Maybe I made a mistake. There’s a good chance I should have called this new series of semi-rare articles “Questions that I didn’t expect.”

It’s not that they were irrelevant or off topic, it’s just that I (stupidly) expected some easier questions. Of course, that’s a good thing that I’ve been challenged: I should have expected to get great questions from Mickey News readers!

So, here’s my chance to earn my keep, and try as best as I can to give you all some answers. So without further ado, here we go!

First up, Gavin writes in and asks:
What does it take to become a Travel Agent?

Whew. Okay, well, there’s really two ways to look at this. You could go for the one route as a career, or could be looking at this from a part time (or “I want to book things for myself route”) standpoint.

For the career option, you’d be surprised to find out that if someone wants to, they can become a travel agent after attending a travel school, get a very advanced education and become certified as a CTC, otherwise known as a Certified Travel Councilor. That level of expertise is roughly equivalent to a graduate degree in other fields. If you think you may want to get to that level eventually, you’ll want to check out the Institute of Certified Travel Agents, or ICTA, (a.k.a. The Travel Institute) at www.icta.com.

Of course, the name of the game here is industry contact, education, and certification. This is especially true if you want to book rooms, flights, cruises, car rentals, theme park tickets, etc. To do this, you primarily need to have a working IATA agent number, or a working CLIA agent number.

IATA is the International Air Transit Association, and they are responsible for many airline industry programs, including the IATA travel agent ID card, which has now become THE accepted validation of a boa-fide travel agent. With IATA access, you get to book airline reservations and most other bookings just by using that number. Their web site is www.iata.org, but for the U.S. Travel Agent content you will want to go to the IATAN website, which is www.iatan.org. That website is exclusively devoted to the IATA ID and certification of Travel Agents. The other number, the CLIA, stands for the Cruise Lines International Association. They provide IDs for Travel Agents as well, and work roughly the same way as the IATA ID numbers. Their web site is www.crusing.org.

Now, if you wanted to go into the Travel Agent business as a career, the first place you should look is the web site for ASTA, or the American Society of Travel Agents. They have a wealth of knowledge on their site, including travel schools and their own education resources. Their web site is: www.astanet.com. The second place I would go is to the ARTA web site, which is the Association of Retail Travel Agents. Their web site is: www.artaonline.com.

Like I mentioned before, you may also just want to do something part time, and possibly just for yourself, family, and friends. The best way of getting access to IATA and CLIA numbers is to work for an existing travel agency, but if you can’t do that, you’re in luck. I do know of one travel agency that offers people to become “Independent Travel Agents” through them for a (hefty) fee, which allows you to use a CLIA number and other perks. If you may want to go this route, their web site is: travelweb.travelogia.com, and click on the large advertisement that says “become an independent travel agent.” A word of warning however: I haven’t used their service personally, and I am by no means endorsing their product. I honestly don’t know how “good” being an ITA through them could be, so make sure you do your research before jumping at the opportunity (and make sure that that CLIA number can get you access to the items you want to book!).

Now to bring this all back to a Disney perspective, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts has their own web site set up for Travel Agents booking their items. They even offer a “College of Disney Knowledge” for Travel Agents to become “Disney Travel Experts.” Foaming at the mouth yet? Why don’t you go over and check their site out right now and click back here when done:

www.disneytravelagents.com

What? Back so soon? Oh yes... they have a mandatory login for an IATA or CLIA number! I told you those numbers were important. Like I said before, those numbers validate legitimate Travel Agents from others, so Disney uses those numbers as the first requirement to get into their “Travel Agent only” web site.

My ultimate suggestion would be to visit all of the websites just mentioned and do a lot of research on the topic. If need be, the staff of those organizations can be a big help to you as well.

Next up, we go to Nate, who writes in to ask:
I have read and seen... ...that "its a small world" in central Florida was being remodeled and I was wondering if there is any truth to this at all? [Do] you know anything officially that Disney is doing with this beloved ride?

Well, in a word, “yes”, then “no.” I do know that the ride is already officially down for refurbishment until early next year, but unfortunately I don’t know anything official regarding this project that isn’t already public, which is mostly upgrading the sound system, repairing the Audio-Animatronic® figures, and changing the front loading/unloading area.

Regarding the rumors on what they are doing, I have heard the gamut from adding another scene to radically changing the front. About the only clues we have now is that closing down for the busy Summer season and for that long, they are certainly going to be doing a lot of work. But in consideration of the attraction itself, it IS very large with many, many moving figures.

Last time I went on it was just prior to the closing, and many of the overhead figures were not working, and many ceiling panels (wayyy up there I might add... very high ceiling in there) were busted or stained with what looked like water damage from a distance. This refurbishment was needed for a while now in my opinion.

To be sure, don’t worry (or hope for that matter) that the song will be going away, because I can most assuredly tell you that it won’t be!

While on the topic of things being closed, Julie writes in with:
Why are all the retail Disney stores closing?

Well Julie, the obvious answer is that they aren’t making the money they want to be making from them. Notice I didn’t say “not making money at all.” While they could all conceivably be making a good amount of money, if they are not making the benchmarks that Burbank management sets for them, then they may be subject to closings.

Of course, I like to think it was a problem of over-commercialization and numbers. To explain, the products in the Disney Stores were not something that appealed to people in the area. It seemed to me (at least before the problems showed up on radar) that the products weren’t really thought out. It was a sort of “okay, we can make a doohickey for X amount of dollars, and since Buzz Lightyear is popular, we’ll put him on it” without any thought to the character or product for that matter. The character itself seemed like THE selling point, with no thought to the product itself or for the character’s relationship with that item.

Of course, I think that the main problem was just that there are too many stores. Can you name a mall near you that has a Gap or Hallmark without a Disney Store? I believe that the thinking was, “if Gap can work in every mall, why can’t Disney Store?” Of course, the intricate theming of each store (which is quite good I might add...take some time to enjoy the comedy unfolding above and around you next time) isn’t cheap, and having a store in every mall just takes some of the uniqueness out of the store itself. I mean, while we Disney fans may buy a disproportionate amount of products from them, I’m not so sure about most people.

I also believe that their selling policies seemed to get more and more desperate, with the employees being forced to answer the phone by saying something like “Thank you for calling the Disney Store, where you can pick up your copy of Cinderella 2” or greeting those entering with “Hi! Welcome to the Disney Store, where you can use this certificate to get 20% off our items marked with blue tags” isn’t necessarily a good sign. While that level of selling isn’t too pushy, it still is a strange and unwelcome cheery-greeting-mixed-with-sales pitch.

While they have admittedly been getting better at this sort of thing, I wouldn’t hold my breath on the store nearest you on staying open indefinitely.

Last up, Kristi writes in and asks:
Every time I go to Disney, one of the things I love is the perfect lawns at the resorts. I always want to bring a little of Disney home with me by knowing what kind of grass seed they use, what they use to keep all the weeds out,[the] height they set their mower blades to, and other miscellaneous tricks of lawn and landscape care. Where can we go to find such information?

Well, I’m glad you asked where to go for the information, and not the information itself! To be honest, I really don’t know that sort of information, but I would also be interested in finding out for myself.

For one thing, make sure that you fully understand that they have a lot of Cast Members who take care of all of the beautiful lawns, gardens, and exotic plants that you see. In addition, replanting is very common at the Walt Disney World resort, as my wife and I have seen entire new displays within one week before.

If you want to take piece of Disney horticulture with you home, stop by Downtown Disney Marketplace’s Disney@Home store. Just outside of the store, next to the Pooh Corner Store, there is an outside area selling garden items and you can actually buy a Mickey Mouse topiary to take home! If you’re the garden type, I would also suggest paying homage to our Central Florida roots (pun slightly intended) and purchase a mini Citrus tree (they usually have Orange and one other variety) to take home as well.

Back to the question, though, I may have some good news for you! The catch is, however, that you’ll have to come to Central Florida. The annual International Flower and Garden festival is being held at Epcot right now, and Disney is sponsoring an educational seminar called “Disney Gardening at Home.”

The seminars change topics each week, and are presented from 11:00AM to 2:00 PM daily, Monday through Thursday. We’ve already missed some, but here’s the complete schedule of topics:

Adding Style with Containers April 19th – 22nd
Birds, Beasts, and Other Relatives April 26th – 29th
Creative Wreaths for All Seasons May 3rd – 6th
Big Show, Little Dough May 10th – 13th
Plants with Flavor May 17th – 20th
Bug Patrol May 24th – 27th
A Gardener’s Kit May 31st – June 3rd

Even if you didn’t come away with the information you were hoping to after one or more of these sessions, you could always go up to the instructor and ask what you like... I’m pretty sure that the instructors for this type of course would be WDW Horticulture Cast Members, and who better to ask!

If you’d like more information on the International Flower and Garden Festival being held at Epcot right now, visit the web site by clicking here, or by navigating through www.disneyworld.com and looking for “Special Events.” If you’re not able to make the festival this year, you may want to call Walt Disney World Guest Services at (407) 824-4321 and ask if they have any information on next year’s festival, including dates and educational programs being offered.

I hope you can come and enjoy the festival!

For everyone who wrote in, thanks very much for allowing me to try and answer your questions. For everyone else who joined us here, I hope that next time I’ll be able to answer your questions when we do the next volume of this series again. Be sure to look for the open invitation in the future for the next time we do this Q&A! Until then...

Thanks for stopping on by, and I’ll see you next week!