What happened???

[PirateBrigade]

So many thoughts here, ah where do I begin...

Emphasis on Smart Phones
I love my iPhone, I'm on it all the time. I agree, though, when I'm at Disneyland, I try to be fully present with the sights and sounds of the park and not looking at my phone. With mobile ordering, MaxPass, maximizing efficiency by looking a wait times, checking in for a boarding group, checking in for a virtual queue, pulling out my barcode for PhotoPass & discounts... it's virtually impossible. I've gotten pretty good at only looking at certain points during the day--I'm not head down/swiping as I walk down Main Street--but it's annoying.

But the punishment for putting your phone away is severe. Longer lines for food, longer waits for rides because you didn't check, not getting on a ride at all...when we walk through those turnstiles, my wife and I are masters of efficiency and seek to extract maximum pleasure from the park given the limited hours of the day. We're dang good at it, and it helps that we walk like New Yorkers and have a jogging stroller that can handle it. The smart phone emphasis is one of the reasons why, so I love it and I hate it at the same time.

Costs
The parks were too cheap, I'm just going to say the awkward part out loud. I've said this in other threads, if you can come to Disneyland every single Friday and Saturday night for a whole year for <$15/visit, why wouldn't you? This isn't a public school district, where if it got crowded, you just built another school... the only way to control crowds and satisfy shareholders is to raise prices. It just seemed like no amount of price increases controlled crowds, because people have money. When the parks reopened this April with tickets only (bringing the price per visit up to $104-$154/$209/day), only THEN did the park become reasonable in terms of crowd/wait time.

I'm part of the "I paid $299/yr for premium AP" crowd -- the parks in 2021 are vastly more immersive than they were in 2005, and with the economy roaring, literally the only way to go back to the old days is to economically damage every single household in California (massive recession). So this is bittersweet for me, I loved the isolated, quiet recession Disneyland (and lack of freeway traffic) -- but it was almost like survivor's guilt.

Summary
I don't know if I'm going to buy into the new AP offering -- in the year+ we weren't at Disney, we discovered new likes, new hobbies, new habits. We used to make the trek every other month from the Bay Area and go to DL (mostly to get our money's worth for those passes), but now we're at a new cadence and tempo of visits, and are okay with that.

We might just really throw it back old school and visit once (maybe twice) a year... on tickets. Tickets! We own at VGC (about 1 week/year), so it actually dovetails nicely.

I love you, Disneyland, but you're not really a need anymore.

 

[Mike_M]

Yes, it has gotten more complicated and expensive over the years, but I think it’s still possible to experience a majority of the park similarly to how it has been for decades.

I fall into the category of guest that only wants a safe clean place to lay their head every night, rather than spend 4x as much to stay in the resort and have Mickey embroidered sheets. Nothing wrong with that if you can afford it and prefer it. It’s just not a requirement for me.

Budget hotels are still very doable and as others have mentioned is probably how a majority of guests from outside of the LA metro area stay. It’s the kind of motel experience I’ve had since 1980, and unless Disney buys up all the hotels, I doubt it will change any time soon.

Park reservations are a bit of a pain, but I suspect that we’ll get used to it after a while. Currently, they aren’t that difficult to get so I think it will become a non issue for most people in the long run. If it does what it’s designed to do, it might even keep the parks from experiencing severe overloading during peak times. We’ll see.

Lastly, there is the phone app usage. Yes, you get a significant advantage from using one in regard to time management and ease of access, and those of us that are savvy enough can make it work without spoiling the ability to stay in the moment. But with only a couple exceptions (ROTR/Webslingers are big ones) it’s still possible to do most everything that’s been in the park longer than 20 years without one. Standby line times are posted at each attraction (the majority of them don’t have FP/MP anyways) Walk up counter service dining will eventually be more normal again, and with the return of APs this month, there will be more locals back in the parks which is part of what keeps it more casual than WDW anyways.

So, don’t let the current state of affairs get you down. It’s a crazy world right now and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by it all. Eventually it will be easier to travel again and we’ll all find ways to budget DL trips back into our lives as we always have.

 

[BriannaRuth]

The one technology-related addition that I'm REALLY disliking right now is trying to get dining reservations. Hopefully this problem will go away once they are fully staffed again, but wow ... supposedly these reservations become available at 3 AM Pacific time 60 days out, which means if you want any chance of getting any of the popular restaurants, you're online or on your app at 3 AM. Which would be bad enough if they actually became available on the date they're supposed to be available, but they don't, so now you're up at 3 AM trying to snag a reservation multiple nights in a row with no apparent end in sight! I'm on night 4 setting an alarm for 3 AM hoping to get a reservation for DD's 18th birthday and it is exhausting!

 

[StarlitNight05]

So many thoughts here, ah where do I begin...

Emphasis on Smart Phones
I love my iPhone, I'm on it all the time. I agree, though, when I'm at Disneyland, I try to be fully present with the sights and sounds of the park and not looking at my phone. With mobile ordering, MaxPass, maximizing efficiency by looking a wait times, checking in for a boarding group, checking in for a virtual queue, pulling out my barcode for PhotoPass & discounts... it's virtually impossible. I've gotten pretty good at only looking at certain points during the day--I'm not head down/swiping as I walk down Main Street--but it's annoying.

But the punishment for putting your phone away is severe. Longer lines for food, longer waits for rides because you didn't check, not getting on a ride at all...when we walk through those turnstiles, my wife and I are masters of efficiency and seek to extract maximum pleasure from the park given the limited hours of the day. We're dang good at it, and it helps that we walk like New Yorkers and have a jogging stroller that can handle it. The smart phone emphasis is one of the reasons why, so I love it and I hate it at the same time.

Costs
The parks were too cheap, I'm just going to say the awkward part out loud. I've said this in other threads, if you can come to Disneyland every single Friday and Saturday night for a whole year for <$15/visit, why wouldn't you? This isn't a public school district, where if it got crowded, you just built another school... the only way to control crowds and satisfy shareholders is to raise prices. It just seemed like no amount of price increases controlled crowds, because people have money. When the parks reopened this April with tickets only (bringing the price per visit up to $104-$154/$209/day), only THEN did the park become reasonable in terms of crowd/wait time.

I'm part of the "I paid $299/yr for premium AP" crowd -- the parks in 2021 are vastly more immersive than they were in 2005, and with the economy roaring, literally the only way to go back to the old days is to economically damage every single household in California (massive recession). So this is bittersweet for me, I loved the isolated, quiet recession Disneyland (and lack of freeway traffic) -- but it was almost like survivor's guilt.

Summary
I don't know if I'm going to buy into the new AP offering -- in the year+ we weren't at Disney, we discovered new likes, new hobbies, new habits. We used to make the trek every other month from the Bay Area and go to DL (mostly to get our money's worth for those passes), but now we're at a new cadence and tempo of visits, and are okay with that.

We might just really throw it back old school and visit once (maybe twice) a year... on tickets. Tickets! We own at VGC (about 1 week/year), so it actually dovetails nicely.

I love you, Disneyland, but you're not really a need anymore.

I couldn't agree with you more. Pre-COVID times, we would visit 4 or so times a year. Even at that frequency, I was always itching to get back. Now that we've adjusted, we realize there are other things we can direct our time and money toward.

We were planning on returning in November for our normal Dapper Day visit, but this time I was so much more hesitant. The idea of buying tickets so far in advance during such a volatile time caused me to pause -- I was glad I did because then they retinstated indoor masks. Sure, it's not a huge deal especially for those who can wear them without much difficulty. But for us it was just another nail in the coffin against going (no Maxpass, no EMH for onsite guests and all with increasing capacity). And while things can change before November, I didn't want money locked up in tickets that couldn't be used in the near future.

 

[Tinkaboo]

The one technology-related addition that I'm REALLY disliking right now is trying to get dining reservations. Hopefully this problem will go away once they are fully staffed again, but wow ... supposedly these reservations become available at 3 AM Pacific time 60 days out, which means if you want any chance of getting any of the popular restaurants, you're online or on your app at 3 AM. Which would be bad enough if they actually became available on the date they're supposed to be available, but they don't, so now you're up at 3 AM trying to snag a reservation multiple nights in a row with no apparent end in sight! I'm on night 4 setting an alarm for 3 AM hoping to get a reservation for DD's 18th birthday and it is exhausting!

Ohmigosh that is REALLY crazy! I just don’t understand why it has to be SO hard! In the past, I never had any problem scoring Tea Party rezzies or Blue Bayou, whatever treat we happened to indulge in on that trip, but, man, I don’t think I could be that dedicated anymore. bless you and hope you score for your DD!

 

[brentm77]

The one technology-related addition that I'm REALLY disliking right now is trying to get dining reservations. Hopefully this problem will go away once they are fully staffed again, but wow ... supposedly these reservations become available at 3 AM Pacific time 60 days out, which means if you want any chance of getting any of the popular restaurants, you're online or on your app at 3 AM. Which would be bad enough if they actually became available on the date they're supposed to be available, but they don't, so now you're up at 3 AM trying to snag a reservation multiple nights in a row with no apparent end in sight! I'm on night 4 setting an alarm for 3 AM hoping to get a reservation for DD's 18th birthday and it is exhausting!

Ohmigosh that is REALLY crazy! I just don’t understand why it has to be SO hard! In the past, I never had any problem scoring Tea Party rezzies or Blue Bayou, whatever treat we happened to indulge in on that trip, but, man, I don’t think I could be that dedicated anymore. bless you and hope you score for your DD!

The other thing I noticed a few weeks ago was that the lines for the non-mobile order vending carts were unusually long and slow. Just getting a bottled water or churro took a very long time (15-20 minutes on average). For one non-mobile ice-cream location, my daughters waited in line and road Incredicoaster before I had my food. I think the required mobile-order at many places (with order times hours away) is pushing people to the non-mobile order places and creating a backlog.

 

[gelatoni fan]

I don't mind smartphones where things like Play Disney and pulling fastpasses from a phone improved my experience. But I don't like boarding groups and being forced to do things in advance. In fact, Fastpass+ was the primary reason I don't go to WDW even though there were a few times I wanted to in the past few years. Basically, if I can't get the fastpass I want when I finally decide I want to go, I won't go at all.

I think a huge issue is the shift in attitude towards travel. Adjusted for inflation, travel has gotten cheaper over the past few decades and if we add the ever increasing opportunities to earn points/benefits from credit cards, this gets even crazier. That leaves more in the travel budget to spend at Disneyland. Now, add that many in younger generations basically see buying a proper home impossible and will instead redirect money that would have been spent on material things towards vacation spending. This means that Disney has the opportunity to take a bigger piece of a bigger pie so prices will go up.

Then add on social media and FOMO. Now, some people are going to Disneyland just to say that they did something and not because the enjoyment from the activity itself justifies the price tag. As an extreme example, think of a blogger who can write an article "I spent $3,000 on a Disneyland VIP tour!" and then write off the entire cost as a business expense.

With the prices now, I personally don't think it's worth it to me anymore unlike back when I had a $199 annual pass but with friends and family who want to go and keep asking me, I have a hard time saying no.

 

[disneylover102]

The park reservations are because of covid. The boarding groups are only for the two newest rides that have insane demand. Other than that nothing is different as far as planning goes

 

[mom2rtk]

The park reservations are because of covid. The boarding groups are only for the two newest rides that have insane demand. Other than that nothing is different as far as planning goes

But Chapek has already said the park reservations will continue into the future.

 

[PirateBrigade]

But Chapek has already said the park reservations will continue into the future.

This will be hard for them to let go (as in, they will never let this go), and it can be a win-win situation (guests and park). If, say, 80% of your attendance is confirmed and known weeks ahead of time, you can staff appropriately. If the caps are so high that, functionally speaking, you can snag a reservation the day before, there's virtually no impact on the casual guest experience that was a hallmark of the old APs/DLR.

 

[disneylover102]

But Chapek has already said the park reservations will continue into the future.

I forgot about that. Still, I think once they’re at full capacity and reservations aren’t selling out it won’t be that much more of a hassle than it was before.

 

[snakeyp23]

I think the biggest difference here is a lot of planning. I know I have seen a lot about trying to push out older visitors and fans, but I think people are capable and are able. It just takes some planning for sure.

 

[disneylover102]

I think the biggest difference here is a lot of planning. I know I have seen a lot about trying to push out older visitors and fans, but I think people are capable and are able. It just takes some planning for sure.

I agree. I think the reality is that covid forced lots of things to be online and that’s how it’s going to continue from now on.

 

[Karin1984]

I think it's not just Covid, it's just how society evolves.
Example: In the oldie days, to go to a restaurant, all you could do was show up. If it was a good restaurant, reservations came, but you still had to go there to make a reservation. With the invention of the phone, it became possible to get reservations via phone. Where you still had to wait to see if they would pick up the phone, interact etc. Then the internet came.

Keywords of this era are 'efficiency' and 'instant'. And I think for a lot of people we can add 'predictable'. We want to know when packages or groceries arrive when we order them. We want to check the weather without looking outside. Know train / flight times when travelling without looking for a monitor nearby.
I think all these kind of little things how we use technology now added to how Disney's technology department thought of ways to use technology to be more efficient (and for them of course more cost-effective).
Covid sped up some things. I read an article the other day that claimed that certain social aspects, like working from home, advanced 7 years due to Covid.

And expensive... more people with higher income and people willing to pay for it.

 

[PirateBrigade]

I think it's not just Covid, it's just how society evolves.
Example: In the oldie days, to go to a restaurant, all you could do was show up. If it was a good restaurant, reservations came, but you still had to go there to make a reservation. With the invention of the phone, it became possible to get reservations via phone. Where you still had to wait to see if they would pick up the phone, interact etc. Then the internet came.

Keywords of this era are 'efficiency' and 'instant'. And I think for a lot of people we can add 'predictable'. We want to know when packages or groceries arrive when we order them. We want to check the weather without looking outside. Know train / flight times when travelling without looking for a monitor nearby.
I think all these kind of little things how we use technology now added to how Disney's technology department thought of ways to use technology to be more efficient (and for them of course more cost-effective).
Covid sped up some things. I read an article the other day that claimed that certain social aspects, like working from home, advanced 7 years due to Covid.

And expensive... more people with higher income and people willing to pay for it.

I read this and realized it would drive me NUTS if I went back to the days before same-day shipping, ordering food on an app, making reservations on an app, etc…

I read an article that sports fans often had to wait until the next day in the newspaper to find out sports scores (if they weren’t actively listening to the game or watched news that night).

Not being able to optimize airfare, jump on price changes, or look at the on-time performance of a flight before booking instantly on a phone/computer would drive me nuts.

I still think there’s too much emphasis in the parks on smart phone use…but now I question whether I have a misplaced sense of nostalgia and if reverting back to 1990 would drive me bonkers at DLR!

 

[Karin1984]

I read this and realized it would drive me NUTS if I went back to the days before same-day shipping, ordering food on an app, making reservations on an app, etc…

I read an article that sports fans often had to wait until the next day in the newspaper to find out sports scores (if they weren’t actively listening to the game or watched news that night).

Not being able to optimize airfare, jump on price changes, or look at the on-time performance of a flight before booking instantly on a phone/computer would drive me nuts.

I still think there’s too much emphasis in the parks on smart phone use…but now I question whether I have a misplaced sense of nostalgia and if reverting back to 1990 would drive me bonkers at DLR!

That's what nostalgia does for you, remember the good times, erases the less good times.
Yes, it is annoying to check your phone for everything, but the old way wasn't necessarily better.

For the app at my homepark in Paris:
- Love it for checking wait times.
To stand at the hub and see if I can better go left to Adventureland for Pirates, or to the Discoveryland for Space Mountain. It reduces your time walking back and forth. Downside, maybe if I had walked to Discoveryland instead of Adventureland, I might have run into Stitch doing a unscheduled meet & greet. That's where FOMO comes in, and social media, without social media and the fan sites, I wouldn't know what I am missing out on.
- When it comes to fastpasses, Disneyland Paris still had paper fastpasses before the pandemic. It is way more convenient to check on your phone to check if there are still passes available, for what time etc. Can't imagine going back to paper. We never toured with fastpass runners or rush from ride to ride.
(This is provided it works, which it didn't or I didn't use it right last trip ;-) )
- Photopass isn't integrated in the app. It's not a big thing here (yet), I have a Photopass that I get with my AP. I think I prefer to get my pass out of my bag and have that scanned, then to pull it up on the app, because it takes time to start the app. Really annoying.
- We finally got making dining reservations via the app. It was easy and convenient. We are not table service people in Paris, only do it on special occasions, so do not need it a lot. I do use the restaurant part to look for which restaurants are open and the menus.

I just did 2 trips to DLP in June and July after the last reopening. And I am currently in doubt about renewing my AP (which expires only in 7 months or so), but that has more to do with the last two trips being ok. There were a lot of little things that didn't make it a great trip,, but that had nothing to do with technology or new procedures.

 

[MonocularVision]

The one thing I hope doesn’t change at Disneyland is adding the requirement to plan months in advance. I don’t want Disneyland to turn into Disney World.

 

[PirateBrigade]

That's what nostalgia does for you, remember the good times, erases the less good times.

That’s the most truthful thing I’ve read all day!

That's where FOMO comes in, and social media, without social media and the fan sites, I wouldn't know what I am missing out on.

This is where I draw the line—I proudly follow zero so-called influencers/self-proclaimed journalist/vloggers. The time I watched a few, my brain went numb because of the lack of vocabulary and the excessive use of the word “awesome.” I make exceptions for ride videos.

I’ll just come in here and selectively click on what people post. I think that’s the biggest change I hate now…the “influencer” culture surrounding the parks, barf!

 

[gelatoni fan]

The one thing I hope doesn’t change at Disneyland is adding the requirement to plan months in advance. I don’t want Disneyland to turn into Disney World.

Have you tried getting a dining reservation lately? With park reservations, necessity of dining reservations and so on, Disneyland sure seems to be moving in that direction. If COVID didn't happen, I think they would have done a Galaxy's Edge style opening for Avengers Campus where the first couple of months, people who didn't plan months in advance wouldn't get to go in to the land.

 

[dieumeye]

Have you tried getting a dining reservation lately? With park reservations, necessity of dining reservations and so on, Disneyland sure seems to be moving in that direction. If COVID didn't happen, I think they would have done a Galaxy's Edge style opening for Avengers Campus where the first couple of months, people who didn't plan months in advance wouldn't get to go in to the land.

I don’t understand what’s going on with dining. The current situation can be blamed on staffing, perhaps, but even prior to covid I feel like the dining reservations have been getting harder and harder to get over the past few years.

Years ago I swear it was pretty easy to get same day reservations most anywhere. Then it was tough to get reservations at the “hot spots” but you still had lots of options. Then it was most everything was booked but you could still grab something like Wine Country or River Belle which never seemed to be fully booked. But now it’s like no reservations are available anywhere ever - including Downtown Disney!

I wish they’d add more restaurants at the west end of DTD (Rainforest and ESPN have not been replaced). And now that Steakhouse 55 is closed, they need to add some thing to replace that. And add something to replace Big Thunder Ranch on DL.