Category — p. News and Changes

ARMED FORCES SALUTE RENEWED FOR 2019

Late last week my buddy Steve Bell reported that the Disney Military Salute has been renewed for 2019, and eligible dates (not all the block-out dates are out yet) extend well into December 2019, to December 19, 2019, similar to the 2018 salute.

The long duration of eligible dates in 2019 was a bit of a surprise, as there was a school of thought that an early end (e.g. September 30) would create more room for full-paying Star Wars folk once it opens in late fall 2019.

So either DIsney is intentionally not giving away it’s Star Wars opening date through the timing of this dela; by late fall opening of Galaxy’s it really means late fall (one definition of fall has it ending December 21, 2019); or–and this is perhaps most likely–one part of DIsney is not talking to the other.

As always, the best source of info on the Armed Forces Salute deal–the best Disney World deal out there, serving the best set of people in the world–is available on Steve’s MilitaryDisneyTips.com.  Start with his info on the Armed Forces Salute renewal for 2019 here.

CARIBBEAN BEACH DINING TO OPEN OCTOBER 8

Multiple sites are reporting that our long dining nightmare at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort will be coming to an end next week. While I have not yet seen anything official from Disney, lunch and dinner reservations at the new waterside table service, Sebastian’s Bistro, are available beginning October 8.

Other changes that may or may not happen then are the reopening of a redone gift shop and counter service area, the shift of check-in from the Custom House to the same main central building in Centertown where the gift shop and counter service will be found, and the shift of the entrance road from Buena Vista Drive to Victory Way.

Also reported is that Trinidad South will be changing its name to Barbados, and Trinidad North to simply Trinidad. In the longer term this name change, if it happens, will be a great move, especially for the dyslexic like me, but in the short term it will replace one set of confusions with another.

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Several new Disney World deals for 2019 came out this morning, of which the two most important are a room rate deal (covered on this page) and a Play, Stay and Dine Offer which I will cover later.

The new room rate deal is complicated:

• It covers most periods between January 1 and February 14, 2019 and February 17 and April 27 2019
• However, during the first period (until February 14) at the value and moderate resorts, only the Sunday-Thursday night parts of your trip will be discounted–you can still stay on Fridays and Saturdays, but with no discount.
• At most resorts, stays during either period will be discounted more if they are booked by January 2, 2019

As always, there’s a limited inventory of rooms available, and not all resorts or room types are included.

VALUE RESORTS 2019 ROOM RATE DEAL

No resort is totally excluded, but at Art of Animation, as usual only Family Suites are included. Discounts are limited to Sunday through Thursday nights until 2/14, and are higher if you book by 1/2/2019.

MODERATE RESORTS 2019 ROOM RATE DEAL

No moderates are excluded, but the deal is less valuable at Port Orleans Riverside and Port Orleans French Quarter. You’ll face the same patterns as at the value resorts–no discounts on Friday and Saturday nights through February 14, and better deals (except at the Port Orleans Resorts) if you book by January 2, 2019.

DELUXE RESORTS 2019 ROOM RATE DEAL

No deluxe is excluded, nor do they have Friday/Saturday night exclusions from the deal, but you will find not as good a discount at the Polynesian Village, Contemporary Resort, and Wilderness Lodge. Except at these three, discounts are better if you book by January 2.

DISNEY VACATION CLUB RESORTS 2019 ROOM RATE DEAL

At the DVC resorts, the Villas at the Grand Floridian and Bay Lake Tower are excluded, and at the Polynesian Village, only the Studios are in the deal.

Moreover, the Polynesian studios are at a lower discount.

Like at the deluxes, there are no Friday/Saturday night exclusions from the deal. Except at the Polynesian, discounts are better if you book by January 2.

HOW TO BOOK THERE DISNEY WORLD DEALS

Full reviews of each of the resort options begin here.

Disney World’s page on this deal is here.  You can find the other deals that came out today here (scroll down to find the ones with a 2019 date).

Today’s set of deals for 2019 is complicated, especially for families aiming at a value resort. The long-standing travel agent partner of this site, Kelly, can figure out and book the best deal for you. Contact her by using the form below:

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As has been expected for some time, Disney World yesterday announced that theme park tickets purchased October 16 or after will have varying prices based on the start date of the ticket.

The prices themselves were not announced—that’s expected on the 16th itself, although rumors, some accurate, will come out before then. Many were confused by apparent prices being used in an explanatory video—even though every image in that video had material like the following:

The way it will work is that ticket purchasers first select a ticket form or type.*

You choose from among the current ticket types:  “regular” one park per day tickets, “hopper” tickets that allow visiting different parks in the same day (multiple visits in a day to one park are covered by “regular” tickets), or “hopper plus” tickets that also include pre-paid admission to the minor parks (waterparks, mini-golf, etc.).

The next choice you make is how many park days.

With these two choices in hand, you then pick your first possible day of use from a calendar that shows average daily prices by start day for a ticket of the already-selected form and number of days.

With a date clicked, the cost per day is highlighted…

…and the system will then show the total cost of the tickets…

…and also the days the tickets are eligible to be used.

Except for one day tickets, these tickets have eligibility ranges greater than the actual number of park days that can be used. Two and three day tickets have two extra calendar days they might be used; tickets with four through seven days of park admission have three extra days, and tickets with eight to ten days have four extra days.

This allows guests some flexibility for off days, visits to other Orlando attractions, or for working around family, illness, or weather issues. It also allows, I would guess, for a bit of start-day arbitrage for guests who are willing to give up some flexibility.**

For guests with calendar flexibility, the system will also let you seek low cost days…

…and for those who want to lock into a set of tickets and not worry yet about start dates, an option to pay more for flexible dates will also be available. This option also provides the longest date range of eligible use—fourteen days—regardless of the actual number of days in the ticket.

Disney has two intentions behind this change.

• One is to shift guests from higher-wait periods to lower wait ones, thereby increasing the satisfaction of the shifted guests (though not that of those who had already planned to go those dates because they held the promise of be see lower crowds)
• The second is to extract more value from those who, regardless of pricing, choose the more popular dates

Both these have already been in place at Disney World in some fashion for years. Resort prices have worked this way from time out of memory. And over the last three years, Disney World has restructured the prices of its various types of annual passes to shift many people into lower-cost pass options that block out many of the most popular dates—resulting, for example, in starkly lower summer waits the past three summers.

The new approach to date-based pricing is much less complicated than many had feared it would be. Yes, you need to pick a date or pay a premium for flexible dates—but you always have had to pick a date; this new approach will simply incent that choice to even earlier. And yes, you will pay higher prices for some dates than others, even if you have no real choice in your dates—but this has also always been true for hotel prices.

The impact on park waits is still to be seen, and will be partly shaped by the actual price differences among dates. Higher price differences will level out crowds across the year to some as-yet unquantifiable extent, making formerly bad dates better and formerly good dates worse, although the impact is yet to be seen and good daily planning will still pay off quite a bit. Lower price differences will have less impact on the flow of crowds across the year.

*All screenshots are from Disney’s video here.

**For example, say you plan to be in the parks for three days, on exact dates—e.g. February 3 through February 5. The two extra calendar days your ticket can be used on a three day ticket means your start dates could be February 1, February 2, or February 3. If you are willing to give up the option to use your tickets on February 6 or February 7, then picking February 1 or 2 as your start day, rather than February 3, in some scenarios might save you some money.

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(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter Resort, see this.)

PHOTO TOUR OF A REFURBED ROOM AT DISNEY’S PORT ORLEANS FRENCH QUARTER

Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter has completed a room refurb project.

I had the chance to stay in one of these refurbed rooms in early July. Compared with other recent Disney room refurbs, changes are pretty slight. You’ll find

• No more carpets (a lovely parquet floor replaces them)
• A much larger (54-inch) wall mounted TV
• Many, many more power points, and
• High platform beds 30 inches off the ground that allow about 14.5 inches of clearance underneath for luggage or other items you might want to stow

There are some other minor changes, largely to the effect of simplifying the room, which I’ll comment on as we go through the photo tour. But the furniture is either the same or identical, except for new colors on the chair seats and power points set into in the dresser and bedside table.

But you don’t see the more structured closet, the solid sliding wood door separating the bath area from the living area, or the pocket door replacing the swinging door between the sink area and the tub area that one might have expected to find based on other recent refurbs like those at Pop Century and Coronado Springs.

The result is a bit of a mixed bag. The larger TV and extra power points are welcome—but so would be a more structured closet and a more sound-and light-deadening door between the bath area and living area.

The wooden floors and higher beds also seen in other recent refurbs are controversial, with the floor feeling “dirty” to some (I’ve not had that issue) and the high beds awkward for shorter people and also for some who don’t think they need accessible rooms but still have trouble landing in such high beds.

As you enter, you’ll find two queens on one side. The blank area to the left of the first bed is where a connecting door would be, if present. Note the new parquet floor. The old purple and gold theme is gone, as are the wallpaper borders above…

…but the detailed headboards remain.

Note also the graceful new light fixtures over the beds.

Here’s a shot of these beds from the bath side of the room.

A closer view of one of the beds.

Between the beds is a small bedside table, with a storage cubby below…

…and a drawer just big enough for your important books.

Note the four power points in the top of the bedside table.

As noted, the beds are now single-mattress platform beds, and there’s about 14.5 inches of clearance between the floor and the platform framing, enough for most luggage. My book is nine inches tall.

The other side of the room has a table and two chairs, dresser/mini-fridge with a TV above, and a small ottoman.

This side from the back.

A closer view of the table and chairs.

The dresser remains particularly nice, especially with the inlaid wood treatment.

The three drawers are typical of the moderates, and a little scant for most families–though there’s a large hanging area with a shelf above in the bath. Note the four power points above on the left–there’s a similar set on the right of the dresser.

A closer view of the added power points.

You’ll find the mini-fridge in the dresser, too…

…and the coffee service on top of it.

Last on this side you’ll find a small bench with a coat rack above.

The bath and closet area is separated from the rest of the room by this fabric curtain, not the sliding solid door we’ve found in recent refurbs of rooms with similar bath layouts.  The solid door provides much better light control, and somewhat better noise control. Note the decorative angles at the top of the entry way.

A closer, somewhat arty view of one of these, which were present in the old room, but white so subtler in their decorative effect.

In the bath area you’ll first find two sinks. The small round mirror on the left wall is new in this refurb.

Under the sinks you’ll find a shelf you can use for storage–and the hair dryer. Note, while we are, here the nice details on the face of the sink.

Next to the sink is the hanging area, along with an iron, ironing board…

…and safe. I forgot to measure the safe, but my book is six inches wide by nine inches tall, so you can tell the safe is large.

The rest of the bath, with the tub and toilet, is separated by a wall and door.

As is becoming common, small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and bodywash have been replaced with these large wall mounted bottles of the same–I saw the same wall items in my 2017 stays at Port Orleans Riverside and Pop Century.

That means you’ll find only these lonely items on the sink counter–lotion and soap.

These refurbed rooms are a mix of improvements, misses and missed opportunities—although different people will differ on which are which.

AMENITIES AT PORT ORLEANS FRENCH QUARTER RESORT

This review continues here.

MATERIAL IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S PORT ORLEANS FRENCH QUARTER RESORT

• Overview and summary of Port Orleans French Quarter
• Port Orleans French Quarter theming and accommodations
• A photo tour of a refurbed standard room at Port Orleans French Quarter
• Amenities at Port Orleans French Quarter
• Dining at Port Orleans French Quarter
• The pool at Port Orleans French Quarter

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 150+ stays in them

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I’ve finally posted my updated planning material for 2019, based on Disney’s actual prices and my re-forecast of crowds.

I’ll explain more later on how all this works (the day job is just killing me right now), but the short version is that I am no longer seeing the weeks beginning 3/2/19 and 12/14/19 to be as good as I thought they would be, so there are now just 11 recommended weeks–down from 13 in my drafts.

The full set of material is at the links:

• 2019 Disney World Price Seasons
• 2019 Disney World Crowd Forecast
• 2019 Disney World Week Rankings

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While I was caught up in my day job—I just started up with a new strategy and management client, and it’s a lot of work to get it off the ground—a new Disney World deal came out, and another had its “book-by” date extended.

First, before getting into the details of the new deal—the “book-by” date for Disney’s popular Free Dining promotion has been extended to August 1, from its former July 7.

The new deal is a room-only discount that comes in two parts.

• For stays booked by October 7 that include stay dates October 8 through November 8, the discount applies to “most” Sunday through Thursday nights—that is, Fridays and Saturdays are not discounted.
• For stays booked by December 24 that include stay dates November 11 through December 24, the discount applies “most” nights—that is, Fridays and Saturdays are not explicitly excluded.

As always, there’s a limited inventory of rooms available, and not all resorts or room types are included.

VALUE RESORTS DEAL

No resort is totally excluded, but at Art of Animation, as usual only Family Suites are included.

MODERATE RESORTS DEAL

No moderates are excluded, but the deal is less valuable at Port Orleans Riverside and Port Orleans French Quarter.

DELUXE RESORTS DEAL

No deluxe is excluded, but you will find not as good a discount at the Polynesian Village, Contemporary Resort, and Wilderness Lodge.

DISNEY VACATION CLUB RESORTS DEAL

At the DVC resorts, the Villas at the Grand Floridian and Bay Lake Tower are excluded, and at the Polynesian Village only the Studios are in the deal.

Moreover, among those in the deal, the Polynesian studios and Boulder Ridge at the Wilderness Lodge (but not Copper Creek there) are at a lower discount.

HOW TO BOOK THERE DISNEY WORLD DEALS

Full reviews of each of the resort options begin here.

Go to Disney World’s pages on these deals– here for the room rate deal, or here for Free Dining.

Or the long-standing travel agent partner of this site, Kelly, can book it for you—and she will also check to see if this is the best deal for you among your options. Contact her by using the form below:

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