A Spirited Dirty Dozen ...

[alissafalco]

Be afraid...
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...t-fans-have-lots-to-fear.921460/#post-7456505

Yep... I saw... sigh

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

Yeah, oopsy ... I may have said that ... such a naughty Spirit ... someone should spank me!

Well, I guess I Will ride the ToT for the last time when I'm down in December.

 

[ford91exploder]

My Mother told me we payed well under $100 per night at POFQ during the 90s. My wife and I stayed at YC for our first trip in 2008 and stayed Club Level and paid $300 per night. We paid well under $1K for 2 AP's. It was (for the most part) affordable back then. Club Level is nothing fancy but I was willing to pay $300 per night for a little extra service and food/booze when we wanted it. And please believe I got my money's worth in free Sam Adams!

We visited several times a year for many years up until about 2 years ago. It's just not worth it now. Our average trip used to run $1,500 for resort for 5-6 nights (club level) and we would easily drop $700 or more on food and drinks. Throw in $200 in merchandise as well. We averaged $2-2.5K per trip, 3-4 trips per year (min $7K total per year).

But our last two trips were well over $4.5K each (non club level). So we decided only one trip a year was worth it, if that. And FYI, we haven't visited in 11 months. Point is, I'd gladly pay $6K per year for 2-3 visits, but not $9K. So This year, TWDC got ZERO of Our dollars. Not saying we won't be back.

Same story here and we were staying on DVC points, Disney USED to get new car type money from our family every year, No longer. Wife got a trip to Iceland and I did a performance diesel truck build (Ford Superduty with a 7.3 as the base) with the money Disney WOULD have gotten from us.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Both OKW and SS are entirely DVC resorts, but rooms do fall into the Disney inventory and used for cash reservations (regular reservations). So, if you really want to find the "cheapest" rate for Deluxe rooms, I would think it would be at once of those resorts.

No disrespect intended to DVC members at OKW and SSR, but these two resorts feel much closer to POR than they do to any of the other Disney Deluxe Resorts, and this is reflected in their prices.

Looking at average rack rates per night (including tax) for 2017:

All Star Standard View: $159
Art of Animation: $205
POR Standard View: $270
SSR Studio: $424
OKW Studio: $424
AKL Standard View: $460
WL Standard View: $471
WL Courtyard View: $531
YC Standard View: $552
POLY Standard View: $640
AKL Savannah View: $648
GF Outer Building Garden View: $769

 

[WildcatDen]

I like my cheesesteaks the same way I like my women. Hot, greasy, and mouthwatering.

Oh, Penn Station rings all 3 of those bells. As for women, leave out the greasy and we are on the same page.

 

[jpeden]

That is disgusting. How ANY resort refuses to have a manager on duty is so typical of Disney. A Comfort Suites in Iowa can get you a manager, but a WDW Resort? Of course, they don't want anyone making more than $10 an hour working at 1 a.m.

And the best part about this was the incident was minor that terrible cast members turned into a complete mess. When it was all said and done, the day manager ended up wiping out our incidentals on our hotel bill (all of our in-park charging included) to make up for it and apologize for everything. But, had it been handled correctly when I inquired at 3:00PM that day and was told it would be handled (which was the 2nd inquiry on this matter), then the 1AM saga would not have been necessary. It really turned me off ever staying at the Poly again even though I loved the hotel, grounds, and room.

 

[VJ]

Welp, new Spirit thread. Moving to that one.

Wonder how long this one will be active before it dies.

 

[Cesar R M]

Do you realize how much it costs to run a website? To pay for bandwidth, constant software upgrades, etc. A site this size easily costs a couple of thousand dollars a month just to keep online.

I run 2 dedicated servers.. they run at 150 and 200 USD with 5 TB of bandwidth and all software included... There are cheaper ones of course (cloud) with unlimited bandwidth.
I'm pretty sure wdwmagic's efforts involve more than just money. But time, research. Which are nicely paid by donnors too.

The malware excuse is few and far between, and if you are running any type of security suite worth its salt it will be taken care of in the rare instance it happens. If you find it happening frequently, you really need to stop going to so many **** sites LOL.

Wow. Get down of your high horse sir.
Malware has appeared in major sites. even if its just "sometimes". Sites like deviantart, tumblr and twitter all have had these kind of ads. Suggesting I should browse just what others approve isnt exactly an excellent advice.
Anyway, While they get fixed these ads (because of reports) in a few days. For most people who browse the sites and have no protection.. the damage can be mostly permanent to their OS.

 

[Cesar R M]

The drink specials arent free, but they are sub-$5, so not bad. And DCL has been tightening up the liquor allowed on board. I got the 3rd degree on a can of pop....

And the new Dream enhancements left us with upcharge bar food and the Sweet/ice cream shop which charges for all.

There is a creep going on here.

What the hell, did they really do that?
Last time I was with them ice cream was free... so was bar food (except specialties) and there was a "drink of the days" (3 varieties) that were FREE.
but then, I was not in the Dream.. I was on the Wonder.
Do you think they added those "enhancements" in the dry dock refurb they just did?

 

[Cesar R M]

SnapChat is getting it's own IPO next year and reportedly being valued at 25-35 Billion. They are also rebranding as Snap soon with their own set of video glasses coming out this holiday season.

I have never used the site but it sounds like they have legs
http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/23/13039184/snapchat-spectacles-price-release-date-snap-inc
Edit for spelling, content

These reports are almost always overrated and overinflated.
A lot of these sites that were once hugely inflated in "value". Ended being bargained when their fad passed and the people moved on when these sites tried way too hard to expand their core business and monetizing (aka forgetting what made them special).

 

[Cesar R M]

Starring....

Justin Bieber.

 

[Cesar R M]

So scary. Here we are moving in on a good decade of social media existing as we know it ... and still, despite insane madeup valuations for things like FB and Twitter, there are no good and truly accurate ways of measuring just who influences what. None. Unlike all forms of traditional advertising. And we have self-proclaimed experts who tell companies how important they all are ... WDW just emailed me an AP note about staying at its resorts with a link to Mommy Bloggers telling me why it's a good idea. So scary. I know why THEY think staying at Disney Resorts is a good idea: they get free stays for telling others to pay $$$ to do so!

Almost feels like those "referrals" links of uber and similar.. get free stuff.. if you get tons of people to join in (pyramid scheme?)

Iger wants one more 'buy' before he attempts politics or something else. He was strongly interested in both Twitter and Netflix, but all of the hate spewed on Twitter turned him off (and likely didn't make DIS Board member Jack Dorsey happy) and the price valuation of Netflix didn't show enough value.

His favorite analyst Richie G keeps pushing this agenda that media and entertainment companies need to own distribution channels and tech themselves and The Weatherman agrees. I think they are both nuts. Disney is the largest media and entertainment company in the world. Yes, PURE media and entertainment. It isn't like those businesses are going to go bust because Disney doesn't have a tech component.

As a shareholder, I don't want him buying another damn thing and I wouldn't be opposed to selling a few things if the price was right.

I still wonder why the hell they dont create their own content platforms.
But then, I remembered the whole Go.com debacle and the magicbands...

 

[Cesar R M]

He name dropped those two quite some time ago. At least 18-24 months back.

Yes but I remember back then they were "educated guesses". I guess its confirmed now?

 

[Jon81uk]

No disrespect intended to DVC members at OKW and SSR, but these two resorts feel much closer to POR than they do to any of the other Disney Deluxe Resorts, and this is reflected in their prices.

Having stayed at SSR, just becuase the discount offered to UK guests made it cheaer than POR once free dining was factored in too (UK offer got QSDP at POR or full DDP at SSR, the cost to upgrade to SSR was less than to upgrade QSDP to DDP at POR).

I agree that SSR does not feel like a deluxe resort, its very spread out and there is nothing "special" about it. About the only amenity it had that POR didn't was a gym.

 

[asianway]

What the hell, did they really do that?
Last time I was with them ice cream was free... so was bar food (except specialties) and there was a "drink of the days" (3 varieties) that were FREE.
but then, I was not in the Dream.. I was on the Wonder.
Do you think they added those "enhancements" in the dry dock refurb they just did?

Not sure what up charges wonder got. This is specialty bar food stuff on the buffets is still free. Free drinks have really only ever been at captains cc Dvc receptions

 

[lentesta]

Oh, I don't at all think Dr. Blondie and Celebration Place would ever actively tell bloggers to diss a locale. What I do think is that they would encourage glowing coverage of some places over others. When is the last time the DPB has said anything good about House of Blues (a favorite of mine) or Portobello (another fave)? But they have made sure that certain places get shilled like they are the second coming. ... like Homecoming. I enjoyed it, but others I dined with did not and there are many shortcomings. I don't know one blogger who hasn't raved about the place. That is simply one example. I also wonder if this has something to do with some locales not wanting to ***** their establishments through Dr. Blondie's all-important list. Again, have you looked at most of these people?

I checked the Unofficial Guide reader surveys for these restaurants. We've received almost 100,000 dining surveys in the past year.

The average approval rating for all Disney Springs restaurants is around 86%. The standard deviation is around 6%.

Art Smith's Homecoming is the highest rated restaurant at Disney Springs, with 97% approval (n = 37 surveys).

Portobello is the second-lowest rated restaurant at Disney Springs, with 68% approval (n=137). Only Planet Hollywood is lower. We would actively tell people to avoid anything less than 80% approval. In this case, we'll probably rewrite our review to lead with a sentence about going somewhere else.

STK is at 70% approval (n=20). In the words of Jim Hill, I'm really looking forward to this restaurant ... 's next tenant.

Frontera Cocina is 84% (n=32). That's about where I'd put it, too.

Morimoto is 87% (n=281). I hear that Morimoto is still not satisfied with the food and service quality. The dude is serious about this place. I've seen him make a surprise visit in the middle of the afternoon, and I'm 99% sure I could hear the staff's collective sphincters tightening.

House of Blues is 90% (n=132).

Jock Lindsey's is 91% (n=246).

Blaze is 94% (n=162). I think this is the best pizza in WDW. I prefer it to Giordanos and Flippers offsite, too. If anyone knows of better local pizza, let me know.

Splitsville is 94% (n=158). I didn't think it was this good, but I could be wrong.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I checked the Unofficial Guide reader surveys for these restaurants. We've received almost 100,000 dining surveys in the past year.

The average approval rating for all Disney Springs restaurants is around 86%. The standard deviation is around 6%.

Art Smith's Homecoming is the highest rated restaurant at Disney Springs, with 97% approval (n = 37 surveys).

Portobello is the second-lowest rated restaurant at Disney Springs, with 68% approval (n=137). Only Planet Hollywood is lower. We would actively tell people to avoid anything less than 80% approval. In this case, we'll probably rewrite our review to lead with a sentence about going somewhere else.

STK is at 70% approval (n=20). In the words of Jim Hill, I'm really looking forward to this restaurant ... 's next tenant.

Frontera Cocina is 84% (n=32). That's about where I'd put it, too.

Morimoto is 87% (n=281). I hear that Morimoto is still not satisfied with the food and service quality. The dude is serious about this place. I've seen him make a surprise visit in the middle of the afternoon, and I'm 99% sure I could hear the staff's collective sphincters tightening.

House of Blues is 90% (n=132).

Jock Lindsey's is 91% (n=246).

Blaze is 94% (n=162). I think this is the best pizza in WDW. I prefer it to Giordanos and Flippers offsite, too. If anyone knows of better local pizza, let me know.

Splitsville is 94% (n=158). I didn't think it was this good, but I could be wrong.

Thanks for sharing Len, Any info on Boathouse?

Also, re: Morimoto. I've been once and thought the duck was great. My in laws have been twice and the duck was good once and bad once. From that small sample size it sounds like consistency is a problem and your info seems to support that.

 

[MichWolv]

How does one join this lounge you speak of?

$5 donation to the site, and you're in -- low barrier to entry. Then you too can gossip behind people's back safe in the knowledge that they will never know what you said...unless they somehow get ahold of $5 or know somebody else on the forum that has $5.

Most of us paid to thank Steve for all the work he does on this site. He says "You're welcome" by giving us a small sub-forum to chat. Stop by if you like. We're pretty friendly.

 

[flynnibus]

You are more generous than I am.

I am not going to expect a resort to be a price leader in affordability... And sub $100/night is hard to find these days unless you are in a motel. And for a value or mod... I don't want deluxe level amenities just nice.

I still look back on my history there and still find storm along bay the most memorable impact from any of the properties. I want to be wowed like that... More than the thread count in the sheets.

 

[sshindel]

Oh, and the Premium Member's Lounge, where people can gossip about others behind their backs.

YAY, someone brought up my favorite topic, and this time it wasn't even @WDW1974, with whom I've had one or two conversations about this. I respect the heck out of Spirit, even though I at times disagree with his opinions.
I was just going to send you a PM about this, but since you are not a premium member you might not have access to the feature which would allow you to discuss other members without their knowing. Feel free to join however so you can join in the fun! Then I can send you a PM and tell you what I really think about all of those other silly Premium members!

How does one join this lounge you speak of?

Pay the whopping, bank breaking total of $5/month (or $50/year) to help support this here fine web forum and you too can have access to this exclusive club.



Hold on, I'm receiving new information. Apparently the Private Message feature is available to everyone on the forum!!! I'm going to start a whole series of PMs with folks now about how that @Bob guy is a serious loser with odd fantasies about snow.