Lost guests due to insane planning requirements?

[MickeyMinnieMom]

{rhetorical question}
How much did your last WDW vacation cost? Unless you are blessed to live next door (Which means cursed to live in Florida, but that's another rant.) A family is going to drop at least a couple thousand dollars.

For most of us, anytime you spend that much money all at once there SHOULD be some stress and anxiety. That's our body telling us to take this seriously and make sure everything is perfect. The trade off is that instead of showing up with a vacation's worth of unanswered questions (where are we eating? What rides can we get on today? etc) once you have everything settled you can show up at the World knowing that your next 4,8, 10 whatever days will likely go smoothly.

Not sure why you quoted me on this one...

I'm a planner. I spend a good deal of time on each trip, and "stress" some about getting our first picks, etc.

OP seemed to me to describe someone for whom stress was practically ruining the experience to date: "Her joy and excitement have turned into frustration and dismay." That is over the top, in my estimation. OP seems to be helping their friend with this, which as I said is really nice.

No idea what I said that prompted your response.

ETA: And incidentally, I think expecting perfection of any sort leads to more stress when things inevitably don't go 100% as planned all day, every day of the trip: "That's our body telling us to take this seriously and make sure everything is perfect."

 

[photo_chick]

I've not read the whole thread, just the initial post. But logic would say if the person can't find the reservations they want because everything is booked then Disney isn't loosing any sleep over it. Their restaurants and parks are full. They don't care what demographic fills them, as long as tickets are sold and food is bought.

 

[bella2117]

ADRs don't cause me stress or the planning of the parks on what days. I DREAD picking my fast passes online. I feel like theres a timer counting down and I have to get everything in as fast as possible before my computer explodes. I always ALWAYS second guess my fast passes.

 

[Nancyg56]

When people look for dining well in advance, and have trouble, the trouble isn't that there is *nowhere* to eat. The problem is that the most in-demand places, or the places they most wanted, are "sold out." I don't think anyone is contending that it is impossible to find a reservation anywhere.

Resort dining is often more available because for many people it is less desirable - not everyone is willing to give up the park time it takes to eat at a hotel.

Yes, what they mean is that the places they have decided are must do restaurants are not available when they are used to dining.

OP here - I'm glad that so many of us who have been so many times know how to navigate things so well at WDW. Doesn't surprise me.

Perhaps she has more options than what she said. I would make a suggestion and she'd say, "Hm, there's nothing there," or, "Only at 9:15" or something like that.

I guess there's going to be stress when you have such large demand and small supply, as someone else suggested. Millions more people coming, and little park expansion over that time. I guess specifically Disney DOES create an issue with the DDP. They push this in their marketing, and then people feel stressed about getting meals booked. Would it be better to only do day-of reservations? Probably not. I don't know.

The larger point is perception is reality for an individual. Her perception is a Disney vacation is hard and stressful. And that's too bad.

I think WDW planning surprises people. It requires more planning than any trip I take, anywhere - I went to Qatar on three-days notice a few months ago and had a lovely time. A parallel would be if you went to Washington, DC and you wanted to go the Air and Space Museum but you could only go on Monday or Thursday (because of other constraints) and it's only going to work on the day that you get reservations at a particular restaurant, which you darn better call six-months ahead of time. Also, you may need to book that hotel 11 months out! And it's extra if you want to leave the Air and Space and go to Natural History and if you don't want to stand in line for the Hope Diamond for 90 minutes, you'll have to stand in line to see Kermit the Frog for 120 minutes. And if you don't stay in these premium priced hotels, you may wait even longer to see stuff. (And for $600 for your family, we'll let you in late and you can look at the Declaration of Independence on your own!) Oh, and half of the zoo has been closed for refurbishment. ;-)

I think it is more complicated than trying to book meals because of the DDP. I think that it gets frustrating when people ae trying to negotiate a clumsy system to book meals that they have only heard abut and cannot figure out where the are located from whatever pak they think they may visit.

I think it's advice like yours that gets people into this "frenzy" that "nothing" is available. I'm not picking on YOU, other than that you're the one that posted it this time, but rather, the general attitude of frequent repeat visitors.

I can tell you from experience that we put off planning our first trip to Disney with DD because of the overwhelming "helpful advice" I had gotten from frequent visitor friends. It was just too much to deal with, and seemed like such a chore that I wouldn't have enjoyed anything once we got there. Pre FP+ it was "you have to get there at rope drop and run to the ride you want to ride most!" Well, no thank you. That was enough to put me off. Then there was the ADR planning, the "you have to eat here" advice. One friend had two huge binders full of plans, maps, routes, etc. Yuck. "Don't get the dining plan!" We like to have everything paid in full, no worries. I don't want to play the "put your money on gift cards" game, either. I don't care that I spend more money with the dining plan, and I think especially for the first time visitor it's a great way to budget yourself, regardless of whether it costs more. To me, there is no one more off-putting than an "expert" that tells you your wants are wrong.

I think I may be one of those people. A friend wanted to book a trip and after a short conversation with me, I have not heard from him again. I think I scared him, and I feel badly, because my "helpful" conversation may have sent hom anywhere else but Disney.

 

[Srbright]

Been to WDW lately? With the crowds and lines you often end up spending time right next to lots of people during the day.

That's why we go in Sept. The 4 of us an walk hand in hand down main street and not touch a soul.

ETA: I know the summer and Christmas people don't believe me so I will take a picture when we go.


Stacy

 

[cobright]

Not sure why you quoted me on this one...

[...]

No idea what I said that prompted your response.

ETA: And incidentally, I think expecting perfection of any sort leads to more stress when things inevitably don't go 100% as planned all day, every day of the trip: "That's our body telling us to take this seriously and make sure everything is perfect."

Sorry, I didn't mean to make you self-conscious about this. As you can see, I wasn't disagreeing with what you wrote, not really.

You posed the idea that the anxiety felt by OP's subject was, to a large extent, a personality trait that some people share and others do not and not something that can entirely be blamed on Disney. I think that's mostly right, but I think it's important to go a step further and categorize this sort of anxiety as a human trait and not something that should be 'blamed' at all. Simply put, anything that costs this much money SHOULD cause some anxiety. There should be a level of anxiety inversely proportional to the certainty of the product (in this case the days spent on vacation).

When you commit yourself to spending thousands of dollars on something there is a very real fight or flight reaction in most people. The "Fighters" are the ones who revel in the planning stage and the "Flighters" are the ones who feel overwhelmed by it. But in either case, this anxiety exists for a reason. Both reactions encourage careful planning; either by stimulating enjoyment in the planning stage or by causing the purchaser to obsess and scrutinize over the details. It's not a perfect use of the old hypothalamus but if the end result is a solid and workable itinerary some time before actually arriving at the parks, I'd say it's worth the hassle.

Likewise, I would never counsel that anyone should ever expect perfection. I'm a Buddhist so life is suffering and all that. No, the comment I made in your quote is only a basic statement about human rationality. When you invest as much into something as a WDW vacation it is normal to wish to maximize your value. In this context, anxiety responses to large expenditures is a normal part of being human.

***Just a quick note so no one gets me wrong on this. I am not speaking about the symptoms of an anxiety or panic disorder. I have managed a cripplingly severe (at times) anxiety disorder for about 15 years now and the last thing I would ever do is suggest that it is a normal and natural reaction to the world. As the name suggests, anxiety disorders are a corruption or failure of our natural anxiety response.

 

[lubob]

I don't get it she could of made adrs without a dinning plan in place. You don't need to purchase a dinning plan in order to make reservations. Make you adrs then if you decide you can always add on the dinning plan afterwards.

 

[Duckiedee]

She has so much time left. If I were in her shoes I would plan which park, which day and then book my TS for each day using either the times I wanted with what is available or the place I want most and not worry about the timing. Then if there was a restaurant I preferred - I would use Touring Plans to notify me when something opened up. If it doesn't, well, I've got something else in that slot... but in five months... it's probably going to work out.

Deep breaths. Less panic.

 

[WebmasterJackie]

I have a friend taking her two kids (3 and 7) for the first time. She was very, very excited when first telling me about it. I spent a fair amount of time with her helping her plan and she's using a travel agent. I did tell her that she should be ready at the 180-day point to snag popular places.

Well, she's at about five-month point and just called me. They decided to get the DDP (against my advice) and she's panicky because there are very, very few dining options available. And places that are open have ridiculous times (3:30 for dinner). Her joy and excitement have turned into frustration and dismay.

I told her not to let food drive her vacation and that where they eat or didn't eat won't be what they remember most, etc. etc. She's high stress and this is really getting to her.

Yes, she should have listened to us. Yes, she should have planned better.

But this system that Disney created has this person who is EXACTLY their target customer for vacations, merch, movies, and more, now kind of ticked off at the company for creating a stressful situation. I explained that this is how planning for WDW is now and at least she's somewhat knowledgeable and just imagine how it is for the folks who start thinking about the trip just a month ahead of time. I told her she was still ahead of the game because I've prepped her on FPs.

Nothing new here, but it was just a first-hand glimpse for me into how the way WDW has structured itself has resulted in a magical element of a vacation (the anticipation) being stressful and unpleasant for a potential repeat park goer. Now I hope they'll have a magical time, but I could see all this being enough for them to say the heck with it in the future.

Just stopping by to let you know that your thread made it to the DIS Daily Fix earlier this week! Congrats!

 

[BebopBaloo]

Just throwing a tidbit of advice out for your friend, esp. as she and her family will be there for the first time. Remind her to pick restaurants that are in the park that they are going to be in on that particular day. It will save them some stress by not having to plan on travel times to dinner.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I always pick up maps at the entrance each time even though I rarely use them, my observation was not so much people reviewing a map but those using to try and decide what to do next - indication they are not big planners, nothing wrong with that just an observation of the range of planning people take in regards to WDW visits.

So people who don't have a ride by ride touring plan in place on arrival aren't planners?

We plan ADRS and FP. We pick parks for each day, and have a general idea of where we are starting our day (heading to Thunder or Space, for ex).

The rest of the day we would look at a map (paper or on the phone with the wait times) and decide where to go next- usually while in line for a ride. Most of my non-frequent Disney friends would consider the amount of planning we do quite high. Stopping and looking at a map to decide what to do next doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of planning done, just that they didn't do step by step touring plans.

 

[EdmondD]

Just stopping by to let you know that your thread made it to the DIS Daily Fix earlier this week! Congrats!

I saw that! Little ol' me who never wants to start anything and who has like 130 posts or something. Whoda thunk it.

 

[hill6]

Last year we were eating ice cream at the Yacht Club when a mom , dad and three kids (one in a stroller) came by. They were fighting about where else they could try to eat at because nothing was good enough for the husband and he didn't want reservations anywhere.

 

[Barbanellie]

I think if Disney wanting to level the playing field for the average joe, they would put a limit on the number of ADRs you can make in advance.

Oh, I'd love reading the posts if Disney did this, there'd be so much outrage! Because wasn't that part of what they did with FP+, limiting how many you can reserve ahead, and how many people cried and moaned...

I have no idea what is better, but I DO know that whatever Disney decided to put in place to "fix" the ADR issues would make as many people happy as unhappy. You just can't please everyone all the time.

 

[IndianaRRT]

Dh surprised me last year with a trip for my birthday. He told me in mid-January. The trip was in late March. I got the resort I wanted (POR Royal room), every ADR that was a personal "must-do" (Ohana, CP) and a few that were 'wish list' (BOG lunch, for instance), and every FP we wanted. Granted, I had to do a little checking back with the reservation system for some things, but it can be done