They Got Us This Time

[PGHFiend 140]

We all know Disney always wins, bit this time they really made a few off of us.  We had a 3 day ticket and went to Epcot, AK and the MK over the last 4 days.  The parks are just way too busy anymore to be enjoyable.   I know it's spring break and a busy time and this is our 6th annual spring break trip, but there is no reason we shouldn't have been able to ride other things besides our 3 fast passes.  Line for space mountain was 3 hours and 10 minutes yesterday and the line for the Railroad was 2 cycles long.  This was at 10 am.  Animal Kingdom line for the parking lot Tram was 2 cycles long, epcot food lines were doubled back for some of the stands....the parks are just oversold and no longer fun.  We spent almost 700 bucks on the parks and I won't be doing it again until they add some new attractions to open up some space.  One or 2 day tickets max for now on and we'll spend the rest of the time at the Fort.  Good luck to anyone coming in the near future!

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

4 hours ago, PGHFiend said:

We all know Disney always wins, bit this time they really made a few off of us.  We had a 3 day ticket and went to Epcot, AK and the MK over the last 4 days.  The parks are just way too busy anymore to be enjoyable.   I know it's spring break and a busy time and this is our 6th annual spring break trip, but there is no reason we shouldn't have been able to ride other things besides our 3 fast passes.  Line for space mountain was 3 hours and 10 minutes yesterday and the line for the Railroad was 2 cycles long.  This was at 10 am.  Animal Kingdom line for the parking lot Tram was 2 cycles long, epcot food lines were doubled back for some of the stands....the parks are just oversold and no longer fun.  We spent almost 700 bucks on the parks and I won't be doing it again until they add some new attractions to open up some space.  One or 2 day tickets max for now on and we'll spend the rest of the time at the Fort.  Good luck to anyone coming in the near future!

I agree about it being too busy anymore.  That (plus the continued increase in costs), is what's pushed us to not renew our APs.   I agree...it's just not fun.  People will still go, but I do think that more and more AP holders will not renew.  Newbies will fill their place, so Disney will continue on....

[LONE-STAR 370]

9 hours ago, PGHFiend said:

We all know Disney always wins, bit this time they really made a few off of us.  We had a 3 day ticket and went to Epcot, AK and the MK over the last 4 days.  The parks are just way too busy anymore to be enjoyable.   I know it's spring break and a busy time and this is our 6th annual spring break trip, but there is no reason we shouldn't have been able to ride other things besides our 3 fast passes.  Line for space mountain was 3 hours and 10 minutes yesterday and the line for the Railroad was 2 cycles long.  This was at 10 am.  Animal Kingdom line for the parking lot Tram was 2 cycles long, epcot food lines were doubled back for some of the stands....the parks are just oversold and no longer fun.  We spent almost 700 bucks on the parks and I won't be doing it again until they add some new attractions to open up some space.  One or 2 day tickets max for now on and we'll spend the rest of the time at the Fort.  Good luck to anyone coming in the near future!

We went earlier this month and I feel the same way. We still managed to enjoy our trip, but the value is not there with how packed the parks are. We have one more trip on our AP''s and then I think we will be done. I am not even complaining about how much it cost. It's how much it cost to be stuck in a over packed park. And the sad thing is I only see it getting worse with Star Wars.

[PGHFiend 140]

The Fort is still A1 with me, especially coming from the north for spring break, but I'm losing my enthusiasm for the parks.  Lifes natural ebb and flow I guess, but wow is it crazy.  

[Starbuc71 162]

Kinda of funny when when we sold our trailer last year a lot of people on here said we were crazy for giving up on Disney and price increase and crowds shouldn’t stop us from making Disney memories.  Now I see a lot of people feeling like I did last year. We didn’t buy this new trailer just for Disney. We plan to use it for ATV trips more for my son and I. If the $210 a night price will be correct for spring break next year, Disney can stick it. That’s where I have to draw the line. 

[Travisma 1,317]

Living about an hour + away, changes perspectives a little bit.

I hate it when the parks are so crowded your have to move with the flow or risk being trampled if you slow down.

But, we can call it an early day and not feel like we didn't get our $$ worth, since we can always come back again and pick up where we left off.

And it's not just the crowds, it's the inconsiderate jerks that ram you with stroller, people that decide to have a family gathering in the middle of the walkway (last time we were at EPCOT a group of about 25 teen girls were all lying down on the walkway next to Spaceship Earth), or chanting tour groups.

And we love the Fort, but when we can get (of course not all the time) a room at a Disney resort thru Priceline for the same price as a site, you have to wonder is it worth dragging all your gear, setting up, breaking down, and hope it doesn't pour while you are there and have a soaked tent or PUP.  Or dealing with the craziness that is more and more common in the partial loops.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

1 hour ago, Travisma said:

 

And it's not just the crowds, it's the inconsiderate jerks that ram you with stroller, people that decide to have a family gathering in the middle of the walkway (last time we were at EPCOT a group of about 25 teen girls were all lying down on the walkway next to Spaceship Earth), or chanting tour groups.

 

Disney should have removed them from the park.. or (at a minimum) had them get up:  immediately.   

Saw the same thing, during a NIGHT performance.  Foolish...foolish people.  Both rude and incredibly dangerous.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

That's why even as an out of stater, I refuse to go to the parks without a annual pass. I HATE that feeling of this ticket is burnt up if I don't use it that day to the fullest. With an annual pass, we can book our 3 FP+ for later in the day, do those attractions, wander a bit, have a meal, and head back to the retreat of the Fort or wander another resort. I feel no need or no desire to spend hours in a park if it's too crowded. We also do not renew every year. We purchase a new annual pass every couple of years.

[Travisma 1,317]

7 minutes ago, mouseketab.....Carol said:

That's why even as an out of stater, I refuse to go to the parks without a annual pass. I HATE that feeling of this ticket is burnt up if I don't use it that day to the fullest. With an annual pass, we can book our 3 FP+ for later in the day, do those attractions, wander a bit, have a meal, and head back to the retreat of the Fort or wander another resort. I feel no need or no desire to spend hours in a park if it's too crowded. We also do not renew every year. We purchase a new annual pass every couple of years.

Lots of times we bail out and go to the Poly to Captain Cooks for a late lunch and to relax.  Sometimes my wife and I will head back to the hotel after eating while our daughters go back to the parks.

[PGHFiend 140]

Lots of times we bail out and go to the Poly to Captain Cooks for a late lunch and to relax.  Sometimes my wife and I will head back to the hotel after eating while our daughters go back to the parks.

We actually went before opening, saw the new opening show, did Peter Pan, and 2 fast passes. We then left and came back at 8 for BOG reservation and hung around until midnight, lines were still off the hook so we bagged it.

I did get to do Hall of Presidents and accidentally caught the new muppets history act so it wasn't all bad. Still didn't get my money's worth out of those 3 tickets.


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[thegooftroopfla 18]

We are here this weekend. We decided to just stay at the campground. Getting our energy up for the easter scavenger hunt. Lol

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

13 hours ago, mouseketab.....Carol said:

That's why even as an out of stater, I refuse to go to the parks without a annual pass. I HATE that feeling of this ticket is burnt up if I don't use it that day to the fullest. With an annual pass, we can book our 3 FP+ for later in the day, do those attractions, wander a bit, have a meal, and head back to the retreat of the Fort or wander another resort. I feel no need or no desire to spend hours in a park if it's too crowded. We also do not renew every year. We purchase a new annual pass every couple of years.

Carol, I so agree with you!  We also purchase an annual pass every two years.  Go one year for a month, go the next year for a month the month before our passes expire.  So we get two months' admission on each AP.  

[LONE-STAR 370]

On 3/29/2018 at 9:33 PM, Starbuc71 said:

Kinda of funny when when we sold our trailer last year a lot of people on here said we were crazy for giving up on Disney and price increase and crowds shouldn’t stop us from making Disney memories.  Now I see a lot of people feeling like I did last year. We didn’t buy this new trailer just for Disney. We plan to use it for ATV trips more for my son and I. If the $210 a night price will be correct for spring break next year, Disney can stick it. That’s where I have to draw the line. 

I was going to book for next spring break but when you said $210 I lost interest. I don't blame Disney for charging that. But I will go a different time a year when maybe the crowds are lower at the parks.  

[LONE-STAR 370]

On 3/29/2018 at 8:42 PM, PGHFiend said:

The Fort is still A1 with me, especially coming from the north for spring break, but I'm losing my enthusiasm for the parks.  Lifes natural ebb and flow I guess, but wow is it crazy.  

Coming back to the fort was the saving grace of the day, even my kid was saying can we go back to the Fort and play with the dog. 

[LONE-STAR 370]

15 hours ago, mouseketab.....Carol said:

That's why even as an out of stater, I refuse to go to the parks without a annual pass. I HATE that feeling of this ticket is burnt up if I don't use it that day to the fullest. With an annual pass, we can book our 3 FP+ for later in the day, do those attractions, wander a bit, have a meal, and head back to the retreat of the Fort or wander another resort. I feel no need or no desire to spend hours in a park if it's too crowded. We also do not renew every year. We purchase a new annual pass every couple of years.

I agree having a AP makes it easier you don't feel like you need to be there from rope drop till closing.

[ependydad...Doug 176]

I agree having a AP makes it easier you don't feel like you need to be there from rope drop till closing.

 

I definitely feel like it’s a game changer. But we have the luxury of being here in Orlando for a couple of months in the winter.

 

We hadn’t been into the parks for a couple of weeks but went in twice this week (Tuesday all day and Wednesday night). Both days, the crowds were batcrap crazy with Wednesday being worse).

 

We were not trying to “do it all” so it actually made for a fun day. But we also know we can just go in for a couple of hours and roll.

 

In fact, that’s exactly what we did Wednesday- had dinner at Narcossee’s and went into MK after the fireworks. Did a little shopping, some people watching, and rode the people mover and that was it before heading out to the truck. It was date night with Momma and heavenly. [emoji4]

 

 

[LONE-STAR 370]

On 3/31/2018 at 9:53 AM, ependydad...Doug said:

 

I definitely feel like it’s a game changer. But we have the luxury of being here in Orlando for a couple of months in the winter.

 

We hadn’t been into the parks for a couple of weeks but went in twice this week (Tuesday all day and Wednesday night). Both days, the crowds were batcrap crazy with Wednesday being worse).

 

We were not trying to “do it all” so it actually made for a fun day. But we also know we can just go in for a couple of hours and roll.

 

In fact, that’s exactly what we did Wednesday- had dinner at Narcossee’s and went into MK after the fireworks. Did a little shopping, some people watching, and rode the people mover and that was it before heading out to the truck. It was date night with Momma and heavenly.

 

 

Sounds like fun. Before we had a kid in school we would stay for 3 weeks so if the parks were crowded it wasn't a big deal , we had plenty of time.

[desiphil 7]

We are headed down in early June for 5 nights. I believe it's around $1600 for the four of us for tickets. Pretty confident we won't be purchasing, as it just doesn't seem worth it. Plan on doing some resort hopping and have scheduled a few ADRs. Wife and I still have APs for Universal, so will probably spend a day there. The rest of the time we'll be at the Fort.

[LONE-STAR 370]

1 hour ago, desiphil said:

We are headed down in early June for 5 nights. I believe it's around $1600 for the four of us for tickets. Pretty confident we won't be purchasing, as it just doesn't seem worth it. Plan on doing some resort hopping and have scheduled a few ADRs. Wife and I still have APs for Universal, so will probably spend a day there. The rest of the time we'll be at the Fort.

Sounds like a good plan we did summer trips 3 years in a row(we prefer winter and spring at Disney).  We skipped the parks, to hot, but we did do the water parks on some days. Last summer we skipped Disney and went camping on the Guadalupe River this year we're going to camp at the beach. 

[dblr....Rennie 224]

On off years we would sometime buy season passes for either the Cedar Fair parks or Six Flags, I prefer the Cedar Fair more parks to me. they seem nicer, also a few of them have campgrounds connected with them so then we plan trips there. The parks are not as nice as Disney but much cheaper and if your a thrill ride junkie works out well.

[Starbuc71 162]

On 4/2/2018 at 6:21 PM, desiphil said:

We are headed down in early June for 5 nights. I believe it's around $1600 for the four of us for tickets. Pretty confident we won't be purchasing, as it just doesn't seem worth it. Plan on doing some resort hopping and have scheduled a few ADRs. Wife and I still have APs for Universal, so will probably spend a day there. The rest of the time we'll be at the Fort.

Good luck with a Disney/fort trip in the summer months. We decided 2 years ago to skip our Tennessee trip and do a week at the fort at the end of June. It was so hot, our a/c could not keep up. We ended up watching Disney channel inside our camper for most of the week. Also the pool was so crowded, you could walk across by stepping on heads

[keith_h 420]

On 3/30/2018 at 10:47 AM, PGHFiend said:

Still didn't get my money's worth out of those 3 tickets.

I understand the feeling. On our trip this past February while not as crowded as when schools are out we still saw waits of +2 hrs for many of the big attractions. HS and to a lesser degree Epcot have so much closed down that I hesitate to even call them amusement parks. Our biggest surprise was when we went to AK. We arrived shortly after extra morning hours opening, went straight to Flight of Passage and the line was already over two hours long only to get longer as the day wore on. Even trying to get FP's for the ride was a fail as it was fully booked by the time my notice that the FP window had opened arrived. Rene and I have discussed the crowded nature and come to the conclusion that there isn't really an off time anymore just crowded season and more crowded season. While we really like the Fort we've decided there are too many negatives to a park visit and we likely won't be back until Disney can manage to make them enjoyable again.

[slices 16]

I kind of wish we went often enough to justify APs, as I would love the feeling of not wasting a day. It's how we do legoland and a number of other attractions. However it's a lot of money  and we don't quite go enough, also a lot of the time we are taking visitors from out of state/country which means we'd be looking at platinum passes. We do pretty well stringing out the four day Florida resident tickets over 6 months, add the occasional discovery ticket and it's even cheaper.

Last year we did a day at Epcot just before Thanksgiving and the other 3 over New Years when friends visited.  The week before Thanksgiving I think we only lasted about 3 hours in Epcot before it was too much and we went back to the cabin, my 6 year old has ASD and really doesn't do crowds well.  I was fine with this figuring it was just a break and we'd go back later. With two young children this essentially means at least one child wanting to go back, nope both were tired. I even offered to upgrade us to park hoppers so we could just get the boat to MK nope. Not the best use of a day of that ticket, however there was a contrast between that and when we did Epcot on NYE with my friends from England. We'd managed about 6 hours in the park and the kids were tired, so my wife and her friend took the kids back to the hotel (offsite so a little more hastle than popping back to the Fort), leaving  just myself and the other dad.  We managed a couple more hours and left after the fireworks, generally agreeing that  we were glad the kids left earlier. Talking with my friend back at the hotel he admitted he was ready to leave with the kids but figured he should get his money's worth out of the ticket given it was a 'once in a lifetime trip' (they'll be back).

We keep saying will we start doing non park Fort trips, but hasn't happened so far. Thanksgiving nearly was but we decided to check out the International Holiday festival at Epcot.  We have a trip booked for July that was non park, then we debated checking out Toy Story Land, until we found it it would open two days before we were there, nope way to crowded. Now my wife's cousin from MA is planning on joining us, and really wants to see snow white so I've agreed to do a day in Epcot.  Most likely it will be four day tickets again spread over July/Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I'm going to sit down in a few weeks and it all out given we want to do water parks as well.

Not entirely sure if I've gone insane for thinking of tent camping in July, we have a new dark rest tent and will be taking the portable free standing air conditioner I bought for my home office.  Planning on doing Epcot early then getting over to Beaches and Cream around lunch time, and probably leaving after that. The rest of the time will be water parks, Disney Springs  and maybe some resort hopping.  I've never taken a TV tent camping before not sure if it's worth it.

 

 

 

 

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

33 minutes ago, slices said:

I kind of wish we went often enough to justify APs, as I would love the feeling of not wasting a day. It's how we do legoland and a number of other attractions. However it's a lot of money  and we don't quite go enough, also a lot of the time we are taking visitors from out of state/country which means we'd be looking at platinum passes. We do pretty well stringing out the four day Florida resident tickets over 6 months, add the occasional discovery ticket and it's even cheaper.

We have had APs in the past and will be buying them again in May.  For one Summer trip. One fall trip, and one Christmas/New Years trip. 

The biggest problem with having an AP is you tend to take more trips to WDW. Lol!

 

if I’m reading your comments correctly, a Florida resident pass is not subject to the 14 day expiration window.  

Also what’s is a discovery tickets?

[slices 16]

3 minutes ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

We have had APs in the past and will be buying them again in May.  For one Summer trip. One fall trip, and one Christmas/New Years trip. 

The biggest problem with having an AP is you tend to take more trips to WDW. Lol!

 

if I’m reading your comments correctly, a Florida resident pass is not subject to the 14 day expiration window.  

Also what’s is a discovery tickets?

Nope the Florida resident tickets are good for 6 months. For the past two years at least they've done a discounted Florida resident ticket called the discovery ticket which has to be used by June, we got this last March and used it for the March trip and a day in May. 

Oh I know if we had APs, I'd want to do a trip before May 12th to see Talking Mickey, a trip for the ducktales special stuff at AK etc.