Am I The Only One With SIMPLE Expectations?

[ols386]

I TOTALLY agree with a previous post....this has to be "post of the year"!

 

[dis75ney]

I wholeheartedly agree!!!

There are only a few things I expect when I get to Disney (or any hotel, for that matter):

1. Clean room
2. A bathroom I do not have to share with complete strangers
3. Air conditioning/climate control
4. Two beds (Used to be one bed until DS came along...would still be one bed if DS didn't have a habit of punching people in his sleep)

DH had the added requirement of not spending a insane amount of money. He wanted to camp at Fort Wilderness - I referred him to my above list (specifically #2 and #3). This is why I booked a room at POP. Cheap, and it fulfilled all of my demands.

Anything else is icing on the cake.

It all boils down to the Golden Rule - treat others as you want to be treated. I've found that a simple smile and proficient use of the phrase "Thank you" can work wonders - even if one is having the worst day imaginable.

We're going down to WDW for my birthday, but do I expect special treatment from anyone? Well, to be honest, yes...from DH and DS, who are legally obligated to treat me like the princess I am...

Do I expect special treatment from anyone else? Nope. Although I will be thrilled if something "extra" were to happen, the real magic will be spending time with my family. Seeing my DS's face when he first sees the castle, watching DH and DS bond over the build-your-own-lightsabers (and then fighting each other with them), having both DH and DS grip my hands while on ToT, and so many other moments...these are the magical moments that will make our trip special...oh, and Dole Whips. Dole Whips are magicalness in themselves.

 

[disneysuncat]

just change the towels, wipe down the toilet and don't steal our crap.

This is my favorite line EVER on this board. It should be a signature line.

Plus, I totally agree with it.

 

[catne]

cue the Hallelujah Chorus for this thread!

And I also vote for OP as Post of the Year, 2008. Award the Golden Mickey Ears Statue immediately! Or I'm going to whine that my day/week/year has been ruined because my expectations that my opinion counts the most were not met...

 

[FairyDust2008]

On our recent trip, I didn't really arrive with any expectations of having "freebies" or anything like that. I set up all my ADR's that I thought our family would enjoy and WE DID enjoy them all VERY much I set up my kids gift baskets from the Disney Florist, me and hubby's chocolate mickey with tuxedo strawberries, me and dd cinderella's slipper dessert for CRT and all the other goodies. I didn't care about towel animals or anything like that. We prefer to not have room service everyday anyhow. My room was very clean upon arrival and we kept it that way and housekeeping came in and supplied us with whatever we needed. I just wans't disappointed with anything on our vacation. I think every vacation including DISNEY is what you make of it. If you go into it expecting this and that, etc., you'll be disappointed. If you go into it with a FUN attitude, then FUN you'll have. We did have some pixie magic thrown our way with our pool view room at the GF and our kids b-day's and our 15th anniversary buttons and greetings and lucking out being on the front car of rides, etc., so those little extra things weren't expected but were nice add ons. Our vacation was what we made out of it and DISNEY did make our stay a GREAT one. I can understand if people have LOTS of problems with room, housekeeping, ADR's etc but everything worked out wonderfully for our family and we'll be returning next year and staying at the GF!!! Go and have fun @ Disney and don't expect anything but FUN FUN FUN

 

[FairyDust2008]

For example, I could have made a BIG deal out of my kids gift baskets from the Disney Florist because for some odd reason, they were a little wet and their Mickey and Minnie plushes were a little damp/wet. I could have called Disney Florist and raised HECK but I thought that the gift baskets were very cute and the look on my kids faces just were AWESOME! The plushes dried out and everything was fine. I think if you go nit-picking every little aspect of Disney, you'll end up wasting time and energy that you could have put into having FUN.

 

[amblackmon]

Oh, I am so happy to see this thread. I have often wondered about his myself! My opinion is that I go to Disney because it is my happy place. It is no one's responsibility, but my own, to make me happy! If people aren't happy and want to complain then they need to stay home and make more room for the rest of us the LOVE WDW! Anyway - a bad day at Disney is better than a good day almost anywhere else!

I would love to run into all of you at Disney! We would all have a great time skipping around the park while singing It's A Small World!

Michelle

 

[brettgirl]

I am the type of person who is happy to wake up in the morning....been through a lot.......life is too short to sweat the small stuff and hey YOU ARE IN DISNEY!!!!!

Love the first post, excellent way to put things. thanks
brettgirl

 

[texasmom]

I totally agree.

I want to scream when I read reviews and someone states they didn't get any towel animals and "they even tipped". .....Oh, brother

 

[darrengs]

I wouldn't call these simple expectations but realistic ones. I agree with other posters there is no need to sweat the small stuff.

This really became important when I was driving into work one morning listening to the radio and seething about the Giants loss on Monday Night Football. Well they interrupted the radio with the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, I looked up at the skyline and I could see the smoke. So ever since 9/11/2001 I realized how trivial these other moments in life really are.

 

[Tikitoi]

I agree with the OP. And yes some concerns are legit but it seems many of them are just people picking apart things perhaps because they thought about the $$$ they spent and expected things to be so 100% perfect. For the most part our vacations have gone very very well. If there was a negative it would get mentioned in a trip report, because I want to be honest, but I don't dwell on it.

 

[ols386]

The main expectations that we have are: that the facilities are clean, food is readily available (but when we stay at a Disney resort, we know the food isn't exactly cheap, even food-court), if we call about some type of maintenance or housekeeping issue we expect our request to be attended to within a reasonable amount of time (obviously, the term 'reasonable' can mean different things to different individuals), and that we are treated politely by the staff, housekeeping, and food service employees. That's about it. We're really not overly picky.

 

[Mudgirl930]

Just wanted to chime in and say that I really appreciate this post.I am planning a trip in Nov. this year and have run across so many negative remarks, this post helps put them all in perspective.
That being said, you will find magic in WDW, but you cant look for it,you have to let it find you.And you have to understand that magic comes in many forms, not all of them big and over the top. My most magical memory comes from my oldest DD's first trip when she was 4, we were in AK and she was looking at some really pretty flowers when a cast member came over and clipped a spray off for her and put them in her hair saying a beautiful princess deserved a beautiful flower.The smile on her face was priceless and the picture I have of her with "her flower" is among my favorites.
We have had many magical moments (free upgrades etc) but that one always stands out as my favorite.
Thanks again this post has made my day.

 

[Goofy68]

I've always been blown away by the service evry time I visit. My wife and I just have the best two weeks of the year every year. we don't have major expectations beyond having fun but we were blown away last year when asked why we looked so happy. Telling the CM it was our 2nd anniversary and we were pleased to be back at Disney. Went for dinner and came back to a card and balloons, just made our trip.
I think the people who complain about Disney are the type of people who want to pick holes in everything and find something to complain about in everything they do.

 

[TPCShauna]

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”
- Charles R. Swindoll​

I love this quote and to me, it embodies how DH and I handle life. We had some annoying things happen on our last WDW trip - not bad - just annoying. Like the fact that I am short and I couldn't get into our bed in our BWI Garden Suite without a footstool or climbing on the table first. I could have totally whined and complained about it but I didn't. Instead, I would laugh the entire time I was climbing (really more vaulting) into bed. After all, I was staying in a Garden Suite at BWI! How could I complain?

I was disappointed about the yucky coffee everywhere at WDW. I'm a Starbucks girl and the Nescafe grossness just doesn't work for me. Instead of complaining about it though, I went around discovering places I COULD get good coffee on property and every one of those cups was a gift in and of itself. DH still laughs at me for drinking the entire french press pot of 100% Kona when we had breakfast at Kona Cafe. I was vibrating by the time I finished the pot but I sure was happy! Now I have my list for our trip this December so I will be prepared. It will be an adventure!

We picked BWI for our last trip because I love Epcot and the proximity was great. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that the buses shared with 4 other resorts. We rode the bus once, didn't like it and drove our rental car the rest of the time. Yes, I know not everyone can do that. I just think that there is no real reason to complain about it when you can't change it. Yes, it is completely worth mentioning once in a report, but for heavens sake, don't harp on it!

We were lucky enough to get a towel animal AND a card/balloon for our anniversary. I was blown away by them both and felt incredibly special. I didn't realize I was supposed to expect them having not read the boards about them before our trip.

I can tell you for sure that not every CM said hello to us on our last trip and it just didn't matter all that much because I didn't realize it at the time, nor remember later that they hadn't done it. What I DO remember are the CMs who went out of their way to walk across a crowded walkway to wish us Happy Anniversary when they saw our buttons and who took the time to chat with us in stores, restaurants and attactions. I especially remember the sweet character CMs who didn't mind having to hug and have a conversation with a woman in her late 20s because she was caught up in the magic.

I can't remember seeing any trash on the ground in the parks because I was too busy looking around with stars and pixie dust in my eyes from being at my favorite place.

My wish for the people who have these horrible experiences is that they step back and re-evaluate the importance of the "issues" they are experiencing and then compare them against the overall experience of being at Disney. Hopefully that will help them put things into perspective.

 

[MissionMouse]

What other vacation do you put so much planning into other than Disney? Where else do you have to book your meals months in advance in you want to eat at a sit down restaurant? These types of things do create expectations. Overplanning can also create false expectations and many postings on this site reflect obsessions with things outside of your control or of little vacation value.

 

[WildernessBride]

Being at WDW is the gift....all else is gravy!!!!

 

[marvel]

Well done on this post. Problems are everywhere if you are looking for them. We paid big bucks to stay at the Poly which ended up being just ok, but never let that get in the way of where we actually were, in WDW. And when you fly half way across the world and pay a small fortune for your vacation (we live in Australia), you really appreciate every waking moment you get to spend at WDW and not fuss about the small stuff.

They did comp us a night for our trouble by the way.

In fact we are finding it hard to get over post disney depression. It is just
sooo far away for us.

 

[yaksack]

I want to scream when I read reviews and someone states they didn't get any towel animals and "they even tipped". .....Oh, brother [/QUOTE]

If towel animals were part of listed services, I would be pissed, but it isn't.

 

[jrt1176]

Didnt read all the posts...

But, I think if you stay at a Deluxe, should expect some "magic"...a lot!

I mean some are paying 500 for a room...

Now, I didnt pay the bills as a kid and we stayed deluxe every trip, not sure what we payed then and how inflation has changed the price to today...but, I have a hard time paying 500 for a play to sleep if its not going to be special...

Its not a money thing, I guess its just my principles...

I mean for 500+ you might as well stay at the Ritz!