A Blog About Disney Stuff

This fall and even early winter, Guests will have more reason to celebrate when visiting Walt Disney World due to the fall and holiday decorations and festivities, but also, there are a couple of great offers that were released that will allow you to save money!

The first offer allows Guests to save up to $500 on a 4-night, 4-day Walt Disney World Resort Package at select Disney Resort hotels. This offer is valid for stays most nights from September 4 through December 25, 2020.

Here are the resorts and how much you can save:

Disney Deluxe Villas – Save $500

• Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
• Disney’s Beach Club Villas
• Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
• Disney’s Old Key West Resort
• Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
• Disney’s Riviera Resort
• Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa

Disney Deluxe Resorts – Save $500

• Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa – reopening September 21
• Disney’s Yacht Club Resort

Select Disney Moderate Resorts – Save $250

• The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
• Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
• Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort – reopening October 14

Disney Value Resort Hotels – Save $100

• Disney’s Art of Animation Resort – reopening November 1
  Disney’s Pop Century Resort

Campgrounds – Save $60

• The Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort (Save $15 per night)

 

In addition, right now, due to uncertainty, know that if your plans change, any Disney-imposed change and cancellation fees will be waived up to the date of check-in for reservations with arrivals through December 31.

Guests have the opportunity to book this offer through December 25, 2020.

 

Now, if you’re in a select southern state, there is another offer that has been released. If you are a resident of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia, you can take advantage of a great room only offer that is available.

Guests from these select states can save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resort hotels for stays most nights September 4 through December 25, 2020. In addition, you will have the ability to modify or cancel your reservation with extra flexibility through December 31, 2020, due to the ever changing nature of things.

Here is a look at the savings broken down by resort category and where you can choose to stay:

 

Disney Deluxe Villas – Save up to 30%

• Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
• Disney’s Beach Club Villas
• Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
• Disney’s Old Key West Resort
• Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
• Disney’s Riviera Resort
• Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa

Disney Deluxe Resorts – Save up to 30%

• Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa – reopening 9/21/20
• Disney’s Yacht Club Resort

Disney Moderate Resorts – Save up to 25%

• Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
• Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort – reopening 10/14/20
• The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort

Disney Value Resort Hotels – Save up to 20%

• Disney’s Art of Animation Resort – reopening 11/1/20
• Disney’s Pop Century Resort

Campgrounds – Save up to 15%

• The Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort

Again, you must book by December 25, 2020.

The post Two Great Offers for 2020 Fall Travel to Walt Disney World appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: discounts, News, Walt Disney World (FL), walt disney world

We are off to school this week as Getting to Know Universal boards the Hogwarts Express. The cross-park transportation attraction opened in 2014 as part of the Diagon Alley expansion to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The Hogwarts Express, along with Diagon Alley, replaced the Jaws attraction which closed in early 2012.

Quick Glance

• Location: Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure
• Attraction Type: Transportation attraction with special effects
• Scope: Headliner
• Touring Plans Rating: 4 1/2 stars
• Height Requirement: No

The Experience

Hogwarts Express is a slow train ride that simulates the trip between King’s Cross Station and Hogsmeade Village. Guests ride in the iconic train, just like Hogwarts students, in movie-replica cabins that seat up to 8. Cabins feature a virtual window to the outside world that show familiar sights from the Wizarding World. Windows facing the trail passageways are frosted and a unique projection system casts shadows giving guests an immersive experience.

The ride experience starting at the Hogsmeade or King’s Cross stations is completely different. Guests beginning at King’s Cross have a large air-conditioned queue to cross from the muggle world to the Wizarding World at Platform 9 3/4 and board on a grandiose train platform straight from the movie. The ride film from King’s Cross to Hogsmeade features owls, Dementors, the trolley lady, and Hagrid. Comparatively, the Hogsmeade Station queue is entirely outdoors (but covered), and the ride features the Weasley Twins, Voldemort, and the Knight Bus.

Unlike most attractions, Hogwarts Express encourages guests to carry food and drink onto the ride. In fact, the King’s Cross station even includes a snack stand in the queue featuring crisps, candies, fruit, drinks, and even beer!

The Opinion

Thanks to its accessibility and a memorable ride experience, the Hogwarts Express ranks as one of the best attractions at the resort. There are not many iconic experiences in a theme park quite as memorable as a ride on the Hogwarts Express – from riding in movie replica cabins, crossing over to Platform 9 3/4, and even disembarking the ride in a totally different park. The ride experience lives up to the hype–make sure you ride in both directions to see the complete experience.

Restrictions & Accommodations

• Hogwarts Express is accessible by ECV or wheelchair
• All guests must be able to sit upright unassisted or be accompanied by a supervising companion
• The attraction might cause motion sickness
• The attraction includes closed spaces, flashes of light, and scary imagery

Touring Tips

Because the attraction is park-to-park transportation only guests with park-to-park tickets can ride, a sneaky upsell by the Universal pencil pushers. The queues for King’s Cross and Hogsmeade vary in waits throughout the day; in the mornings and evenings the lines remain at or under 15 minutes while queues will surge in the late mornings and mid-day as guests who experienced Potter land transfer over to the other park.

The post Getting to Know Universal – Hogwarts Express appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Harry Potter, Universal Orlando Resort, Hogwarts Express, Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida

Yesterday morning, Disney’s Hollywood Studios experienced a major disturbance in the Force. The star attraction of the park, Rise of the Resistance, failed to produce boarding groups at the 10:00 a.m. park opening. This led to the most eager of guests being unable to secure return times at park opening to ride what is the most anticipated attraction of the park. It is easy to imagine that this would increase wait times throughout the park. Not only that, but it could throw off the plans of many guests.

A Few Unexpected Closures at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

In addition to the unexpected lack of early morning availability for Rise of the Resistance yesterday morning, Tower of Terror experienced some unexpected downtime too. Thankfully our TouringPlans Lines App makes it possible to adjust your plans in real time, without having to use a Jedi mind trick. Our app uses real-time data to show expected wait times compared to Disney’s posted wait times. Recommendations on which attractions to experience when are updated throughout the day based on changing conditions.

Around 11:30 a.m. both Rise of The Resistance and Tower of Terror were unavailable. Here’s how wait times looked then. We’ve included the wait times that Disney posted as well as the expected wait times our Lines app calculated.

• Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
  • Posted Wait Time 60 / Expected 50
• Slinky Dog Coaster
  • Posted Wait Time 50 / Expected 39
• Rock N’ Roller Coaster
  • Posted Wait Time 50 / Expected  41
• Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run
  • Posted Wait Time 45 / Expected 37
• All other attractions were 20 minutes or less

Now, let’s look at the Observed Wait Times from yesterday that are available on TouringPlans.com.

With the morning’s disruptions it would become necessary to adjust plans based on real-time data. Our Lines app directs users how to adjust their plans to reduce their wait times. For example, on the current day, the Lines app would indicate to wait until later in the day for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway as the wait time always goes down. But Toy Story Mania was going to stay at 10 -15 minutes throughout the day and would be good to ride anytime. Furthermore, with the unexpected downtime of Tower of Terror, the wait time at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster was higher than normal since it is right next to Tower — so our Lines app would recommend waiting until later in the day. The same is true for Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run as well.

It seems the outage for Rise of The Resistance Boarding Groups was due to a nationwide outage of a major internet provider. Other digital Disney services were disrupted too. The disruption led to distribution of boarding groups taking place at 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.  As boarding groups were distributed and guests could begin riding Rise of the Resistance, we saw wait times throughout the park decrease. Tower of Terror came back online as well.

At 1:40 p.m. Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway had a Posted Wait Time of 60 minutes, but our Lines app showed an Expected  Wait Time of 45 minutes.  Slinky Dog Coaster had a Posted Wait Time 40, but our Lines App showed an Expected Wait Time of 31. This is not a drastic change in wait times, but as the evening rolled in wait times decreased significantly.

By 5:30 p.m. the wait times across Disney’s Hollywood Studios were half of what they were during the morning and early afternoon.

• Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
  • Posted Wait Time 35 / Expected 29
• Slinky Dog Coaster
  • Posted Wait Time 30 / Expected 25
• Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
  • Posted Wait Time 15 / Expected  14
• Tower of Terror
  • Posted Wait Time 13 / Expected 20
• Toy Story Mania
  • Posted Wait Time 12 / Expected 20
• All other attractions were 20 minutes or less

To give more context about how the unexpected lack of availability of Rise of the Resistance Boarding Groups and the unexpected downtime of Tower of Terror impacted wait time at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, let’s look at the past three Sundays.

Wait times were a little higher than the previous Sundays during the morning, and then they leveled out in the afternoon. Overall the loss of Rise of the Resistance and Tower of Terror did impact guests in the morning, but wait times improved significantly in the early evening. In a situation like we saw yesterday it would be very helpful to have our Lines app along with you so your day can be adjusted on the spot, allowing you to save lots of time.

When was the last time you were at Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Have you had a chance to experience Rise of the Resistance yet?

 

The post Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group Failure Leads to Longer Wait Times at Disney’s Hollywood Studios appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Hollywood Studios, In the Parks, Trip Planning, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Rise of the Resistance, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

The Walt Disney World Resort has been utilizing a phased reopening for its resort hotels and due to the ever changing nature of the travel industry currently, they have decided to make a change in regards to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort’s reopening.

Originally slated to reopen on August 12 and then pushed back to October 4, the resort will once again have its reopening date pushed back. This time, for a more lengthy period of time. Disney has announced that Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort will now not reopen to hotel Guests until next summer. This adjustment in the schedule is allowing the Walt Disney World Resort to complete some refurbishment work on the hotel. Work will be done to not only the Guest rooms, but also to the Great Ceremonial House. According to the Orlando Sentinel, changes to the rooms will include a move to a new color palette as well as details, patterns and textures from the film Moana.

Work will begin in early October. The Villas and Bungalows at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort will remain open during this refurbishment.

Those impacted will be emailed by Disney about their upcoming reservation.

The post Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort to See Refurbishment and Delayed Reopening appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: News, Resorts, Walt Disney World (FL), Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort