Help! I've lost my Disney Magic!

[Farro]

First - OP, no one who works anywhere should be rude to you the way that CM was. Unacceptable.

Second - you are sick of it. I get sick of places too, go somewhere else. Seriously.

Third - from reading here and other threads, some of you seem to put way too much stock into how a CM is going to treat you. Looking for magic, connecting with them, having special encounters... If a CM is polite, does their job, and treats customers with respect, that's all I need. Quite frankly, we rarely interact with the cast members unless they are taking a picture, etc.
In my opinion, I would never hinge my enjoyment of a trip on my interactions with a cast member. (unless like OPs case - I would be upset if they called me an idiot)

 

[Delirium]

Hi everyone!

I need some help, I've lost that special feeling in my heart when I think about Disney. I'm wondering if this has happened to any of you and how you got it back.

I've waited a few months to write this to let feelings settle and see if I'd feel better about Disney over time, I don't.

So we went to WDW in April. The whole family, me, my wife and young daughter and both sets of grandparents. We had been at WDW twice before (and DLP once) and had fantastic experiences, even negative interactions were very well recovered by WDW. I expected the same this time, not everything was Disney's fault but they didn't recover any of their negative interactions well.

A lot of my favourite parts of Disney were tainted by one thing or another.

I didn't get to ride Haunted Mansion because a cast member forgot me (I skipped the stretching room with my daughter, they brought us through to a spot near the exit where they said another CM would take us to the loading area). The CM in the loading area told the rest of my family to get on the ride or leave and wouldn't send someone to get me. When a CM finally realized what happened, the rest of the family was coming off the ride and we had an ADR to get to outside the park so we didn't have time to ride again. They offered FPs that ended up in the garbage because we were leaving the park (we had told them that when they gave them to us).

My wife and I didn't get to ride Soarin'. We split the party up because my daughter can't ride. We had Fastpasses and the first group scanned their MagicBands and entered the FP queue (and yes they went in the FP queue, I walk them there). Somewhere (I never got this part straight) in the queue, a CM pulled them out of line and placed them in another line (I'm guessing the Standby queue). Two hours later they come out. The rest of our FP are expired, when I explained what happened the CM got defensive, denied they pulled the grandparents from the FP queue and accused us of trying to scam FP.

A CM on Pirates mocked me. The first part of the queue wasn't set up correctly and a section of rope was missing. Some despicable guests were jumping the queue at that spot. I mentioned it to the CM where the line splits before the bridge, after I moved on, he looked at my parents (I don't think he realized we were together) and said "What does that idiot expect me to do?" and rolled his eyes. Obviously, I was quite upset and didn't exactly enjoy the ride.

Some personal things happened on the trip as well. We missed our Expedition Everest FP and didn't get to ride because a family member forgot to pack diapers and we had to turn around and go back to the condo. Another family member had a meltdown at Epcot and we missed the Flower and Garden food kiosks (which was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most). We missed the Star Wars fireworks because of other circumstances at HS. We got separated after Wishes on our last night and took over an hour to find everyone again, and then tempers flared.

Sorry to make this sound so whiny, I just wanted to get into what spoiled Disney for me.

I'm sure some of you have had bad experiences at WDW before, how did you make it feel better?

I seriously need some pixie dust because months later I still don't want to hear about WDW nor would I consider another vacation. This is from someone that is such a Disney fanatic that people tease me about going so often and talking about Disney constantly.

Help!

1) You should have given the FPs you received for Haunted Mansion to another family instead of throwing them in teh garbage. Part of the 'magic' of Disney is giving back.

2) For Soarin, it seems to me that whether this was a FP situation or not, rider swap would have been a viable option. Better preparation and knowing how rider swap works may have prevented this from happening.

3) For your Pirates issue, obviously the CM was out of line. What I would have done in that situation was turn around and let him know that those were my parents, and they know me much better than he does. In fact, they may just agree with him about me being an idiot, but that still does not make it right to ignore the line jumpers.

For your overall enjoyment of future trips, I would make these recommendations.

- Just go with your wife and your kids. Extended family trips, while special in their own right, never go as smoothly as when it is just the immediate family. Based on the issues you listed, having the extended family may have been the biggest problem.

- Be better prepared. Simply scheduling fastpasses is not enough to make it work. You need a plan, and a backup plan. We were in Disney last year for the hurricane. Lost a day and a half of touring and had to reschedule FPs and ADRs. We made it worked because we understood exactly what we wanted to accomplish and had allowed time for the unexpected.

 

[klbrow11]

I have had a lot of bad times and still have the magic. Have been so many times and no trip has ever been perfect. From getting sick, rain storms, rides down, lousy company, lost expensive items, cranky kid, rude people, and hot weather. I go in knowing something will go wrong and treasure the good moments or laugh about the bad ones. The last trip we did was a last minute MK day on new years. There were way more crowds than husband was used to and lines were long. Had a couple rude people that really grated on my nerves. But what I remember most is daughters face on teacups. I will say we have had one trip with my mom and one with his. We both felt overwhelmed like We were catering to them so they would have fun. Decided no more trips with family and it has been much more enjoyable.

 

[101Pongo]

You say you want to get the Disney magic feeling back - here goes: After you have reported the incident via email you gotta let go of the bad stuff. Focus on the positives - the way your little one lit up when she saw X? That time grandpa said y. If you only focus on the negatives (which I am not saying that you aren't justified in feeling that way) that's what will drive your memories.

I think that I just needed to let it out and talk about it. I am already feeling a million times better and finally letting go of the negative. I couldn't talk to my family about how I felt because I didn't want them to feel bad and affect their memories of the trip. Thank you everyone for giving me this outlet to vent.

1) You should have given the FPs you received for Haunted Mansion to another family instead of throwing them in teh garbage. Part of the 'magic' of Disney is giving back.

{...}

3) For your Pirates issue, obviously the CM was out of line. What I would have done in that situation was turn around and let him know that those were my parents, and they know me much better than he does. In fact, they may just agree with him about me being an idiot, but that still does not make it right to ignore the line jumpers.

Re: Fastpasses - Yes, we try to do that but with it being the end of the day and having lost quite a bit of time dealing with the CMs I just stuck them in my pocket and forgot about them until I changed that night, by then it was too late since they were expired.

Re: Pirates - I was already across the bridge with a queue behind me when I was told what the CM had said. Too late to go back for a confrontation that probably would have ended poorly for me.

 

[Tink_83]

For me this year while we had fun I realized that in general I have as much fun when I take DD to kings dominion (at least in some ways). It's not Disney but she loves the roller coasters she can get on (she is 4 we can ride the same ride 10 times in a row with maybe a 5 min wait, sometimes no wait if I take her mid week).

It's not totally gone but I think next year we will do something else. Like a week on the beach renting a condo... then come back and enjoy Disney again...

 

[DaisyJ]

I guess I don't understand why you didn't talk to a Soarin' CM as you were approaching the end of your FP+ window and you waited two hours until your first group came off? You simply could have gone up to one of the CM's at the beginning of the FP line, explained the situation ("we have FP+ and a child who can't ride but our first group isn't out yet, I'm concerned about them and concerned we won't be able to ride and I'm not sure what to do, can you help us?) and given them the opportunity to help you. Personally, if I had sent a group of people onto a ride with FP+ and waited that long, I would have been concerned for their safety (it sounds like you didn't contact them via phone or text either). WDW has rider switch in place for this very reason. Although you didn't expect it to take that long, ride delays happen. I really don't think you can pin this on Disney. Booking FP+ for everyone at the same time when you intended on waiting for one group to come off before riding (thereby significantly lessening your ride window), not using rider switch and not approaching a CM during your FP+ window to try to solve the problem was your decision. I'm not sure why WDW needs to make up for bad planning on your part.

Once you get far enough back in the Soarin' line, there is no cell service.

 

[Ariel Wanna-be]

I think that I just needed to let it out and talk about it. I am already feeling a million times better and finally letting go of the negative. I couldn't talk to my family about how I felt because I didn't want them to feel bad and affect their memories of the trip. Thank you everyone for giving me this outlet to vent.

I totally understand this. Sometimes it is enough to just "get it out." Better luck on future trips!

 

[North of Mouse]

Vacation elsewhere until you are yearning for Disney again! It's too expensive to go to Disney if you are in 'meh' or ho-hum mood for it. There's lots of great places to enjoy in this country (other countries). We like to have variety in our vacations from year to year!

 

[Westcoastwild]

Would love to go to Tokyo but we're on the east coast of Canada. Much easier to go to Europe. We will probably go back to Paris before Asia.

Go to Asia anyway. I have a feeling you'll be really disappointed in DLP.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I need some help, I've lost that special feeling in my heart when I think about Disney. I'm wondering if this has happened to any of you and how you got it back.

We are about 12 years or so into a streak of 1-3 trips per year and we haven't hit that point... at least not yet!

Every time we go, we get to do old favorites and new things -- every time. The experience changes over the years from going with infants to now DD10 and DS12. We've gone every time of year. We do runDisney events, F&W short trips, MNSSHP, long summer trips, you name it.

Since day one on DIS there have been posters claiming WDW is dead or on the verge of death. Customer service has taken a nosedive, food quality has taken a nosedive, FP+ is going to KILL the parks, the upcharges are going to KILL the parks, etc, etc, etc. NONE of that has been our experience. NONE of it.

I think taking a break like others have suggested is a good idea given what you've said. And maybe you'll decide not to go back after all. To each his own!!

 

[101Pongo]

Go to Asia anyway. I have a feeling you'll be really disappointed in DLP.

We've been to DLP but much of it was closed for refurb and my wife was pregnant so couldn't ride most of what was open. Even so, we liked it and would like to go back to experience it without the refurbs and pregnancy.

Hopefully it will get lots of TLC now that Disney bought it outright.

 

[Westcoastwild]

We've been to DLP but much of it was closed for refurb and my wife was pregnant so couldn't ride most of what was open. Even so, we liked it and would like to go back to experience it without the refurbs and pregnancy.

Hopefully it will get lots of TLC now that Disney bought it outright.

Hm. Interesting. I would have assumed you wouldn't like it because you focused on customer service in your OP which is really not a big thing at DLP, and I think line cutting is actually worse there. But it's a gorgeous park, and I agree- I hope it gets some serious TLC now that Disney owns it.

 

[fbarker]

Hi everyone!

I need some help, I've lost that special feeling in my heart when I think about Disney. I'm wondering if this has happened to any of you and how you got it back.

I've waited a few months to write this to let feelings settle and see if I'd feel better about Disney over time, I don't.

So we went to WDW in April. The whole family, me, my wife and young daughter and both sets of grandparents. We had been at WDW twice before (and DLP once) and had fantastic experiences, even negative interactions were very well recovered by WDW. I expected the same this time, not everything was Disney's fault but they didn't recover any of their negative interactions well.

A lot of my favourite parts of Disney were tainted by one thing or another.

I didn't get to ride Haunted Mansion because a cast member forgot me (I skipped the stretching room with my daughter, they brought us through to a spot near the exit where they said another CM would take us to the loading area). The CM in the loading area told the rest of my family to get on the ride or leave and wouldn't send someone to get me. When a CM finally realized what happened, the rest of the family was coming off the ride and we had an ADR to get to outside the park so we didn't have time to ride again. They offered FPs that ended up in the garbage because we were leaving the park (we had told them that when they gave them to us).

My wife and I didn't get to ride Soarin'. We split the party up because my daughter can't ride. We had Fastpasses and the first group scanned their MagicBands and entered the FP queue (and yes they went in the FP queue, I walk them there). Somewhere (I never got this part straight) in the queue, a CM pulled them out of line and placed them in another line (I'm guessing the Standby queue). Two hours later they come out. The rest of our FP are expired, when I explained what happened the CM got defensive, denied they pulled the grandparents from the FP queue and accused us of trying to scam FP.

A CM on Pirates mocked me. The first part of the queue wasn't set up correctly and a section of rope was missing. Some despicable guests were jumping the queue at that spot. I mentioned it to the CM where the line splits before the bridge, after I moved on, he looked at my parents (I don't think he realized we were together) and said "What does that idiot expect me to do?" and rolled his eyes. Obviously, I was quite upset and didn't exactly enjoy the ride.

Some personal things happened on the trip as well. We missed our Expedition Everest FP and didn't get to ride because a family member forgot to pack diapers and we had to turn around and go back to the condo. Another family member had a meltdown at Epcot and we missed the Flower and Garden food kiosks (which was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most). We missed the Star Wars fireworks because of other circumstances at HS. We got separated after Wishes on our last night and took over an hour to find everyone again, and then tempers flared.

Sorry to make this sound so whiny, I just wanted to get into what spoiled Disney for me.

I'm sure some of you have had bad experiences at WDW before, how did you make it feel better?

I seriously need some pixie dust because months later I still don't want to hear about WDW nor would I consider another vacation. This is from someone that is such a Disney fanatic that people tease me about going so often and talking about Disney constantly.

Help!

Wow! I don't doubt what you are saying but I have been going to WDW for years over 25 times and I don't think I have had that many problemsin all those visits let alone all of them happening in one visit. You better check that black cloud hanging over your head!! But really its too bad you had such a bad experience, that is definitely not normal, at least in my experience.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Hi everyone!

Welcome! We all need some venting time now and again!

I need some help, I've lost that special feeling in my heart when I think about Disney. I'm wondering if this has happened to any of you and how you got it back.

I've waited a few months to write this to let feelings settle and see if I'd feel better about Disney over time, I don't.

It is OKAY to feel that way, there are plenty of vacation spots on the planet...I agree with others, it sounds like Disney is NOT where you try to vacation with family. I did it once and failed, now we know NOT to give it a second try.

So we went to WDW in April. The whole family, me, my wife and young daughter and both sets of grandparents. We had been at WDW twice before (and DLP once) and had fantastic experiences, even negative interactions were very well recovered by WDW. I expected the same this time, not everything was Disney's fault but they didn't recover any of their negative interactions well.

Ahhhh it sounds like you didn`t know about the Twitter account - another poster mentioned it to you in a reply, that tool is how you get ahold of Disney Customer Service real fast. They reply in less than 30 mins usually. I don`t know if there was a correlation between our live Tweeting of "this is awesome, we are loving this CM, what a great day because of this other CM, thank you" and we got extra paper FP, we got freebies all over, we got long conversations with CMs full of useful data...

A lot of my favourite parts of Disney were tainted by one thing or another.

I didn't get to ride Haunted Mansion because a cast member forgot me (I skipped the stretching room with my daughter, they brought us through to a spot near the exit where they said another CM would take us to the loading area). The CM in the loading area told the rest of my family to get on the ride or leave and wouldn't send someone to get me. When a CM finally realized what happened, the rest of the family was coming off the ride and we had an ADR to get to outside the park so we didn't have time to ride again. They offered FPs that ended up in the garbage because we were leaving the park (we had told them that when they gave them to us).

Doing anything outside the normal routine for CM's becomes difficult to manage and they are likely to NOT be magical moments. Why were you skipping the stretching room if you didn't have an ECV? It's no scarier than any other part of the ride... If it was crazy busy, the CM's are just too busy dealing with crowd control to go back and forth ferrying guests outside of the normal queue scenario, even with DAS. This is NOT the first time I have heard the scenario, "Skipped stretching room, CM's refused to let us board and kicked us out the door as the second portion of our party is exiting"

My wife and I didn't get to ride Soarin'. We split the party up because my daughter can't ride. We had Fastpasses and the first group scanned their MagicBands and entered the FP queue (and yes they went in the FP queue, I walk them there). Somewhere (I never got this part straight) in the queue, a CM pulled them out of line and placed them in another line (I'm guessing the Standby queue). Two hours later they come out. The rest of our FP are expired, when I explained what happened the CM got defensive, denied they pulled the grandparents from the FP queue and accused us of trying to scam FP.

Were you using Rider Switch? I don't understand why you didn't get to ride, it sounds like you chose to wait around for the GParents to finish their ride before handing off the kid to them and going by yourselves. Of course from the CM's point of view, they can't see another scenario because if a portion of a party is waiting on the other, 99% this means the waiting party did NOT have FP. If you all had FP, why did you not step up to the turnstile and point out, "We need Rider Switch. My DW will wait with the kid, then when I get off, she's going to Rider Switch and if any of the GParents want a second ride, they can come, or my DW and I can ride together. Thanks." Problem solved.

A CM on Pirates mocked me. The first part of the queue wasn't set up correctly and a section of rope was missing. Some despicable guests were jumping the queue at that spot. I mentioned it to the CM where the line splits before the bridge, after I moved on, he looked at my parents (I don't think he realized we were together) and said "What does that idiot expect me to do?" and rolled his eyes. Obviously, I was quite upset and didn't exactly enjoy the ride.

Okay that is unacceptable. I would have expected my parents to take note of the CM's nametag at the very very least. Mine would have pointed out in a very ugly way that it IS his job to prevent line jumpers If it had been me, I would have gone back over, taken a nice photograph of said CM and let him know I was sharing my POTC experiences with the Twitter account... let him figure out that he is now the one Blocking Our Pixie Dust and there is something he can do about it... before it gets out of his hands... I am typically beyond over-nice to CM's but the moment they stop believing in the magic, they have just become an random employee in the hospitality industry - please give me a reason to give YOU Pixie Dust back, CM's!

Some personal things happened on the trip as well. We missed our Expedition Everest FP and didn't get to ride because a family member forgot to pack diapers and we had to turn around and go back to the condo. Another family member had a meltdown at Epcot and we missed the Flower and Garden food kiosks (which was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most). We missed the Star Wars fireworks because of other circumstances at HS. We got separated after Wishes on our last night and took over an hour to find everyone again, and then tempers flared.

Condo? Like off-site stay? Oh boy I can already see why this trip went off the rails for you. Multiple family members, lack of flexible planning, not having the convenience of disney transport and EMH... and I have no idea why an adult temper tantrum would stop you from F &G unless you decided that dealing with the meltdown was more important. That is NOT a wrong decision, it's the decision you made. Own that decision. We had a massive adult meltdown on Living in the Land once... ugh it was so embarrassing but neither of us could quit laying into each other LOL Somewhere outside, screeching at each other across the Land Plaza (with dozens of people watching), we realized that it would just be best if NOBODY talked until we got to our ADR location. So we SILENTLY trudged from Land all the way to WS into Japan... once we had some sake, there was civil conversation again. But both of us realized that if we kept the emotional rollercoaster going, everything in the day from that ride onward was going to be much worse and probably cause traumatic memories. Not worth it.

Oh and the First Aid/Baby Care centres sell diapers, no need to leave the Park... sorry you didn't find that out while there...

Sorry to make this sound so whiny, I just wanted to get into what spoiled Disney for me.

No no no don't apologize - some of this stuff is just a learning curve - certain perks make life easier, some don't, they all are always changing! we have ALL had similar moments! Our family made a list of Top5 rides, we spent 8 days trying to figure out how to get on them, and two of them never happened.

I'm sure some of you have had bad experiences at WDW before, how did you make it feel better?

I seriously need some pixie dust because months later I still don't want to hear about WDW nor would I consider another vacation. This is from someone that is such a Disney fanatic that people tease me about going so often and talking about Disney constantly.

Help!

What I do is focus on the positive. Did you see anything for the first time? What was the best part to watch through your child's eyes? Name a CM that went above and beyond, name a situation that went really smoothly... Imagine a trip in which you are only doing what you and your immediate family are doing and you are not trying to stress about whether or not Glaucoma Grandma can shuffle fast enough to get to your FP on time and whether or not the restaurant you have ADRs for 8 people is fully prepared to deal with a cinnamon allergy, or whatever logistical nightmare that you personally have with your family.

Make a family vacation somewhere that is NOT Disney. Then think about Disney again, but ask your child and wife what THEY want to get out of the vacation. By then, I am certain Disney will have switched out more perks and programs and up-sells that you'll have to evaluate.

 

[nacho113]

Hi everyone!

I need some help, I've lost that special feeling in my heart when I think about Disney. I'm wondering if this has happened to any of you and how you got it back.

I've waited a few months to write this to let feelings settle and see if I'd feel better about Disney over time, I don't.

So we went to WDW in April. The whole family, me, my wife and young daughter and both sets of grandparents. We had been at WDW twice before (and DLP once) and had fantastic experiences, even negative interactions were very well recovered by WDW. I expected the same this time, not everything was Disney's fault but they didn't recover any of their negative interactions well.

A lot of my favourite parts of Disney were tainted by one thing or another.

I didn't get to ride Haunted Mansion because a cast member forgot me (I skipped the stretching room with my daughter, they brought us through to a spot near the exit where they said another CM would take us to the loading area). The CM in the loading area told the rest of my family to get on the ride or leave and wouldn't send someone to get me. When a CM finally realized what happened, the rest of the family was coming off the ride and we had an ADR to get to outside the park so we didn't have time to ride again. They offered FPs that ended up in the garbage because we were leaving the park (we had told them that when they gave them to us).

My wife and I didn't get to ride Soarin'. We split the party up because my daughter can't ride. We had Fastpasses and the first group scanned their MagicBands and entered the FP queue (and yes they went in the FP queue, I walk them there). Somewhere (I never got this part straight) in the queue, a CM pulled them out of line and placed them in another line (I'm guessing the Standby queue). Two hours later they come out. The rest of our FP are expired, when I explained what happened the CM got defensive, denied they pulled the grandparents from the FP queue and accused us of trying to scam FP.

A CM on Pirates mocked me. The first part of the queue wasn't set up correctly and a section of rope was missing. Some despicable guests were jumping the queue at that spot. I mentioned it to the CM where the line splits before the bridge, after I moved on, he looked at my parents (I don't think he realized we were together) and said "What does that idiot expect me to do?" and rolled his eyes. Obviously, I was quite upset and didn't exactly enjoy the ride.

Some personal things happened on the trip as well. We missed our Expedition Everest FP and didn't get to ride because a family member forgot to pack diapers and we had to turn around and go back to the condo. Another family member had a meltdown at Epcot and we missed the Flower and Garden food kiosks (which was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most). We missed the Star Wars fireworks because of other circumstances at HS. We got separated after Wishes on our last night and took over an hour to find everyone again, and then tempers flared.

Sorry to make this sound so whiny, I just wanted to get into what spoiled Disney for me.

I'm sure some of you have had bad experiences at WDW before, how did you make it feel better?

I seriously need some pixie dust because months later I still don't want to hear about WDW nor would I consider another vacation. This is from someone that is such a Disney fanatic that people tease me about going so often and talking about Disney constantly.

Help!

We got tired of Disney after some "not so magical" experiences and didn't go back for almost 10 years. The family had gotten larger and we traveled with friends and other family which seemed to make our group rather large and unwieldy. Some times plans and expectations differed causing friction and "non-magical" experiences.
I think this was what caused our "departure from the magic" and almost sounds like it may have played a factor in yours.

On future vacations, we were however, quite happy to venture outside the "Disney bubble" and experience more of what Florida has to offer.

There ARE: other theme parks beside Disney, there are wonderful beaches, great nature experiences, amazing restaurants (that you don't need an ADR booked months in advance for), cruises, tours etc. etc. etc. A whole other WORLD.
Florida is now our "go-to happy place"...instead of Disney (as it used to be)

The feeling will come back, don't try to force it as you risk a permanently tainted view if things go badly again.

Our first trip back after our "hiatus" consisted of just my DW and myself and we treated it as "our first time" (to Disney )
It was totally fun and we felt like kids again.

 

[LadyDiznee123]

Hi everyone!

I need some help, I've lost that special feeling in my heart when I think about Disney. I'm wondering if this has happened to any of you and how you got it back.

I've waited a few months to write this to let feelings settle and see if I'd feel better about Disney over time, I don't.

So we went to WDW in April. The whole family, me, my wife and young daughter and both sets of grandparents. We had been at WDW twice before (and DLP once) and had fantastic experiences, even negative interactions were very well recovered by WDW. I expected the same this time, not everything was Disney's fault but they didn't recover any of their negative interactions well.

A lot of my favourite parts of Disney were tainted by one thing or another.

I didn't get to ride Haunted Mansion because a cast member forgot me (I skipped the stretching room with my daughter, they brought us through to a spot near the exit where they said another CM would take us to the loading area). The CM in the loading area told the rest of my family to get on the ride or leave and wouldn't send someone to get me. When a CM finally realized what happened, the rest of the family was coming off the ride and we had an ADR to get to outside the park so we didn't have time to ride again. They offered FPs that ended up in the garbage because we were leaving the park (we had told them that when they gave them to us).

My wife and I didn't get to ride Soarin'. We split the party up because my daughter can't ride. We had Fastpasses and the first group scanned their MagicBands and entered the FP queue (and yes they went in the FP queue, I walk them there). Somewhere (I never got this part straight) in the queue, a CM pulled them out of line and placed them in another line (I'm guessing the Standby queue). Two hours later they come out. The rest of our FP are expired, when I explained what happened the CM got defensive, denied they pulled the grandparents from the FP queue and accused us of trying to scam FP.

A CM on Pirates mocked me. The first part of the queue wasn't set up correctly and a section of rope was missing. Some despicable guests were jumping the queue at that spot. I mentioned it to the CM where the line splits before the bridge, after I moved on, he looked at my parents (I don't think he realized we were together) and said "What does that idiot expect me to do?" and rolled his eyes. Obviously, I was quite upset and didn't exactly enjoy the ride.

Some personal things happened on the trip as well. We missed our Expedition Everest FP and didn't get to ride because a family member forgot to pack diapers and we had to turn around and go back to the condo. Another family member had a meltdown at Epcot and we missed the Flower and Garden food kiosks (which was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most). We missed the Star Wars fireworks because of other circumstances at HS. We got separated after Wishes on our last night and took over an hour to find everyone again, and then tempers flared.

Sorry to make this sound so whiny, I just wanted to get into what spoiled Disney for me.

I'm sure some of you have had bad experiences at WDW before, how did you make it feel better?

I seriously need some pixie dust because months later I still don't want to hear about WDW nor would I consider another vacation. This is from someone that is such a Disney fanatic that people tease me about going so often and talking about Disney constantly.

Help!

TIME FOR A SOLO.
I am late to this post and so others may have already provided similar replies. To me, the only way to get the magic back is to do a Solo or a with WIFE only visit. I will say one thing though... that CM who was rude to you and made that remark to your parents.... NEVER let any one person ruin your ride. Once you are on that ride.. OWN IT! It's still YOUR SPECIAL TIME when you are on and experiencing any ride. Shake off anything or anyone that precedes your ride or attraction experience.

ALSO, even if you decide to do SOLO or with Wife Only, make an itinerary that emphasizes only a limited number of MUST DO's. Don't have TOO many expectations (FP's, etc). This way - anything extra that happens is icing on the cake. And anything that goes wrong can be made-up for.

You will get your magic back. I was border-lining on losing my magic too. But I've got an itinerary that echoes what I've said above. Hopefully, I will be pixie dusted all the way, and so will you!

 

[Hatwriter456]

There's nothing wrong with getting tired of Disney...I've gone in and out of love with it many times.

I even loved Disney so much that I worked at Disneyland for 4 years while going to college and thought that I would never want to go back.

You need a break of at least a few years. I've done Disney with large family groups and with small babies. It is easier with a smaller group and not having to change diapers. We've had annual passes numerous times and we hit up DLR about 5 times/year for 3-4 days each trip (we are from Northern CA, so its a drive) and after each pass expires we take a 2-3 year break.

I would take a trip again when your baby is 4/5 years old - I think that is the most magical age to bring kids - and enjoy the trip through their eyes. After working at Disneyland and being so burnt out from that I got my magic back by enjoying the parks through my kids and my enjoyment came back.

Look back at your pictures from your trip next year and it might not seem so bad. The trip I took when it was a 105 degrees at Disneyland in July with a cranky family looks like a great trip in pictures and my cute kids were so little that it makes me want to go back.

 

[LadyDiznee123]

Hi everyone!

I need some help, I've lost that special feeling in my heart when I think about Disney. I'm wondering if this has happened to any of you and how you got it back.

I've waited a few months to write this to let feelings settle and see if I'd feel better about Disney over time, I don't.

So we went to WDW in April. The whole family, me, my wife and young daughter and both sets of grandparents. We had been at WDW twice before (and DLP once) and had fantastic experiences, even negative interactions were very well recovered by WDW. I expected the same this time, not everything was Disney's fault but they didn't recover any of their negative interactions well.

A lot of my favourite parts of Disney were tainted by one thing or another.

I didn't get to ride Haunted Mansion because a cast member forgot me (I skipped the stretching room with my daughter, they brought us through to a spot near the exit where they said another CM would take us to the loading area). The CM in the loading area told the rest of my family to get on the ride or leave and wouldn't send someone to get me. When a CM finally realized what happened, the rest of the family was coming off the ride and we had an ADR to get to outside the park so we didn't have time to ride again. They offered FPs that ended up in the garbage because we were leaving the park (we had told them that when they gave them to us).

My wife and I didn't get to ride Soarin'. We split the party up because my daughter can't ride. We had Fastpasses and the first group scanned their MagicBands and entered the FP queue (and yes they went in the FP queue, I walk them there). Somewhere (I never got this part straight) in the queue, a CM pulled them out of line and placed them in another line (I'm guessing the Standby queue). Two hours later they come out. The rest of our FP are expired, when I explained what happened the CM got defensive, denied they pulled the grandparents from the FP queue and accused us of trying to scam FP.

A CM on Pirates mocked me. The first part of the queue wasn't set up correctly and a section of rope was missing. Some despicable guests were jumping the queue at that spot. I mentioned it to the CM where the line splits before the bridge, after I moved on, he looked at my parents (I don't think he realized we were together) and said "What does that idiot expect me to do?" and rolled his eyes. Obviously, I was quite upset and didn't exactly enjoy the ride.

Some personal things happened on the trip as well. We missed our Expedition Everest FP and didn't get to ride because a family member forgot to pack diapers and we had to turn around and go back to the condo. Another family member had a meltdown at Epcot and we missed the Flower and Garden food kiosks (which was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most). We missed the Star Wars fireworks because of other circumstances at HS. We got separated after Wishes on our last night and took over an hour to find everyone again, and then tempers flared.

Sorry to make this sound so whiny, I just wanted to get into what spoiled Disney for me.

I'm sure some of you have had bad experiences at WDW before, how did you make it feel better?

I seriously need some pixie dust because months later I still don't want to hear about WDW nor would I consider another vacation. This is from someone that is such a Disney fanatic that people tease me about going so often and talking about Disney constantly.

Help!

Got a chance to see a few more replies. I see that you think you might take a break. And I agree with that as well. Sometimes we are just on Disney overload. As others have noted, and you agree... Disney can just be a tad too stressful. I think there is nothing wrong with taking a break for one, two, three or more years. You will appreciate the BETTER times you had more. After a few years break, you'll be dying to return to the magic you once knew.
Great idea... taking a break.

 

[101Pongo]

Ahhhh it sounds like you didn`t know about the Twitter account - another poster mentioned it to you in a reply, that tool is how you get ahold of Disney Customer Service real fast. They reply in less than 30 mins usually. I don`t know if there was a correlation between our live Tweeting of "this is awesome, we are loving this CM, what a great day because of this other CM, thank you" and we got extra paper FP, we got freebies all over, we got long conversations with CMs full of useful data...

First, thank you for your post

I did tweet them but did not receive a response.

Doing anything outside the normal routine for CM's becomes difficult to manage and they are likely to NOT be magical moments. Why were you skipping the stretching room if you didn't have an ECV? It's no scarier than any other part of the ride... If it was crazy busy, the CM's are just too busy dealing with crowd control to go back and forth ferrying guests outside of the normal queue scenario, even with DAS. This is NOT the first time I have heard the scenario, "Skipped stretching room, CM's refused to let us board and kicked us out the door as the second portion of our party is exiting"

We didn't want to take a 5 month old into an overstuffed, dark room. We were concerned someone would jump and accidentally hit her. If Disney can't manage having guests skipping the queue they should stop allowing it or build a dedicated corridor from the entrance to the loading area.

Were you using Rider Switch? I don't understand why you didn't get to ride, it sounds like you chose to wait around for the GParents to finish their ride before handing off the kid to them and going by yourselves. Of course from the CM's point of view, they can't see another scenario because if a portion of a party is waiting on the other, 99% this means the waiting party did NOT have FP. If you all had FP, why did you not step up to the turnstile and point out, "We need Rider Switch. My DW will wait with the kid, then when I get off, she's going to Rider Switch and if any of the GParents want a second ride, they can come, or my DW and I can ride together. Thanks." Problem solved.

We were not using rider switch. The entire group had FP and we were at the beginning of our window, we didn't figure the first group would take so long as to expire the rest of our FP. I should have gone to the CMs before they expired and explained the situation. We didn't get to ride because the CM would not allow us to enter the FP queue even though we explained what happened and they could see that only part of our group used their FP and that we all had FP. We didn't have time to wait in a 90 min+ queue without compromising our later plans.

Okay that is unacceptable. I would have expected my parents to take note of the CM's nametag at the very very least. Mine would have pointed out in a very ugly way that it IS his job to prevent line jumpers If it had been me, I would have gone back over, taken a nice photograph of said CM and let him know I was sharing my POTC experiences with the Twitter account... let him figure out that he is now the one Blocking Our Pixie Dust and there is something he can do about it... before it gets out of his hands... I am typically beyond over-nice to CM's but the moment they stop believing in the magic, they have just become an random employee in the hospitality industry - please give me a reason to give YOU Pixie Dust back, CM's!

I only found out what he said after we had gone over the bridge and there was a queue behind us. A confrontation with the CM would have probably ended poorly for me. As I said above, I did tweet but WDW didn't respond.

Condo? Like off-site stay? Oh boy I can already see why this trip went off the rails for you. Multiple family members, lack of flexible planning, not having the convenience of disney transport and EMH... and I have no idea why an adult temper tantrum would stop you from F &G unless you decided that dealing with the meltdown was more important. That is NOT a wrong decision, it's the decision you made. Own that decision. We had a massive adult meltdown on Living in the Land once... ugh it was so embarrassing but neither of us could quit laying into each other LOL Somewhere outside, screeching at each other across the Land Plaza (with dozens of people watching), we realized that it would just be best if NOBODY talked until we got to our ADR location. So we SILENTLY trudged from Land all the way to WS into Japan... once we had some sake, there was civil conversation again. But both of us realized that if we kept the emotional rollercoaster going, everything in the day from that ride onward was going to be much worse and probably cause traumatic memories. Not worth it.

It wasn't a scene but a family member became extremely upset (crying) and we felt we had to leave at that point.

Oh and the First Aid/Baby Care centres sell diapers, no need to leave the Park... sorry you didn't find that out while there...

We knew that and used the Baby Care Centre extensively through our trip. My wife was worried they wouldn't have the right brand/size and decided we had to go back.

I don't argue with my wife once she's made up her mind...

No no no don't apologize - some of this stuff is just a learning curve - certain perks make life easier, some don't, they all are always changing! we have ALL had similar moments! Our family made a list of Top5 rides, we spent 8 days trying to figure out how to get on them, and two of them never happened.


What I do is focus on the positive. Did you see anything for the first time? What was the best part to watch through your child's eyes? Name a CM that went above and beyond, name a situation that went really smoothly... Imagine a trip in which you are only doing what you and your immediate family are doing and you are not trying to stress about whether or not Glaucoma Grandma can shuffle fast enough to get to your FP on time and whether or not the restaurant you have ADRs for 8 people is fully prepared to deal with a cinnamon allergy, or whatever logistical nightmare that you personally have with your family.

Make a family vacation somewhere that is NOT Disney. Then think about Disney again, but ask your child and wife what THEY want to get out of the vacation. By then, I am certain Disney will have switched out more perks and programs and up-sells that you'll have to evaluate.

This was our fourth Disney trip (3x WDW, 1x DLP) in as many years, we never experienced anything like this in previous years. After I got this off my chest yesterday I've been feeling much better and thinking a lot more about the positives and the great memories and experiences we had.

I think this will be the last Disney vacation for a while except maybe a day at DLP squeezed in a European holiday.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

If a WDW vacation is adding stress to your life, you're not doing it right. Just sayin'.