Yoo Hoo, Jennifer!
On June 23rd '97 you wrote to All:
Congrats on going to WDW for the 25th Anniversary.  A lot has changed since
your last visit 10 years ago.  The 25th Anniversary celebration ends on
New Year's Eve.  You'll be interested in packages and celebrations on
"Jolly Holidays" if you want to go between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
 JS> Thus far, I have picked up _Birnbaum's Walt Disney World 1997_ and
 JS> Fodor's _Walt Disney World for Adults_.  I am open to other book titles,
 JS> as well Web sites and newsgroups (I believe alt.disney has re-orged
 JS> since I last checked in), including information I can directly obtain
 JS> from EchoEars.
Another couple of good guidebooks are Bob Sehlinger's "Unofficial Guide
to WDW" (the line avoidance tours you'll be very interested in), Rita
Aero's "WDW for Adults", the Perlmutter's "WDW for Lovers" (has info on
where the various resort rooms are in relation to swimming pools and the
bus stops).
www.disney.com has a WDW section that will tell you what is new since
your last visit.
You will want to look up (and I'm sorry I don't have the URL but a good
search engine will turn this up) the WWW site maintained by a former
active member of the Fidonet Disney Echo, Ed Sterrett, called The Ultimate
Disney Links Page or TUDLP.  Not only does it provide WDW information
but general Orlando information and links to find out weather conditions
there.  You can also leave Ed questions via E-mail there if you need
help or have specific questions.
The newsgroup you will want to consult is "rec.arts.disney.parks".  While
its charter is to discuss all four Disney theme parks in the world, the
bulk of the discussion is about WDW.  You will want to seek out the
advice of Kenny Cottrell, Andrea McKenna, "Barb aka Gardenia the Feral
Mermaid", Deb Wills who runs a WWW site called Debbie's Disney Digest aka
WDW Information Guide for r.a.d.parks (this site has menus from WDW
restaurants), DVCCluber's WDW Trip Planning guide WWW site (his name is
Brian Bennett at DVCClubber@aol.com or DVClubber@aol.com), and Jack
Marshall, but there are lots of other WDW experts there too.  There are
a lot of social posts (chit chat that seems like in-joke or private
conversations) on the newsgroup and it gets rather high message volume
per day (about 150 or so), but stick with it and try to read _all_ the
posts if you can, helpful WDW info you might be able to use, great
tips, etc.  might get buried in a post that may not necessarily have
an intriguing title to it.  Try to title your posts very specifically,
so that when you try to locate your thread later and you can spot it
easily in the clutter.  The newsgroup even holds it's own net.meets at
WDW so it's possible you might be able to meet some of the folks who
are helping you, which is a nice touch.  There is a WWW site that is
nothing but WDW trip reports, also, but I forget the name of the
maintainer.
Ask about Animal Kingdom park (set to open next year) and the 25th
Anniversary welcome center (just inside of Magic Kingdom) and the
25th Anniversary daytime parade at MK.  The Hercules parade at
Disney Studios Theme Park will be new, too.
The big new attraction set to open is GM Test Track at Epcot's Future
World.  It's still in testing and is running late from it's original
schedule to open.  The ride similates what it is like to build and
test cars, with the high point a run on a test track going 65 MPH.
If you subscribe to the Disney Channel you'll want to regularly watch
the show "Inside Out" hosted by Brianne Leary and JD Roth.  The show
takes you on a tour of WDW every week and shares inside tips and looks
at how attractions operate, interviews with celebrities or Imagineeers,
etc.  You can find the original show every week Sundays at 3 pm Eastern
and 2 pm Central, and a repeat of the same show the following Saturday
at 3 pm Eastern, 2 pm Central, or check your local cable TV listings
for exact local time and channel assignment.  It's a weekly show.
The shows for the month of June were new episodes.  Likely other shows
will be reruns.  If you see a teenage girl as a correspondent, that is
one of the new shows.
Most of the rest of it, read here, the guide books, the URLs and
check with r.a.d.parks and here and you'll have your questions
pretty much answered in time for your trip.  Hope this helps!
Have fun planning!
--Carol Koster, Fidonet Disney Echo Co-Moderator
--- April V1.0+
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