Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

It was great to wake up yesterday and discover that Jim Korkis–one of the leading Disney observers and a columnist on Disney history at MousePlanet.com–had written a history of Disney guidebooks that culminated with some very kind words about our book The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit.

You oughta read the whole thing–but here’s an excerpt:

Note that despite the impression we inadvertently made on Jim, the book is not based on this site.

Josh and I have years of experience thinking about Walt Disney World, and the book is based on that, not either of our sites. While there’s probably 10% or so of the book that’s straight from Josh’s site or this site, most of it is written by both of us, from scratch. Josh did the first drafts of huge sections of the book–for example, much of the chapter “When to Go,” most of “How to Spend Your Time,” and most of “Where to Eat.”

If you don’t know about Jim Korkis, you should. He has taught animation at the Disney Institute, instructed classes on animation history and researched, wrote and facilitated backstage tours and programs for Disney guests. At Epcot, he researched, wrote and facilitated more than 200 different presentations on Disney history for Disney cast members and corporate clients. Since leaving Disney in 2009, he’s written a number of books on Disney history, and authors a column on this topic in MousePlanet.

So kind words from him about our book are wonderful news for a couple of authors!!  Thanks, Jim!

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FALL BREAK CROWDS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD?

One of the things you’ll see now and then on blogs and discussion boards is the claim that “fall breaks from school crowd Walt Disney World.”

“Fall breaks” are multi-day school holidays before Thanksgiving, and, if material, would have an effect on Disney World—because Disney World is most crowded when it’s easy for kids to go.

If you check the facts, though, you’ll find that fall breaks are both uncommon and scattered across October and early November—other than Jersey Week and the Columbus Day weekend.

Outside of those two weeks, you are much more likely to run into trouble in the fall by choosing to go to the Magic Kingdom or Epcot on a bad day—

• Epcot on a day when it’s open late for Food and Wine,
• The Magic Kingdom on a day when Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is not showing, and evening hours and entertainment offerings are thus more extensive.

See the chart, which shows the weighted percent of US school kids in my database with more than a three-day weekend in later September, all of October, and in November before Thanksgiving week.

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

In it, weekends are in black, and the two holidays in color—Columbus Day in red, and Veteran’s Day in orange. Everything else is blue.

The first conclusion you can draw is that the only time when even 9% of kids are having more than a three day weekends is over the Columbus Day holiday weekend, and that next to no kids have the full weeks before or after off (the much lower percentages on Wednesdays is the giveaway to that).

This is already known to be a moderate crowd week—from the Columbus Day holiday and Canadian Thanksgiving—so as a “fall break” there’s no real news here.

Note also that hardly any kids have a break weekend that includes Veterans Day.  This holiday is celebrated on its actual date—November 11–although if it occurs over the weekend, days off will be on Friday or Monday.  So more than half of years, it does not lead to a three day weekend, as it does not in 2014.

Moreover, even if it does, most private, non-unionized employers don’t have it as a holiday, so it’s not a particularly great time for parents to go to Walt Disney World.  In 2014, some Jersey Week families may stretch their stay to Tuesday, but, since few parents have it off, they are just as likely–perhaps more likely, given the tradition–to take extra time off the week before.

Second, beyond those, there’s not a lot of material fall breaks.  Yes, you can see them every week shown, especially at the end of September and the first week of October, but not much—at most around 7% of kids, and more typically much less.  There’s just not enough here to materially affect your choices as to when to go to Walt Disney World, other than Jersey Week and Columbus Day week.

Note: none of this is about Thanksgiving week, which is quite crowded and a lousy time to go!

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

AMENITIES AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT & SPA

Saratoga Springs is one of thee “stand-alone” Disney Vacation Club resorts (Disney’s Riviera Resort and Old Key West are the others), meaning that it’s not paired with a deluxe resort and its associated services and amenities.

Rather it offers its own such, and, with the exception of dining–and how far you have to walk to get to some of them from some of its rooms–amenities at Saratoga Springs are comparable to what you’ll find at the Disney World deluxe resorts.

Most amenities are in the center of the resort, in the Carriage House/Springs area.

In the Carriage House you check in and find concierge help with tickets, dining and such.

As at the other Disney resorts, there’s a cute area to park fidgety kids while you complete such business. (The photo is from a December visit.  You won’t find the Christmas decorations most of the rest of the year!)

Further in this building is this comfortable room…

…and beyond it the combined gift shop and quick service dining service area. (More on dining at Saratoga Springs is here.)

The gift shop has lots of food.

Lots.  There’s more than 800 full kitchens at Saratoga Springs, and another 400+ kitchenettes.  So it makes sense that the food offering in the shops would be extensive…and the other dining here a little slim.

Downstairs you’ll find the pro shop for the Lake Buena Vista golf course.

More shopping is available in the Pro Shop.

Some of the fairways wind through Saratoga Springs.

In this area is also the boat to Disney Springs.

Other Disney World areas are served by bus, and there’s bus stops all over the place–five in the main resort, and two more at the Treehouses. (The Treehouse stops don’t take you to the parks–they just take you to the rest of Saratoga Springs.)

Also in this area, but closer to the main pool, is the famous Senses spa.

Most of the dining options at Saratoga Springs are also nearby.

DINING AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT & SPA

This review continues here!

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This site’s Disney World crowd calendars always show crowds dropping off in later August.

For example, in 2014, crowd rankings go from 8/high-minus at the beginning of August down to 2/lower in early September.

This page both explain how that comes about and also reviews how the site’s crowd calendars are built.

END OF SUMMER 2014 CROWDS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

The highest-crowd periods at Walt Disney World all have one thing in common: they are convenient times for parents to take their kids to Orlando.  That is, they are times that kids are out of school and that parents traditionally can take off of work.

What’s not so clear until you do the numbers is that actual school vacation dates are much more varied than you’d think.  And there’s no good source you can go to that explains what all these varied dates are.

So every year about this time one of my nieces goes to more than 180 school district websites and captures all the key vacation dates for the upcoming academic year. (This time of year because you’d be surprised many districts don’t put their calendars up for the upcoming year until June or July; this year, about 165 of the 180 had their calendars out by the time we agreed to stop collecting data.)

These include the 100 largest school districts in the U.S., plus eighty more of the next largest school districts in the more highly-populated states east of the Mississippi–that is, the states from which in particular Walt Disney World draws its visitors.

I then create a database that shows based on district enrollment every kid who is off on every date, sum these by state, and weight them based on the state’s proportion of total US visits to this website (because Disney won’t tell me actual visitation by state!). See the image above for a screenshot example.

Finally, I calculate percentage of total weighted kids on break by date and use that to inform the crowd calendars. (There’s about 12.6 million actual kids in the database.)

Above are the results of this for when kids go back to school in 2014.

So you can see that kids don’t start going back to school in real numbers until the week beginning 8/9; almost half are back in school the week beginning 8/16; almost 70% are back during the week beginning 8/23, and more than 90% are back in school shortly after Labor Day. Moreover, vacation patterns typically don’t have people returning from their vacation the night before school begins, so the effect of these back-to-school  dates is offset into earlier August by around a week.

Thus, in the 2014 crowd calendar, the week of 8/2 is rated 8/high-minus crowds, the week of 8/9 7/moderate-plus crowds, the week of 8/16 6/moderate crowds and the week of 8/23 3/low crowds!

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The Disney community continues to show love to The Easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit.

Carl Trent, of Dad’s Guide to Walt Disney World, has a great, detailed review here, and Kathy Kelly of the Special Mouse podcast just posted a discussion with me about The easy Guide, about crafting it with Josh, and other fascinating topics, mostly about me,  here.

Reviews on Amazon continue to be strong–I believe that we are the best-reviewed Walt Disney World Guidebook in history.  We have 57 reviews as of today, and 55 give us five stars. Click the link for the most recent, from Kristen!

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

THE THEMING OF DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT & SPA

Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort is one of many Disney Vacation Club options at Walt Disney World. These resorts are available not only to DVC members, but also to everyone else, just like any other Disney World offering, through the regular Walt Disney World website or resort reservations phone number at 407-939-7675.

Kelly, the long-time travel agent partner of this site, can also book them for you. See the form near the bottom of this page for how to contact her.

They also are sometimes available to the general public at a discount through renting points from a Disney Vacation Club member or point broker.

Because the two sets of options at the Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge and Saratoga Springs are so different, for review purposes I count thirteen options among the Disney Vacation Club resorts at Walt Disney World.

The overall ranking among them for first time family visitors is as follows:

1. Disney’s Polynesian Villas and Bungalows (studios only)
2. Copper Creek Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
3. Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
4. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Jambo House
5. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Kidani Village
6. Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
7. The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
8. Disney’s Riviera Resort
9. Disney’s Beach Club Villas
10. Disney’s Boardwalk Villas
11. Disney’s Old Key West Resort
12. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, main resort
13. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort, Treehouse Villas

The next DVC offering to open will be Reflections, located on grounds that were formerly part of Fort Wilderness.

They also are available to the general public at great discounts through renting points from a Disney Vacation Club member.

Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa is described on Walt Disney World’s website as follows:

“Inspired by historic Saratoga Springs—a late-1800s’ New York retreat famous for its spas and horse racing—this charming, Victorian-style Resort hotel is nestled between rolling golf course greens and the shimmering Village Lake. Delight in stately Studios and multi-bedroom Villas, dazzling pools and a spa. You can also explore the fun activities and exciting dining options of the Disney Springs area, just a boat ride away.”

The resort was built on the grounds of the old Disney Institute–an ill-fated foray into consumer cognition, but which still exists as a training organization with both on and off-site programs–see this–and preserved several of the buildings from that enterprise.

There are indeed water, greens, fairways and a great spa, but the horse-racing theme is fairly thin.

There are some words words on the maps, like Paddock, a statute or two…

…tack in the table-service Turf Club…

…silks in its bar…

…and some fun lighting, but that’s about it.

Saratoga Springs really is essentially unthemed–big, pretty buildings, lots of lovely water and fairway views, and some great pools, all of which could be almost anywhere.

And by some measures they are. The resort is in the far southeast corner of Walt Disney World, and the accommodations buildings within it are remarkably spread out. Within them, room sizes are in general as small as Walt Disney World DVC rooms get, and have little to recommend them.

ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT & SPA

All Disney Vacation Club resorts except the Polynesian Villas and Bungalows have studio rooms, One-Bedroom Villas, and Two-Bedroom Villas.

Most have Grand Villas as well.  Saratoga Springs has rooms of all four types. These spaces have begun a refurb–my discussion in the material below is of not-yet-refurbed rooms. For floor plans and an overview of  refurbed rooms at Saratoga Springs, see this.

At Saratoga Springs, Studios sleep four, in a queen bed and a fold-out full couch, and have a microwave and mini fridge. The fold-out couch is best for shorter and lighter guests.

• The sleeping area is small and the bath/kitchenette space relatively large.
• This leads to somewhat cramped quarters, and Studios at Saratoga Springs can’t be recommended for first-time family visitors. If you need a studio, almost any other DVC would be better. (Some others, like those at Bay Lake Tower, are more cramped, but have better convenience or kid appeal.)

A photo tour of a Studio begins here.

One-Bedroom Villas have a master bedroom with a king and a master bath, a small full kitchen/dining/living space with a second door to the master bath, and sleep 4. These rooms fit four-person families just fine.

A photo tour of a One-Bedroom Villa begins here.

Two-Bedroom Villas add a second bedroom with a queen, a full sleeper sofa, and a second bath to the amenities of a One-Bedroom, and sleep 8.

• Like other DVC resorts of this basic design, the combined living/dining/full kitchen area is too small for the eight people that the villa will sleep. If your family can fit into the two bedrooms (that is, with 6 or fewer people, in three beds) and not use the sleeper sofa, the layout becomes more livable. Otherwise many other DVC resorts would be a better choice.
• Many larger  families committed to Saratoga Springs will find the three-bedroom layout of the Treehouses an interesting alternative at nearly the same price, so long as they have a car. See this for more on the Treehouses.

Photo tours are available of Studios and One-Bedroom Villas, which combine to make some Two Bedroom Villas, and are very similar to the components of others.

Grand Villas at Saratoga Springs sleep 12 in a little less than twice the space of a Two-Bedroom Villa, in three bedrooms (one with a king, and two with two queens) plus sleeper sofas.

• At Saratoga Springs, Grand Villas are two-story spaces. The master bedroom, living room, dining room, and kitchen are on the first floor, and the two other bedrooms are on the second. Note that the second floor has another entry door.
• Saratoga Springs Grand Villas have only one balcony–off of the dining room.
• This is one fewer than many Saratoga Springs two-bedrooms have…Other Disney World grand villas have as many as 6 balconies…
• See below for an example of a much more livable Grand Villa, at Bay Lake Tower. A grand villa at any other DVC resort would be a better choice for first-time family visitors.

Below is the exterior of a Grand Villa at Saratoga Springs (the closest I am likely to come to one, given its price) showing the two story window in the living room–and absence of balconies…

(To each of the capacity figures above, you can add one more kid under 3 at time of check in who sleeps in a crib.)

Among the DVC resorts, Saratoga Spring’s strengths for first time visitors are its spa, its propinquity to Disney Springs, and its lower rates….and availability

Saratoga Springs’s principal negatives are its distance from Walt Disney World theme parks, its lack of kid-appeal, its sprawl, and its cramped rooms.

REFURBED SPACES AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT

This review continues here. 

The long-time travel agent partner of this site, Kelly, can book you at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort or anywhere else at Disney World.  Contact her using the form below!

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