What (if anything) made you give up wdw

[luvsJack]

I think you all have talked me into a trip to DisneyLand! Lol. Like I said I do love Disney. I just get tired at the thought of planning WDW! Dh and I talked about a trip just the two of us, so maybe it will be “California here we come!”

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm glad our prime Disney World theme park years (when my son was a child, not a teen), took place before the austerity program of the past couple of years really ramped up.

Me too.

 

[anniemae]

We have cut down our Disney trips. Main reason is crowds. The family hates crowds and it's always crowded now. Wait times are long, it's difficult to move around, transportation takes forever etc. It was so blissful when the longest wait was 20 mins. LOL! FP is okay, but never seems to work well for us. Hate the tiering system and we can never seem to get the 4th fp.

 

[wenrob]

I'm glad our prime Disney World theme park years (when my son was a child, not a teen), took place before the austerity program of the past couple of years really ramped up. The optional upcharge stuff was busily being added during our prime years, but that was no problem in my book (that was before the cuts made them almost a necessity). What really bothers me now is all of the cuts to park hours, to parades & shows, and WDW always getting rid of rides and attractions in order to make room for new ones, rather than just keeping what they had and also building a much-needed 5th park. I agree, from our experience during our one trip to Disneyland, that Disneyland is a better place to go if you're there just to enjoy the rides.

I could spend a couple of days in the parks, never get on a ride and still have a great (and magical) time. My DD and her friend purposely did this in August and say it’s one of the best trips they’ve ever had.

That depends on what you're trying to get out of your vacation. Disney World still has a place for us as a resort. We typically stay deluxe in the summer, and the resort and the fantastic resort pools are at least as much a part of the experience for us as the theme parks. We love Disney's water parks, too. No FastPasses there, thank goodness, just clean, creatively-themed places to go at a moments' notice and do fun water rides or float peacefully in a lazy river. We've enjoyed playing Fantasia mini-golf on a summer night, with fireworks from a nearby park going off in the distance. The WDW "bubble" helps us to truly feel like we're in another world. Disneyland can't offer those types of experiences.

Well, it’s California there’s no shortage of things to see and do. My vacation doesn’t need to be 100% Disney branded for me to enjoy it.

 

[mnrose]

Variety of things for me. My kids are now young adults and no longer begging to go to Disney. The whole you have to plan EVERYTHING months in advance seems absurd to me. The prices are out of control, out of proportion to the overall rise in prices in our economy. Too crowded. So, you add everything together, and it's just not a place that makes our vacation list. I'm still down for a day at Disneyland if I'm otherwise in southern California, but Disneyworld I don't see happening at any point in the future. I suppose it *could* happen (never say never), but I just don't see it.

 

[GreatLakes]

We still plan to go to WDW for a long time since we have a 1 year old and my wife and I love it as well. We will likely stay offsite more often in the future because there are such better deals off site. For some trips staying onsite makes sense, like our coming trip with my mom and a 1 year old who need to get back to the room daily, but I think once we are past daily nap time we will be staying off site.

We are not really big breakfast eaters and outside of the occasional character breakfast we won't pay Disney prices for that.

I do admit that we do very little advanced planning. We will make FP+ because, why not, but may or may not use them. We also rarely make ADRs in advance.

Anyone that says you have to plan 90 or 180 days out is mistaken. That is still a choice.

 

[smiths02]

We haven't abandoned the idea, but there are many reasons why our next vacation is not going to be WDW.
--pricing increases (not just getting priced out, but not seeing the value when we could do other things with that money)
--amount of planning required
--our children getting older which impacts the ease of going other places and also the cost of WDW
--crowding of the parks
--desire to do other things on everyone's part (we realistically are only going to have one vacation that involves major travel each year or so)

For us, we like that all inclusive feeling of being on site, eating table service, etc. With pricing increases, we can get a vacation like that for a lot less money and planning by doing Universal (our next trip) or going on a cruise (not Disney again, though).
I am thinking that if we may have our next Disney dose be a trip to CA. I am from the area, so it would be more like a trip home with maybe 2 days of Disney thrown in. I think even with flights and rental cars... ability to use hotel points, ability to use flier miles, eat at regular chain restaurants, etc. and not have everything be about being "stuck" at Disney can make it cost less than WDW for us. (And yes, I know that we could stay offsite, etc. for WDW, but if I am going to be doing that, I'd rather go to CA and visit friends/family--we have limited vacation time)

 

[TiggerTrigger]

We haven't completely given up, but we're giving it a long break. While the nickel and diming and exponential price increases are frustrating, it bothers me more because I was already questioning if a Disney vacation is still worth the money. Our last few trips were kind of boring (just not enough new stuff and I think our kids want bigger thrills from their rides), we've had a number of CM issues, and the food was mainly disappointing...which really bites when you do double digit TS meals in a trip. It also bugs me that a room I stayed in over Thanksgiving 2012 will cost $223 more per night in 2019. We didn't think it was worth it 2012, so the 2019 pricing seem absurd. I can handle the crowds. All of my childhood trips in the 80s and early 90s were at busy times and pre-fast pass of any kind, so I don't have any major crowd complaints and know what it's like to be faced with massive lines at every turn.

Right now, we're discussing going back in either 2021 or 2022. Hopefully, there will be enough new by then and past trips will be far enough out of our systems that it'll feel fresh and magical again. My kids don't want us to wait this long and have already started begging for a return trip, but we're really trying to get them on trips so that they can see more than just Disney parks.

 

[snapppyd]

I believe the title of this thread is What (if anything) made you give up Disney. It's hard to understand that if nothing has bothered you why are you on this particular thread. So far I have seen nothing, but, legitimate reasons, just people reciting the reasons why it is no longer worth it anymore because the New Disney has put way to much stress into something that is supposed to be a fun vacation.

For myself, it is a combination of things. I became an obsessed Disney Park fan as I was driving down World Drive on my way to the Magic Kingdom with my wife and young children in 1983. I was 35 at that time. After that I was on every dial up internet Disney Discussion Forum that existed. I have stayed onsite only once and hated the captivity aspect of it, so, after the one time I just stayed offsite and saved buckets of money over the years.

I am now 70 years old my wife and I had divorced and has since passed away and my little girls have grown up and have kids of their own. For the last 18 years I have gone there solo (three times with family). I am retired and living on Social Security and my savings. Disney has managed to price me out of the place even with my offsite habit. I had to be spontaneous as far as when I went. Now I have to know not only when I am going ahead of time, but, I have to be exact because of the new ticket system that requires a commitment of a particular week before you can even buy a ticket plus the FP connections. Because of my age and health issues I cannot always be sure when I can make the trip, so I might commit to a date and then not be able to go at that time. Yes, I can change it, but, that is just another hassle. That along with mobility issues and the fear that I would be one of the scooter users because I cannot walk long periods of time anymore. I can walk quite well for a short time so if you saw me get off the scooter a big reaction would be there's nothing wrong with him, he's just fat and lazy. I'd like to tell everyone that feels that way to go pound sand, but, since I know that a lot of people are judgmental like that it just takes the fun mood away. For many of us there are multiple reasons for declining interest in it. It was my escape for many, many years. I used to get excited as a five year old when I was planning a trip to my favorite place in the world. The one place were I could be a kid again. Just cannot imagine being able to do it anymore without either physical pain or psychological pain and self-consciousness. Even something as simple as Disney deciding that everyone is in the prime of their lives and have removed an awful lot of places to just stop a little while to rest the back and recover so I can continue on with out that scooter. It has finally set in that Disney really doesn't want me there anymore. I don't have enough money to reach the goals they have for everyone to spend.

I still stay on the boards because deep inside I still am curious about what is happening in the place and would love to look forward to SWL, but, I don't think I will physically be able to ever see it. That just makes me sad. I cannot control Disney prices or ticket policy's and lord knows if I could have somehow just stayed young things might be different, but, honestly if anyone feels pee'd on it would be me.

Oh my gosh, I could have posted this! Where else do you have to know what you want to eat six months ahead of time? what ride and park you want to be in months ahead of time? And the prices for onsite - we love onsite and using the transportation - have you seen Beach Club prices lately??

 

[anniemae]

I forgot to mention the food quality has decreased as well IMO. We like to eat at a mix of qs and sit down. The sit down food quality is abysmal at times. I understand that with the increase of people they have to kind of cook to feed the masses, kind of like banquet cooking. Quantity over quality. You can still get decent meals, but the TS restaurants are just not as good as they used to be and since eating out and trying restaurants is a big part of our vacation, it kind of put a damper on that part of our vaca.

 

[L&Lfan]

This literally made me LOL

Sone of the food and snacks at the parks/resorts are pretty good but I've NEVER eaten anything there that was described as " to die for" that has lived up to the hype.

 

[smiths02]

True, true. I saw the subject line and thought it was just going to be a bunch of people proudly "over" something, which tends to happen with a lot of things these days.

I admittedly over-cranked on this! I truly do understand that people have valid reasons for being disappointed about their experiences or lack thereof, and obviously it's important to to be able to discuss it. My frustration with people who enjoy complaining (a general life observation) overshadowed the validity of a thread like this, and I'm sorry about that!

I almost responded to your first post, and then read this.
I am still on the boards, because, like I stated in my response, I am looking at the Universal, DLR, and RCCL side of the boards.
I am also interested to see what new things are happening at WDW in case we do go back (probably in a modified way).

I am not complaining. I know WDW is a business. They don't owe me a vacation. I am a little sad that our WDW days may be over as we knew them.

 

[tvguy]

That depends on what you're trying to get out of your vacation. Disney World still has a place for us as a resort. We typically stay deluxe in the summer, and the resort and the fantastic resort pools are at least as much a part of the experience for us as the theme parks. We love Disney's water parks, too. No FastPasses there, thank goodness, just clean, creatively-themed places to go at a moments' notice and do fun water rides or float peacefully in a lazy river. We've enjoyed playing Fantasia mini-golf on a summer night, with fireworks from a nearby park going off in the distance. The WDW "bubble" helps us to truly feel like we're in another world. Disneyland can't offer those types of experiences.

Yeah, I admit I am a Disney addict. We have pools and water parks mini golf at home. I go for Disney.

 

[VandVsmama]

On the flip side, all of the reasons why I love going to Disneyland:

• if it's crowded and I'm getting burned out, the walk back to our hotel room is short
• I don't have to plan/schedule our meals 6 months in advance. The max amt of time you can schedule ADRs, by comparison, is 60 days. And for dining packages? 6 weeks' prior.
• the FP system is better in my opinion
• DL park guests are, in my experience, really friendly & really nice to each other.
• CMs seem pretty darn happy there
• being able to do Magic Morning at DL (on a Tues, Thurs, or Sat) 1 hr before regular park opening when MM entry starts at 7 am. That hour is just wonderful. 5-6 rides in Fantasyland in that first hour.
• We can get on ~ 12 rides or so before lunch!
• Carsland - the theming is amazing
• like Craig on the podcast says, the corndogs from the Little Red Wagon really ARE that good
• Fantasmic
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• you can schedule or not schedule as much of your trip here as you want and still have a wonderful time
• Trader Sam's bar at the Disneyland Hotel
• Walking down Main Street 15-20 min before the park opens when all of the CMs are lining both sides of Main Street wearing big Mickey gloves so you can give them high 5's as you walk by.
• Getting to shake hands & say thank you to the night shift maintenance workers as they are leaving DL in the early morning at the end of their "work day."
• the Shrunken Ned machine in 1 of the Adventureland shops where Shrunken Ned will spit out a 'prescription card' with a witty saying on it
• the Indiana Jones ride
• everything in New Orleans Square, but especially the pirate band that roams around and sitting outside at the French Market while eating some beignets.
• eating outside at the Hungry Bear restaurant on the 2nd "story" with my family while the Mark Twain riverboat goes by. The sounds of the riverboat with the whistle of the train in the background are, hands down, simply wonderful.

Is there Magical Express free from the airport? No
Is there a "Disney bubble" at the off site hotels? Not like at WDW
Is there an Animal Kingdom Lodge? No. Not even close

It's kind of like ice cream...WDW & DL are 2 different flavors of ice cream. I REALLY LOVED WDW! Totally want to go back. But the total cost, combined with all of the planning hassle, puts it over the top for us and we won't be able to go back for a long time. But I'm not ready to give up Disney vacations yet. And I'm not into going on a cruise, so Disney cruises are not on the list. So I'm totally content with going to Disneyland in the meantime.

But I plan on avoiding DL for 6 months after Star Wars Land opens.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I forgot to mention the food quality has decreased as well IMO. We like to eat at a mix of qs and sit down. The sit down food quality is abysmal at times. I understand that with the increase of people they have to kind of cook to feed the masses, kind of like banquet cooking. Quantity over quality. You can still get decent meals, but the TS restaurants are just not as good as they used to be and since eating out and trying restaurants is a big part of our vacation, it kind of put a damper on that part of our vaca.

I couldn't agree more! We normally do all TS and while we had some decent meals last trip, the majority were really disappointing. Whenever we do go back, I'm debating about building in time to dine off property, eating mainly QS on property, and possibly even booking a room with a kitchen so we can control the quality of our food.

 

[cluvsdisney]

I could walk away now but DH loves it. Luckily we are DVC so at least the hotel part is easy to budget and we get a decent discount on annual passes. Overall, I am tired of going on the same rides and seeing the same shows over and over.

All the up sells - before park events, after park events, parties, etc. and nickel & diming.

The ADR system is frustrating - reserving a place in line 6 months in advance. You have to check in early and then sometimes wait past your ADR time. The food is hit or miss, which is fine and can happen anywhere. It is more expensive than comparable places we go to at home which is NYC/Long Island but it's a vacation/resort destination so we deal. I think some of the prices are getting out of control in the beverage department. Fountain drink cups used to be larger and less expensive but now there are smaller cups which cost more. A drink at the pool is $12-15 for a ~10 oz cup when they used to be 16 oz. It feels like a double hit. $4.50 for a 20oz soda is ridiculous.

Based on our stays at the Boardwalk - booking a non-dvc room with a king size bed should be a bookable option, not a request and hope for the best. The moderates and mid-tier chain hotels have this capability. The pool area is sorely lacking in the food dept. Overall, I think it would be nice to offer poolside service for food & drinks.

 

[tinkerdorabelle]

Wait, so people who hate Disney now and refuse to visit Disney still post here so they can complain about how awful Disney is? "I hate Disney so much I still hang around a place people who like Disney gather so I can pee on it in front of them."

Cool.

Hehe. I think for me I have a love/hate relationship with WDW. It won't stop me from visiting at all, maybe just less, BUT I do agree with a lot of the above. Especially the scheduling everything months out, I HATE that. Yes also the crowds and the cost and the fact that with that high cost they pay their workers pretty bad. Yes it is stressful, BUT I still love it enough with all that to go. That being said, Universal is a lot less stressful.

 

[NHdisneylover]

On the flip side, all of the reasons why I love going to Disneyland:

• if it's crowded and I'm getting burned out, the walk back to our hotel room is short
• I don't have to plan/schedule our meals 6 months in advance. The max amt of time you can schedule ADRs, by comparison, is 60 days. And for dining packages? 6 weeks' prior.
• the FP system is better in my opinion
• DL park guests are, in my experience, really friendly & really nice to each other.
• CMs seem pretty darn happy there
• being able to do Magic Morning at DL (on a Tues, Thurs, or Sat) 1 hr before regular park opening when MM entry starts at 7 am. That hour is just wonderful. 5-6 rides in Fantasyland in that first hour.
• We can get on ~ 12 rides or so before lunch!
• Carsland - the theming is amazing
• like Craig on the podcast says, the corndogs from the Little Red Wagon really ARE that good
• Fantasmic
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• you can schedule or not schedule as much of your trip here as you want and still have a wonderful time
• Trader Sam's bar at the Disneyland Hotel
• Walking down Main Street 15-20 min before the park opens when all of the CMs are lining both sides of Main Street wearing big Mickey gloves so you can give them high 5's as you walk by.
• Getting to shake hands & say thank you to the night shift maintenance workers as they are leaving DL in the early morning at the end of their "work day."
• the Shrunken Ned machine in 1 of the Adventureland shops where Shrunken Ned will spit out a 'prescription card' with a witty saying on it
• the Indiana Jones ride
• everything in New Orleans Square, but especially the pirate band that roams around and sitting outside at the French Market while eating some beignets.
• eating outside at the Hungry Bear restaurant on the 2nd "story" with my family while the Mark Twain riverboat goes by. The sounds of the riverboat with the whistle of the train in the background are, hands down, simply wonderful.

Is there Magical Express free from the airport? No
Is there a "Disney bubble" at the off site hotels? Not like at WDW
Is there an Animal Kingdom Lodge? No. Not even close

It's kind of like ice cream...WDW & DL are 2 different flavors of ice cream. I REALLY LOVED WDW! Totally want to go back. But the total cost, combined with all of the planning hassle, puts it over the top for us and we won't be able to go back for a long time. But I'm not ready to give up Disney vacations yet. And I'm not into going on a cruise, so Disney cruises are not on the list. So I'm totally content with going to Disneyland in the meantime.

But I plan on avoiding DL for 6 months after Star Wars Land opens.

DLP is similar for us, plus we can drive there in under 5 hours.

APs there are less than 3 day park tickets to WDW.
As of now ther are still many gorgeous details all over the parks
Dining only needs to planned a day or two ahead of time---three years ago we were there over Christmas---booked Christmas eve dinner and Christmas day lunch in the parks on December 23--got our first choices!
I like the cooler temps

 

[loves to dive]

Been going since 1983 so nothing has and I can't imagine anything will. My style has changed many times over the years and since I'm now semi-retired so money is semi-tight, I won't go as often. I won't be staying in the Disney hotels but will be staying in the campground since we are buying a RV and my honey will now be going and our little dog too (bow to Wizard of Oz there) so less time in the parks. If it were up to me and I had the money, I'd go 4 times a year and stay in the deluxe resorts. I don't mind FP since I rarely use it, I don't book ADRs in advance just day of and I don't plan a darn thing. I normally have an Annual Pass but I imagine I'll let that expire since I don't see me coaxing honey to go more than once a year. My goal is to get that RV on a road trip west and get to Disneyland.

 

[amberpi]

I think you all have talked me into a trip to DisneyLand! Lol. Like I said I do love Disney. I just get tired at the thought of planning WDW! Dh and I talked about a trip just the two of us, so maybe it will be “California here we come!”

I think that may be our next Disney trip after this thread as well. We will be back to WDW, but there is tons we can do in CA and add in some Disney. While I hate the theme of GC, man, it'd be worth it to take the kids through that easy backdoor.