Tell Me Something Good!!

[tentaguasu]

We just got back from a 2-week trip the day before yesterday. We had a blast.

If you're a twice-a-year or more visitor or perhaps a "luxury" visitor, you probably have very different expectations and such.

But for your average Disney World visitor, I thought the experience was largely the same as always - really, really fun.

If anything, I'd say guest behavior, overall, is worse. Not terrible or anything, but a bit less "nice" than before, IMO.

But that's nitpicking. I'm going to do a more comprehensive write up sometime soon, but overall, I'd say the complaining is, if justified in some ways, far over the top, IMO.

 

[Emilie988]

I’m here right now. Genie+ has been a bit of a learning curve but nowhere near as bad as I had feared.

My resort ( Port Orleans) is beautiful as always and my room is clean and comfortable.

Every single cast member I’ve interacted with has been nice and many of them have been downright awesome.

I’m headed to Hollywood Studios today and we slept in because we could. Going to ride Rise of the Resistance for the first time today and have a breakfast drink at Oga‘s ( found that reservation this morning!)

I am here with my son who is 18 and off to University in the Fall. We have been coming here since the kids were small and it’s a special place for our family. I was worried the magic was gone. It’s not perfect because nothing is. But the magic is definitely still here.

Any tips for Genie Plus? We are only going for two days so I'm nervous because it will be our first time using it. I hate to spend all of our time trying to figure out the app.

 

[k5xs]

I've been scrolling the boards, following a lot of Disney Bloggers and the general consensus seems to be everyone hates everything about WDW, the buses are slow, the service sucks, the food is awful, the lines are too long, the sun is too bright...

someone tell me about something that made you smile at WDW!!

I see some criticisms of things at WDW, much of it seemingly earned. But what in the world leads you to think "everyone hates everything about WDW"?

I don't hate anything about WDW.

 

[DisneyMama811]

I see some criticisms of things at WDW, much of it seemingly earned. But what in the world leads you to think "everyone hates everything about WDW."

I don't hate anything about WDW.

obviously I wasn't being literal .... "everything" is a broad concept and as I said that impression is based largely on things I have read on these boards and several other disney news sites

 

[Smugpugmug]

I was at WDW from May 7-15. I had a blast despite a few negatives - some bus wait times weren't great and minor issues with the room such as the room key reader not working properly but these things did not ruin my trip. There were a lot more positives than negatives overall. Some highlights include:

- AKL is a gorgeous resort! Having a savannah view was incredible. Sitting on the balcony with a coffee and watching the savannah was great. The pool was also super quiet at night so doing a night swim was peaceful and relaxing.
- It was crowded with high waits for the popular rides but I never waited more than 15 minutes for anything using Genie+/ILL, early entry and taking afternoon breaks to come back to the parks later at night.
- Food was better than my last trip in Feb. I ate at Jiko for the first time and it was my favorite meal of the trip.
- Cast Members were very friendly and helpful overall
- The return of character interactions was great. I never realized how much I missed them until now. I didn't do any character dining or anything but I did get some hugs and pictures.
- Being able to preview the Guardians coaster was awesome! It's a super fun coaster.

 

[k5xs]

obviously I wasn't being literal .... "everything" is a broad concept and as I said that impression is based largely on things I have read on these boards and several other disney news sites

I think browsing the boards is pretty much like visiting WDW. If you are looking for negative things, you'll probably find some.

I have been openly critical of several changes at WDW, including FP+ being replaced by the up-charged G+ and ILLs, the park reservation system, the need to be on your phone so much to make things work, the loss of DME, charge-for-parking at the resorts, the infusion of so much Disney intellectual property into EPCOT, the gawd-awful Harmonious structures destroying the sightline in the International Showcase, and so on.

But at the same time, DW and I have made three visits in the past six months, and we've enjoyed ourselves immensely, and I've posted positively about those experiences.

I think most people post a balanced view of things.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We are all just here wishing for the good old days when Disney didn't...well...enjoy your trip.

 

[nw6675]

While we had our fair share of negatives (including coming home with covid), here are some of our highlights and we are already planning our next trip -

- YC CL was fan-tastic! Love the people, the smell, the layout, just everything about the hotel
- Best mousekeeper ever. She was AWESOME
- Genie +/ILL, we only did standby a couple of times for less than 30 mins, stacked afternoons perfectly
- Beaches and Cream, the best TS we had all week food and service wise. Ate there twice

 

[Gabby01]

Nice!

Our waitress at Oga's a had a pretty good intro line of something like "No blasters, no rifles, no fightin', etc..." that went on pretty long. When she came back and had a moment, we got her to clarify her line again and noticed she didn't say no thermal detonators which we asked about. Pretty good crowed interaction there. Haven't tried the Jedi Mind Trick, but we all had the Fuzzy Tauntaun which is a fun drink to get (makes your lips and tongue numb).

Haha, I see you’re a troublemaker!

The Jedi Mind Trick is good, it basically tastes like grapefruit. I also like the Fuzzy Tauntaun but my favorite so far is the Bespin Fizz.

 

[pigletto]

Any tips for Genie Plus? We are only going for two days so I'm nervous because it will be our first time using it. I hate to spend all of our time trying to figure out the app.

I joined a Facebook group that has been great for tips and tricks and people have been overwhelmingly positive with their reviews. There was always someone to answer questions.

It‘s called “Genie, Genie+ and Lightening Lane Tips and Tricks.”

 

[Jennasis]

Ooh ooh! Another something good...we did NOT come home with Covid. We wore our masks in any crowd whether indoors or outside, always wore them indoors and on transportation, and washed our hands like surgeons scrubbing in frequently. I'm still amazed we dodged it, but definitely a positive (being negative LOL).

 

[pfeifer1990]

I went in with low expectations. Hadn't been since June 2000.
We just got back. 6 days in the parks using Genie+ and ILL, Park hoppers and took advantage of early mornings, staying at POFQ.
I Was pleasantly surprised. We had only one bad experience with the buses the rest of the time the wait times weren't bad at all.
The food was very good every place we ate.
The parks were busy but not outrageously so. The big rides had long waits but we used Genie+ and ILL to avoid those.
Our plan of action was ride early in the morning before the lines got long and stack for the evening which worked great.
It was hot and humid and rained in the evenings 3 of the days we were there but we went back to our resort in the afternoon to beat the heat of the day.
The parks don't get really crowded until 11-noon.
Cast members were great. We said thank you to every cast we encountered because there jobs aren't easy!
My biggest piece of advice is if you see something in the shops you want get it. I saw a tikki bird rain coat and thought I'd grab it our last night at MK but it was pouring rain and we just wanted to get to the bus.
Went to Disney Springs on our fly out day and couldn't find it. Lesson learned.
In a nutshellf (in my opinion) it still is the most magical place on earth.

 

[JBelle19]

We are going in July. I've read so much negativity but I will not let it get to me. I know it will be hot, I know it will be crowded, but you know what? I will be in Disney World! I haven't been in 7 years and my DDs don't really remember their previous two trips so I'm excited for them to go back.

I get to go to every park, including a water park. I get to stay at a Deluxe for the first time. I get to eat in Space, with some characters, and have a drink in a Galaxy far far away. I will have a good time no matter what!

 

[farfaraway]

We just got back from our trip last week. We knew it was going to be hot and possibly crowded. Cast members were overall really polite and helpful. We also utilized mobile ordering and it didn't take long at all to get our food. MK and HS gets extremely busy about 9:30-10:00. We were able to utilize early morning hours to get headliner rides done before it got busy. We also noticed lines got shorter at the end of the day. WE never had issues with line cutters. Most people were friendly and courteous. We had a blast!

 

[NickC]

We were pleasantly surprised by the food. It seems that all of our favorite restaurants around here have gone down hill, so we were nervous about the food quality at WDW. It turned out that we had quite a few great meals.The biggest surprise for me was the cheeseburger at Sci-Fi. It was delicious.

 

[DisneyMama811]

We were pleasantly surprised by the food. It seems that all of our favorite restaurants around here have gone down hill, so we were nervous about the food quality at WDW. It turned out that we had quite a few great meals.The biggest surprise for me was the cheeseburger at Sci-Fi. It was delicious.

im actually looking forward to the food, I haven't been since 2011 when the menu of literally every Quick Service restaurant was burger, cheeseburger, chicken strips.

 

[mistysue]

Got home yesterday, went as a family of 4, plus another family of 4 (first trippers) plus my daughter and her friend on a separate HS graduation trip coming back today. (So 4 - 10 people on various days)

We let ourselves sleep in for the first trip EVER and with genie+ still did everything in the plan! Plus we took little breaks, didn't have to close out the parks to do it, had great food, and got to see my neice turn 3 eating at the same restaurant I turned 40! Which I love extra because they live across the country.

There was rain but it was Disney rain, it was hot and humid and that meant getting sprayed with water and swimming was fun. It was crowded at times, but it was great for people watching.

Our jungle cruise skipper rocked, and the TTA didn't break down while we rode it in the pouring rain watching people scatter below.

My daughter seemed to do everything "wrong" by our engrained park touring rules and still is leaving pleased.

Busses seemed to be running well, a couple of times we were in a pinch and got concerned so we took a lift but in retrospect it seems like if we hadn't we still would have been fine anyway.

Awesome beautiful new pink 50th t-shirt for me and main street electric parade purse.

My husband found a beer at one of the EPCOT booth I actually liked!

We saw a couple of super grouchy other guests, But honestly, they were so bad that we all continued with the rest of our trip joking about it to ourselves. Like the weird lady who blocked half the monorail car with her stroller and then sat glaring at all the people who wanted to try to get past her stroller to sit in the seats. It was too ridiculous to even be mad at her. I won't share the details of the mom yelling at her child that we spent the rest of the trip semi mocking to break tension when we got annoyed with our kids, as it would be mortifying if someone read their own story and it was clearly a bad moment. But we got a solid week of one thing to say when mad at a child that makes everyone laugh and go along with the plan.