Free Dining 2014 Information

Hi everyone!

Still waiting on Free Dining for 2014 to go live.  But I do have the details so I am going to share them here with all of you while I wait!

This special offer can be booked through August 8, 2014.

Offer valid for arrivals most nights:

• August 31 to October 3, 2014
• October 26 to November 1, 2014
• November 9 to November 20, 2014
• December 12 to December 23, 2014

Resort Category	Dining Plan
- Expanded Select Disney Deluxe Villa Resort Hotels	FREE Disney Dining Plan
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo House
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Disney’s Beach Club Villas
Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
Disney’s Old Key West Resort
Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Expanded Select Disney Deluxe Resort Hotels	FREE Disney Dining Plan
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Disney’s Beach Club Resort
Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Disney’s Polynesian Resort
Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
Disney’s Yacht Club Resort
- Expanded Select Disney Moderate Resort Hotels	FREE Disney Dining Plan
The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort
- Expanded Select Disney Value Resort Hotels	FREE Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan
Disney’s All-Star Music Resort
Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort
Disney’s Pop Century Resort

As always please remember it is a lot of work to get all this information together for all of you.  I do love what I do, but it is my living, so consider booking your trip through us and help support small business.  It won't cost you any extra!  :-)

Have a Magical Day!!

~Teresa

Fall 2014 Room Discount!

Hi everyone!

So while I sit waiting for the phone lines to open or a deal to become active online I figured I would post information about the fall room only discount.

Dates: August 16 - October 3, 2014
Book by: 8/8/2014

Details:

Resort Category	Save on Stays Most Nights
Select Disney Deluxe Villa Resort Hotels	Save up to 30%
Aug 16 through Oct 3, 2014 Disney's BoardWalk Villas 30% Disney's Old Key West Resort Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas - Jambo House 20% Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas - Kidani Village Disney's Beach Club Villas The Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge
Select Disney Deluxe Resort Hotels	Save up to 30%
Aug 16 through Oct 3, 2014 Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge – Standard/Pool View Rooms 30% Disney's BoardWalk Inn Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa Disney's Polynesian Resort Disney's Wilderness Lodge Disney's Yacht Club Resort Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge - Savanna View/Club Level Rooms 20% Disney's Beach Club Resort Disney's Contemporary Resort
Select Disney Moderate Resort Hotels	Save up to 25%
Aug 16 - 28, 2014 Aug 29 - Oct 3, 2014 Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort 20% 25% Disney's Coronado Springs Resort Disney's Port Orleans Resort - Riverside The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort Disney's Port Orleans Resort - French Quarter - 20%
Select Disney Value Resort Hotels	Save up to 20%
Aug 16 - 28, 2014 Aug 29 - Oct 3, 2014 Disney's All-Star Music Resort 15% 20% Disney's All-Star Sports Resort Disney's Pop Century Resort Disney's Art of Animation Resort - Family Suites Only 10% 20% Disney's All-Star Movies Resort - 15%
Campgrounds	Save up to 15%
Aug 16 - 28, 2014 Aug 29 - Oct 3, 2014 The Campsites at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort - 15%

As always please consider booking with us.  We put a lot of work into getting you all this information and quoting trips.  The only way we are able to make a living doing what we love is if you book your trips through us.  :-)

Have a Magical Day everyone!!!!
~Teresa

This Month in WDW - May 2014

Hi everyone!!

So the Spring Break craziness has settled and we are getting ready to welcome in the summer months of Disney, but before we do, we get the lazy light days of May!!  What a great month to visit!!  If you can avoid Memorial Day weekend and you will be good to go!

This month will also see the end of the Flower and Garden Festival, the beginning of Star Wars Weekends, and the next 24 hour event!  Lots going on!!  So with that.....here's this month in WDW!

Park Hours for May 2014

Refurbishment Schedule: (last updated 4/24/2014)

Magic Kingdom® Park
Pirates of the Caribbean Tomorrowland Transit Authority - Peoplemover           Astro Orbiter Liberty Belle Riverboat Carousel of Progress	Apr. 28 - May 1, 2014 Jun. 2 - Aug. 4, 2014 Jun. 2 - Sep. 19, 2014 Aug. 4 - 8, 2014 Aug. 25 - Sep. 4, 2014
Epcot®
None
Disney's Hollywood Studios®
None
Disney's Animal Kingdom® Theme Park
Festival of the Lion King It's Tough to be a Bug	Jan. 6, 2014 - TBD Jul. 7 - Aug. 11, 2014

Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
None
Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park
None

Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House
Roof Refurbishment	Mar. 1 - May 3, 2014
Disney's Boardwalk Inn
Kouzzina by Cat Cora Location Closing	Sep. 30, 2014
Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Garden View Tea Room Perfectly Princess Tea Party will take place at Cítricos	Jun. 30 - Aug. 29, 2014
Disney's Polynesian Resort
General Construction The east portion of the beach (near the Transportation and Ticket Center) and Sunset Point are being refurbished and are unavailable. Guests may see or hear work in progress.	Dec. 2013 - Mar. 2015
The Never Land Club Children's Activity Centers at four other locations are available: Disney's Wilderness Lodge, Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, Disney's Beach Club Resort and the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel.	Jan. 28 - May 25, 2014
Capt. Cook's Capt. Cook's will be relocated to a temporary location in the Great Ceremonial House with modified operating hours and menu items.	Apr. 9 - Jul. 2014
Great Ceremonial House - Lobby The atrium is being reimagined to highlight the cultural elements of Polynesia and provide more expansive views. At certain times of day, there may be some noise and alternative paths of travel may be needed throughout the Great Ceremonial House. To enhance the check-in experience, Guests are encouraged to participate in Online Check-In.	Mar. - Dec. 2014

Downtown Disney® Area
Team Mickey Athletic Club	Jan. 27 - Jun. 13, 2014
Parking Lots E, F, G Location Closing	Mar. 18, 2014
La Nouba by Cirque du Soleil	May 11 - 26, 2014

Golf Courses/Miniature Golf
Oak Trail Magnolia	May 21 - Jun. 4, 2014                                                   May 21 - Jun. 4, 2014

Information and dates subject to change without notice.

Special Events:

Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot runs through May 18th!
Star Wars Weekends - begins May 16th!!
24 Hour Event - May 23rd MK opens at 6am and stays open until May 24th at 6am.  Reopens for regular operating hours on May 24th at 9am.

Happy travels and have a Disney day!!

~Teresa

MyMagic+ - Hard To Get FP+ Reservations...aka Anna and Elsa!

So for those of you that follow my Facebook page, I am sure you saw that after trying day after day to get fastpass+ reservations for Anna and Elsa (if you have been living under a rock the last several months, these are the very popular sisters from Disney's Frozen - the top grossing uber popular animated film!) I finally secured them for our trip in just a couple weeks!!

If you don't book your FP+ selections at 60 days out the sisters can be nearly impossible to get.  I am guessing this will also be the case with the soon to open Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, but I think that that won't be quite as bad as it will have longer hours and a faster turnover as well as larger capacity.  Anna and Elsa currently only meet from 9am-5pm, so there are 8 short hours to be able to meet this popular duo!

How did I do it you ask?  

Login in to your My Disney Experience account.  If you don't have one....now is the time to set it up!

Once you are logged in you will see the following....

Click on the link to Make Selections for FP+

Once you do that it is a very simple step by step process.  You pick your park and then you pick who you are booking for.  This is where you want to do things a bit differently!!!

1. Only select ONE person and that person must be over the age of 7.
2. Scroll down to see if that hard to get FP+ reservation is available.  If it is then select it.  Don't bother picking your other two.  Let the site auto pick them for you, you can go back and alter what you don't like later!
3. Next you are going to go to My Itinerary:
   
4. Pick the date you want and your itinerary for that date will pop up.  At the top of the screen you will see + Add Plans.  A drop down will appear.  Select Manage Fastpass+.
   
5. You will now select to copy the fastpass+ selections to another person.
   
6. Pick the person that has the FP+ reservations you want to copy.
   
7. Then pick the person you want to copy them to.  Repeat this process with all those that you need to copy it too.  

As you can see above my mom had already been copied, so that is why her arrow is not green and there are no more screen shots!  :-)  The times for the popular attraction, in this case Anna and Elsa will not be exactly the same, which is why you cannot book them all at once, but they will overlap, making it so that you can all go at the same time at some point.  You just have to wait until the last start time for your group is eligible and go then.  If the time for one is way off and does not overlap, take it and then go back in and edit the others to work with that persons time.  This works most of the time if there is availability, but not always.  On one day I was able to get 3 out of 4 of us, securing the final 3 FP+ reservations for that date apparently.  Since we all want to go together, I cancelled those and chose another day.  

I hope this helps some of you get the hard to get FP+ reservations!!  

And of course, if you booked your trip with me, I will do this ALL for you!!!  As I did today for one awesome family traveling in June!

Remember, we travel agents will do as much or as little as you want.  So please consider booking your trip with me.  This information does have value.  ;-)

Have a magical trip and and please share pictures on our Facebook page of your meet and greet with Elsa and Anna!!

MyMagic+ - Linking your tickets

Another recent article from Disney regarding linking your tickets and other tips.

Linking Theme Park Tickets

Tip #1 – Before linking Theme Park Tickets, your Client should set up their additional party members in the ‘Family and Friends’ section. Once this has been completed, your Client should assign one Theme Park ticket to each of the party members in the drop down list.

Tip #2 – If a Client has multiple tickets linked to their account, they should contact the Help Desk or stop by Guest Services to learn what order the tickets will be used when entering the Theme Parks. It may not be in the order they were linked.

Tip #3 – If your Clients are not using personalized MagicBands, encourage them to write the names of each party member on the RF-enabled card. Knowing which card belongs to which person will help your Clients enter the Theme Parks and the FastPass+ lines more quickly.

Making Disney FastPass+ Selections in Advance

Tip #1 – When your Client books a stay at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel, they can makeFastPass+ selections up to 60 days prior to check-in for the entire length of their stay, just like booking dine reservations.　

Tip #2 – Those Clients that purchase tickets before they arrive can choose their FastPass+experiences up to 30 days in advance of each day of their theme park visit.

MagicBands

Disney Resort hotel Guests receive a MagicBand included with their stay to make their vacation more fun and convenient than ever before. MagicBands are also available for purchase at select merchandise locations.

As a side note from this, many people think they need their tickets in hand to link them.  This is not the case.  You need your confirmation number from the purchase to link them.  So if you are planning to get your tickets at will call, once you order from me or Disney you will get a confirmation number under a barcode in an email.  That confirmation number is what you will use to link the tickets to your account.  I recently did this for a client and it is super easy!

MyMagic+ - MAJOR Changes!!

Hi everyone!! 

So as I shared on my Facebook page today, there are some BIG changes coming to Fastpass+ starting Monday, April 28th!

We won't know all the ins and outs until the changes actually take effect, but here is what Disney has to say about it:

Today we are excited to share that starting on Monday, April 28, 2014, all Walt Disney World®Resort Guests will be able to make additional FastPass+ selections at in-park kiosks after they have redeemed their original (up to three) selections.

• Guests will be able to make one additional selection at a time, based on availability. After they redeem that additional selection, they can go to a FastPass+ kiosk to make another selection, and so on. (The additional FastPass+ selections must be made at a kiosk only.)
• Guests will be able to make their additional selection(s) for an experience at which they already redeemed a FastPass+ selection earlier that day.
• Guests with valid park-hopping privileges will be able to make their additional selection(s) at another park. Those selections must be made at a kiosk in the park where the desired experience is located. 

I for one am VERY excited about these changes and I will be paying very close attention to all that comes out of this over the next week or two.  We arrive in just 20 days and I can't wait to give it all a try.  I am happy to be able to get to test all of this hands on for all of you and share my experiences with it.  I may actually be able to get on board with all this Fastpass+ nonsense!  

Have a magical evening everyone and stay tuned for more details!!  I will be sharing as I get them.  Please follow the Facebook page and twitter as that is where you will most likely see it first.  :-)