Pre-Trip Disgruntled Walt Returns to WDW in July after an 8-year absence

Well, it's finally happening. I, along with my family of TEN other Disgruntled Walts ranging in age from 3-70, will be making our return to Walt Disney World from July 8-15 this summer.

I'm not going to share many personal photos here for privacy reasons (or at least they will be edited with Disgruntled Walt pasted on top), but I'm definitely going to be posting my thoughts on the planning process, the trip itself, and everything in-between!

My family began visiting WDW in 1990, making annual trips beginning in 1992 until 2010 (I made my debut as an infant in 1997!). My parents moved heaven and earth to make these trips happen for our family (as an incentive for good grades), and we loved it. We made a few more visits in the 2010s, but we have not been back since 2017 (and haven't been in a Disney park at all since 2019). The price point and other issues turned us away; lots has changed since then.

On the penultimate day of our last trip to WDW, they announced the Great Movie Ride was closing, and my disgruntling began (as you can see by the photo). Fast-forward to the present, and they've announced so many disgruntling things I scarcely know what to call myself.

But we'll see...

Will this trip render me "Gruntled" once again? Or will a different name change be in order come July 16? Follow along to find out!

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

We will be returning to Old Key West to stay for the first time since ca. 1999, but it was my family's first on-site resort stay in 1992 when it was still called Disney's Vacation Club Resort. When we last visited for lunch at Olivia's Cafe about twelve years ago, our picture was still on the wall, so I'll be curious to see if it's still there now!

I had to convince my cost-conscious eldest brother that we needed to spring for the parkhopper perk (in fairness, his children make up a good percentage of our total group, so he is footing a great deal of the bill). We have never not used parkhopping, and frankly, it seemed weird to change our tactics for our "one last hurrah" trip. The argument against it was that without the parkhopper, we would be more laid-back in that we wouldn't be trying to cram too much into one day by visiting multiple parks. But I actually used the same logic as an argument FOR the parkhopper, since it affords us the most flexibility. Thankfully, my family went with the parkhopper.

 

[Disstevefan1]

We expect a full report @Disgruntled Walt . Don't hold back and we expect you to pose with yourself in EPCOT.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

A little bit about our group:

P and G - The patriarch and matriarch, for whom we are doing this trip - 70 and 69 yrs old at the time of the trip

M - Eldest brother, father of four, very cost-conscious (for that reason!) - 42 yrs old

T - Wife of M, been with us for three prior trips (DL 2015 & 19, WDW 2017) - 36 yrs old

C - 40 yrs old - Second brother, introduced me to being a Disney fan, might actually know more about Disney than me...maybe

J - 36 yrs old - Next brother, likes to be more laidback in his vacation planning (so we often used to butt heads on our trips)

B - Disgruntled Walt - 28 yrs old

The Children:

m - 8 yrs old - The only girl in the group other than her mom, visited WDW as an infant in 2017, turned 3 in Disneyland in 2019, and had a planned 2020 trip taken from her by a pandemic. Her memories are very vague, but she's hungered for this for years. She's very strong-willed about what rides she can and can't go on (she doesn't like "scary" things, but I've convinced her to go on Dinosaur since I told her it's closing)

c - 7 yrs old - Visited Disneyland as 1 yr old in 2019 (obviously doesn't remember), a daredevil who plans to ride everything and claims to not be scared of any ride.

s & j - 5 yrs old and 3 yrs old, respectively - they were both born when the world was going crazy, so they have never experienced going to any Disney park, and their ride tolerance (for what they are tall enough to do) will be an interesting thing to observe. I mentioned to c that Space Mountain makes you sit by yourself, and s overheard me and was quite disturbed at the prospect.

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Cannot wait to hear your thoughts on everything now. We went back in 2023 after a 15 year break and loved it just as much as before apart from it obviously being a lot more crowded.