Category — p. News and Changes

FALL 2016 DISNEY WORLD ROOM RATE DEAL RELEASED

This morning Disney World’s latest room rate deal came out. It covers stays between August 25 and November 5.

To book the deal, contact Kelly at 980-429-4499 or kellyb@destinationsinflorida.com.

VALUE RESORT SAVINGS

Travel 8/26 to 10/1:

• 20%: All-Star Music, All-Star Sports, Pop Century, and family suites at Art of Animation, Campsites at Fort Wilderness
• Excluded: Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation

Travel 10/2 to 11/5

• 15%: All-Star Music, All-Star Sports, Pop Century, and family suites at Art of Animation
• Excluded: Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation, Campsites at Fort Wilderness

MODERATE RESORT SAVINGS

Travel 8/26 to 10/1:

• 20%: Port Orleans Riverside, Port Orleans French Quarter
• 25%: Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, Cabins at Fort Wilderness
• Excluded: none

Travel 10/2 to 11/5:

• 20%: Port Orleans French Quarter, Port Orleans Riverside, Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, Cabins at Fort Wilderness
• Excluded: none

DELUXE RESORT SAVINGS

Travel 8/26 to 10/1:

• 15%: Beach Club, Polynesian
• 20%: Animal Kingdom Lodge Savanna view, Contemporary
• 30%: Animal Kingdom Lodge (other views)  BoardWalk Inn, Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, Yacht Club
• Excluded: None

Travel 10/2 to 11/5:

• 15%: Beach Club, Polynesian, Animal Kingdom Lodge Savanna view, Contemporary
• 25%: Animal Kingdom Lodge (other views)  BoardWalk Inn, Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, Yacht Club
• Excluded: None

DVC SAVINGS

Travel 8/26 to 10/1:

• 15%: Polynesian studios
• 20%: Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani and Jambo House villas, Beach Club Villas, Villas at the Wilderness Lodge
• 30%: BoardWalk Villas, Old Key West, Saratoga Springs
• Excluded: Bay Lake Tower, Polynesian Bungalows, and Grand Floridian Villas.

Travel 10/2 to 11/5:

• 25%: Polynesian studio, Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani and Jambo House villas, Beach Club Villas, Villas at the Wilderness Lodge, BoardWalk Villas, Old Key West, Saratoga Springs
• Excluded: Bay Lake Tower, Polynesian Bungalows, and Grand Floridian Villas.

To book the deal, contact Kelly at 980-429-4499 or kellyb@destinationsinflorida.com.

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2016 DISNEY WORLD FREE DINING DEAL RELEASED

As expected, this morning Disney World’s fall 2016 free dining deal came out.

To book the deal, contact Kelly at 980-429-4499 or kellyb@destinationsinflorida.com.

It covers arrival dates of

• 8/23* to 10/1/2016
• 11/15 to 11/21
• 11/26 to 11/28
• 12/10 to 12/21

It requires a three night minimum stay, and a minimum of two ticket days including one of the extra cost Park Hopper or Water Parks and More add-on options.

Value resorts offer the Quick Service plan for free and moderates and deluxes the Regular Dining Plan

Excluded resorts include Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation, All Star Movies, Port Orleans French Quarter, Bay Lake Tower, Polynesian Bungalows, Grand Floridian Villas, and after 10/31, Port Orleans Riverside.

A room rate deal for the first half of the period also came out. For some families it will be a better deal.

For more on Free Dining, see this, and to book the deal contact Kelly at 980-429-4499 or kellyb@destinationsinflorida.com.

*Disney Visa cardholders can book for dates beginning 8/14

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There’s a full report here, I’ll do a full report next week, but here’s the quick scoop on my experience at the After Hours party last night

Arrived 6.30p

Saw 29 attractions:

• Astro Orbiter
• Barnstormer
• Big Thunder Mountain
• Buzz Lightyear
• Carousel of Progress
• Country Bears
• Dumbo
• Enchanted Tiki Birds
• Evening Parade
• Hall of Presidents
• Haunted Mansion
• it’s a small world
• Jungle Cruise
• Liberty Belle steamboat
• Mad Tea Party
• Magic Carpets of Aladdin
• Mickey’s Philharmagic
• Peoplemover
• Peter Pan
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• Space Mountain
• Splash Mountain
• Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse
• Tinkerbell meet & greet
• Tomorrowland Speedway
• Under the Sea

Left 1.57a

Arrived back at the Animal Kingdom Lodge at 2.45a

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Like everybody else including Disney, I missed my crowd forecast for the week of April 2. What I (and everyone else) expected to be a fine week turned out to be pretty miserable.

There were two reasons for this.

• One was more people in the parks than anyone, including Disney, had forecast—about 25% more, which is not a huge amount—well less than Thanksgiving, for example—but enough to stress the systems, especially at the Magic Kingdom, which saw some days 35% more people than Disney expected. (How I build my crowd calendars and ways I can get my forecasts wrong are here.)
• The second reason was reduced operating hours, staffing, and capacity on Disney’s part. Much of the available capacity was given out to FastPass+, so almost all the extra demand went into standby lines, where it faced reduced numbers of ride vehicles, half of various rides shut down, not enough staff to load, and other problems. As a result, waits skyrocketed. Nobody knows quite why Disney is cutting back, but there’s some interesting hints here.

Josh (from whom I got the numbers) has multiple posts about what happened in the parks that week starting here.

(easyWDW image, used with permission but defaced as I chose)

But the cool thing is that you can complain to me in person!

The main opportunity will be Saturday April 23rd from 1p to 2p in Mexico at Epcot, where Josh and I (co-authors of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, where we also got the crowd forecast wrong) will be doing a meet and greet, giveaway, and book signing. See Josh’s post here for an image of the exact location.

Bu I’ll be around before then, so hunt me down to complain in the most convenient setting!

Wednesday after I arrive I’ll be checking out some current or just completed refurbs at Port Orleans Riverside, Port Orleans French Quarter, the Wilderness Lodge, and the Cabins at Fort Wilderness.

Then it’s off to the Studios to check out the new Storm Troopers Procession and Star Wars stage show.

Then I’ll check in to my refurbed Studio at Jambo House to test it for an updated review. I’ll likely end the evening at the great Animal Kingdom Lodge bar the Victoria Falls Lounge watching the Cavs.

Thursday Josh and I have a business meeting to work on the changes for the 2017 edition of The easy Guide, then in the evening I’ll be testing just how many Magic Kingdom attractions I can do between 7p and 2a, courtesy of the Disney After Hours thingy. Battery permitting, I’ll be tweeting my experience via @yourfirstvisit.

Friday lovely wife Amy Girl arrives, and after I sleep in we’ll likely hang at the Animal Kingdom Lodge pool and the Animal Kingdom itself until we go to dinner at Capa at the Four Seasons, for a review and date night. We’ll check into a one bedroom villa at Jambo to continue the tour of the refurbed Jambo House Villas.

Saturday is the big meet up at Epcot, and we’ll be at Epcot before and after too!

So lots of places for you to yell at me about blowing that week’s forecast. And I am, indeed, sorry…

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A friend of the site just let me know that South American travel agents are posting about Free Dining.

Here’s what they are saying:

Free Dining will become available for booking April 25th

It will cover arrival dates of

• 8/14* up to 10/1/2016
• 11/15 to 11/21
• 11/26 to 11/28
• 12/10 to 12/21

It will require a three night minimum stay, and a minimum of two ticket days.

Value resorts will offer the Quick Service plan for free and moderates and deluxes the Regular Dining Plan

Excluded resorts will include Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation, All Star Movies, Port Orleans French Quarter, Bay Lake Tower, Polynesian Bungalows and Grand Floridian Villas.

This is just a rumor, but parts of it jibe quite well with some other stuff that’s come out the last few days, and my source is usually reliable!!

For more on Free Dining, see this, and to sign up for the free dining watch list, see this!

*Other rumors have it beginning 8/23

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In recent years an average day sees more than 30,000 people in Epcot (likely fewer in 2016, as the refurb of Soarin has cut back on crowds and sent them to the Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom instead).

Among these guests odds are that at least a few will be celebrated authors, and you—yes, you—can find them by asking everyone you see “Are you a celebrated author—No? Then are you? What about you?”

If the search for celebrated authors doesn’t work, or for some reason you are unwilling to ask, you could give up and meet me and Josh instead.

Josh (of easyWDW) and I are the un-celebrated co-authors of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, the best-reviewed Disney World guide book ever published, and we’ll be meeting folk, signing anything you might want us to sign, and giving away a few books as well.

We’ll be at Epcot on Saturday April 23 at the ledge outside the Mexico Pavilion from 1p until 2p or so. Come by and chat!

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