Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: AUGUST 31, 2013 TO SEPTEMBER 8, 2013

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

The same stuff is in the table, but organized by park, not by topic.

(And for more on September 2103 at Walt Disney World, see this.)

[Read more →]

…but I haven’t yet read the Twitter etiquette manuals being trucked in…so expect little. @yourfirstvisit

Here’s my first incoming and outgoing tweets:

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter!

For the first page of this review of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, see this.

THE CARS FAMILY SUITES AT DISNEY’S ART OF ANIMATION RESORT

(Note: this photo-tour of a Cars Family Suite at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort is a supplement to the full photo tour of a Finding Nemo Family Suites that’s here. At that link you’ll find a floor plan, and also much more detail on such items as bed dimensions, actual storage space, etc.)

The three types of Family Suites at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort–Cars, viewed here, Finding Nemo, and Lion King–have almost identical floor plans, varying only here and there in minor furnishings.

A refurb currently in process is shifting the floors to wood laminate, and the queen bed in the separate bedroom to a platform bed–which adds storage underneath. I’ll have updated images later in 2020.

You enter the Cars Family Suites from the dining room, with the dining room table and access to the master bedroom on one side…

…and access to the second bath, mini-kitchen and living room on the other.

The dining table improbably folds down into a bed. Note the darling sleepy Mater on the headboard–a larger image is at the top of the page.

Beyond the dining area, through a door, you’ll find the master bedroom with a queen bed on one side. The master bedroom in Cars is the most lightly themed of those in the Art of Animation Family Suites.

Here’s the other side of the master bedroom.

Accessible from the master bedroom is the master bath, with fun car-wash theming around the sink (well, I think it’s fun)…

…and a simple large shower.

The second bath is accessible from the open part of the Family Suite, and is divided into a sink area–also car-wash themed…

…and separate space with a toilet and tub. Note the silly shower curtain.

One side of the living room has the couch and mini-kitchen.

Here’s another view of the couch–note the auto-themed upholstery…

…and here’s the couch folded out into a bed.

The biggest difference between the Cars Family Suites and the other two types at Art of Animation is the coffee table. This actually matters…

In the Finding Nemo and Lion King Family Suites (Lion King is shown above), you won’t find a single coffee table, but rather two small round ones that also can serve as stools, so that the room can seat six.  The stools can also be dragged over to the dining room table so that it can hold around it 6 as well.

In Cars, instead you’ll find this amoeba-shaped single table with a map of Radiator Springs.

You can still seat six in the living room, if you grab two chairs from the dining room and pull them in. Moreover, this table appeared sturdy enough to serve as a bench at the dining room table…but not quite so flexibly as the little stools in the other suites.  But if you break it you buy it!

Also on this side of the main living space you’ll find the mini-kitchen.  Note the garage/shop theming…

…which is also picked up on the opposite TV-side wall, where you’ll find the second hanging rod in the suite, TV and dresser storage, and a chair.

I really like the wall art in these rooms…

Personally, my favorite decor among the Family Suite options at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort is that of this Cars room. But that doesn’t really matter. If your kids love all of these movies, they will love all of these rooms!

AMENITIES AT DISNEY’S ART OF ANIMATION RESORT

This review continues here!

MATERIAL IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S ART OF ANIMATION RESORT

• 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

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

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

Welcome to those of you joining me from the Magik Mouse and those of you just hopping aboard!

I am the 4th stop on Magical Blogorail Teal. Enjoy the ride as this month we share our favorite Disney World splurges.

GOING TO WALT DISNEY WORLD FOUR TO SIX TIMES A YEAR

So since I started working on this site about eight years ago, and launched it around 5 years ago,   I’ve been going to Walt Disney World from yourfirstvisit.net’s World Headquarters–Northeast Ohio–a lot…

…usually four to six time a year–as you can tell from my disboards signature above.

There’s two reasons for this splurge: because I can…and because I must.

GOING TO WALT DISNEY WORLD BECAUSE I CAN

Usually one trip a year is with the whole family, and another is associated with a conference in Orlando related to my general business (I’m a strategist), or to a specific client I’m serving.

Family trips are tied to a big event worth seeing, and also worth reporting on the site–for example, in 2012 it was the opening of New Fantasyland, and in 2011 the Magic Kingdom’s 40th anniversary.  But these are mostly just vacations…even though I will drive my family crazy by how scheduled these visits can get: “We have to get to Epcot now to get Fastpasses for the renovated Test-Track!”

Business trips are typically tied to building my skills as a strategist (e.g. the Disney Analytic and Optimization Summit in 2012), or to a specific subject matter I need to learn more about related to a client I’m serving–hence a visit to a Medical Simulation professional society meeting in January of 2013, and a planned visit to a health care IT conference in Orlando in late February 2014. On these trips I arrive early, stay late…or both…and stay in a Disney World hotel or three…

So a couple of visits a year come became they can, as part of our family vacation plans, or my professional development goals…which oddly enough just happen to synchronize with Orlando meetings!  Go figure…

GOING TO WALT DISNEY WORLD BECAUSE I MUST

The other trips…well, over time, as this site has developed a deep and faithful readership, it’s become pretty clear that people expect pretty quickly news on key changes as they occur at Walt Disney World–reports on new hotels and rides, and on updates and refurbishments.

Keeping up with the hotels is a particular challenge, as there are so many of them, and they are refurbed so often.  Well, it may not seem that often to you, but with 30-ish hotels having, typically, refurbs every 5 years…that’s six hotels a year.

I have stayed in every Disney World owned and operated lodging option, and for those with distinctive room types, all the major room types as well.  I’m not sure anyone else who writes a site like this has done so…This creates a very distinctive body of material for those of you checking out the reviews on where to stay.

But it’s also a lot of time, work, and money!

Luckily you all are kind enough to patronize the sponsors of the site, and find some of the ads on the site of interest too.  These actions by you basically pay for all the visits (and the other expenses of the site as well) and allow me to splurge on making all these trips!

MORE DISNEY WORLD SPLURGES FROM MAGICAL BLOGORAIL TEAL

Thank you for joining me today. Your next stop on the Magical Blogorail Teal Loop is The Many Adventures of a Disney Lovin’ Spectrum Mom

Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail Teal loop should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:

• 1st Stop ~ Disney with Babies, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
• 2nd Stop ~  The Disney Kids
• 3rd Stop ~  Magik Mouse
• 4th Stop ~ yourfirstvisit.net
• Final Stop ~ The Many Adventures of a Disney Lovin’ Spectrum Mom

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook!

Multiple people have reported on this disboards thread that they are getting Fastpass+ reservations well into October, and at many more resorts than those involved in the August test.

Moreover, this has also been confirmed by my friends at Destinations in Florida.

As a result, I’ve updated both What You Need to Know Now About Fastpass+ and Frequently Asked Questions about Fastpass+.

(And by the way, if you are looking at old posts anyway….it’s still not too late to give me a present for my birthday!)

So here’s the scoop, as reflected in more detail in those pages:

• The Fastpass+ test is going well into October–though, if your arrival date is more than 60 days away, you won’t be able to do anything until it hits 60 days.
• Disney World resort hotels in the Fastpass+ test include Animal Kingdom Lodge, Art of Animation, Beach Club, Contemporary, Pop Century, Polynesian, Port Orleans Riverside, and Pop Century.

As the Mysterious A had noted in What You Need to Know Now About Fastpass+, it seems like the model is that resorts in the test will continue in the test, and that more will be added over time!

This makes sense, as all the staff and systems at those hotels are up to speed on the new program…

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook!

DISNEY WORLD 2014 SUMMER CROWDS: THE PRINCIPLES

Walt Disney World summer crowds are governed by two factors:

• Public school summer break calendars, which have start and end dates more varied than you’d think
• The beginning of the peak of the hurricane season, in later August

Pretty much all kids are off all of July. As a result, July is the busiest summer month, and during it, the weeks shaped by 4th of July travel the busiest week.

Later July is also the traditional South American winter break.

However, in 2014 the FIFA championships in Brazil June 12 to July 13 may absorb many soccer-mad South American fans’ vacation budgets, leading to a little less Disney World visitation in the winter break.  I haven’t adjusted my crowd calendars for this, as the parks will still be plenty mobbed! But later July might be a bit better than forecast.

Varied dates for when summer breaks begin means June can start well but then build quickly to high crowd levels.

August has the opposite pattern, beginning with high crowds, but, through the combination of a trickle turning to a flood of back-to-school dates, and savvy travelers avoiding the peak of the hurricane season, it ends quite un-crowded.

Summer school calendars have been evolving to earlier August starts and as a result earlier June releases.  This has made early June less good, and mid-late August, better, than in prior years. My 2014 forecasts reflect this.

Families that can only visit in the summer (for example, school teachers) should go as early in June or as late in August as their schedules permit. [Read more →]