Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

DISNEY CROWD CALENDAR UPDATE

I’ve updated my Walt Disney World Crowd Calendar to reflect recently-released October 2011 Disney World operating hours.

You can find the updated crowd calendar here.

On a related note, I always recommend checking another crowd calendar–preferably that at TouringPlans.com–before committing to a specific time to go to Walt Disney World.

The folks at TouringPlans.com have recently added forecasts of operating hours going out twelve months.

You can read about this on Henry Work’s blog post here.

MORE ON WHERE TO STAY AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

This page brings together to one place key links to help decide what resort hotel to stay at on your Disney World trip on this site.

It includes links to material for typical families, but also for large families, military families, families on tight budgets, and families looking for a particularly comfortable trip.

It’s part of a series on navigating this site.

LINKS FOR WHERE TO STAY AT WALT 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

blank

• 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
    1. Art of Animation
    2. Pop Century
    3. All-Star Movies
    4. All-Star Sports
    5. All-Star Music
  • For the moderate resorts, see this
    1. Caribbean Beach
    2. Coronado Springs
    3. Port Orleans Riverside
    4. Port Orleans French Quarter
    5. The Cabins at Fort Wilderness Resort.
  • For the deluxe resorts, see this
    1. Polynesian
    2. Wilderness Lodge
    3. Animal Kingdom Lodge
    4. Contemporary Resort
    5. Grand Floridian
    6. Beach Club
    7. Yacht Club
    8. BoardWalk Inn
  • For suites at the deluxe resorts, see this
  • For the Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) Resorts, see this
    1. The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
    2. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Jambo House
    3. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Kidani Village
    4. Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
    5. Disney’s Beach Club Villas
    6. Disney’s Boardwalk Villas
    7. Disney’s Old Key West Resort
    8. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, main resort
    9. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort, Treehouse Villas area
  • The Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort

blank

• For a (geeky) overview of comparative room size, see this

blank

• Large families should look at this, and also at
  • Large Families Looking for Value Pricing at Walt Disney World
  • Large Families Looking for Deluxe Accommodations at Disney World
  • Beds and Sleeping Spaces at the Walt Disney World Resorts
  • Renting Disney Vacation Club Points
  • Suites at Walt Disney World

blank

• Military/DOD families should look at this

blank

• Tightwads should look at this

blank

• Families seeking the most comfortable place to stay should see this

For the first page of this review of deluxe rooms at the Wilderness Lodge, click here.

WHAT YOU GET IN A DELUXE ROOM AT DISNEY’S WILDERNESS LODGE

Deluxe rooms at the Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, sometimes referred to as “Junior Suites,” have two sleeping spaces and a divided bath.

• One space includes the hallway; a closet; a door that connects to a yet another room not part of the deluxe room, but rather an added standard room should you need it; a door to the split bath; a small refrigerator and sink; a table with two chairs; two upholstered chairs; a long sofa that folds out into a queen bed; a door to the second space; and a balcony that overlooks Bay Lake, with two chairs and a table.
• The second space contains two queens, a TV, and a wardrobe; a door to the bath; another set of doors to the other space, and its own standing balcony.
• The split bath has two sinks in one space, and a standard tub and toilet in a separate room.

See the floor plan.

You enter from the hall, at the right of the floor plan, and face a long, too-narrow hallway.

On the left is a door to the bath that also serves as an alternate path to the bedroom.

On the right is a closet (not the fridge and sink, even though they are shown in the floor plan) and a door to a connecting room.

(By the way, if you choose to add a connecting room, it could have a king or two queens; a king connecting room would make this set-up more comfortable for parents, though at an even higher cost.)

Ahead of the hall you’ll find a small table and chairs on your right, and on your left a small sink and small fridge–what had been wrongly shown in the floor plan as in the hall.

Note that the small sink brings the total of sinks in the room to 3–see photo to right, taken from the balcony end of the room. Three sinks are handy if you have a lot of hair or faces to prepare.

Ahead is the couch, two upholstered chairs, and a TV.  The couch is long enough for a six-footer to nap–or sleep overnight–on it without unfolding it

The couch, when unfolded, also makes for a comfortable queen bed.

(The first page of this review has another photo of this space, as well as one of the view from the balcony.)

This area overall is quite small–it’s a little more than 10 feet wide and 8 feet long, barely fitting its furniture, and much tighter than the floor plan implies.

Beyond this space is the first of the two balconies in the room, with two chairs and a table on the balcony.

The second room is accessed both from a door near the sink/fridge and through the divided bath.

It includes two queens, a TV, a wardrobe, and its own balcony–this balcony is too small for chairs, unlike the balcony in the other space.

The space here is about 17 feet by 11.5′.  It’s about a foot short in both dimensions, which shows up most clearly in trying to get from the wardrobe to the wardrobe side of the queen bed on that side–this area is cramped.

Both this room and the other main room have windows on two sides–a nice touch.

The bath is accessible from both spaces.

The sink area is spacious, well laid out, and nicely decorated.

The bath, connected to the sink area by a door, is sparse and utilitarian.

CLUB LEVEL SERVICE AT THE WILDERNESS LODGE

As noted on the first page of this review, Deluxe Rooms are part of the Wilderness Lodge’s Club Service.

(“Club” is what Disney World calls “Concierge.”)

The club floor at the Wilderness Lodge is the seventh floor, but all Deluxe Rooms, regardless of what floor they are on, have the rights to use club services.

Club services include a lounge–the Old Faithful Club Lounge–with drinks and snacks, and an associated concierge staff that can assist with issues such as tickets, dining reservations, etc.

Perks also include robes and cool gold-colored room keys–not blue like we have had on our other trips, in standard rooms.

The staff also reprinted my annual pass, so it’s now the cool gold color as well.

(By the way, you can now get annual passes at the resorts–up until a few months ago, you could only get annual passes at the parks.)

We used the lounge for breakfast, pre and post dinner snacks, and for drinks.

The staff, besides reprinting my annual pass, also put tickets onto some of our room keys.

The access and service was delightful, and my gold annual pass still cracks me up. Next year, a black one!

I don’t recommend club rooms for first time visitors–they won’t be in their rooms enough for it to matter–but it certainly makes visits for a repeat visitor a little more comfortable.

Steve at TikimanPages.com has a great discussion of the value of Disney club service rooms here.

TO WHOM ARE THE DELUXE ROOMS AT THE WILDERNESS LODGE MOST SUITED?

This review continues here.

PAGES: Previous  |  1  |  2  |  3  |  Next

NEW DISNEY WORLD DEAL, BUT ONLY FOR FORT WILDERNESS CAMPSITES, DELUXE RESORTS, AND DVC VILLAS

Disney World has announced a new discount deal covering dates through August 14, 2011.

The deal applies only to the Campsites at Fort Wilderness, Disney’s deluxe resorts and Disney Vacation Club resorts.

It’s broken into two parts:

• For travel dates “most nights” between 4/22/2011 and 6/14/2011,
• For travel dates “most nights” between 6/15/2011 and 8/13/2011,

There’s two different “book by” dates, which don’t exactly correspond to the deal dates–travel from 4/22 to 5/28 needs to be booked by April 30, 2011; travel from May 29 through August 13 needs to be booked by May 28.

THE NEW DISNEY WORLD DEAL FOR LATE APRIL THROUGH MID JUNE 2011

The first part of the deal, covering “most nights” between 4/22/2011 and 6/14/2011, needs to be booked by April 30 2011 for travel dates through 5/28/2011, and by May 28 for travel dates after 5/29.

This deal includes discounts of

• 10% at the Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
• 20% at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and the Polynesian
• 25% at the other Deluxe resorts
• 30% at the Disney Vacation Club resorts

The value and moderate resorts are excluded from this deal, as are suites and “three bedrooms.”  This last clearly applies to Grand Villas; I’m not sure if it applies to the Treehouses…if you know, let me know using the comment form below!

THE NEW DISNEY WORLD DEAL FOR MID JUNE THROUGH MID AUGUST 2011

The second part of the deal, covering “most nights” between 6/15/2011 and 8/14/2011, needs to be booked by 5/28/2011.

This deal includes discounts of

• 10% at the Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
• 25% at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Wilderness Lodge, and the Polynesian Resort
• 30% at the other Deluxe resorts and the Disney Vacation Club resorts

As in the first part of the deal, the value and moderate resorts are excluded, as are suites and “three bedrooms.”  

This is a particularly good deal after July 16.  Deluxe resort prices drop to near their lowest level of the year on July 17, 2011.  Another 30% off of this is pretty nice!

For more on this deal, see the Walt Disney World website here.

OVERVIEW: OCTOBER 2011 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews October 2011 Walt Disney World crowds, prices, deals and discounts, weather, and operating hours, and ends with week by week summaries.

[Read more →]

Recently this site passed its third year of operation.

Readers of last year’s birthday message will recall that I’m a little vaguer than I should be about when the site launched…

Going forward, I’ve decided that the official site anniversary will be April Fool’s day–it just seems fitting!

(This birthday post would have gone up on Friday, April 1, 2011, but I had more important news to relay that day.)

By coincidence, the site also had its half a millionth visitor March 30.

Three years old is a big deal at Walt Disney World–it’s the age at which a child can no longer enter the parks for free, nor not be counted against a hotel room’s capacity limits.

It’s a big deal here as well–even after three years, you continue to come to the site, to tell your friends, to post about it on message boards, and to link to it on your websites. 

Thanks to you, right now the site is running about 2,000 visitors a day; 12 months ago it was around 425 visitors a day; 12 months before that 160; and three years ago (more or less 🙂 ), when it opened, it was about 30 a day.

I’m grateful for and humbled by your readership and your kind words…thanks!!

Dave