I don't think my experiences are universally true, but I will say I was surprised when planning how much advice we got to skip the WDW parks and see what else there is available.
I have a coworker who is thinking about taking his wife and two young sons (8y/o and 11y/o) to Orlando. Knowing I go down there 4-6 times a year, he asked me to help plan their trip. He then told me he had won a four night stay at a timeshare and was going to add a few nights to it. I explained all the onsite perks to him, transportation options, FP- and FP+, how to make ADRs, character meals, etc. We also talked about staying offsite, eating offsite prices vs onsite prices, other things to do in Orlando, etc. In fact we spent all night talking about his options. I didn't want to influence him one way or the other, just wanted to give him facts. He said it sounded like to him that DS and maybe even AK could be half day parks. When we got to talking about maybe it would be better for them to stay onsite, since it was their first trip and how important ADRs and FP+ would be to them, he finally put both hands in the air and said forget it, a WDW vacation was too complicated and time consuming to plan. He then asked me if a Universal/Sea World trip would be that complicated. What could I say: stay onsite at Universal and get unlimited front of the line passes and priority seating at their restaurants, no ADRs needed. Go to Sea World, pay $19.99 for their quick queue option and again get unlimited front of the line passes and pay $32.99 for their all day dining plan that allows basically all you can eat unlimited meals and snacks all day. He gave me a puzzled look and asked why I bothered to even go to WDW then and why couldn't WDW make it simple like Universal and Sea World.
One of those is me. I average about four trips to WDW a year and generally only visit DHS one time out of the four - in December for the lights. If the whole clan goes and we have to skip a park due to timing or funds/ticket restrictions, we skip DHS.
Same here! I go 4-6 times a year. Before they built TSM, I frequently skipped DS, except for the Osborne Lights in Dec. Even since they've built TSM (my favorite ride for some odd reason
), I still spend just half a day there. I like to ride TSM two or three times (which with this new system I won't be able to do
), then ride RnR a couple of times, then Star Tours, then if the timing is right I might see Little Mermaid, then I'm out of there. Some trips I still skip DS though. There is just not enough there to interest me.
What will be interesting to see is what their next move is regarding offsite and APs, in other words, everyone other than resort customers. That will be very telling as to what their ultimate strategy is with all of this.
This is what I'm concerned about. We are annual passholders that also happen to prefer staying at Wyndham Bonnet Creek, instead of onsite. If this new system keeps us from touring the way we like to, then we'll be speaking with our money and not renewing our annual passes. Instead we will be finding other things to do down there. We currently have annual passes for WDW, but also have annual passes for Universal and by next month will also have Fun Passes to Sea World that will be good until Dec 2014. We do have options and if we don't like the direction WDW is going will exercise those other options. There are too many things to do in Orlando to be standing in long lines at WDW.
