Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: JUNE 30 TO JULY 8, 2012

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 July 2012 at Walt Disney World, click here.)

[Read more →]

WALT DISNEY WORLD CROWDS THE WEEKS OF 12/15  AND 12/29/2102

I now have data from ~180 of the around ~200 school districts whose vacation calendars I track (more calendars than you’d think don’t come out until June or later), which is enough to say that

• Crowds will be lower at the end of the week beginning 12/15/2012 than I thought they would, and
• Crowds will be worse from January 2 2013 to January 6 2013 than I thought they would.

Specifically, many fewer districts than I had projected are taking off from 12/18 through 1/1, and are instead taking 12/22 though 1/6 off.  As a result, in 2012 crowds will be lower December 18, 19 and 20 than I’d been projecting, and they’ll be higher January 2 through January 6th 2013. [Read more →]

ROMANTIC HOTELS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Welcome to those coming from Capturing Magical Memories as Magical Blogorail Teal writes this month about Disney and romance–weddings, vow renewals, honeymoons, and less formal occasions as well.

This page recommends the most romantic Disney World resort hotels by price class. (For what you get by price class, see this.)

Criteria for ranking include

• Basic loveliness (of the hotel, not your partner)
• A smaller, less overwhelming scale
• A sense of vitality that you can gain energy from, and
• At the same time, serenity and quiet places you can go where it seems like you are alone together

Based on these, here’s the recommendations:

MOST ROMANTIC VALUE RESORT: ALL-STAR MUSIC

None of the value resorts score well on any of these criteria.

However, among them the most romantic is All-Star Music.

All the value resorts are garish and large, but among them All-Star Music is the least garish, has the loveliest grounds and landscaping, and is the least overwhelmingly sized.

MOST ROMANTIC MODERATE RESORT: PORT ORLEANS FRENCH QUARTER

Any of the moderate resorts can be romantic except for the cabins at Fort Wilderness.

The most romantic, though, is Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter.

It has the smallest scale of any of the moderates, and the best and loveliest landscaping.

It has many courtyards and other spaces for gathering in, and has some private-feeling walks along the Sassagoula River.

MOST ROMANTIC DELUXE RESORT: DISNEY’S BOARDWALK INN

You can’t make a bad choice for a romantic place among the deluxe resorts, except possibly the Contemporary, but among them the BoardWalk Inn is the most romantic.

The BoardWalk Inn has small scale, delightful and charming architecture, but with easy access to the vitality of the BoardWalk itself and of Epcot.

It is also the only deluxe resort with a fully enclosed courtyard, giving it a more serene and private feel.

MOST ROMANTIC DISNEY VACATION CLUB RESORT: THE BEACH CLUB VILLAS

The Beach Club Villas is the most romantic of the Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) Resorts.

The Beach Club Villas share many of the positives for romance of its fellow Epcot Resort the BoardWalk Inn.

Among the DVC resorts, it’s one of the most intimately scaled, and has the most charming and delightful architecture and landscaping.  It is also very convenient to the vitality of Epcot and the Boardwalk.

MORE FROM MAGICAL BLOGORAIL TEAL

Thank you for joining me today. Your next stop on the Magical Blogorail Loop is Disney Living.

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

• 1st Stop ~  Disney-Lovin’ Spectrum Mom
• 2nd Stop ~ Capturing Magical Memories
• 3rd Stop ~ yourfirstvisit.net
• Final Stop ~  Disney Living

On Friday I moved this site from one host to another, and by doing so gained 100 times the CPU capacity and 40 times the memory.

This seems to have had the desired effect of eliminating the “500 errors” the site was generating, and also to have had the secondary effect of making it scary fast.

Click around a bit and let me know what you think!

UNDER THE HOOD OF yourfirstvisit.net [Read more →]

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

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

The family suites are innovative and spacious, sleeping six on three beds. Photo tours of each themed suite are later in this review.

The dining area–the first space you enter when you come in from the hall–is the most innovative.

In a meeting of Murphy beds and Rube Goldberg, the dining table converts into a bed…making it a Murphy Goldberg bed…it’s easy to set up and re-convert to a table, and fun to play with.

For the price (they are not cheap) I can’t think of a better value for space on property.

• There are even some deluxes that I’d skip to stay in instead in one of these family suites. You lose the fine dining, more sophisticated décor, balconies, and cooler pools of the deluxes, but for that you get a larger, better equipped, and more livable space…plus two baths.
• In some circumstances I’d even pick the Family Suites at Art of Animation over some of the smaller and more awkward Disney Vacation Club one bedroom villas, like those at Saratoga Springs.

However, the most direct comparison for the Art of Animation Family Suites is the Family Suites at All-Star Music.

The All-Star Music family suites were built by combining two existing rooms, and adding a door between them and a wall to create privacy for the master bedroom and space for the mini-kitchen.

See the floor plan.

There’s only a couple of broadly-applicable reasons to prefer All-Star Music to Art of Animation.

• One is price. Art of Animation family suites are ~$70-100 per night more expensive than those at All-Star Music.
• Another is the number of individual sleeping spaces. Art of Animation has three, each sleeping two, while Music has four, two sleeping one each and two beds sleeping two. This creates more flexibility for some family structures–e.g. families with 3 boys and one girl, or a family of five plus Aunt Ida.

Some other minor points that may sway some families to Music are the easy access to both baths from all beds–in Art of Animation the second bath is in the master bedroom, not so open to the living space–and the fact every bed in Music has a TV view, while in Art of Animation the “Murphy Goldberg” bed has no TV view-able from it.

One could also like the living room, mini-kitchen, and master bedroom more at Music. (For a space by space comparison, see this.)

Otherwise Art of Animation rules All-Star Music.

The family suites at Art of Animation were also designed within constraints–the footprints of the buildings had been established years ago, when the area it now occupies was meant to be the second phase of Pop Century.

Working within this constraint, Disney’s designers did a remarkable job.

The first key decision was to have one interior corridor rather than two exterior ones.  This created an extra 5 feet or so of space available to lengthen the rooms, enabling adding a couple of feet to the window to entry door dimension.

This extra length–combined with the decision to move the closets–enabled Disney to rotate the baths and thus free up a ton of space in the center of the entry area.

The second key decision was to discover and decide to use in this space the “Murphy Goldberg” bed (this is my name for it, there’s a real brand name–Inova Table Bed).

This dining table that converts into a bed that converts into a table adds greatly to the livability of the room, and also simplifies what the living room area needs to deliver in terms of beds.

It’s also fun to play with.

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PHOTO TOUR OF A FINDING NEMO FAMILY SUITE 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!!

I seem somehow sometime yesterday to have turned the ability of the site to accept comments off other than from previous commentors…insult added to Thursday and Friday’s injury.

The ability for you to comment is now turned back on, but many comments added in the meantime are gone…if you don’t see your comment on the page you tried to add it to, or on the “Latest Comments” list on the right sidebar…your comment is just gone and I can’t get it back.

I’m very sorry, and promise to make entirely different mistakes in the future!