Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

OPPORTUNITIES FOR MILITARY FAMILY SAVINGS

My friend Steve at militarydisneytips.com tracks and posts on all kinds of stuff useful to military families considering a Disney trip.  I asked him to summarize the current state of Shades of Green discounts, and here he goes!

Shades of Green is striving to find the right discount combination to keep their rooms filled in the wake of Disney’s Armed Forces Salute room-only discount of 30 to 40% on Disney owned and operated resort rooms.

Some of Shade’s 2011 discounts are even better than this. This means the opportunity for military members and their families to save quite a lot on their next Walt Disney World vacation. [Read more →]

RUMORS OF ROYALTY CONFIRMED

I’ve been hearing about queen beds at Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter Resort for a bit, but didn’t want to publish until I got direct personal confirmation.

Last week I dropped by and talked with the concierges there a couple of times.

They confirmed the several buildings have been rehabbed and had their old full beds replaced with queen beds, and that all the full beds will be so replaced this year.

The way to get a queen, they noted, is to ask for one of the newly rehabbed buildings. 

I’d be more explicit than that–I’d ask for “a room with queen beds in one of the rehabbed buildings.”

The concierges also said that Riverside will get queens next year. [Read more →]

DISNEY WORLD’S NEW SHOW THE MAGIC, THE MEMORIES AND YOU

When Walt Disney World announced it would have a new show at the Magic Kingdom that would include projection of guest photos onto Cinderella’s Castle, I was underwhelmed.

The tie to Disney’s current ad campaign made me think this would be an uninteresting marketing stunt, and was the castle forecourt so un-crowded before Wishes that more people needed to be enticed to it?

I suffered from a failure of the imagination. Disney World did not. The Magic, the Memories, and You is spectacular.

MORE ABOUT THE MAGIC THAN ABOUT YOU [Read more →]

THE PIXAR PALS COUNTDOWN TO FUN PARADE

Update April 2013:  This parade had its last scheduled run on April 6.  For more, see this.

The afternoon Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun Parade replaced the much-missed Block Party Bash in January 2011.

The Pixar-themed parade includes tributes to Toy Story, Monsters, Inc, A Bugs Life, Ratatouille, Up, and The Incredibles.

Three principles guided its design–very tall, very slow, and very brief.

Because the floats are so tall, your kids don’t need to be in the front to see them. Because the parade is so slow, they’ll be assured of a smile and a wave–not just the back of a character as it waves to kids across the parade route.  And because it is brief, the slowness of the parade won’t lead to boredom and fidgets. [Read more →]

DISNEY WORLD FANTASYLAND EXPANSION UPDATE

Walt Disney World announced at a press event changes to its previously publicized Fantasyland expansion plans.

As has been speculated for some time, the Fantasyland expansion will be less completely “princessy,” and will include a previously unannounced new roller coaster ride, the Seven Dwarves Mine Train Ride. [Read more →]

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(For thefirst page of this article, click here.)

LIMITATIONS OF THESE DISNEY WORLD WEEK RANKINGS

1. Revisions

I publish these rankings well in advance of when school year vacation schedules, Disney World price seasons, and park operating hours are published.

As a result, I revise them as the first two issues–price seasons and school year calendars–become available.

While the 2011 rankings are final, the 2012 rankings will be revised at least twice more–after 2011-2012 academic calendars are fully out, and after 2012 price seasons are announced in August.

The first draft of 2013 week rankings will come out in early fall 2011.

2. Periods Difficult to Forecast [Read more →]