You can see in my signature that I have been to Disney many times.
I even made my second trip on my current Annual Pass and was at Bay Lake Tower and then Animal Kingdom Lodge, Jambo House just a few days ago.
If you are going in 2022 you need to lower your expectations a lot.
I have used Touring Plans and been a rope dropper for many, many years.
I was often able to get 90 percent of my rides/shows done by lunchtime .....and wrapped up each day with a feeling of joy and happiness.
I was able to ride some rides more than once each day and sometimes would hop to a second or third park if I wanted to........I felt free as a bird.
This is not the case anymore.
For the moment, let's put aside the huge cost of resorts, food/beverage,
Genie+, and ILL.
Even if G+ were free, it is an inferior product to FP+.
I can even accept the Park Pass requirement for the first park of the day, but park hopping at 2pm it like hitting my kneecaps with a baseball bat.
In the old days, I would often rope drop park number 1 and then hop to park number 2 sometime in the morning.
The present system makes each day feel like we have a national speed limit of 55 again and I am driving around with my parking brake engaged.
If we had little ones in our group, the focus of a typical day would be very different.....even only doing 3 or 4 rides with a child/grandchild, the day's enjoyment is derived from seeing the little ones have a wonderful day.
For years, I tried to maximize the number of days I could be at WDW with my AP.
I would stay off site and on site.
These days, it is not so much that the on site folks have a huge advantage compared to the past.......it is that the off site people barely get adequate leftovers by the time they can enter the park and/or buy ILL rides.
I have trips planned for April/May/Sept/Oct on this AP. (I do not like the super hot months)
I am not going to focus on max days at Disney this year.
I went in Dec 2021, Jan 2022 and have a trip with our daughter (a teacher) over the President's Day weekend.
I will have been 3 times on this AP.......I feel I have broken even on the cost.
I will be cancelling the rest of the trips I had on the books for later this year.
That money and time will be spent elsewhere.
Although some of the environment has been impacted by Covid...... a large part of the reduced experience is due to decisions made by management.
Now......I have not said much about the nickel and diming that really adds up now.
At a value resort, a couple on a trip has to pay an extra $47 each day just to park and use Genie+.
When you add the impact of a diminished experience with the very high cost, the value of the experience has been greatly reduced.
Look......I am a Disney fan.
Disney, Coke, a Big Mac, are all part of a truly American experience. I can not imagine life as we know it if they were to all disappear.
Disney has very good customer service.....if the IT situation was not so mediocre, I would say Disney has some of the best customer service of any company.
However, at this time, the overall experience requires a lot of money, a lot a planning, and each day has a lot of chaos caused by the unpredictability of getting a LL or ILL,........and to be under the gun to compete at 7am for a seat on a ride is not relaxing or enjoyable.
And having my face buried in the phone a good part of the day does not add to my enjoyment either.
I composed this because I saw some small headlines about Disney guests not being really thrilled right now.....I thought I may have been the only one that felt this way.......but there is now a bit of rumbling going on........and social media has the ability to provide us to look at the good and the bad comments.
The experience has changed for the worse.
They better improve it substantially and quickly.
I think many of the 2022 visitors may be so unhappy, they may not return or postpone future trips.
In a way, Disney has messed up my Happy Place................and I am a bit sad about that.
