Disney has lost another family - do they care?

[Cyrano]

No more labels folks

 

[maxiesmom]

Each time I've looked at Art of Animation, it is upwards of $300/night. I would say it's not exactly a stretch to say that's out of reach for many families.

I disagree. Maybe it is if they want to make a trip to WDW twice a year or every year. But many families save a long time to make a trip to WDW. Almost all of us have a budget we work with, very few of us can go whenever we want and stay wherever we want.

It is all a matter of priorities.

 

[EMode]

Seriously!

When AoA was first announced, I also thought it was a way for Disney to address the needs of larger families. Then I went to book a Cars room for my brother's family last year and saw how much they wanted/night. $300/night is ridiculous compared to other options.

I priced it for our Spring Break trip and its $445 a night. For $110 less a night I can book onsite at US. With the benefit of FOTL access and unlimited ride access its a no brainer which is the better value for our money.
I love WDW but thanks to FP+ the perks of staying onsite are no longer worth the cost to do so for our family when compared to what you can get elsewhere.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I disagree. Maybe it is if they want to make a trip to WDW twice a year or every year. But many families save a long time to make a trip to WDW. Almost all of us have a budget we work with, very few of us can go whenever we want and stay wherever we want.

It is all a matter of priorities.

The bolded was pretty much my point. For many people, $300/night for a hotel is out of reach - especially after factoring in the cost of tickets to the park, getting to Orlando, and food while here.

I'm not sure where I said anything about going whenever we want and staying wherever we want? We can't do that either. I realize my signature shows we went twice this past year, but those were special circumstances, not something we can do every year.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

I disagree. Maybe it is if they want to make a trip to WDW twice a year or every year. But many families save a long time to make a trip to WDW. Almost all of us have a budget we work with, very few of us can go whenever we want and stay wherever we want.

It is all a matter of priorities.

$300/night so $2100/week to stay at AoA. Or I can rent a 3 bed 2 bath condo for $700/week. $1400 is A LOT of money to me. Especially when I consider the fact that with AoA there is only 1 real bed so that leaves me sleeping on a Murphy bed with my niece.....no thanks. I'd actually opt for 2 rooms at Pop instead which comes out a little cheaper. I'm holding off making reservations tho to see if offsite is able to prebook. If no, I'll just have to delay the trip 6 months or so in order to save up more money. Which stinks b/c I want to take my niece and nephews now.

 

[SmallWorld71]

You missed the point of my post. I never addressed the number of people in each group or said the groups were equal. It was never about making the employees happy. It was about meeting the goals of the company. If the current plan doesn't meet the corporation's vision and end goals, the organization will change the way it operates. They know that some people will be unhappy. Some people will always be happy. So instead of trying to please everyone, they do what they need to maximize the results in the favor of the company.

Oh, I agree. This has always been about the company, not about what's in the best interest of the guest.
I was just trying to take your analogy further to show what has happened with the implementation.

 

[Talking Hands]

I wonder why anyone would bother with park hoppers anymore? You only get fast passes in one park, and by the time you would usually hop over it will be impossible to ride anything due to crowds. I am another who is disappointed with this new system. I would be willing to pay extra for the old fast pass system!

Maybe they want to do something later at a different like see Illuminations or see shows. Disney is not all rides. Truthfully I rarely ride rides anymore. There are only a few that don't leave me in pain. I go for the shows and people watching. Love going on a backstage tour or just going to Living Seas and watching the fish swim in the tank. Taking pictures of the beautiful landscaping or heading to Japan in Epcot and grabbing some of my favorites snacks that are available at home.

 

[flicx]

The bolded was pretty much my point. For many people, $300/night for a hotel is out of reach - especially after factoring in the cost of tickets to the park, getting to Orlando, and food while here.

I'm not sure where I said anything about going whenever we want and staying wherever we want? We can't do that either. I realize my signature shows we went twice this past year, but those were special circumstances, not something we can do every year.

Absolutely Angel!!!! I will never spend that kind of money per night. Just can't justify it. The fact that Disney bills AOA as a value resort cracks me up. That is just plain ridiculous. These are the kind of things that irk me anymore about Disney. It seems anymore it's ALL ABOUT THE MONEY! Yes I know Disney needs to make a profit, but there is a point where it becomes greed pure and simple. Somehow I feel management has lost its way and the money aspect has far surpassed customer experience aspect. I think one can draw that conclusion from not only disboards but also facebook and the other internet outlets about Disney! Several years ago you hardly heard any rumblings. Not so now. Quite frankly Disney has made its own bed!

 

[tlady]

I rarely post however I am lying in my bed here at Hilton (never before at 8pm) and I am sad to say this is it! My daughter is 4 and this is her fourth and last trip with me. It's been fun until now - can't stand having to plan around fast pass+ system. Don't waste money on park hopper anymore as by the time you get to another park, lines are far too lengthy and you can't get fast passes. Spontaneity is gone. I don't spend this kind of money to work so hard planning my day's route and strategy.

The sad reality is "no" they don't care about losing an individual family such as yours. They WILL start to care if their profits take a dip. But for that to happen, a lot more people will need to say "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!"

There are still many, many people who belive Disney can do no wrong. Or else who believe it's a mortal sin to ever criticize or challenge anything Disney does.

Then you've got others who never figured out the old system and probably won't figure out the new system. They will go to Disney maybe once or twice or three times in their lives and consider themselves lucky to have entered the hallowed ground, no matter what their experience.

If my next trip is not satisfactory, it will be my last as well. Universal will get any future business from me on any future trips to Orlando. On the other hand, if Disney does lift some of the ridiculous restrictions on the FP+ system, I will most likely remain a customer.

 

[rteetz]

Absolutely Angel!!!! I will never spend that kind of money per night. Just can't justify it. The fact that Disney bills AOA as a value resort cracks me up. That is just plain ridiculous. These are the kind of things that irk me anymore about Disney. It seems anymore it's ALL ABOUT THE MONEY! Yes I know Disney needs to make a profit, but there is a point where it becomes greed pure and simple. Somehow I feel management has lost its way and the money aspect has far surpassed customer experience aspect. I think one can draw that conclusion from not only disboards but also facebook and the other internet outlets about Disney! Several years ago you hardly heard any rumblings. Not so now. Quite frankly Disney has made its own bed!

Well first off AoA is fairly new still only 1-2 years old. Also there is only one section of regular rooms in AoA the rest is all family suite which are more expensive. Disney is a for profit company if it wasn't about the money vacations wouldn't cost a dime. I don't think disney is being greedy they are going to keep playing with rising prices until people won't pay those prices anymore they haven't found that number yet. Universal does the same thing by raising prices pretty much every year. I know I'm going to get ridiculed for this but there was a time where FP wasn't a thing and everyone survived. Also more than half of the guests that entered WDW in a year did not use a single FP. In 2012 on my July trip I used one FP one that was it waited no longer than 50 minutes for a ride and that was for soarin that I had never done before. Disney isn't going to change until they start losing money and that isn't going to happen in the foreseeable future just because of FP+.

 

[Schmeck]

I priced it for our Spring Break trip and its $445 a night. For $110 less a night I can book onsite at US. With the benefit of FOTL access and unlimited ride access its a no brainer which is the better value for our money.
I love WDW but thanks to FP+ the perks of staying onsite are no longer worth the cost to do so for our family when compared to what you can get elsewhere.

But Universal is only maybe 2 days worth of parks? And there's not much to do with little kids, IMO. Most of the park is used for roller coasters. I guess if your family is mostly teenagers, then it's a 3 day park? But WDW is a 6-7 day vacation for us, and Universal can be done in half a day (we just do Harry Potter there) so staying onsite at Universal gets us no perks at all. Unless FJ has FOTL access now?

 

[rteetz]

The sad reality is "no" they don't care about losing an individual family such as yours. They WILL start to care if their profits take a dip. But for that to happen, a lot more people will need to say "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!" There are still many, many people who belive Disney can do no wrong. Or else who believe it's a mortal sin to ever criticize or challenge anything Disney does. Then you've got others who never figured out the old system and probably won't figure out the new system. They will go to Disney maybe once or twice or three times in their lives and consider themselves lucky to have entered the hallowed ground, no matter what their experience. If my next trip is not satisfactory, it will be my last as well. Universal will get any future business from me on any future trips to Orlando. On the other hand, if Disney does lift some of the ridiculous restrictions on the FP+ system, I will most likely remain a customer.

you are correct it is very unlikely disney will change anything because profits aren't dropping and it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. Most people that enter disney don't know a lot of pre planning stuff like FP or ADRs and stuff. I've heard numbers from other threads and websites that only a third of guests in a year actually used FP so several thousand people managed with out it. Again there was a time where there was no FP. I also don't think it is ridiculous to only get 3 FP a day the only problem I have with it is you can't park hop with them. I've heard rumors that might change and it might not. But I've said this in previous posts I went in 2012 and used one FP in a family of five in the month of July. Its definitely manageable. I don't have a problem waiting in a line thats 50 minutes or under. A lot of the queues are interactive now and can be fun if you try. Everyone seems to have mobile devices now do something on there like read a book or play a game. As for raising prices disney and universal have been raising prices consecutively for years now and I don't see that changing until people don't pay the price anymore.

 

[prudence64]

Hope you all enjoy US more than we did. We had a miserable day, but the Harry Potter was broken and we only had tickets to IOA. Didn't find much else to do as non roller coaster lovers. Spider-man was cool though. Couldn't make a whole day of IOA for us. WAited around a long time to see if the forbidden journey ride ever came back up and it didn't. The Harry potter section looked cool from what we could see through the crowd. Otherwise, we got bored there quickly.

 

[rteetz]

But Universal is only maybe 2 days worth of parks? And there's not much to do with little kids, IMO. Most of the park is used for roller coasters. I guess if your family is mostly teenagers, then it's a 3 day park? But WDW is a 6-7 day vacation for us, and Universal can be done in half a day (we just do Harry Potter there) so staying onsite at Universal gets us no perks at all. Unless FJ has FOTL access now?

I totally agree universal is not a week vacation for us either I'd much rather spend my week at disney FP or no FP.

 

[Kpskyman]

Have not had the pleasure of using the fp+ yet, but it would not hurt me in the slightest, when we visit, we rarely use the fp system as the lines are not that long. We go in Sept, early Dec, or mid Jan. never need fp for MK, just use for TSM in HS, and only for Soaring in EPCOT. All other lines under 30 min. We never park hop either, we would many years ago but not since the up charge for it. When you go when the parks are crowded, you have to expect waiting in lines. I don't want to spend my vacation waiting in line, so I get very picky about what time of year I visit.

 

[fairyprincess88]

But Universal is only maybe 2 days worth of parks? And there's not much to do with little kids, IMO. Most of the park is used for roller coasters. I guess if your family is mostly teenagers, then it's a 3 day park? But WDW is a 6-7 day vacation for us, and Universal can be done in half a day (we just do Harry Potter there) so staying onsite at Universal gets us no perks at all. Unless FJ has FOTL access now?

And this is another one of those personal opinion things. I can easily do a 6-7 day vacation at Universal, the same as I would at Disney. It is all about what you want out of the parks and how you choose to do them. I could easily spend more time just sitting in the WWoHP sipping a Butterbeer than I would ever want to spend in DHS. Saying Universal is only 2 days worth of parks is only an opinion, not a fact.

And really, IOA has only two coasters(3 if you count the kiddie one in WWoHP) and the Studios has 3(including a kiddie coaster), one of which is the Mummy which is part dark ride. That makes a total of 6 coasters in both parks combined, whereas MK will soon have 4 in just that one park. Saying most of Universal is used for coasters is just not in anyway factual, it's just how you choose to see it. It's all just opinion.

 

[Bullseye]

Absolutely Angel!!!! I will never spend that kind of money per night. Just can't justify it. The fact that Disney bills AOA as a value resort cracks me up. That is just plain ridiculous. These are the kind of things that irk me anymore about Disney. It seems anymore it's ALL ABOUT THE MONEY! Yes I know Disney needs to make a profit, but there is a point where it becomes greed pure and simple. (

Would you be willing to pay less....say $130.00 a night, but with no magic express, no free transportation anywhere on the property, no free parking, no emh, and a lot less activities at the resorts?

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Would you be willing to pay less....say $130.00 a night, but with no magic express, no free transportation anywhere on the property, no free parking, no emh, and a lot less activities at the resorts?

I would and I have.

I paid 120/night for a three bedroom at Wyndham Bonnet Creek on Disney property. We had an inexpensive rental car (about $100/week) so we could come and go as we pleased to and from the parks and also visit some inexpensive but delicious off property restaurants. Our room had three full bedrooms, two full baths, a big patio, a living room, a dining room and a full kitchen. The resort had kids activities all day, two lazy rivers, five pools and multiple waterslides. There is no way I would pay similar prices to be crammed into a value resort room. Magical Express is not a perk to me because it would just be Disney locking me into eating at their restaurants all week--No THANKS!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[Amanda25]

New fp system is horrible, can't imagine it will stick, have not heard anyone liking it.

 

[HookdonWDW]

New fp system is horrible, can't imagine it will stick, have not heard anyone liking it.

Hi Amanda, we went in January, and we liked it. If you read this entire thread and other posts on the board, there are plenty of other people who like it. I freely acknowledge that there are people who don't like it, but their are plenty of us who don't fart pixie dust, yet still like FP+...