wannabeBelle
Well-Known Member
Great poll!! Marie
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Poll: For those who curbed visits or stopped visiting Disney Parks, what are your top reasons?
- Thread starter DisneyHead123
- Start date
tree123
Active Member
Its basically what everyone else has already said. Also, I don't think any of the recent updates are improvements. I watched patiently as Epcot removed the walls and there's very little to show for it.... Imagination is still terrible... Guardians is a fun ride but the plot makes no thematic sense whatsoever... The Haunted Mansion changes are bad... Tiana has none of the tension Splash did... I could go on...
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
Like Disney Star Wars and the changing of its fan base, maybe we have today’s new, “Iger WDW” and there will be fans of the old WDW that do not like the new “Iger WDW” and what is happening now is a changing of the fan base of WDW too.
NickMaio
Well-Known Member
Share holders over customer satisfaction and value.
GigglesMcSnort
Active Member
Maybe it felt like that when you were younger, but Splash Mountain was quite a tame ride, there was no tension.
Are you sure these complaints are entirely down to what Disney is and isn't doing, or could there be an element of you simply perceiving things differently as you get older? They say nostalgia is a powerful drug.
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Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
Earnings reports have shown crowds have not been a straight line up with some talk of declines at WDW.
I'm not one of these people predicting the imminent downfall of the parks because of horrible management. The parks are still easily Disney's best business that is most immune to stupid management (mostly because it's hard to ruin physical assets since it costs money to remove them). The primary strategy has just been to endlessly increase prices, which will take a long time for people to stop coming as many can still afford it or will charge it on credit cards.
Furthermore, I don't think crowds at WDW are much of an indicator of overall Disney popularity since the parks have such a capacity issue anyway.
Further, stupid management decisions will take years to fully see impact in parks partially because of capacity but also because they have not yet ruined everything in the parks. I mean, they still have the Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Space Mountain, Spaceship Earth, etc.
If they continue to close favorites and replace with mid attractions and increase prices to the moon, the story could be different longer term.
The management is, without a doubt, horrible. The stock reflects how inept this management team has been. Without the parks being so resilient, I'd estimate DIS would trade under $30.
NickMaio
Well-Known Member
No tension..........?
Right before the drop....the music changes,creepy vultures looking down at you.....
What are you on about.......
Tension was definitely implied and presented to the riders.
Splash4eva
Well-Known Member
Unless you are shorting the stock shareholders are far from happy…
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
Trust me, management doesn't care about shareholders either.
But don't take my word for it, look at the stock's performance over the last 5 years. Abysmal.
DIS is -33%
S&P 500 is + 87%
Disgusting.
NickMaio
Well-Known Member
I feel they are thinking about the financial gains for the stock-company quarters over customer experience.
That's what I mean.
All and and free perks were abolished very quickly.
Replaced with very pricey alternatives.
Weather_Lady
Well-Known Member
My "other": G+/ILL. I hate their negative impact on Disney's operations (understaffing and running rides at partial capacity to increase wait times and drive G+ sales), and on my overall touring experience. My disdain for G+/ILLs persists whether I purchase them (too expensive for the little you get and still a gamble, makes me feel like I've been played) or whether I don't (miserable queuing, being treated like a second-class citizen).
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Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
FIFY
Heppenheimer
Well-Known Member
I still visit Disneyland, but I'm not planning a Disney World trip anytime in the near future. A couple of reasons:
1) With all the planning involved, including pre-booking, the idea of having to schedule so many things far in advanced has just soured me. Particularly now that I have two little kids who make their own schedules. Disneyland still requires some planning, but at least you can do it on the fly while you're already there.
2) Florida is now too hot most of the year for me to tolerate. I was in Ocean City, NJ for most of the previous two weeks, and while most of the country was boiling, temps there barely made it into the low 80s. Yeah, I'll take that please, rather than suffering in the heat.
1) With all the planning involved, including pre-booking, the idea of having to schedule so many things far in advanced has just soured me. Particularly now that I have two little kids who make their own schedules. Disneyland still requires some planning, but at least you can do it on the fly while you're already there.
2) Florida is now too hot most of the year for me to tolerate. I was in Ocean City, NJ for most of the previous two weeks, and while most of the country was boiling, temps there barely made it into the low 80s. Yeah, I'll take that please, rather than suffering in the heat.
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Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
What does it say when they can’t even do that right? Disney makes about 1/4th the profit they did at their peak.
If they only thought about increasing the stock price, I’d argue the company would be run a lot better. That’s what I’m saying. They are clearly focused on initiatives that are not only not good for Disney but also not good for shareholders.
The double whammy of bad management.
Phonedave
Well-Known Member
Time to tell my WDW "origin story" again
The first time I went to WDW as an adult (as in financially on my own. I had a mortgage payment, kids, a wife, etc. ) I thought it was EXPENSIVE when I booked it. It was a real stretch on my budget. I planned Pop Century, breakfast in the room, eating at cheaper places, etc. We got there and within the first day, I was SOLD. Yes, it was expensive, but the VALUE was there. From the cast members, to the maintenance, to the experience, everything was awesome. And while not an all inclusive resort, it also did not feel like you were being nickel and dimed at every turn. I was hooked, and was already planning my next trip. I turned into a lifelong WDW fan. Eventually I ended up with an AP and went multiple times a year.
Fast forward to where I am now. I can now afford WDW. I am a DVC member. I like to eat at table service restaurants.
The reality is, I now go every other year. When I do go, I get park admission for only some of the days I am there. While I like table service, and can afford table service, we only eat at a table service on a handful of days.
Despite the fact that I have more disposable income at this point in my life, I spend much less of it at WDW than I did when I had less to spend. My vacation choices now go elsewhere. We (5 of us) just got back from a week in the Margaritaville all inclusive resort in Rivera Maya in Mexico. We did that, because it was better then WDW.
WDW has gone downhill in quality - both from a maintenance standpoint and from a ride/attraction standpoint. Prices are now just absurd. Admission and food. Food quality has tanked. Everything has become a money grab now. Not to mention that you have to plan out your visit. Between park admission, ADRs, Lightning Lanes, etc. it is more like work than a vacation.
We still go every other year, because we are DVC, the nostalgia is there, and we keep hoping it will get better, but it hasn't been.
We used to do a big family vacation one year, and then my wife and I would go for Food and Wine on the off year. But ever since COVID they have not had the F&W events (wine & cheese tastings, seminars, special dinners, etc). That is why we went (and dropped a bunch of coin). Now it is just overpriced kiosks, with a horrible guest experience, but that is how they grab the money. We will not be back to F&W unless they bring back those events.
The first time I went to WDW as an adult (as in financially on my own. I had a mortgage payment, kids, a wife, etc. ) I thought it was EXPENSIVE when I booked it. It was a real stretch on my budget. I planned Pop Century, breakfast in the room, eating at cheaper places, etc. We got there and within the first day, I was SOLD. Yes, it was expensive, but the VALUE was there. From the cast members, to the maintenance, to the experience, everything was awesome. And while not an all inclusive resort, it also did not feel like you were being nickel and dimed at every turn. I was hooked, and was already planning my next trip. I turned into a lifelong WDW fan. Eventually I ended up with an AP and went multiple times a year.
Fast forward to where I am now. I can now afford WDW. I am a DVC member. I like to eat at table service restaurants.
The reality is, I now go every other year. When I do go, I get park admission for only some of the days I am there. While I like table service, and can afford table service, we only eat at a table service on a handful of days.
Despite the fact that I have more disposable income at this point in my life, I spend much less of it at WDW than I did when I had less to spend. My vacation choices now go elsewhere. We (5 of us) just got back from a week in the Margaritaville all inclusive resort in Rivera Maya in Mexico. We did that, because it was better then WDW.
WDW has gone downhill in quality - both from a maintenance standpoint and from a ride/attraction standpoint. Prices are now just absurd. Admission and food. Food quality has tanked. Everything has become a money grab now. Not to mention that you have to plan out your visit. Between park admission, ADRs, Lightning Lanes, etc. it is more like work than a vacation.
We still go every other year, because we are DVC, the nostalgia is there, and we keep hoping it will get better, but it hasn't been.
We used to do a big family vacation one year, and then my wife and I would go for Food and Wine on the off year. But ever since COVID they have not had the F&W events (wine & cheese tastings, seminars, special dinners, etc). That is why we went (and dropped a bunch of coin). Now it is just overpriced kiosks, with a horrible guest experience, but that is how they grab the money. We will not be back to F&W unless they bring back those events.
There are a myriad of reasons but in the end, it all boils down to it costing significantly more to do the same things we did at WDW pre-covid. That coupled with a pretty sour taste left in our mouths by our last trip for the 50th anniversary in October of 2021 has kept us almost entirely out of the parks since the aforementioned 50th anniversary trip.
Before all of the changes caused by covid we would get Florida resident seasonal AP's and would do 10-12 3-4 day weekend trips to the parks per year. We stayed and ate exclusively on property.
Problem 1: The restructuring of APs.
Prior to covid the Florida resident APs were perfect. The cost was in the $400 range and the blackout dates were reasonable. You were not able to use them for a couple of weeks around spring break, just shy of 3 months in the peak of summer and Christmas to New Year's...all the times we did not want to be in the parks anyway. Fast forward to today and the comparably priced Pixy Dust AP is basically a park wide weekday pass. The $800 Pirate pass is not much better with seemingly every weekend near every minor holiday being blacked out. The only real usable AP is the Sorcerer Pass at $1000 which still comes with blackout dates.
Problem 2: Resort Prices
This one has actually gotten a bit better as of late, but our last stay at Coronado in a standard room at around $500 a night still sticks with me. What really sticks in my craw is now having to pay for parking at the Disney resorts.
Problem 3: Genie+, Lightning Lane, boarding groups, and all that jazz.
I could go on forever on this topic so I will do my best to make it brief. The idea of having to pay additional money to ride attractions at the theme park with a 3-digit gate price pi$$es me off to no end. I absolutely refuse to do it.
Problem 4: The last trip
The last trip that went from 9/30/2021 to 10/2/2021 and were probably the most disappointing days I have ever spent in WDW. It started at check-in and went down from there. We purchased new MagicBands from Disney about a month prior. Several CM's tried and failed to get them to work with no luck. After numerous attempts, we were told to use our room keys instead of the bands. No offer of replacements, just use the room keys. To add insult to injury, the room keys barely worked. They would let us unlock our room door and the tickets on the read OK, but we could not use them for room charging or anything else. The next issue came when we wanted to eat at a counter service restaurant at MK. We were told that we needed to order ahead of time on the app. No problem....I'll just pull up the app...order lunch at Pecos Bill's....that went fine, now I just need to pay....I got the "Opp's something went wrong!" message. Try again...same thing. The wife tries it on her phone...same issue. We ended up having to have one of our friends order on their phone and paid said friend back in cash. After lunch I went to guest services to see if they could fix the issue. After more than an hour, I left with the app just as broken as it was when I went in there. This same issue played out over and over again for the rest of the trip. We were reduced to either begging the CM's to let us order at the counter or having to have one of our travel companions buy our meal for us and then pay them back. About the only thing we could get to work on the app was unlocking our room door. The last issue worth mentioning (there were many many more little annoyances) was Diseny's handling or rather lack of handling of the 50th anniversary. A little backstory...we had been to the 25, 30 and 35th anniversaries of Epcot and they were some of the best days I have ever spent in a theme park in my life. There were special displays, guest speakers, a rededication ceremony, fireworks, etc. We all assumed that the 50th at MK would be more of the same. It was no different than any other day in the park. Literally nothing outside of a special popcorn bucket was done to acknowledge a 50 year anniversary. To sum up, when I am asked about that last trip I respond "It turned us into Universal Studios passholders".
Before all of the changes caused by covid we would get Florida resident seasonal AP's and would do 10-12 3-4 day weekend trips to the parks per year. We stayed and ate exclusively on property.
Problem 1: The restructuring of APs.
Prior to covid the Florida resident APs were perfect. The cost was in the $400 range and the blackout dates were reasonable. You were not able to use them for a couple of weeks around spring break, just shy of 3 months in the peak of summer and Christmas to New Year's...all the times we did not want to be in the parks anyway. Fast forward to today and the comparably priced Pixy Dust AP is basically a park wide weekday pass. The $800 Pirate pass is not much better with seemingly every weekend near every minor holiday being blacked out. The only real usable AP is the Sorcerer Pass at $1000 which still comes with blackout dates.
Problem 2: Resort Prices
This one has actually gotten a bit better as of late, but our last stay at Coronado in a standard room at around $500 a night still sticks with me. What really sticks in my craw is now having to pay for parking at the Disney resorts.
Problem 3: Genie+, Lightning Lane, boarding groups, and all that jazz.
I could go on forever on this topic so I will do my best to make it brief. The idea of having to pay additional money to ride attractions at the theme park with a 3-digit gate price pi$$es me off to no end. I absolutely refuse to do it.
Problem 4: The last trip
The last trip that went from 9/30/2021 to 10/2/2021 and were probably the most disappointing days I have ever spent in WDW. It started at check-in and went down from there. We purchased new MagicBands from Disney about a month prior. Several CM's tried and failed to get them to work with no luck. After numerous attempts, we were told to use our room keys instead of the bands. No offer of replacements, just use the room keys. To add insult to injury, the room keys barely worked. They would let us unlock our room door and the tickets on the read OK, but we could not use them for room charging or anything else. The next issue came when we wanted to eat at a counter service restaurant at MK. We were told that we needed to order ahead of time on the app. No problem....I'll just pull up the app...order lunch at Pecos Bill's....that went fine, now I just need to pay....I got the "Opp's something went wrong!" message. Try again...same thing. The wife tries it on her phone...same issue. We ended up having to have one of our friends order on their phone and paid said friend back in cash. After lunch I went to guest services to see if they could fix the issue. After more than an hour, I left with the app just as broken as it was when I went in there. This same issue played out over and over again for the rest of the trip. We were reduced to either begging the CM's to let us order at the counter or having to have one of our travel companions buy our meal for us and then pay them back. About the only thing we could get to work on the app was unlocking our room door. The last issue worth mentioning (there were many many more little annoyances) was Diseny's handling or rather lack of handling of the 50th anniversary. A little backstory...we had been to the 25, 30 and 35th anniversaries of Epcot and they were some of the best days I have ever spent in a theme park in my life. There were special displays, guest speakers, a rededication ceremony, fireworks, etc. We all assumed that the 50th at MK would be more of the same. It was no different than any other day in the park. Literally nothing outside of a special popcorn bucket was done to acknowledge a 50 year anniversary. To sum up, when I am asked about that last trip I respond "It turned us into Universal Studios passholders".
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Tuvalu
Premium Member
@Master Yoda the resort parking fee was eliminated 1/10/23. Parking has returned to being complimentary for resort guests.
That is good to hear. I also know that the food ordering bit we had so many issues has also been done away with. However, my main gripes (AP prices and the whole Genie + ecosystem) are the big factors keeping us away.