Non Commando Mode

[dreamersempire]

I've noticed a significant change in how people are getting more frantic at WDW. It seems with the new FP+ and featured rides (and even restaurants) people are trying to maximize their experience and losing sight of the beauty of WDW. When I first went in the mid 80's you would just saunter about the parks and take in what you ran across. Sure you'd hit great rides like Horizons and come back, and it was no problem! But now you strategize months in advance and work like the dickens to get in Toy Story Mania and other busy rides. One day I was walking away from TSM and saw adults frantically making their way there to see if they could grab a ticket, that crazy look in their eyes and dodging everyone. Folks! Go catch One Mans Dream instead! There's no line for that ever, it's much more pleasant and its not worth tripping over everyone and standing in line for an hour for TSM. Which btw, thats just an OK attraction, it's not THAT great.

My last vacation to WDW my brother and I made it a point to visit hotels, just walk around and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells. I guess I'm getting older, but still, I think the atmosphere has changed from wonderment to maximizing the thrills. On a side note, when people want to bud in front of you (you know, the child moves ahead and the parent cleverly follows them) just let em go.

 

[Nancyg56]

I am not so sure it is just WDW that is experiencing a frenzy from guests. I think there are people who want to "do it all" and get their money's worth out of every vacation, and when you consider the size and scope of WDW, well...that is a lot of running! LOL!

10 years ago I fell into that trap, planning our fist trip back as a family with our DGD. Holy Crazy! We were renovating the house and there was not much I could do inside, so I put all my energy into the DIS. Oh yes, I had a plan@ I belonged to Touring Plans and Tour Guide Mike (I got a headache there and stopped) but I also was maximizing the DDP, and trying to get evey penny out of each minute of our trip. It was a once in a lifetime.

My DD tried to tell me that the plan was not going to work, there was no way to see everything. What did she know??? She may have gone there several times as a young adult, but I had the DIS! Finally DH had enough and told me that I had placed an enomous amount of responsibility on a 4 YO, and that I needed a clear back up plan becaue if she was afraid, overwhelmed, or just wanted to swim.....that was what we were going to do. And battle plan be scrapped! LOL!

Lesson learned. We have kept that mindset every trip since. We do what we do. We see what we see. We eat what we want. ( I still try not to cringe when we have the plan and my DD orders the least expensive flatbread for her meal LOL) And there is always another time so we take time to just enjoy being there. We do this every vacation, Disney or not. But we always see those frazzled and exhausted folks who are getting every experience in no matter which vacation destination we find ourselves. It is a new reality with busy people...get it all in and do not miss a thing on the planning spreadsheet. But not us.

 

[dreamersempire]

Very well said. And folks like you have proven you can still enjoy WDW in that way, without the anxiety of getting on everything every time. I just read that someone projects Epcot to be the least busy park by 2020. Fine by me, thats where I enjoy sauntering the most!

 

[loves to dive]

We just take it easy when we go, we schedule FP the night before and may or may not use them. We don't schedule ADRs until the day of, who knows what park we are going to be in the mood for the day before. The rides have never been the main attraction for us, even when my son was a little one. We just enjoyed being there. I do read up on places that we travel to if we have never been there before and if we are going diving we will research the dive sites. Even when we dive we don't go with the crowd. If we are on a boat and everyone goes right down the wall, we go left. It never fails we will come back to the boat and everyone will be saying how little they saw and will have seen tons of stuff. My DH does underwater video and I do underwater pictures so we take our time we stop and look in holes and caves. We don't cover half the ground others do but see so much more.

 

[MouseMum]

I can understand the family that wants to do as much as possible during their trip. There are folks out there who visit WDW knowing that they won't ever be back. They save and save for that ONE big trip to see what the whole world seems to be going nuts about.

I vividly remember (with wonderful nostalgia) when my father announced we would be going to Disney World! I was 14 years old. It WAS the one trip we would take, or so I thought. Dad actually would be able to take us a second time, almost a decade later. It was my university graduation trip. It was the happiest time of my life!

Over many years, I have gone to Disney 3 more times. But they have been hard worked-for! Saving, saving, saving!

With all this said, I have to admit to falling into the trap of planning the trip to death on our first family trip (DH, DSs, and DD). Thinking like my dad did, we did not think we'd be able to return for many years. We did as much as we could and we were exhausted!

As much as I can relate to those travellers who, like my family in the 80's, were the "this is the only time we will visit" family, I have a hard time processing the rudeness of some of the parents. We have come upon a few who were so involved in their "go go go!" that they failed to behave like descent human beings to others, and in front of their kids! It's one thing to be rushed, but being rude, there's no excuse.

I have to say...I feel I missed the magic in our 2014 trip. We saw a lot and did a lot more, but in 2015, after I had become Disney addicted, I made sure we slowed down and took as much in as we could...at the pace the OP mentioned.

One final comment, there are many people we might run into, who might NEVER, EVER return to the magical world of Disney. MUnless they act like idiots...we have to turn a blind eye, as they may have a valid need to rush though those attractions. Let's just enjoy our own vacations!

 

[Nancyg56]

I can understand the family that wants to do as much as possible during their trip. There are folks out there who visit WDW knowing that they won't ever be back. They save and save for that ONE big trip to see what the whole world seems to be going nuts about.

I vividly remember (with wonderful nostalgia) when my father announced we would be going to Disney World! I was 14 years old. It WAS the one trip we would take, or so I thought. Dad actually would be able to take us a second time, almost a decade later. It was my university graduation trip. It was the happiest time of my life!

Over many years, I have gone to Disney 3 more times. But they have been hard worked-for! Saving, saving, saving!

With all this said, I have to admit to falling into the trap of planning the trip to death on our first family trip (DH, DSs, and DD). Thinking like my dad did, we did not think we'd be able to return for many years. We did as much as we could and we were exhausted!

As much as I can relate to those travellers who, like my family in the 80's, were the "this is the only time we will visit" family, I have a hard time processing the rudeness of some of the parents. We have come upon a few who were so involved in their "go go go!" that they failed to behave like descent human beings to others, and in front of their kids! It's one thing to be rushed, but being rude, there's no excuse.

I have to say...I feel I missed the magic in our 2014 trip. We saw a lot and did a lot more, but in 2015, after I had become Disney addicted, I made sure we slowed down and took as much in as we could...at the pace the OP mentioned.

One final comment, there are many people we might run into, who might NEVER, EVER return to the magical world of Disney. MUnless they act like idiots...we have to turn a blind eye, as they may have a valid need to rush though those attractions. Let's just enjoy our own vacations!

When my children were young we decided to take them to WDW. It was relatively new, just MK and FW in Epcot. Oh my, we saved and saved. It was a combination FL attractions and WDW trip that was our once in a lifetime. WEll, once we got to Disney, It was a few days before NYE, we went for broke! Onc we got home I needed a vacation from my vacation, but I never thought about how that last few days of ou tip affected the kids. A few months ago I was talking to my oldest, who has yet to participate in a DIsney vacation in Disney with the rest of us, and he told me tha as a 12 YO he had hated that Disney portion f our vacation so many years ago. Eveytime we invite him, all he can envision is getting dragged fom place to place, just like when he was young. I know that I have never approached a vacation quite like that again, although as you can see from my previous post that I came close!, but my conversation with my 39 YO son just proved to me that how we behave as paent on a trip can affect our kids for years. I can not go back and change that frenzied few days in WDW, but I really am glad that as a family we don't vacation like that any more.

 

[lovethattink]

If only One Man's Dream was still there. ..

We did catch the Preview of The Good Dinosaur there. Which is really cute and I'm excited to take my son to go see it.

We've had to take it easy at the parks since 2010. There are so many hidden gems to discover when you slow down and "stop to smell the roses".

 

[MouseMum]

If only One Man's Dream was still there. ..

We did catch the Preview of The Good Dinosaur there. Which is really cute and I'm excited to take my son to go see it.

We've had to take it easy at the parks since 2010. There are so many hidden gems to discover when you slow down and "stop to smell the roses".

I was so very happy to be able to see One Man's Dream last year! It was not only the year I "slowed it down," I caught the show in its last year of running. The show is a tremendous loss to the magic of Disney.

 

[klmall]

I've noticed a significant change in how people are getting more frantic at WDW. It seems with the new FP+ and featured rides (and even restaurants) people are trying to maximize their experience and losing sight of the beauty of WDW. When I first went in the mid 80's you would just saunter about the parks and take in what you ran across. Sure you'd hit great rides like Horizons and come back, and it was no problem! But now you strategize months in advance and work like the dickens to get in Toy Story Mania and other busy rides. One day I was walking away from TSM and saw adults frantically making their way there to see if they could grab a ticket, that crazy look in their eyes and dodging everyone. Folks! Go catch One Mans Dream instead! There's no line for that ever, it's much more pleasant and its not worth tripping over everyone and standing in line for an hour for TSM. Which btw, thats just an OK attraction, it's not THAT great.

My last vacation to WDW my brother and I made it a point to visit hotels, just walk around and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells. I guess I'm getting older, but still, I think the atmosphere has changed from wonderment to maximizing the thrills. On a side note, when people want to bud in front of you (you know, the child moves ahead and the parent cleverly follows them) just let em go.

dreamersempire - I totally agree with you! I now go only every 2 or 3 years and tend to see the changes over time much as you have. My first trip was 1979 and most recent was in 2014. And the difference in attitudes of tourists (and posters to boards like the DIS) is even more obvious if you compare an average visitor to Universal to average MK visitor. Last year we immediately noticed that almost everyone at Universal's parks seemed more relaxed; more ready to just enjoy things as they encountered them. My blame is on FP+ and the lack of sufficient new attractions plus Disney's publicity campaigns and desire for the almighty $$$.