I was surprised to see this article, Why I Gave Up on Disney World, on a major Disney fan site today. I get that not everyone is an uber fan of Disney World. It’s not for everyone! But this opinion piece is written by a fan who has grown disenchanted with Disney World because of technology.
Steve’s Issues with Disney World
If you read the entire article, there are several reasons why the author gave up on Disney World. The last time he visited, his room at Pop Century smelled like vomit. There were fewer sweepers in the park and trash cans were overflowing.
But Steve’s biggest issue with Disney World is the FastPass+ system. He doesn’t like pre-planning his rides and dining reservations months in advance.
He suggests that Disney World do away with the entire FastPass+ system altogether. He would rather see Disney move to a system like Universal’s Express Pass, where people have to pay extra or stay in a deluxe resort to get front-of-line privileges.
My Experience with FastPass+
When I read the article, I started getting this image of my parents in my mind. They have resisted technology, and they would also be rolling their eyes at the planning involved with FastPass+.
However, my experience with FastPass+ has been very positive. Over the past several years, we’ve visited Disney World in the summer a few times. The lines for rides have been much shorter with this system, and we’ve been able to ride many more rides than I thought was possible during peak summer months.
This is our strategy: We get to the parks early and ride several rides before the crowds start to get heavy. Then, we use our pre-arranged FastPass+ times. And then, we keep adding FastPass+ for other rides as they become available.
I don’t see the big deal in picking out times for three rides 60 or 30 days in advance. Unless you’re visiting between Christmas and New Year’s or on July 4th, you’re going to be able to ride your favorite rides at some point throughout the day anyway. What’s the big deal in pre-arranging a time for three of them?
I also take issue with Disney moving to a system like Universal’s Express Pass. I feel like this is a pay-to-play system that can get very expensive. For example, adding the Express Pass Unlimited option to a 2-park 1-day ticket costs $130 more per person. For my family of five, that can really add up.
I appreciate that Disney offers FastPass+ for free to all guests, regardless of where you are staying. Even staying off-site with a 30-day window for FastPass+, almost all rides are still available.
And Those Six-Month Dining Reservations…
The author suggests eliminating dining reservations and going back to same-day reservations. I remember that system as a kid, and it was a pain in the butt. I recall going to a reservation station in Epcot and waiting in a long line to find out what restaurants were even available for dinner. And if you didn’t get there early enough, the good ones were already gone.
I’d much rather have the option to book online months in advance. But, I’m a planner by nature, and making reservations in advance gets me even more excited for the trip.
Move With the Cheese
As we get older, the places we’ve visited as children and young adults are going to change. Sure, we might not like all of the changes. But, as the popular business book suggests, we must learn to move with the cheese. We may end up actually liking the changes better than the old stuff!
What are your thoughts on the original article? Do you agree with the author? Do you mind the advance planning that goes into a trip to the parks? Are you fed up with some of the changes at Disney World, or do you like most of the changes?
CLICK HERE TO VIEW VARIOUS CREDIT CARDS AND AVAILABLE SIGN-UP BONUSES
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Steve Eldridge- you put EXACTLY into words my family’s experience! We have been going to WDW since 1978. Everything did change after 9/11 sad to say. Original fast passes were so convenient-go to the ride, put your ticket in and come back to the ride at the specified time, boom your in! Planning the trip 6 MONTHS in advance is nerve wracking. Then 60 days before arrival stay up till midnight to be one of the first to reserve the rides you want just to realize they are ALREADY gone!! How is that possible?! I must be a glutton for punishment because we still go every year. But its not relaxing or as enjoyable as in the past. I guess the good memories from the past keep drawing us back ALWAYS hoping it will be like it had been. Oh well, it is addictive in the sense of hoping for better!
We have always stayed on grounds which has in the past been great but that too after 9/11 is very different. Yacht & Beach Club is our favorite because of the convience to EPCOT & Hollywood Studios and the pool is amazing. But now you have to have reservations even for pool side Beaches & Cream. No goodies in the room on arrival like the old days.Just not the same except ALOT more expensive.
Oh well. Thank you again Steve for saying what I could never put into words as well as you did!!!
One more thing, Universal is so relaxing and fun, we really enjoy that too with NO stress!
I am the author of the original article so I thought I would make a few points.
First, thank you all for taking the time to read what I wrote and commenting on it. I actually enjoyed your comments, both positive and negative. Those who disagree with me make a lot of valid points, especially when I consider their differing perspective of what a vacation is supposed to be like.
Pre Planning and scheduling are things that I do everyday… At Work. I really don’t want to pre plan my vacation months in advance, creating a spreadsheet to track it all and printing out the schedule for my “vacation”. Before the Disney app, I didn’t have to. If you are into all the planning, good for you. I just think Disney needs to find some balance between the planners and the non planners.
I am not Technology averse, but at Universal, my phone is in my pocket. When I sit down and watch, a lot of people at Disney have their noses buried in their phones, trying to get that next Fastpass or dining reservation, while they walk into each other. Just because you can do something with tech, it doesn’t mean you should or that it will work well.
I don’t expect the world to remain unchanged, but I do expect a guest experience that matches the money paid. As Disney continues to raise prices, while making the entire experience more complicated and deminishing the guest experience in many many ways, they fail this test.
And finally… Fastpass. Fastpass is not a gift from Disney to save you time. Fastpass is is Disney’s attempt to manage lines by distributing people equally throughout the park. It doesn’t work. People tend to maximize their utility, they would automatically distribute themselves throughout the park all by themselves, paying attention to line lengths and choosing to forgo a longer line in favor of a shorter line, knowing that longer lines will become shorter eventually. This is exactly what all of you do when you don’t have or run out of Fastpasses. I strongly believe that Disney’s attempt to micromanage natural human behavior actually makes the lines longer for the reasons I mentioned in the article.
I am not a Disney basher or hater, I have just gotten to the point of enough is enough. I actually miss going to Disney. Eventually, this will hurt Disney’s bottom line and things may change. I can only hope…
Take care, Steve Eldredge.
@Steve thank you for elaborating on your perspective. It helped me understand your original article better. I’ve been visiting Disney World since I was a baby, and I can’t imagine walking away from it. We are taking our kids to Universal next year but I admit I’m not excited about all the movie screen rides.
Thank you! I don’t know how old your children are, but if they are under 42″ tall, they won’t be able to ride anything. Universal is not great for little kids. Not everything is a screen, and the screen rides they have are mostly done well. Some better than others. Fast and Furious is the worst! I do feel that Universal needs more dark rides and more family friendly attractions. I think that we will get that in the new park.
The level of planning needed for WDW is really a bit much. We went to DLR last year, and it was so much easier! I really liked the more laid back pace there, the day-of fastpass system.
The technology is here to stay and that’s fine at Disney as long as you know what you want and what you are doing. My beef with Disney is like the other author stated about quality for the price. Disney is hella expensive to get vomit smelly and/or dirty rooms, crappy customer service, and sub par food. Most that go to any Disney place spend thousands and the quality should reflect that. The last couple of years have been going downhill. From very rude cast members to horrible food, and that’s just unacceptable to me for their prices!
I don’t mind the new fastpass system but I take great joy in planning vacations and organizing our day to get the most rides in. I have two apps running with ride times that update throughout our days at Disney. Would I have enjoyed this level of obsession when my kids were young? Nope. Now, that they are teens/young adults and we know the parks well, they find it fun when I say “Haunted Mansion has a ten minute line, run, run”…
I wanted to add, we are not running but moving fast. We don’t plow people down to get to rides. ROFL! Although, my kids do tease that I should have a sign on the back of my wheelchair that says “move, follow, or get out of my way”.
When I read Steve’s article all I could think was OK BOOMER lmao
Just booked my flights for a March 2020 tri (3rd one since 2017). I think you can enjoy WDW any way you want. You want to plan every minute, you can, you want to book 3 fast passes and see some shows, and roam around the rest of the time, you can. You want to just fly by the seat of your pants l, go for it. Just learn to enjoy what it your way. You don’t have to plan at all if you don’t want to. Pick what’s important to you and figure out how to do it.
I do want to try Dland someday again. I grew up in AZ so went occasionally.
Might actually stay on site this time and do the Magical Express!! I’m looking forward to going at a different time, usually go in January and lots of things are shut down. I do think if I had been going every year (multiple times) I’d be over it by now too.
WDW fast pass is great, but a losing feature if you aren’t organized or tech savvy. (I personally love it.) Dland is our closest park and the one we go to every year. My issue is that Dland fast pass IS pay for play. I think it’s a crime. There’s far less fast pass choices in the CA parks and it used to be common knowledge that scammers would “sell” fast passes to the unsuspecting tourist. I find it ironic that Disney went with the scammer model.
The idea of having to plan a frikking trip to a Disney park months in advance honestly depresses me. The whole fun of a theme park is that you can just wake up the kids one Saturday morning, say “Let’s go to Disneyland!” and show up and have a grand time.
At least as of a year ago, Disneyland still had the normal FastPass system, where you just show up and put in your ticket and get a FastPass for later that day. Works great! And the last time I tried to make dining reservations at Disneyland (admittedly, this was three or four years ago), it was still same-day-only… again, no fuss no muss.
The idea that you wouldn’t be able to get into a restaurant because some Type-A people had booked it out weeks or months in advance is just sad.
Also: if I wanted to plan a 10-country European vacation, I’d… go to Europe. The point of going to Epcot instead is that you don’t have to plan anything. Except now you do. So I guess now there’s… no point?
@roygbivens Thanks for sharing your perspective. Disneyland and Disney World are two different animals. At Disneyland, the majority of the visitors are local, while Disney World has mostly visitors from other states and other countries. So at Disneyland, you can still show up on a whim without planning. You can still do the same at Disney World, but you won’t have as many choices for FastPass+. My family went to Disneyland two summers ago, and I was actually frustrated with the old fast pass system. We ended up waiting in longer lines, and I found the process much less efficient. But, we still enjoyed ourselves and appreciated the different rides that Disneyland/California Adventure offer.
Exactly…I gave up Disney years ago and now..now I travel to Europe with a similar amount of planning and expense but much much more enjoyment! To each his own, though.
I absolutely agree with the author. Vacation is vacation. I shouldn’t have to plan 6 months out. I hate that. At universal, my plan is if it’s a pool day or not. it’s relaxing. it’s low stress. Every decision I make isn’t being monitized. I agree the Disney has better rides, but a three hour wait for thirty better seconds isn’t even close to worth it.
I empathize with the author but liked the Fast Pass system myself. If you know Disney and understand the system it’s great. But I remember going for the first time in a long time about 6 years and being overwhelmed – I had to pick 3 rides to use fast pass on. Which 3? You need to research wait times and locations. That’s a lot of rides to research. In the end I called Disney and a lady on the phone that knew the park and rides and I just followed her recommendations because I was running out of time. If you know the park and the rides, it’s easy. But if not, it’s overwhelming and confusing. I came away thinking it was a great system, but it took a while for me to get my mind around it.
@Talchinsky Yeah, I can see how it would be overwhelming for someone who hasn’t been to the parks in a while or who wasn’t familiar with the rides. But this guy had been going twice a year for many years and it seems like he would know which rides have the longest lines. I’m glad you got help on the phone from Disney!