A long time Disney fan turns sour!

Thecorsi4

Active Member
You may have misread my first post. The amount of planning that people do, and then complain about, is unnecessary. ESPECIALLY the “must make reservations at 180 days”. You claim that is necessary, but it is not.. no matter how many times someone makes that claim.

You can arrive with 0 plans and still find places to eat at.. I just posted a few above. For Christmas Day and NYE no less. Do I suggest arriving with 0 plans? Not really, although it still can be plenty of fun.
I definitely know that spreadsheets and 6 month planning is not necessary... and that was my point.

I have 3 trip reports posted on this site.. if you want to see a list of every attraction we have done.. you’re more than welcome to read them. You definitely won’t find us “aimlessly wandering” on any day. As I said before, the most advance booking I had was made at 65 days before arrival. Resort reservations are a problem if you want specific resorts.. dining and 99% of FPs? Not so much.
You are correct it is not necessary to plan six months out however, that is half the fun for me is making the plan and then for the next five months massaging it in to the way i want it to go :)
 

21stamps

Well-Known Member
You are correct it is not necessary to plan six months out however, that is half the fun for me is making the plan and then for the next five months massaging it in to the way i want it to go :)

I’m sure! I know people who absolutely love planning their trips far in advance, and that’s great!
My only point was to say that it isn’t necessary if you don’t want to do it that way... but we’ve convinced ourselves that it’s necessary, or at least the Internet has.
If you enjoy it, have fun with the planning! :)
 

larryz

I'm Just A Tourist!
Premium Member

Bullseye1967

Is that who I am?
Premium Member
And— you don’t need to do the spreadsheets!! That’s my point.. we’ve done this to ourselves, myself included.. but it is far from necessary.

Some people don’t like FP+ or the ability to add FPs from the app, I personally love not having to rush around the park for FPs.. but to each their own. Point being- the magic may be “lost” for some, but for many others it’s actually more convenient now than it was in past years.


ETA- in 2016 I painstakingly planned like crazy.. had spreadsheets for 9 days., “perfectly planned”. Then, while onboard the Magical Express on our way to check in, I decided to literally throw out the spreadsheets. Best thing I could have done...we had a better time without it.

When I was young there was a flow chart and spreadsheet prepared by my Dad for every vacation we took. He was a CPA btw.
 

draybook

Well-Known Member
OP, I feel ya. We were supposed to be at ASMovies from 12/11-12/21 with FD. We had to push our trip back to February and we'll be staying off-site. We have several friends with families who were down there and based on their pictures, we're glad we pushed it back. The only other time we've been in December was 2009 and it was pretty dang fun. This year we're seeing near phase closures before Christmas week and it reassured our decision to not go. And it's going to be a little worse next year when the Disney Springs resort folks start joining EMH. Heck, the only 3 reasons we stay on site is FD, EMH and FP planning. Really, the only deal maker is the FD. That's why we stay off site in a rental home during non-FD periods. I'll take a 3 bedroom house with a private pool over a single room and single bathroom any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Honestly, my wife has already started talking about finding a new vacation spot after this next trip. We love our Disney but I think that we might be getting worn out on it for now. Hopefully the new expansions and offerings will refresh us.
 

thomas998

Well-Known Member
You may have misread my first post. The amount of planning that people do, and then complain about, is unnecessary. ESPECIALLY the “must make reservations at 180 days”. You claim that is necessary, but it is not.. no matter how many times someone makes that claim.

You can arrive with 0 plans and still find places to eat at.. I just posted a few above. For Christmas Day and NYE no less. Do I suggest arriving with 0 plans? Not really, although it still can be plenty of fun.
I definitely know that spreadsheets and 6 month planning is not necessary... and that was my point.

I have 3 trip reports posted on this site.. if you want to see a list of every attraction we have done.. you’re more than welcome to read them. You definitely won’t find us “aimlessly wandering” on any day. As I said before, the most advance booking I had was made at 65 days before arrival. Resort reservations are a problem if you want specific resorts.. dining and 99% of FPs? Not so much.
Nope. I didn't misread anything. You said:

"I’ve come to realize something over the past 3 years-

The planning stress/timetables is no one’s fault but our own. It isn’t necessary to have “a magical trip”. The internet makes us think that it is, but it’s not."

That was your first post on this thread. And all you are doing by throwing up reservations now is show that it isn't too late to start planning. But if you don't plan you are going to have a horrible time trying to find a sit down place to eat the day you arrive. You might get lucky and have a party cancel right before you arrive at the host's desk at a place but that's a long shot at best. People need to plan for certain things, there is no way around it and making statements that it isn't necessary is only going to cause a few people that might believe your post to have a horrible experience when everything they want to do is undoable or has a 2 hour wait time.
 

John park hopper

Well-Known Member
One of the common Disney complaints seems to be the ever increasing crowds. In our last trip this year we stayed on site for the convience and perks of on site resorts. Extra hours was one of the perks we utilized as it gave us the opportunity to ride attractions without any wait (DW rode Soarin 4 times--she loves it) I found it interesting Disney announced they will offer basically the same on site perks to 8 off site Disney Springs hotels for 2018. I wonder how this will affect extra hours crowd levels, have the bean counters looked at extra hours as another way to raise profits by getting more people into the parks? May have to rethink my onsite stay justification
 
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21stamps

Well-Known Member
Nope. I didn't misread anything. You said:

"I’ve come to realize something over the past 3 years-

The planning stress/timetables is no one’s fault but our own. It isn’t necessary to have “a magical trip”. The internet makes us think that it is, but it’s not."

That was your first post on this thread. And all you are doing by throwing up reservations now is show that it isn't too late to start planning. But if you don't plan you are going to have a horrible time trying to find a sit down place to eat the day you arrive. You might get lucky and have a party cancel right before you arrive at the host's desk at a place but that's a long shot at best. People need to plan for certain things, there is no way around it and making statements that it isn't necessary is only going to cause a few people that might believe your post to have a horrible experience when everything they want to do is undoable or has a 2 hour wait time.

Yes.. look at the words you quoted- “planning stress”.. and..” timetables”...

Planning is involved in any vacation. Insane planning stress doesn’t need to be I.e - hour by hour spreadsheets IF you don’t enjoy making them. And- the timetables- 180 and 60- they aren’t necessary to have a wonderful time and do pretty much everything that you want.

This is what I have learned from personal experience and from family and friends.. even though the internet would lead you to believe otherwise, such as a couple of comments in this thread.

People should believe what I wrote, because it is true.

When I was young there was a flow chart and spreadsheet prepared by my Dad for every vacation we took. He was a CPA btw.

Ha! He probably enjoyed it. :). I plan our vacations.. but sometimes I realize that it’s overwhelming for us. Just last month I cancelled every single advanced dining reservation that I had made for our cruise.. I started to feel like our days were too planned.. I had an overview for each day.. got rid of it. I’m glad that I did.
There’s planning, and then there’s overplanning... for me, I’ve realized that I wanted to keep some spontaneity in vacations.
We all have the option to do it either way, and still have a great time whichever way we choose to plan :)
 

mergatroid

Well-Known Member
Reading this thread reminds me of visiting Disney during 'quiet times' back in the day. Rather bizarrely when the parks were too quiet, it wasn't as enjoyable as you'd imagine. At first it was great, really different and felt a real priviledge being there in a very quiet park. After a few hours with lots of things done, it began to feel a bit too quiet for my liking as weird as that sounds. I know that seems crazy but it's true, a sparsely populated MK after the initial joy began to feel just not quite right.

Now don't get me wrong, I've done MK on Christmas day and I'm fully aware how bad that can be after the initial magical feeling of being there on that special day has worn off. However I do prefer to have to wait around 10 - 20 minutes for some rides with the odd walk on for the optimal enjoyment.
 

DVC4bestvacations

Well-Known Member
My two cents:
We stayed at BWV 11/11-11/19.
We went to MVMCP on the 14th. It was very crowded. We saw the parade,& Holiday Wishes. The lines for most of the attractions were too long.
Being that MK had multiple party nights this week there were only 3 nights the MK was open late for everyone. On those late days the park was insanely busy all day. I feel that Disney is double dipping on our our possible park time to make more $$$.

Buses: Over our last 5 visits to WDW the busing TO the parks has been generally timely. Trying to return to our resorts has been another story. We have waited 45mins or longer at times. As we watch empty buses come and go from neighboring stops. I would love to know how and who dispatches the buses. I have to believe that the dispatcher knows which stops are full and which are empty.
 

thomas998

Well-Known Member
Yes.. look at the words you quoted- “planning stress”.. and..” timetables”...

Planning is involved in any vacation. Insane planning stress doesn’t need to be I.e - hour by hour spreadsheets IF you don’t enjoy making them. And- the timetables- 180 and 60- they aren’t necessary to have a wonderful time and do pretty much everything that you want.

This is what I have learned from personal experience and from family and friends.. even though the internet would lead you to believe otherwise, such as a couple of comments in this thread.

People should believe what I wrote, because it is true.



Ha! He probably enjoyed it. :). I plan our vacations.. but sometimes I realize that it’s overwhelming for us. Just last month I cancelled every single advanced dining reservation that I had made for our cruise.. I started to feel like our days were too planned.. I had an overview for each day.. got rid of it. I’m glad that I did.
There’s planning, and then there’s overplanning... for me, I’ve realized that I wanted to keep some spontaneity in vacations.
We all have the option to do it either way, and still have a great time whichever way we choose to plan :)
Fact is you never said anything about the level of planning until I called you out as being wrong about being able to do disney without planning then it suddenly because planning but not 180 out planning... It would probably be easier for you to admit your first statement was simply wrong instead of trying all the mental gymnastics to try and twist it into something other than what it originally was.
 

Jedi Stitch

Well-Known Member
Having a room that was in dis repair, would be a big crap out to a vacation. I hope you asked for another room, or some form of compensation for not getting what you paid for. That is not too much to ask. We paid for a DDP on our trip and enjoyed Character meals and sit down meals all trip long. We hit a few quick service if we felt like it. I paid and planned for my trip 2 months out, so many dining options were hard to come buy. Yes, I found that open times ended up during shows and fireworks. Food was fine for a wife with a sleave surgery and a very picky 10 year old girl. I spread my FP+ out across the day, and we just did what we want till we had our FP to go to. Yes it is hard to figure out what you want to do so far ahead, but take the time to get a base plan together and then just roll with it, your on vacation. TS Vs QS dining has always been a point of contention on this board. QS has always been fast food, and some of the places we went like Cosmic Rays getting a chicken sandwich wasn't too great for my wife and I. I am an Army Vet, and even I would prefer an MRE to that sandwich, but then that reaffirmed having sit down meals. Taking the time for the sit down meal and get off your feet for a while.
The buses, yes it is public transportation no doubt about it. We stayed at the ASMo resort, which is the last stop on the All Star stops. So either the bus was full when we went to board or last ones off and had to jostle around as others needed off. If you left first thing before the rush crowds it wasn't bad in the morning at night we would be waiting for a bus, and seeing moderate and premium resort buses come and go. That's when you remember , oh ya i got a value resort. Our next rip toe WDW, we plan to stay at the Poly. Because we will pay for the upgrade to have a bit more options for a way back to the resort. Bus, Boat, or Monorail.
 

21stamps

Well-Known Member
Fact is you never said anything about the level of planning until I called you out as being wrong about being able to do disney without planning then it suddenly because planning but not 180 out planning... It would probably be easier for you to admit your first statement was simply wrong instead of trying all the mental gymnastics to try and twist it into something other than what it originally was.

You didn’t read the words, or any of the posts before mine.

My post didn’t say “no one should do any planning for vacations!” It specifically said “I’ve learned that the planning stress and timetables are not necessary.”

I apologize if you misread it. I didn’t think it was too cryptic.. some planning is normal, for any destination..you can also have fun with no planning as well..but that’s a little more rare, and not what I was generally referring to.
The stress that we put ourselves thru for Disney, telling ourselves that we must wake up early and make all dining reservations at the 180+ mark.. or up early to make all FPs at the 60 day mark...that we must schedule every hour of our day to have a “magical trip”, or even a successful one, these are not true. “We” are choosing to do that, Disney is not forcing us to.
 

Dave B

Well-Known Member
Lol not once have I seen that language been used on this forum. A little extreme of you to take the moral high ground before anyone has said anything negative about OP. I disagreed with him/her, but I didn't use that type language, and I'm sure the vast majority of people on here who disagree with OP won't use that language either. Why anticipate the negativity?
Because its out there, trust me, you say something or give advice and get ripped apart by some, and yes actually called a LIAR at times, it really kind of sucks, but people are people
 

jloucks

Well-Known Member
Ok, everybody calm down. We are on a forum about a fictitious mouse.

Let that sink in for a second.

FORUM_POLICE.jpg
 

thomas998

Well-Known Member
You didn’t read the words, or any of the posts before mine.

My post didn’t say “no one should do any planning for vacations!” It specifically said “I’ve learned that the planning stress and timetables are not necessary.”

I apologize if you misread it. I didn’t think it was too cryptic.. some planning is normal, for any destination..you can also have fun with no planning as well..but that’s a little more rare, and not what I was generally referring to.
The stress that we put ourselves thru for Disney, telling ourselves that we must wake up early and make all dining reservations at the 180+ mark.. or up early to make all FPs at the 60 day mark...that we must schedule every hour of our day to have a “magical trip”, or even a successful one, these are not true. “We” are choosing to do that, Disney is not forcing us to.
You didn't quote any other posts, therefore one can only assume that your words speak for themselves. You know you were wrong and now in your last stand you insist that people needed to take into account posts written by others. Sorry but I give up pointing out your mistakes, no longer worth my time as it is a bit like trying to teach a cat to talk.
 

jloucks

Well-Known Member
You didn't quote any other posts, therefore one can only assume that your words speak for themselves. You know you were wrong and now in your last stand you insist that people needed to take into account posts written by others. Sorry but I give up pointing out your mistakes, no longer worth my time as it is a bit like trying to teach a cat to talk.
Funny-Gifs-talking-cat-300x197.gif
 

21stamps

Well-Known Member
You didn't quote any other posts, therefore one can only assume that your words speak for themselves. You know you were wrong and now in your last stand you insist that people needed to take into account posts written by others. Sorry but I give up pointing out your mistakes, no longer worth my time as it is a bit like trying to teach a cat to talk.

I do apologize that stress and timetable were confusing to you. On your first post you appeared to almost understand..now you don’t.
You replied to me saying that the timetables are necessary.. 180 and 60. They are not. If you want to plan at 180 then go for it...but it’s not a requirement to have an amazing Disney trip, or to eat at table service restaurants daily, and yes, without park hopper tickets.
We complain that we need 6 month in advance reservations for all dining, and the stress of spreadsheets and daily touring plans in hour blocks.. we don’t need them.. they should only be done if you enjoy them...but it’s crazy how many people think that they’re necessary.

If that is difficult to comprehend then I’m sorry that you feel that way.
 
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