At Disney World, family's pets get to wish upon a star, too

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Check out this cool place for Puppies to Stay in Florida!!

Walt Disney World is going after pet owners who might want to stay at the resort if they know their dogs will be coddled with bedtime stories or their cats treated to snacks such as tuna on Ritz crackers.

"We will be able to provide wonderful experiences for pets," said Dennis Dolan, president and chief executive officer of Best Friends Pet Care Inc.

Dolan's Norwalk, Conn., company just got a contract from Disney to operate the resort's five existing kennels and to build a boarding center where dogs and cats can stay in two-room suites with patios and get all the pampering they have come to expect.

Walks? Sure. Runs on an obstacle course? If they wish. Ice cream snacks. Bottled water. Supervised socializing with other pets. Elevated beds with lambs-wool bedding. If special bedding is desired — even orthopedic beds — those, too, will be available.

For dogs used to curling up on a child's bed and drifting off to sleep as a parent reads a bedtime story, bedtime stories will be available. For those conditioned to nap in front of a TV, televisions can be provided. And they won't be playing just any TV shows; they'll have dog movies, like The Adventures of Milo and Otis or Homeward Bound.

"A lot of people leave their televisions or radios on at home during the day to keep their pets company. This is really an idea that came to us from our clients who wanted a more homelike setting for their pets," said Best Friends spokeswoman Debra Bennetts. "What we provide is luxury suites. … It's really for that person who wants to make sure that their pet is being pampered the way they get pampered at home."

Cats will get a different kind of pampering. Their "condos" will come with lofts. Their TVs will play videos of birds. They can have aquariums to watch.

Dolan said luxury boarding for pets has been emerging for years, and he considers his company to be one of the innovators. Best Friends has 44 other boarding centers nationwide. Most of the luxury features are available at most of them.

At those other Best Friends centers, basic boarding fees for dogs range from less than $25 to more than $40 a day, depending on the local market and the size of the dog. Luxury features, such as 10 minutes of cuddle time, can be purchased separately for $2 to $12 per feature or in packages that add $12 to $38 a day to the cost.

The company has not yet set its Disney World luxury rates. Current Disney fees run from $10 to $20 a night, depending on the pet. Those basic rates will go up after Best Friends starts taking over operations in January, perhaps starting at $20 a night, though the level of service will increase, too, Disney spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said.

The vacation market has been waiting for such pet pampering, according to Rod Caborn, a spokesman for Ypartnership, a Maitland-based marketing firm that specializes in travel and tourism. Among the findings of the firm's 2001 survey on pets and travel: 22 percent of dog owners said they "avoid travel with overnight stays" if hotels and resorts don't allow pets.

"This appears," the survey concluded, "to represent a substantial market opportunity for hotels and resorts that provide 'suitable' accommodations."

The luxury pet-boarding center at Disney won't open until mid-2009. It will also offer day care and grooming services. It will be open not only to the pets of tourists but to the pets of Disney employees and local residents as well.

Neither Disney nor Best Friends officials would discuss terms of their contract.