WDW Calendars

For the sake of argument, let's say I was in the following scenario:

1. I am staying on Disney property for the week.
2. I want to go early to Epcot on a day that has an Extra Magic Hour morning. What mornings are those?
3. What attractions are going through rehabs/closings on those days?
   
4. I heard that a band was playing U2 songs in Epcot. What time could I catch a show?
   
5. After spending the day in Epcot and seeing the fireworks, would I have enough time to run over to Downtown Disney to do some shopping?
6. I want this as easy as possible. If I can do a quick lookup on my cell phone, it would make me a happy camper.

It would be great to be able to look in one place to see the answers to all of these questions. Unfortunately, there is not an option like this available today. Even Disney's "Times Guide & New Information" brochures only cover pieces of this. In this article, we will take a look at the web-based solutions from various WDW information sites.

The following screnshots are clickable for larger views.

Magical Kingdoms

Excluding special events, the Magical Kingdoms calendar has opening/closing times for everything on Disney property. The calendar also shows park parades and fireworks schedules. Refurbs are listed separate from the calendar, 2 clicks away. MK has a separate monthly event list that is one click away, and I could find "Sounds Like Summer" and U2 details in the month of August. Archived months can be viewed as well as information 3 months in advance (keeping with Disney's current policy). Extra Magic Hours are color-coded for easy reference. Clicking "Extra Magic Hours" will display a page explaining EMH and a list of attractions that are open. Because headings are displayed within each day, the calendar will look good on most cell phones. It looks great on my Treo.

BEST FOR: Folks who strictly want hours of operation and "go beyond the parks". Cell phone/mobile use.
LACKING: A detailed park view with schedule, events, and refurbs. That's ok, though, Disney has it.


WDW Magic

WDW Magic is 6 calendars in one. Select a theme park or one of the water parks and the current month or up to 3 months in advance (keeping with Disney's current policy). The calendar has a nice, clean interface. Refurbishment information is conveniently displayed at the top. The calendar also shows park parades and fireworks schedules, but an events schedule is not included in the calendar or even on the site itself. Extra Magic Hours are highlighted for easy reference. Clicking "Extra Magic Hours" at the bottom of the calendar will display a page explaining EMH and a list of attractions that are open. The dropdown web controls may make it difficult to use the calendar on a cell phone.

WDW Magic has a separate mobile interface that includes operating hours for today and tomorrow with the theme and water parks, but excludes park parades and fireworks schedules. Including weather is a nice touch, and there is also a complete refurbishment schedule and any past and future event you can think of. A mobile interface that has info from all of these sources for the current day only would seem to make more sense.

BEST FOR: Park-only attenders who care about rides, not events. This is basically an attraction calendar.
LACKING: "Beyond the park" operating hours and a more robust mobile interface. Perhaps a link to Disney for events?


DIS

The calendar on DIS is similar to Magical Kingdoms'. The DIS calendar has opening/closing times for the 6 theme and water parks and parades/fireworks in a single day, but the day also includes basic event information. Again, why no U2 on the calendar? :( The summer concert series with U2 did appear on a site search, but was also not included in the DIS monthly event list. Both events and refurbs are one click away from the calendar selection page. Refurbs are tracked for the entire resort. A month can be displayed with park parade and fireworks schedules only. Archived months can be viewed as well as information for 3 months in advance (keeping with Disney's current policy). Specific dates can be searched. DIS also includes operating hour news and parade/fireworks descriptions. In the calendar, Extra Magic Hours are color-coded for easy reference. Clicking "Extra Magic Hours" on the calendar selection page will display a page explaining EMH and a list of attractions that are open. Because headings are displayed on the far left for each week, the calendar does not look good on a cell phone.

BEST FOR: Park-only attenders
LACKING: "Beyond the park" operating hours, some special events, and a mobile interface


AllEars


Like some of the other sites, AE makes a separation between park hours, event hours, and hours for other Disney areas (e.g. Downtown Disney), but it also separates Extra Magic Hours. Calling the park hours page a calendar is a stretch, but the park color-coding helps to see when the parks are open. The calendar on AE includes opening/closing times for the 6 theme and water parks and a parade/fireworks schedule at the bottom of the page. High-level event info can be viewed on the left-hand side of the page, but the event info is not in-sync with the site's main "Events" section (e.g. "Sounds like Summer" is not shown in August). Next month's calendar can also be viewed. Because headings are displayed on the far left for each week, the calendar does not look good on a cell phone unless you can remember the colors. "Beyond the park" operating hours are not shown. There is a disclaimer at the top of the page stating: "NOTE: Walt Disney World now publishes operating hours on its official website approximately three months in advance." AE needs to dump the "Operating, Parade and Fireworks Hours at WDW" page.



Have you ever eaten in a dive restaurant and had the best meal you've had in a long time? This is exactly what AllEars is in regards to events. AE has a monthly event list (like the other sites) which it calls a calendar, but this is where AE shines. All of the other sites listed in this article show either 1 event or no events for August. AE shows 7, including a Disney park event that doesn't appear on the Disney website. The events list also has links for local concerts, and attraction rehabs and closings. Although AE is not optimized for a mobile phone interface, the lightweight pages load fast on a cell phone.

BEST FOR: Anyone who wants to have the inside scoop on Disney-related events.
LACKING: "Beyond the park" operating hours (e.g. reference the weekly Disney Times guide for the entire resort. Disney does not have this online either). A mobile interface.


INTERCOT

Ok, so INTERCOT does not have a calendar, but they did take a serious look at what options users would need most. INTERCOT's first 3 options under info central are: rehabs, events, and park hours. As long as I know what the date is, I can easily switch between 4 views (3 links plus the Extra Magic Hour page) to get the info I need to answer all of my questions. Intercot has opening/closing times for everything on Disney property. Parades and fireworks are in the event schedule. Events are listed by month. Information can be viewed 3 months in advance. Extra Magic Hours are another click away; clicking "Extra Magic Hour Info" at the top of the Hours page will display a page explaining EMH and a list of attractions that are open. Refurbs are listed for the parks and resorts. The schedules look good on a cell phone, but will take 4 separate page loads to get to all of the information. Ok, who am I kidding? When you are in the middle of your vacation, do you really want to remember what the date is? I am usually lucky to remember the day of the week! I need an interactive online calendar application, not an online book.

BEST FOR: Pre-trip planning, because I don't want to remember the date.
LACKING: Perhaps a calendar that consolidates all 4 views mentioned above, or concentrate on what Disney does not have. A mobile interface.


Laughing Place

Let's see. No park hours under the Park Hours link and upcoming events that have already passed. The joke's on us, Laughing Place! Very funny!

BEST FOR: Not sure.
LACKING: A calendar?


Disney

Disney's latest offering is almost there. Moving your mouse over the Plan tab at the top of the Walt Disney World site will display a popup menu. The right-hand side of the menu has most of what you need.

Unfortunately, this menu will not work on some of the latest mobile phones, including the iPhone, due to the technology used. As a solution to this, I have supplied the first link from that menu and the current day park links in a separate blog article on WDW cell phone setup.


Clicking on the first link "Park Hours" should show you a schedule for the next 10 days, but for some reason when I click the link, the schedule starts in 2 days for the 10 days following. No worries, a minor glitch, you can select today's date using the calendar control. Past days cannot be selected. The left-hand side of page displays recommended/most recent attractions, the right-hand side has current and upcoming events. Interesting, though, today is August 27 and "Sounds Like Summer" ended August 9. Why is "Sounds Like Summer" still on the page? The 10-day schedule includes "Extra Magic Hours" and refurbishments, which is very handy. It should be noted that clicking an individual day will not display schedule details for that day. I would think it needs to, and will explain why later. The 10-day schedule does not include parades/fireworks and it does not show opening/closing times for Downtown Disney or any other Disney destinations "beyond the parks". I also could not find Downtown Disney hours anywhere else on the site.

Back to the Plan menu, selecting one of the parks displays a monthly park calendar. Goofy highlights the current day. Any of the next 3 months can be viewed. The calendar displays park operating hours as well as Extra Magic Hours. Notice that recommended attractions are again shown on the left-hand side of the page, but event information is missing from the page. Any day on the calendar is clickable.

After clicking on a day in the monthly park calendar, a daily schedule of events is shown. The schedule shows park operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, and entertainment times including parades and fireworks. I could not find show times for the U2 band on August 2. Because of this, it appears that scheduled special events are not listed in the daily schedule of events.

The page displays refurb info applicable to that day on the right-hand side of the page. Notice that recommended attractions once again appear on the left-hand side of the page, but event information is missing from the page entirely. If I want to see the event schedule, I would need to go back to the 10-day schedule and click on events. Once I am there, to get back to the day view, I need to click on the monthly park calendar, and then again on the individual day.

Adding event information on the daily schedule of events and allowing the 10-day schedule to link back to the daily schedule would be a couple of great improvements. While I am on vacation, I will be most likely to view a schedule for the next 10 days rather than a monthly calendar anyway.

One last thing to mention is about Disney's itinerary tool (from the Plan page). The tool will deliver a message to your itinerary inbox as your trip approaches stating operating hours for all 6 parks. There is also a note at the bottom of the message stating; "Check out the Park Hours for your entire stay by visiting our Calendar." This link is not a valid URL and appears to be from a prior version of Disney's site. It is therefore recomended not to put too much validity into this message.

BEST FOR: Getting the most accurate information. 10-day and daily schedule.
LACKING: A calendar for all of WDW (just like Disney's weekly "Times Guide & New Information for the Walt Disney World Resort"). "Beyond the Parks" operating hours are missing. Usability could be improved. Mobile interface.

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Summary Recommendation: For WDW calendars, use Magical Kingdoms on your cell phone for WDW resort operating hours, AllEars for openings and events, DIS for the overall WDW resort rehab/closing schedule, and Disney for up-to-the-date info and 10-day/daily park schedules. Skip all of the other sites.

You can bookmark my free iPhone/iPod Touch web app, wdw411.com. wdw411.com includes the recommended links and also works on most modern browsers.