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STARTING TO PLAN 2014 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

The first step in thinking about 2014 at Walt Disney World is the calendar.

Early and later dates for key holidays that move make a difference, and the days of the week that stable-dated holidays like Christmas and New Years fall on matter too.

EARLY 2014 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

A few key calendar points:

• New Years Day 2014 is midweek (Wednesday), and Presidents Day is on the earlier side (2/17/2014—the earliest possible day is 2/15)
• Easter 2014 is April 20, almost as late as it can be (4/25 is the latest possible Easter)

As a result, there won’t be as many low-crowd January and early February weeks as usual, but like 2011 with its late Easter, there should be not only good late February and early March weeks, but also good early April weeks.

The week before Easter 2014 will be mobbed as usual, but the week after Easter will be a little better—especially late week—than in 2012 and 2013, as many school districts that usually take the week after Easter off shift to the week before to avoid such a late spring break.

LATE 2014 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

The key calendar points:

• Thanksgiving 2014, on November 27th, is almost as late as it can be
• Christmas and New Years Days are Thursdays in 2014

The result will be one more good November week at Disney World in 2014 than in some years, but only three good post-Thanksgiving weeks.

Christmas/New Years crowds will be split over two full weeks extending from December 20 2014 to January 4, 2015. Disney World will be horribly crowded both weeks, and the weekend of the 27th and 28th will be remarkable.

OTHER THOUGHTS ABOUT 2014 AT DISNEY WORLD

The Fantasyland Expansion will be complete in 2014, and there’s a good chance that NextGen will be fully in place as well. Avatar-land won’t.

MORE ON WHEN TO GO TO WALT DISNEY WORLD

• For when to go to Walt Disney World, see this
• For the next best dates, see this
• For the best and worst times to visit, see this
  • For 2012 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
  • For the 2012 Week Picker, see this
  • For 2013 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
  • For early thoughts on 2014, see this
• For forecasting crowds at Walt Disney World, see this
  • For the 2012 Crowd Calendar, click here
  • For the 2013 Crowd Calendar, click here
• For seasonal pricing at Walt Disney World, see this
  • For 2012 price seasons, see this
  • For 2013 price seasons, click here
• For weather at Walt Disney World, see this

On 4/27 and 4/28/2012, the normal pattern for Extra Magic Hours is swapped, so Disney’s Hollywood Studios will have morning EMH on Friday the 27th, and Epcot will have evening  EMH on Saturday the 28th.

Those following this site’s Autumn-Winter-Spring itinerary can do it as is, with the exception that they may not be able to ride Friday night after Illuminations.

“May” because rumors are that, with Test Track closed, Disney may keep the rides in the Land Pavilion–and in particular Soarin–open til 10p…

IS YOUR FAMILY ELIGIBLE FOR A DISNEY MILITARY DISCOUNT?

Steve at DisneyMilitaryTips.com has posted on his blog a great chart that helps sort out who is eligible for which among the various Disney World (and other central Florida) offers available to military families.

It includes the various deal possibilities (e.g.  Armed Forces Salute, Shades of Green) across the top of the chart, and various populations (e.g. guard/reserve, non-retired honorably discharged, etc.) down the side, and indicates in the intersection whether or not the population is eligible for the offer.

This is a stupendously helpful summary of complex information!  Great work, Steve.  Check it out.

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: APRIL 14 TO APRIL 22, 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 April 2012 at Walt Disney World, click here.)

[Read more →]

THE PIRATE-THEMED ROOMS AT CARIBBEAN BEACH

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is this site’s top-rated moderate resort for first-time family visitors to Walt Disney World.

It gets that position because it has a little more kid appeal than the other moderate resorts.

For example, it’s the only moderate where all the rooms have Disney theming. Most rooms at the sprawling and often inconvenient resort are decorated with a light Finding Nemo theme, but a subset in its Trinidad South section have pirate theming.

This pirate theming is pretty cool, but, given the inconvenience of Trinidad South, is not worth the extra $30 a night it costs (pre-tax, Fall Season 2012).

Moreover, by building these rooms, Disney may have put itself at the end of a gang-plank on the question of adding queen beds to Caribbean Beach. [Read more →]

A CHEAT SHEET FOR 2012 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

James McC. emailed last month to thank me for this site, and among other things said “It really helped, it was kind of like a cheat sheet.”

A “Cheat Sheet” is a “concise set of notes used for quick reference” and is a great description of what the site is trying to do.

Moreover, noodling around, it struck me that the charts that people
pin on Pinterest create another kind of “cheat sheet,” as a crowd-sourced indicator of what people find worth bookmarking and sharing.

So based on these thoughts and what people have put on Pinterest, I’ve put together a four-page powerpoint Walt Disney World 2012 Cheat Sheet. Click the link to open up the (2.5 mb) powerpoint file. (The image at the top of this page is an example page from it.)