Ever read the reviews from non-Disney fanatics on TripAdvisor?

[EaglesfanNJ]

For a change of pace, I was curious to see what Non-Disney fanatics are saying about the parks these days in general. I went to TripAdvisor and read the reviews, just did a general search on "Walt Disney World" as to not single out any one park or resort.

I continue to be astounded by the mis-directed hate that flies WDW's way. I'm not naive and i know that WDW is not for everyone of course, but still. What struck me most was the continued poor planning on the part of these people that led to such a bad time...

People posting reviews that they went during Easter break for example and posted that it was "Horrible and would never go back". "Crowds are unbearable. Someone also called BTMR "Rocky Mountain Railroad" so they actually lost credibility with me on that.

Take this little gem at the bottom though... i noticed they posted it right around spring break time, probably didn't bother looking into the dining plan (complaining about prices of water), and then made stereo-typical comments about the cast members. Maybe i'm biased towards Disney, but i find it a shame that so many that decide to make the trip, do not take advantage of the free resources available to them (especially this site) that can help plan an easy and enjoyable vacation.

"The best time we had at Disney was when we rented a car and got away from Disney.

The only thing "magical" at Disney was that our money kept disappearing.

The crowds are overwhelming-you will spend most of your time protecting your young children from being trampled. Thousands of mindless drones pushing and shoving one another to get nowhere really.

The food is way over-priced and really poor in quality and taste. Bottled water will cost you at least $2.75 and a beer will be $5.75 and up. It adds up fast, especially when you are walking around in the heat all day...or standing in line for and hour. The food really does suck.

The shuttles to and from the parks are ridiculous. Most of the time they were buses you had to stand in like a subway...try that with a two year old. The bus driver were a bit nuts flying around and spiking the brakes. Its no wonder why they have so many accidents. A ten year old boy was run over and killed by a Disney bus while we were there and one Disney bus rear ended another Disney bus breaking a five year old's pelvis. At least 3-4 accident during our stay. Not a safe place to vacation.

Much of the staff are foreign exchange students and know very little English if they know any at all...good luck with that. They are generally nice because they cannot understand what you are saying. Those that do speak English are usually indifferent or rude-good luck with that too.

You will spend most of your time waiting in lines for long periods of time for nothing very impressive at all; and it will definitely cost you. Like I said...your money will magically disappear.

The only thing Disney makes convenient is the transference of your money to their accounts. That's it...you are busting your butt in vain to make them wealthy and believe me the return for your investment is simply not there.

 

[Master Gracey 5]

Typically people who leave reviews are the ones with the worst things to say so I'm not surprised. I know everyone here is a bit biased but too many visitors see WDW as "just another theme park" so they cram in, eat the cheapest thing they can find and wait in line for rides all day without really experiencing what it means to be there. I feel sorry for this person, but wish them luck on their next vacation in Dollywood.

PS: Go Eagles!

 

[Andrew54]

Wow..love this line.

The food really does suck. :ROFLOL:

I'd say some of the best meals Ive ever eaten, came from WDW.

 

[wm49rs]

Well, if they were paying for my trip to WDW perhaps I would give the reviewers some stock. But, since they aren't......

 

[heartodisney]

Yes, we here are biased. Although, word of mouth, weather by us (good guys) or them (bad guys) CAN sway others that have not had the chance to see or do anything Disney. This just points out that they DO NOT reasearch and ask the right people. I am also sure they think things will just be handed to them on a silver plater. I know that things are expensive, you have to adjust to these things, along with what you do or see. There just is not enough time or money for many of us to do all the things at any Disney vacation. This is the sad part and sad for them to come away with a vacation that was not "magical".

 

[EaglesfanNJ]

Agreed. While reading, I also found myself feeling bad for these people :shrug:. I mean, to shell out that kind of money on a family vacation but not do the proper planning, it's a waste of $ for them!

Show up, no ADR's, eat whatever you can find, no FastPass.... WDW is so much more than another theme park for me. I know it's my bias coming out, but even if i was going on a NON-Disney related vacation (yeah right, like that'd happen!) i would do the proper planning to ensure we got the most out of it.

 

[brkgnews]

Doesn't surprise me in the least. Tripadvisor is nothing but a b!tchbox, plain and simple. People on there love to see how snarky they can be, and I find their site to be of practically no value at all for legitimate, honest reviews about lodging, attractions, or anything else. I looked at it for a reviews of a hotel I stayed in at Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg Tennessee. The place was five star all the way... comparable to Wilderness Lodge. The reviewers all complained about it and one even went so far as to be melodramatic, stating that the parking lot was so big that, due to her aged father having to walk up a hill, "I was scared to death every time the phone would ring that it would be the helicopter survivol [sic] flight because he'd fallen and broken his neck and killed himself."

 

[EaglesfanNJ]

Doesn't surprise me in the least. Tripadvisor is nothing but a b!tchbox, plain and simple. People on there love to see how snarky they can be, and I find their site to be of practically no value at all for legitimate, honest reviews about lodging, attractions, or anything else.

I would agree with all of this... i hopped on really like i said to just get a feel for what people who are NOT Disney fanatics like us, are saying about the parks. It was actually kind of sad.

 

[Master Yoda]

Doesn't surprise me in the least. Tripadvisor is nothing but a b!tchbox, plain and simple. People on there love to see how snarky they can be, and I find their site to be of practically no value at all for legitimate, honest reviews about lodging, attractions, or anything else. I looked at it for a reviews of a hotel I stayed in at Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg Tennessee. The place was five star all the way... comparable to Wilderness Lodge. The reviewers all complained about it and one even went so far as to be melodramatic, stating that the parking lot was so big that, due to her aged father having to walk up a hill, "I was scared to death every time the phone would ring that it would be the helicopter survivol [sic] flight because he'd fallen and broken his neck and killed himself."

You beat me to it. Tripadvisor has become nothing more than a form of entertainment that an actual travel resource. If you take the time to sift through dozens of reviews you might be able to come up with legitimate complaints (ie CBR's layout, bus service at the monorail resorts, etc) but for the most part it is nothing more than a collection of the rants of fools that were too ignorant to plan and to irresponsible to admit fault.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Well, when you look past the obviously horribly negative tone of their "review", they're really not complaining about anything that isn't routinely mentioned among fans, even on this site.

Crowds - People discuss crowd levels all the time here... That there isn't any "off season" anymore... And how on holidays (which it sounds like it was for them) it can be out of control.

Expense - It continues to get more expensive to visit WDW. Often a complaint around these parts.

Food - Almost unanimously here on Magic, there are complaints about food. Quality has decreased dramatically while prices continue to rise.

Busses - A topic of some debate here. While some defend the busses as a great way to get around WDW, there's an equal number that find quite a few faults with it.

CM's - They're pretty off-base with this one, I gotta say.

Lines - If you're new to the parks and haven't done your homework ahead of time, it would be easy to become frustrated very quickly. Don't forget... We all know how to "work the system". How to get the most rides in. And even beyond that, there's often talks of increasing capacity around the parks because lines are just too long.

The problem, to me, is the way the review was posted. The bitter tone. The lack of objectivity.

The poster could have made his points in a much better way and maintained credibility. The way they chose to write the review makes them lose credibility and therefore you end up doing this:

 

[marni1971]

I`d say from a non-fan, a regular joe, a lot of the comments would hold some weight.

Interesting perspective.

 

[muse1983]

I thoroughly enjoyed every meal I had at Disney World. My favorite complaint was

"The food is way over-priced and really poor in quality and taste. Bottled water will cost you at least $2.75 and a beer will be $5.75 "

I personally find it astounding that someone cant spend a nice day at Disney World without having a beer.

 

[EaglesfanNJ]

I`d say from a non-fan, a regular joe, a lot of the comments would hold some weight.

Interesting perspective.

You could certainly say that some of the comments did hold some weight, i guess the original point i was trying to make was this...

I fully admit my bias, and can admit that Disney is not perfect. But let's face it, this guy/girl probably would have had a better experience had some planning taken place, no?

Crowds... Don't go during spring break. If you don't have a choice in the matter as far as when you can take your vacation, then be prepared for crowds.. don't blast Disney because it's busy.. it's supposed to be busy!

I guess the part that annoyed me was that they said they would never go back, and i'm assuming they are using their word of mouth to tell other folks to not go.. when they didn't do their own trip any justice.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

i don't understand anyone who would pay so much money to go on a vacation anywhere in the world without doing a little bit of research about your trip. even before going on a trip to the beach i like to at least look up the hotel/resort i am staying in, things to do in the surrounding area, etc. but i'm a planner and can be pretty frugal so i like to know that i am getting the most out of my money. disney is probably one of the most overwhelming vacations to plan for a first timer, but to not do any planning whatsoever is psychotic! :lol:

 

[PurpleDragon]

Going to WDW and not planning ahead is one of the dumbest things you can do. Flying blind in WDW will do nothing but make you frustrated and bitter like the poster quoted in the OP.

No matter where I take a vacation to I do weeks and weeks of planning to be sure we get the most value out of our stay and are close to the hot spots, and figure out where we can go to find lots of things to do. Heck, on our last trip to Key West I had the rental house site open in one browser with a map of Key West open in another and I was mapping the location of each rental house to find out how close it was to Duval and Mallory square and we've been to Key West tons of times, I know the layout of the island very well. I'm almost OCD when it comes to trip planning.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

No matter where I take a vacation to I do weeks and weeks of planning to be sure we get the most value out of our stay and are close to the hot spots, and figure out where we can go to find lots of things to do. Heck, on our last trip to Key West I had the rental house site open in one browser with a map of Key West open in another and I was mapping the location of each rental house to find out how close it was to Duval and Mallory square and we've been to Key West tons of times, I know the layout of the island very well. I'm almost OCD when it comes to trip planning.

i like your style

 

[PurpleDragon]

i like your style

Heh!! My wife says the same thing. She knows that whenever we go on vacation we are going to get the most out of it due to my extensive planning. I have not had a complaint yet. :lol::ROFLOL:

 

[Mouse Man]

Disney is more than a theme park, it's a resort. With all the places on WDW propperty to eat at I do not understand how one can say the food sucked. I have had numerous fantastic meals from Disney. Now if these people were talking about six flags in NJ then I could understand. Disney is beautiful, eye pleasing, laid back family resort vacation with theme parks to boot. The shows are great, the rides are wonderful and the parks allow the imagination to be set free and run wild. Sure Disney gets crowed, but that is not the parks fault when masses of people want to go on rides. I could understand one or two comments when your waiting in the sun for an hour to get on a ride. But once you get off the ride that feeling goes a way and most of the time is replaced with a smile. Disney is so much more than a theme park. I just wish some of these people could experience that, maybe then these lame comments would go away.

 

[Future Guy]

Dear Tripadvisor:

I went to Disney World on July 4th and had the most awful time! First of all it was hot and humid! And it rained in the afternoon! Disney is a huge company, can't they at least control the weather? And the park was full of other people, like it was some kind of tourist attraction! This is all Disney's fault!

But what really made me mad was that Shamu the whale wasn't there! I drove my kids all the way to Disney World to see Shamu, and and some Disney "Cast Associate" tells me that she's at Sea World, which is a totally different place! How rude of him! They should fire that guy right away! I mean, both "Disney World" and "Sea World" have the word "World" in the name, so they should be the same place!

Finally, when it was time for lunch I bought my kids some hot dogs and french fries, and they weren't nutritious at all! Can't Disney tell that my kids have an obesity problem? How dare they serve them fattening food just because I order and pay for it!

I tell you, my trip to Disney World was worse than the time I went to Mexico and everyone was speaking Spanish like it was some kind of foreign country! I'm so mad that I'm going to roll on the floor and scream until Disney gives me my money back!

Sincerely,
Norbert P. Hodpacker

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I thoroughly enjoyed every meal I had at Disney World. My favorite complaint was

"The food is way over-priced and really poor in quality and taste. Bottled water will cost you at least $2.75 and a beer will be $5.75 "

I personally find it astounding that someone cant spend a nice day at Disney World without having a beer.

I didn't read anywhere that he HAD to have a beer... Just that the price of one would be $5.75.

And... If one chooses to have a beer during their day at WDW (or anywhere else for that matter), I'm not sure you have the right to judge them for it. :shrug:

And... It sounds like you and I obviously have very different tastes when it comes to food quality. Especially compared to what you used to be able to get at WDW.