Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

Chapter 8 of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit (now available on Kindle!) covers “Which Tickets to Buy and What to Budget.”

(I’ve previously published an introduction to the easy Guide, and discussed Chapter 1,  Chapter 2,  Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6 and Chapter 7.)

Most first-timers do just fine with standard Magic Your Way tickets, with no add-ons. But we also cover the add-ons, their prices, and when and when not they might be useful.

Helping people sort out what to budget is much more complicated, as it varies by group size, ages, length of stay, timing within Disney’s price seasons, and, most importantly, which hotel price class. But we do our best…

We also present some thoughts on saving money–and on spending even more!

Click the link to find The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit on Amazon!

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Chapter 7 of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit (now available on Kindle!) covers “Where to Eat.”

(I’ve previously published an introduction to the easy Guide, and discussed Chapter 1,  Chapter 2,  Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.)

We cover a lot of ground in this chapter–how much fun dining is, how far in advance it needs to be booked, our recommendations both for families and for date nights, quick overviews of the counter service options, and detailed reviews of the table service venues.

There’s also an extensive discussion of the Dining Plan. The value of the Dining Plan has shifted a lot over the years I’ve been writing about Disney–from a no-brainer to something that predictably makes economic sense on average only for families with kids younger than ten who plan a lot of one-credit character meals.

There are other reasons to get the Dining Plan besides saving money, and we cover all the reasons, and all the plans, in the chapter.

Chapter 7 ends with detailed reviews of all the table service venues.  See above for some examples.

One of the things most surprising to first timers is the how much fun dining at Disney World can be, and a close second is how far in advance some of the most fun venues sell out.  But Chapter 7 of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit has you covered!

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One of my best sources let me know this morning that Cinderella’s Royal Table will be closed for rehab from January 5 through March 6, 2015.

The best alternative, if you are going to Epcot, is Akershus, with buckets of princesses–but usually not Cinderella (and thanks, KE, for reminding me to note this). Next best, or the best option if Epcot is not in your plans, is dinner at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian with Cinderella and her family.

Another option–and thanks, Jacob!!–is the princess breakfast and brunch at Citricos at the Grand Floridian, added temporarily while Cinderella’s Royal Table is down.

I’ll post more as I learn more!

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The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, a combined roller coaster and dark ride, opened at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in late May 2014 and I had a chance to ride it in June. It’s a hoot, and definitely worth a FastPass+!

I visited on a moderately busy mid-June Wednesday afternoon, and waits were 90 minutes the whole time I was in the park.

With this long a wait, much of the queue is in the unprotected sun. The sign below is from a cast member indicating the end of the line, which snaked down the rail past Winnie the Pooh.

There’s some fun stuff to play with later in the line, and if you arrive well before park open and march straight to the ride, it’s worth the shorter wait you’ll find then, but at any other time of the day, use FastPass+, even though you will miss some of this play.

Once you are inside, the queue is more comfortable.

You then enter mine train cars that seat two across, a little tightly for bigger and taller folk.

Up the hill (see the image at the top of the page) and swoop around–more smoothly, and with a higher impression of speed, than I had thought the ride would have…

…then into the Seven Dwarfs’ mine itself, with some of the best audio-animatronics Disney has ever done–overwhelming my photography skills…

…another swoop…

…and then keep your eyes sharp to the right for a two-part suprise ending.

The whole thing goes by pretty quickly–I clocked it a two minutes and 30 seconds.  It seemed quite popular with those I rode with–and I loved it.

But it’ll be interesting to see what happens after the summer crowds and “gotta ride the new ride” crowds are done.  It’s a fun roller coaster, but not much of one, and the animatronic bits are excellently executed, but pretty brief.

It’ll either resonate strongly and become a classic about mid-way between Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, or it’ll fall between two stools–not enough of a roller coaster for coaster fans, and not enough of a dark ride for Snow White fans. My guess is the former, but we’ll see…

Here’s the details from our book:

Have you ridden it yet? What do you think?

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Chapter 6 of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit (now available on Kindle!) covers “How to Spend Your Time.”

(I’ve previously published an introduction to the easy Guide, and discussed Chapter 1,  Chapter 2,  Chapter 3, Chapter 4, and Chapter 5.)

Chapter 6 is the heart of The easy Guide, as it covers why people actually come to Walt Disney World–the four theme parks. At about a hundred pages it’s also the longest chapter, accounting for more than a third of the book.

After the usual introductory stuff, Chapter 6 begins with an overview of FastPass+. FastPass+ (and My Disney Experience, covered in Chapter 9) is the heart of Disney’s brand new attempt to make visits less burdensome, and if well-strategized works really well for first-timers. A key contribution we make in Chapter 6 is delivering those strategies.

After that we cover the principles of designing an itinerary, and then give some example integrated multi-day itineraries. Because we know not everyone can use them as is–or even at all–we then cover each park overall and review each ride in the parks, so that those who need to can pick and choose from among them. Our reviews are very brief, and meant not to tell the whole story of each ride, but rather just enough to guide people to or away from them.

At the end of the Chapter are the Cheat sheets, one for each park.  These include maps (better printed from here, by the way) and step by step touring plans designed so that people who can’t use the integrated itineraries presented earlier in the chapter can put together their own visits quickly and easily.

There’s a bit of redundancy between the Cheat Sheets and some of the earlier material in the chapter–which is purposeful, as we wanted the Cheat Sheets to stand on their own, so that you could tear them out and use them in the parks without having to pull the book along with you.

Of course you could instead simply take the Kindle edition along with you on your phone, and thus avoid tearing our book up!

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For the first page of this review of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, click here.

THEMING AND ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

Disney’s Grand Floridian is one of 8 official Disney owned and operated deluxe resorts at Walt Disney World.

In their recommended order for first time family visitors, they are

1. Polynesian
2. Wilderness Lodge
3. Animal Kingdom Lodge
4. Contemporary
5. Grand Floridian
6. Beach Club
7. Yacht Club
8. BoardWalk Inn

Many of these also offer Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) studios and villas, all for rent to the general public–see this for more on the Disney Vacation Club resorts. At the Grand Floridian, the DVC offering is The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

THE THEMING OF DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa opened in July 1988, and saw its last major renovation in 2014. While this refurb was not all that long ago, the most recent Disney World hotel refurbs have outclassed its rooms a bit in terms of powerpoints, TVs, storage, bath privacy and other dimensions of livability. For a photo tour of a Grand Floridian room, see this.

When it opened, it replaced the Contemporary Resort as Disney’s flagship resort, and remains Walt Disney World’s most expensive and loveliest resort. (Some cast members at the Contemporary call the Grand Floridian the “red roof inn”; in turn, some Grand Floridian staff refer to the Contemporary as “the toaster.”)

According to Disney World’s website, the Grand Floridian is

“a Victorian-style Disney Deluxe Resort distinguished as the flagship hotel of Walt Disney World Resort and offering world-class dining, entertainment and luxurious accommodations in its 6 striking red-gabled buildings. This magnificent hotel sits along the white-sand shores of Seven Seas Lagoon …With its gleaming white exterior, intricate gingerbread trim and gorgeous stained-glass domes, the Resort is an architectural marvel.”

The theming is sometimes claimed to reflect the design and grandeur of Henry Flagler’s Florida hotels, which were meant to attract well-off Ohioans and northeasterners to his Florida East Coast railroad. Anyone who has seen, for example, the remaining Flagler hotel buildings in St Augustine, will understand that this is nonsense.

The Grand Floridian is a creation of the Disney imagineers, and more influenced by southern California hotels (especially the Hotel del Coronado) than any Flagler edifice. It is the only hotel at Walt Disney World fundamentally designed by Disney’s imagineers, and they did a glorious job with it.

It is remarkable for not only its beauty but also its serenity. To relax at the main pool, surrounded by the glorious buildings, is to fully take advantage of the ability of architecture to add peace to life.

The vaulted lobby is also a favorite, and there’s a group that returns to the Grand Floridian every year in November to watch its famous Christmas decorations be re-created here.

The resort is also popular for weddings and honeymoons. As noted on the first page of this review, the interior decor is conventional and somewhat dull, and the resort has no particular kid-appeal. But for adults who welcome, or can overlook, the dull interior decor and lack of kid appeal, the Grand Floridian is a wonderful place to stay.

The Grand Floridian is a step above other Walt Disney World deluxe resorts on a couple of dimensions, with architecture, dining and minor amenities–such as robes–being at the top of the list.  What it is not is a peer to world-class luxury resorts such as the Four Seasons.

ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

All Disney deluxe resorts have standard rooms; concierge rooms, which Disney calls “club” rooms; and suites. (See this for more on suites at Walt Disney World.)

At Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, multiple room types exist. Standard rooms, and most club/concierge rooms, sleep either four or five, five in two queens and a fold-down day-bed. A floor plan for a standard five person room is above, and a photo of such a room is below.

For a full photo tour of a room at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, see this.

“Dormer” rooms sleep 4 in two queens, are a little smaller than standard rooms, have much smaller balconies, but offer a vaulted ceiling. King bed rooms are also available.

The Grand Floridian also has multiple types of deluxe rooms and a ton of suites. I’ll return to these in a minute.

I generally advise against special room types for first-time visitors, as they won’t be spending much time in their rooms. However, they may be well worth it for families intending to spend more time at the Grand Floridian Resort than implied by this site’s itineraries.

TikimanPages.com has a great discussion of the value of club/concierge rooms here. Though focused on the Polynesian, it applies to any deluxe resort. Moreover, in an experiment for 2018, certain club level rooms that meet specific requirements (mostly, paying more) have access to extra FastPass+ that are bookable at 90 days from departure and free of tiering restrictions.

Standard and club rooms come in three view categories, Lagoon, Theme Park, and Garden.

Lagoon views mean you can see the Seven Seas Lagoon from your balcony.  Theme Park views mean that in addition to the lagoon, you can see the Magic Kingdom, and most importantly, the evening fireworks show–although views of this are off center.

There’s two different types of club rooms, outer building and main building. Outer building club rooms are in Sugarloaf Key and have their own, somewhat noisy and underwhelming club lounge. Main building club rooms are more expensive and have another club lounge.

Most Grand Floridian club rooms are the same size as the rest of the resort’s rooms. However, there’s also several types of “Deluxe” concierge rooms, and more than two dozen one and two-bedroom suites.

Deluxe rooms (and most one-bedroom suites) don’t offer any more sleeping capacity–some offer less–they just give you more space, and more separate spaces, for your family to live in.

Most one bedroom suites are two bays wide, and most two-bedrooms three bays.

Two bedroom suites are often a near-standard queen and a near-standard king room on either side of a central parlor room, with connecting doors. This permits the queen and king rooms to be booked separately if there isn’t demand for the suite, or the king and the parlor rooms to be booked as a one-bedroom suite. See the image.

Exceptions in the main building include the Walt Disney Suite and Roy O. Disney Suite, the equivalent of 4 bays each, and the Presidential Suite, also known as the Grand Suite, about five bays.

These are each folded into main building turrets–very cool.

See the image for the Presidential Suite floor plan.

The two Outer Lodge Hospitality Suites on the first floors of Conch Key and Sago Cay are four bays each. They have the usual standard king and queen connecting rooms at the end, separated by a two-bay living space.

These two suites, often used for convention special events, each also have large private outdoor patios, perfect for watching Wishes.

As you can tell…suites at this resort are quite different.  Work with a travel agent if you are interested in suites at the Grand Floridian. Kelly B is the travel agent I recommend. Call or text Kelly at 980-429-4499 or request a quote below.

For more on suites, see this, and for more on larger families seeking deluxe options, see this.

Note that to all the capacity figures above you can add a child under three in a crib. In standard rooms, a crib fits nicely between the dresser/TV and the closet.

PHOTO TOUR OF A STANDARD ROOM AT DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

This review continues here.

PAGES IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

• Overview and summary of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
• Theming and accommodations at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
• A photo tour of a standard room at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
• Amenities at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
• Dining at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
• The pools at at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort

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 160+ stays in them

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