So, what has changed within Disney?

[princess allie]

This i a hard quetion for me,a we haven't really noticed it becoming worse. We still love it. I also have to say that I like FP+, yes you do have to be organised, but knowing that you can get on 3 "big" rides per day is a real draw for us. With the old system, unless you raced to some of the major attractions, you couldn't get a FP anyway, especially not unless you wanted to wait until the early evening etc,. We always seem to be able to make more FP selections after our 3, also and with the added bonus of not having to traipse across the park to get one, just look on your phone and see what i available near you.

I think as it is an expensive holiday we expect "more" and also for those who have made repeat visits, the magic will not be the same as those first heady visits when everything was new to us. Perhaps it is us who have changed and not Disney.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by blusteryday

I may not have to, but I'm darned sure i wouldn't want to leave FP selections until the day.

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Leaving FP selections until the day is really only a problem if you are desperate to go on SDMT and/or FEA and don't want to wait over an hour in the queue. You can get fastpasses for most of the rides the night before or on the day. For example, right now, Space and Splash Mountain at MK, Soarin' and Test Track at EP, TSM and RnR at HS all have fastpasses available for later today. And it's currently Spring Break.

And, anyway, you can still join the regular queue. I'm somewhat old-school and remember the days when the latest rides had 90+ minute queues and the fastpass concept hadn't been invented yet. The fact that fastpasses didn't exist when I first visited Disneyworld back in 1997 didn't put me off.

[PlutoFan]

I think I've fallen out of love with Disney after our visit last year. The below are a couple of extracts from the 'Highs, Lows and Mehs' section of the trip report -

*******
Lows

Fast Pass + - I didn’t enjoy this at all. It was bad enough having to decide where to eat 6 months in advance without knowing what ride you wanted to be on at 60 days out. You can’t make your mind up as you go along, leading to having FPs for rides which are walk-ons. I also found that we were waiting round for the next FP when we had three booked instead of doing something else.

Mehs

Disney - didn't really feel the magic this visit. I don't know if it was the combination of not really liking SSR and also the new Fastpass + system AND the lack of photographers but it didn't feel the same. Also I know they're always after your money because they are business after all, but it felt more obvious somehow this time *.

******

I think some of this * came from the extra 'paid for' hours they were selling at the time, both early morning and late night. I'm not sure if those are still being plugged now though.
Universal on the other hand has improved over the years, and I think their CMs giving the Disney ones a run for their money now, which never used to be the case.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Hevfev

For me Disney is a luxury holiday that I don't find cheap at all. It takes me over a year to save. I think they've done enough with increasing prices 😱

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Apologies, I didn't define what I meant by "luxury". This may be different to other people's definition.

To me, the fact that it only takes you over a year (I assume by this it's less than 2 years?) to save to go to Disney does not sound like a luxury holiday. That just sounds like a holiday.

To me, a normal holiday is something you take once a year. Thus, a normal holiday requires a year of saving in order to afford it. Whereas, a "luxury" holiday is one that either only the rich can go on every year or it takes the rest of us ~5 years (or more) to save up for.

Disney used to be a "once in a lifetime" holiday for the average person. That didn't actually mean you'd only visit once, but it did mean that you'd only rarely visit because it was so expensive. Whereas it seems nowadays everyone expects to be able to visit Disney every 1 or 2 years. At least, that was the case until the latest price hikes.

[papamouse]

Before I'd ever been to Disney or even contemplated going

I knew there would be queues.
Exchange rates would fluctuate.
Thought on site was impossible cost wise but would be better than off.
knew there would be a good choice of acom
food choices would be fab
weather would be scorchio

Now I've been off site and on site
there are queue. FP+/FOTL helps.
Exchange rates will always fluctuate.
On site IS possible cost wise all things considered (free dining, costs benefits of on rather than off).
there is a good choice of acom offsite
food choices are fab
weather would be scorchio and wet!

The worst thing about Disney now is they are TOO BIG for their boots. The way they have handled the refurb at CBR and CSR is not worthy of their companys' reputation.

There is no willingness or effort on their behalf to sort people out properly.

At a snapshot people not involved in this will think its a bit of a storm in a tea cup, but let me assure you if they closed your fav resort, or messed with your holiday or ignored your emails, or reneged on a promise on your booking or etc etc - you would feel exactly the same.

In the past I felt as though Disney cared about us customers individually, now I know I am just a number and if I cancel they will happily just add another number. They can run their business what ever why they wish, and I can take my money and spend it where ever else I wish and probably will.

[blusteryday]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

Leaving FP selections until the day is really only a problem if you are desperate to go on SDMT and/or FEA and don't want to wait over an hour in the queue. You can get fastpasses for most of the rides the night before or on the day. For example, right now, Space and Splash Mountain at MK, Soarin' and Test Track at EP, TSM and RnR at HS all have fastpasses available for later today. And it's currently Spring Break.

And, anyway, you can still join the regular queue. I'm somewhat old-school and remember the days when the latest rides had 90+ minute queues and the fastpass concept hadn't been invented yet. The fact that fastpasses didn't exist when I first visited Disneyworld back in 1997 didn't put me off.

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Magic Kingdom had 17m visitors in 1997, 2015 had just shy of 20m. That's 15% more footfall without 15% more park, so Fastpass had to be introduced to make the guest experience more efficient. Whichever way you try and cook the numbers, there is less capacity.

We have to go in August, so the argument of 'we can always go in the standby line if we don't want to prebook' really doesn't stack up for me.

Where I do agree with you is if Disney doesn't build more attractions (or even parks!) then demand outstrips supply, and the price has to go up. Simple economics. Disney itself now actively markets itself as a premium brand.

[Universal VR]

Some very interesting points here. As for FP+, whilst I wasn't in favour of it when I first heard of it, it worked well for us because the slots available were 4pm and later. We hadn't planned to arrive before 2pm so having the later slots suited us perfectly. We were able to do more rides than we expected because the wait times were manageable on those we didn't have FP+ for.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by blusteryday

Magic Kingdom had 17m visitors in 1997, 2015 had just shy of 20m. That's 15% more footfall without 15% more park, so Fastpass had to be introduced to make the guest experience more efficient. Whichever way you try and cook the numbers, there is less capacity.

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Probably not a great example there, because Disney did increase the size of MK when they added New Fantasyland. It increased in size by just over 10% (I think). I agree though that visitors have increased whilst capacity has remained generally the same, meaning queues have increased a bit.

Originally Posted by blusteryday

We have to go in August, so the argument of 'we can always go in the standby line if we don't want to prebook' really doesn't stack up for me.

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We've been in August. You don't have to use fastpasses, if you don't want to. You can go in the standby line. It still exists. And, as I said above, for nearly all of the rides you can book your fastpasses on the day or the day beforehand.

There seems to be a myth that you *have* to plan everything and book fastpasses weeks in advance. Here's an example that shows you don't have to plan at all if you don't want to.

Back in April when we last visited, a friend of ours (who works for Thomas Cook) and her daughter also visited Orlando. She had booked absolutely nothing beforehand. She turned up at the airport that morning and asked whether there were any seats available on the Orlando flight (if there weren't then she was happy to fly to anywhere warm and sunny). She booked a hotel online whilst waiting in the lounge for the flight. She bought her park tickets whilst in Orlando. I don't think she bothered with fastpasses. She went to restaurants that had walk-up availability (I've never booked any offsite restaurants). She and her daughter both had a wonderful time.

It all comes down to expectations. If you just expect to go to Orlando, visit Disney and/or Universal and go on a few rides then you'll be fine and you won't have to do much planning. If you expect to go on all the popular rides with little-to-no queuing and eat at any restaurant you want, including popular onsite restaurants, then you either need to do a lot more planning or else be disappointed.

[Hevfev]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

Apologies, I didn't define what I meant by "luxury". This may be different to other people's definition.

To me, the fact that it only takes you over a year (I assume by this it's less than 2 years?) to save to go to Disney does not sound like a luxury holiday. That just sounds like a holiday.

To me, a normal holiday is something you take once a year. Thus, a normal holiday requires a year of saving in order to afford it. Whereas, a "luxury" holiday is one that either only the rich can go on every year or it takes the rest of us ~5 years (or more) to save up for.

Disney used to be a "once in a lifetime" holiday for the average person. That didn't actually mean you'd only visit once, but it did mean that you'd only rarely visit because it was so expensive. Whereas it seems nowadays everyone expects to be able to visit Disney every 1 or 2 years. At least, that was the case until the latest price hikes.

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Yeah I do know what you mean but although it only takes a year to save I literally have to give EVERYTHING up. So I can't go every year as I need to start making home improvements once this holiday is paid for, which it won't be until right up to the very month I go.
People have different views I guess of what 'luxury' means to them. Anything over £3000 on a holiday no matter where you go is a luxury holiday to me haha :P

[daytonababe]

Originally Posted by Universal VR

My daughter has just got back from DLP where they still have the paper FPs. She's always said they were better but she's changed her mind now. She felt the FP+ worked better for them. That said, her friend and fellow Disney fan is disabled so they have a disabled pass in Orlando. They weren't impressed with the arrangements for disabled people at DLP so they switched to the fast passes as the queues were shorter than the disabled ones.

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I've just been to Disneyland California and for now they still have the old paper fast passes and its brilliant for someone like me who doesn't plan or likes to change plans last minute.

Originally I thought we would be in Disney Tue/Wed last week , but it ended up being Tue & Friday so paper fast passes suit us perfect.

We did notice last week and even the kids commented , that the CM's in Disney looked downright miserable and it wasn't just a few it was loads of them..

A few other things we noticed
Tiggers Zip visible
CM's outfits ill-fitting, one on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride just did not fit and I'm surprised at Disney allowing it when generally they are so strict on appearance.
When Pluto disppeared off backstage at Toon Town he went through a down next to where we were sitting, the door was left swinging open and you could clearly see in there. Doesn't matter a jot to me ,but image a child looking through and seeing a character taking his head off..

We had a fab time its my favourite of all the Disney parks but standards have definitely slipped a little.