Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

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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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: AUGUST 3, 2013 TO AUGUST 11, 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 July 2013 at Walt Disney World, see this, and more on August, this.)

[Read more →]

FREE DINING AND ROOM RATE DEALS AT DISNEY WORLD

As predicted, Walt Disney World has released fall 2013 deals for free dining and for room-only discount rates.

Disney’s page on the free dining deal at Disney World is here, and its page on the room-only discount is here.

The specifics are pretty much as predicted, but I don’t have all the details yet.  I’ll add to and correct this page as they emerge.

FREE DISNEY WORLD DINING DEAL SPECIFICS

Free Dining is available only for limited dates:

• September 29 to October 2, 2013
• October 18 to November 2, 2013
• November 11 to November 23, 2013
• December 12 to December 22, 2013

…and excluded from the deal are the following resorts:

• Campsites
• 3-Bedroom Villas
• Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
• Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter
• The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

Value resort guests are eligible for the “quick-service” dining plan for free, and moderate and deluxe resorts guests for the regular dining plan for free.

While this deal needs to be booked by September 15, availability is limited. So act now!

ROOM ONLY DISCOUNTS AT DISNEY WORLD DEAL SPECIFICS

There’s two room only deals, one covering stays from September 29 through November 9, and the second covering stays from November 10 through 22 (November 25th at the deluxes and DVC properties) , and then November 30 through December 23.  The first needs to be booked by September 15, and the second by November 3.

Moreover, beyond the slightly different deluxe dates noted above, Family Suites at Art of Animation are included only September 29 to October 5, 2013, October 20 to November 2, 2013, November 10 to November 22, 2013 and December 15 to December 23, 2013.

Exclusion details are still coming out, but Campsites, Standard Little Mermaid Rooms at Art of Animation, and DVC at the Grand Floridian are excluded.

Typically, eligible deluxe and DVC rooms will see 30% discounts, moderates 20% discounts and values 15% discounts.

For the first page of this review of Disney’s All-Star Music Resort, click here.

ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S ALL-STAR MUSIC RESORT

Disney’s All-Star Music Resort is one of 5 value resorts at Walt Disney World:

• Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort, opened in April 1994
• Disney’s All-Star Music Resort, opened in November 1994
• Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort, opened in January 1999
• Disney’s Pop Century Resort, opened in December 2003
• Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, opened in May 2012

Among the five, for most first-time visitors who may never return, Art of Animation is the best choice, followed by Pop Century. All-Star Music comes in last among the values.

Two value resorts also have six-person family suites–

• The Family Suites at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• The Family Suites at Disney’s All-Star Music Resort

–and for family suites, too, for most families, Art of Animation is the best choice, although in some circumstances those at Music are the better choice.

Among the five value resorts, for standard four person rooms Art of Animation rooms are the most expensive, and next Pop Century.  Standard rooms at all the All-Stars have the same, lowest pricing, on average $45 less per night than Pop Century, and $90 less per night than Art of Animation. Family suites at All-Star Music are much less expensive than Family Suites at Art of Animation, on average $185 per night less.

All-Star Music completed a room refurb project in 2021, replacing in its standard rooms the old full beds with queen beds, and adding coffeemakers to the rooms.

All-Star Music Family Suites were also renovated, switching to much more comfortable fold-down queen beds in the living room area, and re-shaping the second bath and kitchenette area so that the second bath now works as a private master bath.

Standard Four Person Room

Four person room sizes are similar across all five value resorts.  Art of Animation has the best theming, and All-Stars Sports and Music the weakest (unless your family particularly resonates with the depicted themes at these two).

Until recently, all four person value resort standard rooms offered two full beds (the beds at Music are shown above), but you will now find queen beds in Pop Century, All-Star Movies, All-Star Music, and in refurbed rooms in All-Star Sports.

Above is the floor plan of a refurbed standard four person room at All-Star Music. There’s a full photo tour of a standard room at All-Star Music here.

There’s two price classes of four person rooms here–preferred rooms and standard rooms. Preferred rooms are closer to the main pool and the central services in and bus stop outside Melody Hall.

Family Suite, Living Room Side

Family Suites at All-Star Music accommodate six in a space twice the size of a standard four person room.  Half the space is a living area and bath that includes two fold-down queen beds–one behind the couch, and a second behind the table.

The other half of the All-Star Music Family Suite space includes a kitchenette and a master bedroom with a queen bed with a private bath. The floor plan above is out of date, but gives a sense of the proportions of the spaces.

Family Suites are available in the Calypso and Jazz areas of All-Star Music. A detailed review of an All-Star Music Family Suite begins here.

THE THEMED AREAS AT DISNEY’S ALL-STAR MUSIC RESORT

Disney’s All-Star Music Resort officially pays homage to “classic music genres—including Broadway show tunes, calypso, country, jazz and rock n’ roll…Guest rooms are divided into 5 pairs of 3-story buildings—each bright, whimsical pair is themed after one of the featured music genres and decorated with massive musical instruments.”

Disney’s All-Star Music Resort has 1604 rooms in ten identical three-story buildings, all with elevators.

These buildings are in five areas, each themed with external decorations and structures about a different musical genre:

• Buildings 1 and 10, Calypso
• Buildings 2 and 9, the Jazz Inn
• Buildings 3 and 4, the Rock Inn
• Buildings 5 and 6, Country Fair
• Buildings 7 and 8, Broadway Hotel

The buildings don’t distinctly draw fans of their genres.  Line dancing does not spontaneously break out at Country Fair, nor is there the equivalent of the Notting Hill Carnival at Calypso.

Rather, the distinction among these areas is the tradeoff of distance from the main services at Melody Hall versus peace and serenity.

Calypso is closest to the main services, and is thus sold as “preferred” rooms.

It offers both standard rooms and family suites. I don’t recommend Calypso for two reasons:

1. Unless your family has mobility issues, the nearness to Melody Hall isn’t worth the extra money
2. About a third of the rooms in each building face the main pool, and hence suffer from noise issues

All-Star Music (and the other values) is often dinged for being “too large and spread-out.” This is an inaccurate criticism, as each of the values fits into a much smaller footprint than any of the three larger moderates, leading to much less walking than at the moderates.

Moreover, All-Star Music has a particularly compact and charming layout.

The Country Fair area is the most distant from Melody Hall–see the map. It and the rest of the building areas other than Calypso are symmetrically built around the lovely walkway from Melody Hall to Country Fair, and equally surround the smaller Piano Pool.

This design leads to a more understandable layout, and also yields a strong central axis to the resort that makes it feel more coherent than the other All-Stars.

The Jazz Inn is the first set of buildings along this axis after Calypso.

It combines the loveliness of its courtyard, nearness to Melody Hall, and distance from pool noise into the better choice among the two preferred areas here. Like Calypso, you’ll find both standard rooms and family suites here.

After the Jazz Inn, you’ll see the Rock Inn on your right.

Rock Inn guitars.

On your left is the Broadway Hotel.

It has a charming little garden right at the edge of the parking lot.

Country Fair is ahead…

…with a large cactus-garden area separating its two buildings…

…and banjos.

The symmetry of these three sets of buildings around the Piano Pool makes them about equally preferable. Country Inn feels more remote–particularly its woods-facing rooms in the back–but the rooms in Rock Inn and Broadway Hotel nearest to the parking lots are only a little bit closer to Melody Hall. The Rock Inn parking lot can be subject to noise from youth groups that stage here, making Broadway Hotel a better choice than it.

Because of the family suites, All-Star Music can hold a slightly smaller number of people than the other two All-Stars.  This can make it a tad less crowded.

Moreover, its lower kid-appeal, and higher adult-appeal, can make it a tiny bit less noisy and boisterous than the other All-Stars.

Among the All-Stars, Music’s strength for first time family visitors is the availability of family suites.

Its negatives compared to the other values include less broadly interesting theming and sometimes inconvenient transportation.

PHOTO TOUR OF A STANDARD ROOM AT DISNEY’S ALL-STAR MUSIC RESORT

This review continues here.

MATERIAL IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S ALL-STAR MUSIC RESORT

• Overview of All-Star Music
• Accommodations and Theming at All-Star Music
• Photo Tour of a Standard Room at All-Star Music
• The Family Suites at All-Star Music
• Amenities at All-Star Music
• The Pools at All-Star Music

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 150+ stays in them

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