Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

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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So later this week I’ll be headed to Walt Disney World for six nights, split between All-Star Movies and All-Star Sports.

(I also have double bookings in Cars and Lion King at Art of Animation and the Polynesian–I’ll explain all in a later post, “Resort Hopping at Walt Disney World” lol).

I made all these reservations on Disney World room-only deals, and for the first time ever got pre-visit surveys about my Disney World deal-seeking behavior–actually I got the survey twice, once for Movies and once for Sports.

The survey was pretty clearly trying to get at the role of the deal in my choice of when to visit and where to stay, and if I would have gone then and there anyway had the deal not been out.

Now that the Disney World deals for the rest of 2013 are clear, we’re all speculating about 2014 deals at Walt Disney World.  These surveys–and lots of other stuff–give food for thought.

DISNEY WORLD DEALS IN 2014

Disney does deals because it makes more money that way.

Almost all Disney deals are about driving up occupancy in its resort hotels.  This makes perfect sense, as these are high-fixed-cost assets with inventory that if not sold just disappears, and so are perfect for discounting.

Deals enable it to hit profitability targets at a higher overall average per room rate–offering rack rate to those who don’t know about, are unwilling to seek, or are not eligible for, the deals, and deals to get the last bit of demand from those who need lower prices, or just demand a discount.

The art of putting two different prices on the same capacity–from the strategic pricing perspective–is to

1. Not give the deal to people who would have happily paid full price, (thus the surveys, trying to measure this) and to
2. Not let the deal permanently reduce the perception that people have of the value of the offering

So, one way or another, you make these deals hard to get.  I suppose we saw that in spades last Thursday…

The need to offer the deals at all is partly influenced by what people perceive as the value for money of the resorts themselves–so the easiest way for Disney to make more money off of its hotels is to add value to the resorts and make fewer deals.

Well, what’s happening in 2014?  A couple of things.  The Mine Train ride at New Fantasyland will open, and, someday, Fastpass+ will open too.  And it’s been widely speculated–and as much as admitted on a recent earnings call–that Walt Disney World resort hotel guests will get something better than everyone else out of Fastpass+–though no one on the outside can say for sure what that’ll be.

So I put these together and say that Disney resort hotel guests will get something special, and that that–combined with the improving economy–suggests limited discounts in 2014.  We saw no free dining in 2013 until September–and based on what I’ve laid out so far, that’s my bet for 2014 too.

But…Disney does not act in a vacuum.  And Universal Orlando has a couple of big openings in 2014 as well.  Harry Potter will expand into Universal Studios, and Universal will be opening its first lower-priced hotel, Cabana Bay Beach Resort, in stages beginning early in the year.

So what does this mean?  Well, honestly, I’m still thinking about it.  The timing of everything mentioned is a key variable, and I don’t have confidence in any opening dates.   I guess the best I can forecast right now is lesser discounts (especially less free dining) from Disney in early 2014 compared to late 2013 unless and until Universal starts making an impact on Disney bookings…

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30% OFF ROOM RATE DEAL AT UNIVERSAL ORLANDO

With all the excitement about and frustration with the latest set of Disney World deals (and if you had no luck getting free dining on Thursday, don’t give up yet), I keep forgetting to note that I got a pin code deal in the mail from Universal Orlando a couple of weeks ago.

See the image above–note the sophisticated tools used to maintain privacy…

This deal is for 30% off Universal Orlando’s hotels—Portofino Bay, the Royal Pacific, and the Hard Rock–for a three-night stay.

Stays must be between August 11 and December 25, 2013, and, in my offer, the book by date is August 4, 2013–today…

This is tempting, but our next Universal visit will be when the next phase of Harry Potter, Diagon Alley, is open at Universal Studios.

On that visit, sometime in 2014, we’ll combine visiting and reviewing the next Harry Potter with checking out Hard Rock, where we haven’t stayed yet, and Cabana Bay Beach, the new Universal hotel also opening in 2014.

But meanwhile, thanks, Universal, for sending the pin code!  And I hope lots of other people are getting them and taking advantage!

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DESPITE THURSDAY’S DEBACLE, PEOPLE ARE STILL GETTING FREE DINING AND ROOM RATE DEALS AT DISNEY WORLD

Despite all the unavailability on Thursday, people have been finding since then that the same dates and rooms that were unavailable then have been bookable Friday and today.

Start with the links to these deals on Disney’s website, and if that doesn’t work, call. Disney’s page on the free dining at Disney World is here, and its page on the room-only discount is here.  The number is 407-939-7729.

And if that doesn’t work, ask if you have, or beg for, a pin code!!  Word is that another round of pin codes is out!

WHAT MAY HAVE HAPPENED

Disney was inundated with calls on Thursday (you can only change a reservation by talking directly to Disney) –6 hours spent on hold were reported as common, especially for travel agents who have special lines that couldn’t take the demand.

As a result, many people on hold–and others with travel agent bookings waiting to hear–double-booked deals while waiting to change their old bookings.

Eventually they canceled one of their bookings, and eventually, it seems, these rooms went back into the free dining pool.

There’s a thread with examples of the kinds of rooms that are being cancelled here.

Now all Disney deals are subject to availability. Some resorts aren’t offered at all, and many of the more popular among the rest have a very small number of rooms allocated to a deal.  This is particularly true for free dining, which is a very expensive and complicated promotion.

Word is from at least one cast member that Disney had initially not planned to make this offer at all (which is what I’d been predicting), and when it did, both dates and room allocations were much tighter than in the past.  That, combined with system failures, is what presumably led to Thursday’s zoo.

But all is not lost!  Keep trying! And if you have no luck this weekend–try again daily on the website, and call again every now and then.

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