Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

DISNEY WORLD CROWDS FROM LATER DECEMBER 2013 TO EARLY JANUARY 2014

Disney World usually sees its highest crowds and prices of the year in the later third of December and the beginning of January, in the week that includes Christmas, and the next week that includes New Year’s Eve.

This is for a pretty basic reason: kids are out of school these weeks.

However, not every school district has the same break schedule.

In 2013/2014, more kids are out Christmas week than New Year’s week, but there’s still plenty enough on break New Year’s week to wildly crowd the parks…

SCHOOL BREAKS AND DISNEY WORLD CROWDS [Read more →]

It’s been widely rumored that free dining would open up today for Disney Visa cardholders.

No dice.

I am however sticking to both my forecast here (note the words “typically” and “might” and “early August”) and to the warning here.

Update July 21, 2014: the Armed Forces Salute has been renewed for another year!

GREAT DEALS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

As reported by my friend Steve, Disney World has launched a new version of the Armed Forces Salute for most nights from September 29, 2013 through September 27, 2014.

As in past versions of this offering, there’s two parts–you can use either or both.  One is highly discounted four day tickets, and the other is discounts of 20% to 40% off of Disney World hotels.

There’s a lot of complexities and fine print to this offer (and the fine print varies between Disney World and Disneyland), of which the following are most important for Walt Disney World visitors:

• The offers, are for active duty members, reservists, National Guard members, and career retirees. Almost all vets who don’t also fit into one of those categories aren’t eligible
• You can get a maximum of 6 tickets–unless your immediate family–think member, spouse and kids–is larger
• The member or spouse with proper military ID needs to be there in person to either check in to the room or activate the tickets (both if you are using both)
• So long as the deal is activated by the right person, the other people benefiting from it can be anyone–your non-military family can use tix which your eligible uncle buys for you, so long as he is at Disney World in person to activate them
• There are ineligible dates both for the room deal and for the tickets.

You can book the room discounts for eligible dates now, but the tickets won’t be available until mid-August–and of course can’t be used until September 29.

Disney’s similar FY13 deal is still available for use until late September 2013.  See this.

For much more detail on the offers and their specifics and rules, see Steve’s stuff and its links beginning here.

For more on military families at Walt Disney World, see this.

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WALT DISNEY WORLD DEALS NEED TO BE BOOKED BY JULY 31

There’s currently two Walt Disney World deals available to the general public that have book-by dates of July 31:

• One offers room rate discounts of 15-30% for most nights from August 15 through September 28. See this for more
• Another offers free dining for most nights September 2 through September 25.  The details are here

If you want one of these deals, book it soon, because July is disappearing on us!

It’s widely expected that deals for after September will come out soon–see this for free dining and this for a room-rate deal.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: JULY 27, 2013 TO AUGUST 4, 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 →]

DISNEY WORLD DEAL FOR 9/29 TO 12/23/2013

The “Mysterious J” forwarded me the following info about a Fall Disney World room-only discount that will go live in South America and Europe on August 1.

This deal will likely open to the worldwide general public then or shortly after, perhaps with slightly different details.

The discount covers stays from September 29 through December 23, 2013, and needs to be booked by November 15.

The deal is unavailable November 23-November 29, and as usual in recent discounts, Art of Animation Little Mermaid rooms and Grand Villas are excluded.

Discount levels off standard (“rack”) rates are as follows:

• Value Resorts: 25% off
• Moderate Resorts: 30% off
• Deluxe Resorts: 35% off
• Disney Vacation Club Resorts: 35% off

Offers like these have been pretty close to general public offers available to US residents, although the specifics, exclusions and fine print may be different…for example, several resorts like POFQ are often only nominally in these deals, with savings of 5% or so.

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