Category — zz. Even Geekier than Usual

2012 at yourfirstvisit.net

Thanks to all of you for once again making this a great year!

I write to help–and to be able to help, have to be read. And for some reason, you keep coming! In July, the two millionth visitor dropped by, and in October a page was read here for the ten millionth time. Thousands of you asked questions, and through these I made new friends like Troy and Joan and Joanne.

Right now you are coming by at a monthly run-rate of more than 250,000 visits and almost a million pageviews a month. Fourteen months ago, the equivalent monthly numbers were just 70,000 visits and 300,000 pageviews, so thank you so much for telling your friends about the site, posting links to it on your own websites and blogs, pinning it, and liking it on Facebook!

(And thanks especially to Steve, and to the Magical Blogorail gang–particularly Mike.)

This was also a year of big investments in this site, including moving it to a dedicated server in June, and buying and redirecting to here yourfirstvisit.com in October.

A YEAR OF REVIEWS IN REVIEW

Another big investment was completing in 2012 the multi-year task of staying in, and writing reviews of, every single Walt Disney World resort, including all the major resort subdivisions, and all the distinctly different room types.

In 2012, I stayed for multiple nights in and reviewed

• The Yacht Club
• Caribbean Beach Standard Rooms
• Caribbean Beach Pirate Rooms
• The Beach Club Villas
• Art of Animation Family Suites
• All-Star Music Family Suites
• Art of Animation Standard Rooms
• Port Orleans Riverside Alligator Bayou 5 person rooms
• Port Orleans Riverside Royal Rooms, and
• Old Key West (re-written review to come soon)

(You can find links to all these reviews here.)

Some of these visits were to resorts or room types that were new, some I just hadn’t gotten to yet, and some were revisits after major renovations, or to re-test hotel rankings. But as a result I am now one of the few people odd enough to have stayed for multiple nights in and reviewed every single Walt Disney World significant hotel option…

There’s more to do here next year—I need to complete re-visiting the moderates to ensure that the rankings of them are still valid after so many, but not all, now have queen beds (hence the multiple 2012 visits to Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans Riverside).

But at least until the Disney Vacation Club section the Grand Floridian opens, this site’s “Where to Stay” section is now complete!

Also this year lots of new rides and attractions opened, especially in Fantasyland. Some reviews of these are up, the rest will be finished in January—but I can already tell you that Enchanted Tales with Belle and the re-done Test Track are the best of what was new in 2012.

And what else is on the docket for next year? Well, NextGen is coming…which I suspect will have profound implications for many…see for example this and this….and perhaps require some major re-writes to this site’s itineraries and to-do lists.

All in, I plan to have a ball in 2013, and to make this site better, and hope you will all come along for the ride!

2013 WALT DISNEY WORLD CHEAT SHEET

James McC. emailed last year 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.

So based on these thoughts and what people pin on Pinterest, I’ve put together the four-page Walt Disney World 2013 Cheat Sheet. Click the link to open up the (1.9 mb) PDF.

(The image at the top of this page is an example page from it.)

For those of you curious about the day job I’ve referred to now and then–here’s a link to a YouTube video about the project I’m helping out with right now!

The guy in the video is not me…but he did hire me at McKinsey a while back when he was the managing partner of McKinsey’s Cleveland office, and he and I have been working together every couple of years ever since! I’m helping him out right now with strategy for the Medical Mart.

Anyone care to guess where the idea for the “themed floors” came from? 🙂

PERSONALIZATION AND DISNEY WORLD’S NEXTGEN PROJECT

Disney’s NextGen project has several parts.  Most widely discussed is the planned ability to reserve ride times, parade spots, etc., from home months ahead (people are currently calling this the “FASTPASS+” program). The part people have been seeing for a while is enhancements to the experience of waiting in line for those not able to reserve a time.

And then there’s “personalization.”

Most speculation about personalization has focused on the potential ability of cast members and digital signs to recognize and respond to guests, keying off of identity data encoded in either an RFID device or—in the longer run more likely—two way communicating smart phones.  It’s a technologically enabled way to say “hi” before you’ve been formally introduced.

Well, OK on that…but personalization could involve a lot more…

PERSONALIZATION THOUGHTS SPURRED BY DISNEY’S 2012 ANALYTICS AND OPTIMIZATION SUMMIT

[Read more →]

DISNEY WORLD CROWDS FROM LATER DECEMBER 2012 TO EARLY JANUARY 2013

Disney World usually sees its highest crowds and prices of the year in the later third of December and the beginning of January, in the week that includes Christmas, and the next week that includes New Year’s Eve.

This is for a pretty basic reason: kids are out of school these weeks.

However, not every school district has the same break schedule.

In 2012/2013, many more kids are out Christmas week than New Year’s week, but there’s enough on break New Year’s week to still crowd the parks…

SCHOOL BREAKS AND DISNEY WORLD CROWDS

[Read more →]

ANALYSIS OF 2013 DISNEY WORLD RESORT HOTEL PRICE CHANGES

Walt Disney World’s 2013 prices came out last week, and as usual on average they’ve gone up.

The only big deal for first time visitors is the switch of the third week of December 2013 from Fall Season to the Peak Season, raising hotel prices that week 25-50%.

But there’s some other interesting and unusual features to Disney World’s 2013 prices (actual reductions; effective reductions; new seasons; changes in the traditional dates of old seasons), so what follows analyses 2013 price changes at Walt Disney World resort hotels compared to 2012 by resort price class.

VALUE RESORT 2013 PRICE CHANGES: POP CENTURY EXAMPLE

Across 2013 price seasons, at first blush Pop Century 2013 prices have gone up a lot.

However, when you adjust to this site’s 8 night itineraries, and back out the $10/night charge for refrigerators that’s now gone, for all major seasons prices are either barely up or lower than 2012. But three 2013 weeks have been re-seasoned compared to 2012, and as a result, their prices are peppered. [Read more →]