Category — p. News and Changes

Frequent readers of my disclosure page 🙂 will have noted that over the weekend I inked a deal to partner with Undercover Tourist.

Undercover Tourist has all kinds of tools and tips, but they are best known for being one of the few legit sources of discounted Walt Disney World tickets. (They also have discounted tickets for other Orlando area attractions.)

The Disney World discounts often aren’t that big–Disney will discount hotels frequently, but very rarely tickets. But for larger families or those who need to squeeze every penny that they can, the savings can be meaningful.

Undercover Tourist reached out last week with the following kind words:

“We just recently discovered your blog over here at Undercover Tourist and we’re quite impressed with the level of detail and unique point of view you’re providing.  Looks like your consulting days at McKinsey are being put to good use as you are effectively solving the “first visit to WDW” enigma. ;)”

So after that, how could I not partner with them?

I’ve known about them forever–they are highly recommended by some of the writers about Disney World that I most trust. So I’m honored that we have a relationship, and we’re already talking about other stuff we could do together that would help all of you even more!

And as a result of the partnership, if you buy stuff from Undercover Tourist via a link from this site, then they share a little pixie dust with me, which helps compensate for all of the time I put into it…

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OVERSEAS ROOM RATE DISCOUNTS FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD HINT AT U.S. DEALS TO COME?

Update 5/9/13:  This deal is now out!  See this.

The mysterious “J” let me know this morning that room rate discounts for South American and European residents will come out May 9 as well–this on top of the Disney World Free Dining deal that she says also will come out on May 9, 2013.

Here’s the scoop so far as “J” knows now:

• Booking window: May 9 till September 15
• For stays: from August 15 till September 28
• Includes: all rooms except Little Mermaid and 3 bedroom villas
• Room rate discount amounts: Still no details about the percentage of the discount

I’ll post more as I learn more, but for now U.S. residents should view this as a hint about what might be offered to them.

SOME US RESIDENT WILL GET AT LEAST SOME DISNEY WORLD FREE DINING IN AUGUST OR SEPTEMBER!

Lots of feedback and concern continues to come in about Tuesday’s news that Free Dining may open for overseas visitors for visits in September 2013. I’ll catch up with the comments soon.

Perhaps most importantly, Dad’s Guide accepted my Free Dining SmackDown. He thinks there will be no August or September free dining for US residents, while I’m forecasting that there will be.

Whoever is right on this prediction will have breakfast at Disney World bought by the other–so at least one of the two of us will get at least some free dining out of all of this!

By the way, I’ve gotten a ton of private messages that split evenly into two claims: there will be no U.S. resident free dining in August or September 2013, or that I’ve already won my breakfast!  So nothing profoundly useful in the mail…and I’m sticking with my forecast.

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NEWS ON FREE DINING AT WALT DISNEY WORLD IN 2013…SORTA

One of my crack sources–the mysterious J–just emailed me to let me know that free dining for the fall of 2013 will be out shortly for South American and European visitors.

The booking window will open May 9, and the offer will cover arrival dates of September 2 through September 25.

At the values, the offer is the quick service dining plan for free, and at the moderates and deluxes,  the offer is the regular dining plan for free.

I refuse to read too much into the arrival dates right now, so my takeaway is that since this offer will soon be out for much of the rest of the world, we’ll see an August/September free dining deal out for US residents visitors in May as well.

Well, I hope it includes August…

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Danny K is asking on disboards.com for feedback from people who have used one of this site’s  itineraries.

His question is comment #158 on this page of disboards.

I’d really appreciate it if any of you who have either used one of the itineraries as is, or used one mostly, modifying it here and there to suit your family, would weigh in! 

If so, let him know what you think, good, bad or ugly, because bad and ugly helps me make the site better…

You have to be a member of disboards.com to comment–but signing up will just take a second…

Thanks, Dave

I’ve been lucky enough over the years to get some really nice notices here and there–for some examples, see the top of the right sidebar and the bottom of the left one. (Look for the word “Puffery” in the header!)

But so far as I’ve noticed, the site has never gotten a full page review–that is, until yesterday.

Yesterday Chip & Company published a review that you can find here.

It’s really nice, and I greatly appreciate it! The more people that know about this site, the more it can help!

If you don’t know about Chip & Company, it’s been on this site’s list of recommended websites for years. Chip & Company publishes all kinds of brief articles touching on any Disney World topic you can imagine, and it’s got tons of readers and followers.

Thanks to Jodi, the writer of the review, and Chip, who runs the site! And check out the review!

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Extra Magic Hours next week (and to a lesser extent, operating hours) are a little different than the typical pattern for this time of year.

• Disney’s Animal Kingdom has morning extra magic hours Sunday the 21st and Saturday the 27th, instead of Monday and Wednesday. It also has unusual 8a openings on Saturday the 27th and Sunday the 28th.
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios has its typical Saturday morning EMH on Saturday the 20th, but instead of them being scheduled again Saturday the 27th, they are booked for Wednesday the 24th.
• On Sunday the 28th, instead of evening EMH at the Magic Kingdom, evening EMH will be at the Studios

Those following this site’s Autumn-Winter-Spring itinerary for arrival dates of 4/20 and 4/27 will need to be at the Animal Kingdom an hour earlier than indicated for its “First Sunday.”