Disney is prioritising money over magic…

[Therealdisney]

As someone who has been fortunate enough to visit Orlando / Disney on multiple occasions growing up, our most recent trip in 2022 has been an eye opener.

We are currently travelling back from a 3 week trip consisting of both Disney and Universal visits. Granted we have historically visited later in the year (October / November), however following two years of cancellations due to covid, we took the next best according to crowd calculators ect and opted for April / May.

Whilst visiting Disney parks we quickly realised crowd levels were high and queues were longer than we’ve previously experienced, although we were happy to wait. However, it seems the introduction of the new lightening lane system has resulted in inaccurate wait times and excessive long periods of no movement for the stand by lanes.

Prime example - we agreed to wait the 75 minute posted time for the new Remy's Ratatouille Adventure in Epcot. Whilst the queue appeared to move at a steady rate initially, we soon came to a stop and in fact waited in total 120 minutes for what was in my opinion a disappointing ride. When stopped at the front of the stand by, we watched mass volumes of lightening lane individuals walk by. When questioning the cast member, she confirmed for one standby individual they allow 10 lightening lane. Unfortunatley we were behind a party of 9 therefore 90 LL were admitted.

Hollywood Studios is essentially a no go unless you’re willing to pay for LL to guarantee yourself at least one ride. My recommendation is to refresh the app regularly in hopes of additional times becoming available. This is more likely to happen following a ride closure (which you’ll find is a regular occurrence). On our last Hollywood park day; tower of terror, rock and roll rollercoaster, and slinky dog dash all went down. Even a park hop to Epcot was a waste as test track also went down. And for those who say ‘they’re old rides’ or ‘safety first’ - I agree but on checking the app at least one of these were down EVERY DAY.

If I can give any advice from this trip, it’s to do a Disney park where possible on an evening. Our better days were had on days where we arrived from around 3pm. The parks were quieter, queues shorter and the weather was cooler. Magic Kindgom in particular… if you’re willing to miss the fireworks, I’d suggest going to thunder mountain / mine train or space mountain then as we managed to do thunder twice (both walk ons) but the queues sharp jumped once the fireworks were finished.

Luckily we had two weeks of Universal which I highly recommend. Even during ride breakages they offered single express passes to guarantee a walk on elsewhere in the park.

Whilst I hope to return in the near future, I can’t justify the additional cost needed to experience the ‘magic’ of Disney.

[Dazed]

Welcome to the Dibb 👋

Such a shame so many rides were down whilst you visited. I agree, the evening is a good time to go for shorter queues and cooler air. We didn’t have any significant issues when we were there for Thanksgiving and again for Xmas/NY but I guess you just expect it to be busy then anyway.

Pleased to hear such positive reviews for Universal recently. I couldn’t spend 2 weeks there myself, but will definitely go again for a few days as they seem to be doing well and we haven’t been for a while.

[Taffy1959]

Originally Posted by Therealdisney

As someone who has been fortunate enough to visit Orlando / Disney on multiple occasions growing up, our most recent trip in 2022 has been an eye opener.

We are currently travelling back from a 3 week trip consisting of both Disney and Universal visits. Granted we have historically visited later in the year (October / November), however following two years of cancellations due to covid, we took the next best according to crowd calculators ect and opted for April / May.

Whilst visiting Disney parks we quickly realised crowd levels were high and queues were longer than we’ve previously experienced, although we were happy to wait. However, it seems the introduction of the new lightening lane system has resulted in inaccurate wait times and excessive long periods of no movement for the stand by lanes.

Prime example - we agreed to wait the 75 minute posted time for the new Remy's Ratatouille Adventure in Epcot. Whilst the queue appeared to move at a steady rate initially, we soon came to a stop and in fact waited in total 120 minutes for what was in my opinion a disappointing ride. When stopped at the front of the stand by, we watched mass volumes of lightening lane individuals walk by. When questioning the cast member, she confirmed for one standby individual they allow 10 lightening lane. Unfortunatley we were behind a party of 9 therefore 90 LL were admitted.

Hollywood Studios is essentially a no go unless you’re willing to pay for LL to guarantee yourself at least one ride. My recommendation is to refresh the app regularly in hopes of additional times becoming available. This is more likely to happen following a ride closure (which you’ll find is a regular occurrence). On our last Hollywood park day; tower of terror, rock and roll rollercoaster, and slinky dog dash all went down. Even a park hop to Epcot was a waste as test track also went down. And for those who say ‘they’re old rides’ or ‘safety first’ - I agree but on checking the app at least one of these were down EVERY DAY.

If I can give any advice from this trip, it’s to do a Disney park where possible on an evening. Our better days were had on days where we arrived from around 3pm. The parks were quieter, queues shorter and the weather was cooler. Magic Kindgom in particular… if you’re willing to miss the fireworks, I’d suggest going to thunder mountain / mine train or space mountain then as we managed to do thunder twice (both walk ons) but the queues sharp jumped once the fireworks were finished.

Luckily we had two weeks of Universal which I highly recommend. Even during ride breakages they offered single express passes to guarantee a walk on elsewhere in the park.

Whilst I hope to return in the near future, I can’t justify the additional cost needed to experience the ‘magic’ of Disney.

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We were at Hollywood studios this morning for early entry ROTR was down for quite a while and when it did open it was straight to a 2 hour queue.
We did the 3 rides in the Toy Story area then Star Tours and Muppets.
We then made the mistake of going on TOT which was posted at 45 mins which turned into almost 2 hours.
When we got to the front the girl in charge was sending 2 from the stand by and about 14/16 from the lightening lane.
When we went through to the room with the tv there were only 16 of us in the room and the room holds many more.
DH and myself said it’s no wonder the queue was so long

[MarkUK]

We made the decision a while back to not step foot back in Disney again. Too expensive and not my idea of a good time

[Bootrip2]

Welcome to the Dibb. Interesting reading your post. Disney is firstly a business and the only ‘magic’ they are concerned with is how to multiply the $$$$ in the shareholders pockets. Sad but true! A lot of the recent disappointments will be blamed on covid, but the truth is they have been trying to cost cut for years, the pandemic has given them the excuse to accelerate cuts etc. Universal we usually only do 2 or maybe 3 days there, unfortunately not enough for us for 2 weeks.
For us, we will do about 2 days in each park in Disney, probably not full days, luckily DD isn’t into collecting every character photo anymore so we can be more leisurely getting round. There is so much to do in Orlando off the beaten track. DD also wants to go to the Malls a bit more so not doing all parks will save a bit for shopping. DH will hopefully go to a local vehicle show when we are there and DD wants to go to Kennedy. I think the best way is to dip into which parks interest you the best and find lots to explore outside the confines of the ‘bubble’.

[Essex Benjy's!]

I have been many many times since the 1980s and not once did I think it was cheap!
I’m not surprised it’s packed as so many have been delayed due to covid.
We still love it and still return but do try to go at ‘ quieter ‘ times and get there for rope drop and stay till they close.
It’s never going to be cheap and will continue to rise prices as long as we continue to visit.
The great thing with the USA is there is so much else to do and we just love being there.
Disney is a luxury for many and the waiting times will always be long as it’s so popular

[Jamie99]

I agree with the OP big time. I’ve been 6 times over the last few years and I agree it’s never been cheap but this year once I’ve factored in food costs due to no dining plan I will spend the same this year on 14 days at pop as I did in 2019 16 days at animal kingdom lodge. No it’s never been cheap but now it’s out of scope for more and more people and is becoming a holiday exclusively for the rich and if you cannot afford anything under a delux and an extra $15 per person a day you won’t have the same experience. Back in 2019 all resort gusts got the same magic hours and all guests got fast pass , just read on another site a rumour of charger guests below delux for daily mouse keeping. It’s ridiculous and will continue to get worse. I will be switching to universal next couple of years. For me Disney is just not worth the money anymore

[Tinkerbell]

WDW may have been cheaper in the past... so was pound of sugar...but WDW has never been cheap but it did offer value for money. The value, for me, is no longer there

[Badger0207]

I would totally disagree, we found Universal a shambles compared to Disney we are here now. Staff miserable and unhelpful especially on food stalls, queues managed terribly, the Simpsons was run by a group of teens that had no clue what they were doing. Universal had little in the way of crowd eater dark rides, so most rides had massive queues as they were all 'big' rides. We did go on a Friday, don't know if that had anything to do with it.

Comparatively we have found Disney to be just as we have always found it, the only difference being G+, which we bought for $200 for our whole two weeks for two of us. Found G+ to be great and have availability for most rides throughout the whole day bar the top 2 of each park which need to be snagged early. Staff and service have all been amazing as usual, attention to detail is great and queues are managed quickly and efficiently compared to universal. For me there is no comparison.

[Disneycraft]

I agree the costs are spiralling out of control and the crowds are bonkers . It’s not the Disney of old ,however I’ll keep going …… the place is Magical to me