Category — p. News and Changes

WDW MAGAZINE

WDW Magazine is the best digital magazine about Disney World out there. Every month it brings articles about Disney World from a group of writers that my buddy, editor Carl Trent, calls his “dream team,” even though I am on it, and a gorgeous set of images from photographers that really are a dream team.

A digital subscription to WDW Magazine brings you not only the magazine itself every month, but also access to all its back issues and to its subscribers-only Facebook group, WDW101 live chats on Tuesdays at 9pm, and new digital wallpapers each month!

What could be better? Well, frankly, if you’ve ever seen the images in WDW Magazine, what could be better is a print edition—and a trial of a print edition is coming!

THE PRINT TRIAL OF WDW MAGAZINE

The WDW Magazine team is offering—in June only—the ability to buy three printed versions of WDW Magazine—the August, October and December issues—for only $30 (that is, $10 each, and your money will be refunded in full if, after you receive the August edition, you don’t think it is worth it).

When you purchase the WDW Magazine print trial you’ll receive three shiny new issues of WDW Magazine in print:

• The “New And Coming Soon” issue delivered in August
• The “Autumn Arrives” issue delivered in October
• The “Holly Jolly Holidays Are Here” issue delivered in December

Each issue contains 60 stunning pages.

To sign up for the trial, go here and click the central button I’ve circled above in red.

It’s called a trial because if enough people sign up for it, then WDW Magazine will offer further print issues after 2018. But you’ll get the August, October and December issues regardless of how many people sign up!

If you are a Disney World fan, I can think of only one better way to spend your money between visits, so strongly suggest you sign up for the WDW Magazine print edition trial! You have to sign up in June 2018 to be part of the trial.

Note that you can also still simply subscribe to the digital edition. If you subscribe only to the digital edition, you won’t get the print version, but you will still get a ton—you’ll get the digital version of the August, October and December issues, plus more news and other material that doesn’t fit into the print version. And you’ll also get the digital issues for the months that aren’t printing an issue (June, July, September, November, etc.). Plus you get the back issues and other perks I’d noted near the beginning of this post.

To subscribe to the digital edition, go here and click the button circled in red at the top right. That will open a page from which you can subscribe to either the digital edition or the print trial.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

Over the course of June, Carl will be doing four Facebook Live parties to celebrate the print trial.

There will be a bunch of giveaways in these shows, and at each show someone will win a signed copy of the top-rated Disney World guidebook I co-author with Josh of easyWDW.com, The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit!

Already have a copy? Give it to a friend, and keep the signed copy for yourself!

MY NEW ROLE ON THE MAGAZINE

I’ve been writing for WDW Magazine for almost five years, continuously since its inaugural issue. I’ve written more than 50 instances of my column for first-time visitors, and also written articles on the Disney World resorts. Also, each year Carl and I co-write an overview of the best times to visit during the upcoming year. This overview is set up as a debate, and I believe that every time we’ve disagreed, I’ve been right (although I didn’t actually check…).

This set of topics makes perfect sense, since my expertise on first time visits, on when to go, and on where to stay is pretty well known.

But the WDW Magazine team did a survey—and discovered something we should have thought of years ago—that the audience of the magazine is almost entirely frequent returning visitors, not first-timers.

So my monthly column, beginning with the July issue, will be about the Disney World resorts—news, refurb updates, and every month a mini-review of a resort I’ve recently stayed in (I’ve stayed in more than 150 Disney-owned rooms, suites, studios, villas, cabins and campsites). The mini-reviews will be shorter versions of the resort reviews in The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit, as the reviews on this site with their thousands of words and hundreds of images are too long!

So check out WDW Magazine—either the digital version, or the print trial, or both! Remember that you can only sign up for the print trial in June. And if you subscribe to either via a link from this page, Carl will sprinkle a little pixie dust on me in return! So thanks—and I predict you’ll love it…

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UP: A Great Bird Adventure opened in Asia at Disney’s Animal Kingdom on April 22, 2018, replacing Flights of Wonder, and I had the chance to see it a few days later.

UP: A Great Bird Adventure is essentially two bits shoved together: a bird show, not wildly dissimilar to Flights of Wonder, and some play and interactions among the host, cast members and avians of the bird show with Russell and Dug of UP.

There are some linkages among the bits, and an even deeper linkage between the new UP: A Great Bird Adventure and the revamped Pirates of the Caribbean (which I will write about soon) at the sublime chicken level, but not enough to make it a tight show or one with a high payoff for UP fans.

I saw it with friend and co-author Josh of easyWDW.com (Josh will likely have a review with MUCH better images posting soon). We both had some trepidation, as we each loved the old show Flights of Wonder and were concerned that the fun birds of that show would disappear into the IP of UP.

Not to worry—well, mostly not to worry. The bird show part of UP: A Great Bird Adventure remains delightful, and make up probably around 20 minutes of the 25 minute show.

A fun and interesting mix of birds—most, if not all, from the prior show—demonstrate a fun mix of looks and capabilities.

And there’s still some audience participation, both from the theater and on the stage.

Some more images of the show (I did not get a publishable shot of the chickens, even by my remarkably low standards, but hopefully Josh did):

The actual bird acts, I hear, vary a bit depending on which birds are ready for which parts of the show. Living beings aren’t as reliable as audio-animatronics.

The Russell and Dug interactions will be fun for fans of those characters, but create the potential for some missteps, as their lines are pre-recorded and if for some reason the relevant birds don’t hit their cues, the audio may mismatch the action.

UP: A Great Bird Adventure is showing in the same Caravan Theater space in Asia in which Flights of Wonder was set. The theater is not air-conditioned, but it is shaded. Show times may vary—for mid-July, it is currently scheduled five times over the course of the day at 10:30a, 12:00 noon, 1:30p, 3:30p and 5:00p.

When we arrived—about half an hour before the 3.30p show—the theater was already half full, but guests continued to be admitted until right before the 3.30p show. I would not bet on getting a seat that close to show time, but you probably don’t need to arrive up half an hour early, either.

UP: A Great Bird Adventure is not remotely so strong that you need to plan your day around it, but if you have any interest in animals or birds, or in Russell or Dug, it is worth your time.

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In mid-March the Spyglass Grill, a new counter-service option at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, opened in Trinidad South.

This is a bit of a big deal, for a couple of reasons:

• It’s the first real fruit of the massive re-do of Caribbean Beach that’s been underway for about a year (and is expected to be mostly complete at the end of this year, although the gondola will take longer)
• In particular, while limited, it’s the first permanent dining to open/re-open here, and is for some Caribbean Beach guests a welcome alternative to the temporary dining they can find elsewhere in the resort. The menu, while slight, has both routine and interesting options.
• Finally, it greatly lessens the extent to which the Trinidad South Pirate Room area is an awkward stepchild at Caribbean Beach. Yes, this area remains the only one at Caribbean Beach with full rather than queen beds, and yes it remains a bit of a hike from the main pool. But the new Spyglass Grill option greatly simplifies guests in this area  getting a quick bite for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Trinidad South will become even less of a stepchild after the Disney Skyliner gondola system opens in 2019, as the Skyliner’s Caribbean Beach station will be just across the bridge, south of Jamaica.

On the other hand, Skyglass Grill is small, has limited seating, and—that I could see—has limited protection against weather, particularly blowing rain.

It’s also distant from the rest of Caribbean Beach—other than a couple of accommodations buildings in Jamaica and Trinidad North, the offerings at Centertown/Old Port Royale will be more convenient to most not staying in Trinidad South.

I had the chance to try it out in my late April visit, and here’s the scoop.

The Spyglass Grill is located near the water by the pool in Trinidad South. Besides some indoor seating, there’s also outdoor seating between the pool and the bus stop, and also some picnic tables between buildings 35 and 36.

The grill itself has a drinks station (you can both use and pick up your refillable mug here)…

…ordering area…

…and a few tables, roofed over and with ceiling fans above, but no particular protection that I could see from weather that might be blowing outside.

The seating from another angle.

Behind the ordering station is a prep area, with another prep area back behind it.

After you order, you’ll get a pager—handy if you are in one of the outdoor seating areas or at the Trinidad South pool.

Reportedly open from 7a til 10p  (I’m not convinced it will stay open that late forever), the Spyglass Grill offers two menus, one for breakfast…

…and one for lunch and dinner.

Note the interesting mix at lunch and dinner of standard burgers and Caribbean tacos and Cuban sandwiches, and the breakfast options ranging from a scrambled egg platter to a pretty interesting looking “Cream Cheese and Guava Stuffed French Toast.”

I tried several of the more likely broadly appealing options, the bacon cheeseburger and the scrambled eggs platter.

The burger was fine, and I appreciated the onions and pickle on the side (it comes with lettuce and tomato) , as (not surprisingly) there’s no fixin’s bar, and your other options are limited to the usual mustard, ketchup, and mayo packets. It was also nice to get fruit that was not in a cup—fresher.

The scrambled eggs platter was even better. Oddly, the toast was the highlight. I am skeptical of overengineered breads, but the “yuca and sunflower multigrain toast” was nicely light, not wooden, and subtly flavored.

Varied and adventuresome Disney World menus have a way of getting dumbed down, so if you plan to patronize the Spyglass Grill, check the current menu here, and ask at check-in what the operating hours will be.

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(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, see this.)

Note 8/4/2019: I am in the middle of updating this review to incorporate the changes at Coronado Springs that opened in July 2019. An overview of these changes is here, and a photo tour of a new room in the new Gran Destino tower is here.

Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort completed a room refurb project in the fall of 2018.

The main differences in the refurbed rooms:

• Double rather than single sinks
• More Disney theming
• The addition of an easy chair
• Wooden rather than carpeted floors
• Higher beds, with storage underneath
• Bigger TVs and many, many more power points
• More structured storage, especially in the old closet area
• Many rooms with showers instead of tub/shower combos, and where tub/shower combos still exist, the shower curtain is now sliding glass, rather than fabric

The rooms continue to be largely similar to those in the other Disney World moderate resorts, but with a few key differences related to the importance of the convention and meetings market at Coronado Springs–specifically, a desk instead of a table and two chairs, and a dresser optimized for two convention-goers.

As you enter the room, on one side you’ll find a pair of queen beds.

The bed side from the back.

A closer view of one of the queens.

Besides the lights over the beds you can see, there’s four of these pencil reading lights–one on each side of each bed.

As has become common in recent Disney World refurbs, the beds are a single mattress on a platform, and are about 30 inches high.

Open underneath, there’s now room for you to stick your luggage under the beds–there’s about 14.5 inches of clearance.

Between the two beds is a bedside table. Note the Three Caballeros-inspired art above.

There’s multiple power points on either side of this table…

…and a drawer, small but big enough for your important books.

Inside the table you’ll find a safe.

It’s as large a safe as I’ve seen in a Disney World room, likely so it can hold to hold the valuables of two conventioneers.

To give you a sense of its size, my book is six by nine inches.

The other side of the room is dominated by an easy chair and a long mini-fridge/desk/dresser combo.

This side of the room from the back.

The easy chair by the window is new in this refurb, replacing a couple of small ottomans, and makes the room more comfortable for conventioneers or families. Note more Three Caballeros art.

Next to it is the first part of the long object…

…with a glass-doored mini-fridge below…

…and a coffee service above.

Next is the desk area with a task lamp and set of power points.

Here you’ll also find the room service menu.

A larger version of the dinner side–still a little better than what you will find at the other moderates; note in particular the chef’s daily special.

Next is the dresser with a 54 inch TV above and another set of power points in between at the right.

The six drawers of the dresser will easily fit the two conventioneers or family of four that these rooms can hold.

The divided bath is in the back of the room, separated from it by a pair of sliding doors.

The sinks are just behind these doors. Note the makeup mirror, new with this refurb.

There’s an extensive set of toiletries, including sunburn relief gel, a shower cap, and a sewing kit–more than you’ll find at other moderates, or most deluxes–suited to the demands of business travelers.

There’s some storage below the sinks…

…and also at the back of the sink area.

The formerly open closet area is now enclosed.

Inside the closet you’ll find the iron and ironing board.

The rest of the bath is enclosed behind a pocket door.

It features either a shower, or (as I learned on Mario’s terrific Coronado Springs Facebook group–also see his site and forum), a shower/tub combo with sliding glass doors. If a tub is important to you, Mario says to request one.

Either way you’ll get a rainfall showerhead and in addition a hand-held head.

As is becoming common in hotels at Disney World and elsewhere, shampoo, conditioner and body wash is available in large wall-mounted bottles.

A motion-sensitive fan is in this part of the bath, and because it is loud and seems to never shut off, it may drive you mad until you realize that you can turn it off by tapping on the left-most of the three controls in this area.

In general this refurb is a positive step. Some will object to the lost carpet, and others to the shower or the glass doors in the tub. But the added sink, added easy chair, bigger TV, plethora of power points, re-structured closet, and other additions are all positives for both business and family visitors.  And the Three Caballeros art adds a bit of Disney theming to a space that in its prior life did not have any.

PHOTO TOUR OF A GRAN DESTINO TOWER STANDARD ROOM AT DISNEY’S CORONADO SPRINGS RESORT

This review continues here!

TOPICS IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S CORONADO SPRINGS RESORT

• Overview and summary review of Coronado Springs
• The theming and accommodations areas of Coronado Springs
• A photo tour of a standard room at Coronado Springs
• A photo tour of a Gran Destino Tower room at Coronado Springs
• Amenities at Coronado Springs
• Dining at Coronado Springs
• The pools at Coronado Springs

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 150+ stays in them

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I was at Disney World last week, and among other adventures as usual blew a day wandering around checking the status of the various resort refurbs, on the principle that you can observe a lot just by watching. Here’s the scoop.

ALL STAR MOVIES REFURB

Since my last visit in February, Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort  has entered a room refurb project.

When I visited a week ago, most of the two buildings (9 and 10) in the Toy Story Section were closed for refurb.

The floor plan (ignore the bath, as it’s the accessible variant) confirms what one would have suspected—that the refurb is following the path that Pop Century set, with queen beds, one a fold-down that makes the dining table go away, and, presumably, coffee makers.

For a photo tour of one of the similar refurbed Pop Century rooms, see this.

POP CENTURY REFURB

Speaking of the Pop Century room refurb project, the end is in sight. Buildings 4 through 10 are complete. That’s all its areas except the 50s.

In the 50s, Buildings 1 and 3 were being worked on at my visit, so the only bookable non-refurbed rooms were in Building 2.

This refurb should be complete by the late summer.

CARIBBEAN BEACH REFURB

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is in a complex refurb. 576 of its rooms were taken down–all of Barbados and half of Martinique–and are being replaced with a separate new standalone DVC resort, Disney’s Riviera Resort.

The current Buena Vista Drive entry to Caribbean Beach will become the entry to the Riviera, and Caribbean Beach will be eventually entered at Victory Way, with check-in shifted from the Custom House to a new area in the refurbed Centertown/Old Port Royale. Progress is far along on Victory Way entry, as perhaps you can see from my lousy drive-by photo (I was unwilling to stop traffic, and am generally an inept photographer).

The gift shop and most permanent dining are closed for refurb—the word is that there will re-open in late 2018. Temporary dining of varied quality and capacity has largely replaced them.

A month or so ago, a new permanent dining option, the Spyglass Grill, opened in the Pirate rooms area of Trinidad South. It’s small and not air-conditioned, but provides a quite reasonable breakfast, lunch and dinner set of counter service options. More seating is available outside.

I’ll post a full review shortly, but it’s a great option for those in Trinidad South.

It’s further than the Old Port Royale/Centertown options for everyone else. In the image, the two red circles are the same size and centered on the two sets of dining venues. A couple of buildings in Jamaica and Trinidad North are equidistant from the dining options; pretty much everything else is closer to Centertown.

The old bus stop at Old Port Royale has been replaced with three new ones, one for Magic Kingdom, one for Animal Kingdom and Epcot, and one for Hollywood Studios. I am hoping, perhaps unreasonably, that shortly the Martinique and Trinidad North stops will close as well, with the six (total) accommodations buildings in these two areas being served by the three new stops.

The demolition of half of Martinique means many of the remaining buildings here are closer to the new stop anyway, and the new stop is just 500 feet from the current Trinidad North stop. The elimination of these two bus stops would bring Caribbean Beach down to a reasonable four sets of bus stops (perhaps five after the Skyliner opens—see next para)—down from the seven or eight (depending on the route) of just a year ago. But who knows? Sadly, I’m not in charge…

Finally, construction of the Disney Skyliner system, a new set of gondola routes that will connect Caribbean Beach, Art of Animation, Disney’s Riviera Resort, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot, continues.

Caribbean Beach will be a key hub, and the station will be just south of Jamaica, making Jamaica, Trinidad North, and Trinidad South particularly well-located when it opens, likely in the second half of 2019. I have to think that the Skyliner will get its own bus stop, as otherwise there will be a lot of road-crossing to get to the Jamaica stop.

The Skyliner and the Spyglass Grill will make Trinidad South–until recently an overpriced backwater–a particularly intriguing place to stay.

You’ll find some Skyliner-related construction not just in the station area but also in the middle of Jamaica and Aruba.

CORONADO SPRINGS REFURB

Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort is going through almost as complicated a set of refurbs as Caribbean Beach—although, since they little involve dining, they are not nearly so disruptive.

First, the old Cabana 9b has been demolished and is being replaced by a 500+ room tower that will contain preferred rooms and a rooftop fireworks-view dining venue. This expansion will make Coronado Springs more attractive to the convention markets it already serves. This building, almost topped off, completely changes the ambiance of the entrance to Coronado Springs.

Second, Coronado Springs at the same time is going through a room refurb. I finally last week had the chance to stay in one of the refurbed rooms here, and you can find a full photo review of a refurbed Coronado Springs queen room here. (Co-author Josh of easyWDW.com published a review of a refurbed king bed room a while ago—it’s here.)

According to Mario’s terrific Coronado Springs Facebook group  (also see his site and forum), here’s the current status of the room refurb project:

Complete:

• Casita 1
• Casitas 2
• Casita 3
• Casita 4
• Rancho 7a
• Cabana 8a

Under Refurb

• Casita 5
• Rancho 6a

Not Yet Started

• Rancho 6b
• Rancho 7b
• Cabana 8b
• Cabana 9a

Finally, a new over-the-water dining venue is being constructed between the Casitas and The Dig Site. The concept art is above, and the current state of construction below.

PORT ORLEANS FRENCH QUARTER REFURB

Rooms at Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter Resort are undergoing an unambitious refurb that is proceeding quickly.

I have not yet stayed in one of the refurbed rooms (we have one booked for our late June visit), but according to Andre’s marvelous PortOrleans.org, here’s the current status:

Completed

• Buildings 1, 2 and 3

Under Refurb (old or new rooms may be partially available)

• Buildings 4 and 5

Not Yet Started

• Buildings 6 and 7

Ok, that’s the scoop on the refurbs for now! My travel agent partner Kelly can help you book–or avoid!–one of these rooms.  Contact her by using the form below!

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Josh of easyWDW and I, co-authors of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit, will be meeting and greeting and signing copies of our books (or someone else’s book, or your T-shirt, we’re easy) today!

We’ll be at Epcot, on and outside of the Mexico pyramid to the right, from roughly 1p to 2p.

Our book combines…

• the un-matched insights of Josh into the parks and dining (he’s in the parks several days a week) with
• my un-matched insights into the Disney hotels (I’ve stayed in more than 150 Disney World-owned hotel rooms, suites, studios, villas, cabins and campsites)
• other stuff we are both just wizards about

…into the best-rated Disney World guidebook series ever published (our Disney World guidebooks have had almost 300 reviews on Amazon, of which 91% have been 5 stars).

There’s not a better way to spend an afternoon hour on Saturday than reading our book. But if you are at Epcot instead, come on by–we’d love to meet you and thank you!

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