News Round Up 2016

[lockedoutlogic]

With tiered pricing should one presume that free dining during slow season goes away?

Not necessarily...it actually could provide more of an incentive during that time.

But what they could do it give you "free dining" but jack up the ticket cost to a higher tier to qualify. That is a possibility.

 

[rteetz]

With tiered pricing should one presume that free dining during slow season goes away?

They want free dining to go away but it isn't as of yet. They just increase the requirements to get it.

 

[Fantasia79]

Writing is on the wall for free dining.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Writing is on the wall for free dining.

Until the next recession? Yes

They've been scaling it back for 4 years.

And to be Honest...the price goes up a good bit every year...so when we get "any word on free dining?" Repeatedly...I have to wonder if the question makes any sense?

That promo has really been gone for years...now it's just a fairly standard package discount

 

[ej119]

News

D23 Head, Adam Sanderson, is leaving Disney
http://micechat.com/120771-adam-sanderson-head-d23-departs-disney/

The write-up mentions that D23 is not being dissolved and dates for the 2017 Expo should be announced soon.

Happy to hear its not going away, and a little surprised: my recent gold membership renewal expires Dec 31, 2016 -- over a month before it is supposed to expire, so I thought that was a bad sign.

(Shocked I beat @rteetz to this)

 

[rteetz]

News

D23 Head, Adam Sanderson, is leaving Disney
http://micechat.com/120771-adam-sanderson-head-d23-departs-disney/

The write-up mentions that D23 is not being dissolved and dates for the 2017 Expo should be announced soon.

Happy to hear its not going away, and a little surprised: my recent gold membership renewal expires Dec 31, 2016 -- over a month before it is supposed to expire, so I thought that was a bad sign.

(Shocked I beat @rteetz to this)

That's what happens when I'm busy for a couple hours.

 

[Mouse of Mystery]

Disney is working on a loose adaptation of 20,000 leagues under the sea called Captain Nemo.

http://www.slashfilm.com/captain-nemo-movie-director-james-mangold/

Taking bets:

How many families are going to head to the theaters expecting to see a clownfish?

 

[soniam]

I can't convince anyone in New Jersey of this...but the fact is many portions of the country aren't tied to a religious holiday at all. Some have trimester formats. The warmer portions of the country (Florida) end their calendars around 5/1. And remember that colleges also are all over the place - not a huge driver of travel to wdw but I bet quite a few people still do use that window to travel.

It's really covers a lot more than "Easter". But like I said - I try to convince my mother in law of this and she doesn't believe me...but she also is clueless that they are no more than 15% Catholics everywhere west of Philadelphia...even though it's the truth.

Anyway...there's a reason why 2/15-5/1 are never classified as the "slower" seasons on the Hotel rack charts.

As far as the NYC schools and why it's tied to Passover...here's a hint: ITS THE TEACHERS

Austin typically does Spring Break during March and definitely not the week of Good Friday. Most schools, including UT, have Spring Break at the same time in Austin. It is also when the South by Southwest Music/Film Conference/Festival occurs. That's why it's never the week of Good Friday. We do get Good Friday off though. Usually, our Spring Break is a little early in the Spring Break range, which is nice. It's a little closer to Easter this year though.

 

[beer dave]

Really? That ride is a people eater and my last trip (December 2014) we practically walked on. Then again, I do rope drop... maybe if I hadn't got there until 11am it would have been a different story.

Two weeks ago the FP line was running around towards the back of the building outside of the cue-- we probably waited 20 minutes to get on. Standby filled all but the two rows of cue used for FP. mid afternoon.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Two weeks ago the FP line was running around towards the back of the building outside of the cue-- we probably waited 20 minutes to get on. Standby filled all but the two rows of cue used for FP. mid afternoon.

I've seen the same type of situation...45 minute waits.

Which is sad because I like spaceship...but I have to skip it.

Just no...not going to bother when they've done such an awful job in strategic planning in their parks...really across the board.

 

[Bay Max]

Just out of curiosity, what are the problems Spice Road Table has had? We have an ADR for there for our July trip, so "problems" has me concerned

I thought the place was great. I think the problem they have is attracting guests.

 

[skier_pete]

With tiered pricing should one presume that free dining during slow season goes away?

Free dining has been slowly diminishing for years. Now you have to buy a hopper ticket (or WP&M) to get it. Who knows where it goes next. I doubt they would say you have to buy a higher priced pass than is normally necessary at that time. They'll just restrict, restrict, restrict.

 

[piglet1979]

Free dining has been slowly diminishing for years. Now you have to buy a hopper ticket (or WP&M) to get it. Who knows where it goes next. I doubt they would say you have to buy a higher priced pass than is normally necessary at that time. They'll just restrict, restrict, restrict.

I think the step might be to require more nights. Last year I think you only needed 4 nights. I can see it going up to a week at some point. I can also see them only offering in September.

 

[atricks]

Cuts:

A few new cuts I've heard about.

Disney Quest is reducing hours from 11:30AM- 10PM to 12AM - 9PM (90 minute reduction)

Boats for the Disney Springs resorts are reducing hours from 10 AM to 1:30 AM to 10AM to 11:30 PM. (2 hour reduction)

Turkey Legs will no longer be available at Animal Kingdom.

11 Citizens of Hollywood at Hollywood Studios contracts are not being renewed (Most that's ever been cut in one period). A unknown fraction of those are going to be "replaced" with newer actors.

 

[rteetz]

Cuts:

A few new cuts I've heard about.

Disney Quest is reducing hours from 11:30AM- 10PM to 12AM - 9PM (90 minute reduction)

Boats for the Disney Springs resorts are reducing hours from 10 AM to 1:30 AM to 10AM to 11:30 PM. (2 hour reduction)

Turkey Legs will no longer be available at Animal Kingdom.

11 Citizens of Hollywood at Hollywood Studios contracts are not being renewed (Most that's ever been cut in one period). A unknown fraction of those are going to be "replaced" with newer actors.

Newer actors with probably less pay.

 

[skier_pete]

I think the step might be to require more nights. Last year I think you only needed 4 nights. I can see it going up to a week at some point. I can also see them only offering in September.

It's part of why we decided to buy DVC. We travelled almost exclusively on Free Dining from 2007 to 2013, but with our daughter being older and not able to take her out of school, and the obvious way they were making FD tighter and tighter, we decided to switch to nicer hotels and cheaper restaurants.

 

[rteetz]

Here is the info on turkey legs going away at AK

http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions...et-a-turkey-leg-at-disneys-animal-kingdom.htm

 

[piglet1979]

It's part of why we decided to buy DVC. We travelled almost exclusively on Free Dining from 2007 to 2013, but with our daughter being older and not able to take her out of school, and the obvious way they were making FD tighter and tighter, we decided to switch to nicer hotels and cheaper restaurants.

This will be our last year with it. We took them out of school in September and it did not go over well. My son is in 4th grade this year and there was a lot of make up work for him. After the trip we decided that it is not beneficial to take the kids out of school any more.

 

[Spacedog1975]

It surprises me that management doesn't favor free dining. 1/2 the time it's a less costly incentive than a room discount, and it pumps up table service reservations. Seems like a win/win for me. I think I've done my last free dining (unless I end up doing the family thing), but there are plenty of folks that elect free dining against a room discount even though they've got 2 in their party and would save more the other way.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Cuts:

11 Citizens of Hollywood at Hollywood Studios contracts are not being renewed (Most that's ever been cut in one period). A unknown fraction of those are going to be "replaced" with newer actors.

Gotta say, that is probably the cut that I am most sad about. The Streetmosphere was one of my favorite aspects of DHS and will be saddened if it is lessened/eventually removed (one of my fears with turning it into Star Wars/Toy Story park)