Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

DISNEY WORLD FREE DINING DEALS OFTEN ACCOMPANIED BY ROOM RATE DISCOUNT DEALS

Disney World currently has a free dining deal with dates into March 2012.

In the recent past, it’s been unusual for Disney World to have a dining deal out and not also have a room rate discount out for at least the first part of the dining deal period.

Disney World’s room rate discount deals are typically in the 15%-40% range, depending on the price of the hotels offered, and typically also have fewer blackout dates than the free dining program.

RUMORS SUGGEST A DISNEY WORLD ROOM RATE DEAL MAY BE ON THE WAY

Rumors are out that a new set of pin code deals are out–e.g. see Dawn Tinnirello’s article here.

It suggests pin code discounts of up to 35% for the period September 18, 2011 to December 22, 2011, excluding Thanksgiving week.

Deals available to the general public often first come out as pin codes or Disney Visa cardholder offers, and then to the rest of us!

There’s no guarantees, but keep your fingers crossed!

LIGHTS MOTORS ACTION

I review rides only when they are new or after they have changed, on the theory that first time visitors ought to try them all and hence don’t need reviews.

(For those without the time or energy to try them all, there’s a
comprehensive guide to Disney World rides and attractions here and also a list of Disney World rides that might be skipped here.)

Lights Motors Action Extreme Stunt Show opened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2005 as a close adaptation of a similar show running at Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris.

Earlier this year it had a minor change–the addition of Mater and Lightning McQueen–which gives me an excuse to review it.

LIGHTS MOTORS ACTION EXTREME STUNT SHOW WITH LIGHTNING MCQUEEN [Read more →]

The 2012 Disney World Week Picker is out!

It’s designed to be an alternative way of picking your time to visit Disney World instead of using this site’s 2012 Weeks to Visit, Ranked in Order.

It lets you decide for yourself the importance to you of crowds, prices, and weather, and, based on your choices, offers you the best weeks of 2012 that meet your criteria!

The 2011 version has already helped visitors to Disney World pick their weeks with more than 130,000 hits–so give the 2012 Disney World Week Picker a try–it may be a huge help to you!

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 2011 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
  • For the 2011 Week Picker, see this
  • For 2012 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
  • For the 2012 Week Picker, see this
• For forecasting crowds at Walt Disney World, see this
  • For the 2011 Crowd Calendar, click here
  • For the 2012 Crowd Calendar, click here
• For seasonal pricing at Walt Disney World, see this
  • For 2011 price seasons, see this
  • For 2012 price seasons, see this
• For weather at Walt Disney World, see this

TouringPlans.com is reporting here that last week Disney World changed its policy on how long you have to add days and other stuff to your park tickets.

Under the old policy, you could add days and such anytime up until 14 days after the first use and pay no more than if you had bought everything at one time.

This was handy for folks on a budget, as they need not add days, hoppers or such until they discovered they needed them.

Now, if you want to add to your ticket, you must do so by the end of the day of last use of your current ticket.

So if you have a four day ticket, you can only add days and such if you do so before the end of the day you use your fourth day.

This is still a bargain compared to having to pay day one rates–but it’s not quite as easy to manage as the old way of doing things, as you have less time to make your decision, and some people used to the old policy will be caught by surprise.

I’d noted more than a month ago that Fantasmic was not listed on Disney World’s calendars for most of January after January 4 until late in that month.

It is now on through January 8, but off the calendars at the end of January and for the first part of February as well.

It reappears on February 13.

I’d speculated that this might be a closing for rehab or redevelopment, and continue to think that’s the most likely reason it’s off the calendars.

I introduced updates to my ranking of the weeks of 2012 at Walt Disney World a few weeks ago, and promised I’d get back with a little more detail on what changed and why. Here it is.

CHANGES IN RANKING OF BEST AND WORST WEEKS AT DISNEY WORLD

47 weeks had their rankings change.

Changes came from analysis of final school calendars and resulting changes to the 2012 Disney World crowd calendar, and from analysis of final 2012 prices.

They also came from some new policies to make the rankings even more helpful.

While only 6 weeks had no change, of the rest, 36 weeks changed their rankings only +/- 3 weeks, and only two weeks had a ranking change of more than 10 weeks.

POLICY CHANGES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS

Here’s the new policies built into the revised 2012 week ranking:

Have no recommended weeks that aren’t low crowd weeks.

This moved the week beginning 12/15 out of the list of recommended weeks entirely, and the 14 week change in ratings was the biggest of all changes.

For those who picked it based on its old rating, I haven’t changed my view of the week–low crowds and prices at the beginning, high at its end, and moderate levels on average.

It’s still a sound week to go, but with the change to no moderate crowd weeks on the recommended list, its ranking has to drop a lot.

Make sharper distinctions on summer crowds, which moved some late May and early June weeks well up in the rankings—these were the next biggest ranking changes.

Pay more attention within groups of like weeks to ranking lower-priced weeks ahead of higher priced ones. This moved the recommended fall weeks ahead of the recommended spring weeks, and caused minor shifts in a number of other weeks.

Pay more attention to the fact that Pop Warner week is typically excluded from deals and discounts.

Carl (“Dad”) at Dad’s Guide to WDW has been advocating that I do this for years.

I had some reasons for not doing so, resolved by moving from one suggested week in my home page and When to Go points of view to three suggested weeks.

This shift resolved my reasons for disagreeing with Carl, who really does know WDW. It also led to a new number one ranked week for 2012! Thanks, Dad!

The 2012 week rankings begin here–or you can just click the image.

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 2011 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
  • For the 2011 Week Picker, see this
  • For 2012 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
• For forecasting crowds at Walt Disney World, see this
• For seasonal pricing at Walt Disney World, see this
  • For 2011 price seasons, see this
  • For 2012 price seasons, see this
• For weather at Walt Disney World, see this