PS Planning Guide History & Short Bio

On June 13, 2000, Deb Wills published this issue of the WDWIG_Ezine (now called All EARS) featuring an interview with yours truly. Basically this is the story of how the PS Planning Guide came about. Hope you enjoy it and stop by Deb's Unofficial Walt Disney World Information Guide and tell her I sent ya! This is being reproduced with Deb Wills permission. Thank you, Deb! - Scottwdw, Sorcerer of the PS Calculator

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                      WDWIG_EZine

            Walt Disney World News and Information

                Issue #33 June 13, 2000

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Disney World and Deb's Unofficial Walt Disney World Information
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               F E A T U R E   A R T I C L E 

              Priority Seating Planning Guide

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An innovative website debuted earlier this year which 
has already had tremendous response. I'm talking about
the Priority Seating Planning Guide developed by Scott
Thomas from NY State!

Scott is a long time Disney fan who grew up with 
Disney on TV. However, it wasn't until his first visit
to Disneyland in 1981, with his then future wife, that
the life long affair with the Disney parks took off! 
Since then, Scott and his wife honeymooned at WDW and 
have been returning ever since. I asked Scott what his 
favorite thing at WDW is and he explained how much he 
enjoys the overall atmosphere that brings the "magic" 
alive... I also found out he is a thrill ride kinda guy!


The Priority Seating (PS) Planning Guide has 3 components to it:

Priority Seating FAQ - everything you need to know 
about reserving a table at a WDW restaurant, including 
tips and suggestions;

The PS Calculator - for fast determination of your PS 
Call Dates and summary of PS events and restaurants; and,

The PS Report - create your personal PS Planning Report
for every restaurant and event at WDW.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Scott to 
learn more about the Priority Seating Guide.

What got you started developing the Priority Seating FAQ?

It all started very simply. My family is going to WDW
in November and we arrive on Thanksgiving Day. We picked
the Liberty Town Tavern for our Thanksgiving dinner. 
Since it is a major holiday, I needed to know the exact
day I could call to get a Priority Seating. Previously, 
I would try to figure it out in my head or count back 
on a calendar, never getting the same result twice. I 
was sitting at my computer and decided to put it to 
work for me. I searched the Internet and did not find 
any sites with a tool to help. So, I decided to create 
one not only for myself, but for anyone else who might 
want an easy way to figure out when to call for Priority 
Seatings at any of the WDW restaurants.

How long did it take to develop the PS Calculator?

Surprisingly fast. After some research, I found that 
Javascript would do the job. I spent about a week on 
web tutorials and then began to create the PS Calculator. 
It took another week to get the first version done and 
then I announced it on some of the WDW message boards. 

The PS Calculator quickly grew from just doing dates 
for 30, 60 & 120 day PS times to listing all the date 
breakdowns for the resort restaurants, dinner shows, 
park restaurants, sport adventures and other special 
events  --  Anything people could make a PS for.

What has the reaction been from folks who have used it?

I got a lot of help from the Disney web community in 
adding and correcting the information. It should be fun 
keeping it updated as time goes on. The PS Report was 
added soon after as more a challenge to myself but 
people really liked the idea of printing out all their 
PS events and dates when they can call for them.

From the person just wanting to check on when they can 
call for a PS time at a favorite restaurant to the die
hard WDW planners, the response has been tremendous.

Why would someone want to use the PS Calc/Reporter?

WDW uses a Priority Seating system instead of a traditional 
reservations system. That confuses people as to how it 
works, who to call and when to call for the various 
restaurants and activities at the WDW Resort. The PS FAQ 
answers all these questions plus provides planning tools 
to ensure people can get to eat where they want and do 
all the things they want during their WDW vacation.

Are there any special requirements for using 
the PS Calculator and PS Report?

To get the best results you should be using a 
version 4 or later web browser like Netscape or 
Internet Explorer. AOL browsers don't want to work 
with Javascript so people should switch to another 
browser before running the PS Calculator or PS Report. 
Lastly, read the instructions at the top of the PS 
Report page before entering any dates in or some 
really crazy results pop out.

Scott has given permission to WDWIG to mirror his 
Priority Seating FAQ with special links back to his 
PS Calculator and PS Reporter! 
http://allearsnet.com/din/reserv.htm

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c2000 All Rights Reserved. Deborah Wills

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