For the First Time in Forever... I Did Not Enjoy My Vacation to Disney World

[EKKloppers]

Generally...I actually like the new system and agree...

But...when many things become "take it or leave it" due to crowds or long histories that diminish some of the repeatability...I'm trained to "leave it".

Now...and here's where the longtimer "rub" goes in...

Will you like the system then?
Go 3-5 more times when the "newness" of fantasyland is gone goodbye...maybe avatar is one and done...maybe Disney "springs" is a glorified mall?

Maybe Star Wars land is underwhelming or "big things coming" still in 5 years...

What then?

You see there are two types of colonists:

Type A - we'll call them Tories...who are just unquestioned. No matter what the deal is for them - they're in. You can find them wearing "just married" mouse ears with pin lanyards in line for chef mickeys...

Type b - are the rabble rousers...

like where they are...but start asking questions of "why" and "when"...even of King Iger...
They end up dumping the Coke into the world showcase lagoon.

Call me Sam Adams. But eventually everyone stops by the meeting at the pub and starts to ask a few questions...

I'm here now, winding up two weeks of both on-property and off-property experiences, and just winding down reading recent posts. The title, alone, of OP's post definitely caught my attention, and yes, I did read the attached article and later posts. I understand both the Type A's, and right now, the Type B's...

Don't get me wrong! It's been a wonderful trip, overall...mostly of the making of my travel party and some very happy events we enjoyed in spite of a few unpleasant glitches with Magic Bands and Memory Maker package linkages; and just unbelievable Marathon/Jersey Week/Late-Stage F&W Fest crowds that it was my fault not to have anticipated...But I've never before left Disney without looking forward to planning my next trip back. This time, I'm left thinking of anything but! I'm, presently, feeling more like dropping by that pub for one of those meetings...

 

[TowMater92]

I just don't understand complaints like no spontaneity - AT ALL. If you want to go to the park with zero plans, drifting from attraction to attraction, taking it in as it comes - YOU CAN STILL DO THAT. However, if you'd like to make some plans ahead of time, you can, and in doing that you will get more done. Disney vacations are better today than they were 30 years ago. We used to stand in line ALL DAY, with a few rides sprinkled in. Last week when we were there, I'll bet that I didn't spend a total of 90 minutes in line and I rode almost everything I wanted to.

I'm tired of arguing the whole non-FP time vs FP time but if you can't understand that people do not want to plan what park they're going to be at 6 months before their trip to make a dining reservation or 2 months to pick a FP then you're a plan everything person so you wouldn't understand. We use to get up and decide what park we wanted to go to and we still were able to ride everything because it was either before FP's so lines were moving or we could get a paper FP when we got there so we could still ride anything we wanted. Now you have to pick your park and plan your FP's so far in advance there is no way you could still do what you did before without pre-booking the rides. The main rides do get booked and run out of FP's, we only got to ride 7DMT once on the second to last day of our trip with a FP because all of them were taken on a 14 day trip within a week of them being available. So no you can't be spontaneous anymore. We use to switch parks whenever we want to but you can't do that now because you can't book FP's in different parks on the same day. I go on vacation to relax and do what I want when I want and that means I don't want to have to pick a park 6 months or even 2 months before my trip and have a schedule for my vacation.

 

[Whatsthegoodword]

Just curious, did you not want to ride e-ticket rides?

I was there last week and we skipped many rides because were not going to wait an hour or more. We had FP+ where possible. But even then, E-ticket rides were a 15 minute wait through the FP+ lines.

I don't mind planning, so we had FPs for the E tickets, then got 3 more FPs after using our first 3. The current system is good.

 

[nilla]

When did we become a society that couldn't wait.

The information age. Your favorite shows are TiVo'd, info is available immediately online, and there's a world of instant entertainment on your portable telephone. We're so used to being constantly amused that many of us don't know how to deal with extended periods without external stimulation.

Pay attention next time you're in a restaurant. Uncomfortable silence during table conversations has been replaced with checking your device for something interesting.

 

[wilkeliza]

The information age. Your favorite shows are TiVo'd, info is available immediately online, and there's a world of instant entertainment on your portable telephone. We're so used to being constantly amused that many of us don't know how to deal with extended periods without external stimulation.

Pay attention next time you're in a restaurant. Uncomfortable silence during table conversations has been replaced with checking your device for something interesting.

Oh I'm use to the uncomfortable silence becoming replaced. For date night my fiance and I have to turn our cell phones off or leave them at home. We are getting better though because we both realized we hate how dependent we have become on technology. It doesn't help at Disney that now they have the app. I tried to regulate myself to only checking wait times for rides we wanted to do after we finished the ride we were currently waiting for.

I saw my first post on FB saying we shouldn't judge people for their cell phone usage because it is their "coping mechanism" and I just wanted to scream that maybe you should be forcing yourself to have interactions with your friends so you don't need the coping mechanism. I have a friend that is on their phone 99% of the time you are having coffee or hanging out. I ended the friendship because I was tired of looking at the top of her head.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

I just don't understand complaints like no spontaneity - AT ALL. If you want to go to the park with zero plans, drifting from attraction to attraction, taking it in as it comes - YOU CAN STILL DO THAT. However, if you'd like to make some plans ahead of time, you can, and in doing that you will get more done. Disney vacations are better today than they were 30 years ago. We used to stand in line ALL DAY, with a few rides sprinkled in. Last week when we were there, I'll bet that I didn't spend a total of 90 minutes in line and I rode almost everything I wanted to.

I completely disagree that trips are better now than they were 30 years ago. Sure there was no Tower of Terror but you showed up to the park and everyone was on equal footing. If you wanted to ride you got in a line that actually moved consistently. When you were hungry you just found somewhere to eat which included the TS locations. Merchandise was area specific so there was cool frontierland items and not the same 3 Disney Parks items in every gift shop. CMs were Disney career people and not college kids in on the cheap who may or may not care about what they are doing. Animatronics worked, paint was fresh and maintenance was a key component to the experience.

There are certainly some fun rides that weren't there 30 years ago but those alone don't make the experience better.

 

[davper]

I completely disagree that trips are better now than they were 30 years ago. Sure there was no Tower of Terror but you showed up to the park and everyone was on equal footing. If you wanted to ride you got in a line that actually moved consistently. When you were hungry you just found somewhere to eat which included the TS locations. Merchandise was area specific so there was cool frontierland items and not the same 3 Disney Parks items in every gift shop. CMs were Disney career people and not college kids in on the cheap who may or may not care about what they are doing. Animatronics worked, paint was fresh and maintenance was a key component to the experience.

There are certainly some fun rides that weren't there 30 years ago but those alone don't make the experience better.

30 Years ago...

• 30 minutes was the longest you waited for a ride.
• You could get on the monorail and go in either direction.
• It took you longer to get to the front of the park than it took you to use Disney Transportation back to your resort

 

[davper]

I completely disagree that trips are better now than they were 30 years ago. Sure there was no Tower of Terror but you showed up to the park and everyone was on equal footing. If you wanted to ride you got in a line that actually moved consistently. When you were hungry you just found somewhere to eat which included the TS locations. Merchandise was area specific so there was cool frontierland items and not the same 3 Disney Parks items in every gift shop. CMs were Disney career people and not college kids in on the cheap who may or may not care about what they are doing. Animatronics worked, paint was fresh and maintenance was a key component to the experience.

There are certainly some fun rides that weren't there 30 years ago but those alone don't make the experience better.

30 Years ago...

• 30 minutes was the longest you waited for a ride at peak times.
• You could get on the monorail and go in either direction.
• It took you longer to get to the front of the park than it took you to use Disney Transportation back to your resort
  • This meant you could break for just one hour to go back to your resort for lunch and a quick dip. Today that takes 3 hours.
• You got up and decided what you would do that day. The only reservation needed was the Top of the World restaurant in the Contemporary.
• You could swim in the lakes and ride in the front of the monorail.
• Epcot was the best park.
• You didn't have to stake your claim on Main St. 2 hours before the parade started.
• Mickey & Minnie roamed the park and wasn't hidden behind closed doors.

 

[romitaz]

30 Years ago...

• 30 minutes was the longest you waited for a ride at peak times.
• You could get on the monorail and go in either direction.
• It took you longer to get to the front of the park than it took you to use Disney Transportation back to your resort
  • This meant you could break for just one hour to go back to your resort for lunch and a quick dip. Today that takes 3 hours.
• You got up and decided what you would do that day. The only reservation needed was the Top of the World restaurant in the Contemporary.
• You could swim in the lakes and ride in the front of the monorail.
• Epcot was the best park.
• You didn't have to stake your claim on Main St. 2 hours before the parade started.
• Mickey & Minnie roamed the park and wasn't hidden behind closed doors.

Ummm, 30 years ago what was the population of the Orlando area? What was the crowd size in the 2 parks? How many resorts?
You are comparing apples to bananas.


We got back last month from a 2 week trip. WE loved every second of it. We love the FP system and the magic band. As far as dining, we booked Ohana for our last day, THE DAY BEFORE. I have been going to Disney World since before EPCOT opened. I have as much, if not more, fun now as I did then. It's ALL about your perspective. We all tend to look to the past with rose colored glasses. Its the nature of memory.

 

[adam.adbe]

30 Years ago...

• 30 minutes was the longest you waited for a ride at peak times.
• You could get on the monorail and go in either direction.
• It took you longer to get to the front of the park than it took you to use Disney Transportation back to your resort
  • This meant you could break for just one hour to go back to your resort for lunch and a quick dip. Today that takes 3 hours.
• You got up and decided what you would do that day. The only reservation needed was the Top of the World restaurant in the Contemporary.
• You could swim in the lakes and ride in the front of the monorail.
• Epcot was the best park.
• You didn't have to stake your claim on Main St. 2 hours before the parade started.
• Mickey & Minnie roamed the park and wasn't hidden behind closed doors.

And if disboards had been around 30 years ago, people'd be clamoring for a 3rd gate.

 

[davper]

You are comparing apples to bananas.

But I like Bananas.

 

[davper]

And if disboards had been around 30 years ago, people'd be clamoring for a 3rd gate.

I bet that clamor wouldn't be for the 2 gates we got.

 

[Budshark]

Back in my days...

We just finished the first FP+/MB trip. Went in nervous, came out ok. Is it different? Yes, yes it is. Did we do some e-ticket rides that we didn't have FP+ for? Yes - 7DMT, RnRC, PP, SM, SpM. And we did all our FP+. While things were more structured, we built our plan for spontaneity. We purposely booked several days fast passes in the morning or evening exclusively, which gave us the option to pick what we did earlier or later in the day. We ended up doing an extra unplanned half day at Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom, and a 1/2 hotel day.

In some ways I wasn't a fan of the FP+ system: having 3 instead of 1 meant more of the day was scheduled.
In some ways I was a bigger fan of the FP+ system: we had 7DMT every day we wanted, vs. the rise and dash that was Radiator Springs last year.

I *think* the system can get better. I think they are on to something about how to build the plan. I do think spontaneity and magic is part of the experience that is missing, but those are fixable. Add a hold back reserve of Fastpasses for each day, releasing them throughout the day with a limit on how many someone can have (3), and how many times someone can get a single ride (1). That way, there is a chance to "score" a fastness for an E-ticket that is hard to get. Put more characters out in the park and eliminate "autographs" (move to a "limited edition" Character meet & greet card). This allows more people to get pictures, and speeds up the lines without limiting the interactions. Do the same thing with dining... if you give 20 reservations an hour, pull that back to 16 and have 4 "walk ups" reservations.

Anyhow... its different... not better, not worse, just different.

 

[wilkeliza]

Anyhow... its different... not better, not worse, just different.

I think you hit the nail on the head.

It is better for me because I'm not an early riser so I like to get up at 9 go to breakfast and get to a park around 10:30 - 11 so I can schedule the must do's for after that but if we were rope drop runners I have to imagine we would break even. With legacy FP you would get times you wouldn't need a paper and could have just walked onto the line. I did ease into the whole switch though because I went from grabbing a FP time no matter what and just coming back whenever I wanted, to the only the time you are given paper FP so lot's of sitting and waiting for it to tick 20-30 minutes later, to the pre-schedule FP+.

 

[DisDadDVC]

I've been 7 times in the last 18 months. All with FP+. All great trips. All planned extensively. I can tell you that not planning is a recipe for disaster.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I've been 7 times in the last 18 months. All with FP+. All great trips. All planned extensively. I can tell you that not planning is a recipe for disaster.

The point is that Disney used to not be that much "work"

...but if you accept that there are more travelers Now and it had to evolve...which most do...

It still doesn't account that they've wasted a decade "tweaking" different types of reservations systems - which they have - while the shovels were largely silent.

There's no choice anymore. Book your "big rides" 45 days out...decide where you want lunch at 100 and risk not getting something else if the spirit moves you 25 hours in advance.

I have no doubts that many love this idea...for many more, vacation sounds a lot like a day at the office or school...you can't let it breathe or you miss out.

 

[DisDadDVC]

The point is that Disney used to not be that much "work"

...but if you accept that there are more travelers Now and it had to evolve...which most do...

It still doesn't account that they've wasted a decade "tweaking" different types of reservations systems - which they have - while the shovels were largely silent.

There's no choice anymore. Book your "big rides" 45 days out...decide where you want lunch at 100 and risk not getting something else if the spirit moves you 25 hours in advance.

I have no doubts that many love this idea...for many more, vacation sounds a lot like a day at the office or school...you can't let it breathe or you miss out.

Agreed. And I actually like it because it rewards those that are willing to do more work (like me).

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Agreed. And I actually like it because it rewards those that are willing to do more work (like me).

I think I buzzed the tower on this one...

 

[TowMater92]

I've been 7 times in the last 18 months. All with FP+. All great trips. All planned extensively. I can tell you that not planning is a recipe for disaster.

That's the problem you shouldn't have to plan everyday of your trip at least two months in advance or more if you want to eat a TS meal. I don't know what the weather will be like in 2 months so if my waterpark day turns out to be a cold day or it rains you want to switch it with a park day but now if you do that you lose your e-ticket FP's. If you wake up and don't feel good or you decide you want to get some extra sleep well there go your e-ticket FP's again if they're booked in the morning. Its a flawed system that turns your vacation into a unchangeable plan 2 months before your trip or you won't be able to do what you use to. Also before FP+ you could go to WDW without a plan and do just as much if not more then you can do now. Not everyone is like you "All planned extensively" that's something you like to do it shouldn't be a requirement and forced on people that want to go to WDW.

 

[adam.adbe]

I have no doubts that many love this idea...for many more, vacation sounds a lot like a day at the office or school...you can't let it breathe or you miss out.

I certainly don't love it, but I can deal with it. I live in the middle of the country, and have a school age child. I'm not visiting Orlando on a whim.

That said, what I don't dig is that I have to plan half a year out, but Disney is free to rip up the play book mere weeks out if they so decide.

That coupled with the usual hazard of an over-planned vacation: you can't plan for the wheels falling off, and if the wheels do fall off, options for improvising on the fly basically translate to: you're going to be queuing for hours for everything. I have a problem with that.

[edit] what TowMater92 said.