Two park experiences - forgive me while I gripe a bit
Posted: Jun Wed 08, 2016 12:04 pm
This was in the Trip Planning forum, but I'm excerpting it because I have a non-trip planning point to make with it.
When I was at DLR in February, I was using a FP to board HyperSpace Mountain. The standby line was pushing 90 minutes. As I cruised on by, a young lady, probably 18 or 19, asked me how much it cost to buy FP's. I explained to her there's no charge, to look for the kiosks, and very briefly how to get them. She said "Oh! I had no idea!"
So BIGyowski's experience combined with my conversation with this young lady makes me wonder what happens to families who decide to go to WDW or DLR and don't know they should plan ahead. There are those people out there. Imagine the family that saves for awhile, gets a hotel off-site, goes to WDW, and finds they can't really ride half the rides they want, don't know how crowded parks are, and can't find a decent place to eat lunch or dinner. The disappointment and frustration on those parents' part would be overwhelming, I think.
And even when you DO do something right, as in BIGyowski's case, you STILL can't always get the vacation you want. My understanding is there are reservation companies that snag up all the ADR's they can, especially during busy times or special events, and then SELL those reservation times to people. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY. THAT irritates me to no end. A family who says "Meh, I'll give up $20 to get the ADR I want" isn't hurt much. But the industry as a whole... the whole thing just makes me angry. It makes me angry that it's come down to having to plan down to the minute what you do in order to have a decent experience when there, and/or fork out even more boatloads of money just to make the vacation go smooth and ensure you get to do the things you want - this after shelling out literally thousands of dollars.
Sorry, this is kind of a ranting frustration, but I know I'm not the only one here who has experienced this frustration, and I'm wondering what, if anything could be done about it, or do we have to start lowering the standards by which we judge our Disney vacations?
This REALLY REALLY stinks. It made me think about something...theBIGyowski wrote:Got up bright and early to make ADRs this morning...
Our top 3 choices were all unavailable. HUGE bummer.
1) Lunch at Chef Mickey's
2) Lunch at BOG
3) Dinner at Coral Reef
Day 4 of our trip is our non-park day...so we were planning on doing lunch at Chef Mickey's. At freaking 6:01 AM...completely booked up for breakfast and lunch. Unbelievable. I was able to book breakfast on our very last morning...but we're planning on being at MK that morning for a few hours before leaving for home. So this tentative ADR is only there as a last resort.
Day 2 is our MK day. We'll be there in the morning for rope drop and then leaving around 4:00 PM when the MVMCP folks start showing up. We were hoping to eat lunch at BOG...but of course it was unavailable. That is insane. At 6:00 AM this morning this was the first ADR I tried to get. I am near speechless. So I eventually found a breakfast ADR for 9:45 AM and grabbed that in hopes that a lunch ADR opens up over the next 180 days. The park opens at 9:00 AM that day so we were hoping to get all of our must-do attractions in before lunch at BOG. Not sure that is possible now.
After leaving MK at 4:00 PM, our plan is to head over to Epcot. We're hoping to do a few rides and then eat dinner at Coral Reef. So at 6:03 AM this morning I tried to get an ADR. Either Disney hasn't opened up Coral Reef for ADRs in December yet (haven't been able to find that anywhere online so far) or every single ADR for every hour of the day has already been booked for Coral Reef from Dec 1-10. I am hoping it is the former and not the latter because we really want this ADR for our kids (age 2 & 4). Just to be safe, I booked an ADR for San Angel Inn for dinner that night so we'd have a place to eat that is fun. I booked an ADR for lunch for San Angel Inn for the following day since it is our official Epcot day and we were already planning on eating lunch there. I'm hoping Coral Reef opens up and I can change the ADR to that.
We were able to get all of our other ADRs. I'm going to try out the WDW Reservation Finder on TouringPlans.com to see if they can help me snatch up what we want. Other than that...I'll just be checking the site every day to see if anything opens up and then it's FP+ time at the 60 day mark (10/6/2016).
When I was at DLR in February, I was using a FP to board HyperSpace Mountain. The standby line was pushing 90 minutes. As I cruised on by, a young lady, probably 18 or 19, asked me how much it cost to buy FP's. I explained to her there's no charge, to look for the kiosks, and very briefly how to get them. She said "Oh! I had no idea!"
So BIGyowski's experience combined with my conversation with this young lady makes me wonder what happens to families who decide to go to WDW or DLR and don't know they should plan ahead. There are those people out there. Imagine the family that saves for awhile, gets a hotel off-site, goes to WDW, and finds they can't really ride half the rides they want, don't know how crowded parks are, and can't find a decent place to eat lunch or dinner. The disappointment and frustration on those parents' part would be overwhelming, I think.
And even when you DO do something right, as in BIGyowski's case, you STILL can't always get the vacation you want. My understanding is there are reservation companies that snag up all the ADR's they can, especially during busy times or special events, and then SELL those reservation times to people. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY. THAT irritates me to no end. A family who says "Meh, I'll give up $20 to get the ADR I want" isn't hurt much. But the industry as a whole... the whole thing just makes me angry. It makes me angry that it's come down to having to plan down to the minute what you do in order to have a decent experience when there, and/or fork out even more boatloads of money just to make the vacation go smooth and ensure you get to do the things you want - this after shelling out literally thousands of dollars.
Sorry, this is kind of a ranting frustration, but I know I'm not the only one here who has experienced this frustration, and I'm wondering what, if anything could be done about it, or do we have to start lowering the standards by which we judge our Disney vacations?