Category — p. News and Changes

Recently this site passed its third year of operation.

Readers of last year’s birthday message will recall that I’m a little vaguer than I should be about when the site launched…

Going forward, I’ve decided that the official site anniversary will be April Fool’s day–it just seems fitting!

(This birthday post would have gone up on Friday, April 1, 2011, but I had more important news to relay that day.)

By coincidence, the site also had its half a millionth visitor March 30.

Three years old is a big deal at Walt Disney World–it’s the age at which a child can no longer enter the parks for free, nor not be counted against a hotel room’s capacity limits.

It’s a big deal here as well–even after three years, you continue to come to the site, to tell your friends, to post about it on message boards, and to link to it on your websites. 

Thanks to you, right now the site is running about 2,000 visitors a day; 12 months ago it was around 425 visitors a day; 12 months before that 160; and three years ago (more or less 🙂 ), when it opened, it was about 30 a day.

I’m grateful for and humbled by your readership and your kind words…thanks!!

Dave

(This is the second page of this two-page April 1 article. For the first page, click here.)

THE ROUTE OF THE NEW NEXTGEN HIGH SPEED RAIL AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

To meet its performance potential, high-speed rail requires some specific infrastructure.

Details include a dedicated right of way; sufficient length to accelerate to top speeds and decelerate at station stops; broad, sweeping curves that start with a large radius and gradually decrease it (that is, spiral curves); and substantial electric power.

The Wildlife Express Train currently operates as a one way loop with two stations. The portion of the loop that gets guests from the rest of Disney’s Animal Kingdom to Rafiki’s Planet Watch will remain unchanged, as no one is in a hurry to get there.

The high speed component will replace the part of the loop that currently gets guests out of Rafiki’s Planet Watch.

The need for length to accelerate means that the routing will extend well out of Walt Disney World; it also means that a large curve will be required to get the trains back onto the property.

These points, not disrupting key Disney properties, the topography of nearby lakes, and other factors have led Disney to propose the northeast-oriented routing on the image to the right.

[Read more →]

OPTION TO LEAVE RAFIKI’S PLANET WATCH AT 237 MPH TO BE CREATED

April 1, 2011: Sources at Walt Disney World have confirmed that Disney’s NextGen Project will include conversion of the outbound portion of the Animal Kingdom’s Wildlife Express Train to high-speed rail.

When the conversion is completed, guests will be able to leave Rafiki’s Planet Watch at speeds topping out at 237 miles per hour.

Until now, the NextGen Project has been principally understood as having three components:

1. An opportunity for Disney World guests to extend the period when they are confused about exactly what is and is not a snack on the dining plan from just their time at the resort to as long as six months before their arrival.

2. New queueless queues with expansive play areas where small children can be lost. As a result, signs such as that at the right are going up all over Disney World (the espresso is NOT a snack on the Dining Plan).

3. An incentive for baseless speculation.

The addition of high speed rail clarifies the NextGen picture. Moreover, the proposed routing of the new high speed rail line presents interesting additional opportunities for Disney to redevelop the far–sometimes very far–northeastern reaches of Disney World.

[Read more →]

(This page is one of a series explicating Walt Disney World lingo, abbreviations, and FAQ for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.)

WALT DISNEY WORLD’S GRAD NITES

Grad Nites are a Disney Youth program (see this). 

Traditionally, several times a year, usually on Friday and Saturday evenings in the late spring after the Easter rush, the Magic Kingdom closes to the general public at 7p, and opens to high school kids celebrating their graduation.

Disney has announced that 2011 Grad Nites at Walt Disney World will be 4/29, 4/30, 5/6, and 5/7.

Grad nights have little impact on regular Walt Disney world visitors, other than the loss of the opportunity to see the evening Main Street Electrical Parade and fireworks show Wishes on these nights.

Most of this site’s itineraries send families to the Magic Kingdom on their last Saturday night for Wishes and the parade–suggestions for alternate nights have been provided here and here.

As it turns out, these 2011 dates will be the last time Disney offers grad Nites at Walt Disney World. See this on the Disney Parks blog for more.

PREDICTING FUTURE DISNEY WORLD PROMOTIONS, DEALS, AND DISCOUNTS

The Disney World deals, promotions, and discounts I know about are linked to via this Summary of Current Walt Disney World Deals and Discounts.

However, all the time I get search traffic, questions, and comments about the dates of future deals and discounts, like this one from Brandon.

These questions are hard to answer, as it’s to Disney’s advantage not to be too predictable on these promotions.

It doesn’t make much business sense for Disney World to incent people who are perfectly willing to pay standard resort hotel prices to hold off on their reservations so that they can get a predictable further discount later.

So just because a discount was available at such and such a time last year doesn’t mean it’ll be available at that time this year, or next year.

This is particularly true if the economy keeps improving, which will lead Disney to continue to cut back on the scope of its discount programs–which it has promised to Wall Street that it will do.

However, that doesn’t mean that there’s no pattern, nor that observations can’t be made. [Read more →]

THE SPRING BREAK CROWDS ARE HERE…

Rick recently commented on this page as follows:

Dave – Good information on your website.

Maybe I missed it but Disney is good about extending hours during busy times.

If you are prone to getting up early you can enjoy small crowds, take a break and return later in the day. If you are only able to travel during busy times that has worked for us.

This is a really important point.

I address it in general–all this site’s itineraries include being at the parks before they open, and I posted some material on Christmas and New Years crowds here.

That said, there’s more to say, and now that we are fully in the incredibly busy Spring Break and Easter parts of the year, here it is!

HOW TO COPE WITH DISNEY WORLD MARCH AND APRIL CROWDS

[Read more →]