My family would like to go on rides together without getting a locker. We plan to travel light and just bring essentials like wallet, light jackets, sunscreen, and a snack. If we bring a small backpack can we bring it on all the rides at Epcot, MK, HS?”
You should have no problem with a small backpack. My family has three children and we usually have a rather large backpack filled with essentials such as snacks, diapers, jackets, camera, etc and have never had a problem getting on a ride with it. As long as it can fit under your legs or in between them, you should have no problem.
Hi, We are staying the Disney's Art of Animation Nemo Family Suites at the end of the month. I was wondering what type of coffee maker is in the room? Does it use pre-packaged coffee/filter combo or K-cups? Also, is there a blender in the room?”
When I was last at Art of Animation, the coffee maker used a pre-packaged coffee/filter combo that resembles a round tea bag. Coffee is provided each day, and you can always ask housekeeping for extras if you need them.
I'm getting anxious to book our trip for mid-November, but I want to wait and see if there are going to be any special offers announced. Do they usually have specials? When will they be announced? If i book b4 its announced will they credit my account?”
I love a deal as well however if you have a set date in mind, then go ahead and book the trip you can afford now. If a deal is offered, you can then call Disney back and ask if they have any available rooms at the special discounted price.
Disney likes to offer specials to guests but they are never guaranteed. I would recommend that you sign up for email alerts from Disney as well as following them on Twitter and Facebook.
My little brother (13) and I are going to Disney in October. We have tickets for the halloween party on October 8th. That morning, we want to visit AK and we do not have park hoppers. I was wondering when we could get into MK with our party tickets?”
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party is a fabulous event. It is my favorite special event in Walt Disney World. Be sure to watch the Boo To You parade and the special fireworks show, HalloWishes. Both are spectacular!
The party officially runs from 7 pm until midnight. However, in years past, my family and I have been able to get into the Magic Kingdom just using party tickets as early as 4 pm. Just keep in mind that Disney is only guaranteeing admission at 7 pm.
Hi, I purchased tickets for the Wild Africa Trek and I have a reservation number but I didn't receive a ticket and it is now showing up on my Disney Experience. Do I need to just show my ID before the Trek starts? Thanks.”
As long as you have your reservation number for the Wild Africa Trek, you can give it to the Cast Member when you check-in for your safari expedition. Usually only resort hotel and dining reservations show up in My Disney Experience, but you can add a reminder by going to My Itinerary and selecting the desired date. Then just click on Add Plans and then Add a Note. Your reservation should then show up in your plans for that particular day and you'll also have your reservation number handy at check-in.
I hope this helps, and I sure hope you have an amazing time at Walt Disney World Resort. Make lots of memories!
Hi Thank you for the response about my reservations at Chef Mickey's. I have a follow up question. Do you think if I took a taxi from POR to Chef Mickey's I would make my 11:20 res? I have checked and there are no other times during our stay for breakfast”
Thank you for the follow up question. I love helping you plan your vacation! I definitely think you will need to take a taxi from the airport. Assuming that you leave Orlando International Airport around 9 am and get to Port Orleans by 9:45 am, you could be checked in and have any extra baggage stored and leave the resort by 10:20 am, I think you could make it to Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary using the bus system. You definitely will be able to make it by taxi. Remember, using bus transportation, you will need to take the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then take the Monorail to the Contemporary Resort. You can play it by ear as to when you arrive at Port Orleans. I am excited for you but don't want you to start your vacation all stressed out! If you are running behind or feel overwhelmed, then I would take a taxi. You will have an amazing time, Kathryn! Let me know if I can help you with anything else and soon you will be at the Happiest Place on Earth. Enjoy the magic!
What is the meaning of “field” work? Does it have to be outside? Do you have to be running around chasing after your study species? Does it have to include getting wet or dirty or sun burnt? According to Wikipedia, fieldwork is the “collection of information outside a laboratory, library or workplace setting”. Maybe the “field” part is a lot more versatile than what you (or I) originally thought.
My first “field” work experience was collecting samples for my undergraduate thesis project. In such a short time frame to complete a research project, I was excited to actually be collecting my own samples! However, collecting samples for my project didn’t end up meaning what I thought it meant when I read the project description. We did not have to snoop around in the mud looking for seabird burrows. Instead, we were snooping around behind the scenes at the Royal Ontario Museum looking for seabird specimens. It may not be the tropical island that many seabird biologists get to visit to collect samples, but I was still excited to get out of the lab for a day.
The behind-the-scenes archives in museums are quite astonishing. In the bird archives of the ROM, there were rows upon rows of shelves stacked up to the ceiling with drawers full of bird specimens.
Besides being awestruck by the number of bird specimens squeezed into these drawers, I was interested in finding specimens from the tube-nosed seabird subfamily Hydrobatinae, the northern hemisphere storm-petrels.
In my biology classes, professors always stressed that museum specimens are very valuable. I never truly understood just how valuable until I used them in my own project. For one, museum specimens offer a glimpse into a timeline where you can see changes in traits over time. These traits can also be compared among species very easily when they are laid out side by side. You may recognize differences that you otherwise would not have noticed if you were catching species in the wild at different times. In addition, museum specimens also offer an opportunity to see species that you might otherwise not be able to see in the wild (i.e. if they are hard to catch). This was the important point for my project!
There are 14 species in the Hydrobatinae subfamily. They are distributed across the globe, making it difficult to collect samples from every species. Therefore, we relied on a lot of museum samples for our study. In addition, besides some minor plumage differences, they look very similar (as you can see above). Because of this, I used genetics as a conservation tool to investigate how the different species arose. I was able to collect a toepad (carefully of course so that we did not damage the specimen) to extract DNA from once I was back in the lab.
Not only do museums allow you to study birds that may be hard to catch in the wild, they also let you study species that you can no longer catch in the wild. The ROM had specimens of extinct birds, including a passenger pigeon, a labrador duck, and a great auk. I also got to collect a toepad from Oceanodroma macrodactyla, an extinct storm-petrel species from Guadalupe Island. I felt like I was on CSI extracting DNA from a species that longer exists in the wild!
Next time you are at a museum, remember to think about all of the value you can get out of observing these specimens and thank a museum curator!
This week, Dispatches from the Field is excited to welcome Michelle Viengkone, a former M.Sc. student (and one of Sarah’s field companions in Mexico), to tell us about her field season working with polar bears. Check out her biography at the end of the post!
When I took my first trip up north to Canada’s Arctic to participate in a non-invasive sample survey of polar bears, I was 21 years old. Fast-forward 5 years and it still gives me goose bumps thinking about the experience: from the people, to the sights, to the cold fresh air. It is a pleasure to be sharing this experience via Dispatches From The Field in a guest blog. I would also like to acknowledge that the learning moments that I describe here are a product of an opportunity made possible by De Groot/Boag lab, Queen’s University, and Northern Scientific Training Program.
Of course I tried to prepare: I spoke to others who had done fieldwork in the Arctic and to those who lived there before. Their advice and stories were invaluable and added to my excitement to be in the serene beauty of the North and so close to a majestic predator. I wanted to make sure I would have everything I might need, so I went all out and bought all the gear I could think of! From winter boots, an $800 jacket, and base layer items to hunting knives, paracord, bear bangers and an assortment of hand/foot warmers: I had it all, or so I thought. Imagine my surprise when I arrived to Gjoa Haven and I was cold! Nothing prepares you for that chill. My new Sorel winter boots with 3 layers of socks underneath didn’t stand up to traveling by sled, which entailed sitting exposed to the elements on top of supplies and equipment and being pulled kilometer after kilometer by the snowmobile. By the time we arrived at the hut after our first day, I no longer felt my toes and the other members of the team had to help me to take off my boots. After hanging my felt liners and boots to dry, it took dry socks and bit of time to feel the sensation again in my toes. We figured that my boots were actually frozen solid at the toes from the moisture, so “Buh bye boots, hello extra Kamiiks (Inuit hide boots)!”
After a few delays, the majority of our field team including myself, the PhD candidate, two European researchers and two Inuit guides set out from Gjoa Haven to our field hut. It was glorious: I was bundled with ski goggles in place; mitten-covered hands grasping onto the ropes wrapped around our equipment and supplies of our sled. The scenery, the pull of the snowmobile ahead, and the stillness of the surroundings were all wonderful. The ability of the Inuit guides to navigate the landscape amazed me; however as the sun went down and we realized that we were not even halfway to the field hut, we realized we had to make camp. We made it to a small fishing cabin, and we dug our glorified wooden box out of the snow while the guides pitched a tent outside, got a stove going and were warming up. Once in the fishing hut, the four of us researchers laid in there like sardines, trying our best to keep the door closed from the wind and get some much-needed rest. I have to admit that first night was a bit scary: you hear everything from the howling wind to every little crunch in the snow. Eventually I fell asleep, wedged between two new companions. What felt like moments later, we woke to the sound of thumping -like full body contact on the side of the cabin. We figured it wasn’t a polar bear (it didn’t seem heavy enough) but thought it may be a wolf. Panicked and without weapon to drive the culprit away, we began to scream for the guides and bang pots and pans to scare “it” off. All four of us were barricading the door and listening between the thumps when we heard footsteps rounding the corner coming towards us, and then a knock. It was the guide! He had been thumping against the cabin walls trying to reach a rope draped on the roof! Our fears subsided and we began our day with an oatmeal breakfast. That relief was jarred by the reality of being in the wilderness as we spotted fresh wolf tracks, droppings, and urine markings around our site.
In order to set up traps, we wanted to make sure polar bears were using the area. Guides identified fresh tracks for potential hair traps.
The field is a tricky working environment because you work and live together all day, every day. Back in the city, you can leave work behind and go home; in the Arctic, regrouping and having alone time are complicated by the remoteness, the undeveloped field stations, and the dangers of straying too far from camp. Everyone has a different way of finding that solitude in the midst of a research team: I found my refuge hanging onto the sled and letting the landscape wash over me on the long sled rides between field sites where we set up hair traps. The long days and hard work could take a lot out of everyone, and that combination of physical and mental exhaustion sometimes provided fertile ground for interpersonal conflict. I learned that when emotions run high in the field, being able to take a moment for yourself while also ensuring others know where you are is key to keeping yourself safe.
Our field days were filled by traveling in search of fresh polar bear tracks, setting up hair traps and returning to them in subsequent days to collect snagged hair samples. We also kept a look out for polar bear poo, and bagged that too! On our days out we didn’t see much in terms of wildlife, aside from a seal head popping up from a breathing hole in the distance and rock ptarmigan hopping about. I was relieved to not have encountered a polar bear – seeing tracks and chipping poop into a Ziploc was enough for me. This is mostly because human-bear interactions often result in injuries to human and polar bear alike, the polar bear being shot and/or the human becoming a snack.
Polar bears are naturally curious, let alone destructive. Here’s a used hair trap and the hair snag.
Opportunistic sampling of polar bear poop was a part of the project, we bagged and labeled sample with GPS coordinates.
For some, the expectation was to see the white bear, but it did not look promising as we woke to our last day before us. As with the days before, getting breakfast going was the priority – for oatmeal you need boiling water, so that’s where a pot full of snow comes in. The PhD student went to fetch the snow but upon opening the door to the cabin she was greeted by the stunned faces of Tundra wolves! She turned around and closed the door calmly, but when pressed about where the snow was she softly told us about her encounter. Later on, after giving the wolves time to move along, she retrieved the snow and got breakfast going. I got ready and waited my turn to use the latrine that morning, checking to see when it was my turn. On one of those checks I suddenly lost the urge to pee as one of the crewmembers spotted a teenage male polar bear just down the hill from us, a mere 200m away. The bear’s presence energized everyone. Soon enough the Inuit guides hopped on their snowmobiles and tried to drive the curious bear away. Once the bear was sufficiently tired, the chase was over and he went on his way disappearing into the whiteness. We decided to check out the area of the chase and we found flecks of blood in the tracks, likely from cracked footpads. We took a sample just in case!
It was quite the introduction to the Arctic and I’m thankful for the opportunity to have been a part of the research project. Our work would not have been possible without the support of the community. There’s no place quite like the Arctic, I hope we can strive to keep it that way.
Originally from Ontario, Michelle studied at Queen’s University for her Bachelor of Science during which she became involved in a non-invasive study of polar bears in the M’Clintock Channel and Gulf of Boothia. Having developed laboratory and field skills, she opted to take a gap year before pursuing graduate studies. Through marine mammal research internships, volunteering on research vessels and traveling to New Zealand, Edmonton was to be her home for 2-3 years in pursuit of a Master’s degree. Continuing research on polar bears, she defended her thesis examining the population in Hudson Bay in the spring and currently is living in Calgary and gearing up for a season of guiding in Churchill. From Michelle: “I hope you enjoy this blog, thanks for checking it out here on Dispatches From The Field. Ciao, Michelle Viengkone”.