If you had a negative experience traveling to Disney, can you share why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[img] hi

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there are more Disney adults than Disney kids.

This. The obsessed adults ruin it for kids. So many of them have the DAS pass, go all the time, skip the lines, and make little kids who are maybe there for the first time have to stand and endure the lines when they already have so little patience. I mean why not go all the time when you barely have to wait in line and can ride as often as you want, that's the entitled attitude. Hopefully the new rules make it a better experience for everyone, especially kids.

I agree with this. I also wish they limited DAS passes to once a year or maybe twice. I have a friend I grew up with that goes weekly or even multiple times a week and she has DAS passes. I’m all about accessibility but surely people realize that if you go nonstop that means others are waiting in lines even longer?

I don’t agree with this. We go just about every year and if you know how to use Genie + and LL’s you won’t have to wait more than 30 min tops for any ride; most much less than that.

What is there to disagree with? Disney realized it was getting abused in this manner and updated the rules. It was being used far more in the past few years than ever before, as people want to avoid paying for Genie+. It's not that there are suddenly 3x as many people with disabilities from a few years ago. It was a loophole that got closed.

I disagree that DAS users were negatively impacting us. They clearly weren’t. Our lines weren’t longer because of them.

It was much harder to get LL slots with regular Genie+ because DAS was taking all of them. That’s why it would be so absurdly hard to book popular rides like 7 Dwarves and Slinky Dog. It also in theory made standby waits longer because so many people had LL priority through DAS. This is why Disney had to get ahold of the situation - because a big ride like Tiana would end up 100% DAS and nobody else could get on except in a 2 hr standby line. I think Genie+ worked really well for us but in part because we didn’t prioritize the super popular rides. At the end of the day it IS a bit absurd that to get a Genie+ slot on Slinky I had to be refreshing the app at 6:59am …

I know nothing about disneyworld and reading this is like another language. I love it.

[Anonymous]

Ok I don’t have any feedback for OP but I am now intrigued by the whole DAS controversy. What were the rules and what are they now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[img] hi

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there are more Disney adults than Disney kids.

This. The obsessed adults ruin it for kids. So many of them have the DAS pass, go all the time, skip the lines, and make little kids who are maybe there for the first time have to stand and endure the lines when they already have so little patience. I mean why not go all the time when you barely have to wait in line and can ride as often as you want, that's the entitled attitude. Hopefully the new rules make it a better experience for everyone, especially kids.

I agree with this. I also wish they limited DAS passes to once a year or maybe twice. I have a friend I grew up with that goes weekly or even multiple times a week and she has DAS passes. I’m all about accessibility but surely people realize that if you go nonstop that means others are waiting in lines even longer?

I don’t agree with this. We go just about every year and if you know how to use Genie + and LL’s you won’t have to wait more than 30 min tops for any ride; most much less than that.

What is there to disagree with? Disney realized it was getting abused in this manner and updated the rules. It was being used far more in the past few years than ever before, as people want to avoid paying for Genie+. It's not that there are suddenly 3x as many people with disabilities from a few years ago. It was a loophole that got closed.

I disagree that DAS users were negatively impacting us. They clearly weren’t. Our lines weren’t longer because of them.

It was much harder to get LL slots with regular Genie+ because DAS was taking all of them. That’s why it would be so absurdly hard to book popular rides like 7 Dwarves and Slinky Dog. It also in theory made standby waits longer because so many people had LL priority through DAS. This is why Disney had to get ahold of the situation - because a big ride like Tiana would end up 100% DAS and nobody else could get on except in a 2 hr standby line. I think Genie+ worked really well for us but in part because we didn’t prioritize the super popular rides. At the end of the day it IS a bit absurd that to get a Genie+ slot on Slinky I had to be refreshing the app at 6:59am …

I know nothing about disneyworld and reading this is like another language. I love it.

Agree! So glad we did all this early in the last decade when DD was young and things weren’t so complicated.

[Anonymous]

We had a pretty darn awful trip to Disney world. There were just so many issues that it felt like a comedy of errors.

On Day 1 we arrived at Magic Kingdom midday and there apparently had been a massive storm and lightning strike. We were wading through water that was mid-shin and not draining. It was gross. The lightening strike had apparently damaged the electrical grid and taken out almost every ride at Magic Kingdom. Only teacups, magic carpets and Philharmagic came back on line before 8:30 PM when we left. The entire rest of the park was shut down for the entire afternoon and evening leaving thousands of people and no rides or parades, ongoing storms and no information being shared with guests. The park was a massive mess. We had a 5:30 PM reservation at the castle for dinner so we stayed, but people apparently weren't getting up from their tables because they had no where to go with no rides and it was raining hard so they sat. We didn't get seated until nearly 2 hours after our reservation with a 3 and 5 yo. They were melting from starvation, waiting and disappointment. Then service was awful, food was gross, and princesses were skipping our table. It was such a a miserable night despite us trying to stay upbeat.

(I note that lightening is a major issue in that part of Florida: https://www.disneydining.com/walt-disney-world-area-lightning-capital-of-the-u-s-bb1/)

I'd wish I could say that things got better, but apparently the lightening strike had damaged the park pretty severely. All of the "mountains" at MK (space, splash, thunder) and mine train were down for most of the week, with lots of closures of other rides for repairs This pushed guests into other lines, making every ride have massive lines.

The cherry on top was that we had lunch the next day at the Sci Fi Drive in at HS and right after we ordered there was a kitchen fire and the restaurant was evacuated. We ended up being held for 2.5 hours while the fire department came. All of our stuff was stuck in the restaurant so we had to wait in the million degree sun with two hungry kids and no food or information. It was such a a mess. (They did give us several paper ride passes for this delay, but we needed to go back for naps by the end of the ordeal and we're just over it all.)

Then on top of all this we kept having issues with our LL and rider swaps, with them only appearing on one phone and disappearing and reappearing, and not scanning. We were told our account had been corrupted so it wasn't working right but that they couldn't fix it without cancelling our hotel, deleting our accounts, making new ones and rebooking us from scratch, which was going to cost us hundreds. The Disney workers told us there was no way to override this and we'd need to pack up our room and move to a new room. So we tried to make it work and ended up at guest services 5-7 times a day getting our accounts fixed.

It really was a dreadful trip. People talk a lot about how Disney will make stuff right for guests, but I think they were so overwhelmed that week with the scope of the issues they just gave up and shrugged. They couldn't make it right for everyone so they just pretended everything was fine and didn't try to even compensate.

[Anonymous]

We went last year for spring break. It was fine, but my kids much prefer a beach vacation. No question.

It was hot and long lines. Rides were cool and parade was fun and for sure fun moments, it the ratio of fun to waiting and exhaustion was not worth it.

The thing that bothered me the most was that I felt the magic was gone. We had to do everything on the phone. I am trying to get off the phone when on vacation, bus Disney forced you to do everything on the phone.

I went to front desk of Disney hotel to ask for help making a reservation at the restaurant there. No magic, no help, just directed toy eu app. In the park we showed up for our lunch reservation on time and “checked-in” but was told I HAD to use the phone to check in. which ended up delaying us 20 minutes. Things like that over and over. No special smiles and hellos to kids in the shops - check out on the phone. Not magical at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[img] hi

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there are more Disney adults than Disney kids.

This. The obsessed adults ruin it for kids. So many of them have the DAS pass, go all the time, skip the lines, and make little kids who are maybe there for the first time have to stand and endure the lines when they already have so little patience. I mean why not go all the time when you barely have to wait in line and can ride as often as you want, that's the entitled attitude. Hopefully the new rules make it a better experience for everyone, especially kids.

I agree with this. I also wish they limited DAS passes to once a year or maybe twice. I have a friend I grew up with that goes weekly or even multiple times a week and she has DAS passes. I’m all about accessibility but surely people realize that if you go nonstop that means others are waiting in lines even longer?

I don’t agree with this. We go just about every year and if you know how to use Genie + and LL’s you won’t have to wait more than 30 min tops for any ride; most much less than that.

What is there to disagree with? Disney realized it was getting abused in this manner and updated the rules. It was being used far more in the past few years than ever before, as people want to avoid paying for Genie+. It's not that there are suddenly 3x as many people with disabilities from a few years ago. It was a loophole that got closed.

I disagree that DAS users were negatively impacting us. They clearly weren’t. Our lines weren’t longer because of them.

It was much harder to get LL slots with regular Genie+ because DAS was taking all of them. That’s why it would be so absurdly hard to book popular rides like 7 Dwarves and Slinky Dog. It also in theory made standby waits longer because so many people had LL priority through DAS. This is why Disney had to get ahold of the situation - because a big ride like Tiana would end up 100% DAS and nobody else could get on except in a 2 hr standby line. I think Genie+ worked really well for us but in part because we didn’t prioritize the super popular rides. At the end of the day it IS a bit absurd that to get a Genie+ slot on Slinky I had to be refreshing the app at 6:59am …

I mean I’m glad Disney changed the system but the DAS system specifically didn’t affect us at all. Not even for the popular rides. If you know how to work the system you won’t have a problem. We never do.

I’m not sure what you mean by that. It’s basically impossible to get some of the more popular rides if you don’t pick them at 6:59am. We still had a good time, but no, I don’t think it’s fair that most of the lightening lane spots were taken by DAS.

Learned 3 trips ago that this isn’t true. I logged on at 7 for a LL and got nothing. As I was walking by complaining about it the concierge heard me and said “they don’t release them all at once. Try again in a few minutes and keep refreshing.” I did exactly that and voilà! got us a LL for 8:30 am. You just need to know the hacks.

Confirmed my point about being on the phone. I feel like Dis day is saying “Don’t worry about having a nice family breakfast together, stare at your phone for an hour and hit refresh until you get a spot on a 5 minute ride and then RUN in 100 degree heat while trying to the ride.” I want to get off my darn phone and hang with my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most kids don’t like standing in long lines and navigating crowds. The rides are mediocre and most geared towards very young kids. The food is terrible. There’s nothing relaxing about waking up early to rush to rope drop and go go go all day long. Exhausting.

Having said that, my kids enjoyed it. But they much prefer the Disney cruise which is much more fun without dealing with lines.

You obviously have been to very few theme parks if you think the rides are “mediocre.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok I don’t have any feedback for OP but I am now intrigued by the whole DAS controversy. What were the rules and what are they now?

So, Disney has changed their requirements for being issued a DAS. Some people who may have been previously approved for one, may not now be. It seems to be rather unclear exactly who qualifies, and people are getting varied results in applying for it. There are some accomodations that Disney is suggesting for those not approved, such as Return to Queue and rider swap. Genie+ is NOT listed as one by Disney, despite what the ableist poster here keeps braying about.

This same poster also thinks that everyone who had a DAS was clogging up the lightening lanes in the most popular rides, multiple times a day. As someone whose dc has used DAS and know many others who have traveled to Disney who use it, I know that it is more likely to NOT be the case-rather, the DAS makes it possible for them to experience the park at all. I happen to think that the idea that the lightening lanes will now suddenly be sparse, is crazy-most likely Disney is just going to sell more Genie+ to fill them. We shall see I guess.

I'm sure the ableist poster will continue to complain about DAS users, regardless of how the change plays out!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the discussions in this thread literally prove beyond a doubt now terrible it is to go to Disney. Look at how much work you all describe it being just to go there.

This. Why the hell would I look forward to spending an insane amount of money after spending 50 hours pre-planning the visit. International travel is far easier and cheaper.

I find it hard to believe there isn’t a lot of preplanning involved with an international trip.

Exactly. You don't just show up in Paris or Rome without planning and getting advance museum tickets, tour tickets, etc.

I mean I usually do. I’ve never pre booked anything for a trip except hotels. There’s always plenty to see and do and explore without scheduling ourselves ahead of time. Much nicer to take each day as we feel like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't take my kids to Disney until they requested to go at ages 12 and 15. It was awesome, much more fun than if I had to deal with little kids!

This is what we're planning to do as well, but, OP, if you want a Disney experience and character meet & greets, etc., I highly recommend a Disney cruise. We took one this year (our first cruise ever) with kids 6 & 9, and we all had a blast. Very different experience from the theme parks but the characters, onboard detective agency game, kids clubs, etc., all had the Disney magic for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok I don’t have any feedback for OP but I am now intrigued by the whole DAS controversy. What were the rules and what are they now?

Start a new thread.

[Anonymous]

I had a fabulous time and didn’t expect it. But we had money to spend, stayed at a Disney resort and I knew how to play the Genie/LL game. I also made dining reservations in advance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the discussions in this thread literally prove beyond a doubt now terrible it is to go to Disney. Look at how much work you all describe it being just to go there.

This. Why the hell would I look forward to spending an insane amount of money after spending 50 hours pre-planning the visit. International travel is far easier and cheaper.

I find it hard to believe there isn’t a lot of preplanning involved with an international trip.

Exactly. You don't just show up in Paris or Rome without planning and getting advance museum tickets, tour tickets, etc.

Sure, but then you’re in the Louvre, not an amusement park.

That’s not the point. The point PP was trying to make was that an international trip was much easier and didn’t require as much planning. This is clearly not the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the discussions in this thread literally prove beyond a doubt now terrible it is to go to Disney. Look at how much work you all describe it being just to go there.

This. Why the hell would I look forward to spending an insane amount of money after spending 50 hours pre-planning the visit. International travel is far easier and cheaper.

I find it hard to believe there isn’t a lot of preplanning involved with an international trip.

Exactly. You don't just show up in Paris or Rome without planning and getting advance museum tickets, tour tickets, etc.

Sure, but then you’re in the Louvre, not an amusement park.

I've done both. So have a lot of people. It's not one or the other.

Same. I honestly prefer Disney. The Mona Lisa really wasn’t all that.

[Anonymous]

We adore Disney and go every other year. I don’t view it as a relaxing vacation. We travel several times a year and mix in beach trips and national parks and city exploring. We like a bit of everything. I don’t understand the people who ONLY go to Disney, but we love Disney. My kids always have and still do as teens. We are going to HI this summer and Disney this fall and they are equally excited for both.