I loved our trip, but am still going to tell you things that made me crazy!

[Suze10860]

I’m going to tell you about the good/the bad/the ugly from our trip. The things that made me super happy, as well as the things that annoyed me. I’m pretty sure I’m even going to rant some on my feelings about Disney in general.

Here are our deets:

Trip was me and my husband, in our mid-60s and retired. We booked the trip rather spontaneously about 3 weeks before we went.
5 nights at The Yacht Club: February 4 - February 9
6 day Park Hopper Passes
Our last trip was 8 or 9 years ago

I made no dining reservations beforehand and at the last minute purchased one LL for Guardians, as we knew that there was nothing so important to us that it would mess up our trip if we missed it.

With the exception of that one LL, I refuse to give Disney more money simply so that I don’t have to wait on line. (I just didn’t want my husband to miss out on Guardians because I knew he’d really like it.)

My motto on this trip was definitely: Go with the flow!

There were some bumps in the road, but all-in-all, it was a very successful trip. Heck, it must have been. I’ve already booked a bounce-back deal so we can bring our 2 little grandbabies (with Mom & Dad) in about 18 months. My daughter joked that Disney sure knows how to reel you in!! LOL - she is correct.

I can tell you for sure that I was very sad on departure day - I wanted the vacation to last longer. I guess that’s the true sign of a successful trip.

But still, I’ve come to a conclusion on vacationing at Disney:

I LOVE Walt Disney World
I dislike the Disney Corporation

I feel pretty strongly that everything about the experience itself has gone downhill since we were there last, as Disney seems intent on wringing as many dollars out of their guests as humanly possible. And I’m tired of hearing from parrot-like cast members who are trained to tell us that every decision Disney makes is based on customer feedback to make our experience better. Sorry but I don’t buy that. None of the changes I experienced on this trip as compared to past visits (paid LL, 2 rides that have no standby line at all - only LL or VQ, replacing the original Extra Magic Hours program with what they have now) are for my benefit. And while it’s never been a bargain vacation, prices these days are pretty astronomical.

I get it, I know they’re a corporation and their goal is to make a profit. But it seems that the idea of creating a magical experience for their guests has decreased while the idea of extracting as much money as possible from their customers has increased. I feel there once was a better balance between the two.

And while I did interact with quite a few wonderful cast members (I’ll mention them later) I also for the first time saw some rather grumpy, short-tempered, not really doing their job to the best of their ability cast members. I truly don’t remember this happening in the past.

Note this example of my disappointment in Disney just today: I had a very unpleasant experience while attempting to book my bounce-back, getting differing and sometimes incorrect information from more than one Cast Member I spoke with. Because of this I decided to just do it myself online. But then there was an issue and when I called I was put through to a manager who tried to tell me that bounce-backs could NOT be booked online. I offered to send him a photo of the glossy flyer they left in our room with the code to scan and the message to “book directly online.” He told me that this was the first he’d heard of this! I was on the phone with him for well over an hour as he sorted out how to update the bounce-back reservations I had booked earlier. There are obviously some glitches in their system that prevented me from booking it the way it needed to be done, even though I was given the opportunity to do so and told by 2 other cast members (plus having said code to scan!) that I could do it on my own. And honestly, this Manager just wasn’t that nice to speak with and definitely had a little bit of an attitude. I know Disney is not perfect, but I do expect more from them.

I understand that plenty of people have no problem at all with these issues that bother me. I get it that there are some folks who love Disney full throttle no matter what. That’s fine. Not trying to convince anyone here of anything, but simply expressing how I feel.

As I said above, I was sad to leave and I will absolutely be back. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have my thoughts and opinions about the entire experience. General rant over…

Back to the trip…I had checked in online weeks before, but the My Disney App had not updated with our room info when we arrived and I received a text advising us to go to the front desk, so we did. Slightly annoying because I had checked in on line so that we didn’t have to stop at the Front Desk, but it was fine. No big deal. I was in the Disney Bubble!

The young lady said we were all set to go and were indeed checked in, but she could not tell me why my App had not updated. She did whatever magic she needed to do and we got our “Cards” as we had decided that we did not want Magic Bands and we’d be using the cards or my iPhone for admission/charges/etc. I know that some people are strongly Pro-Team Magic Bands, but I’m extremely happy we did not spend money to get them. Not once did we experience any delays or inconvenience using my phone or the cards.

We were in Room 3063 which was very far away from the lobby. I literally wasn’t sure I was even going the correct way it was so far! Thankfully the gentleman who brought our luggage answered my question about an easier way out, explaining we were located about 3 doors away from a stairway which led directly outside to the Boardwalk. That was pretty much the only way we accessed our room during the entire stay. Yes, we walked up 3 flights of steps even at the end of 11+ mile days! Thankfully not an issue for us. (There was an elevator also not far from our room if we had wanted it.)

Upon entering the room boy was I pleased - it seems that we had been upgraded from Resort View to Water View, looking directly out onto Crescent Lake. (Checking my App confirmed that our room was in fact Water View.) Not only did we enjoy the Epcot fireworks just about every night from our balcony, but I also saw some beautiful sunrises in the morning. That’s one big THANK YOU to Disney!!

Our only real complaint about a situation with the resort involves our check-out day. That morning, at 9:00 a.m. I heard a quiet rap on the door. No words - just a soft knock. By the time I could get across the room they had started to open the door, still without identifying herself. I loudly told her (it was not a regular cleaning lady) that we were still here and were checking out at 11:00. I don’t even think she apologized as she hurried away down the hall.

I was pretty ticked-off by this so I called to let someone know what had just happened. I don’t stay in a lot of hotels but I’m pretty sure that on the day of check-out maids are not supposed to be entering guests rooms at 9:00 a.m.!! I got a call back from a manager in housekeeping apologizing and saying that the maid made a mistake and went to the wrong room. I realize anyone can make a mistake, but it is definitely a little startling to have someone entering your room pretty unannounced at 9 in the morning when they are totally unexpected.

The MyDisneyExp app is a little glitchy. As I said, it didn’t update for my check-in and it actually checked us out automatically at around 10:00 a.m. which was before we left our room. I never did a check out. And on our first night there we had no charging privileges even though they had a credit card on file. When I stopped by the Front Desk they confirmed that we definitely should have had them, but did not, and they corrected it.

The entire process for using Disney E-gift cards is really messed up. If you want to use one at a TS restaurant, you need to walk over to the cash register with your server for some reason. Not a big deal, but a little inconvenient.

Then, getting the E-gift cards on to your hotel account is ridiculous. First, they can’t be added as a credit to charge against, but only as a payment for stuff you’ve already charged. And they will actually charge your credit card on file every other day or so which I didn’t want them to do. That’s why I had the E-cards - to cover charges made to our room. Then, to make matters worse, you can’t do it yourself. A Disney front desk employee needs to stand there and type in the info that you have on your phone to get the card onto your hotel account. And only for the amount of things you’ve already charged. I had quite the conversation with Jack at the Yacht Club on how convoluted the system is. (He’s not a fan either.) I felt like it was an inconvenience for him to have to do it and it was an inconvenience for me to have stop by the front desk multiple times to pay my room charges with the cards.

The above mentioned Jack (from Williamsburg) at the Yacht Club was truly a shining example of a wonderful Disney Cast Members. I dealt with him on 3 different occasions and he was incredible. He went above and beyond and is a big part of making my overall impression of this vacation, and specifically the YC, a positive one.

During our stay we visited a few other resorts (Animal Kingdom Lodge, Grand Floridian, Polynesian) and there is no other resort at which we'd prefer to stay. The Yacht Club is awesome!

The parks:
We hit up 2 parks every day - usually one in the morning and one in the late afternoon or evening. We always walked if we went to Epcot or Hollywood Studios. That’s why we like the Boardwalk resorts so much.

Here’s an interesting tidbit for anyone thinking about how much mileage you might put on during a WDW trip. My daily approximate recap:

Tuesday, February 4: 10,800 steps - 5 miles (Arrival Day)
Wednesday, February 5: 23,200 steps - 10.5 miles
Thursday, February 6: 19,000 steps - 8.6 miles
Friday, February 7: 25,045 steps - 11.4 miles
Saturday, February 8: 24,960 steps - 11.3 miles
Sunday, February 9: 6,900 - 3.1 miles (Departure Day)

We took the Disney buses to MK and AK, with only one real issue. On the day we wanted to go to AK for Early Entry we were at the YC bus stop by 7:00 a.m. and the sign indicated that the bus would arrive at 7:25. There were already people waiting who said they’d been there before 7:00 and no bus had come yet. We actually changed our plans and headed over to the MK since that bus came within a few minutes. I think ½-hour between buses is pretty unacceptable, especially first thing in the morning when trying to get there for Early Entry.

We didn’t wait on any long lines for attractions - not that there weren’t plenty of long lines there, but we’re just not into it. We rode plenty of rides with short or no waits and were content. There were bucket-loads of cheerleaders. So many. Before our trip I read differing opinions on how they affect park crowds. I think they do make a pretty substantial difference in crowds, but overall their presence wasn’t a big deal to us.

Favorite ride: Avatar - Flight of Passage

Did Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway - walk on. I understand that younger people probably have never heard of most of the movies in the old Great Movie Ride, but we loved that ride…we’re very nostalgic. But I’m sure my grandkids will love this someday. We also watched Muppets 3D - something I’m very sad to hear is leaving.

We ate some tasty food:
Got some School Bread (yum) and a Mickey Cinnamon Roll (meh - dry) at the Kringla Bakeri.
The Cuban and the Chicken/Mozz on ciabatta at Ale & Compass Marketplace were yummy
(And Vic and Shane who worked there were very kind, giving us a cupcake when we told them we’d had a difficult anniversary evening at the MK.)
Dinners at both Tutto Italia and Trattoria al Forno were excellent.
We also very much enjoyed the buffet at the Cape May Café
Breakfast at Les Halles Boulangerie was magnifique!
I thought the ice cream at Beaches and Cream was average at best.

The one area we did really run into long lines were at the food kiosks for the Epcot Festival of the Arts. We would have liked to have tried more, but did manage to snag a few tasty treats:

Squid Ink Pasta
Charred Octopus
Butterscotch Milkshake
Soft Shell Crab Slider
Cheddar and Chive Scone

I don’t care for Starbucks outside of WDW and I dislike it even more inside the parks. I miss the original old Main Street Bakery.

We took the Skyliner just for fun and it was one of the places where we encountered a Disney Cast Member not at their best. He was an older gentleman, cranky and impatient with the party in front of us who obviously did not speak English. We were not impressed with how he interacted with them.

Our “Extra Hours” evening at the MK was a bit of a bust. There were just too many rides down at one time! And then we got so caught up in trying to figure out what was available to ride that we messed up our dinner timing. We ended up absolutely starving with no real appealing options late in the evening.

So it was a frustrating night - partially our fault but also some legit complaints that were not on us. We spent so much time walking around trying to get on rides that closed unexpectedly (1 after we had waited about 25 minutes on the line!) that we let our eating get away from us. When the park itself is going to be open until Midnight, I wish they would have one or 2 real food options available at a later hour.

I want to end this by saying again that ultimately this was a wonderful vacation and we’ve already booked a bounce-back so that we can bring our grandbabies on their first Disney trip. So while it might seem like I did a lot of complaining above, the good most definitely outweighed the bad and Disney World continues to be one of my favorite places to visit.

 

[Gabby01]

Glad you got a room with such a spectacular view!

I've had multiple trips where housekeeping knocks on my door an hour or more before checkout, so I think that's a widespread practice, but it really annoys me, too. Especially when my room wasn't ready at check-in time! It just feels like bad hospitality, and makes me think that housekeeping is so short-staffed that they don't have enough time to clean all the rooms between checkout and check-in. I always tell them I'm still packing, and will leave by checkout time.

Thanks for sharing your experiences--I like the good/bad/ugly format!

 

[Narcoossee11]

Sounds like you had a nice trip.
.............advice.........

You're coming back with your family/grandkids. Learn from this trip what to expect. You saw what was good and what you need to do on this next trip differently. Don't use gift cards.

 

[maxiesmom]

Please when you are in your room always throw the latch. That way they can't come in to your room. I agree the early get you going knocks are a bit much.

I wonder if your MK night was the night they had a massive problem. That is not something that has happened before, but apparently there was some giant glitch that had many of the rides not working.

 

[iwannabdduck]

I hate to jump in on all the cast member complaining, but this post pretty much confirms some of my own feelings about how cast members at WDW are changing, along with everything else I belly ache, excuse me … talk about. They are “employees” now, not Cast Members. And if I put my old pre-retirement Human Resources hat back on (yes, that was my job back then) I wonder how many internal personnel policies Disney management is changing that might be responsible. For example, we used to get a satisfaction survey emailed to us after every resort stay years ago. Included in that survey was a question asking us to identify by name cast members we felt helped make our trip “magical”. That question made such an impression on me that I made a habit of writing down names I saw on name tags so that I didn’t forget them after I got home and received that email. Unfortunately, we do not get that survey anymore.

Oh, the stories I could share with you. One time were walking along the sidewalk very early in the morning outside the GF going to our car in the parking lot after we checked out. One of the ground keepers was walking toward us dragging a hose he was using to water the plants. As we passed, I could see that the hose nozzle was caught on a plant next to the sidewalk. So, I bent over to release it so that he would not have to come back when he got stuck. Another cast member was walking toward us and asked what I did. After telling him, he simply said to me, “That’s the sort of thing we are supposed to do for you.” I was so touched by his compliment that my wife actually asked me why I didn’t immediately start the car as I sat in the drivers seating thinking about what he said.

Yes, if I had a time machine, I would not go back to look up the winning lottery numbers. I would go back and enjoy the real Disney World that Walter Elias himself created, not this shareholder return focused money-machine current management has mutated it into. But like Suze, we too are planning a return trip later this year as the good remaining still outweighs the bad.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Glad you got a room with such a spectacular view!

I've had multiple trips where housekeeping knocks on my door an hour or more before checkout, so I think that's a widespread practice, but it really annoys me, too. Especially when my room wasn't ready at check-in time! It just feels like bad hospitality, and makes me think that housekeeping is so short-staffed that they don't have enough time to clean all the rooms between checkout and check-in. I always tell them I'm still packing, and will leave by checkout time.

Thanks for sharing your experiences--I like the good/bad/ugly format!

I’m always annoyed just about every trip when I’m in parks from rope drop until afternoon and housekeeping doesn’t come until late afternoon when we are resting or getting ready for dinner. However, they are knocking at door at 8:30 am on our check out day! I plan to specifically request that they come early in day on our next trip. Their priority is to clean rooms for arriving guests but still I do find it annoying…

 

[Lyndarella]

There is a place on the app where you can make compliments to cast members who went the extra mile. I was there about the same time that you were, and had mostly positive experiences with the people working there. It really makes a difference when someone who is there every day takes time to help make your day/your trip go better.

 

[Suze10860]

There is a place on the app where you can make compliments to cast members who went the extra mile. I was there about the same time that you were, and had mostly positive experiences with the people working there. It really makes a difference when someone who is there every day takes time to help make your day/your trip go better.

Agreed.

I went on the App and named the 3 CMs at The Yacht Club who made a difference for me!

 

[bluezy]

I'm surprised your credit card was charged so often to cover your room expenses. On our last 3 trips (2018, 2022, 2024), our card wasn't charged until our balance was around $1500. Even with 3 or 4 kids traveling with us and not having a dining plan, it still took us a few days to hit that amount. We've occasionally had 1 or 2 people in the room have their charging privileges not work on a few trips in the last 15 years or so. We always have each person purchase something at the resort (usually lunch and/or a refillable mug -- things we'd be buying anyway) to make sure everything's working before we head to a park. It's much easier to have it taken care of at the front desk before it's an issue in a park. I usually collect about $1500-2000 in discounted gift cards between trips but I decided a long time ago that it was much easier to use those to pay off the package/room reservation so I didn't have to worry about the room charges going to my credit card before I got down to the front desk to apply the gift cards to the balance. I know they can refund your card and then pay the charges with the gift cards, but I don't even have to worry about that if I use the cards to pay off the room/package before we even get there.

I've seen several people over the last few years complaining about housekeeping knocking on their door the morning of check-out. You were lucky -- 9:00 is pretty late. We we're leaving our room around 7:00-7:30 a.m. on our check-out day and housekeeping was literally standing at the door, ready to knock. Our daughter had a later flight and wasn't leaving our room until about 10:30, so I told housekeeping to come back then. They were fine with that. In the future, if we don't plan to leave by 7:00 (we drive), I think I'll call and ask for a late checkout even if we're leaving at 9:00 just so they (hopefully) don't start knocking on the door at 7:00 a.m. And we always keep the privacy lock on when we're in the room so no one can just walk in.

 

[Suze10860]

I'm surprised your credit card was charged so often to cover your room expenses. On our last 3 trips (2018, 2022, 2024), our card wasn't charged until our balance was around $1500. Even with 3 or 4 kids traveling with us and not having a dining plan, it still took us a few days to hit that amount. We've occasionally had 1 or 2 people in the room have their charging privileges not work on a few trips in the last 15 years or so. We always have each person purchase something at the resort (usually lunch and/or a refillable mug -- things we'd be buying anyway) to make sure everything's working before we head to a park. It's much easier to have it taken care of at the front desk before it's an issue in a park. I usually collect about $1500-2000 in discounted gift cards between trips but I decided a long time ago that it was much easier to use those to pay off the package/room reservation so I didn't have to worry about the room charges going to my credit card before I got down to the front desk to apply the gift cards to the balance. I know they can refund your card and then pay the charges with the gift cards, but I don't even have to worry about that if I use the cards to pay off the room/package before we even get there.

As far as charging our credit card, I did think that was unusual. But my new best friend, Jack, at The Yacht Club, told me they do put charges through every other day or so. In all honestly, the credit card charges that were put on my card (the original $100 plus another charge for about $102) never made it past the "pending" stage.

But still, I just don't like the system with the e-gift cards, and as I said, I don't think that the people working at the desk like it very much either. It's too time-consuming and a bit annoying that I've given Disney my money by purchasing the cards, but somehow, they can't put the cards on my resort account as a credit to cover the room charges I make.

I'm rethinking how I'll handle it all on our next trip...

 

[bluezy]

As far as charging our credit card, I did think that was unusual. But my new best friend, Jack, at The Yacht Club, told me they do put charges through every other day or so. In all honestly, the credit card charges that were put on my card (the original $100 plus another charge for about $102) never made it past the "pending" stage.

But still, I just don't like the system with the e-gift cards, and as I said, I don't think that the people working at the desk like it very much either. It's too time-consuming and a bit annoying that I've given Disney my money by purchasing the cards, but somehow, they can't put the cards on my resort account as a credit to cover the room charges I make.

I'm rethinking how I'll handle it all on our next trip...

That's so weird that they're charging every other day again. They stopped that years ago. Not sure why they would go back to that. It's really a pain to use gift cards to pay down your balance if they're clearing your room balance every other day. They really don't make it easy to use gift cards at the hotel (if they're going back to the every other day thing) or on the app (having to enter the GC number every time you want to purchase food through mobile order. Other places allow you to just load your GC on the app and it automatically gets used every time you make a purchase. That was the main reason (the having to run down to the front desk nearly every day and stand in line to apply my gift cards), I switched to using the gift cards to pay off my room/tickets before we arrived. So much easier. I combine smaller gift cards into one large gift cards on the app (I think the max is $1000) and then give my TA those numbers. It takes me about 20-30 minutes to combine the cards, but at least I'm just sitting at my kitchen table doing that and not making a trip to the front desk all the time. By combining them my TA only has to input 7 or 8 numbers rather than all the numbers from the 20+ cards that I have. She appreciates that I take the time to do that.

 

[Paulaparm]

In regards to gift cards…I purchased quite a few e cards, but I also had a few old physical gift cards. I transferred all the e cards to the physical cards and used those to pay for everything! I am sure you can also use a physical gift card at the front desk to pay your charges down as well. Note that you can only have a $1000 balance on each physical card and that it is very easy to transfer balances from e cards to physical cards on the gift card website.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I have never been charged every other day, that is odd! I was just at Boardwalk Inn and payed off the entire bill on the last evening with my gift cards. I always have physical cards with $1000 on each one so it is quick and easy to pay the bill. I have been told by resort CMs as long as you pay your bill before midnight on check out day your card will not be charged.
I have been doing this for years. I am an AP holder and do not have to pay my resort costs in full at 30 days so maybe that has something to do with it.
I use gift cards for everything so would be upset if my credit card was charged before midnight on check out day!
We love the Epcot resort area and have stayed frequently at YC, love it!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We had like $1100 charged to our room for our trip this past late January (we mostly just paid with gift cards when we were eating or buying stuff) and our card wasn’t charged til several days after we got home. It was very weird, I started thinking they forgot us or something but then I saw it go through.