Best Strategy for a trip in 2022? Lower Your Expectations

[BridgetBordeaux]

You can see in my signature that I have been to Disney many times.

I even made my second trip on my current Annual Pass and was at Bay Lake Tower and then Animal Kingdom Lodge, Jambo House just a few days ago.

If you are going in 2022 you need to lower your expectations a lot.

I have used Touring Plans and been a rope dropper for many, many years.

I was often able to get 90 percent of my rides/shows done by lunchtime .....and wrapped up each day with a feeling of joy and happiness.

I was able to ride some rides more than once each day and sometimes would hop to a second or third park if I wanted to........I felt free as a bird.

This is not the case anymore.

For the moment, let's put aside the huge cost of resorts, food/beverage, Genie+, and ILL.

Even if G+ were free, it is an inferior product to FP+.

I can even accept the Park Pass requirement for the first park of the day, but park hopping at 2pm is like hitting my kneecaps with a baseball bat.

In the old days, I would often rope drop park number 1 and then hop to park number 2 sometime in the morning.

The present system makes each day feel like we have a national speed limit of 55 again and I am driving around with my parking brake engaged.

If we had little ones in our group, the focus of a typical day would be very different.....even only doing 3 or 4 rides with a child/grandchild, the day's enjoyment is derived from seeing the little ones have a wonderful day.

For years, I tried to maximize the number of days I could be at WDW with my AP.

I would stay off site and on site.

These days, it is not so much that the on site folks have a huge advantage compared to the past.......it is that the off site people barely get adequate leftovers by the time they can enter the park and/or buy ILL rides.

I have trips planned for April/May/Sept/Oct on this AP. (I do not like the super hot months)

I am not going to focus on max days at Disney this year.

I went in Dec 2021, Jan 2022 and have a trip with our daughter (a teacher) over the President's Day weekend.

I will have been 3 times on this AP.......I feel I have broken even on the cost.

I will be cancelling the rest of the trips I had on the books for later this year.

That money and time will be spent elsewhere.

Although some of the environment has been impacted by Covid...... a large part of the reduced experience is due to decisions made by management.

Now......I have not said much about the nickel and diming that really adds up now.

At a value resort, a couple on a trip has to pay an extra $47 each day just to park and use Genie+.

When you add the impact of a diminished experience with the very high cost, the value of the experience has been greatly reduced.

Look......I am a Disney fan.

Disney, Coke, a Big Mac, are all part of a truly American experience. I can not imagine life as we know it if they were to all disappear.

Disney has very good customer service.....if the IT situation was not so mediocre, I would say Disney has some of the best customer service of any company.

However, at this time, the overall experience requires a lot of money, a lot a planning, and each day has a lot of chaos caused by the unpredictability of getting a LL or ILL,........and to be under the gun to compete at 7am for a seat on a ride is not relaxing or enjoyable.
And having my face buried in the phone a good part of the day does not add to my enjoyment either.

I composed this because I saw some small headlines about Disney guests not being really thrilled right now.....I thought I may have been the only one that felt this way.......but there is now a bit of rumbling going on........and social media has the ability to provide us to look at the good and the bad comments.

The experience has changed for the worse.

They better improve it substantially and quickly.

I think many of the 2022 visitors may be so unhappy, they may not return or postpone future trips.

In a way, Disney has messed up my Happy Place................and I am a bit sad about that.

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Anything above the dashed line is the original post.....today is now March 24th 2022 and there are over 30 pages of comments and over 65K views.

If you do not want to wade through a lot of it I am going to post some comments I made along the way as things progressed.......for example, I made the trip in Feb with our daughter and this thread was discussed on a DIS Unplugged episode.

#207 page 11 packing for our Feb trip
#244 page 13 this thread featured on DIS Unplugged
#246 page 13 another family's experience with G+ (we met while in line for Soarin)
#312 page 16 comments about the Feb trip we had just completed
#316 page 16 summary of G+ flaws / GR bailed us out of a terrible experience
#472 page 24 not willing to gamble
#519 page 26 G+ ride inventory options at 915am vs 11am

There are clearly many relevant comments made by others here but by jumping to the posts I highlighted, you can basically travel with our family from Jan to February in just a few clicks and not have to read all the pages.

 

[The Foolish Mortal]

This post seems to be a complaint or lament more than a discussion of strategy. Obviously (based on many posts here for many months), you're not the only one who feels this way

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

This post seems to be a complaint or lament more than a discussion of strategy. Obviously (based on many posts here for many months), you're not the only one who feels this way

For those who use a strategy of showing up at 10am, then purchasing Genie+, then picking their first ride.......my post contains many valuable tips for first timers so they can make productive use of their day.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

This is why I only really hang out in the Universal section anymore. My last Disney trip was May 2019. My May 2020 trip didn’t happen. I was really bummed not to get to see Galaxy’s Edge. For a long time I’d been thinking about when our next trip could be to see it. After FP went away, I stopped really caring. This has coincided with my kids getting older and really enjoying Universal - they all now ride all the rides. So as much as part of me would like to see GE, I’m pretty much over it and Disney for now.


Does Disney care? Only if there are a lot people like us who are canceling or not planning new trips. Or if a lot of people are panning them on social media. It’s too early to know if they’ve actually hit a tipping point.

 

[revdon64]

We're right there with you. Our trip in March is the last hurrah for Disney for the foreseeable future. We've found a new happy place at a cabin overlooking the Great Smokey Mountains in eastern Tennessee where we don't feel nearly as nickel/dimed to death. Part of it is certainly that our kids are getting a little older (16/12/9) but the shine is off for DW and I and that makes all the difference.

 

[mickeymom629]

Unfortunately, I agree with the OP. If you lower your expectations, you may be pleasantly surprised and happy.

I just got back from a trip with kids and grandkids and the weather saved this trip as well as our nice accomodation at Kidani. Crowds were more than expected and waiting in lines was exhausting. We got to the parks as early as 12 people (3 children) can (early entry 3 different parks) and stayed till close, so we should have been able to do many things. I was looking at my phone too much for wait times and not enjoying the atmosphere as much as I usually do. I was worrying about mobile ordering when in an attraction. It was really so unmagical (at times) except when we were finally in an attraction or watching a parade/show, which were much fewer this trip than any other for our family. The couple of $LL we bought was irritating money-wise but we wanted to save the time and see the attractions.

Because we own DVC, I will be back and excited but will be planning completely different trips until things change, if they ever do. I will encourage my family to just pick a couple of parks (will be hard to convince them of that) and, maybe, spend the $15 for Genie+ for MK rather than going back a second day. We are used to doing all parks during a trip but it's just not worth the price of a ticket when you hardly see much unless you want to study up and purchase G+ and $LL and hope for the best because that doesn't sound like a guarantee, either. I have old,unused multi-day tickets for DH and myself but I don't want to use them with things the way they are.

ETA - no one in my family except one 5-year-old grandaughter was excited to think about our next back there any time soon.

(I have to wonder why Disney keeps building more resorts without adding another park)

 

[lockets]

I wrote this in response to another post by tsme that was entitled "Last time...for a while" and pasting what I wrote here for it's relevancy:

"Was just there in January btw and I feel the same as you and experienced the same.

Had to scavenge for coffee stirrers at QS after a few days. The whole housekeeping thing is so petty on Disney’s part at this point. Seeing the CEOs salary this week and juxtaposing it with the barely there housekeeping when this is a major offering of any hotel room is just insane. I understand it while we were all locked down but the fact it’s gone beyond that is just a straight up scam I think. Especially the rates don’t account for the lack of service.

We are taking a break too. We rolled with the punches on ILL and Genie+ and loss of Magic Express and housekeeping. The real reason is the time it takes to plan these now very complicated Disney trips just feels too exhausting. It’s a job! I’m the planner and I saw no difference between what I did at work and what it takes to plan these trips. It’s too much.

I'll also throw on the pile that waking up at 7 AM each morning to add Genie+ and then engaging in a "rat race" of booking ILL and G+ rides that early in the morning was not fun and not vacation-like. A lot falls on the planner of these trips. It's crappy.

And, yes, I was that person throughout the day scrolling through G+ for our next "find."

I've gambled a few times in my life when I happened to be at a casino, but I'm by no means a gambler. My perception of all these changes between the ADR hustle and G+ rat race is it arouses a feeling similar to gambling. Perhaps they are purposely triggering that part of our minds to get some people to spend more. IDK... It just felt at a very physiological level like I was at a casino between the low level anxiety of clicking clicking clicking and racing against other people and against the clock to "win."

It doesn't equate with relaxation. One of the best parts of the trip for me was the pool day and trying all the restaurants on property (we stayed at Coronado Springs)."

 

[jknc]

All the recent angst goes away when Tron and Guardians opens.

Fascinating to hear (Disney Dish) they’re speeding up Guardians opening because the 50th is a dud. Who woulda thunk it?

 

[hopeful4fl]

Kudos to the OP. You have captured what I also felt (just came back).
To some of the people who replied about this being a rant, OP seems to be a big Disney fan seeing the magic slowly drain away. This is something that I would say I 100% relate with. It is almost therapeutic hearing others feel the same. I thought I was complaining too much to my wife, but that is cause I saw a significant degradation in the experience at a much greater cost.
We all know Disney is a public co that has to generate profit. They are currently doing that but are moving so far away from the Disney vision that I fear they will alienate the people who are repeat customers. This is where I am right now. Having a bean counter at the top rather than a visionary will make Disney as "just another corporation" and that would not be good for us fans in the long run. You have to balance short term profit against long term viability.

 

[kathy884]

Just saying lowering your expectations in 2022 I think is a good idea for any popular place you travel. It seems more people than ever can afford to travel (There are way more people in the world period) and more people are traveling (which is great), but that means crowds and planning (I miss the lower crowds everywhere). What you are describing sounds a lot like trips to popular national parks I've planned recently lol. We've been repeat visitors to some of our nations more popular national parks, and these last few trips just felt like too much work. We're doing fewer vacations and trying to pick less popular places going forward.

All that said, we are coming to Orlando in March, so good luck to us all. I'm a big touring plan person too (have been using touring plans since the 80s), which has really helped me improve my experiences at the parks in the past. One positive is that we just have two Disney days, and parks for a lot of us who have been to the parks what seems like a zillion times, are mostly just a backdrop for same hang out time with extended family (SeaWorld for it's beautiful landscaping and a few shows, Epcot Flower and Garden during the week -- mostly looking around and doing a few attractions, etc.). Still, though, our 20 and 30 somethings I know are going to want to get in as many of their favorite attractions as they can, so will be using LL / Genie + for those two Disney days. Looking at the wait predictions, I may try a LL at Epcot too for the Frozen ride my 85 year old dad wants to do to see how that changed from what it used to be if we can get it. We are offsite visitors, so will no longer have the rope drop advantage and will only have access to LL paid attractions two hours after the onsite guests in those 40,000 plus onsite lodging accommodations do, so I am keeping expectations super low and expecting that quite a few things may be unavailable.

 

[DisneynBison]

The OP is right. Lower your expectations, sitting here now, leaving soon. It was a fun trip but...., we have went yearly for a decade skipped last year. First time we didn't even use all our park days on the tickets. I will go into it more after we get back and I let it settle in. To many negatives for it to be what we expect from Disney standards. Disney has taken a major step back towards the vacation provider pack. They lost their edge and what made them special.

 

[Figmentv]

For the first time since my first trip in 1978, I‘m trying as hard as I can to be excited about my next trip. I haven’t been to WDW since 2011 (multiple, multiple trips before then). I will be joining my DD,SIL, GD and her friend for a 6 day trip over the week of July4th. I know, God help me. In all my trips to WDW I’ve never been in the summer due to heat and packed crowds. I imagine this year will be 10x worse than I’ve ever imagined. I always enjoyed the planning part of our past trips almost as much as the trip itself. Not so this time. I’m having a harder time figuring out Genie+ and ILL than I had in my college Calc class. I get up early anyway, but thinking about having to be on my phone attempting to get Genie+ or ILL return times and not being able to get my morning coffee, sit outside at my resort and enjoy my surroundings, is pretty upsetting. Thank God for my SIL’s 22 year service to our country in the Army and the fact that he can get rooms and tickets at a reasonable price, otherwise I’d be a screaming meany about all the new add on costs.

So I guess the bottom line is that I will take the OP’s advice and lower my expectations.

 

[goofy4prez]

Unfortunately lowering our expectations seems to be the new normal in the world today. From restaurants, shopping experiences to almost every function in life we now expect to pay more than ever before, wait longer than ever before and get less than ever before in return. The same is now true for WDW. The only one who is not getting less in return is Bob Chapek (there I said it, LOL), who went from 14.6 million in total compensation in 2020 to more than doubling his compensation with 32.46 million in 2021 while Disney stock was down 14.5%. At least he can expect more for less. Do I seem disgruntled? I sure am. After all these years of loving and going to WDW almost every year, I just can't get excited anymore. I'm not willing to pay way, way more for my Disney experience and get so much less in return. Pixie dust and magic ( or lack of ) can only go so far with me.

 

[shh]

Unfortunately lowering our expectations seems to be the new normal in the world today.

Yeah...that's the thing. I don't lower my expectations - and for that reason, I don't go. I find other enjoyment. Whether it's Disney, a cruise line or another vacation destination, I just won't pay a company more for less than I know they offered before.

If every single customer insisted on quality and value from a company charging premium rates or closed their wallet, (it's not like this is a vital service or product needed to live), the company would quickly learn they can't get away with it. But people continue to reward companies like these for mediocrity. Guarantee you in a year 3 or 5 from now, WDW will still have record crowds.

And I'll be happily saving money and having fun elsewhere. There's always something fun to explore and enjoy on this big blue marble, as long as one doesn't get wedded to a particular company, destination or experience.

 

[TinkB278]

All the recent angst goes away when Tron and Guardians opens.

Fascinating to hear (Disney Dish) they’re speeding up Guardians opening because the 50th is a dud. Who woulda thunk it?

I don’t care at all for marvel so can’t say I agree.

 

[mickeymom629]

All that said, we are coming to Orlando in March, so good luck to us all. I'm a big touring plan person too (have been using touring plans since the 80s), which has really helped me improve my experiences at the parks in the past. One positive is that we just have two Disney days, and parks for a lot of us who have been to the parks what seems like a zillion times, are mostly just a backdrop for same hang out time with extended family (SeaWorld for it's beautiful landscaping and a few shows, Epcot Flower and Garden during the week -- mostly looking around and doing a few attractions, etc.). Still, though, our 20 and 30 somethings I know are going to want to get in as many of their favorite attractions as they can, so will be using LL / Genie + for those two Disney days. Looking at the wait predictions, I may try a LL at Epcot too for the Frozen ride my 85 year old dad wants to do to see how that changed from what it used to be if we can get it. We are offsite visitors, so will no longer have the rope drop advantage and will only have access to LL paid attractions two hours after the onsite guests in those 40,000 plus onsite lodging accommodations do, so I am keeping expectations super low and expecting that quite a few things may be unavailable.

I already put in a responsed agreeing with the OP but I wanted to say that your planning for only 2 Disney days is probably a good idea. Also, I used TP (and have used them for years) and their crowd predictions were completely wrong on some of my days - we went on a predicted high day for MK and it turned out to be low. We went on a low day for MK and it turned out to be high. If you look at their results for the month of January, I think you will see that they were off a lot. Maybe a lot of people are using them now, so do the opposite?

We stayed onsite but didn't do G+. Good luck to those in your party who plan to pay for G+ staying offsite. It's so annoying that all rides aren't included in G+. $LL should work to your advantage if you don't mind the extra money for those 2 days.

 

[stinkpickle]

My expectations were low before we went last week, and thankfully so, because I managed to enjoy myself knowing there were problems. I didn't even mess with Genie+, so that probably helped. Everything still felt short-staffed, and I could see the stress on some cast members' faces. But they were trying so hard and kept their composure. And I knew there were supply chain issues with merchandise, and even that was sadly apparent. It's just a weird time to visit. I hate the term "new normal" but it's going to be this way for a long time.

Oh yeah, the one thing I wasn't prepared for was the popularity of kids bubble machines. We couldn't eat or drink anything outside without getting attacked by bubbles. I wish those had gotten stuck on a cargo ship .

 

[KittyKitty]

The experience has changed for the worse.

Then why do you keep going back?
EDIT: I see you are not going back after next trip. I hope you find other vacations that you like more.
For me, my 1st was in 1974. I didn't go a lot till 2002.
WDW will always be changing. That was Walt's philosophy. Some I love, some don't bother me, some I have to learn, some I don't do, but I plan on going back till this body is just too old.

 

[goofy4prez]

All the recent angst goes away when Tron and Guardians opens.

Not with me. I can't be bought that easy. It's going to take a whole lot more than open a couple of attractions to get me to fork over my $$$$. Way to many other options out there in this world than WDW. It's taken me a while to learn that, but that is where I am today. The crazy thing is my first vacation love, Disney, is the one that pushed me in another direction.

 

[Krystal659]

Unfortunately, I agree with the OP. If you lower your expectations, you may be pleasantly surprised and happy.

I just got back from a trip with kids and grandkids and the weather saved this trip as well as our nice accomodation at Kidani. Crowds were more than expected and waiting in lines was exhausting. We got to the parks as early as 12 people (3 children) can (early entry 3 different parks) and stayed till close, so we should have been able to do many things. I was looking at my phone too much for wait times and not enjoying the atmosphere as much as I usually do. I was worrying about mobile ordering when in an attraction. It was really so unmagical (at times) except when we were finally in an attraction or watching a parade/show, which were much fewer this trip than any other for our family. The couple of $LL we bought was irritating money-wise but we wanted to save the time and see the attractions.

Because we own DVC, I will be back and excited but will be planning completely different trips until things change, if they ever do. I will encourage my family to just pick a couple of parks (will be hard to convince them of that) and, maybe, spend the $15 for Genie+ for MK rather than going back a second day. We are used to doing all parks during a trip but it's just not worth the price of a ticket when you hardly see much unless you want to study up and purchase G+ and $LL and hope for the best because that doesn't sound like a guarantee, either. I have old,unused multi-day tickets for DH and myself but I don't want to use them with things the way they are.

ETA - no one in my family except one 5-year-old grandaughter was excited to think about our next back there any time soon.

(I have to wonder why Disney keeps building more resorts without adding another park)

I completely agree, we used to stay 5-7 days with tickets each day doing MK twice. Our trip in March will only be three days due to costs inflation and uncertainty of G+. We decided to spend the other days at US (which I do not enjoy as much), but you know what you are buying—it’s not the unknown of G+.