Best Strategy for a trip in 2022? Lower Your Expectations

[Princesca]

Find other ways to incentivize on-site guests… make the early morning and evening hours longer. Better ADR availability, stuff like that. Magical Express (sigh) I think it’s all a lost cause though sadly

Dan

Same - I like to be immersed (such as it is these days). But I'm definitely starting to look at the cost of a Disney hotel room (and we can't really do deluxe) and what you get for that price, and it's not looking very tempting. If it was just us adults, I think we'd stay offsite. The only thing keeping us on-site is the convenience of Disney resort transportation with having a toddler in tow. And also that we can avoid a rental car.

 

[DisneyFive]

Same - I like to be immersed (such as it is these days). But I'm definitely starting to look at the cost of a Disney hotel room (and we can't really do deluxe) and what you get for that price, and it's not looking very tempting. If it was just us adults, I think we'd stay offsite. The only thing keeping us on-site is the convenience of Disney resort transportation with having a toddler in tow. And also that we can avoid a rental car.

I HIGHLY recommend renting DVC points in your situation. (It's what we're doing) Take a look at that versus moderate resort prices and I think you'll be surprised.
Dan

 

[Love Tink]

As someone who travels to multiple amusement parks each year and using different skip the line systems, FP+ and Genie+ are the bottom of the barrel.

As someone who travels to multiple amusement parks each year and usES different skip the line systems, FP+ was awesome and we never waited in stand by for literally anything for many years at WDW.
And it was free! It made those ridiculous ticket prices worth it.

I won’t be trying Genie any time soon because I feel like the frustration it would cause will be worse than waiting in line.

 

[Love Tink]

What's your current strategy?

It seems like if you want to really pay up, go VIP. If not, then you're basically paying to enter the park to shop and eat and wait in long lines. If you get Genie+ or ILL, then you're paying up but not guaranteed to get anything good. Plus, you're staring at your phone all day. Not a great way to disconnect on vacation. This is why I mainly take hiking/camping vacations. My phone doesn't work most of the time. And my sat messenger is too expensive to use other than in emergencies or for preset updates.

I'm personally waiting to see if any changes are made to Genie+ and ILL before going back to the parks.

Geez, you really hate your phone.

FP was like a video game, or gig work. The ride/time you wanted would pop up and BAM … dopamine rush. If anything, it added to the day, rather than detracting. Genie is missing this element because of the lack of flux, which makes it seem even more of a bummer.

 

[Westerner]

FP was like a video game, or gig work. The ride/time you wanted would pop up and BAM … dopamine rush. If anything, it added to the day, rather than detracting. Genie is missing this element because of the lack of flux, which makes it seem even more of a bummer.

Actually I've seen this complaint about G+ too. Too much like a video game and not sure what you're going to "score". I don't mind playing the game, but some do.

 

[Westerner]

I don’t disagree with you at all. However, if I could have FP+ back, I would be OK with equal footing on-site and offsite.

Paper fastpass was equal for on-site and offsite with the exception of the park that had early morning hours for on-site guests. By the time offsite guests arrived the top-tier ride would be pushed out into the afternoon for return times but they were still available if you rope dropped. For everything else paper fastpass was equal for on-site and offsite.

Find other ways to incentivize on-site guests… make the early morning and evening hours longer, all transportation provided by Disney. Better ADR availability, stuff like that. Magical Express (sigh) I think it’s all a lost cause though sadly

Agree. I think the onsite value prop has taken a beating in the last year, but I'd rather not see it rectified at offsite's expense. I'm baffled by Disney's decision to cut Magical Express. Their strategy should be to make it easy for high rollers to drop $$$, and hassle-free airport-to-room baggage transfer seemed like a good way to achieve that. And yet they cut it to save ¢¢¢. Silliness.

 

[JayMass]

I HIGHLY recommend renting DVC points in your situation. (It's what we're doing) Take a look at that versus moderate resort prices and I think you'll be surprised.
Dan

Same here. We were thinking of staying at the Poly but it got too expensive. We then started looking at moderates and then realized that we might be able to get a deluxe DVC for a price that might be higher than just a moderate but not as much as the Poly. We ended up with BLT for this summer. First time renting DVC points (we did it through David's). Hoping it's a smart move!

 

[RamblingMad]

Geez, you really hate your phone.

FP was like a video game, or gig work. The ride/time you wanted would pop up and BAM … dopamine rush. If anything, it added to the day, rather than detracting. Genie is missing this element because of the lack of flux, which makes it seem even more of a bummer.

I do. I sit in front of a computer all day at work. I get work texts and e-mails daily. I like to disconnect from tech while on vacation.

I have a iPhone 13 Pro. I like it for the camera. That's it.

 

[legler2250]

Over the years things have slowly shifted from prioritizing park attendance and getting in as many rides as possible to spending more time at the Resorts. I refuse to allow the current Corporate nickel and dime approach that Disney Company has taken kill the magic and love I have for the creative innovator that Walt was.

If anyone needs a reminder of how inspiring Walt was, I encourage you to watch Behind the Attraction or Saving Mr. Banks on Disney Plus. While Disney is in their money grab phase you can catch me by any of the Resort pools with a book in one hand and a drink in the other. My price per point for DVC has been locked in for many years so I am insulated from the corporate greed. I believe there is enough Walt Disney left in the spirit of Disney World that there will be a course correction eventually.

 

[Love Tink]

Actually I've seen this complaint about G+ too. Too much like a video game and not sure what you're going to "score". I don't mind playing the game, but some do.

Well, I clearly wasn't making a complaint.

There seem to be a lot of "too much time on my phone" comments in this thread. Whereas I used my phone more at WDW than anywhere else (I'm not a phone person) and loved it.

 

[Love Tink]

Over the years things have slowly shifted from prioritizing park attendance and getting in as many rides as possible to spending more time at the Resorts. I refuse to allow the current Corporate nickel and dime approach that Disney Company has taken kill the magic and love I have for the creative innovator that Walt was.

If anyone needs a reminder of how inspiring Walt was, I encourage you to watch Behind the Attraction or Saving Mr. Banks on Disney Plus. While Disney is in their money grab phase you can catch me by any of the Resort pools with a book in one hand and a drink in the other. My price per point for DVC has been locked in for many years so I am insulated from the corporate greed. I believe there is enough Walt Disney left in the spirit of Disney World that there will be a course correction eventually.

I appreciate that you have made it work for you and have a positive outlook - but if I can represent another viewpoint: it has always seemed ludicrous to me that people plan Disney World vacations that skip or barely touch the parks. That pool and that drink are obscenely overpriced and there's a big world out there. Even if we had ever made the leap with DVC, I wouldn't use my points on an Orlando property if I wasn't going to the parks.

 

[Darcy03231]

Over the years things have slowly shifted from prioritizing park attendance and getting in as many rides as possible to spending more time at the Resorts. I refuse to allow the current Corporate nickel and dime approach that Disney Company has taken kill the magic and love I have for the creative innovator that Walt was.

If anyone needs a reminder of how inspiring Walt was, I encourage you to watch Behind the Attraction or Saving Mr. Banks on Disney Plus. While Disney is in their money grab phase you can catch me by any of the Resort pools with a book in one hand and a drink in the other. My price per point for DVC has been locked in for many years so I am insulated from the corporate greed. I believe there is enough Walt Disney left in the spirit of Disney World that there will be a course correction eventually.

While that may work well for you, most of the people going to WDW aren't paying that much money to sit by a pool when they could do that somewhere else for a fraction of the price.

 

[Westerner]

There seem to be a lot of "too much time on my phone" comments in this thread. Whereas I used my phone more at WDW than anywhere else (I'm not a phone person) and loved it.

Agree. My phone enhances my WDW experience. I use it a lot for navigating around the parks, checking weather, and staying touch with my party. G+ too but generally at defined intervals.

 

[Jrb1979]

As someone who travels to multiple amusement parks each year and usES different skip the line systems, FP+ was awesome and we never waited in stand by for literally anything for many years at WDW.
And it was free! It made those ridiculous ticket prices worth it.

I won’t be trying Genie any time soon because I feel like the frustration it would cause will be worse than waiting in line.

FP+ being free was the only good thing about it. The reason I hate both skip the line systems Disney uses is cause of the return time aspect of it. I do enough scheduling in my day to day life. When on vacation a schedule is the last thing I want.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Thanks for the info! Followup question: in order to search for FP’s day-of, was it necessary to get and use 3 FP’s first?


Can you provide a sense of how much time spent refreshing was required for this?

You didn’t have to. If you were able to book a morning FP for a ride you wanted that worked. Your could either book evening times and modify them as others mentioned or just go in with 1 or 2 and then refresh day of to fill in your 3. The 3 only really mattered at tiered parks. A lot of people would book the easiest Tier 1 they could get at Epcot, fill in with throw away Tier 2s that they just tapped out and didn’t ride.

How long you spend refreshing depended on your party size, the ride you wanted, the crowd level, and some behind the screen voodoo with Disneys database set up. Some people could routinely and reliably get basically anything they wanted within minutes - FOP, 7DMT, whatever. I did not have that kind of success until people started realizing there were drop times for the parks other than MK. That vastly reduced the amount of time I spent refreshing. I could get FOP with one minute of effort multiple times a day. It paid to hang out on the sites that posted those drop times.

 

[RamblingMad]

You didn’t have to. If you were able to book a morning FP for a ride you wanted that worked. Your could either book evening times and modify them as others mentioned or just go in with 1 or 2 and then refresh day of to fill in your 3. The 3 only really mattered at tiered parks. A lot of people would book the easiest Tier 1 they could get at Epcot, fill in with throw away Tier 2s that they just tapped out and didn’t ride.

How long you spend refreshing depended on your party size, the ride you wanted, the crowd level, and some behind the screen voodoo with Disneys database set up. Some people could routinely and reliably get basically anything they wanted within minutes - FOP, 7DMT, whatever. I did not have that kind of success until people started realizing there were drop times for the parks other than MK. That vastly reduced the amount of time I spent refreshing. I could get FOP with one minute of effort multiple times a day. It paid to hang out on the sites that posted those drop times.

This is the exact opposite of what I want to do on vacation. I don't want to have use my phone at certain times to get stuff. I want to ride rides and have a good time. That's it. I don't need the added frustration of memorizing a bunch of strategies in order to have a good time.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

This is the exact opposite of what I want to do on vacation. I don't want to have use my phone at certain times to get stuff. I want to ride rides and have a good time. That's it. I don't need the added frustration of memorizing a bunch of strategies in order to have a good time.

No one had to. You could have picked your 3 FPs and been good with those and waited in line for the rest. It was absolutely a choice I made. Memorizing the times that FOP FPs were available to me was a very small price to pay to be able to ride without a 2 hour wait. YMMV.

 

[BK2014]

I appreciate that you have made it work for you and have a positive outlook - but if I can represent another viewpoint: it has always seemed ludicrous to me that people plan Disney World vacations that skip or barely touch the parks. That pool and that drink are obscenely overpriced and there's a big world out there. Even if we had ever made the leap with DVC, I wouldn't use my points on an Orlando property if I wasn't going to the parks.

So the only way to get value out of an on site stay is by going to the parks? Even agreeing that the pool and drink are obscenely overpriced, I do not see how the value of the money paid for the resort increases by adding the cost of going to the parks which inevitably decreases the amount one actually spends at the resort for which they have paid so much.

 

[RamblingMad]

So the only way to get value out of an on site stay is by going to the parks? Even agreeing that the pool and drink are obscenely overpriced, I do not see how the value of the money paid for the resort increases by adding the cost of going to the parks which inevitably decreases the amount one actually spends at the resort for which they have paid so much.

Much better resorts for Disney prices elsewhere.

 

[Love Tink]

So the only way to get value out of an on site stay is by going to the parks? Even agreeing that the pool and drink are obscenely overpriced, I do not see how the value of the money paid for the resort increases by adding the cost of going to the parks which inevitably decreases the amount one actually spends at the resort for which they have paid so much.

I don’t know what you’re talking about with “getting value out of an on site stay.” I was offering my opinion that going on a vacation to WDW and not going to the parks has never made any sense to me. (Of course, I never understood mid-day breaks until I did…or scheduling non-park days until I did. So maybe I just need another decade.)