Best Strategy for a trip in 2022? Lower Your Expectations

[Jen81NYC]

Option 3 is that they limit park entry to the point where waits are not consistently longer than, say 60 minutes. Would this essentially be the same as your option 2 because they’d just raise the prices to make up for smaller crowds? Maybe. Probably.
In addition, as an several-time parkgoer, but not expert like many here, the rants about the amount of planning required to get a reasonable experience really resonates. The expert parkgoers are accustomed to doing all the research, being available down to the minute for advance reservations and then at the parks, knowing how to manage all that on the app-
A previous poster is right on - it takes a ton of work to get a good amount of rides and experiences in for the money, and even with pre-planning, you’re on your phone after every ride and zigzagging across the park. It’s like the Amazing Race.

See the problem is..previously you could book your 3 favorite rides, plan you day around it and if you wanted to stand in a 60 mins line you could decide to do it. or not..up to you..but you got 3 rides in and you felt good about the money you just spent. Now wipe out those plans.. You need to spend more just to get 1 of those rides in.. maybe 2.. and if you spend $15 per head at 7AM you can choose 1 ride..but by the time you ride it..opps no more availability today. you'll need to wait 60-90, 180 mins to go on 1 more ride... Can you not see that that is ridiculous, If I go to Universal and choose to spend more.. I can do a fast lane ..If I stay at a deluxe resort I can get it as part of my package. Disney is making you pay more for nada.. sorry but please don't make this into a bad expectations.. its Disney making poor decisions to maximize profit... those of us that purchased DVC are pretty damn disappointed.

this is really the key issue of why I’m so nervous about this trip (and I haven’t been since I was a teen but comparing it with April 2020 planning). Although i also thought April 2020 planning was involved, with two young kids i was confident in 3 FPs before 1pm and then we could take a break at resort for several hours and reset. Now it’s all a huge question mark! Will our genie+/LL passes be at convenient times? Will they cause me to be drill sergeant mom all day as we zig zag around? Will we miss the few ADRs that we have? It’s unsettling to not be confident of the plan until 7am each day! And then also worry about app glitches, etc.

 

[Haley R]

Oh no, I have a first trip at Poly in April and this makes me so nervous! It’s so expensive! So the monorail is unreliable?? How’s the resort?

At least for our trip, the monorail was not at all reliable. We ended up taking the boat to MK instead which was much better. The resort was amazing! We were in a studio on the dvc side and loved it. We couldn’t use the pool because it was too cold but we would’ve loved that too especially the splash pad.

 

[Vatrahaki75]

I actually do not disagree, but I spend way to much of my waking life thinking about this and I bet Disney does, too. What exactly is the solution to this? The problem here ISN'T Disney. It's the SUCCESS of Disney. Disney is providing these utilities so that you have a hope to being able to do some of the things you want to do because there are so many people at Disney.

Option 1: Remove all pre-planning activities. You can only ride on what lines you get in (like during 2020/2021). No ADR's. No FastPasses. No Lightening Lanes. ZIPiddy-doo-dah. We HAD that (personally, I liked it). The boards were complaining at ridiculously high levels to bring back some form of skip the line (which means cell phone). And if there were no ADR's..... WHEW_WEE! Imagine the complaints!

Option 2: Raise costs to lower the crowds so that wait times would be reasonable. 'nuff said. I can already hear the board reaction.

what else? How do you solve the problem of having to plan and still let people be able to do things?

Just returned from spending the weekend and it was crazy crowded. I think option 2 would work for crowd control, but how much higher would prices have to be raised so that wait times decrease to 45 minutes tops in standby lines? Husband said to raise the ticket prices by $100+; keep all other pricing the same (LL, food, hotels, etc.). I mentioned many people already think visiting Disney is expensive and a huge price jump may price a lot of folks out.

I don't disagree with his suggestion. We want to not stand in line for 60+ minutes to go on a ride. We want to be able to casually walk around and enjoy the parks instead of playing frogger with the crowds. We'd have to save money for a longer period of time, but if it means lower crowds, I'm game.

 

[kathy884]

I'm super excited about my March Orlando trip. And I don' t think changes at WDW will affect us that much, but then the way we do Orlando we aren't as park dependent. In our week long trip of six days we'll just be doing two WDW park days. (I can see that others who are more in the bubble and prefer that and enjoy that would be much more affected by WDW changes.) As an occasional day visitor who maybe does maybe two WDW park days every other year, I'll report back, but I'm not overly concerned about anything I've read.

Things I'm super excited about:
-- I'll be off work a whole week (Vacation whatever is a great change of pace)
-- I will get to spend time with my wonderful family and extended family (some from St. Louis, MO, Valparaiso, IN, Idaho Falls, ID, Connecticut, Orlando, FL, and Tampa, FL).
-- My 85 year old dad and I have always wanted to see Epcot at Flower and Garden time and have never done this. This trip was planned specifically to make this happen and we'll be taking our time and doing two days there. Most in our party for our WDW parks will do one Epcot day and one Magic Kingdom day
-- We're staying at a great offsite condo resort, the Sheraton Vistana Resort. Got a timeshare trade there. We love the resort and we are a tennis playing family and they have 10 lighted tennis courts. There are just so many great timeshare condos in Orlando for trades for the one timeshare resale week we own or rentals from owners (so easy to get a good rental at a very fair price. I use TUG2.net and Redweek.com for rentals). Accommodations (quality for price) are less expensive in Orlando than any other place that we vacation. The area has always been overbuilt and I find lodging in Orlando to be super budget friendly. My two bedroom / two bath condo at a popular spring break week in Orlando is costing me like $150 night. For my summer vacation my two bedroom / two bath condo in Ouray, Colorado while nice but not anywhere near as nice as my Orlando condo is costing me $440 a night. (Do note that I am talking offsite. You can spend big dollars to stay onsite at Disney or Universal. And park tickets are pricey, of course, but parks are really world class and unique.)

I think we'll be back to Orlando too:
-- It's a great place to meet extended family as it's an easy place to fly to from everywhere our extended family lives.
-- Many in our family get season passes to SeaWorld -- It's a very relaxing park we do every trip that is particularly great for a multigenerational group (IMHO the best park in Orlando for multiple generations to enjoy together) -- beautiful landscaping, wonderful animal exhibits and shows that our group age 5 thru 85 can enjoy together, some fun coaters for those in our group who enjoy that.)
-- Some will do Busch Gardens too which is a super inexpensive add on to SeaWorld, since we are driving out to Tampa any way to visit a cousin there. Some get the platinum season pass that covers both.
-- We have relatives in Orlando and Tampa we really like to visit. Our Tampa relative can't travel, so Orlando is perfect for a day trip to visit or possibly having him stay a few days with us if we get enough condos and bedrooms to have one for him.
-- Orlando offers a lot from nearby nature activities, world class theme parks, typical nice decent sized city amenities.
-- It's warmer in Orlando in the winter/spring than where we live, so almost always a treat.
-- I am a mosquito magnet. What do they do to control mosquitos in the parks? I don't know, but I have never gotten a bite there. I can't say that about any other tropical place I've ever been to. That alone is a great reason for me to chill / hang out at the parks. Other places I'm loaded up with Deet spray or stay inside at night. Orlando theme parks are a real treat.
-- This isn't the extended family, but in my immediate family we aren't big beach people (more into doing one day at the beach vs. a whole week). Also in Orlando you aren't as weather dependent as you are for a beach vacation. We usually do a beach day at either Clearwater Beach or Coco Beach -- great day trip. This means Orlando is a better fit for us than so many of the lovely beach areas in Florida.
-- There are enough theme parks that if you just hit two or so every other year you can change things up quite a bit.
-- If you like theme parks and so many in our family do, it's the theme park capital of the world.

Sad to say, but Disney could probably mess up even more things and we'd still enjoy doing one of their parks on occasion and be back.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Option 3 is that they limit park entry to the point where waits are not consistently longer than, say 60 minutes. Would this essentially be the same as your option 2 because they’d just raise the prices to make up for smaller crowds? Maybe. Probably.

Well, they could lower the number of available park reservations - but right there people are already above upset with not being able to get into parks or availability. I don't see them making that situation even worse.

Yes, I think there is no way to get rid of the pre-planning online activities but those can be done from a computer. I think the lament is that we can't pre-book fast passes anymore and I think you can only use the MDE app to book G+ so going to Disney without a smartphone isn't really an option anymore. At least not efficiently.

See the problem is..previously you could book your 3 favorite rides, plan you day around it and if you wanted to stand in a 60 mins line you could decide to do it. or not..up to you..but you got 3 rides in and you felt good about the money you just spent.

I would not be horribly shocked if at some point Disney includes n number of free Genie+ reservations for deluxe resorts. The technology exists. Genie+ is capable of it. However, I think they still have to feel the system out before they make those kinds of tweaks. That is not going to get people away from the concept of needing your phone during the day however. I think technology is here to stay no matter how you slide it. Things are just too connected to get away from it.

Just returned from spending the weekend and it was crazy crowded. I think option 2 would work for crowd control, but how much higher would prices have to be raised so that wait times decrease to 45 minutes tops in standby lines? Husband said to raise the ticket prices by $100+; keep all other pricing the same (LL, food, hotels, etc.). I mentioned many people already think visiting Disney is expensive and a huge price jump may price a lot of folks out.

I don't disagree with his suggestion. We want to not stand in line for 60+ minutes to go on a ride. We want to be able to casually walk around and enjoy the parks instead of playing frogger with the crowds. We'd have to save money for a longer period of time, but if it means lower crowds, I'm game.

Right, but you already see all the threads about how upset people are when Disney add's a $15 tag to the prices. Imagine if they doubled the cost of tickets. You would hear the outcry on these boards from past Saturn.

those of us that purchased DVC are pretty damn disappointed.

Then you did not read your contract. Disney has always been clear that all you paid for was a room. I am not disappointed at all with my DVC - for the past 12 years, I have and continue to get what exactly what I paid for.

 

[DISNEYFOS]

Then you did not read your contract. Disney has always been clear that all you paid for was a room. I am not disappointed at all with my DVC - for the past 12 years, I have and continue to get what exactly what I paid for.
[/QUOTE]
Seriously! Your bar is set too low. Its okay to expect more from a company that I've dropped probably close to 30K with maybe more. I've been a DVC member for 18 years now. I've definitely seen Disney do better. They increased the hotels, but do not add to the parks? They have no plan in place to handle crowds, but continue to encourage them to come. I purchased DVC to come to their parks.. otherwise I can purchase a timeshare in Aruba. Its fine you want to be one of those don't saying anything bad about disney..but those are the people they realize they can do this to. your loyalty means crap to them.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Seriously! Your bar is set too low. Its okay to expect more from a company that I've dropped probably close to 30K with maybe more. I've been a DVC member for 18 years now. I've definitely seen Disney do better. They increased the hotels, but do not add to the parks? They have no plan in place to handle crowds, but continue to encourage them to come. I purchased DVC to come to their parks.. otherwise I can purchase a timeshare in Aruba. Its fine you want to be one of those don't saying anything bad about disney..but those are the people they realize they can do this to. your loyalty means crap to them.

My bar is just fine. At my stay at AKL, the hotel was perfect with only one exception - the check in time. I have another thread in the DVC board where I make it quite clear that my position is that a check in past 4pm is not acceptable. Beyond that, the hotel was everything I would have expected from AKV and was in line with all previous trips since it opened. The service was terrific, the room was immaculate, and the animals were terrific. That is what DVC is.

DVC is NOT the parks. If you intertwine the two, you are doing that to yourself. DVC is and always has been a resort / hotel only. Anything that happens in the parks has nothing to do with DVC. Any perks are optional and they come and go (and right now they are on the go, but they will come around again).

Sounds to me like you expected more from DVC than Disney was offering - all of this which is clearly laid out in your contract.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

We were there for a few days a couple of weeks ago and had a fantastic time. With several "magical moments" where CMs went above and beyond.

I think they are just getting back to standard operating procedures and things will get better. After all we are coming off a year of enormous stress (and huge reductions the workforce for various reasons) all around and CMs are people too and not immune.

But wow...yes indeed it is more expensive. For sure. (although oddly, not the food. for example, a Peco Bill's burger is cheaper than a Five Guys burger. And entrée prices at restaurants were ok. At least compared to Long Island)

 

[hultrain]

At least for our trip, the monorail was not at all reliable. We ended up taking the boat to MK instead which was much better. The resort was amazing! We were in a studio on the dvc side and loved it. We couldn’t use the pool because it was too cold but we would’ve loved that too especially the splash pad.

Just got back from the Poly yesterday. The monorail went down once for a short time when we were there but otherwise was ok.

 

[Scalemaster34]

Just got back from the Poly yesterday. The monorail went down once for a short time when we were there but otherwise was ok.

Look back at the beginning of this thread https://www.disboards.com/threads/updated-disney-gift-card-deals-and-more.3784942/post-61398375

As your using their "card" to pay, you can stack it with other savings... make sure to check the other savings portals. Most will get you another 1% or 2% back as well.

 

[hultrain]

Look back at the beginning of this thread https://www.disboards.com/threads/updated-disney-gift-card-deals-and-more.3784942/post-61398375

As your using their "card" to pay, you can stack it with other savings... make sure to check the other savings portals. Most will get you another 1% or 2% back as well.

I think you quoted the wrong post

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

We were at Disney with park days of Feb 17 to Feb 20th.

The first 2 days were supposed to be a crowd level of 5 or 6.

The second two days were a 9 and a 10.

We had lowered our expectations but were glad to be at Disney with our daughter, a schoolteacher.

Genie+ let us down every day we were there.

We had to go to Guest Relations every single day in order to salvage each day.

The only reason we had a decent time in the parks was due to actions taken by the GR CM's.

This trip cemented our opinion that the Genie+ situation is unacceptable.

Even my daughter was just about shocked at how things unfolded.

The highlight of the trip was stopping at many PhotoPass locations and getting the regular pics as well as the magic shots taken. That provided us with much joy.

 

[Jen81NYC]

We were at Disney with park days of Feb 17 to Feb 20th.

The first 2 days were supposed to be a crowd level of 5 or 6.

The second two days were a 9 and a 10.

We had lowered our expectations but were glad to be at Disney with our daughter, a schoolteacher.

Genie+ let us down every day we were there.

We had to go to Guest Relations every single day in order to salvage each day.

The only reason we had a decent time in the parks was due to actions taken by the GR CM's.

This trip cemented our opinion that the Genie+ situation is unacceptable.

Even my daughter was just about shocked at how things unfolded.

The highlight of the trip was stopping at many PhotoPass locations and getting the regular pics as well as the magic shots taken. That provided us with much joy.

Hi, in what way did Genie+ let you down every day, if you don’t mind elaborating? Were you on site or off site, out of curiosity? Thanks and so sorry the trip was such a bummer

 

[jlundeen]

We were at Disney with park days of Feb 17 to Feb 20th.

The first 2 days were supposed to be a crowd level of 5 or 6.

The second two days were a 9 and a 10.

We had lowered our expectations but were glad to be at Disney with our daughter, a schoolteacher.

Genie+ let us down every day we were there.

We had to go to Guest Relations every single day in order to salvage each day.

The only reason we had a decent time in the parks was due to actions taken by the GR CM's.

This trip cemented our opinion that the Genie+ situation is unacceptable.

Even my daughter was just about shocked at how things unfolded.

The highlight of the trip was stopping at many PhotoPass locations and getting the regular pics as well as the magic shots taken. That provided us with much joy.

It's like they are doing as little as possible in the way of guest experience, and then relying the Guest Services CMs to make things right after the fact, but only for those who go and stand in the GS lines, which will inevitably grow and grow as more people realize they have a chance of salvaging their vacation . The CMs are the true heroes here.....

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

Without staying onsite, without those perks, if I go to Disney, I'm no longer on 'vacation', I'm going to a theme park. Well, let's see, there are a lot of 'no perk' theme parks spread across the county that I can do for a fraction of the cost as Disney.

Why are so many Disney lovers settling for lower expectations? It shouldn't be that way. That's what Chapek and his crowd wants.

This is my feeling exactly. Those perks are what set Disney apart from other, run of the mill theme parks. It's what made Disney an actual vacation instead of your local Six Flags. Nothing for nothing, I'm not planning a vacation around Six Flags or any other standard theme park for that matter. Disney has always been MORE than just a theme park, which is why I've loved planning my vacations around it. But the day that Disney becomes just another theme park is the day I start choosing other destinations instead of them. It won't be other theme parks, because a regular theme park isn't a vacation to me.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Hi, in what way did Genie+ let you down every day, if you don’t mind elaborating? Were you on site or off site, out of curiosity? Thanks and so sorry the trip was such a bummer

I am going to reply with some very specific details.

These behaviors are scattered in other's posts and it is hard to find it all in one place.

I am not trying to badmouth Disney....it is a really neat place, but Genie+ (even if free) is terrible.

1- Since they decided to have everyone on the platform at precisely 7am, the system becomes slow and unstable. A page that normally takes 1/2 to 1 second to load may take 5,6,7,8,9 seconds to load while the seats for rides are just flying off the shelf. This is not a "phone" problem...it is a problem with their capacity to handle the huge volume of activity. Since you have to navigate a couple of pages, those delays add up.

2- There are errors or "something went wrong" events that happen right when you are under the gun at 7am.

3- Unlike FP+, Genie+ DOES NOT hold the seat in suspense for you as you are going through the screens. With FP+, if it showed you a seat at 9:20 am, that is what you got........With Genie+, it will show you a seat at 9:20 am and then award you a 5:10pm seat........Infuriating!!

4- On a couple of occasions we were awarded a seat, but when we clicked on the "view my day" blue button on the last page, we might get an error or a glitch.......and then discover that the seat had not been "latched".....we then saw that we had nothing!!..........and had to start the process over and get an even later seat. This behavior would happen from time to time at all hours of the day.

Let me be clear.......we are experienced FP+ users and I have used Genie+ in Oct/Dec/Jan, and Feb.

During the months listed I had over 20 Genie+ days.......so my experience was not a one time "oops"

Getting a ride should not feel so much like gambling at a casino......there should not be so much left to chance.

I can not tell you how emotionally impactful it is to have everything riding on your 7am selection and get poor results through no fault of your own.

We learned to just temporarily accept the crappy hand we were dealt.......we then toured efficiently for our 30 minute early period.....and kept on touring for an extra hour or so while the lines were still somewhat short.....and THEN we would go to GR and give up more precious time to talk to a CM.

In 90 percent of our interactions, we received a fair and/or generous solution.

If we had NOT gone to GR, we would have had our worst experience ever at the parks.....I am not kidding or exaggerating.

 

[PaladinButters]

I can not tell you how emotionally impactful it is to have everything riding on your 7am selection and get poor results through no fault of your own.

I'm going to guess about a thousand times worse than with FP+ (where you had to do the same thing race but at least you could get *something* locked in to plan around).... and only about 100 times worse than doing the same race thing for dining (but at least you can try to modify for weeks to make it any better) ?

 

[RamblingMad]

For some (not me) the heavy planning and intricate scheduling/deadlines etc were anything but “magical.” I had several friends who, when I told them about my planning process, were turned off from going to the parks at all.

Same. We gave up on WDW and went to DL instead. And I didn't want to pay the ridiculous prices to stay on property to go through this planning process. It looks like G+ experience is now everyone experiencing the pain I went through trying to get anything to work well while staying off property pre-G+.

 

[DisneyFive]

For some (not me) the heavy planning and intricate scheduling/deadlines etc were anything but “magical.” I had several friends who, when I told them about my planning process, were turned off from going to the parks at all.

I do get that. I'm still baffled why they allowed ADR's and FP's to be reserved so early, 180 days and 60 days(30 days offsite) respectively. That was totally unnecessary IMO. Even as someone who loves to plan early, that just wasn't needed. 30 days for ADR's and maybe 2 weeks for FP+ would have been better.

However, I'm not sure trying to explain G+ and ADR's now are much better. ADR's are 60 days instead of 180, but the process is still identical. Now, with G+ there is the strategy and planning that you still need to do beforehand, but also the stress day-of, starting lovingly early at 7am on vacation. Now, if things get screwed up at 7am, your plans just got blown up and you are potentially screwed for the day and trying to play catch-up the remainder of it. In the past with FP+, if you didn't get what you wanted at 60 or 30 days, at least you had time before your trip to keep searching for more optimal times, etc... and day-of control was much better.

Day of, there's just so much more unknown now.

Dan

 

[Belle5]

I am going to reply with some very specific details.

These behaviors are scattered in other's posts and it is hard to find it all in one place.

I am not trying to badmouth Disney....it is a really neat place, but Genie+ (even if free) is terrible.

1- Since they decided to have everyone on the platform at precisely 7am, the system becomes slow and unstable. A page that normally takes 1/2 to 1 second to load may take 5,6,7,8,9 seconds to load while the seats for rides are just flying off the shelf. This is not a "phone" problem...it is a problem with their capacity to handle the huge volume of activity. Since you have to navigate a couple of pages, those delays add up.

2- There are errors or "something went wrong" events that happen right when you are under the gun at 7am.

3- Unlike FP+, Genie+ DOES NOT hold the seat in suspense for you as you are going through the screens. With FP+, if it showed you a seat at 9:20 am, that is what you got........With Genie+, it will show you a seat at 9:20 am and then award you a 5:10pm seat........Infuriating!!

4- On a couple of occasions we were awarded a seat, but when we clicked on the "view my day" blue button on the last page, we might get an error or a glitch.......and then discover that the seat had not been "latched".....we then saw that we had nothing!!..........and had to start the process over and get an even later seat. This behavior would happen from time to time at all hours of the day.

Let me be clear.......we are experienced FP+ users and I have used Genie+ in Oct/Dec/Jan, and Feb.

During the months listed I had over 20 Genie+ days.......so my experience was not a one time "oops"

Getting a ride should not feel so much like gambling at a casino......there should not be so much left to chance.

I can not tell you how emotionally impactful it is to have everything riding on your 7am selection and get poor results through no fault of your own.

We learned to just temporarily accept the crappy hand we were dealt.......we then toured efficiently for our 30 minute early period.....and kept on touring for an extra hour or so while the lines were still somewhat short.....and THEN we would go to GR and give up more precious time to talk to a CM.

In 90 percent of our interactions, we received a fair and/or generous solution.

If we had NOT gone to GR, we would have had our worst experience ever at the parks.....I am not kidding or exaggerating.

This sounds so awful. If I could get out of my trip I definitely would!