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Updated 8/1/2012 with new December arrival dates!

FALL 2012 FREE DINING AT WALT DISNEY WORLD OPENED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC

My friends at Destinations in Florida confirmed this morning that a free Disney World dining deal has opened to the general public for the fall of 2012.

Eligible arrival dates include:

• Sunday September 30 through Thursday October 4
• Friday October 19 through Thursday November 1
• Friday November 9 through Thursday November 15
• Friday November 23 through Thursday November 29
• Monday December 10 through Thursday December 20

These dates must be booked by September 29th, and include a three night stay minimum.

For more, see Disney’s Special Offer page here.

DISNEY WORLD 2013 PRICES RELEASED

As of this morning, almost all of 2013 is now priced and bookable on Walt Disney World’s web site.

Bookable dates go out 500 days, so later November and all of December 2013 is still not bookable.  By my math, any arrival date in the year will be available by August 18, 2012.

If you neglect your real job and do a lot of test reservations, you can also infer the 2013 price seasons.

Having done so, it seems the projections on this site were dead on with a few exceptions:

• The regular season at the deluxes does not run from the week after Easter through mid-July.  Instead, it ends May 30, and a new deluxe summer season–with slightly lower prices–runs from then til mid-July
• The fall season at the values and moderates starts a couple of weeks earlier than I had thought it would–on September 14th.
• December 2013 now has a third price season–“Peak”–from 12/13/2013 through 12/19/2013, making this week much more expensive than I’d thought it would be.

This site’s 2013 price seasons page is still labeled as “projected,” because while the “x% higher than the lowest of the year” stuff, is pretty close, there’s still a lot of detailed slogging to do…which will take a while…Also there seems to be some weirdness still in the Disney World 2013 prices (e.g. Caribbean Beach being $190 some nights, and $191 the next).

DISNEY WORLD ITINERARIES UPDATED TO INCLUDE NEW HOOP DEE DOO REVUE HOURS THAT BEGIN IN OCTOBER

The Hoop Dee Doo Revue is on every one of this site’s itineraries. Because its show times will change on October 1, 2012, I’ve spent the last coupla of weeks re-doing and re-posting the itinerary charts, To-Do Lists, and the relevant daily guidance.

This also gave me the chance to suppress some old links (2009 week rankings!), clean up some top and bottom of the page links, and take out–with a tear–Snow White and Kim Possible. [Read more →]

Update 8/6:  See this.

NO EXTENSION OF DISNEY WORLD ARMED FORCES SALUTE

Steve at MilitaryDisneyTips.com published here that the current Disney World military salute deal for military families will not be extended beyond its expiration date of September 30.

AN FY 2013 DISNEY MILITARY SALUTE OFFER IS STILL POSSIBLE

This does not mean that there’s won’t be a similar offer after September 30; it just means that if there is one, it likely will have different prices and perhaps other differences in the details.

Based on past performance, a new FY13 Military Salute offer, if there is one, could be announced anytime from next week until well after the current salute expires.

Steve’s discussion has more detail on both points.

LINKS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

• Military Families at Walt Disney World
• Deals and Discounts
  • Military Discounts and Deals
  • Other Walt Disney World Discounts and Deals
• Shades of Green
  • Review of Shades of Green
  • Splitting Your Stay Between Shades of Green and Another Resort
  • Overflow Rates at Shades of Green
  • Shades of Green website
• Other Resources for Military Families
  • DisneyMilitarySales.com
  • Disneyworld.com/military
  • MilitaryDisneyTips.com

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: JULY 7 TO JULY 15, 2012

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.

(For more on July 2012 at Walt Disney World, click here.)

[Read more →]

DISNEY WORLD 2013 PRICES TO COME OUT NEXT WEEK

Multiple sources, including crack commenters Brandon and Terri, have noted that Disney World will begin online booking for 2013 visits next week, on July 11.

This means that the full 2013 Disney World resort hotel price schedule will be out by then as well. (2013 Disney World ticket prices were announced in June, and will be good until Disney raises them, likely in the summer of 2013.)

THE 2013 VALUE SEASON AT DISNEY WORLD TO BEGIN JANUARY 6TH?

We won’t know for sure until Disney release the prices itself, but it looks like the value season for 2013 won’t begin until January 6.

You can currently book into January 2013 if your arrival date is in 2012, and the 2013 prices Disney shows when you try to book, as I write this, are sky high January 1st, drop like a rock the 2nd, then go up again for the 3rd, 4th and 5th, and then on January 6 drop to what looks like value season levels for the rest of the month, other than the Marathon and holiday weekends.

This may change next week–the 2nd looks especially odd–but is consistent with the thought that the week beginning 12/29/2012 will be much busier than I had earlier forecast.

WHERE ARE THE JANUARY 2013 ITINERARIES?

Usually by now I would have published suggested itineraries and To-Do Lists for January 2013, and published an overview of the month (like this one for December 2012).

However, Disney’s calendar for January 2013 is incomplete–it’s still missing Extra Magic Hours.  These affect the itineraries, so I won’t publish material for January until they are up. Josh at easyWDW.com suggested last week that the delay is because Disney World is sorting out how to schedule and price for the crowds the week of the 29th, and perhaps also for the Marathon.

If Josh is right–and he usually is–then the January schedules should be sorted out by the 11th as well, and I’ll get the updates out as soon as I can after the Extra Magic Hours are posted.