Our June 18-22 2022 Trip Report

[KeithAndrew]

We just got back from a week and a half at WDW. Since we started planning this trip about eight months ago, we'd heard all the negatives that people have been discussing about Disney these days - how they're squeezing everyone for all they can get, the cast members aren't as friendly as they used to be, and the "guests" are now simply "visitors". In essence, we'd heard that WDW had lost its magic. We made our reservations in conjunction with our niece performing there in her high school band and actually considered cancelling our trip since hearing all the negative feedback. Our last visit had been in 2019 and we've been to WDW about 30 times since we met back in 1993.

I'm happy to report that we had an awesome time - as a matter of fact, it couldn't have been better. Every cast member was really nice and helpful, being happy to help every time we chatted with them. Several fellow guests also treated us with great respect (opening doors, talking to us about where we were from, etc) so that was very pleasant as well. We heard not a single complaint from anyone while we were there. Granted, we're no longer in the coveted 18-49 demographic so we didn't have to deal with getting reservations for RotR or any of the other popular big-ticket attractions. Also, our wait times (always standby) were always less than the posted times. I'm not saying that people who experienced problems with LL or Genie+ are wrong - we had no experience with that so we can't comment. But when it came to reasons to complain, we simply had none. We knew everything would be more expensive and decided to go anyway, so we really had no grounds to whine. Apparently others have been unaffected by the changes over the last few years, because everywhere we went was really crowded. It's possible that people are saving money by staying less days than they would have before, but wow, DS was REALLY crowded all the time.

We went to US one day of our trip with our relatives because that was the highlight of their trip. It was fine - we had no complaints, but it certainly wasn't magical as WDW is. I've always said its because they lack a central character like MM that they can lay their foundation on. I mean, the Simpsons? Really? Sorry, they simply don't carry the weight of MM. It was great for an amusement park, but it was no WDW by any stretch. I do like City Walk, and I wish Margaritaville was at DS instead of there. But hey, first-world problems, right?

If I had to register a complaint, I'd say that there seems to be a lot less resort-centric merch available at each resort. We spent two days "resort hopping", and in the past, we would always buy something that we liked at their gift shops. I'm a shirt and hat guy, and my wife loves Pandora charms. Unfortunately (er, I mean fortunately) there were many, many charms available for her, but there were very few distinct hats and shirts. Basically, it seemed that with a few exceptions, you could buy the same shirts and hats at WOD. Don't get me wrong - there were some very nice selections, but just fewer specifically related to each resort. I imagine that's a change in their marketing plan and I intend to email them about it just so I can say that I did. That may have already been mentioned here and/or you may disagree, and if that's the case, that's cool.

Anyway, we were both very pleasantly surprised because we had NONE of the negative experiences that we'd heard so much about. So all things considered, we hated leaving just like we did in the old days. Looking over the Boardwalk and soaking it all in on our last night was really bittersweet. But on the way home, we decided that we'll probably go back in September, so YAY! We already can't wait.

 

[yensid's offspring]

Awesome to hear. Going in September and was getting bummed by some of the negative Nellies

 

[Toolulu22]

We just got back from a week and a half at WDW. Since we started planning this trip about eight months ago, we'd heard all the negatives that people have been discussing about Disney these days - how they're squeezing everyone for all they can get, the cast members aren't as friendly as they used to be, and the "guests" are now simply "visitors". In essence, we'd heard that WDW had lost its magic. We made our reservations in conjunction with our niece performing there in her high school band and actually considered cancelling our trip since hearing all the negative feedback. Our last visit had been in 2019 and we've been to WDW about 30 times since we met back in 1993.

I'm happy to report that we had an awesome time - as a matter of fact, it couldn't have been better. Every cast member was really nice and helpful, being happy to help every time we chatted with them. Several fellow guests also treated us with great respect (opening doors, talking to us about where we were from, etc) so that was very pleasant as well. We heard not a single complaint from anyone while we were there. Granted, we're no longer in the coveted 18-49 demographic so we didn't have to deal with getting reservations for RotR or any of the other popular big-ticket attractions. Also, our wait times (always standby) were always less than the posted times. I'm not saying that people who experienced problems with LL or Genie+ are wrong - we had no experience with that so we can't comment. But when it came to reasons to complain, we simply had none. We knew everything would be more expensive and decided to go anyway, so we really had no grounds to whine. Apparently others have been unaffected by the changes over the last few years, because everywhere we went was really crowded. It's possible that people are saving money by staying less days than they would have before, but wow, DS was REALLY crowded all the time.

We went to US one day of our trip with our relatives because that was the highlight of their trip. It was fine - we had no complaints, but it certainly wasn't magical as WDW is. I've always said its because they lack a central character like MM that they can lay their foundation on. I mean, the Simpsons? Really? Sorry, they simply don't carry the weight of MM. It was great for an amusement park, but it was no WDW by any stretch. I do like City Walk, and I wish Margaritaville was at DS instead of there. But hey, first-world problems, right?

If I had to register a complaint, I'd say that there seems to be a lot less resort-centric merch available at each resort. We spent two days "resort hopping", and in the past, we would always buy something that we liked at their gift shops. I'm a shirt and hat guy, and my wife loves Pandora charms. Unfortunately (er, I mean fortunately) there were many, many charms available for her, but there were very few distinct hats and shirts. Basically, it seemed that with a few exceptions, you could buy the same shirts and hats at WOD. Don't get me wrong - there were some very nice selections, but just fewer specifically related to each resort. I imagine that's a change in their marketing plan and I intend to email them about it just so I can say that I did. That may have already been mentioned here and/or you may disagree, and if that's the case, that's cool.

Anyway, we were both very pleasantly surprised because we had NONE of the negative experiences that we'd heard so much about. So all things considered, we hated leaving just like we did in the old days. Looking over the Boardwalk and soaking it all in on our last night was really bittersweet. But on the way home, we decided that we'll probably go back in September, so YAY! We already can't wait.

Glad to hear. We’re a month out and have been nervous with all the negative feedback. We did reduce our stay by one night due to cost of deluxe hotel (we’d rather that than to move to a moderate). Interesting comment about merchandise. I always like the ”theme” of the various resort shops as well and will look to see if I notice that on our trip.

 

[NavyDad]

We just got back from a week and a half at WDW. Since we started planning this trip about eight months ago, we'd heard all the negatives that people have been discussing about Disney these days - how they're squeezing everyone for all they can get, the cast members aren't as friendly as they used to be, and the "guests" are now simply "visitors". In essence, we'd heard that WDW had lost its magic. We made our reservations in conjunction with our niece performing there in her high school band and actually considered cancelling our trip since hearing all the negative feedback. Our last visit had been in 2019 and we've been to WDW about 30 times since we met back in 1993.

I'm happy to report that we had an awesome time - as a matter of fact, it couldn't have been better. Every cast member was really nice and helpful, being happy to help every time we chatted with them. Several fellow guests also treated us with great respect (opening doors, talking to us about where we were from, etc) so that was very pleasant as well. We heard not a single complaint from anyone while we were there. Granted, we're no longer in the coveted 18-49 demographic so we didn't have to deal with getting reservations for RotR or any of the other popular big-ticket attractions. Also, our wait times (always standby) were always less than the posted times. I'm not saying that people who experienced problems with LL or Genie+ are wrong - we had no experience with that so we can't comment. But when it came to reasons to complain, we simply had none. We knew everything would be more expensive and decided to go anyway, so we really had no grounds to whine. Apparently others have been unaffected by the changes over the last few years, because everywhere we went was really crowded. It's possible that people are saving money by staying less days than they would have before, but wow, DS was REALLY crowded all the time.

We went to US one day of our trip with our relatives because that was the highlight of their trip. It was fine - we had no complaints, but it certainly wasn't magical as WDW is. I've always said its because they lack a central character like MM that they can lay their foundation on. I mean, the Simpsons? Really? Sorry, they simply don't carry the weight of MM. It was great for an amusement park, but it was no WDW by any stretch. I do like City Walk, and I wish Margaritaville was at DS instead of there. But hey, first-world problems, right?

If I had to register a complaint, I'd say that there seems to be a lot less resort-centric merch available at each resort. We spent two days "resort hopping", and in the past, we would always buy something that we liked at their gift shops. I'm a shirt and hat guy, and my wife loves Pandora charms. Unfortunately (er, I mean fortunately) there were many, many charms available for her, but there were very few distinct hats and shirts. Basically, it seemed that with a few exceptions, you could buy the same shirts and hats at WOD. Don't get me wrong - there were some very nice selections, but just fewer specifically related to each resort. I imagine that's a change in their marketing plan and I intend to email them about it just so I can say that I did. That may have already been mentioned here and/or you may disagree, and if that's the case, that's cool.

Anyway, we were both very pleasantly surprised because we had NONE of the negative experiences that we'd heard so much about. So all things considered, we hated leaving just like we did in the old days. Looking over the Boardwalk and soaking it all in on our last night was really bittersweet. But on the way home, we decided that we'll probably go back in September, so YAY! We already can't wait.

We were just there in April for our daughters Marching band trip.

Our experience matched yours for the most part. Went in expecting the worst because of all of these reviews on here but he had our best trip, out of many, in 10 years. The parks were clean and nice, the cast-members were all fantastic. We did use Genie+ and we loved it. We got to do every major attractions and rode more total rides than ever before with less time spent standing in line than we have ever had.

Sometimes I wonder if some of the people with negative experiences are just visiting a different place than me. Some sort of WDW evil twin or something LOL. I do think that the phenomenon of "revenge tourism" plus having to pay for things that used to be included in the price just has people in a certain state of mind. It didn't bother me at all to pay for Genie+ and honestly I'm glad you can choose to purchase it or not instead of charging everyone for it and just rolling it into the price of the tickets.

Anyway - I have been coming to these boards for almost 14 years. Every single year I come here someone is proclaiming that Disney has finally given in to greed and people will stop coming because Disney has "jumped the shark" or some such nonsense while at the same time everyone is complaining how busy the parks are and they allow to many people. It's comical.