Not Gonna Lie......not the best week

[QueenElinor]

I have had good experiences when we sprang for dine with an animal specialist lunch at Sanaa (our youngest daughter was a volunteer at our local zoo at the time so it was perfect) when they first started those (and Sanaa is our favorite restaurant onsite anyway), also the Epcot behind the seeds tours when same daughter was 5-6 years old, and the wild Africa trek maybe 4 years ago. These were all highly trained and mature CM’s. I recommend all of those paid experiences. Good discounts for those experiences for either AP holders or DVC members, can’t remember which.

Also Disney Visa holders, which right now have an awesome cash back deal when you sign up- $$250 for Premier Disney Visa (sign up through Disney, not through Chase, they only offer $200 cash back, although I did get them to eventually credit me the other $$50 !) So if you don't come all the time you can take advantage of that program.

But it's a bit sad to have to pay more to get the magic back, though I'm resigned to doing that. We, too, used to go all the time when the kids were little but have really drifted away- the visits became less magical and now the last time was 6 years ago. Knowing this, we've upgraded to Club Level and plan to make use of HEA, Club Level FP, Minnie Vans etc. I think we'll have a great time! Not everyone can swing that, and even we won't do it all that often. I think that's what Disney is aiming for- guests who will stay longer and spend more. That doesn't work for everybody though. It doesn't work for most people.

 

[snappy]

Have a wonderful trip in club level.

 

[chainkid]

Overall the only thing that really bothers me is the constant breakdown of rides . Since I have gone more than 30 times in the last 20 years of owning DVC ,it is a very noticeable problem for my guests. I no longer care about rides as much as ambiance so if something is not working I go on to something else ,as I have done and seen it all and know I will be back. People paying for tickets do not have that luxury so when half the rides in a park are down for extended periods it becomes a huge waste of their vacation time.

I'm a extreme planner but even I am challenged by the difficulty getting fast passes and coordinating with everyone's different ticket options. Having said that my last trip we couldn't get any fast passes for the things we wanted because it was a short trip. We ended up riding a few rides with less than an hour wait like Slinky dog. I used to love the dining plan but with changes it is a big rip off for us so we have winged it on reservations for dinner and paid out of pocket and guess what we enjoyed our trips a lot more. We didn't feel driven to be at a dining location at a certain time . I actually made last minute reservations for places on the Dining Ap that had availability . Food was really good in 9 out of 10 restaurants we visited. I tried the polite pig yummy, boathouse my favorite, Marrakesh terrific food and service and grazed around the food and wine festival. So while I few of my former favorites have fallen in quality like ohana and kona , I make a point to try all new places and so far its been wonderful. I no longer feel I can eat the amount of food on dining plan and often we are forcing ourselves to adjust our schedule to accommodate too much eating. TIW card works best for us now.

Many things have declined or been cut back that would probably not be noticed by new people in the parks but it is still a pretty great vacation all things considered. Broken down rides is my major pet peeve as it does impact the value of a park ticket when you can't ride the major rides and wait in line all day for 1 or 2 things and pay $100. Glad when I bought this was not an issue . If I were paying that amount with no expectation of going back ,I would be beyond angry.

 

[QueenElinor]

Overall the only thing that really bothers me is the constant breakdown of rides . Since I have gone more than 30 times in the last 20 years of owning DVC ,it is a very noticeable problem for my guests. I no longer care about rides as much as ambiance so if something is not working I go on to something else ,as I have done and seen it all and know I will be back. People paying for tickets do not have that luxury so when half the rides in a park are down for extended periods it becomes a huge waste of their vacation time.

I'm a extreme planner but even I am challenged by the difficulty getting fast passes and coordinating with everyone's different ticket options. Having said that my last trip we couldn't get any fast passes for the things we wanted because it was a short trip. We ended up riding a few rides with less than an hour wait like Slinky dog. I used to love the dining plan but with changes it is a big rip off for us so we have winged it on reservations for dinner and paid out of pocket and guess what we enjoyed our trips a lot more. We didn't feel driven to be at a dining location at a certain time . I actually made last minute reservations for places on the Dining Ap that had availability . Food was really good in 9 out of 10 restaurants we visited. I tried the polite pig yummy, boathouse my favorite, Marrakesh terrific food and service and grazed around the food and wine festival. So while I few of my former favorites have fallen in quality like ohana and kona , I make a point to try all new places and so far its been wonderful. I no longer feel I can eat the amount of food on dining plan and often we are forcing ourselves to adjust our schedule to accommodate too much eating. TIW card works best for us now.

Many things have declined or been cut back that would probably not be noticed by new people in the parks but it is still a pretty great vacation all things considered. Broken down rides is my major pet peeve as it does impact the value of a park ticket when you can't ride the major rides and wait in line all day for 1 or 2 things and pay $100. Glad when I bought this was not an issue . If I were paying that amount with no expectation of going back ,I would be beyond angry.

I'm an extreme planner & an infrequent visitor so I did put AK back-to-back late during our trip because of the ride break-down issue you mentioned. We've never been to Pandora and would be very disappointed to miss FOP. The only day that doesn't have a back-up day is DHS but there's one unscheduled morning we could swing over there, as my son really loves RnR. So yes, that bit of unreliability is starting to affect how we plan.

We never did the DDP, that adds another level of complexity we just don't need and we don't eat much anyway which is why I think we'll do fine with Club level and some lunches at the park. 4 out of 5 of us are also old enough to drink alcohol, so there's that, too. So the Club level might turn out to be a better value for us than one might initially think, in addition to the other conveniences it provides. Just not waiting around for food is a major plus in my book!

 

[Elle23]

Many things have declined or been cut back that would probably not be noticed by new people in the parks but it is still a pretty great vacation all things considered. Broken down rides is my major pet peeve as it does impact the value of a park ticket when you can't ride the major rides and wait in line all day for 1 or 2 things and pay $100. Glad when I bought this was not an issue . If I were paying that amount with no expectation of going back ,I would be beyond angry.

Overall we had a great trip, but we did have issues with ride breakdowns. 2 rope drops were affected (Test track and Expedition Everest were both down which were the rope drop rides we had planned on). There were issues with other rides as well, but those were by far the most frustrating.