Category — p. News and Changes

Reserving FastPass+ in advance will be possible for off-site guests beginning March 31, multiple sources—including easyWDW.com and WDWMagic.com–reported March 26.

Until now, reserving FastPass+ in advance has been limited to those staying at a Disney World-owned hotel and Annual Passholders.

Beginning March 31, off-site guests  will be able to make FastPass+ reservations beginning 30 days before the intended use date, the same window as Annual Passholders. Off-siters need first to set up a MyDisneyExperience account and link their tickets to it.

Guests staying at Disney-owned hotels will continue to have a 30 day advantage, being able to make their FastPass+ reservations beginning 60 days before their check-in date.

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A reader using my friends at Destinations in Florida to book his family’s Disney World vacation emailed me about why he had to help with getting building and view requests.

Following my advice that the best Little Mermaid rooms are “lake-facing building 7 rooms, as near the Lion King area as possible,” he asked the agent to request that.

He got this back from his agent: “I can put a note on your booking; however, it’s not guaranteed.  When you check in, just make sure you mention the note and ask them for the building and view and location.”

So he reached out to me to find out why he had to do this too at check-in. And I asked the big boss, Allison, and below is an edited version of her response!

“Disney’s Reservation System has a special notes section to leave any special requests. This section gets transferred to the Room Assignments at the Disney Resort.  When the guest does Online Check-in, they can add those requests again by checking the boxes.  Those checked boxes go to that same notes section of the reservation.

The reason we remind the guest to mention it at check in, is because all these are “requests” and not guaranteed…and sometimes get lost in the process….

We call Room Assignments about 3 days prior to arrival to remind the resort of the guest requests.  Then we call again on the arrival day and talk with the Front Desk about the requests for our guests.  However, rooms still get moved around and sometimes the Front Desk moves the rooms without looking at the requests in the reservation.

If our guest requests a specific room location, floor, or view; we ask them to re-confirm with the Front Desk (at check in) to make sure that request is granted if at all possible.  It is just to make sure the guest does not get to the room and find out Disney did not give them the request, but could have!

Many of our guests do not know all of the extra steps we go through with every reservation to make sure our guests have the best chance possible to get their requests.  We add the notes, call Room Assignments 3 days prior, and then the Front Desk on arrival day, all to make sure Disney has our guest requests; and then we want our guests to ask again at check-in too.”

I thought this was really helpful and a great reminder to everyone about how to handle these Disney World room requests. Get them in to the system, and then call Disney to remind them that they are in the system, then ask again at check-in!

And thanks again, Allison and the Destinations in Florida team!

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My friend Steve Bell, writer of MilitaryDisneyTips.com, has published a new Military Discount Finder. (That’s Steve in the white T-shirt, at our joint meet-up at the Magic Kingdom in November.)

This tool helps resolve the most complex part of Disney World (and other Orlando-area) discounts for military folk–who is eligible for what.

Steve and I answer on this site hundreds of questions on this topic–there’s two today–and he gets thousands more on his own site.  His new finder will help people get eligibility questions answered much faster!

If you have military ties, or have friends with military ties, check it out!

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Disney World has released a multi-level deal for arrival dates June 15 – August 28 2014. This deal needs to be booked by June 6, 2014.

There’s one set of discounts for stays of 3-5 nights, and a 5% higher set of discounts for stays longer than 5 nights. The longer stays are eligible for a ticket deal as well. I’ll post more on the ticket deal later, but I think it’s a free additional ticket day—which is worth $10.65 per person.

SUMMER 2014 DISNEY WORLD DISCOUNTS FOR STAYS OF 3-5 NIGHTS

Value resorts:

• Excluded: Art of Animation Little Mermaid, All-Star Movies
• Art of Animation Family Suites – 10%
• Other value Resorts – 15%

Moderate resorts:

• Excluded: Port Orleans French Quarter
• Other Moderate Resorts – 20%

Deluxe resorts and DVC:

• Excluded: Bay Lake Tower and Villas at the Grand Floridian
• Contemporary, Beach Club, AKL Savanna View, Wilderness Lodge Villas, Beach Club Villas, Jambo Villas, Kidani Village- 20%
• Other Deluxe and DVC Resorts – 30%

SUMMER 2014 DISNEY WORLD DISCOUNTS FOR STAYS OF LONGER THAN 5 NIGHTS

Add 5 percentage points to the deals noted above.

Any deal with this kind of structure particularly pays at the break point–that is, moving from 5 to 6 nights gets you 5 points of discounts more on the first 5 nights.

So for example during the value season a sixth night at the Wilderness Lodge costs just $129 more than 5 nights.  If this also makes a free ticket day available and useful to you, then the net cost of the 6th night is less than $90 for a 4 person family.

For more details see Disney’s page on the deal.

If you are ready to book, to get a quote on your trip from my travel agent partners Destinations in Florida, you can either call the toll-free line dedicated to readers of this site, click the link or fill out the form over on the right and a little below. To speak directly to an agent, call 877-621-9826 Monday-Saturday between 9a-4p (Eastern). (Toll-free if dialed from within the USA.)

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There have been several reports lately about off-siters with in-park dining reservations being able to book FastPass+ in advance  

One of the more detailed discussions is in this disboards thread, started last Wednesday by Velvetsqueeze.

Deep in it, Lizabu quotes an email from Disney World (I’ve edited it a bit):

Since you took the time to plan a dining experience at a Walt Disney World Theme Park in advance, we’d like to invite you to test Disney FastPass+ service so you can reserve access to select Theme Park experiences in advance as well! You can do this by helping us test our Disney FastPass+ service while you’re here!

With Disney FastPass+ service you can lock-in some of your must do fun before you arrive. That means you can enjoy less time waiting in line and more time having fun. Best of all–it’s included with Theme Park admission.

Complete the following steps if you’d like to participate in this test.

1. Link your tickets
If you haven’t done so yet, you’ll need to link and assign a Walt Disney World Theme Park ticket for each member of your travel party age three (3) or older.
2. Link your dining reservation
If your upcoming dining reservation is not listed on your My Disney Experience planning page, then click here to link it now with confirmation number: xxxxxx.

Complete these steps by March 6, 2014. On March 7, we’ll send you a confirmation letting you know you’re part of the test!

So if you are planning an off-site stay, and want at least a shot at being able to book FastPass+ in advance, figure out which park you’ll go to your first day, and

1. Set up your MyDisneyExperience account
2. Make an in-park dining reservation for the first park day of your trip and link it up.
3. Link up your tickets

Who knows what will happen next–but you might get the invitation that Lizabu and Velevtsqueeze got!

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I noted a bit ago my super-secret project with Josh of easyWDW.com, and promised an update about now.

So here’s the update—later this spring, Theme Park Press will be publishing our co-authored book “The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit”!! (The cover image below is not final.)

In it we combine the best of our individual thinking into something entirely new, different from either of our sites, and different from any other guidebook.

Josh brings world-class expertise on when to go, what park to visit which days, and what to do in the parks when you do go; I bring unmatched experience with the Disney World resort hotels, and years of thinking about first-timers who might never return.

Combining our capabilities means our book will meet the needs of any type of first timers—planning to return, or not. It will be a great resource for returning visitors as well.

Josh is on the record that he thinks I‘m nuts…well, back at you, brother. But Josh is enormously talented and brings very high standards to our joint development of the book’s material. I’m honored to be co-authoring “The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit” with him…and can’t wait til we are done!

Theme Park Press hopes to release our book in late May April—if we can get our final copy in in time for that deadline…But be sure I’ll keep you posted…because you need this book!

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