Eliminate the Park Reservation Requirements

[cakebaker]

Based on things Cheap-ek has said, he is OK with that. You aren't the target audience. You just take up park space and don't spend enough money.

This is very true, especially for in state AP holders. That's ok, they'll make AP's so unattractive few will want to buy them anymore, then no one will have to put up with that 3 day limit anymore.

 

[sheilafri]

Based on things Cheap-ek has said, he is OK with that. You aren't the target audience. You just take up park space and don't spend enough money.

Too true. I’m starting to resent being an unapprecoated guest. Maybe that’s part of the reason I’ve gone from going to the parks 2-3 times a year to a 2+ year gap and counting.

 

[shawthorne44]

Too true. I’m starting to resent being an unapprecoated guest. Maybe that’s part of the reason I’ve gone from going to the parks 2-3 times a year to a 2+ year gap and counting.

They had already tried to chase the AP holders away by skyrocketing the AP cost. I remember in my very early Disney planning, I read "To save money have one person buy the AP. That way you get Memory Maker and parking for free. Any AP discounts are a bonus." I ran the numbers and I thought, "These people are insane." Then I noticed that the actual AP cost was several 100's more than they listed.

 

[ChipnDale79]

Too true. I’m starting to resent being an unapprecoated guest. Maybe that’s part of the reason I’ve gone from going to the parks 2-3 times a year to a 2+ year gap and counting.

I noticed something about myself this weekend. I’ve been down on Disney lately, and I think that’s obvious with my posts recently, however this weekend we went to the Disney store. All four of us would get excited just to go to the Disney store in the past, but this time, I couldn’t careless that we were there. I didn’t look at a single thing. I also worked more on booking our vacation for next year this weekend, and have found that the excitement that I’ve had for Disney the past 15 years seems to be gone. We have Disney postcards and pictures on our walls, those will stay, but our plan to get more for our loft upstairs has changed.



I think all the news and cuts from Disney, has honestly turned me away from them, it’s kind of sad, but its time to move on to something else.

 

[luv2cheer92]

I just hope people realize that this is faaaar from a WDW thing. If you think that other parks aren't understaffed, having cutbacks, requiring reservations, garbage not being picked up, long lines, high crowds, less housekeeping, the list goes on and on, then you are sorely mistaken. This is happening every.where. Amusement parks, national parks, state parks, beaches, literally everywhere.

Not to discourage or defend, but I keep seeing posts saying, we'll just go here instead. But you're probably gonna have a similar experience anywhere you go.

 

[BrianL]

I just hope people realize that this is faaaar from a WDW thing. If you think that other parks aren't understaffed, having cutbacks, requiring reservations, garbage not being picked up, long lines, high crowds, less housekeeping, the list goes on and on, then you are sorely mistaken. This is happening every.where. Amusement parks, national parks, state parks, beaches, literally everywhere.

Not to discourage or defend, but I keep seeing posts saying, we'll just go here instead. But you're probably gonna have a similar experience anywhere you go.

This is true. Disney does tend to be more in the spotlight because they are Disney. Then again, they got to be that way because they were often leaps and bounds ahead of other similar destinations. I'd like to see them leading the way here - at least trying to. Make a statement and a plan to fix it - even if it can't be done right away it will at least ease a lot of the disappointment that some of this is generating.

 

[ChipnDale79]

I just hope people realize that this is faaaar from a WDW thing. If you think that other parks aren't understaffed, having cutbacks, requiring reservations, garbage not being picked up, long lines, high crowds, less housekeeping, the list goes on and on, then you are sorely mistaken. This is happening every.where. Amusement parks, national parks, state parks, beaches, literally everywhere.

Not to discourage or defend, but I keep seeing posts saying, we'll just go here instead. But you're probably gonna have a similar experience anywhere you go.

those things have been going on at those places long before covid. the difference is Disney hasnt been like that before.

Maybe instead of increasing capacity so much, they should focus their resource on some other things. People are still paying disney prices to go disney.....

 

[luv2cheer92]

those things have been going on at those places long before covid. the difference is Disney hasnt been like that before.

Maybe instead of increasing capacity so much, they should focus their resource on some other things. People are still paying disney prices to go disney.....

Many of the places I have been were absolutely nothing like they have been this year. Especially national and state parks, they have been absolutely bombarded this summer. I've been to quite a few of those. And I've been to just about every amusement park on the east coast this summer, and they are nothing like they have been in the past.
Funny how you seem to know the specific places I was talking about.

 

[ChipnDale79]

Many of the places I have been were absolutely nothing like they have been this year. Especially national and state parks, they have been absolutely bombarded this summer. I've been to quite a few of those. And I've been to just about every amusement park on the east coast this summer, and they are nothing like they have been in the past.
Funny how you seem to know the specific places I was talking about.

Deleting..my apologies, i got 2 threads confused and read this wrong.

 

[shafke]

I just hope people realize that this is faaaar from a WDW thing. If you think that other parks aren't understaffed, having cutbacks, requiring reservations, garbage not being picked up, long lines, high crowds, less housekeeping, the list goes on and on, then you are sorely mistaken. This is happening every.where. Amusement parks, national parks, state parks, beaches, literally everywhere.

Not to discourage or defend, but I keep seeing posts saying, we'll just go here instead. But you're probably gonna have a similar experience anywhere you go.

Yes this is happening everywhere.
We did a vacation the last week of June and this is what we ran in to...
- one hotel was not providing maid service during the stay
- one amusement park had 1/2 the rides not running due to staffing
- another had shortened hours 11-8 and was still training new hires on 7/1

I have seen stories of other amusement parks being closed Tue/Wed for the whole summer.

 

[shawthorne44]

I found post-lockdown USF to be much like the pre-lockdown version except in dining. The dining problem was a physical capacity problem from the distancing, not staffing. There was also almost an excess of staff. At home, Six Flags over Texas and the waterpark seems to be back to normal. There certainly wasn't the trash problems like the photos from Disney.

I also expect more from Disney. Our Disney tickets are over $500+/pp, whereas I buy a Six Flags annual pass for $60+, and that includes the water park and parking. Another $80+ gets two meals, a snack and unlimited sodas for every visit for a year.

 

[sabrecmc]

I found post-lockdown USF to be much like the pre-lockdown version except in dining. The dining problem was a physical capacity problem from the distancing, not staffing. There was also almost an excess of staff. At home, Six Flags over Texas and the waterpark seems to be back to normal. There certainly wasn't the trash problems like the photos from Disney.

I also expect more from Disney. Our Disney tickets are over $500+/pp, whereas I buy a Six Flags annual pass for $60+, and that includes the water park and parking. Another $80+ gets two meals, a snack and unlimited sodas for every visit for a year.

When we last went to the Arlington 6 Flags about a month ago, it was surprisingly clean and well staffed, but I do think my expectations for them are probably a lot lower, so it was a nice surprise.

Our visit to Disney was June 24-July 5, and I didn't really notice and trash problems. Obviously, there are some pics floating around, so maybe others had different experiences, but it was pretty typical overall to me. Of course, the lack of staffing was evidence in other ways, but the CMs we did encounter were very nice and seemed to be more relaxed by far than our trip from November.

I do not mind park reservations as a way to manage their staffing needs, but I think it needs to be easier to switch things up, which I hope will happen fairly soon. I shouldn't have to book 4 DHS days months out in case RotR breaks down (like it did every day--though we did get to eventually ride) and then not be able to switch to anything other than Epcot. I miss the flexibility of deciding that we really wanted more time at MK or wanted to hit DHS early for a couple of rides then move over to AK for Nomad Lounge at lunch. *sigh* I know, we all just want it back to what we are used to, but I think things just aren't there yet.

 

[cakebaker]

I think all the news and cuts from Disney, has honestly turned me away from them, it’s kind of sad, but its time to move on to something else.

That's where we are. We don't have our local Disney store anymore, but there's an outlet 2 hrs away where I happen to be going to get my hair done this week. Normally, my daughters would come with me and we'd make a day of it going to the outlet store- especially with a trip just days away.

Not this time. None of us have even mentioned going there. Our October trip is currently on the chopping block. I'm so disgusted with WDW that I really don't want to give them any of my money at any park. And no, we won't attempt to replace WDW. I may be completely disillusioned with Disney, but there is nothing that replaces what they were before.

 

[WebmasterDoc]

Since the Disney Store does not require a Park Reservation, it seems the need for this thread has drifted to other topics and it is now closed - with no need to be restarted.