Category — Disney Specials, Deals and Discounts

Destinations in Florida has been a sponsor and partner of this site for years–I’ll never forget the day that boss Allison emailed me out of the blue in the early days with something along the lines of “yourfirstvisit.net site is incredibly helpful!  Can we sponsor it?”

Over the years they’d trained their staff in it, dedicated staff to its readers, and even added a toll-free line just for the readers of yourfirstvisit.net.

Our relationship means that if you book your Disney World vacation through them, they spread a little pixie dust back to me–which helps in defraying the time and costs of researching and writing this site.

Every now and then they offer a special deal.  Now through August 15th, it’s transfer week–if you transfer your reservation to them, you get a cute little gift delivered to your room!

Jennifer at Destinations in Florida provided the following details (and the photo of the gift!):

Did you just spend hours on hold with Disney last week to get the new free dining or room discount?  How would like to get a free in room gift from Disney Florist and free services from our agency?   

All you have to do is transfer your existing reservation over to Destinations in Florida.

When you transfer your reservation, your reservation stays exactly the same.  The only change is our agency will be added to your reservation.  We can then help you plan the rest of your trip including itinerary planning, dining suggestions and reservations, and local experts (at your beck and call).  You also get lots of freebies including:

• MousePerks – Hundreds of crafts, activities sheets, tips, and more created just for our guests.  Receive magic in your email box!
• Orlando Magicards – Save hundreds to thousands of dollars on other activities in Orlando including dining, shopping, and recreation
• Disney Theme Park Guide Maps – Learn your way around the parks, before you get there with Disney Theme Park Guide Maps
• Pictures of Mickey Mouse – Your kids will love the pictures of Mickey Mouse!
• Itinerary Planning – Learn how to save hours in lines at the parks and beat the crowds with personalized itinerary planning for your family.  This one free service is valued at $149.
• Dining Suggestions/Reservations – Do you know the best restaurants for your family?  Our team has dined at every restaurant at Disney World.  We are considered restaurant experts at Disney World.  We know which restaurants are best for your visit and make suggestions based on your family.  Plus, we will book all of these reservations for you.  This free service is valued at $69 and is free for our guests!
• Disney Florist In Room Gift – which includes the Mickey Treat Cooler with Mickey Mouse plush, Mickey clock, snacks, and Mickey Cooler (valued at $75).

It’s simple procedure to let Destinations in Florida Travel take over your reservation.   Just  click on this link and request a transfer.  We will email you a form to fill out.  You will sign the bottom of the transfer form and fax to Disney.  It then takes Disney about a week to add them to your reservation.  Everything else stays the same on your reservation.  Then let the fun begin!  Hurry – this promotion ends on August 15.

To book your Disney World vacation, contact Jennifer Johnson at Destinations in Florida Travel. Call her at 601-500-2492 or email her at jenniferjohnson@destinationsinflorida.com.  Be sure you mention yourfirstvisit.net for this special transfer promotion!

Thanks, Jennifer! And..

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So later this week I’ll be headed to Walt Disney World for six nights, split between All-Star Movies and All-Star Sports.

(I also have double bookings in Cars and Lion King at Art of Animation and the Polynesian–I’ll explain all in a later post, “Resort Hopping at Walt Disney World” lol).

I made all these reservations on Disney World room-only deals, and for the first time ever got pre-visit surveys about my Disney World deal-seeking behavior–actually I got the survey twice, once for Movies and once for Sports.

The survey was pretty clearly trying to get at the role of the deal in my choice of when to visit and where to stay, and if I would have gone then and there anyway had the deal not been out.

Now that the Disney World deals for the rest of 2013 are clear, we’re all speculating about 2014 deals at Walt Disney World.  These surveys–and lots of other stuff–give food for thought.

DISNEY WORLD DEALS IN 2014

Disney does deals because it makes more money that way.

Almost all Disney deals are about driving up occupancy in its resort hotels.  This makes perfect sense, as these are high-fixed-cost assets with inventory that if not sold just disappears, and so are perfect for discounting.

Deals enable it to hit profitability targets at a higher overall average per room rate–offering rack rate to those who don’t know about, are unwilling to seek, or are not eligible for, the deals, and deals to get the last bit of demand from those who need lower prices, or just demand a discount.

The art of putting two different prices on the same capacity–from the strategic pricing perspective–is to

1. Not give the deal to people who would have happily paid full price, (thus the surveys, trying to measure this) and to
2. Not let the deal permanently reduce the perception that people have of the value of the offering

So, one way or another, you make these deals hard to get.  I suppose we saw that in spades last Thursday…

The need to offer the deals at all is partly influenced by what people perceive as the value for money of the resorts themselves–so the easiest way for Disney to make more money off of its hotels is to add value to the resorts and make fewer deals.

Well, what’s happening in 2014?  A couple of things.  The Mine Train ride at New Fantasyland will open, and, someday, Fastpass+ will open too.  And it’s been widely speculated–and as much as admitted on a recent earnings call–that Walt Disney World resort hotel guests will get something better than everyone else out of Fastpass+–though no one on the outside can say for sure what that’ll be.

So I put these together and say that Disney resort hotel guests will get something special, and that that–combined with the improving economy–suggests limited discounts in 2014.  We saw no free dining in 2013 until September–and based on what I’ve laid out so far, that’s my bet for 2014 too.

But…Disney does not act in a vacuum.  And Universal Orlando has a couple of big openings in 2014 as well.  Harry Potter will expand into Universal Studios, and Universal will be opening its first lower-priced hotel, Cabana Bay Beach Resort, in stages beginning early in the year.

So what does this mean?  Well, honestly, I’m still thinking about it.  The timing of everything mentioned is a key variable, and I don’t have confidence in any opening dates.   I guess the best I can forecast right now is lesser discounts (especially less free dining) from Disney in early 2014 compared to late 2013 unless and until Universal starts making an impact on Disney bookings…

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DESPITE THURSDAY’S DEBACLE, PEOPLE ARE STILL GETTING FREE DINING AND ROOM RATE DEALS AT DISNEY WORLD

Despite all the unavailability on Thursday, people have been finding since then that the same dates and rooms that were unavailable then have been bookable Friday and today.

Start with the links to these deals on Disney’s website, and if that doesn’t work, call. Disney’s page on the free dining at Disney World is here, and its page on the room-only discount is here.  The number is 407-939-7729.

And if that doesn’t work, ask if you have, or beg for, a pin code!!  Word is that another round of pin codes is out!

WHAT MAY HAVE HAPPENED

Disney was inundated with calls on Thursday (you can only change a reservation by talking directly to Disney) –6 hours spent on hold were reported as common, especially for travel agents who have special lines that couldn’t take the demand.

As a result, many people on hold–and others with travel agent bookings waiting to hear–double-booked deals while waiting to change their old bookings.

Eventually they canceled one of their bookings, and eventually, it seems, these rooms went back into the free dining pool.

There’s a thread with examples of the kinds of rooms that are being cancelled here.

Now all Disney deals are subject to availability. Some resorts aren’t offered at all, and many of the more popular among the rest have a very small number of rooms allocated to a deal.  This is particularly true for free dining, which is a very expensive and complicated promotion.

Word is from at least one cast member that Disney had initially not planned to make this offer at all (which is what I’d been predicting), and when it did, both dates and room allocations were much tighter than in the past.  That, combined with system failures, is what presumably led to Thursday’s zoo.

But all is not lost!  Keep trying! And if you have no luck this weekend–try again daily on the website, and call again every now and then.

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FREE DINING AND ROOM RATE DEALS AT DISNEY WORLD

As predicted, Walt Disney World has released fall 2013 deals for free dining and for room-only discount rates.

Disney’s page on the free dining deal at Disney World is here, and its page on the room-only discount is here.

The specifics are pretty much as predicted, but I don’t have all the details yet.  I’ll add to and correct this page as they emerge.

FREE DISNEY WORLD DINING DEAL SPECIFICS

Free Dining is available only for limited dates:

• September 29 to October 2, 2013
• October 18 to November 2, 2013
• November 11 to November 23, 2013
• December 12 to December 22, 2013

…and excluded from the deal are the following resorts:

• Campsites
• 3-Bedroom Villas
• Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
• Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter
• The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

Value resort guests are eligible for the “quick-service” dining plan for free, and moderate and deluxe resorts guests for the regular dining plan for free.

While this deal needs to be booked by September 15, availability is limited. So act now!

ROOM ONLY DISCOUNTS AT DISNEY WORLD DEAL SPECIFICS

There’s two room only deals, one covering stays from September 29 through November 9, and the second covering stays from November 10 through 22 (November 25th at the deluxes and DVC properties) , and then November 30 through December 23.  The first needs to be booked by September 15, and the second by November 3.

Moreover, beyond the slightly different deluxe dates noted above, Family Suites at Art of Animation are included only September 29 to October 5, 2013, October 20 to November 2, 2013, November 10 to November 22, 2013 and December 15 to December 23, 2013.

Exclusion details are still coming out, but Campsites, Standard Little Mermaid Rooms at Art of Animation, and DVC at the Grand Floridian are excluded.

Typically, eligible deluxe and DVC rooms will see 30% discounts, moderates 20% discounts and values 15% discounts.

It’s been widely rumored that free dining would open up today for Disney Visa cardholders.

No dice.

I am however sticking to both my forecast here (note the words “typically” and “might” and “early August”) and to the warning here.

Update July 21, 2014: the Armed Forces Salute has been renewed for another year!

GREAT DEALS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

As reported by my friend Steve, Disney World has launched a new version of the Armed Forces Salute for most nights from September 29, 2013 through September 27, 2014.

As in past versions of this offering, there’s two parts–you can use either or both.  One is highly discounted four day tickets, and the other is discounts of 20% to 40% off of Disney World hotels.

There’s a lot of complexities and fine print to this offer (and the fine print varies between Disney World and Disneyland), of which the following are most important for Walt Disney World visitors:

• The offers, are for active duty members, reservists, National Guard members, and career retirees. Almost all vets who don’t also fit into one of those categories aren’t eligible
• You can get a maximum of 6 tickets–unless your immediate family–think member, spouse and kids–is larger
• The member or spouse with proper military ID needs to be there in person to either check in to the room or activate the tickets (both if you are using both)
• So long as the deal is activated by the right person, the other people benefiting from it can be anyone–your non-military family can use tix which your eligible uncle buys for you, so long as he is at Disney World in person to activate them
• There are ineligible dates both for the room deal and for the tickets.

You can book the room discounts for eligible dates now, but the tickets won’t be available until mid-August–and of course can’t be used until September 29.

Disney’s similar FY13 deal is still available for use until late September 2013.  See this.

For much more detail on the offers and their specifics and rules, see Steve’s stuff and its links beginning here.

For more on military families at Walt Disney World, see this.

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