Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

NOVEMBER 2017 REFURB NEWS

While at Disney World earlier this week, I had the chance to check on the refurb status at Pop Century, Caribbean Beach, and Coronado Springs—and also stayed in a refurbed room at the Yacht Club. Here’s the scoop on each.

THE REFURB AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

Rooms at Pop Century are being transformed, with a queen and a queenly fold-down replacing the old full bed layout. Moreover, these rooms have joined the 1990s in adding coffeemakers! A photo tour of a refurbed room is here.

Of the ten buildings at Pop, four are done and two thirds of a fifth are being worked on. Specifically, Buildings 10, 9, 8, and 7 are done (this is all of the 90s and 80s sections, and half of the 70s section).

Building 6—the other half of the seventies section–was two thirds under refurb at my visit. In Building 6, the stem of the T, and the half of the top of the T closer to the food court is being refurbed…

…and the half of the top of the T closer to the 80s section was still accepting guests into not-yet-refurbed rooms.

I don’t expect another building to be added to the “under-refurb” list before January, as the combination of high demand and high prices in Thanksgiving week and especially later December makes rentable rooms very valuable to Disney World…

Elsewhere at Pop, there’s work being done in and along the side of Hourglass Lake as part of the Pop/Art of Animation stop for Disney’s new gondola system, expected to open in 2019. This matters little other than looking ugly–the walkway between Art of Animation and Pop remains open.

THE REFURB AT DISNEY’S CORONADO SPRINGS RESORT

Coronado Springs now has 12 accommodations buildings, of various sizes.

The former 13th building, Cabanas 9B, was demolished, and is being replaced with a high rise expected to open in 2019.

Fully refurbed so far are Casitas 1, Rancho 7a and Cabana 8a. Half of Casitas 3 is under refurb.

Something I’d not noted in my last visit in late September is that the old walkways between El Centro and the former 9B, and between 9B and the bridge by the dig site pool, are now closed.

A new bridge now goes from just beyond the bike barn to the Dig Site bridge. What this means is that getting from El Centro to 9A in particular, but also 8B, is a longer walk, as these are now at the end of a dead-end trail that goes to almost the Dig Site and then around the small cove.

See the image, where the closed paths are marked with red Xs and the new bridge by a red dashed line.

Curiously, the resort maps displayed here and there around Coronado Springs have not been updated, so perhaps this is a temporary closure while certain construction work related to the new tower is being done.

THE REFURB AT DISNEY’S CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT

There’s construction at the ends of Caribbean Beach for a gondola stop (south of Jamaica) and a new DVC building north of Martinique and Aruba.

More materially, the old food options, bar, shopping, etc. have been closed and replaced by weak temporary facilities.

One of my commenters  was recently told that “construction would be done by the end of 2017.” Well, the steel framing for at least some of the added dining is still pretty bare, so unless a lot of progress is being made inside the old building (which I can’t see, of course) that seems quite unlikely.

Both Caribbean Beach 2018 pricing and reports on discussion boards about material being provided to UK folk who are booking Caribbean Beach makes August 2018 much more likely.

On a side note, the framing in front of the old building is up, and it sure looks to me like a porte cochere. This is important, as it implies what I’ve hoped for–that the check-in area will be moved here and away from the old Custom House, which will make Caribbean Beach much more workable as a resort.

THE REFURB AT DISNEY’S YACHT CLUB RESORT

Disney’s Yacht Club Resort completed a much-need room refurb a month or so ago, and I had the chance to stay in one of these refurbed rooms on this visit.

I’ll do a complete update of my Yacht Club review in December, but here’s some observations—and some other thoughts about other new stuff, not really refurb-related but worth noting before I get that re-done review out.

So maybe I’m getting too used to the austere and low-themed style of the newly-refurbed Disney World rooms, but I liked the Yacht Club room refurb more than I’d expected to.

It includes most of the features you’ve seen in Disney’s most recent work—a wooden floor, furniture storage under the beds, a barn door closing the sink area, a pocket door separating the sink area from the tub, a nicer and more flexible shower head, more structured storage, a much bigger (54”) TV, and about ten million charging points.

Disney theming is slender—but I’ll say more about that in my updated review, also to come later.

Other points of interest at the Yacht Club—

The updated gift shop, the Market at the Ale and Compass, now has new options for both breakfast and dinner as of about a week ago.

At breakfast, you can now get a made-to-order omelet…

…and at dinner, there’s now a carving station with a couple of sides.

These are both thin offerings, but compared to what was available here before they began being offered, it’s a sound step forward.

I don’t know if these are permanent adds (there was, by the way, an interesting interaction between the breakfast chefs and an electrician about the amperage of the outlet they’d plugged their induction fryers into) or just stop-gaps until the old Captain’s Grille re-opens as The Ale and Compass late this month…but I hope it sticks around.

The Yacht Club was also recently named to a small group of resorts that are now (in a test) dog-friendly. I saw somewhere between two and five dogs (they all looked alike to me, so there may have been duplicates) but heard no barking.

I also saw this unsupervised cat stalking the new dog relief area!

OK that’s it on the refurb news! Put any comments or questions in the comment form below. Moreover, the long-time travel agent partner of this site, Kelly B., can help you book one of these hotels, or avoid them and book you into another! Contact her at KellyB@DestinationsInFlorida.com or 980-429-4499.

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Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

THE THEMING OF TOMORROWLAND AND THE KUGEL BALL

By Jim Korkis

“New Tomorrowland [which opened at the Magic Kingdom in 1994] was conceived as the meeting place of the universe,” stated Imagineer Alex Wright. “It is an interplanetary hub chosen to serve as the headquarters of the League of Planets. Everything in this land relates to excitement and optimism about the future. Every detail relates to this theme.

“Ours is a retro-future concept replete with all the trappings of an intergalactic spaceport. We all remember when we thought the future would be like this. Tomorrowland offers us the opportunity to visit it.”

In keeping with the theme that this is a city that exists in some alternative version of the future, at the entrance is a huge sign from the Tomorrowland Chamber of Commerce that welcomes guests with its motto: “The Future That Never Was Is Finally Here.”

Walking down the main street of the Avenue of the Planets, guests find themselves in the central hub of Rockettower Plaza. The names are a playful reference to New York’s famous Avenue of the Americas and Rockefeller Plaza.

This hub is the main transportation system for the community.

With so many interstellar travelers passing through this area, some are bound to need directions. So a map of the universe was installed near the Merchant of Venus merchandise shop.

The map is a large black granite ball floating on a very thin layer of water less than the thickness of a credit card. The water, pumped from below, lubricates the stone and creates a pressure so that the solid heavy piece of stone is easily rotated.

Looking closely on the exterior of the ball, there is a gold “You Are Here” star that marks the location of Rockettower Plaza. Further examination will reveal other clever notations including an exit from the fabled Route 66 and not far from that marking is a symbol indicating that fuel can be obtained just like on the iconic gas station road maps of the 1950s.

This unique ball is not a Disney creation, and several exist in similar fountains around the world with different images. It is just another example of a Kugel Ball.

The term kugel is from the German word meaning ball or sphere.

Kusser Fountainworks of Tampa, Florida represents the sophisticated fountain construction technology developed by Kusser Aicha Granitwerke, a leading European fountain company. This family-owned business with almost one hundred years of history is in the hands of its third generation.

In 1989 the first Kusser Fountain known as The Kugel was installed in the United States. Today there are similar versions in science museums, parks and more.

The granite must be a perfect sphere, placed on a base that has the exact same curvature as the ball in order for the magic of physics to make it possible for even a child to move the several tons easily with a push.

The kugel ball in Tomorrowland reportedly weighs about six tons, or over 13,227 pounds. Roughly that is the same weight of a full-sized adult African elephant. While low friction of the water bearing helps the ball to rotate, there is still some friction, so the ball will not perpetually roll, and guests can use their hands to stop the ball as well. Of course, shutting off the water pressure will also stop the ball from moving.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Call Me Walt, and his Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: NOVEMBER 18 TO NOVEMBER 26, 2017

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

For more on November 2017 at Disney World, see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/18-11/26/17

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 8a-12MN 11/18 through 11/25 and 8a-6p 11/26

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p 11/18 through 11/23, and 9a-9.30p 11/24 through 11/26

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open 9a-9p 11/18 through 11/25, and 9a-8p 11/26

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open 9a-8p 11/18, 8a-10p 11/19 through 11/25, and 9a-8p 11/26

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/18-11/26/17

Saturday 11/18 Morning:  Animal Kingdom  Evening: none

Sunday 11/19  Morning:  Hollywood Studios  Evening: none

Monday 11/20 Morning: Animal Kingdom   Evening: none

Tuesday 11/21 Morning: none Evening:  Epcot

Wednesday 11/22 Morning: none  Evening: Magic Kingdom

Thursday 11/23 Morning: Epcot Evening: none

Friday 11/24 Morning:  Magic Kingdom Evening: none

Saturday 11/25 Morning: Animal Kingdom   Evening: none

Sunday 11/26  Morning: Hollywood Studios  Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/18-11/26/17

The Magic Kingdom: Afternoon Festival of Fantasy Parade: 2p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/18-11/26/17

Happily Every After at Magic Kingdom: 10p 11/18 through 11/25

IllumiNations at Epcot:  9p 11/18 through 11/23; 9.30p 11/24 through 11/26

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios:  8.30p every day

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios:  not scheduled

Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every day

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom 6.30 and 7.45p 11/18 ; 7, 8.45 and 10p 11/19 through 11/25; 6.30 and 7.45p 11/26

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/18-11/26/17

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

VENEZUELA AT EPCOT’S WORLD SHOWCASE

By Jim Korkis

Imagineer Alan Coats (son of Imagineer Claude Coats) was deeply involved in the creation of attractions for Epcot before it opened in 1982.

He worked on a film for the Universe of Energy pavilion that at one point was being written with Jim Algar and would have had a dialog between a scientist (writer Issac Asimov) and a reporter (actor Walter Pidgeon) with animated scenes of Jiminy Cricket interspersed to help explain things.

“I think the first piece I wrote was a sequence with Asimov, Pidgeon and the Cricket about using turbines for harnessing the wind to generate electricity, something common today but rare back then,” Alan told me at the Disneyana Fan Club Anaheim event in October 2017. “I wrote a scene where Jiminy in a lab coat demonstrates how to make a solar cell and in another, how to heat a house with sun power. When I re-read the script, it seemed he knew more than our expert did.

“When we finally pitched it to Ron Miller, it was called ‘Dialogue on Energy’ and we were now thinking of Arthur C. Clarke as the scientist and Hal Holbrook as the reporter. Ron loved it but when we later showed it to an Exxon executive, he fell asleep in the middle of the presentation. Later, Carl Sagan got involved but wanted to take over the whole thing and wanted it to focus more strongly on other alternatives than Exxon did who was paying for the thing. Sagan did like the use of Jiminy Cricket though.”

Among his other never realized projects for Epcot was a World Showcase pavilion that he told me about in an interview in 2012:

“I jump started development on the Venezuela pavilion with initial research on the country. Negotiation had been on going with several nations and the feeling was that it was a priority to include at least one country from the southern hemisphere. Brazil and Venezuela had shown interest in World Showcase participation.

“Using the WED research library, I assembled a series of storyboards, actually more like ‘subject boards’ on the history, culture, architecture, natural resources, festivals, whatever I could come up with as sort of a snapshot of the country. The overall idea for all the Showcase pavilions was to give the visitor a feeling of having been to the country, if only briefly, to taste the food, listen to the music, purchase the merchandise, and meet some of the young people from the nation who would be working there.

(c) Disney

“These subject boards became the basis for renderings, models, and ride-system layouts that would follow. My dad (Claude Coats) as show designer used every foot available. He laid out a suspended cable-car ride that snaked through the attraction giving visitors a bird’s eye view of activity below in the village sets filled with shops, the open restaurant, the musicians’ stage, and other scenes. The entire area was dominated by a large-screen projection of Angel Falls in the background on a continuous film loop.

“Collin Campbell painted a beautiful rendering of the interior in a nighttime setting. X. Atencio was show writer and also responsible for the theme song: ‘Discover Venezuela!’ The show was really coming together when Gordon Cooper acknowledged in an interview with Orlando-land magazine in October 1976 that among ten or twelve pavilions in the works, full scale sections had been built and ‘We’re very far along on the Venezuela pavilion’. However, as we know, that nation never was represented in Showcase, nor was any other country in South America.”

Of course, with Disney’s continuing popularity in Brazil, the Disney Company has also continued negotiations for a possible Brazil pavilion to be installed in the World Showcase.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Secret Stories of Disneyland, and his Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: NOVEMBER 11 TO NOVEMBER 19, 2017

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

For more on November 2017 at Disney World, see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/11-11/19/17

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 8a-12MN 11/11, 8a-6p 11/12, 9a-11p 11/13, 8a-6p 11/14, 9a-10p 11/15, 8a-6p 11/16 and 11/17, and 8a-12MN 11/18 and 11/19

Epcot will be open from 9a-10p 11/11, and 9a-9p 11/12 through 11/19

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open 9a-8p 11/11 through 11/18, and 9a-9p 11/19

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open 9a-8p 11/11 through 11/15, 8a-7p 11/16, 9a-8p 11/17 and 11/18, and 8a-10p 11/19

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/11-11/19/17

Saturday 11/11 Morning:  none  Evening: Magic Kingdom

Sunday 11/12  Morning:  Hollywood Studios  Evening: none

Monday 11/13 Morning: Animal Kingdom   Evening: none

Tuesday 11/14 Morning: none Evening:  Epcot

Wednesday 11/15 Morning: none  Evening: Magic Kingdom

Thursday 11/16 Morning: Epcot Evening: none

Friday 11/17 Morning:  Magic Kingdom Evening: none

Saturday 11/18 Morning: Animal Kingdom   Evening: none

Sunday 11/19  Morning: Hollywood Studios  Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/11-11/19/17

The Magic Kingdom: Afternoon Festival of Fantasy Parade: 2p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/11-11/19/17

Happily Every After at Magic Kingdom: 9p 11/11, 11/13, and 11/15; 10p 11/18 and 11/19

IllumiNations at Epcot:  10p 11/11, 9p 11/12 through 11/19

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios:  8.30p every day

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios:  not scheduled

Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every day

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom 6.30 and 7.45p 11/11 through 11/15; 6.30p 11/16; 6.30 and 7.45p 11/17 and 11/18; 7, 8.45 and 10p 11/19

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/11-11/19/17

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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“And of course, we’ve got … a number of other plans as it relates to our hotel business.”
–Bob Iger on Disney’s Q2 earnings call

Note 12/18: this is real.

A couple of weeks ago, Tom Corless at WDW News Today reported that he expected the ability to book FastPass+ at 60 days to be extended to “every hotel in the Disney Springs Resort Area on Hotel Plaza Boulevard” and that “there should also be additional Good Neighbor Hotels on the list when announced by Disney.”

I’ve not written much before about this rumor, but if it is true, there’s a chance it will be announced before or as part of tomorrow’s Q4 and FY2017 earnings call, so I thought I’d put in a bit of context and speculation about impact in advance of that.

WHY DOES FASTPASS+ AT 60 DAYS MATTER

Disney’s FastPass+ system, fully implemented in 2014, allows you to avoid waits by pre-booking what are essentially appointments at up to three rides per day. So far, anyone with a ticket could begin booking their FastPass+ 30 days before use, and those staying in a Disney-owned hotel or the Swan or Dolphin could begin booking 60 days ahead.

While there’s actually been pretty good availability for most rides at 30 days ahead, those with 60 day rights have a much better chance of getting a FastPass+ for the hottest rides (currently Flight of Passage and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train) and generally have more flexibility in booking their FastPass+ on the days and times that best suit their other Disney World plans.

WHO CURRENTLY GETS FASTPASS+ AT 60 DAYS

There are on the order of 25,400 bookable Disney World owned rooms and another ~2,260 rooms at the Swan and Dolphin, so currently around 27,660 rooms are bookable with the opportunity to get FastPass+ at 60 days. (Shameless plug—for my reviews of all of these, see this.)

HOW MUCH MIGHT ACCESS TO 60 DAY FASTPASS+ EXPAND

There’s three groups of potential additional rooms worth noting:

• Those in the Disney Springs Resort Area, which Tom says should “all” get 60 days FastPass+: seven hotels with around 3,700 rooms.
• The WDW Good Neighbor hotels, which are scattered all over the place to the south and west of the Convention Center, but are largely concentrated in the Palm Parkway and US 192 areas (although you’ll also find them near the Convention Center, in Flamingo Crossing and on Chelonia Parkway, just to the east of Pop Century): 52 hotels with around 17,000* rooms.
• Shades of Green and the Four Seasons, both nearer the core of Disney World than any Disney Springs or Good Neighbor hotel (except maybe for those on Chelonia Parkway), but not part of either of the above two groups. Two hotels with about a thousand rooms between them.

WHAT MIGHT THIS MEAN FOR THOSE BOOKING A HOTEL

If this happens, its impact is profoundly shaped by how many Good Neighbor rooms gain access to FastPass+ at 60 days—and where they are located.

If only the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels and one or the other of Shades and Four Seasons gets 60 day access, then I don’t expect much impact, as the number of eligible rooms would go up only 15% and lower occupancy at the Disney Springs hotels (compared to the Disney owned hotels) would reduce the impact even more.

If these hotels plus all the Good Neighbor hotels get access, then a total of around 21,000 rooms would be added to the FastPass+ at 60 days pool. Correcting this for lower occupancy, and also for the fact that many of the guests of these hotels are in them for reasons other than Disney World (conventions, Universal), the effective total increase is likely on the order of 10,000 rooms, or about a 36% increase. This would make the hottest rides even harder to book, even at 60 days, and would pull more capacity out of the FastPass+ system for those who can only book at thirty days.

But, if this happens, I don’t expect all the Good Neighbor hotels to be in it—as I would expect Disney to be charging them for it, and not all of them would find the extra cost to make business sense.

At least until Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens…

WHY ON EARTH MIGHT DISNEY WORLD DO THIS

I can think of two reasons why Disney might do this, and of course some reasons why it might not.

At the basic level, for the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels, helping them become more attractive would be good for the dining and shopping venues at Disney Springs, into which a lot of capital has been poured over the past few years

Expanding beyond the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels into some or all of the Good Neighbor Hotels (and/or Shades and Four Seasons), if done for a fee charged them by Disney, is a way for Disney to additionally monetize what Disney is likely to view as extremely high incremental hotel stays related to its 2018 Toy Story, 2019 Star Wars and other later Disney World expansions.

Disney World does not have enough capacity in its own hotels (which average nearly 90% occupancy) to serve these incremental guests, and while a couple of additions/expansions are planned/underway, these will also not be sufficient nor even all that timely.

Even more Disney hotels are possible—likely, even—but not in any reasonable timeframe. Moreover, new hotels absorb capital and impose operating risks, which are avoided by monetizing someone else’s capital and operations (this is essentially the logic of DVC, except that Disney fronts the capital which is then bought down by DVC owners).

So expanding access to FastPass+ at 60 days, but charging hotels offering it for the privilege of doing so, would add essentially costless and riskless revenue, which by my back-of-the envelope calculations could easily drop another $100 million a year to Disney World’s bottom line.

WHY IT MIGHT NOT DO THIS

But of course it would not really be costless or riskless, as it would be removing some of the value of the 60 day window at the hotels that currently offer it, diminishing the reason to stay at one of these hotels instead of one of the (typically much less expensive) other hotels newly added to the 60 day FastPass+ window. The fixed cost economics of hotels are such that Disney would lose much more income from a hotel guest who does not stay in one of its own hotels than it could possibly gain from a fee paid by the off-site hotel that that this guest actually stays in.

But recall that the distinctive 60 day window is a perk that’s less than five years old. There are many other good reasons to pay the premium (which can be very high, especially at the moderates and deluxes) to stay in a Disney World hotel besides the 60 day FastPass+ access—I recommended the Disney hotels to first-timers even in the old days when all guests were treated equally in the parks, except for Extra Magic Hours.

And speaking of Extra Magic Hours… The example of Animal Kingdom this summer, when Pandora was open an extra 14 hours a week to Disney World (and Shades of Green and Swan and Dolphin) hotel guests, can be replicated (and expanded, to e.g. 21 or 28 hours) at Hollywood Studios for Toy Story and Star Wars. Differential perks can be added and expanded, so that the Disney-owned hotels can continue to command their premium pricing, which we all complain about on the way to filling them.

*I could not find the size of three of these 52 hotels, so used the average of the other 49 for them; a point of moderate confusion is that these are two different groups—that is, the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels are not WDW Good Neighbor hotels…

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