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TRADITIONAL FREE DINING IN 2013: WILL THEY OR WON’T THEY?

Update 5/9/13: This deal is now out! See this.

My bud Carl Trent* has taken issue with my continuing forecast that we will see some free Disney World dining in the traditional August-September period–which for reasons noted here I repeated as recently as Tuesday. His post is here.

Well, only one of us can be right, so we’ll see!  I do have to note though that when Carl and I disagree on something…he’s right more often than I am.

In my “day job,” I’m a strategist, and so deeply study how to forecast.

The basic rule of forecasting is that tomorrow will be like today unless there are differences in structure, conduct or performance that will lead the relevant actors to do something differently.

I don’t see such enough such differences to agree with Carl’s call.

We both agree that Disney is (and, from a business point of view, should be) cutting way back on free dining compared to recent years.

But I see this cutback as related to coming out of the recession–and the August/September free dining program well precedes the recession. 

So actions related to coming out of the recession can’t on the face of it be related to August/September free dining deal…or at least that’s my call in making the forecast I’ve made!

So one of us will be right, and the other wrong!  Free Dining Smackdown 2013!

(*Carl runs Dad’s Guide to WDW, which has been on this site’s list of Recommended Sites for years.  Check it out if you haven’t seen it.)

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LOEWS PORTOFINO BAY HOTEL AT UNIVERSAL ORLANDO

Loews Portofino Bay Hotel is one of three deluxe hotels in the Universal Orlando resort. (The other two are the Royal Pacific, reviewed here, and the Hard Rock Hotel.)

This site’s Instructions for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter suggest that families wishing to visit Harry Potter that can afford it book a room at at one of the Universal hotels.

This is because the Universal hotels give terrific perks at Universal Orlando to hotel guests.

Most relevant to Harry Potter is that the Wizarding World opens to guests of these hotels one hour before it opens to the general public.

(If you are staying just one night, this is true both your day of check-in and your day of check-out.)

This makes it particularly easy to fit in both Ollivanders and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey without hours of waiting.

Another great perk is that Universal hotel guests can use their room key as the equivalent of a FASTPASS for many rides at any time.  This does not apply to the Forbidden Journey or Ollivanders--the only perk that applies to them is the early entry.

All three hotels are nice, convenient to both parks at Universal Orlando, and expensive. Loews Portofino Bay is the most gorgeous (and expensive) of them, but its village theme will go over the head of most kids.

We had the chance to stay at Portofino Bay in early March. Our stay wasn’t long enough for a full review of the hotel and all its services, so this is really just a review of our room (though as you’ll note there’s photos of the rest of the place above). [Read more →]

NEWS ON FREE DINING AT WALT DISNEY WORLD IN 2013…SORTA

One of my crack sources–the mysterious J–just emailed me to let me know that free dining for the fall of 2013 will be out shortly for South American and European visitors.

The booking window will open May 9, and the offer will cover arrival dates of September 2 through September 25.

At the values, the offer is the quick service dining plan for free, and at the moderates and deluxes,  the offer is the regular dining plan for free.

I refuse to read too much into the arrival dates right now, so my takeaway is that since this offer will soon be out for much of the rest of the world, we’ll see an August/September free dining deal out for US residents visitors in May as well.

Well, I hope it includes August…

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Danny K is asking on disboards.com for feedback from people who have used one of this site’s  itineraries.

His question is comment #158 on this page of disboards.

I’d really appreciate it if any of you who have either used one of the itineraries as is, or used one mostly, modifying it here and there to suit your family, would weigh in! 

If so, let him know what you think, good, bad or ugly, because bad and ugly helps me make the site better…

You have to be a member of disboards.com to comment–but signing up will just take a second…

Thanks, Dave

FAVORITE COMIC ATTRACTIONS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Welcome to those coming from Capturing Magical Memories and those of you just hopping aboard.

I am the 2nd stop on our Magical Blogorail. Enjoy the ride as this month Magical Blogorail Teal discusses April Foolishness–our favorite comic shows, attractions and such at Walt Disney World!

TURTLE TALK WITH CRUSH AT EPCOT

There’s lots of places I could have gone with this, but for comedy and drop-dead cuteness, nothing else at Walt Disney World can hold a candle to Turtle Talk with Crush.

This site’s Comprehensive Guide to Rides rates all the rides from the point of view of both little kids and older kids and adults.  There’s one group of around twenty rides ranked both as “Best-Loved” for little kids, and “Favorites” for older kids and adults.

Turtle Talk with Crush is one of the rides that’s top ranked for all age groups. 

And it’s both quite funny and quite cute–with much of the comedy coming from reacting to the cuteness…

REVIEW: TURTLE TALK WITH CRUSH AT EPCOT

[Read more →]

I’ve been lucky enough over the years to get some really nice notices here and there–for some examples, see the top of the right sidebar and the bottom of the left one. (Look for the word “Puffery” in the header!)

But so far as I’ve noticed, the site has never gotten a full page review–that is, until yesterday.

Yesterday Chip & Company published a review that you can find here.

It’s really nice, and I greatly appreciate it! The more people that know about this site, the more it can help!

If you don’t know about Chip & Company, it’s been on this site’s list of recommended websites for years. Chip & Company publishes all kinds of brief articles touching on any Disney World topic you can imagine, and it’s got tons of readers and followers.

Thanks to Jodi, the writer of the review, and Chip, who runs the site! And check out the review!

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