Todays post is what I think is a very pertinent topic. In a past post I looked at Disney becoming too expensive. This is a companion piece about has Disney got too complicated? A post in Mickey Visit covers this very topic. In this post I will offer a few tips on how to avoid disappointment and burnout before you even start your trip. Feel free to let me know how you avoid Disney Disappointment in the comments. Please drop a like if you agree. Let me know if you don’t. I love the feedback.

I started this blog because Disney and especially Walt Disney World is very complicated. Especially for us Seniors that did not grow up immersed in technology. Before I retired, my day job was furthering computer tech, so I am not a Luddite. I was on the cutting edge of much of the tech people use today. But I find that the overuse of tech can really be a barrier. It negatively impacts a significant portion of the population. Namely us Seniors.

Lions and Tigers and Bears and Apps OH MY!

In the Mickey Visit article, they linked to a TikTok video by  Sarah Biggers. She is a young mother and obviously a little tech savvy as she is making TikToks. This video was pretty reveling to me. I, like a lot of oldsters, just assumed young folks loved using apps. Having your phone at the ready 24/7 seemed like a generational thing. I think my Son-In-Law would actually die if he had to put his phone down for even 5 minutes. But no! Even the younger generation is having issues with how app driven the Disney experience has become.

Sarah made some very good points. She referenced going to Disney as a kid and staying at the Polynesian Resort where they stayed on this trip. She also has a friend that is local to WDW and visits several times a year. She is not a Disney novice. Sarah also seems to be the demographic that Disney targets. Young families with disposable income. I do not think she is alone in her experience. So much more the pity.

So let’s break down Sarah’s complaints.

• Planning
• App Heavy
• Extra Cost
• Service
• Crowds
• Stress

Planning

Sarah’s issue started right away with the amount of planning that must go into a Disney trip. It is very true that planning a trip has become a huge chore in the past 5 years or so. Gone are the days where you would make your hotel reservation and just show up. Life was much easier. You could buy a length of stay park pass at the Front Desk. Dining reservations were made in the park when you showed up in the morning. All very straight forward and stress free. Not so much anymore.

Disney has made planning happen in chunks. The first chunk is making your hotel reservation. For us DVC members this is done 11 months from check in. 11 months is where you can start making reservations at your home resort. Then next ticky-mark is at 7 months, where you can use your unrestricted points at any resort. Then you wait for the next event horizon which is Advanced Dining Reservations.

Dining

Advanced Dining Reservations (ADR) happens at 60 Days from check in. This is where you can start making reservations at the various eateries around the parks. It is also where Sarah first had an issue. At 6 months from check-in, starting at 6:00 AM Eastern time, you can make ADRs. You can make reservations for up to 10 days of your stay. It is a free-for-all bar fight. Sarah must live on the west coast as she logged in at 6:00 AM Local time. By then some of the experiences she wanted were booked. She did not go into details, but I suspect they were wanting to book Character Dining for their kids. The Competition for Character Dining can be fierce. Being disappointed at missed opportunities 60 days out is not a way to start a relaxing, stress-free vacation. Quite the opposite.

Tip

I really don’t like the ADR system. However, I dont know how it could be done differently. Disney is crowded, and at times insanely so. It goes to reason then that restaurants and character dining especially, would also be in huge demand. If you cannot get the reservation you want, keep checking. Sometimes Disney does not release the entire inventory at once. Some tables are held back and there are always cancellations. Always have a plan B, C, and in some cases D. To be on the safe side, take another ADR and keep checking. When your first pick opens up, take it and cancel the original ADR. Just be mindful of the cancellation fees if you cancel too late.

ADRs is such a stress point that a cottage industry has sprung up to help. There are services that monitor availability of tables and will notify you when a slot opens. I have no first had experience with these apps, so I will not link to them here. And besides it is YAFA (Yet Another Freaking Application) to have installed and monitor.

One thing that we almost always do, is not to make ADR at all. There are a lot of excellent meal choices that do not take reservations. Some days we just snack around the parks and have dinner later in the room. Of course if you want a character experience then an ADR is a must, otherwise, not so much. This is how we approached it with grandkids. We only made one ADR and that was for the Princess breakfast at Epcot. The rest of the time it was eat something someplace when hungry.

Lightning Lane

Lightning Lane purchase and planning is another source of stress. From the Disney World website: “When staying at Disney Resort hotels or other select hotels, Guests can purchase Lightning Lane passes—and choose experiences and arrival windows—starting 7 days before the first day of their Resort stay, for their length of stay (up to 14 days).” So that makes the next event horizon at 7 days. At this point you can chose what rides you want to do and make an itinerary for every day of your trip.

Sounds great, or does it? Grandma and I often dont know what we want to do until we hit the parks. I’m sure some people find comfort in having a pretty strict schedule, but we don’t. Thinking you have to plan to this detail is overwhelming. I sure at this point Sarah was feeling a lot of pressure to get things perfect. Trying to make an itinerary is hard in the best of cases. Often by the time you are making LL reservations, the return times are way in the afternoon. That is nap time for many of the younger and older guests. (Me included!)

Extra Cost

Lightning Lane was also the cause of another complaint. Extra Cost. LL does cost extra, sometimes a lot extra. This is off-putting to a majority of guests who feel they are being taken advantage of. You pay a premium to be on property. You pay a metriccrapton of money for tickets. And now you pay extra if you want to ride everything? And that thing that you pay for is complicated, with rules that takes a law degree to figure out. Just look at the number of blog posts devoted to Lightning Lane. You think a simple system would need that many posts? Unfortunately, we are stuck with it.

Tip

Just don’t do LL. I know that is not realistic for some people. Having the 7 day window, while it sounds great, really just feeds into the Fear of Missing Out. Dont give in to your FOMO. Use planning sites such as Touring Plans to make a preliminary itinerary. Have backup plans and just let the day unfold. This is the essence of our Crushing It strategy. This whole blog is dedicated to uncomplicating a Disney Vacation. Grandma and I have had great times in very crowded conditions and never regretted not buying LL passes. That said, I can really see the draw. Personally I think they should either do away with LL or go back to the old paper FastPass. Neither is going to happen, unfortunately.

App Heavy

This is a real pet peeve of mine. Disney needed to deal with increasing crowds and skyrocketing wait times. I can imagine Disney managers sitting around thinking about how to solve the issue. The answer was “Lets Make An App for That!” This was often the answer to almost any problem. Just make an app and all will magically be fixed. As an engineer, I often had to fight this attitude. Apps don’t magically make things better. Bad apps can make things appallingly worse. Sarah’s comment of not wanting to have her face in the phone all day is spot on. (as are all of her comments). I did find this a bit surprising as Sarah is the target audience for applications. If Sarah’s generation has a problem with YAFA (Yet Another Freaking Application), then something must be really wrong. From Disney’s perspective it is all about convenience. But that comes with a really steep price. From a guest perspective, you are afraid to put away your phone.

You use the app for everything from checking into your room, buying stuff at the store, ordering food, checking wait times, and managing your LL times. It does everything. And there’s the problem. Disney made it where using the app is supposed to save time. What it really does is make you dependent on the app for everything. This causes anxiety in many guests. The app has almost too many functions. What you need is often many taps away. It is complicated and overwhelming. I have been run over many times by people focusing on their phone instead of where they are going. The Disney Experience app detracts from the Disney experience. How can you really take in the vibe when you are still glued to and dependent on your phone? Rhetorical question because you can’t .

Tip

Grandma and I rarely look at our phones in the park. We much rather look at what is happening around us. That should not come as a big surprise. Not buying into LL is one major reason. We are just not worried about our next return time, or when we can book the next attraction. Instead we do look at the wait times on the app. We pick the closest attraction with a reasonable posted wait and then go there. Many times the app had a longer wait then what the ride really had. Is only riding standby for everyone, of course not. It does go along way towards breaking app dependence and the anxiety of being held to a schedule.

Mobile order, unlike LL is a mixed bag. We do use mobile order, but only rarely. We get a seat, look at the menu and then order. Often, however, just going though the line is quicker. I also use mobile order in the hotel. I order from the room and by the time I walk to pickup, my order is ready. In Disneyland we ran across several places that were Mobile Order only. This really confused people. The poor CM behind the counter had to constantly tell guests to use mobile order. Fortunately there was a QR code posted that made it easier to get to Mobile Order in the app.

The Rest

I am lumping the other complaints into this one section. Not because they are not valid, but because I think they are all related. Service Crowds Stress. Unfortunately, Sarah and her family visited during a very busy time. Crowds were huge. Disney seems really good at filling in the attendance gaps with special offerings. This means that more often than not, the parks will be packed, sometimes unbearably so. With huge crowds, CMs get over worked. People are tired and as cranky as a two year old that is missing a nap. Everyone’s temper and good will are stretched thin. It is a situation that is ready to implode. This is no way to have a great or even mediocre time. Stress leads to more stress. How often have you thought, if I see one more big kid in a stroller I am losing it!

I am not making excuses here. The crowded conditions leads to stress and high levels of anxiety. Limited vacation days can also increase stress. You want to do as much as possible. However, all the freaking people in the parks make it virtually impossible. Where did they all come from and why won’t they get out of my WAY! It would be great if Disney cut back on the number of people it lets into the parks. That would cause all kinds of issues, I’m afraid. Crowds at this point is just a fact of life at Walt Disney World.

As to poor service. I have really not had that experience. Cast Members seem to be a special breed. They take pride and seemingly pleasure in assuring guest have the best time possible. I really have no idea how they do it. I was not there and I don’t know the situation or expectations. If Sarah felt slighted, then that is in and of itself, a problem.

Tip

It is had to have a tip section here, without sounding dismissive. Believe me I am not. Grandma and I experienced it first hand on our latest trip to Disneyland. It was supposed to be below average crowds, but turned out to be capacity crowds instead. Sarah, I get it. If you are the one doing all the planning, you feel it is your responsibility to make sure everyone has a great time. Long lines, overworked CMs and rude people really start to take their toll. The only real tip here is to slow down when crowds happen. Realize that everything is going to take 2, 3 or even 10 times longer than it should. Nothing is going to happen fast.

We took advantage of early entry and it really help set the tone for the rest of the day. I wrote about it in a past post, so I won’t repeat myself here. I see too many people running between attractions and getting all worked up. Just don’t. Don’t’ get worked up, Don’t worry about missing out. Don’t take responsibility for everyone’s good time. Don’t get caught up in the negatives. Easy to say, very hard to do.

Tying it all up.

Unfortunately I think Sarah is not alone in her feelings. Disney is expensive and overwhelming. So much so that there are concierge services that will plan your vacation for you. Some even provide tour guide like services. These are expensive. Some people must feel it is worth the extra cost to “safe guard” their experience. No links to them as I don’t know anything about it first hand. I think it also out of reach financially for us common folk. Just them being in existence is telling as to the complexities of having a Disney vacation these days.

Do I think Disney World vacations are too complicated? A resounding YES. I am not a planner, never have been. Grandma is the planner, but prefers not to be while on vacation. Vacation is supposed to be a respite from your daily life and routine. So planning everything for her is not vacation. You must remember that Disney now is not the Disney of even 5 years ago.

So what to do? First and foremost don’t over plan. Over planning raises expectations. Don’t expect to do everything everywhere. Ask your partner, spouse, and/or traveling companions what is most important to them. Have a Plan B, C, and D. Dont be afraid to abandon a plan that is not working out. Don’t be afraid to talk to Cast Members about how best to approach a crowded day. CMs are a wealth of info and see everything first hand everyday. For instance we had one great CM that told us to do mobile order at a particular Quick Serve eatery. We had our lunch in minutes while people waited 30 to 45 min to be served. Another time I was taken aside at a very busy Disney Store and the CM used my phone to run through a mobile checkout for me. And just remember that you can’t account for everything.

Most of all remember why you are there. I am very happy that Sarah said her kids had a great time. She unfortunately did not. Her experience is what she experienced and is totally valid.

Some folks have said, Disney should be more like Universal. In the old days we went to both. The crowds were always less at Universal. Most of the rides were more of the thrill ride type than at WDW. There also seemed to be less small children. It was a totally different Vibe. We are visiting Universal in November. I am going to reserve judgment on what Disney or Universal should do differently until then.

I am not saying I have never had a bad day at Disney. I am saying that my worst days at Disney were of my own making. And still very much better than being at home!

Until next time.