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(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, see this.)

DINING AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT & SPA

Saratoga Springs is thin on dining for a resort of its capacity, but the spectacular new dining additions at nearby Disney Springs make up for this a bit–as do the hundreds of kitchens you’ll find here.

(More on all the dining options at Disney Springs is in Chapter 7 of my book, The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2019.)

The principal dining in Saratoga Springs is in the quick service Artist’s Palette and the table service Turf Club, supplemented by a small counter service window at the Pro Shop and an extended bar and grill menu at the poolside bar at the Paddock pool.

Artist’s Palette is integrated into the Saratoga Springs gift shop in the main services area at the Carriage House.

The venue is small but has a good menu. The full menu is here. The images below (click to enlarge) are representative:

Also in this area is the large and somewhat characterless bar.

Around the corner you’ll find the table service here, the Turf Club…

…with both indoor tables…

…and outdoor dining.

Here’s the review of the Turf Club from The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2020:

The full menu for The Turf Club is here.

Outside and downstairs next to the Pro Shop is another option for breakfast and lunch, Chips & Slices (thanks to alert reader Anthony for cueing me to this).

The menu at Chips & Slices from January 2018 (click it to enlarge it) –the full menu is here.

More dining is available at several of the pools at Saratoga Springs, particularly the Paddock pool.

THE POOLS AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT & SPA

This review continues here!
 

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DISNEY WORLD SPRING BREAK CROWDS FROM FEBRUARY THROUGH APRIL 2015

Walt Disney World Spring Break crowds are governed by two and a quarter factors:

• Public school Spring Break calendars, which are still largely framed around Easter but vary more than you might think
• The demand of snow-belters for a break from winter weather, which peaks in March, and
• The quarter factor, the date of President’s day.  Later President’s Days (which can range from February 15 to February 21) tend to make the first part of March better

An early Easter combines the first two factors, making for more than the usual horrible crowds in March but a great April; a late Easter spreads the first two factors out, yielding some good early March and early April weeks.

Easter 2015, on April 5, is in the middle of its possible range. President’s Day 2015, on February 16th, both is early, and by a quirk of the calendar, is the same week as Mardi Gras–which some southern schools get off as well.

As a result, 2015 Spring Break crowds at Walt Disney World will be

• Horrible Presidents Day Week
• Fine the last week of February and the first week of March,
• Very rough the weeks beginning March 7, 14, and 21
• Horrible the week before Easter–the week beginning March 28
• Really horrible the week after Easter, from April 4 through 11, as more schools than usual are off this week in 2015
• ..and back to fine after April 11

2015 PUBLIC SCHOOL SPRING BREAKS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON WALT DISNEY WORLD CROWDS

Although more and more school districts are moving away from an Easter-centered Spring Break, the plurality of kids still have the weeks before Easter or following Easter off.

As a result, the single biggest factor determining better and worse Spring Break weeks at Walt Disney World is the date of Easter–which can range from March 22 to April 25.

A later Easter has a couple of different effects: first, it spreads out the dates of breaks for school districts that don’t frame their breaks around Easter, and second, if particularly late, will push districts that typically take the week after Easter off into the week before Easter instead, to keep from compressing their May academic calendars.  

An earlier Easter has the opposite effects.  Districts that traditionally try to take the week after Easter off will be able to do so, and districts that don’t base their calendars on Easter will be largely compressed into a couple of March weeks.

The date of President’s Day–which can range from February 15 to February 21–also has an effect. Because many districts both have a spring break and also take the week of  President’s Day off, the later President’s Day is, the better early March will be–as parents avoid taking their kids out of school the weeks after a long President’s Day break.

The effect of the various dates in 2015 is to put most 2015 school spring breaks into five consecutive weeks: those beginning March 7, March 14, March 21, March 28 and April 4.

ACTUAL 2015 SPRING BREAKS

The chart above illuminates this.

It’s based on data from a weighted sample including more than 165 of the largest relevant US public school districts.

(For how the database is built, see this. Weekends are in black, except Easter, in red. Click the image to enlarge it.)

President’s Day week–not charted–will be more than its usual mess, because of its 2015 overlap with Mardi Gras. I’ve assigned it a crowd ranking of 11/highest.  Crowds will start to show beginning the Thursday before and remain high through the 21st.

Next to no kids are on break between the week after President’s Day and March 6. I rate the week beginning February 21 4/low-plus crowds–higher early in the week, better later.  The week beginning February 28 is rated 3/low crowds. Both of these are recommended weeks.

The weeks beginning March 7, 14 and 21 have a lot of kids on break, and even more visitors coming to take a break from the snow. For 2015, I rate all three as 9/high crowds.

The week of March 28 is the week before Easter, typically the busiest week of spring break at Disney World.

However, in 2015 more kids are on break after Easter than before it, so I have the week beginning the 28th ranked as 10/higher crowds, and the week beginning April 4th as 11/ highest crowds.

Only a few school districts are on break after the week after Easter–and many of these had earlier long breaks in February. So I don’t see any real crowding issues from April 11, 2015 through late May! Almost all of these later spring weeks are recommended.

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DISNEY WORLD CROWDS FROM LATER DECEMBER 2014 TO EARLY JANUARY 2015

Disney World usually sees its highest crowds and prices of the year in the later third of December and the beginning of January, in the week that includes Christmas, and the next week that includes New Year’s Eve.

This is for a pretty basic reason: kids are out of school these weeks.

However, not every school district has the same break schedule.

In 2014/2015, more kids are out  New Year’s week than early in Christmas week, but there’s still plenty enough on break Christmas week to wildly crowd the parks…

SCHOOL BREAKS AND DISNEY WORLD CROWDS

Most years, there two typical sorts of breaks:

• Long breakers–districts that take at least 2 full weeks (and three weekends) off
• Short breakers–districts that take off as close to only December 24 to January 1 as they can

In 2014, a Thursday Christmas, and the patterning of school breaks around it, will make it easy for many families to head to Walt Disney World either week.

But the Thursday New Years Day results in next to no schools re-opening Friday January 2 for a one-day week.  Wouldn’t be prudent.

So almost all kids will be off all of New Years week, and unlike some years–like 2013–both weeks will be really lousy all week long.

ACTUAL 2014-2015 CHRISTMAS SEASON SCHOOL BREAKS

The chart above illuminates this.

It’s based on data from a weighted sample including more than 160 of the largest relevant US public school districts.

(For how the database is built, see this.)

The weekends are in black and the two holidays–Christmas and New Year’s Day–in red.  Click the image enlarge it.

You can see that many breaks begin Saturday the 20th, with hardly any kids on break before then, but almost 30% of kids are still in school the first two weekdays of Christmas week. By Christmas Eve, though, everyone is out, and pretty much everybody stays out of school through January 4, 2015.  A few–very few–breaks continue past January 4.

So I’m classing both weeks as 11/highest crowds, but of the two, New Year’s week will be a little worse.

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The latest WDW Magazine is out, themed around “Back to School.”

In its “First-Timers Corner,” I write about how school breaks are more varied than you might think, and that you may be able to find a break where you can go to Disney World without taking your kids out of school, but still find reasonable–or even better!–crowds.

You can see some of how this works from items I’ve recently published coming from my analysis of 2014-2015 school schedules:

• End of summer crowds
• Fall break crowds

(More is coming on this series starting tomorrow–Christmas crowds, spring break crowds, and beginning of summer crowds!)

Otherwise, taking your kids out of school is the best move.  See this for more on how educational Disney World is.  After all, I skipped a ton of high school for Disney Word…and ended up as a published author!

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Disney World released 2015 resort prices Wednesday, and the updated 2015 resort price seasons are here.

There were only three differences between my projections and actuals:

• The January value season begins two days later than I’d projected, on January 4
• The August value season at the moderate and value resorts begins two weeks later, on 8/16/15
• At the deluxes, there’s a change to how later December unfolds.  After the fall season ends on 12/10/15, instead of a week of peak followed by two weeks of holiday pricing, 2015 sees a week of regular season pricing starting 12/11, a week of peak starting 12/18, then holiday pricing starting 12/25

The latter two are the big changes.

The shift to later August value pricing at the values and moderates is a reversion to how Disney did this just a few years ago.  Just as the switch to early August was a surprise a couple of years ago, so is this switch to mid-August.

The December switch is a bit of a backing off on Disney’s new (higher) approach to mid-December pricing that also started a couple of years ago.  I suspect that too much peak pricing so early was dropping demand for the highest-priced deluxe properties, and hence the slowdown in increasing deluxe prices that we’ll see in 2015.

I’ll publish a detailed analysis of price changes in a bit–right now I’m focusing on updating the 2015 crowd calendar, which I’ll have complete within a week!!

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: AUGUST 2 TO AUGUST 10, 2014

The material below details operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

The same stuff is in the image, but organized by park, not by topic.

For more on August 2014 at Walt Disney World, see this.

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