Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

Later this week the family heads off to Disney World.  Here’s what’s on the agenda this time:

Testing FastPass+ during a high crowd period. The spring break mobs begin March 8, when most of the state of Texas moves in to Disney World. During this visit, I’ll do our first FP+ test during a higher-crowd period (the prior four tests have all been during low-crowds dates).

As in Test# 3, we’ll do most of our FastPass+ reservations the night before or day of, to see how that goes during higher crowds, and as in Test #4, I’ll also buy a regular ticket and test day-of FastPass+ as though I were an off-siter, but during a high-crowd period.

Finishing up the revisits to the DVC resorts, with stays at the Beach Club Villas and Boardwalk Villas. With these done, I’ll have gained material for revised reviews by staying again in two-bedroom villas (or, where I couldn’t book those, a one bedroom and then a studio) in all the Disney World DVC resorts in the last 10 months.

Yes I am way behind in publishing the revised reviews, but—so far—the rankings have not changed.

Seeing the new afternoon parade at the Magic Kingdom. The new “Festival of Fantasy” Magic Kingdom afternoon parade debuts Sunday March 9 at 3p.

I’ve got it on FastPass+ (you can take this “day of use” testing too far, you know) and will be reviewing it soon after. It’s got “Frozen” so will be a monster hit…

Working on the book!!!!

Relaxing with my family…

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I noted a bit ago my super-secret project with Josh of easyWDW.com, and promised an update about now.

So here’s the update—later this spring, Theme Park Press will be publishing our co-authored book “The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit”!! (The cover image below is not final.)

In it we combine the best of our individual thinking into something entirely new, different from either of our sites, and different from any other guidebook.

Josh brings world-class expertise on when to go, what park to visit which days, and what to do in the parks when you do go; I bring unmatched experience with the Disney World resort hotels, and years of thinking about first-timers who might never return.

Combining our capabilities means our book will meet the needs of any type of first timers—planning to return, or not. It will be a great resource for returning visitors as well.

Josh is on the record that he thinks I‘m nuts…well, back at you, brother. But Josh is enormously talented and brings very high standards to our joint development of the book’s material. I’m honored to be co-authoring “The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit” with him…and can’t wait til we are done!

Theme Park Press hopes to release our book in late May April—if we can get our final copy in in time for that deadline…But be sure I’ll keep you posted…because you need this book!

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The weakest parts of Disney World guidebooks and websites tends to be their material on the Disney World resort hotels.

This makes sense, as it takes both time and money to stay in and carefully assess them (and all their major room variants), which most aren’t willing to commit.

A common claim is that Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation are larger than standard rooms in other value resorts, and another that Caribbean Beach rooms are much larger than those in the other moderate resorts.

Both these claims are wrong, but you’ll see them all over the place on sites and even prominent guidebooks. Since I’ve had my tape measure with me in almost all my stays in nearly a hundred different Disney World rooms, I don’t make those particular errors—although I make plenty others!

I’ve stayed in–and measured–all the moderates and all the values about a million times, but not until last week was I in Caribbean Beach and then another moderate, and Art of Animation and then another value, on the same trip with my 25 foot tape measure in hand. So instead of measuring these on different trips with different tape measures, it was all on the same trip and the same measure.

Here’s the results.

CARIBBEAN BEACH ROOMS ARE A TEENY BIT LARGER THAN OTHER MODERATE ROOMS

Rooms at Caribbean Beach (CB) are 12 feet 9 inches wide. Rooms at Port Orleans French Quarter (POFQ) are the exact same width. (I’m accurate to within half an inch or so.)

The bath of each has a depth of about 71 inches.

The depth of the main bedroom area at POFQ is 19 feet 7 inches along the longer wall. The same dimension at CB is 19 feet, 11 inches—about 4 inches more.

Averaging the impacts of my possible  measurement errors, CB rooms may have 5 more square feet than POFQ rooms—an un-noticeable distinction.

LITTLE MERMAID ROOMS HAVE NEAR IDENTICAL DIMENSIONS TO OTHER VALUE ROOMS

I got identical measurements* in both my Pop Century and Art of Animation Little Mermaid rooms.

Each came out as 11 feet 9 inches wide, with a bathroom depth of 66 inches and a sleeping space depth of 18 feet 2 inches along the longer wall.

I did notice for the first time one material difference among the layout of these rooms.

Pop rooms are laid out with the first bed much closer to the entry door—seven inches closer–than Little Mermaid rooms, and as a result the far bed was seven inches further from the bath wall at Pop than at Little Mermaid.

The Little Mermaid rooms were laid out more like the All-Stars, with more space at entry and less by the bath. I prefer the layout of the Little Mermaid and All-Star rooms, as at Pop the first bed crowds the entrance.

*Since two of the three Little Mermaid buildings were built at the same time that Pop was built, and those buildings were then planned to be the other half of Pop, this is of course utterly predictable…

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Spring is around the corner at Disney World, bringing with it big Spring Break crowds, the Flower and Garden Show, and welcome and wonderful warming.

These and other topics are in this month’s WDW Magazine, which you can find on Apple Newsstand, Google Play or at WDW-Magazine.com.

My contribution this month is avoiding the spring break crowds.

The best way to do so is to not go then; the second-best set of ideas are in WDW Magazine!

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: MARCH 1 TO MARCH 2, 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.

[Read more →]

WALT DISNEY WORLD 2014/2015 ADMISSION TICKET PRICES

Update: Disney World ticket prices increased on February 22, 2015.  I’ll revise this page shortly, as it still reflects earlier pricing!!

(This page is sponsored by Undercover Tourist.)

Three types of Walt Disney World prices are important to think about:

• Walt Disney World theme park admission ticket prices—the tickets that grant you admission to the parks
• Walt Disney World resort hotel prices, and
• Park and hotel food prices

This page focuses on Walt Disney World theme park admission ticket prices from now until they go up again.

MORE DETAILS ON WALT DISNEY WORLD ADMISSION TICKET PRICES 2014/15: HOW THE TICKETS WORK

There are multiple types of Walt Disney World theme park tickets, but the one most relevant to most first time visitors is the Magic Your Way ticket, with or without the Park Hopper option.

You buy one theme park ticket for each person who will be three years old or older at the time of your visit (kids younger than three enter the parks for free.) The tickets have two pricing levels: one for kids who will be younger than ten at the time of your visit (but 3 or older) and the other for people ten or older.

When you buy your tickets, you also say how many “days” you want—from one to ten. Each “day” you buy permits unlimited visits to one theme park on one day. If you also add the Park Hopper option, you can make unlimited visits to any of the theme parks in one day–one theme park, two, three, or all four theme parks.

• For example, if you buy a three day ticket without the park hopper option, you could make two visits to the Magic Kingdom on day one, three visits to Epcot on day two, and two visits to the Animal Kingdom on day 3
• If you have a three day ticket with the park hopper option, you could for example make two visits to the Magic Kingdom and one to Disney’s Hollywood Studios on day one, one visit to Epcot and two to Disney’s Animal Kingdom on day two, and one to Epcot and two to the Magic Kingdom on day three
• What you can’t do without a park hopper ticket is visit more than one theme park on the same day. For example, you can’t, on November 25th, use one day of your three-day ticket to visit the Magic Kingdom, and another day of this same ticket to visit Epcot that same day. More than one theme park in a day requires a park hopper

You do not have to use your days all in a row boom boom boom—e.g. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Once you use your first day, you have 14 days to use all the days on your ticket. So on a three-day ticket you could visit the theme parks Monday, Thursday, and Sunday.

• You can also add days at the same price that you would have paid had you bought all those days at once, but have to do so no later than the day you use the last day of your original ticket (and within 14 days of the first day)
• So if you buy a three-day ticket, and realize a few days later that you need more days, you can add two days and they will cost only the difference between what you paid originally for a three day ticket, and what you would have had to have paid for a five day ticket, so long as you add these days no later than the day you use your third day
• You can also add stuff like the Park Hopper during the same day window at the same price as you would have paid when you first bought your ticket

However, you can’t “subtract” days if you overbuy.

HOW WALT DISNEY WORLD PRICES ITS THEME PARK ADMISSION TICKETS

1. While Disney typically increases ticket prices at least once a year—typically in the summer, but in late February in 2014—it does not change theme park admission prices based on the seasons of the year, the way that it increases and decreases prices at its resort hotels. You pay the same amount for admission on the busiest and the least busy days of the year.

(This material, by the way, is updated as of Disney World’s February 2014 price increase, and applies to tickets bought from then until Disney’s next price increase.)

2. Disney sells tickets by the day—one through ten days. The way it prices these days, the first three days are very expensive, while days after the third are comparatively almost free. See the image for exact Disney World prices.

For example, a three day ticket costs (including tax) an adult $292, or an average of more than $97 a day. A ten day ticket would cost the same adult $377. The added 7 days cost in total around $85—or just a tad more than $12 per day.

3. A park hopper costs (after tax) about $64 for all ticket lengths longer than three days. It’s about $43 for a one day ticket, and about $52 for two and three day tickets.

I have also uploaded an excel spreadsheet with the same data in it as the chart, so that you can multiply by the number of members of your own family.

4. In the summer of 2013, Disney changed its policy for one day tickets.  These used to cost the same regardless of which park at which you used them; now a one day adult ticket for the Magic Kingdom (including tax) is more, around $105, but for the other three theme parks a one day ticket is ~$100.  These per-park differences don’t apply to tickets with more than one day.

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD THEME PARK TICKETS

There are other ticket types than the ones discussed above—less relevant for first time visitors. For details on all of them, see this page on MouseSavers.com.

While it’s hard to find discounts on tickets, it is sometimes possible. Check sponsor Undercover Tourist, MouseSavers.com, Triple A if you are a member, and if you have military ties, this page and also MilitaryDisneyTips.com.

Since you can add on to your tickets–days, park hoppers, etc.–but can’t subtract, it doesn’t really pay to overbuy. Start with the minimum you think you need and add on later if needed.  Remember to add no later than the day you use your current last day!

All of this site’s To-Do Lists tell you exactly what ticket type you need for their associated itineraries.

FREE TICKETS ON YOUR BIRTHDAY?

Disney world no longer offers free tickets on your birthday.

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