Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

On 4/27 and 4/28/2012, the normal pattern for Extra Magic Hours is swapped, so Disney’s Hollywood Studios will have morning EMH on Friday the 27th, and Epcot will have evening  EMH on Saturday the 28th.

Those following this site’s Autumn-Winter-Spring itinerary can do it as is, with the exception that they may not be able to ride Friday night after Illuminations.

“May” because rumors are that, with Test Track closed, Disney may keep the rides in the Land Pavilion–and in particular Soarin–open til 10p…

IS YOUR FAMILY ELIGIBLE FOR A DISNEY MILITARY DISCOUNT?

Steve at DisneyMilitaryTips.com has posted on his blog a great chart that helps sort out who is eligible for which among the various Disney World (and other central Florida) offers available to military families.

It includes the various deal possibilities (e.g.  Armed Forces Salute, Shades of Green) across the top of the chart, and various populations (e.g. guard/reserve, non-retired honorably discharged, etc.) down the side, and indicates in the intersection whether or not the population is eligible for the offer.

This is a stupendously helpful summary of complex information!  Great work, Steve.  Check it out.

LINKS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

• Military Families at Walt Disney World
• Deals and Discounts
  • Military Discounts and Deals
  • Other Walt Disney World Discounts and Deals
• Shades of Green
  • Review of Shades of Green
  • Splitting Your Stay Between Shades of Green and Another Resort
  • Overflow Rates at Shades of Green
  • Shades of Green website
• Other Resources for Military Families
  • DisneyMilitarySales.com
  • Disneyworld.com/military
  • MilitaryDisneyTips.com

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: APRIL 14 TO APRIL 22, 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 April 2012 at Walt Disney World, click here.)

[Read more →]

THE PIRATE-THEMED ROOMS AT CARIBBEAN BEACH

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is this site’s top-rated moderate resort for first-time family visitors to Walt Disney World.

It gets that position because it has a little more kid appeal than the other moderate resorts.

For example, it’s the only moderate where all the rooms have Disney theming. Most rooms at the sprawling and often inconvenient resort are decorated with a light Finding Nemo theme, but a subset in its Trinidad South section have pirate theming.

This pirate theming is pretty cool, but, given the inconvenience of Trinidad South, is not worth the extra $30 a night it costs (pre-tax, Fall Season 2012).

Moreover, by building these rooms, Disney may have put itself at the end of a gang-plank on the question of adding queen beds to Caribbean Beach. [Read more →]

A CHEAT SHEET FOR 2012 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

James McC. emailed last month to thank me for this site, and among other things said “It really helped, it was kind of like a cheat sheet.”

A “Cheat Sheet” is a “concise set of notes used for quick reference” and is a great description of what the site is trying to do.

Moreover, noodling around, it struck me that the charts that people
pin on Pinterest create another kind of “cheat sheet,” as a crowd-sourced indicator of what people find worth bookmarking and sharing.

So based on these thoughts and what people have put on Pinterest, I’ve put together a four-page powerpoint Walt Disney World 2012 Cheat Sheet. Click the link to open up the (2.5 mb) powerpoint file. (The image at the top of this page is an example page from it.)

PINTEREST USERS: PLEASE PIN AWAY!

I recently updated my copyright page so that it’s clear Pinterest users are welcome to pin copyrighted images and charts from here.

Here’s the new language:

Pinterest users have my permission to pin in the normal pinterest way (that by default creates a link back to this site without you having to do anything) any number of my images that you think will be helpful to you, or to your friends or followers, or that just help you create or recall happy memories.

I don’t have a pinterest page for the site–just like I don’t have a facebook page–for the simple reason that I barely have enough time to keep up with this site, much less maintain others. 

Someday that may change, but in the meantime, if you want to see what others have pinned from here, see this. (Give it some time to load.)