Category — The easy Guide
The Best-Reviewed, Easiest, Most Accurate, Most Up-to-Date Disney World Guidebook
THE EASIEST DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOK
As I noted a few days ago, the 2018 edition of the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook, ever, is now available on Amazon—paperback here, and Kindle here.
A guidebook too large to be understood or easily used is doing folks no favors. Co-author Josh of easyWDW.com and I from the start wanted to publish the shortest and best-organized guidebook we could. Our 2018 edition has 307 substantive pages—about a third the size of some Disney World guidebooks—and in what is probably a first for Disney World guidebook series, has 8 fewer pages fewer than our 2017 edition!
But in those 307 pages we cover every major decision you need to make—how old and tall your kids should be, how long to stay, when to go, where to stay, what to do in the parks, where to eat, and more.
Moreover, we make it easy for you to refer to the book in the parks. If you purchase the paperback version, we make the Kindle version available for free. Load it onto a Kindle app on your phone and you are all set!
THE MOST ACCURATE DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOK
We also pride ourselves on providing the most accurate guidebook available. Our knowledge of Disney World comes from direct experience—Josh is in the parks and restuarants two to four times a week, and later this year I will have stayed in my 150th different Disney World-owned room, villa, suite, studio, cabin or campsite. No one else can match the experience we bring.
Dave’s stays…
We match this with disciplined judgment and a commitment to accuracy. Accuracy is really hard, and we’ve had our share of goofs. But we are sure that we have fewer than anyone else.
For example, another 2018 guidebook that also came out in August 2017 has not updated its entry on Toy Story Mania since 2015, nor has it updated its entry on the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival since 2015, either. More examples: it has Easter 2018 as April 11, still has a 54 inch trundle bed in Port Orleans Riverside—which was replaced by a 66 inch Murphy bed in 2012 (!)–and has only three DVC studios offering accommodations for 5, rather than the five that’s been true for a while now.
I could go on with many more errors from this alternative, but the key is that it’s really hard to be accurate, and we (largely) get it done.
THE MOST UP-TO-DATE DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOK
Our guidebook is up to date as of early August 2017—so we incorporate in it the latest refurb news at Pop Century, Caribbean Beach, and Coronado Springs, the shift of the afternoon parade to 2p, the closures of Ellen’s Energy Adventure and The Great Movie Ride, etc.
But no matter how up-to-date a guidebook is when published, it will necessarily become less so over time, as things change. We solve this problem for our customers by offering free updates. We will update the 2018 easy Guide two to four times between now and August 2018, when we publish our 2019 edition.
Anyone who emails us their Amazon receipt will get instructions on how to get these updates when they come out:
THE BEST DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOK
The best-reviewed Disney World guidebook. The easiest-to-use Disney World guidebook. The most accurate Disney World guidebook. The most up-to-date Disney World guidebook. That’s The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit.
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September 7, 2017 No Comments
The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2018
The guidebook I co-author with Josh of easyWDW.com is now out in its 2018 edition.
The book, The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2018, is the latest installment of the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook series, ever.
The easy Guide is, by far, the shortest, smartest, most accurate, and most up-to-date Disney World guidebook available. For example, compared to an 846 page alternative, it knows that Easter 2018 is not April 11, and that neither Barbados at Caribbean Beach nor Building 9B at Coronado Springs even exists any more!
Going to Disney World? Do yourself a favor and get a copy of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2018, available at the link on Amazon.
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August 30, 2017 10 Comments
July Update to The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit
Earlier this week, Amazon published a new version of my and Josh’s The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2017.
While not as extensive as our March update, we did send our publisher, Bob McLain of Theme Park Press, 34 pages of additions, deletions, updates and changes. Many were minor, but we made major changes to the Animal Kingdom material, so it is now fully up-to-date for those visiting the newly-opened Pandora: World of Avatar. We also made major changes to our review of Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort.
As noted in the image, we offer those who bought any earlier versions of the 2017 edition free updates (as a PDF). If you’ve not already sent us your email, do so following the instructions in the image, and we’ll reply telling you how to get your update!
Some more specifics on what’s available in the July update of The easy Guide:
CHAPTER 4: WHEN TO GO
We’ve made minor changes to reflect new dates that have come out—for example, for the Halloween and Christmas parties—since our last update.
We also revised the crowd forecast for the week of 12/16/2017, as new data suggest it will be a bit better than we had thought.
CHAPTER 5: WHERE TO STAY
We added minor updates on the status of various refurbs and additions, for example at the Wilderness Lodge, the Yacht Club, and Pop Century.
We’ve stayed in and dined at Caribbean Beach since its refurb began in May, and as a result did a major rewrite of its review. The key point: “We are hesitant to recommend [Caribbean Beach] for any guests planning much dining at the resort, as the temporary dining is barely adequate.”
CHAPTER 6: WHAT TO DO IN THE PARKS
Animal Kingdom saw an enormous set of changes and additions, including a new map, new overviews, new recommended FastPass+, new reviews, and new touring plans, and our material now fully reflects this major addition to Disney World.
Epcot saw just minor updates, and no changes to its FastPass+ priorities or touring plans.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios saw an expansion and re-organization of our material on the evening shows, an update on what’s happening at Hollywood and Vine, and other minor updates. The first four steps of one of our touring plans, “Morning Plan: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster First,” changed a bit.
Magic Kingdom saw minor changes in the FastPass+ priorities, minor changes in the touring plans (especially related to the change of the typical afternoon parade time from 3p to 2p), a review of the new Happily Ever After evening show, and other small changes.
CHAPTER 7: WHERE TO EAT
We introduce the new mobile order function—where you can use the My Disney Experience app to save a ton of time by pre-ordering and then clicking “I’m here.” The new Animal Kingdom venue Satu’li Canteen is now in here, and you’ll find minor updates to dining in all the other parks, Disney Springs, and the resorts.
* * * * *
Ours is the only guidebook updated multiple times over the year, with free updates available to buyers. When Disney World changes, our advice changes. What does your guidebook do??
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July 16, 2017 No Comments
July Update to The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit
Earlier this week, Amazon published a new version of my and Josh’s The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2017.
While not as extensive as our March update, we did send our publisher, Bob McClain of Theme Park Press, 34 pages of additions, deletions, updates and changes. Many were minor, but we made major changes to the Animal Kingdom material, so it is now fully up-to-date for those visiting the newly-opened Pandora: World of Avatar. We also made major changes to our review of Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort.
As noted in the image, we offer those who bought any earlier versions of the 2017 edition free updates (as a PDF). If you’ve not already sent us your email, do so following the instructions in the image, and we’ll reply telling you how to get your update!
Ours is the only guidebook updated multiple times over the year, with free updates available to buyers. When Disney World changes, our advice changes.
Some more specifics on what’s available in the July update of The easy Guide:
CHAPTER 4: WHEN TO GO
We’ve made minor changes to reflect new dates that have come out—for example, for the Halloween and Christmas parties—since our last update.
We also revised the crowd forecast for the week of 12/16/2017, as new data suggest it will be a bit better than we had thought.
CHAPTER 5: WHERE TO STAY
We added minor updates on the status of various refurbs and additions, for example at the Wilderness Lodge, the Yacht Club, and Pop Century.
We’ve stayed in and dined at Caribbean Beach since its refurb began in May, and as a result did a major rewrite of its review. The key point: “We are hesitant to recommend [Caribbean Beach] for any guests planning much dining at the resort, as the temporary dining is barely adequate.”
CHAPTER 6: WHAT TO DO IN THE PARKS
Animal Kingdom saw an enormous set of changes and additions, including a new map, new overviews, new recommended FastPass+, new reviews, and new touring plans, and our material now fully reflects this major addition to Disney World.
Epcot saw just minor updates, and no changes to its FastPass+ priorities or touring plans.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios saw an expansion and re-organization of our material on the evening shows, an update on what’s happening at Hollywood and Vine, and other minor updates. The first four steps of one of our touring plans, “Morning Plan: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster First,” changed a bit.
Magic Kingdom saw minor changes in the FastPass+ priorities, minor changes in the touring plans (especially related to the change of the typical afternoon parade time from 3p to 2p), a review of the new Happily Ever After evening show, and other small changes.
CHAPTER 7: WHERE TO EAT
We introduce the new mobile order function—where you can use the My Disney Experience app to save a ton of time by pre-ordering and then clicking “I’m here.” The new Animal Kingdom venue Satu’li Canteen is now in here, and you’ll find minor updates to dining in all the other parks, Disney Springs, and the resorts.
* * * * *
Ours is the only guidebook updated multiple times over the year, with free updates available to buyers. When Disney World changes, our advice changes. What does your guidebook do??
Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!
July 16, 2017 No Comments
March Update to The easy Guide
A few days ago co-author Josh and I published an updated version of our guidebook, The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2017.
We pride ourselves on writing the best-reviewed, most accurate and most up-to-date Disney World guidebook series ever, and part of keeping it up to date is revising it several times a year.
Our latest revision included more than 60 pages of changes. Key changes are below.
CHAPTER 1: HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
Chapter 1 includes three things: guidance on how to use the book, boiling down our recommendations—especially for first timers–by chapter; and “what’s new” for returning visitors.
The key changes are in “what’s new,” and point out
- The loss of the evening parade at Magic Kingdom
- The new show Happily Ever After, which will replace Wishes in May
- The new evening attractions at Animal Kingdom, and the late May opening there of Pandora: World of Avatar
- The projected end of the Wilderness Lodge refurb, and the beginnings of major refurbs at Caribbean Beach and Coronado Springs
- The ticket price increase of February 2017
CHAPTER 2: WHY AGE AND HEIGHT MATTER and CHAPTER 3: HOW LONG TO STAY
These two chapters saw only minor changes.
- In Chapter 2, we added the new rides to open at Pandora: World of Avatar to our summary table about the appropriateness of rides for folk of different ages, and to the ride height restrictions chart table
- In Chapter 3, we updated some ticket price material
CHAPTER 4: WHEN TO GO
In Chapter 4 we sharpened up material for which dates are now firm—or more firm–including
- The opening of Pandora May 27
- The kick-off of the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival in August and its last day of November 13
- The possibility that Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party will begin August 25
CHAPTER 5: WHERE TO STAY
Most of the changes in Chapter 5 were from or about resort refurbs
- The opening of the Copper Creek Villas at the Wilderness Lodge in mid-July, and other refurb-related WL items
- The already-started demolition, construction, and room refurbs at Coronado Springs
- The beginning-in-May replacement of the food, shopping, and bar at Caribbean Beach with temporary facilities while new constructions launches
- The refurb at Pop Century that kicked off earlier this month
- Minor updates on refurbs at the Dolphin and the Yacht Club
CHAPTER 6: HOW TO SPEND YOUR TIME
Chapter 6 is the heart of the book, and saw 22 pages of changes from us—well, actually, almost entirely from Josh.
Just a few highlights of the updates here include:
- Substantial revisions to the Animal Kingdom guide and cheat sheet, especially the touring plans, principally based on the effects of Rivers of Light on priorities and touring. (Our update for Pandora will come out once it is stable, likely in late June; see both of our sites for FastPass+ and touring plan advice well before then.) The new Animal Kingdom material of course includes an all-new review of Rivers of Light
- Updates on the changes to the park opening procedures and minor changes to the Epcot touring plans—mostly cleaning up typos
- In the Hollywood Studios section, updates on the changes to the park opening procedures and more detailed reviews of the two daytime Star Wars shows, and a revised approach to seeing Fantasmic and the Star Wars fireworks. No significant touring plan changes, other than even more emphasis than we already had to keep refreshing for new FastPass+ opportunities.
- Updates on the changes to the park opening procedures and evening offerings at Magic Kingdom, and minor changes to the Character-Centric Touring Plan, Morning Day 2
CHAPTER 7: WHERE TO EAT
Like Chapter 6, Chapter 7 saw dozens of changes
New or completely redone reviews include
- Paddlefish
- Planet Hollywood Observatory
- Las Ventanas
Other changes included
- New character breakfast with Rapunzel, Flynn, Ariel and Eric
- Shift of the characters at Hollywood & Vine at lunch
- New Dining Plan prices
CHAPTER 8: WHICH TICKETS TO BUY AND HOW MUCH TO BUDGET
Disney raised ticket prices in February 2017, so all our pricing material has been revised. One ticket form is gone, a new one has been added, there’s now a penalty for not buying in advance, and a new expiration policy is in place—we cover all of these.
CHAPTER 9: HOW TO SET EVERYTHING UP AND GET EVERYTHING DONE
In Chapter 9, we made no substantive changes, but rather only cleaned up some awkward wording (the 90,000 other instances of awkward wording in Chapters 1-8 remain).
* * * * *
The easy Guide is the only Disney World guidebook to offer free updates to the current year edition.
We sent out emails last week to those already on the update list.
To join our list—you’ll get the latest update, plus we’ll do at least one more update to this edition, after Pandora opens (after then, we’ll turn to the 2018 edition)– just follow the instructions below!
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March 26, 2017 2 Comments
Get The easy Guide Without the Awkwardness
As noted here, Josh and I will be signing copies of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit Saturday January 28 from ~1-2p at Mexico in Epcot.
However, you don’t need to actually be there to get a signed copy. For the first time in a while, Josh and will each be giving away and mailing copies signed by both of us of this best-reviewed Disney World guidebook, ever, to one lucky winner from each of our sites—this one and easyWDW.com.
Josh’s giveaway is here. You can enter both.
In the meantime, though, to enter my giveaway, all you need to do is page down and enter a comment about how either this site OR easyWDW.com OR one of our guidebooks has helped you with your Disney World visit.
The way it will work is that
- I’ll subjectively pick my favorite comments (for the kind of comments I like, see the winners from my most recent giveaway), and then
- From that group randomly pick the winner!
I’ll the use the email you entered in the comment form (only I can see your email address) to notify the lucky winner, and get his or her mailing address.
Want your own signed copy without the awkward pauses and lingering regret that comes from meeting us in person? Then add your comment now!!
- To get a quote on your trip from my travel agent partners Destinations in Florida, you can either call the toll-free line dedicated to readers of this site, or fill out the form below.
- To speak directly to an agent, call 877-918-8941 Monday-Saturday between 9a-4p (Eastern). (Toll-free if dialed from within the USA.)
- (Hint: Check out What to Budget first, as there can be some real sticker shock!)
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January 22, 2017 14 Comments
