Current Random Thoughts

[sbbwdw]

I am sure all of this has been said, but I just wanted to share. Besides the huge bummer of having to now pay for what was fastpass, it is also just a pain. Too many hoops to jump through as others have mentioned. I also like having my plan set before my trip. I do not like the thought of having to wrangle all of that at the crack of dawn as I am trying to drag my family out of the room. I feel like in years past I was rewarded for having been a good planner and getting those coveted fastpass times, it was fun, like a game, another aspect of the fun of looking forward to your trip. Now you are rewarded if you reach deeper into your wallet. My trips are now even harder to justify to the fam asking you why you want to go there AGAIN. I tell myself I will just go to Disney and try to just do it my way and not concern myself with all of the genie+ and lightening lane nonsense. Having said that, I am not booking another trip until there are some discounts. I guess it will be interesting to watch from afar how all of this goes. I find it very telling they released all of the pricing info for genie+ on a Friday evening. Lastly, on a positive note, we watched Muppets Haunted Mansion last night and I thought it was super cute!

 

[Wdwfan2016]

Planning all of your FASTPASS 60 days out before you arrived was never fun. It was a pain in the @ss. It’s bad enough dining has to be made ahead of time. Wish they would offer lighting service for the restaurants

 

[Marionnette]

Planning all of your FASTPASS 60 days out before you arrived was never fun. It was a pain in the @ss. It’s bad enough dining has to be made ahead of time. Wish they would offer lighting service for the restaurants

Not everyone enjoys the pre-planning for a trip. I'm someone who does. I would check frequently even after my FP+ and ADRs were booked in order to come up with my perfect plan. There was a certain adrenaline rush that came with scoring that elusive FP+ at the optimal time slot. I can't tell you how many times I would book overlapping FP+ windows for my family because nothing was available for 8 people but there was a window for 4 people starting at xx.xx and another for xx.10.

And then once my plans were set, I could relax knowing that my party of 8 could eat and ride together.

 

[Turksmom]

I agree with the pre planners. I have an event planning and catering business. I don't want to be planning and coordinating everything on my vacation.

 

[gharter]

Planning all of your FASTPASS 60 days out before you arrived was never fun. It was a pain in the @ss. It’s bad enough dining has to be made ahead of time. Wish they would offer lighting service for the restaurants

I think a lot of people on the boards would disagree. The average WDW guest might not.
It was really nice going into a park knowing I had 3 attractions we wanted to do guaranteed.
The same with knowing where we wanted to eat, not having to worry on that day hoping there would be room.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

I'm sure I'll buy G+ from time to time, but I resent being made to wake up and plan at 7am for that day's itinerary. Or is that even the magic time if staying offsite? At this point there doesn't seem to be clarity on even that

 

[HopperFan]

I think a lot of people on the boards would disagree. The average WDW guest might not.
It was really nice going into a park knowing I had 3 attractions we wanted to do guaranteed.
The same with knowing where we wanted to eat, not having to worry on that day hoping there would be room.

Yeah, if you were a FP+ aficionado the first part of success for our trip was getting those 3 FP+. Even if only two weeks in advance like myself. The second best part was rolling that last one all day long.

Because a TS lunch break is good for DS and I'm picky about them, yes I was booking those as early as I could. I could always try to change or add others once there but knowing he would get that nice break in A/C was a huge plus.

Those two things took stress OFF me for my trips. Right now I'm nervous about not having the three FP+ in advance but knowing that no one else is booking all that inventory, and paying for it might reduce users - hoping the day of rolling will go fine. Nervous about the dining part, so far for our week in November I only have one ADR because I can't get what I want and not prepared to settle yet.

 

[DSLRuser]

since it is random thoughts.....I will prolly pay for G+ as well.....but I would much rather Disney just raise the price of tickets $30 but have no G+ or FP+

These last 18 months of everyone being equal and riding stand by for everything have been great.It is so refreshing to get in a stand by line and have the line actually move because there are no FAST PASS people butting in front at a ration of 10 to 1.

 

[Jennasis]

All they did was move the booking goals posts again. Prior to FP+ you had to be at the park and pull a time from the FP machine at the ride at rope drop. Then they moved it to 7am 60 days prior to your trip. Still have to get up early (and for anyone doing rope drop, you are up at 7am).

"I HATE all the crazy pre-planning".

"I HATE having to do everything day-of".

There is no winning and some group will be ticked off. All Disney cares about is ticking off the least number of people that would hurt their cash flow.

 

[HopperFan]

There is no winning and some group will be ticked off.

TRUTH!

 

[Sydnerella]

Random thoughts

We are feeling salty about potentially paying up to 120 more per day for our family of four to do What we used to be able to do for the price of admission and good planning.

Disney has lost it’s luster with every new money grab. Even if we can afford them… it feels like being taken advantage of at every possible turn! And the never ending hypocrisy of praising cast members for the 50th on TV and social media but not giving them discounts or park access...

So this family who spends 10-15K at WDW per trip is feeling ready for a break from it after ourThanksgiving trip. We are not even as excited for it now. While we will still have fun no matter what, it’s likely to be the last trip for a long time.

#firechapekanddamaro

 

[Sydnerella]

Random thoughts

We are feeling salty about potentially paying up to 120 more per day for our family of four to do What we used to be able to do for the price of admission and good planning.

Disney has lost it’s luster with every new money grab. Even if we can afford them… it feels like being taken advantage of it every possible turn! And the never ending hypocrisy of praising cast members for the 50th on TV and social media but not giving them discounts or park access...

So this family who spends 10-15K at WDW per trip is feeling ready for a break from it after ourThanksgiving trip. We are not even as excited for it now. While we will still have fun no matter what, it’s likely to be the last trip for a long time.

#firechapekanddamaro

 

[katyjeka]

We have been more times than I care to admit!! I swear its an addiction. We are going this December for a couple weeks and will be touring the "old fashioned way". We've been on every ride excluding Remy and Star Wars(we are not fans)so we will ride what we can and not worry about the others. I was not a fan of fastpass and zigzagging around a park to meet fastpass times so we will not miss it. Three plus days in each park should allow us time to see a lot and if not I'll know better for our next trip. After feeling so isolated the last year and a half I'm not sure we'll mind waiting in line with actual people. It might actually make our trip feel more normal if that makes sense.

 

[mamaofsix]

Planning all of your FASTPASS 60 days out before you arrived was never fun. It was a pain in the @ss. It’s bad enough dining has to be made ahead of time. Wish they would offer lighting service for the restaurants

Depends who you are. Getting excited and planning ahead of time - including fastpasses, dining and an itinerary we could all agree on = SUPER FUN for us.

Getting all 6 of my kids up early and to the parks, figuring it all out "day of" and last minute - everyone arguing and whining all day over what we should do next = NOT FUN AT ALL. And supremely stressful.

For many, many families . . . planning ahead makes for a much better vacation.

 

[shawthorne44]

I had been super-annoyed by the one-ride rule. But, I think it will be better for those that sleep-in and get G+ and also those that don't get it at all. The early birds that get G+ will have used up theirs early in the day, and the standby line has to move much faster than during FPP days, since the number of G+ ride reservations can't be more than the number of people buying G+.

My other random thought. Originally planning the trip (pre-lockdown) I was anti-Park Hopping. I ended up getting them because without FPP, open and close seemed like the times to be there. Also, I got them at a discounted price of $50 where I bought the tickets. Now that seems brilliant. We'll be doing some serious park hopping in order to open up another park's worth of G+.

 

[JenSop]

I'm with you, OP. I loved the planning ahead of time. It was really fun, and a great way to build the excitement for the trip!

And that way I could show up for my trip and everything was set - no uncertainty.

I'd have my 3 afternoon FPs and our TS for dinner all set to go. Perfection!

Our next trip is January 2022. I will get up ONE day at 7am to buy LL for ROTR just because I want hubby to experience it. (I did it back in early 2020 when you had to be IN the park early to get in the VQ. Hubby refused to get up early. He will NOT get up early on vacation. Period.)

I REALLY want to see how people do with it all.
For those of us who won't get up early on vacation - how will Genie+ work for us? Can I get to the park after lunch and start using it for all the rides I want? For one of our DHS days, I'll do the LL for RotR, then Genie+ the rest of the day. But I better be able to get the rides I want. And it better work around my ADRs. When I think back to legacy paper fastpasses - they ran out of them sometimes pretty early in the day. So I'm really hoping we don't have that kind of scenario. I'm so so SO not happy, but I will give it a chance.

Ugh. Chapek and his horrific greed. What a horrible person. He's destroying the place I've loved since childhood.

 

[kmrobins03]

Planning all of your FASTPASS 60 days out before you arrived was never fun. It was a pain in the @ss. It’s bad enough dining has to be made ahead of time. Wish they would offer lighting service for the restaurants

They do now offer “walk up” reservations at some dinning. You have to be in the park , near the restaurant, and then you make the walk up reservation in the app (assuming some are available)

 

[Wdwfan2016]

They do now offer “walk up” reservations at some dinning. You have to be in the park , near the restaurant, and then you make the walk up reservation in the app (assuming some are available)

It’s hardly ever available at the popular restaurants.

 

[Kimpossible1]

Random thoughts

Disney has lost it’s luster with every new money grab. Even if we can afford them… it feels like being taken advantage of it every possible turn! And the never ending hypocrisy of praising cast members for the 50th on TV and social media but not giving them discounts or park access...

#firechapekanddamaro

Thank you as a former cast member with family and friends still working...CM's are not treated special anymore! They are blocked out of the parks frequently and their holiday discount which usually started mid-October, was moved to Dec 1 this year. It is very sad that CM's aren't appreciated anymore, and people wonder why they don't seem very magical...because they are treated like inventory, not people.

 

[shawthorne44]

I thought that it was extremely telling that Sparkly Name Badges for CM's were listed as part of the 50th Celebration. But, they don't have enough themed uniforms. I hate the generic uniforms. That would be fine at Walmart. Or maybe a CM that was a floater for the day.