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Get the Most from TourGuideMiKEThe Walt Disney World Resort is a HUGE place. And a place as HUGE as Walt Disney World requires a HUGE web site to cover everything. Welcome to TourGuideMiKE.com! I put a lot of thought into organizing my information to make it as easy as possible to find. After all, I can have the best content anywhere, but if you can't get to it, what's the point? I hope you'll review the following 'tips & tricks' to make your visits with me as enjoyable as possible. Heck, I think some of them will help you with other Internet sites too! Have a look!
On most pages there are four sections of information. Understanding why 'what is where' will help you find anything on the entire site! They are: 1. The upper portion with my picture, the linked squares that take you to each color-keyed section of the site, and the 'You are here:' row. The latter keeps track of where you are on the site, allowing you to quickly return to a 'higher' category. 2. The text in the center of the page. This is where I get to communicate with you! I think it's self-explanatory! 3. The links located on the right side are always the most directly related to the topic I'm sharing in the middle of the page. For example, if we're on the 'Dumbo' attraction page in the Magic Kingdom, the right column has Dumbo's 'QUICKFACTS' info, the 'YOUR GUIDE' to everything I provide about Dumbo, as well as an 'IN THIS LAND' box with all the rest of the attractions that are with Dumbo in Fantasyland. 4. The links located in the left side are always one 'information layer' higher and above, and they are listed by their order of 'information layers' from top to bottom. In our Dumbo example, we find the rest of the 'PARK LANDS' in the Magic Kingdom at the very top. You're already in Fantasyland. Want to go to explore Adventureland? It's right there! Under those land links is the 'PARK INFO' box with the links to the general information I provide on the Magic Kingdom, the location of everything above and to the right. The next 'information layer' is 'PARKS & PLACES' which not only list the Magic Kingdom, but ALL the parks and places at Walt Disney World. To summarize: The middle of the page is for my text about Dumbo. The right side is all the information directly related to Dumbo, and links to more pages from the same 'category.' In this case they are the rest of the attractions in Fantasyland with Dumbo. The left side has all the 'information layers' that are 'above' Dumbo: The other lands, the Magic Kingdom, and the other parks & places to visit. There are exceptions for everything: The above is an example that describes a lot of the site. You'll see exceptions, however, when the topic doesn't require as many 'layers.' For example, the ticket description pages are a lot simpler with only two columns.
Let's make sure you see the site as it was designed, and, secondly, as much as can fit on your monitor screen. My last tip is specifically for AOL users. (I know there're a lot of you out there!) All of these tips will help you with other sites you visit as well:
Imagine if you bought a car and a year later you received a phone call from the dealer saying, "Your model's been replaced by a newer, better, safer, and faster version. You can come pick it up for free tomorrow." How long would it take you to get there the next day? The designers of the browser you use to 'drive around' the Web are calling right now! Have you answered yet? The Internet changes every day, and new technologies to make it a more enjoyable and safer experience debut all the time. To enable Web surfers to have access to all of the improvements, browser developers constantly release better versions. And they're FREE! How old is your browser? If it's more than a year old, chances are it's just chugging along with a few missing cylinders! I'm talking about speed here! I've used Internet Explorer for several years, and with each new issue I've noticed a difference in how fast it displays my pages. They've also provided better safety features, and in the world we live in, that's important to me! How do I tell which browser version I have? It's easy in Internet Explorer, and I'm sure the others are something like it. At the very top of the browser, select 'Help,' and at the bottom of the screen that pops up you'll see 'About Internet Explorer.' Select it and see what it reads. Mine indicates I'm using 'Version: 6.0.2600.lots-of-numbers-&-letters.' If yours has a number less than 6.0.26, visit the Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 page for the latest update. Did I mention it's FREE? You'll be glad you did! Regardless of your personal browser choice, please understand that these companies invest millions of dollars on countless hours of research to ensure their browser functions with the very latest technology. And they give them to us for FREE! Wouldn't it be great if the rest of the world operated like that?!
Click on it right now. See? Isn't that better? It's like your monitor just grew, huh? To return to your previous setting, click on it again. Now my page seems smaller! Do it again. Isn't that cool? (BTW, another way to accomplish the same thing is to press the F11 key on most Windows keyboards.) Would you like to see even more of my page? Point your mouse to any blank area at the top of your browser (mine's a grayish, brown color) and right-click. Select 'Auto-Hide' and see what happens. Whoops! Now ALL of the browser's magically disappeared! No worries! Hover your mouse back at the top of the screen and you'll see it scrolls down from above. Try it out, back and forth with your mouse. Look at how much more room you have to see the page? It may seem 'weird' at first not to see anything but the web site, but because it's so easy to navigate, you'll quickly wonder why you haven't surfed around this way before! (Repeat the step to return to your original view.) There, I've just saved you over $250! There's no need to buy a larger monitor! I've just given you more 'web space' for FREE! Hey! I don't see that little graphic you're talking about! What gives? First, are you using Internet Explorer? Everything above applies to that specific browser. Second, if you are, we need to 'turn it on' for you! Point your mouse to anywhere on a 'blank' area of the upper portion of your browser. You should see 'Customize' from a small box that pops up. Select it, and a different box pops up. Everything in the left box can be added to your browser's navigation if you want them there. Find the little graphic I show above, select it, click 'Add,' and now it appears! Close the box and try it out!
I luv my friends at AOL. They are a great company and I wish them well. Boy, aren't they wonderful with their AOL Instant Messenger and everything? Is it clear that I do like AOL? Good, 'cause now I can share something that bothers me! They assume that everyone on the Web has a very slow connection speed. The faster your connection speed, the faster its built in browser can display complete web pages with all of the text and graphics on it. When the Web was still relatively young, web sites began using more and more graphics. Because of ignorance, sometimes the file sizes of the images could be so large that they took a long time to display. For that reason, AOL came out with a technology that coverts every site's graphics into smaller file sizes so their users can see the pages quicker. AOL looks good, and they use less bandwidth (but that's a whole 'nother topic!) My problem is that I have already reduced my image graphics as much as possible so that they are convenient for everyone, no matter how they access the Internet. Because I've already reduced the file sizes of my graphics and photos as much as possible, AOL's versions come out ugly! The photos are not as clear and the colors appear washed out. And because almost all modern sites now realize how important reducing their files sizes is, most of the Web looks less appealing to most AOL users. Halleluiah, I have great news though! AOL users can turn this feature on and off. I used to use AOL and discovered it quite by accident. The first time I 'saw' the 'real' Web I was surprised at the difference. And you know what? I barely noticed any difference with my page loading times! For me, the clarity was worth the slight difference. Unless you have a ve-e-ery slow connection speed, I suggest you give it a try! You can always change it back! Click on 'Settings' at the top of AOL. Select 'Preferences,' and from there click on 'Internet Properties (WWW).' A box will appear with tabs at the top. Click on 'Web Graphics' and you'll see what I'm talking about. I used a friend's 7.0 version to look this up, and noticed the setting didn't change until I logged off AOL completely and turned it back on again. (If you have an earlier version of AOL, you still should be able to find the setting by looking for the link names I've listed above. Oh, and my friend said to tell you to upgrade to 7.0 - it looks very similar but has many new features.)
Your A.V.P. custom selects all of Disney's very best attractions for your party; plans each day in the theme parks to help you avoid lines; recommends the best and most convenient restaurants; organizes your activities, and even sends you automated email reminders so you know when and where to call to reserve everything for the best possible Walt Disney World vacation! (Whew! Try to say all that out loud with one breath!) But wait, there's more! I ALSO provide you with everything I have learned about everything at Walt Disney World! I even help you design the best vacation itinerary with an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide! This is revolutionary, and there's nothing else like it anywhere in the world! Vacation planning made fun! Who would have thought that was possible? I hope you will take the entertaining Preview Tour right now to learn all about it. I can't wait for you to see everything! |
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Navigation
Made Easy
Do
you see a graphic that looks like this at the top of your IE browser?
What does it do? It temporarily removes the top two bars of your browser,
which allows more space for your page content to show. Do you really
need to see the title bar? (That's the top one.)
