I'm home. Severely depressed. Spring Break was a nightmare

I am so sorry OP that you had such a miserable vacation!!

I think one of the things that we all have to look out for when planning a vacation are the expectation that we have. Basically, the ones that say it's going to be magical just because it's Disney. It can be hard to not allow the Disney commercial of perfectly smiling and well behaved children to run through our heads, as everything is sprinkled by tink's magic dust.. :wizard: . Exceptions are a hard thing, as it can be very difficult to impossible to match the picture of what could happen with the reality of what does happen. When they don't match, it can seem like an even harder let down.. because we felt like it would be so different, instead of enjoying it for what it is.

I had one of these trips the second time we ever went.. and oh man. When we got home, I went over the trip play by play to see where I went wrong. I researched. I read the boards.. and in the end, I came up with a good pro-active plan. As a result when we went back a year and half later, the kids had such a better time. A HUGE part of that was my expectation adjustment and how to adjust when things were thrown at me when it didn't go according to plan.. (still working on it).

All I can say OP, is give yourself a hug and give yourself a break. Let go of the pressure to make everything perfect and fun for everyone. Some kids find more fun in playing with a rolled up straw paper sometimes than an IPAD. They will make their own fun. One thing they will remember though, is that mom tried hard to give them memories of a lifetime. You can always try again. :grouphug:
 
I am so sorry to hear about your trip. Can you tell me what dates in March you were there? We always go on a very low crowd time (the week prior to Thanksgiving week in November). However, it is getting harder and harder to pull our kids out of school. We are planning a trip for March 2017. We will be there March 4-9. We happen to have an early Spring Break. I'm hoping we will be there early enough in the month, that we won't experience the crowds you saw. I was just curious what dates you were there. If you were there the first week in March, I may rethink my trip dates. Thanks so much!
 
I am so sorry to hear about your trip. Can you tell me what dates in March you were there? We always go on a very low crowd time (the week prior to Thanksgiving week in November). However, it is getting harder and harder to pull our kids out of school. We are planning a trip for March 2017. We will be there March 4-9. We happen to have an early Spring Break. I'm hoping we will be there early enough in the month, that we won't experience the crowds you saw. I was just curious what dates you were there. If you were there the first week in March, I may rethink my trip dates. Thanks so much!

I believe the OP was there during Easter. That is always a holiday that is insanely busy. We went once the week of Easter and vowed to never do it again. I think early March is usually quieter. That's when I'd like to go in 2018 - would love to catch the opening days of the F&G Festival.
 
I am so sorry to hear about your trip. Can you tell me what dates in March you were there? We always go on a very low crowd time (the week prior to Thanksgiving week in November). However, it is getting harder and harder to pull our kids out of school. We are planning a trip for March 2017. We will be there March 4-9. We happen to have an early Spring Break. I'm hoping we will be there early enough in the month, that we won't experience the crowds you saw. I was just curious what dates you were there. If you were there the first week in March, I may rethink my trip dates. Thanks so much!

I don't think the OP is ever coming back. They made their posts here, and haven't returned.
 


I am so sorry OP that you had such a miserable vacation!!

I think one of the things that we all have to look out for when planning a vacation are the expectation that we have. Basically, the ones that say it's going to be magical just because it's Disney. It can be hard to not allow the Disney commercial of perfectly smiling and well behaved children to run through our heads, as everything is sprinkled by tink's magic dust.. :wizard: . . :grouphug:

Not just us, but the kids see those commercials. We just came back from a trip and I overheard a child about 8 yrs saying he wanted to do some ride or something and the dad said "ok, but the line might be really long". The child said "no, in the commercial......"
 


Hi OP. Not sure if or when you'll see this. I'm really sorry it was such a difficult trip.
 
The Original Post read like a Griswolds Family Vacation ! I hope someone from WDW read your post and sent you a big, fat check or at least a bottle of anti depressants and Fast Pass tickets for 5 days along with Airline tickets and free dining plans.
Wow, that's some trip you had !
 
I did not finish the 4 pages but I will say. I do not think it was your fault. I am sorry you had such a bad trip.
My worse trip ever experience was 10 years ago April of 2006. We drove up in van with my mom dad sister hubs and son.
I was not the best planer but I wasn't just walking in dumb either. I know we didn't stay on site. I know that I had 500 for spending and then my dad didn't get his Over time he was supposed to so me 500 went to the bill for the hotel. I know that all I wanted was to ride Everest and had a code for free photo too. I sprang my ankle recently and had to use a wheel chair for the long days. This just slowed things down. We did not have enough time planned. 1 day each should have been perfect. Not so. The ride I wanted broke down and I insisted on waiting in line. We did for an hour in a half Everest still was down. Ok fine gave up went too another ride. It was broke down. I went to an office told them about my free photo code for Everest gave them my info. They said go to another park for any ride photo i want. My hubs and I got test track.
My sister who was pushing my son's stroller forgot him at Hunted mansion once. That freaked me out.

I do not remember much else but it was my worse trip ever story so I thought I would share it.

We are finally going back. Just my family. Not my parents or sister.
I am doing a plan with food and my room and tickets it will be paid for before I get there. We are going at the slowest time possible for the time we want. I hate the heat so I do trips oct, nov, dec time.



I will say for DL trips I have had some rain, kids been sick, hubs been sick. The last time my dad went with us he was sick four days and didn't get to use his ticket at all. Lucky dl gave him a refund and my mom who had a non-used day got a free complementary ticket and I used that since it was all in my name any ways.
We have also had some really good trips I hope this trip I am planing for a year and a half and saving every gift card I normaly use on other things will work out. We are really trying to be smart. we want off days. Party days , hotel days, fp+ for the rides we must do and going to use all our early mornings to our advantages.

I am so sorry your trip sucked. I sure hope you come back sometime maybe try feb? I have heard it is a good time. I say take the kids out school and screw the school system. I hate them any ways. Thats why we home school and we go when we like. Another reason we dont have such bad crowds.

Any ways we all have bad trips I know I have but this is not all your fault or all disney's. It is just the way it all went down. One bad thing after another made the sucky parts turn in to a snow ball and it rolled down hill. Good luck next time.
 
Rain Rain Go Away--or we'll have to wear our ponchos if we want to play. So sorry that you had such a miserable trip. BUT I hope you may have had many a laugh over it since you have been home.
 
First, so sorry you had a bad vacation. '

Second, it's really not fair for some poster to come on here and say you were wrong to go to WDW during Easter break. There are only certain times of the year a family can go, especially yours with all those kids in school. I really hate the Disney shaming that goes on here when people can't travel during so called "low crowd" times or don't have the money to blow on exclusive events. It's really Disney's obligation to make sure guests can show up and have a reasonable chance of getting on attractions without having to feel endangered. They shouldn't just open the gates and allow the parks to become a wild zoo and FP+ has only worsened it.

Third, my wife has two colleagues who traveled to WDW over Easter and they both said they will never go back, EVER. So you are not alone. The fact that they had a terrible time is Disney's fault, not the guest's fault. You shouldn't need a PHD to take a trip to WDW.

Fourth, even for a veteran like me the trips to Disney are coming to an end. It has just gotten out of control in regards to the planning and the packing of the parks. It's all about the profit for Disney, not about guest satisfaction (and there are posters on here that are OK with that, which drives me crazy).

Yes, they are a business.

See, it's this type of post i just don't understand. You absolve Disney of any blame, but then talk about planning choices (we all know Disney is ridiculous to plan for nowadays and I can't even imagine trying to plan for a large family), crowds (simply they allow too many guests for the almighty profit), and ride breakdowns (good chance maintenance issues since they have reduced those budgets for years now). All of those issues are Disney's problem, not the person paying money.

1. I disagree that it is ridiculous to plan for. I find the planning to be fun and gets me excited to go.
2. Sometimes the crowds are high, sometimes they are not. If Disney closed the parks with less crowds people would be on here screaming about the money that they spent to travel there only to have the parks be closed. It is a lose/lose for Disney. If you go at a busy time of year, its going to be busy. If that is the only time you can go, that is unfortunate, but you have to be able to roll with it.
3. Go to any theme park/amusement park anywhere in the world, rides break down from time to time. It happens.

Planning choices that are not disney's fault:
1) cramming what I presume is 12+ people (10 kids, op, and her sister) into 3 of the smallest rooms on property with 2 double beds per room
2) going during one of the busiest times of year. Any planning guide will tell you that easter week is the on of the worst weeks. I won't even try a holiday week for that reason.
3) putting a $500 phone in your back pocket. That's an easy way to lose it, as OP'S sister found out.
4) completely depleting your savings to the tune of $13,000, for a vacation. That fact alone would cause me to be depressed.
5) leaving each park after 2-4 rides. I know the crowds can be tough, but throwing your hands up and calling it quits on that expensive of a trip is a poor choice on OP's part, not disney's fault.
6) choosing to feed everyone at an exotic eatery (marrakesh), and then complaining that some of the nonadventurous eaters were still hungry. Not disney's fault.
7) giving kids ice cream because you didn't want to wait on your reservation, then getting upset because kids plus ice cream equals a big sticky mess. Once again, not disney's fault.



What, exactly, was disney's fault? Everything has crowded/non crowded times. Popular, convenient travel times will be crowded. Why would disney refuse entry? They are a business, of course they want profit. A business that isn't looking for profit is one that will quickly go under.

A couple rides broke down. It happens. I'd rather they close them and repair them than continue operating under suboptimal conditions. Those rides get run probably thousands of times per day. Things wear down, even if the maintenance has been kept up. OP found that out on her trip, when the air in her van went out. Yet, nobody is blaming OP for the maintenance of the van, because we understand that sometimes things just happened.

I have my issues with some of the things disney has been doing lately, but none of what the OP described sounds like fault on the part of disney, with the exception of maybe the restaurant wait, but I live in a city where 1 hour plus waits for a table are the norm, so it doesn't phase me.

I truly do feel bad for OP. I've had vacations that feel less than what I had hoped for. My trip last summer in particular was stressful, mostly due to my friend's daughter being a totally obnoxious brat. But I let it go and an enjoyed the good times because sometimes that's what you have to do in life.

OP, I hope you and your family do get your magical vacation someday, wherever that destination may be.

Agreed.

A person shouldn't go on any trip (anywhere) where emotional devastation would occur if the trip didn't go as planned. For example, an acquaintance of mine spent a week in Hawaii, but it rained the entire week, almost nonstop. If she had saved her every spare penny for years for that trip, she would have been devastated, but as it was, she shrugged her shoulders, sighed, and moved on. No one likes to waste or lose money, but if expenses cause real anxiety during a trip, that's a clue that you're overspending. Yes, I do think people should live within their means, partially to avoid sad situations like this.

Agreed.
 
I'm so sad to think of those sweet faces having a terrible time. We went April 2-13. We were expecting level 5-7 crowds and got 8-10s. It was unpleasant. However, we had a wonderful time. I can totally understand your not wanting to return, but if you do, here are my suggestions, a lot if which pp's have covered...


Break up the family into smaller groups. Maybe some one year, the rest another. I know that would be not ideal, but it's so very hard to have large groups in heavy crowds. We live near Disneyland and go all the time, like hundreds of times, so we don't care what we get done. Going last week with 13 extended family members with kids and scooters was just too much in large crowds. I can't image if they were all my children I was trying to keep together. Like baby duckling frogger. You can do it, but not relaxing or fun.


As pp's have said, go early and late and take advantage of rain. We bought ponchos send ds6 was whining until I (mean mommy) forced him to sit on a bench as the electrical parade went by. It was one of his best moments of the trip since mk had cleared out and it was so empty near us, at least 5 parade members gave him high 5s. A great memory. The middlle of any day at Disney is not your friend... Hot and crowded. If you divided the kids into morning people and night owls for two separate trips, this would work very well or even thrill riders and not.

What dates were you there? Hopefully you'll start going through pics and it will make you feel better a little about the money
Great suggestions!
 
I'm so sorry you had such a lousy trip. It sounds like you all ended up wet, sad and disappointed. I truly hope you have a better, more magical experience another time!
 
I am so terribly sorry about all the contretemps you had. I somehow believe that I would have also been terribly overwhelmed. It sounded horribly frustrating. It doesn't surprise me that many people seemed rude and like plugholes. I was trying to convince myself that that was only happening in the geographical area that I live in, but it appears to be everywhere. In life, unfortunately, whenever things seems to be going wrong, these folks stand out even more.
In your case, and sorry for the pun, when it rained, it poured. One negative thing begat another. These are things that I am working on...like traffic due to an accident, I pop in a CD and TRY to think of something else, otherwise I would have had to pick up my anxiety 4-5 cars down. It's easier said than done, but please know that I feel for you. Maybe down the line (way down the line) you and your family will give Disney another try and see that sometimes it CAN be a "magical time" there. Best of luck. I hope you are able to get the financial situation straightened out.



Let me preface this by saying, in total we spent slightly over $13,000 for our Disney vacation. I have 10 children, and we stayed at Pop Century for 6 nights. (3 rooms- 2 of my children are under 3 babies)
I am looking back in horror as day after day we had terrible experiences and realizing I could have just spent all that cash on a car. My savings account is completely depleted and I have nothing to show for it but bad memories, 15 loads of laundry and grumpy kids.

I consider myself to be the eternal optimist, always looking for silver linings and whatnot. After the 5th day I believe it was, I found myself spending a half a day sleeping alone in my hotel room crying over how terribly bad this trip had gone.

Let me start off by saying, this was a total surprise to my kids. They came home from school and thought they were going to be spending a night or two bear watching at a nearby local cave system. (Spring Break)

The trip down, we traveled in a 15 passenger van. We encountered 11 different delays for accidents from Ohio to Florida via I-75. Aside the delays and antsy kids, it was an okay trip down. It rained the entire time and there were tears of joy as we pulled past the welcome to Disney World sign. -- Our air conditioner went out in the van right after we arrived. Thank God we stayed on property and rarely had to get in the van for anything until we left.

First night there, we check in and I have to say were literally packed like sardines in Pop Century's rooms. I would not suggest them for more than 2 -3 people. We went into the Magic Kingdom. HUGE mistake. Ive been to Disney over a dozen times in my life, and never ever have I seen crowds as horrible as they were. We were herded like cattle through main street and into Tomorrowland. We had literally no other choice to go anywhere else. The very first ride we go on, my sister had her Samsung Galaxy phone in her pocket- a phone she spent over $500 on complete with a beautiful swarvoski crystal case. 20 seconds after she steps off the ride she turns and says, Oh no! my phone must be on the seat, its slipped out of my pocket!-- the cast members check each car as they come in... and surprise, surprise.. someone has picked that bad boy up and kept it. These first few events cast a dark shadowy mood over the first few days of our trip. We go to get on the next ride because we have a fast pass and its down. The wait times are all way too high to actually wait in line anywhere if we want to make it on the NEXT ride for fast pass. So we meander around a bit and wait for our fp time for mine train. At that point, the rest of the party gets in line and I walk our double stroller around with the two little ones in our party. I stayed to the far right at all times and attempted to stay out of everyone's way. At one point, a woman stomps past me, turns and yells, "I'm sick a G-d d*n tired of all these strollers and cars being in my way!" right in my face. I'm feeling like, this is certainly NOT the happiest place on earth. My party exits the ride and we all agree to just go back to the hotel. Everyone is feeling disappointed and let down by our experience. 6 hours in the park and only 2 rides the first day in. We stop at City Hall and pray someone has turned the phone in. Of course not.

Second day we went to Animal Kingdom. It rained and was unseasonably hot- 87 degrees in March. The crowds are again, absolutely obscene. Once again one of our FP rides is down during our fp time, so we end up riding the safari and dinosaur. That. is. literally. it. We went to our restaurant and waited for well over an hour even though we had reservations before we finally said forget it and bought some ice cream from a cart. The kids were covered in melting sticky ice cream so we decide to just scrap the day and head back to the hotel to wash up and swim. No one wants to go back. They actually get very upset when we even talk about going back.

Third day we were at Hollywood studios. The lowest crowd levels we encounter anywhere. We ride Tower of Terror, Star Tours, Toys story- eat at the commissary and catch a Muppet show and then call it a day. It rains for several hours.

Fourth day was Epcot. The crowds, again, off the hook bad. It rains- badly. We ride The living seas, and half our party gets separated after we get off- there are so just SO many people everywhere, lining the walls of the observation area- and we lose our 7 year old who we got separated from for a good 10 minutes. I was nearly hysterical before we finally were reunited. We did space ship earth and the land. We go to eat at our restaurant and its once again overbooked. Everyone is hungry, its raining. We dip into Marrakesh Moroccan place to eat. $180 later and we still have several hungry people who couldn't stomach the food. We take the ferry across the lake and high tail it back to our hotel. By this point, some of the kids are on the bus crying about how this is NOT what they were expecting. I am heartbroken and disappointed. Every single opportunity we can, we are trying to lighten the mood- play fun games, buy little treats and souvenirs. Its lightning and raining so badly, we cannot swim. The kids stay in the room watching tv the rest of the day.

Fifth day we are back at Magic Kingdom. It rains again. I send the rest of my party into the park without me for the first 3-4 hours. I am in bed, literally depressed out of my mind at how bad this entire trip had gone. After housekeeping stops by a 2nd time and notices my flushed, obvious I-had-been-crying face, she gave me a big hug. I decide to suck it up and make the best of whats left. I meet up with my family. We have a fast pass for Haunted Mansion and can I say, this is by leaps and bounds one of the worst experiences we have there. We are herded like cattle through the entire line queue- and there is literally no space whatsoever between people. Had we been in literally any other situation, people would questionably been accused of assault. My 9 year old son is literally smashed between a womans breasts and my sister speaks up and says something to her about having some decency. The woman says, "No one has room- It's Disneyworld!" and shoves him away from her. I am furious at this point and my non-confrontational side fades away and mamabear's claws come out. I shout back at her, "how would you like it if I shoved YOUR child!?" I was SO upset at this point. I am 100% certain that any state inspector would have shut the ride down. Had there been a fire, people would have died or been trampled. It was THAT packed. The 13 of us in my party were easily smooshed into a tight 5x5 ft square. A couple of the kids were crying, "no nevermind we dont want to go on this"- not because of the theme, they were fine with that, but because of the scary way we were all packed so tightly together. (For the record, later that night near 11pm, I take the older 5 kids on that ride again to assess the situation once more and the crowds were absolutely no where even halfway as bad. We all had acceptable space between us.) After that very first ride, a couple of the kids beg to go back to the room. One even says, "I just dont like this place. Its not like how it was in the videos"- a few of the kids stay behind with an adult and watch youtube videos the rest of the day.
We ride another 2 or 3 rides then head back, as the rain is too heavy to continue in the park- even with ponchos. We return that night with the oldest kids to ride space mountain (where 3 college aged boys in front of us made fat jokes obnoxiously about every overweight person they saw for 90 minutes and shined a laser pointer in everyones eyes) then splash mountain, which they genuinely loved- despite the rain.

The last day we are there, again it rains for a few hours in the afternoon. The crowds arent as bad as they had been the prior few days but still thick. We ride a handful of rides, grab a bite to eat and head back to the room to return later since the park was open until 2 am. That night we come back briefly, but apparently so does the rest of the park and lines are once again very long. By 1 am, we leave- completely defeated.

The ride home, we encounter many more accidents. Forcing us to stay in Georgia just south of Macon. We are woken up at 7am-ish as a tornado passes through. I felt a little like Alanis Morissette... isn't it ironic? at this point, nothing could surprise me anymore. Until I get home and realize our card had been charged several times for various purchases at the art of disney, and the pizza place in Disney. The hotel in Georgia, overcharges each of our rooms by $55 each room as well and being Sunday I cant do anything about it. I total up the amount spent (assuming we get duplicate charges removed from our debit card-) $13,155 for a week of absolute hell and disappointment.

I love Disneyworld, but its very very likely we will never ever return.

In the meantime, we are out a ton of money. We paid up front for everything and had been saving for this trip for over 2 years. I feel absolutely robbed.
 
I have to tell you, that if I had 10 kids, long before I EVER made it to WDW in my life, I would probably already have been acquainted with disappointments because in life, and with that many precious kids, nothing ever goes 100% right. This is particularly painful because you dream of a magical vacation, spend a "ton" of money and nothing seems to go right. But I completely feel for her; regardless of how I would have tried to handle it differently TRYING to prevent what might have/could have/was going to happen that I had no control over.

While none of what you bring up is what I was responding to (read your first post, that's what I was responding to), let's take each one of your new points and break it down:

1) cramming what I presume is 12+ people (10 kids, op, and her sister) into 3 of the smallest rooms on property with 2 double beds per room
When I check the Disney website it does say they sleep 4, but it doesn't say how small they are (260 sq. ft). It does say they are only double beds, so they should know the beds are small. However, kids are small.

2) going during one of the busiest times of year. Any planning guide will tell you that easter week is the on of the worst weeks. I won't even try a holiday week for that reason.
I've done Christmas (and Thanksgiving) week before and did great, but then again we are only a family of 4. We also did Christmas at a time before FP+, which was a much easier time to deal with crowds because so much of today's attractions are devoted to FP+. It forces standby lines to be huge for everything. Everyone knows that FP+ has led to higher standby times (incidentally, I heard many reports of FP+ lines being an hour long during break). Also, I don't see any crowd calendars on the Disney website telling people to stay away during Easter. If they are going to market the parks as being a destination, then they need to make sure guests can be comfortably accommodated. Besides, it's not like a family with kids in school can visit during "less crowded" times. It sure as heck didn't help that Disney didn't extend operating hours during the extremely busy time of the year to help spread crowds out a bit. Disney also cut staff down to bare bones. The crowds descending on WDW these past few weeks (and in the coming weeks) were forced to pay for the overages in Shanghai.

3) putting a $500 phone in your back pocket. That's an easy way to lose it, as OP'S sister found out.
Agreed. I think what she's upset with is the omni-mover vehicle went from the unload area to the load area and the phone was taken in that time. She indicated they noticed the phone was gone almost immediately after getting out of the vehicle. Besides, isn't there a CM that's supposed to look inside each vehicle as it passses?

4) completely depleting your savings to the tune of $13,000, for a vacation. That fact alone would cause me to be depressed.
True, but I think what she's upset with the fact she didn't get her money's worth from the vacation. I'm sure she'd be fine spending that much if the vacation has lived up to its billing. She's probably even more upset now knowing that Disney was making guests pay for the problems in Shanghai.

5) leaving each park after 2-4 rides. I know the crowds can be tough, but throwing your hands up and calling it quits on that expensive of a trip is a poor choice on OP's part, not disney's fault.
Parks are too crowded and FP+ only exacerbates the problem, along with attraction breakdowns. I don't think I've ever seen Disney advertising with video of wall to wall crowds, 3 hour waits and families waiting around for dining reservations.

6) choosing to feed everyone at an exotic eatery (marrakesh), and then complaining that some of the nonadventurous eaters were still hungry. Not disney's fault.
Agreed.

7) giving kids ice cream because you didn't want to wait on your reservation, then getting upset because kids plus ice cream equals a big sticky mess. Once again, not disney's fault.
Maybe if Disney didn't severely overbook their restaurants then long waits wouldn't happen. Honestly, if you have a reservation then why the heck is it acceptable to wait over an hour for a table? That's an hour of vacation time wasted. How much is your vacation time worth? Again, it doesn't help that all restaurants were forced to cut staff and hours to make up for budget overruns in Shanghai.
 
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I think crowds are acceptable to a point. When you are shoulder to shoulder to people everywhere in the park then the park admited too many people. WDW needs more rides to serve the crowds.

Perhaps Disney needs to re-evaluate and close the park down intermittently for safety reasons and crowd control. I do not have the answer, but this complaint is becoming more frequent and not always during peak times like "Spring Break" - that one is obvious, for one.
 

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