Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

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

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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…

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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 →]

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: AUGUST 24, 2013 TO SEPTEMBER 1, 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 August 2103 at Walt Disney World, see this.)

[Read more →]

So today’s my birthday, and I’m requesting a birthday present from you!

It’ll take less than five seconds, but would be a really neat birthday present to me, and might help millions of other people.

Here’s the task:

1. Click here to get to the site’s home page
2. Scroll down until you see the Facebook button on the lower left—circled in the image.
3. Click it, and say something sorta nice—could be as simple as “helpful site”

WHY I AM ASKING FOR THIS BIRTHDAY PRESENT

I’m asking for this for a simple reason: more Facebook home page “likes” matters to Google and other search engines, and more will mean that this site will be more findable to the people looking for help in planning their Walt Disney World vacations.

There’s lots of great sites out there, that I look at almost every day, and learn a ton from.

But there’s only one site–this one—that Lee Cockerell called “astonishingly helpful for both first time and repeat visitors to Walt Disney World alike.”

And that matters—because Lee Cockerell, as Executive Vice President of Operations at Walt Disney World, used to run the Disney World theme parks and resort hotels (under Al Weiss). And thus he should recognize good help with Disney World when he sees it…

So this site can really help people…but only if they can find it!

And if it’s helped you, then you can help it to help others—by going to the home page, scrolling down,  clicking the Facebook “like” button, and saying something nice!

…and thanks…what you all do could be the nicest birthday present ever.

(See also What You Need to Know Now About Fastpass+.)

ON JANUARY 23, 2014, TRADITIONAL FASTPASS DISAPPEARED, AND FASTPASS+ BECAME THE ONLY OPTION

On January 23, all the Disney World theme parks became be FastPass+ only.  The old “legacy” Fastpasses are gone.

As of now,

• Guests in Disney owned hotels and in the Swan and Dolphin can book FastPass+ beginning  60 days before their arrival date.
• Everyone else with a linked ticket can book FastPass+ beginning 30 days before their visit.

YOU NEED TO HAVE SIGNED INTO “MY DISNEY EXPERIENCE” TO RESERVE FASTPASS+ AHEAD OF TIME

You can’t do anything for Fastpass+ ahead of time unless you’ve signed in to My Disney Experience.  Go to MyDisneyExperience.com to sign up and sign in.

YOU NEED YOUR HOTEL RESERVATION LINKED TO GET FASTPASS+ 60 DAYS AHEAD OF TIME

When you are in MyDisneyExperience (henceforth “MDE”), check “My Reservations” to see if your hotel reservation is there.  If not, you’ll need your reservation number.  With it in hand, find the button that says “Link a Resort Reservation.”

YOU CAN ONLY MAKE FASTPASS+ RESERVATIONS IF YOU HAVE LINKED TICKETS

Your tickets need to be linked to your MDE account for you to be able to use it to pre-book FastPass+.

NOT ALL OFFERINGS ARE THE SAME ALL DATES FOR ALL USERS

FastPass+ parades and fireworks seem to be released much closer to arrival date than 60 days. So far, they seem to be showing up for the next month near the end of the current month .

“BE OUR GUEST” WORKS COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY THAN FASTPASS+

The chance to reserve Be Our Guest for counter-service lunch is actually unrelated to the Fastpass+ test.  As near as I can figure out, anyone with a Disney hotel reservation can try for such a reservation.  You need your 12 digit numeric reservation number.  See this for more on how to get this.

CRASHES, FRUSTRATION, INCOMPLETE STUFF ARE STILL ALL TOO COMMON

Reports suggest this is going fine for most people, and gets better every week, but that crashes, incomplete data, mystified cast members etc., are still all too common…

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