First Time I Ever Felt That WDW Wasn't Worth The Time and Money

[StraightToDumbo]

We just got back from a trip from 9/16-9/27. A nice, long, 12-day trip with 5 park days and a party night. It was way more crowded than I thought it would be in mid-September. Uncomfortably crowded at that. Prices for food keep climbing to the point that we cancelled all but TWO of our ADR's because they were just so expensive.

The guests are getting ruder and ruder, and there's an air of "every man for themselves" where you kind of have to be a jerk to get anything done. The planning has gotten maddening and stressful and now is a must with the FP+. The new security procedures for the monorails and such are just ridiculous.

Even an event I THOUGHT wouldn't be slammed (MNSSHP) was just that. Uncomfortably crowded with ridiculous character waits and even RIDE WAITS until about 10:00.

For the first time ever, my family walked away from this thinking "Well, that wasn't really worth it. Next time: Regional Park."

I get why people love Disney. We love it too. But it's really getting to the point where the amount of effort, money, and time you have to put in just doesn't cut it for most people no matter how much you love the place.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

We have some great trips and some not so great trips. Sorry this wasn't one of your great trips.

 

[melanielll]

Sad to say, but I think we are approaching the "on a break" phase of our Disney relationship. A lot of the things that you mentioned, plus the complexity of scheduling the thing have us about to take a vacation from this kind of vacation. We are currently scheduling a trip around the end of the year. People keep saying things like "let's skip that" and "it's not worth it." Not a good sign

 

[LizGirl]

We've had trips like that before. The crowds just get to you after a while. It's disappointing that we still haven't seen Happily Ever After with a decent view because the place is just mobbed!

I wonder if people rescheduling due to Irma jacked up crowds for normally light weeks? We are headed down this week and I don't know what to expect.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I was there 9/15-9/23, and it was pretty crowded although not worse than the first week of October which is when I went last year.

I am over the Food & Wine Festival after this year. The prices for wine samples skyrocketed. Between the threat of hurricanes and the Magic Kingdom being closed at 7:00 for the parties for half the week, I think my next trip will be in spring or summer.

 

[StraightToDumbo]

We've had trips like that before. The crowds just get to you after a while. It's disappointing that we still haven't seen Happily Ever After with a decent view because the place is just mobbed!

I wonder if people rescheduling due to Irma jacked up crowds for normally light weeks? We are headed down this week and I don't know what to expect.

Talking to people on the busses, a lot of them did reschedule their trip. I don't understand how so many people can just flip their vacation ahead one week. I'd never be able to do that. Anyway, it definitely sucked. There were obvious awesome parts like seeing the Boo-To-You Parade, Hocus Pocus, and seeing Fantasmic FINALLY for the first time (loved it). But man the crowds really put a damper on things. We're definitely breaking for a while.

What did it for us was the bus waits for AoA at the end of the night. They were INSANE. I'm sorry, but paying that much to be on property you shouldn't have to wait 40 minutes for a bus back to the resort.

 

[CAS239]

You likely were hitting crowds that pushed back trips or having extended stays due to Irma. Then I'm sure some with attitudes and feelings from the storm.

As far as MNSSHP though, I would assume long lines for characters at every party. And I wouldn't expect walk ons for the rides. I've never been to the ticketed parties but I'd expect 30/45+ min character waits and around 30 min waits for the rides.

I agree on ADR's. We usually never eat on property because it's way too overpriced

 

[PSUGuy]

I'm getting close but only due to Disney cutbacks. When we started our yearly pilgrimages in 1999 we'd buy Park Hopper Plus passes which never expired if not fully used and they got us into Pleasure Island 4 times per trip. Remember PI? The Adventurers' Club, Comedy Warehouse, New Years every night? And Disney was profitable doing that.

Then PI went away and was replaced with many new 'opportunities' to buy more overpriced stuff which was basically licensed Disney products which advertised the brand. And Disney was profitable doing that.

Then came the cuts of Off Kilter, the World Showcase Players and Streetmosphere performers, sometimes replaced by temporary, contracted shows but mostly not. And Disney continues to be profitable.

With a trip coming up in 30 days we obviously find value at WDW, mostly because of Food&Wine. I think the back breaking straw will be if they cut the Eat to the Beat concert series to long weekends as in Flower&Garden. We'll see.

Bill From PA

 

[Davey Jones II]

We're not doing the Halloween party this year, but every time we did sold out parties in the past, the waits for most rides were short, walk on, or very reasonable. I don't know if they are overselling these events now, or more people are sneaking in without a ticket somehow?

 

[2Gma]

Sorry your trip wasn't as magical as you hoped. We were there last week as well (9/25-10/3). It was definitely busier than past Sept trips. It was miserably HOT for a few of those days and that can definitely change moods.

 

[tlmadden73]

Sorry it wasn't magical,

but it's all relative I feel.

I was just talking to someone who just came back from a trip last week 9/24 - 9/29 (they also hit Universal).
They (and I was shocked) just "winged it" .. they didn't even get Fast Passes until a few days before (and some just the day of). They just decided which park to hit when they woke up and had a great time.

He said he felt crowds were pretty light with most rides never hitting above 30 minutes, even for something like Soaring. They didn't even use Fast Passes a lot of the times. Their winging it plan worked great for them.

I attribute your issues with more people coming to Disney than years past (DESPITE the increasing prices) because Disney has been doing a great job with festivals, parties and promotions to GET people to come during the old "slow time" of September. Hotel prices are cheaper, weather is cooler. It is just a more desirable time (if you can choose) than say mid-July. If I could choose a time of the year to go for my next trip, mid-September would probably be it.

But in general, I feel less "magical" trips sometimes can just be attributed to:
Burnout - going to a place regularly means each visit has to "live up" to the greatness of the last. But since the last visit, prices go up, crowds go up, "new" experiences aren't new anymore, etc. Instead of comparing it against an inferior experience (like a regional park), you are comparing it to past trips ..(which, in most cases will always be better because things WERE cheaper, but also because of nostalgia bias (you probably only remember the good parts of the last trips).
Because you have so much experience with WDW, frequent trips allow you to "nitpick" the smaller details that are washed over in a magical first trip.

Anything I do .. whether it go to WDW or my favorite restaurant, loses its magic after frequent visits. I couldn't eat at the same restaurant every night for weeks without it eventually becoming less exciting each time, no matter how good the food or service is. Nothing is perfect.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder .

 

[rwdavis2]

We only go every 4-5 years. This last trip we stayed 8 nights with 8 day park hoppers. This made it easier to do every attraction we wanted. Sometimes we only hit parks for a half day, enough to use up fastpasses for high demand attractions and then go relax. I don't think I would do anything less than a full week again.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

As PP mentioned I think all the folks that had to change their travel due to Irma carried over into your trip. I have to say, whether or not we are there when it's lighter crowds or crazy busy days, I have noticed guests can be really rude. The DIS video of their Top 5 most annoying guests are really some of my most annoying guests too!! I think they are always there unfortunately I am sorry ya'll had such a bad trip.

 

[SAMMMMMMMMMM]

I also think the "secret" slow month of September is no longer that slow month it used to be. People are reading up on vacations and planning their dates. That's why I think the crowds were lower in the summer this year too. I know for our upcoming trip the very end of November we booked it because of the potentially lower crowds. Those crowd predictions have slowly risen over the past 6 months.

 

[hedberg1661]

Prices for food keep climbing to the point that we cancelled all but TWO of our ADR's because they were just so expensive.

You aren't the only ones seeing this...Disney is clearly aware of this issue given the recent discounts at various dining locations throughout property. With the rising prices with everything Disney, I think they really need to consider what their target audience is and how they can best get those dollars.

The new security procedures for the monorails and such are just ridiculous.

Honestly, I am not seeing what is bad about this at all. I love these changes...in fact I would argue that the lines at the TTC to get from the parking lots to the Monorail/Boat are worse than anywhere.

Uncomfortably crowded at that.

Crowds are a problem. Don't expect to see many discounts and/or offers. If you do (like the one release today) it will be so limited that it shouldn't even count as a discount. I think they are trying to use the elevated prices to price people out of WDW for now. Once Star Wars opens up I bet the other parks see a decrease in attendance albeit subtle but enough that one would notice.

 

[poodledogs55]

I was there the same week and felt the same about crowds, which were as bad, if not worse than summer. What day did you go to MNSSHP? I was there the 17th and am trying to figure out if it was a packed party or if it was like that all week. It was my first time doing MNSSHP and I’d be very OK with it being my last because of the crowds. I think my plan for future trips will be shorter ones, when the weather is cooler because if I’m going to deal with crowds either way, I’d rather it not be as hot. Fortunately, I didn’t deal with too many rude guests, other than ones who are just not aware of the people around them.

 

[999_Happy_Haunts]

But it's really getting to the point where the amount of effort, money, and time you have to put in just doesn't cut it for most people no matter how much you love the place.

I was with you up to this portion of your post. The fact that you encountered such heavy crowds would tend to disprove your premise, no? One of two things must be true: Either the masses you witnessed find WDW to be worthwhile, or...everyone you saw was having a lousy time. Whether something is worthwhile is relative. That said, I would agree that more and more people are coming around to your conclusion especially if they are people who have aged with WDW and seen the changes. But this doesn't translate to "most people". But it is "many people".

 

[MissStitch626]

We were there around the same dates as OP (14-28 Sep) and had similar experiences, particularly regarding crowds.

Wait times were regularly 45 minutes or more for rides like Pirates, Haunted Mansion etc and on many days the parks were difficult to navigate due to crowds. You could tell tempers were starting to fray due to the hot weather so we did see a few instances of rude behaviour. I do have to say that some of this behaviour was from Cast Members (nothing so bad that I felt the need to report it but definitely noticeable). There were also a few days where additional FPs were very difficult to secure. Like previous posters, we put this down to Irma - our trip had to be delayed by 5 days so we assumed many others were in similar situations.

Overall we still had a great time but it was definitely much more crowded than I had anticipated and trying to make the best use of time caused a few headaches throughout the trip.

 

[SealedSeven]

My trip was 9/15-23rd. I felt the crowds were not terrible at all until late in the trip when those that moved their trip due to hurricane came in. By then, our group rode everything at each park so could easily skip/rest instead of waiting in lines.

9/19 was our Halloween party and each line besides characters were 20 min or less. Thursday 21st is when Magic Kingdom started to feel filled. Luckily avoided most of the crowded parks for rest of week / mainly focused on fast passes then.

 

[Monorail_Man_NJ]

Think people in general have just got ruder in our society. Everyone is every man for themselves. Luckily Disney has far fewer people then that compared to other resorts. Try going to Six Flags for a day and the difference is night and day.

I will say though last year I had a bad experience with a line cutter on Soarin. This woman got right in my face and started cussing me out inline with children around. (She was mad because I called her out on LINE CUTTING). Needless to say I held my temper till we got to the end of the line and I immediately contacted a cast member. Luckily about 50 people behind me had my back and the woman was removed from the ride and removed from Soarin for the remainder of the day.