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DISNEY WORLD FREE DINING IS OUT

As expected, Disney World released today free dining for the general public.

The Free Dining offer covers the following arrival dates:

• August 31 – October 3
• October 26 – November 1
• November 9 – November 20
• December 12 – December 23

Those getting the deal for a value resort get the Quick Service Dining Plan for free. Those at moderates or deluxes get the regular Disney Dining Plan for free. For more details, see this.

Excluded from the offer are All-Star Movies and the Little Mermaid standard rooms at Art of Animation among the values, Port Orleans French Quarter and Riverside at the moderates, campsites at Fort Wilderness, and the Villas at the Grand Floridian.

A room-only deal was released at the same time.

My friends at Destinations in Florida can help you with this or any other deal!

Call them at 877-918-8941 or request a price online. Mention yourfirstvisit.net for a FREE Phone Call with Mickey!

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Earlier this week Disney World released dates and made tickets available for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

An overview including dates for the 2014 Halloween Party is here, and there’s a review of the 2o13 edition here. 

The dates and overview of the 2014 Christmas Party is here, and a review from 2013 is here.

I had previously published forecasts of these dates, and of the 45 or so forecast dates only one was off–there’s no Christmas Party November 17.

I saw someone post yesterday that there was the same number of Halloween parties in September as last year.  Not true–there’s three more, ten this year, seven last year.

This, I think, is part of Disney’s conjectured “Afternoon Strategy,” and will make picking the right days to go to the Magic Kingdom even more important.

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Disney Visa released a complex room rate deal for two periods, 8/16 to 8/28 at the values and moderates, and 8/29 through 10/3 at all resorts.  (Book through 8/8.)

As near as I can figure, here’s the savings it offers:

Value Resorts 8/16 through 10/3

• 15% off All-Star Movies (not available 8/16 to 8/28)
• 20% off: Family Suites at Art of Animation (10% 8/16 to 8/28)
• 20% off: All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, and Pop Century (15% 8/16 to 8/28)
• Excluded: Little Mermaid Rooms at Art of Animation

Moderate Resorts 8/16 through 10/3

• 25% off: Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans Resort – Riverside and the Cabins at Fort Wilderness (20% 8/16 to 8/28)
• 20% off: Port Orleans French Quarter (not available 8/16 to 8/28)

Deluxe Resorts 8/29 through 10/3

• 20% off: Contemporary Resort, Beach Club Resort and Animal Kingdom Lodge savanna view
• 30% off: Animal Kingdom Lodge (other views) Wilderness Lodge, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, BoardWalk Inn and Yacht Club

DVC Resorts 8/29 through 10/3

• 20% off: Beach Club Villas, Villas at Animal Kingdom Lodge and Villas at the Wilderness Lodge
• 30% off: Saratoga Springs, Disney’s Old Key West BoardWalk Villas
• Excluded: Villas at the Grand Floridian, Bay Lake Tower

The percentage discounts are pretty low, so most families will do better with Free Dining. For a table of nightly free dining savings by family size and age, see this.

To figure your savings, look up the rates of your target room and dates here, and multiply by the relevant percentage.  That’s what you save per night with the room-only discount. Compare it to your free dining savings, and pick the bigger!

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The May issue of WDW Magazine came out a couple of days ago, and it’s devoted to all the facts and issues around MyMagic+.

You’ll find everything from MagciBands to MemoryMaker to FastPass+ in it.

I have the usual column for first-timers in it, not surprisingly on how to use FastPass+. I’ve  also published in it some speculation about the future of FastPass+.

As of last week, you can now get more FastPass+ in the park after you’ve used up your first three pre-scheduled ones.

I’d questioned here how valuable this would be, as I expected most days that there’s wouldn’t be much headliner availability if you scheduled (as you should) your first three FastPass+ for late morning/early afternoon.

I had a chance to test it yesterday.  It was a beautiful Sunday after multiple rainy days, so while the resort overall had typically low early May crowds, Epcot and the Magic Kingdom were reasonably busy.

Well, the above is what happened.  I’ll post more about this later…but in the meantime, grab a subscription to WDW Magazine!

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After a remarkable 24 hours, Disney released today free dining for Disney Visa holders. The offer that will come out Wednesday May 7 for the general public should be near-identical.

The Visa free dining offer covers the following arrival dates:

• August 31 – October 3
• October 26 – November 1
• November 9 – November 20
• December 12 – December 23

Those getting the deal for a value resort get the Quick Service Dining Plan for free. Those at moderates or deluxes get the regular Disney Dining Plan for free. For more details, see this.

Excluded from the offer are All-Star Movies and the Little Mermaid standard rooms at Art of Animation among the values, Port Orleans French Quarter and Riverside at the moderates, campsites at Fort Wilderness, and the Villas at the Grand Floridian.

My friends at Destinations in Florida can help you with this or any other deal!

Call them at 877-918-8941 or request a price online. Mention yourfirstvisit.net for a FREE Phone Call with Mickey!

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Google+ or Twitter or Pinterest!!

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: MAY 3 TO MAY 11, 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 May 2014 at Walt Disney World, see this.

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