First Time I Ever Felt That WDW Wasn't Worth The Time and Money

[Texans_loyal]

Were the busses not coming or was the line so long you had to wait for multiple busses?

No buses were coming for POP or AOA.

 

[StraightToDumbo]

Were the busses not coming or was the line so long you had to wait for multiple busses?

Generally I was happy with the FREQUENCY of busses for AoA and Pop. It's not like we were thinking "jeez, are they even running busses." However, the amount of busses for the amount of people required to move seems like it is completely out of whack, especially for Pop, AoA, and Caribbean Beach from what we saw.

 

[Colleen27]

I do feel like the whole WDW experience has gotten more expensive and more stressful, which certainly detracts from the value. There was a time when we never missed a year and often went multiple times per year. Now we feel like 2-3 years between trips is good. Only part of that can be laid at Disney's feet - part of it is also that the kids are older so other travels are more attractive and more doable than they were with little ones - but the crowds, the prices, and the insane levels of planning (even for me, a uber-planner in general when it comes to traveling) are big factors as well.

But I wonder how much of it was that CMs were scheduled in anticipation of one crowd level, and then the Irma reschedules bumped that up to a higher level? They may also have oversold some of the post-hurricane Halloween parties to ensure everyone who missed a party during the storm could get tickets to a different night.

The worst crowd experiences we've had at Disney were on days that were unexpectedly crowded. Not everything was running at capacity (only loading from one side of Pirates or Thunder, for example), not everything was open (in terms of seasonal dining venues, all the registers in retail/food courts, etc), fewer photographers were out and about, and therefore the parks didn't handle the crowds as well as they do when they're expecting to be mobbed. An unseasonably lovely weekend in January was worse in many ways than Memorial Day weekend or the weekend before Christmas, and I do chalk that up to the collision of low-season staff schedules with larger-than-expected crowds. The same may very well have been in play in the weeks immediately following the hurricane, due to the perfect storm (pun intended) of cast schedules already written to accommodate lower crowds, a sudden uptick in occupancy and park attendance from people rescheduling trip, and less ability than normal to call in cast members at the last minute because many had likely evacuated or were busy dealing with damage to their homes and other storm-related concerns.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I was with you up to this portion of your post. The fact that you encountered such heavy crowds would tend to disprove your premise, no? One of two things must be true: Either the masses you witnessed find WDW to be worthwhile, or...everyone you saw was having a lousy time. Whether something is worthwhile is relative. That said, I would agree that more and more people are coming around to your conclusion especially if they are people who have aged with WDW and seen the changes. But this doesn't translate to "most people". But it is "many people".

I disagree. You have created a false dichotomy. Here's why:

1. When folks say crowds, they aren't talking raw statistics of how many people are at WDW. They mean their personal experience with 1.) queue waits and 2.) guest rudeness.

When it comes to queue waits, WDW gets better every day at managing them. I don't mean lowering waits, I mean precisely regulating waits we'll tolerate.

Most attractions and restaurants have an ability to adjust. They adjust the number of: cars running, open registers, open park gates, security queues, how long guests wait to be seated (TS), and much more. WDW adjusts the number of buses, monorail trains, and boats that are running.

Speeding us along is not in WDW's interest. Waits aren't the same as total number of guests, far from it.

Every guest who eats onsite instead of offsite = more money for WDW.

People love/hate the waits. Crowds mean WDW is popular. Popular people vacation at popular spots. But, we also like to complain. Just as kids have a love/hate relationship with school and taking medicine.

****
Guest rudeness is probably also on the uptick. We don't control other guests, so it is hard to calculate the impact. While we mentally prepare for the possibility of rude guests, most of us try to be optimistic about the individuals around us.

 

[brewhome]

I agree with the folks that have recommended spreading the trips out a bit. I had a stretch where I was there 5 times in 3 years, and it was a bit much by the last trip. We had a great time on each, but I did have a little burn out from the crowds and from doing the same things over and over. Now we're on an every other year pace and I think that's going to be perfect going forward. It's enough time for us to miss being there, and I think there will be enough new things to see every two years as well. We're going in 35 days (YAY!!!) and Pandora, evening shows/activities at AK, Happily Ever After, and updates to Disney Springs will be the biggest "new" things for us. Next time we go will be in 2019, and the new Toy Story Land and (hopefully) the Star Wars stuff will be new to us. By 2021, I assume Guardians of the Galaxy and the new Mickey/Minnie ride in HS will be open, and maybe even the Tron coaster. That will be enough to keep us excited and engaged.

For this upcoming trip, we only made one dining reservation since we'll be spending lots of time at F&W, and none of us are "married" to it so if we decide to change it while we are there, so be it. I did make my three FP per day for big ticket items, but we're totally open to changing anything up while we are there. I think over planning sets expectations way too high and people are setting themselves up for disappointment if they have a rigid touring plan, because any deviation may throw them off.

Regarding food prices... I used to think they were ridiculous, but I will tell you, as I see more restaurants open in my home city, I don't think Disney is way out of whack any more. Steak prices there compared to new places around here are comparable, as well as cocktails - I used to think $12 was a lot for a cocktail, but I'm paying that or more at home now in anything other than a common chain restaurant. And I live in a suburb of Buffalo, NY, so it's not like I'm talking about NYC prices here.

Regarding rudeness... I believe that is EVERYWHERE. Even in my workplace. I work for a large corporation and I am continuously disappointed in people who no longer hold doors or offer to hold the elevator, who can't shake hands and look you in the eye, and people who can't take their faces out of their phones to say hello to a stranger (or a co-worker!) in the hallways. Manners have been out the window for a while everywhere, so bad behavior at Disney is expected and I am pleasantly surprised when people are nice.

I'm a "go with the flow" kind of person and if something is annoying to me, I remove myself from the situation or just don't go there (i.e. lines over 30 minutes, etc). Your results may vary.

 

[Togadadof2]

Thanks, I really appreciate the reply and I'll only trouble you with one question, do you use a travel agent or do you plan these trips yourself and if self planned using what info?

Thanks,

Bill From PA

No trouble at all. We do not use a travel agent, we do everything ourselves online using lots of different info. I scour orbitz, google flights, etc for flight deals. Airbnb for lodging. Things like that.

 

[999_Happy_Haunts]

I disagree. You have created a false dichotomy. Here's why:

1. When folks say crowds, they aren't talking raw statistics of how many people are at WDW. They mean their personal experience with 1.) queue waits and 2.) guest rudeness.

When it comes to queue waits, WDW gets better every day at managing them. I don't mean lowering waits, I mean precisely regulating waits we'll tolerate.

Most attractions and restaurants have an ability to adjust. They adjust the number of: cars running, open registers, open park gates, security queues, how long guests wait to be seated (TS), and much more. WDW adjusts the number of buses, monorail trains, and boats that are running.

Speeding us along is not in WDW's interest. Waits aren't the same as total number of guests, far from it.

Every guest who eats onsite instead of offsite = more money for WDW.

People love/hate the waits. Crowds mean WDW is popular. Popular people vacation at popular spots. But, we also like to complain. Just as kids have a love/hate relationship with school and taking medicine.

****
Guest rudeness is probably also on the uptick. We don't control other guests, so it is hard to calculate the impact. While we mentally prepare for the possibility of rude guests, most of us try to be optimistic about the individuals around us.

Way overthinking it.

Simple math. Lots of people were at WDW. That is what the OP is reporting. We have to take that at face value. What drew them there? What kept them there? If they were returning guests, what brought them back? If a trip to WDW is no longer worth the effort, (which was the OP's premise), then people wouldn't go. And yet they do.

Conclusion? It is either "worth it" to the people who are going, or the people who go learn upon arrival that they miscalculated their fun factor and they are actually miserable.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

When it comes to adjusting our WDW trips, we're also going less often. Funny thing is, we still go to Florida, we just spend less of our vacation at WDW.

We've been very happy visiting other parts of Florida as far back as I have been going to Florida.

We took many WDW-only trips when it made sense, but my whole life I've also done combo Florida trips. Florida has many fun cities.

I always appreciated the flexibility of WDW. For many years, if the weather was bad one day, we could modify our day around it. Maybe we waited an hour. We didn't make ADR's more than a few hours in advance.

If you wanted to go to MK instead of Epcot, we could. There was no penalty.

If we wanted to book a last minute trip to WDW, we could. The only penalty was that we might not get an ADR at 'Ohana.

These days, there's no changing anything. Also gone are the days of riding Space Mountain twice in one day with a FP.

I like flexible vacations. Universal still allows us to be flexible (for the time being). Tampa is quite flexible. We aren't locked into where we eat or when we arrive at the beach.

 

[Eastern]

On our first day at MK (9/21) a woman ran over my foot with her child in a stroller! She kept going and I said, 'thank you!' and she replied, 'you're welcome!' It got better from there but it was a rude introduction to my vacation.

 

[nat8199]

We only go every 4-5 years. This last trip we stayed 8 nights with 8 day park hoppers. This made it easier to do every attraction we wanted. Sometimes we only hit parks for a half day, enough to use up fastpasses for high demand attractions and then go relax. I don't think I would do anything less than a full week again.

This is our strategy for our next trip. I think between more time & flexibility, and not have my in-laws with us, we (I) will have a more enjoyable trip than our last to have been.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Way overthinking it.

Simple math. Lots of people were at WDW. That is what the OP is reporting. We have to take that at face value. What drew them there? What kept them there? If they were returning guests, what brought them back? If a trip to WDW is no longer worth the effort, (which was the OP's premise), then people wouldn't go. And yet they do.

Conclusion? It is either "worth it" to the people who are going, or the people who go learn upon arrival that they miscalculated their fun factor and they are actually miserable.

What kept them there???? The rigidity of everything.

1. Airline change fees
2. no show ADR fees
3. non refundable park tickets
4. prebooked FP

I could go on....

If used to be, that if I caught a cold at WDW, I could use my ticket another day. Now: use it or lose it. Other folks recently posted about losing their FoP FP, that they worked so hard to obtain. The reality of FP+ isn't that great.

Also, a large % of WDW visitors are first timers or those who only go once ever ten years. Advertising brings them there, and they have no idea what a visit to WDW was like five years ago or what it cost.

Also, there are a great many people at WDW. We really have no idea how many are happy, and what % of the day they are happy/unhappy. Much of what I posted was about my experience. I don't know what you like.

When I read OP, I heard what I'm feeling about WDW. I still love parts of WDW, but the number of things I don't like keep creeping up and up.

Individually, I can overlook most of the above, and work around them. Collectively though, they become a problem.

I can accept that Space Mtn is down today, if it was running yesterday. I can accept that we just missed the MK bus, if we haven't waited for buses all week. It is often the aggregate that disappoints me.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

I haven't read all the responses but just wanted to say I have had one of those trips. Sometimes things aren't so magical and I remember thinking, if this was my first trip, I would never want to come back. It was upsetting so I gave it a break for a few years. I have been on 2 trips since then and had a great time both trips. Hopefully the magic will return for you in the future.

 

[adelaster]

I totally get it. Here is what I did to love Disney World again. Rent a car always and drive to parks whether we stay off property or not. Very few (if any) ADR's. we rope drop most days but rarely do the nighttime stuff and spend a lot of time lounging at the pool.

But the real key IMO is the rental car. For me it is worlds better than the busses. I know others disagree.

Where do you rent from? I can't find a decent place in MCO.

 

[sara_s]

Why not support the legitimate taxi services and use them instead? They pay a fee for their license and are regulated. I'm surprised WDW lets Uber and Lyft on property, into the parking lots and into resort parking lots. Do they have to pay to get into the park lots? They should.

No idea. Like I said, I've never used them on property. However Uber and Lyft are a lot easier to get than a taxi in any city I've been in. They're everywhere and ready to go.

 

[brockash]

I also think the "secret" slow month of September is no longer that slow month it used to be. People are reading up on vacations and planning their dates. That's why I think the crowds were lower in the summer this year too. I know for our upcoming trip the very end of November we booked it because of the potentially lower crowds. Those crowd predictions have slowly risen over the past 6 months.

It's not just that more ppl. are going, but more in my opinion is how Disney keeps cutting
back and running at less and less capacity. We used to always go first week of Sept., the last couple years we've gone the last week of Aug. Our most recent trip, they were only running 1 side of Pirates, so sent every other boat completely empty making our wait almost an hr. (something that not long ago would have basically been a walk on for us during the time we go). They only had 1 bay at Cosmic Rays open, something we've never seen (this was during prime lunch time), didn't run Space or Thunder at capacity and photopass ppl. were basically non existent at the water parks (not to mention the lack of direct bus service to/from them). These were just the things we could see first hand and remembered, and I'm not that observant of a person, it was just so blatant, who knows what else. No nighttime parade, more pay extra party events, less extra magic hours etc.

The motto of Disney the last several years in my opinion is raise prices, provide less. I get it's a business, but for us that's the difference we've noticed.

 

[GlennN]

Way overthinking it.

Simple math. Lots of people were at WDW. That is what the OP is reporting. We have to take that at face value. What drew them there? What kept them there? If they were returning guests, what brought them back? If a trip to WDW is no longer worth the effort, (which was the OP's premise), then people wouldn't go. And yet they do.

Conclusion? It is either "worth it" to the people who are going, or the people who go learn upon arrival that they miscalculated their fun factor and they are actually miserable.

I can't help but think of Yogi Berra: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

 

[brockash]

Way overthinking it.

Simple math. Lots of people were at WDW. That is what the OP is reporting. We have to take that at face value. What drew them there? What kept them there? If they were returning guests, what brought them back? If a trip to WDW is no longer worth the effort, (which was the OP's premise), then people wouldn't go. And yet they do.

Conclusion? It is either "worth it" to the people who are going, or the people who go learn upon arrival that they miscalculated their fun factor and they are actually miserable.

No, I think the pp is correct. The start of magic bands and Disney tracking your every move enabled them to figure out exact numbers/times etc., and they're using that to figure out how close they can cut it, services etc., and how much a guest will put up with so they can spend the least amount of money. This was beyond evident during our last trip a little of a month ago.

 

[adelaster]

. A stroller took me totally down, made both my knees bleed and they didn't even say "sorry." The butthold paused, and then just turned and kept going.

It REALLY bothers me that Disney doesn't do more about this stuff. I have to assume it is partially short-staffing and/or a lack of empowerment on the part of cast members to take action. Either way, it is truly unacceptable the physical misbehaviour that guests get away with. I've pretty much made up my mind that if I get hurt when I go next I'm speaking up. Maybe I'll take photos if I can. I just wish the crowds united against this kind of thing instead of turning a blind eye. Messed up.

 

[AJT607]

OP - I'm sorry that your trip was less than magical. I just wanted to provide a counter opinion. We traveled for a quick getaway Sept 14-18 and found the exact opposite. Our first trip ever was back in June 2015, so we never experienced life before FP+ and MDE and MagicBands. During each of our previous trips (in April and June), we found days when parks were more crowded than others, and afternoons where crowds felt tough to navigate. However, this trip had some of the lowest crowds that I've ever spotted in Disney parks. When we arrived at Epcot on Thursday morning at 10:30am, Frozen Ever After was a walk-on. Some of this was probably due to hurricane hangover and some of this had to do with lower crowds in the fall. With smart time management, our group was able to accomplish every one of our goals that we set for ourselves over the five day trip. We even had one group member arrive late on Saturday morning and over just two days - we got him on each of the major attractions at DAK, Epcot and Magic Kingdom.

I like the newer electronic systems because it allows us to have a plan that guarantees we will be able to accomplish some of the items on our bucket list. If we have a last minute change of plans, I've never encountered problems calling the dining reservation lines and getting cancellation fees waived. I've also never had issues switching fastpasses at the last minute when we decide to visit Epcot instead of Magic Kingdom. Are the hardest-to-get Fastpasses available at the last minute? Usually not - but we still make the best of it with smart touring strategies (like getting there for rope drop).

 

[999_Happy_Haunts]

No, I think the pp is correct. The start of magic bands and Disney tracking your every move enabled them to figure out exact numbers/times etc., and they're using that to figure out how close they can cut it, services etc., and how much a guest will put up with so they can spend the least amount of money. This was beyond evident during our last trip a little of a month ago.

Apples and kumquats. You both are addressing what people do once they get there. How their movements are monitored. How Disney controls crowds. None of that is relevant to the OPs hypothesis that going to WDW is no longer worth the effort and cost. The Yogi Berra comment is more apt. If the place is really, really crowded, then lots of people must feel as if making the trip is worthwhile. The other possibility is that lots and lots of people are going to return home disillusioned in the same way the OP now is. Don't overthink this.