Trip Report from this past week and I just fell out of love with Disney

[DeeCee735]

Trip report for both BWV and parks:
Travel party - Myself, husband, daughter, son-in-law, 2 toddler grandkids, son and daughter-in-law
Focus: Grandbabes & Star Wars Land for son-in-law.

I'll start with the good, I loved Disney for a long time, so good first.

A shout out to Gerald at the BWV who assigned our rooms. Thank you for paying attention to all three of my requests! Being this was a family trip including a 2 bedroom lockoff and a studio and the toddlers, I had requested close to lobby, lower floor and especially close to each other. Gerald arranged for all three and while room 2059 is the noisiest room in the resort (nothing to do with Gerald or the job well done he did for us), the proximity to each other was perfect and came in very handy when the stomach virus hit 4 of us at different times!

A huge thank you to Cindy and Jimmy, on call managers at the BWV, for everything they've done to help us with anything and everything we needed when the babes, my daughter and myself got sick. How horrible an experience that virus was!! Thankfully it hit the night before check out for my daughter and her son and then myself the morning of check out. My granddaughter had it earlier in the week but only for a few hours.

Cindy did everything she could and kept me in my room an extra night because I couldn't get out of the bed, except for getting sick that was, and both Cindy and Jimmy worked with me to cancel an upcoming trip (on borrowed points-returning leftover points to original use year) to access points to use for the extra night stay so desperately needed. They sent housekeeping to disinfect, with extra towels, paper towels, tissues, blankets, and anything else we needed. They offered to send medical assistance and called to check in multiple times. I cannot say enough about how well we were taken care of.

Justin, from Clarksville, (don't remember the state, maybe Ohio) at Guest Services in DHS. While the experience in that park was a complete wreck, Justin was great! He helped straighten out a few things gone amiss on the app for my son-in-law with a couple of extra fast passes thrown in (not for the most popular rides) for the enormous inconveniences we dealt with at DHS for over a day! And, he did it with a smile, patience and grace. Thank you Justin!

Now for the not so good.
We had a family trip from Saturday February 15 to Wednesday, February 19th, 2020. We are DVC members since 2000 and have been bringing our children since 1996. Now we have grandchildren (two toddlers) and have hoped to continue our wonderful Disney vacations with them.

Unfortunately, the park experiences of this week have forced us into the decision of staying away from Disney parks for years to come. Not the resorts, but my husband and I are done with the parks and my kids aren't looking to go back for years.

For the last couple of trips (November 2019/February 2019)I saw how much the parks have changed and how much Disney has changed regarding it's guest satisfaction. However, this past week's family trip has solidified just how bad it's gotten.

What Disney falls miserably short in is managing the crowd levels in the parks. I don't think they care to even bother trying to manage the crowds. In fact, I think its just the opposite. Disney now charges top dollar to enter the parks, closes them early a few nights a week for "special ticketed events", charging just about the same as a full day park pass for these special events, and ultimately "double dips" in bringing thousands more visitors to the parks each day. For what purpose? Not the purpose of guest satisfaction, certainly not the purpose of a "magical" visitor experience, no, not at all. For the purpose of making more money.

It used to be a place for children of all ages. Now, bringing little ones to the parks is NOT a good idea. The parks are over crowded, the wait times, even for the little ones rides, are too long for children to tolerate. They are overwhelmed and uncomfortable, as are the adults with 175 minute wait times for rides such as Kilimanjaro Safari. What?!!! We shouldn't have to "tolerate" anything with the money we pay to be there. We should pay for our vacations and enjoy them as we see fit.

Rise of the Resistance? Yes, we agreed to rise at dawn, get to the park before opening, tap into the park, open the app (sound ridiculous yet? because it is), and hit join boarding group at 8:00 on the button. Two of us got into a boarding group, two of us didn't - app glitch, of course. It was called at 8 p.m. We ran back into the park and waited a bit on line. Just got into the ride and..... it broke down. Here you go people, everyone out. Here's a "free" fast pass, return tomorrow. My SIL had a three day, one park a day pass that expired this trip. First day was used to get into DHS that day. Next day was for Epcot, day after MK. No worries, he was told he will be issued a one day entrance ticket to HS to come back tomorrow and use the FP to get onto ROTR. Okay, great, thanks.

Next morning, back into HS, after rearranging (and losing some of our plans) our EPCOT day with the family. We arrive at the ride only to find out it just broke down again. Then SIL realizes that the one day entrance ticket wasn't used, but his three day expiring pass was instead. We tell the CM at the ride and they direct us to a Guest Services queue at the ride. We wait 20 minutes to speak to this CM at this Guest Services (not an actual guest services - it was set up at ROTR specifically for this ride), and she tells us she cannot help us with her ipad, that we need to go over to Guest Services at the beginning of the park, where they have computer terminals. We head over there, another hour spent waiting to fix the glitch with a promise that we won't have a problem with it being fixed. We could have done something else in the park during that time. Disney promotes ROTR as an amazing ride, or should I say an amazing broken ride? They need to come through on what they sell. Ride isn't ready to be opened.

Disney is a place I used to love emphatically. So much so, that all who know me wouldn't even consider taking a trip here without talking to me, the Disney "expert". I've taken just about everyone I love there and have done so for years.

I just fell completely out of love with Disney and Universal is looking fantastic. The last three trips piled up, and this past trip killed it. We can't walk through the parks and enjoy the atmosphere, or stand on the lines without actual pain with ridiculous hour and a half long waits (or longer). Who would want to? Not me, not us, not anymore.
Disney - get it together. You've lost focus. It's all about money now, where's the magic in that?

 

[La2kw]

It's always a bit disappointing when you realize that Disney isn't what it used to be. We are DVC owners since 1999 and haven't been to WDW in years. Booking restaurants 6 months out and ride reservations 3 months out (or whatever it is now) is just ludicrous. The service has definitely gotten worse and many of the restaurants we used to love are either turned into character meals (CRT, Akershus, etc) or have become so bland and boring thanks to the dining plan. I feel your pain.

If we want an amusement park, we go to Disneyland or Universal. If you go to Universal Orlando and stay at one of the Loews hotels, you will be shocked that you accepted what Disney calls "service" for so long. Stay at one of their deluxe hotels and you will receive unlimited express passes and you will be disgusted you put up with Disney's Fastpass system for so long.

We will go back to WDW eventually, but we are in no rush.

 

[DeeCee735]

Thanks. Looking into Universal for future.
Dee

 

[maxiesmom]

Sorry you had problems with ROTR. My brother in law is just back from the parks, and it took him 90 minutes to ride--it went down when he was on it. No thanks! Disney should have someone right there to fix things, as many problems as that ride is having, and they know it is having them.

But it wasn't the week to go if you were thinking the park would be just average, crowd-wise. Many schools were out for break, and President's Day week is always busy. I wouldn't complain about that to Disney, they will just ignore you. I would complain about how they are handling the ride break downs.

 

[RanDIZ]

Totally agree with crowd control. It will only get worse. They continue to build these tower resorts but fail to adequately expand any parks. They need to stop building resorts and focus on a new park to balance out some of the crowd issues.

All they care about is money. Walt is definitely turning over in his grave right now. And as long as everyone keeps putting up with this BS, there’s no reason to change a thing. They seem to forget if it weren’t for us, there’d be no Disney. If WDW closed tomorrow, life would still go on for the millions that vacation there each year. Although, it’d be sad to see 70k employees lose their jobs. Disney needs to start taking care of the people that put them on the map.

 

[DeeCee735]

Sorry you had problems with ROTR. My brother in law is just back from the parks, and it took him 90 minutes to ride--it went down when he was on it. No thanks! Disney should have someone right there to fix things, as many problems as that ride is having, and they know it is having them.

But it wasn't the week to go if you were thinking the park would be just average, crowd-wise. Many schools were out for break, and President's Day week is always busy. I wouldn't complain about that to Disney, they will just ignore you. I would complain about how they are handling the ride break downs.

We are from the NE so our schools are closed this past week too, which is when we've gone every year for the last 24 years. I've never seen it this crowded this week, never. I've also been there in November - mid November, every year for years, and this past November the parks were packed as well, like I've never seen in previous years. I expected busy. I did not expect 175 minute waits for a ride like Kilimanjaro Safari. My cousins daughter was there this past week, she waited 3 hours and 15 minutes to ride FOP. Really? Half AKP could be done in 3 hours some years back. It's ridiculous.

Also, most people go to Disney with kids, school age kids. I work for a school. My daughter is a teacher. School vacations are the times when families can visit. Being in the parks during these times has actually become a waste of time, very expensive, precious family vacation time.

 

[n2mm]

We feel pretty much the same. We normally spend days at the pool now and wonder why we get our APs. We stopped going to the Studios after the change in FP. We couldn’t deal with a park charging full price for a park while it was under construction. We are also universal passholders. we often take advantage of their passholder room discounts. everytime I see Disney building something new, I feel it in my pocketbook. We pay for all the new attractions and they rake in the $$$ for the attraction. One thing that gets us is the price of sodas/tea during meals. Sounds petty of us, but $4.69 for a glass of ice tea.....wow.....we still dine out a couple times on our trips, but we now all get water. Saves us $30 off our bill for our family of 6. And probably a better choice. We don’t like the direction the industry is going towards. I tell people I took my Disney glasses off a long time ago. The love isn’t there. We enjoy cruising more now. We just stay at our dvc before and after cruises now. im sorry to read about your illness. I experience a noro-style in November and it was the worse thing ever, and was on a cruise. Lost 5 pounds and never left my cabin, except for housekeeping.

 

[DeeCee735]

We were just talking about what we're going to do with our DVC. . The resorts are still great. We just can't handle the parks anymore, and don't want to.
My husband thinks we should rent every year, or sell. I'm not ready for selling and my adult kids don't want me to jump to that decision. My son and daughter in law had a great trip. They don't have kids and did what they wanted when they wanted and it worked out for them. Plus they didn't get sick, so that's always a plus. My daughter's kids are babies yet, so she isn't giving up -although she's not going back for a long time.
I'm thinking rent or resorts only for the next couple of years or so. Then decide.

We are also discussing Universal. Renting points out and using the money to stay on property there. We'll see. Our next vacations are Marriott vacation club resorts. We love them and are looking forward to a very relaxing vacation, especially after this past week.

Dee

 

[loves to dive]

Sorry you had such a disappointing trip and ugggh, being sick sucks. I agree that it's not what it used to be but let me play devil's advocate for a minute. We travel to a lot of places, all over the world and I can say I've found very few places that are what they used to be. For example, one of my favorite places to visit is Jekyll Island here in Georgia. I always stay at the Club, which is it's own little isolated world. It's not cheap, one of the reasons I actually started going to WDW more often was I could actually go there for less than I could go to the Club for the same amount of time. Anyway, when I first started going to the Club you got what you paid for, excellent service, attention to every detail. If you took the tram tour to visit the houses you went into every single house that had been opened. Now, you go into two or three, thankfully not always the same two or three but you would have to go at different times on multiple trips to get to see and go into the same ones you used to get to do in one trip. While the service is still fairly good, it's not what it used to be and I've easily paid more for a sandwich and chips then I do for a QS at Disney. Moving on to my second favorite place to visit, Amelia Island in Florida. I use to stay in what was called The Plantation, again a sort of isolated little town of it's own. They have their own beach, chairs and umbrellas were provided for free. Service was excellent. They were bought out (I think they are Omni now) and have built condos on the beach. So you want a chair and umbrella, certainly, that will be x per day and you can't make reservations, you have to get up early in the morning and go down to the beach and get one. That beach is twice a crowded now because of the condos and forget getting a spot at the pool. You could just go to one of the restaurants without reservations, not any more and last time I priced it out, you guessed it, it was cheaper to go to WDW for the same time period and the same amount of days.

So has the service gotten a little less than it was at WDW, certainly. Are the parks more crowded then they used to be, certainly. Is it more expensive certainly. But, that can be said for just about everywhere so you really just have to pick your level of frustration.

 

[DeeCee735]

Sorry you had such a disappointing trip and ugggh, being sick sucks. I agree that it's not what it used to be but let me play devil's advocate for a minute. We travel to a lot of places, all over the world and I can say I've found very few places that are what they used to be. For example, one of my favorite places to visit is Jekyll Island here in Georgia. I always stay at the Club, which is it's own little isolated world. It's not cheap, one of the reasons I actually started going to WDW more often was I could actually go there for less than I could go to the Club for the same amount of time. Anyway, when I first started going to the Club you got what you paid for, excellent service, attention to every detail. If you took the tram tour to visit the houses you went into every single house that had been opened. Now, you go into two or three, thankfully not always the same two or three but you would have to go at different times on multiple trips to get to see and go into the same ones you used to get to do in one trip. While the service is still fairly good, it's not what it used to be and I've easily paid more for a sandwich and chips then I do for a QS at Disney. Moving on to my second favorite place to visit, Amelia Island in Florida. I use to stay in what was called The Plantation, again a sort of isolated little town of it's own. They have their own beach, chairs and umbrellas were provided for free. Service was excellent. They were bought out (I think they are Omni now) and have built condos on the beach. So you want a chair and umbrella, certainly, that will be x per day and you can't make reservations, you have to get up early in the morning and go down to the beach and get one. That beach is twice a crowded now because of the condos and forget getting a spot at the pool. You could just go to one of the restaurants without reservations, not any more and last time I priced it out, you guessed it, it was cheaper to go to WDW for the same time period and the same amount of days.

So has the service gotten a little less than it was at WDW, certainly. Are the parks more crowded then they used to be, certainly. Is it more expensive certainly. But, that can be said for just about everywhere so you really just have to pick your level of frustration.

Yes, I see it too in some places. I especially see it in the traffic here at home during summer. We can’t get out East (Long Island, NY) on a Friday in the summer so easy anymore. It’s become crazy congested to get out to Montauk or the North Fork. More like we have to leave on a Wednesday night now! Thursdays are no picnic either. Worlds getting busy, my frustration level with Disney has maxed out. I’m staying out of the parks for a good long while and focusing more on relaxing on vacation. We’re talking about what to do next year.
I’m always open to suggestions !
Thanks for “listening” everyone!

Dee

 

[Dizzydizney]

I’m so sorry you had this bad experience. But was glad to see that the staff at BWV was good! Totally agree with you. We’ve been members a long time and find that the CMs there are always helpful and friendly.

I’m not surprised that you had such an awful experience at HS. I don’t get this whole “boarding pass” thing. I guess since their IT is so lacking they were afraid to use the fast pass system....would have crashed it for certain. We recently returned from a trip and had decided ahead of time that we were not even going to attempt to get on RoTR. We did skyliner over one evening after dinner and there was practically no wait for smugglers run. That was a really disappointing experience. Was a lot like star tours. We are not Star Wars fanatics so maybe that was why we were not blown away. We are retired so we take many trips per year and figured by the time we do our next trip the issues with RoTR will be resolved.

We’ve been there during high crowd times and low crowd times. We get fast passes in the morning, and relax from noon until dinner time. It is extra stressful when planning for a number of family members. In addition to doing all of the planning, we put a lot of stress on ourselves worrying about all the pieces fitting together and we want everything to be perfect. I know I take it personally when things don’t go right (which is silly on my part because things happen that we have no control over).

I haven’t had any bad experiences with park employees myself. I do give them a lot of credit though.....I’ve noticed the decline of good behavior of people in the parks. Like they are the only ones there. And take things out on the CMs when things don’t go according to plan. And thank goodness Disney finally started to do something about certain tour groups that have no idea how to behave. Last couple of trips I’ve noticed Disney “minders” on the outskirts of said groups and what an improvement.

I agree that Disney needs a “fifth gate”, as some call it. Too many resorts, not enough parks. I’m hoping they plan on doing something along those lines with the big parcel on the other side of the Grand Floridian.

Sorry you got sick too. Sounds like you really do need a break from all things Disney. Rent out your points for a couple of years and plan something different with the money. Check out the cruises out of NY and NJ on different cruise lines. Costco and BJs seem to have lots of great offers.

 

[Heather07438]

Trip report for both BWV and parks:
Travel party - Myself, husband, daughter, son-in-law, 2 toddler grandkids, son and daughter-in-law
Focus: Grandbabes & Star Wars Land for son-in-law.

I'll start with the good, I loved Disney for a long time, so good first.

A shout out to Gerald at the BWV who assigned our rooms. Thank you for paying attention to all three of my requests! Being this was a family trip including a 2 bedroom lockoff and a studio and the toddlers, I had requested close to lobby, lower floor and especially close to each other. Gerald arranged for all three and while room 2059 is the noisiest room in the resort (nothing to do with Gerald or the job well done he did for us), the proximity to each other was perfect and came in very handy when the stomach virus hit 4 of us at different times!

A huge thank you to Cindy and Jimmy, on call managers at the BWV, for everything they've done to help us with anything and everything we needed when the babes, my daughter and myself got sick. How horrible an experience that virus was!! Thankfully it hit the night before check out for my daughter and her son and then myself the morning of check out. My granddaughter had it earlier in the week but only for a few hours.

Cindy did everything she could and kept me in my room an extra night because I couldn't get out of the bed, except for getting sick that was, and both Cindy and Jimmy worked with me to cancel an upcoming trip (on borrowed points-returning leftover points to original use year) to access points to use for the extra night stay so desperately needed. They sent housekeeping to disinfect, with extra towels, paper towels, tissues, blankets, and anything else we needed. They offered to send medical assistance and called to check in multiple times. I cannot say enough about how well we were taken care of.

Justin, from Clarksville, (don't remember the state, maybe Ohio) at Guest Services in DHS. While the experience in that park was a complete wreck, Justin was great! He helped straighten out a few things gone amiss on the app for my son-in-law with a couple of extra fast passes thrown in (not for the most popular rides) for the enormous inconveniences we dealt with at DHS for over a day! And, he did it with a smile, patience and grace. Thank you Justin!

Now for the not so good.
We had a family trip from Saturday February 15 to Wednesday, February 19th, 2020. We are DVC members since 2000 and have been bringing our children since 1996. Now we have grandchildren (two toddlers) and have hoped to continue our wonderful Disney vacations with them.

Unfortunately, the park experiences of this week have forced us into the decision of staying away from Disney parks for years to come. Not the resorts, but my husband and I are done with the parks and my kids aren't looking to go back for years.

For the last couple of trips (November 2019/February 2019)I saw how much the parks have changed and how much Disney has changed regarding it's guest satisfaction. However, this past week's family trip has solidified just how bad it's gotten.

What Disney falls miserably short in is managing the crowd levels in the parks. I don't think they care to even bother trying to manage the crowds. In fact, I think its just the opposite. Disney now charges top dollar to enter the parks, closes them early a few nights a week for "special ticketed events", charging just about the same as a full day park pass for these special events, and ultimately "double dips" in bringing thousands more visitors to the parks each day. For what purpose? Not the purpose of guest satisfaction, certainly not the purpose of a "magical" visitor experience, no, not at all. For the purpose of making more money.

It used to be a place for children of all ages. Now, bringing little ones to the parks is NOT a good idea. The parks are over crowded, the wait times, even for the little ones rides, are too long for children to tolerate. They are overwhelmed and uncomfortable, as are the adults with 175 minute wait times for rides such as Kilimanjaro Safari. What?!!! We shouldn't have to "tolerate" anything with the money we pay to be there. We should pay for our vacations and enjoy them as we see fit.

Rise of the Resistance? Yes, we agreed to rise at dawn, get to the park before opening, tap into the park, open the app (sound ridiculous yet? because it is), and hit join boarding group at 8:00 on the button. Two of us got into a boarding group, two of us didn't - app glitch, of course. It was called at 8 p.m. We ran back into the park and waited a bit on line. Just got into the ride and..... it broke down. Here you go people, everyone out. Here's a "free" fast pass, return tomorrow. My SIL had a three day, one park a day pass that expired this trip. First day was used to get into DHS that day. Next day was for Epcot, day after MK. No worries, he was told he will be issued a one day entrance ticket to HS to come back tomorrow and use the FP to get onto ROTR. Okay, great, thanks.

Next morning, back into HS, after rearranging (and losing some of our plans) our EPCOT day with the family. We arrive at the ride only to find out it just broke down again. Then SIL realizes that the one day entrance ticket wasn't used, but his three day expiring pass was instead. We tell the CM at the ride and they direct us to a Guest Services queue at the ride. We wait 20 minutes to speak to this CM at this Guest Services (not an actual guest services - it was set up at ROTR specifically for this ride), and she tells us she cannot help us with her ipad, that we need to go over to Guest Services at the beginning of the park, where they have computer terminals. We head over there, another hour spent waiting to fix the glitch with a promise that we won't have a problem with it being fixed. We could have done something else in the park during that time. Disney promotes ROTR as an amazing ride, or should I say an amazing broken ride? They need to come through on what they sell. Ride isn't ready to be opened.

Disney is a place I used to love emphatically. So much so, that all who know me wouldn't even consider taking a trip here without talking to me, the Disney "expert". I've taken just about everyone I love there and have done so for years.

I just fell completely out of love with Disney and Universal is looking fantastic. The last three trips piled up, and this past trip killed it. We can't walk through the parks and enjoy the atmosphere, or stand on the lines without actual pain with ridiculous hour and a half long waits (or longer). Who would want to? Not me, not us, not anymore.
Disney - get it together. You've lost focus. It's all about money now, where's the magic in that?

I'm truly sorry to hear how challenging this trip was. Hope you are all feeling better!

People defend with 'manage your expectations' but that doesn't always apply. WDW is getting harder to deal with in many ways. On the bright side I think as Universal's Epic Universe comes closer to being a reality (opening 2023), WDW will need to respond by correcting some of these common issues.

 

[Elsaalltheway]

I'm new to DVC but so far so good. One of the reason I love it is because it gives me a reason to slow down and not have to be in the park all the time. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with RotR. When it goes down it takes 70 mins to reboot the ride. That hurts the ride since it seems to go down a lot.

I agree with a lot of people on here. Disneyworld is LARGE. They have only developed 1/3 of the land they own. But the fact remains that many people were disappointed at the last D23 when they didn't announce a new park. New parks and single rides are good, but stop tearing out old rides that people still ride to put in something new. Crowds are growing and instead of money grabbing deluxe hotels (star wars i'm looking at you) they need to do a Marvel park, they own enough characters to do a marvel or pixar movie park that they now allow enough space arround to to add on.

Disney talks about moving forward. But sometimes we enjoy the past, it's what keeps us watching the Wizard of Oz and the classics all the time. Might be time to take some of that money grabbing money and build a new park.

 

[Perelandra]

The thing that irritates me the most about what you mentioned, is Disney cutting staff in slower times, to where they are still overwhelmed even in early September, and cutting hours ALL the time. 8 and 9 o’clock closings in busy times?! Crowds compressed on top of each other because the hours are so compact now, thus forcing us to drop $900 for a party of six so we can stay 2 more hours after park “closes”. What a joke! Most of the up charge events are almost as crowded as regular hours. All this during a time when the Florida parks are making more money than ever! Just a colossal display of greed with no concern for customer experience or employee work conditions.

 

[DeeCee735]

I have a trip for October - early October - and I know I’ll be unhappy already, the heat alone. I’m waiting for DVC MS to bank my points (I had to cancel a trip next month to use points to stay an extra night for when we got sick). Once they do, I’m cancelling October and then will decide what to do. Trade out, rent out or just do a GF stay (no parks) with a spa day, if I can get it.

Thank you for you thoughts and wishing us well! My poor grandson, yesterday was his first day better!

Dee

 

[JayBaileys]

We just got back Friday night and this is the 4th year in a row we've gone tue -fri Presidents day week. Just the wife and me as its usually a good time not to be in Pittsburgh weather wise. We never go in the summer and have gone Halloween and 2nd week of Dec. This week has always been crowded when we have been there. We pretty much just use our FP's in the early afternoon and eat dinner. We don't do any other rides usually because the wait times are 1-2 hours + for anything we want to ride. A few years ago we were commenting how much busier it was in October, which used to be great time to go when our kids were younger. Great weather, low crowds etc. My wife was waiting for us to get off a ride and was talking to CM or a local and they told her there are so many foreigners coming now it doesn't matter when you are here, it's crowded. That's what we are seeing, and we've never gone in June, July, or August. To the original poster, take a few years off and try again, hopefully you get your Disney mojo back. We have 300 points per year 100 GF and 200 AK, and have used them every year, but I can see in the 8 years we have been in DVC it has changed a lot. We still enjoy going and our kids are 13 and 16 and can't wait to go to the Star Wars stuff, which we did get to do this trip, and Rise was fantastic. The whole process is very stressful and the wife was not thrilled when I told her we needed to be up at 5:40 in the morning. Luckily for us we got on the only day we had at HS. She got to see the Indy show again, so she was happy. We still love Disney, but wish they could open another park or something to thin the crowds out.

 

[DeeCee735]

We just got back Friday night and this is the 4th year in a row we've gone tue -fri Presidents day week. Just the wife and me as its usually a good time not to be in Pittsburgh weather wise. We never go in the summer and have gone Halloween and 2nd week of Dec. This week has always been crowded when we have been there. We pretty much just use our FP's in the early afternoon and eat dinner. We don't do any other rides usually because the wait times are 1-2 hours + for anything we want to ride. A few years ago we were commenting how much busier it was in October, which used to be great time to go when our kids were younger. Great weather, low crowds etc. My wife was waiting for us to get off a ride and was talking to CM or a local and they told her there are so many foreigners coming now it doesn't matter when you are here, it's crowded. That's what we are seeing, and we've never gone in June, July, or August. To the original poster, take a few years off and try again, hopefully you get your Disney mojo back. We have 300 points per year 100 GF and 200 AK, and have used them every year, but I can see in the 8 years we have been in DVC it has changed a lot. We still enjoy going and our kids are 13 and 16 and can't wait to go to the Star Wars stuff, which we did get to do this trip, and Rise was fantastic. The whole process is very stressful and the wife was not thrilled when I told her we needed to be up at 5:40 in the morning. Luckily for us we got on the only day we had at HS. She got to see the Indy show again, so she was happy. We still love Disney, but wish they could open another park or something to thin the crowds out.

We own since 2000, 400 points between BWV and AKV. I love the resorts, that hasn't changed, especially with the excellent care and attention we received from BW managers when we were sick with the stomach virus.
MS did bank my left over points from the trip I had to cancel, so now I'm waiting for the 7 month mark to open. IF we can nab a one bedroom in GFV, I'll do that kind of a trip (NO PARKS for a long long time), but if not, I'll trade out and maybe we'll go to Vegas or Aruba, or one of a hundred other places. We'll see.

I can say, in retrospect of the vacation from hell, I did get to ride Resistance this trip, and I rode Millennium Falcon in November, so now I don't ever have to do them again, at least until the wait times (years, I'm guessing) go to 20 minutes - if ever. I also joined my son in law in his make your own light saber experience, and it was very very cool. Outside of not being able to make our Oga's Cantina reservation, I got enough of Star Wars/DHS to last a very long time. My DH doesn't care much for it or the parks to begin with, so it will be resort trips for awhile.

We are considering Universal in the Fall, if we get into GFV. We'll stay on our points and hop over to the other parks for a look see. We'll see how it all goes. Right now, a week later, it's just good to be home and finally feel better.

Thanks for posting everyone!

Dee

 

[k_hase]

I was there during the same time frame and found the crowds from the 16th to the 19th overwhelming. We used our fastpasses, and hit a couple of rides right at opening and/or right at closing, including Smugglers Run with a 25 minute wait.

Honestly, I expected the crowds and lines for rides. What I didn't expect was the lack of cashiers and bartenders. On one of our last nights we supplemented our remaining groceries with some Mara quick service selections. At the absolute peak of dinner rush there were two people cashing out diners and the line was so long people didn't have room to stand in it. The same happened around lunch at the Dawa bar and Tembu in AK--ridiculously long lines for drinks/food b/c only one or two people were providing service.

I work in schools as well, but I'm certain we'll return to our August visits after this trip--I'd rather be hot and get longer hours with shorter lines. We had a great time with some first timers but I'm glad I tempered their expectations. I also find that our model of getting an annual pass and using banked/borrowed points all in one year, then skipping a year or two gets us excited to do it all again--we see all the things we want to in one year adn then get two years to recover!

 

[sjrec]

Have you used your points for Hilton Head or Vero Beach? We tend to do WDW every other year and bank points for a longer trip-more days are more relaxing-or travel to Hilton Head. If you can go in September or October weather is beautiful and no trouble booking at 7 months. The resort is beautiful and the staff exceptional. So many good places (and reasonable) to eat in the area. Although we have been lucky and booked in August-my daughter is a teacher, so off-season doesn’t work if they travel with us.
So sorry you had so much sickness! It just went through our family and was awful.

 

[DeeCee735]

We own a Marriott timeshare in Hilton ahead. Disney’s HH resort got too difficult to book at the 7 month mark and we want HH for every Easter break so we just bought a Marriott legacy week there. My husband considers that a real vacation. Relaxing, beautiful, not overly crowded and a go at your pace place. I’ll take my grandkids there when my son in law can take off that week. Maybe next year. That’s a great place for the kiddies. Disney has become too much for little ones. How ironic. My daughter still has that stomach bug recirculating through her family. She’s definitely not into overcrowded parks for a while.