Category — zzz. Stuff No One Cares About but Me

NOW AT AN AWKWARD AGE…

Yesterday this site completed its fifth full year of operation.

(This birthday post would have gone up yesterday, but I had more important news to relay.)

Thanks to all of you, the site is continuing to grow and as a result helping even more people.

The site will have its 3.5 millionth visitor all-time visitor since opening in a couple of weeks, 2 million of you have stopped by for a spell over the last 12 months, and the forecast for the next 12 months is almost 4 million of you coming by!

I’m grateful for and humbled by your readership, your help, and your kind words…thanks!!

WHAT’S COMING IN THE NEXT TWELVE MONTHS

In the time between now and the 6th birthday I expect two major developments:

• Revising the itineraries in response to MyMagic+ and Fastpass+–which, for reasons explained here, I’m not seeing as going into large scale operation much before October 1
• Revising the look and feel of the site, for both technical and reader experience reasons.

This site is built on WordPress, and the “theme” the site runs on—NeoClassical by Chris Pearson—is what shapes its look and feel.

I love the typographical clarity of NeoClassical, but it has not been supported for years.  As a result, every time there’s a WordPress upgrade, there’s a risk the site might break, and I can’t take advantage of the newer features released WordPress since NeoClassical was last updated more than 6 years ago.  So a new theme is on the to-do list!

Developing a new theme will also give me a chance to fix some major reader issues:

• Stuff is hard to find, and
• The overall look and feel of the site is too cluttered

You won’t find everything here—based on the comments I get (about 4,000 questions asked, and 4,000 answers given, in the last 12 months) the site is thin on stuff for kids younger than 8, on itineraries focused on just a park (all my itineraries are fully integrated for multi-park long stays) and on best and worst days.

But even so, there’s still a lot here—almost 1500 individual entries, with more coming out at a rate of 3-5 new posts a week!

I have lotsa stuff on how to find things around here—the best option is the search box at the top right of every page. (Try the search box.  It’s delicious!  Don’t believe me? Search for “Wishes”!)

But I think an “accordion menu” on the left side would be a big help—like the one on the left side of MouseSavers.com.  This would allow the navigation section you now see on the left side of this site to expand to be much more detailed and specific than it is right now if needed, while defaulting to something much shorter and less scary.

If I went that way, it’d also make it easier to kill the entire right sidebar, moving the important parts to the left side, in space freed both by the accordion menu, and also by killing the “More Puffery” section.

I’ll also likely re-do the home page so it has its own, new layout.

The current home page intentionally is like the table of contents to an instruction manual which has had its cover pulled off.  For the intended users of this site—first time visitors who may never return—that’s OK.  But over time the site has developed three different types of readers:

1. The intended audience: first timers
2. Returning visitors who are using the more detailed material on the site to shape certain key decisions like when to go and where to stay…
3. Disney fans who like to see what’s new here, and to just generally browse the site

So I’m thinking I may just make the home page three columns, with one column exactly addressing each of these three types of readers….

In addition I’ll continue all the routines that for better or worse the site has fallen into—I’ll revise the 2014 material (the 2014 crowd calendar, price seasons, and week rankings) in the summer, once final prices and final public school breaks are released; the 2014 version of the week picker will come out shortly after that, and in the fall, I’ll publish the first drafts of the core 2015 material.

Having completed the Great Moderate Re-Visit over the last 12 months, and stayed in and reviewed the brand-new Art of Animation Family Suites and Little Mermaid standard rooms, I’ll finish re-visiting and re-reviewing the other Values in the next 12 months; stay in the newly refurbed rooms that are emerging at the Polynesian; and check out the new DVC offering at the Grand Floridian when it opens.

Then there’s the rest of the Fantasyland Expansion that will emerge over the next 12 months…and likely other fun new stuff to check out that we don’t know about yet!

Moreover, I’ll likely need to revise the Harry Potter material for the opening of part two of Harry Potter at Universal Studios—currently rumored for June 2014.

So there’s plenty to look forward to in yourfirstvisit.net’s sixth year!

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ARGUING WITH MYSELF ABOUT THE DISNEY WORLD MODERATE RESORTS

For years now I’ve been advising first time visitors who may never return to avoid the moderates because, compared to alternatives like the Wilderness Lodge or Art of Animation, they are short on kid appeal.  They also have some real convenience issues…

This advice necessary follows the underlying logic of this site.  The site is meant to make the key Walt Disney World planning decisions fast and easy for first time visitors who may never return:

• By bringing all the key points to just one page
• By giving very specific instructions where multiple options are possible, and
• For families who can’t or won’t follow those instructions, to show the next best choices, ranked in order

So to provide the specific instructions and the rankings, I had to develop ranking criteria.  It took me a couple of years before I went live with this site almost five years ago to establish for all the topics on the home page the ranking criteria, and then to get the data to use in the populating the rankings.

For where to stay, the ranking criteria came out as first kid appeal, and then, within kid appeal groups, breaking ties with convenience.  I also did rankings by price class, as I can’t think of any helpful way to set a priori the price tradeoffs among the price classes.

Kid appeal, as I define it, is principally visual, and it means whether the look of a resort has public space features that speak to kids of whimsy, playfulness, and/or adventure, signaling that that this resort was designed for them! (And not necessarily for their parents…)

I don’t mean that your kids won’t have a great time at the lower-kid appeal resorts.  The ranking is comparative, not absolute, and your kids can—and will!—have a ball at any of the Disney hotels. But there’s three deluxes and five value resorts with really distinctive kid appeal…

…yet there are no moderates with really distinctive kid appeal at that same high level.

So that’s the fundamental reason I don’t recommend moderates for first time family visitors who may never return.  My core criterion is kid appeal, and none of them really rises to the high level you can find in the other price classes that I can recommend it on the basis of kid appeal.

The moderates also have major transportation convenience problems, and all but Port Orleans French Quarter have a sprawling and sometimes painful layout.

But I do rank the moderates in order anyway for those who ignore my advice, or are not “first time family visitors who may never return.”  And here I do rank them by visual kid appeal—finding a slight edge to Caribbean Beach on this measure, because of its beaches, color and theming, a bit of an edge to Coronado Springs for similar reasons, and the Cabins at Fort Wilderness bringing up the rear on this criterion.

The complete ranking based on these criteria is as follows

1. Caribbean Beach
2. Coronado Springs
3. Port Orleans Riverside
4. Port Orleans French Quarter
5. The Cabins at Fort Wilderness

NOW HERE’S WHERE I DISAGREE WITH MYSELF

But here’s the problem…if my sister called me and said “Dave, I’m gonna stay in a moderate—don’t try to talk me out of it—which one would you recommend to me, your sister?”  my answer would not be Caribbean Beach—it’d be Port Orleans French Quarter.

And not because of POFQ’s kid appeal, which is slim, and not because of transportation convenience, which, while better than the other moderates, is still weak.

Rather I’d recommend POFQ because of something not even in my criteria—it would be the compactness of POFQ compared to the other moderates, how much easier it is to get around there than at any other moderate, that would lead me to recommend it.

And for exactly the same reason I’d keep The Cabins last, but move Caribbean Beach to next to last—both these resorts are profoundly painful to get around.

I’m not quite sure where to slot Coronado Springs and Riverside on this “pain to get around” criterion.  Coronado Springs has a few more really awkward rooms (in the Ranchos section) than Riverside, but the very worst rooms in the Alligator Bayou section of Riverside are a fair hike away as well. So I’d put Riverside ahead of Coronado Springs, but not by much.

(Other points come into play with Coronado Springs.  It has many more amenities, and better and more varied dining and bars than any other moderate, but less fun room décor, and it sometimes can be overwhelmed by conventioneers.  So its extra positives get balanced out by its extra negatives.)

The main negative of French Quarter is the absence of a table service restaurant.  Frankly, the other moderate table service restaurants aren’t worth much anyway…I’d certainly never put dining at one on any of my itineraries…but this may be an issue to some.

THE MODERATES REMIXED

Another way to think about this: the moderates are almost tied on kid appeal, and almost tied on transportation convenience.

So my basic criteria don’t much distinguish them. What if you throw those criteria out, and look at all other factors that contribute to a pleasant stay?  What’s the ranking then?  Well, based on the above, it’s

1. Port Orleans French Quarter
2. Port Orleans Riverside
3. Coronado Springs
4. Caribbean Beach
5. The Cabins at Fort Wilderness

–with #1 a clear leader, 2 and 3 very close to one another, and 4 and 5 pretty distant from the top three.

So if I was gonna remix the moderates ranking, that’s what it would be.  Compare it to my basic list earlier on the page, where only one resort–the Cabins–has the same ranking, and #1 and #4 have flipped… and tell me what you think!

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FASTPASS+ AND THE APOCALYPSE

There’s been a ton of reaction to Tom Stagg’s Disney Parks Blog post on “MyMagic+” and “FastPass+” and to prior and subsequent press.

There’s not much new in any of this, other than the beginning of rollout—February; the length of rollout—all year; and the order of rollout– starting with Walt Disney World resort hotel guests, probably BoardWalk Inn guests at first, with the program expanded slowly to others.

But oh my, there’s been a lot of noise!

In general, any noise about this is good—I’ll come back to that in a bit—but the general tone out there is that the new program will be either a cataclysm, or the best thing since the forward pass.

LET’S ALL STAY CALM…THERE’S NOT MUCH TO SEE HERE

Well maybe it will be one or the other, but I doubt it; it’ll end up somewhere between, as do most human endeavors.

Moreover, there’s some key facts that just aren’t out yet, and some emergent behavior to observe that we’re all just gonna have to wait for.

The key missing facts are

1. How many daily FastPasses will be available to all guests, and
2. How these will be divided between those reserved for those who book them ahead and those that are available to anyone on the day of visit, just like today.

The answer to these questions will make a huge difference to the overall guest satisfaction with the program, especially for those who don’t, or don’t want to, reserve their rides ahead of time. (See this for more.)

Stay calm on this point, since as the link notes, Disney World could be on the way toward daily FastPass capacity triple what it offers today…plenty for advance reservation users and “unplanned” users too!

The behavioral question is will the “schedule from home” system lead more people to get up early if the only time they can reserve Space Mountain is at 9.15a? And if so, does that mean the time-honored strategy of getting to the parks at rope drop to beat the crowds will no longer work so well?

Stay calm on this too…mostly because we won’t know for a while, and in the meantime it’s best to bet on human nature, and thus tens of thousands still sleeping in…

Much of the cataclysmic thinking about FASTPASS+ comes from either those with privacy concerns (who, if this remains an issue for them, will need to opt out) or experienced Disney World visitors who have an approach that works for them, and are worried that the new system will get in the way of something they understand and are happy with.

I have a lot of sympathy with this latter group–as I’m in it too!—but that’s not what I’ve got my eye on.

Since I started thinking about this site, I’ve had one example family sharply in my mind’s eye:

They’ve been in line for Peter Pan’s ride for hours in the Magic Kingdom on an early July afternoon. They didn’t know that July was a bad time to go, they didn’t know that not sleeping in but rather hitting the park at opening was the best way to see Peter Pan without much of a wait, and they didn’t know that FastPasses are free with their ticket, and so don’t use them.

I want this family to have a great time, and FastPass+, if it lives up to its promise, can help them see great stuff without waiting so long…even on a July afternoon.

And that’s the reason I like the noise. The more noise, the more likely this family will find out how best to do Walt Disney World—however the new best way to do it emerges to be!

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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!

FINALLY, A FACEBOOK PAGE FOR YOURFIRSTVISIT.NET

So on Saturday, about four and a half years late, I finally put up a page for this site on Facebook. (The image is the page’s profile photo–me and Ariel in New Fantasyland.)

Now, no one has ever called me an early adopter of technology or tools, or even a fast follower.  If I’m in on a trend, it’s usually by chance, or by mistake.

It’s not that I’m against technology or trends; rather, my poor attention span means I don’t usually notice what’s going on, and if I do notice what’s going on, my poor memory often means I forget to do something about it…

But these flaws of character and capability aren’t why it’s taken me so long to take the site to Facebook.  I’ve known about Facebook forever, as a buddy of mine joined the Facebook team right after they opened up beyond college students, and signed me up a personal account for it way back then

Rather, I’ve been afraid of creating a Facebook page for yourfirstvisit.net because I’ve worried about providing lousy service, for two reasons.

• First it’s hard sometimes for me to keep up with just the comments on this site (so far, almost 5,000 questions and observations from you, and almost 5,000 responses from me), so I’ve worried that having a second venue to keep track of and be responsive to would mean that I wouldn’t do a good job in either place.
• Second, a surprising number of people read through the comment streams on a page before asking their own question.  That is, the questions and answers here help a lot of people get their issues resolved.  I’ve worried that dividing such material across two places means fewer will get fully helped in either place.

My friends and counselors have reacted to these concerns as though I’m nuts, noting that the site is losing traffic and Google cred by not being on Facebook.  This has not been compelling, as I’m worried much more about providing good service than I am about traffic.

But the other week, someone put the situation in terms that got through even my thick head.  “This site exists to help people.  You can’t help them if they can’t find you.  More people will find you if you are on Facebook.  And then you will help more people. Just deal with it”

OK, I get it, so almost five years after launching this site, it’s now on Facebook! Like the page if you think that this site could possibly help other people.

And if you have a moment, let me know if you think the site should jump on that other hot new trend that’s just emerged this past week (or perhaps earlier)…I forget what it’s called—“twoodle”?–you know, the one that uses what I think are called “mushtags”?

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A VERY MINOR LANDMARK

So after thinking about doing so for years, last week I finally bought yourfirstvisit.com, and (after the usual comedy that happens when I get mixed up with technology) re-directed it so that if people type “yourfirstvisit.com” into their browser, they’ll get to the home page of this site instead.

What that means practically is that more people who mean to get here actually will get here. Emotionally, it brings me back to the days in early 2008 when the site’s first set of research and resulting material was done, and what was left were the questions of what name to use for it and how to pull the whole thing off technically.

So I’m gonna go back there for a bit, and then wander back to now…and yes, for obvious reasons I have created a whole new category for this post!

WHY THIS SITE BECAME YOURFIRSTVISIT.NET [Read more →]