Former Disney Imagineer says theme parks now more stressful, less fun for families

Where has this guy been?

When my wife and I went to Disney World in 1996, we planned nothing in advance. We found ourselves waiting in massive lines for rides and spending hours waiting for tables in restaurants. We realized we screwed up and we had to do better.

That was 27 years ago. Since then, we had kids and raised them to adulthood.

Every trip after that we scheduled reservations in advance. Every morning we wake up, we know what park we are going to. We spend about 20 minutes every day we are there planning that day’s activities, and we roll with whatever changes we encounter.

I don’t understand how having a plan in place in advance of your vacation somehow makes it more stressful. I’ve always thought it was easier to not have to wonder what we’ll be doing and where we’ll be going during our Disney trips.

Are there really people who insist on just showing up with no plan and then blame Disney when they are stressed?

Also, it seems like most of the Disney criticism I see is coming from Fox news in some form or another. Is that just my news feed, or is it an extension of the culture war that the right is trying to foment?

FunnyUsername,
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world avatar

Are you joking?? What sort of super extrovert are you, and why do you think everyone is like that? I’ve never been to Disney world or wherever and it’s SPECIFICALLY because of what you just typed!! Bloody nightmare. Just get me a cabin somewhere.

nave,

The only (possibly) extrovert thing in there was booking reservations? I would assume you would also have to book that cabin.

FunnyUsername,
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world avatar

They described A MASSIVE CROWDED AMUSEMENT PARK THAT REQUIRES CONSTANT PLANNING AND SURPRISES AND HUMAN CONTACT. And then go “oh the only thing said was for extroverts was maybe making reservations”

Are you for real? You either don’t know what extroversion is or maybe trolling.

nave,

I was specifically talking about what OP said, which is literally just planning and booking reservations. I did not know planning was an extrovert trait.

FunnyUsername, (edited )
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world avatar

“We found ourselves waiting in massive lines for rides and spending hours waiting for tables in restaurants. We realized we screwed up and we had to do better.”

“Every morning we wake up, we know what park we are going to. We spend about 20 minutes every day we are there planning that day’s activities, and we roll with whatever changes we encounter.”

Did you not read the post? Am I being trolled? How are people telling me this is the same as renting a cabin lmfao did I take crazy pills?

nave,

Dude I’m not gonna argue with you but honestly you sound socially anxious if waiting in line is hard for you.

FunnyUsername,
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world avatar

Educate yourselves, y’all!

INTROVERTS IN GENERAL DON’T LIKE CROWDS AND ITS NOT BECAUSE THEY’RE ANXIOUS.👏👏👏

NABDad,

It’s not extroverted to book a reservation. Particularly since Disney let’s you do it online without talking to anyone. I’d say it’s less extroverted than replying to a post on Lemmy.

FunnyUsername,
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world avatar

I’m not sure why you’re focusing on booking a reservation because there’s a lot more (obvious) things to Disney world that introverts aren’t going to like other than booking reservations.

NABDad,

I think mostly because that’s what the article was talking about: the need to book plans in advance (as well as the price) being the critical factor in the stress of the Disney World vacation.

The article wasn’t really about people who don’t like being in crowds.

FunnyUsername,
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world avatar

I got that. I was never trying to argue that at all. The only thing I was trying to comment on was what I interpreted as OPs exasperation at how anyone at all would want to avoid that vacation, when to me even with all the planning and reservations and everything they described it is still asking a lot from introverts, even if it’s way easier than just winging it without a plan.

NABDad,

My exasperation was more about someone suddenly discovering that WDW required planning, as if that hasn’t been the case for the last three decades.

FunnyUsername,
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world avatar

So why is it so crazy to suggest that that planning itself would be off putting for some people, regardless of how easy they’ve made it? is that not what many people (disproportionately introverts) specifically go on vacations to get away from? The bigger the park gets, the more people that go, the more things require planning, and the more off putting it is for the folks like myself who just wanna sit and relax. They’re not making it easier for these folks regardless of how streamlined booking a hotel or reserving a dinner table is, because the park itself is inherently off putting and the bigger it gets it only gets worse.

It seemed like you weren’t remembering these people exist at all, which is why I commented in the first place.

Edit: less rambling Tl;Dr: making planning easier doesn’t make planning more fun for people who don’t like planning. These people will be stressed no matter what, and the source of stress is the Disney park

NABDad,

I’m not disagreeing with you! In fact, I never wanted to talk about people who avoid Disney World at all.

The only point I’m trying to make, is that it is disingenuous to suggest that planning is just something new for a Disney park trip. It’s been that way for decades.

Obviously, nothing I’ve said would apply to people who would never ever consider stepping foot in a Disney park. I don’t know why someone who would recoil at the thought of being in WDW would even read a post about visiting Disney Parks.

Skyler,
Skyler avatar

Super introvert here and a few years back, I did a Disney World trip. When I did it, you booked everything online (and I mean everything, down to FastPasses for rides six months in advance.) This also included restaurant bookings, as well as the hotel itself.

Not sure how it works now, but back then, we actually got the Magic Band wristband shipped to us ahead of time. With these wristbands, we could get into our hotel room - we didn't even need to go to the front desk to check in.

So yeah, regardless of whether you'd enjoy it or not, Disney did make it very easy to build an experience on your own online without needing to interact with a bunch of people.

98codes,

This has 0 to do with intra/extraversion, that’s plain ol’ anxiety

FunnyUsername,
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world avatar

Please don’t confuse introversion with anxiety, they are different.

infjmalepsychology.com/why-do-introverts-hate-cro…

tabarnak,

Here is my perspective as someone who used to go to WDW every couple years as a kid (late 80s - early 2000s) and recently went back for the first time in almost 20 years with my own family.

Some of the new scheduling processes made life easier, but by and large it was much less pleasant compared to my childhood visits. Back then, the parks were way less crowded and open later at night. We could easily go on the most popular rides without much wait time if we got there early or stayed late. It was never a problem to make reservations at any of the restaurants just a day or two in advance. We could choose which park(s) we went to on a given day based on what we felt like doing that day. The extent of our advance planning was my parents making airline & resort reservations and us kids going through that year’s Birnbaum guide with a highlighter.

Going back this year was jarring. I knew we had to make park reservations ahead of time, so I made my best guess as to which park we’d be in the mood for on which day. I had no idea that we would need to make restaurant reservations months in advance. I had no idea that we would need to spend an extra $15-$20 per person per day if we wanted anything resembling reasonable wait times for rides, plus ANOTHER $15/person if we wanted reasonable wait times for the most popular rides.

That degree of scheduling added so much stress to a family vacation. My kids ended up wanting to spend more time at AK and HS than I’d expected, but we couldn’t adjust our park reservations at that point. Some days we weren’t hungry at whatever time we had a dining reservation, but canceling it meant (1) we wouldn’t be able to eat at that restaurant at all during our trip, and (2) we’d have to try to find another dining option that didn’t involve a 2 hour wait at whatever point we did get hungry. We spent $60 on ILL for a ride that we didn’t go on because both kids were melting down by that point in the evening. I had absolutely no desire to be up until midnight to buy Genie+, then up again by 7am to buy ILL and make Genie+ reservations, but there I was.

FWIW, we stayed at a deluxe resort during an “off” time. We loved how seamless the park-resort experience was, and overall we had a great trip. But in general we prefer family trips that are more laid back, and plans that won’t be derailed by kids being kids.

ChexMax,

Right, so the article OP probably didn’t stay on property. Then you only have access to fast passes for a short window and everything is already booked. One person has to spend the whole day constantly checking the app to snag fast passes. I can’t imagine planning a whole day for several people in only 20 minutes in the morning, but I’m guessing that’s because you actually booked everything long in advance.

A couple years ago I brought my brother and his girlfriend to the parks while I was a cast member. We could only book fast passes day of. With all my inside knowledge, friends helping me get fast passes for their rides, and general knowledge of the parks, I still spent a ton of time on my phone in the app trying to get them into stuff for as little time wasted as possible.

I think a big part of OPs point is when you’re spending way more money than in the past and you’re only able to get into one to three major attractions the whole day, it’s hard not to feel like the trip was wasted. If you have plenty of money, maybe it doesn’t feel so bad to waste it in long lines doing nothing? The old fast pass method meant you were practically guaranteed to a thing or two that mattered to you, but unless you stay on property / are able to pay more per ticket, you just feel like a schmuck who got played. I think he’s upset because Disney used to be a lot more accessable.

thisnoworkie,

I think that with the crowds there if you don’t have some kind of plan you just get lost in the sea of people. Or you just won’t be able to do some of the things that you wanted to do (I’m looking at you cantina in starwars land).

NABDad,

It’s also one of the advantages that still exist for people staying on property. You can book all the reservations for your entire visit 60 days before the day you arrive.

The only time I’ve had trouble getting all the reservations I wanted was the last time when we were trying to get reservations for seven people.

Understandably, we had very little luck. We managed to get two separate reservations for the same time for Narcoossee’s, and we figured we’d just ask them if they could put us close together. However, they merged our reservation to one and put us all at the same table. It was wonderful.

thisnoworkie,

I think that no matter what you do, you have to have some sort of plan when you visit any of the parks. I have only stayed on property once, but didn’t have any reservations. I just wanted the experience of being able to go to the room when I got tired waiting in line. Haha

Anyone that goes there with no plan and without the annual pass (magic key now?) is kind of asking for a stressful experience.

Blamemeta,

For some people, making appointments and reservations is really stressful. Compound that with massive crowds everywhere, makes Disney hell for some.

BigJim,

Yeah usually when I go on vacation it’s to get away from reservations and appointments. If it can’t be done on impulse without an appointment, we usually just avoid it.

13esq,

I wouldn’t say I find making appointments/reservations stressful, but I do find that planning my life to the nth degree takes away from the adventure and brings its own kind stress due to not wanting to miss deadlines or by judging yourself against milestones that you want to achieve.

NABDad,

Our planning is limited to restaurant reservations and special events. Outside of that we generally play it by ear. Genie+ was new last time we went. While we played around with it a bit, we didn’t really find it necessary for the most part.

When we’ve run late for reservations in WDW, we call the restaurant and explain the situation. It’s never been a problem. It’s WDW, stuff happens.

Regarding judging yourself, are you really that critical about how well you perform while on vacation? It seems like vacation is a time to let that stuff go. I have plenty of reasons to hate myself after I get back to work. No reason to bring that along to WDW.

NABDad,

Still, it’s nothing new. The shock at having to make reservations in 2023 when it has been the case for at least three decades seems unreasonable to me.

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