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So I just got back from Disney World

I guess the good news is that there's a whole world out there that costs a lot less to vacation at that is real

This. I despise amusement parks and manufactured experiences like what Disney creates. So glad I’m done with it and past the age where my kids would want to go again.
 
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Stayed a week at the Jambo House (Animal Kingdom Lodge). The whole resort hasn’t changed much since the last time I went in 2018, but the type of park guest has.

Pre-Covid, there were costumed characters who actually interacted with guests, somewhat shorter lines and slightly cheaper food and merchandise, and good lord all those Brazilian tour groups.

Fast forward four years. Prices have gone up probably by a third, people waiting 4-5 hours for Star Wars rides now, and the Brazilians have been replaced by legions upon legions of fat, lazy Americans on scooters. Bus hopping from kingdom to kingdom was a pain because they always loaded people on scooters first (and technically they were encouraged to stow their scooters and take a seat but of course none of them actually did, so they essentially took up 3 seats instead of 1). Im 39 and a fair amount of the guests riding scooters were my age or younger. There has to be a Gary Larson type of comic out somewhere with a bunch of people on scooters wearing Mickey Mouse ears.

Either Milennials are crazy unhealthy, or they’re lazy as hell.

Are the people on scooters automatically moved to the front of the line? That would be extra infuriating (provided the only reason was for being overweight).
 
Are the people on scooters automatically moved to the front of the line? That would be extra infuriating (provided the only reason was for being overweight).
Not that I'm aware of, thankfully. I have seen a couple of instances where 2-3 people in their motorized scooters would just park their scooters right at the entrance of the lightning lanes, just waiting 5-10 minutes for their time frame to arrive so they can be buzzed through with those 'magic' wristbands. One scooter is bad enough, but multiple scooters can hog up quite a bit of real estate which makes it a pain to navigate around.

I have seen isolated scooters park in the middle of the lightning lanes (guessing they're waiting for family or checking texts/emails), but never more than one at a time at least.

The Brazilians were loud, rude, and obnoxious, but 3-4 Brazilians at least take up less space than 1 motorized scooter.
 
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The in-laws worked concessions at Wide World of Sports for 20 years as snow birds, so they got us free tickets and had time share condos to stay. Only cost for us was airfare, and we usually did Allegiant. We went every two years for 18 years as the kids were growing up. Started off with the Dumbo/Aladdin/Small World phase, then a couple of trips that were primarily the princesses/character visits. A couple of years when pin trading was the rage, and then a couple more trips where the rides were most important. MIL would take the younger ones back to the condo for nap times in the afternoon and the rest of us would power through. I remember telling our youngest that he was seven when he was six so that he would be able to go on the single rider line at Fast Track. Early years we were cheap so we would eat sandwich lunches in the parking lot, later just said screw it and paid the $75 for food in the park.

Took the kids out of school, either in January or later early December right after Thanksgiving, until they got old enough that skipping a week of school became problematic for catching up on school work.

Now the kids are all college/high school age, we probably did our last trip last January. The fast pass change definitely made a difference, but it didn't really matter too much last year with Covid crowds. They still enjoy it, just would prefer Universal or other thrill ride parks.
 
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The in-laws worked concessions at Wide World of Sports for 20 years as snow birds, so they got us free tickets and had time share condos to stay. Only cost for us was airfare, and we usually did Allegiant. We went every two years for 18 years as the kids were growing up. Started off with the Dumbo/Aladdin/Small World phase, then a couple of trips that were primarily the princesses/character visits. A couple of years when pin trading was the rage, and then a couple more trips where the rides were most important. MIL would take the younger ones back to the condo for nap times in the afternoon and the rest of us would power through. I remember telling our youngest that he was seven when he was six so that he would be able to go on the single rider line at Fast Track. Early years we were cheap so we would eat sandwich lunches in the parking lot, later just said screw it and paid the $75 for food in the park.

Took the kids out of school, either in January or later early December right after Thanksgiving, until they got old enough that skipping a week of school became problematic for catching up on school work.

Now the kids are all college/high school age, we probably did our last trip last January. The fast pass change definitely made a difference, but it didn't really matter too much last year with Covid crowds. They still enjoy it, just would prefer Universal or other thrill ride parks.
Yup yup. My daughter is a roller coaster freak and Universal's rides blow Disney's out of the water. You can do better seeking thrills at Adventureland, honestly.
 
I get that, but they could still have a few discrete designated smoking areas inside the parks.
Could easily be made into an attraction. A glassed-in smoke room with a dragon breathing flames/ smoke into it. All the kids could watch for the next of you unhealthy bastards die mid smoke. 😉
 
I’ve probably been to Magic Kingdom 20-25 times, mostly growing up, school or church trips and then with kids. Haven’t been in 6 or 7 years now.

I’ve always enjoyed it but the last few times it’s just too complicated for my liking. When you’d go in the 70s and 80s you just went in, went nonstop and did as much as you could. Now with all the access and pre-planning, the spontaneity is gone and it’s just a headache.
 
15 years ago but basically the same. The kids weren’t wowed and it was overpriced then. It’s completely insane now.
My parents took us the Disney Land in Cali back in mid 80's. All I recall was it was hot as hell, standing in long ass lines, and having to share food items at lunch because it was expensive and they wanted us to wait to eat more at dinner once we were off site. Hated it. There was like 3-4 rides I recall being fun, but not fun enough to stand in those long ass lines. Best memories we all have from that trip was an Angels game and the beach days.

You can go to Cedar Point for a fraction of the price and go on far better rides without nearly the wait... but there's no mouse or duck.
 
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Disney influencers are SOTE.

Okay, I have now watched two full videos of festival food booth reviews. I already posted Molly's video from AllEars.net.

Below, please see Tom's reviews WDW News Today.



It's amazing. Almost universally, Molly hates what Tom liked, and Tom hates what Molly liked.

Who to believe?
 
I’ve probably been to Magic Kingdom 20-25 times, mostly growing up, school or church trips and then with kids. Haven’t been in 6 or 7 years now.

I’ve always enjoyed it but the last few times it’s just too complicated for my liking. When you’d go in the 70s and 80s you just went in, went nonstop and did as much as you could. Now with all the access and pre-planning, the spontaneity is gone and it’s just a headache.
That's what I took from it 7 or 8 years ago. We had to plan each day out, choose which fast passes to do and more. It felt like so much prep work ahead of time and took the thrill out of it. Someone had given us a Disney book that had all of the "secrets" which made the planning even more. I'm sure the more you go, the easier it is, but I don't ever need to go again.
 
If you plan far ahead of time and plan really well then Disney can be enjoyable. Avoid the most crowded days. Avoid really hot weather. Don’t skimp. Those are always my suggestions. We have gone 4 or 5 times. The first time we stayed off property and tried to do things cheaply and it was not fun at all. The last several we have stayed at their deluxe resorts (the pool at the Yacht club and Beach club is amazing) and just really enjoyed it. We hit the parks early in the morning and head back to the hotel by early afternoon for swimming. Then walk around Epcot in the evening. For a couple trips the kids would do pin trading non stop which was actually a lot of fun. That being said, I’d rather go a lot of other places than Disney.
 
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My parents took us the Disney Land in Cali back in mid 80's. All I recall was it was hot as hell, standing in long ass lines, and having to share food items at lunch because it was expensive and they wanted us to wait to eat more at dinner once we were off site. Hated it. There was like 3-4 rides I recall being fun, but not fun enough to stand in those long ass lines. Best memories we all have from that trip was an Angels game and the beach days.

You can go to Cedar Point for a fraction of the price and go on far better rides without nearly the wait... but there's no mouse or duck.
We did that 2 years later and they loved every minute of Cedar Point. And I think our whole trip was about the same price as just the tickets for Disney.
 
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We went the week/weekend before Thanksgiving. Staying at Boardwalk you can walk to 2 of the resorts so you can avoid the buses on those two. We have one kid (9) so paying the extra to not wait was worth it. It was annoying that if anyone in your party had a scooter everyone in that party went together, so they did jump in line.
 
So for those not up on Disney, gone are the Magical Express and fast passes are now Disney genie plus or something like that. They are not free. I’m not selling Disney anymore because it’s too complicated to keep up with. Too many changes and I think people are better served by a Disney specialist. Suffice it to say the nice little free things are now gone.
 
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Went to Disney water park Blizzard Beach last summer and it was not very crowded and not really all that expensive. It's been a long time since I have gone to the other Disney parks and isn't anything my family has a burning desire to do. They actually would prefer Universal. If you have kids and just want to be around the characters and stuff like that go on a Disney cruise. We did that when our kids were younger and it was great.
 
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I absolutely hate Disney. For a fun weekend I would much rather hit universal.

During the summer I will usually go up to Lego land with my son for the weekend. The Legoland water park is fuking awesome. Lazy River, some really nice tall slides. Milfs everywhere
 
So for those not up on Disney, gone are the Magical Express and fast passes are now Disney genie plus or something like that. They are not free. I’m not selling Disney anymore because it’s too complicated to keep up with. Too many changes and I think people are better served by a Disney specialist. Suffice it to say the nice little free things are now gone.
We went to WDW about 10 years ago. It involved strategy and planning then but my wife did the research and it was okay. I just looked and holy shit is it complicated now! https://www.mousehacking.com/blog/disney-world-lightning-lanes-and-genie-guide-and-strategy
 
I tried to read that but I'm not going to WDW any time soon so quit.

Also, what if everyone buys Genie pass/Lightning Lane? WOuld it be better to NOT have that?
No. From what I read you can only use it once per ride per day per park. So if there are 20 different rides, you can use 20 lightning lanes, but only each one once. There is probably an exception and an exception to the exception, but that was the gist of it.
 
I tried to read that but I'm not going to WDW any time soon so quit.

Also, what if everyone buys Genie pass/Lightning Lane? WOuld it be better to NOT have that?

It gives you time options to choose from for the LL so better login and request right at 9am or whenever they open it up on the app. Then it gives you a 1 hour time frame you have to go. And after you select 1 ride you have to wait a couple hours or after the timeframe from your first ride to request another. So you cannot select all the rides at once when they open it up in the am. Maybe if you stay at a WDW resort you have more access tho besides just the early park entry.

Was there over the New Year and all general lines were 90+ min for the real popular rides. 60min for the tier 2 rides. The wait goes down (drastically for some rides) once the fireworks start so use that to rush to some of them you don’t have LL for.
 
Don’t be cheap, they have guides that take you to the front of any line for $200 and hour.
 
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