Best Strategy for a trip in 2022? Lower Your Expectations

[Carrie in AZ]

I’m pretty heartbroken about it all. I’m nearly 30 and grew up going to WDW and always dreamed of taking my own children and carrying on that magic. Now planning a trip in October for my DD’s 2nd birthday, and I’m almost a nervous wreck about it.
Trying to keep expectations low just because - toddler, but I’m afraid we won’t be able to do ANYTHING but walk around because our line tolerance will be so short with her. Plus, we will just not be able to afford trips like my family did growing up.

We just got home, we were in the parks on M/T/W. Our experience was NOTHING like what is being reported here! I read all of this prior to our trip and truly braced myself for a dismal experience. Our vacation was the exact opposite!! We had an AMAZING time in the parks! All except for the heat which was dreadful. We did everything we wanted to do and more. We utilized Genie+ and just kept booking new selections every two hours, stacked them and did fill-in attractions until it was our return times. Many times we were able to go from one to the next. There were thousands of families there having a wonderful time! You may want to full on view the fireworks, but if you are willing to see just a few, you can walk on Peter Pan during the fireworks, we did. Your little one will LOVE PhilharMagic, that wait was always about 15 mins until the next show started. So much to do! It breaks my heart to think you are dreading your baby's birthday trip. I think you are going to have a much better time than you are anticipating.

Prior to our trip we read about overflowing trashcans, filthy bathrooms, rude guests, rude CMs and a host of other negative things - we did not experience any of that!

 

[Summer2018]

We just got home, we were in the parks on M/T/W. Our experience was NOTHING like what is being reported here! I read all of this prior to our trip and truly braced myself for a dismal experience. Our vacation was the exact opposite!! We had an AMAZING time in the parks! All except for the heat which was dreadful. We did everything we wanted to do and more. We utilized Genie+ and just kept booking new selections every two hours, stacked them and did fill-in attractions until it was our return times. Many times we were able to go from one to the next. There were thousands of families there having a wonderful time! You may want to full on view the fireworks, but if you are willing to see just a few, you can walk on Peter Pan during the fireworks, we did. Your little one will LOVE PhilharMagic, that wait was always about 15 mins until the next show started. So much to do! It breaks my heart to think you are dreading your baby's birthday trip. I think you are going to have a much better time than you are anticipating.

Prior to our trip we read about overflowing trashcans, filthy bathrooms, rude guests, rude CMs and a host of other negative things - we did not experience any of that!

Sounds magical. It helped you that this is not a busy time of year. I’m very surprised that the heat bothered you as the temperatures were not unusually high this past week. Today it’s only 40 degrees in Orlando. Good thing you don’t go in the summer when it’s really hot and humid.

 

[MainMom]

We just got home, we were in the parks on M/T/W. Our experience was NOTHING like what is being reported here! I read all of this prior to our trip and truly braced myself for a dismal experience. Our vacation was the exact opposite!! We had an AMAZING time in the parks! All except for the heat which was dreadful. We did everything we wanted to do and more. We utilized Genie+ and just kept booking new selections every two hours, stacked them and did fill-in attractions until it was our return times. Many times we were able to go from one to the next. There were thousands of families there having a wonderful time! You may want to full on view the fireworks, but if you are willing to see just a few, you can walk on Peter Pan during the fireworks, we did. Your little one will LOVE PhilharMagic, that wait was always about 15 mins until the next show started. So much to do! It breaks my heart to think you are dreading your baby's birthday trip. I think you are going to have a much better time than you are anticipating.

Prior to our trip we read about overflowing trashcans, filthy bathrooms, rude guests, rude CMs and a host of other negative things - we did not experience any of that!

Sounds like a great trip!

 

[mickeymom629]

We just got home, we were in the parks on M/T/W. Our experience was NOTHING like what is being reported here! I read all of this prior to our trip and truly braced myself for a dismal experience. Our vacation was the exact opposite!! We had an AMAZING time in the parks! All except for the heat which was dreadful. We did everything we wanted to do and more. We utilized Genie+ and just kept booking new selections every two hours, stacked them and did fill-in attractions until it was our return times. Many times we were able to go from one to the next. There were thousands of families there having a wonderful time! You may want to full on view the fireworks, but if you are willing to see just a few, you can walk on Peter Pan during the fireworks, we did. Your little one will LOVE PhilharMagic, that wait was always about 15 mins until the next show started. So much to do! It breaks my heart to think you are dreading your baby's birthday trip. I think you are going to have a much better time than you are anticipating.

Prior to our trip we read about overflowing trashcans, filthy bathrooms, rude guests, rude CMs and a host of other negative things - we did not experience any of that!

Glad you had a great time! I was someone who posted about our trip in early January. I did not witness overflowing trashcans, filthy bathrooms, rude guests or CMs, either. However, you did purchase the Genie+ (not everyone wants to spend the extra $) and clearly did your homework regarding the best way to use it (not everyone understands how to use it or has the luck you did) and were very lucky using it to your advantage. I'm sure you were on your phone a lot more than in past trips as I was even without purchasing Genie+. We were a group of 12 and only bought 2 $LL on two different days, which really bothered us to dish out the money. We found it very crowded and did not get to as many attractions as we would have in the past. Part of this was traveling with 3 little ones. But we waited an hour for many things.

I’m pretty heartbroken about it all. I’m nearly 30 and grew up going to WDW and always dreamed of taking my own children and carrying on that magic. Now planning a trip in October for my DD’s 2nd birthday, and I’m almost a nervous wreck about it.
Trying to keep expectations low just because - toddler, but I’m afraid we won’t be able to do ANYTHING but walk around because our line tolerance will be so short with her. Plus, we will just not be able to afford trips like my family did growing up.

In January, 12 of us went and I hung out with the 2-year old because I'm a ride wimp. He and I were able to see many of the little parades and go on rides with a game plan without buying Genie+. If you get to the parks early with a plan (I use TP) geared to your child's age, you can do things. Remember a 2 year old will have fun looking at birds. We rode the River Boat, which I usually never do (stand on upper left side for good views).

The weather plays a big part, imo.

 

[Kerr84]

Glad you had a great time! I was someone who posted about our trip in early January. I did not witness overflowing trashcans, filthy bathrooms, rude guests or CMs, either. However, you did purchase the Genie+ (not everyone wants to spend the extra $) and clearly did your homework regarding the best way to use it (not everyone understands how to use it or has the luck you did) and were very lucky using it to your advantage. I'm sure you were on your phone a lot more than in past trips as I was even without purchasing Genie+. We were a group of 12 and only bought 2 $LL on two different days, which really bothered us to dish out the money. We found it very crowded and did not get to as many attractions as we would have in the past. Part of this was traveling with 3 little ones. But we waited an hour for many things.



In January, 12 of us went and I hung out with the 2-year old because I'm a ride wimp. He and I were able to see many of the little parades and go on rides with a game plan without buying Genie+. If you get to the parks early with a plan (I use TP) geared to your child's age, you can do things. Remember a 2 year old will have fun looking at birds. We rode the River Boat, which I usually never do (stand on upper left side for good views).

The weather plays a big part, imo.

My 22 month old loved things like Country Bear Jamboree and the Skyliner. She loved playing in the Dumbo area and Figment area. She was really easy to please.

 

[aboveH20]

As a Disney stockholder I thank all who have posted what a wonderful time they’ve had at Disney lately. As a diehard Disney fan I have to say that was not my experience and for the first time I am not planning a return trip next year. Never ever thought I’d say that!

PROS

No snow, ice, rain, or temps below freezing.

Never had to make dinner, do laundry, or vacuum.

Stayed at my 16th resort, Port Orleans French Quarter and I can see why it’s so popular with many. I had some good meals, buses were fine, atmosphere was relaxing.

Had good luck with Mobile Ordering (although I had to buy a new phone for the trip, after finding out last year that my phone was too old!).

Can’t imagine how much longer Disney will offer free cups of water, but as a non soda drinker I really appreciated that tip which I learned here.

Found the “secret” balcony at Pinocchio Village Haus (again, thank you DIS) and enjoyed one of the five tables — most of the time I was the only one on the balcony. Great view!

I took Mears Connect. Not many lines at the airport. I’m wondering if most people are renting a car or Ubering. Had a good experience with Mears.


CONS

The lines were just too darn long. Too, too, long! (I was there 3/2 - 3/9)

Finally tried Genie+ but as others have said, the time you see and the time you get are not the same. I was enjoying a relaxing morning at the resort (after three days of LONG lines) and broke down and bought Genie+. Time shown was about three hours later. After I selected it, the time was an hour later, so my relaxing morning at the resort turned into a scramble to get to the park during my arrival window.

Also as others have written, the posted wait times are not accurate. I had much shorter and occasionally longer waits. Seems very unethical if Disney is doing that on purpose.

Prices. I don’t know how families can afford to go. I go solo (the highlight of my year) and while I can afford the cost, I’m not happy about the way they’ve risen so dramatically. I haven’t bought a Mickey bar since the price went up to $5, but because I’m not planning a return anytime soon I splurged for $6.25. Wonder how much Disney makes on each ice cream — or fountain soda at $3.99!

Passed on one of my favorite rides, Tower of Terror, because the wait was 135 minutes.

Chief complaint was the lines. Once again I don’t know how families with young (and not so young) kids manage line after line. A 90 minute line for a 3 minutes ride. Ugh.


AND I CONCLUSION . . .

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I know many have posted here that they are done with Disney, and I see that they are getting bad press in the media. Will things settle down in 2023 post covid? I hope so.

I’m also wondering how DVC sales are being affected. Based on my experience I would be kicking myself if I had spent thousands of dollars and had to repeat the experience year after year.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

Sounds magical. It helped you that this is not a busy time of year. I’m very surprised that the heat bothered you as the temperatures were not unusually high this past week. Today it’s only 40 degrees in Orlando. Good thing you don’t go in the summer when it’s really hot and humid.

Oh, it was plenty busy and hot. 86 with real feel of 96, that is hot. We live in Arizona and know hot 110+ for months. The humidity is a killer.

I have no idea why you would say it wasn't busy or hot. It was both.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

As a Disney stockholder I thank all who have posted what a wonderful time they’ve had at Disney lately. As a diehard Disney fan I have to say that was not my experience and for the first time I am not planning a return trip next year. Never ever thought I’d say that!

PROS

No snow, ice, rain, or temps below freezing.

Never had to make dinner, do laundry, or vacuum.

Stayed at my 16th resort, Port Orleans French Quarter and I can see why it’s so popular with many. I had some good meals, buses were fine, atmosphere was relaxing.

Had good luck with Mobile Ordering (although I had to buy a new phone for the trip, after finding out last year that my phone was too old!).

Can’t imagine how much longer Disney will offer free cups of water, but as a non soda drinker I really appreciated that tip which I learned here.

Found the “secret” balcony at Pinocchio Village Haus (again, thank you DIS) and enjoyed one of the five tables — most of the time I was the only one on the balcony. Great view!

I took Mears Connect. Not many lines at the airport. I’m wondering if most people are renting a car or Ubering. Had a good experience with Mears.


CONS

The lines were just too darn long. Too, too, long! (I was there 3/2 - 3/9)

Finally tried Genie+ but as others have said, the time you see and the time you get are not the same. I was enjoying a relaxing morning at the resort (after three days of LONG lines) and broke down and bought Genie+. Time shown was about three hours later. After I selected it, the time was an hour later, so my relaxing morning at the resort turned into a scramble to get to the park during my arrival window.

Also as others have written, the posted wait times are not accurate. I had much shorter and occasionally longer waits. Seems very unethical if Disney is doing that on purpose.

Prices. I don’t know how families can afford to go. I go solo (the highlight of my year) and while I can afford the cost, I’m not happy about the way they’ve risen so dramatically. I haven’t bought a Mickey bar since the price went up to $5, but because I’m not planning a return anytime soon I splurged for $6.25. Wonder how much Disney makes on each ice cream — or fountain soda at $3.99!

Chief complaint was the lines. Once again I don’t know how families with young (and not so young) kids manage line after line. A 90 minute line for a 3 minutes ride. Ugh.


AND I CONCLUSION . . .

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I know many have posted here that they are done with Disney, and I see that they are getting bad press in the media. Will things settle down in 2023 post covid? I hope so.

I’m also wondering how DVC sales are being affected. Based on my experience I would be kicking myself if I had spent thousands of dollars and had to repeat the experience year after year.

I absolutely agree with you, soooooo expensive and such long lines. We were able to avoid them for the most part because we utilized Genie+, but man oh man, 90+ mins for a short ride is tough. The wait for SDD was 120 mins when we got on with our LL. I have no idea how anyone could wait that long.

 

[Summer2018]

Oh, it was plenty busy and hot. 86 with real feel of 96, that is hot. We live in Arizona and know hot 110+ for months. The humidity is a killer.

I have no idea why you would say it wasn't busy or hot. It was both.

Having family in Arizona and visiting Phoenix in the spring temperatures, I was surprised that Florida’s temperatures would bother you. It sounds like it was actually the humidity that got to you rather than the temperatures. Arizona is awfully dry, so that makes sense.

Orlando is about to become very very busy with universities beginning their spring breaks followed by public schools in April. In comparison, when you were there wasn’t as busy as it’s about to be. Friends of mine were there at the same time and they purposely went when they did because they knew it was going to get much worse.

I am glad you had a wonderful trip.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

However, you did purchase the Genie+ (not everyone wants to spend the extra $) and clearly did your homework regarding the best way to use it (not everyone understands how to use it or has the luck you did) and were very lucky using it to your advantage. I'm sure you were on your phone a lot more than in past trips as I was even without purchasing Genie+. We were a group of 12 and only bought 2 $LL on two different days, which really bothered us to dish out the money. We found it very crowded and did not get to as many attractions as we would have in the past. Part of this was traveling with 3 little ones. But we waited an hour for many things.

Genie+ is basically MaxPass from Disneyland, so I was familiar with it and read about it here for sure. We would discuss our next two picks, I set my phone alarm for two hours, it would go off, I would check to see if our first pick would work out, if it did I grabbed it, if not, I looked for our second choice, and so on. This worked especially well for MK. Then I'd put my phone away! We did have our FOP ILL change times after we purchased it which I also read about here and the new time did not work for us. I went to the blue umbrella for help and the CM was able to help me. I was not at all happy about having to do that, but it worked out. I also wasn't happy about the MK bus showing up at Pop 30 mins late. I also wasn't happy we got stranded at Skyliner station at CBR on our way back to Pop in a storm. But all of that did not affect the magical time we spent with our high school senior who will be going away to college in a few months. SHE wanted to see Carousel of Progress because she remembered it from a previous trip and SHE was the one who wanted to see Hall of Presidents - those are two attractions we probably would have skipped otherwise. We found a table for a late night hot dog at Casey's. We ducked into Pecos Bills for a cold drink and to cool off while waiting for our next LL.

Does it all cost a fortune and can lots go wrong? For sure. But we made tons of magical memories in all of the small moments.

 

[popy]

Been a lot of sad reviews these days, nothing Disney does helps only cost you, i don’t even consider Disney for a vacation anymore,
everything completely outrageous, to the point you feel so cheated, to the point you can not enjoy it. Always feel cheated or even violated.

 

[Revan46]

Long time Disney visitor and was able to get to go many times in past decade thanks to our neighbours in Florida offering one of those park pass things. But I am hopeful things won't be TOO difficult when I go end of April. While there is word of those cheer competitions again...I'm hoping it still won't be so crowded that I can get a good birthday out of it? We'll see, but while I never got much out of FP pre-pandemic, I did rope drop for things like FoP and MMRR and for the RotR boarding group, so I am kind of almost sad to see those go in some ways since things like ILL for RotR are gone cause of resort guests and I don't really want to be spending two hours of my day waiting to go on the ride. Thankfully been on it before but always like going on it again. (Please know, I recognize those in resorts you should get a benefit since paying an arm and a leg, but it still it frustrating to see it similar to FP in that you have to be seriously lucky for something still to be available by the time non-resort guests can actually book anything.)

 

[Westerner]

Long time Disney visitor and was able to get to go many times in past decade thanks to our neighbours in Florida offering one of those park pass things. But I am hopeful things won't be TOO difficult when I go end of April. While there is word of those cheer competitions again...I'm hoping it still won't be so crowded that I can get a good birthday out of it? We'll see, but while I never got much out of FP pre-pandemic, I did rope drop for things like FoP and MMRR and for the RotR boarding group, so I am kind of almost sad to see those go in some ways since things like ILL for RotR are gone cause of resort guests and I don't really want to be spending two hours of my day waiting to go on the ride. Thankfully been on it before but always like going on it again. (Please know, I recognize those in resorts you should get a benefit since paying an arm and a leg, but it still it frustrating to see it similar to FP in that you have to be seriously lucky for something still to be available by the time non-resort guests can actually book anything.)

With SM, MMRR, and Frozen part of G+ til at least August, offsite guests currently have almost identical access to Lightning Lane as offsite guests for practical purposes, except for RotR and perhaps FoP. The gap between offsite and onsite is much narrower than it used to be under FP+

 

[Revan46]

Really? Based on the advice boards about ILL, it sounded like resort guests got first dibs at 7am and then by the time off-site guests get their chance, most of the best rides (rotr, Remy's, etc) are gone unless you get lucky and one gets cancelled.

 

[Revan46]

Really? Based on the advice boards about ILL, it sounded like resort guests got first dibs at 7am and then by the time off-site guests get their chance, most of the best rides (rotr, Remy's, etc) are gone unless you get lucky and one gets cancelled.

Sorry the above was supposed to be in reply to Westerner's post, I always mess up in quote tweeting/replying haha

 

[Westerner]

Really? Based on the advice boards about ILL, it sounded like resort guests got first dibs at 7am and then by the time off-site guests get their chance, most of the best rides (rotr, Remy's, etc) are gone unless you get lucky and one gets cancelled.

Onsite guests do get 1st crack at $ILL's at 7AM. But a bunch of $ILL's got moved to G+ til August, leaving only only 4 $ILL's (RotR, FoP, Remy, 7DMT) so the advantage is less. Only RotR is truly difficult to get for offsite guests. The others can often be booked at park open (which is earlier these days, again making things easier for offsite).

 

[Revan46]

Onsite guests do get 1st crack at $ILL's at 7AM. But a bunch of $ILL's got moved to G+ til August, leaving only only 4 $ILL's (RotR, FoP, Remy, 7DMT) so the advantage is less. Only RotR is truly difficult to get for offsite guests. The others can often be booked at park open (which is earlier these days, again making things easier for offsite) or sometimes at specific "drop" times during the day.

Ah OK good to know. I don't NEED RotR completely, I've been lucky enough to ride twice but wouldn't mind doing it again. But if it doesn't happen, oh well.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

I so happy you were able to get on Splash! It was down BOTH of our Magic Kingdom days That was the only ride that we wanted to get on that we weren't able to in our six days.

yes it was cool. we were having a burger at Peco Bill's during the fireworks and seeing what we could from our angle. we saw some boats going down the big drop...but all empty. then we saw people on some. then word started to spread and people kind of "hurry-walked" through Frontierland so we joined up and boogied on over there and sure enough it was running and there was a very short line.

Turns out BTMRR went down and they told all those folks you can head over to SM and ride it right now we are gonna open it.

So everyone was happily surprised!

Line was pretty long after we got off so word spread quickly.

This was....Feb 11.

 

[jpkkld]

We just got home, we were in the parks on M/T/W. Our experience was NOTHING like what is being reported here! I read all of this prior to our trip and truly braced myself for a dismal experience. Our vacation was the exact opposite!! We had an AMAZING time in the parks! All except for the heat which was dreadful.
…
Prior to our trip we read about overflowing trashcans, filthy bathrooms, rude guests, rude CMs and a host of other negative things - we did not experience any of that!

Thanks for putting this so nicely! We had the same experience. Fun, reasonably efficient touring with most of what we wanted for rides, plenty of extra, unplanned good experiences, nice CMs, clean bathrooms, and overall a wonderful vacation!

I’ve been trying to figure out what tips I have for others, but there wasn’t really anything that jumps out. We did buy G+ and ILL$ for MK and another ILL$ for FoP. We had a strategy that happened to work for getting G+. We stayed onsite and took breaks mid-day.

We did find the lines to be far longer than they should have been. We used the TP Lines app to make better choices about what we wanted to do next. We also found the heat on our park days to be nearly unbearable. I can’t understand how early March can be 90+ when all our April and May trips were consistently 70’s and 80’s.

I’m planning to do a summary of our G+ experience once we’re home. But I wish everyone good luck for your upcoming trips!

 

[Carrie in AZ]

Thanks for putting this so nicely! We had the same experience. Fun, reasonably efficient touring with most of what we wanted for rides, plenty of extra, unplanned good experiences, nice CMs, clean bathrooms, and overall a wonderful vacation!

I’ve been trying to figure out what tips I have for others, but there wasn’t really anything that jumps out. We did buy G+ and ILL$ for MK and another ILL$ for FoP. We had a strategy that happened to work for getting G+. We stayed onsite and took breaks mid-day.

We did find the lines to be far longer than they should have been. We used the TP Lines app to make better choices about what we wanted to do next. We also found the heat on our park days to be nearly unbearable. I can’t understand how early March can be 90+ when all our April and May trips were consistently 70’s and 80’s.

I’m planning to do a summary of our G+ experience once we’re home. But I wish everyone good luck for your upcoming trips!

Glad Genie+ and ILLs worked so well for you also. Lines were soooo long. Yes, unbearable heat. This is the second time we have gone when it was unseasonably warm.