What is your line in the sand?

[Suvadoo]

LOL! It probably has more to do with the predominately teenage local crowd that begins to get overwhelming by mid afternoon than anything else.

They bought their AP's using the monthly pay plan, they've paid for their food for the entire year (lunch and dinner on each park visit) for $75, and they get free tickets to bring their friends.

I think Six Flags figured out there's a ton of disposable income in that demographic, they just need more of them in the parks. They don't seem to put as much line pressure in the parks per-person because they are content to just hang with their friends.

So they attract and use one group of visitors to create higher guest turnover per day among the rest of the groups.

I remember DLR did this in the late 70's and it really became a mess. The teenagers drove away the families. Then the gangs started up at Knott's Berry Farm. I don't think it's ever a good idea for a business to focus on one demographic. It always ends up biting them in the rear!

 

[Suvadoo]

So do we HAVE to drag them to the ADRS and FP+? Sometimes I really question whether any of that adds to my enjoyment. I am at the point where what rides I do (or don't) has little to do with my love of WDW. I could easily spend all morning watching the dancing fountain & listening to my beloved Future World music, having a few drinks & watching World Showcase entertainers, strolling Main Street, watching the entertainers at DHS. These are my Disney moments. Really I don't care if I get a FP for Soarin or TSMM. Been there done that & will be back to try again another time. I will make all my ADRS &. FP+ but not at midnight of day 60. What I get, I get. No worries here. As repeat "offenders" thus should be easy

If Epcot did not charge for admission , I'd be sitting right beside you. But for us, we have a limited amount of time and AP's are not beneficial. So I just can't justify paying theme park admission to watch fountains and listen to music.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

So do we HAVE to drag them to the ADRS and FP+? Sometimes I really question whether any of that adds to my enjoyment. I am at the point where what rides I do (or don't) has little to do with my love of WDW. I could easily spend all morning watching the dancing fountain & listening to my beloved Future World music, having a few drinks & watching World Showcase entertainers, strolling Main Street, watching the entertainers at DHS. These are my Disney moments. Really I don't care if I get a FP for Soarin or TSMM. Been there done that & will be back to try again another time. I will make all my ADRS &. FP+ but not at midnight of day 60. What I get, I get. No worries here. As repeat "offenders" thus should be easy

Originally I thought so. Then I changed the schedule and dropped the fps and the ADRs for the last 3 days and the last 2 were the best days we had at WDW. Tuesday the 2nd was a *magical* day but the relaxed days were great.

 

[Laketravis]

I remember DLR did this in the late 70's and it really became a mess. The teenagers drove away the families. Then the gangs started up at Knott's Berry Farm. I don't think it's ever a good idea for a business to focus on one demographic. It always ends up biting them in the rear!

Wow, that's exactly what happened at Six Flags over Texas in 2007 when I took DS (2 at the time) to his first amusement park. When we came out of the Loony Toon section that evening, there was nothing but gang bangers in the rest of the park. The Arlington police even had those crank-up towers setup inside the park to watch them from above. Seemed like every 15 minutes they'd form a human police circle around a group of kids that started something. Crazy.

And yeah, if all I wanted was fountains and music I can sit outside Austin City Hall for free.

 

[pooch]

Yes I have kids and grand kids. And maybe fountains and music aren't everyone's cup of tea. I was just pointing out that, for me and my family, isn't all about how many rides we can get on in how short a time. I've been on soarin' at least a dozen times. If, for whatever reason I can't get on it next trip, it's not gonna ruin the vacation. Now if it was a once in a lifetime trip, that would be different.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I am not sure if you posted earlier, but do you have kids? There is NO way that my kids would be happy sitting around watching dancing fountains, as much as I would love to. In the 10 day trip that we just got back from we went to the parks everyday, yes everyday. Because my kids love the rides and that is all they wanted to do. So FP+ and ADR's are extremely necessary for us. And all of that had made the trips much less enjoyable. I don't want to plan where I am going to be 2 months from now, what rides I will want to ride and where I am going to want to eat. But it has gotten to the point where that is what you have to do, because standby lines have gotten longer and without FP+ reservations, we may not get on what you want to ride without a 45+ minute wait.

Other than AK, I'm not sure there's any way around FP+ for us. Now ADR's? I don't know if I'll ever do another & certainly not for anything other than breakfast. We're perfectly fine grabbing Subway out of the locker or doing CS for all our meals.

 

[CTDisneyfan816]

Wow... since you put it that way.... yeah. I already know how many hundreds of dollars per day it costs us to stay, eat, and play on site - now with 3 FP's and long lines for everything else WDW is making it really easy for me to calculate what I am getting in return.

I know this probably sounds silly because it really isn't "free" but our line in the sand is most likely "free" dining. We've been able to get it every time we've gone since 2010, and we max out our stay at 14 nights to get max value out of it. And max value we get - I gained 4 lbs this last trip. We consumed what would have been over $200 a day in meals and snacks. I would never willingly pay that much out-of-pocket, so in absence of that last little incentive we will be staying off-site in March and eating at places with comparably better food for less dollars. Like Capital Grille. Yum. Caveman like Meat.

That will be the first time we've ever stayed off-site. Ever. Since 1972. I can't even imagine what we might do if we find out we actually LIKE it and making the trek into WDW to use 3 FP's just doesn't seem to be worth it anymore.

Austin, Texas, my cousin is part owner of a restaurant and food product chain there. Stubbs BBQ.