DISNEY WORLD 2016 PLANNING TOOLS
Over the last few days, I’ve updated a number of key planning tools for Disney World in 2016.
Based on my completed analysis of 2016 public school breaks (covering 12.4 million kids from almost 200 school districts), I’ve updated my 2016 Disney World crowd calendar.
No week had its crowd ranking changed by more than one point on my 1-11 point scale, and no week changed “class”–that is all the former green weeks are still green, all red still red, etc. Changes are all within classes– “Low” to “Low-Plus,” “High” to “High-Minus”, etc.
Disney’s 2016 prices came out a week ago, and these are now fully updated in my 2016 Disney World Price Seasons, which until then had been projections.
Disney World made major price season changes at the values and moderates from mid-August 2016 until almost the end of October 2016. As a result of particularly large increases in the second half of this period, many projected “Low” price weeks shifted into “Moderate” prices in the second half of September and October.
The combined effects of crowd and price changes led to a number of weeks shifting ranks in my 2016 Disney World Week Rankings. My week rankings are aimed at first-timers who may never return, and are based on first chunking weeks by attractiveness, then, within chunks, sorting by first crowds, then prices. (More detail on how the week rankings are constructed is here. The story at the link is about 2015, not 2016, but the principles are eternal.)
However, no week changed class. For example, all previously recommended weeks are still recommended, all weeks that used to be “not so keen” are still classed as “not so keen,” etc. What’s changed is position within the classes.
In general, there’s nothing in these revisions to make you rethink a week you’d already targeted with one exception. If you were targeting later September or October based on traditional prices at the moderates or values, note that prices have gone up a lot these weeks. For example, compared to the same weeks in 2015, Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation are up 17%, All-Star Sports up 16%, Caribbean Beach up 7%, Riverside and French Quarter up 12%.
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Any word on the Free Dining Plan? Waiting for it to make my reservations for September 2016.
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Roxy, there likely won’t be any word until late April. See this.
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I saw that you are planning an easy guide book for 2016. Do you have an estimate of what month it will be coming out?
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Melinda, early to mid-Fall is our current thought
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When would be your estimate of when any specials in January, 2016 might be released? We have four adults and three children (grandparents are going) and everything seems to be over allotted number for rooms, except expensive suites. Any advise? Thank you
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Mabel, late September or early October. Are in of the kids younger than 3? If not, your best bet will be a couple of rooms at Caribbean Beach or Port Orleans Riverside, one for 5 and one for the grands…
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