Category — t. Disney’s MyMagic+ Project and Expansion Plans

Update 10/5:  A 2013 deal may come out October 10—see this.

DELAYS IN DISNEY WORLD 2013 DEALS?

I’ve been getting a lot of questions wondering about when–and if–early 2013 Disney World discounts might be coming out–especially since deals for the equivalent periods in 2012 and in 2011 came out in August.

My bet is that we’ll see the first set of Disney World discounts for January 2013 in early November, for a couple of reasons, but early December is also possible–as is tomorrow!

WHY DISNEY WORLD 2013 DEALS MIGHT COME OUT IN EARLY NOVEMBER [Read more →]

FASTPASS+ AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

You see a lot of concern about Disney’s FASTPASS+ program, which–someday, and perhaps soon–will give people the opportunity to reserve ride times from home months in advance, on discussion boards and in comments on this site.

The concern is mostly about what happens to people who can’t, or won’t, make their plans in advance. Will they be shut out of rides and not able to get regular FASTPASSES any more?

While Disney World has not told me its plans 🙂 , I don’t think so—I think things will be mostly fine for everybody—and I think the math backs me up.

THE MATH OF FASTPASS PLUS

The operational insight behind FASTPASS+ is that everyone on a ride at Walt Disney World could have been on that same ride at without waiting if, instead of standing in line, they had a reservation for a specific time.

Riding a ride thus becomes like eating at a Disney World restaurant, and this is where the concern comes in: these days it’s hard to get a reservation at the most Disney World popular restaurants unless you are willing to commit months ahead, so will the rides become like that too?

Math comes to the rescue here:

• There’s much more ride capacity than restaurant capacity
• Ride capacity is being increased
• Not all available slots need be allocated to the FASTPASS+ program, and
• The current day-of-visit FASTPASS ride program can be largely retained, although it will have less same-day capacity

In a program that’s been under-reported in the Disney World blogging community, Disney World is spending millions to expand ride capacity.

At least 20 rides have already been attached to this program, and just two (Space Mountain and Pirates) have added between them additional capacity of 1.2 million rides a year. Treating these two as examples twice as good as average results, this program alone could add 16,000 rides a day—the equivalent of another headliner attraction.

And of course two more headliners are coming to Magic Kingdom, one this year and one next.

But most importantly, over time, the number of FASTPASS rides will more than triple.

These days, on a typical day, about 20 rides offer FASTPASSES (more on busier days). The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2013 suggests that over time, the number of FASTPASS-like reservable experiences will cross 70, including new opportunities to reserve good spots for fireworks shows and parades.

More than tripling the number of FASTPASS attractions and events means that Disney World could, for example, keep the same number of regular FASTPASSES available to people with no advance ride reservations, or not as many as they’d like, while having twice that many available to those willing to commit to a ride reservation in advance! It’s just math…

Now, where adding FASTPASS attractions doesn’t help so much is with the current FASTPASS rides. Space Mountain now has half a million more seats available, from the capacity expansion noted above—but that’s a drop in the bucket, less than an hour’s worth of extra capacity, compared to the demand it will see from both advance reservation seekers and guests without advance reservations.

So Disney will have to be very careful about how it allocates the capacity of the current FASTPASS rides among advance reservations, regular day of visit FASTPASSES, and riders with neither. Many of the advance reservations—the FASTPASS+s–will go to people who otherwise would have drawn day-of-visit regular FASTPASSES, but not all of them, so for these rides it’s easy to foresee that some will be disappointed and others will face very long standby lines.

But overall, with the added base capacity, new capacity, and more than tripling of FASTPASS rides, guest experience on average should better, and those who show up without any FASTPASS+ passes, or many fewer than they wish they had, should still be able to have a fun visit!

There still will be a higher payoff for guests who can

• Plan in advance, and
• Stay in a Walt Disney World resort hotel

…but this has always been true. The FASTPASS+ program will make it even more true, but I don’t expect it to do so at the cost of making everyone else just miserable. And tripling the number of FASTPASS rides available is the key to that…it’s just math.

PERSONALIZATION AND DISNEY WORLD’S NEXTGEN PROJECT

Disney’s NextGen project has several parts.  Most widely discussed is the planned ability to reserve ride times, parade spots, etc., from home months ahead (people are currently calling this the “FASTPASS+” program). The part people have been seeing for a while is enhancements to the experience of waiting in line for those not able to reserve a time.

And then there’s “personalization.”

Most speculation about personalization has focused on the potential ability of cast members and digital signs to recognize and respond to guests, keying off of identity data encoded in either an RFID device or—in the longer run more likely—two way communicating smart phones.  It’s a technologically enabled way to say “hi” before you’ve been formally introduced.

Well, OK on that…but personalization could involve a lot more…

PERSONALIZATION THOUGHTS SPURRED BY DISNEY’S 2012 ANALYTICS AND OPTIMIZATION SUMMIT

[Read more →]

2013 FREE DISNEY WORLD DINING DATES?

A “bounce back offer” is a deal offered to Disney World hotel guests that they can only take advantage of if they book it during their current stay.

As I write this, I’m in Disney World’s All-Star Music Family Suites (review here!) and the offer in my room is for free dining beginning 8/18/2013.

However, there’s a wrinkle: the end dates of the free dining offer vary depending on what resort type you reserve. [Read more →]

Updated 8/17–Disney has changed the opening of phone reservations on 8/20 to 7a from noon.

BE OUR GUEST RESERVATIONS WILL OPEN NEXT WEEK

The new restaurant opening as part of Disney World’s Fantasyland Expansion, will open booking next week.

• Phone reservations will begin at 7a Monday 8/20
• Online reservations will begin Wednesday 8/22 (my birthday!)

MORE DETAILS ON THE OPENING OF RESERVATIONS FOR BE OUR GUEST [Read more →]

(This is the second page of this article on prices and value at Walt Disney World in 2013. For the first page, see this.)

DISNEY WORLD 2013 HOTEL PRICE INCREASES AND EXTRA MAGIC HOUR CUTBACKS

Prices for Disney World’s resort hotels have also gone up in 2013—but, relatively speaking, when the additional value these hotels will offer is factored in, only a teeny bit compared to the massive 2013 dining plan and ticket price increases.

Moreover, I think that the timing of the January cutbacks in Extra Magic Hours—evening Extra Magic Hours, traditionally 3 hours, are shifting to 2—is less of a takeaway than it is a signal of when NextGen will kick in…and that NextGen will add value to being a Disney World hotel guest much more than the loss of an hour of evening EMH will take away value.

(Note that Disney has already tested, this summer, the effect of reducing operating and Extra Magic Hours—more on this widely unnoticed test below.)

The combined effect is that Disney World resort hotels, all in, and even with the EMH cutbacks, should be a much better value in 2013 than in 2012.

We should get a further hint about this soon.

The Disney Park blog used an unusual word for the Fantasyland expansion— it mentioned “previews.” I may be mis-remembering, but in the past, visiting a ride before official opening has been called a “soft-open,” and has not been advertised as a “preview,”, much less communicated with a date.

But for new Fantasyland, things are different—the official open has been set for 12/6, and previews are to begin 11/19.

I suspect Disney is using this language of “previews” so that it can schedule these previews using NextGen technology and processes, as a first step towards testing the whole NextGen system.

Moreover, I expect booked Disney World resort hotel guests to be among the first to be offered a chance to book these previews…

DISNEY WORLD 2013 HOTEL PRICE INCREASES [Read more →]