A trip to WDW, then versus now

[wisblue]

Yeah, I remember waiting 2 hours in line to ride BTMRR, that was awesome spending that big of a percentage of your total park hours, vs. my last trip in November 2011, with FP, never waiting for ANY ride more than 20 minutes, and most rides just walking right on. Oh, how I pine, for the good old days.

If you were walking on a lot of rides and not waiting for more than 20 minutes for anything, that was because the crowds were low, not because of FP.

For people who can visit during those times, they can have the same experience, whether there is no FP, FP-, FP+ or whatever.

For people who are tied to school calendars and don't have that luxury, the experience is going to be different. At those times, FP- has always run out early on the most popular attractions.

 

[skriegerjr]

Lol, you missed it then!

Unfortunately...maybe I'll make out with my wife on POTC this trip! LOL

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[Granny square]

Unfortunately...maybe I'll make out with my wife on POTC this trip! LOL Sent from my rooted Samsung Galaxy SIII using the DISBoards app

Go for it! (Not really IT, of course!

 

[skriegerjr]

If you were walking on a lot of rides and not waiting for more than 20 minutes for anything, that was because the crowds were low, not because of FP.

For people who can visit during those times, they can have the same experience, whether there is no FP, FP-, FP+ or whatever.

For people who are tied to school calendars and don't have that luxury, the experience is going to be different. At those times, FP- has always run out early on the most popular attractions.

No that was just pre fp return time enforcement, where you could ride any ride with a fp, up until the park closed. That, plus rope drop, meant you could crush the park, riding a ton of rides in a day, and end with a bunch of fast passes on the rides with huge waits!

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[lugnut33]

No that was just pre fp return time enforcement, where you could ride any ride with a fp, up until the park closed. That, plus rope drop, meant you could crush the park, riding a ton of rides in a day, and end with a bunch of fast passes on the rides with huge waits!

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Now THOSE were the good old days!! That was the greatest. Just like you said we crushed the parks using that strategy.

 

[skriegerjr]

Now THOSE were the good old days!! That was the greatest. Just like you said we crushed the parks using that strategy.

Absolutely! I still remember the evil looks people in 2hr standby line gave us at the Safari in AK, when we walked right by them with our fast pass!

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[magicbob]

And wondering why king Stefan had his banquet hall was in cinderellas castle...

As is often the case, Disney actually had a backstory to explain this. Personally, I think this is probably apocryphal, but I read somewhere that the reason the banquet hall was named for Aurora's father, is that it was customary to honor neighboring monarchs by naming your banquet hall for them.

 

[wisblue]

I disagree. We get there early (always have because we are morning people ) and have usually ridden buzz, sm, pooh, pp, sw, and the hm before lunch without fp's. Then we hit the other side major rides and then wander the shows etc. would use fp for btmm on occasion.

My opinion. Only time will tell of course.

I completely agree with your disagreement. My oldest daughter and I went to the MK on a busy day during Easter break this year and, when the park opened at 8 AM, we went on Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, POC, and the Jungle Cruise before 9:30. We also took a quick stroll through the treehouse because we hadn't done that in years. We didn't use any FPs, so anyone else, whether staying on or offsite, could have done the same.

Now, throw in the fact that we actually entered the park for EMH at 7 AM and did Space Mountain, Buzz, the teacups, and Peter Pan, and we had almost all of the major attractions covered; we were going to ride Little Mermaid, but that was down and we ended up doing that later.

Now, if you stroll into a park at noon on one of the busiest days of the year, I agree that you'll have trouble doing many major attractions without a lot of waiting, FP or not. But, then, you would have nobody to blame but yourself.

 

[kiramay]

I'm just saying...cable cars! It was my very first ride at the Magic Kingdom.

I loved that ride!

 

[wisblue]

No that was just pre fp return time enforcement, where you could ride any ride with a fp, up until the park closed. That, plus rope drop, meant you could crush the park, riding a ton of rides in a day, and end with a bunch of fast passes on the rides with huge waits!

Sent from my rooted Samsung Galaxy SIII using the DISBoards app

Even that strategy had some significant limitations during the busiest times of the year. Once the return times for major attractions were out more than 2 hours (which didn't take long) , you could only get one FP every 2 hours. If you were saving those FPs for the end of the day, you wouldn't be doing much in the middle of the day.

 

[dwheaton]

I agree that it was much different at that point. One of the reasons was only having two parks during the '80s. Also, hotels were a lot cheaper relative to income, so we stayed at the Contemporary, the Polynesian, and others when I was a kid. Getting around to those parks was pretty easy, even in the summers. Disney also didn't cater to international guests like they do now, and fewer people used air travel.

Here's a question for everyone, though. People constantly mention trying to get ADRs and the hassle with that part of the planning. Why not just ignore the table-service restaurants? The food is good, but it's really no better than a lot of places in most cities. This would eliminate a lot of the headaches, save money, and cause less necessary planning. If the ADRs are a big issue, just take a break from them.

I think that's a big difference for someone like me who grew up going to the parks before free dining and all of that. I just assume that we'll usually eat counter service and pretty quickly and maybe have one sit-down meal on the trip. There are still plenty of places with decent food and not a bad atmosphere.

 

[skriegerjr]

Even that strategy had some significant limitations during the busiest times of the year. Once the return times for major attractions were out more than 2 hours (which didn't take long) , you could only get one FP every 2 hours. If you were saving those FPs for the end of the day, you wouldn't be doing much in the middle of the day.

Two things, we always went in November, so relatively low crowds, AND, during the middle of the day, we were always back at the resort for the little ones to rest/swim. Then we'd always have an early dinner in the parks/resorts, so we could hit rides while others were dining.

I would concur with you this strategy wouldn't do much during Christmas Week, but first week or so in November, and we absolutely nailed everything we wanted, as many times as we wanted. Last time we were there, the longest wait was 20 min for Dumbo, because my DD 3 insisted on going on it. Went on Space Mountain 4 times back to back, no line at all. Splash Mountain two times back to back, then a third time about 45 minutes later with our FP that we pulled at RD. While we were waiting for that FP to come online, we rode BTMRR 5 times in a row.

Also did Star Tours 6 times back to back, no wait at all. It was awesome, especially with a son who is Star Wars obsessed, and, on his very first ride after the re-opening of the reimagined Star Tours, he was chosen as the Rebel Spy. He jaw dropped and he kept tapping my arm, saying, "DAD! I'm the Rebel Spy! I'm the Rebel Spy!"

 

[wisblue]

Two things, we always went in November, so relatively low crowds, AND, during the middle of the day, we were always back at the resort for the little ones to rest/swim. Then we'd always have an early dinner in the parks/resorts, so we could hit rides while others were dining.

I would concur with you this strategy wouldn't do much during Christmas Week, but first week or so in November, and we absolutely nailed everything we wanted, as many times as we wanted. Last time we were there, the longest wait was 20 min for Dumbo, because my DD 3 insisted on going on it. Went on Space Mountain 4 times back to back, no line at all. Splash Mountain two times back to back, then a third time about 45 minutes later with our FP that we pulled at RD. While we were waiting for that FP to come online, we rode BTMRR 5 times in a row.

Also did Star Tours 6 times back to back, no wait at all. It was awesome, especially with a son who is Star Wars obsessed, and, on his very first ride after the re-opening of the reimagined Star Tours, he was chosen as the Rebel Spy. He jaw dropped and he kept tapping my arm, saying, "DAD! I'm the Rebel Spy! I'm the Rebel Spy!"

You are really supporting my point that overall crowd levels, and getting to the parks early, are far and away bigger factors in how many attractions you can enjoy in a day than the presence or absence of any FP system. If you were riding those major attractions back to back to back with minimal waits, there weren't many people in the parks.

If you look at the current wait times in the parks, using either MDE or easywdw, they are quite short, so the notion that you could only do 5 attractions in a day without FP+ (something someone else said) is complete bunk.

 

[Lorelei528]

I remember on my first trip that included EPCOT in '87, I knew even as a college kid (18-19) that I wanted to eat in certain restaurants and I called Disney to find out how to make reservations (this was before PS or ADR's)...

So, although I do miss the WDW (or should I say MK ) of my 1977 trip....some people (like me) are just planners and know what they want out of a vacation before it starts.

My dad was somewhat of a planner, and although I don't think he booked anything besides our hotel ressie at CR on our first trip, I do know they booked the Luau and dinner at (what was it called then?) at the top of the CR almost as soon as we checked in...

 

[wisblue]

I agree that it was much different at that point. One of the reasons was only having two parks during the '80s. Also, hotels were a lot cheaper relative to income, so we stayed at the Contemporary, the Polynesian, and others when I was a kid. Getting around to those parks was pretty easy, even in the summers. Disney also didn't cater to international guests like they do now, and fewer people used air travel.

Here's a question for everyone, though. People constantly mention trying to get ADRs and the hassle with that part of the planning. Why not just ignore the table-service restaurants? The food is good, but it's really no better than a lot of places in most cities. This would eliminate a lot of the headaches, save money, and cause less necessary planning. If the ADRs are a big issue, just take a break from them.

I think that's a big difference for someone like me who grew up going to the parks before free dining and all of that. I just assume that we'll usually eat counter service and pretty quickly and maybe have one sit-down meal on the trip. There are still plenty of places with decent food and not a bad atmosphere.

We make very few ADRs, maybe one per visit, and it wouldn't bother us if we didn't make any. We eat cereal, OJ, and muffins in the room before we hit the parks, and then pick up things here and there as we move along. When we stayed with our family at Poly, we also got some bread and peanut butter for the kids to eat when we came back to the room to use the pool.

Even now that our kids are all adults (and still love WDW) we just aren't interested in the amount of time, food, and planning that is involved in making a lot of table service reservations. And, we aren't too proud to share meals from counter service places. Two orders of chicken strips, one order of fries, and a bag of apple slices is enough for 3 of us.

 

[dwheaton]

We make very few ADRs, maybe one per visit, and it wouldn't bother us if we didn't make any. We eat cereal, OJ, and muffins in the room before we hit the parks, and then pick up things here and there as we move along. When we stayed with our family at Poly, we also got some bread and peanut butter for the kids to eat when we came back to the room to use the pool.

Even now that our kids are all adults (and still love WDW) we just aren't interested in the amount of time, food, and planning that is involved in making a lot of table service reservations. And, we aren't too proud to share meals from counter service places. Two orders of chicken strips, one order of fries, and a bag of apple slices is enough for 3 of us.

That sounds very similar to the way our trips have been. I don't have anything against people who focus on ADRs and table-service for the trip. It's just interesting to note how stressed it makes a lot of people.

 

[lugnut33]

dwheaton touched on a great point, back in the day most people staying in the bubble were staying very close to the parks. That's definitely something that has changed, the amount of time devoted to getting to and from your resort by either Disney Transport. or your own vehicle.

The other thing you got was Goofy trying to waterski.

 

[NYDisneyKid]

Then= no FP's no GAC's no single rider lines etc, everything was fair game, NOW=........

 

[wisblue]

Back then- very few, if any, scooters riding over your heels.

 

[magicbob]

Even that strategy had some significant limitations during the busiest times of the year. Once the return times for major attractions were out more than 2 hours (which didn't take long) , you could only get one FP every 2 hours. If you were saving those FPs for the end of the day, you wouldn't be doing much in the middle of the day.

Except enjoying a relaxing, cool dip in the swimming pool at the resort instead of waiting in long lines during the heat of the day!