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

[DVCSunDevil]

Boy, although I’m a huge Disney fan reading these posts does not make me feel good about my recent DVC purchase.

I wouldn't be too worried. We closed on our first DVC membership in February and our first "Welcome Home" trip will be in April. I am not regretting the decision to purchase. Lines are not a new thing at Disney...they have been there since the beginning. People even use "this is longer than a line at Disney" to describe a long wait somewhere, and I have heard that expression for years. Lines are not a new thing. I will say that the costs to visit Disney have definitely gone up. But that is part of the benefit of DVC...it makes the cost a little less (long term). Don't let people get you down! You bought in and now go enjoy it

 

[MeridaICR]

Boy, although I’m a huge Disney fan reading these posts does not make me feel good about my recent DVC purchase.

We purchased in 2014 and I don't regret it. Like they always tell you when you are buying, you will always wished that you had purchased more points when you first did it. We have considered getting more points but I think that we are happy with what we have so far. All in all, the resorts at Disney are superb and we always have a good time. As you visit and get familiar with the parks, you will want to spend more time at the resorts and less at the parks! I love Disney but I can relate to the comments above about crowds and prices going up. There needs to be a better balance specially for members!

 

[hp_lovecraft]

We were at the parks the same week as the OP, with a group of 9.
We didn't have to wait in too many lines due to pretty fanatical planning on my part. Doing every trick in the book, etc. The only real line we waited in was RotR and Smugglers which did not have fast pass at the time.

But pretty much every day I'd be on the bus talking to despondent and frustrated guests. My heart would break with the kids, sad, because they could not do there favorite rides, or meet characters, etc. Kids especially just can't handle the long lines. and too many families just "show up" hoping to ride everything without any planning.

and not just planning for the rides, but the parks in general. All these "money grab" extra hours are crazy. But just plan around them. These days, with the extra short hours, its even worse. I have 3 small trips next month, but they are all resort only. Not going to bother wasting my money on 1/2 days with no fireworks

 

[MeridaICR]

We were at the parks the same week as the OP, with a group of 9.
We didn't have to wait in too many lines due to pretty fanatical planning on my part. Doing every trick in the book, etc. The only real line we waited in was RotR and Smugglers which did not have fast pass at the time.

But pretty much every day I'd be on the bus talking to despondent and frustrated guests. My heart would break with the kids, sad, because they could not do there favorite rides, or meet characters, etc. Kids especially just can't handle the long lines. and too many families just "show up" hoping to ride everything without any planning.

and not just planning for the rides, but the parks in general. All these "money grab" extra hours are crazy. But just plan around them. These days, with the extra short hours, its even worse. I have 3 small trips next month, but they are all resort only. Not going to bother wasting my money on 1/2 days with no fireworks

Did you find that the lines were long? I'm planning my next trip and thought that with less capacity, the lines wouldn't be as long. What are your fanatical planning tips?

 

[hp_lovecraft]

Did you find that the lines were long? I'm planning my next trip and thought that with less capacity, the lines wouldn't be as long. What are your fanatical planning tips?

Planning starts 11.5 months out. We will plan for a slow park week, walk in the rsv we want. Like an OKW GV+h. There are only 2, so walking is pretty important.

6 months out, adrs. We like the early, early breakfast adrs since they typically get you into the park before ropedrop. But otherwise, have walmart delivery tons of food to the room. We save a fortune on things like soda.

Lines are a killer, especially with kids. We will get all our FPs first thing in the morning. Rope drop as many big rides until the end of the FP window, then hit the FPs. While in line for the 2nd, start getting more FPs. Refresh, 100 times if needed, to get the ones you want. During parades and big shows, hit more big rides within the FP window.
Fill all the gaps with shows. Lots of the shows you can time, so you walk right in just before it starts.

We will have a late lunch as a big group, then split up. Each group will have at least 1 MDE, so that person can be responsible for FP planning. Repeat . I get to be the villian who wakes everyone up. I'll be watching the bus locater. But everyone gets to do the rides they want without a line.

This kind of of go-go planning is not for everyone. Even within the group. Thats why we comprimise after late lunch, and split up. Want to just ride the skyliner for an hour? sure. Take boat rides everywhere? Sure. Right ride Soarin 10 times in a row? why not.

 

[MeridaICR]

Planning starts 11.5 months out. We will plan for a slow park week, walk in the rsv we want. Like an OKW GV+h. There are only 2, so walking is pretty important.

6 months out, adrs. We like the early, early breakfast adrs since they typically get you into the park before ropedrop. But otherwise, have walmart delivery tons of food to the room. We save a fortune on things like soda.

Lines are a killer, especially with kids. We will get all our FPs first thing in the morning. Rope drop as many big rides until the end of the FP window, then hit the FPs. While in line for the 2nd, start getting more FPs. Refresh, 100 times if needed, to get the ones you want. During parades and big shows, hit more big rides within the FP window.
Fill all the gaps with shows. Lots of the shows you can time, so you walk right in just before it starts.

We will have a late lunch as a big group, then split up. Each group will have at least 1 MDE, so that person can be responsible for FP planning. Repeat . I get to be the villian who wakes everyone up. I'll be watching the bus locater. But everyone gets to do the rides they want without a line.

This kind of of go-go planning is not for everyone. Even within the group. Thats why we comprimise after late lunch, and split up. Want to just ride the skyliner for an hour? sure. Take boat rides everywhere? Sure. Right ride Soarin 10 times in a row? why not.

I'm a planner so I like how you think!

 

[RaymOOOnd]

I'm not saying I love it either, but the "money grab" hours only work because enough people have decided it's worth paying for. In fact, if too many people were to deem it unfair, they would stop buying the park tickets and Disney would do away with it. The idea that a business should accept less for its product than the market consensus says it's worth is a nice idea but not realistic

 

[matheke]

We just got back and really don't know why we went. This is the first trip we ever cut short and decided to leave a day early. It just didn't feel the same.

 

[TinkB278]

We just got back and really don't know why we went. This is the first trip we ever cut short and decided to leave a day early. It just didn't feel the same.

What was it that made you decide to cut it short? Did you feel unsafe? Or was it because less things are offered etc?

 

[disneyseniors]

Hi,

Marriott's response was an automatic cancellation (understood) of our legacy week which was booked in our home resort for Spring Break week.
Replaced with a "certificate" for an exchange in Internal International that has to be used by December 2021 and can only be booked 4 months prior. I had to pay membership for Interval Int'l. and I'll have to pay an exchange fee IF I ever find an acceptable trade for us. If not, I lose the week - paid dues in full and all.

I currently have a trip to WDW planned for the first week in October, I did not book my flights yet, but am hoping we get back to being able to travel by then.

We did get really sick on our last day in Disney in February. So much so, that I couldn't even leave the room. My daughter is convinced it was not the coronavirus. She feels it was just the winter bug. But I do wonder because I had fever going up and down for just shy of a week with muscle pain and exhaustion, with a very bad taste - and lack of taste on food for about 2 weeks. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, maybe I'll never know.

I continue hoping and praying for the entire world to get past this as well as we can.


Dee

It's odd that you also got sick on the last day of your visit. We (husband and me) always, Always, get sick the last day of our visit, at least one of us and usually my husband. However, last visit in March 2020, I got deathly sick with severe chills, sweats, nausea and fever the day before going home. I felt sorry for the passengers on the plane with us, but I huddled into my husbands shoulder and stayed there.
I think that Disney is a giant petri dish for diseases. Afterall, they get people from all over the world. Not everyone has the same cleanliness habits. There is no way to keep kids from running their hands along the rails(adults too), and people sneezing all over the place, etc, etc, etc.
I wondered about covid too when we got home, right after they shut everything down! I know that disney has always been that way for us and we just accepted it as being part of a trip to disney.

 

[mom2rtk]

It's odd that you also got sick on the last day of your visit. We (husband and me) always, Always, get sick the last day of our visit, at least one of us and usually my husband. However, last visit in March 2020, I got deathly sick with severe chills, sweats, nausea and fever the day before going home. I felt sorry for the passengers on the plane with us, but I huddled into my husbands shoulder and stayed there.
I think that Disney is a giant petri dish for diseases. Afterall, they get people from all over the world. Not everyone has the same cleanliness habits. There is no way to keep kids from running their hands along the rails(adults too), and people sneezing all over the place, etc, etc, etc.
I wondered about covid too when we got home, right after they shut everything down! I know that disney has always been that way for us and we just accepted it as being part of a trip to disney.

I've come home from Disney sick many times, up to and including January of this year. Crashed the day we got home and was sick for a week. I've been back and forth on whether I think I had Covid. Who the heck knows. I did just look up a private lab advertising in our area doing antibody tests and see they want $599 for that. LOL. I'll continue to wonder.

 

[matheke]

What was it that made you decide to cut it short? Did you feel unsafe? Or was it because less things are offered etc?

It wasn't safety at all. It just felt like much of the magic wasn't there. We miss the shows. EPCOT felt strange in the WS. It felt more like an amusement park (Go for rides) than a theme park with all the little things you took for granted gone. I hope that made sense.

We went into this knowing things were going to be closed/limited.

 

[Travel60]

I've come home from Disney sick many times, up to and including January of this year. Crashed the day we got home and was sick for a week. I've been back and forth on whether I think I had Covid. Who the heck knows. I did just look up a private lab advertising in our area doing antibody tests and see they want $599 for that. LOL. I'll continue to wonder.

If you donate blood at the Red Cross you get free antibody test included.

 

[ColoradoDisneyFan]

Unfortunately, for us WDW addicts who started trekking to the World 20+ years ago or more, it has changed. But so have many wonderful places now that everyone goes everywhere (Venice, Peru, Nepal/Everest, many U.S. national parks, etc., etc.) I feel worse for those who have never been to WDW and won't know what it was like not to worry about long lines and people everywhere. For us, we will travel at "slower" times and not feel like we need to ride or see everything. That's the gift of being a DVC owner!

 

[Cheburashka]

I did just look up a private lab advertising in our area doing antibody tests and see they want $599 for that. LOL. I'll continue to wonder.

Yikes. Maybe shop around? I've gotten antibody tests for less than $150.

 

[TinkB278]

Yikes. Maybe shop around? I've gotten antibody tests for less than $150.

I’ve also seen them from a well known lab for $42.

 

[DeeCee735]

Unfortunately, for us WDW addicts who started trekking to the World 20+ years ago or more, it has changed. But so have many wonderful places now that everyone goes everywhere (Venice, Peru, Nepal/Everest, many U.S. national parks, etc., etc.) I feel worse for those who have never been to WDW and won't know what it was like not to worry about long lines and people everywhere. For us, we will travel at "slower" times and not feel like we need to ride or see everything. That's the gift of being a DVC owner!

Agreed. Totally the gift of being a DVC owner. I just posted on another thread about how done I am with the crowds, so we aren't looking for park action so much anymore. We even discussed selling our points but then decided that there's so much more than the parks. While we've stayed away since it's reopening, and while we won't be jumping around the parks anymore, we did decide we will return. When? I'm not 100% sure, however, I did just secure a one bedroom at BWV in mid December in the hopes of being able to (probably) drive down and enjoy meeting up with some friends.

God willing we are somewhat back to normalcy and not being so afraid to infect each other!

 

[PurdueTodd]

I’ve also seen them from a well known lab for $42.

I took one that was around 50 last April.

 

[TikiRob]

Wow. This thread has everything!

I do feel bad for those who have had crappy trips. I’m sure I’m due...

Though, nothing stays the same and that is tough for people. But it takes higher prices and more crowded parks to build a $1 billion expansion like Galaxy’s Edge. I also get the “I’m packing up and going to Universal”. It’s a great park. In my opinion, it still doesn’t have the “feels” that Disney provides even with all the warts. Plus, I’ve seen a scary packed Wizarding World and 5-hour waits for Hagrid’s only for it to break down. The grass isn’t always greener.

 

[Erica Ladd]

I’m so looking forward to where we can take a 4 night trip and a bit of Disney and a bit of Uni and enjoy every minute! Ok, maybe a 6-8 night trip!!! Lol