Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

Just some news from my visit to Disney World that ended this morning. I’ll be posting more about all (well, most) of this later, but wanted to get some key points out while the thoughts are fresh.

COACH CLASS ON THE AUTO TRAIN

I did a full report from my January/February trip on taking the Auto Train to Disney World here, but that trip was in two different types of spaces in the sleeping cars.

As this trip included tent camping at Fort Wilderness, I needed to take my car stuffed to the gills with camping gear. See the picture (experienced tent campers will recognize that it’s from the trip back, from all the sand…)

So I loaded the car and to complete the Auto Train experience drove to Virginia, boarded, and took coach in Auto Train down. (Actually I drove halfway to Lorton, did the Jeopardy online test from a hotel in Breezewood that evening, then continued the next day. The online test? I don’t think I did well enough…)

The short version: yes, you can sleep in coach. Not as well as in a sleeper (or a hotel room), but you can.

TWO SECRETS TO TENT CAMPING AT FORT WILDERNESS

I’ll have much more to say about the keys to success in tent camping at Fort Wilderness when I re-do my review of it based on this trip (the current review, from before this trip, is here).

But leading up to that, here’s two key secrets that even the most experienced tent campers may not know:

First, the tent sites are all sand, and given the wind and storms you can face any season in Florida, you need sand stakes—real sand stakes, the kind you have to drive in with a tire iron or an 18 inch screwdriver as an aid to torque.

Your tent and fly may both be self-supporting, but without stakes, that just means they are self-ballooning—they will blow away in a wind. (I’ve seen un-staked self-supporting tents blow away with kids inside.) Bring sand stakes to anchor them.

Second, every campsite at Fort Wilderness—even the ones optimized for tent camping–has electric power. Bring extension cords and electric fans—more than one of each. You won’t regret your fans.

THE REFURBS AT CARIBBEAN BEACH

It’s been true for a month or so now that the main refurb at Caribbean Beach is done, so all buildings except those in Trinidad South now have refurbed rooms with either a king, two queens, or two queens and a short murphy bed.

But I wanted to see this for myself, so I drove over one morning and confirmed it.

I asked at the Customs House what the scoop was with the Pirate rooms, and was told this time that “they will only have their soft goods replaced—e.g. the mattresses—and will stay full bed rooms.”

Time will tell if this is true, but it’s what I was told…

THE SWAN

It stormed and stormed and stormed at Fort Wilderness, and when it didn’t, it was 93 degrees with 80% humidity—very unseasonable weather. So I ducked over to the Swan for a night for walls and a roof, air conditioning, and a tub.

I liked the room—and I really liked the pool complex. The bedroom area of a two queen Swan room is comparable to a Disney moderate. More expensive than a moderate, but less expensive than a Disney deluxe Epcot resort—and almost as well-located.

I’ll be staying at the Dolphin for three nights in May on a business trip, so after that I’ll do a full review of both the Swan and Dolphin.

THE MEET-UP

Part of the point of this trip was to do a meet-up and book signing with Josh from easyWDW, my co-author (pictured above with a family who met us), and Jim Korkis, who contributes to our book The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit.

It was great fun—and thanks so much to those who came, and to Allison from Destinations in Florida who came with stuff to give away—but the weather at Epcot was as bad as I’ve seen: umbrellas were snapping, small kids floating away. So attendance was not quite what we’d hoped for…

THE STUDIOS AT THE POLYNESIAN

The new Studios at the Polynesian are both gorgeous and whimsical. They are way short on storage space, though. More to come in a complete re-write of my Poly material soon.

THE NANEA VOLCANO POOL AND KIDS PLAY AREA AT THE POLYNESIAN VILLAGE RESORT

The re-furbed Nanea Volcano pool and the new kid’s play area—which opened the day I checked in—are just great.

There’s much more deck chair space than there used to be, the new hot tub is a hit, and the Poly now has the best kid’s water play area of any Disney resort. More on all this in the re-done review to come

CONSTRUCTION AT THE POLY

Construction however, is not over. Lotsa walkways are being worked on the east side of the resort, Tokelau is still in refurb (though it looks like it’ll be done soon), and as a result there’s lots of construction walls on this side of the resort.

Moreover, it’s still expected that the smaller East Pool on this side will begin refurb soon.

With the Great Ceremonial House and main pool refurbs now done, there’s no reason not to stay at the Poly—but stay on the west side…

OK, that’s all for now. Back to Ohio, and I promise I’ll catch up on the comments soon! After that, the re-review of the Poly.

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MEET THE AUTHORS MONDAY APRIL 20

The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit co-authors Josh and I, plus the contributor of the “Jim’s Gem’s” vignettes in The easy Guide, Jim Korkis, will meet our fans–if there are any–and sign our books Monday.

We’ll be in Epcot outside the Liberty Inn in the American Pavilion Monday, April 20 from 7p until the line for Soarin goes down a bit.

We’ll sign pretty much anything but especially one of our (or Jim’s) books.

We’ll also have some giveaways, especially for those who are around right at 7p.  Some books, likely, and for sure some other loot donated by my friends at Destinations in Florida!!

(Nothing for sale though–if you want to get the book, you are stuck with Amazon. Amazon will deliver to your hotel, in appropriate plain brown packaging so no one else will know…)

That’s me and Josh on the left from December, and on the right Jim as Merlin at the Magic Kingdom from a while ago.

Meet us at Epcot, just outside and to the left of the Liberty Inn in the American Pavilion Monday, April 20 from 7p until the line for Soarin goes down a bit!

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Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

THE FIRST DISNEY WORLD RESORT HOTEL

By Jim Korkis

The first unofficial Walt Disney World resort was not on Walt Disney World property nor owned by the Disney Company.

Orlando attorney Finley Hamilton dabbled in real estate. He had opened a Hilton Inn on Colonial Drive and then acquired ten acres on Sand Lake Road near an I-4 ramp to build the Hilton Inn South.

The two story, horseshoe shaped hotel had 140 guest rooms and a covered pool as well as several meeting rooms. People called it “Finley’s Folly” but Hamilton was counting on it developing into a visible and accessible stop for visitors to Walt Disney World.

Hamilton and his partner paved the nearby dirt road. Hamilton wanted to call it “Hamilton Drive” but there was another street by that name in Orlando so he had to settle for “International Drive”.

The Contemporary and Polynesian originally were to be managed by third parties—the Contemporary by Marriott and the Polynesian by Western International.

When the Disney Company determined they would run the WDW resort hotels themselves, Disney executive John Curry was put in charge and he hired about a half dozen managers from Western International who were originally going to run the Polynesian.

Because the Hilton Inn South was so near Disney property, the Disney Company offered to manage it for Hamilton for sixteen months until Walt Disney World opened so they could use it to train their staff for the Contemporary and the Polynesian resorts.

Dan Darrow was brought in from the Sheraton as General Manager. Bill “Sully” Sullivan was assistant manager, whose job primarily was to teach the Disney way of doing things to the hotel people.

Although it had been open since 1968, the Hilton Inn South re-opened in May 1970 under Disney management.

Besides being a training site, it was also the location where Disney executives stayed, as well as Disney transfers who had not found a permanent home yet. It was also open to the general public.

Standards were extremely high because Roy O. Disney himself visited frequently and commented on flaws.

Oddly, as he was an attorney, Hamilton trusted the Disney Company and the running of the Hilton Inn South was just a “handshake” deal. Disney Archivist Dave Smith could find no copy of a lease agreement.

Hamilton claimed in a letter to Disney President Donn Tatum that he suffered an estimated loss of over $50,000 in revenue during the time Disney managed the hotel. Hamilton never collected nor sued because he felt that Disney would be a great source of business and he was in the process of building yet another hotel.

The Hilton Inn South no longer exists but it was originally in the same general area as the big McDonald’s and entrance to Quality Inn on Sand Lake Road.

Disney Archivist Dave Smith recalled, “to train the cast members who were going to manage our hotels, we leased the Hilton Inn South, on International Drive near Sand Lake Road. At least I assume it was a lease–I have never seen the actual documents. I stayed there on my first trip to Orlando, in June, 1971. They put up most of the traveling Disney executives there, but, of course, at that time there were few other choices nearby. I believe the building is still there, but it is no longer a Hilton.”

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! Meet Jim (and me and Josh) April 20!

Come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis.

In the meantime, check out his books, including The Vault of Walt, Who’s Afraid of the Song of the South?, and The Book of Mouse, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.

MORE DISNEY WORLD HISTORY POSTS FROM JIM KORKIS

• “Summer Magic” on Main Street
• Muppets and Mama Melrose
• Peter Dominick and the Wilderness Lodge
• Dixie Landing and Port Orleans Riverside
• The History of Splash Mountain
• The First Disney World Hotel
• The “Sharing the Magic” Statue
• The First Disney World Monorails
• The Water Park River Country
• The Epcot Fountain
• The Fireplace at the Wilderness Lodge
• Sid Cahuenga at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
• Spaceship Earth
• Downtown Disney
• The Missing Resort Hotels
• Echo Park and Echo Lake
• Typhoon Lagoon

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: APRIL 18 TO APRIL 26, 2015

The material below details operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

The same stuff is in the image, but organized by park, not by topic. For more on April 2015 at Walt Disney World, click here.

Note that typos happen, and schedules change! If something seems odd, or if you want to double check, use the calendar links near the bottom to get the latest official Disney World scoop.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 4/18/-4/26/2015

The Magic Kingdom will be open 8a-12MN 4/18, 9a-11p 4/19, 9a-12MN 4/20 and 4/21, 9a-11p 4/22, 9a-12MN 4/23 and 4/24, 8a-12MN 4/25 and 9a-12MN 4/26

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open 9a-8.30p 4/18, 9a-8p 4/19, 9a-8.30p 4/20, 9a-8p 4/21, 9a-8.30p 4/22, 9a-8p 4/23, and 9a-8.30p 4/24 through 4/26

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open 9a-7p 4/18 through 4/21; 9a-6p 4/22; 9a-7p 4/23; 9a-6p 4/24 and 9a-7p 4/25 and 4/26

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 4/18/-4/26/2015

Saturday 4/18 Morning:  Hollywood Studios Evening: Magic Kingdom

Sunday 4/19 Morning:  Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Monday 4/20 Morning: none  Evening: Hollywood Studios

Tuesday 4/21 Morning: Epcot Evening:  none

Wednesday 4/22 Morning:  Animal Kingdom  Evening:  none

Thursday 4/23 Morning: Magic Kingdom  Evening: none

Friday 4/24 Morning: none Evening: Epcot

Saturday 4/25 Morning:  Hollywood Studios Evening: Magic Kingdom

Sunday 4/26  Morning: Animal Kingdom  Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 4/18/-4/26/2015

The Magic Kingdom:

• Afternoon Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3p every day
• Evening Main Street Electrical Parade: 9 and 11p every day

FIREWORKS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 4/18-4/26/2015

Wishes at the Magic Kingdom: 10p every night

Illuminations at Epcot: 9p every night

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8.30 and 10p 4/18; 8.30p 4/19; 8.30 and 10p 4/20; 8.30p 4/21: 8.30 and 10p 4/22; 8.30p 4/23; 8.30 and 10p 4/24 through 4/26

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 4/18/-4/26/2015

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

LONG RANGE WEATHER FORECAST FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 4/18/-4/26/2015

See this for forecasts.

DISCLAIMER

Everything is subject to change and typos! Check the Disney Calendars for updates and official schedules. These calendars can be found by clicking the following links:

• Magic Kingdom Calendar
• Hollywood Studios Calendar
• Animal Kingdom Calendar
• Epcot Calendar

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The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit co-authors Josh and I, plus the contributor of the “Jim’s Gem’s” vignettes in The easy Guide, Jim Korkis, will meet our fans–if there are any–and sign our books next Monday.

We’ll be in Epcot outside the Liberty Inn in the American Pavilion Monday, April 20 from 7p until the line for Soarin goes down a bit.

We’ll sign pretty much anything but especially one of our (or Jim’s) books.

We’ll also have some giveaways, especially for those who are around right at 7p.  Some books, likely, and for sure some other loot donated by my friends at Destinations in Florida!!

(Nothing for sale though–if you want to get the book, you are stuck with Amazon. Amazon will deliver to your hotel, in appropriate plain brown packaging so no one else will know…)

That’s me and Josh on the left from December, and on the right Jim as Merlin at the Magic Kingdom from a while ago.

Meet us at Epcot, just outside and to the left of the Liberty Inn in the American Pavilion Monday, April 20 from 7p until the line for Soarin goes down a bit!

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As of yesterday I’ve fully published my re-review of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.

The first page of the re-review is here, and the full set of pages in the review is this:

• Overview of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• The Little Mermaid Area and Rooms
• Photo Tour of a Little Mermaid Room
• Overview of the Family Suites Areas
• Accommodations in the Family Suites
• Photo Tour of a Finding Nemo Family Suite (plus bed dimensions, storage, etc.)
• Photo Tour of a Lion King Family Suite
• Photo Tour of a Cars Family Suite
• Amenities at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• The Pools at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort

Normally I don’t put up an “announcement” post like this, since the new material will show up in my “Most Recent Stuff” box on the right sidebar. But this time, instead of posting all-new pages, I (mostly) re-did pages that already exist…and thereby hangs a tale.

(Note that most of you won’t care, and should go straight to the new review.)

MY LIFE AT ART OF ANIMATION

The old material on Art of Animation was literally scattered over 11 pages from five different visits, and it was figuring out what to do with the material from my sixth visit that led me to rewrite rather than post new pages.

• We stayed in a Finding Nemo Family Suite in June 2012, the week that Art of Animation opened, and I published a three page review shortly after.
• We stayed in a Little Mermaid standard room in September 2012, shortly after these rooms opened, and I published a three page review of these rooms shortly after.
• A few weeks later, I realized that to be parallel to the other reviews on this site I needed an overview of the whole resort, so I did three pages on that—with a lot of overlap with the first two sets of reviews.
• In August 2013, three things happened: I got a new camera, stayed in a Lion King suite, and stayed in a Cars suite. I updated many (but not all) of the exterior photos in the nine pages I’d already published with stuff from the new camera, and published new pages with photo tours of each of the Lion King and Cars suites.
• In February 2014 I revisited a Little Mermaid room with the new camera, and updated the room and area photos from that visit.
• In December 2014 we re-visited a Finding Nemo suite, and I got updated Nemo and resort images on that trip.

Now, my initial thought had been simply to rewrite everything from scratch, killing a lot of redundancies and providing a flow from topic to topic that better matched the rest of the reviews on this site.

Almost all my reviews have gone through two or even three revisions (as I revisit hotels either after refurbs or to get better pix) and this is what I’ve always done in the past. Technically, what I do is once the new material is out, I use a 301 redirect to send all the old pages to the first page of the new review. This way I keep most old links (internal or external) still useful.

For Art of Animation, though, this didn’t quite work, as the room types are so different and my original posts so distinct in their topics that many links appropriately go just to the Family Suites, just to the Little Mermaid rooms, or (for example) just to the Cars suites and not to the Nemo or Lion King ones.

So what I did instead was keep mostly to the same topics of the old pages, but updated the material and photos on them, killed most of the redundancy (since people don’t always begin on page 1, there’s always gonna be some redundancy), and posted only two new pages (on amenities and pools) to fit the structure of most of my other recent reviews.

This kept the integrity of the old links while giving me complete freedom (so long as I stayed on the topic of the old page!!) for re-writes and new images. As it turned out, of the old 11 pages, 8 could keep their same topics, and only 3 needed redirects.

This also had the virtue of preserving the comments (450+), pins (1500+), Facebook likes (130+, must do better) etc., still to the topics where these were initially created.

New posts with redirects would have lost every one of these. Since Art of Animation is still a new and hot topic, this is good—especially when you note that on this site 450 comments typically means 225 questions from you and 225 answers from me…

A NEW TREND…

I have similar problems/opportunities with my All-Star Music and Port Orleans Riverside reviews.

On Music I have separate reviews of the standard rooms and the family suites, and a bucket of (much better) updated photos of the exteriors and of a standard room from my January visit.

On Riverside I have one main review, but also separate reviews of the 5 person Alligator Bayou and 4 person Royal Rooms—plus much better photos of a standard room from my February visit.

So for each I’ll be re-crafting THEM into single integrated reviews, but like I just did for Art of Animation, I’ll be putting the new material on top of the old pages so that the specific links and shares and pins—e.g. to a Royal Room, or a Family Suite comparison—still work.

In other words, yes I am behind on my reviews again…and tomorrow I depart to Disney World to stay in 3 more resorts!—for an updated review of the Fort Wilderness’s campsites, a stay in one of the new Poly Studios (and review of the refurbed pool, Trader Sams, etc.), and a stay at the Swan! Oh, well…

SOMETHING ELSE, WHAT DO YOU THINK??

Another new thing I did in the Art of Animation update was to revise how the flow of links across the review worked.

Traditionally you’d find something like these numeric links (from my Grand Floridian review):

This time, instead on each page I did text links that show the topic of each page:

• Overview of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• The Little Mermaid Area and Rooms
• Photo Tour of a Little Mermaid Room
• Overview of the Family Suites Areas
• Accommodations in the Family Suites
• Photo Tour of a Finding Nemo Family Suite (plus bed dimensions, storage, etc.)
• Photo Tour of a Lion King Family Suite
• Photo Tour of a Cars Family Suite
• Amenities at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• The Pools at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort

I think the new version is uglier, but much more helpful.

Since I am the former, and my goal is the latter, I’m OK with that!

But those of you who have paged through my other reviews using the old numeric link structure—what do YOU think??

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