WDW too much hassle?

[thejens]

I love WDW and I love to plan...but the FPP just seems like the last straw.

I have been unable to commit in advance for a variety or reasons, but have been thinking about going to WDW and/or Universal this fall and it just seems like a trip to Universal seems so much less stressful. Book a room. Show up. Go to the head of the line. Enjoy lots of great restaurants without making reservations months in advance.

Planning a trip two months in advance at WDW seems ridiculously impulsive and practically irresponsible. Is that really how a vacation should be? Maybe I am getting old.

Thoughts?

[razor5002000]

Now I am not planner and I personally think it is crazy to prebook meals 6 months in advance. I think planning FP out 2 month in advance is crazy too. I think the old way of fast pass is good. Fast pass now flys off the shelf and then people are switching when they see there is no line for an attraction they fast pass. I think this is wrong. To me half the fun of a vacation is going with the flow and having no plan. To me if its pre plan down to the last second it is no fun.

[Reedy Creek Buccaneer]

It is going to get better, it will just take some time.

[missymouseworld]

I love WDW and I love to plan...but the FPP just seems like the last straw.

Thoughts?

Hang in there.....enjoy what you can and don't let the system ruin your vacation. If you are a frequent WDW traveler, get those one or two important rides/attractions at each park that you must do and then go from there. I like the parks, but enjoying WDW for me is much more than that....the restaurants, the resorts, the family time, etc.

I hope it all works out for you and enjoy your trip.

[MizMissy]

I agree completely. I tell myself that I am the last Disney lover in the family and the kids prefer Universal, so that's why our last two Orlando trips have been to Universal and not WDW. Now ... my kids are thrill ride and HP junkies and are spoiled to front of the line access so they do love Universal and we are heading back to Universal for our Mardi Gras break ... However, my kids really do keep asking to return to WDW or at least add a day or two to the next Universal trip for WDW, but honestly, I'm the one who really doesn't want to have to plan a WDW trip.

I start thinking about maybe adding WDW and I cannot commit. I don't want to be frustrated by having to plan two months in advance which rides and which park for which days and whether those rides are available at times we want or at all, not to mention the tiering system further limiting your choices. I don't want to be frustrated during our trip because we might go all that way to WDW and face really long waits for the other rides that we could not plan in advance. With Universal, we are early risers so I know we can get in line early for HP rides, then get front of the line access to all of the other rides for the remainder of the day ... and my kids can ride a ride 5 or 6 times in a row if they want to do so with little or no wait. And, we can ride wet rides and know the hotel is only a short walk away to change clothes and return. And, no advance planning other than booking our room required. Our last trip to WDW (even before FP+), it was so crowded that we were only able to ride some of our favorite rides only once - that is not an issue we will have to face at Universal. I guess I really I don't want to return to WDW because I'm so scared of being disappointed in the trip. My hope instead is for a trip to Disneyland. But, until then, Universal will receive our business.

[mydisneygirls]

I may be in the minority, but I like to do the planning ahead of time. It actually gets us excited for the upcoming trip. I believe that the planning is necessary because Disney is much more popular than Universal.

[Gregandmel]

I am a Disney lover through and through and I enjoy the planning portion of our WDW trips, but that is only because I know we will be planning about 9-12 months in advance so I am well prepared for the window for booking FP's, ADR's, etc… Planning is half the fun for me!

That said - if I only had 2 months and tried to do it spur of the moment, I would be completely stressed out over it. We had family members planning a WDW/UO trip last year and they booked their trip about 3 weeks prior to going once everyone's schedules opened up. They had never been and I felt my anxiety level go through the roof as they came to me asking them to help plan. Good golly!

Our family just returned from Universal Studios (no Disney day included) at the end of June and even though it was during the summer and leading into a holiday week (we don't like going in the summer due to heat and crowds) we found it completely awesome with the ease of being on property and not having to plan anything at all. We got up early 2 of our mornings for EPA (and we were at the gates by about 6:15am due to the park opening for EPA at 7am) and had plenty of time to do the HP areas without the heat and crowds. My kids (ages 15 and 24) also love the thrill rides and the ease of doing things over and over and over due to the Express Pass there.

I may have to start going to Disney by myself as I think they are now spoiled with Universal. Good luck with your planning though….nothing beats walking down Main Street at MK for me but those trips may get crowded out a bit more now that we have 2 Universal trips under our belts and that's where my family seems to be leaning.

[Pally]

It is going to get better, it will just take some time.

But,how much time. Surely, Disney has an abundant knowledge of crowds but it seems they might not know enough about crowd control? I think taking this amount of time to figure it out is causing frustration and may hurt them.

I may be in the minority, but I like to do the planning ahead of time. It actually gets us excited for the upcoming trip. I believe that the planning is necessary because Disney is much more popular than Universal.

I love planning. But, this trip seems to be so much more effort and guess work. I have not been to Disney since the magic bands have come out. This December I will be there. It's the guessing that is frustrating. Having to plan dining so far in advance. Then wondering if you can get Fast passes around your dining.

Since I was last there, during Icot 15, it sounds like crowds have gotten heavier. During Icot I thought the crowds were pretty light. It was my sisters first time. I kept saying she has no idea how lucky she is attending when crowds are light. Old fast passes worked great for us.

We will be spending the last leg of our trip at Universal. It will be so much more relaxing and I think a better way to end our vacation. So much less hassle.

I don't compare Disney themeing to Universal themeing. They are two completely different parks and to compare them seems silly to me. I do, however, compare the access to rides though and Universal wins hands down. Alot less hassle.

[AgentC]

I find this to be a really fascinating question for several reasons. For me it comes down to three main questions-

• Do you have to plan in advance?
• Do you have to plan more now?
• Does FP+ make it harder?

(And before I start what is probably going to be a long post, everyone's opinion is valid. Your (as in the general you) experience is your experience. My experience is my experience. There is no right or wrong. )

First, I have always found it interesting that people feel the need to do whatever Disney tells them. If you can book 6 months out, you must book 6 months out. If you can book FP at 2 months, you must book at 2 months. I see that opinion in lots of places not just INTERCOT. Disclaimer- I totally bought into this attitude for at least y first 4 trips to WDW. What is going to happen if you don't plan? You might not get into the restaurant you want. You might have to wait in a long line. You might have to miss an attraction. If you go at a busy time of year, those things are probably going to happen. If you want to ride the mine train or visit Anna and Elsa and don't plan, that is definitely going to happen but can you still have a fun trip and enjoy it if you don't put pressure on yourself to get everything done. Let’s face it even in ideal situations; it’s hard to get everything done. I went to Disneyland with adults for 5 days. There is no FP+ there. I still didn’t get everything in.
I have a trip coming up Aug 17-20 and one over Labor Day weekend. I have nothing planned for the August trip other than one character meal. I have one day planned over Labor Day. It's our MK day. I planned it because I know my kids will want to ride the Mine Train. I know some will say I don't have to plan because I can go whenever I want and there is some truth in it, but most people who visit this board don't go to Disney for a once in lifetime trip. As I tell my husband who still stresses about getting it all done after living in FL for 13 years, we are here to have fun not to check attractions off on a checklist. For most of us, there will be another trip , so don’t stress.

Second, how much planning is needed is all about perspective. A common complaint is you have to plan more now than before. I actually plan less. I am a reformed planner. I used to make spreadsheets, yes spreadsheets, listing which park I was going to each day, the crowd level for the park, parades and event times and dining reservations. I spent days deciding which days were best to book. Yes , I was a Florida resident . And yes we were staying at least 4 times a year. What changed for me? The biggest thing is my kids got older. For my family, I had to have a plan when my kids were 1 & 3 or 3 & 5 or even 5 & 7. If I didn’t plan, we would have gotten nothing done. Even with planning , getting to go on 6-8 rides was a success. At 7 & 9, I can relax the planning.

I totally get that if you had older kids or predominately traveled as adults, it feels like you have to plan more but for people like me, we were planning to begin with. When my kids were younger, it was a race to get to DHS early enough to get a FP for TSMM. We almost never did Soarin or Test Track because by the time we could get to EPCOT, the FP were already gone or all the times were 8 pm or later. We never got to be the people with multiple FP who rode all day. It just didn’t work for our situation. I also totally get that those of you had that lost something with FP+.

Third is the idea that FP+ has made it impossible. I give this one a kind of. If you were able to get lots of FP, change plans on the fly and never wait that long, yes, FP+ made your life more difficult. If you’re my family, we have actually been able to ride either Soarin, Test Track or TSMM every visit if we wanted to. In the past there was a lot of “next time” promises made to my kidS.

And I know the lines are longer at rides that didn’t have FP+ but I think lines everywhere would still be longer today than say even 2-3 year ago. Why? The crowds. WDW has done a great job making sure there is always something going and it is always busy. I do remember trips where I could just show up in January or September and everything was a walk on. Those days are gone and as much as I want them back, I don’t think it is coming back.

So is it a hassle? Well yeah but I think to some extent it always was. WDW is a magnet that draws lots of people. There are always going to be more people than availability. Could WDW make it easier? Yep. I would totally endorse ADRs no more than 30-60 days out. 180 is ridiculous but it’s been that long for a long time.

So is it worth it? That just depends on why you go. I think if it is all about the rides, it probably isn’t. There are lots of place where you can go on rides. But if it is about that hard to define Disney magic that makes some of us feel you are in your happy place or escaping from the regular world, it is worth it. You just have to figure out how to make it work best for you.

[Mr Wizard]

Figuring out what and when I wanted for dinner six months in advance was bad enough but now I have to plan what rides I want to ride, and when ( and actually not really when, you get what the computer gives you and that's it ) two months out. Not fun, not enjoyable and not appealing. And please don't give me that "you can ride anything you want, just stand in line". No, sorry, but not only are we not willing to stand in a line for an hour plus we are unable to stand in line for an hour plus because we are pushing 60. The billion dollars wasted on Fast Pass Plus should have been spent on a new park. Disney is really pushing us away with this situation.

[AgentC]

One additional note and bear with me because I'm in a spreadsheet mood again today.
I know people love the included Express Pass at Universal when you stay on site and often mention how much better it is than FP at WDW.

Universal offers Express Pass at the Royal Pacific, Hard Rock and Portofino which together have 2400 rooms so assuming 4 people per room at any given time 9,600 people have automatic Express Pass.

Assuming WDW did the same thing and excluded the value resort approximately 20,000 rooms would be eligible. Taking that same 4 people per room you now have 80,000 people with front of the line privileges. If you include the values, the room count goes to 30,000 so now you have 120,000 people with front of the line privileges.

So looking at let's say EPCOT which has 11 bookable FP if you count illuminations and the character meeting and let pretend 1/4 of onsite guest visit EPCOT in a given day, you have potentially have 30,000 people with front of the line privileges for EPCOT and we know all of them are going to want to ride Test Track and Soarin. One site I found estimated that Soarin has a daily capacity of approximately 18,000 people (no idea if it is right. I'm not in that much of a math mood today. ) But I think you can see the problem right there- 30,000 potential people with front of the line with a ride capacity of 18,000 just doesn't work.

Compare that to Universal where the Revenge of the Mummy ride has a capacity (again not my figure) of 2000 guest per hour so on a 10 hour day 20,000 people can ride and approximately 10,000 people will have include Express Pass. That works much better, right?

The only solution I really see for WDW is more attractions or less crowds.

[Jeff]

I agree with the OP, our most recent trip last Christmas took too much advanced planning. Then, once there I felt to locked in to go to parks or wait around where my FP- were.

Bring back the old FP system!

[baldburke]

I agree with the OP, our most recent trip last Christmas took too much advanced planning. Then, once there I felt to locked in to go to parks or wait around where my FP- were.

Christmas may be a tough time to compare because the resort is on overload anyway.

We just got back from a trip that was the week after the week after Easter (after many students had returned to school). It was our first full go at FP+ after dipping our toes in back in 2013.

We've been pre-booking meals six months out for years so no big adjustment there, but this was the first time we had taken a full trip with the kids using FP+ and reserving two months out.

Did we use 100% of the pre-booked FP+ options? No! Did we have trouble adjusting or rebooking options on the fly? No!

It does seem harrowing to think that you need to commit to a specific park on a specific day when you don't know what the day may bring (weather, moods, spontaneity, etc.). However there are options and it's surprising easy to adjust on your phone while in line, on a bus or by the pool.

Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised. Good luck!

[Dirty Bird Street]

Since moving to Disneyland country, I've been impressed with how much more... casual the parks here are. Apples and oranges, to be sure, and certainly fueled by the much much much larger local gate. But it's a much more laissez-faire attitude about the parks here, which is great when you're showing up with kids.

I know why this makes sense for Disney: time spent outside the parks, not actively doing something, makes them zero dollars and zero cents in concessions, merchandise, etc. But at this point, it forces people into one of two options: running your family/friends like a tour group, or getting a second-class experience.

Me personally? I'm not too affected by this; half of what I love about the Disney parks are the environment and overall experience, not the individual doodads and whatsits and thingamabobs. If I don't go on a given ride, or eat at a given restaurant, so be it. But it's not just me I have to worry about: I've got rapidly aging children, and they will want to do fun things and not be corralled by their parents-turned-border-collies, because they are children and not robots. That actively dissuades me from going back to WDW more than the cross-country time-zone-hopping flight already does.

I've spent probably multiple-days'-worth of time convincing my wife that our extended family would greatly enjoy a WDW vacation, and now, I'm second-guessing that. Yes, we would have fun, but it would be at a guaranteed trade-off, and I'm not sure that's worth it to me anymore.

[ThanxForNoticin]

We tend to be detailed planners, and I have to say the "new Disney" is at times just a huge hassle. But we are learning and working the system, just like most everyone else. We are in the process of planning out a large family reunion with 15-20 of us. We've done these trips over the years, and never has it been more complicated and involved from a planning standpoint than this year. And I'm not sure how that is going to improve moving forward.

That being said, I certainly don't want Disney to go the route of Universal with the front-of-the-line concept for resort guests (and you might still be able to purchase it even if you're not a guest??). That's a headache in itself if you're in the regular lines.

But times are changing and we'll either adapt to needing a PhD in Disneyology, or we'll go less often eventually!!

[Speedy1998]

Personally, I am all for FP+ because I no longer have to run into the park at rope drop to get a decent FP time for Soarin, TSM, or EE.

Now, I just stroll into the park and do whatever I feel like until it is time for my FP.

[WiltonJohn]

Universal offers Express Pass at the Royal Pacific, Hard Rock and Portofino which together have 2400 rooms so assuming 4 people per room at any given time 9,600 people have automatic Express Pass.

Assuming WDW did the same thing and excluded the value resort approximately 20,000 rooms would be eligible. Taking that same 4 people per room you now have 80,000 people with front of the line privileges. If you include the values, the room count goes to 30,000 so now you have 120,000 people with front of the line privileges.

So looking at let's say EPCOT which has 11 bookable FP if you count illuminations and the character meeting and let pretend 1/4 of onsite guest visit EPCOT in a given day, you have potentially have 30,000 people with front of the line privileges for EPCOT and we know all of them are going to want to ride Test Track and Soarin. One site I found estimated that Soarin has a daily capacity of approximately 18,000 people (no idea if it is right. I'm not in that much of a math mood today. ) But I think you can see the problem right there- 30,000 potential people with front of the line with a ride capacity of 18,000 just doesn't work.

Compare that to Universal where the Revenge of the Mummy ride has a capacity (again not my figure) of 2000 guest per hour so on a 10 hour day 20,000 people can ride and approximately 10,000 people will have include Express Pass. That works much better, right?

The only solution I really see for WDW is more attractions or less crowds.

Thank you for the extremely rational analysis of this situation. It "cuts to the chase".

The "The only solution I really see for WDW is more attractions or less crowds." gets to the core of the matter.

So the prices go up... and the un-sustainable demand level goes down. Particularly for the sort of "entitlement program" that they (likely regrettably) created for themselves : Fast Passes. Instead of being a bit of a "perk" ... it has come to be the totally expected.

SO,... less crowds and more attractions.

First off...... Move 1........ crowd control. Raise prices. The revenue stream stays the same, some expenses are curbed (less guests...less staff and logistical support), and the customer satisfaction rating among the guests that are there goes up. Sounds like a "win".

That strategy buys time to add Move 2...... park capacity (which they are doing). And when the capacity is added, that strategy allows the justification of further price increases. Sounds like a "win".

This works for a basic business model. It is sad for the people priced out of the market for sure. But then Disney World was and is not affordable for many folks. And despite all the "pixie dust" that floats around, it IS a business after all.

The shrinking middle class in the USA and the surging middle class in many other countries IS going to have an impact on their business model. If it didn't , someone in an expensive office would not be doing their job. Some folks do have the money to go. Park attendance increases prove this. Some folks who used to go X times a year are going X-minus something times a year. Some are not going at all anymore. But the attendance is up.... so enough are going that offset any losses their practices are maybe causing.

It is interesting to look at a graph of Disney's stock prices over the last say 10 years or so. Even the "crash" in 08 hardly shows a blip in the steady upward slope of that pretty steep line.

best,

................john

[EeyoresBestFriend]

I don't mind basic planning but I agree. I think this is starting to go way too far.

I will book our TS dinners and because we have PH we go to whatever park we want and then go to where ever dinner is. If we change our mind about one as we get closer to the day, I'll cancel it.

FP I will book - without getting really bent about it and if we are in that park - great - if not, I'm not going to worry about it. WDW isn't about pounding through the rides for us anyway. We're about the atmosphere and time together.

[VacationDisney]

I am a planner. We usually decide on going 7 or 8 months out. So when the 180 day mark comes for ADR's we are all set. We do the 7 day base park ticket.

We plan our vacation like this:

1. Pick our park day visits (i.e. Sunday- Epcot, Monday-Hollywood Studios, Tuesday-Magic Kingdom, Wednesday-Animal Kingdom and then repeat Epcot, Studios and MK for the remainder of the trip.

2. Pick where we want to eat. We are somewhat flexible with time and since we are at each of the parks twice, except AK, we are open to switching up the restaurants if necessary.

3. 60 day mark comes and we do the FP+. It was a hassle in the beginning, but we've been doing this 3 times now and it's working out great. We hardly ever got to ride Peter Pan before FP+ was available. There is NO way that I'll wait 45+ minutes for a ride. So, on our past 3 trips we had the pleasure of riding Peter Pan, as well as Soarin' & Toy Mania. Without the new FP+ system we'd probably not be riding these rides because of the wait times. Our last visit to WDW, May 2015, Toy Mania had a wait time of 120 minutes. Really? I won't wait for that amount of time.

We are finding out that some of the FP+ rides, during the day, have short times and we walk right up and hop on. Then we go back into the system and see if we can get a FP+ for something else that originally we did not pick.

To us WDW is about the rides as well as the details that are around the parks. We slow down, from time to time, to take it all in. Realizing how wonderful WDW is. It's a place to be a kid again, yes, but it's also a place to get lost in. Lost in the details, the amazing food, the beautiful resorts. EVERYTHING that keeps people coming back year after year.

For us, WDW is SO worth it

[Sylvia]

To us WDW is about the rides as well as the details that are around the parks. We slow down, from time to time, to take it all in. Realizing how wonderful WDW is. It's a place to be a kid again, yes, but it's also a place to get lost in. Lost in the details, the amazing food, the beautiful resorts. EVERYTHING that keeps people coming back year after year.

For us, WDW is SO worth it

You are not alone in your thinking. It's so wonderful to know that we're not the only ones who love everything about WDW. In only 29 days, We'll be kids in our happy place once again. We never make many ADRs and rarely used the old FP system. We decided to make several ADRs for our upcoming trip, including 2 lunches at BOG, and a few FP+'s for our must-do attractions, including 3 FP+'s each for the 7DMT and for Peter Pan. Most of the time, we'll stroll around and forget about schedules, while enjoying life. We'll continue doing Disney our way, park-hopping, visiting resorts, enjoying live performers, music, favorite CS meals, etc. and having a great time. Watch for us relaxing on a bench, people watching and enjoying a Mickey bar or another favorite treat in our chosen park of the day.