What would it take for you to NOT go back?

[skypilot2922]

Sadly we reached that point in 2018, I love my memories of WDW but the last few visits were more about what has been taken away vs earlier years when we would arrive at the park bright eyed and bushy tailed eagerly seeing the new things at WDW be they Attractions, Food and Drink or shows.

 

[jonnyc]

I am a dvc member and haven’t been in over 2 years now which is killing me. We have a trip planned in October but I’m now debating if we should go or not. I am sitting on annual pass vouchers and not sure if I want to start the clock on those yet if things aren’t completely normal or without some type of fastpass etc

It's interesting to see an alternative view point to mine in a kind of similar circumstance.

I've not been since 2017 and not been a regular annual visitor since the 00s. I was due to go in 2020 but have had to continually push the trip back due to international travel restrictions. I'm so desperate to go that I'd put up with pretty much anything at the moment. However, I think I'd have a different view if I'd still been visiting ever year.

In a way, people like me are what Disney are banking on - people so desperate to get away that they'll overlook a lot!

 

[GhostHost1000]

It's interesting to see an alternative view point to mine in a kind of similar circumstance.

I've not been since 2017 and not been a regular annual visitor since the 00s. I was due to go in 2020 but have had to continually push the trip back due to international travel restrictions. I'm so desperate to go that I'd put up with pretty much anything at the moment. However, I think I'd have a different view if I'd still been visiting ever year.

In a way, people like me are what Disney are banking on - people so desperate to get away that they'll overlook a lot!

I’ve still been vacating just not at disney. Been going to different beaches in the US where more people are spread out and masks aren’t used or required. It’s been really nice. I miss Disney but not as much as I thought I would especially knowing it’s not the same right now and with no fastpasses. I don’t want to go back and be disappointed in some ways comparing it to before

 

[Graham9]

Not being allowed into the US due to international travel restrictions puts the lid on coming to WDW, next to that is the restricted park hopping and worst of all is the park entry reservations. Until all that goes away, my bag of pixie dust is going to remain firmly closed.

 

[NickMaio]

If WDW starts charging for fast passes, then we might go every 5 to 10 years instead of every year. That was pre covid of course.
We might even stop going entirely, a lot if the decisions and price hikes seem mire greedy lately, if that's even possible.
Boo bash is a prime example of pay WAY more and get less.

 

[NickMaio]

We just hit our limit, I was just able to call and cancel my Boo Bash Tickets and we will be cancelling our October Trip, with No Fast Pass or a PAID version coming, Park Hopping not the same and NO dining plan, but the biggest reason is we have never gone without a discount being offered and with nothing on the horizon, we are not going to pay the price they are asking for such a reduced experience, it really hit home when my son said to me the other day that going in October without any discounts is the same price as a college semester for him!!! The worst part is we have visited at least once a year and sometimes 2x for the last 12 years.

The prices are really getting out of control.......200 for boo bash is obsurd.

 

[Dave B]

$249 for the Xmas after hours is INSANE!!!!!

 

[NickMaio]

$249 for the Xmas after hours is INSANE!!!!!

Just crazy............
Who would pay this.......people please stop paying these crazy prices.
Not too long ago, these extra hours special tix were under 100.

What us going on.

 

[FettFan]

Genuine question from a non-Disney fan.

Over the years I wondered this and with the latest kerfuffle over the demise of Fastpass+ (Of which the thread on said topic has been flogged to death, buried and made into glue multiple times over) I got to wondering:

Just what would it take for the Disney fans here to stop going?

Clearly, no amount of price increases and/or removal or perks is going to stop people from going from the look of it.

Fire away.

Im pretty much done with the Walt Disney company in its current incarnation.

Im not even particularly excited about the 50th.

- Disney Imagineering kind of sucks at their jobs. They should just be called Disney Engineering, because the imagination aspect is essentially dead at this point, hence why there are so few park-exclusive attractions. It seems nothing gets approved unless there is an existing popular IP to back it.
needless to say I don’t think something like Space Mountain would be approved for construction these days unless it was explicitly linked to Star Wars from the get-go.

- Disney’s leadership is far more worried about short term finances instead of long term legacy.
How do we know this? DLP is already playing with a pay-per-ride fastpass system, California has turned their annual passes into a complicated hierarchical system that loses certain perks (parking is no longer included), and WDW offering new hard ticket experiences that are more expensive and less substantive than the ones they replaced.
see: Very Merriest After Hours tickets costing twice as much as Mickey’s Very Merry.
what’s really funny is their official logo gas a big red price tag on it.

 

[BubbaisSleep]

I’m already at the point but it’s a very easy and soon-to-be fix. I just can’t justify paying full ticket price & not get the full-experience Disney is known for. Bummed with the entertainment cuts but it’s more-so that I need my parks to close at 12am again. Being at Disney in the morning and at night are some of my favorite moments in this life.

 

[NickMaio]

Im pretty much done with the Walt Disney company in its current incarnation.

Im not even particularly excited about the 50th.

- Disney Imagineering kind of sucks at their jobs. They should just be called Disney Engineering, because the imagination aspect is essentially dead at this point, hence why there are so few park-exclusive attractions. It seems nothing gets approved unless there is an existing popular IP to back it.
needless to say I don’t think something like Space Mountain would be approved for construction these days unless it was explicitly linked to Star Wars from the get-go.

- Disney’s leadership is far more worried about short term finances instead of long term legacy.
How do we know this? DLP is already playing with a pay-per-ride fastpass system, California has turned their annual passes into a complicated hierarchical system that loses certain perks (parking is no longer included), and WDW offering new hard ticket experiences that are more expensive and less substantive than the ones they replaced.
see: Very Merriest After Hours tickets costing twice as much as Mickey’s Very Merry.
what’s really funny is their official logo gas a big red price tag on it.
View attachment 579777

Nail , meet head.......you got it man.
Legacy is why many of us adore the parks and Disney.
Much of this is lost, sadly.
Anywho, great points.

 

[twilight mitsuk]

Im pretty much done with the Walt Disney company in its current incarnation.

Im not even particularly excited about the 50th.

- Disney Imagineering kind of sucks at their jobs. They should just be called Disney Engineering, because the imagination aspect is essentially dead at this point, hence why there are so few park-exclusive attractions. It seems nothing gets approved unless there is an existing popular IP to back it.
needless to say I don’t think something like Space Mountain would be approved for construction these days unless it was explicitly linked to Star Wars from the get-go.

- Disney’s leadership is far more worried about short term finances instead of long term legacy.
How do we know this? DLP is already playing with a pay-per-ride fastpass system, California has turned their annual passes into a complicated hierarchical system that loses certain perks (parking is no longer included), and WDW offering new hard ticket experiences that are more expensive and less substantive than the ones they replaced.
see: Very Merriest After Hours tickets costing twice as much as Mickey’s Very Merry.
what’s really funny is their official logo gas a big red price tag on it.
View attachment 579777

How about a BnL logo

 

[FettFan]

How about a BnL logo

You would think that someone in the DisneyCo hierarchy would have recognized Andrew Stanton’s criticism of rampant mindless consumerism.

But they didn’t, and now we’ve got a hollow shell of Epcot center.

I still wish that the three-headed troll would sneak up behind Elsa and bite her head off.

 

[chimchimcheree]

I personally would gladly pay a premium for lower crowds. There is no more off-season anymore. My family would go once a year, in September or in February, and the parks would be deserted. Right now I can't see myself going back after having COVID in January, even in post-pandemic conditions. There are too many people. Disney can charge an arm and leg and kidney for everything because people just continue to pay the premium prices, devour the poor-quality merchandise, wait in long lines, eat the expensive food, and so on. Welcome to our corporate-capitalist world. Money talks.

(On a side note, I think it would help every single one of us if someone took the Walt Disney Company and all its subsidiaries before the FTC and make them explain why they're not in violation of antitrust laws. They're a Gilded Age robber baron, and they should meet the same fate as Ma Bell.)

 

[mf1972]

out of curiosity, anyone thinking or planning on canceling an upcoming trip with the genie+ announcement? we might be canceling our october trip soon, but that’s more due to the covid situation down there.

 

[NickMaio]

out of curiosity, anyone thinking or planning on canceling an upcoming trip with the genie+ announcement? we might be canceling our october trip soon, but that’s more due to the covid situation down there.

Yes.....we have a planned trip in May.
We might cancel last minute if it turns out to be really aweful wait times, if you don't pay for genie plus.
Greasy move Disney.......greasy.

 

[hsisthebest]

I am planning on a summer 2022 trip. We used to do 8 days WDW and 2 Uni. Now had already cut it to 6. I'll wait to calculate the costs for GENIE+ and the Lightning Lane thing. We are a family of 6 so it can get expensive quickly if we have to pay $60 each time we want to do a top tier ride. (I know I don't have to pay, but we're not waiting more than 60min for anything, that's not a vacation. Might just do 4 days- 1 at each park. Uni+Sea world have great packages.

 

[huggypac2112]

We did 2 weeks in January/February this year. I can only make the trip ever 2-3 years, and I will only do Fort Wilderness (I have a motorhome and LOVE the fort). I went for the first time in 1978, and love the magic. But, at the end of our last trip, I was wondering if that was the last visit - My wife and I are now in our 60's and the trip takes a lot out of us. Plus, the wife wants to go other places, and I still work so its not easy to take multiple week-long+ vacations. So, like I said, we were not certain if we were going back. But, now with the pay-for-what-used-to-be-free fastpass system, along with the constantly rising ticket prices and campground rates, I think I am at the point where the return for what I pay might isnt worth it anymore. So, I think I am done, which makes me feel sad and old.

The is one caveat - I still want to take a RV trip across the country when I retire, and would love to hit DLR (never been there).

 

[jlhwdw]

I hit my breaking point a few years ago. I miss it, but I also know the place I love isn't really there anymore.

 

[Minnie Mum]

Ive been visiting WDW every year or 2 since 1975. It's not going to take much more for us. Our on site stays stopped when they instituted resort parking fees. The termination of Magic Express just reinforced that decision.

With the changes in the parks in the past couple of years, our desire to return has seriously dwindled. The value (cost/benefit ratio) is barely in WDWs favor for us anymore. A trip only to WDW will likely happen if our DGS asks to return. So far he hasn't expressed any interest. A visit as a part of a trip to Florida for other reasons (like a cruise) would be more likely, but for a shorter stay than our former 2 weeks. Honestly, we've discovered that there are hundreds of places to visit that are as satisfying, if not more so, than good old WDW. As always, YMMV

I wrote this just a month ago. But the Genie broke the camel's back for us. We're done. And strangely, I don't feel sad. Just mad.