Category — p. News and Changes

Earlier this summer the food court at Port Orleans French Quarter closed for refurb.

I dropped in at the beginning of this month to see in person the alternatives.

The first option is a small dining set-up in the old table service here, Bonfamille’s Cafe, that closed for cost-savings about a decade ago.

Here’s the menu (click it to enlarge it)…

…and the setting.

More photos and menu images are on Andre’s site here.

I did not eat here–I was in the middle of important bus work–so can’t comment on how well it is working.

The second option is to take an internal bus to Port Orleans Riverside and use its dining options.

Here’s the word from Disney on the renovation:

The renovation is noted as being through “Fall 2016.” Fall in 2016 ends on December 20…

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A couple of updates from a drop-in at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground at the end of August.

LOOP 2100

The Cabins were removed from Loop 2100 earlier this year, and after what for Disney was an incredibly quick re-do, a new set of camping sites has now opened there.

The new sites typically have a 12 foot wide driveway…

…an offset sand pad with the picnic table and grill…

…and a six foot sand pad at the back.

These typical sites are a little curious.  The asphalt is not wide enough or (mostly) long enough to serve as premium sites, or even fit some slide-outs.*

But the six foot sand pad at the back is too small for all but the smallest of tents, making these not typical of “full hook up” sites.

Then in the middle of them oddly is this site…

…with a 20 foot tent pad at the back. This was the only site like this I saw at Loop 2100.

Perhaps this is an “overflow site,” aimed at all different kinds of gear, but mostly at those without tents.

Note that there’s more photos of and discussions about this loop on the FortFiends.net forum–e.g. here.

*The photo is not from 2100, but I could not resist it…

WATER FENCES AT FORT WILDERNESS

The beach area at Fort Wilderness, like those in the rest of the Disney-owned resorts, is now fenced at the water:

Another view:

I found myself getting used to these fences quite quickly (on this trip I photographed them at every resort), and not finding them wildly obtrusive.

But I did wonder if the internal waterways at the Fort would get fencing as well.

The short answer is mostly not.

The only other fencing I found was near the group campsites at Creekside Meadows–probably a wise move if the groups camping here are like my scout troop.

Otherwise, all I saw were warning signs:

I was glad to see that these waterways are not fenced…

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REFILLABLE MUGS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT HOTELS

The To-Do Lists on this site have picking up refillable mugs, either as part of your Disney Dining Plan, or for cash (currently $17.99 + tax), as one of their early steps.

A refillable mug entitles you to free refills of the drinks available at your resort’s beverage island—and sometimes from its pools as well, if beverage stations are available there—for the length of your stay.

You can also use them during your visit at other Disney-owned hotels, a dubious benefit except for those staying in multiple resorts on a single trip.

In the summer of 2016 Disney shifted from the old handled mugs to mugs with no handle.  So I guess they aren’t mugs anymore, but cups?

In November 2016 Disney went back to the old “handled” mugs, pulling the handle-less cups it had began selling in the summer of 2016.

Drinks typically available are soft drinks; other drinks usually found in soda fountains—lemonade, PowerAde, iced tea, etc; coffee, hot water and tea bags, and hot chocolate.  Other drinks may be available as well.

Drinks almost never available are milk and juices—you need to buy these anew each time you want some.

Even with milk and juices out, given the prices of buying the beverage island/pool soft drinks and coffee over a trip greater than 3 days, the refillable mugs are a good deal for almost all families. They are included free in the dining plans and if bought for cash, cost around $18, so you’ll break even after half a dozen or so refills.

You CANNOT use the mugs for free refills at any of the theme parks, water parks, or Downtown Disney. (The water parks have their own refillable mugs, which can only be used at the water parks.)

Some resorts let you also get free refills at their pools, and others don’t.  If this is important to you, ask before you buy them.

You can share mugs among your family—you do not need to buy one for each member.

Most families do buy one for each member–at least on their first visit. There’s a thingy that prevents you from refilling from soda fountains quickly–e.g. you can’t fill one with Powerade, dump it in a bucket, and immediately get more. You can, however, get coffee refills quickly–the thingy (an RFID tag, actually, read by a little shelf on the soda fountain) is not installed at the coffee pots.

While it has varied from year to year, currently if you buy the Disney Dining Plan you get a refillable mug free for each person on the plan.

This site is for first time visitors—which allows me to avoid the “but they told me I could re-use my mugs on future visits” issue, and the “I miss the different mugs for different resorts” theme.

USES OF THE DISNEY WORLD REFILLABLE MUGS BACK AT HOME

I always bring my mugs back if there’s room in our bags.

Beyond the obvious home and car uses, they also make great horse toys!

(That’s my wife’s Mr. Darcy playing with a refillable mug!)

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The latest edition of WDW Magazine, which despite the title focuses on fun for boys, is out!

The magazine is available on iTunes, for Android, and on the web.

Editor (and friend) Carl Trent has this to say about this month’s edition:

“Walt Disney World truly is a place of Adventure. Everywhere you turn there is a new Adventure to be found. This month we dive into some of the top adventure themes around WDW.

“Arrrgh maties. Are you ready for some pirates? That’s how we kick off the Pirates, Jedi & Adventure issue by looking at where you can get your pirate fix at Walt Disney World.

“Then we head over to Hollywood Studios and look at all the Star Wars adventures.

“Next we go off searching for Pixar Pals. Pixar Pals are everywhere. Buzz, Woody, Mike, Sully, Russell, Dug, Green Army Men, Dory, Crush, Nemo, Flick and lots more are all around Walt Disney World.

“Then we take a look at all the cool transportation, science fiction and technology that makes Walt Disney World the most Magical Place on Earth.

“We finish up at a look at what there is for boys of all ages to do at Walt Disney World. I think you might be surprised by the conclusion of this one.”

My column for first-timers focuses on Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival. Curious? Of course you are! Sample a free issue here. Also, now available is a preview function–check it out! Or subscribe via iTunes, Android, or on the web.

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As noted in the Orlando Sentinel yesterday, for the just-released 2017 edition of The easy Guide, co-author Josh (of easyWDW.com) and I have removed the word “First” from the title–it’s now The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit.

You can meet us and argue about the title in person this Sunday, 8/28

• At Epcot we’ll be outside (not inside like in the photo) and to the right of the Pyramid entrance in Mexico from 1 to about 2p.
• At Magic Kingdom we’ll be in Tortuga Tavern, which is back towards the Frontierland end of Adventureland, from 4 to around 5p.

We had a number of good reasons for changing the title, and all were captured by commenter Jeff on Friday:

“The name change is very smart.

“I actually put off buying the book for a couple years because I’m such an experienced Disney World visitor, and I didn’t see the point of buying a book geared to rookies.

“Once I finally purchased the book, I realized how much I’d been missing and was then inclined to visit your two great web sites.

“It really is the best WDW guide book, by far, and I’ve bought ALL of them.”

Thanks, Jeff!!

We changed the title, but did not remove one word of material aimed at first timers. Rather, we added material for returning visitors–especially to Chapter 1, see the example below–and changed the language to be more inclusive of returning visitors in multiple spots later.

We knew from our first 2014 edition that this book was quite valuable for returning visitors–especially the 80% of the book that is about when to go, where to stay, what to do in the parks, and where to eat.

Chapters 2 and 3 frankly are not helpful to returning visitors.  They are on how old kids should be, and on how long to stay–returners have figured all that out.  We left them early in the book even so because they are such key topics for first timers.  However, between them they only include 12 pages, and because of our simple organization it’s easy for returning visitors to skip them.

Changing the name makes it more likely that the book will find its way to helping other people like Jeff!

And remember, also new for 2017 is our free update program.

If people forward their 2017 edition Amazon purchase confirmation to us as instructed in the book, we will let them know on that email address how to get a PDF version of our updated book!

Here’s explicitly what the book says about updates in the Introduction:

We talked about many other titles before settling on simply taking out the word “First.”  I happened to especially like “Dave and Josh’s Best Walt Disney World Guide Book Ever,” but no one else did.

Come by and meet us on Sunday, and suggest a different title!  But get the book first, OK? You’ll be glad you did.

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Some rather curious articles lately, especially one in Motley Fool, have suggested that Disney is backing away from its new evening program at the Animal Kingdom and “taking the night off.”

I think this comes from

1. Lack of familiarity with the Animal Kingdom’s common past operating hours, which typically showed 7p or 8p closes the busiest times of the year, and 5p and 6p closes the rest of the year (that is, no one who knows Disney operations well would have expected 11p closes at Animal Kingdom in later September), and
2. Lack of familiarity with how Disney for a while now has been under-gunning operating hours in its calendar releases until the final update it does a couple of weeks before the affected month starts.

I have great sympathy for this, as Disney World is about the hardest trivial topic there is to master, with the possible exception of fantasy football.

COMPARED TO PAST PRACTICES, ANIMAL KINGDOM IS OPEN ONLY ABOUT 45 MINUTES LESS IN SEPTEMBER THAN IT WAS IN THE SUMMER

This summer through Labor Day, the Animal Kingdom is open until 11p. This is three to five hours later than the old typical close.

This September after Labor Day the Animal Kingdom is open until 9p every night through September 29, and until 8.30p on September 30. In 2015, in contrast, Animal Kingdom closed at 5p almost every night. This 2016 schedule is, on average, about four hours later than the old typical close.

The average difference between the extended hours of the summer of 2016 through Labor Day and September 2016 after Labor Day is 45 minutes. Hardly “taking the night off.”

To get to this, let’s look at some data, starting first with sunset and twilight to set the context.

THE CURVES OF SUNSET IN ORLANDO

The chart below shows the times of sunset (the lowest line), full dark (the highest line) and the three intervening periods of twilight for Orlando in the summer.

I’ve explained the twilight times elsewhere, but think that explanation was too technical.

So let’s try again–imagine me piloting a small sailboat on the Potomac, as I did in my teens, dealing with three types of the fading of the day:

• During civil twilight, the details of objects are still visible, so I could clearly see what I was about to run into. You would not do an evening show during civil twilight.
• During nautical twilight, it’s dark enough that most stars are visible, but light enough that you can still see a clear horizon dividing the earth from the darkening sky. Sailors would use this period of nautical twilight to measure the angle of specific stars from the horizon as an aid to navigation, hence the name. You can’t see details, but masses of objects may still be visible, especially early in the period, and later if they are occluding the horizon, so I’d likely see what I was about to run into, at least at the last moment. This is a fine time for an evening show.
• Astronomical twilight is the period between when the horizon disappears and full dark. You can’t really see anything, so I’d know I ran into something only from the thumping and sea-muffled screams, perhaps my own. This period is so close to full dark that I wonder if it was just made up by Astronomics so that they could get their names in the paper.

The next chart layers on 2016 Animal Kingdom closes (the top green line) and 2015 closes (the bottom purplish line, with the dotted purplish line showing the average 2015 close up to Labor Day, and then after Labor Day).

It also adds as red dotted lines the 2016 9p and 10.30p times of the Jungle Book show, which is not scheduled after Labor Day—at least so far; most people think it will be over then and dark until Rivers of Light opens.

Three things are especially worth noting:

• Disney routinely kicked off the Jungle Book show in later June and earlier July at the beginning of nautical twilight
• After Labor Day, the park is not open deeply into full dark the way it was in the summer
• However, if you compare the green line to the purplish line, you can see that post Labor Day hours are still quite extended compared to 2015.

The next chart makes this last point more explicit by showing the difference between 2015 and 2016 operating hours and hours open after the end of civil sunset.

The top blue line is extra hours in 2016 by day compared to the same date in 2015, and the black dotted line within it shows the average extra hours up until and then after Labor Day.

In the 2016 summer up until Labor Day, the Animal Kingdom is open on average just a little more than 4.5 hours extra compared to 2015, and after Labor Day it is open on average just a little less than four extra hours.

The difference of the two averages is 45 minutes. So your headline could be “Animal Kingdom Open Almost Four Hours More in September 2016 than 2015” or it could be “Animal Kingdom Open 45 Minutes Less in Later September than in Earlier Summer 2016,” but “Animal Kingdom Taking the Night Off” is a goofy response to the data.

The bottom orange line shows a more significant difference.

It depicts the hours after civil twilight ends that the park is open, with averages up until and then after Labor Day shown in the red dots.

Up until Labor Day the schedule has at least 2 hours of park open after civil twilight, while after Labor Day there’s only at least one hour of civil twilight—with a 75 minute difference between the averages.

So there is less time in later September to experience Animal Kingdom in the dark. There’s enough, if no Jungle Book, but much less than in the earlier months.

Right now for most of October Animal Kingdom is showing 7p closes. (A few are later). As the table below notes, civil twilight ends at ~7.30p at the beginning of the October, and 7p late in the month.

Given this and the pattern of September, I expect Animal Kingdom October closes to be extended to 8.30p early in the month and 8p later if Rivers of Light is not open then, and to have either yet another hour of opening added after the end of civil twilight if Rivers of Light is open, or the scheduling of a second Rivers of Light half an hour after park close, as commonly happens with the second Fantasmic show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Updated hours? What’s that? Well, that’s the second topic on which the articles about the Animal Kingdom “taking the night off” are a bit goofy.

DISNEY ROUTINELY UNDERSTATES EVENTUAL OPERATING HOURS

The same articles displayed a certain level of conviction that the closes Disney is currently showing for October and after will be maintained. But for quite a while now Disney’s operating calendars have shown shorter hours than what it often actually eventually opens for.

For example, Disney is showing 9p Magic Kingdom closes for the incredibly busy later March spring break weeks.  Not gonna happen—final closes will be much later than that.

The Animal Kingdom in fact may close at the times after September currently indicated on the calendars. But no experienced Disney World watcher would bet on that.

The calendars for a month don’t get real until about two weeks before the month starts. After that update is the only time you can treat them as data. Until them, they are interesting tales about minimum hours, but not indicative of actual hours.

(Sunset and twilight data from this handy link—click at the bottom for different months)

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