Not going to be popular, but really, tell me your thoughts

[mrsabbott]

We haven't been to Disney since 2009. My oldest DD remembers it and my middle DD has some vague memories. My youngest DD was just a baby and our DS wasn't even born yet.
We went to Universal a couple years ago and LOVED it and want to return, but DS is getting ready to turn 5 and our girls are getting older and we wanted to give Disney another try before they get too old to really enjoy it.
When we went in 2009, it was very "fly by the seat of your pants". We liked going up to a ride and getting the paper fast pass if it was too crowded. My daughter loved Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and wanted to ride it more than once. So, we did. We only did a couple of CS meals while we were there and it was fine.
Planning this time seems very complicated. I've been reading up on the new fast pass system. We aren't doing magic bands (staying off site... way too expensive for our family to stay onsite) and because of work/school schedules we are very limited on when we can go. Early April it will be for us. Tempted to hold off until early October though. But, from what I've been reading, it won't matter because it will still be very crowded.
There are some restaurants we want to try. BOG is one of them because Beauty & the Beast is my absolute favorite! So, before we even purchase our tickets, I will need to make all reservations 4 months in advance so that I can figure out which days we can go to which parks.. depending on when/if I can get the elusive BOG reservation! We planned to get the tickets about a month before going, but I need to try to get them a little early so that I can be sure to upload them to the app I downloaded in order to get my 30 day window for making fast passes.
Before THAT though, I will have my schedule of which parks we are going on which days, based upon whether we got the dinner reservations we wanted months before. I then have to talk to the kids about what MUST DO rides they want for each parks so that I can try to get a fast pass for that ride on the days we will be there. I'm worrying about this 10 months in advance!
Yes, TS restaurants are optional.. but if it is something we really want to treat ourselves to and experience, why shouldn't we? But really? Trying to get a reservation FOUR MONTHS in advance?? And having to plan your entire vacation around it?? And planning the Fast Passes a month in advance? That seems a little too much as well! Sure, we could choose to wait in line for an hour or more.. but it will be difficult enough with four children and a husband with some PTSD/anxiety issues.
I expect crowds. And I expect some waiting in line. I'm not trying to be unreasonable. Maybe I should just say "forget it!" and decide to fly by the seat of our pants. But I want to make this as fun and relaxing as I can for our family.. perhaps at the expense of my own relaxation because I am stressing about planning everything so that we can experience the things we want to. I may get there and decide that I love the whole new fast pass thing! I don't know!
In the mean time, I am reading trip reports and suggestions and reviews and following the crowd calendars and the wait times on certain rides on the app so that I can decide which ones to use our fast passes on.. if we can get them.

 

[Hikergirl]

I agree with some of your points OP, especially the FP+ thing. I do miss the regular FP days when you could walk into the park and decide what you wanted to do and what you wanted to FP at that moment. I do not like having to pick rides 2 months away especially when I don't even know what park I'll be in.
The 6 month ADR is crazy too, but you really don't have to do that unless you are trying to get the few restaurants with really high demand. We only make 1 to 2 ADRs for our trips, and I have never started planning 6 months out. The only time I ever found myself obsessively checking for an ADR is our last trip and I wanted BOG. I was able to get an ADR on my anniversary (MAGICAL!!!) about 1 month before our trip.
I also like the extras that they offer, they aren't mandatory but IMO they can make a trip even more magical. We did the Wishes dessert party and if you could have seen the looks on my kids faces when I told them that they were having desserts for dinner that night. It made the whole trip! Well except for the BOG anniversary dinner.

I think if you go in with the feeling that the magic is gone or on its way out, it means its time for a break, and its time to find magic in other places.

 

[si-am]

This is the first year in my whole life I'm not going to Disney, which feels kind of weird. I went for the first time at 9 months, and I'm 41 now! My family has always gone at least once, and sometimes twice, every year!

It's always been a family tradition, but even though we still find magic there and have a good time, we just aren't compelled to do it right now. There are suddenly way too many cutbacks and too many cost increases/money grabs, and if you go every year like we do, they are really obvious and kind of disheartening.

We will probably go next year to see some of the new stuff... But I feel ya, OP. It says a lot that we are taking some time off after so many years.

 

[Vijoge]

We're taking four of our granddaughters in January and this will probably be our last trip to WDW. I'm approaching retirement but DH will still be working and his vacation days are limited. We've taken our kids, and this will be the last group of grandkids we want to take and I just feel there are so many other things to experience in the time we have left to travel.

 

[ConnecticutFlea]

Our family took our second trip to Disney in 1986. My fourteen year old son preferred to spend his time playing basketball with some kids he just met at Fort Wilderness instead of going to the parks.

Fast forward to the present. My son is now 44, and goes annually in the fall with us, his wife and two daughters who are now 16. He still isn't a big Disney fan, but the rest of his family is. So I guess you either feel the magic or you don't. He never did.

My daughter has always been a disney fanatic. Her entire family loves Disney and her sons are now 19 and 16. We go with them every year in the spring. That makes 2 trips annually for my husband and me. We are both retired. I have never had a bad trip to Disney.

I love the current fast pass system. It gives me the flexibility to go to the parks any time of day and still get on a headliner ride without a long wait. With the old system, all the fast passes for a popular attraction could be gone early in the day or have a return time way beyond when I would be in the park. Yes, it requires advanced planning, but at least I know before I arrive at WDW that I'm guaranteed a ride on the attractions that are important to me. I book my ADRs months in advance. I cancel them if I change my mind. Overall I find the experience much less stressful once I'm there and no longer running around the parks trying to score fast passes from the machines.

I have had the opportunity to travel to many other places, and I have enjoyed those trips. But a Disney vacation remains up there with my favorite places to visit. I still feel the magic.

We also spend a couple of days at Universal. It's fun, but not magical. There is a different vibe there.

 

[Sagginit]

Honestly the magic was lost for me on my last trip as there were so many problems with them. It was when magic bands were going into effect and FP+ was newer. We had a ton of scheduling issues and a number of them were created by their system not working. Things that didn't work in just 6 days:

- one night the FP+ machines were glitchy and they told us they didn't know how to fix it so to just try rebooking our times (with like 2 hours until park close, really?)
- multiple times the App would crash, or I would update times during the day and get to the park to find out there system didn't match the App/website, this led to constant debates and huddles with CMs to try to figure out if they could "let us in" without our pass scanning the right color. almost always when a supervisor came they would confirm it was the system not us.
- we booked a fantastmic dinner package for when the restaurant opened and had to take our desert in doggy bags as the kitchen was having some sort of issue (short staffed?). Dinner took over 2 hours for just two courses and as such we were so late they almost didn't let us in and refused to let us sit in the reserved area so we couldn't see anything.
- got to a restaurant once we had a breakfast ADR for and they told us they were closed. we could see people inside just being served drinks and having orders taken. i questioned it and the hostess said the system must have made a mistake as they close before our ADR time. the hostess did the strangest thing next, she said we should go to the other restaurant at the hotel and then left the desk, went into the restaurant area, and closed the doors in front of us. when we were walking out of the lobby several other groups were walking in too so the ADR system must have really lost its mind for that to happen.
-MVMCP was so overcrowded we could only do 1/4 of the things we wanted to. it was before thanksgiving and they didn't even have all the xmas decorations up yet in parks so it was a low crowd week in general. it rained and so only a few characters were out in the exact picture spots and the lines were several hours long. we had to eat a QS dinner standing up as there were no seats in the one restaurant they had opened. i am GF and they didn't have allergy information on the coco so they just gave me one tiny cookie in a package, they wouldn't even give me a drink of water as they said they were only set up for cookies and coco. we had to go to a cart and buy water.

I still had some magical moments, but the planning stressed us out a lot. I went to DL last fall with the paper FP system in place and not needing ADRs. It was so much better, like WDW when I was a kid. If they keep it like that I would actually pay to fly out to CA again before I will go back to WDW. What stands out is that not only did they have issues and bugs, but the CMs were downright rude to us many times. It was clear that they were slipping as a whole and we haven't looked back. I might feel different in a few years but I totally see why a lot of people have reached a tipping point. I am in the camp of I don't care if the prices keep going up, I just don't want to get less with each visit if they want so much more.

 

[luvsJack]

We went to Universal for 3 days over the Memorial Day weekend. LOVED it. It really made the lost magic at Disney stand out to me.

In years past we found the magic at Disney in the CMs, the little extras, people going above and beyond. I did plan--ADR's at 180 days (up before daylight to get CRT back then!) and which parks on which days and should we park hop and how are we going to get the fast passes we want. Then we got to the parks and found ourselves following the plan as far as the first attraction and the first grab of fast passes. After that we did whatever and had an awesome time. We might look at our plan and we might not, just however we felt at the moment.

Past two trips, it was all about following a plan as we had fast passes AND Adr's. Sure we could have skipped both. But is that really realistic with 180 minute waits some days for some things? And if you want a relaxing meal on your trip AND you want it somewhere that your family likes the food AND somewhere in the park you are in or you are going to not on the other side of the property, then you pretty much have to have an ADR.


Compare to 3 days at Universal. Not one ADR made ahead. Walked up and ate at several table service places with FABULOUS meals and 1/3 the price of a table service meal at Disney. Not too shabby. We got hungry, we decided to eat and we ate at whatever place looked good to everyone and was semi close by. No fast passes to make. Now we could have gotten express pass--which pretty much gives you unlimited fast passes all day long, but we didn't so we did wait for some things but not near the kind of waits we have seen at Disney. Next time we will have the express pass and I still won't have to sit down 60 days from our trip and figure out what we want to ride and when and how do we get the big folks on Space Mountain and the little ones in line for Mickey and everyone with a fast pass and no one missing out on anything. Universal was so very very clean. And every single Team Member that we encountered was over the top great at what they do. Last time I was at Disney, I saw dirty bathrooms and over flowing ashtrays and overflowing garbage cans. Not what I expect from Disney.

Until I had the two to compare, I really had not truly accepted that what I have seen is a decline over the past 10 years or so. But it is there.

 

[cruisingtwins]

We are taking a break until all new lands are completed. Right now the value is just not there for us. We'll see how high are the prices then.

 

[Minnesota!]

I am not a fan of the obvious money grabs they have been going for - just smells desperate. However, who says you "have to" be on the phone at 180 days out? I am 7 days out, don't have my ADR's all set, and have absolutely everything I want available to me. We tend to book day of for meals, and have never had an issue (even over spring break...). Same with FP. I just booked mine beginning of this week, for the NEW stuff, and had many options.

I do agree the crowds are more insane than they have ever been, and park upkeep is a shadow of it's former self. However, I love the Disney bubble, and will continue to visit it as long as DME is an option If it becomes a pay service, that severs the only tie that REALLY sets WDW apart from US or SeaWorld, honestly..

 

[luvsJack]

I am not a fan of the obvious money grabs they have been going for - just smells desperate. However, who says you "have to" be on the phone at 180 days out? I am 7 days out, don't have my ADR's all set, and have absolutely everything I want available to me. We tend to book day of for meals, and have never had an issue (even over spring break...). Same with FP. I just booked mine beginning of this week, for the NEW stuff, and had many options.

I do agree the crowds are more insane than they have ever been, and park upkeep is a shadow of it's former self. However, I love the Disney bubble, and will continue to visit it as long as DME is an option If it becomes a pay service, that severs the only tie that REALLY sets WDW apart from US or SeaWorld, honestly..

I keep seeing people say this about ADR's. I am not calling to see if its true but I did look online. If I were to be in the MK tomorrow and decide I want to eat dinner in the MK according to their website nothing is available. So I did a search for dinner over the whole property. I am up with a couple in Epcot, one in the Studios and the rest are either in Disney Springs, at a resort or at the Boardwalk. And almost all of them are late dinner times for families with kids. If I am in a park and want to eat dinner and my kids are hungry, I don't really want to have to trek over to another area/park to eat. Besides, if you are going to walk up, you are treking over there HOPING to get a table. Not attractive with 2 hungry kids in tow. I just don't think its a realistic option for most people.

 

[katyjeka]

Disney will always hold a special spot in my heart. We have made so many wonderful memories over the last twenty some years. We have recently started traveling to other areas and I must admit it's awesome. I don't know if our family is in need of a break or what but Disney has been lacking magic for us as well. I won't go into the price other than say it's getting crazy. We have visited Puerto Rico, Belize, Arizona, California, Utah, to name a few. All were less expensive. Our girls are still talking about White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns. They should be on everyone's bucket list and cost almost nothing. We spent the day sliding down the pure white sand dunes and our four year old claims that as her favorite thing ever. We will still visit WDW but will probably avoid a long trip for awhile. We've discovered how "magical" the world is outside those gates.

 

[rnorwo1]

We went to Disney for many years in a row, or, at least every other year, after my first was born. We even bought a small DVC contract. It was just an easy place to bring 3 kids of different ages, there's something for all of us. And, while we really enjoyed it, I have never really understood people using the term "magical" to describe it. It has been great fun, we've had some great memories, but it's never been an obsessive place for us. So, as my youngest became old enough to start travelling to other places (about age 4; he's now 7yrs), we started going to many other places. He's already visited 22 states, including Hawaii (yes, we stayed at Aulani, it was great), and many places that I would truly call magical (Grand Canyon, anyone?!).

I guess I'm differentiating ourselves from many on this board, so it's not like all the changes have disillusioned us, but I do agree with OP on the things we do not like about WDW. We went to DL in 2014, and we loved it so much more than WDW. And, we have twice stayed on-site at universal, and that was incredible! No lines for almost all rides; you cannot beat that! I'm amazed when people don't mind standing in line for 2 hours for a ride. If it were just 1-2 rides out of your entire day, ok. But for that to be the majority of the rides, like it was at WDW our last visit, it's just not worth our time. We hiked up and down Diamond Head a couple of weeks ago, spending time at the top to enjoy the amazing beauty, in the time it takes to have one ride on Toy Story stand by.

Since we do have the DVC contract, and we still have many park days and lots of water park days left on some non-expiring tickets, we will likely go 2017, since it's a virtually "free" trip. My tentative plan is to do 1-2 park days only, and the rest we will spend at the resort and the water parks. I will only set my alarm to make an ADR at Ohana, which I love, and we will wing the rest. This sounds appealing to me right now... And trust me when I say I am typically an obsessive planner and always over-schedule all of our trips, but I think that this is how we will do Disney every few years for a few more trips. There's just not much more (rides or restaurants) that are worth the hassle to us any more. As soon as my youngest says he's done with WDW, then we will sell the DVC contract.

Next summer, we are spending 3 weeks in Alaska for the first time. I suspect that trip will be incredibly magical!

 

[rnorwo1]

Disney will always hold a special spot in my heart. We have made so many wonderful memories over the last twenty some years. We have recently started traveling to other areas and I must admit it's awesome. I don't know if our family is in need of a break or what but Disney has been lacking magic for us as well. I won't go into the price other than say it's getting crazy. We have visited Puerto Rico, Belize, Arizona, California, Utah, to name a few. All were less expensive. Our girls are still talking about White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns. They should be on everyone's bucket list and cost almost nothing. We spent the day sliding down the pure white sand dunes and our four year old claims that as her favorite thing ever. We will still visit WDW but will probably avoid a long trip for awhile. We've discovered how "magical" the world is outside those gates.

I just posted a much (unnecessarily) longer post about true magic (to us) being in these naturally beautiful places. We took a 5 day trip to Southern NM right before Christmas. We used SWA points and some hotel points, ate at some local, inexpensive places that were amazing (walked right in!), and I agree, it was truly magical and probably cost us about $500 total, for the car rental, admissions, and food. To stand on those dunes, feeling so tiny amongst the vastness of the sand, or looking at all of the amazing colors in the caverns, it was just incredible. $5 sled rentals and no fast passes to go down the dunes! We have had similarly amazing experiences on almost all of our trips. I plan them obsessively, to make sure we find all of these amazing spits, and of course I plan on ways to save money, but the payoff is just so much more than snagging a BOG ADR.

Magic is subjective, though, so to each their own. But, if "the world" has been your only vacation year after year, I would definitely encourage you to at least think about visiting another part of the real world!

 

[dreiwhit]

This post has got me thinking.

When we went to Disney World back in March, we did experience "the magic." Everything was great, nothing went wrong. It was a great vacation, and we had a great time. It was the first time we had gone as a family, and I had just accepted a new (and better) job the day before we left.

Before Disney, our "magical" vacation spot was Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, mostly because my wife and I got engaged there in December 1999 while on vacation with her family. Like our DW trip, everything went great. We experienced so much "magic" that it became the vacation spot of choice for many years. Sometimes, we'd even go twice a year. However, the magic started to fade away when we went back there in 2008 after a gap of 3 years. I think it was a combination of many things:

• The price of everything had gone up and my salary had not. We didn't have the money to spend like we once did.
• Many shops that we used to go to and shop were now closed. If they were replaced, we weren't interested in what they sold.
• Many restaurants we used to eat at had closed. For the ones that were still open, the portions weren't as big or the costs had gone way up. The value wasn't there.
• There were very few attractions that were new, and the ones that were still there hadn't changed. Some attractions we liked had closed permanently.
• And, lastly, we had gone so much that there was very little there that was new or enjoyable anymore.

It got to be that going up to Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge on vacation felt like not going on vacation at all. Because of everything that had changed, our enjoyment level was a lot less.

On my last job, my supervisor was a big fan of going on cruises. Over the past 8 years, he's gone on about 20 cruises to Europe, Mexico, Panama and the Carribean. Mostly now, though, he just stays on the ship, reads, and doesn't go into the ports. Most of what he talks about now is what they did on the trip down to the port and what they did after the cruise on the way home. I think the magic of cruising has gone for him, mostly because he's gone so much and done everything that he wanted to do.

We're planning another trip back to DW. There was a lot that we wanted to see and experience, but didn't get a chance to. So there should still be plenty that is new. However, we've already decided that may be our last trip back for 5 years or so. Mostly because its expensive, about 150% more than what we normally spend on a vacation, but also because we don't want to spend the money and come back with a "Disney Fatigue" experience like we got at Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge.

 

[luvsJack]

Oh, for sure, magic can be found anywhere. my favorite is a sunrise or sunset at the beach. Seeing the Smokey Mountains in the early morning. Or the beauty and unexpected fun in New Orleans. But I think there has always been an expectation of what Disney is. And magic is a part of that expectation. Of course that magic is different for different people.

We don't go to any one place every year except for a beach weekend in PCB (and although we go there every year, we don't tire of it. We look forward to it every single year) We don't go to WDW every year by a long shot and yet still see some decline. I wish it wasn't so but it is. Its not just about tiring of Disney. I love Disney and will go back to take my grandchildren. For some who say the magic is gone, maybe it is Disney fatigue or whatever, but I can't really say that is what it is for everyone. If you honestly see a park that isn't clean, too much planning that stresses you out vs not being able to experience the things you want to, less than enthusiastic CM's, characters that push you through the line and hurry everyone along, higher prices without a higher value, etc. then it really is what is stealing the magic, not "you have been there too much". Too many times we, as Disney's biggest fans, excuse so many things just because its Disney. But shouldn't we actually expect MORE just because its Disney? Isn't that what they have pushed for so long? The Disney customer service, the Disney magic, the Disney "way". How many people have been trained in their job to follow Disney's customer service plan and yet go TO WDW and not find that same thing being followed?

I plan to take my grandchildren in 2017 to Disney and to Universal. I am interested in seeing both on one trip and compare again. Now, I can say this, I went to Sea World on this trip too. Very unhappy. Was there 10 years ago and loved it. Still love the shows but every ride breaking down when you only have 3 or 4 and most of your staff acting like they don't want to be there doesn't make for a very good visit. Disney is head and shoulders above Sea World but then shouldn't they be?

I don't hold Disney to a higher standard than anywhere else in the world, but I do hold them to the standard the company has always set for itself and they aren't always meeting that standard.

 

[MomToOne]

DD and I went to either DLR or WDW pretty much every year for a 6 or 7 year period. It was a easy, safe vacation with a young child. Most of the trips I was a planning nut. Knew what parks we'd hit which days, had ADRs setup the first day they were available, knew what rides and shows we HAD to do, etc.

Then we got to the point where we had done everything enough times that I didn't feel we HAD to do anything specific on any trip. We still liked Disney, we just didn't need the agenda. So our last WDW trip, I didn't plan and we just went where the winds blew us. We picked a park for the day when we woke up. We ate all counter service. We did a few things we'd never done like tea at the Grand Floridian or the movies at Disney Springs (then DTD). We just went slower, and did what we felt like. It was our best trip ever.

But even so, with a DLR trip the next year, DD and I both figured out we were simply over Disney-ed and weren't enjoying it as much anymore. We felt like we were just going through the motions. DD was just short of being a teenager, and she was ready to experience new things and new cultures. It was time to move on to other vacations.

So the last few years, we took on different adventures. We've now done several international trips, and gone to Hawaii. We've loved each and every vacation.

We'll go back to WDW, maybe next year, maybe not for a few more years. But we'll get there. I believe the changes in the last few years will mean less magic - I don't want to pre-plan like a maniac anymore, but elements of it just seem like you are forced to pre-plan. I also think Disney has taken all the upcharges too far, and probably cut corners too much. But I hope there will still be some magic, just in being there again. But we won't expect it to be our only source of vacation fun ever again - there's a big, fun world out there and we are ready to experience it!

 

[Darcy03231]

After a very disappointing trip in 2013 we decided to take a one year break. So far it has turned into a three year break and I doubt we'll be back until some of the new stuff opens up, maybe in 2018-2019. We used to go yearly (and sometimes 2-3x a year). The first year is seemed weird to not have a Disney trip in the works, but we got over it pretty quickly. For us, the value just isn't there anymore. We did 10 days last year at Universal, Islands of Adventure and SeaWorld, with some smaller attractions thrown in and had a blast! No making dinner reservations 6 months out, planning what parks to do on what day or making ride reservations. We got up, decided where we were going, rode what we wanted when we wanted to and ate where we wanted when we wanted. Now that was magical!

 

[lennyd]

if your going to go by the seat of your pants you might just want to do universal.and if you want BOG you need to call 6 months in advance(180 days) or you will not get BOG for dinner

 

[coffeecassie]

We are taking a break until all new lands are completed. Right now the value is just not there for us. We'll see how high are the prices then.

This is how my 12y/o dd and I feel. We were just there mid May, and we were kind of let down by our experience. We go almost every year in May, and this time it was much more crowded, much less friendly, and really poorly cleaned/ kept up. My daughter suggested we skip it next year, and save up money for the next two years for another Disney cruise.

 

[khgreen]

We weren't going to go back to Disney. Our last trip was 2011. We went to Universal in 2013. But as we were planning future vacations last year the kids said they really wanted to go back. We told them that this would be our last trip. We are going to both Universal and Disney.

The changes are disappointing. We were at Disney during the Year of a Million Dreams (or whatever it was called). It was like drowning in Pixie Dust. There aren't words to describe how magical it was. Each trip since then has been a little less magical (not bad ...just not as great). I am really setting my expectations low for this year. I am warning the kids that it wont be the same as in the past. I think because Disney is so expensive-its a lot more disappointing to have a bad experience there.