Here is your warning: this trip report does not contain much pixie dust

[lizandjason]

I think that the comment was made because like so many the OP hoped that kids being back in school would decrease the crowds a bit. Obviously, that didn't happen. I didn't read it as snarky but just frustration. Personally I wish that everyone would take their kids out of school so that the crowds would decrease in the summer but no such luck yet.

OP, I think that it's a great idea to try other things for a while. WDW will always be there for when you're ready.

Thank you for this. You are exactly correct, it was just frustration. I love seeing families enjoy WDW together and I think that they have every right to take their kids out of school to enjoy a time when there are fewer crowds. We were just EXPECTING lower crowds because neither of us had parents who were cool enough to do this for US, so we didn't anticipate it!

 

[lizandjason]

LOL, I'm out for the weekend!

Pirategirl. No I was not kidding. If a parent has taken their child to WDW it is obvious that for that week WDW is more important than school that week. Otherwise they would be in school that week. Make sense now?

If a parent thought that school was more important that week, they would not have taken their child out that week. Just in case it didn't make sense the first time.

As for the snarky 'you don't know anything until you have kids" I have several, and I agree with the poster.

You are the coolest. Thank you.

 

[perdidobay]

OP, except for the CSR comments I could have written your post a few years ago. Our kids are grown so it's just DH and I on our trips. After several WDW trips within 18 months, I was feeling the "been there done that" blues, and getting very tired of people in general after coping with rude tourists and crowds.
We realized we were trying to do the same thing over and over (and do it all).
Our next visits we took the time to spend the day by the resort pool and rent the water sprites for a ride around Bay Lake.
We slept in each day and if we went into a park, only rode a few rides that we wanted to ride. We took a behind the scenes tour one trip. It was a great way to keep things feeling new.
We take a day to go offsite to other attractions in the area now.

If and when you come back to WDW, might I suggest January if at all possible, and a more romantic resort like Wilderness Lodge or Port Orleans Resort.

 

[eliza61]

Just back yesterday after five much-anticipated days at CSR. Here's the rundown...

CSR
The Good: Nice grounds, nice new room, great pool and hot tub
The Bad: The 'magic' is lacking here, no doubt about it. Between extremely rude staff (with the exception of our bellhop who was lovely), tons of conventioneers and a horrible food court, we will not be back. The Pepper Market is a joke-what genius thought this up? The 'waitresses' don't speak English, and a simple request for Ranch dressing turned into an ordeal. When I say RUDE staff, I mean, very grumpy and indifferent. 'What do you want' I heard when I dared to wander into back of the market for a cookie, and then the worker grabs the cookie with his bare hand...the same hand that he had just used to wipe the counter. Food was extremely greasy and just tasted bad. There were literally 25 conventioneers waiting at one station for their food. The Pepper Market is the sole reason we won't ever stay here again.

Crowds
The Good: Nothing good to report about crowds. Free dining and Epcot Food and Wine Festival brought everyone out. HOWEVER-ride waits weren't horrible. The worst ride times we saw were 90 minutes for Splash Mountain and 80 for Test Track, but with those exceptions, everything was 15-30 minutes.
The Bad: Holy moly, what a cluster, considering the time of year. With a couple of rare exceptions, it didn't matter what day, what park, what time...parks were crowded. It's quite obvious that parents don't care much if their kids miss a week of school.

Food
The Great: Biergarten (WOW)
The Very Good: Surprisingly, Tony's. We walked in at 5 pm and split a salad and one order of Chicken Parmesan..and it was all PLENTY of food, only one TS credit, and then the plan was to split a TS credit on the Big Kahuna breakfast at Kona...but we overslept! I also enjoyed the Shwarma platter at Tangiere Cafe (more meat than I could possibly eat in one sitting, and I can put some food away!)

I woke up with a very sore throat Wednesday which lasted all day and then turned into a fever (did I wear myself out, or did I touch too many places where countless germy hands had been?) We left a day early and we were both looking forward to coming home. We planned incessantly for this trip...spent countless hours on the DIS boards and All Ears, and dreamed of what it would be. While we had some great moments, we definitely had more fun planning than doing.

We are in our early 30's, no kids yet, and this was our third trip in 16 months. The trip was just exhaustive and-to be honest-we didn't have many 'new' experiences, it was kind of like...'oh, Pirates of the Caribbean, been there done that.' I kept looking at young couples with small kids and wondering if we were missing out on the true 'meaning' of Disney. Every day was an exhaustive struggle to hurry up and stand in line. We were lured in by a deal but it turns out that this just wasn't the best time for us to go; hopefully in the future we'll have a different perspective and we can try it again, but it will be awhile.

Op, sorry you had a less than magical trip. It happens even at WDW. We also decided to take a break from wdw and we are dvc'ers. Nothing wrong with that. It's a great big world out there.

We have been going once a year for the last 8 years and we've just seen too many declines in the last two years to justify the outrageous cost. I've been lucky that all the cm's I've dealt with have been wonderful but between the lousy food offerings and cut backs in Fantasmic, live entertainers and the closing of the adventurers club we've decided to take a break.
Even my teens have noticed the cut backs so I know its time to move on.


I still love disney and suspect the magic will return. I'll live vicarously throught folks here and hope absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

 

[newharmony]

DH and I are here now! We were at BCV last week, BWV this week and go to SSR next week. We have been disappointed in several things. BCV was wonderful but BWV smelled badly of paint for the first 3 days. We had to leave our balcony door open the first two nights. I called the front desk, but nothing happened and they didn't even call us back. Then on Tuesday we got a robo-call that we were all set to check out the next day. We don't check out until Sunday.We have found the CS meals have smaller servings at higher prices. We love the shopping but have found that the same merchandise is everywhere...fewer resort- or park-specific souvenirs. We haven't purchased anything yet...not sure we will. The crowds have been pretty bad, especially in the evening. The rudeness level seems to get higher with each trip. One group filled a walkway tonight at Epcot and we literally had to bump into a young man to get by him (I'm 60). There are lots of kids here and we only experienced a couple of really dreadful examples of bad behavior. The worse being (from DH) the mens' room in the Beach Club lobby having ALL of the tp unrolled in all the stalls and all of the nice towels thrown around the bathroom. Some parents don't supervise their kids. We are really questioning our decision to buy into DVC after this trip.

 

[yrdlyprincess]

Sorry to hear about your experience--many of the things you said about CSR I have heard from other people- but then I come on here and hear great things about-I do think it's great that people have different likes and dislikes. Sorry to hear about your sore throat and fever, I will be using germx like CRAZY!!!! Kids got sick last time we were down- I don't want to see that down there- or up here!!Hope that your next trip brings more magic...I know that with having kids - not only for me but also DH it truly brings out a totally different magic and experience with them! (Unless I'm at Epcot-drinking around the world

 

[angipoo]

Sorry to hear about your disappointing trip - we are some of those parents who combine a regular school holiday with a few days out to make a nice Disney trip. Excited about 1st MNNSHP, 1st F&W Fesival and trying out the water parks for a few days. I will try and remember a PP comments about dehydration - water, water, water!

 

[LoraJ]

I had written out a long post earlier and hit submit and for some reason the resort internet reset at the same time taking me to the Disney site and my post was gone. I'll try and remember what I wrote.

We are here now, and we are definitely having a good time, although I think my DH wishes we had gone to Vegas instead. We visited here in September once before together and practically had the parks to ourselves. Our last two trips were during the week of Halloween and the crowds were manageable. I was apprehensive about coming to Disney during free dining, but had heard that the parks were manageable, just the restaurants were crowded. We have found it to be much more crowded than Halloween week. The lines for the rides are not horrible, but the parks just feel much more crowded. We just got back from Downtown Disney and I have never seen it so crowded.

We have been escaping the parks earlier then we usually do and heading back to the resort to relax. I'm dreading the weekend crowds tomorrow. When we come back, we'll try for Halloween week again, and hope that free dining isn't extended that far. We'll probably travel somewhere else next year, but who knows.

I agree about CSR. The Yacht Club, where we are at right now is also a convention resort, but to me, it is not as in your face as what we experienced at CSR. I believe it is because there are so many other places in the area here that the conventionears can spread out to. At CSR, I would try and got to the jacuzzi at night after the parks and the conventionears had taken it over. Same with the bar. Felt a little bit like we were crashing a company party. Last night, I went to the jacuzzi tub here and had it to myself. CSR is definitely a beautiful resort, but it's the only one that we have stayed at that we will not be returning to.

I have noticed that it seems as though most of the kids are elementary age. My parents took us out of school when I was 7 to go to WDW and we turned out fine. The only bad part was we missed being in our class pictures.

Like I said, we are having a wonderful time, but I just do not think we will be back during free dining again.

 

[Tiffany_PartyOf7]

Ah, we homeschool so you could catch us there any week of the year In fact, Disney is an amazing learning experience for my bunch.

 

[paintnolish]

The heat and humidity definitely take a toll on you, especially in the crowds. My mom and sister just got back and found it quite bearable, but then again, their last few trips have been in summer!
CSR...It seems you either love it or hate it. I love it. I actually wrote an email praising certain CMs all over WDW-one, named Laura, from CSR. I had good experiences in PM, too. Our waitress the first day was helping DD open her milk since I had gotten up to get something. I thought the food was good, too, esp. on ddp.
TTS- We had a suprisingly lovely meal there as well. The food was okay, but our service was great- another one named in the email (Isabella).
Like PPs have suggested, maybe you need a WDW break. If you are "been there, done that," check out some other sites!

 

[TLinden16]

I'm going to move this over to our trip report board.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

You are the coolest. Thank you.

You are welcome. One of the reasons people like to go during the school year is the decreased crowds. They are decreased because kids are supposed to be in school. I have a slew of kids, and we go in January for this reason. They are homeschooled.

 

[kazzy3]

Just an fyi to the folks making judgements and assuming that parents are keeping kids out of school for a week, my children had 2 days off during that time period. One day for teacher conference and one for a Jewish holiday that we do not observe. We could have very easily hopped on a plane after school and then spent 4 full days at WDW w/o missing any school.