Millennials and Disney

[Disneyfan754321]

I was reading that the reason they need to change up fast pass is that millennials want a more spur of the moment vacation and like care free vacations.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

We are experiencing that now, we invited our ds24, ds25 and 23DD in law to Disney with us.
6m ago told them about the rooms packages, fp60 days and how important it was. Now we are 20 days out they still don't have tickets and there are few to none fp. They just like to buy there tickets at the door in case something changes. I dont mind myself, just thought it interesting that Disney was so right.

 

[ejgonz2]

My youngest brother (big age gap) is 27 and I booked everything for him and can't get him to even chat on the phone about basics (what magic bands are, magical express, dining credits, etc). We leave in 2 weeks. I could totally see that, is there an article about this?

I'm not just 15 years older, I'm also a project manager in my career, so planning and mapping out are my comfort food, haha.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

My youngest brother (big age gap) is 27 and I booked everything for him and can't get him to even chat on the phone about basics (what magic bands are, magical express, dining credits, etc). We leave in 2 weeks. I could totally see that, is there an article about this?

I'm not just 15 years older, I'm also a project manager in my career, so planning and mapping out are my comfort food, haha.

I wish i had what i was reading last night, but my history is too full of Disney to find it... im glad im not alone we are the same age i get you.

 

[Jetku]

I’m a 33yo millennial and LOVE the planning. I hope they don’t radically change it.
I’m very much of the mindset that putting in work ahead of time is worth it to get what you want. Many millennials though prefer instant gratification, so I can see a shift towards something like Max Pass. Ugh. I have no problem with that system, but if I’m paying as much as I do for Disney trips, I want to have a solid plan in advance.

The ROTR boarding groups were such a headache for me. Honestly no, I don’t want to be on equal footing to all the people that didn’t plan. I had a set of fastpasses and meals for the day. I don’t want to be at the whim of an unreliable app and Disney transportation. I didn’t want to (but I did) take an Uber to HS when the AKL bus had no time for HS.

Thankfully I practiced with my wife, and she excellently got us the 5th group of that day! But sheesh.

 

[Farro]

We are experiencing that now, we invited our ds24, ds25 and 23DD in law to Disney with us.
6m ago told them about the rooms packages, fp60 days and how important it was. Now we are 20 days out they still don't have tickets and there are few to none fp. They just like to buy there tickets at the door in case something changes. I dont mind myself, just thought it interesting that Disney was so right.

When I was 23 I wouldn't have cared about making fast passes either (and none of my friends would have either). I don't think being a "millennial" has anything to do with it.

I'm now 46.

I wonder if there would have been a thread about how Gen X-ers wanted to tour Disney....

 

[firefly_ris]

Millennials spans a fairly wide range; I don't have a huge ton in common with people ten years younger than me right now.

I don't mind planning ahead. But I do appreciate some level of flexibility if things change. So I don't mind FPs because they can be modified.

 

[SaintsManiac]

When I was 23 I wouldn't have cared about making fast passes either (and none of my friends would have either). I don't think being a "millennial" has anything to do with it.

I'm now 46.

Thank you. I was about to post the same. I had a coworker who was 26 and wouldn't book flights or hotels until 2-3 weeks before a trip. It drove me crazy. Seriously doubt it's because he's a "millennial."

 

[bethannie203]

I’m 27, but I’m an “old soul” in many ways. My husband, also Disney fanatic, is 34. We’re both ultra-planners when it comes to our Disney vacations, but when we actually get there we prefer some flexibility, and honestly, we wish we didn’t HAVE to be so preplanned. We like sticking to our plan at least loosely to get the most attractions in with the least amount of waiting in lines, but that’s because it seems necessary to do for a WDW vacay to maximize your time.

Planning Disney trips (or any vacation) is fun for us, but we both agree that we don’t like having to “stress” over getting up at the crack of dawn 6 months in advance to make ADRs and to know where we are going to eat at what time of day, and then hope and pray our fast passes at 60 days out will magically fall into place around the dining reservations.

I think one reason we both thoroughly enjoyed our trip to DLR so much is because it was so much less stressful than planning a trip to WDW. We loved MaxPass and being able to just do things (headliners, not just the walk-on attractions) on a whim! It really did feel carefree compared to a WDW trip where you feel So regimented by a schedule.

I don’t want to generalize all millennials, but perhaps it’s not so much that we don’t like planning; it’s that we simply take more trips, more often, (childless millennials here who love to travel!) and for a WDW trip, if we decide a month or a couple of weeks in advance to go, well, we likely just missed out on a lot of good dining reservations and fast passes.At WDW that can significantly affect your trip. Of course WDW is fun no matter how long you have to plan, but it’s not a place we go on a whim, because of the factors I just mentioned.

 

[tzvdmd]

Like going to Disney used to be?

 

[Meglen]

I'm 33 idk if I'm a millennial or not but I'm a planner. I think it's just person to person. I know older folks who hate to plan that far out. To me it gives comfort knowing what I'm doing everyday.

 

[loves to dive]

Not sure any age group does or doesn't like to plan. I'm a "baby boomer" and my son is 39 (not sure what that's called) and we don't plan. Never have. We rarely book an ADR in advance, just day of while walking around. We rarely book a FP in advance, just day of while on the way to whatever park we decided to go to that day. If we have decided the night before I'll look to see what's available, but sometimes even then I don't book them. We don't mind standing in line, which is where I tend to book the next one and we never book the next one any further out than 45 min.

 

[Kestryl]

Reminder that a “millennial” per the Pew Research Center was born between 1981 to 1996- so a millennial is 24 to 39 years old.

There’s a difference between a millennial and just someone who is younger.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

I am a millennial with 2 children, 3 & 5. I have been going to WDW regularly since I was born, and the kids have been there 4 & 5 times.

I prefer spur of the moment plans because we base so much of our day on how everyone is feeling. We like to eat when the kids are hungry, so we only book a couple ADRs ahead of time. We do lots of last minute ADRs. On this recent trip, we booked a 1:00pm Tutto Italia lunch at 12:45pm. We booked 2 last minute TS dinners too.

I do not like Animal Kingdom in the rain. Back in the day, we could check the weather for the next day and decide it was our AK day! But now with FP planned so far ahead in advance, it’s hard to have much freedom in shifting things around without giving something valuable up (like a popular FP.)

I am torn on MaxPass vs. pre-booking 3. With MaxPass, we would have more flexibility with our park days. But with the current system, I do appreciate knowing we have FP for Slinky, FOP, etc ahead of time - I just don’t like that it makes me commit to a park, and if we want to change, we’d have to give something up.

Part of it also is that our daily life at home is so structured and scheduled that on vacation, I like to go where the spirit moves us It is also how we used to vacation at WDW growing up - we only made ADRs during the trip! And sometimes we just hopped on whatever park bus arrived at the resort first that morning. Those were the days.

I’m conflicted

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

When I was 23 I wouldn't have cared about making fast passes either (and none of my friends would have either). I don't think being a "millennial" has anything to do with it.

I'm now 46.

I wonder if there would have been a thread about how Gen X-ers wanted to tour Disney....

Yep. Many of my vacations during my early/mid 20s had almost nothing planned in advance... just a flight and a place to stay.

These days (now 36) we have everything booked months in advance and check the boxes on advanced reservations as early as we can. I'm still kicking myself because I missed the window for our cruise reservations by a few weeks and we didn't get the prime picks on the free shows.

 

[LSUmiss]

Is there real talk of changing the system??

 

[KenHutch]

Well I did not start parenthood until I was 40 so now I have a 19 year old daughter and I am 59. My daughter has come to a compromise on this. I am an IT Specialist by job and love a complete plan. She tells me where she like to eat, I know her favorite rides so she just leaves everything to me. She claims that I enjoy the planning as much as the vacation (semi true).

 

[_19disnA]

I was reading that the reason they need to change up fast pass is that millennials want a more spur of the moment vacation and like care free vacations.

One thing the internet has made easier is for someone to write an article expressing any number opinions on a subject. I don't think wanting a 'care free' vacation is limited to a specific age group and depends more on what you like to do on vacation. Even when someone has supposedly done a study or some analysis, they often seem to have a set conclusion in mind and simply look for data that supports their opinion.

Since you can only pre-reserve 3 Fastpasses per day, I don't think changing that is going to have any big impact on the huge crowds at the parks. Rides have a max capacity and if there are huge crowds in the park, the issue of long wait times isn't going to be solved by changing how Fastpass works.

 

[babiipiggiex3]

I am a millennial while my husband prefers to consider himself a gen-x (even though he's really a millennial too). I do the plannings for all our trips, he is not a planner at all. We prefer to not have to stick by the schedules when we do vacations. However, I will always have a list of must do things that are scheduled and the rest of the day is pretty much opened based on how we are feeling at that moment. This rule applies to our WDW trips too! I make the FP+ based on what we feel is a MUST for rides, and then go on whatever else pops up afterwards. This did work out for us on our past trip last Dec. We didn't have any dining reservations and had such a blast just popping into random places for food whenever we felt like it.