Category — p. News and Changes

DESPITE THURSDAY’S DEBACLE, PEOPLE ARE STILL GETTING FREE DINING AND ROOM RATE DEALS AT DISNEY WORLD

Despite all the unavailability on Thursday, people have been finding since then that the same dates and rooms that were unavailable then have been bookable Friday and today.

Start with the links to these deals on Disney’s website, and if that doesn’t work, call. Disney’s page on the free dining at Disney World is here, and its page on the room-only discount is here.  The number is 407-939-7729.

And if that doesn’t work, ask if you have, or beg for, a pin code!!  Word is that another round of pin codes is out!

WHAT MAY HAVE HAPPENED

Disney was inundated with calls on Thursday (you can only change a reservation by talking directly to Disney) –6 hours spent on hold were reported as common, especially for travel agents who have special lines that couldn’t take the demand.

As a result, many people on hold–and others with travel agent bookings waiting to hear–double-booked deals while waiting to change their old bookings.

Eventually they canceled one of their bookings, and eventually, it seems, these rooms went back into the free dining pool.

There’s a thread with examples of the kinds of rooms that are being cancelled here.

Now all Disney deals are subject to availability. Some resorts aren’t offered at all, and many of the more popular among the rest have a very small number of rooms allocated to a deal.  This is particularly true for free dining, which is a very expensive and complicated promotion.

Word is from at least one cast member that Disney had initially not planned to make this offer at all (which is what I’d been predicting), and when it did, both dates and room allocations were much tighter than in the past.  That, combined with system failures, is what presumably led to Thursday’s zoo.

But all is not lost!  Keep trying! And if you have no luck this weekend–try again daily on the website, and call again every now and then.

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FREE DINING AND ROOM RATE DEALS AT DISNEY WORLD

As predicted, Walt Disney World has released fall 2013 deals for free dining and for room-only discount rates.

Disney’s page on the free dining deal at Disney World is here, and its page on the room-only discount is here.

The specifics are pretty much as predicted, but I don’t have all the details yet.  I’ll add to and correct this page as they emerge.

FREE DISNEY WORLD DINING DEAL SPECIFICS

Free Dining is available only for limited dates:

• September 29 to October 2, 2013
• October 18 to November 2, 2013
• November 11 to November 23, 2013
• December 12 to December 22, 2013

…and excluded from the deal are the following resorts:

• Campsites
• 3-Bedroom Villas
• Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
• Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter
• The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

Value resort guests are eligible for the “quick-service” dining plan for free, and moderate and deluxe resorts guests for the regular dining plan for free.

While this deal needs to be booked by September 15, availability is limited. So act now!

ROOM ONLY DISCOUNTS AT DISNEY WORLD DEAL SPECIFICS

There’s two room only deals, one covering stays from September 29 through November 9, and the second covering stays from November 10 through 22 (November 25th at the deluxes and DVC properties) , and then November 30 through December 23.  The first needs to be booked by September 15, and the second by November 3.

Moreover, beyond the slightly different deluxe dates noted above, Family Suites at Art of Animation are included only September 29 to October 5, 2013, October 20 to November 2, 2013, November 10 to November 22, 2013 and December 15 to December 23, 2013.

Exclusion details are still coming out, but Campsites, Standard Little Mermaid Rooms at Art of Animation, and DVC at the Grand Floridian are excluded.

Typically, eligible deluxe and DVC rooms will see 30% discounts, moderates 20% discounts and values 15% discounts.

It’s been widely rumored that free dining would open up today for Disney Visa cardholders.

No dice.

I am however sticking to both my forecast here (note the words “typically” and “might” and “early August”) and to the warning here.

FREE DINING AT DISNEY WORLD FOR THE REST OF 2013

Crack insider the “Mysterious J” emailed me last night to let me know that a free dining deal for the rest of 2013 at Disney World for visits booked from Europe and South America will come out on August 1st.  

This deal will have book-by dates of November 15, and will cover arrival dates of

• September 29 to October 2, 2013
• October 18 to November 2, 2013
• November 11 to November 23, 2013
• December 12 to December 22, 2013

At or near the same time, a room rate deal will come out as well.

The “Mysterious J” has given me the heads up on such items weeks before they appear before, and has never yet been wrong.

Moreover, what typically happens is that these deals come out outside the US first, and then soon get released for the North American general public.

So this news bodes really, really well for general public free dining to come out in early August as well!

I’ve been frankly skeptical about such a deal and am oh so glad that it appears that my forecasts of no more general public free dining in 2013 might be wrong!!!

Walt Disney World has now released prices for the key components of 2014 visits–tickets, resort hotels, and the dining plan.

Prices have generally gone up–but not all of them, and less so than last year.

DISNEY WORLD 2014 PRICE INCREASES IN CONTEXT

Disney World ticket prices went up (effective immediately) in June.

The actual increase varied by which ticket type and number of ticket days you are targeting, but for the most commonly bought options, prices went up about 6%. Last year, these same prices went up about 9%.

In later June, Dining Plan prices went up–also, in a change from past practice (when plan increases went in effect the next January) effective immediately.

Prices again vary by plan, but the “regular” dining plan prices went up about 6.5% for those 10 and older, and 10% for those younger than 10.  Last year, the prices went up 14% and 8% respectively.

Wednesday, resort hotel prices for 2014 were announced. These are more complicated–but the story is the same–generally, less of an increase than last year.*

Last year value resort prices went up (as an average across all the seasonal prices) about 7.5%.  But at the same time, mini-fridges, which had been a $10 optional upcharge, became standard and built into the price, so that for those who would have paid to get the fridges, prices actually went down.

This year, with a couple of minor weekend exceptions in one or two price seasons, value prices are unchanged–that is, not increased–at the four older value resorts (Pop Century and the All-Stars).

Art of Animation is a different story–Little Mermaid room prices are up across the board, from 3-5%, and so are Family Suites, up 4.6-5.3%

At the moderates, prices are also largely unchanged compared to 2013, except for the fall season, up 2.5% on weekdays and 5.6% on weekends. (By the way, the combination of these last two points–moderates unchanged, and standard Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation going up, is bringing Little Mermaid prices awfully close to moderate prices–see the chart here.)

Last year, moderate prices went up on average 3.5%.  So this year’s no price increase–for most seasons–is a big deal.

Deluxe resort prices in 2014 are up across the board–but again less than last year, when prices went up ~3%.  For 2014, prices are up in every season, but only 1.4% to 1.9%.

So the net effect is that while a Disney World vacation is now more expensive–no surprise there–many components didn’t go up at all, and pretty much everything went up less than last year.

WHY THE MODERATION IN DISNEY WORLD PRICE INCREASES COMPARED TO 2013?

“Moderation” is kind of a funny word to use for Disney World’s grab at your wallets, but for comparisons with 2013 prices announced in the summer of 2012, it is fair.

My guess is that there’s a couple of thing behind Disney World’s relative restraint (another funny word to use…) in pricing, and both are related to changes in the competitive terrain.

When Disney set prices last year, it knew New Fantasyland was opening, and hoped Fastpass+ would be in place for much of 2013.  It both expected these to create value for guests and needed to recapture its return on investment in them.

So prices were bumped accordingly. Moreover, none of its major competitors was opening anything nearly as significant, creating no competitive reason to moderate price rises.

In 2014, the competitive terrain is very different.

Universal Orlando will be opening its first new hotel in years, and Harry Potter will see a major expansion sometime in the summer. While Disney World will be opening the last elements of the Fantasyland expansion and implementing Fastpass+, both of these are largely already priced in, given the increases for 2013.

So that’s my take–moderate price increases because of increased competitive pressures in 2014…

What do you think?

*Resort price conclusions are based on standard rooms at a sample of 8 resorts covering 8 or so major price seasons each.

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Yesterday’s post about how to increase your odds of getting a Be Our Guest reservation got tons of comments and responses, both on this site and on the many Facebook pages that shared it (and thanks to all those who shared and/or liked the post and/or commented!!).

Rather than respond to each comment, let me group the key points into one place here, in no particular order.  (The links are to example comments on the point.)

• Some people do have no trouble getting a booking for 180 days out. (I saw this in particular in comments on the various Facebook shares)
• Many people do have success with the recommended strategy
• People do cancel their reservations, so rechecking closer to your dates—even the day before—can really pay off!
• It’s simply not true that Disney World holds back some reservations to guarantee 180 day availability—although it does sometime have technical difficulties that have a similar effect!!
• Walking up to the (counter service) lunch is an option—aim to arrive 1.15p or a little later

Thanks again to DisneyDiningAgent whose original comment kicked all this off!

Any key points I missed?

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