coming, and sure enough the boy leaned over and whispered "You're right Dad. Great life lesson. Thanks for pointing it out." I'm done trying to teach life skills through Broadway plays.

Lori and I loved Rock of Ages, but our kids gave it mixed reviews. One liked it, one thought it was OK, and one said she'd rather have been doing homework. Not quite the unanimous round of accolades that I'd hoped for, but I'll give it some time to see if opinions soften. With any luck, the disenfranchising parts of the play will fade away, leaving only the memories of laughter and great music. Failing that though, all I ask is that my children take away one simple lesson from the play: That most of the greater evils in the world can be blamed on long hair and spandex. As long as no more pictures from my teenage years are left to surface, then I think that's the important thing we can all learn from Rock of Ages.

THE Sunshine Vs. MY Sunshine

A couple of days ago I mentioned our staying at the Grand Californian Hotel in Disneyland a while back. We were lucky enough to have a room that overlooked California Adventure, and evening I sat on the balcony watching the sun go down behind Coyote Mountain and the Tower of Terror (which seemed strange to me, as I thought I was looking due south at that point, but that's not important now). I'm sure a real photographer could have gotten an amazing shot of the scene, but I was still pretty happy with the way mine came out. It's not my favorite shot of the trip though. In fact, it's not even my favorite shot of the day...

This post is a part of Photo Friday at Delicious Baby and Friday Daydreamin at R We There Yet Mom. If you didn't get here from one of those sites, you should really go check them out. There's people there who don't need to include their children in the pictures to get the "Awwwww" effect. I'm OK with that though. I'll take the cute points.

10 People I Don't Know How to Tip

I consider myself a reasonably good tipper. Both Lori and I have worked for tips in the past (Lori was a waitress and me...well let's just say the G-String doesn't fit as well anymore) so we feel a little pull to make sure we're at an appropriate level with our gratuities. A lot of it is pretty basic. Restaurant waitress - 20%. Taxi driver - 15-20% (unless it's the San Francisco Taxi driver...he's different). Pizza guy - usually around $5. These are the easy ones, but there's a whole group of other people that I always fumble with. It feels like I should be tipping these people so I try and do it by feel, but I'm drastically inconsistent sometimes and I'd really love to have a set plan in place. These are the ten people who I don't seem to have a solid handle on tipping:

#1 - The Front Desk Agent
We're not talking about the $20 trick in Vegas here. I also don't mean your standard check-in experience which takes all of 30 seconds and has no frills. My hesitation comes when the word "upgrade" gets thrown out there. I honestly don't know if I've been blocked into a better room or if the front desk agent has merely noticed an opportunity to get me into something nicer. If it's the agent doing the work, I'd kind of like to offer a token of appreciation, but it feels a little awkward at the front desk. Of course it would probably feel a little more awkward if I came around behind the counter and tried to slip some money into their pocket, but that's another story altogether.

#2 - The Bellhop

OK, I know the rules for this (although the bellhop at the Plaza might disagree), but I get confused when they split it up. One guy gets your bags out of your car and puts them on a trolley, then another guy brings them up to your room for you. Is it supposed to be $1-$2 per bag each? I've read that I'm supposed to tip the guy who brings them up to the room, but I feel like such a cheapskate not giving the guy who empties my car anything. Especially if it's our own van. Those rental vans are clean, but anybody willing to unpack the back of our personal van, deserves a few bucks.

#3 - Taxi Hailer
Seriously...no idea. I think I'm supposed to give a buck or two, but I very rarely do. The exception is the guy at Caesars Palace, who has this whole dance move/yoga pose/tribal chant thing that he does to call up the next cab. I'd give him a couple bucks, even if I didn't need a cab.

#4 - Car Rental Lot Guy
OK, this one might fall more under bribe than tip, but I've noticed that if you rent a midsized car and ask for directions from the lot guy, he'll point you to the midsized row. If you ask for directions with $10 in your hand, he quite often points you to an entirely different row. This only seems to work in certain places (Vegas, surprise!) so I'm never sure where it's commonplace or if the lot guy is going to look at me blankly. Lori loves to laugh at me when I try something like this and it fails miserably. Maybe I'll just claim that I do it for her entertainment.

#5 - Housekeeping

There's a bag of these somewhere...

I've settled on how much to tip housekeeping at $2-$3 per day, a little higher if we have a suite. We also only take housekeeping every other day, so we're normally leaving $5 or $10 for the room attendant (Is that the proper term? I'm avoiding the word "maid" here.) whenever we have our room cleaned. My problem comes with how to tip them. I usually leave it on the desk with a note saying "For Housekeeping", but I've heard stories of the housekeeping supervisors coming around ahead of the room attendants and collecting all the tips. There's also the people who do the nightly turn-down service. We almost always refuse turn-down service...unless they have chocolate. We never turn chocolate down , but what's the appropriate tip for somebody who brings chocolate directly to your room? My kids say $100 if she leaves the bag, but I'm looking for a slightly more affordable option.

#6 - Door Holder Guy
That's probably not the technical term for his job (Doorman?), but he's always there opening the door for everybody as they come in and out of the hotel. He's another guy I kind of feel like I should give something, but I very rarely do since I'd go broke pretty quickly considering how often I go through those doors. I think I might have seen people tipping the door guy in movies or something, and that's why I feel like I should be tipping. Sometimes I try to find a side door or a back alley that I can sneak in through, just so I don't have to worry about it.

#7 - Concierge
Just the name scares me, and I kind of feel like I should be able to speak fluent French just to talk to the guy. I know to tip him if I ask him to arrange something for me like show tickets or flowers in the room (I can hear Lori laughing now), but when I just want directions to something, it seems like overkill to be tipping big bucks. He also doesn't seem like the kind of guy you can give a dollar or two. The name implies high class, and that seems like a $20 minimum to me.

#8 - Valet
I love places with free Valet Parking. There it's easy...a few bucks on the way in, and a few bucks on the way out. Where I have a problem is at hotels who are already dinging me $45 a night for valet parking. There I choke a little at handing over more money to the guy taking my car, but it's not his fault that the hotel charges so much. Of course some places just make me nervous handing the keys over at all. I know it's just the flooring they use in the garage, but the valet lot at the MGM Grand in Vegas constantly sounds like there's a Fast and the Furious drifting race being shot in there.

#9 - Room Service
Hotels seem to have taken it upon themselves to solve this one for me by pre-adding an 18% gratuity to the bill. I can live with this, but it's the line underneath labelled "additional gratuity" that annoys me. On a blank check, I normally would just tip 20%, but if I add the 2% difference to the additional gratuity line, I can end up writing in things like 73 cents. Doesn't that make me look cool?  I feel like a bit of a dork leaving the line blank, but it's probably better than adding quarters to the total.

#10 - Shuttle Driver

If this is your shuttle, I'd tip your driver.

I'm all over the map with this one. Sometimes I don't tip, sometimes it's a couple bucks, sometimes it's more. I really don't have a reason for it either, other than perhaps they made me smile or laugh with their banter. Of course some days I'm just tired and cranky, and they'll get a better tip if they keep things quiet. It's really kind of cheap of me considering there's five of us, so throwing a buck in the drivers basket only works out to twenty cents each. There's really not too much else I can do with the dollar anyways, other than put it towards the $100 bag of chocolate that housekeeping is hiding from us.