Not Worth It?

[Darcy03231]

WDW was so not worth it on our 2015 & 2016 trips. Last trip was 2 days added onto a cruise in 2017 and we got a great deal through a travel agent and felt those two days were money well spent. Haven't been back since.

There are places we've been to multiple times on cruises and have no interest in going back to spend more time there. Some of them we no longer get off the ship and just enjoy a non-crowded ship while in port.

 

[fly girl]

I don’t regret going, and I think it’s beautiful, but for the cost Hawaii will be off our list for a long time.

$25 for a Mai Tai at our resorts. Yes, plural as in all three of our resorts on that vacation. And that’s not including tip.

 

[DLgal]

Paso Robles. Terrible place.

 

[_19disnA]

For someplace like Myrtle Beach there is a BIG difference in the atmosphere depending on which part you are staying at. Friends of ours who have stayed at both south & north areas, also noticed the difference. Many ocean/beach type places also have more upscale areas as well as less desirable locations. All beachfront vacations are NOT the same type of experience.

If someone isn't interested in gambling, then clearly going to Las Vegas shouldn't be high on their list. We enjoy the main strip in LasVegas, but will never again go downtown to Fremont St. Very hard to park, too many homeless/sketchy people begging for money and the atmosphere in general we just weren't comfortable with. The downtown casinos are all tiny and not worth bothering with. Saw a recent article where the city is going to put more emphasis on security in the downtown area which makes sense to me, but we still would never return there.

Prices for Disneyworld have gotten so high that we have no current plans to return. It is now too expensive and too crowded compared to prior years. It probably takes 2x as long as in the past to do the popular rides/shows due to the parks all being overcrowded. Walkways in many areas are too narrow to handle the crowds and it becomes difficult to even walk around. We don't see the value is there for what they now charge.

 

[disney-inspired]

Universal Studios Orlando - I didn't regret this trip but definitely didn't need a fully 5 days there. Next time it will be three days max as I don't like coasters and there really isn't enough to do there.

 

[tvguy]

WDW. Made our first trip there 5 1/2 years ago. Been on these boards 20 years, and have come to understand there are WDW folks, and DL folks, and we clearly are DL folks. Of course there was the cost and time of a cross country flight from the West Coast. But the layout of WDW had us spending way too much time getting transported between the parks.
Glad we went, but we won't be back.

 

[xipotec]

Did you explore other parts of Turks and Caicos? Wondering if other parts of the islands had any appeal to you?

That was actually a strong contender back in late 2019/early 2020 for a place to go (Grand Cayman was another one) We obviously didn't go but I've looked again into Turks and Caicos last year, I think our main problem was flights but the cost of the hotels are kinda high too. We wouldn't stay at Beaches though (we would have looked strongly if there was a Sandals though but there isn't).

Same boat here, we were on the verge of visiting Grace Bay, but decided on alternate

 

[TwoMisfits]

None...although one trip where my spouse wouldn't stop working and was COMPLETELY stressed out (and stressing me and the kids out), I told him we'd never go back if he ever did that again (it's one of his favorite trips - less so mine).

Yeah, it's never happened again.

It does help to be the trip planner, b/c I make sure it's gonna be something each person in the fam likes in some way, and yet not blow our budget, so we don't tend to have "no fun" or "OMG, how much did we spend" regrets...

 

[Dan Murphy]

Our last Disney trip... December 2019. I left regretting ever going, for the first time ever (50+ trips prior).

Then, Covid hit, I got sober and I have even less desire to go back, ever.

Don't leave here though, MN.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

I'm still regretting our last trip to Disney, it was before the pandemic. I don't regret taking my kids of course but I also brought my mother with us because I am an idiot who never learns. It was comically bad, and I was still financially rebuilding my life after divorce at this time so I really could have put the extra money I spent on bringing her to better use. But I had made her a promise a few years before that if she quit smoking I'd take her to Disney with us, she quit smoking, so I brought her on our 10 day trip--super bad decision, so bad I still think about it frequently to this day.

 

[RoseGold]

To me, it was Napa. It was STAGGERINGLY expensive. Like I could have gone to Europe, one of the most expensive hotels I've ever booked, expensive. Hard to get around, trying too hard, and just not that good.

 

[AuntieMe3]

DH and I are very compatible travelers so usually no regrets. We tend to enjoy the time away and time together even if the destination is less than we would have liked.

This is us.... there hasn't been a trip we regret going on so far. The only regrets I guess we could say we've had are things we didn't get to do while on trips and not necessarily the whole trip.

 

[Aladora]

We just did our first cruise in December and while I can't say any of us regretted it, it definitely taught us that for our family, cruising is not for us...at least not the type of cruise we did.

We did a 5 day cruise from New Orleans (We all loved NOLA and cannot wait to go back, btw!). The cruise had 2 ports, Costa Maya and Cozumel, and then 2 full sea days plus a half sea day on embarkation day. As a family, we like trips where we have the option to get out and do things so we enjoyed the port days, although Cozumel was only a half day which was a bit of a bummer. The problem was the sea days. None of us enjoy lying at the pool and we are NOT the type of people who join things like Sail-away parties or game shows in the atrium, so we all felt that we spent a lot of time during the sea days just sitting around.

DS did go to the teen area a few times but spent his time there playing video games with some other kids. He said to me later "If I want to sit in a room and play video games, I could do that at home!"

We might look at doing a river cruise at some point, the type that stops at a different city each day and we have the opportunity to get off the ship and explore, but traditional cruising is just not for us.

I cannot fault the cruise ship though! We were in the Haven on an NCL ship and it was amazing! Our suite was stunning, the butler, room steward, and concierge were all fantastic. Definitely the way to cruise.

 

[mrodgers]

WDW. Made our first trip there 5 1/2 years ago. Been on these boards 20 years, and have come to understand there are WDW folks, and DL folks, and we clearly are DL folks. Of course there was the cost and time of a cross country flight from the West Coast. But the layout of WDW had us spending way too much time getting transported between the parks.
Glad we went, but we won't be back.

There's also folks who took their kids to Disney once and have no intention of going again and only comes to the community section of the forum.

It's not my answer however. Disney was for the kids, thus my kids got to go to Disney once and it was worth it. I'd like to take my grandchildren some day if I ever have grandchildren. I don't understand the love by adults.

Only other vacations I've been on was the beach. Grew up going to OC, MD and then Myrtle and continued with Myrtle as an adult. Beach is always worth it.

 

[VandVsmama]

Curious since so much of our board travels but have you ever regretted a trip (to Disney or anywhere) or looking back felt the money wasn’t worth it?

Las Vegas. Hated our prior trip about 5 yr ago. Never want to go back.

Disneyland in October 2021 - 2 day trip. Crowds were high, lots of angry people, vibe was way different than on other trips. Never going to DL again in October. Will go any other month, though.

New Orleans - stopped for a day on a cross-country road trip. Enjoyed the 2 historical sites that we went to see (plantation tour + went to see the Battle of New Orleans battlefield). Thought rest of the city was a dump. Never want to go back.

Grand Canyon - went early last summer. DH has talked about going for ages. So we finally went. It was just like I expected...walked up to the big hole in the ground and my kids said, "Huh, ok. Is that it? Can we go now?" I'm ok with never going back.

 

[bcwife76]

NYC. Went as a teenager and I loved it. Went again as an adult in 2019 and yep, no desire to go back ever again.

 

[Moliphino]

The Ben and Jerry's factory. It was fun, but not worth driving 6 hours round trip.

I don't think WDW is worth the cost now, either, which is why I haven't been since 5/2021 when I used to go at least once a year.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Curious since so much of our board travels but have you ever regretted a trip (to Disney or anywhere) or looking back felt the money wasn’t worth it?

Nope. Not Disney, not Myrtle Beach, Not Vegas, not really anywhere. I do my homework and know what we want to do when we're there and what we want to skip and how to get around, and how to zig when the crowds zag, and most importantly, how to have a good time without spending a fortune.

Going on a trip is like anything. Even something like buying fireworks for the 4th can set you back a little bit and leave you thinking I got good value out of this or set you back a thousand or two (or even more) and leave you feeling like you got burned. Are there places I won't go again. Yep. Probably won't go to myrtle beach again. It's just the Dells with an ocean beach or Pigeon forge/Gatlinburg with a beach or Branson with a beach depending on where you've been and how you look at things. And I will say if I flew down there, stayed in one of the many expensive beach front properties that are also run down, well yeah, I'd think it wasn't worth it. But I didn't, and I can't say I didn't have a good time and it wasn't worth what I spent.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We just did our first cruise in December and while I can't say any of us regretted it, it definitely taught us that for our family, cruising is not for us...at least not the type of cruise we did.

We did a 5 day cruise from New Orleans (We all loved NOLA and cannot wait to go back, btw!). The cruise had 2 ports, Costa Maya and Cozumel, and then 2 full sea days plus a half sea day on embarkation day. As a family, we like trips where we have the option to get out and do things so we enjoyed the port days, although Cozumel was only a half day which was a bit of a bummer. The problem was the sea days. None of us enjoy lying at the pool and we are NOT the type of people who join things like Sail-away parties or game shows in the atrium, so we all felt that we spent a lot of time during the sea days just sitting around.

DS did go to the teen area a few times but spent his time there playing video games with some other kids. He said to me later "If I want to sit in a room and play video games, I could do that at home!"

We might look at doing a river cruise at some point, the type that stops at a different city each day and we have the opportunity to get off the ship and explore, but traditional cruising is just not for us.

I cannot fault the cruise ship though! We were in the Haven on an NCL ship and it was amazing! Our suite was stunning, the butler, room steward, and concierge were all fantastic. Definitely the way to cruise.

I think my husband may be more fine with it it if it were really cheap but in general I really don't see much of a point to going on a shorter cruise and with just a stop or two. I know I know it's a thing a lot of people do but it's just not enough of a vacation and way too much hassle to just do that. This is most especially the case for the Caribbean/Mexico area for me. Sure it's close enough to get to but you're paying for sea days which is just transit days really.

Our 7-day Med cruise in July has no sea days and I'm more than fine with that, we have time after the excursions to chill. A northern Europe cruise I've been eyeing for 2024 is 11 days. 1 day is a sea day and another is a day going through a canal but then you get all these other destinations.

To me I'd call what you did a specified type of cruise because of the equal focus on sea days as it is port days. It's like the 3-4 day cruises where people are just stopping at the cruise line's private island. It's like repositioning cruises where more than likely you're going to have more sea days than port days depending on where the ship is going to next for that next season.

 

[tvguy]

There's also folks who took their kids to Disney once and have no intention of going again and only comes to the community section of the forum.

It's not my answer however. Disney was for the kids, thus my kids got to go to Disney once and it was worth it. I'd like to take my grandchildren some day if I ever have grandchildren. I don't understand the love by adults.

Only other vacations I've been on was the beach. Grew up going to OC, MD and then Myrtle and continued with Myrtle as an adult. Beach is always worth it.

Yeah, my DIL never lived more than 40 miles from DL and never went until my son took her when she was 21. Interesting, they live about 40 miles away and their daughter went for the first time at age 2, but they are in no hurry to go again. And my DIL also was on the High School Debate team and College Debate Team and went several times to competitions at WDW and has NEVER been anywhere but the hotel and conference center there.
I don't know, my mom went to see the "Finale" of the Main Street Electrical Parade when she was 87. It was a Senior Travel Company tour, and it sold out, so there are lots of adults who love DL. My wife and I haven't been in over 4 years, and yes, we noticed we're not as quick getting out of the Matterhorn Bobsleds and Splash Mountain logs as we used to be, but we like the park.