What (if anything) made you give up wdw

[Park Pirate]

Unfortunately, even though many are frustrated with Disney, nothing will change. It seems for everyone one person who either choses not to go anymore, or who scales back their vacation by maybe staying off site and eating off site, there are 100's who will gladly go and be happy paying top dollar for mediocre product. As long as the parks are packed, there will be no incentive for Disney to change. We still like Disney, but our trips are shorter, we are staying off site, and we are combining other things into our FL vaca's.

This is so true. It seems like at some point, Disney World shifted their priorities from trying to provide the highest quality they could to ensure repeat repeat visitors and attract new ones, to trying to maximize the amount of money they could get, per visitor. When I am there, it just seems like a constant squeeze to drain every last dollar from my wallet. I honestly believe that FP+ (which I also do not like), MagicBands, etc... were designed to maximize the profit they could get per customer, rather than a measure to enhance the guest experience. Almost every change they have implemented over the last 10-20 years has increased customer spending (or at least guaranteed spending) while sacrificing quality. The dining plan is a prime example, in which food across the parks is mostly the same mass produced items, with perhaps some kind of garnish to make it seen unique.

Disney now seems to be catering to people with deeper pockets and more first time, once-in-a-lifetime visitors, and not worrying much about repeat visitors. Disney is acting like every other business, but they used to try and set themselves apart and I guess I kind of bought into that.

As for my family, we still go pretty much every year (we do have DVC) and we still enjoy and see value in it. I guess we are part of the problem. However, there seems to be less value every trip. Like others, we now now spend less time, go to Universal/other attractions, and spend less on TS restaurants. Planning for our trip is now a chore, rather than something that I used to look forward to every year.

Unfortunately, I do not see things changing unless Disney sees an effect on their bottom line. Attendance and competition are really the only thing that will make them change. I am thankful for Universal for forcing Disney to have to build new attractions to keep up. I hope that the constant increase in expense will eventually have an effect on attendance, forcing Disney to change.

 

[manning]

These threads always make me wonder what the parks used to be like. We went for the first time last Fall and thought it was awesome--so much so that we've planned a couple more trips already, and one to Disneyland for good measure.

But I guess the expectations were different. It was something I had always wanted to do that I was finally doing--I went into it the same way I did a trip to Paris. It was a splurge, far from the most expensive vacation we've taken, but solidly a splurge nonetheless. We had a week and wanted to do pretty much everything and, thanks to all the ways you could plan, we were able to. Dh was constantly commenting about how long everyone else was waiting. In a week we waited over 15 minutes a handful of times and never over 30 minutes. I suppose we could have spontaneously waited in hour long lines, but this was good too... Were there some reservations we couldn't get because we only planned for 3 months? Yeah, maybe we'll do them next time, maybe not.

And as far as the CMs, we thought they were awesome. In fact there's this one kid at POC that we joked about for the longest time. He was like 22 and he was loading people on POC. He was kind of phoning it in. It wasn't that he wasn't doing his job, he wasn't rude--he just wasn't fully engaged like everyone else. And he stood out for that. Seriously he would have been an average employee at our Target, I'm pretty sure he'd be employee of the month at Walmart--and he was the worst employee we encountered, in a week of sometimes 14 hour days! That's amazing to me.

Maybe things will change but I think we have a lot more good trips in us. On the other hand when people talk about having been twenty, thirty times I can't think of anywhere I could go that many times that I wouldn't get tire of. I mean there are a lot of great places to vacation out there...

If you experienced the quality of old WDW you would understand. Back then they attracted you with quality. You paid more but your money's worth. When they started coming I saw what was coming, and I was right.

with magic bands I wouldn't be surprised they will figure out how to charge for rides AND park entry. This is what it was when the park first opened. You paid to get in aand a ticket to ride.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I haven't given up, but I've gone from going at least 3 times a year for the past several years (Flower & Garden, Food & Wine, Christmas) to I'm now taking a 2 year hiatus. It has nothing to do with Disney prices as I've owned DVC for a long, long time. We prefer to eat most meals offsite so TBH we don't spend all that much more money on food at Disney than we do at home.

My issue is that I have a rapidly progressing degenerative nerve disease. I've spent thousands and thousands of on medical equipment this year so I rented out about 3 years worth of DVC points (on 3 contracts) to pay for it. We've still got two non-activated APs so will be going again. Probably Christmas 2019 or early 2020.

But I am severely limited on what I can do at Disney now so we'll see how it goes when we do go back. None of that is Disney's fault. I'll see how I enjoy just looking, going to shows, and going on attractions that can load a wheelchair.

I do cringe at the resort prices - but I don't stay there so it doesn't really matter. The last time I stayed at AKL in a Savannah room it was $109. That was probably about 2003.

No fair! I stayed at AKL a savannah view room in 2002, and "only" paid around $150. They told me it was a special deal because the resort I'd reserved, POR, suddenly closed after 9/11. I sympathize with your condition-it's so unfortunate for you. This last trip, I felt that so many people were using ECVs, that it took me a lot longer in line to do anything (getting on a bus, for example). I've also considered renting out many of our DVC points, never done that before, though so I'm not sure where to start.

 

[Praying Colonel]

These threads always make me wonder what the parks used to be like. We went for the first time last Fall and thought it was awesome--so much so that we've planned a couple more trips already, and one to Disneyland for good measure.

But I guess the expectations were different. It was something I had always wanted to do that I was finally doing--I went into it the same way I did a trip to Paris. It was a splurge, far from the most expensive vacation we've taken, but solidly a splurge nonetheless. We had a week and wanted to do pretty much everything and, thanks to all the ways you could plan, we were able to. Dh was constantly commenting about how long everyone else was waiting. In a week we waited over 15 minutes a handful of times and never over 30 minutes. I suppose we could have spontaneously waited in hour long lines, but this was good too... Were there some reservations we couldn't get because we only planned for 3 months? Yeah, maybe we'll do them next time, maybe not.

And as far as the CMs, we thought they were awesome. In fact there's this one kid at POC that we joked about for the longest time. He was like 22 and he was loading people on POC. He was kind of phoning it in. It wasn't that he wasn't doing his job, he wasn't rude--he just wasn't fully engaged like everyone else. And he stood out for that. Seriously he would have been an average employee at our Target, I'm pretty sure he'd be employee of the month at Walmart--and he was the worst employee we encountered, in a week of sometimes 14 hour days! That's amazing to me.

Maybe things will change but I think we have a lot more good trips in us. On the other hand when people talk about having been twenty, thirty times I can't think of anywhere I could go that many times that I wouldn't get tire of. I mean there are a lot of great places to vacation out there...

When I went to college our fraternity house was on campus and was basically a dorm we lived in. I remember one Homecoming we ran into some alums who'd gone to school there about 25 years before us and said things were so much better when they went to school there because they could have their fraternity house off campus and do things how they liked. We thought they were some nice but cranky old codgers.

A few years later they changed the fraternity housing system and only the fraternity officers could live in the fraternity house. Everybody else just had to live in the general population with everyone else. In the opinion of the people of our era, things were so much better when we went to school there because we could all live together in one place. The current generation probably thinks of us like we thought of the previous generation: we're just some cranky old codgers now.

Way-too-long story to highlight the fact that each group of WDW junkies probably thinks of their generation as the best. Me, I came onto WDW in what I consider to be a glorious golden time of legacy FP, beginning of the DDP when it included app, entree, dessert and 18% tip, etc. Someone who fell in love with WDW in the pre-FP/pre-DDP era probably thinks their way was best. And people who are spending their 1st day at WDW today will probably think their era is best.

Disney is probably counting on that. They know those of us who've been a lot before and don't like it as much now are easily replaced by 1st-timers who will fall in love with the parks and the way Disney does things now.

 

[wilbret]

Our kids are still in the "go to WDW" age range, but I totally get this thread. We were gifted DVC by grandparents that were on staff in 71 at opening. We'll always love WDW, but I can see my kids evolve to Universal already at the ages of 10, 8 and 6. In fact, we asked if they wanted passes anywhere and they picked Legoland this year. Huge win for us, since they were on sale for like $75 the other day. They'll never know!

All the people with scooters is crazy. They really should check to see if they need them. One of our kids almost got taken out by one. Luckily, she hit a post and didn't drive under the chain. Buses seem to almost ALWAYS have one on them and it adds 10 or 15 minutes to your drive. Get 2 on there? OMG. We literally missed a FP this last trip due to the bus taking so long from CBR to MK.

 

[goofyernmost]

These threads always make me wonder what the parks used to be like. We went for the first time last Fall and thought it was awesome--so much so that we've planned a couple more trips already, and one to Disneyland for good measure.

But I guess the expectations were different. It was something I had always wanted to do that I was finally doing--I went into it the same way I did a trip to Paris. It was a splurge, far from the most expensive vacation we've taken, but solidly a splurge nonetheless. We had a week and wanted to do pretty much everything and, thanks to all the ways you could plan, we were able to. Dh was constantly commenting about how long everyone else was waiting. In a week we waited over 15 minutes a handful of times and never over 30 minutes. I suppose we could have spontaneously waited in hour long lines, but this was good too... Were there some reservations we couldn't get because we only planned for 3 months? Yeah, maybe we'll do them next time, maybe not.

And as far as the CMs, we thought they were awesome. In fact there's this one kid at POC that we joked about for the longest time. He was like 22 and he was loading people on POC. He was kind of phoning it in. It wasn't that he wasn't doing his job, he wasn't rude--he just wasn't fully engaged like everyone else. And he stood out for that. Seriously he would have been an average employee at our Target, I'm pretty sure he'd be employee of the month at Walmart--and he was the worst employee we encountered, in a week of sometimes 14 hour days! That's amazing to me.

Maybe things will change but I think we have a lot more good trips in us. On the other hand when people talk about having been twenty, thirty times I can't think of anywhere I could go that many times that I wouldn't get tire of. I mean there are a lot of great places to vacation out there...

Rule of thumb, always go with your own opinion. The opinion of others is solid based on their opinions. Many of the people that say how much better it was back then are relying on childhood memories which are painfully exaggerated and filled with childhood excitement.

There are a few things that are less joyful then before like the need for so much advanced planning, the prices and the line times, but, generally the parks are prettier, the rides are much more technical and exciting and there is way more to do, but, it is at a higher cost.

If you loved it then go with that feeling and take with a grain of salt what others say. Judge for yourself and you will not go wrong. I didn't go at least once a year, for 35 years because it was not everything I wanted it to be. I am older now and going there is much more physically and financially prohibiting. So many times people ask this board and others, what rides should I go too or which ones should I avoid. We cannot answer that. Only you know what your likes and dislikes are. What someone else might like, you might hate and vice versa.

 

[L&Lfan]

It's fascinating to look at old View Master slides of MK from the '70s and '80s and Epcot from the '80s to see how much they've changed. I actually think the parks were prettier back then with more trees and flowers, more benches upon which to sit and less booths, stands and kiosks every few feet hawking something. We have the old slides and Disneyland in the '60s and '70s.

 

[cruiser21]

After multiple trips we stayed away for 5 years. During that time we made a three trips to Europe, Hawaii, Alaska...etc. We went back to WDW last year and decided to go again this year. I did not miss WDW at all, but I have a son who likes it and wanted to experience it again. I got drug back into it.
I did get annual passes this year. Mostly because I started a new job and I am not going to have a lot of time off over the next year.

WDW is easy. Yes the fast pass plus thing is a PITA, but in the grand scheme of vacation planning...compared to Europe and such things it's pretty easy. After this year we'll probably won't go back for a couple of years. I'd like to make one more trip to see Star Wars land, but my kids are 14 and 15. I don't see us going back without kids.

 

[cabanafrau]

The ridiculous need to schedule things and adhere to a daily schedule to visit a theme park!

I feel like I've heard that before, word for word.

 

[Klayfish]

The ridiculous need to schedule things and adhere to a daily schedule to visit a theme park!

It's only that way if you choose to make it that way. It's not required...at all.

 

[luvsJack]

My very first trip to WDW was just a very few years after it opened when I was in high school. Only the MK. It was nice. Not very crowded and the characters popping up were fun. The food was really good too, or so I remember. But it wasn't my best trip at all.

Went as a family in 1990, 2002, 2006, 2013 and 2015.

Each trip there have been changes. Each trip we had to adapt and we did. But the last two, just too much adapting; especially that last one. I don't want to know what ride I will be riding at 10:15 on Tuesday in October, in August. I just don't want to think about it that much. The 2006 and 2013 trips were far from "just pack up and go" but they were still easier than 2015.

If you make ADRs picking your FP+ isn't quite as simple as some want you to believe. The two have to mesh. And going to the least crowded park on certain days is another wrench to throw in there. Its a whole lot more organizing than it really should be to go to a theme park.

Now, no, you don't have to do any of this. You can just go and wing it. And when you then say "I spent my whole AK day in line to rid FOP in Pandora. Didn't get to do anything else" The same people that tell you "you don't have to have a schedule and stick to it" will then tell you "but you didn't have a plan! You have to have a plan, stick to it, and get those FP+ at 60 days out and then sit on your phone and refresh, refresh, refresh to not have wait in those crazy lines".

 

[Bethislucy]

I'm not giving it up but I do need to take a break. The paying to park my car on property that never moves from the spot is what just did me in. I need a break from the constant nickel and diming me. I know we've got one more trip next month and then we are taking at least a year maybe 2 year break. We normally go once a year. Maybe after some of the star wars craziness is gone we will go back. Well maybe a a short trip for my nephew's 16th birthday who loves star wars in 2020 well if I can afford it.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Ah, ok, sorry, people JUST think it's FUN to pee on things other people like.

 

[cabanafrau]

My very first trip to WDW was just a very few years after it opened when I was in high school. Only the MK. It was nice. Not very crowded and the characters popping up were fun. The food was really good too, or so I remember. But it wasn't my best trip at all.

Went as a family in 1990, 2002, 2006, 2013 and 2015.

Each trip there have been changes. Each trip we had to adapt and we did. But the last two, just too much adapting; especially that last one. I don't want to know what ride I will be riding at 10:15 on Tuesday in October, in August. I just don't want to think about it that much. The 2006 and 2013 trips were far from "just pack up and go" but they were still easier than 2015.

If you make ADRs picking your FP+ isn't quite as simple as some want you to believe. The two have to mesh. And going to the least crowded park on certain days is another wrench to throw in there. Its a whole lot more organizing than it really should be to go to a theme park.

Now, no, you don't have to do any of this. You can just go and wing it. And when you then say "I spent my whole AK day in line to rid FOP in Pandora. Didn't get to do anything else" The same people that tell you "you don't have to have a schedule and stick to it" will then tell you "but you didn't have a plan! You have to have a plan, stick to it, and get those FP+ at 60 days out and then sit on your phone and refresh, refresh, refresh to not have wait in those crazy lines".

It's not insignificant that after years of ever increasing attendance levels and minimal significant investments to guest offerings the company decided to make a massive capital investment in something their customers cannot watch, cannot ride, cannot attend, cannot walk around, cannot sit down and relax upon and amidst. Instead they poured massive amounts of money into the means to throttle customer access at the company's will, collect data to allow the company to easily identify times to both broadly boost ticket pricing due to surges in demand and draw down staffing levels in even the slightest attendance declines to cut costs while still denying customers the benefits of traveling when there are in fact less customers overall visiting.

If that was a corporate strategy I was simply reading about in the abstract I'd tell you that is a company that really isn't interested in customer satisfaction and really isn't concerned about customer satisfaction because they absolutely believe they don't need to be. I'd also tell you it's a company that isn't particularly interested in being a loyal employer to loyal employees. If you told me that company was simultaneously attempting to peddle the corporate line that they have guests not customers I'd struggle to maintain a politely blank look.

 

[cabanafrau]

I'm not giving it up but I do need to take a break. The paying to park my car on property that never moves from the spot is what just did me in. I need a break from the constant nickel and diming me. I know we've got one more trip next month and then we are taking at least a year maybe 2 year break. We normally go once a year. Maybe after some of the star wars craziness is gone we will go back. Well maybe a a short trip for my nephew's 16th birthday who loves star wars in 2020 well if I can afford it.

It's interesting that within a year or so after the creation of the entirely new revenue stream generated by charging those staying at the resorts to park at their resort it was still necessary to boost the fees for parking at the parks by what, 25%?

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I haven't "given up" per se, but we are taking a break with all of the construction and changes. I don't feel like there's a need to go back before Star Wars: Galaxy Edge is open. And the new Guardians Ride opens in 2021, and the updated Spaceship Earth opens in 2022. We might wait until 2022 to go back.

We love the resort, and we don't mind the planning, but it's just kind of gotten old hat at this point.

Although adding the charge for resort parking really ticks me off. A lot.

 

[amberpi]

Personal addition: we said after the MNSSHP a couple of a weeks ago - never again. Both kids have now talked about "when we got back to Mickey's Scary Party," and that guys, is how they keep families coming back. Going as adults only is easy. Going with kids is hard, but d***, when the kids are so happy, it's very hard to say no. I know we won't be able to say no to that.

 

[goofyernmost]

I think you are right. I also think that a lot of people who are okay with the current standards never visited years ago when 20 mins. was considered an insane amount of time to wait. I remember walking down Main St. and there were like 10 other people around. What is considered very low crowds today was considered "packed" years ago. Many of the changes are good though like the new TS land, and star wars, guardians of the galaxy etc. I am excited to see how that all turns out.

At least since 1983 there has never been a time when a 20 minute wait was considered an insane amount of time to wait.

 

[Hrhpd]

I remember when DH's company used to schedule business trips for the executives to learn about customer service. That doesn't happen anymore as their vision of customer service has drastically changed.

Why we no longer go?
Our children grew up and discovered Universal.
None of us ever subscribed to the notion that there was "magic" in a for-profit business. We went for the fun. The fun is no longer there with all the planning, the long queue lines and the exorbitant prices for nothing more than a theme park, so we moved on. We may go back in the future to check things out, but I highly doubt it.

Seeing natural wonders around the world is far more interesting now.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I actually think the parks were prettier back then with more trees and flowers, more benches upon which to sit.

The front area of Epcot is one of my biggest disappointments regarding the prettiness being taken away.
And as far as benches, I remember when one of my favorite activities at WDW was to sit on a bench and I could enjoy people-watching for hours. I remember the WDW planning video that had one guy (Dave?) who was a bench-sitter also. My Hero! Now, not easy to find a bench.