Overheard- made me cringe

[MickeyWaffles]

Someone I know is it Disney right now and didn't book any FPs. They've been twice in the last few years but for some reason decided that they just didn't feel like dealing with that this time around. I don't understand... even if you don't end up using all of them or don't want to book all three a day in advance, why would you not book ANY?!

It imagine can be really fun to go and not have ANYTHING scheduled at all. Just do whatever you feel like in that moment.

I book our 3 in advance and we switch them often and sometimes just miss them because we don't like to have a lot on our schedule and we have little ones. DH and I have chosen to skip wasting time on thrill rides while our kids are little, so our trips in the near future will be very focused on them (currently 2.5 and 1yo). If you remove anything with a height restriction from the equation there aren't a whole lot of FP you really really NEED.

I actually find the idea of a trip with no FP really appealing - I'd take even more time to enjoy the things in the parks that we love that are not rides but sometimes get looked over (Tom Sawyer Island, Swiss Family Treehouse, Dapper Dans, railroad, etc.) A headliner-free trip actually sounds appealing to me and fun!

But ... we have been there many times and go every year or year and a half so it's not like I feel like I need to see everything every time. If it was a one and done trip or something I knew we wouldn't be doing for a while, I would not approach the parks the way I do.

 

[Hannahinwonderland]

I've only read page one, so I apologize if the convo has diverged...

When I used to work at Disney I would FREQUENTLY encounter families who believed they had to pay for FP. People would be very angry and say "just because they paid more they shouldn't get to go in front of us". I was mystified at the number of people who spent thousands of dollars on a vacation and did no research!!

 

[wonderstruck88]

It imagine can be really fun to go and not have ANYTHING scheduled at all. Just do whatever you feel like in that moment.

I book our 3 in advance and we switch them often and sometimes just miss them because we don't like to have a lot on our schedule and we have little ones. DH and I have chosen to skip wasting time on thrill rides while our kids are little, so our trips in the near future will be very focused on them (currently 2.5 and 1yo). If you remove anything with a height restriction from the equation there aren't a whole lot of FP you really really NEED.

I actually find the idea of a trip with no FP really appealing - I'd take even more time to enjoy the things in the parks that we love that are not rides but sometimes get looked over (Tom Sawyer Island, Swiss Family Treehouse, Dapper Dans, railroad, etc.) A headliner-free trip actually sounds appealing to me and fun!

But ... we have been there many times and go every year or year and a half so it's not like I feel like I need to see everything every time. If it was a one and done trip or something I knew we wouldn't be doing for a while, I would not approach the parks the way I do.

Yeah, they go every couple of years, but this is their first trip where their youngest is old enough to do a lot of rides. I'm more baffled because I know darn well they're going to come home and complain about not riding things like FEA, the Seven Dwarves coaster, Splash Mountain etc. because the lines were too long. Just like how last time they complained about not being able to walk up and get seated at any of the popular restaurants.

I do see your point about a more relaxed trip seeing things you may usually skip - my husband and I did that on our honeymoon (not completely, we did dining reservations, but no rope dropping or trying to do everything) and it was nice. But some people (like these relatives of mine) want to do everything including the headliners, sleep in and miss rope drop, not book any fastpasses, and then complain constantly about long lines and not getting to do everything they wanted. That's when I really just don't get it.

 

[KimBean]

My daughter is bi-polar so I am pretty sure of the signs and sudden change in attitudes. Thank you for your concern but I do not just throw out terms.

Yeah my daughter has OCD and I don't know how many people have assumed that I'm just throwing that term around. No she actually has OCD. I'm the last person who would make light of it.

 

[My2Qtz0205]

Overheard in the AoA food court on our vacation: British woman complaining to the cashier that she had paid for this fancy dining plan, but all of the restaurants had a 3 hour wait! Oh, honey. I just wanted to take her by the hand and give her some Disney crash course.

 

[KimBean]

This makes me glad I've been going since 1988. I've taken the changes a few at a time instead of all of once. Easier that way I am sure. In the 90's we went multiple times with no planning at all. My honeymoon consisted of a condo rented, tickets purchased and we just showed up and grabbed a map. They've all been fun trips.

 

[Dizznee Freak]

Why, Oh Why..would a person spend the amount of money it takes to go to Disney and not plan. We go every year and I still start basic planning at about 10 months out. By 7 months we have our dining down. Fast Passes are the next discussion and we weave them around our dining.

 

[TheHulamuffins]

Several pages back, Disney_and_Wine quoted my post about getting a FastPass that is good in 30 minutes, or standing in a 30-45 minute line. I more or less agree with Disney_and_Wine, though a lot depends on the specifics of the people's plans. A pedantic point: If you get a FastPass that is good in 30 minutes, you actually have close to 90 minutes before you need to be back to join the Fast Pass queue. So getting the FastPass might or might not make sense.

I was really just explaining to Coral Reef Diver what I thought ucfknight meant about it being weird to get in the stand-by line in these circumstances. ucfknight could post for him/herself, though.

 

[TheHulamuffins]

I guess ucfknight did explain it, more than once!

 

[SA mom]

We are planning an early March trip. We last visited in 2014. We usually go every other year. In 2016 we went solely to Universal. Now THAT was a vacation. We stayed at one of the top tiered resorts so we had the included express pass. No planning, just do what you want when you want. Also, no need for reservation, just go eat.

The express pass at UO is like FP, but there are no scheduled times. You just walk in. If you are not staying in one of the top tiered resorts, you can purchase express pass, but it's limited to one ride per attraction. The resort express pass is unlimited. I think this is another point of confusion to some people.

After using get express pass system and not having to make reservations, I feel very stress about planning this next WDW trip.

 

[LBarLRanch]

We are Disney veterans. AP holders, D23 members, DVC members since 2006. We go one to three times a year. In the last decade planning has become more important. We never made ADRs before. Now we do. We met some friends there over spring break a couple years ago and thankfully they used a travel agent who helped them. We have some other friends who want to go with us helping them plan, but I dread the amount of work to lead them through it. I love planning our trips but it's not for the faint of heart. I think Disney would do well to create some kind of tool that leads people through the process. Maybe they have and I don't know about it.

 

[wonderstruck88]

We are planning an early March trip. We last visited in 2014. We usually go every other year. In 2016 we went solely to Universal. Now THAT was a vacation. We stayed at one of the top tiered resorts so we had the included express pass. No planning, just do what you want when you want. Also, no need for reservation, just go eat.

The express pass at UO is like FP, but there are no scheduled times. You just walk in. If you are not staying in one of the top tiered resorts, you can purchase express pass, but it's limited to one ride per attraction. The resort express pass is unlimited. I think this is another point of confusion to some people.

After using get express pass system and not having to make reservations, I feel very stress about planning this next WDW trip.

Shhhh, don't give Disney any ideas! I really don't want to have to start paying for FP. And I can afford an expensive hotel for Universal because that's a 2 day place for us, so I book one night and get express for two days. But we definitely can't afford to stay deluxe for a week at Disney unless we only visit like every five years. Not that it would work anyways - I'm guessing Disney has way more people staying at their deluxe hotels than Universal does just based on the number of deluxe hotels at each!

 

[disneygirlsng]

We are planning an early March trip. We last visited in 2014. We usually go every other year. In 2016 we went solely to Universal. Now THAT was a vacation. We stayed at one of the top tiered resorts so we had the included express pass. No planning, just do what you want when you want. Also, no need for reservation, just go eat.

The express pass at UO is like FP, but there are no scheduled times. You just walk in. If you are not staying in one of the top tiered resorts, you can purchase express pass, but it's limited to one ride per attraction. The resort express pass is unlimited. I think this is another point of confusion to some people.

After using get express pass system and not having to make reservations, I feel very stress about planning this next WDW trip.

You can purchase either an unlimited express pass or a one ride per attraction express pass. The unlimited isn't just for resort guests.

 

[SA mom]

Shhhh, don't give Disney any ideas! I really don't want to have to start paying for FP.

Haha, I'm with ya!

 

[Sunshine2U]

This has been a great read! I'm not an expert but I know to come here when it's time to plan a trip to WDW.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Even more cringe-worthy, on the TTC-MK monorail, I met a group of five visitors who were in town for one day and enjoyed a spur-of-the-moment trip to Epcot.
Wishes was about to start, and they decided they wanted to see the MK too. But instead of upgrading to park hoppers, they had bought another set of one-day tickets to the MK.

"I know it's kind of a splurge, but we had so much fun that I thought we needed to see the Magic Kingdom too."

They looked so happy, I didn't have it in my heart to tell them. I felt kind of guilty afterwards, but if they had to go stand in line at guest services to try to fix this, they would've missed out on valuable park time.

That's one of those times that I would have just looked at them and seen their happy faces, and said in my head "ignorance is bliss".

And you do have a point..depending on their goals and the current Guest Relations line spending more $ could have been more valuable to them in the end.

 

[kagmypts]

Sometimes it is liberating to have no plan! My husband and I went down in January, and we did not book any FPs or ADRs. It was completely liberating! We did whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. If a line was too long, we just moved onto something else (or park hopped to DHS when MK got too hectic.... we were standing in a Peter Pan line that was not moving and just decided to go to DHS). Honestly, all of the planning and adhering to such a strict schedule (knowing where I am going to be every second of my day when I wake up) makes my trip less enjoyable.

When we go with the family, we usually know which park we will be going to on which day and book FPs for that park. Other than that, we just let things happen.

 

[luvsJack]

Many vacations are done without planning a thing.

My Mom and Dad drove across country and didn't plan a thing except their route and that changed by the mood of the day. They had a wonderful time.

My niece's family just spent a spur of the moment week in NYC and didn't plan a thing except where to stay. Had a wonderful time.

We have done several week vacations in different beach towns and never planned a thing and no we didn't spend the week on the beach.

Last year we went to Universal for 4 days. I made hotel reservations and bought tickets. Had a fabulous time.

If I had never been to WDW and going by those examples, I can certainly understand new comers not understanding the need to plan. Especially those that stay off site and perhaps buying park tickets at arrival. They won't be getting "all that info" from Disney.

One of the reasons we don't have a WDW trip in the works is my reluctance to all that planning. But dh and I are really thinking of a trip just the two of us and I think we may do it without a plan. But we will see.

 

[greg9x]

Many vacations are done without planning a thing.

My Mom and Dad drove across country and didn't plan a thing except their route and that changed by the mood of the day. They had a wonderful time.

My niece's family just spent a spur of the moment week in NYC and didn't plan a thing except where to stay. Had a wonderful time.

We have done several week vacations in different beach towns and never planned a thing and no we didn't spend the week on the beach.

Last year we went to Universal for 4 days. I made hotel reservations and bought tickets. Had a fabulous time.

If I had never been to WDW and going by those examples, I can certainly understand new comers not understanding the need to plan. Especially those that stay off site and perhaps buying park tickets at arrival. They won't be getting "all that info" from Disney.

One of the reasons we don't have a WDW trip in the works is my reluctance to all that planning. But dh and I are really thinking of a trip just the two of us and I think we may do it without a plan. But we will see.

Most of those trips have MANY options of things to do which make lack of planning not as critical as you can find SOMETHNG. Even Universal isn't considered AS critical to plan everything out.

Disney USED to be kind of like that (but you still were ahead of the game if you planned). But now is a monster that feeds on itself because it is too popular... everyone is using the 'tricks' so if you don't you are behind the curve. The people created this, and everyone suffers. Disney sees the opportunity to make more money and is actively doing so with the 'add ons' people are willing to pay for to avoid the mess.

If you don't mind missing out on things, you can still wing it. But for me, I am going there to have certain experiences and paying a lot of money to do so... if it was cheap maybe wouldn't worry about it so much.

 

[luvsJack]

Most of those trips have MANY options of things to do which make lack of planning not as critical as you can find SOMETHNG. Even Universal isn't considered AS critical to plan everything out.

Disney USED to be kind of like that (but you still were ahead of the game if you planned). But now is a monster that feeds on itself because it is too popular... everyone is using the 'tricks' so if you don't you are behind the curve. The people created this, and everyone suffers. Disney sees the opportunity to make more money and is actively doing so with the 'add ons' people are willing to pay for to avoid the mess.

If you don't mind missing out on things, you can still wing it. But for me, I am going there to have certain experiences and paying a lot of money to do so... if it was cheap maybe wouldn't worry about it so much.

None of the trips I used for examples are cheap. Beach maybe being cheaper but not cheap. Universal is very similar in cost to WDW. I honestly don't feel cost has much to do with it.

And yes those trips offer plenty of choices, so does Disney. There is so much there and so much to do that it almost goes back to the original thing of people not understanding the need for planning. I mean there are X number of attractions in the MK. Someone not familiar could easily assume if Space Mountains wait is too long at 10, surely you can go back at 3 and the wait time would be much less. Sometimes true sometimes not even close! Or the fact that Disney is all about its characters. It would be easy to assume you could meet Mickey today without planning the meet 2 months out.

And while I understand why people plan in excess for a trip to WDW (I have done it too!), I also completely understand why someone would not realize the need for it. And I also understand those that are just tired of the work that goes into their vacation at WDW.

Honestly I would love to see Disney going to something like the Express Pass. But in all reality, when we went to Universal we never felt we needed to have it (we didn't) even though the parks were quite crowded. It just seemed like so many not having access to it or wanting to purchase it, made it less of a "must have" Most waits were not that bad.