Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

One of Disney World’s room rate discount deals, covering periods through December 23, 2011, expires soon!

This deal must be booked by November 19th. For more, see this.

Other current Disney World deals have later expiration dates. See this for more.

This is the second page of this entry. For the first page, click here.

JIM HILL PREDICTS A FIFTH GATE BY 2021

As noted a week or so ago, Jim Hill speculated recently at the end of this article that Disney World will open a whole new fifth park sometime near its 50th anniversary in 2021.

Jim Hill is usually reliable on what people at Disney are actually talking about and working on.

That does not mean, however, that what he reports must come true.

Like any other creative business, Disney generates many more ideas than it can possibly act on (and discusses these ideas…and thus engenders rumors).

So a fifth park by 2021 is a real possibility, but not even close to a certainty. And as explained here, the earliest official confirmation would come, in my judgment, is mid-2015.

Given that, there’s three things worth addressing whenever the fifth gate question comes up:

• Is there space?
• Aren’t there better things to do with the capital?
• Won’t the new park have horrible economics from cannibalization?

IS THERE SPACE FOR A FIFTH PARK AT WALT DISNEY WORLD? [Read more →]

This is the second page of this review. For the first page, click here.

MORE ON DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

There are currently 8 official Disney owned and operated deluxe resorts at Walt Disney World.

In their recommended order for first time family visitors, they are

1. Polynesian
2. Wilderness Lodge
3. Animal Kingdom Lodge
4. Contemporary
5. Grand Floridian
6. Beach Club
7. Yacht Club
8. BoardWalk Inn

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.

A DVC property at the Grand Floridian will open in late October 2013. I’ll post a review of it in mid-November.

ROOMS AT DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

[Read more →]

Disney released and discussed fourth quarter and fiscal year results last week. Overall, Disney shot out the lights, particularly in parks and resorts.

In domestic parks and resorts, small increases in attendance–and small declines in hotel occupancy–were more than made up for in higher realized prices.

The discussion of the these results in the associated earnings call reinforced what Disney has been saying for a while now–discounting will continue to be cut back, and there’s no out-of-the-ordinary domestic theme park capital spend currently planned for after 2012. [Read more →]

VETERANS DAY 2011

Thanks so much to all of you who have risked harm’s way to keep this great country free, and thanks to your families for helping you do so.

Happy Veteran’s Day!!

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

TRUNDLE BEING REPLACED WITH FOLD-DOWN BED AT DISNEY’S PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE RESORT

Frequent (and terrific!!) commenter Barberella emailed a link to a page on PortOrleans.org showing the renovation of the Alligator Bayou rooms at Port Orleans Riverside resort.

You can see these under-construction photos by scrolling down this page.

The images answer the question of “what happens to the trundle beds now that queens going in?”

The Alligator Bayou section of Port Orleans Riverside has been a godsend for larger families looking for affordable accommodations, as it is the only part of any moderate resort with standard rooms that can sleep 5.

It’s also the only standard moderate option for smaller families looking for three sleeping spaces to separate the kids.

In the un-renovated rooms, this was handled by a trundle bed that slid out from the side of one of the two full beds in the room, and fit between the door and that bed.

These rooms are very nicely sized (as are all moderate rooms) but not so big that it was easy to tell how a queen and a trundle would fit.

The answer?  As Barberella had noted in a comment last week, a fold-down bed is being incorporated into the furnishings of the long wall that also has the TV, dresser, table and such.

Check out the photos for how this will work, and thanks, Barberella!