News Holiday crowds at Walt Disney World theme parks 2022

[Minnesota disney fan]

You’re not the odd one out except with a very vocal group on this site. We talked to a number of other guests and CMs on our last couple of trips and it seems there are a lot of people complaining about the loss of FP+.

But nothing lasts forever and this new system is supposed to be better for people who don’t like to plan and are more ride-focused than my group. I didn’t see the advantages but others are apparently having more success.

I also miss the spontaneity of years past. Even though we planned ADRs and FP+ we had no problem changing things up at the last minute. It’s different now, but we still managed to have a great time on our last trip.

Isn't a stress free fun vacation the way it's supposed to be? Not having to schedule every minute and look at your phone all day, make park reservations and 2pm hopping with no ability to change most things. I do miss that too, and that's why we are now Universal converts. I love the freedom and spontaneity at Universal. I know it's not disney, but at this point I don't care.

 

[dreday3]

I agree stress free is more fun. Dollywood later this year? We just basically show up!

I don't know why, but for some reason I have no stress going into this April trip to WDW.
We have some dining we will reserve, but other than that, we plan to just see what's available same day.
Crowds shouldn't be horrendous when we are going, (not arriving until week after Easter week). We are staying at Beach Club, which instantly relaxes me because of the option of walking to two parks. Have hoppers so can end up at Epcot pretty much every day if we want.
We are going to DHS after-hours, which should be fun.
We aren't obsessing to get on any rides, but I'm sure we won't have a problem hitting the main ones we want as we are there for a nice, longish time.
I actually find Genie+ is forcing us to plan less, just kind of going to see what happens. There's only 2 of us, so it's easy for us to choose things on the fly. And we've been enough now, nothing is a must do for us.

I hope we have fun! We'll see.

 

[Ayla]

I agree stress free is more fun. Dollywood later this year? We just basically show up!

I don't know why, but for some reason I have no stress going into this April trip to WDW.
We have some dining we will reserve, but other than that, we plan to just see what's available same day.
Crowds shouldn't be horrendous when we are going, (not arriving until week after Easter week). We are staying at Beach Club, which instantly relaxes me because of the option of walking to two parks. Have hoppers so can end up at Epcot pretty much every day if we want.
We are going to DHS after-hours, which should be fun.
We aren't obsessing to get on any rides, but I'm sure we won't have a problem hitting the main ones we want as we are there for a nice, longish time.
I actually find Genie+ is forcing us to plan less, just kind of going to see what happens. There's only 2 of us, so it's easy for us to choose things on the fly. And we've been enough now, nothing is a must do for us.

I hope we have fun! We'll see.

Don't forget you have to make a park reservation ~ though I'm hoping that will be going away sometime this year.

 

[networkpro]

Don't forget you have to make a park reservation ~ though I'm hoping that will be going away sometime this year.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I agree stress free is more fun. Dollywood later this year? We just basically show up!

I don't know why, but for some reason I have no stress going into this April trip to WDW.
We have some dining we will reserve, but other than that, we plan to just see what's available same day.
Crowds shouldn't be horrendous when we are going, (not arriving until week after Easter week). We are staying at Beach Club, which instantly relaxes me because of the option of walking to two parks. Have hoppers so can end up at Epcot pretty much every day if we want.
We are going to DHS after-hours, which should be fun.
We aren't obsessing to get on any rides, but I'm sure we won't have a problem hitting the main ones we want as we are there for a nice, longish time.
I actually find Genie+ is forcing us to plan less, just kind of going to see what happens. There's only 2 of us, so it's easy for us to choose things on the fly. And we've been enough now, nothing is a must do for us.

I hope we have fun! We'll see.

Agreed, going on a WDW vacation with low, or no expectations is a way to have a stress free vacation.

 

[Lilofan]

Agreed, going on a WDW vacation with low, or no expectations is a way to have a stress free vacation.

Like going to the beach , low or no expectations unless going to Miami South Beach between 5th through 15th street - clothing optional

 

[Ayla]

View attachment 690085

I was referring to her WDW trip.

 

[dreday3]

Don't forget you have to make a park reservation ~ though I'm hoping that will be going away sometime this year.

I did those, thanks!

 

[RSD Part Deux]

BTMR was down to two trains today. LL was backed up to the Briar Patch although it moved quickly. We were lined up and off in 21 minutes. I feel bad for those other folks though.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I see zero “extra planning” required now in practice.

On the surface…yes. It’s phone face.

But two things mucked the old way up. Fastpass+ was not Getting moved. They prebooked everything…which means it was a logjam long before you showed up. I don’t know how that was “spontaneous”?

And reservations are 100x easier now…because the god awful dining plan is gone. That is straight up truth. Just rolled in the house a little while ago…and from 12/27-1/3…I could get whatever I want…almost whenever I wanted

Same at the end of June and in 2021…

Not hard to figure out why.


Neither is perfect…but I’d argue nothing about the previous version was better except for allowing lazy leading to low expectations

 

[mkt]

Magic Kingdom was obnoxiously full. We bit the bullet and paid for Genie+.

It made the day slightly more tolerable.

 

[Trauma]

I agree stress free is more fun. Dollywood later this year? We just basically show up!

I don't know why, but for some reason I have no stress going into this April trip to WDW.
We have some dining we will reserve, but other than that, we plan to just see what's available same day.
Crowds shouldn't be horrendous when we are going, (not arriving until week after Easter week). We are staying at Beach Club, which instantly relaxes me because of the option of walking to two parks. Have hoppers so can end up at Epcot pretty much every day if we want.
We are going to DHS after-hours, which should be fun.
We aren't obsessing to get on any rides, but I'm sure we won't have a problem hitting the main ones we want as we are there for a nice, longish time.
I actually find Genie+ is forcing us to plan less, just kind of going to see what happens. There's only 2 of us, so it's easy for us to choose things on the fly. And we've been enough now, nothing is a must do for us.

I hope we have fun! We'll see.

Dollywood is much more affordable than Disney though.

I think for some people knowing how much something is costing them adds to the stress of wanting to squeeze the most out of it.

 

[Trauma]

I see zero “extra planning” required now in practice.

On the surface…yes. It’s phone face.

But two things mucked the old way up. Fastpass+ was not Getting moved. They prebooked everything…which means it was a logjam long before you showed up. I don’t know how that was “spontaneous”?

And reservations are 100x easier now…because the god awful dining plan is gone. That is straight up truth. Just rolled in the house a little while ago…and from 12/27-1/3…I could get whatever I want…almost whenever I wanted

Same at the end of June and in 2021…

Not hard to figure out why.


Neither is perfect…but I’d argue nothing about the previous version was better except for allowing lazy leading to low expectations

Yeah I had to plan a lot less for my trip.

I still think the system is terrible. Did you take any time to talk to the average guest who is not a hardcore fan?

They don’t really understand how g+ even works and for them it was more stressful because they weren’t getting on many rides.

It’s fine if you study it and know exactly what to do but the average guest doesn’t do that.

I was at Universal yesterday and express pass is extremely easy. I also didn’t have to stare into my phone the whole time.

Everyone says Disney had better theming than Universal but the only theming I saw this trip was the refresh button for g+.

 

[Disstevefan1]

So what explains the long LL waits?

In my opinion what explains that is; now that you have to pay for it, there is an implied value there so folks are buying it and since they paid for it they are much less likely to skip their LL.

In the old FastPass days, if for whatever reason it wasn’t convenient to make your FastPass return time you would just skip it, you had nothing to loose.

 

[MrPromey]

...

I think Genie+ really fails when it's really busy in the parks.

....

Depends on what your idea of failure is.

If you think it's failing to make Disney more money, you're absolutely wrong.

If you think it's failing to serve any guests in the park, I don't believe that was their intent and it shows in the implementation.

Here's the thing: They charge more for it on busy days.

Why?

If it was because on these days, they limit availability (sales) of it to ensure that people can still use it to the fullest and so that it has less of a negative impact on already bad lines, then there would be some guest facing logic to it.

Them increasing the price to make up for fewer sales would be... sort of understandable.

Instead, they're charging everyone more to get into the parks on the days when it will be least possible for people to do everything they want to as well as charging more for G+ despite it being less versatile due to them apparently not limiting more people from using it on these days.

All around, they're just increasing the price to provide a worse experience for everyone on days they are busy, save, I guess maybe for those who are using the VIP tour which I'm sure is at its highest price point on those days, too.

Why, again?

Oh right - because they can.

That's what I call Pure Disney Magic™, if by magic, we're talking about the ability to make money disappear out of customers wallets and reappear in their accounts without lifting a finger.

 

[Ayla]

Depends on what your idea of failure is.

If you think it's failing to make Disney more money, you're absolutely wrong.

If you think it's failing to server any guests in the park, I don't believe that was their intent and it shows in the implementation.

Here's the thing: They charge more for it on busy days.

Why?

If it was because on these days, they limit availability of it to ensure that people can still use it to the fullest and so that it has less of a negative impact on already bad lines, then there would be some guest facing logic to it.

Them increasing the price to make up for fewer sales would be... sort of understandable.

Instead, they're charging everyone more to get into the parks on the days when it will be least possible for people to do everything they want to as well as charging more for G+ despite it being less versatile due to them apparently not limiting more people from using it on these days.

All around, they're just increasing the price for a worse experience on days they are busy for everyone, save, I guess maybe for those who are using the VIP tour which I'm sure is at its highest price point on those days, too.

Why, again?

Oh right - because they can.

That's what I call true Disney Magic™, if by magic, we're talking about the ability to make money dissapear out of customers wallets and reappear in your account without lifting a finger.

I know DLR has had Genie+ sell out, has WDW? I don't recall it ever being reported it was no longer available for purchase.

 

[MrPromey]

I know DLR has had Genie+ sell out, has WDW? I don't recall it ever being reported it was no longer available for purchase.

Me neither which is the basis for my entire statement.

If someone can report it selling out, I'll happily eat my words on this one since it would indicate them actually trying to do something right by their guests.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Depends on what your idea of failure is.

If you think it's failing to make Disney more money, you're absolutely wrong.

If you think it's failing to server any guests in the park, I don't believe that was their intent and it shows in the implementation.

Here's the thing: They charge more for it on busy days.

Why?

If it was because on these days, they limit availability of it to ensure that people can still use it to the fullest and so that it has less of a negative impact on already bad lines, then there would be some guest facing logic to it.

Them increasing the price to make up for fewer sales would be... sort of understandable.

Instead, they're charging everyone more to get into the parks on the days when it will be least possible for people to do everything they want to as well as charging more for G+ despite it being less versatile due to them apparently not limiting more people from using it on these days.

All around, they're just increasing the price for a worse experience on days they are busy for everyone, save, I guess maybe for those who are using the VIP tour which I'm sure is at its highest price point on those days, too.

Why, again?

Oh right - because they can.

That's what I call true Disney Magic™, if by magic, we're talking about the ability to make money dissapear out of customers wallets and reappear in your account without lifting a finger.

I think Genie+ "fails" to provide a good guest experience on all days but is worse on busy days.

I agree, Genie+ is a success to the company as it MAKES MONEY.
As for the guest experience, that is low on the priority list for the company and is seen as nothing to do with MAKING MONEY.

 

[wutisgood]

Y'all need to vacation to other places that aren't trying to punish you or steal from from you. You might be shocked at some European park prices and quality. Go to puy du fou in france for better than Disney entertainment, London for cheap shows, Europa park for variety and on site hotels. Port Aventura, Phantasialand, Eftelling, are the best but also just scratching the surface on how many quality parks there are.

 

[LittleBuford]

London for cheap shows

This Londoner would love to know where these shows can be found!