Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: MARCH 29 TO APRIL 6, 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 March 2014 at Walt Disney World, see this, and for more on April, see this.

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Reserving FastPass+ in advance will be possible for off-site guests beginning March 31, multiple sources—including easyWDW.com and WDWMagic.com–reported March 26.

Until now, reserving FastPass+ in advance has been limited to those staying at a Disney World-owned hotel and Annual Passholders.

Beginning March 31, off-site guests  will be able to make FastPass+ reservations beginning 30 days before the intended use date, the same window as Annual Passholders. Off-siters need first to set up a MyDisneyExperience account and link their tickets to it.

Guests staying at Disney-owned hotels will continue to have a 30 day advantage, being able to make their FastPass+ reservations beginning 60 days before their check-in date.

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A reader using my friends at Destinations in Florida to book his family’s Disney World vacation emailed me about why he had to help with getting building and view requests.

Following my advice that the best Little Mermaid rooms are “lake-facing building 7 rooms, as near the Lion King area as possible,” he asked the agent to request that.

He got this back from his agent: “I can put a note on your booking; however, it’s not guaranteed.  When you check in, just make sure you mention the note and ask them for the building and view and location.”

So he reached out to me to find out why he had to do this too at check-in. And I asked the big boss, Allison, and below is an edited version of her response!

“Disney’s Reservation System has a special notes section to leave any special requests. This section gets transferred to the Room Assignments at the Disney Resort.  When the guest does Online Check-in, they can add those requests again by checking the boxes.  Those checked boxes go to that same notes section of the reservation.

The reason we remind the guest to mention it at check in, is because all these are “requests” and not guaranteed…and sometimes get lost in the process….

We call Room Assignments about 3 days prior to arrival to remind the resort of the guest requests.  Then we call again on the arrival day and talk with the Front Desk about the requests for our guests.  However, rooms still get moved around and sometimes the Front Desk moves the rooms without looking at the requests in the reservation.

If our guest requests a specific room location, floor, or view; we ask them to re-confirm with the Front Desk (at check in) to make sure that request is granted if at all possible.  It is just to make sure the guest does not get to the room and find out Disney did not give them the request, but could have!

Many of our guests do not know all of the extra steps we go through with every reservation to make sure our guests have the best chance possible to get their requests.  We add the notes, call Room Assignments 3 days prior, and then the Front Desk on arrival day, all to make sure Disney has our guest requests; and then we want our guests to ask again at check-in too.”

I thought this was really helpful and a great reminder to everyone about how to handle these Disney World room requests. Get them in to the system, and then call Disney to remind them that they are in the system, then ask again at check-in!

And thanks again, Allison and the Destinations in Florida team!

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My friend Steve Bell, writer of MilitaryDisneyTips.com, has published a new Military Discount Finder. (That’s Steve in the white T-shirt, at our joint meet-up at the Magic Kingdom in November.)

This tool helps resolve the most complex part of Disney World (and other Orlando-area) discounts for military folk–who is eligible for what.

Steve and I answer on this site hundreds of questions on this topic–there’s two today–and he gets thousands more on his own site.  His new finder will help people get eligibility questions answered much faster!

If you have military ties, or have friends with military ties, check it out!

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: MARCH 22 TO MARCH 30, 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 March 2014 at Walt Disney World, see this.

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OVERVIEW: OCTOBER 2014 AT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews October 2014 Walt Disney World crowds, prices, deals and discounts, weather, and operating hours; adds a few other notes; and ends with week by week summaries.

Late October has some of the best times of the year to visit Disney World, with nice weather, low crowds, low prices, and fun special events.

The beginning of the month is OK, but not so good, as the first week is still in the peak of the hurricane season, and the second week sees extra crowds and higher prices from Columbus Day.

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