No the Magic isn’t gone but it’s at 25%

[Jrb1979]

FAst Pass was never "free". It was built into your already high resort room rate! Now the prices are even higher at the resorts, and they want us to pay for the privilege of maybe getting 2 rides a days? Not gonna happen, and as I've stated before, we won't be back til good customer service comes back along with well maintained rides, and the CEO actually caring about the "customers".

Guess you will be waiting a long time.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Just spent four days in the parks.

DS2 was here with the whole family last July when it was Standby Only and we had a great trip. DS1 and I were here November and February just the two of us with Genie+.

The three of us here this week. When we are with the whole family we are so busy with each other, like most families, we pay no attention to other families.

When it's just myself with one or two of the kids, we tend to listen and hear what everyone is saying around us. I lost track of how many times DS2 and I looked at each other after we heard other guests talking. The number of them upset, angry, frustrated and disappointed was huge. I even had a few families talk to us (we probably look like regulars?) telling us how much money they have spent and were not prepared for so much work, so little rides and were disappointed. I couldn't disagree with them and said if we didn't have APs, we would not be coming until things worked better.

Comments like we didn't spend this much to stay at the pool, but the lines for everything are so bad. So many were one parent yelling at the other to find us a time, to which the response was they were trying. More blue umbrellas than I've ever seen, all with long lines. We found ourselves sitting on benches just waiting for next time because most lines were close to an hour and we just can't do that.

I'm not sure what they are doing wrong, or if the parks are at such a higher capacity then they were a few months ago but lines most were 50-125 minutes long. LL was usually a long wait so if you thought you would process through like FP+ you were wrong.

We are regulars - 4-6 weeks a year. We know the ins and outs. We didn't even come close to doing what we used to do. 1.5 days in DHS and still couldn't do ToT or RnR. We didn't even do the shows so not like we lost time there. We didn't repeat one ride, we usually do.

In Nov and Feb I said no one is buying the G+ because the LL were empty. I now have to say either lots of people are buying it to the point I question the value or Disney is slowing the capacity on the rides (Star Tours was only running at half capacity and at one point was 55 minute wait - hadn't seen that in years) or something they are doing to segway into the next change, the old make them miserable before asking for more money.

I stand with I'd tell anyone who asks me about going - don't. The parks are not being run well, the value for your dollar is not there. CM moral is down with very few smiling. Very obviously less CMs than there used to be. DS2 said if he didn't have an AP to get value from he'd likely not come back - this as a diehard hardcore Disney fan his whole life. Sad.

What week were you there? We visited May 15-20 and our experience sounds completely opposite of yours. We did all the headliners multiple times, including 3 times each for Rise and Tower. We didn’t purchase any $ILL attractions but just waited until the evening when the lines were short. All this while pushing a stroller and having to swap on almost everything.

 

[disneyseniors]

Guess you will be waiting a long time.

Yes I really don't expect any miracles at Disney under this regime. But I always hope things will change.

 

[Jrb1979]

Yes I really don't expect any miracles at Disney under this regime. But I always hope things will change.

For my family in the meantime we are back to visiting amusement parks across the country. I'm hoping to have visited 4 different ones by the first week of July.

 

[maltdizzy]

I would hope people are doing what works best for them.

The "we never wait in any line longer than 20 minutes" crowd are happy skipping rides or getting a ride in once a day/trip. The rest of us rely on standby to get our fill.

What week were you there? We visited May 15-20 and our experience sounds completely opposite of yours. We did all the headliners multiple times, including 3 times each for Rise and Tower. We didn’t purchase any $ILL attractions but just waited until the evening when the lines were short. All this while pushing a stroller and having to swap on almost everything.

Big crowd difference between pre- and post-Memorial Day.

 

[KittyKitty]

I preferred FP+….anything is better than standby.

If you can believe it, guests complained about FP( no +). Takes the flexibility, creative, etc. out of riding a ride. I'm sure there where some who said they wouldn't give Disney their $$ unless they go back to standby.

 

[HopperFan]

FAst Pass was never "free". It was built into your already high resort room rate! Now the prices are even higher at the resorts, and they want us to pay for the privilege of maybe getting 2 rides a days? Not gonna happen, and as I've stated before, we won't be back til good customer service comes back along with well maintained rides, and the CEO actually caring about the "customers".

Yes they were free. If I'm not paying extra on top of my ticket price, then it is free. At best you can say it was included in the price of your park ticket and NOW they want you to pay extra for Genie+. Your resort cost is your resort cost and those who book have to find value for that price within the resort. Nothing to do with parks. Not even Disney lumps them in the same profit center.

AND all those folks offsite - the majority of park guests - aren't paying extra for them.

What week were you there? We visited May 15-20 and our experience sounds completely opposite of yours. We did all the headliners multiple times, including 3 times each for Rise and Tower. We didn’t purchase any $ILL attractions but just waited until the evening when the lines were short. All this while pushing a stroller and having to swap on almost everything.

I'm here now. Arrived Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. Most kids were in school before Memorial Day. Your week is traditionally one of the best weeks to go because at that point most won't pull their kids from school. We usually go mid May but my DS is a teacher now so we are in that summer break mode so he can go with us. We go back mid July so I'll be curious to see how if it changes from now. Def is different from February.

 

[Smugpugmug]

That was our impression too and we had just come from our stay at USO so it was really stark. We had some conversations with people in line in a good natured way so not always bad (to make the conversation fair here). Normally we stick to ourselves and not really paying that much attention to others but it was just so in your face this time around how could you not ignore it, just a lot more disgruntled guests not just in lines but upset about the parking trams not being there even.

And I do think people are products of the pandemic but when we didn't experience that same feeling over at Universal I can't just blame it on "everyone is stressed out" which I think I more or less did before I went to the parks myself and saw how different people were. The weather wasn't hot hot hot (mostly low to mid-80s and humidity not god awful yet) so I can't just blame it on that either. The weather was actually hotter on our days at USO (low to mid-90s and it felt a good amount hotter although still low enough humidity)

I noticed this too on my trip. I tried not to pay attention to other people and focus on my group, but I couldn't help but notice that there is very much a "get out of my way" and "every man for themselves" vibe at Disney. Having to compete for Genie+ selections, Individual Lightning Lanes, Dining reservations and now Virtual Queue groups certainly doesn't help that. I remember the night we arrived back to AKL from a day trip to Universal I went to the pool and I sat in the hot tub listening to everyone in there go around in a circle complaining about Genie+, wait times and overall grievances about WDW.

Meanwhile on that one Universal day people were way more friendly and laid back, meaning that they weren't as upset about waiting in line. My friend and I had a lot of conversations with people in line and it was a way more positive experience than at Disney. Now I don't think Universal is perfect. In my opinion the food inside the parks is worse than at Disney and having to fight the crowds to put your bag in the tiniest lockers ever made isn't fun, but I enjoyed the overall atmosphere of Universal way more than Disney. The best part of it was being able to say "Hey I want to ride that", walk over and scan your Express pass and you're in. No fiddle faddling for a better return time on a glitchy barely functioning app. But that's just my 2 cents on it.

 

[MainMom]

I’m here right now (since 5/31). My biggest issue with G+ so far is that I cannot get rides in one area or close by each other and I hate it. I have 3 young kids with me and my parents who are in their 60’s and still in great shape, but none of us likes trekking all over the park. My second thing is standing there scrolling trying to find something nearby that isn’t like carpets of Aladdin.
Third thing is that I want to book TSMM for this evening but times were not late enough. So I was just refreshing. Just let me choose 7pm so I can move on! It’s one thing if it’s sold out and your refreshing for someone’s cancel. It’s another if no one is using it. (The line was still 60 minutes.)

Now saying this we HAVE ridden what we’ve wanted, but it’s so much more work for me. I’m over it.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

Anything they can do to " fix " this issue, will just cost us more and more money.

Surprised more people haven't realized that under this regime, they don't care about us. They don't care about the park experience. They know people will still come.

The creation of Disney Plus is what is ruining the park experience. It ruins the IPs. It ruins what they consider to be "sensitive " or not. Disney plus really has been a negative to the brand as a whole IMO. Not a negative to their money though. They don't care nearly enough about park experience. Sure they can build new rides to shut people up, but in the end, its all about the $$$. They don't know if the average family can afford it or not, because plenty of families with money will just make up for it.

I mean I am seeing posts here about people willing to spend even more money to not have genie etc

Disney executives are just laughing to the bank imo

Fast pass had its issues, but it worked for me every time. I would gladly take it back, but damn sure not for a fee like they do now, for a watered down version of it.

I use to go to Disney to get away from the real world and be in the magic. Now the real world is so far into Disney in general, that feeling is lost to me lately. Maybe some sterile white bed sheets will help create it

That's just me though

 

[jsmla]

FAst Pass was never "free". It was built into your already high resort room rate! Now the prices are even higher at the resorts, and they want us to pay for the privilege of maybe getting 2 rides a days? Not gonna happen, and as I've stated before, we won't be back til good customer service comes back along with well maintained rides, and the CEO actually caring about the "customers".

I stayed offsite all the time and never had to pay for FastPass. I had to book one day at a time but it was definitely free.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I'm here now. Arrived Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. Most kids were in school before Memorial Day. Your week is traditionally one of the best weeks to go because at that point most won't pull their kids from school. We usually go mid May but my DS is a teacher now so we are in that summer break mode so he can go with us. We go back mid July so I'll be curious to see how if it changes from now. Def is different from February.

I just checked the Touring Plans stats for Sunday May 15 (our first day) and Sunday May 29 (your first day) and they seem very similar at DHS.

On the 15th, Rise had a posted wait of 55 minutes near closing time with a high for the day of 135. (Actual wait close to closing time was 15 minutes).

On the 29th, the posted wait close to closing time was 50 minutes with a high for the day of 130. We weren’t there of course, but I would be very surprised if the actual wait exceeded 15-20 minutes near the end of the day.

This is only one example, but they do seem similar to me.

 

[HopperFan]

I just checked the Touring Plans stats for Sunday May 15 (our first day) and Sunday May 29 (your first day) and they seem very similar at DHS.

On the 15th, Rise had a posted wait of 55 minutes near closing time with a high for the day of 135. (Actual wait close to closing time was 15 minutes).

On the 29th, the posted wait close to closing time was 50 minutes with a high for the day of 130. We weren’t there of course, but I would be very surprised if the actual wait exceeded 15-20 minutes near the end of the day.

This is only one example, but they do seem similar to me.

I appreciate your homework but that is not what was happening on the ground.

I’ve been going to WDW since it opened, DS and I spend 4-6 weeks there every year for 15 years. I would consider us pros. FP+ we rolled 10-14 a day, even without the pre bookings. We know how to plan, tour and maximize our time. We closed DHS park one day and there were no short times on big rides, folks were actually POURING in to SB lines before closing knowing they were guaranteed rides.

I just so happened to screen shot one afternoon for a friend - this was pretty much most the day.

 

[2goofykiddos]

This just doesn't seem to compute.

Back in 2008 there pages and pages of tips on this board on how to "game" the old legacy FP system. Who amongst us never had the fun job of being a runner? LOL. 99% of the complaints on this board when they changed to FP+ was that people had learned to maximize the legacy FP so well, they were going to lose rides per day moving to a system they couldn't game as easily.

Once everyone got up to speed on FP+ there were a million different tips and tricks shared here to show how to best game the FP+ system to get the most bang for your buck. People eventually got very wise to that system and became very comfortable with how to maximize it for the most rides possible.

Now with Genie Plus, many of the strategies to maximize are actually very similar to previous systems but with some changes in the nuance.

For the last 15 years Disney vacations have been a story about hyper planners who could make the most of their vacation versus people who just showed up at Noon and complained about how long the standby lines were. This is not something new with Genie Plus

What week were you there? We visited May 15-20 and our experience sounds completely opposite of yours. We did all the headliners multiple times, including 3 times each for Rise and Tower. We didn’t purchase any $ILL attractions but just waited until the evening when the lines were short. All this while pushing a stroller and having to swap on almost everything.

I think it will be different now with summer crowds.

 

[2goofykiddos]

I appreciate your homework but that is not what was happening on the ground.

I’ve been going to WDW since it opened, DS and I spend 4-6 weeks there every year for 15 years. I would consider us pros. FP+ we rolled 10-14 a day, even without the pre bookings. We know how to plan, tour and maximize our time. We closed DHS park one day and there were no short times on big rides, folks were actually POURING in to SB lines before closing knowing they were guaranteed rides.

I just so happened to screen shot one afternoon for a friend - this was pretty much most the day.

I wonder if those times in early May were accurate because my colleague went then and had no problems with Genie Plus while we were miserable

 

[Smugpugmug]

I appreciate your homework but that is not what was happening on the ground.

I’ve been going to WDW since it opened, DS and I spend 4-6 weeks there every year for 15 years. I would consider us pros. FP+ we rolled 10-14 a day, even without the pre bookings. We know how to plan, tour and maximize our time. We closed DHS park one day and there were no short times on big rides, folks were actually POURING in to SB lines before closing knowing they were guaranteed rides.

I just so happened to screen shot one afternoon for a friend - this was pretty much most the day.

Not related to the topic at all but 185 minutes for Smuggler's Run is insane. Especially since with that ride if you're not the pilot or you have a bad pilot you will have a way worse experience.

 

[john7994]

I wonder if those times in early May were accurate because my colleague went then and had no problems with Genie Plus while we were miserable

We were there May 15-19 (our second trip this year), had a great time, and no issues with Genie+ We hit all the headliners and then some, even did Keys to the Kingdom tour which was fascinating, and only spent 5-6 hours in the park on average each day reserving the late afternoon for DVC tour crawls with cocktails and dining.

I have to admit reading the boards prior to the last trip created a little anxiety around what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised with the outcome overall. Sure, there were some (people) moments that were negative, and I did notice the ducks had more of an attitude this time around. Outside of that, we are booked for three trips in the next seven months. My hope is the ducks have pulled it together by the time we get back.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Guess you will be waiting a long time.

Yep. Like forever. I don‘t expect it to ever go backwards

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I appreciate your homework but that is not what was happening on the ground.

I’ve been going to WDW since it opened, DS and I spend 4-6 weeks there every year for 15 years. I would consider us pros. FP+ we rolled 10-14 a day, even without the pre bookings. We know how to plan, tour and maximize our time. We closed DHS park one day and there were no short times on big rides, folks were actually POURING in to SB lines before closing knowing they were guaranteed rides.

I just so happened to screen shot one afternoon for a friend - this was pretty much most the day.

Thanks for the info, it sounds like we picked a good week to go. We’ve been doing this for awhile ourselves, and the one thing we’ve always been able to count on is late night rerides with really short waits no matter what time of year we visit.

I was happy to see that hadn’t changed.

 

[DisneyFive]

I appreciate your homework but that is not what was happening on the ground.

I’ve been going to WDW since it opened, DS and I spend 4-6 weeks there every year for 15 years. I would consider us pros. FP+ we rolled 10-14 a day, even without the pre bookings. We know how to plan, tour and maximize our time. We closed DHS park one day and there were no short times on big rides, folks were actually POURING in to SB lines before closing knowing they were guaranteed rides.

I just so happened to screen shot one afternoon for a friend - this was pretty much most the day.

Those wait times don’t look any different than what we experienced last summer with “standby only”.

I’m really going to be interested how we can try and work the G+ system to make it most effective. Like you, we were FP+ pros and could pull so many in one day that we hardly ever rode standby lines.

Things just feel a little broken right now and not sure I can put a finger on precisely what’s going on

Dan