Category — e. What to Budget for Walt Disney World
Update on Disney World Deals
A couple of major Disney World deals have been recently announced—an extension of the Disney Armed Forces Salute into the fall of 2012, and the return of free dining for late summer 2011.
DISNEY’S MILITARY SALUTE FOR 2012
Update May 24: key details for this Disney military deal are now out!! Click here for more.
The military salute extension was announced on ABC-TV about a month ago, as part of a White House initiative to show support for the troops and their families.
However, Disney’s web page for military families still reads “Details regarding the September 2012 pricing extension of this offer will be available soon. “
The missing details, while frustrating, don’t mean the deal is not happening. Rather, it’s that the details are still being worked out. Getting the details right means a couple of things—first, coordinating with the U.S. Military about its role in the eligibility setting and purchasing process, and second, getting the right blackout dates for 2012.
My suspicion—based on how the Disney military deals have unfolded in the past—is that coordinating and collaborating with the military is not as quick and simple as it perhaps should be—this will surprise no one with experience of DOD. All could be solved in one day by an empowered E-7…but Oprah has not yet tasked one.
The other issue likely is the blackout dates. These are not relevant to the military alone—blackout dates are about Disney World’s entire 2012 calendar, and I’m guessing that fixing that in stone now is outside of the typical management process, and is also creating some delays.
My belief is that Disney collaborated as a good corporate citizen with the White House to announce this extension as part of the initiative to support the troops, and the operational complexities of actually delivering on the specifics at this time of year weren’t high on anyone’s radar scope at the time the program was agreed to.
E-7s will also recognize this situation…
THE FREE DISNEY DINING PLAN AT DISNEY WORLD IN 2011
The recently announced free dining deal, in contrast, was built to the usual calendar, is in Disney’s full control, and is up and running.
Free dining at Walt Disney World follows the basic structure of the deals of recent years, but with a twist.
Those reserving a moderate or a deluxe resort, and meeting other criteria (dates, length of stay, at least two days per tickets) get the regular dining plan for free. Those staying at a value resort get the “Quick Service” dining plan—still a savings, but not as much of a deal as the regular dining plan.
The twist is that all reservations taking advantage of the free dining option must also buy a ~$100 photopass package—a new development in 2011.
This package reduces the value of the savings by the equivalent amount—at least for those who would not otherwise have bought this pass. Depending on family size and ages, this requirement may in effect wipe out the value of the first day or so of free dining.
This is in effect a surcharge over normal resort pricesduring this period. You could re-state the deal as “get free dining for $100.” This doesn’t make it a bad deal—juts not as good a deal as offered in the past.
This “surcharge” is consistent with Disney World’s current strategy of reducing the scope of the discounting it is offering as the economy continues to slowly rebound.
As noted elsewhere, I’m not yet convinced that this overall strategy will work as well in the short term as Disney hopes it will…but I also expect that enough families will find “$100 for free dining” a compelling enough deal that the best-loved Disney World restaurants—and many others—will book up quickly for the relevant August and September 2011 dates.
May 17, 2011 No Comments
Disney World “Discounting is Something of the Past” … or Is It?
On today’s Disney Q2 earnings call, Bob Iger and Jay Rasulo noted that while Q3 resort hotel bookings so far are 2.5% lower than last year, realized prices are more than 10% greater.
A CONTINUING REDUCTION IN THE DEPTH OF DISNEY WORLD DISCOUNTS?
They noted that this was consistent with Disney’s general strategy to limit the discounts it offers as the economy improves.
Iger said that increasingly “discounting is something of the past.”
However, there may be some price surprises coming for Disney in Q3 that may lead to further discounting.
Iger and Rasulo did not clearly distinguish the impact of an extra week of Easter in Q3 this year than last year on Q3 effective price increases. (They did comment on the impact of the extra Q3 week for Q2, and for Q3 volumes–just not for Q3 prices.)
Specifically, they did not address the point that the longer 2011 Easter season means that there were 20 more days of peak and Easter pricing in April 2011 than there were in April 2010.
This factor alone could drive realized prices for the whole quarter up by 3-4%, based on my back of the envelope analysis which suggests Q3 April 2011 average daily rates were 11% higher than those in Q3 April 2010.*
OR MAYBE NOT??
In other words a big part of the Q3 realized resort price increase compared to last year could be coming not from fewer discounts, but from an Easter timing-driven higher set of April prices compared to 2010.
If so, then this, combined with bookings in Q3 running 2.5% below last year, suggests that more Disney World discounts may in fact be needed.
(You can find April 2011 pricing here, and April 2010 pricing here.)
*Including only April days in Q3, which began April 4 in 2010 and April 3 in 2011.
May 10, 2011 No Comments
Roundup of Orlando 2011 Military Discounts
MilitaryDisneyTips.com has published a series on various armed forces discount programs currently available for Orlando area attractions.
CURRENT DISCOUNTS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES
For the scoop on military discounts for Sea World and Busch Gardens, click here. (Sea World has no additional discounts for Navy Seals…it really should…ditto for the Frontierland Shooting Gallery.)
For details of Universal Orlando military discounts, click here.
For the perennial question of free theme park tickets for the military, click here. (Spoiler: there ain’t none.)
For Disney’s 2011 Armed Forces Salute and the little info that’s out so far on its 2012 extension, click here.
LINKS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD
- Military Families at Walt Disney World
- Deals and Discounts
- Shades of Green
- Other Resources for Military Families
May 5, 2011 No Comments
Free Dining Back at Walt Disney World
THE RETURN OF FREE DINING TO WALT DISNEY WORLD
Mouseplanet.com is reporting here that Walt Disney World will be opening its Free Dining discount program to the general public.
The program will be available for stays August 28, 2011 through September 24, 2011 and must be booked by August 27, 2011.
Another free dining program covers many dates from October 2011 through March 2012. Click here for this October 2011-March 2012 free Disney dining deal.
More details on Disney’s free dining deal are available on Walt Disney World’s website here.
May 2, 2011 1 Comment
Act Now to Catch Disney World May Discounts
DISNEY WORLD DEAL NEEDS TO BE BOOKED BY APRIL 30
One of Disney World’s current discount packages, which covers dates through May 28 2011, needs to be booked by April 30 2011.
For more on the specifics of this deal, click here.
April 27, 2011 No Comments
Details Sketchy, but Disney Military Salute Extended Well into 2012
DISNEY ARMED FORCES SALUTE EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 2012
Update May 24: key details for this Disney military deal are now out!! Click here for more.
Steve at MilitaryDisneyTips.com is reporting here that Disney has extended its Disney Military Salute until September 2012.
As of now, details are sketchy, Disney’s web page has not been updated to show the new dates, and Disney reservationists cannot book beyond the current deal’s expiration.
As specifics emerge and the reservation system gets updated, I’ll post more about this.
LINKS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD
- Military Families at Walt Disney World
- Deals and Discounts
- Shades of Green
- Other Resources for Military Families
April 19, 2011 No Comments
