Does anyone not like WDW

[Janerie]

I don't know whether I can ask this but does anyone actually not like the disney park :erm:
It was our first visit and we had the best time in Florida and so want to go back, but apart from magical kingdom we didn't really enjoy our times in the other disney parks we found them very busy couldn't get on any rides fast passes were like 9 hours in front. did like the shops though

[Kimberley Halfo]

Really sorry to hear that, I guess with it being Easter it was very busy, we did Easter last year and it was busy but I have to say we love the parks, all of them. We have our favourites but there's no way we could ever say we didn't like them - we love them!!!!!!!

[chewee]

What time of year did you go before?We went in the summer once and I didnt really enjoy any parks because of how busy it gets.I dont really mind queueing too much although you feel it is a waste of your day when you have to stand arond a lot but my DH is a bit of a Victor Meldrew and I cant stand listening to him moan about queueing.There is somewhere on here that advices which days at each park might be a bit quieter.

[Celica190]

Have been in May (3 times), July (once) and August (once) and have loved every park every time I've gone. :grin: Maybe you didn't do enough planning? I have our route round the parks planned before we go but will admit that we did have to queue quite a bit on our earlier trips. Now, mainly thanks to the Brits' Guide and the Dibb, I can ensure that we don't wait for more than 20mins for anything, even in peak season.

[Sue]

I have been lucky enough to go mainly at off peak times and have never queued longer than 20 mins for anything (and that would be at the busiest past of the day). We even went Xmas last time and because we were both early birds, we managed to get to the parks for opening and walked on to all the rides - leaving to rest at the hotel when the crowds got bad.
I love all the Disney parks, have some favourites in each of them, cannot imagine ever going and not visiting them all.

[FLGirl-UKNow]

As a resident I would say that it makes a HUGE difference on what time of year you come because of the crowd levels and also the weather (hot summers really can make it a long and unenjoyable day).

Disney isn't for everyone though so maybe you would like the other attractions like Sea World, Universal, Bush Gardens or even Cypress Gardens.

There are a lot of things to do that aren't even involving theme parks as well. There is a sticky in the Beyond The Parks forum that list out loads of options.

[emmaluvsmickey]

my older cousin loves florida but absolutley HATES everything disney, he loves universal, sea world etc but his face is like fizz when his dear fiancee draggs him round the disney parks. in fact he's so bad that when we met them in mk last year he told my dd who was 18 months he was gonna find mickey n bite his ears off!!!!!!!!!!!!! luckly he's usually a lovely guy who has a heart of gold or i would have kicked him in the *#!*

[nmurray]

I love the disney parks, but have my favorite. We mainly go off peak and its great but we have been at new year and it was a completely different experience for us because it was so busy and we didn't really get on much - did enjoy the atmosphere though but its back to off peak for us now because we get more out if it that way.

[Princess Kaz]

We found the key to it was to get to the park for opening time then leg it to the "big" popular rides first then work back through the park in a more leisurely way

K x

[purple myra]

I probably wouldn't go back to Epcot, its my least favourite. apart from Mission Space and Test Track there is really nothing else there that appeals to me.....but the rest of the parks, I love!

[stitch99]

I probably wouldn't go back to Epcot, its my least favourite. apart from Mission Space and Test Track there is really nothing else there that appeals to me.....but the rest of the parks, I love!

I was going to say the same.:wave:

[Bullpeppar]

Pity you had such a bad experience - hope it gets better the next time.

[BarryandCaron]

We love all the Disney parks but MK is our favourite. We go in the busy summer holidays and as others have said head to the parks early and back to our resort in the afternoon to relax.

Caron

[jdybnsn]

I like the Disney Parks .....but sometimes I do find myself getting very cynical about the Disney money making machine.. :blush:

.....but that's just me ...I am a quite a cynical person. ;)

On the other hand, when I look around in this country, at the likes of Alton Towers, Waterworld Aqua parks and even Legoland etc, ......then I think what they offer, in comparison to the likes of Disney, is cringeworthy and embarrassing.....especially considering how much you pay to get in !!!

Ah, well back to Disney.....at least it is clean, very well maintained and is wonderfully detailed. :grin:...and that could explain why we have been to WDW Florida more times than Alton Towers , when the latter is only an hour down the road !

[derynifan]

Spring break you do need to be pretty organised. We were there just before Easter last year, and made opening times at the parks just about every day (I think the last 3 days or so we'd done most of what we wanted to do, so we weren't up quite as early, but still not long after rope-drop). So by midday-ish when the crowds were mounting, we'd done most of the big stuff and were ready for lunch and back to the hotel for a rest. Then we went out again for the evening.

DD and DH had started off taking the mick of my plan and not 100% behind being up and out quickly every day, but they soon came round to the idea when they saw how busy the parks got, and how much we were managing to do in the first couple of hours.

And in answer to your main question, I love all the parks for different things, and my order would change almost daily if you asked me to rank them! In terms of things I want to "do", MK is pretty low down, really, but that's a park I just like to wander round and have a nosy and see what fun things are going on.

[Georgetuk]

It is difficult when the parks are busy, I remember our trip in 2004 we had a disappointing day at Epcot where we didn't manage to get done nearly anything we had wanted, sometimes its better to cut your losses and go another park.

The busy day guides would certainly help here I think.

[Enright78]

DH is not a big fan and I don't like MK very much! We both enjoy Epcot however but any of the parks when busy isn't a good experience! We go to the parks less and less now and try to do a lot of non Disney things on our trips so Florida is much more than just MK to us.

[Disneybunny]

I don't like MK that much but the boys do. However we all love EPCOT, MGM and AK.

[minnie mouse21]

What time of year did you go before?We went in the summer once and I didnt really enjoy any parks because of how busy it gets.I dont really mind queueing too much although you feel it is a waste of your day when you have to stand arond a lot but my DH is a bit of a Victor Meldrew and I cant stand listening to him moan about queueing.There is somewhere on here that advices which days at each park might be a bit quieter.

i went in summer and it wasn't that bad althugh we did have to que alot :tinkani: :mickeybou :goofy_bou :donald_bo

[ameliaUK]

We enjoyed all the parks on our recent first visit and we loved Florida,are going back next year but we are giving Disney a miss.Although we enjoyed it there is so much more for us to see and do than Disney.
Will venture there in the future though ,finances permitting a 3rd visit

[rnoon]

I don't dislike Disney however as we have no kids and love rollercoasters I prefer Universal/Busch & Seaworld. Having said that I don't think you can beat the actual atmosphere of Disney as just walking through the parks and not going on rides can be fun in itself and I don't think that anywhere puts on such good shows such as fireworks, Beauty & the Beast etc.

Maybe you need to give it another shot when it's not so busy and just go to a couple of parks rather then trying to fit everything in at the same time. We tend to go to Florida a couple of times a year but only go to Disney every couple of years.

[weeblip]

This May will be our 7th visit to Florida, but we will not be doing Disney this time. We have been in Feb, Aug/Sept, Oct and Dec, and I have to say that Feb was the quietest time. Our last trip was Aug/Sept just gone, and to get a Disney fix we opted to go to the Pirates and Princess Party, instead of buying our usual 14 day tickets. MGM & AK isreally the only parks that we get excited about...MK & Epcot is like...well if we have time we'll do them.

[Eeyore:]]

sorry to hear that .. but being the easter holidays im sure that was the reason .. what with everyone off school

[koi]

Hi. Although the Disney parks are great Ive always prefered the non disney parks.
When I visit orlando I always get the 5 Park Orlando Flex ticket & just a day pass to 1 Disney. Different Disney park each time I go.
Next year I will just be visiting Animal Kingdom as its the one park I have not seen + 5 Park Orlando Flex ticket.

[Little Monkey]

My brother and SIL werent very keen back in 2005...........and i was gobsmacked to say the least!! having spent several years telling them they should go they would love everything...they came back and said they thought it was ok, but wouldnt bother going again???????? They have since said they 'might' go back but not spend 2 weeks in Orlando.

[jdybnsn]

, and to get a Disney fix we opted to go to the Pirates and Princess Party, instead of buying our usual 14 day tickets.

Having been to MK several times before, this is exactly the same strategy that we adopted for MK on our February trip this year - infact we didn't think much of the P&P party itself (even though we had 2 young kids to take) but boy was it good for doing the rides !!!!!...... and since you can enter the park from 4pm and stay up until midnight, it prooved to be very good value indeed. :thumbs-up

[Enright78]

Having been to MK several times before, this is exactly the same strategy that we adopted for MK on our February trip this year - infact we didn't think much of the P&P party itself (even though we had 2 young kids to take) but boy was it good for doing the rides !!!!!...... and since you can enter the park from 4pm and stay up until midnight, it prooved to be very good value indeed. :thumbs-up

TBH that is how we do it too, but using the MNSSHP instead! Its the only way I can get DH to even consider MK and it is certainly easier to do some rides.

[rpbert1]

Not a fan of the Disney parks , but would not say i did not like them. Enjoyed MK and AK, do not think i would venture to Epcot or MGM.

[Elsie]

We've done WDW 3 times in 5 years and to be honest, the kids weren't bothered about it on the last trip at all. They were 12, 10 & 9 - characters? Are you kidding Dad? They're for kids, not us. Rides? Been on it done it. (Un?)fortunately, they take after me and there are certain things that get up their noses like the constant smiling and "Have a magical day" sugar overload that the WDW parks can give. Now if you're talking about Epcot, I absolutely despise that shopping mall; it's a travesty that you have to pay to get in to a glorified shopping complex and I hope I never visit this again.

Sea World / Busch Gardens on the other hand, we love. They have some of the "cheese" of the WDW parks but (apart from the Gorgonzola Believe! show), its not thickly laid on with a trowel. Sometimes I get the feeling that WDW tries to make things too perfect, too sweet and being British, having 20 people say "have magical day!" gets on my nerves!

[Simple]

I have been twice now and loved it both times, I would much rather they laid it on thick than have the lack of service at Universal, where you are lucky to see anyone working there let alone be polite......I agree that perhaps Disney do try and make things perfect, but that is the magic.....I would do the parks again perhaps not as many days as last time but still do them.... :grin:

[lainey5565]

ME !! I love Florida but not WDW :(
Ive been July, May, Oct/Nov and Ive realised I enjoy US/IOA more as it wasnt so busy :thumbs-up
I still love Disney though....I would rather go to DLP ;) (I know Im in the minority)

[pinkypominnie]

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE every single Disney park, and am able to appreciate them all seprately for what they are :)
I cant understand people complaining about the fact they are all so happy, polite and provide such excellent customer service! Lol! I guess it really depends on individuals and each to their own - it would be boring if we were all the same :)
BUT I am a very happy, positive, pink, sparkly, sunny person and am happy to indulge myself in the magic when I am there :) xx

[dsj37]

We have been back a week and OH, DD and DS all preferred IOA and US to the Disney Parks. That said, the only Disney Park that we didn't really enjoy was Epcot. We adopted the military operation approach and arrived at the parks not much after 8am and always got in to the park early, usually before 8.30. The parks didn't get really busy until 10.30 by which time we had done the big rides (often more than once) and then got a fast pass if there was anything we wanted to do again. Once the park was busy we just wandered around looking at all the "other" things there are to see and picking up a fast pass if we wanted to. I think it made the whole experience much less stressful and, for us with children 11 and 7, it wasn't a holiday for clubbing(!) so we didn't mind early nights!

[Disneybunny]

I cant understand people complaining about the fact they are all so happy, polite and provide such excellent customer service! Lol! I guess it really depends on individuals and each to their own - it would be boring if we were all the same :)
BUT I am a very happy, positive, pink, sparkly, sunny person and am happy to indulge myself in the magic when I am there :) xxMy problem is they arn't as happy and polite as they used to be. For us MK has the worst customer services of all the parks.

[pinkypominnie]

My problem is they arn't as happy and polite as they used to be. For us MK has the worst customer services of all the parks.

I have been going for the last 19 years - and havent notice a change - always get excellent customer service, and just always so happy to be there! I am not a "complainer" though (not saying you are :) ) but I never complain about anything as always just look on the positive side, and would rather be happy and enjoying myself than worrying about anything! xx

[buzzlightbeer]

We love all the disney parks...MK being our favorite. We will always do the Disney parks (we go a few times each year) but IOA and US perhaps every few years. We also love Seaworld but for reasons I can't explain we only go occasionally.

We love the good service and politeness of Disney and all the details of their parks. Sometimes we'll only go on a few rides and spend most of our times just walking around, taking time out for a leisurely ice cream or coffee and just people watching.

Cheers
Pete

[FSnug]

I do think people who really love Disney are of a certain mind-set - of which me and my family are! We (like many others) live a very hectic day-to-day life - I work full time, my husband is self employed, we have a 9 year old DS and my housebound and oxygen dependent mother lives with us - very dependent and demanding. Disney (either DLP or Florida) is the only place we 3 as a whole family seem to be able to instantly forget the reality of day-to-day - and the biggest decision is what ride to go on next (on site without the need to drive and can have an odd beer). We had what was supposed to be a one off holiday of a lifetime in 2006 to Florida - and it was fantastic. We had barely stepped off the plane before DH and DS were both voicing my own thought with begging eyes - we have to go back. We are this August - and can't wait again! Our friends and family really can't understand the attraction - but I don't think they "get" the turning off bit. Many think it is just rollercoasters and can't see beyond that. Even "people watching" and just soaking up the atmosphere does it for us. Perhaps we will get bored of it and go further afield as DS gets older but just now it ticks the boxes for us. And it is me, not DS, who has always loved larking about with the characters - he even says "we'll do that for Mum" now - like Crystal Palace.

[gaz.s]

Just got back from a 2 week trip, yes it was busy but if you plan it right, as we did in getting Fast Passes etc, we never missed a ride! Let me know if you want any advice on a particular park. I spent days palnning this trip through reading up and asking questions etc and i was really glad i did, well worth planning!