OVERVIEW
Welcome! This site is designed for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World who do not know if they will ever return.
It guarantees the best possible first family visit to Walt Disney World for the least possible time spent planning!
To use this site, begin by clicking Summary of Instructions.
Follow the instructions that you can, and where you can’t, click the links in Summary of Instructions for your next best options, ranked in order!
If you are looking for something very specific,
- For when to go to Walt Disney World, see this
- For the next best dates, see this
- For the best and worst times to visit, see this
- For forecasting crowds at Walt Disney World, see this
- For the 2014 Crowd Calendar, click here
- For the 2015 Crowd Calendar, click here
- For seasonal pricing at Walt Disney World, see this
- For 2014 price seasons, see this
- For projected 2015 price seasons, see this
- For weather at Walt Disney World, see this
This site is designed so that first time family visitors don’t need any more information than what it presents. But if you do, or are just curious, the websites below are wonderful.
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.
- (Disney’s calendars are harder to use than they should be–see this if you need help with them.)
- Len Testa and Bob Sehlinger’s TouringPlans.com, the unofficial site…
- easyWDW.com is a neat, often hilarious site, with a great community. It covers a lot of the same terrain as this site, but in some different ways, and not focused on first-time visitors. Best is the crowd calendars and park recommendations
- Steve Soare’s Walt Disney World Entertainment show schedules for current week
- Deb Wills’s AllEars.Net tons of information on almost any Walt Disney World topic
- The 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 indispensable money saving ideas, and more
- DISboards.com discussion board where you can get basic and advanced questions answered
- Undercover Tourist has lots of cool stuff to offer, and is one of the few reliable sources of discounted theme park tickets
- Pinterest fans should start with Linda Steven Jones’s Great Walt Disney World Tips
- A great site for resources and discounts for military families is MilitaryDisneyTips.com.
OTHER GREAT DISNEY WEBSITES
- Dad’s Guide to WDW, like easyWDW.com, covers much of the terrain of this site but with a different spin, and without the first-time focus. As with easyWDW, I don’t agree with everything, but Carl’s site is well worth checking out
- Dan’s OrlandoInformer.com has lots of good stuff, and is particularly strong on Universal
- Sarah and Tom Bricker’s Disney Tourist Blog–varied but good stuff, especially strong on dining and photography
- 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
- 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
- The Disney Blog, with news and such
- Steve’s TikimanPages for all things about the Polynesian Resort
- Buzz2001’s Unofficial Coronado Springs Resort Website
- John Schunk’s Leave it to Genie, for help planning your trip
- Matt Hochberg’s Studios Central–all things Hollywood Studios
- The Disney Food Blog –all kinds of reviews and other fun and useful stuff about food and dining at Walt Disney World
- Spanish Disney fan site: Parques Disney en Espanol