Going Back After a Bad Experience

[smokeyblue]

Oh my! Thank you for your tales of woe and your comebacks. I sure do feel everyone's pain. Even when we were there I was wishing for a do over. After almost 10 years of traveling together we were probably due a bad one.

 

[smokeyblue]

Do you think it would be important to try another resort? We stayed at POFQ. We liked the resort and the room suited us well. However, this is where I got hurt, and the staff really dropped the ball and I was really disappointed and angry. On the other hand I really like familiarity and I don't know that I want to try a new resort.

Thoughts?

 

[disneyhousewife]

Do you think it would be important to try another resort? We stayed at POFQ. We liked the resort and the room suited us well. However, this is where I got hurt, and the staff really dropped the ball and I was really disappointed and angry. On the other hand I really like familiarity and I don't know that I want to try a new resort. Thoughts?

Maybe Riverside?

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Do you think it would be important to try another resort? We stayed at POFQ. We liked the resort and the room suited us well. However, this is where I got hurt, and the staff really dropped the ball and I was really disappointed and angry. On the other hand I really like familiarity and I don't know that I want to try a new resort.

Thoughts?

I think it might be best to try a different resort because you don't want your feelings about how you got hurt and how the staff handled it to influence the new trip. Riverside might be a nice option. Right next door.

 

[disnut8]

My BF and I have been traveling together to various locales for nearly 10 years. Together we have been to WDW 4 times and DW 3 times. We have had good luck having nice vacations. Our late Jan early Feb trip to WDW was the exception. From bad flights, bad weather, unexpected crowds, some poor dining experiences, fast pass issues and an accident that left me unable to fully enjoy the only 2 days without rain and left me injured for a month, this trip had few bright spots. In the days and weeks to follow I said we aren't going back any time soon.

Now 3 months out I get a free dining offer for Food and Wine with dates available for our 10th anniversary. I feel like I want to go back and try again and put the sour trip behind us. Surprisingly my BF didn't seems too adverse to the idea. However, I still have serious reservations about returning so soon.

Have you ever returned after a bad or disappointing trip? Were you glad you went back?

But the bad flights and the bad weather were totally out of Disney's control. The bad weather was even out of any human's control. Not sure what Disney could have done with the unexpected crowds and not quite sure what you considered unexpected. For the poor dining experiences, that's easy - try different restaurants. We once went to one of the preimer dining establishments at Disney World, spent a ton of money and left very disappointed. We've never been back to that restaurant and probably never will.

The fast pass issues will always be there but again, not clear on what they were or how it can be fixed.

Now, the experience where you hurt yourself and the resort staff wasn't that great, yeah, that can sour the entire mood. As suggested, try a different resort. We've been disappointed with one particular Disney resort but did try it again on the chance we would give it a second try. Nope, not our cup of tea.

It sounds like you have a great deal with the next trip so maybe just adjust a little and once there, have a few laughs with the prior trip. Go past the restaurants where you had the dining disappointments and exclaim to each other, "I'm sooooooo glad that one is crossed off our list and we never have to visit again!" and then high-five.

Last Labor Day, I had to tour Disney World in a wheelchair. My most miserable trip and I cried every day. But, we went back in early March, no wheelchair needed, didn't have FastPass Plus options but just did it like we wanted. Excellent time.

 

[mm1971]

My BF and I have been traveling together to various locales for nearly 10 years. Together we have been to WDW 4 times and DW 3 times. We have had good luck having nice vacations. Our late Jan early Feb trip to WDW was the exception. From bad flights, bad weather, unexpected crowds, some poor dining experiences, fast pass issues and an accident that left me unable to fully enjoy the only 2 days without rain and left me injured for a month, this trip had few bright spots. In the days and weeks to follow I said we aren't going back any time soon.

Now 3 months out I get a free dining offer for Food and Wine with dates available for our 10th anniversary. I feel like I want to go back and try again and put the sour trip behind us. Surprisingly my BF didn't seems too adverse to the idea. However, I still have serious reservations about returning so soon.

Have you ever returned after a bad or disappointing trip? Were you glad you went back?

We have never had a bad trip to Disney (knock on wood) so I can't be specific about that. We have had bad flight experiences and/or bad trips to other places. If we had good experiences in the past, we would go again without reservations before giving up on it.

It sounds like there were a lot of factors not Disney related that may have contributed to the negative experience. For the Disney specifics, the FP+ system seems to be getting better from what I have seen, some dining is hit or miss even at the best places and the weather is usually pretty stable around F&W (but we all know it's unpredictable). I would say give it one more shot and if you don't have a great vacation there are a lot of other places to build memories.

 

[2girlsmom]

We had similar, wasn't really Disney's fault or anything but we went in December 2010 and it was horribly cold and windy/wet virtually our entire trip, we spent more time in the hotel room than we ever had before, as it was too cold to do a lot and we were worn out from battling through the wind, etc plus 2 of us got sick during the trip. Luckily for me, we had already booked a surprise trip around my youngest's birthday in May of the next year with some friends, so we had our next trip already in the works and then ended up moving to Florida in June of that next year, so became AP holders and have made MANY trips since.

 

[Tinkerdreams]

Definitely go again. If I had taken into account 2 December trips that had below freezing temperatures a good chunk of each trip, I wouldn't have gone back. Plus for one of those trips, it took over 10 hours to get to Disney where normally it only takes 4. But... this past December was fantastic!! Weather was perfect and we had fun on all 3 December trips - despite the disappointing weather (and flight) the first 2.

 

[DisneyFive]

Odds are WAYYYYYY in your favor that you'll have a great trip in Sept. I say, go for it!

We love Sept at Disney. Low crowds, hot weather, FD, MNSSHP and Halloween decorations, F&W fest....

Dan

 

[ruthies12]

It's funny but I have the opposite problem. Our last trip was sooooo awesome! It was completely magical and perfect. Now I'm afraid I will have such high expectations for our next trip (and that my dd will also have high expectations) that it will never live up. I feel I can temper my expectations some, but the 5 year old is a different story!

 

[smokeyblue]

Trip booked. Staying at CBR with free dining during F&W. CBR and CSR were the only mods available so that made the decision of staying at a different resort easy! Now I just need to get the boyfriend on board for the trip. It isn't too hard to twist his arm though. Hope we like CBR.

 

[Simba07]

We had a bad trip a few years ago, and for us most of the things were in Disney's control. Surly staff members, bad food, repair work in our room leading to our door being propped open without someone monitoring it for extended periods of time... My husband in particular thought we should take a long Disney break. But a year later, we get free dining and decide it is too good a deal relative to our other options and decide to give it a chance. We stayed at Pop with low expectations. And we had a great time. I think going in with an open mind and low expectations was key.

 

[livinlife25]

My situation was not as bad as yours but I was still nervous. On last years trip, 2 of us ended up with a stomach bug on the last day. It was a fairly unpleasant departure day to say the least. As this years trip got closer I could feel myself feeling more anxious. It thankfully went away once we got there.

 

[bopper]

One time we were at Disney and my DH started feeling tired...so tired he could barely cut his meat at dinner. The next I got whatever horrible virus it was whose symptoms was mainly to drain 99% of your energy. I remember trudging through WDW following my 10 year old daughter as we did not have enough energy to think or lead or anything but didn't want to make them just stay in the room.
But we went back the next time anyway!

 

[famy27]

It's funny, but our "bad" trip was still awesome.

Much of it had nothing to do with Disney, but it still clouds the whole experience.

1) We spent 14 hours at O'Hare due to weather delays. With a two-year-old.
2) When we finally got a flight, it had a tight connection, and we had to sprint through ATL at 10:00 pm after our mega delay. We made it just in time.
3) We landed in FL, and it was 28 degrees. I learned not to go to WDW in January.
4) We went with a friend, who was on her stupid cell phone. The. Whole. Entire. Trip. If it wasn't bad for the animals, I would have ripped it out of her hands and tossed it over the side of KS. Seriously? There is a rhino standing next to you and you are texting your boyfriend instead. And she isn't a teenager. This is a middle-aged woman.
5) And the topper of all toppers. We had a small leak in our toilet at OKW. No big deal. However, when maintenance came up to fix it, they somehow flooded our whole unit. Every single thing in the bathroom and bedroom was sitting in two inches of water. And we never received a call or apology or anything. DH had to leave the park in the middle of the day when they called about the flood and pack up all of our stuff and drag it to the new unit. They didn't even offer to wash our stuff. I was moderately annoyed.

Even with all of the above, most of my memories of the trip are still positive. We had some great meals, we loved watching our toddler interact with the characters, and we did a fantastic photo shoot at Poly. In all of our pictures, we are smiling and happy, even with our winter coats on.

We went back in September of that year and had an even better trip. We left my friend behind, which probably helped, too. And we stayed at a different resort. We did make it back to OKW eventually, and that was wonderful, too.

 

[Albytaps]

I've been back several times after a disturbing experience there. There's just things that happen and we just have to live with it. If you like Disney enough you will be back or you're just punishing yourself.

 

[MPB82]

We went last April, had dinner in the middle of our trip at TRex and my fiancé kept talking about how her pasta smelled funny. We took the boat from DTD back to POR they stopped at French Quarter due to a downpoor. We ran from the docks to POFQ main building, they got us a van, me, her and a couple and a family of like 5, it was a blast.

Later in the night she started getting sick, coming out of every place she spent about 24 hours in bed, we didn't go anywhere one day I just kept going back to the food place and the little general store for crackers and ginger ale. She recovered the next evening slept well and the 2nd day she was back in the park, minus any roller coasters haha. She felt bad but it was no big deal, my feet were KILLING me by the 5th day so it was nice. She still has only had about 2 or 3 pasta dinners since then. No TRex on the next trip though, she swore to it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Do you think it would be important to try another resort? We stayed at POFQ. We liked the resort and the room suited us well. However, this is where I got hurt, and the staff really dropped the ball and I was really disappointed and angry. On the other hand I really like familiarity and I don't know that I want to try a new resort.

Thoughts?

Well...it was a personnel issue, right? I wonder if the people who didn't respond properly will still be there? If they are and you see them, I wonder if you will want to avoid them, or talk to them? Do you want to sort of reclaim the place as a good place, or do you want to avoid it? It depends on your personality, really. It seems likely that the people don't even work at that resort anymore, so avoiding the place might still result in being at a resort where those same people are now working. Does that make sense?

We had similar, wasn't really Disney's fault or anything but we went in December 2010 and it was horribly cold and windy/wet virtually our entire trip, we spent more time in the hotel room than we ever had before, as it was too cold to do a lot and we were worn out from battling through the wind, etc plus 2 of us got sick during the trip.

That December....it was our FIRST WDW trip. Thought that was cold! And then this January the day we spent on a boat to and from DTD, and walking around DTD with all that wind whipping over the water...that day was 21 degrees with wind chill.

I promised myself no more January trips. And then I signed up for the WDW Half again. In January. But it's not going to be a long trip.

January is a tough month to visit Florida. Most people are expecting nice weather and it's really hit or miss here in the winter.

Not sure I expected anything nice. Just...maybe I didn't expect it to be colder than it was in Seattle or, no lie, Anchorage for part of the trip.