Is it Even Worth it Anymore?

[gorkt]

I am one of those middle road WDW fans, tending to go every 3-4 years when there is enough new stuff to entice me there. For me, I think it will still be worth it. I try to keep things low key, focus on the experiences I want to have, but I don't have to rush. Because of that, I am more willing to pay a small fee to get the experiences I really want so the ILL doesnt phase me much.

I am a little worried about G+ though along with park reservations and the limits on hopping. I liked FP+ much better because of the peace of mind that it gave someone like me that I could experience the rides I really wanted to hit. While it did tend to lock you in place to certain parks, it wasn't a hard lock, and if you hit a park and it was slammed, it was nice to be able to swap at will. FP+ also made late arrivals more feasible. I could just book rides for later times and still know I can get them. In particular, it really made for nice arrival evenings. Being up to the mercy of the Genie system does stress me out a bit, not knowing what type of day I will have when I am there, but I will try to go with the flow.

 

[NickC]

They say "per guest spending is up" while I would think the more truthful answer is "per guest cost of going to Disney has gone up". When you drastically raise the cost of tickets (Genie+), hotel rooms, dining, snacks, merchandise, parking .... of course guest spending goes up, they had no choice in many of these.

Good point. And 'good spin' on Disney's part. Although I feel like the money I spent on G+ was offset by the lack of merch available to buy in the gift shops. We normally purchase a few souvenirs, but it seemed like there wasn't a wide variety of merch this year.

 

[flowergleam1211]

I keep hearing so many horrible things about WDW these days and how crowded it is, and how bad the gouging is. I'll only have 3 days and I was thinking of 2 days at Epcot and 1 at Animal Kingdom... but is it even worth it anymore? Or should I just plan for Universal with Unlimited Express Lane built in?

I can probably make any Disney trip "worth it" with manageable expectations, reverence for my WDW past, and a love for some of the company's newer films and series. However, this period of "revenge travel" and its impact everywhere including crowding, airport and airline issues, and rental car prices does feel very not worth it right now for me and my family. (Keep in mind that my family includes small children, which always makes travel more work intensive.) Here's hoping that we find joy and contentment wherever we go, whether it be Disney or another destination, or even if we choose to stay put for the moment!

 

[Davey Jones II]

Good point. And 'good spin' on Disney's part. Although I feel like the money I spent on G+ was offset by the lack of merch available to buy in the gift shops. We normally purchase a few souvenirs, but it seemed like there wasn't a wide variety of merch this year.

I would love to see more ride-specific or land-specific merch. Where are the Slinky Dog Dash or 7DMT tee shirts (just to pick two examples out of a mouse ear hat)? Also, I don't recall seeing any Toy Story Land or Galaxy's Edge tees or hats during our last two visits, and those lands were brand new!

 

[MikeTheRed]

I will say, I have been a little disappointed by the merchandise selection. The shirt designs I wanted are all out of stock everywhere, and most of the non-ears and non-50th stuff feels like it's all stuff I can get on Amazon. I wanted to get some unique Disney Princess toys for my nieces, and some spider-man stuff for a friend's kid and I'm coming up empty.

 

[leebee]

I just heard from my friend who is at the World right now. They are at Disney Studios and she says LL is making a huge impact on the Genie+ lines, to say nothing about standby. She was successful getting on RotR this morning- about 90mins from park entry to being off the ride- but by the time they were off the line was at 140min. That was about the end of it, though. She says lines are barely moving due to the number of people being passed through on LL, and half the elevators at ToT are down. She says the wait times and the actual waiting time are two very different things. I sense frustration... but they have PH passes and will head for World Showcase soon, for more good snacks and such.

 

[xipotec]

Good point. And 'good spin' on Disney's part. Although I feel like the money I spent on G+ was offset by the lack of merch available to buy in the gift shops. We normally purchase a few souvenirs, but it seemed like there wasn't a wide variety of merch this year.

Merch has been going down hill for some time. They are basically stuffing each shop with the same stuff….

Unique and original shop items are getting harder to find.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I just heard from my friend who is at the World right now. They are at Disney Studios and she says LL is making a huge impact on the Genie+ lines, to say nothing about standby. She was successful getting on RotR this morning- about 90mins from park entry to being off the ride- but by the time they were off the line was at 140min. That was about the end of it, though. She says lines are barely moving due to the number of people being passed through on LL, and half the elevators at ToT are down. She says the wait times and the actual waiting time are two very different things. I sense frustration... but they have PH passes and will head for World Showcase soon, for more good snacks and such.

What they do now it appears is say "your wait time will be longer than anticipated"..that's code for they just had a bunch of LL show up...we heard that quite a bit during our trip that just ended a few days ago.

As far as wait times some have been quite on par with posted, others were inaccurate.

ToT has been operating with only one side for quite a while now. My husband was able to get on it 1 time through standby on the 14th. He got in line at 8:40am (park opened at 8:30am we were in line being held back until 8:30am) with a posted wait of 40mins and he made it off in 35mins but only because they pulled asking for a single rider which he was. By the time he came out it had jumped to about 80 or so mins.

In many cases with Standby what makes it or breaks it is the ability for people to keep up with the party in front of them. Those who don't risk missing their merge point window which just makes all of us behind them wait longer. Other times it was just them not letting anyone from Standby through for large portions of the time.

 

[yensid's offspring]

Blaspheme. @therealmichaellandon is rolling over in his grave and Walter Elias Disney just spat out his scotch mist. WDW is always worth it.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Good point. And 'good spin' on Disney's part. Although I feel like the money I spent on G+ was offset by the lack of merch available to buy in the gift shops. We normally purchase a few souvenirs, but it seemed like there wasn't a wide variety of merch this year.

We had intentions of buying stuff but honestly the shirts and quality of what they looked like when we bought 4 of them (plus a HM tank top) back in 2017 seemed to be well above what they had this time. We ended up not buying one single item with exception to the 50th anniversary throw blanket. The 50th anniversary shirt designs with the iridescence was neat but we worried about the delicate nature of them. Our DISer friend who was also there was told by a CM to be very careful in washing the stuff. Didn't like that the design would likely break apart quickly enough. I agree on the variety we just simply didn't see enough.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

We took our first trip to Universal in April and it was a revelation. Just walking into the express lines without having to look at my phone or anything all day, only needed the phone to prove I had hoppers for access to the Hogwarts Express. In contrast, we spent one day at AK in December having to madly criss-cross the parks to make whatever Genie+ was available next, we spent 3 hours in the middle of the day just wandering the animal trails because we couldn't get a LL for anything. We have a WDW trip planned this October because we're going on the Galactic Starcruiser, but if not for that I would pick Universal again, hands down. Velocicoaster and Hagrid's Motorbike are better than any coasters at WDW.

 

[mefordis]

I keep hearing so many horrible things about WDW these days and how crowded it is, and how bad the gouging is. I'll only have 3 days and I was thinking of 2 days at Epcot and 1 at Animal Kingdom... but is it even worth it anymore? Or should I just plan for Universal with Unlimited Express Lane built in?

Recently went to Disney and Universal, stayed on property both places. Disney was hands down a better experience on many levels.

 

[md311mt]

My adult son and I had our best trip May 9-14.
The crowds were manageable.
We paid for genie + and ILL and never waited in line. Never started before 1 pm.
I think that’s the trick with genie+.
You have to stack for the afternoon to get the most benefit. Definitely miss FP for planning.
Stacked 5 genie+ rides at MK plus paid for SDMT.
If you are willing to pay it is worth it but it can be pricey.
It was worth it for us, but we were just 2 people so the totals didn’t get too crazy, plus we have AP so I guess it feels less expensive.
I would never wait in the lines with the insane wait times that were posted.
A LOT of hard to get adr s popped up day before.
If you are patient you can score some very difficult reservations last minute but again, we were just 2 people.
The on site hotels are outrageous.
They are definitely not worth it, but we paid anyway
That for me is the biggest and worse change!
Crazy increases staying on-site.

 

[artinlife]

I am here now and was concerned about crowds since park passes are sold out, Was expecting Christmas-like crowds or worse —— but shocked it is not turning out that way at all. There seems to less people then my last visit in October 2019. Every day we prep for the worst and it is not even close to being bad.

We are not seeing long lines, dining reservations are available, busses not full, monorail not full. It is very much the opposite of what we expected.

Rides wait time have been way off. Pirates posted as 55 minutes and we were on 22 minutes, Peter Pan posted at 35 minutes and on in 18 minutes, MMRR posted at 45 minutes and we on in 20 minutes. I have never seen the posted times so off for multiple rides.

My net - crowds will always be here but I think I let ‘doomsday reports’ of others get into my head too much prepping for this trip.

We were there starting April 23 and did MK, AK and Epcot and got in first thing every morning. We picked our favorite rides, walked on to most of them and used Lightening Lane a few times. We were out of the parks by 2:00 in the afternoon, back at our resort pool. I would say just temper your expectations, plan and hope for the best. We (mother and daughter) have been there many times so we know exactly what to do. Plan on spending a fair amount of money and try not to stress about it all... after all it is what you make of it. A lot of the magic is 'in your head' as is most everything in life. Our 'Disney' is now more about the beauty and serenity of the resort and the experience of trying out all of the wonderful restaurants throughout the World.

 

[Jrb1979]

We were there starting April 23 and did MK, AK and Epcot and got in first thing every morning. We picked our favorite rides, walked on to most of them and used Lightening Lane a few times. We were out of the parks by 2:00 in the afternoon, back at our resort pool. I would say just temper your expectations, plan and hope for the best. We (mother and daughter) have been there many times so we know exactly what to do. Plan on spending a fair amount of money and try not to stress about it all... after all it is what you make of it. A lot of the magic is 'in your head' as is most everything in life. Our 'Disney' is now more about the beauty and serenity of the resort and the experience of trying out all of the wonderful restaurants throughout the World.

That's great if you can do that. For me if I'm spending that kind of money, taking in the beauty is not worth the money.

 

[nicksinger8]

I haven't been to Disney since 2004. I went with my then girlfriend (now wife). We have two girls - aged 8 and 10. Their first visit. So glad I came back to this site. It is a massive lesson in expectation management. Seems there is a big chance we just won't be able to get on the absolute e-ticket attractions, at least without sacrificing other things. Just going to say 'every ride and experience is a treat and a bonus'. I am not going to obsesses about anything. I suppose it is slightly easier given all the changes and all that will be new for my wife and I and everything being totally new for the kids. UK theme parks are pretty average and low tech compared to Disney. I think they will be quite shocked.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

if you want to walk right on the rides, then Uni with express is what you want. At WDW you are not going to walk onto rides very often, even with the Genie Plus (I do not use Genie Plus at all). that said, personally I am not a big Uni fan with the exception of the Harry Potter areas. Unless I move down to FL I'm not doing the AP thing there.