Disney World still creating magical memories?

[cdh]

I've come to the conclusion that people like to hate on Disney because they are a big and easy target. And no matter what they do, change things, don't change things, people will complain, often the same exact people complain about both. It's incredibly frustrating and no wonder Disney has quit trying to please. It's an impossible task any more. People can't be pleased. It's almost like they no longer want to be pleased, they just want to complain.

In the same way they seem to like to pretend that the tourism industry is ok everywhere else. That housekeeping in all other hotels is back but Disney is the only place where it's cheap and not back. That only Disney is raised room rates. That only Disney has taken away things and lost customer service. I don't get it. Maybe folks really don't get out and go anywhere else? I know we do. And you are right. Rates are sky high all over. Housekeeping is not back in hardly any hotel we stay at. I know we stay regularly in a fairly nice boutique hotel, so happened to be featured in a show on Magnolia Network in just the past few weeks, on a regular basis, when attending sporting events in a neighboring city where we hold season tickets. So we stay about 1 weekend a month. There's no housekeeping during our stay. Rates are on par with a Disney deluxe, regular room. Can go higher if it's a really popular game series. But, we pay for the convivence of no traffic in and out of the event. Much like folks pick to pay for Disney resorts. We have gotten to know the staff and really like them and know they are doing their best and know how understaffed they are, just like everyone everywhere is.

I can’t speak for anyone else but I’m actually saddened by the changes at Disney. I don’t want to be a Disney hater. It was a simple and magical trip for my family for years. Not simple as in plain or cheap…..simple in that I knew how to make it magical. I knew when to be online to get those fast passes, the best time of day to get them. I knew that I should make sure that my fast passes were in the same park as my dinner reservations and that I wanted to exit Be Our Guest after park closing so that we could walk out in a nearly empty Magic Kingdom (so make sure that reservation is around 9pm). Disney suddenly changed the rules.

They changed other things over the year…..Wishes became Happily Ever After, the Plaza changed their menu, sometimes my room had chocolate covered strawberries when we arrived/sometimes it didn’t, buses went from the hotel to Epcot and then they didn’t. There were lots of changes and we grumbled a little but we still went. We didn’t love the earlier changes but they didn’t change our overall experience too much.

These changes….the getting up at 7 and still struggling to get LL, buses that arrive far less frequently than in the past, no buses from the parks to DS, no park hopping until after 2 (then something akin to a second rope drop crowd), etc. are too much. It Isn’t so much that Disney isn’t making the trip magical, it’s that they prevent me from making it magical. It took years to learn the ropes and once we finally knew how to plan the trip perfectly they burned the rope.

In the past my husband and I talked about going to Disney once he retired. We planned for a different trip that wasn’t child centered but we absolutely planned to go. We were going to walk around Epcot holding hands, maybe have a couple of drinks, find a shady spot and people watch for a while. I never thought we would have to worry about getting a park reservation for Epcot so that we could have lunch at Le Cellier. They have just made so many ridiculous rules and the seem to be constantly changing things to the guest‘s disadvantage. If they want to charge more that’s fine….everything costs more these days but to charge more for what is clearly an inferior experience is what has led my family to say goodbye to Disney. It’s not because we are haters but because we know when we are getting less for more.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

This has been a really productive conversation, so I really want to thank everyone who has chimed in!! Some great points and it's really helped spark some of the eagerness to go back to Disney again.

I think, for me, and my family, and my budget, I think once the cost of the vacation tips over a certain threshold, I start to get anxious about "getting my moneys worth" whatever that ambiguous logic means, lol. And the last thing I want to do is to bring that kind of negativity with me on vacation. And I also try very hard to avoid stepping into the "vacation brain' mindset.

So I think, again, for me, what I'm thinking is where the price tag becomes untenable is when I try to factor in staying on-site at one of the resorts. What @cdh experienced echoes some of my concerns in that regards. I've stayed on site on special occasions in the past, and there's no denying that being on-site helped make the vacation extra magical. But I think I'll be better off saving that for special occasions.

I think staying off-site, paying for just the tickets to Disney and budgeting for the G+ add-ons will allow me to let go of some of my anxiety over trying to make the most of every second and just go with the flow.

I'm largely processing this as I'm typing it, so I appreciate you all being with me on this journey, lol!

Everybody has to find the balance for what makes the vacation work best for them.
And that will rarely be the same for 2 families.
Processing it out, as in planning/typing/working through it, in advance, can help a lot
So in that way it's good
As long as you don't go in to it thinking/expecting a bunch of negative experiences I think you'll find it isn't all that bad.
There's a lot of things that I don't love, believe me. The whole 7 AM thing being first and foremost.
Thankfully, I can wake up at 7AM, do what I need to do for the VQ/ILL and go right back to sleep, LOL

 

[Disneychick75]

Wanted to take our grandchildren but WDW is just not worth the money. Planning used to be fun but now it seems to have evolved into a huge pain. If we bring them to FL, will probably take them to Legoland and Universal or maybe Busch Gardens.
The magic for us began to disappear when Eisner was ousted. The focus began to shift from the guest experience.

 

[NavyDad]

Hey everyone, in 2018, I basically lived here on disboards.com in preparation for our trip to WDW. This site played a crucial piece in our preparation for our trip and I'm overwhelmingly grateful to everyone here for all the assistance everyone created. I had fully planned on kickstarting everything again in preparation for our next trip. But I have to admit with all the changes happening I'm a little worried that our next magical trip will be well, not very magical.

My concerns are:

• That now that FastPass+ has gone away and this new Pay-to-Play replacement is in place, that our budget needs to be way higher than it was.
• The changes that Gov. DeSantis have implemented stripping WDW of its special status are going to either a) result in even higher costs or b) subpar park experiences or c) both
• The park seems to be more crowded than ever before with days completely selling out that never did in the past
• And of course, the one that never seems to have changed, but still has to be factored in, the annual monster bump in the parks tickets.

Are people who are still managing to preserve the magic? Are there additional strategies that you've adopted other than "have more money" lol? Very curious what peoples experiences are and expectations for the future are.

Thanks in advance!!

We have taken a lot of trips to WDW the last 10 years or so and this last trip in April was probably our best trip. It was our first trip post-covid and everything felt mostly back to normal to us.

I wouldn't worry at all about items 2 & 3.

If you can afford to go but can't afford the extra expense of Genie Plus I would highly recommend taking advantage of the first two hours and last two hours of park time to get the most bang for your buck. Stay at a value resort and get the 30 minute early entry. Do rope drop and try to be among the first people at the tapstyle in the morning. It sounds like you can still get so much done if you rope drop and that 30+ minute early entry time is crucial. Also lots of reports indicating that posted wait times are inflated at the end of the day with people saying they could do some of the big headliners multiple times in the last hour of park opening.

 

[NavyDad]

We always loved being in walking distance of at least one park. That limited us to deluxe resorts. Like you mentioned, transportation to the parks was frustrating from time to time so it was nice to be able to walk to MK at the end of the day. For a couple of years we used Minnie Vans. They’re back now but they weren’t available when we were at Disney in May. We drive to Fl (so we have a car) but my husband doesn’t like driving at Disney.

Like so many others have mentioned recently, we went to Universal for two nights and really enjoyed it. The deluxe hotels provided perks that made the trip much more relaxing. We will probably go to Universal instead of Disney in the future. When Disney was at its best it was a far better trip than Universal but now, for us, Universal is so much better.

I said that I’m confused by people who find it as magical as before the changes…..that really boils down to the fact that I don’t understand why anyone would be happy to pay more and get less. Prices go up, I get it, and if the trip that cost $3500 in 2017 was $6000 today then I wouldn’t think much of it but the $6000 trip was nowhere near as nice as that $3500 trip. That presents a problem. Other people really don’t seem to mind and I’m happy for them. I sometimes wonder if they are just better, more tolerant people. I watch a YouTube channel called Paging Mr Marrow (he does a lot of Disney reviews). He is so happy all of the time. When I watch his videos my cheeks actually hurt from smiling so much. I’m enamored by his optimism. That’s the kind of person who may not mind paying more at Disney now. I’m more like George Costanza from Seinfeld.

You really summed it up perfectly. For deluxe prices I expect a deluxe experience. We may be happy staying offsite for less but Disney is a twelve hour drive. With the travel time and limited vacation time we are really hoping for a magical experience. Once my husband retires then we may be happy to stay offsite because we can stay as long as we want. Right now, we go to Disney to spend time in the parks so staying offsite would reduce the amount of time we could be in the parks. Thanks for your reply. I hope that all of your trips are wonderful.

I have a felling that paying almost $1000 per night would put anyone's brain into the "this better be amazing or I am going to be so mad" mode. That's really hard to overcome.

We stopped staying at deluxe resorts years ago. I just refuse to pay more than a few hundred bucks a night. We went back to staying at Pop Century after staying at a few deluxe resorts and we were just so much happier.

 

[NavyDad]

I haven't read through all the replies. My 2 cents for anyone who cares;

If you go looking for the bad - you'll find it. If you go looking for the good - you'll find it.

If you go expecting the same trip you had 5-6 years ago - it won't be there. If you go in with an open mind, I have little doubt you will enjoy your trip.

We used to go to alternate national park trips with WDW/DCL trips taking one big trip every year. If you think the "getting less for spending more" problem is only at Disney, you are out of your mind and haven't travelled anywhere recently. Lodging prices to go to a destination is out of this world, especially around major destinations such as WDW and National Parks. Flights are more expensive than ever before, and are currently more likely to get cancelled than ever before. Rental car prices are INSANE and then people are showing up having a reservation and there aren't any cars left for them.

The National Parks themselves have been the same price for far too long. There is a massive maintenance backlog, things are closed and rundown many places. Go to Yellowstone (inside the park), you'll get a far worse room than a WDW and pay close to the same price, if not more during peak season. People little everywhere, go off-trail and trample things, vandalize. Our last NP trip we said would be awhile, many hikes are becoming very crowded, and I don't go to a national park to take a hike and end up listening to someone else blaring their choice of music over their bluetooth speakers, having vape (or other) smoke cloud competitions, and climb all over iconic landmarks for their instagram photos.

Too many people everywhere treated their vacations as "This is my vacation, I am doing whatever the F I want" with zero consideration to anyone else around them. The number of times we've heard "IT's America! This is a Free Country!" as an excuse, is abhorrent.

So if you think you can take a vacation to another major tourist destination and avoid these things, Good Luck! If you do find, I wouldn't tell anyone about it because it will fill up quickly, and eventually become overrun as well.

That being said, I read all the negative things people had to say before our week long trip this past April, and was expecting the worst. We had a fantastic trip other than some dining issues. The parks themselves were great, and my kid (who has no idea about pre-Covid WDW) loved it, wasn't aware she was missing anything, and I wasn't about to point it out to her.

EDIT:
To add to my post, does anyone else on here golf? Tee time prices at many courses near me have nearly doubled from 4-5 years ago, and that is if you can actually get a tee-time. Not to mention many courses reduced maintenance schedules (or just simply lack of time, due to the courses being constantly jam-packed right now). Many courses have dropped the beverage cart, or raised prices so much that its become stadium price at $14+ for a beer. So I am paying more to golf, golfing less due to cost and lack of tee time availability, and getting a reduced experience due to lack of maintenance.

These problems are not unique to Disney at all.

This was basically our experience at WDW in April at all and I agree with the problems we are seeing everywhere.

No matter what you do, everything everywhere is more expensive. People are wound tight and want to get "their money's worth" out of it so they just do whatever and don't care. We went to the Outer Banks recently. The tourists were just terrible, nobody with any patience, everybody wants exactly what they want, when they want it and they act like the fact that they paid more money than in the past means they can mistreat workers who are doing their best.

Every business is giving less for more. A house we rented in 2002 for $4k was now $12k for the same week. We got less housekeeping, less perks for staying there and the house was in worse shape. It's just the way it is everywhere right now...

 

[cdh]

Does anyone else feel like Disney took away the things that you could do to make your trip magical? Having three fast passes scheduled at 60 days out meant that we could have an evening of riding Mine Train, BTM, and Pirates with almost no wait and then stand in a couple of short lines for non headliners, have dinner at BOG at around 9 and walk out into a nearly empty park after dinner. If we went to AK in the morning and then decided that we wanted to go to Le Cellier for lunch it was no problem….we didn’t have to worry about a reservation for Epcot. If we wanted to go to DS there was a bus that would go from AK to DS. Spontaneity is so difficult now. That sounds crazy and contradictory but I liked the commitment of having three good rides sometime during the day, a good dinner reservation, and the flexibility of being able to do anything we wanted for a few hours each day. Half of our time was planned, half wasn’t.

The years of going, learning, and planning better for the next trip are gone. When we were there in May I learned that I could buy a fast pass for Rise of the Resistance in the morning and then buy another fast pass for 7 Dwarfs after 2. Who knows if that would be the case if we went back six months from now. They seem to be changing rules as the go along now.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Does anyone else feel like Disney took away the things that you could do to make your trip magical? Having three fast passes scheduled at 60 days out meant that we could have an evening of riding Mine Train, BTM, and Pirates with almost no wait and then stand in a couple of short lines for non headliners, have dinner at BOG at around 9 and walk out into a nearly empty park after dinner. If we went to AK in the morning and then decided that we wanted to go to Le Cellier for lunch it was no problem….we didn’t have to worry about a reservation for Epcot. If we wanted to go to DS there was a bus that would go from AK to DS. Spontaneity is so difficult now. That sounds crazy and contradictory but I liked the commitment of having three good rides sometime during the day, a good dinner reservation, and the flexibility of being able to do anything we wanted for a few hours each day. Half of our time was planned, half wasn’t.

The years of going, learning, and planning better for the next trip are gone. When we were there in May I learned that I could buy a fast pass for Rise of the Resistance in the morning and then buy another fast pass for 7 Dwarfs after 2. Who knows if that would be the case if we went back six months from now. They seem to be changing rules as the go along now.

Yes and no. Lots of other old things were not so magical too
There were drawbacks to having to plan FP at 60 days too
Folks tend to forget all those now, because we made them work, found the positives to them. Forgot the negatives, or overlook them because we found ways to make them work to our advantage. Others who didn't found them awful and hated FP+
ADR at 180 days was the same. Who wanted to plan ADR at 180? When you had no idea what FP you'd get for when?
Or what park you'd want to do 6 months from now?
Would that ADR lock you in to that park?
Now, there are ways around those and some learned to work around them so that's the yes and no answer.
If you figured it out you found flexibility in it. If you didn't, you didn't.
Some of today's Disney makes it much harder
The Park Reservation system is horrid. No way around that. No park hopping till 2 is also horrid. Those are the 2 things I wish could go away. I could live with Genie+ if I had to, and would happily if they'd drop the other 2 things.
Think you hate the park reservation system, try having an AP and planning a trip with a regular ticket guest. That is a nightmare! Even when you share the same exact hotel reservation.

Anyway, having to learn new way to tour is not taking away magic. That alone isn't. We all have to learn new things. Sometimes some of it can be better. Sometimes it's hard to find the better, sometimes it's not. I sort of like the dining now, we find lots day before and day of, which is how I like it. We also find stand by lines better. I don't understand Genie+ yet, I'll be honest so we haven't tried to use it. We just pick stand by lines to do and they are shorter than stand by was under FP so that's better in my experience

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

The biggest thing for me is that WDW has gotten very, very expensive. And that is un-magical.

 

[cdh]

Yes and no. Lots of other old things were not so magical too
There were drawbacks to having to plan FP at 60 days too
Folks tend to forget all those now, because we made them work, found the positives to them. Forgot the negatives, or overlook them because we found ways to make them work to our advantage. Others who didn't found them awful and hated FP+
ADR at 180 days was the same. Who wanted to plan ADR at 180? When you had no idea what FP you'd get for when?
Or what park you'd want to do 6 months from now?
Would that ADR lock you in to that park?
Now, there are ways around those and some learned to work around them so that's the yes and no answer.
If you figured it out you found flexibility in it. If you didn't, you didn't.
Some of today's Disney makes it much harder
The Park Reservation system is horrid. No way around that. No park hopping till 2 is also horrid. Those are the 2 things I wish could go away. I could live with Genie+ if I had to, and would happily if they'd drop the other 2 things.
Think you hate the park reservation system, try having an AP and planning a trip with a regular ticket guest. That is a nightmare! Even when you share the same exact hotel reservation.

Anyway, having to learn new way to tour is not taking away magic. That alone isn't. We all have to learn new things. Sometimes some of it can be better. Sometimes it's hard to find the better, sometimes it's not. I sort of like the dining now, we find lots day before and day of, which is how I like it. We also find stand by lines better. I don't understand Genie+ yet, I'll be honest so we haven't tried to use it. We just pick stand by lines to do and they are shorter than stand by was under FP so that's better in my experience

We had figured it out. That’s probably why we loved it so much in the past and are so disapointed with the place now. We would arrive on a Sunday night just in time for a holiday or after hours party. That would be followed by four days of great dining and fast passes. We loved it. I hate the 2pm park hopping. A lot of that has to do with limiting lunch options. I think that they just made too many changes at once. All businesses are making changes in response to Covid. Some of them are legit, others seem like exaggerated cost saving measures in the name of covid.

 

[NavyDad]

Does anyone else feel like Disney took away the things that you could do to make your trip magical? Having three fast passes scheduled at 60 days out meant that we could have an evening of riding Mine Train, BTM, and Pirates with almost no wait and then stand in a couple of short lines for non headliners, have dinner at BOG at around 9 and walk out into a nearly empty park after dinner. If we went to AK in the morning and then decided that we wanted to go to Le Cellier for lunch it was no problem….we didn’t have to worry about a reservation for Epcot. If we wanted to go to DS there was a bus that would go from AK to DS. Spontaneity is so difficult now. That sounds crazy and contradictory but I liked the commitment of having three good rides sometime during the day, a good dinner reservation, and the flexibility of being able to do anything we wanted for a few hours each day. Half of our time was planned, half wasn’t.

The years of going, learning, and planning better for the next trip are gone. When we were there in May I learned that I could buy a fast pass for Rise of the Resistance in the morning and then buy another fast pass for 7 Dwarfs after 2. Who knows if that would be the case if we went back six months from now. They seem to be changing rules as the go along now.

Heading into our April trip, I had a lot of concerns about WDW mostly because of the negativity around Genie Plus and I prepared my wife that this may end up being our last trip to WDW in a long time.

Maybe it was those lowered expectations but we had one of our best trips ever. Instead of getting up every day at 6 am and marching out the door at 6:45 to ensure we were towards the front of the line at rope drop, I woke up at 7 and spent about 10-15 minutes on my phone making Genie+ and $LL reservations while my wife slept in or sipped coffee on the patio. We left our room whenever we felt like it which was nice, and very different for us.

We were able to ride more rides than we ever have before and honestly felt like we had WAY more flexibility than we ever had with Fast Pass Plus, and I loved FP+. Our experience was that there was way more LL availability with Genie Plus, and longer through the day, than we ever say with FP+ so that extra availability gave us more flexibility.

I'm not crazy about having to pay extra for these services, but honestly felt like the entire Genie plus system gave us a better experience with more flexibility than we had in previous years.

 

[NavyDad]

The biggest thing for me is that WDW has gotten very, very expensive. And that is un-magical.

That's the biggest issue for me too. Part of me doesn't understand how people can afford to go but I also know that people are going in greater numbers than ever before so.....

 

[DaviVascaino]

That's the biggest issue for me too. Part of me doesn't understand how people can afford to go but I also know that people are going in greater numbers than ever before so.....

that is the main issue.

The demand is extremely high right now. Disney will keep slowly increasing prices as long as the crowds keep coming. They will keep increasing prices and removing perks as long as the attendance does not decrease

 

[Stefien Quix]

that is the main issue.

The demand is extremely high right now. Disney will keep slowly increasing prices as long as the crowds keep coming. They will keep increasing prices and removing perks as long as the attendance does not decrease

Yup yup! So if everyone else could stop going so my experience is better? Please and thank you!

 

[gharter]

We have taken a lot of trips to WDW the last 10 years or so and this last trip in April was probably our best trip. It was our first trip post-covid and everything felt mostly back to normal to us.

I wouldn't worry at all about items 2 & 3.

If you can afford to go but can't afford the extra expense of Genie Plus I would highly recommend taking advantage of the first two hours and last two hours of park time to get the most bang for your buck. Stay at a value resort and get the 30 minute early entry. Do rope drop and try to be among the first people at the tapstyle in the morning. It sounds like you can still get so much done if you rope drop and that 30+ minute early entry time is crucial. Also lots of reports indicating that posted wait times are inflated at the end of the day with people saying they could do some of the big headliners multiple times in the last hour of park opening.

I would agree that we enjoyed our April trip as well.
However, I think things are far from being back to normal. To be fair, some parts probably will have a new normal and never get back to the previous normal.
Ride maintenance seemed lacking as more rides were breaking down for short periods of time. I didn't see as many people around picking up trash from the ground, so the park didn't seem as clean as usual.
Agree with getting there early for EE if you are onsite. Outside of MK, didn't find much help with Genie +.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

I haven't read through all the replies. My 2 cents for anyone who cares;

If you go looking for the bad - you'll find it. If you go looking for the good - you'll find it.

If you go expecting the same trip you had 5-6 years ago - it won't be there. If you go in with an open mind, I have little doubt you will enjoy your trip.

We used to go to alternate national park trips with WDW/DCL trips taking one big trip every year. If you think the "getting less for spending more" problem is only at Disney, you are out of your mind and haven't travelled anywhere recently. Lodging prices to go to a destination is out of this world, especially around major destinations such as WDW and National Parks. Flights are more expensive than ever before, and are currently more likely to get cancelled than ever before. Rental car prices are INSANE and then people are showing up having a reservation and there aren't any cars left for them.

The National Parks themselves have been the same price for far too long. There is a massive maintenance backlog, things are closed and rundown many places. Go to Yellowstone (inside the park), you'll get a far worse room than a WDW and pay close to the same price, if not more during peak season. People little everywhere, go off-trail and trample things, vandalize. Our last NP trip we said would be awhile, many hikes are becoming very crowded, and I don't go to a national park to take a hike and end up listening to someone else blaring their choice of music over their bluetooth speakers, having vape (or other) smoke cloud competitions, and climb all over iconic landmarks for their instagram photos.

Too many people everywhere treated their vacations as "This is my vacation, I am doing whatever the F I want" with zero consideration to anyone else around them. The number of times we've heard "IT's America! This is a Free Country!" as an excuse, is abhorrent.

So if you think you can take a vacation to another major tourist destination and avoid these things, Good Luck! If you do find, I wouldn't tell anyone about it because it will fill up quickly, and eventually become overrun as well.

That being said, I read all the negative things people had to say before our week long trip this past April, and was expecting the worst. We had a fantastic trip other than some dining issues. The parks themselves were great, and my kid (who has no idea about pre-Covid WDW) loved it, wasn't aware she was missing anything, and I wasn't about to point it out to her.

EDIT:
To add to my post, does anyone else on here golf? Tee time prices at many courses near me have nearly doubled from 4-5 years ago, and that is if you can actually get a tee-time. Not to mention many courses reduced maintenance schedules (or just simply lack of time, due to the courses being constantly jam-packed right now). Many courses have dropped the beverage cart, or raised prices so much that its become stadium price at $14+ for a beer. So I am paying more to golf, golfing less due to cost and lack of tee time availability, and getting a reduced experience due to lack of maintenance.

These problems are not unique to Disney at all.

I agree with this. Other trips are just as expensive, and less fun. We went to Ocean City, MD a couple years ago, pre COVID and it was $2200 for 4 nights in an awful room. Yes, Disney would be double that, but I would have a better room and way more fun. I still enjoy our family time at Disney despite a lot of the changes.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

I agree with this. Other trips are just as expensive, and less fun. We went to Ocean City, MD a couple years ago, pre COVID and it was $2200 for 4 nights in an awful room. Yes, Disney would be double that, but I would have a better room and way more fun. I still enjoy our family time at Disney despite a lot of the changes.

It’s vacations everywhere for sure
We just had a 5 nights Gatlinburg family reunion. Rented a huge cabin, split among all the families attending. It was still close to $3000 for the 5 nights for lodging only. And that was 2 years ago rates, the reunion was postponed twice due to Covid. No telling what they get for the cabin now. We drove since we only live 2 hours away so no travel costs. Brought our food or ate out

 

[Jrb1979]

Yes many places have gone up in price but I have found some places that aren't overly expensive still. My family just did Cedar Point a few weeks ago for 4 days. It cost $500 for the hotel and the park was free as we have passes. It was the best vacation we had in a long time.

 

[MomOTwins]

It’s vacations everywhere for sure
We just had a 5 nights Gatlinburg family reunion. Rented a huge cabin, split among all the families attending. It was still close to $3000 for the 5 nights for lodging only. And that was 2 years ago rates, the reunion was postponed twice due to Covid. No telling what they get for the cabin now. We drove since we only live 2 hours away so no travel costs. Brought our food or ate out

I agree with this. Other trips are just as expensive, and less fun. We went to Ocean City, MD a couple years ago, pre COVID and it was $2200 for 4 nights in an awful room. Yes, Disney would be double that, but I would have a better room and way more fun. I still enjoy our family time at Disney despite a lot of the changes.

Agree 100% on this--we went to Branson for a 2-night/1.5 day father's day/juneteenth weekend stay. Often hear branson described as a cheap getaway. Stayed in a very basic small airbnb condo with no resort amenities, went to one show (dolly parton stampede) on our arrival night, spent the next day with one day tickets at silver dollar city/white water, and returned the following morning. Just added all up and we spent $2,000. Only reason it worked out being any cheaper than Disney for us is because for Disney, we have to add plane tickets. If we could drive to Disney, it'd be about the same cost for a MUCH higher quality experience.

Yes many places have gone up in price but I have found some places that aren't overly expensive still. My family just did Cedar Point a few weeks ago for 4 days. It cost $500 for the hotel and the park was free as we have passes. It was the best vacation we had in a long time.

Well but you paid for those passes, so that's part of the cost just in your case it is spread over multiple trips.

 

[Jrb1979]

Agree 100% on this--we went to Branson for a 2-night/1.5 day father's day/juneteenth weekend stay. Often hear branson described as a cheap getaway. Stayed in a very basic small airbnb condo with no resort amenities, went to one show (dolly parton stampede) on our arrival night, spent the next day with one day tickets at silver dollar city/white water, and returned the following morning. Just added all up and we spent $2,000. Only reason it worked out being any cheaper than Disney for us is because for Disney, we have to add plane tickets. If we could drive to Disney, it'd be about the same cost for a MUCH higher quality experience.


Well but you paid for those passes, so that's part of the cost just in your case it is spread over multiple trips.

While we did pay for the passes they aren't that expensive. Its still cheaper then most vacations. We are going back to Cedar Point again in a few weeks and our hotel again is only costing us $700 for the week. It's still a lot less then any Disney vacation or a beach vacation.