Why I Gave Up on Walt Disney World

I really don’t understand why the “pay up” is such a negative thing. I don’t “pay up” for much of anything at WDW and have an amazing time every time. Sure there are bits and pieces maybe that doesn’t work like I may have wanted but that happens with every vacation.

Also cost of dining isn’t very different between DL and WDW. They are priced relatively the same in that front so I really don’t thats a factor.

Do restaurants gets booked up so early at DLR though?

I'm all for planning things but doing so, months in advance before you know what FP+ are available, at which parks, on which days, how on earth do you know where you are going to be in order to book the right restaurant?

And by the time you do know and need to change restaurants, they're already booked up.
 
Do restaurants gets booked up so early at DLR though?

I'm all for planning things but doing so, months in advance before you know what FP+ are available, at which parks, on which days, how on earth do you know where you are going to be in order to book the right restaurant?

And by the time you do know and need to change restaurants, they're already booked up.
No but again that’s due to the different targets. DL isn’t a world destination like WDW. DL targets locals and shorter getaways. WDW is for the longer week long traveler and the international guest. This is why you don’t see tickets for longer than 5 days at Disneyland and such high priced APs.
 
WDW experiences are tied to how much money you throw at Disney far more than if you go to DL. It’s cheaper to pay for max pass than to stay on property in WDW. If you really want to pay up at DL, VIP touring makes the most sense.

Universal Orlando is a far better value than WDW. If you really want to pay up, you can get Express Pass. I’ve never had it, and I still had a great experience.

What WDW provides is an opportunity to pay up for your stay. You see this with the cost of the hotels. You see this with the cost of dining. And you see this with all of the up charges in the parks.

I can go to DL for the fraction of the cost of WDW. I can ride pretty much the same rides over a weekend, rather than a week. And I’ll have money left over to go on another trip.

I think it comes down to you specific situation and just how you do vacations - but our WDW trips are far, far cheaper than when we went to Disneyland - but it might be because we have more knowledge of WDW and know how to do it "on the cheap"

At the end of the day there are differences between them and some people will like aspects of one over the other - if you like DLR better, great, that is awesome. If other people like WDW better, great, that is awesome.

Are there some things that I think unversally people feel could be better about WDW? definitely - but there are also a lot of things that some people just have different preferences on - and that is ok too
 
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Help me wrap my head around how you can spend 7+ days at WDW. What’s there to do to take up so much time other than the ridiculous amount of time getting from one place to another?

We usually do 8 nights/9 park days. We don't do rest days and we don't go back to our resort during the day. The only resort we always visit is the Poly to go to Trader Sam's. If we go in December we'll take a walk through the BW area resorts to look at the Christmas decorations, but that's not very time consuming. I haven't been to a water park in at least 15 years and we spend very little time at Disney Springs (eating at Raglan Road is a must-do). Our breaks are usually spending an hour or two in a lounge for a few drinks. Somehow we still manage to not get everything done every trip.

We went to DL three years ago for the 60th and four days was plenty. Same for DLP two years ago.
 
We usually do 8 nights/9 park days. We don't do rest days and we don't go back to our resort during the day. The only resort we always visit is the Poly to go to Trader Sam's. If we go in December we'll take a walk through the BW area resorts to look at the Christmas decorations, but that's not very time consuming. I haven't been to a water park in at least 15 years and we spend very little time at Disney Springs (eating at Raglan Road is a must-do). Our breaks are usually spending an hour or two in a lounge for a few drinks. Somehow we still manage to not get everything done every trip.

We went to DL three years ago for the 60th and four days was plenty. Same for DLP two years ago.

When I got off my Disney Cruise, we made our way to Raglan Road for stew. We were able to get in with open table. It was good.
 
No but again that’s due to the different targets. DL isn’t a world destination like WDW. DL targets locals and shorter getaways. WDW is for the longer week long traveler and the international guest. This is why you don’t see tickets for longer than 5 days at Disneyland and such high priced APs.

This isn’t necessarily true. Because DL is on the west coast, it brings in international travelers from Asia whereas you get international travelers from Europe at WDW.
 


It's nowhere near as prevalent though. WDW gets far more international travelers than DL. And DL gets far more locals than WDW.

DL is definitely a more local park with most of its guests from the surrounding areas. However, I have met a lot guests there from Asia. I don’t have demographic data to say one way or another what percentage of guests are foreign travelers to either park. But with a strong US dollar, I wouldn’t be surprised if international guest numbers have dropped for both parks.
 
This isn’t necessarily true. Because DL is on the west coast, it brings in international travelers from Asia whereas you get international travelers from Europe at WDW.
Yes DL does get international guests but it’s not necessarily their focus. Disneyland is a locals park and one for shorter trips. It’s not something most people go to spend a week at like WDW.
 
I really don’t understand why the “pay up” is such a negative thing. I don’t “pay up” for much of anything at WDW and have an amazing time every time. Sure there are bits and pieces maybe that doesn’t work like I may have wanted but that happens with every vacation.

Also cost of dining isn’t very different between DL and WDW. They are priced relatively the same in that front so I really don’t thats a factor.
For me it is not a major negative... yet. The potential to be intolerable is just around the corner though.
When we started our recent string of frequent WDW trips back in 2015, I found tons of tips online for fireworks spots, parade spots, F! seats, Illuminations spots, restaurants, show seatings, all kinds of things, etc. Those tips are now useless when anything worth posting as a tip back 4 years ago has become an area designated for upcharge. So far it's not beyond acceptable, but looks like it has made Disney think park crowds and wait lines are lovely to have when it enhances the perceivable value for upcharges and convinces people to pay double each park day.

I can't blame WDW, people love the special feeling of having upcharge access. We've bought a few ourselves and they were fun. What worries me is being a stone's throw from NEEDING these upcharges added all over our future trips. Epcot's roof garden will obviously be upcharge for HarmonioUS, right? They can sculpt crowd patterns to where Tron needs upcharge to experience without undue torture. They've gotten a taste of this. With all the new construction, I'm worried they are going to force the need to pay upcharges on most of these experiences.

They are well aware of the psychologic effect these extra tickets hold. Yes, you can POSSIBLY have an amazing time without, but if you don't want to take the gamble of things working out miserably you better tack these charges on for some security :D You see this on the boards all the time... 'we don't really eat much dessert and probably could just find a fireworks spot 90 minutes prior, but our family is nervous so $360 is worth the insurance to us." What happens once there becomes 20 decisions like this to be made on a trip? It's a choice, yes. But if WDW is formulating the need for guests to have to rely on these upcharges, I will resent that. If you don't want to gamble with having a bad experience, pay a bunch of upcharges? Not good.

Sorry if this comes across as harsh. I do love WDW and overall Disney. The parks do deserve a premium cost but how soon till it hits insane cost?
 
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I think some would argue it’s already hit that insane. Definitely understand where you are coming from.
We haven't visited for 18 years and were really excited to be there in the run up to Christmas. BUT...$129 each for the real Christmassy event put a real dampener on that. We have paid for 14 day park hoppers, which are far from cheap - adding an extra $300 for 2 of us was not acceptable for what we have paid already.
 
I really don’t understand why the “pay up” is such a negative thing.
I don't have a problem with them EXCEPT for when they take away from the guest experience for everyone else.

Park hours are shorter than they used to be so that they can accommodate the ever-growing number of after-hours events. Magic Kingdom alone closes at 6pm for about 60 nights from August through December for the Halloween and Christmas parties. Years ago, MK was routinely open until 10 or midnight. How common is that today?
 
We haven't visited for 18 years and were really excited to be there in the run up to Christmas. BUT...$129 each for the real Christmassy event put a real dampener on that. We have paid for 14 day park hoppers, which are far from cheap - adding an extra $300 for 2 of us was not acceptable for what we have paid already.
I know the feeling. We have 5 day hoppers for a 5 day trip which are already pretty costly per day so I resisted adding party tickets because we'd get even less value from the tickets already purchased. Then DH bought our whole party of 4 tickets for MVMCP because he wanted to buy the ticket as a BDay gift to me. I can't be upset because that was so sweet but dang! That's alot of money considering we already paid to go to any park that night.
 
I don't have a problem with them EXCEPT for when they take away from the guest experience for everyone else.

Park hours are shorter than they used to be so that they can accommodate the ever-growing number of after-hours events. Magic Kingdom alone closes at 6pm for about 60 nights from August through December for the Halloween and Christmas parties. Years ago, MK was routinely open until 10 or midnight. How common is that today?

Agree that overall hours have shrunk, though I think you are being a little short in your statement as 10om is pretty common and even midnight at times.

Just looking quick, this week MK hours:
Monday: 9am to midnight
Tuesday: 9am to 11pm
Wed: 9am to 11pm - with extra magic hours (not paid event) to 1am
Thurs: 9am to midnight
Friday: 8am opening for EMH, then 9am to midnight
Saturday: 9am to midnight

Now next week there are a number of parties so definitely shorter day, but on Wednesday they are open until 10pm with EMH to midnight and Saturday they are open 8am to midnight



The holiday parties do interfere - but you just have to plan around those - there are 3 other parks to visit on those days
 
I know the feeling. We have 5 day hoppers which are already pretty costly per day so I resisted adding party tickets because we'd get even less value from the tickets already purchased. Then DH bought our whole party of 4 tickets for MVMCP because he wanted to buy the ticket as a BDay gift to me. I can't be upset because that was so sweet but dang! That's alot of money considering we already paid to go to any park that night.
Well I hope you have an incredible time. As much as we would love to go the cost is just too much for an event that many are saying is oversold and therefore the benefits are less that we'd expect for an extra ticket.
 
I don't have a problem with them EXCEPT for when they take away from the guest experience for everyone else.

Before and after close pay up events shorten what you get for your park ticket. This is the worse kind of up charge. You get fewer hours in the park, and it makes it easier for Disney to up charge park hoppers. Of course, WDW transportation sucks, so now you need more park days to accomplish the same stuff, which requires more resort days and more meals. It stretches your stay. And it makes the vacation far more expensive. You end up doing less each day.
 
Well I hope you have an incredible time. As much as we would love to go the cost is just too much for an event that many are saying is oversold and therefore the benefits are less that we'd expect for an extra ticket.
Thank you. Enjoy your fabulous trip too :D
My original plan before adding these tickets was to spend that evening doing a holiday monorail resort hop to see the decor, use our DDP at one and catch a unique view of party fireworks from Contemporary. With only 4.5 days in WDW, I had to scrap that. Never enough time! We'll be back.

You will have an awesome time with 14 days :earsboy: The holidays are so exciting in WDW.
 
Agree that overall hours have shrunk, though I think you are being a little short in your statement as 10om is pretty common and even midnight at times.
Point taken. I didn't realize they still had that many late hours. Still, overall, there are more early closing days than there used to be as they have extended the run of the parties. Halloween didn't used to start in mid-August, for example.
 

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