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2025 was an awful year

JIMINYCR

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
donaldtoo said:
We have no plans to return to WDW in the near future.
We’re going to Europe for 10 days, from early to mid June instead…!!! :)
Make no mistake, we are Disney fans, but certain decisions and the massive amounts of construction projects currently underway, are turnoffs.
We will, hopefully, feel the need to go back in, maybe, 5 years or so…or when the major projects are finished…whichever comes first. Then again, maybe we just won’t care anymore. We’ll see.
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I'm not a fan of many of the Dis decisions and take aways going on. We aren't going to Europe but we originally were intending to wait the construction phase out and return to WDW like you and many others.... but we decided to go back in May w/ DS who survived a bad car accident earlier in 2025 and we had to get back to our POFQ with him and celebrate the gift of life. We are also eager to see Uni's Epic especially the classic monsters area.
 
Disgruntled Walt

Disgruntled Walt

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I can't paint with such a broad brush and say 2025 was an awful year for the Disney parks. I just can't do it. I went to WDW for the first time in 8 years and a Disney park for the first time in 6 years. We had a marvelous time. Truly marvelous. I disagree with several of their current projects, but the heart of the place is still there—I felt it several times on my family's trip, and it made me tear up at times. Call me Sentimental Walt, I guess.
 
donaldtoo

donaldtoo

Well-Known Member
JIMINYCR said:
I'm not a fan of many of the Dis decisions and take aways going on. We aren't going to Europe but we originally were intending to wait the construction phase out and return to WDW like you and many others.... but we decided to go back in May w/ DS who survived a bad car accident earlier in 2025 and we had to get back to our POFQ with him and celebrate the gift of life. We are also eager to see Uni's Epic especially the classic monsters area.
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My sincerest sympathies for your son’s situation, and I hope he is recovering well. I, completely, understand the sentiment and applaud you all…!!! :)
The gift of life is something a lot of us older folk are fully aware of. My Pop turned 93 yesterday, and my Mom is 86.
I love them dearly.

The first 2 family trips we took (‘01 and ‘03) we stayed at POR, and we loved it…!!! :geek:

We’ve never been to Universal.

Anyway, whatever works for your family, nobody should criticize…!!! :)
 
JIMINYCR

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
HMF said:
The only good aspect of 2025 and ultimately the re-imagining of EPCOT was Test Track and that is only because GM paid for it.
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I agree that EP has been floundering for some time now and is not the EP many of us once visited and enjoyed but the conversation was about WDW having an awful 2025 which I believe cannot be a blanket statement that rings true.
donaldtoo said:
My sincerest sympathies for your son’s situation, and I hope he is recovering well. I, completely, understand the sentiment and applaud you all…!!! :)
The gift of life is something a lot of us older folk are fully aware of. My Pop turned 93 yesterday, and my Mom is 86.
I love them dearly.

The first 2 family trips we took (‘01 and ‘03) we stayed at POR, and we loved it…!!! :geek:

We’ve never been to Universal.

Anyway, whatever works for your family, nobody should criticize…!!! :)
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Thankyou. He had a deer jump in front of his car at 1am and hit the deer and careened off the road into several trees. The air bags never deployed. He doesn't remember how long he was out. Fortunately his apple phone detected a crash and got the rescue vehicles to him fast. Deep nose laceration down to the bone that the first hospital he was brought to couldn't handle. Was transferred to a second hospital in Boston for the attention of a better qualified plastic surgeon, cracked sternum that first hospital failed to detect. Very fortunate that no internal injuries happened. DW and I got a call at 1:30am from the trauma unit that arrived at that jolted us out of sleep.
Congrats on your folks longevity and enjoy all the time you have with them. Wishing them good health in "26" . My dad went to heaven at 78 and mom at 84.
 
V

vikescaper

Well-Known Member
2025 was awful, especially the first half for me. We were dealing with my mom’s cancer diagnosis and prep for surgery when 2025 began. While dealing with that, the co-worker I worked the closest with (and another big Disney fan) passed away tragically. Going to WDW last year helped keep my sanity with everything that was going on. Yeah, attractions closed and prices increased but going there helped me greatly.
 
Model3 McQueen

Model3 McQueen

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I will say the loss of MV3D and It's tough to be a bug is heartbreaking.. again. Losing the rivers is also tough but I don't think the piston peak idea is a terrible one. Only time will tell.

I've been pretty out of it, my family moved from our condo into a new home this year and it took about 7 or 8 months to do it. Really, doing anything with 2 toddlers is the definition of difficult lol.

Oh and to cap it all off, losing Adam the Woo hit hard.

On a positive note, we did go to DL for Christmas time this year. Last year we didn't make it. All in all a busy year is how I would describe it.
 
Sonconato

Sonconato

Well-Known Member
WorldExplorer said:
- The year of constant shut downs.

- The year they officially gave up on Animal Kingdom's theme.

- The year they officially killed Frontierland.

- Tiana's opened in 2024, but I think this year is when it sunk in that Disney gaves so little of a care they have no intentions of even giving the ride they killed Splash Mountain for proper maintenance. They put it on Disney Plus blatantly broken.

- The Summer of constant DJs and random pop music playing in inappropriate places.

- The year we got Zootopia: Better Zoogether. Then the only thing people agreed was good about it (animatronic) broke within two weeks.

- Asha's still here and taking up valuable space.

- Starlight debuted to thunderous "well that was okay"s. Then quickly started having issues.

- One step closer to drinking around the Magic Kingdom.

It's been so bad I think it's permanently changed how enthusiastic/tolerant I am for anything Disney related. I don't expect that enthusiasm to come back in 2026.
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Thank you for articulating my thoughts exactly. We have annual passes and my husband and son refuse to go. They expire March 9 and I might be able to drag them once.
 
StarWarsGirl

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Disgruntled Walt said:
We had a marvelous time. Truly marvelous
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I did too. I went in Jan/Feb and saw a bunch of the Broadway shows at Festival of the Arts. Seeing the original Elsa, Anna, and Hans was an absolute highlight. I did the Elephants backstage tour. I went to the 70th anniversary at DL and saw Paint the Night, which is my absolute favorite parade and it was the first time I've seen it in nine years. I went in August/September and mostly laid around the pool at BC, but also enjoyed the low crowds. This was also the first time I got to enjoy the actual bike seats on Tron Lightcycle after significant weight loss. I also very much enjoyed the new villains show. I'm also EXTREMELY excited about Indy coming to AK as that is one of my favorite attractions in DL.

Oh, and I got to meet Tony Baxter at Epcot.
 
D

DisneyHead123

Well-Known Member
At a personal level 2025 was a year of discovering the parks in a new way, as my son really turned a corner with a lot of his sensory processing issues. We’re still not doing coasters, for the most part, but previously we couldn’t even do dark rides. The toddler and preschool years of just wandering Main Street, meeting characters, buying Mickey pretzels and riding the train were very sweet, but going on actual rides with him is awesome.

As a fan analyzing the parks, I think 2025 was more win than loss, although there were definitely pros and cons.

Cons:

I think Cars for Rivers was a mistake. At an absolute minimum I wish they would have just waited, as consensus seems to be there’s been a loss of institutional wisdom that will take time to mend, and this is one of those projects where it’s vital that they knock it out of the park. And if replacing it was inevitable, I wish they would done a “Disney+ to parks pipeline” and cranked out a series about talking bears and squirrels somewhere in the wilderness so that we got something based on a forest and not talking cars.

Haven’t seen the Zootopia show but for the time being I’ll say it must not be great based on fan reactions.

Labor shortage issues are still present and not going away in the foreseeable future. Mousekeeping still seems understaffed (stayed at two deluxes this year and somehow there was a disposable contact on the bathroom floor both times when we checked in).

Pros

Service and food have improved continuously since Covid. Went to Chef Mickey’s in the fall and was shocked at what a glow up it had gotten. The buffet went on forever! Other buffets seemed to have increased offerings as well.

There have been some good small scale offerings. Things like the Villains show, Beak and Barrel (although I realize some don’t like that one), Little Mermaid redo, Test Track, maybe the parade would go in this category (even if you consider it a mini upgrade vs. a substantial parade, it’s still something where there was nothing.)

If you’re into cruising, tons of new offerings there.

Disney finally started offering some discounts, without major same-year price increases. Granted prices have still exploded since Covid, so this one is only a “pro” if looking at pricing in the last year or two. But my thought is - so many things changed post Covid, they’re not changing back, so the realistic baseline is where we are right now.

Previous plans are still rolling forward so I would put those in the “Pros” category even though they’re unrealized at the moment.
 
HMF

HMF

Well-Known Member
Model3 McQueen said:
Oh and to cap it all off, losing Adam the Woo hit hard.
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I actually didn't know who Adam the Woo was prior to his death but it is indeed sad when anyone passes. Seeing that Eddie Sotto passed felt surreal to me since I had last spoken with him in 2024 after returning from my first visit to France and DLP.
 
Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
HMF said:
I would not have put him in to begin with. The only thing he did right was the DCA re-imagining and he learned completely the wrong lesson from it, then let Chapek re-ruin it only 5 years later.
vocal.media

Disney California Adventure

Failure, Success, and Back to Failure
vocal.media vocal.media
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He was a “settle” pick for Roy and George Mitchell when all the press was bad.

No one one thought he’d be hanging around this long
 

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