Never again.

[realhousewife]

Sadly this trip has ruined Disney for me. The chaos of Hollywood Studios RoR, claustrophobia, staff not letting us in right away even though we had scanned in at DHS tapstile, the app failing us, every good ride breaking down, total waste of money, overcrowding and over selling of tickets. Nothing magical about this trip. Total money grab for Disney execs. They are the only winners today.

 

[yorkieteacher]

I am so sad for you-Disney needs to really pay close attention to customer experience or profits will drop for the execs who don't care. Please let them know through emails. You may not feel you are listened to, but at least you will have been able to express you frustration, and if enough people do so, eventually those voices will be noticed.

 

[katallo]

So sorry to hear this. We will be there soon and I'm not sure we even want to attempt ROTR. We were hoping the mid day tickets would be available since we don't want to spend all day at the parks but no luck either. Talked last night and might try Universal or Seaworld this trip.

 

[CT Yankee]

Very unfortunate and sad. Please reach out to them via email or social media. At some point, they will have to pay attention. Guest experience is what sets Disney apart for me from other places. If that goes away, it makes it more and more difficult to justify the price.

 

[Breezy2]

Guest experience is what sets Disney apart for me from other places. If that goes away, it makes it more and more difficult to justify the price.

Unfortunately, Guest Experience at Disney has turned into whatever your own personal “tolerance” level is and “flexibility”. Disney can still be a wonderful experience as long as you realize you may not be able to get it “your way” no matter how much pre-planning you attempt to do.

 

[realhousewife]

Unfortunately, Guest Experience at Disney has turned into whatever your own personal “tolerance” level is and “flexibility”. Disney can still be a wonderful experience as long as you realize you may not be able to get it “your way” no matter how much pre-planning you attempt to do.

Yes. As long as they get your money then trust is enough. Disney was my go to vacation because it has always been a positive experience. Sadly that has changed. A LOT. If we do come again, no more extras like park hoppers and we will pack and carry ALL of our food. No more extra money for the Mouse. I don’t think this was what Walt had in mind. He would be sad to see all those babies crying at 5 am in line......

 

[realhousewife]

Unfortunately, Guest Experience at Disney has turned into whatever your own personal “tolerance” level is and “flexibility”. Disney can still be a wonderful experience as long as you realize you may not be able to get it “your way” no matter how much pre-planning you attempt to do.

Yes. As long as they get your money then trust is enough. Disney was my go to vacation because it has always been a positive experience. Sadly that has changed. A LOT. If we do come again, no more extras like park hoppers and we will pack and carry ALL of our food. No more extra money for the Mouse. I don’t think this was what Walt had in mind. He would be sad to see all those babies crying at 5 am in line......

 

[lauris87]

Sadly this trip has ruined Disney for me. The chaos of Hollywood Studios RoR, claustrophobia, staff not letting us in right away even though we had scanned in at DHS tapstile, the app failing us, every good ride breaking down, total waste of money, overcrowding and over selling of tickets. Nothing magical about this trip. Total money grab for Disney execs. They are the only winners today.

Makes me so sad to hear stories like this. That is so disappointing. I'm going with my family of 14 in June. I hope ROR has calmed down a bit by then, but I'm not sure it will be. I don't like the 'stress' factor for getting on that ride. Too much pressure. But, we will also be dissapointed if we don't ride it. It's tough.

 

[Goofyyukyukyuk17]

Did you go over Xmas/New Year’s?

 

[snappy]

We were there before Christmas and did the ROTR ride on Friday, 12.13. I did all the research I possibly could, so we woke up at 4 and walked over from BWV at 5 am. I seriously underestimated the energy it takes to stand in an endless line from 5:15 to after 6:30 am. I am glad we rode it, as we got a decent BG, but after the ride broke down, we sat waiting on the floor inside the ride queue for about an hour around 9 am. The ride was great, the lead up to riding it not so much. We were at Disney for 5 more days but there was no way we were going to repeat the “experience.” I think it might improve when Disney manages to make the ride more reliable but even if the ride doesn’t break down, competing for a boarding group on an unreliable ap with thousands of others isn’t what rings my bell.

I will say we stayed at Gran Destino tower after our nights at BWV and loved the place. We will be going back to Disney but leave what guests have to undertake to ride the latest rides to more dedicated park goers. It wasn’t worth it for us.

 

[katallo]

I have tried to read about ROTR. Am I understandingcorrectly that you have to use a park pass to enter the park before you can even add you name to a boarding group?

 

[Ben E N]

I have tried to read about ROTR. Am I understandingcorrectly that you have to use a park pass to enter the park before you can even add you name to a boarding group?

Yes. And all members of the boarding party need to do the same. I am randomly waking my children up at 3 am from time to time in order to prepare them for the experience this summer.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I have tried to read about ROTR. Am I understandingcorrectly that you have to use a park pass to enter the park before you can even add you name to a boarding group?

Correct - everyone attempting to ride needs to be in the park and then at the official park opening time (they let people in 30 mins ahead of time or so) you get on the app and attempt to join a Boarding Group. The regular groups are full in about 90 secs and the back up groups can last about an hour to join. Once you join you will find out what boarding group you have and wait for it to be called

 

[SaintsManiac]

I hear you, OP. I need a break. The shine started to wear off on our last trip, but I feel that was my own fault. We went too many times in the past couple of years. I'll be sad when our APs expire, but I cannot justify the cost anymore.

 

[katallo]

Thanks for the quick replies. I think we will skip it. DHS has never been our favorite park but the thought of using a ticket for this ride and then not being able to do it.... Hopefully, one day there will be a better system. At least with FP you know prior to going in if you will get to ride.

 

[loves to dive]

Sorry to hear you had a bad trip and worse yet that the magic has worn off for you. We go often, and have been going since "the good days" when the customer service was a little better and the parks not so crowded. It is still our favorite place to go, and since we have been going for so long and so often, if we don't ride a ride, it's no big deal. Rides have never been our main focus, even when we first started going and there were only two parks. My son was just shy of 3 when we started going and it was just a magical place for him. Now he's a grown adult but we still love it.

I think it helps that rides aren't our focus, yes we ride rides but that's not our main reason for going. We also really don't mind waiting in line, again since we have been going for so long, there was no such thing as FP when we started so if you wanted to ride a ride, you waited in line. We are going on the 20th of this month for 5 nights and I haven't booked a single FP and probably won't. We don't plan out our days, we might book at FP while on the way to a park in the morning or while standing in line for a ride but never more than one in advance and never more than a hour away. We just don't like being pinned down to plans, we book our ADRs in the afternoon while walking around the parks.

We are scuba divers, which is an expensive hobby so WDW is actually the least expensive place we can go.

 

[CaptainJack4077913]

One thing I would recommend is writing a letter. Generally they pay more attention to letters since you must really care to sit down and write a letter. Also, it just depends on what time of the year you visit. Sometimes it's just going to be more busy.

 

[realhousewife]

So sorry to hear this. We will be there soon and I'm not sure we even want to attempt ROTR. We were hoping the mid day tickets would be available since we don't want to spend all day at the parks but no luck either. Talked last night and might try Universal or Seaworld this trip.

We got what we thought was a last ditch boarding group, but today they did well and we got on it. It is the most impressive ride experience I have ever had. They need more capacity, but it is a winner. And they need to figure out a way to make riding it easier. Not sure I would get up at 4:30 am ever again for it.

 

[realhousewife]

Did you go over Xmas/New Year’s?

Jan 3-5. My child’s high school marching band was performing so we decided to come down. I would never recommend this time of year to anyone for any reason. Not fun.

 

[realhousewife]

Makes me so sad to hear stories like this. That is so disappointing. I'm going with my family of 14 in June. I hope ROR has calmed down a bit by then, but I'm not sure it will be. I don't like the 'stress' factor for getting on that ride. Too much pressure. But, we will also be dissapointed if we don't ride it. It's tough.

I hope and pray they figure out a new way to get a boarding group. It is an excellent ride but the most stressful thing I have ever had to do to be at a theme park.