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Disney World Tips and Tricks

Is Beach Club a pretty good place to stay? Probably checking that out in a few weeks.

Beach club is nice. It's a "delux" boardwalk is nice for after hours fun. Easy walk to Epcot. And close to yacht club. So some of the higher end food.

If ESPN zone is open, easy walk to ESPN zone for "game time".
 
And we were there the weekend before labor day and then for labor day. (long story on that one)

Low crowds, not a lot of masks out in the open but good on rides and inside.

Low waits for a holiday. Longest wait was 25 for Mission space orange that we did. AK and the pandora was 50 which isn't bad for them, but we didn't ride.

Everest single rider was hop on/hop off.

Did the boo bash and def less crowded than the not so scary parties. Less candy too. But fun.
 
We're looking to potentially go the week after Christmas this year - any tips for getting good package deals? Costco travel looks like it has a good Swan and Dolphin package right now, but I don't know if that is a good hotel.
 
What were your thoughts about how Disney's handling Covid now? Did you use Genie+ (is it in use)?

I don't think Genie+ has launched yet, but no real need for it right now with parks as slow as they've been since early reopening. Lightning Lane signage has started showing up, but definitely didn't notice people using it. Genie+ would have minimal value at the moment - I assume most people planning a trip in the second half of the year decided to wait until Oct 1 or later for the 50th festivities and expected new ride openings.

If you're willing to venture into Florida, Disney is going to be one of the safer places to be. Once you're indoors, mask compliance is far better than say on an airplane. Almost every ride has a staffer at the door making you put it on before you enter, but they're far less proactive at correcting the under the nose people in queue. My wife is very afraid of Covid (despite being more afraid of the vaccine...) and she's very comfortable there.
 
We stayed in Swan over labor day. The rooms in Swan are slightly larger rooms. I think two queens are standard in the Swan.

Costco and Sam's or target red card, you can sometimes get the disney gift cards at a discount (so a $100 gift card is $95) or the points have value if you charge your marriott card that you then use to get the hotel.

Gaylord Palms is close by, has a water park for kids if you don't do disney every day and is marriott now.
 
We stayed in Swan over labor day. The rooms in Swan are slightly larger rooms. I think two queens are standard in the Swan.

I like Swan and Dolphin. The location is awesome. We stayed there before we did DVC and would recommend it to anyone.

If you're willing to venture into Florida, Disney is going to be one of the safer places to be. Once you're indoors, mask compliance is far better than say on an airplane. Almost every ride has a staffer at the door making you put it on before you enter, but they're far less proactive at correcting the under the nose people in queue. My wife is very afraid of Covid (despite being more afraid of the vaccine...) and she's very comfortable there.

Thanks - we were there last November, but didn't know how things are now with Delta and different mask rules. We go every year for Food and Wine / Wine and Dine. My wife still isn't convinced we're going this year.
 
We're looking to potentially go the week after Christmas this year - any tips for getting good package deals? Costco travel looks like it has a good Swan and Dolphin package right now, but I don't know if that is a good hotel.

We’re doing a Swan deal through Costco during Thanksgiving week. It was about $700 cheaper than what we had arranged prior to seeing the Costco thing. Not sure what to expect the parks to be like that week but we enjoyed staying in that area when we did Yacht Club a couple of years ago. We think this will be our last trip there for a while if the changes to the fast pass system play out the way my wife expects.
 
What does she expect?

We're not going back to Disney until maybe our annual Memorial Day trip.
 
When my wife talks about this stuff, I focus on the headlines and rarely dive into the article itself. They way I look at it is it is better to stand in line than to be sitting at my desk at work, so I'm all good.
 
What does she expect?

We're not going back to Disney until maybe our annual Memorial Day trip.

What are y'all thinking about the new annual pass structure? Post Covid obviously...

It really sticks it to out of state non-DVC people. And they took away the free photopass part.
 
Sticks it to everyone but yeah, especially out of staters. Disney World seems to be moving towards become a more exclusive experience for the wealthy. It’s been expensive for awhile sure. But at least it used to be reasonable for middle class family in Central FL to splurge on annual passes and head to the parks for the afternoon every few weeks. Not anymore.

I’ve been following Disney pretty closely for years. Across the facets of the company I follow like the Parks, Marvel, Pixar, and ESPN, it really seems like the company is getting lazy. They’re coasting by on having IPs and rights others don’t have. The creative side is excellent but it seems like they’re doing just enough to support the corporate greed. The parks are charging more for demonstratively less. I don’t think they’ll be able to get away with it fir long.

I’ve been following Universal pretty closely for the last year. I think Universal will surpass Disney World within the next 10-20 years unless Disney World does something big or Universal screws up. The Universal pass and hotel perks are much better than Disney. Customer service is just as good.

Universal has added Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay since Disney World added Animal Kingdom. They bought land that will double the size of their property. They’re going to open Epic Universe in 2-3 years. The rumors based on promo art and city filings look amazing.

I recently saw that they’ll actually have enough space for a second park at the new property eventually which would put them at four parks as well. Along with that, they’re moving all the office space to the new property which frees up that space at the current parks. And that old office space just happens to be located between the two Harry Potter lands. So within the next 10 years, Universal will have a new park and likely more new attractions at the old parks.
 
You're not the first Disneyphile I've heard say that about Universal.

When I last had my Annual Pass about 4 years ago it was about $850 for the pass, and I had to go maybe 6.5 to 7 days to break even with a daily ticket running around $119. It's $1250 now and a daily ticket runs around 160. Massive increase, and with the exception of Galaxy's Edge not much new added the last few years to bring value to it.

I'm excited for what's coming the next 2 years, but beyond that cost alone is prohibitive. I very rarely stay on resort anymore since there are so few perks to it. I've yet to take the kids and stay at Universal but it's on our agenda.
 
Is Beach Club a pretty good place to stay? Probably checking that out in a few weeks.
Pools are definitely the best part: sandy bottom, fun pirate ship waterslide, lazy river. Good marketplace. Cool ice cream 50s style restaurant. Quick walk to Boardwalk and Epcot. Quick elevators. Free arcades is a nice perk. Iced coffee is bad and you have to walk to Yacht Club for it.
 
beach club was always our family's choice. great spot, walkable to Epcot's back door/showcase. boat ride to MGM. awesome pool.
 
How far ahead do I need to plan for a Disney trip? My parents’ 50th is in a couple of years and they’d like to celebrate by taking the whole family (so four adults and three kids plus them).
 
LK, I’m excited for the new additions at Disney, particularly Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. I just don’t think anything is going to stack up to Universal. Disney has been playing creative catchup for years and keeps falling short. Nothing they have matches what Universal did with Harry Potter. And based on what’s in Japan, the new Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe is going to be on that level.

We’ve stayed at four of the Universal hotels this year and I like all of them. Cabana Bay is the cheapest but probably my favorite. The high ends are all good and easy walking distance and you get the Express Pass. It’s definitely worth the cost to stay at those hotels. Even one night gets you two days of Express Pass.
 
Sticks it to everyone but yeah, especially out of staters. Disney World seems to be moving towards become a more exclusive experience for the wealthy. It’s been expensive for awhile sure. But at least it used to be reasonable for middle class family in Central FL to splurge on annual passes and head to the parks for the afternoon every few weeks. Not anymore.

I’ve been following Disney pretty closely for years. Across the facets of the company I follow like the Parks, Marvel, Pixar, and ESPN, it really seems like the company is getting lazy. They’re coasting by on having IPs and rights others don’t have. The creative side is excellent but it seems like they’re doing just enough to support the corporate greed. The parks are charging more for demonstratively less. I don’t think they’ll be able to get away with it fir long.

I’ve been following Universal pretty closely for the last year. I think Universal will surpass Disney World within the next 10-20 years unless Disney World does something big or Universal screws up. The Universal pass and hotel perks are much better than Disney. Customer service is just as good.

Universal has added Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay since Disney World added Animal Kingdom. They bought land that will double the size of their property. They’re going to open Epic Universe in 2-3 years. The rumors based on promo art and city filings look amazing.

I recently saw that they’ll actually have enough space for a second park at the new property eventually which would put them at four parks as well. Along with that, they’re moving all the office space to the new property which frees up that space at the current parks. And that old office space just happens to be located between the two Harry Potter lands. So within the next 10 years, Universal will have a new park and likely more new attractions at the old parks.

I stayed at a budget on park resort(PopCentury) for 5 nights and had single park tickets for four days and I could've taken my entire family to Europe for 10 days for significantly less money. It has become almost prohibitively expensive for regular folk.
 
What are y'all thinking about the new annual pass structure? Post Covid obviously...

It really sticks it to out of state non-DVC people. And they took away the free photopass part.

I didn't think it was that bad. Out of staters previously only could buy the most expensive one, and it went up $100 or $150? (I should know how much they used to cost as we just got ours restored before the announcement the new ones were coming back, but with the stupid Orlando tax rate it was about the list price of the new one).

Losing the PhotoPass thing is annoying but that's essentially $99 for a family, not per pass. Ultimately for a family of 3 (ignoring the baby who gets in free for another couple years) we're going to pay another $500 next year (minus the renewal discounts, so maybe $450). That's not nothing, but when you're already forking out almost 4 grand another 10-15% is more of a nuisance than a deal breaker.
 
$400-600 a year is more than a nuisance for a lot of people. Gotta think a lot of out of state AP holders will scale back to one trip a year. The out of state pass is $1,299.

The Florida resident annual pass with block out dates used to be the cost of a one park ticket and standard parking for each park. That would be about $600 now. The “pirate pass” is $699.
 
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