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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: MARCH 30, 2013 TO APRIL 7, 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.

This is one of the busiest weeks of the year.  For some thoughts on dealing with it, see this.

(For more on March 2013, see this, and more on April, see this.)

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DISNEY WORLD VISA DEAL LIKELY TO BE RELEASED TO THE REST OF US ON APRIL 2

Update April 2: This deal is now out!  See this for more.

There’s a new Disney World room rate deal out for Disney Visa cardholders. Multiple sources predict or assert it’ll be available to the general public next week–e.g. on Tuesday April 2, 2013.

It covers most arrival dates from June 13, 2013 through August 14, and needs to be booked by June 14.

The deal follows Disney World’s recent pattern of different discount levels based both on starting price and demand, and also excludes what has typically recently been excluded:

• Save 30%: Animal Kingdom Lodge (standard view), Bay Lake Tower, Beach Club, Beach Club Villas, BoardWalk Inn, BoardWalk Villas, Contemporary, Grand Floridian, Old Key West, Polynesian, Saratoga Springs, and Yacht Club
• Save 20%: The Cabins at Fort Wilderness, Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, Port Orleans Resort Riverside, The Villas at Wilderness Lodge and Wilderness Lodge
• Save 15%: All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, Art of Animation Family Suites and Pop Century
• Explicitly excluded: Campsites, 3-Bedroom villas, Art of Animation Little Mermaid
• Possibly available at low (e.g. 5%) discount some dates: All Star Movies, Port Orleans French Quarter, other unlisted resorts

More next week when the general public deal comes out!

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ARGUING WITH MYSELF ABOUT THE DISNEY WORLD MODERATE RESORTS

For years now I’ve been advising first time visitors who may never return to avoid the moderates because, compared to alternatives like the Wilderness Lodge or Art of Animation, they are short on kid appeal.  They also have some real convenience issues…

This advice necessary follows the underlying logic of this site.  The site is meant to make the key Walt Disney World planning decisions fast and easy for first time visitors who may never return:

• By bringing all the key points to just one page
• By giving very specific instructions where multiple options are possible, and
• For families who can’t or won’t follow those instructions, to show the next best choices, ranked in order

So to provide the specific instructions and the rankings, I had to develop ranking criteria.  It took me a couple of years before I went live with this site almost five years ago to establish for all the topics on the home page the ranking criteria, and then to get the data to use in the populating the rankings.

For where to stay, the ranking criteria came out as first kid appeal, and then, within kid appeal groups, breaking ties with convenience.  I also did rankings by price class, as I can’t think of any helpful way to set a priori the price tradeoffs among the price classes.

Kid appeal, as I define it, is principally visual, and it means whether the look of a resort has public space features that speak to kids of whimsy, playfulness, and/or adventure, signaling that that this resort was designed for them! (And not necessarily for their parents…)

I don’t mean that your kids won’t have a great time at the lower-kid appeal resorts.  The ranking is comparative, not absolute, and your kids can—and will!—have a ball at any of the Disney hotels. But there’s three deluxes and five value resorts with really distinctive kid appeal…

…yet there are no moderates with really distinctive kid appeal at that same high level.

So that’s the fundamental reason I don’t recommend moderates for first time family visitors who may never return.  My core criterion is kid appeal, and none of them really rises to the high level you can find in the other price classes that I can recommend it on the basis of kid appeal.

The moderates also have major transportation convenience problems, and all but Port Orleans French Quarter have a sprawling and sometimes painful layout.

But I do rank the moderates in order anyway for those who ignore my advice, or are not “first time family visitors who may never return.”  And here I do rank them by visual kid appeal—finding a slight edge to Caribbean Beach on this measure, because of its beaches, color and theming, a bit of an edge to Coronado Springs for similar reasons, and the Cabins at Fort Wilderness bringing up the rear on this criterion.

The complete ranking based on these criteria is as follows

1. Caribbean Beach
2. Coronado Springs
3. Port Orleans Riverside
4. Port Orleans French Quarter
5. The Cabins at Fort Wilderness

NOW HERE’S WHERE I DISAGREE WITH MYSELF

But here’s the problem…if my sister called me and said “Dave, I’m gonna stay in a moderate—don’t try to talk me out of it—which one would you recommend to me, your sister?”  my answer would not be Caribbean Beach—it’d be Port Orleans French Quarter.

And not because of POFQ’s kid appeal, which is slim, and not because of transportation convenience, which, while better than the other moderates, is still weak.

Rather I’d recommend POFQ because of something not even in my criteria—it would be the compactness of POFQ compared to the other moderates, how much easier it is to get around there than at any other moderate, that would lead me to recommend it.

And for exactly the same reason I’d keep The Cabins last, but move Caribbean Beach to next to last—both these resorts are profoundly painful to get around.

I’m not quite sure where to slot Coronado Springs and Riverside on this “pain to get around” criterion.  Coronado Springs has a few more really awkward rooms (in the Ranchos section) than Riverside, but the very worst rooms in the Alligator Bayou section of Riverside are a fair hike away as well. So I’d put Riverside ahead of Coronado Springs, but not by much.

(Other points come into play with Coronado Springs.  It has many more amenities, and better and more varied dining and bars than any other moderate, but less fun room décor, and it sometimes can be overwhelmed by conventioneers.  So its extra positives get balanced out by its extra negatives.)

The main negative of French Quarter is the absence of a table service restaurant.  Frankly, the other moderate table service restaurants aren’t worth much anyway…I’d certainly never put dining at one on any of my itineraries…but this may be an issue to some.

THE MODERATES REMIXED

Another way to think about this: the moderates are almost tied on kid appeal, and almost tied on transportation convenience.

So my basic criteria don’t much distinguish them. What if you throw those criteria out, and look at all other factors that contribute to a pleasant stay?  What’s the ranking then?  Well, based on the above, it’s

1. Port Orleans French Quarter
2. Port Orleans Riverside
3. Coronado Springs
4. Caribbean Beach
5. The Cabins at Fort Wilderness

–with #1 a clear leader, 2 and 3 very close to one another, and 4 and 5 pretty distant from the top three.

So if I was gonna remix the moderates ranking, that’s what it would be.  Compare it to my basic list earlier on the page, where only one resort–the Cabins–has the same ranking, and #1 and #4 have flipped… and tell me what you think!

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SUMMER 2013 DISNEY WORLD ROOM RATE DEAL AND FALL 2013 FREE DINING

Update 3/28:  See this for more on the room rate deal out next week.

Crack commenter J., a South American travel agent, noted earlier today two interesting points:

• A room rate deal will be coming out next week for the South American and European markets.  Since US discounts end this Sunday, March 31, there’s a darn good chance the next US deal will come out then too, or not a whole lot later. The overseas deal covers arrival dates June 13 through August 14.
• She also had a thought to offer on the possibility of fall 2013 free dining at Walt Disney World being shortened compared to usual dates for moderates and values, noting that South American spring breaks are common the third week of September…

So what we have here from J. is a report and a fact, and added to it my speculation.  We won’t really know about 2013 fall free dining–or even the summer room deal–til we see it; but J.’s comment, and our subsequent email correspondence, are intriguing…

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TAKING A BREAK AND STILL HAVING A BALL 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 our favorite “take a break and just sit there” Disney World attractions!

MICKEY’S PHILHARMAGIC AT THE MAGIC KINGDOM

This site advises first time visitors to Walt Disney World who may never return to try every attraction, and leaves out of its itineraries just some character meet-and-greets aimed at younger ones (covered instead by character meals), and some minor entertainments.

It also provides tools for families on shorter trips, and/or with younger kids, to help thin down the list of things to see–especially the Comprehensive Guide to Rides.

The 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.

Mickey’s PhilharMagic is one of the rides that’s top ranked for all age groups. 

And it’s also an attraction where–at least for the 12 minutes of the show–you can just plop your self down and not do a darn thing except watch.

REVIEW: MICKEY’S PHILHARMAGIC AT THE MAGIC KINGDOM [Read more →]

The Basics: Where to Stay

THE MODERATE RESORTS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

You can have a wonderful visit at any Walt Disney World resort. However, this site recommends that first time visitors to Walt Disney World avoid the moderate resorts, while noting that these resorts are wonderful for visits after the first. (See this for why.)

That said, the moderates do represent almost 30% of the room capacity of Walt Disney World, and will be sought by some you because you aren’t a first-timer, or because this site’s recommended resorts are sold out. Or you are just contrary.

(For what the moderates provide, and how they compare to the other Disney World resort classes, click here)

Caribbean Beach

Because of this, I’ve stayed in each of the moderate resorts multiple times, including in each of their major room variants, and published and updated detailed reviews of them all. Since I began working on this site, I’ve stayed in the moderates almost 40 times, for more than 100 nights.

What follows is an overview–see the links to the detailed reviews for more.

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