Category — zzz. Stuff No One Cares About but Me

QUICK UPDATE ON THE MEET UP

Well, the big joint fan meet up with Steve from MilitaryDisneyTips.com has come and gone, and I am just beat!

I lost count, but Steve, the writer/webmaster of MilitaryDisneyTips.com (right, with the hat) thinks that more than forty of you visited with us.

Hundreds more dropped by virtually on Facebook and Twitter!

This site exists to help, and all the time you folks write your appreciation–see the “puffery” on the lower left for just a tiny sample.

But taking time out of your Disney vacation to come see and thank a balding old guy…well you take my breath away with gratitude!

The couple above ruined their honeymoon by coming to visit!

The “Glow with the Show” hats were gone within moments–the little girl got the second to last.

We’ll be announcing the winners of the hats from the virtual part of the meet up on Twitter and Facebook shortly.

The meet-up started by the hat shop, and there were four people waiting before we’d even begun!

Then a neat surprise–Josh from easyWDW.com and Lisa rolled up!

I’d spent much of Monday afternoon with Josh scheming over some stuff, so I was a little star-struck to see him twice in one Disney World visit!

We all wandered closer to the flagpole for the retreat, then returned to the meet-up spot.

After it formally ended–and we are pretty formal here, you know–Josh and Lisa treated us to Fastpasses for the Jungle Cruise, re-themed as the Jingle Cruise this holiday season.  I laughed like a seven year old…

Josh and Lisa then peeled off, and Steve and I wandered the park, keeping people posted where we were and continuing to meet throughout the evening!

More details and photos will be out later, but thanks to all who came, to Allison and Leah from Destinations in Florida for their help and support, and most of all to Steve!  You rock, man…

TEST NUMBER TWO OF FASTPASS+

I’d done my first test of the new FastPass+/MagicBands system in September, focusing on rides. (Report of that test here.)

On this visit, my focus was on testing FastPass+ at character greetings…

…parades…

…and fireworks.

I have a lot more thinking to do before I can turn these experiences into recommendations, so stay tuned…

FIRST STAY AT THE VILLAS AT DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT & SPA

I began this visit at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and ended it at the Wilderness Lodge.  I’ll be updating the reviews of each soon.

But the real prize of this visit was several nights in a two-bedroom villa at the brand new Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

I’ll be publishing a full review shortly, and in the meantime, Denise and I are working on floor plans. When the full set is out, these will be the most accurate floor plans for these villas ever published!

OK that’s it for now, off to the airport. I’ll be putting up more on all this soon, and thanks again to all of you who stopped by!

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YOURFIRSTVISIT.NET AND MILITARYDISNEYTIPS.COM JOINT MEET UP TODAY!!!

The first-ever yourfirstvisit.net and MilitaryDisneyTips.com joint fan meet up is today! 

Meet us from 4.30-5.30p in the northeast corner of the Magic Kingdom’s Town Square, interrupted by the 5p Flag Retreat.

Steve Bell of MilitaryDisneyTips.com and I will be

• Meeting and greeting our fan(s)
• Giving away the new “Glow with the Show” mouse ear hats to the first five fans that show up (if we hit that many…), and
• Watching the Retreat together.

Steve will have a white shirt on, I’ll have a red shirt on, and we’ll likely both be wearing mouse ears and carrying a bag with more! Look for us between the candy (“Main Street Confectionery”) and hat (“The Chapeau”) shops!

Afterwards, Steve and I will be wandering around the Magic Kingdom, mostly together, and then having a nightcap, likely at the Wilderness Lodge. We will tweet and update on Facebook where we are, and we’d love to meet you later in the evening as well, if you can’t make the 4.30-5.30 meet up.

We’ll be also be giving “Glow with the Show” ears away to randomly selected people who join the meet-up virtually by re-tweeting our tweets or commenting on our Facebook posts.

(On Twitter, Steve is @MilitaryDisney and Dave is @yourfirstvisit. On Facebook, Dave is here and Steve here.)

To RSVP for the meet-up–not that you need to, we aren’t all that formal–click here. And for why I partner with Steve, see this.

Don’t miss it!  The first ever fan meet up for either of us! In the northeast corner of the Magic Kingdom’s Town Square, 4.30 to 5.30p, Wednesday November 13!

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Google+ or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Steve Bell of MilitaryDisneyTips.com and I will be meeting our fan(s) this Wednesday, 11/13, from 4.30 to 5.30p at the Magic Kingdom!

We picked this time and location for the Retreat at 5p–and Disney is enhancing the retreat this week as part of its Veterans Day salute. The location is marked on the map above–click it to enlarge it.

I scouted out the specific spot yesterday–we expect that while our meet is on, it won’t be quite so crowded.

The first five people to shake our hands (both of us!) will get one of Disney’s new “Glow in the Show” hats, seen in a pile in the image above from my room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

We’ll also be giving out such hats to a few randomly selected people who during the meet-up re-tweet our tweets or comment on our Facebook posts!

Here’s hoping you can make it!

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Google+ or Twitter or Pinterest!!

The first-ever yourfirstvisit.net and MilitaryDisneyTips.com joint fan meet up is on!

It will be 4.30-5.30p on November 13th in the northeast corner of the Magic Kingdom’s Town Square, interrupted by the 5p Flag Retreat.

Steve Bell of MilitaryDisneyTips.com and I will be

• Meeting and greeting our fan(s)
• Giving away the new “Glow with the Show” mouse ear hats to the first five fans that show up (if we hit that many…), and
• Watching the Retreat together.

Steve will have a white shirt on, I’ll have a red shirt on, and we’ll likely both be wearing mouse ears and carrying a bag with more! Look for us between the candy (“Main Street Confectionery”) and hat (“The Chapeau”) shops!

Afterwards, Steve and I will be wandering around the Magic Kingdom, mostly together, and then having a nightcap, likely at the Wilderness Lodge. We will tweet and update on Facebook where we are, and we’d love to meet you later in the evening as well, if you can’t make the 4.30-5.30 meet up.

We’ll be also be giving “Glow with the Show” ears away to randomly selected people who join the meet-up virtually by re-tweeting our tweets or commenting on our Facebook posts.

(On Twitter, Steve is @MilitaryDisney and Dave is @yourfirstvisit. On Facebook, Dave is here and Steve here.)

To RSVP for the meet-up–not that you need to, we aren’t all that formal–click here. And for why I partner with Steve, see this.

Don’t miss it!  The first ever fan meet up for either of us! In the northeast corner of the Magic Kingdom’s Town Square, 4.30 to 5.30p, Wednesday November 13!

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Google+ or Twitter or Pinterest!!

News on Fastpass+, MagicBands, a possible meet up, Pinterest, and more!

FASTPASS+ INVITATIONS STILL COMING BY EMAIL, MAIL, PONY EXPRESS, ETC.

I’m getting ready for my next test of FastPass+ and MagicBands in November.

(For the last test, see this; if you have no idea what I’m talking about, see this.)

As happened last time, I did everything first in MyDisneyExperience.com, but also got an emailed invitation—on the right—and a mailed invitation—see below.

I’d thought that maybe these weren’t coming out anymore to those who have already tested FastPass+.

Wrong again.

BTW—Josh reported last week that the ability of FastPass+ testers using MagicBands to also get regular Fastpasses (using the backup Key to the World Card all testers have been getting), may be “scaled back” beginning today.

Josh is almost always right… but while this program so far has been a leaky as a sieve, many of the reported leaks have not quite panned out…so I guess we’ll see…

I have no actual information or sources on the issue, but do have a guess forecast.  My forecast is that since Disney’s discussion of FY13 results is 11/7, and there might be a howl–and resulting bad press–if this cut-back actually begins today, Disney World will hold off killing the ability of testers to use both Fastpass systems til after November 7th.

I don’t feel strongly about this forecast–I can argue the opposite side almost as compellingly. I balance between the two possibilities by noting that Disney doesn’t lose much by delaying til after 11/7…and delaying avoids the chance that a lot of complaints by sell-side analysts from New Jersey (as most are) will clot up the earnings call…

CUSTOMIZING YOUR MAGIC BAND

The scoop on customizing your MagicBands is here. The link tells the tale of my red MagicBand.

While I love my red MagicBand, I got a blue MagicBand for this visit.

(You can re-use your old ones, or get new ones.  I’ll be getting new ones for each visit until 1. the tests are over and the MyMagic+ program is stable, and 2. I have one of every color…)

The two gray MagicBands are ones I didn’t customize—that’s the default color.

You get a total of nine characters for customizing, including spaces, and can’t use special characters like commas or periods.  We had a spare—long story behind that—so I did what I could with the new red one.

Here’s a close up.

Maybe it’ll be a giveaway if we do the meet up!

A POSSIBLE MEET-UP IN DISNEY WORLD ON NOVEMBER 13?

Our last night at Disney World on the November trip, Wednesday November 13, overlaps with the first night of the trip of my favorite Disney World blogger.  He and I are chatting about doing a joint meet up with any fan who wants to meet us the afternoon or evening of the 13th.

Planning is still at the early stages—largely emails: “Got any ideas?”  “Nope. You got any ideas?” “Nope.  How about you—had any ideas since my last email?” “Nope”—so I’m not even naming him, and you shouldn’t view this as an invitation. Yet.

But I really like the idea of a joint meet-up–the cool thing about both of us hosting it is that each of us is guaranteed that the meet-up will be attended by at least one fan!

More to come, maybe…

A REALLY COOL PINTEREST BOARD

I had a chance to chat Thursday with Linda, a Facebook friend who has given me a lot of really great advice.

We had a nice talk, and it reminded me that I’ve never recommended her pinterest stuff.  So if you are a Disney World fan, you should check out her pins and follow her boards!

Linda’s goal is to present only the best of what she’s seen about Disney World…which will save you a lot of time!  And you may learn about some great other sites.

I know, I know…I’m really lousy at Pinterest—some of the most important stuff on this site isn’t really even pinnable…but I’m beginning to work on it, with the help of some of the best in the world at this—like Linda!!!

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Google+ or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Some coming attractions on yourfirstvisit.net over the next month or so:

REVIEW OF THE VILLAS AT DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT AND SPA

Disney’s latest accommodations offering opens this week—the Villas at the Grand Floridian. Amy Girl and I are booked into a two-bedroom villa there in early November, so look for a review shortly after!

MORE TESTING OF FASTPASS+ AND MAGICBANDS

As part of that visit, we’ll do the second round of FastPass+ and MagicBand testing (for the findings first time around, see this).  This test will focus on FastPass+ for parades, fireworks, and character greetings

KICKING OFF THE RE-VISITS TO THE DELUXE AND DVC RESORTS

Over the last twenty months I’ve re-visited and re-reviewed all of the moderates and values—and all their different room types.

The November visit also “officially” kicks off the re-visits and re-reviews of the deluxe and DVC properties, so besides the Grand Floridian we’ll also be at the Animal Kingdom and Wilderness Lodges.  Some of the current reviews are as much as four years old (most are newer!), so this will be a welcome refresh of this material.

IMPROVED FLOOR PLANS!

There’s more than 60 floor plans on this site.  Denise from YourFloorPlan is making them all much easier to use!

Today I put up the first five here.  See the example at the top of this page. I’ll be rolling out the rest over the next 6 months.

THE PROS AND CONS OF EVERY WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT, FROM SOMEONE WHO HAS ACTUALLY STAYED IN THEM ALL!

I announced yesterday a new series on the pros and cons of all the resorts.  You can find similar stuff elsewhere, but not written by anyone who has recently stayed for multiple nights in all of them. The next entry in the series should be out later this week…

FINISHING THE DRAFT SET OF MATERIAL FOR 2015

I’ve already published Disney World price season projections for 2015. Next to come is the 2015 crowd calendar, and after that the 2015 week rankings. This should all be out within a month.  I’ll then revise it all in the summer of 2014.

OK, that’s the scoop. I hope all this stuff is useful to you all!! And let me know anything else you’d like to see, or to see updated!

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