What would it take for you to NOT go back?

[mysto]

If I were to book a trip right now for arrival in a few months, what would it be like?

I have no idea.

I feel that I have to wait for all the coming changes, then wait for them to settle in a little, then I can decide. I guess my answer is that uncertainty will stop me from going.

 

[dovetail65]

The thread on

Another huge covid spike in the Disneyworld area would keep me from going again, or NY putting back travel restrictions such as negative covid tests. Our 5/1-5/7 trip just made the "cut-off" of Disney lowering some covid precautions - temp checks were discontinued our last day there. (which I thought was a waste of time anyway.) However, masks were required at that time, even as social distancing was being decreased. Yes, prices were expensive, and there were less "benefits" for staying in a deluxe resort, but we made the best of it. Capacity was definitely increased the week we were there - we thought it was crowded then. Can't imagine it now, with people breathing down our backs.

That is already happening, 20% of all new Covid cases emanate from Florida according to figures from google tracking and the White House.

 

[yankspy]

I would agree with upkeep Of the parks declining, but some of these I have to wonder about.

1. Food. I have been going since the 70’s when your food options were a few nice restaurants in Lake Buena Vista (that’s Disney Springs for you newcomers) and burgers. It was a huge deal when Epcot opened with all the restaurant options in WS.

2. Long lines. Was there three weeks ago and the longest line we encountered was 60 minutes and that was for one attraction. The rest of the popular ones had shorter lines as the day progressed.

3. Prices. Most pricing is in line with ball park/theme park, event, type venues. Water, soda, ice cream all about the same as in most tourist destinations. I did get sticker shock at Ghiardelli and Chef Mickey’s. I will not go back to those places again simply because for me it was just too much.

4. Removal of attractions. For the most part the replacements are far superior.

I would agree with Nottamus, when i stop leaving happy.

 

[Walt Disney1955]

I think for me if the cancel culture mentality increases in the parks it could be a shame. For example, my dad is a sports fan, still is, he still follows baseball, hockey, football, basketball, etc. But even when I was a kid in the 1990s he would complain about how "the game has changed". He never liked the money the players made, or maybe how things were watered down and such. And this is 20+ years ago, long before cancel culture starting creeping into sports as well. But being the age he was then, right now, I get it. I love sports too, but I can see the changes, and not all are for the better.

I guess the same goes with the parks. Silly things like changing Splash Mountain around. Maybe they were waiting for the mob to start protesting on something again so that they could piggyback their long awaited idea to re-vamp Splash Mountain. My guess is this is what happened (if they ever get around to the changeover). I think it was more just used as an excuse to change something up they may have had in the works already. But that's the thing, Splash is an excellent ride, and if they do truly change it over, unless you go to Japan where I understand it is staying, then that's it for a legendary ride. Some think the best ride in the park. That's a bad precedent. That means the mob might eventually put pressure to change Pirates if they wanted to. It shows Disney has poor leadership in the 2020s so far. Weak, easy to manipulate, too many millennials with ideas now.

So if that sort of mood spills all over the place, then you can rest assured Walt and Roy and a lot of history can be ignored or even cancelled completely because you can find an excuse to find fault in any dead person in history if you want to. And that would be a shame, because what keeps you going back is the same Disney mystique. So it would have to be big transformations of things like that, which don't separate Disney from other parks anymore and make it bland. Politically correct maybe, but awfully bland. And then it wouldn't be fun. So I guess it would take something like that, and I don't know about you, but I don't trust the college-educated 20 years olds in our society these days with the things they've been taught to improve anything with the standard of education.

Right now the park still has that Disney magic, similar to how I felt when I was 10 and first went there. You can't lose that.

 

[hosekiller]

Cost/value/crowds.

I have a hard time justifying spending certain amounts of money on a single trip, and we were pushing that limit with our last trip in April. That being said, we always leave feeling like we got the value for the money we spent. But now I worry that value is decreasing due to freebies going away.

Crowds is the other issue. We purposely go during “slower” periods. I just have no desire to feel like a cow being led to slaughter.

We seem to go every two years, so I’ve got a year and a half to see what happens. But if the crowds don’t chill out and cost keeps going up I won’t be back.

 

[Jrb1979]

I've already stopped going. There is a couple of things that would bring me back. One would be to lessen the amount of planning involved. There is no reason that a spreadsheet should be needed to enjoy an AMUSEMENT park.

Bringing in a paid FP system that has no advanced booking would go a long way in making me want to return.

 

[yankspy]

I've already stopped going. There is a couple of things that would bring me back. One would be to lessen the amount of planning involved. There is no reason that a spreadsheet should be needed to enjoy an AMUSEMENT park.

Bringing in a paid FP system that has no advanced booking would go a long way in making me want to return.

No spreadsheet needed unless you have to do everything. Otherwise, you can just go and enjoy the parks and get on what you can and what you don’t no big deal.
the lines were actually a little bit of a silver lining. The family actually got a chance to talk to one another since we had nothing to do but wait. I would also say that your comment about it being an amusement park is telling. Disney/Uni are theme parks. There is a huge difference between those and Hershey, etc. when you wait in line at an amusement park, you are waiting in line. When I waited in line for smugglers run I got to enjoy all the details that were in the Millenium Falcon.

 

[Jrb1979]

No spreadsheet needed unless you have to do everything. Otherwise, you can just go and enjoy the parks and get on what you can and what you don’t no big deal.
the lines were actually a little bit of a silver lining. The family actually got a chance to talk to one another since we had nothing to do but wait. I would also say that your comment about it being an amusement park is telling. Disney/Uni are theme parks. There is a huge difference between those and Hershey, etc. when you wait in line at an amusement park, you are waiting in line. When I waited in line for smugglers run I got to enjoy all the details that were in the Millenium Falcon.

I go to parks to ride attractions. I refuse to pay Disney prices to ride as much as I can. It's why I like Universal's express pass. With it I am able to ride just about every ride and on some get multiple rides. It's how I like to do parks. Disney makes it hard to do that with their systems.

 

[ELG13]

For us it's tricky because bwe have little kids whose family vacations bhabe always been Disney. When we took the older kids (9&6) in January it was by far the best trip I'd ever had there. The weather was glorious but more than that the crowds were minimal making wait times pretty much non-existent. The longest ride we waited for was mine train which was roughly 30-45 minutes. We rode it 5+ times each day for the 2 days we were there, the first day we got shut down on the interstate because big a wreck for 3 hours so our first day we didn't even get in until 3. Flash forward to april. We went for a week. It was probably one of, if not my least favorite trips. The crowds were crazy. We were able to get a disability pass for my son who has autism so that made it a little more manageable but with the ride lines spilling all into the park it was still hard navigating through crowds. We have always planned our trips well, and it's usually around out FP. We go often enough where getting to ride pan once is fine with us. We like knowing we can go and get a few rides in without a long wait. I think most people with little kids are the same way. We don't mind paying for after hours celebrations to get more rides in but I think for us the crazy crowds with no type of fastpass will be a deal breaker for us, at least for a little bit. We are already considering skipping our big trip this year just because we know crowds will be insane. I know there are arguments for and against FP and paid fastpass but as a mom of 3 small children, I utilized those fp to make my kids trip the trip they want it to be. We can do our fastpass and go back to the resort. There needs to be some type of balance between wait times and crowds. If it's just us no kids we don't mind waiting 45 minutes for a ride here or there. We have fun watching the people, enjoying the shops etc, but it's an amusement park, and if you and your kids can't enjoy the main attractions in a day, then I think you've lost that balance. We spend a lot of money to spread it out over the course of a week+ but I do remember the days when we could go and get them all done in a day, riding splash and thunder multiple times.

 

[wserratore1963]

Genuine question from a non-Disney fan.

Over the years I wondered this and with the latest kerfuffle over the demise of Fastpass+ (Of which the thread on said topic has been flogged to death, buried and made into glue multiple times over) I got to wondering:

Just what would it take for the Disney fans here to stop going?

Clearly, no amount of price increases and/or removal or perks is going to stop people from going from the look of it.

Fire away.

I honestly cant think of a reason that would keep me away, the only thing it might do for me is limit my trips to 1 or 2 per; as opposed to my usual 5 or 6

 

[yankspy]

I go to parks to ride attractions. I refuse to pay Disney prices to ride as much as I can. It's why I like Universal's express pass. With it I am able to ride just about every ride and on some get multiple rides. It's how I like to do parks. Disney makes it hard to do that with their systems.

Fair enough. For me I have been there so many times that if I don’t get on something no biggie. I have yet to go on slinky because of lines , kids not wanting to, etc. I just rode FOP a couple of weeks ago for the first time. I was lucky enough to snag a boarding group for ROTR.
I’m with you on the planning. My wife likes to eat out a lot which requires planning. I prefer to do QS since there are so many options now but oh well.

 

[mikeanabean]

Cost for us is a huge factor and the constant pixarifcation of the resorts/ rides is another. Disney obviously wants a much more affluent clientele than we are a part of so that is starting to make us think we are not very welcome there anymore.

 

[sandieb1]

Genuine question from a non-Disney fan.

Over the years I wondered this and with the latest kerfuffle over the demise of Fastpass+ (Of which the thread on said topic has been flogged to death, buried and made into glue multiple times over) I got to wondering:

Just what would it take for the Disney fans here to stop going?

Clearly, no amount of price increases and/or removal or perks is going to stop people from going from the look of it.

Fire away.

Our days are already numbered at WDW due to the increased cost, lack luster dining options, and reduced live shows. Harder and harder to find the wow factor. But the #1 thing is long lines. We made it work in the past with fast passes, rope drop and picking a slower time of the year. I will not pay these high prices in order to stand in long lines and call it a vacation.

 

[Gussie Granger]

Genuine question from a non-Disney fan.

Over the years I wondered this and with the latest kerfuffle over the demise of Fastpass+ (Of which the thread on said topic has been flogged to death, buried and made into glue multiple times over) I got to wondering:

Just what would it take for the Disney fans here to stop going?

Clearly, no amount of price increases and/or removal or perks is going to stop people from going from the look of it.

Fire away.

Honestly, we don’t plan on going back until fastpass returns. i just returned from a trip to Florida where we had 4 day tickets to Universal/IoA and one day reluctantly went to Hollywood Studios just to see Galaxy’s Edge. Our Universal experience was incredible. We had unlimited Express and never had to wait for one ride. I could list the conveniences that you probably heard a million times so I’ll spare you. Our one day at HS wasn’t 100% horrible but way less enjoyable than Universal. We waited and waited and waited some more. All we did was waited. We ate at counter service and waited 45 minutes for our meal. They would only serve mobile orders. They said they lost our orders (there were other people other than us waiting). We only rode 5 rides, it just felt like we got way less for our money at Disney. If they had fastpass, it would have been an easier day.

 

[yankspy]

Our days are already numbered at WDW due to the increased cost, lack luster dining options, and reduced live shows. Harder and harder to find the wow factor. But the #1 thing is long lines. We made it work in the past with fast passes, rope drop and picking a slower time of the year. I will not pay these high prices in order to stand in long lines and call it a vacation.

I’m curious about the “lack luster dining options” comment when you have so many celebrity chefs opening places left and right, places like Victoria and Alberts, Yachts man, etc. what are you looking for?

 

[spock8113]

"What would it take for you to NOT go back?"​

Everything that is going on at this very moment

 

[MorphinePrince]

They would only serve mobile orders.

See, for me, this total shift toward prioritizing mobile order over the conventional waiting in line is something I love. We had a seamless experience using Mobile Order last week. I think the longest we waited was 10 minutes after we hit "I'm here". I hope this is a permanent change.

 

[cookiee_munster]

I think if the parks were never to naturally evolve with the modern world and their attractions just remain relics in 20+ yrs time. I'd never really have an incentive to go.

 

[ELG13]

Cost for us is a huge factor and the constant pixarifcation of the resorts/ rides is another. Disney obviously wants a much more affluent clientele than we are a part of so that is starting to make us think we are not very welcome there anymore.

Oh I love that term "pixarification". Admittedly, my kids enjoy pixar more for the most part.....but Disney is DISNEY. little mermaid, Alice in wonderland, seven dwarfs etc.....

 

[Archie123]

I think for me if the cancel culture mentality increases in the parks it could be a shame. For example, my dad is a sports fan, still is, he still follows baseball, hockey, football, basketball, etc. But even when I was a kid in the 1990s he would complain about how "the game has changed". He never liked the money the players made, or maybe how things were watered down and such. And this is 20+ years ago, long before cancel culture starting creeping into sports as well. But being the age he was then, right now, I get it. I love sports too, but I can see the changes, and not all are for the better.

I guess the same goes with the parks. Silly things like changing Splash Mountain around. Maybe they were waiting for the mob to start protesting on something again so that they could piggyback their long awaited idea to re-vamp Splash Mountain. My guess is this is what happened (if they ever get around to the changeover). I think it was more just used as an excuse to change something up they may have had in the works already. But that's the thing, Splash is an excellent ride, and if they do truly change it over, unless you go to Japan where I understand it is staying, then that's it for a legendary ride. Some think the best ride in the park. That's a bad precedent. That means the mob might eventually put pressure to change Pirates if they wanted to. It shows Disney has poor leadership in the 2020s so far. Weak, easy to manipulate, too many millennials with ideas now.

So if that sort of mood spills all over the place, then you can rest assured Walt and Roy and a lot of history can be ignored or even cancelled completely because you can find an excuse to find fault in any dead person in history if you want to. And that would be a shame, because what keeps you going back is the same Disney mystique. So it would have to be big transformations of things like that, which don't separate Disney from other parks anymore and make it bland. Politically correct maybe, but awfully bland. And then it wouldn't be fun. So I guess it would take something like that, and I don't know about you, but I don't trust the college-educated 20 years olds in our society these days with the things they've been taught to improve anything with the standard of education.

Right now the park still has that Disney magic, similar to how I felt when I was 10 and first went there. You can't lose that.

The phrase cancel culture is so laughably overused.