Category — p. News and Changes

(For the first page of this review of Copper Creek Villas, see this.)

THE STUDIOS AT DISNEY’S COPPER CREEK VILLAS

Copper Creek has two basic types of studios–dedicated and lock-off–and a third much less common offering that has some more space.

Our Studio was a dedicated Studio, without a connecting door, so the TV side of the room is a little different than the connecting “lockoff” studios. Its floor plan is above.

This floor plan shows a regular lockoff Studio with a connecting door. The door connects to a One Bedroom Villa–a photo tour of that space begins here.

Here’s an overview of the space.

The entry is similar to other Studios, with the closet and kitchenette on one side, and a divided bath on the other.

The sink area of the bath can be closed off by a sliding barn door.

A more direct view of the sink area…

…with storage below.

The hair dryer is in a drawer.

Beyond the sink in their own room are the shower and toilet. The shower has sliding doors…

…a hand-held shower…

…and a rainfall shower head. The shower set up is cool, and many will welcome the sliding doors as easier to handle than a billowing curtain.  But parents of small children know it’s much easier to bathe a little one in a regular tub with a shower curtain.

Across the hall is the closet and kitchenette. One side of the closet…

…and the other.

The safe is in the closet. For sizing, see in it my book–6″  by 9″–and my laptop, which is 9.5″ by 13.25.” In between, just a bit larger than my book,  is a larger iPad.

The closet is smaller than in most Studios, and is the one compromise I see in Copper Creek Studios from the smaller size of the standard Wilderness Lodge rooms they were converted from. That said, as we’ll see, there’s plenty of storage in these rooms–especially since you don’t need to put your bags in the closet.

The kitchenette comes with a coffeepot, toaster, microwave, and some utensils and such.

Some of the supplies and storage spots–

Note above the slide-out pantry, which I’ve not seen in another DVC studio

Also here is a mini-fridge.

Further in the room, on one side is a queen bed and a couch that folds out into a second queenly bed (it’s as wide as a standard queen, but four inches shorter).

This side of the room from the back.

A closer view of the queen.

Some of the headboard detail.

The bed throw has a stylized railroad map of the west.

There is room under the bed for bags, a new feature we’ve been seeing in the more recent Disney World refurbs, which lessens demand for storage space for them in the closet or elsewhere.

This is a standard-sized rolly bag under the bed. It would have fit totally in the middle but then you couldn’t see it, could you? You could easily put six bags of this size under the bed, probably more.

On either side of the queen is one of these bedside tables.

The three drawers in each can be used for storage, and each has two standard and two USB outlets for charging.

At the far end of this side of the room is the couch and and a chest that functions as a coffee table.

In the chest you’ll find bedding for the queen-ish bed that the couch folds out into.

Note that by opening the chest you also make a handy keyboard-height table in front of the couch. I am impressed…

The couch folds out into a bed I measured as  60 inches wide by 76 inches long with a 4 inch cushion.  It is as wide as a queen but 4 inches shorter.

I’ve put this bed through my detailed testing regimen (step one shown above), and can confirm that like most Disney World sofa beds you should save it for kids or lighter adults.

At the far end of your room you’ll have either a balcony or, if you are on the first floor like we were, a patio.

The other side of my room had a bench, dresser with TV above, and table and chairs.

The TV side from the back.

Note the beam separating the living space from the entry hall.

Standard studios put their connecting door where our table was, slide the TV and dresser a little towards that door, and have their table where we have the bench.

A closer view of the table and chairs–note the fun mirror frame. The power point holds two standard plugs and two USB plugs.

The dresser and TV. Note the size of the TV, and the variety of fun handles on the dresser.  On either side is a power point, each of which can charge four devices–two via plugs, two via USB.

On the dresser you will find this book–at least until so many are stolen (there’s a note on the back that you will be charged $50 for the book if you take it) that Disney tires of replacing it.

The 6 drawers have varied shapes and can easily hold the stuff needed for the four people these room will fit–and recall there’s six more smaller drawers in the bedside tables.

Finally, my room had this bench…

…with storage inside. Studios with a connecting door do not have this bench, and put the table and chairs here instead.

There’s little Disney theming to these rooms.  Here’s closer views of the three pieces of art you’ll find:

However, there’s a number of nice small touches in the room–the carved headboard and mirror, the railroad map on the bed and book on the dresser, the fun shower heads, the slide-out pantry, the under-bed storage, the keyboard desk at the sofa, the quantity and size of drawers–that make these Copper Creek Studios really stand out.

I can’t say they are the best studios at Disney World–in different ways both those at the Polynesian and Grand Floridan are probably better overall.  But they are very, very well-done, and very impressive.

PHOTO TOUR OF THE LIVING-KITCHEN-DINING SPACE OF ONE AND TWO BEDROOM VILLAS AT COPPER CREEK

This review continues here!

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Disney World released a new deal today. I’m on the road, so my friend Kelly wrote the following about it for you:

NEW DISNEY WORLD DEAL

Well, Disney is at it again. They just released a “Wicked Good” offer for everyone. The new discount will provide a savings of up to 20% on select Walt Disney World resort hotels.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The discount is available most Sunday through Thursday nights for 10/8-11/16/2017 and for stays most nights 11/17-11/21/2017 and 11/25-12/24/2017
• Book by 10/7/2017 (For stays 12/8-12/24 book by 12/24)
• As always there are exclusions–for example campsites, Cabins at Copper Creek, Bungalows at Polynesian, and Little Mermaid rooms.

So far, this discount seems to have extremely low availability.

But you have no need to wait on hold for hours with Disney.  When you book your vacation with KellyB@DestinationsInFlorida.com, all of my services (dining planning, fastpass reservations, etc) services are free including future discount watch.  I’m Kelly, the dedicated Destinations In Florida Travel Agent for YourFirstVisit.net. Contact me today at KellyB@DestinationsInFlorida.com or 980-429-4499 to book your Magical Disney Vacation.

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Earlier this week, Amazon published a new version of my and Josh’s The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2017.

While not as extensive as our March update, we did send our publisher, Bob McLain of Theme Park Press, 34 pages of additions, deletions, updates and changes. Many were minor, but we made major changes to the Animal Kingdom material, so it is now fully up-to-date for those visiting the newly-opened Pandora: World of Avatar. We also made major changes to our review of Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort.

As noted in the image, we offer those who bought any earlier versions of the 2017 edition free updates (as a PDF). If you’ve not already sent us your email, do so following the instructions in the image, and we’ll reply telling you how to get your update!

Some more specifics on what’s available in the July update of The easy Guide:

CHAPTER 4: WHEN TO GO

We’ve made minor changes to reflect new dates that have come out—for example, for the Halloween and Christmas parties—since our last update.

We also revised the crowd forecast for the week of 12/16/2017, as new data suggest it will be a bit better than we had thought.

CHAPTER 5: WHERE TO STAY

We added minor updates on the status of various refurbs and additions, for example at the Wilderness Lodge, the Yacht Club, and Pop Century.

We’ve stayed in and dined at Caribbean Beach since its refurb began in May, and as a result did a major rewrite of its review. The key point: “We are hesitant to recommend [Caribbean Beach] for any guests planning much dining at the resort, as the temporary dining is barely adequate.”

CHAPTER 6: WHAT TO DO IN THE PARKS

Animal Kingdom saw an enormous set of changes and additions, including a new map, new overviews, new recommended FastPass+, new reviews, and new touring plans, and our material now fully reflects this major addition to Disney World.

Epcot saw just minor updates, and no changes to its FastPass+ priorities or touring plans.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios saw an expansion and re-organization of our material on the evening shows, an update on what’s happening at Hollywood and Vine, and other minor updates. The first four steps of one of our touring plans, “Morning Plan: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster First,” changed a bit.

Magic Kingdom saw minor changes in the FastPass+ priorities, minor changes in the touring plans (especially related to the change of the typical afternoon parade time from 3p to 2p), a review of the new Happily Ever After evening show, and other small changes.

CHAPTER 7: WHERE TO EAT

We introduce the new mobile order function—where you can use the My Disney Experience app to save a ton of time by pre-ordering and then clicking “I’m here.” The new Animal Kingdom venue Satu’li Canteen is now in here, and you’ll find minor updates to dining in all the other parks, Disney Springs, and the resorts.

*  *  *  *  *

Ours is the only guidebook updated multiple times over the year, with free updates available to buyers. When Disney World changes, our advice changes. What does your guidebook do??

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Earlier this week, Amazon published a new version of my and Josh’s The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2017.

While not as extensive as our March update, we did send our publisher, Bob McClain of Theme Park Press, 34 pages of additions, deletions, updates and changes. Many were minor, but we made major changes to the Animal Kingdom material, so it is now fully up-to-date for those visiting the newly-opened Pandora: World of Avatar. We also made major changes to our review of Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort.

As noted in the image, we offer those who bought any earlier versions of the 2017 edition free updates (as a PDF). If you’ve not already sent us your email, do so following the instructions in the image, and we’ll reply telling you how to get your update!

Ours is the only guidebook updated multiple times over the year, with free updates available to buyers. When Disney World changes, our advice changes.

Some more specifics on what’s available in the July update of The easy Guide:

CHAPTER 4: WHEN TO GO

We’ve made minor changes to reflect new dates that have come out—for example, for the Halloween and Christmas parties—since our last update.

We also revised the crowd forecast for the week of 12/16/2017, as new data suggest it will be a bit better than we had thought.

CHAPTER 5: WHERE TO STAY

We added minor updates on the status of various refurbs and additions, for example at the Wilderness Lodge, the Yacht Club, and Pop Century.

We’ve stayed in and dined at Caribbean Beach since its refurb began in May, and as a result did a major rewrite of its review. The key point: “We are hesitant to recommend [Caribbean Beach] for any guests planning much dining at the resort, as the temporary dining is barely adequate.”

CHAPTER 6: WHAT TO DO IN THE PARKS

Animal Kingdom saw an enormous set of changes and additions, including a new map, new overviews, new recommended FastPass+, new reviews, and new touring plans, and our material now fully reflects this major addition to Disney World.

Epcot saw just minor updates, and no changes to its FastPass+ priorities or touring plans.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios saw an expansion and re-organization of our material on the evening shows, an update on what’s happening at Hollywood and Vine, and other minor updates. The first four steps of one of our touring plans, “Morning Plan: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster First,” changed a bit.

Magic Kingdom saw minor changes in the FastPass+ priorities, minor changes in the touring plans (especially related to the change of the typical afternoon parade time from 3p to 2p), a review of the new Happily Ever After evening show, and other small changes.

CHAPTER 7: WHERE TO EAT

We introduce the new mobile order function—where you can use the My Disney Experience app to save a ton of time by pre-ordering and then clicking “I’m here.” The new Animal Kingdom venue Satu’li Canteen is now in here, and you’ll find minor updates to dining in all the other parks, Disney Springs, and the resorts.

*  *  *  *  *

Ours is the only guidebook updated multiple times over the year, with free updates available to buyers. When Disney World changes, our advice changes. What does your guidebook do??

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

DISNEY WORLD SPRING BREAK CROWDS IN 2018

Walt Disney World Spring Break crowds are typically governed by two and a quarter factors:

• Public school Spring Break calendars, which are still largely framed around Easter but vary more than you might think
• The demand of snow-belters for a break from winter weather, which peaks in March, and
• The quarter factor, the date of President’s day.  Later President’s Days (which can range from February 15 to February 21) tend to make the first part of March better

An early Easter combines the first two factors, making for more than the usual horrible crowds in March but a great April; a late Easter can spread the first two factors out, yielding some good early March and early April weeks.

Easter 2018, on April 1, is early in its possible range. President’s Day 2018, is late, on February 19. As a result, my 2018 crowd calendar shows (mostly) bad March crowds but (mostly) good April crowds.

More specifically, 2018 Spring Break crowds at Walt Disney World will be

• Bad Presidents Day Week
• Fine the weeks beginning February 24th and March 3rd
• Very bad the week beginning March 10th
• Bad the week beginning March 17
• Very bad the weeks beginning March 24 and March 31
• Fine April 7 and later.

2018 PUBLIC SCHOOL SPRING BREAKS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON WALT DISNEY WORLD CROWDS

Although more and more school districts are moving away from an Easter-centered Spring Break, the plurality of kids still have the weeks before Easter or following Easter off.

As a result, the single biggest factor determining better and worse Spring Break weeks at Walt Disney World is the date of Easter–which can range from March 22 to April 25.

A later Easter has a couple of different effects: first, it spreads out the dates of breaks for school districts that don’t frame their breaks around Easter, and second, if particularly late, will push districts that typically take the week after Easter off into the week before Easter instead, to keep from compressing their May academic calendars.  

An earlier Easter has the opposite effects.  Districts that traditionally try to take the week after Easter off will be able to do so, and districts that don’t base their calendars on Easter will be largely compressed into a couple of March weeks.

The date of President’s Day–which can range from February 15 to February 21–also has an effect. Because many northeastern districts both have a spring break and also take the week of President’s Day off, the later President’s Day is, the better early March will be–as parents avoid taking their kids out of school the weeks after a long President’s Day break.

The effect of the various dates in 2018 is to compress most school spring breaks into just four weeks beginning March 10 and continuing until the end of the week beginning March 31.

ACTUAL 2018 SPRING BREAKS

The chart above illuminates this.

It’s based on data from a weighted sample including 280 of the largest relevant US public school districts. 15.3 million kids–about a third of US school kids–are in the database, and they are weighted based on propensity to go to Disney World.

(For how the database is built, see the this. Weekends are in black, except Easter, in red. Holidays (Mardi Gras and President’s Day) are also in red. Click the image to enlarge it.)

My 2018 Disney World crowd calendar shows this:

• The week beginning February 10, 2018 has a minor bump early from the small number of kids with Mardi Gras off, and a larger bump later as long weekends for Presidents Day begin Thursday February 15. Overall I give it a 5/moderate-minus rating–better earlier, worse later
• Presidents Day week, the week beginning 2/17, has high crowds through Tuesday and pretty high crowds the rest of the week. Overall it gets a crowd ranking of 8/high-minus, worse earlier in the week and better later
• The weeks beginning 2/24 and 3/3 have hardly any kids on break and get crowd ratings of 4 (low plus) for the week of the 24th and 3/low for the week of the 3rd
• The week beginning March 10 both has a ton of kids on break (thanks, Texas!) and is also attractive to snowbirds. It gets a 10/higher crowd rating.
• The week beginning 3/17 has fewer kids on break than the weeks that surround it, but is still attractive to snowbirds. I’m giving it a rating of 8/high-minus crowds.
• The week beginning 3/24 is the week before Easter and will be a zoo, as it usually is, and gets a crowd rating of 11/highest.
• The week after Easter (beginning 3/31/18) has even more kids on break in 2018 than the week before and also gets a crowd rating of 11/highest.
• The week beginning April 7, 2018, will be much better than I had thought. I’m now giving it a crowd rating of 5/moderate-minus. If I am wrong–it happens–this week will be better than I am forecasting
• The rest of April will be just fine.

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Disney World’s 2018 resort hotel prices were released on June 20.

You can book them by contacting Kelly B at KellyB@DestinationsInFlorida.com or 980-429-4499.

The prices that came out June 20 were a bit of a mess, particularly for January 2018, and have changed several times since–see the Art of Animation example (click it to enlarge it):

They seem to have stabilized, however, so I’ve been analyzing a sample of resorts, and the upshot is that compared to the quite restrained price increases we saw in 2017, prices are up substantially in most–though not all–resorts in 2018.

Only Caribbean Beach and Grand Floridian see very small price increases for 2018. 2018 Value resort prices are up 6-9%; 2018 moderate resort prices (except Caribbean Beach) are up 5-7%; and 2018 deluxe prices (except for Grand Floridian) are up 5-7%.

(Reviews of all Disney World resort hotels mentioned in this pricing round-up are linked to from here–I’ve stayed in more than 140 different Disney World hotel rooms, and my reviews are based on these stays.)

The other thing that’s new for 2018 is more distinctions among day prices in the same price seasons.  For many (but not all) major seasons, you’ll see new Thursday prices, and in the moderates and values some new Sunday prices as well.

Analyzing Disney resort price changes is difficult—there’s more than 20 hotels, many differently-priced room and view types within them, seven to nine different major price seasons over the course of the year, additional weekend and holiday upcharges, and more. As a result, unless you have a LOT of time on your hands you need to sample, and that’s what I’ve done.

In general, I gather daily price data on the lowest and next-highest priced rooms at all of the resorts (and from more room/price combos if a resort looks odd, as Caribbean Beach and Grand Floridian do in 2018), and then analyze:

• Season price increases across all the major Disney World price seasons—e.g. “Regular” season prices for 2018 compared to 2017
• Changes in the dates covered by price seasons that have an impact on price levels—only a bit of that happened for 2018
• Changes in the relative price levels of hotels in a single price class—2018 saw little change here.

For 2018 I sampled 40 room types across the seven major price seasons at the values and moderates and the nine major price seasons at the deluxes.  This yielded more than 500 points of comparison between 2018 and 2017 prices.

In what follows, when I talk about price changes for the entire year I mean seasonally-weighted price changes (that is, weighted based on the percentage of 2018 days in each major price season–there’s seven major seasons at the values and moderates, and nine at the deluxes), and when I talk about a specific price season increase I am comparing average Sunday night to Saturday night prices across the two years, to account for the different prices on different days problem.  So yes, it is some spooky genius math shit.

The detailed results follow.

DISNEY WORLD VALUE RESORTS PRICING IN 2018

Price season structure changes

2018 largely maintains the recent 2017 seasonal structure at the values, although with the day changes noted below. One minor twist is the addition of a few days of Regular season in February (beginning 2/11/18) that were Value season in 2017. (This is a reversion to a pattern we first saw in 2016.)

For those who were not paying attention, several years ago Disney introduced the “Fall” price season, which replaced what used to be Value season dates in late November and early December. In 2016, Disney implemented more seasonal changes at the values and moderates, in effect raising prices by moving various dates from lower to higher-priced seasons. Value 2 dates in later August and early September shifted to Fall, and Fall in later September to almost the end of October was shifted to Regular.

Up until 2018, rooms typically had one or two prices during a season. If two, there was one price for Sunday-Thursday and another for Friday and Saturday.

2018 sees more variety in daily prices during the Value, Regular, Fall and Peak seasons. The typical pattern is now Price A Sunday, Price B Monday-Wednesday, Price A again Thursday, and Price C on Fridays and Saturdays.

Here’s an example from Art of Animation during the 2018 Value season:

The effect of this is to make long weekend stays more expensive, and Monday-Wednesday stays less expensive, than would otherwise be the case. This is a somewhat mechanical start (mechanical because at the values, the difference between Price A and Price B is typically a flat $10 across resorts and seasons) to a set of prices that more fully reflect differences in demand by night.

Finally, the much earlier Easter in 2018 means that many more days in March-April will be regular season, and that many less Peak or Easter seasons, than in 2017.  The difference is about two weeks more worth of Regular season prices, mostly in April.

Price level changes

The basic pattern among value resort standard rooms of Art of Animation Little Mermaid rooms being most expensive and the All-Stars being least expensive continues in 2018.

Pop Century rooms see the highest increases for 2018, bringing them a bit closer to the Little Mermaid rooms, but prices in the other value resorts go up quite a bit as well. Little Mermaid rooms remain shockingly close to standard moderate room prices some dates (especially in the Summer season in 2018, where a week in a Little Mermaid room averages $223 a night and a week in Caribbean Beach, which sees no material 2018 price increases until its Fall season, $234 a night).

On average across 2018, Little Mermaid rooms are ~$30 more expensive per night than Pop Century and ~$45 more per night than the All-Stars. These differences are shown for standard rooms across the prices seasons in the chart.

Family Suite options at the values also continue their basic price structure.  The suites at All-Star Music are the least expensive, The Cars and Lion King suites at Art of Animation are at a much higher level–averaging $100 more a night than those at Music—and the Finding Nemo suites at Art of Animation remain the highest-priced suites, at around $25 dollars on average more per night than Cars or Lion King–and $125 more a night than All-Star Music.

Season price increases

For 2018, average year-round prices in standard rooms in the All-Star Resorts are up around 7.5%, with the lowest increases of ~1.5% in the Easter and Holiday seasons and large increases of 6-9% the rest of the year, especially in the Fall season. Preferred rooms show similar patterns but at lower levels, averaging a 6% increase. Moreover, more rooms seem to be priced as preferred than before, such as Jazz at Music and Touchdown at Sports, itself in effect a price increase. Family Suites at Music are up 6.2% and show the same seasonal patterns, including the highest increase of 7% in the Fall season.

Pop Century standard rooms showed the highest increases for 2018 among the values, up year-round at 8% in both standard and preferred rooms. The largest standard room increases are in the Value (9.3%), Regular (9.1%) and Fall (8.1%) price seasons, and the lowest (but still >5%) are in the Easter and Holiday seasons. Preferred rooms at Pop also went up an average of 8% and show similar seasonal patterns, but here the biggest increase is for the Regular season at 9.7%. The price increases are likely related to the new queen beds and coffeemakers that are beginning to show up at Pop Century.

Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation followed up their 9% increase in 2017 with more moderated 6.4% increases for 2018.  Increases are highest in the Regular (9.1%) Value (8.2%) and Fall (6.7%) seasons, and lowest in the Peak, Summer and Holiday seasons.

Art of Animation Family Suites at Cars and Lion King are up an average of 6% for 2018. Increases are pretty tightly grouped across the year, but are highest in the Fall season (7.1%) and lowest in the Easter and Holiday seasons (both 4.6%). Finding Nemo 2018 increases are similar.

DISNEY WORLD MODERATE RESORTS PRICING IN 2018

Price season structure

The moderates saw for 2018 the same insertion of Regular season nights into early February, and the same new Sunday and Thursday pricing in some price seasons, that the values did.  See the discussion above for details.

Price level changes

Until 2016, Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans French Quarter, and Port Orleans Riverside standard rooms had the same prices, while Coronado Springs tracked them some nights and other nights was $3-5 more.

In a major change, in 2016 Riverside and French Quarter became the most expensive moderates. This gap widened substantially in 2017, and widens a bit more in 2018.

In 2018, standard rooms at the Port Orleans resorts average $23 a night more than Coronado Springs, and most of the year $32/night more than Caribbean Beach. (Caribbean Beach largely returns to prices comparable to Coronado Springs in late 2018.)

Season price increases

Coronado Springs standard rooms show average price increases for 2018 of 5.7%, with the biggest increases in the Value (8.4%) and Fall (7.2%) seasons. Preferred rooms at Coronado Springs are up 4.6% with a range across seasons of 4-5%, except the Easter season, up only 2.8%.

Caribbean Beach prices for 2018 show a fascinating pattern, with almost no increases in any room type (I checked out 5 types) during any of the seasons that launch in the first half of the year, but 4-6% increases in the two seasons that first appear in the second half of the year–the Fall and Holiday seasons. I imagine this pattern is from the refurb/construction that’s happening there, and the pattern–the Fall season opens in late August–gives a suggestion as to when this work will be done.

Prices for Port Orleans French Quarter and Port Orleans Riverside standard rooms, after rocketing up 7-9% across all the major seasons in 2017, see an average increase of 6.4% in 2018, with prices across all major seasons going up 5.5 to 7%. This is higher than the 2018 increases at either Coronado Springs or Caribbean Beach, and thus widens the price differential of the Port Orleans resorts with the other two traditional moderates that we first saw in 2016.

Preferred rooms at Riverside and River View rooms at French Quarter show similar increases.

DISNEY WORLD DELUXE RESORTS PRICING IN 2018

Price season structure

The deluxe resorts run to a different price season calendar than the values and moderates, especially from early July through mid-November.

Their 2018 price season calendar is similar to that of 2017, with the main change being the addition of a few more days of Peak season pricing the week after the Easter season.

The deluxes also see in 2018 the added complexity in day-by-day prices as the values and moderates, but not so much–only for three seasons (Value, Peak, Regular), not four, and typically only for Thursday nights, not the Sundays and Thursdays of the other resort classes.

Price level changes

There’s a bewildering plethora of price points at the deluxes—many view options, with “Club” service options as well. I sampled the full set of price changes in eighteen deluxe room types, and based on that saw no material changes among the overall resort price standings.

The Grand Floridian is still the most expensive, and standard rooms at the Wilderness Lodge are still largely the least expensive (some seasons, standard view rooms at Animal Kingdom Lodge are cheaper).

In general, there’s three price groupings among standard deluxe rooms.  The three monorail resorts–the Grand Floridian, Polynesian and Contemporary–have the most expensive standard deluxe rooms, the Epcot resorts the Yacht Club, Beach Club, and BoardWalk Inn the next most expensive, and standard rooms at the Animal Kingdom and Wilderness Lodges the least expensive. Price differences vary across the year, but as you can see in the chart above, are on the order of $100/night for each group.

Season price increases

After restrained price increases in 2017, most deluxe rooms are up 5-7% for 2018, with the exception being the Grand Floridian, which for the second year in a row has seen next to no increases.

Polynesian Village standard view room prices were essentially unchanged in 2017, and have gone up 5.1% for 2018. Prices increases are tightly grouped in all principal 2018 seasons except the Regular 2 season, when they go up only 2.6%. Poly lagoon view prices are up 4.2% for 2018, tightly grouped all major seasons except for the Fall season, when they go up just 2.6%.

Contemporary Resort Tower Bay Lake view rooms were unchanged in 2017 in most seasons, and have increased by 5% for 2018.  Increases are tightly grouped around 5% except for the Regular 2 season, up 7.1%. Theme Park view Tower rooms here saw 3.4% increases in 2017, and are up 7.4% for 2018.  Peak, value and regular season prices all went up more than 8%. Other seasons see increases of 5-7%.

Grand Floridian standard view rooms had an average increase of 1.3% in 2017, and in 2018 have no increase.  Two other view types I checked also had no increase for 2018.

Wilderness Lodge standard rooms, after an average 5.4% increase in 2017, are up another 5.9% for 2018. Season increases are tightly in the 5-7% range. Courtyard view rooms here average a 6% increase.

BoardWalk Inn standard view room prices, after being largely unchanged in 2017, are up on average 5.7%, tightly grouped among the seasons with 4.6% to 6.3% increases. Water view rooms here are up 5% and show the same pattern of a narrow range of increases across all 2018 major seasons.

Standard view rooms at the Yacht Club and Beach Club are up for 2018 5.5% on average, grouped among seasons from 4.5% to 6%. The next most expensive room class in each are both up around 5%, also with a tight grouping in price increases for the seasons.

Animal Kingdom Lodge standard room prices are up an average of 6% in 2018 after a 2% rise for 2017. Increases are tightly grouped across the major seasons in the 5-7% range.  Savanna view rooms went up about 3% in 2017, and are up 6.2% for 2018.

MORE ON THE DISNEY WORLD RESORTS

I’ve stayed in more than 140 different Disney World-owned rooms, suites, villas, and such. Reviews resulting from these stays are linked to here.

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