Category — p. News and Changes

FREE TRIP TO WALT DISNEY WORLD CONTEST

Disney has a contest going on right now that every day in January is awarding a free trip to Walt Disney World!

To enter, go here, click one of the five “favorite vacations” shown across the bottom of the page  (the part that looks just like the image to the right) and fill out the entry form.

One trip will be awarded every day through January 31.

You can only enter once per day…but you can enter every day.

Good luck…and let me know if you win!

(Thanks to this site’s Facebook friend Brian for reminding me to post about this.)

RIDES CLOSED FOR REHAB IN THE WINTER OF 2013 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

The winter of 2013 is seeing the usual spike in ride closures at Walt Disney World.

With Disney World’s new web calendar, this is a little harder to figure out than it used to be.

(Well, with Disney World’s new calendar, everything is harder to figure out than it used to be.)

But here’s the  Disney World ride closings I know about:

• Splash Mountain: closed until March 19
• Mad Tea Party: closed January 7 until February 18
• Kali River Rapids: closed January 6 until February 14
• Liberty Square Riverboat: closed February 1 through February 7
• Beauty and the Beast: closed January 1 through January 7
• Disney Junior: closed January 14 through February 14
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: closed January 22 through January 24
• The Barnstormer: closed January 29 and 30.

Every year rides are also closed for rehab and repair at other times as well, but the period after New Years and before President’s Day is the most predictable time for this to happen.

That’s why these weeks are dinged in this site’s rankings of the weeks of the year for first time visitors who may never return–why go during a time when you know you will miss some great rides?

DISNEY WORLD DISCOUNT FOR LATE WINTER AND SPRING 2013

Walt Disney World has released a discount that covers most dates from April 2, 2013 through June 14 2013.

The new Disney World deal includes hotel savings ranging from 15% to 30%. It also claims additional savings on tickets if you add at least 4 days of tickets to the package, but I haven’t yet done the math.

The April through June dates need to be booked by March 31.

See the image below for some more specifics, or see Disney’s page on this deal here.

ROOM RATE DISCOUNT COMING OUT JANUARY 3?

Update: This discount is out!  See this.

There’s good quality scuttlebutt out there that a new Disney World deal will be coming out on January 3, including from crack commenter Terri.

It will offer discounts of between 15% and 30% at most—but not all—the Disney World resort hotels for most dates 2/18/13-3/23/13 and 4/2/13-6/14/13.

Assuming the scuttlebutt is true, I’ll post about the deal next week, and also put links to it here.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook!

FINALLY, A FACEBOOK PAGE FOR YOURFIRSTVISIT.NET

So on Saturday, about four and a half years late, I finally put up a page for this site on Facebook. (The image is the page’s profile photo–me and Ariel in New Fantasyland.)

Now, no one has ever called me an early adopter of technology or tools, or even a fast follower.  If I’m in on a trend, it’s usually by chance, or by mistake.

It’s not that I’m against technology or trends; rather, my poor attention span means I don’t usually notice what’s going on, and if I do notice what’s going on, my poor memory often means I forget to do something about it…

But these flaws of character and capability aren’t why it’s taken me so long to take the site to Facebook.  I’ve known about Facebook forever, as a buddy of mine joined the Facebook team right after they opened up beyond college students, and signed me up a personal account for it way back then

Rather, I’ve been afraid of creating a Facebook page for yourfirstvisit.net because I’ve worried about providing lousy service, for two reasons.

• First it’s hard sometimes for me to keep up with just the comments on this site (so far, almost 5,000 questions and observations from you, and almost 5,000 responses from me), so I’ve worried that having a second venue to keep track of and be responsive to would mean that I wouldn’t do a good job in either place.
• Second, a surprising number of people read through the comment streams on a page before asking their own question.  That is, the questions and answers here help a lot of people get their issues resolved.  I’ve worried that dividing such material across two places means fewer will get fully helped in either place.

My friends and counselors have reacted to these concerns as though I’m nuts, noting that the site is losing traffic and Google cred by not being on Facebook.  This has not been compelling, as I’m worried much more about providing good service than I am about traffic.

But the other week, someone put the situation in terms that got through even my thick head.  “This site exists to help people.  You can’t help them if they can’t find you.  More people will find you if you are on Facebook.  And then you will help more people. Just deal with it”

OK, I get it, so almost five years after launching this site, it’s now on Facebook! Like the page if you think that this site could possibly help other people.

And if you have a moment, let me know if you think the site should jump on that other hot new trend that’s just emerged this past week (or perhaps earlier)…I forget what it’s called—“twoodle”?–you know, the one that uses what I think are called “mushtags”?

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook!

POP WARNER WEEK AT DISNEY WORLD IN 2013

Pop Warner week is a real but largely trivial occurrence that traditionally happens at Walt Disney World in the first full week of December. (For more on both the real and the trivial issues associated with it, see this.)

In 2013, Pop Warner week will begin on December 7!  Ignore the below, which is now out of date.

For 2013 I’ve forecast (based on the last 11 years of actual Pop Warner dates) that it will happen again the first full week of December—that is, the week starting Sunday, December 1, 2013.
I’ve received lots of questions about this forecast.

The issue is that with the very late Thanksgiving in 2013 (it’s November 28, as late as it can be) my forecast implies that families going to Pop Warner would have to travel the weekend right after Thanksgiving, which strikes some as implausible.  They believe that Pop Warner starting the week of December 8th 2013 seems more likely.

In response, I’ve had contacts reach out to both Disney and Pop Warner, and here’s the scoop.

IT’S JUST A FORECAST, FOLKS…AND THAT MEANS BY DEFINITION IT COULD BE WRONG

Both Disney and Pop Warner have told my sources that there is as yet no contract for Pop Warner to be at Disney World in 2013, and that therefore there simply are no official dates for 2013.

Pop Warner went on to tell my source that “it is always that first week in December and it will probably be the same next year.”

So there you have it!  No official dates, but “probably” the first week of December.

This is not a ton of help, I know.  Based on the info so far, I’m going to leave my forecast dates for Pop Warner as is for now, but that doesn’t mean they will turn out to be right…only that they are consistent with the best available information that I have!

MORE ON WHEN TO GO TO WALT DISNEY WORLD

• For when to go to Walt Disney World, see this
• For the next best dates, see this
• For the best and worst times to visit, see this
  • For 2012 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
  • For the 2012 Week Picker, see this
  • For 2013 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
  • For the 2013 Week Picker, click here
  • For 2014 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
• For forecasting crowds at Walt Disney World, see this
  • For the 2012 Crowd Calendar, click here
  • For the 2013 Crowd Calendar, click here
  • For the 2014 Crowd Calendar, click here
• For seasonal pricing at Walt Disney World, see this
  • For 2012 price seasons, see this
  • For 2013 price seasons, click here
  • For projected 2014 price seasons, see this
• For weather at Walt Disney World, see this