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ANIMAL KINGDOM ROPE DROP DURING EXTRA EXTRA MAGIC HOURS

After the partial opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disney’s Animal Kingdom (and also Magic Kingdom) will have daily Extra Magic Hours from 7a-8a for more than 2 months—from August 29, 2019 until (at least as announced so far) November 2.

This somewhat simplifies planning Animal Kingdom visits during this period, as it makes the presence or absence of morning extra magic hours a non-issue.

But for those not eligible for Extra Magic Hours (all the hotels whose guests are eligible are here), what to do?

Below I have some suggestions on how to approach Animal Kingdom if you are not eligible for Extra Magic Hours. [Read more →]

(For the first page of this review of the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek, click here.)

THE POOL COMPLEX AT THE HILTON ORLANDO BONNET CREEK

The pool complex at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek lies between the main accommodations tower and the Waldorf Astoria golf course.

The distinguishing feature of the complex is a lazy river that sometimes is separate and sometimes flows into and then out of two larger pools, one best for adults and the other for kids.

Much of the lazy river has the traditional form of such waterways…

…but in other areas it widens out into more of a mini-pool.

It flows into a larger pool area which is best for adults as it has the bar, and no zero-entry area.

It is however plenty attractive to kids, as in this the area you will find the pool slide. The slide is a bit bare bones, but a rare amenity among non-Disney EMH/FP+ at 60 eligible hotels.

Next in this area is the bar…

…where you can find lunch and drinks. On the menu are appetizers, wraps, burgers, deserts, and such.

The lazy river then exits this area…

…with cabanas behind it.

It then makes its way into the second larger pool area, this one with a zero entry. You can see on the left part of one of the two hot tubs here, one on either side of the zero entry pool.

Here’s the full view of that hot tub…

…and the other hot tub here.

One side of the zero-entry pool…

…and the other side.

While there are pool chairs everywhere around the pool complex, the most concentrated masses of chairs are near the zero-entry pool. Introverts can find less populated corners.

You’ll also find pool games…

…water toys for rent…

…and a baby pool.

All in, the pool complex at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek is nearly as fine a pool complex as you will find among the non-Disney hotels that are eligible for EMH and FastPass+ at 60 days.  Only that at the Four Seasons is clearly better, while those at the Swan, the Dolphin and three of the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels–the Hilton Buena Vista Palace, Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista, and Wyndham Lake Buena Vista–are comparable.

MORE ON THE HILTON ORLANDO BONNET CREEK

• Overview and summary
• Photo tour of a standard room
• Dining and amenities
• The pool complex

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 160+ stays in them

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MAGIC KINGDOM ROPE DROP DURING EXTRA EXTRA MAGIC HOURS

After the partial opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Magic Kingdom (and also Disney’s Animal Kingdom) will have daily Extra Magic Hours from 7a-8a for more than 2 months—from August 29, 2019 until (at least as announced so far) November 2.

This somewhat simplifies Magic Kingdom visits during this period, as it makes the presence or absence of morning extra magic hours a non issue (the differences between days with early versus late closes remain critical to planning).

But for those not eligible for Extra Magic Hours (all the hotels whose guests are eligible are here), what to do?

Below I have some suggestions on how to approach Magic Kingdom if you are not eligible for Extra Magic Hours. [Read more →]

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

REMEMBERING PLEASURE ISLAND

By Jim Korkis

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the opening of Pleasure Island in May 1989 and the 10th anniversary of its final closing in September 2008. It was a Disney nighttime entertainment venue in an area that is now part of Disney Springs.

There were two real life inspirations for Disney’s Pleasure Island. Chris Carradine, who was Vice President of Design Development for Concept and Design at Walt Disney Imagineering, was impressed with Granville Island in Vancouver, a manufacturing village that had fallen on hard times that had its buildings transformed into restaurants, theaters and shops and became a popular destination for both the residents and tourists.

The second inspiration was the Church Street Station area in downtown Orlando. By 1985, it had become the fourth most popular tourist attraction in the state of Florida, right behind Walt Disney World, Sea World and Busch Gardens.

Its colorfully themed clubs and shops were a favorite nighttime spot for both locals and tourists. Eisner felt that creating a similar entertainment venue would keep guests and their money on Disney property.

Image (c) Disney

When Pleasure Island opened, there were twenty-six plaques placed at the entrances of the island and on the individual buildings by the Pleasure Island “Histerical” (sic) Society to explain the mythology of the island in elaborate detail.

Walt Disney Imagineering created a back story of a Pittsburgh entrepreneur named Merriweather Adam Pleasure who arrived with his family on a Mississippi side-wheeler that steamed into Lake Buena Vista in 1911.

He envisioned a manufacturing center, research lab and development facility, as well as a social gathering spot for the famous and well-to-do. When Pleasure and his daughter disappeared on a voyage in 1941, the island fell on hard times with Hurricane Connie in 1955 inflicting near-total destruction.

The once bustling harbor community became a ghost town. But in 1987, Disney Imagineers re-discovered the island. Some buildings were renovated, and some, like the Adventurers Club that had survived disaster, were reopened.

Those new businesses included Mannequins Dance Palace (with a large rotating floor and overhead mannequins attired in a variety of theatrical costumes), Neon Armadillo Saloon (a country and Western location inspired by the Cheyenne Saloon and Opera House at Church Street Station that Eisner visited and saw a huge line waiting anxiously to enter) XZFR Rockin’ Rollerdrome (a dance club with a skating rink on the upper floors), Videopolis East (a non-alcoholic club catering specifically to people younger than 21), the Fireworks Factory (a restaurant specializing in barbecue to match the “burnt” theme of a stray spark from Pleasure’s cigar that had set off fireworks and blackened the interior of the building), the Portobello Yacht Club (an authentic Northern Italian cuisine restaurant), Merriweather’s Market (a food court with four distinct sections where everything was cooked to order), the Comedy Warehouse and the Adventurers Club.

In addition, there were many shops unique to the location including Avigators Supply (featuring aviation and clothing merchandise with a winged alligator who was supposed to be another mascot of the Island besides the half moon-faced Funmeister), YesterEars (selling Disneyana items), Suspended Animation (selling Disney artwork) and Jessica’s of Hollywood which opened in 1990 and showcased a giant two-sided neon sign of Jessica Rabbit with sequined dress and swinging leg who sat atop the light purple colored building to entice customers inside to purchase jewelry or nightgowns that featured her logo.

Disney faced many unexpected challenges running nightclubs and changes were made almost immediately including celebrating New Year’s Eve every night. Operational issues including rowdy youth gangs resulted in the location closing in late September 2008.

“Our decision is largely based on guest feedback,” said the official Walt Disney World, “We are seeing more demand for shopping and dining experiences and less demand for clubs.”

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, The Unofficial Walt Disney World 1971 Companion: Stories of How the World Began, and his Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: MAY 11 TO MAY 19, 2019

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

For more on May 2019 at Disney World, see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 5/11-5/19/19

The Magic Kingdom will be open from  8a-11p 5/11, 9a-10p 5/12 through 5/17, 8a-12MN 5/18, and 9a-10p 5/19

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom 9a-10p 5/11, 9a-9p 5/12 through 5/17, 9a-10p 5/18, and 9a-9p 5/19

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 5/11-5/19/19

Saturday 5/11 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Sunday 5/12  Morning:  Hollywood Studios Evening: none

Monday 5/13 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Tuesday 5/14 Morning: none Evening: Epcot

Wednesday 5/15 Morning:  none Evening: Magic Kingdom

Thursday 5/16 Morning: Epcot Evening: none

Friday 5/17 Morning:  Magic Kingdom Evening: none

Saturday 5/18 Morning: Animal Kingdom  Evening: none

Sunday 5/19 Morning:  Hollywood Studios  Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 5/11-5/19/19

The Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 5/11-5/19/19

Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom 9p every night

IllumiNations at Epcot: 9p every night

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 9p every night

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 9.30p every night

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom:  8.45 and 9.45p 5/11; 9p 5/12 through 5/17; 9 and 10p 5/18; 9p 5/19

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 5/11-5/19/19

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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On May 3 Walt Disney World announced massive changes to its Extra Magic Hours calendar parallel with the partial opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge on August 29, 2019.

The basics are that

• Two of Disney World’s parks, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom, will have daily morning Extra Magic Hours (EMH) from 7a to 8a every morning beginning 8/29 and ending 11/2
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios—where the new land will be found—will have daily EMH from 6a to 9a beginning 9/1, also ending 11/2. (The first three days the new land is open—8/29, 8/30, and 8/31, the Studios will simply open at 6a—there will be no EMH of any sort at that park those three days)
• Epcot will not have its EMH pattern of Tuesday evening and Thursday mornings changed.

(There’s more on EMH in the link above, including what hotels are eligible for them, etc.)

This turn of events has thrown many folks for a loop, and I am getting millions of questions related to the new dynamic this period, ranging from

• What days will be best for what parks?
• What should people who are either not eligible for EMH or not willing or able to get their gang up early enough to take advantage of them do?
• How should folks think about hopping among the parks?

See for example my exchange with Jennifer:

In the material below, I have the beginnings of answer, particularly to the question of what Disney World park to target what days. The basics follow the universal crowd management principle of Walt Disney World, which is to figure out what most people are going to do, and then to do the opposite.

This requires some understanding (and some guesswork) as to the basics of crowd patterns and of what elements of theme park operating and offerings calendar will attract “most people,” and what elements will repel them, so let’s start there.

THE BASICS OF CROWD PATTERNS IN DISNEY WORLD IN SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 2019

Disney World sees more attendance over the weekend, and then on Fridays and Mondays, than it does Tuesdays through Thursdays. The worst weekend during the Extra EMH period after Labor Day will be the weekend of Columbus Day—Friday October 11 through Monday October 14.

• While Flight of Passage will probably remain the best ride in all of Walt Disney World until Galaxy’s Edge is fully complete with Rise of the Resistance, Disney’s Animal Kingdom has no distinct new draws or distinct operating features for the Extra EMH period. Crowds there on a particular day thus probably will vary as a function of how attractive the other three parks are that day.
• Epcot will be the only park with EMH that varies by day during this period. So it will have a bit of an extra draw from them on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Its later hours on Fridays and Saturdays will also be a bit of an incremental draw; Food & Wine  will be a draw throughout the period, but especially on weekends and evenings; and the end of IllumiNations on 9/30 and introduction of the new Epcot temporary evening show Epcot Forever on 10/1 will draw folks there every evening—either for a last visit with IllumiNations or to see the new show.
• Early 6p closes at Magic Kingdom three or four nights a week for the Halloween Party (or other reasons) will repel folks those days. On the other hand, on days when it is open late and offers its full evening program, it will have distinctive draws. This will have major spill-over effects on the other parks, as the folks repelled by the early close will go to one of them, and the folks attracted by late closes will not be going to them.
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be worst on weekends, and best on midweek days when Magic Kingdom is open late and closes early the days before and after—typically Wednesdays.

Figuring out what all this means your specific week will be tricky (you can use the comment form below to simply ask) as there are very few “typical” weeks this period. But the basics are to look at the Magic Kingdom operating hours  your dates, and note what days it is open late and what days early. Use that to pattern your weekday visits, and avoid Hollywood Studios and Epcot (and maybe all the parks) over the weekend!

To give you an example of this, I’ve done it for the nine day period beginning Saturday October 5th through Sunday October 13.

The first thing I did was mark up what I thought operating hours would be. For Hollywood Studios and Epcot this was straightforward, and it was also straightforward for Magic Kingdom early close days. For Magic Kingdom closing times on nights it was open late, and for Animal Kingdom hours, I used the same “week before Columbus Day” hours from last year.

(You can find those hours for your week in 2018 by putting “Next Week (September 29 through October 7, 2018) at Walt Disney World” into the search bar near the top left of every page on this site, changing the dates to the Saturday and (week later) Sunday of your week.)

The result of this work is in the image above—you don’t need to go to this trouble, but should know opens and closes for the parks every day of your visit. Note how the graphic illuminates the Magic Kingdom hour variations…

Then I started thinking, following the basic principles outlined above. The answer I got for this week is as follows:

And the specific thoughts I went through for each day are below—note that I do not cover them in date order, as the order I present them shows more quickly some of the principles involved.

DAILY THOUGHTS ON DISNEY WORLD PARK CROWDS

Thursday October 10th. Each of the four parks has morning Extra Magic Hours, none has them in the evening, and Magic Kingdom closes early for the Halloween Party while the other three parks have normal evening operations. No one is distinctively repelled by the EMH schedule itself, and some will be attracted to Epcot by its (relatively speaking) rare morning EMH offering. Many will be repelled by Magic Kingdom’s early closing, going to and crowding the other three parks, and probably relatively speaking crowding Epcot in particular, because of its morning EMH offer. So on this day Magic Kingdom is the best choice, and Epcot and HS probably the worst. AK will probably be OK but not as good as MK.

Wednesday October 9. Magic Kingdom closes early both the day before and the day after, but today Magic Kingdom is open late. Nothing about their calendars makes HS or AK particularly attractive today compared to other days this week. The absence of EMH at Epcot this morning (as will be true most mornings) will add to its attractiveness for folks not eligible for EMH who are sophisticated enough about Disney World to want to see Epcot on a day when rope drop is possible for them, although since this is possible six out of seven days each week, you can’t read too much into it. The late Magic Kingdom close means Magic Kingdom will be slammed, thus drawing crowds away from the other three parks. Today MK will be a bad choice, and HS on this mid-week day will be much better than is it on days MK closes early. Sophisticated locals who don’t have to get up too early the next morning will head to HS this evening knowing how much of a draw the late MK close will be, but even so, midweek days when MK is open late, between days on either side that it closes early, will probably be the best choices for HS. AK and Epcot will probably be good.

Sunday October 6. Weekends I expect to be slammed at HS, and also at Epcot. Weekends will be slammed at HS because crowds are higher over weekends, but operating hours there don’t change; because that’s the easiest time for locals to go; and also because folks on trips aimed specifically at Galaxy’s Edge will largely be in town at least over the weekends. Epcot will be slammed both because of Food & Wine and its new evening show, and also because of how easy it will be for those who balk at Hollywood Studio’s crowds—especially those with hoppers– to get to Epcot: walk, take the boat, or take the eye-candy Skyliner. Magic Kingdom’s early close today between late closes on Saturday and Monday will repel people from that park today, adding to the crowds at Epcot and HS, and perhaps at AK as well. MK will be the best choice, HS the worst, and Epcot may be almost as bad as HS. AK likely will be better than HS and Epcot, but not as good as say it will be on Wednesday.

Monday October 7. Magic Kingdom closes early the day before and the day after, but this day it is open late. Nothing about their calendars makes HS or AK particularly attractive today compared to other days this week. The late close means Magic Kingdom will be slammed, thus drawing crowds from the other three parks. Today MK will be a bad choice, and each of the other parks will be better than they are on days MK closes early. Since more folk will be in Disney World on a typical fall Monday than a typical fall Wednesday, HS won’t be as good as it will be on Wednesday, but it will be better than any other day this week.

Saturday October 5. Saturdays will be slammed at HS as they are the easiest days to visit for both locals and out-of-towners. Epcot will likely also be nasty, as it is an easy day for locals to see Food &Wine, has an extra hour of operations which will work as a bit of a draw, will have the draw of the new evening show (as it will every night this week), and will suffer from balkers from the Studios. MK will be open late on October 5 between two days that it closes early, and will reveal itself once more to be the most popular park in the world. AK may well be tolerable, simply because of the attractiveness of the other three parks today.

Saturday October 12. Saturday the 12th and Sunday the 13th will likely be the busiest days in October, as they mark the heaviest period of the Columbus Day (and Canadian Thanksgiving) holiday weekend. HS and Epcot will be ugly for the same reasons noted for October 5. MK will be relatively less intrinsically attractive than on October 5 because it will also offer its full evening hours and program the next day, Sunday October 13, but the higher overall level of attendance at Disney World this weekend compared to the weekend of the 5th suggests that the 12th will be a day to avoid MK as well. The absence of such a distinctive level of attractiveness at MK on Saturday suggest that AK will not be nearly as good as it will be on Saturday the 5th. So I can’t see any park as a good choice.

Tuesday October 8 will be much like Thursday October 10, except Epcot’s draw will be in the evening. MK again has an early close sandwiched between two late close days, so many will avoid it and head to the other three parks instead. Both Food & Wine and Epcot’s new fireworks show are easier to navigate on days when Epcot has evening EMH, so Epcot will be particularly attractive to those eligible for EMH. Nothing special about AK or HS will make today much better or worse at either than Thursday. So MK will be best, AK ok, and Epcot and HS worst.

Friday October 11th will start the build of crowds for the holiday weekend. MK closes early, so folks will avoid it and head to the other parks. Epcot will be popular in the evening with locals, and its extra hour of opening may make it attractive to some out-of-towners as well. MK will be good, AK may be OK, Epcot not so good, especially in the evening, and HS worst.

Sunday October 13 will be rough at all the parks thanks to the holiday weekend. There’s no special reason to go to or not go to any park today compared to say Saturday the 12th, except Epcot may be a tad less attractive today than Saturday with its shorter hours and the fact that it is a school night, which will keep some locals away in the evening. Folks comparing today to Monday the 14th (not shown in my image) will prefer MK today to MK tomorrow, because Monday the 14th is one of the rare Mondays when MK closes early. AK likely will be best today, and HS and MK likely worst.

OK, that’s it for the example week. Figure all this out for your dates and you will be set—or alternatively, just ping me in the comments form below!

Next, I’ll be thinking about what to do if you can’t, or won’t, arrive well before EMH starts!

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