Category — Disney World Price Seasons

2014 DISNEY WORLD PRICES TO COME OUT JULY 10

Disney World’s 2014 prices and packages will be out, reportedly, on July 10.

If this happens (sometimes delays come up) and if things works as they have in the past, as of that date or shortly thereafter you’ll be able to book packages for 2014 up to 500 days ahead on Disney World’s website–through the week before Thanksgiving 2014.

(Note that you can always book “room only” 500 days ahead–just not always on the website…)

Once the prices come out, I’ll fix my 2014 price seasons forecasts, and use those–and an updated version of the 2014 Disney World crowd calendar, which I’ll also get out in July–to revise the 2014 week rankings, if needed.

FORECAST 2014 RESORT PRICE SEASONS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

The material below shows the different resort price seasons at Walt Disney World at different times of the year in 2014.

(If you are looking for current deals and discounts, click here. For 2013 prices, click here.)

Ticket prices don’t vary over the course of the year–although they typically have an annual increase in the summer. See this for more on ticket prices.

Resort prices, however, are almost twice as high during some periods as they are at others.

Projections for 2014 resort price seasons based on recent Disney World practice follow. These will be updated when Disney releases actual 2014 prices–expected to happen on July 10, 2013.

2014 DISNEY WORLD PRICE SEASONS

[Read more →]

(This is the second page of this article on prices and value at Walt Disney World in 2013. For the first page, see this.)

DISNEY WORLD 2013 HOTEL PRICE INCREASES AND EXTRA MAGIC HOUR CUTBACKS

Prices for Disney World’s resort hotels have also gone up in 2013—but, relatively speaking, when the additional value these hotels will offer is factored in, only a teeny bit compared to the massive 2013 dining plan and ticket price increases.

Moreover, I think that the timing of the January cutbacks in Extra Magic Hours—evening Extra Magic Hours, traditionally 3 hours, are shifting to 2—is less of a takeaway than it is a signal of when NextGen will kick in…and that NextGen will add value to being a Disney World hotel guest much more than the loss of an hour of evening EMH will take away value.

(Note that Disney has already tested, this summer, the effect of reducing operating and Extra Magic Hours—more on this widely unnoticed test below.)

The combined effect is that Disney World resort hotels, all in, and even with the EMH cutbacks, should be a much better value in 2013 than in 2012.

We should get a further hint about this soon.

The Disney Park blog used an unusual word for the Fantasyland expansion— it mentioned “previews.” I may be mis-remembering, but in the past, visiting a ride before official opening has been called a “soft-open,” and has not been advertised as a “preview,”, much less communicated with a date.

But for new Fantasyland, things are different—the official open has been set for 12/6, and previews are to begin 11/19.

I suspect Disney is using this language of “previews” so that it can schedule these previews using NextGen technology and processes, as a first step towards testing the whole NextGen system.

Moreover, I expect booked Disney World resort hotel guests to be among the first to be offered a chance to book these previews…

DISNEY WORLD 2013 HOTEL PRICE INCREASES [Read more →]

2013 DISNEY WORLD PRICE SEASONS UPDATED

Barring possible typos, I’ve got the Disney World 2013 price seasons updated, and so have removed the “projected” language.  Find them here.

For some commentary on 2013 resort hotel prices, see this. For an overall view of Disney World 2013 price and value, especially in the light of changes to evening Extra Magic Hours starting in January, see this.

AVERAGE DISNEY WORLD NIGHTLY PRICES BY ARRIVAL DATE AND LENGTH OF VISIT [Read more →]

ANALYSIS OF 2013 DISNEY WORLD RESORT HOTEL PRICE CHANGES

Walt Disney World’s 2013 prices came out last week, and as usual on average they’ve gone up.

The only big deal for first time visitors is the switch of the third week of December 2013 from Fall Season to the Peak Season, raising hotel prices that week 25-50%.

But there’s some other interesting and unusual features to Disney World’s 2013 prices (actual reductions; effective reductions; new seasons; changes in the traditional dates of old seasons), so what follows analyses 2013 price changes at Walt Disney World resort hotels compared to 2012 by resort price class.

VALUE RESORT 2013 PRICE CHANGES: POP CENTURY EXAMPLE

Across 2013 price seasons, at first blush Pop Century 2013 prices have gone up a lot.

However, when you adjust to this site’s 8 night itineraries, and back out the $10/night charge for refrigerators that’s now gone, for all major seasons prices are either barely up or lower than 2012. But three 2013 weeks have been re-seasoned compared to 2012, and as a result, their prices are peppered. [Read more →]

DECEMBER 2013 NOW INCLUDES PEAK SEASON PRICES

Disney World made most of 2013 available for on-line booking yesterday, and has also set its 2013 prices.

In recent years, December has had two price seasons: “Fall,” which is just a bit more expensive than the lowest prices of the year, and “Holiday,” the most expensive prices of the year, with the break between them around December 20.*

December 2013 is different. [Read more →]