Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

(This page is one of a series explicating Walt Disney World lingo, abbreviations, and FAQ for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.)

DISNEY WORLD FREE ON YOUR BIRTHDAY?

As many as two dozen people a day come to this site with some version of “Is Disney free on your birthday?” as the words they entered into a search engine.

Here’s the bad news: there used to be a deal where Disney World offered free tickets on your birthday.  But there isn’t one anymore.  Disney world tickets are the same price on your birthday as they are on any other day.

DISNEY WORLD BIRTHDAY SPECIALS

But there are still some fun birthday offers from Disney World, and some of them are free!

Free Disney World birthday stuff includes:

• A happy birthday button (see the image at the top, courtesy of Kristin’s Tips from the Disney Diva), which you can get either from your Disney World resort hotel or from guest services in the parks. Mike at My Dreams of Disney reminds me that Disney strictly enforces when you can get this free birthday button–it must be within 6 months before, or 6 months after, your birthday!
• A happy birthday call–dial 0 in your resort to schedule it
• Perhaps, a happy birthday cupcake as the finale to a Disney World table service meal.
• And of course you can bring birthday celebration materials from home!

OTHER WALT DISNEY WORLD BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

Much more celebration of birthdays at Walt Disney World is possible–but not for free. 

Options include birthday cakes ($21 and up), birthday parties ($16 per person and up), and many others. (Prices are from The Complete Walt Disney World 2012.)

See Natalie’s article on Walt Disney World birthday celebration ideas on Meet the Magic for more ideas and options!

OVERVIEW: SUMMER AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Summer at Walt Disney World—loosely defined as Memorial Day in late May through Labor Day in early September–is an often difficult season.

Summer Disney World weather is hot and humid, and in mid-August shifts to hot, humid, and also the beginning of the peak of the hurricane season.

Summer crowds at Disney World are very high most of the summer–lightest in the latter part of August, and also lighter in early June. They peak over the Fourth of July holiday.

Disney World summer prices begin fairly high, peak over the Fourth of July weekend, and drop to their lowest level of the year at the deluxe resorts in mid-July, and at the moderate resorts and value resorts in early August.

Deals and discounts are available for parts of this period.

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2013 AT DISNEY WORLD

Below find the main topics for Walt Disney World in 2013, including

• Disney World 2013 packages and booking dates
• 2013 Disney World deals
• 2013 Disney Armed Forces Salute
• Free Dining in 2013 at Disney World
• The best weeks of 2013 to visit
• 2013 crowds at Disney World
• What’s new at Disney World in 2013

Moreover, for a 2013 Disney World “cheat sheet,” see this.

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This is the third page of this review of Disney’s BoardWalk Villas. For the first page of this material, click here.

GRAND VILLAS AT DISNEY’S BOARDWALK VILLAS

Grand Villas at Disney’s BoardWalk Villas sleep 12.

They have three bedrooms (one with a king, and two with two queens) plus a sleeper sofa.

They also have a kitchen, dining room, living room, balconies, and 3 baths.

There are seven Grand Villas at the BoardWalk. Five of them have the single-story layout shown in the above floor plan, and those five are what this review discusses.

Going right to left, the first two spaces are bedrooms, each with a private bath, two queen beds and balcony access.  Each of these rooms is about the size of a “normal” hotel room–though note that the hall to the right-most room means the other bedroom is smaller.

Note also in this hall the additional door to the hotel hallway.

Next comes the kitchen and dining space, and after, a living space almost twice as large as that found in two-story Grand Villas, with a stately entry hall.

Off of the living room space you’ll find a small hallway with a door to the laundry room, another to the master bath, and a third door to the master bedroom.

The master bath serves both the master bedroom and those who may be sleeping on the living room couch, or visiting, and can be entered from the master bedroom as well as the hallway.

The master bedroom includes a king bed and an expansive divided bath, with a large whirlpool tub.

These single story Grand Villas at the BoardWalk Villas have the second-best floor plan of any Disney World Grand Villa, bettered only by those in the Villas at the Grand Floridian. (For an extensive discussion of Grand Villa design choices, see this.)

This is because the BoardWalk single story Grand Villas are unique in offering a single living room space large enough to seat all the guests they will sleep.

(To the capacity of 12, you can add one more kid under 3 at time of check in who sleeps in a crib.)

THE THEMING OF ON DISNEY’S BOARDWALK VILLAS

Disney’s BoardWalk Villas are described on Walt Disney World’s website as capturing

“…the charm, whimsy and elegance of turn-of-the-century Atlantic City. These Villas, along with adjacent hotel Disney’s Boardwalk Inn, put Guests in a prime location to enjoy the carnival sights and ragtime sounds of the BoardWalk, along with the glittering waters and recreation of Crescent Lake.”

This “Atlantic City” claim is a bit of a crock.

The BoardWalk complex has multiple theming points, unified by the concept of “eastern resort town.”

The BoardWalk entertainment area perfectly matches the Atlantic City theme.

But the BoardWalk Inn, according to its architect Robert A. M. Stern, “takes its architectural cue from rambling colonial revival-style hotels of New England.”

And the Villas, again per Stern, bring to the “resort town” concept the Bungalow Style:

“The Disney Vacation Club [BoardWalk Villas], in keeping with the sense of the BoardWalk as a resort town, consists of a series of interconnected small scale buildings facing the [BoardWalk] lakefront.

Beyond the lakefront, where the vacation club faces a canal, the building takes on a larger scale with wide roof overhangs and bold horizontals reflecting the early 20th century American tradition that combined classicism with vernacular cottage architecture to create the Bungalow Style.

Here the historical timeline of the resort town’s development is brought to its conclusion by an architecture that suggests the incipient modernism of the early twentieth century.”

The overall theming of the BoardWalk complex as a “resort town” is a tour de force, with fun on the BoardWalk itself, and true loveliness in the BoardWalk Inn.

The theming and architecture of the Villas are neither so fun nor so lovely, but work well enough.

MORE ON DISNEY’S BOARDWALK VILLAS

This review continues here.

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Walt Disney World released last week changes to its park hours for the week that includes President’s Day.

The Magic Kingdom now has 8a openings from Saturday February 18th through Saturday the 25th, and the Animal Kingdom is showing 8a openings from the 18th through Wednesday the 22nd.

Moreover, closings at the Magic Kingdom are now at 1a most nights from Friday 2/17 through Saturday 2/25.

So far, Extra Magic Hours are unchanged from the normal Autumn-Winter-Spring pattern.

2012 WALT DISNEY WORLD PLANS

Welcome to those of you joining from The World of Dee as Magical Blogorail Teal focuses this month on our 2012 Disney World plans!

DISNEY WORLD 2012 PLANS

In 2012, my focus will be on completing my hotel reviews, starting the next round of updating them, and seeing and reviewing the Fantasyland expansion.

There’s also some major housekeeping to do–ranging from updating itineraries to reflect the Fantasyland expansion to re-writing some of my more impenetrable pages–e.g. pages that needlessly use abbreviations like “e.g.” and words like “impenetrable…”!

As always, the summer will be particularly busy. Key price data usually comes out from Disney then, and 2012-2013 school year calendars become broadly available.

From these, updates will come to the 2013 weeks to visit rankings, 2013 Disney World crowd calendar, and 2013 Disney resort price season forecasts, and also to be created is a 2013 week picker like the one that already exists for 2012. Then in the fall it’s on to the first look at 2014!

Sadly, none of these plans are on my bucket list! I’ll have to work harder at that…

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