Our worst day at WDW in 16 years...

[AnnaKristoff2013]

We had one of our absolutely worst Disney days today

Woke up at 6:30am, bought our genie. Started refreshing for GOTG at 6:55am. As soon as the clock hit 7am phone says "something went wrong" and the virtual que is done!

Tried to get LL, got one for Frozen at 7pm.

Got to Epcot just after rope drop. Waited two hours for Ratatouille.

At 12:45pm stood beside the CM tent while trying for GOTG again. Started refreshing at 12:55pm. Watched the atomic clock. 1pm phone says "something went wrong" It's over. No GOTG.

Spent over an hour refreshing Frozen and miraculously got it down to 2pm. But that was not without a fight and losing a bit of my mind.

So we paid $500 entrance for three. $98 for Genie.

We rode two rides. Ratatouille and Frozen. Had lunch. Walked around. That's it.

So TWO rides for the whole day. TWO. Test Track was greyed out on genie all day.

We have been going to Disney for 16 years, once or twice a year.

This was our last trip. We are done. The virtual que doesn't work.

You went in with the wrong expectations. You’re not getting 3 tier 1 rides out of genie at Epcot. There are a ton of other rides and attractions you could have gotten that you chose not to do I guess.

 

[wilkydelts]

The OP is gone! I said a few posts into their post that they rarely post and probably aren’t coming back. This was nothing but a female dog session post. At this point it is either people joining the complaint or correcting the OPs choices. In reality the OP story is probably exaggerated greatly to make it sound even worse.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

The OP is gone! I said a few posts into their post that they rarely post and probably aren’t coming back. This was nothing but a female dog session post. At this point it is either people joining the complaint or correcting the OPs choices. In reality we the OP story is probably exaggerated greatly to make it sound even worse.

The more I read the less sympathetic I am to Op. I’m sorry that she was too good to ride the tier 2 and tier 3 rides and attractions and see the shows, walk through the pavilions, etc. Yeah, if all you want to do at Epcot is ride test track, ratatouille and frozen in one day with no wait then you’re going to fail. If you really want to do that, then pay a few thousand dollars and do a VIP tour (or take the time to learn how to really poweruse genie using the refresh method and known drops). Otherwise, learn how to better and more realistically enjoy the park.

 

[Poohspaleeyore]

Unfortunately for your family, touring plans assessed EPCOT on Monday, March 11, 2024 to have the maximum 10 crowd level which according to their data indicates a 99 to 165 minute wait for test track and thrill data suggests that the genie plus for test track sold out early before you would have be able to book your second genie plus. I have not been to WDW since 2019. We usually traveled to WDW around the week leading up to Thanksgiving day. I really liked fastpass plus because you could reserve three rides per day ahead of time but as I recall there was no availability for a fourth same day fastpass during this crowded time. We always utilized rope drop during those crowded times and tried to be at front of the rope drop crowd. Several video vlogs I have watched lately say that you need to do early theme park entry and try to be near front of crowd in order to ride the headliner rides without much of a wait which definitely makes since during busiest times but even then you are still waiting. You are just waiting before the park opens but somehow to us at least the anticipation envokes feelings of excitement.

I have a question myself though. How does one early entry rope drop Remy if they are not staying at an Epcot resort or a skyliner resort. Is it even feasible to do so? We are thinking about staying at Coronado Springs resort next year. In the past, we have stayed at beach club resort (which we loved) in one room but now will need 2 rooms and with the price of rooms now-wowsa. I have to be honest. The increasing prices and the complications of genie plus have kept me from going back to WDW since 2019. When I ask my young adult daughter if she wants to go back to WDW, she says she doesn’t really want to because she is just not sure about the genie plus thing. And I should mention that she is a registered nurse who is extremely sharp with technology and considers her phone as an extension of herself. We have been 7 previous times though and she is not a thrill ride seeker but loves disney dining. However, it just so happens that next year her husband has a work related trip planned in Orlando for two nights and we are considering planning a trip around it. We usually stay a week. We usually plan a couple of sleep in days between the park days. We rope drop and go to room mid day and rest and then go to a different park, Disney springs or a resort hotel for dinner. Seems as if Disney is trying to encourage shorter trip times to keep the overall cost of the WDW trip down but for us a short trip just doesn’t seem worth it and we much prefer a Walt Disney World Vacation over just a “trip to Disney”.

So I believe the take away or lesson learned from your story is that if one is planning on going to Epcot on a forecasted busy day with the Highly anticipated crowds during spring break and wants to ride the all most popular rides is to:

1. Buy genie plus and book your first one at 7am for frozen
2 buy an ILL FOR GOTG.
3. early entry rope drop test track.
4. Wait in standby line for frozen.
5. Then use genie plus for soarin, spaceship earth, mission space, etc.

Or something like this.

This will be extremely expensive and take up a lot of time. Whether it’s worth it or not would just be a choice that would have to made. Would the money be better spent on an after party? Is it better to go at a different time of year? Is it better to do park hopper? Is it best to go to Epcot more than once - rope drop twice. (Historically Epcot was not a rope drop park because rides really were not the main focus- for my family at least.) Any way you spin it, it will take a lot of research, planning in light of the research, and sticking to your plans as much as possible. And MOST IMPORTANTLY HAVE A FAMIILY MEETING TO DISCUSS PLANS DURING THE PLANNING PROCESS AND AGAIN TO DISCUSS EXPECTATIONS BEFORE ARRIVING AT WDW. Be concerned if they do not listen or want to be involved with planning.

ONE CAN SEE HOW ALL OF THIS CAN BE DISCOURAGING AND FRUSTRATING. It’s one of the reason I haven’t been in 5 Years. Because after all the planning time and money spent, there is still so much out of one’s control. Its a lot of money to spend for everyone not to have fun. The other reason I have put off going to WDW is due to health issues including diabetes and a cancer diagnosis. Nothing like that to put everything into perspective.

 

[Disturbia]

The more I read the less sympathetic I am to Op. I’m sorry that she was too good to ride the tier 2 and tier 3 rides and attractions and see the shows, walk through the pavilions, etc. Yeah, if all you want to do at Epcot is ride test track, ratatouille and frozen in one day with no wait then you’re going to fail. If you really want to do that, then pay a few thousand dollars and do a VIP tour (or take the time to learn how to really poweruse genie using the refresh method and known drops). Otherwise, learn how to better and more realistically enjoy the park.

We all have lowered our expectations post pandemic because we’ve been so many times and each time the crowds get more and more intense and we ride less and less (which we now expect). I think OP hadn’t been in a while so it came as a big shock.

For us we didn’t discover the festivals until well into a decade of traveling so that made things at Epcot more exciting (we go there during check in and check out just for sampling booths and maybe getting a ride or two).

Unlimited park hopping has made MK and Epcot (during festivals) really crowded in the evening and some places you can’t even walk through easily with a double stroller (thinking Canada and France area; MK Main Street post fireworks was impassable for 20 mins due to marathon crowds -worse than NYE!).

I do like that there are after hour events now if you want to just focus on rides but it’s clear from recent reports that WDW needs to be more efficient at keeping rides running and limiting crowds even at those events. Maybe they need to restart the early morning events as well.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

We all have lowered our expectations post pandemic because we’ve been so many times and each time the crowds get more and more intense and we ride less and less (which we now expect). I think OP hadn’t been in a while so it came as a big shock.

Before the pandemic FP+ had tiering at Epcot and you didn’t get to ride more than 1 tier 1 ride (unless you were lucky) in a day, and especially not a high crowd dway.

 

[wilkydelts]

I disagree @Disturbia, due to working in education I can only go at some of the busiest times of year. A good quality plan combined with rope drop most days will always alleviate any issues. It is quite easy to be opposite the crowds all day pending breakdown issues.

 

[Disturbia]

This was the impassable Main Street crowd 15 mins standstill. You can disagree (and that’s ok) and we did go during NYE week Dec 2022 but this was worse (Nov 3 2023). It was pretty unsafe. People are not moving at all. Winnie the Pooh was 45 mins.

 

[Disturbia]

When all is said and done, we’d all still rather be at WDW riding Tron and FOP rather than sitting at home (already have 2 cruises booked and thinking about WDW in Dec!). It didn’t feel the same without crowds (2020) but could do with better controls, better attraction management and more CMs.

The Genie+ is slated to change so hopefully they come up with a premium package (FP+ but paid).