*gasp* the conversation I overhead at the playground about us "Disney fanatics"

[colleen costello]

I was stuck waiting for Fantasmic! last summer by a nutty woman who kept griping about where they were staying. She was talking about how the pool was filthy -- evidently hair extensions from some woman's head had gotten in and were not, after days, being cleaned out -- and so her family was not swimming at all. This place was a condo/timeshare and so I meekly mentioned that DISNEY had its own wonderful "timeshare," not admitting I owned points. She went ballistic, talking about how expensive it was and you could ONLY stay at Disney and on and on... I just shook my head in disbelief at all the misinformation. But I was staying at the gorgeous Wilderness Lodge, and I was also thinking, well, at MY timeshare the pool (along with everything else!) is PRISTINE... The world is full of idiots! I personally think people who hate Disney are just icky in general!

 

[mickeymouse710]

I was the Magic Kingdom Club Director at my place of employment for years; up until the ending of MKC. So I was able to help many coworkers plan trips to WDW.
It NEVER failed, the people that came back and said they hated WDW, who said that it was too crowded, with long lines, etc., were the ones that did not follow my advice. They did not read the guidebooks--I recommended, did not visit the websites that I provided them links to, did not get to the parks early, did not take a break for a nap/swim midday, etc., etc.
As my grandfather used to say: You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink!

 

[Pluto4Pres]

Originally posted by Disney1fan2002
After having this little councelling session, they all agreed that IF they go again, they need to talk to someone who has been many times, or at least get some books like Birnbaum's guide .

I always recommend the Unofficial Guide to DW. It's the first step in becoming a true COMMANDO!

 

[Cris]

these people make me depressed, they don't understand what disney is about or the man behind Disneyland and the WDW.

 

[jimmytammy]

That is so much like the reaction I get when I tell people about our love for Disney and DVC. Tonight was not an exception. We were at a boy scout get together and a fellow said someting to me about my savedisney sticker on the van. The way I felt, he started the conversation which I kept that part light.

I could tell he was beggining to shy away rather quickly though and he had been 3 times so it wasnt like he didnt know what I was talking about. But like another poster mentioned it was like "he owed it to his kids."

Oh well, to each his own. I wont ask them why they go to the beach every year if they dont ask me why Disney World. I know why. We love it!!

As for summer at WDW, we hope we never have to go those mos. as it is hot. We like offseason. It works well with pts. We homeschool and that helps also to free up time when public school is in. Promise you we didnt start homeschooling because of WDW. Thats just a fringe benefit

 

[Pa@okw95]

Most DVC members are very savvy travelers when it comes to WDW, they also fall out of the commando style, and into a more relaxed style of touring the parks, and some get to the stage where I am ,that the parks not that attractive anymore. Most of us don't go in the summer except when we have kids like I did the last time, never again, it had been years since I made that mistake. Like I said before, I can see how some do not like WDW because of a summer trip, plans or no plans it is not the place to be.

 

[crisi]

It really isn't hard to understand at all.

My very first trip was when I was 17. My family (parents and 2 younger sisters). We went in January - not because we knew it wasn't crowded, but because it was really cheap. Only MK and Epcot were around back then. We stayed offsite. My mother got a Birnbaums for booking the package through a travel agent, and I devoured it cover to cover. My mother thinks that saved the vacation - my reading Birmbaums - because my parents would have just shown up for a day or two and wandered - looking for the things they saw growing up with Disney on TV.

A few months later, our neighbors and my parents good friends went. But a few months later was over Easter. And they'd done no planning. We'd spent two days in the parks and saw everything we wanted to, they spent five and went on ten attractions. They hated it. Their kids were a lot younger (my youngest sister was ten, their youngest would have been six) and not able to keep up with commando touring.

I now try and give people a few hints, refer them here and a few other places. Tell them to get a Birnbaums (I find the Unofficial Guide too overwhelming for most first timers, unless they are prone to research to start with). But I try to sound reasonable about it... "We love it there, I'll send you a few links. If you want some advice, let me know what you are looking for. The one piece of advice I'll give you right now is don't go without doing some pre-planning."

 

[WDW LifeLong Fan]

My favorite experiences are when friends, family, coworkers etc....knowing that I visit WDW frequently, ask me about the best places to stay, when to go, tickets, etc...

They ask me and then start to debate or tell me
"Thats good for you, however, we are going to do it this way"

Too funny!

 

[mikesmom]

I think it's the commando thing as much as pre-planning. Many years ago when I started going to WDW as a single mother with DS, the budget was pretty tight so we always stayed offsite. We did buy Birnbaum and made some plans, but weren't silly about it.

Anyway, our usual mode was kind of backwards. We slept in, rather than go early, had a leisurely and large breakfast at a buffet or Waffle House, and got to WDW around lunchtime. DS was just not a good early riser, and it was vacation, after all. As we were arriving, many families with youngsters were leaving for the noontime rest. We also avoided that first crush at the gates - the crowds had moved deeper into the parks by the time we got there.

We didn't try to see it "all". The big breakfast caused us to not be looking for lunch until 2 or 3, again missing the big lunch crowds. We stayed hydrated - water, fruit, popsicles. We usually stayed until the park closed. We have great memories of all our WDW vacations, even on no money.

On the other hand,when I married DH, the very word "vacation" would make him shudder. His former significant other had commando written into every trip or vacation they ever took. In an effort to get "their money's worth" he ended up never enjoying a trip. Just a different style for some people, I guess.

 

[erikthewise]

Originally posted by rocketriter
It's very fashionable to hate things Disney in certain quarters, just as it's fashionable to pooh-pooh Steven Spielberg films.

I once asked a very intellectual lady (I'm rawther intellectual myself) why she disliked Disney cartoons. She replied, "Because they make the animals act like people." When I asked, "And the problem with this is...?" she just sputtered and looked at me like I had changed into a cockroach. Which is another story.

Perhaps if someone built a theme park based on Nietsche, Kierkegaard, and Sartre, it would appeal to all those pseudo-intellectuals, nicht wahr?

 

[jmminarik]

The one thing I can never understand is how people can invest or spend thousands of dollars in something and not want to know as much as possible about it. That applies to DVC, or a car, or HDTV's, computers, or their retirement funds, or anything else. In part that's human laziness but also in part the entire 'ignorance is bliss' philosophy.

When we took my inlaws in december of 2002 we had planned the trip for 2 years. That was mostly so they could save their money and arrange vacation time and so on. During this time we sent them the guide books (complete with highligted stuff like the attractions), e-mails, printed 4 page color newsletters and links to the 'easier to follow' websites. We tried to keep things as simple as possible, but wanted to impress upon them that this isn't like going to the county fair...you need to know a little about what you want to do and need to plan a little.

Ultimately we just got them together the night before each park trip and pulled out the map and gave our own rendition of what we thought was cool for the relevant age groups. I think by day 5 they finally understood why we were spending so much time trying to get them to use their brains before we left for WDW. I also think if we didn't keep at them, the ones who ran off from the main group would have waddled around like ducks and not done 1/2 the things they did.

That's my experience with "It's vacation, I don't want to work" people.

-Joe

 

[TheRustyScupper]

I had to laugh at the "county fair" analogy. I fully agree.

1) WDW vacations can easily stretch to $3000-$5000.
2) You could go to London for the same price.
3) If you went abroad, you would study for the trip.
4) Yet people go to WDW and just wander about aimlessly.
5) They they can complain about crowds and not seeing much.
6) It is not stupidity, just simply lack of awareness.

As an example:
We have a person at work who is taking the family for the first time. Until I recommended it, they had not bought a guidebook. They actually had no idea the size, scope and offerings of WDW. This is not to blame them, this is just to show that people can't realize how different WDW is from their amusement park experiences- and that WDW does need planning. Once they got the guide books, they were able to plan their vacation.

 

[panfan]

Last year another mother as ds's school came up to me upon drop- off and asked about WDW for they had never been. She was thinking that maybe they would go for spring/easter break. ( this was two weeks prior btw...) First of all I told her it was a little late planning a trip of this magnitude and doubted she would find availability. She basically had NO IDEA what it was all about...saying things like

....I heard there is a hotel "in the park" , Is that where you stay?
....We are going to Disney World. We figured we would do one day at Universal , one day at Seaworld and one day at Disney world.
.....Do you think it would be crowded that week???
.....I heard you can eat breakfast with Cinderella...I think we will do that.
.....does "the hotel" inside the park have a pool??

I quickly went home and actually gathered a few guide books and brought them to her house . Also giving her this websight to browse. She didn't even know that WDW was more than one park or had more than one hotel. Now she might have been able to get airfare and maybe even a room somewhere. But she probably would have been one to say.....I hated it! Luckily, after a little education, she decided to plan her WDW trip for another time and ended up having a great time.

 

[jmminarik]

Originally posted by TheRustyScupper
I had to laugh at the "county fair" analogy. I fully agree.

1) WDW vacations can easily stretch to $3000-$5000.
2) You could go to London for the same price.
3) If you went abroad, you would study for the trip.

Well, I doubt everyone would do research for a European vacation, but I agree. For the totally un-self-motivated, they do offer guided tours so you don't have to know anything other than when your bus leaves. I'd suspect that many, if not most of the disney fans would be the ones clutching guidebooks and a tube map.

Originally posted by TheRustyScupper

4) Yet people go to WDW and just wander about aimlessly.

I prefer the visual of ducks waddling around the lawn.

-Joe

 

[trpscooby]

I also had to laugh at the 'county fair' analogy. We've been trying to get my DH parents to come with us one year, especially now since we've just closed on DVC for the first time. We've known that they were never too keen as they always like a beach holiday where they read about 20 books each. So, I tried one last time to invite them and actually said that they wouldn't even have to pay for accomidation, and this is what my MIL said, 'well, you know how your FIL gets when he goes to a fair....he just won't like WDW and if he's not happy then I won't be either.' How many times have I tried to explain to them that WDW is definetely NOT like a fair... I've given up now.... oh well, that means bigger rooms for us!

 

[dmoore22]

We go to WDW in the summer. Our first experience with WDW was in the summer. We love the summer. We love WDW being a big part of our summer. The summer experience influenced us to buy into DVC. What's not to like about the summer that a little careful pre-planning can't cure? We have never had a bad summer experience at WDW in the summer. We are going again this summer. It must be a real bummer for those folks unable to enjoy the summer.

 

[jbwolffiv]

People often laugh at me when I talk about Disney so much. I could care less, I enjoy being there and really enjoy the planning that goes into it. Maybe if more people spoke like the 3 women at the park there might be shorter lines!

 

[lilkitty819]

I know the feelings....My son could never understand our love for WDW ... I was about 37 when I first went...Well last year was our first year with DVC so we had extra points...so I got three studio's for my family...well may son and his girlfriend understood by the end of the week....and they will be back in sept...so I have to laugh at him....cause you can't mention WDW without him getting sentimental and he's only been there once....LOL

 

[mickeymouse710]

We have been to WDW every month of the year, many times. We really do not find the summer months any hotter or more humid than Apr and May are. The summer months have one big plus in that the parks are open much later and the night fireworks and parades are run more often. This works out great for being able to spend the whole afternoon at the pool (when it is hot and crowded) and then going to one of the parks at night (when it is cooler and less crowded). We have been to WDW so many times that we are far from commando, so if something is too crowded we go with plan B. Actually the months we take the fewest number of trips to WDW are Jan & Feb, solely due to the fact that these are the months with the greatest chance of low temps. When we are in FL we want to be able to go to the pool and wear shorts.

 

[Disney Enthusiast]

Way to speak up for the rest of us!!! We have to stick together!