What is happening? Is FF dying out?

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

19 minutes ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

That sounds like a "voice of experience" comment...

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

6 hours ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

That sounds like a "voice of experience" comment...

Not me personally but I have witnessed it. 

[momof3kids-Yvonne 595]

Hopefully this will help those of you having a difficult time getting park reservations. I didn’t know this was even possible. 
https://chipandco.com/disney-world-to-start-canceling-park-pass-reservations-that-are-not-connected-to-valid-admission-429003/

[momof3kids-Yvonne 595]

18 hours ago, Katman1356...Jason said:

The squirrels were busy raiding the tent campers food. 

 

17 hours ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

That sounds like a "voice of experience" comment...

I learned my lesson after the Stone Mountain GG. 

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

24 minutes ago, momof3kids-Yvonne said:

Hopefully this will help those of you having a difficult time getting park reservations. I didn’t know this was even possible. 
https://chipandco.com/disney-world-to-start-canceling-park-pass-reservations-that-are-not-connected-to-valid-admission-429003/

I didn't think it was either, unless they let Resort Guests book reservations before they bought their tickets.   

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

5 hours ago, momof3kids-Yvonne said:

Hopefully this will help those of you having a difficult time getting park reservations. I didn’t know this was even possible. 
https://chipandco.com/disney-world-to-start-canceling-park-pass-reservations-that-are-not-connected-to-valid-admission-429003/

I didn’t know it was possible to get a reservation without a park ticket.  
i wonder how they did it?

[djsamuel 322]

On 4/24/2021 at 1:29 PM, twiceblessed....nacole said:

 

Yes!  We stayed there in 2018 and had the females (I'm guessing as no horns) take residency right behind our rig.  It was great!!

Trailer Village was one of the best experiences we've had camping.  Not fancy, kind of basic and run down.  However, the wildlife and the atmosphere was amazing and being so close to the canyon was great.  Lots of Elk and Mule deer throughout the campground.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 595]

6 hours ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

I didn't think it was either, unless they let Resort Guests book reservations before they bought their tickets.   

 

1 hour ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

I didn’t know it was possible to get a reservation without a park ticket.  
i wonder how they did it?

I have no clue, but look at the current availability for May for all three tier groups and it does make you wonder what is going on. 
 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

18 hours ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

I didn’t know it was possible to get a reservation without a park ticket.  
i wonder how they did it?

 

17 hours ago, momof3kids-Yvonne said:

 

I have no clue, but look at the current availability for May for all three tier groups and it does make you wonder what is going on. 
 

Like always, there must be loopholes and glitches that people are exploiting to game the system. This garbage went on with the infamous “throw away” campsite reservations that people used to circumvent Fastpass and Dining Reservation limits in pre-COVID times, and Disney looked the other way. 

Lately, I have noticed that all of the parasite vloggers have been in the MK for the past several days to stalk the opening of the People Mover.  If all of them were playing with the limit of 3 park reservations at a time, it’s very suspicious how all of them were able to score multiple consecutive MK park reservations when the April availability calendar has been saying no MK availability for the last week of April. 

There is definitely something fishy about the park reservation system.

TCD
 

[keith_h 420]

On 4/24/2021 at 4:46 PM, Katman1356...Jason said:

The squirrels were busy raiding the tent campers food. 

When we lived in California we use to take our longer camping trip at Lassen Volcanic NP. We would stay at Butte Lake campground where a teacher we knew was the summer ranger. You could not leave out plastic water containers as the squirrels there had learned they could turn them into hamster bottles with a well placed bite or two. They were so bold they would come right up on the picnic table while you were sitting there in an attempt to purloin a drink. 

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

22 hours ago, djsamuel said:

Trailer Village was one of the best experiences we've had camping.  Not fancy, kind of basic and run down.  However, the wildlife and the atmosphere was amazing and being so close to the canyon was great.  Lots of Elk and Mule deer throughout the campground.

Agreed.  When possible, I love staying inside the National Parks.  My favorite time of the day is sunrise and with the Grand Canyon being so, incredibly, large.... staying inside the park was really the only way I was going to get my butt to the canyon's rim in time to see the sun come up 

[Disneybishops 13]

For me it’s just too hard to fight for reservations.  A certain TA grabs all the good reservations. I remember when you could always get Christmas reservations. You had to be creative but you would always get them.   
 

I understand 250 a night during Christmas but the are changing 200 a night Labor Day.  That’s nuts  I was there Easter week and paid 250 per night.

i still have premium AP. No black out dates. Haven’t had any problem getting reservations but the lines are long and the parks are packed.  Not sure if I will renew next year.  There are no perks for pass holders anylonger.  I can remember staying at the fort and MK had extra magic hours. 11pm - 3:30 am.  Those were the good old days.   
 

just my 2 cents.  
 

most of you don’t me but I was one of the original ones that came here from disboards

[Travisma 1,317]

32 minutes ago, Disneybishops said:

For me it’s just too hard to fight for reservations.  A certain TA grabs all the good reservations. I remember when you could always get Christmas reservations. You had to be creative but you would always get them.   
 

I understand 250 a night during Christmas but the are changing 200 a night Labor Day.  That’s nuts  I was there Easter week and paid 250 per night.

i still have premium AP. No black out dates. Haven’t had any problem getting reservations but the lines are long and the parks are packed.  Not sure if I will renew next year.  There are no perks for pass holders any longer.  I can remember staying at the fort and MK had extra magic hours. 11pm - 3:30 am.  Those were the good old days.   
 

just my 2 cents.  
 

most of you don’t me but I was one of the original ones that came here from disboards

Hey we still get magnets, if you can follow their asinine rules/times to get one!

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

9 minutes ago, Disneybishops said:

For me it’s just too hard to fight for reservations.  A certain TA grabs all the good reservations. I remember when you could always get Christmas reservations. You had to be creative but you would always get them.   
 

To add pain to misery, there was just an article published that since the pandemic started a million new people became RV owners.

[Travisma 1,317]

47 minutes ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

To add pain to misery, there was just an article published that since the pandemic started a million new people became RV owners.

And with the looks of RV Trader and various for sale sites, about 50% are now up for sale!

[Beckers 1,136]

We haven’t been to Disney since 2018. Honestly we have no plans of returning any time soon. The cost of a Disney trip is equal to our seasonal site, so for us it’s a better way to spend our vacation funds. I feel bad that Squish hasn’t gotten to go at a age where she remembers more of it but I also can’t see paying full price for a lesser of experience. Legoland is opening in NY this month and we will probably go there this summer for a short trip once their hotel is opened. We have talked about going to Florida at some point, but Disney won’t be the main attraction (Discovery Cove, beaches, is what we are thinking). 
 

hope everyone is doing well. 

[McMonsters..........Kelly 48]

We are the opposite of most and went to Disney 3 times during 2020 and have two trips booked for the next year( fingers crossed for runDisney).  I had an AP during 2020 and with cheap flights, I took advantage.   We camped late November and it was still nostalgic for us.  Despite all the changes we still love it.  We are blessed with the military discount so even with the price increase we can still go but do eat almost all our meals at the campsites/resorts.  Our kids are right at the teen stage so I’m trying to squeeze a little more magic out of the mouse before the attitudes start.  We also are planning for retirement and it looks like we’ll be really close to Dollywood so I’m betting that will be our “go to” once we move. 

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

14 minutes ago, McMonsters..........Kelly said:

We are the opposite of most and went to Disney 3 times during 2020 and have two trips booked for the next year( fingers crossed for runDisney).  I had an AP during 2020 and with cheap flights, I took advantage.   We camped late November and it was still nostalgic for us.  Despite all the changes we still love it.  We are blessed with the military discount so even with the price increase we can still go but do eat almost all our meals at the campsites/resorts.  Our kids are right at the teen stage so I’m trying to squeeze a little more magic out of the mouse before the attitudes start.  We also are planning for retirement and it looks like we’ll be really close to Dollywood so I’m betting that will be our “go to” once we move. 

Glad to hear all is  going well. 

Teen's, attitude?...    Our eldest, while in high school, "I'm never going to camp".  Guess who was the first one to buy a trailer..😁

[McMonsters..........Kelly 48]

On 5/24/2021 at 7:59 AM, Grumpy and Grandma said:

Glad to hear all is  going well. 

Teen's, attitude?...    Our eldest, while in high school, "I'm never going to camp".  Guess who was the first one to buy a trailer..😁

Yeah it’s already started, they love camping at the Fort as much as staying at a deluxe.  Given the choice 2 out of 3 will choose the Fort.  Must be doing something right!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Well, hi folks. Just thought I’d say I miss you guys and hope to see you at Stone Mountain in September. 😊

[Lou... 3,118]

7 hours ago, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

Well, hi folks. Just thought I’d say I miss you guys and hope to see you at Stone Mountain in September. 😊

Hey, maybe we'll finally get together. If only we lived closer to each other.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

9 hours ago, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

Well, hi folks. Just thought I’d say I miss you guys and hope to see you at Stone Mountain in September. 😊

See you there!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

On 6/15/2021 at 6:33 AM, Lou... said:

Hey, maybe we'll finally get together. If only we lived closer to each other.

Ha! We do need to plan something!! Dinner soon?

[bdm 47]

I'm going to touch on a few topic that i've read in this multi page thread.

 

1. Is FF slowing down?  Answer yes, I think other social media consumes peoples free time online.  I think they get most of their breaking news / updates there and come here just to see if anyone they know has something going on.  I'm not a social media user I only use Discord and involved in several topic servers there.

2. There are no moose in Great Smokey Mountains National Park, they would be Elk very very big elk.

3. The cost, and frustration of going to DW or the Fort.  My wife, our son (now 6) and I have been going to the fort every fall (Mid Sept) for over 10 years.  Our first year going we made reservations about 8 weeks out and hand APs for the parks.  As they years went by and my son was born (Oct 1, 2014) we moved our trip to Late Oct - Early Nov so we could do the Halloween Party and Christmas Party.  By this time we had to book our site over a year in advance.  This is where frustration with Disney, and the booking systems started for me in 2014 or 2015.

We missed 2020 due to me coming down with Covid but had done a fly down trip and stayed in a resort.  Then another fly down trip in March 21 when we renewed our APs and they gave us a large discount on a room.

Our  trips into the parks where a huge letdown.  While the parks were open, and most attractions were open they Magic was gone.  Completely Gone.  We saw No cast members making magical moments by interaction with guests.  The parks were not clean (clean to Disney Standard).  We will be leaving on Sep 10th for a 3 week stay at the Fort, but this trip is a lets see how it goes trip for us.  The park reservation system is by far the worst thing that's been implemented.  We enjoy waking up and deciding where we want to go that day.  We never pre book Fast Passes, usually only pre book a few meals.  Disney has taking our laid back family vacation and put us on their schedule.

[Andrew Roberts 17]

We are actually going after two years away. We will be at the fort on Oct 2nd. we would normally store are camper between trips to the fort and go 3 times during the winter. Were not doing that this year due to costs and unforeseen future issues with fuel cost and Covid  but same as most we are just tossing interest due to cost and rules