Category — e. What to Budget for Walt Disney World
When Will the 2013 Walt Disney World Deals Come Out?
Update 10/5: A 2013 deal may come out October 10—see this.
DELAYS IN DISNEY WORLD 2013 DEALS?
I’ve been getting a lot of questions wondering about when–and if–early 2013 Disney World discounts might be coming out–especially since deals for the equivalent periods in 2012 and in 2011 came out in August.
My bet is that we’ll see the first set of Disney World discounts for January 2013 in early November, for a couple of reasons, but early December is also possible–as is tomorrow!
WHY DISNEY WORLD 2013 DEALS MIGHT COME OUT IN EARLY NOVEMBER [Read more →]
October 3, 2012 7 Comments
One and a Half Disney World Deals Expiring Soon!
FREE DINING AND OCTOBER ROOM RATE DISCOUNT NEED TO BE BOOKED SOON
Walt Disney World has two deals for the general public out now:
- One offers free dining for select arrival dates September 2012 through December 2012. For more, see this
- Another offers discounts on room rates of 15-30% for most nights from late September well into December 2012. For more, see this
The free dining deal needs to by booked by September 29.
For the room rate deal, October travel also needs to be booked by September 29, but you can still book this deal for November and December 2012 up through October 31.
September 27, 2012 No Comments
Bounce-back Offer Hints at 2013 Free Dining Dates at Walt Disney World…and at Changes in Price Elasticity?
2013 FREE DISNEY WORLD DINING DATES?
A “bounce back offer” is a deal offered to Disney World hotel guests that they can only take advantage of if they book it during their current stay.
As I write this, I’m in Disney World’s All-Star Music Family Suites (review here!) and the offer in my room is for free dining beginning 8/18/2013.
However, there’s a wrinkle: the end dates of the free dining offer vary depending on what resort type you reserve. [Read more →]
September 2, 2012 78 Comments
Disney World Room Rate Deal for Late September to Late December 2012
NEW DISNEY WORLD ROOM RATE DISCOUNT
Disney World has announced a new room rate deal that covers arrivals most nights from September 30, 2012 to November 16, 2012 and November 24, 2012 to December 22, 2012.
Savings under this deal are convoluted—some resorts are excluded, and the discount varies by night. See the calendar on the right side of this page for the gory details.
In general, though, here’s what Disney World has on offer:
- Value resorts: save 15-20%; Art of Animation Little Mermaid and All-Star Movies excluded; Art of Animation Family Suites excluded some dates, available others
- Moderate resorts: Save 20-25%; Port Orleans French Quarter excluded
- Deluxe resorts: save 15-30%; Savanna view rooms at AKL excluded
- Disney Vacation Club resorts: save 25-30%; Beach Club Villas, Wilderness Lodge Villas, Bay Lake Tower, and savanna views at Jambo and Kidani excluded
This deal must be booked September 29, 2012 for October travel, and by October 31 for November and December deals.
See Disney’s page here for more details and which nights which discounts are available.
August 27, 2012 15 Comments
The Impact of Free Dining on Crowds at Walt Disney World
DISNEY WORLD CROWDS AND FREE DINING
Pretty much every time Disney World announces a free dining deal (like this one), I get a bunch of comments like this:
“Dave–with free dining now announced for my week, should I move my dates to avoid the crowds it draws?”–Perplexed
My short answer is always something like “No, don’t change. It’s mathematically impossible for free dining to much change park crowds.”
For the longer answer–and why the short answer is true–keep reading!
FREE DINING CAN PACK THE DISNEY WORLD HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS, BUT NOT THE PARKS
Here’s the basics:
- The vast majority of people in the parks are NOT staying in a Walt Disney World hotel
- Free dining only affects the number of people staying in Disney World hotels
- Some people who take advantage of free dining arrival dates would have been in Walt Disney World hotels then anyway, so don’t incrementally add to park crowds
- Some people are simply pulled into Disney World hotels from off-site hotels by free dining, so have no incremental impact on park crowds
- Some people would not have gone during one of the eligible arrival dates at all except for free dining
Only this last group has an incremental impact on park crowds, and it is so small that it can’t affect park crowding much.
Here’s why: including all the Art of Animation rooms, there’s about 27,200 Walt Disney World hotel rooms (excluding the Campsites at Fort Wilderness, which are never eligible for free dining).
The last bucket–people who would not have come but for free dining–is going to book at most 20% of these rooms, or about 5500 rooms.
At 3 people per room, that’s about 16,000 incremental people.
Divided across 4 theme parks, two water parks, off-days, Universal and SeaWorld, etc., the incremental effect on any given park is de minimis.
For example, on a slow day (and basically free dining is only offered during the slow periods–that’s why they offer it…), the Magic Kingdom will have 20,000-25,000 people in it; adding another 5,000 or even 10,000 people will have only a trivial impact on park crowding, as this will still put the crowd level well below the point where the park lines start going crazy.
Free dining does make the park crowds higher than they would be on the same exact dates without free dining, but not enough to change the nature of the parks or their lines.
It does crowd the hotels–that’s the point–and crowd the restaurants–that’s the tool.
But in general, you should view the presence of free dining during your week as an indicator that it’s a pretty low crowd week to attend!
August 14, 2012 11 Comments
Disney World Late Summer/Early Fall Discount Needs to be Booked By Tuesday
Walt Disney World has a deal saving 15-30% on hotel rooms for arrival dates from August 15 through September 29, 2012.
It needs to be booked by August 14, so if you want this deal, you need to act soon!
See this for more on the discount.
August 12, 2012 No Comments