Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

Everybody hurries to the circus grounds
Time for lemonade and Cracker Jacks
Casey Junior’s back!
Casey Junior’s back!

(Casey Junior, from Dumbo, music and lyrics by Frank Churchill and Ned Washington)

STORYBOOK CIRCUS: GREAT FOR LITTLE KIDS, SO-SO FOR OLDER ONES

Storybook Circus is one of two areas that together make up New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom (the other is the Enchanted Forest).

Located in the space that used to house Mickey’s Toontown Fair, it continues that former land’s focus on little kids, through a re-themed ride, a moved ride, a character meet and greet area, and a play area.

However, the theming of Storybook Circus is much better than that of Mickey’s Toontown Fair, and much more nicely tied to Disney’s legacy. [Read more →]

RIDES CLOSED FOR REHAB IN THE WINTER OF 2013 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

The winter of 2013 is seeing the usual spike in ride closures at Walt Disney World.

With Disney World’s new web calendar, this is a little harder to figure out than it used to be.

(Well, with Disney World’s new calendar, everything is harder to figure out than it used to be.)

But here’s the  Disney World ride closings I know about:

• Splash Mountain: closed until March 19
• Mad Tea Party: closed January 7 until February 18
• Kali River Rapids: closed January 6 until February 14
• Liberty Square Riverboat: closed February 1 through February 7
• Beauty and the Beast: closed January 1 through January 7
• Disney Junior: closed January 14 through February 14
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: closed January 22 through January 24
• The Barnstormer: closed January 29 and 30.

Every year rides are also closed for rehab and repair at other times as well, but the period after New Years and before President’s Day is the most predictable time for this to happen.

That’s why these weeks are dinged in this site’s rankings of the weeks of the year for first time visitors who may never return–why go during a time when you know you will miss some great rides?

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: JANUARY 5, 2013 TO JANUARY 13, 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.

(For more on January 2013, see this.)

[Read more →]

DISNEY WORLD DISCOUNT FOR LATE WINTER AND SPRING 2013

Walt Disney World has released a discount that covers most dates from April 2, 2013 through June 14 2013.

The new Disney World deal includes hotel savings ranging from 15% to 30%. It also claims additional savings on tickets if you add at least 4 days of tickets to the package, but I haven’t yet done the math.

The April through June dates need to be booked by March 31.

See the image below for some more specifics, or see Disney’s page on this deal here.

THE BARNSTORMER FEATURING THE GREAT GOOFINI

The Barnstormer (featuring the “Great Goofini”–that is, Goofy in his plane-flying guise) is a kiddie coaster in the Storybook Circus section of the New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom.

The ride is identical to what’s been here for more than a decade, but has been lightly re-themed to match the new occupant of this terrain (which was formerly Mickey’s Toontown Fair): the Storybook Circus area.

It continues to be a hoot of an introduction to roller coasters for little ones (although they have to be at least 35 inches tall to ride), and is a fun–though brief–attraction for slightly older kids, but for them not worth much of a wait.

REVIEW OF THE BARNSTORMER AT STORYBOOK CIRCUS [Read more →]

2012 at yourfirstvisit.net

Thanks to all of you for once again making this a great year!

I write to help–and to be able to help, have to be read. And for some reason, you keep coming! In July, the two millionth visitor dropped by, and in October a page was read here for the ten millionth time. Thousands of you asked questions, and through these I made new friends like Troy and Joan and Joanne.

Right now you are coming by at a monthly run-rate of more than 250,000 visits and almost a million pageviews a month. Fourteen months ago, the equivalent monthly numbers were just 70,000 visits and 300,000 pageviews, so thank you so much for telling your friends about the site, posting links to it on your own websites and blogs, pinning it, and liking it on Facebook!

(And thanks especially to Steve, and to the Magical Blogorail gang–particularly Mike.)

This was also a year of big investments in this site, including moving it to a dedicated server in June, and buying and redirecting to here yourfirstvisit.com in October.

A YEAR OF REVIEWS IN REVIEW

Another big investment was completing in 2012 the multi-year task of staying in, and writing reviews of, every single Walt Disney World resort, including all the major resort subdivisions, and all the distinctly different room types.

In 2012, I stayed for multiple nights in and reviewed

• The Yacht Club
• Caribbean Beach Standard Rooms
• Caribbean Beach Pirate Rooms
• The Beach Club Villas
• Art of Animation Family Suites
• All-Star Music Family Suites
• Art of Animation Standard Rooms
• Port Orleans Riverside Alligator Bayou 5 person rooms
• Port Orleans Riverside Royal Rooms, and
• Old Key West (re-written review to come soon)

(You can find links to all these reviews here.)

Some of these visits were to resorts or room types that were new, some I just hadn’t gotten to yet, and some were revisits after major renovations, or to re-test hotel rankings. But as a result I am now one of the few people odd enough to have stayed for multiple nights in and reviewed every single Walt Disney World significant hotel option…

There’s more to do here next year—I need to complete re-visiting the moderates to ensure that the rankings of them are still valid after so many, but not all, now have queen beds (hence the multiple 2012 visits to Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans Riverside).

But at least until the Disney Vacation Club section the Grand Floridian opens, this site’s “Where to Stay” section is now complete!

Also this year lots of new rides and attractions opened, especially in Fantasyland. Some reviews of these are up, the rest will be finished in January—but I can already tell you that Enchanted Tales with Belle and the re-done Test Track are the best of what was new in 2012.

And what else is on the docket for next year? Well, NextGen is coming…which I suspect will have profound implications for many…see for example this and this….and perhaps require some major re-writes to this site’s itineraries and to-do lists.

All in, I plan to have a ball in 2013, and to make this site better, and hope you will all come along for the ride!