How many of us are finding other things to do in Orlando?

[Alicefan]

I'm just curious to see how many of us are actually withholding our money from Disney but are actually still vacationing in Orlando? I would like to be able to say that I stopped giving my money to Disney completely, but like a true addict, I still occasionally visit a park during my vacation.

As of now, my vacations have shifted from a 4 or 5 day vacation at Disney (typically off property but sometimes on) with a day or two scheduled for Universal/Islands of Adventure, to 5 or 6 day trips ON property at Universal, where we are now annual passholders, with a day set aside for Disney about every other trip. We typically make this same trip at least 2 or 3 times a year. We DO however, always make a visit to Disney Springs to fill the void.

I've only been an annual passholder at Disney one year out of my life. I used to go and spend all of my extra income there when you could buy tickets all at once and they never expired. I'd buy 10 days worth every couple of years sometimes and use a couple of days here and there. Sometimes I went with family and my Dad would get great Military tickets and we'd stay at Shades of Green or with Armed Forces Vacation Club. It was our favorite way to vacation. Now, generations of my family are all disenchanted with Disney and none of them care to go back and everyone is finding other places to enjoy.

Are there more like me who are still spending a LOT of time in Orlando, but spending their money in other places? I recently discovered the joys of Sea World! It took me about 23 years of going to Disney to give that park a shot, and it was so much better than I thought it was going to be. It's a shame that Disney has loyal Disney guests giving up on them. So much more money literally lurking in their doorway, but they aren't interested in us long haulers anymore. They are after that "one and done" family, and that baffles me.

 

[RedK]

Not Orlando - but I'm going to Maui instead of the Mouse this year. It was all the changes and lower benefits etc that made me start looking around. I still come back to the boards a bit wistfully, hoping things will start to change. I miss Disney.

 

[nonnadisney]

We have changed our 2022 trip a number of times trying to cut costs. The same trip we took in previous years is so much more expensive and this is with two less people on the reservation because my children are all adults now. So it's 4 instead of 6 on the package.
Our solution is we've booked a 2 bedroom villa with Marriott and will only go to Disney Parks 2 days. Giving us a resort day and a day we will eat at a restaurant on Disney property. We had 6 day tickets. So yes we're going to Orlando and finding other things to do.

 

[kwdw]

This is exactly what I am thinking about right now and haven't decided. I have some SW travel funds I need to spend and pre-COVID you can guarantee these dollars would have been spent on a flight to MCO/trip to WDW. I am debating about a trip to Orlando - but here's the debate. I could maybe switch my loyalties to Universal for a year and buy one of their AP's. Never done HHN, for example. I had seriously thought about maybe getting a "tiny" splash of Disney and heading to Hilton Head with DVC rental points - but I can't get a DVC rental there. So - I've thought about Hilton Head anyway - just staying with another company. I also kinda of want to see "the 50th" at WDW - so maybe biting the bullet and dealing with all their obnoxious changes and going anyway - but maybe shorter. I've also thought about just a nice condo stay and a day at Discovery Cove. I've also never been to Gatorland.

I'm half of a couple - and WDW trips were great for me solo because I have more vacation than he does and WDW is not his first choice of a trip. And it wasn't terribly expensive for me with cheap flights and a WDW AP. He's still okay with me taking solo trips because he gets that using vacation to stay home can be boring - but I am struggling to find new "go-to" places that have the right balance for me - cheap, good for a solo, not alot of long distance driving, and having the right amount of entertainment/relaxation I want.

So - the struggle is real for me right now!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Yep. We are visiting Busch Gardens instead.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Maybe sometime in the future I'll look at doing other things in Orlando again, but for now I'm looking at vacationing in other states entirely.

 

[Arielfan98]

I have looked into it myself. I priced out the cost to go to other theme parks, and they're a much better value. I can go park 2 park at Universal for a better price and no park reservation for them either. Also, as military I qualify for free Seaworld tickets so I want to try that out. If you go on my profile you'll see my decision to break up with Disney lol.

 

[Pooh2]

On our winter trip, we were very close to Disney but opted out.

We visited Ocala National Forest and swam at Alexander Springs while staying at bed and breakfast in Mt. Dora as well as visited Blue Spring State Park to see the manatee.

We will reassess in a couple of years whether we will return to Disney.

 

[lockets]

We cut some of our our Disney days and supplemented with Universal during our last trip.

Other than that we haven’t ventured out but we’ve certainly curtailed things.

For three trips taken within the last year we cut days off the Disney portion after calculating out the hotel and ticket price for the “extra” days were simply over our budget.

I’ve cut parkhoppers completely.

On last trip I cut signature table service down to one restaurant only.

 

[JoJoGirl]

We usually go to Disney as family in late January/early February. Next year instead of Disney, we are doing three nights and 2 park days Universal - Royal Pacific, then four nights in Clearwater Beach. We haven’t been to Universal since before Harry Potter was added. I’m really looking forward to it! If I like it enough, I’ll probably upgrade to a Universal AP and take a solo trip later in the year.

 

[StageTek]

It's a shame that Disney has loyal Disney guests giving up on them. So much more money literally lurking in their doorway, but they aren't interested in us long haulers anymore. They are after that "one and done" family, and that baffles me.

I agree. Disney seems to want WDW to be a once-in-a-lifetime, very expensive, kinda stressful, vacation now. An AP once upon a time made sense for out-of-state folks (like me) who would go twice (maybe thrice) a year - but no more.

I'm going in Sept for that last week of my AP but I'm spending more time at Universal (staying on site there) then at WDW. I don't know if I'll head back to Orlando in the future. I plan on spending my vacation time and money doing other things around the country.

It's sad. I so love(ed) Disney.

 

[goofyernmost]

Always have found so many things to do in Central Florida including my first trip in 1983. If nothing else I would often use Orlando/Kissimmee as my base and head east to The Kennedy Space center or West to Tampa/St. Petersburg or even north to Silver Springs. I once spent two weeks in the area and only 4 days in Disney. I wandered around the area and went to Universal, Cyprus Gardens in its final years. Bok Tower and once even drove down to Key West via Naples and the everglades, etc. The Orange groves, the smell of orange blossoms and the local culture. I can't even remember all of the things I did. One was to take a helicopter ride over the area. In all those years I only stayed onsite once and felt like I couldn't wait until the end of the week hoping for a parole. I loved Disney like it originally was but there is so much more to life then WDW. I have almost always headed to WDW. Over the years I spent less time in the park and more exploring. It's quite interesting.

 

[lockets]

Have done a split trip. South Beach in Miami then Disney then Marco Island.

 

[disneyseniors]

W e are planning a trip to see relatives in Tn. this fall, and then on down to Ft. Meyers area to see other family. While in Florida, we will go to Universal, Sea world, and other areas of interest. We would like go go to Bok Towers and also to St. Augustine one day. I love that city - it's so beautiful and full of history. There are a lot of wonderful places to visit. One of our favorites is Sanibel Island too. It;s funny but I find it so "freeing" now that we don't do disney once a year. We spent all our vacation money at disney, but now we will venture out to other wonderful areas. Thanks, Disney, for making this possible

 

[zachatak]

We are finding Universal and other things to do. We are a family that has been to WDW at least 35 times over the past several years with APs and even got sucked into DVC so you could say we've been hard-core fans for a while. The park experience now compared to previous years just sucks. It isn't the same or even close.. We will likely rent out half of our DVC pts and use the others for resort stays while taking our $$$ to Universal or planning Aulani trips so we can get value from the DVC pts we have... all with hopes of WDC getting its head screwed on straight, finding some new leadership, and getting its focus back on what made it what it is (was).

 

[jimmymc]

I've started doing split stays at Universal. The premier hotel benefits and annual pass discounts are such a great value that it's difficult not to, even if only for 2 nights. That's 3 days of express pass. I also enjoy the more intense coasters.

I go to Seaworld every few trips, but that's not a park I have to get back to every time.