In previous posts, we reviewed the various Value and Moderate Resorts. To lump all the Deluxe Resorts under 1 summary post would be an injustice to the Imagineers (Disney Designers) that created these wonderful resorts. The first installment of the Deluxe Resort review will be Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.
Wilderness Lodge (WL) opened in the Mid 90’s during a large Resort Expansion. The Resort represents the great National Park lodges of the West. When Disney World was first planned, Walt Disney drew up plans for a Wild West Resort where every day in the lobby, there would be a shoot out and a cast member would fall off the top floor balcony after being shot. Each cast member’s costume would also include a gun. When Disney Management reviewed these plans in the early nineties, it was decided that a more family oriented decor would be appropriate.
The lobby area features giant totem poles, Native American headdresses, and natural looking furniture. Designs in the wood flooring represent the 4 seasons and 1 central universe. The lobby also features a grand fireplace that is modeled after the layers of the Grand Canyon. Perhaps the best feature of the lobby is a bubbling spring that starts a stream that ultimately feeds into the main pool and Fire Rock Geyser.
The rooms at WL are located in 2 separate buildings. The main lodge hosts standard and concierge level rooms. These rooms contain 2 beds and most have a balcony. The VillasBuilding contains studio rooms, 1 bedroom suites, and 2 bedroom suites. The VillasBuilding is part of Disney’s Vacation Club although anybody is welcome to stay there. The 1 and 2 Bedroom suites have a large master bathroom and a full size kitchen.
WL has 2 pools. The main pool has a pool bar and slide. During the afternoon, the staff provides games and activities to keep both children and adults entertained. The main pool is also watched over by a life guard. Outside the VillasBuilding is the quite pool. This is an unmanned pool without all the thrills of the main pool. It is very nice place to get away from it all.
Wilderness Lodge has 2 sit down restaurants, 1 counter service restaurant, 1 lounge and a gift shop. The first restaurant is called WhisperingCanyon. The name is very ironic because this restaurant is anything but quite. Servers encourage you to scream, shout, and be as rowdy as you want. Dinner fare includes ribs, BBQ chicken, pulled pork, and other various items. Breakfast is your standard pancakes, eggs, waffles, French toast. Whispering Canyon is also open for lunch. Artist Point is a fine dining restaurant that is vastly different from WhisperingCanyon. This restaurant is only open for dinner and offers Salmon, Steak, Chicken, Buffalo and more. Artist Point is one of the great hidden gems of Disney World. Roaring Fork is a standard counter service restaurant featuring burgers, flatbreads, sandwiches, and snacks. Territory Lounge offers appetizer and has a great selection of beers. WL’s gift shop has snacks, drinks, and a variety of gifts and souvenirs.
WL offers various means of transportation to the theme parks. You can access MagicKingdom by either bus or boat. All other theme park, water parks, and Disney Attractions can be reached via bus. Despite several rumors, monorail service is not available to WL nor will it be available in the near future.
Disney’s Wilderness Lodge is one of my favorite resorts for several reasons. The location to the MagicKingdom is ideal, the theme of the resort is top notch, and the amenities of the resort provide everything you need for your vacation. For more information, any questions or for a quote for your own stay at Wilderness Lodge, please contact me at mickeybymatt@gmail.com. If there is a topic you would like to learn more about, please let me know.
Walt Disney World Moderate Resorts are a great combination of amenities, space, and value. The rooms, on average, are larger than Value Resorts and some can sleep up to 5 people. These resorts also host a larger number of rooms per resort as compared to the Value and Deluxe Resorts. Each Moderate Resort has a full service restaurant and a themed swimming pool with a slide. The 3 Moderate Resorts are Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans (both Riverside and French Quarter), and Coronado Springs.
Disney’s Caribbean Beach is an Epcot area resort and it opened on October 1, 1988. The resort originally opened as a Deluxe Resort, but was reclassified in 1990 by Disney. Within Caribbean Beach Resort, there are 6 “villages” that guest stay in. These villages are Trinidad North, Trinidad South, Aruba, Jamaica, Martinique, and Barbados. Caribbean Beach has a total of 2,112 guest rooms. In early 2009, Disney switched 384 rooms to a Pirates of the Caribbean theme. Each village has their own swimming pool. The resort’s main swimming pool, Old Port Royale Pool, was recently remodeled and features water slides, waterfalls and shooting canons. Dining options at Caribbean Beach include the full service restaurant Shutter’s at Old Port Royal, counter service Old Port Royale Food Court, and the Banana Cabana pool bar.
Port Orleans is divided into resorts, Riverside and French Quarter. French Quarter has a New Orleans Mardi Gras theme. It is the smaller of the 2 resorts with about 1000 guest rooms. The resort has its own pool, but guests are allowed to use the pool at Riverside as well. This is a great resort for couples. Port Orleans Riverside is divided into 2 Sections, Alligator Bayou and Magnolia Bend. Recently, rooms were refurbished and themed as Royal Rooms. For pictures of the Royal Rooms, visit my Facebook Page.
Coronado Springs is the 3rd Moderate Resort on Disney property. This resort is use for conventions so the buses are generally less crowded than other resorts. Because it is used for conventions, there will be more a business like feel. Many guests prefer this type of resort. The size of the rooms will be the same as Port Orleans and Caribbean Beach. A well themed pool and food court round out the amenities at this resort. They also have a nice fitness center which is rare for none Deluxe Resort Categories at Disney World.
No matter what resort you choose, you will still get wonderful perks such as Disney’s Magical Express, Extra Magic Hours, and the 24 hour immersion in the Disney Magic.
In today’s economy, it is important that we try to save as money while still enjoying ourselves on vacation. One way to accomplish this is by taking advantage of Disney Travel Discounts.
If you are traveling anytime outside of Christmas, Spring Break, Thanksgiving, or 4th of July, you will be able to get a discount with proper planning. Disney is constantly offering discounts and promotions outside of these timeframes in order to fill their resorts. There are two major promotions that Disney offers to the general public, Free Dining Promotion and Room Only Discounts.
The Free Dining Promotion is the most popular of all the Disney Promotions that have been run, which probably explains why they keep using it year after year. Basically, if you purchase a room and ticket package for at least 5 nights at standard rack rates, Disney will give you either the Quick Service Dining Plan or the Standard Dining Plan for free. The Plan that you receive will depend on the resort you choose. Value Resorts will receive the Quick Service Plan (although you can pay the difference and upgrade to the standard plan). Moderate and Deluxe Resorts will receive the Standard Dining Plan. Depending on the size and ages of your party, this can save a family of 4 around $200 a day.
The Quick Service Dining Plan comes with 2 counter service meals and 1 snack per person per night. All guests will also receive a refillable mug to use at your resort (a $15 value). These meals can be redeemed at your resort food court, walk up counters in the parks, and at walk up counters at Downtown Disney. My personal favorites include Earl of Sandwich and Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney, Capt’n Cooks at the Polynesian Resort, and the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot.
The Standard Dining Plan includes 1 table service meal, 1 counter service meal, and 1 snack per person per night. This plan also now comes with a refillable mug. The table service meal can be used for a wide array of options including Character Meal Experiences. You can also use 2 table service credits to dine at a Disney World Signature Dining Experience like Le Celliar, Flying Fish, or Cinderella’s Castle. You can also double up and attend the Hoop Dee Do Revue or Mickey’s Backyard BBQ.
The second most popular discount is the room only discount. Throughout various times of the year, guest can save 5% to 35% off the rack room rates of their resort room. The amount that you save will depend on the type of resort and the discount amount offered. Generally speaking, the most popular resorts will be offered at a lower amount, like the Values Resorts while the larger lesser filled resorts like Saratoga Springs and Old Key West will offer the discounts of upwards to 35%. You can also add theme park tickets and the dining plan to the room only discount to create your vacation package.
The big question comes in when Free Dining and Room Only Discounts are offered at the same time. Which one do you choose? From experience, I can tell you that most people, without even thinking choose the Free Dining Promotion because it’s free food. Sometimes it is the right choice, sometimes it is not. The main factors that will determine what option to pick are party size and age of the travelers in your party. The more adults per room you have, the better deal the Free Dining Promotion is. I have also heard stories of people adding an extra person to their reservation that is not traveling with them in order to get extra meals (if the extra person is 10 to 18, there is no surcharge for an extra adult in the room but you will receive a adult meal package).
Each resort has a limited number of discounted package for each promotion so it is important to reserve your package early. Using historical discount data, most Authorized Disney Vacation Planners can estimate which promotions will be available for the various times of the year. If you are looking for the Free Dining Promotion, it is important to book your room at least 180 days in advance in order to obtain your Advance Dining Reservations, even if the promotion is currently not being offered. If you book a package and a promotion is released, your vacation planner can apply the promotion free of charge. This is one of the best services that comes with a good vacation planner.
To book your family’s vacation using one of these wonderful promotions, please contact me at mickeybymatt@gmail.com. I can provide you with a no obligation quote. Please include the dates you would like to travel, party travel size, and ages of the travel party members. If you would like a quote on a specific resort, please include that as well. I am open to suggestions on future blog topic so please feel free to send in your requests.
As mentioned in my previous post, there are 3 main Disney Resort Categories. Today, we will focus on the Value Resort Category. As the name would suggest, this category offers the lowest rates on Disney property. The standard amenities of a food court, swimming pools, Disney transportation, pizza delivery, and most important, Disney Magic.
Although the food choices at the Value Resorts are not the same level as a Moderate or Deluxe Resort (those resorts offer table service restaurants), the food court at Value Resorts provide many options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or late night snack. The main pool at the Resorts also have a pool bar.
By staying at a Disney Resorts, guests receiving complementary transportation to and from Orlando International Airport via Disney’s Magical Express. Guests also are provide complementary transportation to and from Disney Theme Parks, Disney Water Parks, ESPN’s Wide World of Sports and Downtown Disney. This eliminates the need to rent a car for the week, saving you hundreds of dollars. Plus you do not have to pay for parking. If you drive to Disney or decide you would like to rent a car, Disney Resort Guests can park for free at the Theme Parks. Also, only Disney Resort Guests can take advantage of Extra Magic Hours. This is my favorite perk for Resort Guests. On select mornings, 1 Disney Theme Park opens up an hour early exclusively for Disney Resort Guests. This allows you to ride your favorite attractions before the general public is even allowed to enter the Park. This is especially good for the super popular attractions like the Fantasyland attractions in Magic Kingdom and Toy Story Mania in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Also, on select nights, a Disney Theme Park is open up to an extra 3 hours after the park closed to normal guests. On some nights, the Magic Kingdom is open until 4 am! As you can imaging, not many little children are awake to ride Dumbo at 2 in the morning. With a little afternoon nap planning, you can get on all your favorite attractions over and over again without a wait.
Currently, there are 4 different Value Resorts, each with their own unique theme. There is All Star Sports, All Star Music, All Star Movie, and Pop Century. Opening in Spring 2012, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort will open (more on this in a later post).
All Star Sports opened in 1994 and was the 1st value resort. There are 5 different “Sports” at the All Star Sports resort. Touchdown! is the football themed section which features 2 goal posts and a football field for your future Tim Tebows to play. Homerun Hotel is the baseball theme section of the resort. This section has its own quite pool along with an oversized Coke cup, giant bats, balls, and and a scoreboard. Center Court is a tennis themed area with giant rackets and tennis balls. Surfs Up celebrates the sport of, you guessed it, surfing. This section has oversized surfboards and lifeguard stands. Hoops Hotel is the basketball themed section of the resort. Giant megaphones and whistles make up this section of the resort. I personally like to stay in the Touchdown! section because of its location to the main building and pool area.
All Star Music also has 5 sections each themed with a different style of music. This was the second Value Resort to open on Disney Property. Jazz Inn, Rock Inn, Calypso, Country Fair, and Broadway Hotel. Each section features oversized items from each type of music.
All Star Movies was the third Value Resort. The 5 themes for this resort are based on popular Disney movies. The Might Ducks section features a giant hockey themed pool. 101 Dalmatians features a 35 and 40 foot Perdita and Pongo, respectively. The Toy Story area features a 35 foot Buzz Lightyear and a 25 foot Woody. Fantasia and Herbie the Love Bug round out the other 2 themed sections.
Pop Century opened in late 2003 and features pop culture icons from past decades. Big Wheels, Rubix Cubes, Sock Hop Dancers, and gigantic jars of Play-doh are the decorations for the various decades. This Resorts has 3 pools each themed differently. There is also a large lake, but you can’t swim in it.
The standard room size of these hotels are 260 square feet and can accommodate up to 4 guests. There are some family suites that can accommodate larger families.
The Value Resort Category is perfect for young families and couples that are traveling to Disney on a budget. They are also great for long weekends when you will be spending most of your time in the theme parks anyway.
Do you have a favorite resort, have a question, or would like to read more about a specific topic? Let me know.
If you have never been to Disney or it’s been a long time, planning a Disney Vacation can be intimidating. Where do we stay? What do we do? How do we get there? These are all questions that are asked. No need to worry though, millions of people visit Disney Parks each year and we can learn from people’s mistakes. The key to a great Disney Vacation is to have a plan. Each family or group is unique with different sizes, ages, interests, and budgets. Keeping this in mind, an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner can help guide you through the planning process, generally at no additional cost.
It would be impossible to cover every aspect of planning in 1 blog posting so I will start with the basics here and expand in later postings.
Deciding on what time of year you would like to travel is going to be the first part of your plan. The time of year you travel will determine the crowd levels, availability, activities/special events and even the price of your vacation. The busiest times of the year are Christmas week, Spring Break, and Summer. Basically, when kids aren’t in school, Disney is busy.
After you decide when you are going, it’s time to choose a resort. Disney has 3 categories of resorts. These categories are Value, Moderate, and Deluxe resorts. As the names would suggest, the main difference between the categories are the price and amenities.
The next items to plan for your vacation are what will you do once you arrive. Disney World consists of 4 theme parks and 2 water parks. There are also tons of restaurants providing numerous dining options. The tickets you purchase and dining reservations you make will be determined by your group’s preferences. Theme park tickets are called Magic Your Way Tickets. These tickets allow you to visit 1 park for each day you purchase. The Park Hopper Option allows you to visit multiple parks each day. The Water Parks and More option allows you to a certain number of visits to the water parks, mini golf, and DisneyQuest.
When planning your trip, ask the members of your group what they would like to experience on their trip. For many people, they only get 1 trip to Disney World so you have to make it count.
If you have a question about planning your trip or if there is a topic you would like to read about, please email me at mickeybymatt@gmail.com.
What better for a child than combining the 2 greatest things in the world, Disney World and Christmas! Visiting the most magical place in the world at the most magical time of the year is a great idea. Unfortunately, it is an idea that tens of thousands of people have each year. In order to enjoy as much of your Disney Vacation as possible, it takes a plan. Here are top 5 tricks to follow if you are going to brave this endeavor:
1. Stay on property: By staying on Disney Property, you are closer to the park and won’t spend extra time driving to the Parks. The other benefit to staying on property is Extra Magic Hours. The Parks will open early and stay open later for Disney Resort Guests. Get a head start to your touring before non Disney Resort guests even have a chance to enter the Park.
2. Make ADR’s: Advance Dining Reservations are a must around the holidays, unless you are ok with eating chicken fingers and cheeseburgers all week. The best restaurants book up months in advance during regular seasons, let along the holiday season. Check the Extra Magic Hours to see what park you will be visiting around eating time when making your ADR’s. This is an area where a Disney Travel Agent can really provide value.
3. Get up early: This is tough, especially for families with small children, but will make the biggest impact. The earlier you can be in the parks, the more you can avoid the crowds. Lines for the most popular attractions are generally less in the early morning hours allowing you to experience more than during the peak time of the day. This will also allow you to get a head start on Fastpass distribution.
4. Take an afternoon break: Since you will be getting up early to start touring the parks, you will be in need for an afternoon pool break/nap. This will help refresh the family and allow you to enjoy the wonder resorts that Disney has built. This will also give you a chance to shower before your dinner reservation that you have already made. It can also help you enjoy the late Extra Magic Hours at the Parks. Make sure that you have the Park Hopper Option added to your ticket so you are not limited to only 1 theme park per day.
5. Enjoy the small things: Sometime we get too wrapped up in riding our favorite attractions that we miss the small details that Disney has spent countless hours on perfecting. Visit the different resorts to see how they decorate them, watch a parade, go see the Osbourne (not Ozzy) Light Show at Hollywood Studios.
There are so many things to enjoy at the holidays, you just have to plan ahead. Most of the people I talk to that have a bad experience at a Disney Park were not prepared for the crowds. Let me know what your experiences at the holidays were. Email me at mickeybymatt@gmail.com with any questions or for help planning your next Disney Trip!
Hello All,
This blog will be about all things Disney Travel. Whether it is tips and tricks to save you money on your upcoming Disney Trip, helping you through the steps to plan your vacation, or just talking about the many amenities that Disney has to offer. Please feel free to make suggestions on the topic you would like to read about. Enjoy.
Matt
Mickey By Matt Travel 