Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE ROYAL ROOMS

ROYAL ROOMS AT PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE

There are two Port Orleans resorts at Walt Disney World: Port Orleans French Quarter and Port Orleans Riverside.

On the map, French Quarter is the purple area on the right, and Riverside the green area on the left.

Port Orleans Riverside has two areas and three distinct room types.

Its Alligator Bayou area comprises the groups of buildings on the lower left corner of the map.  These rooms sleep five in two queen beds and one short (~66 inches long) Murphy bed.

Its Magnolia Bend area (the four blocks of rooms at the top of the Riverside part of the map) has two room types, Royal Rooms and Standard Rooms, each sleeping four in two queen beds.

This page reviews the Magnolia Bend Royal Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside.

REVIEW OF THE ROYAL ROOMS [Read more →]

ROOM RATE DISCOUNT COMING OUT JANUARY 3?

Update: This discount is out!  See this.

There’s good quality scuttlebutt out there that a new Disney World deal will be coming out on January 3, including from crack commenter Terri.

It will offer discounts of between 15% and 30% at most—but not all—the Disney World resort hotels for most dates 2/18/13-3/23/13 and 4/2/13-6/14/13.

Assuming the scuttlebutt is true, I’ll post about the deal next week, and also put links to it here.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook!

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: DECEMBER 29, 2012 TO JANUARY 6, 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 December 2012, see this.)

[Read more →]

AN ENCHANTING ATTRACTION

Enchanted Tales with Belle, a New Fantasyland attraction that had its formal Magic Kingdom opening in early December 2012, is by far the best recent Disney World offering.

Described by some as a “character meet,” it is so much more–and in one way a little bit less–than the routine character meet and greet at Walt Disney World that it deserves to be classed as an attraction.

Enchanted Tales with Belle is as charming and fun an attraction as you will find in the Magic Kingdom.  While little kids who volunteer to appear in the “show” (more on that later) will have the most fun, all ages will be delighted by the overall experience.

Even if your kids are in their 20s, there’s wonderful magic here, and watching the little ones put on the show is more than half the fun. [Read more →]

DUMBO IN NEW FANTASYLAND

Dumbo–a simple and undistinguished flying elephant ride–has been a mainstay in the Magic Kingdom since the park opened, delighting millions of toddlers, not so much their parents.

As part of the Fantasyland expansion project, Dumbo has been moved to the new Storybook Circus section of Fantasyland (where Toontown Fair used to be located), spiffed up, added to the FASTPASS program, duplicated so that there are now two copies of the basic Dumbo ride, and had an air-conditioned indoor waiting play area added.

For both parents and little ones, the changes are an improvement.

For the little ones who love Dumbo so much, the ride has the same appeal to little kids that it (and its earlier incarnation at Disneyland) has always had. Little ones will enjoy the added color and action of the new Storybook Circus setting, and the play opportunity in the stand-by line.

(The image is my sister and I on Dumbo at Disneyland in the late 60s.)

For the parents who wait with these kids, the changes–so far–have been a godsend.

The addition of FASTPASSES and the doubling of capacity means wait times are down, and the air-conditioned play area both increases the comfort and decreases the boredom the waiting line.

It’s still just Dumbo–skippable for all but the younger set–but Dumbo with a faster moving, more comfortable line than it’s ever had before, and a more charming and thematically appropriate setting in Storybook Circus!

UNDER THE SEA ~ JOURNEY OF THE LITTLE MERMAID AT THE MAGIC KINGDOM

The signature ride of Disney World’s Fantasyland expansion, Under the Sea ~ The Journey of the Little Mermaid, formally opened in early December 2012.

Located in Prince Eric’s castle, and duplicating the already opened version in Disney California Adventure, this new attraction is both wildly popular (so far) and quite a disappointment. [Read more →]