Category — p. News and Changes

Josh and I will be at Epcot today and the Magic Kingdom tomorrow to meet and greet and sign any copies of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit that might show up.

The easy Guide is the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook in the history of the universe.

See the image–which stretched my powerpoint skills beyond their safe zone–for the basic details. Note that the glop at the top right is is not meant as a required sequential set of steps–you don’t have to rip up your signed easy Guide to win something!!

We will be giving away five copies of The easy Guide today, and five more tomorrow. (Thanks to Bob McLain of Theme Park Press, our publisher, for providing these copies for us to give out!!)

Josh has more specific guidance on how to find us on his easyWDW post here.

Be there, or be square!!!  Especially you, the Hicks family!!

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As the part of the great August 2014 Bay Lake Tour and meet and greet with Josh, I’ve stayed in both a newly-refurbed Studio and a newly refurbed One Bedroom Villa at the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge.

My report on the Studio is here. I’ll do a complete re-review of the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge in a few weeks, but here’s some quick observations on the One and Two Bedroom Villas that completed refurb in May 2014:

The wooden floors are lovely…

The stainless steel appliances modernize the feel without losing the rustic atmosphere…

Some of the furniture is retained, but there’s also new stuff–e.g. this easy chair.

The rooms overall are lighter and brighter, helped not a little bit by new curtains.

The new “Bambi” theming–at least in a One Bedroom Villa–is limited to this cute pillow.

More later when I do a complete re-review of the Wilderness Lodge.

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Last weekend I had a ball recording an interview with Kristen and Aljon of the WDW Tiki Room show on Sorcerer Radio.

In it we cover  a lot of ground, but the show is mostly about The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit–the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook in the history of the universe.

The resulting show–perhaps edited to remove our fight about The Lion King–will be on tomorrow at 8 am and 7 pm Eastern on Sorcerer Radio – SRSounds.com.

And don’t forget to drop by Saturday or Sunday for the meet-up and signing!!

If you don’t know about Sorcerer Radio, you should–it’s the #1 Disney fan-run online radio station playing on LIVE365. Sorcerer Radio plays your favorite Disney park music 24 hours a day as well as seven hosted shows. Tune in to Sorcerer Radio at SRSounds.com or by downloading the Sorcerer Radio app.

WDW Tiki Room is one of the Sorcerer radio shows.  Hosts Kristen and Aljon discuss on Fridays at 8 am and 7 pm Eastern the Disney Parks, Disney movies, Marvel, Star Wars, ABC television, Disney news, travel deals and interviews.

The show is also joined by special correspondents Natalie Henley (Strategies for Saving for Disney), Steve Sanders (celebrity reporter), Dan Barnes (Disney pop culture), Mike (Disney Geek Report) and Ryan Kennedy (Bonus Levels).

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As the first part of the great August 2014 Bay Lake Tour and meet and greet with Josh, I checked in tonight to one of the newly-refurbed Studio rooms at the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge.

I’ll do a complete re-review of the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge in 6 weeks or so (I’m staying in a refurbed One Bedroom Villa here too, later this week, as part of the Bay Lake Tour that also includes a re-visit to the Cabins and my first stay at the new Four Seasons), but here’s some quick observations on these Studio rooms that completed refurb in May 2014:

The new look and feel is quite nice.

I need to live in this room for a couple of more days to really see feel how livable it is, but so far I really like the new third sleeping spot/room for a fifth person in these Studios.

The third sleeping spot starts as a simple dining table beneath the TV.

Press a wooden button, though, and you can make the table begin to disappear, and the bed begin to appear.

Complete it and you have the third sleeping spot/room for a fifth person! Plus Bambi, so darling…

This bed is bigger than I had guessed it would be. The mattress is ~ 32 inches by 75 inches– a few inches longer and wider than I’d predicted in The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit–and is 6 inches deep.  The framing at the back has 79 inches clear inside.

However, the mattress sits inside–not on top of–the wooden frame. That means that when I tried to sleep on it, both my head and feet were on the frame, not the mattress.  I’m a shade under 6 feet, so don’t plan on anyone sleeping on this unless they are shorter than 5′ 6″

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

DISNEY’S 2015 INTERNATIONAL FLOWER AND GARDEN FESTIVAL AT EPCOT

Every year from roughly early March through mid-May, Walt Disney World presents the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival.

In 2015, the Flower and Garden Festival is scheduled for March 4-May 17.

The gardens at Epcot are almost always lovely, and they are at their loveliest during this period.

Disney’s own wonderful landscaping is supplemented by additional plantings, topiary, and specially themed gardens.

Also presented are special programs presenting gardening tips, and weekend concerts.

Likely growing in 2015 is the more emphasis on food we saw beginning in 2013.

See the official Walt Disney World web page for the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival here.

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Every year I publish in the fall draft Disney World week rankings.  These identify the best and worst weeks of the year for first-timers who may never return to visit Walt Disney World for the year starting 15ish months from then.

These rankings are based on many factors, but relative prices and crowds are key inputs.  So I update the draft Disney World week rankings the next summer based on updates to the crowd calendars and price seasons for the upcoming year.

• Disney releases price details for the upcoming year when it wishes, typically in the summer. This year Disney World prices for 2015 came out on July 30, 2014.
• I update my crowd calendars in the summer as well.  Among other things, they are based on analysis of US school calendars–which are more varied than you’d think, and also come out in many cases a lot later than you’d think.

Based on my revised crowd claendar and actual prices, I’ve updated the 2015 week rankings. You can find them here.

There were no material changes.  Four weeks have slightly different crowd rankings, and a couple of minor changes in Disney’s price seasons also transpired.

But all the weeks that in the draft were recommended continue to be recommended!

Check out the final (barring typos) 2015 Weeks to Visit Rankings!

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