Finding Your Way Around This Site
By Dave Shute
This page is part of a series on navigating this site.
On this page you’ll find help with finding stuff on this site.
WALT DISNEY WORLD RESOURCES FOR FIRST TIME VISITORS
This site was designed so that first time visitors to Walt Disney World could build a great trip from looking at and following the instructions on just one page–the home page.
The home page also has links for building a trip if any of the instructions can’t be followed, and the promise of the site is to rank order your next best choices, to make planning easy, fast, and sound.
First time visitors may also benefit from looking at How to Use this Site.
DISNEY WORLD RESOURCES BY TOPIC
Another way to get into broad topics such as Where to Stay or When to Go is to use the links on the left side.
The left side links in red contain the core advice for the topic.
The links under the red links–especially the ones titled (More)–present all the key pages on the site on that topic.
GETTING INFO ON SPECIFIC DISNEY WORLD ISSUES AND QUESTIONS
If you want to learn more about specific items like the Dining Plan, FASTPASSSES, current discounts, the Wilderness Lodge, etc, the fastest way to get to them is to use the search box in the top right.
Just type in what you want to learn about and hit search.
Some other resources for specifics include the FAQ page and the Site Map.
BROWSING AROUND AND SEEING WHAT’S AVAILABLE ON THE SITE
The best way to get a full sense of the scope of the site is to look at the Site Map.
I build most of the Site Map by hand (the category section at the end is automatic) and do not include all of the more than 900 pages of material on this site–but it’s still the most comprehensive guide to the specifics of the site.
The (More) pages in the left side links are also a good way to see what’s available by topic.
SOME OTHER DISNEY WORLD TOPICS
Some material doesn’t fit well into the basic architecture from its cross-cutting or family specific nature. Clicking these links will get you to special sections:
- Military Families
- Large Families
- Families on a Tight Budget
- Families Looking for the Most Comfortable Trip
WHAT’S NEXT FOR WAYFINDING ON THE SITE
Frequent visitors to the site will note that over the last 6 months I’ve simplified the site navigation.
The site used to have three lines of links at the very top, twice as many links on the left side, twice as many links at the bottom, and a whole blog-style navigation (with a different architecture!) on the right side.
This was in addition to the top and bottom navigation that each core page typically has!
I put all these links in because I didn’t want visitors to miss what I saw as key information, and because I can’t predict in advance what leads people to come to the site. (Visitors have come using more than 140,000 different searches topic!)
However, I got strong advice from people I trust to cut and simplify the navigation.
It was potentially overwhelming to first time visitors–defeating the purpose of the site of making first trips to Disney World as simple to plan as they can be–and repeat visitors would possibly lose the forest for the trees.
The fix for first-time visitors was to ruthlessly cut navigation. I may have not cut enough…the list of Top Ten pages on the left side may be unnecessary…
Key to the fix for returning visitors was developing the (More) links on the left side. These pages are currently ugly, but pretty comprehensive.
My next step is to hire a WordPress developer* to create context sensitive sidebars.
When this is done, when you are on a page related to “When to Go,” then the navigation will show many of the links currently in the More on When to Go page. This will allow me to cut a lot of the navigation that’s at the bottom of pages.
There’s some plug-ins that try to do this, but all the ones I’ve tried have led to inconsistent results…so I’ll have to hire somebody…
I’d love to hear your navigation suggestions–use the comment form below!
*The site is built on a WordPress platform, which allows a technical idiot like me to keep it going…
15 comments
Very helpful site…thank you! Somewhere on here I saw a simplified map of the hotels/parks but now can’t find it. Can you tell me where it is? Trying to go Nov 24 – 12/1 with a 6,4 and 2yr old. Looks like our best room choices are Art of Animation Cars Suite (least expensive & kids would love theme & we would love the 2 rooms, but looks a little further from where we might be spending most of our time) OR Animal Kingdom – costs a bit more and looks nicer but it only 1 room vs. suite. Any recommendations? Which location/amenities would be better with little kids?
Hi Jen! I actually don’t have such a map…though I’m thinking I should!…with kids that age you should focus on MK, and AKL is a bit far from MK–plus it has very small rooms…AofA is OK in terms of distance, but not great.
See this for resort rankings by convenience: https://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-first-family-trip/where-to-stay/next-best-resort-choices/picking-your-resort-based-on-convenience/resorts-ranked-by-convenience/ It does assume trips to parks other than MK…I don’t have a separate entry for AofA yet–waiting til the last room type opens later this month–but it’s essentially the the same as Pop Century
If you want a kid appealing resort that’s convenient to MK and fits your family well, I’d go with the Polynesian: https://yourfirstvisit.net/2010/05/19/review-disneys-polynesian-resort/ (note that your 2 yo doesn’t count against room capacity limits if in a crib, but will be a tough fit in a crib in WL and AKL.
Take a look at some of these links and let me know what you think!
Hi there, I’m travelling in April with 6, 4 and 9 month old! We have the dining plan plus which give us 7 table service meals. My concern is having to leave the resort (Art of Animation) every night. Is there any resorts that we can walk to from the Art of Animation with table service? Any suggestions on how to use up these table service meals? We’ve book our character dining but with a young baby we are concerned that over booking everything will be too taxing. Thoughts? Please & Thank you!
Jennifer…frankly I’d re-book and go to the regular dining plan. Otherwise you will either be wildly over-scheduled, or waste a lot of money!
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Jennifer also I forgot to answer your specific question–there’s no table service dining wihthin reasonable walking distance of Art of Animation
Morning Dave! My wife and our two kids (15, 12) will be in Disney March 17-22 and were curious if the MyMagic+ would be in effect yet? We have been to Disney numerous times and love hopping from park to park, but hate that you can never get a fastpass to Toy Story Mania unless you are there when HS opens. We will be staying at Port Orleans and hope that the MyMagic+ is up and runnign by then, so we don;t have to fight to get a pass. Also any suggestions for older kids on an interesting place to eat, since they have grown out of wanting to eat the charachters 🙁 ?
Hi Jeff, I really doubt it. The rumor has been that people will give people 60 days notice, and your dates are much closer than that. Moreover, they won’t open it–I expect–during the crowded spring break period, but rather a slower period–e.g later April, or early September… My bet if I had to predict would be it being available for use in early September, for reasons alluded to here: https://yourfirstvisit.net/2013/02/07/2013-free-dining-mymagic-implications-disneys-q1-2013-earnings-call/
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Thanks for the information! Looks like I will be doing the Toy Story Dash with the res tof the dads when we visit HS.
Side note anyone ever thought of having a board to trade fastpasses while on park? We have given them away to other families as we leave the park but if we had some for….Buzz and other for Space Mtn that would like to trade I think that would be good to on a web site. Just a thought! Thanks again.
Hey Jeff, what a neat idea! Never heard of anyone doing it…
Hi Dave Sorry I am probably on the wrong part of the site for my query, but here goes anyway. I am trying to find out without much success (all Google searches lead back to UK Ticket Prices) what we would pay for a 5 or 6 day Disney Base Ticket purchased on the first day of our visit this coming December? This will be our 4th visit to Florida and we dont need the 7/14 Pass put together for UK customers and also pretty pricey. Please can you advise the current on the gate price? By the way we have been reading your site for a couple of years now. Brilliant and we have now planned our next trip for 29th Nov for 2 weeks to take advantage of quiet weeks and Christmas Decs. Cant wait. Cheers. Dawn
Hiya Dawn and I’m so glad the site is helping, and thanks for the kind words about it!
Current ticket prices are here: https://yourfirstvisit.net/2012/06/03/disney-world-ticket-prices-2012-to-summer-2013/ These will almost certainly go up 3-5% this summer, so if you buy now, you can lock in these prices…
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Brilliant thanks for the link Dave, thats a great help. Keep up the amazing work, you bring help and happiness to alot of people 🙂
Thanks for the sweet encouragement, Dawn!
Hi Dave! This website is fantastic!
We are planning our honeymoon and can’t decide how long to spend where! We will be in Orlando for seven days starting June 23, 2014. We want to do both US parks, too. Should we do 5 WDW, 2 US, or 4 WDW, 3 US?
Thank you for your help!
Hi Aubrey and thanks!
I would start with the idea of 4 days at Disney and 2 at Universal. Save your final choice on where to go your 7th day for after you’ve experienced both! See also https://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-first-family-trip/how-long-to-stay/
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