Have been reading the boards since our first trip in 2010 and never signed up until now. Appreciate all the great information over the years. I actually signed up to post in the Canadian forum where I detail our return home with a positive COVID test as I hadn't read any experiences from anyone else and wanted to provide the info to anyone curious or that ends up in that situation. Figured I may as well post a full trip report as well. I'll leave the return home details in the other post so as to not clog this one up but suffice to say a 50 hour drive home was not in the original plan! Our daughter is asymptomatic and fine and we are both still testing negative so no worries on that front.
This is our previous experience with Disney:
DW Onsite stay Oct/2010 (paper FP, rope drop run for Toy Story Mania)
DW Offsite stay Oct/2017 (FP+, rope drop run for FOP)
DL Offsite stay Jan/2020 (MP)
DW Offsite stay Nov/2021 (G+) - also on site at Universal, Royal Pacific
We do not like crowds so always try to plan for off-season crowd levels and generally only visit the parks on weekdays. We also loved F&W at Epcot on the first trip so have always tried to plan around being there when it is on. The Halloween parties in the past have been great but we weren't thrilled with any aspect of the plans/prices for this years party so didn't consider it in our planning. We also hadn't seen the Christmas decorations and thought it would be fun so pushed the trip out to be able to see them. We've never park-hopped and don't really understand the appeal of doing so, with the exception of maybe hitting another park after Animal Kingdom. We use that as a relaxing afternoon pool day though after an early start.
We loved our first trip and found service to be impeccable. The POR resort was beautiful and we have great memories. I don't remember much about paper FP but I recall being happy when we were able to use them. All of our other trips have been with larger groups of extended family or other families so the onsite stays would have been way too expensive when you can rent an 8 bedroom house with a private pool for less than the price of one hotel room on site.
We loved our 2nd DW trip as well and thought the service was great and FP+ was helpful and easy to use. I remember being annoyed that on site guests could book up all the best times on high demand attractions way before us but it was still a good system and I thought better than paper.
Our DL stay was a lot of fun and MP was awesome, probably the best of all the systems. DL is so much different than DW and has advantages and disadvantages but we really enjoyed it, especially Cars Land. It's also a much easier trip than DW (especially from Alberta in regards to flights). We actually said this time that on future trips to DW we would consider skipping MK because we feel we can basically do it in DL better than we can in DW.
Now onto our actual trip:
We had 10 people in total but split up at the parks so our park group this trip was 2 adults, 2 late teens and 1 tween.
Universal - Nov 9-11
We started our trip at Universal and had an amazing time. Universal is so easy compared to Disney, especially staying at a premium resort and getting Express Unlimited included. The only planning required is how to ride Hagrid's and Velocicoaster (which turned out to not need planning either, rarely went over a 60 minute wait). Hagrid's is probably the best ride in Orlando (at least all of DW and Universal) and is worth a 90 minute wait if you had to. We got on in 30 minutes at park closing one night and waited 80 minutes the next day after it was shut down almost all day. I'm not a Harry Potter fan but was super impressed with the Wizarding World areas, equivalent to and maybe even exceeding Galaxy's Edge for immersiveness. The walk into Diagon Alley is jaw dropping. As an elder millenial (37) I was blown away by the Simpsons area. Drinking a Duff beer (and a Squishee) while looking at Moe's Tavern and The Kiwk-E-Mart was practically an out of body experience. The rides are great, we found it easy to find decent to good food at reasonable prices, the hotel was beautiful, the walkability is very DL-esque. Anyone frustrated with DW right now should seriously consider a Universal trip...just stick to high season so we can continue to enjoy low crowds when we go
Disney World Overall
We went in knowing that things would be different but prepared to make the best of it and have a great time anyway and mostly accomplished that. The service was .... ok. Not even close to our memories of our 1st 2 trips. Still good but not to what we consider DW standards. We had similar feelings about our trip to DL pre-COVID actually. It was good but not the level we experienced on our first 2 DW trips.
Characters - pretty sad to see very few out for distanced pictures. Especially since we are used to the MNSSHP with villains. Our pictures with Lotso are cherished items.
Posted wait times - seemed they were more overstated than usual but maybe I was just looking for a reason to see them pushing people to Genie+
I didn't really mind reserving parks since we usually plan ahead anyway
Genie+ and $ILL is the elephant in the room of course.
- First and foremost the cost is out of whack considering the system is more restrictive than the old FP+, harder to use, and doesn't include 2 rides in each park that require additional payment. We spent hundreds of extra dollars between G+ and $ILL and not very often did it feel "worth it"
- We didn't experience major issues with the app but we also never rely on Disney Wifi and roam on LTE 100% of the time
- We only added G+ to MK and HS based on forum advice and it was great advice. Totally unnecessary in EPCOT and AK, at least at crowd levels we experienced
- I am an early riser so the waking up before 7 to add G+ and book the first pass wasn't a huge deal but I also didn't love the pressure.
- Not having a chance to book ROTR before it was sold out to on-site guests gave me memories of no Frozen FP+ available 30 days out as an off site guest. I get that there should be perks for onsite guests and the price they are paying so I'm not mad about it, it's just a negative of staying off site and sucks.
Off-site guests - the biggest change here is early admission being open to all resort guests at all parks every day. This almost kills the rope drop option for off site guests and actually feels unfair. Rather than pushing me to want to stay on site for thousands of dollars more it makes me want to not go to DW at all. We rope-dropped AK and got on Safari with no wait but we fluked out on a low crowd day and it was raining lightly which kept people away. Would much rather see them go back to a rotation of early entry for on site guests. 2 parks available for EE each day and rotate daily. But with the other on-site perks getting eliminated and this being the one bone getting thrown I think it's safe to say that isn't going to happen.
I have to say I think the main issue is DisneyWorld has a fundamental crowd issue. They don't have enough attractions to support reasonable wait times for the volume of people there. But when they add an area like GE it attracts more people than that area can support so if anything it only makes the problem worse, especially when 1 or 2 major attractions go down at the same time. I don't know the solution but G+ in it's current format doesn't seem like "it".
Hollywood Studios - Nov 15
Always loved HS but it does feel like a jumbled park now with 3 distinct areas that are kind of smashed together with no rhyme or reason. Old Hollywood, Toy Story and Galaxy's Edge don't "fit". Which is fine, it just doesn't feel cohesive. It's also super crowded. It felt like G+ worked the best here as we booked SDD at 7 and got an afternoon return time and then just started stacking as we could get more which we ended up with 3 or 4 all in the afternoon. I had to refresh for about 20 minutes to get a good return for MFSR but it did work, very frustrating to see a good time and click it but it's already gone. We rope dropped TOT with a short wait and then stood in our longest line of the day at RnR for about an hour. We waited about an hour in the evening for ROTR because $ILL was sold out by 9am when we could purchase. We did buy MMRR but should have just gone straight there after TOT when it was only a 45 minute posted wait. We rode MFSR twice in a row at the end of the night as a walk on with 15 minutes to park closing. Almost made a last minute MMRR ride but were 2 minutes late. We were there open to close and late night was a great time to be there to knock out rides BUT it's always back of mind that if you only have 1 day in the park and wait to the end to ride something you risk it breaking down and being shut out. This was by far the day that felt the most crowded of our whole trip. TOT is still the blueprint for ride theming and immersiveness. Midway Mania is still a top ride, too much fun. SDD is a great family coaster. GE is amazing every time although ROTR was extremely lackluster this time, CM's were not into it and it showed. Also the "B" version of one of the main parts of the ride is disappointing after seeing the better version.
Epcot - Nov 16
Probably our favorite park, absolutely love World Showcase and F&W. The construction is ugly and annoying to walk around but at least world showcase isn't affected. F&W was as good as ever. If you don't ride Livin with the Land after Soarin we probably can't be friends. Absolutely criminal that they anchored garbage barges in the lagoon. What an eyesore. Whoever signed off on that should either be banned from Epcot or forced to install scale models in their back yard, probably both. We got a late VQ for Remy so booked an $ILL and rode it twice. It's cute and glad we got it but not something I would wait more than 20 minutes for to do a 2nd time. I get motion sick on 3d rides with quick turns so that's part of the reason.
Magic Kingdom - Nov 17
Booked G+ and got Jungle Cruise for 9:15 I think. Walked in at 9 and did a walk on to Pirates then headed to JC where the wait was 80! minutes already. That's insane, I like JC but not 80 minutes like it. I found G+ here less fun or good than at HS where we ended up just building a later day stack. Here I was constantly trying to figure out what was best to do next and trying to figure out how to build stacks with expiring rides and it was all just a hassle. We didn't get $ILL for SDMT and I'm not sure if I regretted it. We got in a 55 minute line that turned into 75 minutes (with apologies over the intercom) but when we came out the Lightning Lane was backed up with people way outside and when we walked by an hour later it was even worse. If I had paid and then waited 30 minutes I would have been PISSED. Probably moreso than the 75 minute standby. Its a pretty rare attraction that I think is worth an hour of my time in a line and SDMT is definitely not one of them. Splash was down essentially all day so that sucked. Flatbread at Pinocchio's was a food highlight, who knew?
Animal Kingdom - Nov 18
Our second favorite park (or maybe 1st depending which day you ask us on). This is the opposite of Hollywood Studios. Lower crowds and the most immersive and cohesive of the parks. We rope dropped Safari and walked on. The Giraffe's were acting up and we got about a 10 minute delay watching them meander in front of the busses repeatedly and running around being goofy. Best Safari trip we've had. Went to Pandora and got on FOP in 25 minutes with a 55 minute posted time. Waited 60 minutes on a posted 45 for River (not worth it at all for me but hey, it's AK and the family wants to go). Then 20 minute wait for Everest which is still one of the best rides in all the parks. BBQ lunch and headed to ride Dinosaur with a 15 minute wait (the most underrated, underdiscussed ride in all of DW? I think so). The older kids rode Everest another 2-3 times while we headed back to Pandora so the youngest could hit FOP again. Then rain started for real just as we were leaving around 2:00.
Bottom Line
Disney World is not the same as it was but nothing stays the same forever so is it good? Yes. Is it good enough for the money they're asking for now? A lot tougher to answer that. If it existed in a bubble or you've never gone before then probably. If you've been before and care at all about value for the money I think you'll struggle. If you love Disney no matter the cost then you’ll still have a great time. We are taking our niece to DL in the New Year to give her the first taste of "Magic". DL is easier to get around and way more affordable overall so if I'm looking for Disney Magic that's probably our new go-to. Maybe different if we were coming from the East but DL is a much shorter, direct, cheaper flight for us too. DW is a minimum 5 day trip where DL could be a 2 day trip.
The next time we go to Florida we will probably only go to Universal and Epcot. Maybe 3-4 days in Universal and 2 in Epcot or 1 day with a morning in AK.
We still had a great time but the increased cost and other changes has me not really wanting to go back right away.
I don't think I missed anything but let me know if there's any specific questions.
This is our previous experience with Disney:
DW Onsite stay Oct/2010 (paper FP, rope drop run for Toy Story Mania)
DW Offsite stay Oct/2017 (FP+, rope drop run for FOP)
DL Offsite stay Jan/2020 (MP)
DW Offsite stay Nov/2021 (G+) - also on site at Universal, Royal Pacific
We do not like crowds so always try to plan for off-season crowd levels and generally only visit the parks on weekdays. We also loved F&W at Epcot on the first trip so have always tried to plan around being there when it is on. The Halloween parties in the past have been great but we weren't thrilled with any aspect of the plans/prices for this years party so didn't consider it in our planning. We also hadn't seen the Christmas decorations and thought it would be fun so pushed the trip out to be able to see them. We've never park-hopped and don't really understand the appeal of doing so, with the exception of maybe hitting another park after Animal Kingdom. We use that as a relaxing afternoon pool day though after an early start.
We loved our first trip and found service to be impeccable. The POR resort was beautiful and we have great memories. I don't remember much about paper FP but I recall being happy when we were able to use them. All of our other trips have been with larger groups of extended family or other families so the onsite stays would have been way too expensive when you can rent an 8 bedroom house with a private pool for less than the price of one hotel room on site.
We loved our 2nd DW trip as well and thought the service was great and FP+ was helpful and easy to use. I remember being annoyed that on site guests could book up all the best times on high demand attractions way before us but it was still a good system and I thought better than paper.
Our DL stay was a lot of fun and MP was awesome, probably the best of all the systems. DL is so much different than DW and has advantages and disadvantages but we really enjoyed it, especially Cars Land. It's also a much easier trip than DW (especially from Alberta in regards to flights). We actually said this time that on future trips to DW we would consider skipping MK because we feel we can basically do it in DL better than we can in DW.
Now onto our actual trip:
We had 10 people in total but split up at the parks so our park group this trip was 2 adults, 2 late teens and 1 tween.
Universal - Nov 9-11
We started our trip at Universal and had an amazing time. Universal is so easy compared to Disney, especially staying at a premium resort and getting Express Unlimited included. The only planning required is how to ride Hagrid's and Velocicoaster (which turned out to not need planning either, rarely went over a 60 minute wait). Hagrid's is probably the best ride in Orlando (at least all of DW and Universal) and is worth a 90 minute wait if you had to. We got on in 30 minutes at park closing one night and waited 80 minutes the next day after it was shut down almost all day. I'm not a Harry Potter fan but was super impressed with the Wizarding World areas, equivalent to and maybe even exceeding Galaxy's Edge for immersiveness. The walk into Diagon Alley is jaw dropping. As an elder millenial (37) I was blown away by the Simpsons area. Drinking a Duff beer (and a Squishee) while looking at Moe's Tavern and The Kiwk-E-Mart was practically an out of body experience. The rides are great, we found it easy to find decent to good food at reasonable prices, the hotel was beautiful, the walkability is very DL-esque. Anyone frustrated with DW right now should seriously consider a Universal trip...just stick to high season so we can continue to enjoy low crowds when we go
Disney World Overall
We went in knowing that things would be different but prepared to make the best of it and have a great time anyway and mostly accomplished that. The service was .... ok. Not even close to our memories of our 1st 2 trips. Still good but not to what we consider DW standards. We had similar feelings about our trip to DL pre-COVID actually. It was good but not the level we experienced on our first 2 DW trips.
Characters - pretty sad to see very few out for distanced pictures. Especially since we are used to the MNSSHP with villains. Our pictures with Lotso are cherished items.
Posted wait times - seemed they were more overstated than usual but maybe I was just looking for a reason to see them pushing people to Genie+
I didn't really mind reserving parks since we usually plan ahead anyway
Genie+ and $ILL is the elephant in the room of course.
- First and foremost the cost is out of whack considering the system is more restrictive than the old FP+, harder to use, and doesn't include 2 rides in each park that require additional payment. We spent hundreds of extra dollars between G+ and $ILL and not very often did it feel "worth it"
- We didn't experience major issues with the app but we also never rely on Disney Wifi and roam on LTE 100% of the time
- We only added G+ to MK and HS based on forum advice and it was great advice. Totally unnecessary in EPCOT and AK, at least at crowd levels we experienced
- I am an early riser so the waking up before 7 to add G+ and book the first pass wasn't a huge deal but I also didn't love the pressure.
- Not having a chance to book ROTR before it was sold out to on-site guests gave me memories of no Frozen FP+ available 30 days out as an off site guest. I get that there should be perks for onsite guests and the price they are paying so I'm not mad about it, it's just a negative of staying off site and sucks.
Off-site guests - the biggest change here is early admission being open to all resort guests at all parks every day. This almost kills the rope drop option for off site guests and actually feels unfair. Rather than pushing me to want to stay on site for thousands of dollars more it makes me want to not go to DW at all. We rope-dropped AK and got on Safari with no wait but we fluked out on a low crowd day and it was raining lightly which kept people away. Would much rather see them go back to a rotation of early entry for on site guests. 2 parks available for EE each day and rotate daily. But with the other on-site perks getting eliminated and this being the one bone getting thrown I think it's safe to say that isn't going to happen.
I have to say I think the main issue is DisneyWorld has a fundamental crowd issue. They don't have enough attractions to support reasonable wait times for the volume of people there. But when they add an area like GE it attracts more people than that area can support so if anything it only makes the problem worse, especially when 1 or 2 major attractions go down at the same time. I don't know the solution but G+ in it's current format doesn't seem like "it".
Hollywood Studios - Nov 15
Always loved HS but it does feel like a jumbled park now with 3 distinct areas that are kind of smashed together with no rhyme or reason. Old Hollywood, Toy Story and Galaxy's Edge don't "fit". Which is fine, it just doesn't feel cohesive. It's also super crowded. It felt like G+ worked the best here as we booked SDD at 7 and got an afternoon return time and then just started stacking as we could get more which we ended up with 3 or 4 all in the afternoon. I had to refresh for about 20 minutes to get a good return for MFSR but it did work, very frustrating to see a good time and click it but it's already gone. We rope dropped TOT with a short wait and then stood in our longest line of the day at RnR for about an hour. We waited about an hour in the evening for ROTR because $ILL was sold out by 9am when we could purchase. We did buy MMRR but should have just gone straight there after TOT when it was only a 45 minute posted wait. We rode MFSR twice in a row at the end of the night as a walk on with 15 minutes to park closing. Almost made a last minute MMRR ride but were 2 minutes late. We were there open to close and late night was a great time to be there to knock out rides BUT it's always back of mind that if you only have 1 day in the park and wait to the end to ride something you risk it breaking down and being shut out. This was by far the day that felt the most crowded of our whole trip. TOT is still the blueprint for ride theming and immersiveness. Midway Mania is still a top ride, too much fun. SDD is a great family coaster. GE is amazing every time although ROTR was extremely lackluster this time, CM's were not into it and it showed. Also the "B" version of one of the main parts of the ride is disappointing after seeing the better version.
Epcot - Nov 16
Probably our favorite park, absolutely love World Showcase and F&W. The construction is ugly and annoying to walk around but at least world showcase isn't affected. F&W was as good as ever. If you don't ride Livin with the Land after Soarin we probably can't be friends. Absolutely criminal that they anchored garbage barges in the lagoon. What an eyesore. Whoever signed off on that should either be banned from Epcot or forced to install scale models in their back yard, probably both. We got a late VQ for Remy so booked an $ILL and rode it twice. It's cute and glad we got it but not something I would wait more than 20 minutes for to do a 2nd time. I get motion sick on 3d rides with quick turns so that's part of the reason.
Magic Kingdom - Nov 17
Booked G+ and got Jungle Cruise for 9:15 I think. Walked in at 9 and did a walk on to Pirates then headed to JC where the wait was 80! minutes already. That's insane, I like JC but not 80 minutes like it. I found G+ here less fun or good than at HS where we ended up just building a later day stack. Here I was constantly trying to figure out what was best to do next and trying to figure out how to build stacks with expiring rides and it was all just a hassle. We didn't get $ILL for SDMT and I'm not sure if I regretted it. We got in a 55 minute line that turned into 75 minutes (with apologies over the intercom) but when we came out the Lightning Lane was backed up with people way outside and when we walked by an hour later it was even worse. If I had paid and then waited 30 minutes I would have been PISSED. Probably moreso than the 75 minute standby. Its a pretty rare attraction that I think is worth an hour of my time in a line and SDMT is definitely not one of them. Splash was down essentially all day so that sucked. Flatbread at Pinocchio's was a food highlight, who knew?
Animal Kingdom - Nov 18
Our second favorite park (or maybe 1st depending which day you ask us on). This is the opposite of Hollywood Studios. Lower crowds and the most immersive and cohesive of the parks. We rope dropped Safari and walked on. The Giraffe's were acting up and we got about a 10 minute delay watching them meander in front of the busses repeatedly and running around being goofy. Best Safari trip we've had. Went to Pandora and got on FOP in 25 minutes with a 55 minute posted time. Waited 60 minutes on a posted 45 for River (not worth it at all for me but hey, it's AK and the family wants to go). Then 20 minute wait for Everest which is still one of the best rides in all the parks. BBQ lunch and headed to ride Dinosaur with a 15 minute wait (the most underrated, underdiscussed ride in all of DW? I think so). The older kids rode Everest another 2-3 times while we headed back to Pandora so the youngest could hit FOP again. Then rain started for real just as we were leaving around 2:00.
Bottom Line
Disney World is not the same as it was but nothing stays the same forever so is it good? Yes. Is it good enough for the money they're asking for now? A lot tougher to answer that. If it existed in a bubble or you've never gone before then probably. If you've been before and care at all about value for the money I think you'll struggle. If you love Disney no matter the cost then you’ll still have a great time. We are taking our niece to DL in the New Year to give her the first taste of "Magic". DL is easier to get around and way more affordable overall so if I'm looking for Disney Magic that's probably our new go-to. Maybe different if we were coming from the East but DL is a much shorter, direct, cheaper flight for us too. DW is a minimum 5 day trip where DL could be a 2 day trip.
The next time we go to Florida we will probably only go to Universal and Epcot. Maybe 3-4 days in Universal and 2 in Epcot or 1 day with a morning in AK.
We still had a great time but the increased cost and other changes has me not really wanting to go back right away.
I don't think I missed anything but let me know if there's any specific questions.
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. I'm concerned that it won't be a great experience and the cost for 4 nights is pretty ridiculous. I think, like you, we'll still be able to have a good time. Disney has got to be getting a lot of negative feedback - I hope they listen and re-think some of the changes. Again, thank you for taking the time to share your experience!
