Here's something y'all might be interested in. Here's the back story: we had originally planned 4n/5d at Coronado Springs and 5 days at the parks. With all the cut backs, Disney ticked me off. So we're staying off-site, added a day to the vacation, only doing 3 days at WDW and are now doing 3 days at Universal.
I emailed Disney customer relations a couple of weeks ago and told them exactly that and explained why. Reduced park hours, no EMH, no FP, no DP, charging for resort parking, no fireworks, etc., while still charging a premium. I explained to them I'd been going to WDW since 1983. I remembered seeing EPCOT being constructed across the lake. That I just felt like the Mouse had lost his magic.
Low and behold, last week I got a call from a customer services representative. We had a very nice talk. He danced around a lot of things and had very few answers other than to blame everything on Covid.
"You took away EMH."
"But we added 30 minutes early entry to every park every day."
"That's not the same. You usually let the general public in 15-30 minutes early anyway."
"Well..."
"And you've cut the park hours back so much, 30 minutes doesn't begin to make up for that."
"(silence)"
"And, with the reduced hours, there's no nighttime experiences. Walking down Main Street at night with the Castle all lit up is a completely different experience than it is during the day. Walking through Pandora at night is a completely different experience than it is during the day."
"I agree. Due to Covid..."
"What's shortened hours got to do with Covid?"
"(silence)"
"And fireworks. With the shortened hours, and no night experiences, you've taken away the fireworks."
"Well, due to Covid social distancing..."
"Universal's doing it. You guys could figure it out if you really wanted to."
"(silence)"
"You took away FP."
"We're using the FP lanes for normal stand-by lanes due to Covid social distancing." (does anybody know if that's true or not?)
"You took away the dining plan."
"Well, we have so many restaurants closed because of Covid..."
"What's that got to do with the dining plan?"
"We want to make sure you have as many choices as possible before we bring back the dining plan. You can still make advance reservations to the restaurants that are open. And the quick service mobile ordering is a great alternative."
"You've taken away almost every perk you had for staying on-site. There's no FP, so you have no advantage of getting them ahead of the general public. You're charging to park at the resorts. There's no EMH..."
"But we've added 30 minutes early entry to all the parks every day."
"That's not the same."
"We still have free transportation and the Skyliner."
"I could care less about the Skyliner. And you've cut way back on the bus schedule."
"Well, that's because of Covid."
That's how the conversation went for 15-20 minutes. I was stunned that they called. I appreciated that they called. But he didn't say anything that changed my mind.