Any Other No Frills Visitors

[sheilafri]

When I go to WDW I want to ride the rides and see the attractions. I’m not interested in spending additional money on character meals, buying souvenirs, and having expensive meals. Am I the only one?

 

[DLgal]

When I go to WDW I want to ride the rides and see the attractions. I’m not interested in spending additional money on character meals, buying souvenirs, and having expensive meals. Am I the only one?

You are not the only one. That's why I'm there too. I can't even remember the last WDW souvenir I bought. Nothing ever jumps out as something I "need."

We might do one character meal, if our kids want to, but I can count on one hand the number of them I've done in over 30 years of visits.

I also get kind of annoyed at how long sit down meals take at WDW. That's valuable park time! I'll eat whatever. I have amazing food at home...I don't go to WDW for the food. I might do 2 or 3 TS meals in a 7 day trip. Might.

 

[IluvMGM]

We don't really buy souvenirs, there's nothing we really need. If we do a character meal it is for the food, not the characters. It was kind of nice not having the characters during Covid because the meals were so cheap! We don't go to the super expensive restaurants, but food is part of the experience for us, so we do enjoy the food!

 

[k5xs]

Clearly you aren’t the only one.

But we are in our early 70s. We buy plenty of souvenirs (mostly as gifts for kids/grandkids), and we love leisurely sit-down meals.

In a typical year we visit WDW six or so times, so we’ve done every attraction except the newest ones a bunch of times. Rides/attractions aren’t all must-do for us, so we like mostly to people watch and relax.

Different strokes…

 

[cakebaker]

We used to like to do nice sit down dinners but between the difficulty in getting reservations, the time it eats up to go to them, the difficulty in syncing FP+ and now Genie+ with them and then the overal abysmal quality and ridiculously high prices, we haven't done a single sit down in several years. The best food in the parks in my opinion are a handful of quick services. We do shop- but not trinket souvenirs- I'm a loungefly addict, my daughter loves the dress shop. We'll spend a bundle at the Food and Wine Festival. We also always do a dessert buffet and should they ever grace us with the after hours again, I'll buy any of them I can. We are definitely not all about the rides, although they are important to us. Shows, parades, fireworks and just relaxing at our resort and enjoying the ammenities is what we're all about. I would definitely not call myself a no frills guest. I have been bouncing around the idea of a meal at Cinderella's castle just because my grandson, who is 10 and been to WDW I don't know how many times, has never been inside. The menu though...blech.

 

[loves to dive]

I'm sort of a combo visitor. I go often, this Aug. it will be my 5th trip since the parks reopened. I rarely buy a souvenir, sometimes I might buy a T-Shirt or coffee cup, and about once a year I'll buy a Christmas decoration. I do enjoy the food but if I'm solo, I tend to eat at lounges instead of TS or just eat at the festival booths for most of my meals. I'm not opposed to a TS meal and have done V&A's so there is that. If my son (adult) is with me, we try to do one high ticket event a trip. Something like the Wild Africa Trek or a behind the scenes tour. I would never do a VIP Tour, we just aren't that focused on rides to make that make sense. I go just for the atmosphere. I ride some rides but I'm not upset if I don't get to ride something, I do a few sit down meals at the lounges (HBD, Nomad Lounge) I take my time and go slow in the parks and take in the details and just enjoy being there.

 

[SteveAZee]

On my most recent trip, we did a lot of ADR eating... nothing with characters, but we picked places that had entertainment value on their own (50's Prime Time, Hoop Dee Doo, etc) so that's generally our indulgence. No trinkets, shirts, souvenirs, etc. Next trip we'll likely eat more often at the room and maybe do one nice people every other day, hitting the highlights from past trips or trying out one or two new places.

 

[Disneylover99]

We often stay at Values for 2plus weeks and just eat counter service and snacks we pick up at a grocery store. We have a great time going with the flow and not being tied down to reservations.

 

[fla4fun]

I am fairly no frills, but do buy merchandise now and then. I like HM and Orange Bird, and will buy items such as clothing that I will wear outside of Disney. I don’t buy souvenirs to remember the trip or things that will sit around and collect dust. I got a very cute Orange Bird shirt on my last trip, and a Disneyland Paris anniversary purse, both of which I have received a lot of compliments on. The purse is my everyday bag now. If I could get my passholder discount on ShopDisney.com I would do most of my shopping from home.

I don’t do any of the upcharge things in the parks like Genie+ or parties, and prefer counter service to table service dining, as it takes less time. My last trip was eight days and I only booked one TS meal. I wouldn’t have booked that one but I really wanted a Monte Cristo sandwich and the only place to get one at the time was the Plaza Restaurant. To be honest, the counter service meals have increased in price so much that they aren’t a huge financial savings over TS like they used to be, especially when I can get an AP discount at TS. I was on a budget and bought a lot of counter service kids meals to save money.

 

[Tallis]

Big time no frills here! We don't even usually eat QS, except one meal at Yorkshire County Fish Shop each trip, and one Christmas ornament each year. We bring all our own food, complete with kitchen in our camper.

We have always had weekday passes, so don't even do weekends at the parks. The only "frill" of any of our trips is staying on Disney Property. I didn't think that would ever change, but with the added parking cost, and taking away the Extra Magic Hours, it's all yet to be seen.

We are the kind of guests that Disney is trying to drive away. They've made it very clear and been quite vocal about wanting people like us out and the big spenders in.

 

[Upatnoon]

When I go to WDW I want to ride the rides and see the attractions. I’m not interested in spending additional money on character meals, buying souvenirs, and having expensive meals. Am I the only one?

I'm not going to respond, I don't want my annual pass pulled for a lack of spending on that stuff!

 

[set88]

Yeah, I'm with you. When I started planning my trip, I could feel myself getting caught up in the "dining excitement" and wanting to plan a few TS meals, but the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized I'm better off cutting most of them. I don't want to them to wind up taking too much time, and holy cow they are expensive. We're not big fancy dining people in general, and some of those prices are just crazy to me.

I think I'm going to wind up with 2 TS meals total... if I can get Space 220 reservations. I'm more ok with paying for that because I want the experience.

 

[DisneyOma]

We used to go all out on our trips (character dining, lots of shopping) but lately we've been having breakfast in the room, QS most other meals, and this last trip all I bought for myself was a troll in the Norway pavilion. I've been getting one "Ticky-Tacky" from a different World Showcase country each trip for the past 5 years. We had the Norwegian cousins with us, so I had to get the troll I have the totem pole from Canada, the snow globe from UK, Eiffel Tower from France, and a Daruma (?) from Japan.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We do one TS per day of our trip,and only at the most themed restaurants because that’s part of the experience for us. WDW has some really cool themed restaurants, that you just can’t experience anywhere else. Also usually do one character meal just to see the “main characters” without having to use park time to do it. I personally don’t do much souvenir shopping but the kids each get a gift card to use as they see fit (and it’s usually given to them at a holiday or birthday before the trip). But I can definitely see the pros of avoiding all that (more park time, less expensive). Everyone’s different, no wrong way to do it.

 

[NavyDad]

For us it depends on the time period we go, the age of our kids and who we travel with.

Our first two trips were with the extended family and the kids were young. We did at least 1 TS per day and that was our time to take a break, relax and let the kids catch up with their cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. The character meals were fantastic ways for our kids to meet some characters and great family photo ops.

As the kids got older and wanted to ride everything as many times as possible we became park commandos and barely took breaks for anything. Now our kids are teens and young adults who have been to WDW many times so we don't have to run from ride to ride and we are doing more TS meals again. My wife and I have done a couple of Anniversary trips and we try to do a few special meals although those are usually at resorts instead of parks. California Grill dinner and fireworks have become a must-do date night for us while at WDW.

We usually buy an ornament each trip but that's about it now. Early on we always bought way too much stuff. Over the years we have figured out what we need to spend money on and what we don't but it's more about making things simpler than anything else. If, over the next 10-15 years we are blessed to be able to take grandchildren to the parks I would expect the spending and the character meals to skyrocket back up to the top for us.

 

[peabody58]

25+ WDW trips since the 1990's. DVC/AP since 2010. Both in our mid-60's now (ergo - slower pace).

- Souvenirs: Yearly Christmas Ornament, men's nice collared shirts, and occasional t-shirt if design is good. DW collects Pandora bracelet items and D&B bags (but has now tapped out). Everything else is 'junk' that doesn't add to our quality of life. DVC/AP 20% discount helps.

- Character Meals: Nope. We did however try and enjoyed CRT and CP during Covid period (bucket list), sans no characters (except for a waving Cinderella).

- Special events/parties: Nope. After a one and done Halloween event in 2012, we saw there wasn't any value for us, especially at the current prices.

- TS Meals: oh yeah!! It's vacation baby!! DW and I love our time together at the TS's. It's part of our vacation. We don't eat out much when at home, so we really enjoy our TS time at WDW. We do however eat breakfast in our villa. Wish they bring back TIW discount.

- Other: We will still do an occasional HDDR, Cirque, and other entertainment items, but mostly just park and resort chill. Still using our NE+ tics for MG and WP's. Really looking forward to the Poly Luau show this fall ..... of wait.... never-mind.

 

[greeneyedchick]

When I go to WDW I want to ride the rides and see the attractions. I’m not interested in spending additional money on character meals, buying souvenirs, and having expensive meals. Am I the only one?

Nope. I'm the same way. I've been going for over 20 years and have never stayed on property (even when I worked there and got discounts). I honestly regret not staying on property once when they still had magical express and stuff. Now it doesn't seem like it would ever be worth it. We bring our own drinks and snacks. We're there for the rides. Anyone who says that they don't understand why people get upset about long lines since just being there is magical enough....I roll my eyes to. When I had an AP and could go all the time, yes I could go to just appreciate the ambiance. Now that I'm paying a ton to go and the park hours are a lot shorter than they used to be, I want my money's worth in rides.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

I have been bouncing around the idea of a meal at Cinderella's castle just because my grandson, who is 10 and been to WDW I don't know how many times, has never been inside. The menu though...blech.

CRT was actually one of our favorite meals from our trip last February. Though I have to agree with you that ADRs are currently more of a hassle than they are worth.


I used to be no-frills, or low-frills. But then I realized I like to be spoiled. Not extravagantly so, but if I really like the silly souvenir then I buy the silly souvenir, and I don't worry if I actually need it or not. Same goes for dining and treats. Oh, and CYM totally made my trip last August.

Yet when it comes to lodging, ASM has become home base. I refuse to pay four star prices for two star resorts.