Posts from — January 2009

BASICS FOR THE FIRST TIME FAMILY VISITOR

• The Walt Disney World Instruction Manual at yourfirstvisit.net. Everything you need in one easy and fast site
• disneyworld.com the official site…
• Official Walt Disney World Calendar page park hours, events, and Extra Magic Hours, next six months.
  • It’s easier to work with the individual park calendars. To view a day–for example, to figure out if and when Fantasmic or Wishes is on that day–go to the individual park’s monthly calendar and click within the date you are curious about.
    • Magic Kingdom Calendar
    • Hollywood Studios Calendar
    • Animal Kingdom Calendar
    • Epcot Calendar
• Len Testa and Bob Sehlinger’s TouringPlans.com the unofficial site…tons of stuff, but especially good on daily crowd forecasts, and park touring plans
• TouringPlans.com has also released a way cool mobile app, Lines, for estimated this-second waiting times for all the rides and attractions at Walt Disney World. To learn more, see this see this post, or go here.
• Steve Soare’s Walt Disney World Live Entertainment show schedules for current week
• Deb Wills’s AllEars.Net tons of information on almost any Walt Disney World topic
• Mark Goldhaber’s weekly Walt Disney World Park Update on MousePlanet.com (see below) is mostly too geeky for first time visitors but in the middle of the page almost always has great information on upcoming ride closures, hotel renovations, and such.
• Mary Warings’s MouseSavers.com additional money saving ideas
• DISboards.com discussion board where you can get basic and advanced questions answered
• Orlando Visiting, at orlandoflorida.net, is an interesting, newer discussion board and resource
• A good site for resources and discounts for military families is MilitaryDisneyTips.com.

OTHER GREAT DISNEY WEBSITES

• MousePlanet.com Like AllEars.Net above, but with more news.
• Jim Hill’s jimhillmedia.com eclectic news about the world of Disney and related topics
• Lou Mongello’s disneyworldtrivia.com–great trivia, and lots more
• Re-Imagineering fascinating material from Disney insiders on what might be/have been
• Craig Miller’s Google Earth Community: The ULTIMATE Walt Disney World Collection is just what it looks like…Aerial photos of WDW with millions of tags.
• Google Earth 3D of Disney World: start here
• The official Disney Parks Blog
• WDW News Today –Daily news and information about Walt Disney World
• WDWDailyNews.com–News and other material on all things Disney
• PassPorter.com’s Message Board Community
• The Daily Disney, a site hosted by the Orlando Sentinel
• Buzz2001’s Unofficial Coronado Springs Resort Website
• John Schunk’s Leave it to Genie, for help planning your trip

This page presents recommended books. For recommended websites, see this.

KINDLE

Ok, I finally got around to buying a Kindle. I highly recommend it, especially for travelers who love to read, or who like guidebooks.

You can bring your trashy novels for the plane, and to read while waiting in line, in a much lighter, less bulky, and more convenient format.

And if you buy one of the guidebooks below, you can get the Kindle version, if available, and take it into the parks with you!

RECOMMENDED GENERAL GUIDEBOOKS FOR FIRST TIME VISITORS

Because you have this site, you don’t need either of the books below. But they are affordable luxuries! Their best use, for families whose visit is largely based on this site, is for the trip home, to pass around and use as aids to memory and discussion of the trip.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

REVISED AND UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2009 (Click here for a pdf of the obsolete itinerary.)

(For the summary of this itinerary, see this. For a 180-90 day calendar, see this.)

C. EXACTLY 6am EST, EXACTLY 90 DAYS (180 DAYS 10/27 AND LATER) BEFORE YOUR ARRIVAL DATE

To read the rest of this article, click here.

OVERVIEW

The thumbnail–click to open; when open, click again once or twice to enlarge–rates the Walt Disney World table service restaurants in the Magic Kingdom area–in the park, and in the WDW resorts nearby–based on both appeal to kids and appeal to adults.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

OVERVIEW

The thumbnail–click to open; when open, click again once or twice to enlarge–rates the Walt Disney World table service restaurants in the Epcot area–in the park, and in the WDW resorts nearby–based on both appeal to kids and appeal to adults.

To read the rest of this article, click here.