Vacation Planner site
Did you know that Disney has a basic Vacation Planning toolkit on their website? Yes, people seldom use it, probably because they don’t know it exists, but mostly it helps organize your trip and set up itineraries to better organize your stay. There are a few features that I think are very interesting, and some that could use some improvement.
One of the features that I think has promise is the Customized Maps page. Here you can see each park, select all of the points of interest you want to see, and print out the map to review prior to, during, and after your trip.
The Process
Choose which park
First, you select which one of the four Walt Disney World parks you would like to map out.
Then you see a list of all of the attractions, entertainment, and dining numbered over the location of that item, on the map of the park. When you select the item, it appears on the map in a different color, and an image with more detailed info pops up.
You can choose the “Select as Map Favorite” button which will keep that selection as a point-of-interest.
Once that is complete, you preview the map, and can choose a “classic” or a “character” theme for your map.
After that, you have two choices for how to get the map(s):
- Order Free Maps (Receive a FREE keepsake set of 5 full-color maps. Takes 2-4 weeks for delivery)
Printing
- Print Maps (You may print copies any time you like)
Thoughts
I think this is a great way to explore the parks, and get your kids excited (even more than they already are) for the trip. It also offers a wonderful keepsake that you can frame. The site does exactly what you would expect it to do, and does it very well.
That being said, the site is constructed, much like most older parts of the Disney site, for a center-justified static 1024×768 page. That isn’t bad but the layout can really use some re-mouseke-tooling. The WDW site was refreshed a few weeks ago, so I am sure it is only a matter of time for all of the other pages to follow. My main gripe on the site is this fascination with the top menu bars. I mean, there are three on this page, and it is well into the lower half of the page before your content even shows up. So many people will have to start scrolling down to see what they have to click.
The site uses flash, and it is done very well, but they have gone into great detail on their Google Maps fly-throughs, and I would have liked them to utilize that in some regard. Again, this does exactly what it was designed to do, but there are a few things that could be tweaked.
Another example is the zoom bar being a separate item below the map. This should probably be above the map, or even made a transparent element ON the map. One of the main problems is the width of the page being too narrow. This should also be updated.
Magic Kingdom example, with zoom on bottom
And my only other issue would be to offer a mobile edition of the map, so when you are there, you can view your plan over your mobile device.
Conclusion
Lots o' bars
This idea was a very good one on Disney’s part. It allows guests to be plan and be excited before, during, and after their trip. It also has the advantage of providing this for FREE (my favorite). And even if you are a Disney fanatic, like we are, you will enjoy these maps as well. Most, if not all of it’s shortcomings, have very little to do with if it works, or if it is useful. It does precisely what it is intended to do, and does need to be refreshed for the overall redesign of the WDW site.
Map, Print, and Enjoy!
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07. Jan, 2010 
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Thanks to Thomas Smith, over at Disney Parks Blog, we got a list of updated devices that are compatable with the Official Disney Parks mobile application. Hopefully, in the near future, we will see a version of the app for the iPhone, PalmOS, Android, and Blackberry phones (once they all are available on Verizon).
