Inside John's Locker

Having your personal items stored in Orlando so you don’t have to haul them back and forth is great—but it helps if you can remember what you’ve stored!

One of the great advantages of all of the testing we’ve done of the Owner’s Locker concept is that it has enabled us to put all sorts of bells and whistles on our systems. The goal is to make using Owner’s Locker as easy and convenient as possible.

But, the testing began long before our formal Beta Trial---it started with my family and our Florida Box, as we called it. I was living in England on assignment for an American oil company when I decided to try leaving a box of our stuff with a friend in Orlando to keep for us between visits.

My family and I quickly fell in love with the convenience but I soon realized that I had trouble remembering everything we had stored. Now admittedly, there is a bit of excitement on opening your Locker and having what I call the Christmas morning experience. “Gee, look at that. What a surprise!”

But it’s a lot more convenient when packing to know exactly what is in your Locker. So, after a couple of trips using the Florida Box, I started keeping a list. And, of course, between trips I managed to lose the list. Note to self: address this issue when Owner’s Locker becomes a real business.

So that’s what we did. The need for an on-line inventory went into the technology plan for Owner’s Locker along with the specification that it be confidential, could be printed out, could be edited and could be accessed by our Members from any computer.

As it turns out, the on-line inventory was one of the last elements to be included in the Owner’s Locker site. The first four versions of the site didn’t have it. Which is a good thing because that means Alex, our current web developer/wizard designed it for us.

The on-line inventory function is located in the My Account section of the Owner’s Locker website that we call The Dashboard. Your can build a separate inventory for each Locker a Member has and it is accessed by clicking on the “Edit Locker” button below the Locker.

The photo above shows how items are entered into the inventory. Under “Add a New Item” are boxes for the New Item Name (in the example, shaving cream) and the New Item Description (Edge Sensitive Skin). Once the Item Name and Description have been entered, a click on the “Edit Locker” button stores the entry and clears the boxes for the next Item and Description to be entered.

And as Items are entered, a list begins to build under the Current Items heading as shown here:

By clicking the View Detailed List button, the complete list is shown with both the Item Name and Description. And this is where you can print out your list if desired.

But that’s not all you can do with the on-line inventory function. You can create many other kinds of list that you can access while on vacation or print out before you leave.

Restaurant reservations, Things to do. Things to buy. You can store phone numbers. Lots of things.

You can also edit your Items, change the Description to show that the bottle of gin is now half empty, etc.

Your inventory is confidential to you. Just as we don’t open Lockers, we don’t have the capability to see our Member’s on-line inventory.

And the inventories are stored on the Owner’s Locker servers which means they can be accessed from any computer. All you need is your user name and password.

And we’re still working to add more functions. Like the ability to sort the Items on your inventory list. So if you have four different shampoos, they’ll all be listed together.

Owner’s Locker is all about convenience and the easier and more enjoyable we can make your travels to Orlando, the better.

JDVM
www.ownerslocker.com

Posted by JDVM at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What a name. Well, this new restaurant is great but I need to bitch first. The only thing worse than having such an unappetizing name is billing itself as a gastropub. Having lived in England for 15 years I come with some baggage here. Pubs are known for quality/simple food. The English call it comfort food. Great sausages, fresh (read real) mashed potatoes and gravy. A filling, delicious, non-fusion meal. A good bangers and mash can't be beat.

A few years a go, pubs in England started going through some silly phases. There was this gastropub thing where gravy became a reduction. Nothing worse than a pub pretending it was a restaurant.

And then there was the name thing. Our favorite pubs had names like The Victoria, The Fossebridge Inn, The Seven Tuns, The Hare and Hounds, The Fox and The Plough at Ford. I'm sorry. I'm just not going into a place called The Slug and Lettuce.

So it was with considerable reluctance that Susan and I wandered into this new restaurant billed as The Ravenous Pig: An American Gastropub. I was also a bit ticked off that Susan had chickened out yet again from going to may favorite dirty Mexican restaurant, P.R.'s Taco Palace. As soon as we pulled up in front of P.R's, I heard this, "can't we go someplace else?"

But, boy are we glad we did give the new place a try. No sooner than we hit the door than I noticed a familiar face behind the bar. OK, I'm predictable. It was Anderson, my favorite Disney bartender last seen at The Flying Fish Café a couple of years ago. He left to run the bar at the Season's 52 in Altamonte Springs--a northeast suburb of Orlando (if you think Winter Park is far from Disney Property...)

Luckily, the tables were all taken and there was an hour and a half wait. Dang it...stuck eating at the bar again. Anderson, the bartender really knows his stuff, is quite anxious to talk your ear off but is also quite willing to leave you alone, knows his wine and he was in good form. I really like a good bartender who knows his wine and his customers and just pours you a glass of something he thinks you'll like. Susan had a new addition to their wine list--a chardonnay called Four Hearts that was excellent.

Anderson may know his wine but I was wary of the menu and headed over to the "pub menu" where I found a burger. Pubs generally don't mess up hamburgers. Susan wanted a starter and suggested we share the scallops. Now I'm a bit of a scallop snob and I rarely order them unless I'm really confident of the restaurant. So I just asked for some bread.

Well, the scallops were beyond dandy. They were juicy and not too big, came in a light sauce and were served with small bits of cauliflower. Sounds weird but they were yummy beyond description. The bread turned out to be biscuits loaded with cheese and they were the best I've ever had---and I'm from Kentucky where biscuits are considered a vegetable.

I had the pub burger which was absolutely excellent and cooked perfectly. It was a bit too covered with blue cheese which I think can overpower a moose but I'd get it again--but with a different cheese. But here's the really good part: the burger came with truffle fries. They were served in a large glass tumbler which is just flat odd, but, by golly, they definitely had a truffle flavor which meant Susan and I were fighting for them---after I emptied them from the glass onto my plate. Andy said they used truffle salt. Never heard of it but I'd like to find some!!

Susan had the mussels which she thought were fantastic. I don't do mussels so all I can say is that she's a mussel snob and I trust her judgment.

I switched from white to red wine and I can't recall what I had. I just told Andy I wanted something with a Cabernet grape. As usual, he delivered but I sadly can't recall what it was.

Let me also say something about the clientele. First of all, not a tourist in sight and we really found the people there refreshing. We sat next to a seriously interesting couple. They were a bit older but were very interested in Susan's business as well as Owner's Locker. On the other side of us was a younger couple who were interesting as well. There was quite a cross section of people there but nothing approaching a pick up joint, if you know what I mean.

It's so nice to go to a place you've never been to and feel comfortable. So I'll definitely go back and if I ever meet the owners, I'll congratulate them on snagging Anderson and I'll suggest they seriously consider changing the name...or at least quit calling it a gastropub.

The Ravenous Pig: An American Gastropub, is located at 1234 N. Orange Avenue in Winter Park. You can't really read the menus on their website but it doesn't matter. I think it's worth a drive. And if you couple it with some shopping in Winter park or a visit to the Morse Museum, it's well worth the trip.

www.theravenouspig.com

and here's a review from Orlando Weekly which I think is a bit lame.

and one from the Orlando Sentinel which is a bit better, but not much.

JDVM
www.ownerslocker.com

Posted by JDVM at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the third and (I promise!) final installment of my attempt to answer what looks like an easy question. The decision to do a full Beta Trial of Owner’s Locker was an excellent one. Finding the right people to participate was critical and was difficult at first as we discovered that we had to do a lot of pre-education work to get people to consider Owner’s Locker. We learned two key lessons from our early efforts to assemble a Beta Trial team. Word of mouth “buzz” was very effective and once we could get people to try Owner’s Locker, they REALLY liked it.

In October, when the process of getting member of the MouseOwners boards was in full swing, I was also working on establishing a relationship with a much bigger board, The DIS. At the time there were about 2000 members of MouseOwners while The DIS discussion forums had 150,000 members. I had no idea how to contact The DIS so I approached a Moderator named Jim C that I had once answered some questions for me and asked how I should proceed. Jim suggested that I talk with someone called Webmaster Doc and passed me over to him. That was a very fateful moment because Rob Lindsey (Doc) had appreciation for Owner’s Locker the moment he heard about it. I now know why. Rob and Liz are away from their home in Indiana about one week a month…and more often than not, that week is spent in Orlando. Rob suggested that I put together a quick e-mail describing what I’d like to do and he would forward it to Corey Martin. The DIS is owned and run by a fellow named Pete Werner. Pete is very ably assisted by Corey. Getting to Corey was another piece of good luck because as soon as he saw my brief memo, he liked Owner’s Locker a LOT. If you’ve labored through Parts 1 and 2 of this topic, you know by now that it took some effort to convince most people to get on board. Not with Corey. He’s an entrepreneur by nature with a good eye for business. He took the idea to Pete and sold him on the concept of Owner’s Locker and came back to me with an offer we couldn’t refuse. Brian and I have since met with Corey as well as Pete and let me tell you, they’re both savvy businessmen. AND, they’re very generous. They both see Owner’s Locker as a good idea that needs some nurturing. As Pete puts it, “I appreciated the people who helped me out when I got started with The DIS and I like to help people with good ideas get a start.” I’ll do a separate post on Pete and Corey but needed to throw that in now.

I had asked Corey about the possibility of using The DIS forums to solicit Beta Trial Members. I figured it would be expensive but it was something we needed to do. Corey came back with the suggestion from him and Pete that we announce our Beta Trial on the Disney Vacation Club forums on The DIS. The announcement would be a “sticky” meaning that it would always be at the top of the forum. It could stay there for a month….and it would be FREE. Like I said, it was an offer we couldn’t refuse.

I haven’t mentioned the Owner’s Locker website so far in this discussion but here’s where we were. Brian and I started working together in August, 2006 he agreed to come on board in December, 2006 full time (with no pay, I might add)
At this point we were looking at the fourth website that I had developed and had just met Alex, our fantastic web developer who had given us the great news that what we really needed to do was start all over. So the first big decision Brian helped with was scrapping all of the prior website work and moving forward with Alex. It was absolutely the right decision and Alex began work in December. But here we were in early January, 2007 with no functional website. The early Beta Trial Members were solicited in person or by e-mail and all of the Visit-scheduling had been done by e-mail or phone. If we were going to make an announcement on a site like The DIS, we’d better have a site that could at least handle the Beta Trial applications. Which Alex was able to do. We patched together parts of site number 4 along with an application page and response mechanism that Alex was able to quickly set up.

And on January 11, 2007 the following announcement went up on the DVC boards of The DIS:

“New Service: store your personal vacation gear
________________________________________
We’re launching a new service for frequent visitors to the Orlando area called Owner’s Locker. You fill one of our special containers with the things you’d like to have on hand when you visit. We have it waiting for you at the front desk of your resort when you check in. Then we pick it up when you check out and keep it in our climate controlled warehouse until your next visit. It sure beats hauling all of that stuff back and forth!

John”
Oh, I almost forgot, while we were getting the website ready accept applications, guess who was checking into Disney’s Old Key West Resort and agreed to give Owner’s Locker a try and had Beta Trial Locker #012?? None other than Rob Lindsey—Webmaster Doc. As soon as our announcement went up on the DVC Boards, it was followed by this post:

“I just wanted to add that John does have permission to post this information and link to his service.

So far so good!
__________________
Doc
Assistant Webmaster DIS
doc@wdwinfo.com”
Well, that little one/two punch was golden and did the trick. We were quickly inundated with applications and our newest problem was deciding how to quickly limit the numbers. We decided that we would accept applications of folks visiting before the end of April and began turning down applicants who were coming after that date. The Main purpose of the Beta Trial was to test our systems and get launched as quickly as we could.

So, within a week, we went from having 12 Beta Trial Members to the 100 that we wanted thanks to Doc, Corey, Pete and the forum members of The DIS.

We had already learned that word of mouth buzz was a good tool and that trying a Locker was important. We now had a much better feel for how powerful web-based tools could be for our education/marketing efforts and we had an incredible example of the power of a personal endorsement. When a respected resource like Rob said, “I’m sitting at OKW right now looking at The Owner’s Locker,” the floodgates opened. Note to self……

JDVM

Posted by JDVM at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I started to answer this seemingly simple question in an earlier post (Part 1) and my fingers got tired after telling the story of only our first 4 Beta Trial Members. And, sadly, you sort of need to read Part 1 of this tale for this post to make sense. Here’s the rest of the saga (hopefully) of where the other 96 came from.

October 1, 2006 was the big delivery day for our first Beta Trial Members. Linda Thompson, a skeptic turned convert would be returning for her second trip with her Owner’s Locker. Laura Johnson and Marilyn Garfinkel (who seriously doubted the value of Owner’s Locker) would be trying out Owner’s Locker for the first time.

Between Linda’s first trip in August/September and this visit, she had described Owner’s Locker to a friend and MouseOwners member, Pam Enri (matysgranma). Pam and her husband, Tom, come to Orlando a lot and were interested in giving Owner’s Locker a try after hearing Linda talk about us. Although I had not met Pam, I agreed to have a Locker waiting for her as well as she was going to be joining the group in town the first week of October.

I remember Linda asking me whether Pam would qualify as a Beta Trial Member since she wasn’t a member of Disney Vacation Club. I told Linda that I was actually glad she wasn’t because Owner's Locker would cater to all of the resorts in the Orlando area. But I was curious as to why she stayed at DVC resorts if she weren’t a DVC Member. Turns out Pam and Tom rent DVC points to stay at Boardwalk several times per year. Yet again, I tell myself just how much I can learn from this Beta Trial.

The person that would be the owner of Locker #006 also checked into Disney’s Boardwalk Villas that day. One Kim Holtman. Kim is the owner of MouseOwners and she and I had corresponded about Owner’s Locker prior to her trip. Kim liked the idea and had said that it would be OK to discuss the Owner’s Locker on her site. She even agreed to display a small Owner’s Locker banner next to the MouseOwners forums at no charge. Kim accepted my invitation to dinner and I met up with her and her husband, Eric, in the Belle Vue Lounge at Boardwalk and we later had a fantastic dinner at Flying Fish Café. I explained the business to Kim and Eric and they were extremely supportive and agreed to become Beta Trial Members. I had brought Locker #006 with me just in case! (actually, I thought I had brought Locker #005, but there’s one more reason to have a rock solid bar code tracking system!)

Mar put together a Grand Gathering boat trip to view the Magic Kingdom fireworks and hosted a pina colada party in her room at Boardwalk beforehand. This time, I was brave enough to sign up for both.

I saw all of the new Trial Members on this trip and they were really excited about their Lockers and now the “word of mouth” chatter began. The picture above is some of us prior to Mar’s fireworks cruise. To my left are Pam Enri and Marilyn Garfinkel. To my right are Laura Johnson and Kim Holtman.

The Lockers began to be mentioned in trip various trip reports on the MouseOwners boards. The real power and potential of the discussion boards as an advertising/ educational medium for Owner’s Locker became more and more evident. Here were people actually meeting for the first time but acting like long lost friends because of their relationships that had been formed in the discussion forums. The reputation established on these boards was extremely important and it was obvious that there were levels of trust between these folks.

Right after that crew left, Beta Trial Member Ken Welch arrived for his initial Visit with an Owner’s Locker. Ken was thinking “second home’ and brought along a number of items to leave in his Locker—including a spare laptop. Never thought of that. Ken, Millie and I had dinner at Kona café at the Polynesian and just happened to walk out on the beach after dinner as the fireworks began.

At about that time I noticed that Noel S, in one of her posts on MouseOwners, talked about shipping stuff down to WDW and I contacted her and described Owner’s Locker to her. She jumped on the opportunity to give us a try (“sounds like a cool biz!...God knows, we’re your target market!!!") and we agreed that I would deliver her Locker #005 in person at The Gurgling Suitcase at Disney’s Old Key West Resort when she was there later in October. Tough duty. I’ve got to say that I thoroughly enjoyed sitting on one of the picnic tables outside the Suitcase watching people look at Noel’s Locker wondering what it was. Noel and her husband Eric were joined by several friends that evening and one couple was so excited about Owner’s Locker that they wound up with Beta Trial Locker #007, which I just happened to have with me. Meeting Noel and Eric was another bit of good luck. They’ve both had careers with Microsoft and Noel’s background is marketing. Handy, huh? Noel and eric may have gotten a free Locker but I have gotten lots and lots of good advice in return.

And, believe it or not, another meet was being organized in late November by (surprise, surprise) Linda Thompson. There was considerable buzz about Owner’s Locker on MouseOwners at this point and some of the folks showing up for that event had read the comments of the Beta Trial Members and began asking about Owner’s Locker. One of those people was Kathy Sebelski, who said, “where are the lockers? Even though we drive, it might be worth getting one.” Music to my ears. I contacted Kathy and Ron and agreed to get their Locker to them at Linda’s get together after Thanksgiving. It was another fateful meeting. Linda was now on her third trip with her Locker and the airlines wound up doing me a great favor by losing Linda’s luggage. She just happened to have a dress in her Locker that say the day—or evening.

I hit it off instantly with Kathy and Ron (whose license plate is “yensid” and we agreed to have dinner at Flying Fish during their trip. Kathy began to appreciate the value of her Locker instantly and by the time they headed back to Indiana, Ron was a huge convert, too. They are the couple in the video on the splash page on the OL site and are some of our best proponents. In fact, Ron and Kathy were talking up Owner’s Locker with a couple they met while Ron was getting his hair cut in the Magic Kingdom and brought their name and phone number along with him when I met them for dinner. Ron and Kathy had Locker #010 and the couple they met got Locker #011.

Kathy I learned would make an excellent Beta Trial Member because she is so detail oriented. She was extremely curious about how Owner’s Locker worked logistically. And at this point, all I could do was describe how things were GOING to work as the website wasn’t live and the barcode based warehouse management system wasn’t functional yet. Sadly, I confessed to her over dinner that my secret back-up system was to write the name of the Locker owner on the bottom of each Locker so I wouldn’t get them mixed up. Leave it to Kathy to turn her Locker upside down as soon as she got back to her room. And it was just my luck that in my hurry, I had forgotten to write the name of the owner on the bottom of one of the Lockers. I knew there were only five Lockers out and four had names on the bottom so I wasn’t too worried. Do you think Kathy told me?
Hmmmmm.

This may sound like a lot of effort but in the early days it was essential to find the right people, convince them (one way or another!) to try Owner's Locker so the could experience it first hand and let the buzz from their excitement spread. Linda Thompson was a one woman public relations company. Laura Johnson peppered her posts with comments about how Owner's Locker had changed the way she vacationed. Ken Welch talked about have one Locker for the summer Visits and another for their winter Visits. And Marilyn Garfinkel now desribed Owner's Locker as "addictive." Was it worth the effort?

You'd better believe it!

OK, that takes us to Locker #011. I guess there’s going to have to be a Part 3…..sorry.

JDVM
www.ownerslocker.com

Posted by JDVM at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Once we decided to give Owner’s Locker's service away to a group of volunteers to just get Owner’s Locker out there to make sure it worked, exactly how should we go about finding people to try it?

Well, you don’t just stand on the street corner with a bunch of empty Lockers. Here’s how we did it…or at least this how we started the process.

I can't tell you exactly why, but it was obvious to me that Owner's Locker would need to rely heavily on web-based tools for our education and marketing. Maybe it was becasue I had been a member of several Disney-related discussion boards and could appreciate their power and potential usefulness for us. So that's where I went in search of Beta Trial Members. After following the discussion boards on MouseOwners for several months, I got up enough courage to attend a drinks party hosted by Laura Johnson (jiggerj) at Boardwalk Villa’s on May 1, 2006. Laura is one of those people that no one ever says anything bad about---because you can’t. She really is that nice and she’s the one who talked me into going. She was very warm and welcoming to me as a newbie to the MouseOwner boards. Without intending to, discussion forums can often seem a bit like a private club where outsiders aren't welcome. Laura handles those issue brilliantly. I was very uncomfortable being around a bunch of people I had never actually met but she convinced me to take the plunge and attend her party during her next visit. Have a look at this thread from MouseOwners and you’ll get a feel for what a nice bunch of people they are:

http://www.mouseowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1549

The drinks party preceded something billed as a Grand Gathering that Linda Thompson (Colorado Belle) had put together that included a dinner. I figured I could bale out of a drinks party but there was no way I was going to commit myself to being locked into a dinner! So all I signed up for was Laura's drinks.

As it turns out, Laura’s pre-Grand Gathering drinks party was lots of fun. In addition to actually meeting Laura, I also met Linda—who was mixing wicked margaritas as well as Ken Welch (KNWVIKING 2.0) and Marilyn Garfinkel (idratherbeinwdw). I mention only these four because they became the first four Beta Trial Members and herein lies that tale. In the photo above, Mar is smack in the middle with the black t-shirt. Laura is to her left and Linda is to the left of Laura. That's the top of my head right behind Mar and Ken is to the far left in the rear--or at least a bit of his head is. If you’re a real glutton for my wordiness, here’s a link to a thread I started on MouseOwners about Laura’s party:

http://www.mouseowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2889

I didn’t say a word about Owner’s Locker during Laura’s party but “discussed” it a few weeks later with her and then with Linda and Marilyn and Ken.

Laura liked the idea instantly and readily agreed to take part in the Beta Trial (I told you she was nice). The other three didn’t--at least at first (note to self: what does it mean that 3 out of 4 people say they don't particularly need Owner's Locker? Could we possibly have an education issue???).

Even though Laura was on board, Linda was coming back to Orlando sooner than any of the others and was adamant that she was single and didn’t need Owner’s Locker. It was a great idea for families, she explained. Four times she told me “no”. But she did tell me when she was coming to Orlando next and where she was staying. Linda was coming back to Orlando at the end of August and the others weren't returning until the first of October.

I knew that one of the reasons no one had offered a service like Owner's Locker was that people had not demanded it. So I knew we had an education issue. But I've got to admit that I wasn't quite prepared for the lukewarm reception I met at the early stages of getting Beta Trial Members. I knew Owner's Locker would work. I just needed to twist a few arms and be creative in recruiting the right people to get the word of mouth buzz started.

Now Linda is known for her margaritas and at the MouseOwners gathering, she had a bottle of tequila and a bottle of Grand Marnier that she had brought from Colorado. It took me quite a while, but I found two neat margarita glasses that had cactuses as stems. They were so obviously fragile that no one in their right mind would pack them in luggage. I put the glasses along with a bottle of tequila and a bottle of Grand Marnier into what would become Beta Trial Locker #001 and had it waiting for Linda when she checked into Vacation Village at Parkway on August 29, 2006. The first official delivery of an Owner’s Locker.

At the end of her stay, I had dinner with Linda and I asked her what she thought about having an Owner’s Locker. “It’s too heavy” was her only comment. “But,” I protested, “all it has in it are a couple of margarita glasses and some liquor.” “Oh no, honey, I filled that baby up.” Ah, success. And I do mean success. I didn't realize at the time just how much positive buzz one person could create. When someone starts out skeptical and then changes their mind about something, they can really go out of their way to convince others. Linda is that type of person and she also happened to becoming to Orlando darned near once a month. The more she used Owner's Locker, the more she like it and the more she told people....and, let me tell you, they listened. Call it luck, but with Linda, I had an outspoken convert who would be experiencing Owner's Locker three times in as many months. Small mentions of her Locker began showing up in posts on MouseOwners but I asked Linda to hold off until I had introduced myself to the owner of MouseOwners, Kim Holtman. Not a good idea to have people plugging your product on boards without the permission of the board itself.

Laura Johnson was coming back down in October along with a bunch of other MouseOwners on the first of October--about two weeks after Linda had finished her inital visit with an Owner's Locker. Laura would have Beta Trial Locker #002 waiting for her when she arrived. She didn’t need to be “bribed” to try Owner’s Locker but I still put a bottle of champagne in her empty Locker. But were there going to only be two people in our Beta Trial??

I spent a long time talking to Ken at Laura’s party in May and got along very well with him. He and I are both a bit hidden in the other photo but here we are.

A few weeks after the party, I e-mailed him and then called him to discuss Owner’s Locker. He thought it was an interesting idea but didn’t think it suited him because he and his wife, Millie, always drove down from New Jersey. But Ken liked the concept and we discussed it several times and I think I even sent him a business plan. I can’t remember how many times he told me that he wouldn’t need a Locker but I do recall telling him that I would have one waiting for him at his resort and it would be up to him whether to pick it up from bell services or ignore it. I assured him I didn’t mind delivering and picking up an empty Locker several times if necessary.

Finally, in one of our discussions, I mentioned the phrase “second home” and Owner’s Locker suddenly clicked with him. Ken and Millie had recently bought a camper for weekend trips in New Jersey and had quickly tired of packing up kitchen utensils every time they used it. So they duplicated most of their kitchen for the camper. Actually, Millie says the camper has the better kitchen gear.

But that did it for Ken. Now he wanted a trial Locker. Owner’s Locker isn’t just about keeping things you’d ordinarily throw away when you leave from vacation. It can also be a way to duplicate things you like to have around you but don’t want to go through the hassle of hauling back and forth. Now there were three. Ken didn’t need a bribe in the end either, but I still put a bottle of champagne in Locker #004 for his first visit. I was also pleased that Ken and Mille drove to Orlando instead of flying as I could learn what people who drive think of the convenience of Owner's Locker.

I was determined that Marilyn would have Locker #003 but she was just as determined that she wouldn’t! She was even more adamant than Linda (well she IS from New York) and she finally said,” listen John, I would NEVER pay for something like this because I don’t need it. And I like you as a friend but I refuse to take something for free for two years when I’m absolutely sure I won’t continue after the trial.”

Marilyn (or Mar as we all call her) explained that she kept a special suitcase with her Disney stuff at her home and that part of the ritual she went through the night before she left was to fill all of the shampoo and toiletry bottles to bring down. She also mentioned that she had a vase that she carried back and forth since she liked to have fresh flowers in her room (aha, I thought. Even Mar has an Achilles heel!)

I can’t tell you how many times I begged Mar to just give Owner’s Locker a try. She was one of the Moderators on MouseOwners and was very well respected. She was a natural opinion leader. Emboldened by my success with Linda and Ken, I told her I’d have an empty Locker waiting for her in her upcoming October trip and she didn’t have to pick it up if she didn’t want to. Not a good idea. Mar’s from NYC remember. I had already come up with an idea I thought would surely hook her but it wasn’t going to get very far if she refused to even pick up a Locker. I didn't give up and I kept digging to see what the resistance might be. About a week before she was supposed to arrive, I learned part of the reason that Mar was so reluctant. She was seriously worried that her Locker would not be waiting for her when she arrived. And it didn’t even have her stuff in it yet. She had more confidence in the airlines than us? Wow. But this was one of about 6 million lessons we learned in the Beta Trial: people will worry about their stuff showing up. I was already starting to see just how much we would be able to learn during the Beta Trial. I assured Mar that the Locker would absolutely, positively be there when she checked in and she relented and said OK but that she still just didn't think she needed Owner's Locker. Not exactly a ringing endorsement but the door was left slightly ajar and that's all I really needed.

So fast forward to September 30, 2006. Three Beta Trial Members are arriving at Boardwalk and Beach Club the next day. The trial Lockers are blue. They are sealed with various colored zip ties. There are no bar codes. I did manage to print up really nice looking arrival cards and I wrote their names on the bottoms of the Lockers with a Sharpie so they wouldn’t get mixed up!

Linda’s Locker weighed a ton and Laura’s had a bottle of champagne inside. And I’m in a panic wandering around Downtown Disney trying to find a special Disney vase for Mar that would—you guessed it—easily break if packed in luggage. Can you believe that in that entire huge Disney store that carries everything you could imagine, there are no flower vases? I couldn’t even find a drinking glass that looked slightly vase-ish.

The only thing I could find was this heavy crystal vase in the Arribas Brothers shop that was not particularly cheap. It was very pretty but it was more chunky than fragile. Well, was Mar’s Locker going to get a vase or not? I told myself that she would be an extremely vocal convert so I bit the bullet, bought it, put it in her empty locker and sealed it up. And early the next day, I made the second Owner’s Locker delivery run.

This little narrative has gone on far too long so I’ll leave it to another post to explain how these early volunteers went from being skeptical to excited about Owner's Locker and how we got from 4 to 100 Beta Trial Members…..but first I have to let you know what Mar thought of her vase. Well, she was over the moon. She LOVED it. In fact, she told me that she liked it so much, she left the vase she had brought from home in her Locker and took the vase I bought home with her to display in her living room. I didn’t say a thing.

JDVM
www.ownerslocker.com

Posted by JDVM at 8:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In an earlier post of Inside John's Locker, I described how we first started working with Mary Waring, the founder of the phenominally successful site, MouseSavers. Mary instantly liked the idea of Owner's Locker, took me under her wing and suggested that we put out a press release on the launch of Owner's Locker. (Hot Off the Presses--Thanks, Mary).

Mary hadn't actually tried Owner's Locker at the time and I noted that post:

"We hope that one day there will be a review of Owner’s Locker that shows up in MouseSavers but that will only happen after Mary and her crew thoroughly test the service themselves. I like that. It’s the way it should be."

Well, a few weeks ago, Mary and her husband were visiting Walt Disney World and gave Owner's Locker a try. And, this is what she had to say....I think you'll agree, it was worth the wait!!

Owner's Locker - Who Needs It?
Back in early 2007, I started hearing from some of my readers about something called Owner's Locker, a service for repeat visitors to Disney World that allows you to keep your vacation gear in Orlando between visits. Several people told me how much they loved this service and suggested I should mention it here on MouseSavers.com. Around the same time, I started reading about Owner's Locker on various Disney discussion boards. Quite a few of the board participants had tested the service and they were all raving about how great it was.

Well, I'm a skeptic. My first question was, "what exactly is the service they provide?" I looked into it and discovered that Owner's Locker delivers a specially designed air- and water-tight container to store personal items that you regularly use at Walt Disney World, such as toiletries, an air mattress, a coffee maker -- just about anything nonperishable. The company picks the container up from your resort when you check out and stores it until you return. Then Owner's Locker has your container waiting for you at your resort’s bell stand when you come back.

Now, we visit Disney World several times a year. Even so, I kept thinking "why would I need this?" My initial reaction was that Owner's Locker seemed a little bit expensive. There is a one-time $75 fee, which covers the locker and the initial delivery and pickup. Then you pay an annual fee of $99, which includes storage in a climate-controlled warehouse plus one delivery and pickup per year. (Or $179 per year for unlimited deliveries and pickups.) But it wasn't the cost that was really holding me back. I just had a hard time understanding the need for this service.

So I talked with some people who were using the lockers and asked what they were storing. They gave me a few ideas*, and when I thought it over a bit, I realized I've been carrying a lot of things back and forth to Orlando that I only use there, such as a big bottle of spray-on sunscreen, laundry soap, a Mickey Mouse vinyl rain poncho, a sun hat, an extra swimsuit and a Minnie Mouse daypack. It occurred to me that by storing all that stuff in Orlando, I could probably take a much smaller suitcase on future trips -- maybe even just a carry-on!

I also realized there are certain things I've never bothered to take to Orlando, even though they would be nice to have, because I knew I'd have to lug them back home afterward. But maybe if I had an Owner's Locker, next time I stayed in a unit that has a kitchen (like a Disney Vacation Club villa, or a villa at Caribe Royale), I could bring some kitchen items that are not provided, such as salt and pepper shakers and spices. And maybe a blender. (Margaritas, anyone?)

The more I pondered it, the more I realized how handy the locker might be. I could bring a crockpot, set that puppy up in the morning before heading out to the parks, and come back to find dinner made -- how great would that be? Then I could keep it in my locker and it would be there whenever I wanted it.

And then I thought about water. Yes, water. In a typical trip to Disney World, I would go through about half a case of bottled water. The water in Orlando tastes bad, and Disney charges a ridiculous amount for bottled water. So every time I visited, I had to make a special trip to a grocery store and buy a case of bottled water. Then I would leave half of it behind, because there was no way it was going to fit in my suitcase. This bugged me because it was so wasteful, not to mention bad for the environment. But if I had an Owner's Locker, I could just buy a Brita water filter pitcher, keep it in my locker, and make my own filtered water every time I visited!

Well, that was the thing that made me decide to try it out, and I have to admit, now that I've experienced the Owner's Locker service, I never want to go without it again! It is totally worth the money.

First, I was very pleasantly surprised about the locker when I saw it in person. It's bigger than I expected -- you can cram a lot of stuff in there! It's very heavy-duty and has removable dividers inside, which you can configure any way you want. It also has a removable "tackle box" type container that you can use for small items. You get to close it up with special seals before it goes back to the warehouse, so no one knows what's in it but you. (There is a private area on the Owner's Locker web site where you can keep an inventory, so you can remember what you've stored.)

Second, I was impressed with how well the system works. I stay at different hotels and villas all the time, in part because I'm always inspecting the MouseSavers Preferred Hotels. Turns out that's not an issue at all. Owner's Locker can pick up and deliver lockers at any major hotel, vacation condo or timeshare resort in the Orlando area. Anytime before a trip, I just log into my account on the Owner's Locker web site and let them know when and where I'm arriving and departing.

The day I fly out to Orlando, I get an e-mail letting me know the locker has been delivered to Bell Services at my hotel. When I arrive, I just call Bell Services and have them bring it to the room (I could also go out to the lobby and collect it, but I'm too lazy). When I'm ready to depart, I call Bell Services and have them collect the locker. They take it to a storage area where it will be picked up by Owner's Locker. Later that day I get an e-mail letting me know the locker is safe and sound in the Owner's Locker warehouse.

The whole experience is easy, seamless and worry-free. Not many things in life are like that!

I actually believe having an Owner's Locker saves me money. I don't have to worry about overweight luggage fees on the way home anymore. (In the past I've I had to repack stuff into two bags at the airport or pay a $75 penalty!) I can cook more often, because it is so much more convenient. I can stop buying bottled water, because I can just fill up my Brita water pitcher. Best of all, no more throwing away half-used items like shampoo and liquor, rather than risking breakage or leaks in my checked luggage.

Owner's Locker makes my visits to Orlando tremendously more convenient, pleasant and "home-like." It's hard to put a price on that -- it enhances my stays so much.

SEE BELOW FOR AN EXCLUSIVE OFFER!

*Here are just a few of the things people have told me they store in their Owner's Locker:

shampoo/conditioner sunscreen champagne flutes laundry soap liquor
sewing kit first aid kit diapers tampons/pads sheets
swim toys tub toys coffee filters umbrellas rain ponchos
corkscrew fuzzy slippers swimsuits autograph books air mattress
water filter pitcher water bottle strap lanyard flower vase waffle maker
game console guidebooks/maps curling iron crockpot flashlight
batteries scissors Mouse Ears eyeglass repair kit night light
pillows paper plates mouthwash espresso machine swim goggles

Mary sure knows how to make a boy smile, doesn't she!!!!

JDVM
www.ownerslocker.com

Posted by JDVM at 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)