***Official September 2021 Thread***

[Rusty2rules]

9/8-9/12 BCV. 1st time staying there...so excited!! It will be our 3rd trip during pandemic but hoping we see a few more positive changes by then.

We'll get you approved into the Facebook group today, I promise. You'll be leaving just as we're arriving. My son and I fly in on the 11th. The 12th is our first park day.

 

[Rusty2rules]

Has anyone else noticed everyone's little countdown in their signature has disappeared? What's up with that?

 

[Rusty2rules]

Sept 2021 will be back to normal. And very, very crowded.

I'm just going through the old posts (because I'm bored and can't plan!). I'm curious, are you still going with your prediction of "back to normal" and "very, very crowded" for this September (2021)?

 

[Rusty2rules]

Since it's been pretty quiet in here...

I touched on this in the Facebook group. Disney has taken away pretty much every perk of staying on-site that I know of. Sure, they've added the 30 minute early entry to the parks. But that doesn't make up for every other perk they've taken away. Without the perks, they can't justify the prices they charge for a (IMO) barely average hotel room, even at 15/20/25% off. So, with that in mind, we've pretty much decided to stay off-site. We haven't cancelled our CS reservations yet, but I'm pretty sure we will be eventually. We'll be saving so much money by staying off-site (in a 2-bedroom suite, no less) that we've added a day to our vacation. We had also planned on doing 4 nights/5 days at WDW. Now we're going to do 3 days at Disney and 3 days at Universal. We've never been to Universal. To be quite honest, I'm more excited about the Universal part of the trip than the WDW part.

Who else is still going this September? Has anyone else changed their plans like I have?

 

[StageTek]

I'm just going through the old posts (because I'm bored and can't plan!). I'm curious, are you still going with your prediction of "back to normal" and "very, very crowded" for this September (2021)?

Back to normal - no. Disney will still have the park reservation system. But I suspect fireworks will be back. And much of the entertainment.

Very, very crowded - yes. Building up to the 50th more people will be heading to The World than in 2019 - and even the previous few years.

But I'm going; originally I wanted to be there for the 50th, but right now the plan is Sept 14 to 21 and activate my AP. One last on-site stay. As you point out so many perks are gone and going away, I, too, will stay off-site for my next three or four trips with the last being Sept 7 to 14 to finish out my AP. I've done the numbers and it's 30/40% cheaper.

And that will be it for me for a while. Disney is making an expensive vacation not worth it anymore.

 

[tdonnell56]

9/13 - 9/17/21 at Riviera.

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

Has anyone else noticed everyone's little countdown in their signature has disappeared? What's up with that?

Just checking in to update the list and where are our signatures Will have to do some reading to see if I can find out.

 

[DadVader]

We're staying at BC between 20th Sept and 4th Oct. Roll on the 50th Anniversary.

 

[MaleficentEvilSister]

I will be there in Sept with a large group and CAN"T wait!

 

[Mr. X]

Just pushed our May 2021 trip out to Sept 2021. Aug 29th through Sept 4th. Has anyone looked at airfares yet? Looks like Southwest will not post sept. until the end of April. I'm doubtful we will get low fares like we've seen for May.

Staying at the Polynesian so the construction should be done by the end of August I would hope. Kids will miss first week of school, but its usually all half days and a waste of time.

I'm anticipating low crowds as well.

 

[Rusty2rules]

Just pushed our May 2021 trip out to Sept 2021. Aug 29th through Sept 4th. Has anyone looked at airfares yet? Looks like Southwest will not post sept. until the end of April. I'm doubtful we will get low fares like we've seen for May.

Staying at the Polynesian so the construction should be done by the end of August I would hope. Kids will miss first week of school, but its usually all half days and a waste of time.

I'm anticipating low crowds as well.

I booked my airfare a couple of months ago (American Airlines) for my mid-September trip. I looked at the prices Monday for the same flight. I paid $570/person. The price jumped to $886. And now you're going Labor Day weekend? And expecting low crowds along with it? Not to be pessimistic but good luck with that.

 

[StageTek]

Has anyone looked at airfares yet?

Delta has posted their fares for Aug/Sept 2021.

I haven't booked a resort yet for a late Sept trip. Hoping for low crowds, too.

 

[Sparkly]

Depending on how Boris's roadmap out of lockdown goes, and if we can actually travel to the US from the UK, I might be going September 24th. No flights are booked or anything because we just don't know.

 

[Rusty2rules]

Depending on how Boris's roadmap out of lockdown goes, and if we can actually travel to the US from the UK, I might be going September 24th. No flights are booked or anything because we just don't know.

Hope it works out that you can go! Right now, I'm pretty confident you'll be able to.

 

[Sparkly]

Hope it works out that you can go! Right now, I'm pretty confident you'll be able to.

I hope so, too! I'm starting a new job soon and also hoping in a couple of years I can possibly do a solo trip, but it'll take a couple of years of saving because Disney is very pricey.

 

[Mr. X]

I booked my airfare a couple of months ago (American Airlines) for my mid-September trip. I looked at the prices Monday for the same flight. I paid $570/person. The price jumped to $886. And now you're going Labor Day weekend? And expecting low crowds along with it? Not to be pessimistic but good luck with that.

We're going the week before Labor Day weekend. I have touring plans and right now they are predicting below average crowds. I did check airfare last night and the lowest I found was $1300 round trip for a family of 5. They are quoting us the same price for the Aug/Sept week as they are for the original week in May...

 

[Rusty2rules]

I hope so, too! I'm starting a new job soon and also hoping in a couple of years I can possibly do a solo trip, but it'll take a couple of years of saving because Disney is very pricey.

Disney is very pricey? You don't say.

 

[Rusty2rules]

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."

I told him, whatever you do in regards to FP, I really, really hope you don't make everything a virtual queue because that just seems like a pain in the butt. I don't want to have to get up at 7 am every morning to line up my virtual queues. I don't want to walk around the park all day looking at my phone waiting for a spot in a virtual queue to open up. He was pretty non-committal to that - just like the rest of the conversation - but I got the impression that's not in the works.

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.

He sent me an email a few hours later that said, "Once again, I am truly sorry for your disappointments with the phased reopening of our Resort. I have shared your concerns with appropriate Leadership in the areas we discussed."

 

[shairpdrh]

We are booked Aug 29-Sept 4 at Copper Creek. Looking forward to whatever type of trip this ends up being! Hoping a few things return by September, 1.5 years between trips, we know there will be plenty we want to do.

 

[ExtraMagic]

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.

Wowza! I think I could have done a better job than that customer service rep. I’m glad they called because they got good feedback from you and they obviously recognize you as a loyal customer but I can’t believe they didn’t have anything compelling to say.