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Google Calendar

Google Calendar has the ability to display caledar information provided in iCalendar format. Adding the MouseCal calendar to your Google Calendar is very easy. And Google Calendar can be used to print out a graphical view of the park operating hours.

I recently went down to Walt Disney World August 4-8, 2008 and used MouseCal and Google Calendar to help make the most of my vacation. I added each park's operating hours calendar to my Google Calendar for August 4-8, 2008. I created a "Week" calendar view, displaying only the park calendars. This gave me a good planning tool before the trip. With the operating hours and Extra Magic hours displayed together, I could plan out which park I would visit each day. I also printed a copy of this week long calendar and took it with me on the trip. It came in handy for making last minute changes to the plan. Here is how I made the calendar.

Adding a MouseCal calendar

MouseCal provides a URL to the iCaledar feed for a particular park's operating hours. Using the MouseCal filtering parameters, I created the following URLs for August 4 through August 8, 2008:

I then added each URL to Google Calendar using the "Add by URL" option, seen here.

Once you choose "Add by URL", you will be presented with a form where you can specify the particular calendar URL.

Enter the URL and press the "Add" button. Your calendar will be added and named "MouseCal". To be useful, I renamed the calendar to something more useful. I selected the "Calendar settings" option.

I changed the name of the calendar to "Magic Kingdom".

You may also want to choose a different color for each calendar. This will make it easier to see each of the six park calendars displayed together.

Florida time zone

Depending on where you live, you may not normally display your calendar in the Eastern time zone. Before printing out your calendar, you shoud modify Google Calendar to sipaly the Eastern time zone.

Choose the "Settings" link in the upper right corner

Select "Eastern Time" from the drop down labeled "Your current time zone:"

Printing calendar

I first chose the "Week" view."

I then chose August 3, 2008 as the start day of the "week" to display.

I then chose the "Print" option. This will bring up the "Calendar Print Preview" window. I chose the "Landscape" "Orientation". This resulted in Sunday through Wednesday on the first page and Thursday through Saturday on the second page. I then chose the "Print" and printed out a copy.

To actually print the calendar, Google Calendar generates a PDF and uses Adobe Reader to perform the printing. This gave me the option to save a copy of the PDF from Adobe Reader. Here is the calendar that was generated: calendar_2008-08-03_2008-08-09.pdf