Ready to be done with Disney

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just spent 4 days at Disney. Overpriced and very poor experience. It must be an absolute mess for families that don't want to shell out for all the extras. Extras, which are slowly become necessities if you want to actually get on rides at the park.
I told my kids for this kind of money we could have spent a week on my home country and lived like kings!
Rant over

My in laws live in Florida so there was an appeal to stop by. We just did a week there and the horrifically bad food and expenses and so I will not be back.

Where did you eat? Disney has at least one Michelin star restaurant.

It has exactly one, in the Grand Floridian hotel, and it is genuinely excellent. But apart from that, I have never had a good meal anywhere in Disney. I have had some overpriced mediocre meals, but nothing actually good. It’s ok because you don’t go for the food… but it’s just another thing that makes Disney less appealing to me personally.

Some great meals I’ve had:

Topolino’s
Yak and Yeti
Morimoto Asia
Steakhouse 71
California Grill
Jiko
Takumi-Tei
Narcoosee’s

Most of them are at resorts and Epcot. MK generally has subpar food, and a lot of people who fail to do research eat at some quick serve place there and think it’s representative of the food overall.

Disney Food Blog has a ton of guidance about where to get excellent food: https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2022/05/21/10-best-disney-world-restaurants-for-dinner/

Not only do you have to research but you have to wake up early 60 days before your trip to fight everyone else for a reservation. And good luck if you’re not staying at a Disney resort. Or you can pay a third party scraper bot app to ping you when a reservation opens up and hope that you’re near your phone to grab it.

I wonder if the competitive nature of doing Disney appeals to some people in a way?

[Anonymous]

We are a Disney family, in that we enjoy going to the Disney parks/resorts. Yes, some resorts could definitely use a remodel. They are working their way through them. Disney, as with any vacation, is about managing expectations. If you expect it not to be crowded, you'll most likely be disappointed. If you go in July and don't expect it to feel like hell you'll be very disappointed. If you're trying to hit everything and only going for 2 days you'll be disappointed.

You'll have as much fun as you put in.

[Anonymous]

In our most recent visit at WDW (August), almost majority of the guests at the park and hotel were British. It’s wild. We heard British tourists talking everywhere. Do they give incentives to them? Seriously, we felt like we were in Britain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In our most recent visit at WDW (August), almost majority of the guests at the park and hotel were British. It’s wild. We heard British tourists talking everywhere. Do they give incentives to them? Seriously, we felt like we were in Britain.

Perhaps you were just in the UK section of Epcot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve never been to Disney and don’t plan on taking my kids ever. Too expensive and I don’t like crowds. My kids are 10 and 13.

Just wondering where you travel where there are no crowds. I would love to try it...

[Anonymous]

I like Disney “ok” but I detest Florida. I found Disneyland much more manageable for my toddler, with better weather. Flights cost the same so I don’t see the appeal in WDW.

For a child though, the amount of “magic” Disneyland packs into a day is truly remarkable and getting to see that through her eyes is pretty unbelievable.

…and yes I’ve taken her internationally too so everyone calm down about making sure she’s well-traveled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just spent 4 days at Disney. Overpriced and very poor experience. It must be an absolute mess for families that don't want to shell out for all the extras. Extras, which are slowly become necessities if you want to actually get on rides at the park.
I told my kids for this kind of money we could have spent a week on my home country and lived like kings!
Rant over

My in laws live in Florida so there was an appeal to stop by. We just did a week there and the horrifically bad food and expenses and so I will not be back.

Where did you eat? Disney has at least one Michelin star restaurant.

It has exactly one, in the Grand Floridian hotel, and it is genuinely excellent. But apart from that, I have never had a good meal anywhere in Disney. I have had some overpriced mediocre meals, but nothing actually good. It’s ok because you don’t go for the food… but it’s just another thing that makes Disney less appealing to me personally.

Some great meals I’ve had:

Topolino’s
Yak and Yeti
Morimoto Asia
Steakhouse 71
California Grill
Jiko
Takumi-Tei
Narcoosee’s

Most of them are at resorts and Epcot. MK generally has subpar food, and a lot of people who fail to do research eat at some quick serve place there and think it’s representative of the food overall.

Disney Food Blog has a ton of guidance about where to get excellent food: https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2022/05/21/10-best-disney-world-restaurants-for-dinner/

Not only do you have to research but you have to wake up early 60 days before your trip to fight everyone else for a reservation. And good luck if you’re not staying at a Disney resort. Or you can pay a third party scraper bot app to ping you when a reservation opens up and hope that you’re near your phone to grab it.

I wonder if the competitive nature of doing Disney appeals to some people in a way?

What do you mean “fight”? For our last trip, I logged in exactly 60 days before and made 3 lunch reservations. Took me about 5 minutes total. No fighting necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just spent 4 days at Disney. Overpriced and very poor experience. It must be an absolute mess for families that don't want to shell out for all the extras. Extras, which are slowly become necessities if you want to actually get on rides at the park.
I told my kids for this kind of money we could have spent a week on my home country and lived like kings!
Rant over

My in laws live in Florida so there was an appeal to stop by. We just did a week there and the horrifically bad food and expenses and so I will not be back.

Where did you eat? Disney has at least one Michelin star restaurant.

It has exactly one, in the Grand Floridian hotel, and it is genuinely excellent. But apart from that, I have never had a good meal anywhere in Disney. I have had some overpriced mediocre meals, but nothing actually good. It’s ok because you don’t go for the food… but it’s just another thing that makes Disney less appealing to me personally.

Some great meals I’ve had:

Topolino’s
Yak and Yeti
Morimoto Asia
Steakhouse 71
California Grill
Jiko
Takumi-Tei
Narcoosee’s

Most of them are at resorts and Epcot. MK generally has subpar food, and a lot of people who fail to do research eat at some quick serve place there and think it’s representative of the food overall.

Disney Food Blog has a ton of guidance about where to get excellent food: https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2022/05/21/10-best-disney-world-restaurants-for-dinner/

Not only do you have to research but you have to wake up early 60 days before your trip to fight everyone else for a reservation. And good luck if you’re not staying at a Disney resort. Or you can pay a third party scraper bot app to ping you when a reservation opens up and hope that you’re near your phone to grab it.

I wonder if the competitive nature of doing Disney appeals to some people in a way?

Reservations aren’t hard to get nowadays for most restaurants, even as a walk up.

[Anonymous]

CRT is probably the only difficult one to get…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In our most recent visit at WDW (August), almost majority of the guests at the park and hotel were British. It’s wild. We heard British tourists talking everywhere. Do they give incentives to them? Seriously, we felt like we were in Britain.

Actually, WDW gives very attractive incentives to people from the UK. Free days at the parks and the ability to book 14 day tickets, etc, to make it worth their while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We recently returned and we’re sort of surprised how dirty and run-down it has become. And the prices just keep going up.

You want dirty and run down, stay at a Disney hotel. I can't believe they have audacity to charge those prices for those nasty rooms.

We stayed at Port Orleans and thought it was nice, but that was maybe 10 years ago or so.

We have a friend who works for Disney so the hotel rate was something like 40% off and we got into the parks for free, otherwise we probably wouldn’t have gone. It was the end of January and crowds were light.

[Anonymous]

If you are "done" with Disney, why post about it? Will you only be "done" if a quorum of other DCUM-ers support your point of view? Just don't go again. Yes, Disney is overpriced, but so are lots of things these days. Pick your poison. If the anti-Disney folks stop going, the pro-Disney folks will have lower crowds and a better experience. Prices will drop too (30-35% onsite hotel discounts this fall for a start).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CRT is probably the only difficult one to get…

Even that one isn’t that hard these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We recently returned and we’re sort of surprised how dirty and run-down it has become. And the prices just keep going up.

You want dirty and run down, stay at a Disney hotel. I can't believe they have audacity to charge those prices for those nasty rooms.

We stayed at Port Orleans and thought it was nice, but that was maybe 10 years ago or so.

We have a friend who works for Disney so the hotel rate was something like 40% off and we got into the parks for free, otherwise we probably wouldn’t have gone. It was the end of January and crowds were light.

The deluxe resorts are quite nice. We especially like Riviera.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just spent 4 days at Disney. Overpriced and very poor experience. It must be an absolute mess for families that don't want to shell out for all the extras. Extras, which are slowly become necessities if you want to actually get on rides at the park.
I told my kids for this kind of money we could have spent a week on my home country and lived like kings!
Rant over

My in laws live in Florida so there was an appeal to stop by. We just did a week there and the horrifically bad food and expenses and so I will not be back.

Where did you eat? Disney has at least one Michelin star restaurant.

It has exactly one, in the Grand Floridian hotel, and it is genuinely excellent. But apart from that, I have never had a good meal anywhere in Disney. I have had some overpriced mediocre meals, but nothing actually good. It’s ok because you don’t go for the food… but it’s just another thing that makes Disney less appealing to me personally.

Some great meals I’ve had:

Topolino’s
Yak and Yeti
Morimoto Asia
Steakhouse 71
California Grill
Jiko
Takumi-Tei
Narcoosee’s

Most of them are at resorts and Epcot. MK generally has subpar food, and a lot of people who fail to do research eat at some quick serve place there and think it’s representative of the food overall.

Disney Food Blog has a ton of guidance about where to get excellent food: https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2022/05/21/10-best-disney-world-restaurants-for-dinner/

Not only do you have to research but you have to wake up early 60 days before your trip to fight everyone else for a reservation. And good luck if you’re not staying at a Disney resort. Or you can pay a third party scraper bot app to ping you when a reservation opens up and hope that you’re near your phone to grab it.

I wonder if the competitive nature of doing Disney appeals to some people in a way?

What do you mean “fight”? For our last trip, I logged in exactly 60 days before and made 3 lunch reservations. Took me about 5 minutes total. No fighting necessary.

When we went to Disney last fall, reservations for sought-after restaurants were snapped up immediately, it was like trying to get Beyoncé tickets. We ended up with a 2:30 reservation for a character lunch one day because that was all that was available. Of course we weren’t seated until closer to 3.

I understand that outside of Disney got reservations get snatched up quickly but it’s frustrating to have to do it for mediocre food.