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My younger son and I just checked out of Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort.

We had a great visit, but the food court is down until December for rehab, the mini-fridge in our room—like those in thousands of other Walt Disney World rooms—is off until it’s replaced, and the heat and humidity were such a mess that the AC in our room could only make the temperature adequate, not comfortable.

So it was kinda like being dropped into the Mojave Desert portion of the Pacific Crest Trail with just some twine, a mirror, a broken hacksaw blade, and empty water bottles for succor…but it was still a blast, and because of that, it was kinda like every other Disney World trip I’ve ever been on.

Details follow.

THE CLOSURE FOR REHAB OF THE FOOD COURT AT ALL-STAR SPORTS

The food court at All-Star Sports, not much to start with, is now closed for a welcome rehab into December 2013.

Alternatives abound.

First, there’s dedicated bus service to the food courts at nearby sister resorts All-Star Music and All-Star Movies (for most people in the Homerun hotel section of Sports, and many in other southern rooms, walking to Music is faster).

The buses leave from the lobby bus point, not the theme park bus point—the same place where Disney Magical Express drops people off.

I checked the crowding in Music’s food court multiple times over the last few days, and except for one breakfast zoo didn’t find it that much more mobbed than I would normally expect it to be with no such closure…and the Movies food court—the best of the food courts at the All-Stars anyway—doesn’t seem much affected at all.

Second, there’s a couple of grab and go points at All-Star Sports.

• One is by the Surfboard Bay pool, between the main and baby pools. It has a selection of muffins, hot dogs and such from carts.
• The second is the bar, which now still works as a bar, but has some additional food options.
• Third is the main replacement.  Disney has stripped out the video arcade in the main building, and replaced it with a large grab and go section. Here you’ll find all kinds of room-temperature and cold options.  Lots of pastries, some great pre-made sandwiches, all the different drinks you could want, cold cereal boxes, etc.  The merit of this space compared to the other two is that it has a much larger selection, and is indoors.

This is a pain, but the alternatives do a pretty good job of helping deal with it.

MISSING FRIDGES AT ALL-STAR SPORTS

As has been widely reported, Disney is slowly replacing tens of thousands of mini-fridges which have  some risk of fire.

The deluxes are largely done, I hear mixed things about the moderates (see for example this, which reports 40%+ are in service at Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter) and so far as I can tell there’s not yet a ton of traction at the values—except for the family suites, unaffected by this replacement.

Our room at Sports had the fridge present, but turned off, with this note on it.

The room I’m currently in at All-Star Movies has the fridge present and off, but with this working replacement in the corner by the window.

If you need a fridge for medication or allergies, and are in a moderate or value, call your resort and request one.  I also hear that people are having some success on site getting either a fridge or a refund for other less urgent reasons by calling and being firm.

Sometimes we have our mini-fridges stuffed full of breakfast and lunch fixins.  Sometimes it’s just beer. This trip, we managed just fine without the fridge, by drinking the beer before it got warm.

But there are other alternatives, all framed around the presence of the ice machines and some handy extra-strength trash bags and zip lock bags you bring from home:

• Use your un-plugged mini-fridge (if it is still in the room) as an insulated box, cooling it with ice.
• Use an emptied suitcase, trash bags and ice to make a cooler
• At home, buy a soft-sided cooler, pack it in one of your bigger bags, use it and ice as your cooler, and then use it as an extra bag to pack your souvenirs into for the trip home

(The role of the trash bags and ziplock bags is to separate your food and the room carpet from the ice-melt water, especially for the first two alternatives.)

This is a pain in the butt, but not a disaster.

AIR CONDITIONING CHALLENGES AT ALL-STAR SPORTS

So in our room with no fridge, at a hotel with no food court, we also had trouble keeping our room cool enough.

Despite setting the AC as low as it would go, both my son and I were a little uncomfortable with the warmth of our room at All-Star Sports—not very, but just not quite cool enough to comfortably drift off to sleep.

Now, it’s August in Florida, and this weekend has been as hot and humid as any I’ve ever experienced at Walt Disney World.  Highs have been in the upper 90s, and the humidity, sadly, seems to be giving it that old mathematically impossible 110%…and I know you can’t size heating and cooling to be perfect every conceivable day…

But this room comfort issue is where the approach to our missing fridge—drink the beer before it gets warm—came in especially handy.

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OVERVIEW: FEBRUARY 2014 AT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews February 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.

Early February 2014 will see low crowds, low prices, and the prospect of  ride closures.

The high crowds and prices of Presidents Day dominate the middle of the month, with rougher times beginning Thursday the 13th and continuing through Saturday the 22nd.

Crowds and prices diminish beginning the 23rd–though a massive convention in Orlando runs the 23rd through the 27th, promising to make hotel rooms scarce, and perhaps leading to some minor holdover crowds showing up in the parks beginning the afternoon of the 27th.

[Read more →]

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: AUGUST 10, 2013 TO AUGUST 18, 2013

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

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

(And for more on August 2103 at Walt Disney World, see this.)

[Read more →]

Starting tonight, I’ll be visiting Walt Disney World for six nights, and over that time have five different rooms booked for a total of ten nights…

As Lucy said to Ricky, I have some explaining to do…and I’m not exactly recommending this!

Long-time readers will know that I’m one of the few people crazy enough to have recently stayed for multiple nights at every single Walt Disney World resort hotel, and for those with significantly different room types, in almost every single major distinct room type as well.

Reviews resulting from all these stays can be found beginning here.

In the early years of this site, four to six times a year I’d just book a Disney World resort hotel room for three or four nights, go down, stay at and experience the resort, work on the real job, work on this site, play in the parks, and head home and write everything up.

It never crossed my mind to stay at two hotels on the same visit until I realized that it was a lot more efficient use of airfare and travel time to visit for longer and check out more hotels on each visit.  Because I can do much of my real job remotely, longer trips are generally fine, so I’m still going to Disney World 4-6 times a year, just staying longer and seeing more—both in the parks and the hotels–while I’m there.

I think a full review of a hotel can’t be done without a three or four night stay.  But if I’m revisiting just to check out a different room type that’s not much different from rooms I’ve already been in recently, not so many nights are needed.

So both are what’s going on in this visit.  I’m spending multiple nights at each of All-Star Sports and All-Star Movies, to re-experience these in full, and out of that create all-new reviews. That’s the core purpose (on the hotel side) of this visit.

But there’s also three other room variants that I’ll be seeing on this trip, so that I can post for you about their specific features.

Two are at Art of Animation.  I stayed in the family suites in the Finding Nemo section the week Art of Animation opened, and in the standard rooms in Little Mermaid the week that those opened.

But I haven’t stayed yet at either the Lion King or Cars sections at Art of Animation, so I’ll be doing that on this trip, and publishing photo-tours of each suite.

With that done, I’ll have visited (if new) or re-visited (if old) all of the values and their major room variants between June 2012 and August 2013, and all the value resort reviews will thus be updated and fresh. (I did the same set of re-visits and rewrites for the moderates between March 2012 and March 2013.)

The third extra night is at the Polynesian.  I stayed there on a re-visit in May 2013, and totally re-did the Polynesian review coming out of that.  But I stayed in one of the Poly’s smaller (but still huge) rooms on that visit, so on this visit I’ve requested Tokelau, so that if I get the room request, I’ll be able to re-do the floor plan for these larger rooms and post a photo-tour of the larger Poly rooms.

And the last resort hop?  Well the day I switch from Sports to Movies, I’m double booked. That way I’m not homeless between the 11a check-out time and the 3p check in time!

Like I said, for normal people, I don’t particularly recommend resort-hopping.  But for me, it’s a great help in creating and updating the material for this site!

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In yesterday’s discussion of Disney’s quarterly earnings, CEO Bob Iger discussed the timing of MyMagic+, Disney’s future program which among other features will enable people to reserve Fastpasses well in advance of their visit.

He said that MyMagic+ will “probably” see “full rollout in the early part” of Disney’s Fiscal 14.

Disney’s fiscal year begins in October, so mathematically the “early” part of it extends from October through March. Moreover, “full rollout” could range from full use of Fastpass+ in the parks to a much lower ambition–full use of the capability to reserve Fastpass+ ahead of time, which likely will precede full use in the parks by 60 days or so.

So, ignoring that “probably,” the range of possibilities the words will bear is from full use of Fastpass+ in the parks in early October to just full use of the website to book them beginning in later March 2014.

Add the “probably” back in–a needed word, as Disney is still testing the systems behind the offering–and there’s really no new insight to be gained from this call about the timing of Fastpass+.

So there’s no basis here for me to change my proposition that we won’t see widespread use of Fastpass+ in the parks until calendar 2014…

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Destinations in Florida has been a sponsor and partner of this site for years–I’ll never forget the day that boss Allison emailed me out of the blue in the early days with something along the lines of “yourfirstvisit.net site is incredibly helpful!  Can we sponsor it?”

Over the years they’d trained their staff in it, dedicated staff to its readers, and even added a toll-free line just for the readers of yourfirstvisit.net.

Our relationship means that if you book your Disney World vacation through them, they spread a little pixie dust back to me–which helps in defraying the time and costs of researching and writing this site.

Every now and then they offer a special deal.  Now through August 15th, it’s transfer week–if you transfer your reservation to them, you get a cute little gift delivered to your room!

Jennifer at Destinations in Florida provided the following details (and the photo of the gift!):

Did you just spend hours on hold with Disney last week to get the new free dining or room discount?  How would like to get a free in room gift from Disney Florist and free services from our agency?   

All you have to do is transfer your existing reservation over to Destinations in Florida.

When you transfer your reservation, your reservation stays exactly the same.  The only change is our agency will be added to your reservation.  We can then help you plan the rest of your trip including itinerary planning, dining suggestions and reservations, and local experts (at your beck and call).  You also get lots of freebies including:

• MousePerks – Hundreds of crafts, activities sheets, tips, and more created just for our guests.  Receive magic in your email box!
• Orlando Magicards – Save hundreds to thousands of dollars on other activities in Orlando including dining, shopping, and recreation
• Disney Theme Park Guide Maps – Learn your way around the parks, before you get there with Disney Theme Park Guide Maps
• Pictures of Mickey Mouse – Your kids will love the pictures of Mickey Mouse!
• Itinerary Planning – Learn how to save hours in lines at the parks and beat the crowds with personalized itinerary planning for your family.  This one free service is valued at $149.
• Dining Suggestions/Reservations – Do you know the best restaurants for your family?  Our team has dined at every restaurant at Disney World.  We are considered restaurant experts at Disney World.  We know which restaurants are best for your visit and make suggestions based on your family.  Plus, we will book all of these reservations for you.  This free service is valued at $69 and is free for our guests!
• Disney Florist In Room Gift – which includes the Mickey Treat Cooler with Mickey Mouse plush, Mickey clock, snacks, and Mickey Cooler (valued at $75).

It’s simple procedure to let Destinations in Florida Travel take over your reservation.   Just  click on this link and request a transfer.  We will email you a form to fill out.  You will sign the bottom of the transfer form and fax to Disney.  It then takes Disney about a week to add them to your reservation.  Everything else stays the same on your reservation.  Then let the fun begin!  Hurry – this promotion ends on August 15.

To book your Disney World vacation, contact Jennifer Johnson at Destinations in Florida Travel. Call her at 601-500-2492 or email her at jenniferjohnson@destinationsinflorida.com.  Be sure you mention yourfirstvisit.net for this special transfer promotion!

Thanks, Jennifer! And..

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