How Universal saved our Disney vacation

[Captainkidd76]

Hi all.

So let me preface by saying, yes - Well aware of how crowded WDW is in July. We go every year in the summer and have been for many years.

We stayed in a 2 bedroom villa at Bonnet Creek July 6-19. We were supposed to stay until the 20th then stay our last night at Wilderness Lodge on the 20th. We were so busy, we didn't get to experience much of the resort, but the room was great and the location was perfect. It was myself, wife and twin 12 year old boys.

Animal Kingdom was great. Crowded, but not crazy. We did everything we wanted. I will say, we did FoP for the 2nd time and I still don't see what the big deal about this ride is. It's like Soarin' on a smaller level.

DHS was crowded, but again, we managed to do everything. Toy Story was underwhelming. Slinky was OK, but not worth an hour plus wait. There was only 1 side running on ToT, so that wait was rough.

Epcot - It is what it is. Spent 2 days there and had great meals at Teppan Edo and Via Napoli, so the latter seems to have taken a bit of decline. I surprisingly enjoyed Frozen Ever After.

Disney Springs, I'm not a fan of to begin with, but we like the Marketplace, so went there 2 nights. Luckily we have a Landry card so we got into both Rainforest and T-Rex with little wait. The rest of the place was insanely busy with lines at every food kiosk, restaurant, shop.

Typhoon Lagoon was awesome. Boys' first time and they loved it. Crowded, but we got there earlier and did almost eveything.

Sea World - Great as always. Busch Gardens was great as well. Loved Tigris and Safari up close wtih giraffes was AMAZING!

Discovery Cove - Relaxing day, but sadly, it was the one slightly cooler day with no sun. Oh well.

Magic Kingdom - Here's where things got messy. We spent 4 days there, as it's everyone's favorite Disney park. We did everything, but had a ton of problems with the MDE app. Rides showing up, disappearing. Same thing with ADR's. The crowds were insane. Fastpass lines snaked outside of attractions around ropes to keep people in line. So many rude guests smoking, cutting in line. On day 3 at the MK, I lost my cool. Between the heat, insane crowds, no availability for most Fastpasses, rude guests and even ruder CM's, I just couldn't take it anymore. We literally felt as though we were going to be crushed about 3 times. As Universal AP holders, we decided to call an audible. We called Universal and were able to get an AP rate at Royal Pacific for Friday and Saturday. We cancelled the rest of our ADR's and FP's, left WBC Friday morning, and left for Universal. Thankfully, as usual, everything at Universal was perfect. We got on every ride in both parks as many times as we wanted. Ate where we wanted. Relaxed. The only issue was a new ordering procedure in Springfield which is completely stupid. But whatever - Just a blip on the radar.

I've spent the morning getting refunds from Disney on 5 different ADR's we cancelled but were charged a no-show for. We all love WDW, but the magic feeling is just not there for us right now. Too much planning, no spontaneity, too much construction at Magic Kingdom and TTC. We're going to take a few years off from WDW and hopefully, something will change that will make a trip there somewhat relaxing again. Until then, we're a Universal family.

 

[stewart715]

Thanks for the report. Your experience at Magic Kingdom is precisely the reason why they are continuing to raise prices. Spot on. Nail on the head. Bulls eye.

In fairness to WDW re: construction, they are scrambling doing all of this work at the benefit of us when we all visit in 2021.

 

[Captainkidd76]

Thanks for the report. Your experience at Magic Kingdom is precisely the reason why they are continuing to raise prices. Spot on. Nail on the head. Bulls eye.

In fairness to WDW re: construction, they are scrambling doing all of this work at the benefit of us when we all visit in 2021.

No doubt. If people are willing to pay it, why not raise pricing? Honestly, for us, it wasn't the money. I still think there can be value found at WDW. But crowds, rude guests, 100 degree temps, crappy counter service food and less than magical CM's adds up. We still had a great time. I had to keep explaining to my kids that all the construction was to get ready for the 50th. MK was the only park where it became a pain. Since we were driving in, we would obviously park at the TTC, but with all the walls up, the trams only go so far, so then you have to walk the rest of the way. Then once you get there, you have to take a long way around. It's not a huge deal, but it is a bit of a pain in the evening. We started to just Uber to a MK resort and take the monorail or walk. Much easier.

 

[stewart715]

No doubt. If people are willing to pay it, why not raise pricing? Honestly, for us, it wasn't the money. I still think there can be value found at WDW. But crowds, rude guests, 100 degree temps, crappy counter service food and less than magical CM's adds up. We still had a great time. I had to keep explaining to my kids that all the construction was to get ready for the 50th. MK was the only park where it became a pain. Since we were driving in, we would obviously park at the TTC, but with all the walls up, the trams only go so far, so then you have to walk the rest of the way. Then once you get there, you have to take a long way around. It's not a huge deal, but it is a bit of a pain in the evening. We started to just Uber to a MK resort and take the monorail or walk. Much easier.

In a way it’s all related, though. The larger the crowds, the more unruly people get. The larger the crowds, the more CMs that are needed so hiring quality goes down. The larger the crowds, the faster they need to make food to get lines down, so food quality goes down.

I would expect all of that to get better as they raise prices. If it doesn't they have a big problem on their hands.