Category — w. Most Recent Stuff
Disney World April-June Discount “Book-By” Dates Extended to March 31
DEAL AT WALT DISNEY WORLD HAS BOOKING DATES EXTENDED
A Disney World promotion offering discounts of 15-30% off of room rates for most arrival dates from April 13-June 14 2012 has had its booking window extended.
This deal’s booking window was to be closed on February 28, but Disney World’s website now shows booking available through March 31, 2012.
See this for more.
Meanwhile, one of my readers has heard rumors that late summer free dining at Walt Disney World will be offered by 3/5…see this for an apparent confirmation.
March 1, 2012 No Comments
What You Get at Disney World Resort Hotels By Price
WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT PRICE CLASSES
Walt Disney World has a ton of hotels, and it groups most of them into three price classes:
- Deluxe resorts, with the nicest rooms and grounds, best dining, best service, and highest prices
- Value resorts, with tiny rooms, limited dining and service, but the lowest prices, and
- Moderate resorts, in between the values and the deluxes, but a little closer to deluxes.
The image below gives you more specifics on what you can expect to find in each price class.
MORE ON WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD
- For where to stay, see this
- For your next best choices, in order, see this
- For picking your resort based on appeal to kids, see this
- For picking your resort based on convenience, see this
- For where not to stay, see this
- For what you get in each resort price category, see this
- For Walt Disney World resort price seasons, see this
- For resort reviews, see this
- For the value resorts, see this
- For the moderate resorts, see this
- For the deluxe resorts, see this
- For suites at the deluxe resorts, see this
- For the Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) Resorts, see this
- For a (geeky) overview of comparative room size, see this
- Military/DOD families should look at this
- Families seeking the most comfortable place to stay should see this
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March 1, 2012 9 Comments
Renting a Car at Walt Disney World
(This page is one of a series explicating Walt Disney World lingo, abbreviations, and FAQ for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.)
PLANNING DISNEY PARKS ADVENTURES
Welcome to those of you joining from Heidi’s Head as Magical Blogorail Teal focuses this month on different parts of planning Disney park adventures.
My focus is on car rentals and Walt Disney World.
RENTING A CAR AT WALT DISNEY WORLD
My basic advice for first time visitors to Walt Disney World is that they ought not to rent a car, but rather should use Disney’s Magical Express instead.
Why? First, you’ll save hundreds of dollars. Orlando rental car costs vary with the time of the year, the length of the rental, any discount or coupon codes you might have, and the size and capacity of the vehicle, but you’ll always pay more than you would for the free Magical Express, and then the free transport within Disney World itself.
Second, you’ll avoid getting lost. Disney World is pretty well signed given its complexity, but getting just a little bit off track can make it hard to find your resort if you don’t have a good mental map of where it is compared to some of the major, well-signed landmark locations.
That said, a rental car can make getting everywhere except the Magic Kingdom faster (if you don’t get lost), can make it easier to get to Harry Potter and to lower-cost shopping venues, and can make it easier to go from your hotel to another hotel—e.g. for dinner—which, depending on where you stay and where you are going, can be hard to do using Disney transportation.
So for those pursuing a rental car, here’s some thoughts
ONE LAST TIME DOUBLE CHECK WHETHER YOU REALLY NEED A RENTAL, AND FOR HOW LONG
Depending on the time of the year and how long you are staying, a cab, car service, or shuttle may be a cheaper way to travel from and to the airport, or to a grocery/liquor store, than a rental (and their prices are usually the same year round, rather than skyrocketing during the busy times.)
If your issue is just getting back and forth for Harry Potter, consider a shuttle— some are even discounted.
If you just really need a car for a day or two—for Harry Potter, restocking the chardonnay, visiting the outlet malls–Disney’s on site car rental service will rent you a car for a day or two—and pick you up from your Disney resort to get to the car, and drive you back to your hotel when you are done.
TARGET THE SMALLEST RENTAL CAR YOU CAN FIT
While there are sometimes exceptions, in general the smaller the car, the less expensive it is.
You won’t be spending more than 20 minutes in your rental on most of your trips—and on only one of them will you have your bags. (Just one—the trip from the airport—because you can check your bags at your Disney World resort for your flight back.)
Given this, you likely can rent a smaller car than you are used to at home—although this may mean that due to lack of trunk space, the drive in from the airport may require some bags to ride in laps.
CHECK YOUR INSURANCE COVERAGE
You will be pressed to buy insurance from the rental company which can be inordinately expensive.
In almost all cases this is an expensive waste of money, as your current insurance policy will cover you for normal accident costs while you are driving a rental car, and you should firmly say that you are declining all coverages. (But see below for “LOU”.)
Your insurance, however, may not cover you in rental cars—unlikely, but possible–or may have exceptions for certain fancier or speedier options. So call and double check before you go.
Also check for coverage of “Loss of Use” (“LOU”) charges.
If you are in an accident, some rental car companies will threaten you with additional penalties that most insurance won’t cover–LOU. These are charges to your credit card of the car’s daily (undiscounted) rental rate while it is being repaired, to make up for the revenue lost to the rental car company from its inability to rent the car while it’s being repaired.
As far as I’m concerned, this is a scam meant to scare you into buying the rental car company’s overpriced additional coverage. But check to see if your policy will cover it—likely not—and consider your accident record, including dings that you may not care about but that a rental company would, before deciding to skip the coverage.
WORK AT FINDING A DEAL
When your dates are set, use a source like expedia.com to check base rates. Don’t even consider prices from companies you’ve never heard of, or that don’t have cars in the terminal. While I’m sure some of these are fine at least some of the time, I have yet to use an off-site rental that makes me think the cost savings was worth the inconvenience and hard-sell on insurance.
Then start looking for a deal. The basics are memberships, coupons, and codes.
Other have already covered this terrain—see MouseSavers.com for great stuff on renting cars and getting deals on them, and Steve Bloom’s post on TouringPlans.com that both covers the basics on getting deals and also adds a less common strategy.
And, as Mary notes, once you have a deal, keep checking, as an even better one may emerge!
SOME FINAL TIPS
If you are watching every penny and don’t have a tight schedule on the day of your return, don’t pre-pay your gas. Instead, stop at one of the Hess stations at Disney World to fill up before you return to the airport.
Inspect your car carefully—including the roof—for damage before you leave the rental lot. Report any you see. Some people even make videos to prove that damage was there when they rented their car. If you don’t note any existing damage before you leave the lot, you may end up paying for it.
The Orlando Airport has two terminals, A and B, and identical rental car facilities at both. When you return, follow the signs your departing airline’s terminal, and use the return facilities there.
MORE ADVICE AND HELP ON RENTING A CAR AND GETTING A DISCOUNT
MouseSavers.com has lots of great stuff on renting cars and getting deals on them.
Steve Bloom’s post on TouringPlans.com covers the basics on getting deals and adds a less common strategy.
MORE FROM MAGICAL BLOGORAIL TEAL
Thank you for joining Magical Blogorail Teal this month. We will be back Tuesday, March 27th with an all new theme.
Keep checking in with our blogs in between loops to keep up to date with our Disney info, photos and stories. If you are looking for more Disney magic, you can make your way over to The Magical Blogorail website to see all our members and their blogs, as well as all our previous loops.
Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail loop should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:
- 1st Stop ~ The Disney FAITHful
- 2nd Stop ~ Disney Lovin’ Spectrum Mom
- 3rd Stop ~ Capturing Magical Memories
- 4th Stop ~ Heidi’s Head
- Final Stop ~ yourfirstvisit.net
February 28, 2012 23 Comments
The Deluxe Resorts at Walt Disney World
DISNEY WORLD’S DELUXE RESORTS
Note: guests at Disney World’s deluxe resorts are eligible for Disney World’s Early Entry program, and have the ability to pre-book as early as seven days before check-in Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass rides. They are also eligible for its Extended Evening Hours.
Compared to other Walt Disney World owned and operated resorts, the deluxe resorts are distinguished by having
- the most amenities
- nicest views
- best dining options
- best transport
- largest rooms
- best service, and
- highest prices.
There are eight deluxe resorts at Walt Disney World, and you really can’t go wrong booking any of them. Whichever you stay at on your first visit will likely become your favorite.
However, for first time visitors who may never return, some are better than others. There are fundamental differences among them in their kid appeal, and major differences in their convenience in carrying out this site’s itineraries.
Based on these criteria, the ranking of these resorts for first time family visitors who may never return is as follows:
Most of these deluxe resorts also offer on their grounds Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) studios and villas, which are deluxe-class and for rent to the general public.
Stand-alone deluxe-class DVC resorts–that is, not associated with another deluxe hotel–include Disney’s Riviera Resort, Disney’s Old Key West Resort, and Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa main resort and Treehouse Villas. The DVC resorts are ranked separately here. If these standalone DVC resorts were listed in the above rankings, they would come in at the bottom of the list. [Read more →]
February 27, 2012 11 Comments
Expiring Disney World Discounts, Disney World Systems Issues, and More
A couple of quick points:
- Disney’s current major Disney World discount available to the general public needs to be booked by February 28th.
- Multiple sources, including Mark Goldhaber at MousePlanet.com, are noting that Disney World will be upgrading its reservation systems beginning early in the morning Thursday 2/23.
In the past, this upgrade has led to a bit of a mess, including trouble “with dining reservations records, dining plan credit records, and other resort systems.” So bring paper copies and don’t expect to be able to use the systems the 23rd and perhaps even the 24th…
- Finally, I’ve been ill most of this week, so have gotten behind on new posts and on responding to comments…I promise to do better!
February 22, 2012 No Comments
Review: Disney’s Yacht Club Resort, Continued
This is the second page of this review of Disney’s Yacht Club Resort. For the first page, click here.
MORE ON DISNEY’S YACHT CLUB RESORT
Disney’s Yacht Club Resort is one of 8 official Disney owned and operated deluxe resorts at Walt Disney World.
In their recommended order for first time family visitors, they are
Many of these also offer Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) studios and villas, all for rent to the general public–see this for more on the Disney Vacation Club resorts. The Yacht Club does not have a DVC offering.
ROOMS AT DISNEY’S YACHT CLUB RESORT
February 19, 2012 No Comments
