Category — p. News and Changes

There’s lots of stuff that’s new or different at Walt Disney World that I haven’t gotten around to posting about yet, although I’ve done a ton of notes, revisions or rewrites on the affected pages. Here’s the scoop.

WILDERNESS LODGE POOL CLOSURE

The main pool at the Wilderness Lodge will be closed for rehab 9/3 to 11/27/14.

This makes it a much less good alternative to the Polynesian for those who had been targeting it because of the Poly pool closure.

Wilderness Lodge guests will still have access to the small pool by the Villas, and also to the main pools at fellow Bay Lake resorts the Contemporary and Fort Wilderness. The Contemporary pool is a boat ride away and dull; the Fort Wilderness pool even duller, and both a boat and bus ride away.

NEW TIERING AT EPCOT AND HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

In early June–the day after we published The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit–Disney changed the FastPass+ tiering at Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. At Epcot, Maelstrom was taken out of Tier 1 and Living with the Land was added to it, and at Hollywood Studios The Great Movie Ride was shifted into Tier 1.

We immediately revised and republished the book, and within days I’d revised all the itineraries and To-Do Lists on this site to reflect the new approaches.

CHANGE TO BASIC EXTRA MAGIC HOURS PATTERN

Effective next week Disney changed the “routine” day for evening Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom from Sunday to Saturday, and the first weekly morning EMH at the Animal Kingdom from Mondays to Sundays.

There are exceptions to this new patterning–e.g. holiday weekends and weeks, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and others. Check the calendars for your dates.

Luckily, this did not require another set of itinerary changes right after I updated everything for the new tiering…

FOOD COURT AT ALL-STAR MUSIC TO CLOSE FOR RENOVATIONS

The food court at All-Star Music will be closed for rehab from 8/1 to 12/20/2014.  The arcade will be temporarily converted into a grab and go location, and buses will be available to take guests to the food courts at Movies and Sports (which are also within walking distance).

Sports went through this last year–and because it’s my job to suffer for you, I tested it then, and discovered it to not be that big a deal…

CANDLELIGHT PROCESSIONAL NOW AVAILABLE FOR BOOKING

The first tranche of 2014 Candlelight Processional narrators has been announced, and the Candlelight Processional package is now available for booking.

The claim that LeBron James will be narrating the Candlelight Processional via a live video link from his new home in Cleveland is, I think, just a rumor. But it is true that Sharon Stone is on the schedule–here’s what’s announced so far:

• Jodi Benson November 28 and 29, 2014
• TBD November 30 to December 2, 2014
• TBD December 3 and 4, 2014
• Whoopi Goldberg December 5 and 6, 2014
• TBD December 7 to December 8, 2014
• TBD December 9 to December 11, 2014
• TBD December 12 to December 14, 2014
• Sharon Stone (NEW!) December 15 to December 17, 2014
• Ana Gasteyer (NEW!) December 18 to December 20, 2014
• Marlee Matlin December 21 to December 23, 2014
• TBD December 24 and 25, 2014
• TBD December 26 and 27, 2014
• Steven Curtis Chapman December 28 to December 30, 2014

Because after all, nothing quite says “Christmas” like people throwing holiday-themed panties at Sharon Stone…

HARRY POTTER

The second part of the Wizarding World, Diagon Alley, opened this week. I’ve updated all my Harry Potter stuff, beginning here. I’m sure I’ll be changing it as operational patterns become clearer and after I get a chance to visit and review it.

Expect Disney World to be a little less busy in the mornings…

FREE KINDLE VERSION OF EASY GUIDE CONTINUED

As announced earlier this week, we will be continuing to provide the Kindle version for free to those who buy the paperback version of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit.

The easy Guide is already the most up-to-date Disney World guidebook available–and the first written from the ground up around FastPass+ and My Disney Experience.

Since we will revise and update the Kindle edition throughout 2014, it will continue to be the most up-date Disney World guidebook available. For the sort of updates (and typo corrections!!) I mean, see this.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

Besides all this, a couple of other odds and ends from the past month:

• In June I had a chance to try out and review the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Anna and Elsa meet and greet, and the re-opened Festival of the Lion King
• Also in June and July I published the re-reviews of the Contemporary Resort and Beach Club Resort. I should finish the re-reviews of the Yacht Club and BoardWalk Inn this month–and thus will have stayed in, and re-reviewed, all the deluxes in the last 12 months
• I stayed in the All-Star Music Family Suites again in June, and re-did the review of those too…

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Josh and I did an interview with Matthew Peddie, News Manager for WMFE, Orlando’s National Public Radio affiliate, at the end of June which (after the couple of weeks it took to edit out my clumsier expressions) was broadcast this morning.

The main topic of course was The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, but we also talked more broadly about Disney, Universal, and Anna and Elsa!  Check it out.

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We’d noted earlier that those who purchased the paperback version of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit during June could get the Kindle version free as part of Amazon’s “Matchbook” program.

Since we plan to keep the Kindle version updated–the next revision to the Kindle should come out shortly–this is a really good deal, as you will have both a hardcopy where you can scribble, circle stuff, make notes in the margin, have Anna sign, etc., while also having access to the most up-to-date stuff as well.

Disney changes all the time…plus we have some typos…and updating the Kindle lets us keep up.

Well, we’ve decided to continue that policy.

So any people who bought, or will buy, the paperback will get free access to the Kindle version and its updates until further notice! (Once you have the Kindle, you’ll always be able to get our updates on it–what we’ve changed is the end of June deadline for getting access to it for free.)

There’s a full list of our updates and typos here. Also on that page are links to the large color versions of our charts, graphs and maps–larger, more readable, printable.

Note that on the changes page, all the updates from June 11th have already been made not only in the Kindle version but also the paperback version.  Changes from July 6 (and future updates as needed) will show up only in the Kindle version.

Finally, below is a cool bit of artwork, suitable for pinning, sharing, or posting on your own site!

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Josh, co-author of The easy Guide, will be on the WDW News Today Radio show tonight about 9p–when you really should be outside chasing fireflies or illegal fireworks.

Besides answering questions (mostly about me I expect) he’ll have also some great giveaways–check out his post here for more on both the giveaways and how to listen to the show!

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Update July 21, 2014: the Armed Forces Salute has been renewed for another year!

Disney’s Armed Forces Salute–often called the “Military Salute”–is one of the best deals out there, offering really low-priced four day tickets and also steep room rate discounts for eligible families and their friends.

The Armed Forces Salute is not a permanent feature of the landscape, but rather a response to the recession. The past few years, Disney has made it available during the Federal fiscal year, and has announced it before the fiscal year at various dates.  This year, it’s expected to be renewed again, with the announcement sometime in July.

Nothing is certain until–and if–the renewal happens.

I suspect that the timing is at least partially linked to Disney’s setting and announcing its 2015 resort prices–as Disney can’t fully analyze the deal until it knows the basis from which the discounts will be taken, and until 2015 prices are announced, rooms for then can’t be booked at the correct prices (they can be booked at the incorrect prices, then trued up later).

The past two years Disney has announced the prices for the upcoming year the second Wednesday in July.

There’s nothing magical to this–but it’s also true that with much of Disney business issues, the only sensible way to predict things is to predict for this year what they did last year. That would put the 2015 resort price announcement on July 9, and the Armed Forces Salute Announcement after that.

The best way to keep up with this–and everything else military for central Florida–is to check MilitaryDisneyTips.com and its blog, and in particular to sign up for its newsletter (add your email to the big blue form on the right side of this page).

Run by my friend Steve Bell–that’s him on the right–MilitaryDisneyTips covers the gamut of military-related opportunities at Disney World and the rest of the central Florida theme parks, with a particular focus on available deals.

A tireless advocate for US forces, Steve has built a special relationship with Disney around these issues–and thus is likely to be the first to be notified when–if–the Armed Forces salute is renewed. Sign up for his newsletter and you’ll be among the first to find out what’s happening with the salute!

Steve covers lots of other related stuff, too, and has published a great e-book on Shades of Green.

As you can tell, I think the world of Steve and his contributions.  While we could have added tons of sites and links to our book, we tried to keep The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit as short as possible–but even so, we do refer in it to exactly two other Disney sites: Mousesavers.com and MilitaryDisneyTips.com, because no good guidebook can be complete without those two!

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WDW Magazine’s latest issue–covering every facet of the characters at Walt Disney World–is now out.  If you haven’t yet subscribed, see this.

On this site, which focuses on kids eight and older, meeting the Disney characters is handled by character meals.

But there’s some fun characters you can’t meet at meals, some kids are too young for meals to be worth the money, and some families just can’t afford those meals.

So my article for the latest WDW Magazine focuses on characters for families of any age or interest in meals.

For the devoted character hunters, our book has character-centric touring plans–here’s an example for Disney’s Hollywood Studios:

Check out this month’s WDW Magazine–you’ll be glad you did!

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