Your hosts emerge from a long hiatus to talk about two recent trips to Walt Disney World. Along with alusions to the observations/screed/manifesto that Mike made about this trip. Remember, you all asked for this and it is a long one. 2 hours 48 minutes.
The observations/screed/manifesto in question:
WDW 2023
1.) Park reservations are complete BS. They certainly are not used for controlling crowds. This is my 6th trip visiting central Florida the week after New Years Day and it was by far the most crowded I have ever seen.
2.) The conventional cynical thought out there, that Disney is using park reservations to manage staffing, doesn’t stand up to reality. Disney may know that 40,000 people are going to DS today but they can only get 2/3 of the staff required to show up. So only two shafts of Tower are running and you get 2 hour waits.
3.) Disney Genie is broken and stupid. DO NOT take its advice on where to go next. This is not news, just more confirmation.
4.) Genie+ is absolutely a waste of money. My generally positive experience with it at Disneyland convinced me to give it a try at the Magic Kingdom in WDW. By the time I bought it at 10am the earliest decent available attraction (mansion) was almost 6 hours later. Once we rode mansion and went to pick our next ride, there was a small improvement to 4 hours later. Too bad it was smack dab during dinner.
5.) The 60 day restaurant reservation window doesn’t really help with making sure the last minute traveler can access a table service place. All the popular ones disappear almost instantly at the 60 day mark. This has led to the rise of services such as mouse seats and mouse watcher. Which work great but that is another 3 to 10 bucks per restaurant you are trying to get. The only good there is that the money is not going to Disney.
6.) That being said, all the table service places were wonderful meals with excellent service. It is no wonder the restaurants are full.
7.) The old Disney service standard was in evidence for the entire stay. From guest services staff helping my daughter get set up with her guest passes, helping us adjust park reservations, to guest experience staff helping the technology challenged. All with a smile and a touch of extra if they could swing it.
8.) Disney is pushing technology hard. They really want you to use your mobile device paired with a magic band. They want you to manage everything in the app. Park admission, park and dining reservations, and any booked ride line skipping. I did find it interesting that the app will tell you that you have a dining reservation coming and that you need to start heading to the restaurant. No such reminders for ride reservations.
9.) Mobile Ordering for food. Disney is pushing this too. Every quick service food place has more mobile order pickup windows than human-staffed point of sale. By almost a two-to-one margin. Once you figure out the foibles of mobile ordering food, it can be quick and convenient. Places without mobile order and the human-staffed point of sale lines were always long and slow moving.
10.) This necessitates having a MyDisneyExperience account. If you don’t have a device, they will give you physical media, but it still needs to be linked to your online account. You will still need to use that online account for park, dining, and ride reservations.
11.) There are guest experience teams stationed throughout the parks. Their job is to help people navigate and use the MyDisneyExperience app. Especially those that don’t have a device.
12.) Spontaneity, what’s that? Did you jump through hoops to get a ride return time? Don’t miss your window or the Mickey scanner will turn you away. So now as you wander, shop, or ride something else waiting for your return time, you get the additional stress of watching the clock. So the Mickey scanner doesn’t give you the blue ring of death when you finally make it back.
13.) Money talks. I witnessed first-hand what extra money spent at WDW gets you. You may not be able to jump right in front of the line, but your wait can be seriously reduced. And time on property is your most valuable commodity.
14.) Capacity issues. All the parks were very busy, yet all the rides did not appear to be operating at full capacity. For example, not all Star Tours cabins running, not all shafts in Tower running, not all available trains on coaster tracks. You get the idea. Hard to say if maintenance issues, or from staffing (see point #2).
15.) Things change. If it is your goal for your kids to experience WDW exactly like you did as a child, disabuse yourself of that notion right now. It will be their own experience and it will still be wonderful. Sure Horizons and the Adventurer’s Club are gone and what sits in those spots now are not even close, but Ratatouille and Flight of Passage are delighting people right now.