Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

This post on the monorail resorts is one in a series about personal favorites. See lower on the page for more about this series.

FAVORITE MONORAIL RESORT: DISNEY’S CONTEMPORARY RESORT

This site’s ranking of the deluxe resorts at Walt Disney World for first time visitors puts Disney’s Polynesian Resort first, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge second, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge third.

I’ve posted previously that my overall personal favorite deluxe resort is far and away the Wilderness Lodge, with the Animal Kingdom Lodge my second favorite.

But among the monorail resorts–the three deluxe hotels linked by monorail to the Magic Kingdom–my personal favorite is Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

Why?  Well, keep reading…

[Read more →]

OVERVIEW: OCTOBER 2012 AT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews Walt Disney World in October 2012: crowds, prices, deals and discounts, weather, special events, and operating hours; and ends with week by week summaries.

[Read more →]

(This page is one of a series explicating Walt Disney World lingo, abbreviations, and FAQ for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.)

DISNEY’S 2012 INTERNATIONAL FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL AT EPCOT

Every year from October through mid-November, Walt Disney World presents the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.

In 2012, the dates are September 28 through November 12.

There are two components to the festival, one available to all Epcot visitors, and another made up of a bunch of events which have limited capacity and require reservations.

Neither has an extra ticket admission cost–you get to participate by virtue of your theme park ticket–but there are cash costs for the food, wine, and for entry to some special shows and events. [Read more →]

DINING AT DISNEY WORLD’S DELUXE RESORTS

One of the best features of the deluxe resorts is the often wonderful dining venues at them.

Some of these dining venues are better for adults than for kids; moreover, for every resort other than the Animal Kingdom Lodge it’s also worth thinking about options at other nearby deluxe resorts. (The Animal Kingdom Lodge has no nearby resorts.)  Sheer variety also has its virtues.

See the image for some distinctions based on these points. You can find detailed reviews of all the resort table service restaurants in the individual resort reviews.

A few comments:

• The monorail resorts–the Grand Floridian, Contemporary, and Polynesian–are just a short monorail ride from each other, so the great options at the Grand Floridian and Contemporary in particular are easily accessible from each of these hotels.
• The two resort meals included in most of this site’s itineraries are Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary and the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue at Fort Wilderness.  The next best resort meal for kids is the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge (this meal used to be in the itineraries, but I took it out a few years ago as part of a simplification exercise).  The Wilderness Lodge and the Contemporary are linked to each other and to Fort Wilderness by boat, so these resorts get an extra kick on the kids meals ranking.
• The Epcot Resorts–the Yacht Club, Beach Club, and BoardWalk Inn–are a short walk from each other and from the BoardWalk.  Those who have park hopper tickets and enough days on their tickets also have easy access from these hotels to all the dining options at Epcot.
• The Animal Kingdom Lodge has three great options, but is isolated from other resorts.

For more on dining at Walt Disney World, see this.

DISTINCTIONS AMONG THE DISNEY WORLD DELUXE RESORTS

• Disney’s Polynesian Resort. Only resort with both own resort monorail stop and in easy walking distance of TTC and its Epcot monorail. Only deluxe with no fitness center–guests are allowed to share the one at the Grand Floridian. One of only a few deluxes with no spa services. Strong kid appeal. At high end of room sizes.
• Disney’s Contemporary Resort. Only resort from which you can walk to and from the Magic Kingdom. One of only two deluxes with no on-site child care programs. One of only a few deluxes with no spa services. At high end of room sizes.
• Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort. Shortest monorail ride to Magic Kingdom; longest back. Largest standard room sizes of WDW resorts. Best adult dining among WDW resorts.
• Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. One of only two deluxes whose standard rooms sleep only 4. One of only a few deluxes with no spa service. Stunning kid appeal.
• Disney’s BoardWalk Inn. Greatest variety of dining options. However, breakfast–especially for kids–is awkward, and counter service is weak. One of only two deluxes with no beach or marina. One of only two deluxes with no on-site child care. In middle range of room size.
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. Only resort with close up views of many types of wild animals. (All resorts offer views of lizards.) Only deluxe with no transportation options other than buses. Only deluxe not on a lake. One of only two deluxes without a beach or marina. One of only two deluxes whose standard rooms sleep only 4. One of only a few deluxes without spa services. Stunning kid appeal.
• Disney’s Yacht Club Resort and Disney’s Beach Club Resort. Best pool (shared) at Walt Disney World. Wide variety of dining options, but counter service is week. In the middle of room sizes among deluxes.

This is the second page of this review of PassPorter’s 2012. For the first page, click here.

PASSPORTER’S CHECKLISTS, WORKSHEETS, AND PASSPOCKETS

PassPorter’s is a sound guidebook for any family looking for anything other than the highest level of detail.

It also has some distinct tools no other guidebook shares.

Planning a Disney World vacation–unless you simply follow this site’s instructions!–is an iterative process of making notes, assessing alternatives, setting preliminary decisions, testing them–affordable? available?–and making revisions.

This planning results in final decisions, and in schedules, notes and reservation numbers associated with them.

The vacation itself then generates additional material–tickets, souvenirs, and above all memories.

PassPorter has a unique system for helping with all of this, from possibilities to memories.

Each major section of the book concludes with worksheets and other tools for making notes, assembling alternatives, and recording decisions–see the image at the top of the page for an example.

Moreover, bound in at the back are a series of “PassPockets,” onto which you can make further notes, and into which you can insert media ranging from printed confirmations to mementos of your trip.

Pre-printed heading in the PassPockets include “Our Journey,” “Our Rooms,” “Our First Day,” “Our Second Day,” (etc.), and “Our Magic Memories.” Moreover, the team at PassPorter also provides a blank PassPocket that you can customize, and additional stick-on labels like “Our Cruise,” “My Birthday,” etc that you can use to personalize the pockets.

The result is that, more so than any other guidebook, you can easily organize your notes, your decisions, your paperwork, and your memories of your Walt Disney World trip.

OTHER STRONG FEATURES OF PASSPORTER’S

Without having any particularly good examples of it to share, I really like the tone of PassPorter’s Walt Disney World 2012. It’s professional yet friendly, and the choice of font (which is also used on the Passporters.com web site) reinforces this friendliness.

SOME ISSUES WITH THE 2012 EDITION

Here and there are some minor issues of fact or judgment. (Note that updates/corrections will be available here.)

Disney does not offer resort hotels for every “taste and budget.” (27) While it has less expensive options, inexpensive options are still missing—unless one is thinking of group camping at Fort Wilderness for $10 per person per night.

There’s some minor problems with the chart on p29. The single asterisk mark is used to refer to two different points, and the Roaring Fork food court at the Wilderness Lodge has been obliterated, as has the more minor offering at the Beach Club Marketplace.

Weekend room rate bumps can be much higher than $30/night (31)—there’s several deluxe resorts where they hit $50 at certain times of the year.

Only some of the two-bedroom DVC villas “allow up to nine’; the language on p33 may imply to some readers that they all do.

The Animal Kingdom has not been having evening Extra Magic Hours on Wednesdays for long enough now that the graphic on p34 could have been changed to show morning EMH there on Wednesdays.

Not sure how the three All-Star Resorts are “connected.” (37)

The treatment of the DVC options in deluxe resorts with paired DVC resorts is inconsistent. For example, the compare the villa types priced on p44 vs. those priced on p60.

The moderates that now have queens are correctly indicated as having queens in the text, but the floor plan illustrations on pp61 and 86 still show double beds.

I’m pretty sure the studios at Old Key West still sleep 4, not 5 (73). On the same page, the two-bedrooms sleep 9, not 8.

The first entry in “Making the Most of the Magic Kingdom” (134) reads “Take a spin around the park when you first arrive by boarding the train at the Walt Disney World Railroad station in Main Street, USA. The 20-minute journey is a great introduction to the park.”

Well, I bow to none in my love of railroads in general, and Disney railroads in particular, but this is wrong in a lot of ways.

• First, the railroad is not a good introduction to the park, as you will see very little of the Magic Kingdom from it—a little Frontierland, a little Fantasyland when the expansion opens, a little Tomorrowland, and that’s it.
• Second, if you arrive before rope drop—as you should—there’s nothing more valuable than the first hour in the park for riding the most popular rides before the crowds build. Spending 20 minutes “when you first arrive” on a B-Ticket is not the right way to deploy this time.

(288) Nights of Joy is at the Magic Kingdom, not Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

ALL IN, A RECOMMENDED GUIDEBOOK

These are mostly minor issues.  Overall, PassPorter’s Walt Disney World 2012 is a wonderful choice for any family seeking a guidebook to Walt Disney World. It has a nice balance among topics, a friendly and accessible tone, and some unique planning tools.

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SORCERERS OF THE MAGIC KINGDOM

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom is a new interactive game with roots in Kim Possible’s World Showcase Adventure and the series of books the Kingdom Keepers.

The game begins in the Fire Station just inside the Magic Kingdom, and to the left.

Here you’ll see a training animation inside a magic window, get instructions from a cast member, surrender your ticket, and be given it back.

You’ll get as well a map of magic windows, directions to your starting point, a key card for you to use to activate other magic windows, plus five spell cards to use vanquishing villains trying to take over the Magic Kingdom.

There’s about 20 magic windows in total, scattered across the Magic Kingdom except Tomorrowland and most of Frontierland.

See the image, which shows Fantasyland.  Sorcerers windows are marked by the orange circles.

Overall, Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom is a very minor adventure.

Given the 20 windows, about 80-100 families at a time can be engaged in a window, waiting for a window, or walking between windows–a tiny addition to the Magic Kingdom’s entertainment capacity.

Moreover, the impact of the game, slight as it is, is lessened by the fact that you’ll usually find yourself waiting at a window for another group to finish, and hence see what’s coming up before you need to deploy your spells.

So why did Disney World bother?  My guess is that the game is a beta for NextGen technology, and a precursor of potential places for personal recognition.

SORCERERS OF THE MAGIC KINGDOM: A TEST OF DISNEY WORLD’S ABILITY TO FOLLOW YOU AROUND? [Read more →]