Is the magic still there ?

[mum]

Hi everyone.
I was due to visit WDW in 2020, you know the trip that was perfect. Had the ADR's ,fast passes etc that I wanted. Was going on a Disney cruise , my first ever cruise . Then covid put an end to all of that. A familiar story to so many of you here. I have visited a few times before and I love a WDW holiday. I'm in the I cry when I see the castle in Magic Kingdom for the first time camp.
Naturally I have been waiting for the moment when I can rebook the trip that never was and because I live in Ireland and we still can't enter the US I have to wait until next year. It's great to see restrictions slowly being lifted and hopefully the momentum will continue and that dining, entertainment etc will soon all reopen.
But lately I have been wondering whether the WDW that I loved to visit in the past will ever be the same again and that post covid it won't have quite the same 'magic".
The loss of the Magical express, no more magic bands for on site guests and a recent price increase to buy them, no extra magic hours, no fastpass , no adrs , no dining plans, park reservation system, no fireworks, no entertainment, no spontaneous park hopping. I know that some of the things I've mentioned are in force because of covid and they will revert but how will the losses affect things.
How have those of you that have visited in recent months found the experience? Aside from the restrictions still in place, is it still magical? Is it still a Happy Place ?

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

I have the same fears. With the cuts and the changes, some of them permanent, and the ever increasing monetization of every little magical moment/pay to play, there's a small part of me that's secretly hoping I'll like Universal better when we visit for the first time this June. Though I know I will hold on to Disney for as long as I can.

 

[DisLiss]

I hear you. We had a perfect trip planned for 2020 as well. It was so well planned, we had nabbed the "must-dos", on our list, and we even scored some really nice discounts.

Now we're looking at a more expensive trip with less "magic", even though we're waiting for 2022, because as you said, some things are gone or changed for good already. I just hope that a few projects will be finished that we would have missed out on in 2020 and that some new types of magic are introduced before we arrive. Hugs & good luck!

 

[Snowysmom]

We just got back last week. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how nice our trip was. I liked not having fast passes as I did not have to be somewhere at a certain time. We got to ride and do all that we wanted. The lines looked long but social distancing made them so and they moved quickly. I got the ADR's that I wanted. I liked the cavalcades that popped up in the parks. We did have expectations that it would not be the same kind of trip as before but we just went into it with the attitude of taking it one day, one park at a time. I do believe that it will be much busier this summer and things may be more crowded and longer waits. It seems like they are making changes almost daily to bring back some things as well as reducing the restrictions. The day after we left they lifted the mask requirement for outside. Just keep track of what is going on and see when you think it would be a good time for you to visit. I know what you mean about 2020. I had the perfect trip planned for May 2020. But, this May was pretty good, and I am glad we went.

 

[whiporee]

Hi everyone.
I was due to visit WDW in 2020, you know the trip that was perfect. Had the ADR's ,fast passes etc that I wanted. Was going on a Disney cruise , my first ever cruise . Then covid put an end to all of that. A familiar story to so many of you here. I have visited a few times before and I love a WDW holiday. I'm in the I cry when I see the castle in Magic Kingdom for the first time camp.
Naturally I have been waiting for the moment when I can rebook the trip that never was and because I live in Ireland and we still can't enter the US I have to wait until next year. It's great to see restrictions slowly being lifted and hopefully the momentum will continue and that dining, entertainment etc will soon all reopen.
But lately I have been wondering whether the WDW that I loved to visit in the past will ever be the same again and that post covid it won't have quite the same 'magic".
The loss of the Magical express, no more magic bands for on site guests and a recent price increase to buy them, no extra magic hours, no fastpass , no adrs , no dining plans, park reservation system, no fireworks, no entertainment, no spontaneous park hopping. I know that some of the things I've mentioned are in force because of covid and they will revert but how will the losses affect things.
How have those of you that have visited in recent months found the experience? Aside from the restrictions still in place, is it still magical? Is it still a Happy Place ?

I think you've already answered your question. What you see is what you lost, and you're looking for reasons to be preemptively dissatisfied. So no, it won't be happy enough for you. You will not be satisfied with your trip, and instead of seeing things as they are, you'll see them as losses.

For example, you cite the loss of spontaneous park hopping? Had you been planning to planning to park hop before 2 PM? Is that really a loss, or is it just a thing you can shake your head at how things used to be? There are extra magic hours -- they are just different. There are ADRs, jut not as far out. If you can't come until 2022, there will undoubtably be some version of fast pass in place. The only thing that is tough about the park reservation system is the limited capacity -- once WDW gets staffed back up, that won't be an issue except when capacity is an issue. Fireworks, entertainment, all that stuff will be back. DME doesn't end until January, and they will be somethind in place before then. Certainly by the time you'll be able to visit.

But it won't matter, because you've already bought into the story of how different things are, even though "now" and "when you can visit" might as well be an eternity away. Yet you've already started planning for how much worse things will be.

So don't. Save your money, stay home, do one of those other things people around here say are such a better value. Remember Disney as your memories have it, and be happy with that. Otherwise you're already establishing how disappointing you'll find it.

 

[Laura72]

My perfect trip in 2020 was cancelled, we can never get back watching our youngest child marching in the band down Main Street or the band experience.

As we sit on 3.5k of Disney gift cards, I want to go so bad, almost did it the week they opened back up.

mentally I can’t merge the current conditions, with the Disney I love.

so I’m just going to hold onto those gift cards and wait out the Rona season of restriction and the demand.

 

[revdon64]

I think you've already answered your question. What you see is what you lost, and you're looking for reasons to be preemptively dissatisfied. So no, it won't be happy enough for you. You will not be satisfied with your trip, and instead of seeing things as they are, you'll see them as losses.

For example, you cite the loss of spontaneous park hopping? Had you been planning to planning to park hop before 2 PM? Is that really a loss, or is it just a thing you can shake your head at how things used to be? There are extra magic hours -- they are just different. There are ADRs, jut not as far out. If you can't come until 2022, there will undoubtably be some version of fast pass in place. The only thing that is tough about the park reservation system is the limited capacity -- once WDW gets staffed back up, that won't be an issue except when capacity is an issue. Fireworks, entertainment, all that stuff will be back. DME doesn't end until January, and they will be somethind in place before then. Certainly by the time you'll be able to visit.

But it won't matter, because you've already bought into the story of how different things are, even though "now" and "when you can visit" might as well be an eternity away. Yet you've already started planning for how much worse things will be.

So don't. Save your money, stay home, do one of those other things people around here say are such a better value. Remember Disney as your memories have it, and be happy with that. Otherwise you're already establishing how disappointing you'll find it.

I'm not sure it's fair to assume that people won't have a great experience because their expectations are currently low. Your post comes across as one of those "stay home so I can have a less crowded experience" types of posts. Many of us are disillusioned with everything that's been taken away with no consideration for the fact that we continue to pay full price for a significantly smaller experience.

As to the OP's original question, it depends on what you truly consider to be "the magic" and when you're going to go back. My family is looking forward to going back at some point, but it's certainly not now. We're willing to wait for more of what we consider to be magical coming back before we go back.

 

[loves to dive]

I think it depends on what is magic to you. I agree somewhat with whiporee in that you might be setting yourself up to not enjoy it so much if you go in thinking all the magic is lost. It is what you make of it.

Pre-Covid I went at least twice a year and have been going for over 35 years so I've seen many changes. Some I've liked, some not so much but, for me, the magic is always there. Who knows what will be happening a year from now. They are already pulling in more employees, opening shows (if limited) allowing the masks to be dropped at times.

There are numbers of people who never have stayed on site so EMH's never applied and they never got free magic bands or DME and seemed to enjoy themselves. There are numbers of people who didn't make FP(we are a family that rarely made them as we didn't like to be tied down to a schedule) and enjoyed themselves. I was there in April and didn't mind no FPs. I'm not sure I understand the park hopping issue. Yes, you have to wait until after two but you can still hop to whatever park you want after two, as many times as you want to. I hopped every day I was there, some days to more than one other park. ADRs are still possible, again, lots of people never stayed on site so didn't make ADRs some ridiculous amount of time in advance. Frankly, again something we just didn't do because we like to go with the flow. I have never, not once, not been able to find somewhere to eat day of. Just depends on if you must eat at a certain place at a certain time or your vacation will be ruined. Shows, FWs and parades - for us, again, not something we actually did a lot. They have been testing FWs lately and certainly wouldn't have spent all the money they did at Epcot for an entire new show if they didn't plan on bringing them back. I kind of liked not having to figure out when a parade was going to be coming down the street and blocking my path to where I wanted to go or trying to swim upstream against a crush of people after the FWs.

A year from now, I'm betting a lot of what you are thinking you are going to miss is going to be back. Is it going to cost more, maybe, but try to find a vacation anywhere that doesn't cost more 2 years later than it did before.

 

[tigger2002]

Pre-Covid I went at least twice a year and have been going for over 35 years so I've seen many changes.

If you miss something you can just get to it the next time. For some of us that only go every couple or three years we have to get everything while we are there.

ADRs are still possible,

True, but to just a handful of restaurants.

 

[yorkieteacher]

Ironically, I was looking forward to my Ireland trip in 2020 as well as a trip to WDW! We will be going to Disney this June, but my UK and Ireland trip was postponed again until 2022. Here's hoping we pass each other in the air very soon! And I know Ireland will be just as magical as Disney!

 

[whiporee]

I'm not sure it's fair to assume that people won't have a great experience because their expectations are currently low. Your post comes across as one of those "stay home so I can have a less crowded experience" types of posts. Many of us are disillusioned with everything that's been taken away with no consideration for the fact that we continue to pay full price for a significantly smaller experience.

I'm not doing that at all. I'm saying she's looking at a trip at least six months out with the assumption that things as they are will only get worse. And that the things that are not there now are the things that made the trip magical. She's looking for reasons to be dissatisfied.

Has there been anything taken away from you that wasn't justified? In order to control capacity to a very low level, they had to have reservations. In order to have enough line space, they had to suspend fast passes. They could not have situations that invited crowds, so they got rid of fireworks and on-street entertainment. If they had been the jerks everyone accuses them of being, they would have gotten rid of DME immediately, but instead they've kept it going with a projected end date that is still six months away.

If you're disillusioned over a company doing all it can to be open and keep the worried portion of the population feeling safe, I don't know what to tell you. The OP is holding WDW accountable for doing it's best, and you're joining her in making those actions some sort of cruel corporate strategy instead of doing its best to make a horrific situation better.

If you don't consider it a value, don't go. But for God's sake, stop preaching to us about how terrible it is or will be. OP has no reason -- none at all -- to assume that everything she considered magical about it will not be back in place by the time she visits. I think it will all be back in place within six weeks. But go on and talk about reduced value for increased price. If that's the way you see it, then your -- and the OP's -- choice is pretty clear.

 

[Heather07438]

The loss of the Magical express, no more magic bands for on site guests and a recent price increase to buy them, no extra magic hours, no fastpass , no adrs , no dining plans, park reservation system, no fireworks, no entertainment, no spontaneous park hopping

I’m with you on this. It’s still fun; it’s not magic. It’s no longer elevated to a level beyond less expensive destinations.

But... WDW knows this. I can’t imagine they don’t have much planned to get on the ball again over this summer as soon as we get a bit further in vaccine rates and case drops. They’re playing their cards very close to the chest right now though because it’s too risky to commit in an evolving situation. They can prepare and hope to have fireworks this July 4th- they just can’t broadcast stuff like that tho because it would be a guest services nightmare to cancel after announcing.
We’re visiting this Sept and there’s reasonable hope over the next 4 months much changes. I think fireworks and shows will be back, early morning entry will have started, a FP replacement is coming, concert series will return and much of the exciting magic of WDW will be back again. Cautious optimism, no guarantees but the outlook is very good that vaccinations are doing their thing to get us out of this mess.

 

[HappilyEverAfter1]

.

 

[Carol_]

We’ve gone many times before and during this messiness and I can attest that it’s taking a toll on customer service such that on more than one occasion we’ve decided not to use DVC points when we had them and instead went elsewhere for vacation stays.
Our last trip we skipped WDW altogether but had great service outside of WDW from Disney-trained former CMs working in other places. So count me in on the tally for “less magical”.
We’re coming back to try a day in a few weeks. I hope it’s better but my expectations have been greatly lowered.
All that said, it’s still my happy place. That comes from inside you. If you’re a grump, it’s going to be meh.

 

[mum]

Thanks to all of you who took the time to reply. I love to hear differing opinions and the experiences of those of you who have been able to visit in recent times.

 

[MischaOz]

Idk why ppl are being so hard on the OP. It’s a lot of $$, especially if you’re coming from overseas, so there’s nothing wrong with asking what it’s like so one can manage their expectations and determine whether this is the right time to visit.

Anyway, in response to the OP, I think “it depends”, lol. First I would wait and see if things change before you would be coming since things may change for the better by then. Also it depends on how many times you have been and what you want to get out of the trip.

My husband and I just got back from a short (2-day park hopper) trip for our 20th anniversary. I consider myself to be an experienced Disney-goer as we’ve been about 10 times in 5 years. Anyway, we did have a wonderful trip! But we were happy to just walk around and we focused on dining and were able to enjoy some great ADRs. Since we were traveling without our daughter we didn’t care about rides as much. I REALLY missed FP. Lines were really long. We didn’t want to wait more than 30 min so we didn’t go on many rides. We really missed fireworks too. We decided that even though we had a great trip we wouldn’t want to bring our daughter right now because without FP it would be really hard. Also there’s a lot more walking with the trams not running which would be hard for our 9yo. Also a lot of the “extras” that our daughter enjoys were gone - eg hair wraps, face paint, play areas, etc. But, the face mask requirement being lifted on our arrival day was HUGE. Mobile ordering was great also.

If you have any questions let me know, and good luck making your decision!

 

[HappilyEverAfter1]

.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

My perfect trip in 2020 was cancelled, we can never get back watching our youngest child marching in the band down Main Street or the band experience.

As we sit on 3.5k of Disney gift cards, I want to go so bad, almost did it the week they opened back up.

mentally I can’t merge the current conditions, with the Disney I love.

so I’m just going to hold onto those gift cards and wait out the Rona season of restriction and the demand.

Disney during COVID is not as good as Disney during normal times.

But Disney during COVID sure as hell beats *real life* during COVID.

 

[Lilylogan]

We went in December and I was very nervous about what it would be like but we had a great time. It was nice to be somewhere happy vs. the real world. Everyone had a great time, no one got sick. The covid measures were barely an inconvenience. And some things we really liked like the cavalcades and mobile ordering

 

[tigger2002]

Disney during COVID is not as good as Disney during normal times.

But Disney during COVID sure as hell beats *real life* during COVID.

Well duhhh