Man, that sucks! It's like a friend of mine says, you're not old until you fall down and nobody laughs!

At both Disneyland and Disney World, I've found that there were a lot of cast members who seemed to have an unhealthy enjoyment in yelling at people not wearing masks. Last year my wife took a sip of her drink outdoors at EPCOT while walking and a cast member screamed at her. It was her birthday too. It's true that the quality of cast members has declined significantly.

This has been our experience. There is the odd cast member that is friendly but overall they have been nasty.

I went to bell services this morning to ask for a luggage cart, there’s four CMs standing around talking, the guy tells me “yes we can get your luggage for you”, I told him no I just need a cart. He kept insisting they would have to assist me because they were out of carts. Wanted tips I’m sure. He told me if I wanted a cart I’d have to go out in the parking lot and look for one. I ended up stealing a laundry cart I found in the laundromat.

edit: this was at animal kingdom lodge

Society has been de-evoluving for decades now, and we all hate each other more than ever thanks to our politicans. It will only get worse.

I did witness some duchy behavior from Cast Members this last time around, but also some nice ones as well. If I had to deal with all of the A-holes that visit, I'd be an arse too.

Imagine those poor CMs at the value resorts. Oh boy.....

Zero problems with cast members on my Thanksgiving visit to DW, anyone I spoke with was Disney-brand polite. Are you guys doing something special on your visits where you end up talking to cast a lot for some reason?

I'm was there a few weeks ago. Had a bad experience with a cast member while entering a park. Was basically yelling at my sister in law to get to the front to scan her card and was taking too long. She's pregnant.

Isn’t the protocol at the deluxe resorts to contact the bell hop from your room and wait for them to come up to retrieve the bags?
They are probably happy with a couple of bucks per bag, but I usually give them a few more.
We always bring down our own laptop cases and whatever we are carrying on the plane and let them take the heavy stuff.

I find it incredible how inpatient people have become.... I was on a cruise with my brother and some "Karen" was screaming at him "get on the elevator you F*ing drunk". My brother had a stroke and is disabled (plus he doesn't drink). There were a lot of people pushing to get in and he needs to take a little extra time to make sure he doesn't fall.

That's freaking horrible to hear. People suck.

Protocol? I’m a grown ass man I don’t need anyone to put my stuff in my car and definitely wouldn’t pay for it haha

It's insane how people are now. Thankfully don't have to drive much, but when I do I often see some pretty wild shit. Whenever I leave the house now I like to tell my wife I'm making a 'run for supplies'.

We're taking the kids in early May. My daughter's (8) second trip, and my twins (5.....5) first. It's a good time, but not my number 1 destination. I'm pretty into SW though, so really looking forward to checking that out. We're doing 6 parks in 7 days. I don't really mind cutting some of them short if necessary. My ultimate goal is to make it as fun for the kids as possible, so we're consciously going to avoid pushing them beyond their limits.

It doesn't sound like I should expect the best experience this go-around, so I guess I'll meter my expectations and hope for the best. We're doing 2 days at HS, and I figure if we don't get on ROTR the first day, we can pony up the cash for the whatever pass.

Any chance the Tron ride will be done by that time?

It’s pretty convenient when you’re flying because they are able to check the bags so we don’t have to worry about it at the airport.
I guess if I was driving I’d be fine doing it myself, but it’s just easier to have them deal with the 10-12 bags.

Plus…your on vacation.

Oh the bag check makes sense. In my case I’m backed up to the elevator in the parking garage and the room was three down from the elevator.

Epcot was shocking. Seeing it destroyed hurt a bit… they’ve fully abandoned the original concept I loved as a kid. Spaceship earth seems so alone.

Worse was yesterday at world showcase. It is like party central back there. I thought Pleasure Island closed but I guess it just moved here.

We saw a dozen girls in cutoff shorts and bras getting trashed and shouting obscenities. Half their ass cheeks were hanging out and the back of their shorts said “DRINKERBELL”. I enjoyed the show but my family did not. A DVC kiosk person was trying to calm them down.

There were a lot of drunk grandma scooter gangs. They seemed to all wear shirts that said “Drinking Around The World”. Another guest said this is a popular thing now for seniors.

At Morocco I took the kids to walk down the little alley in the back by the restaurant. Big mistake. It was LOADED with drunks, including a girl throwing up in a flower planter. It was like bourbon street.

At one of the festival of the arts booths, an artist was painting an owl. There was a group of college-age guys with beers in both hands standing behind him chanting “WHILE WE WAIT WE HYDRATE”.

We evacuated back to future world at 4pm, fearing it would only get worse at dark. A family we met waiting for test track confirmed it and said they saw multiple people throwing up and one lady passed out drunk in the street while her friends laughed at her, surrounded by cast members.

I’m not a prude but this was not acceptable for a family vacation. I think we were here on a really bad day but I will have to think really hard before ever taking my kids here. I think they need to offer “dry days” in this park.

Took this on our way out…

FF9489EA-1107-4F41-BC7F-F28D9A0133BE.jpeg

Yes... If you're going in early May 2024 it might be done by then.

Just booked our 2022 trip this morning, we had originally planned on early Fed 22 but with Omicron my wife wanted to move it. We were actually AT the Disney when Covid "hit" in March 2020 and we split about 2 hours before they announced they were shutting everything down 48 hours later!
Also a DVC member. We're doing Copper Creek this time and the last couple have been at our "home" resort of the Riviera. Anyone here park hop over to Universal?

My wife and I are going for our 10th anniversary in April, plus taking my 3 kids on our annual trip in late October. One thing that I’ve loved about Disney while Iger was CEO was that Disney never felt like they were trying to nickel and dime. Yes, it is incredibly expensive but I always felt immune from the “$3 here, $10 there” like at so many other places. We went for 15 days last Oct/Nov and we’re incredibly disappointed with the new Genie+& lightning lane system. Paying an extra $10-25 per day, per ticket was a bitter pill to swallow. Not only that, completely took away the ability for my wife to plan ahead. Needing to be ready every morning at exactly 7am to pick rides took a lot of the fun out of the mornings.

I'm convinced that Iger choosing Chapek as a replacement was simply a move to revise history and somehow make people think he was a great ceo in comparison. Iger was terrible. Not a single original themed park attraction was started under Iger. Everything was IP-based. Classic attractions were mutilated in the name of political correctness. Iger had Disney partner with the Chinese government amidst ongoing atrocities and protests by pro-democracy groups just so they could open a park in Beijing and release their movies in the Chinese market. The prices at Disney parks skyrocketed under Iger... And let's not forget that Chapek was still in charge of parks under Iger, so it's not like there was a hard shift when Iger left.

Agreed, this was a real hassle. Not sure why they couldn’t open the floodgates at 8 or 9. By day five of our trip I was good and tired of the 6:50 alarm call, I get enough of that at home.

Are they checking bags into the airlines again?

When I was there this past summer they had stopped doing that. It was one of those things they blamed on the virus but I figured it would never come back.

If they are doing that again, that's great. In our case last summer, we had to check our bags into bell services and then pick them up from there and bring them to the airport with us.

no

lol - no. TRON isn't until 2023 sometime

Guardians is this summer

Definitely not doing it now.
Hopefully, it returns in the summer.

Has anyone used dvcrequest.com ? Any pros or cons to it? I’m looking to book a villa through them in May. Are there any other resellers that someone would recommend?

Are you asking about pros and cons to renting DVC points generally? Or pros and cons to using that particular site itself?

As far as renting DVC vs booking a hotel, there are important differences to consider. But you may already know about all that.

I do agree that the move into China was disappointing, but overall I felt he set up the Disney brand to continue on for future generations. Without his acquisition of Pixar, Marvel, and LucasFilms, Disney was moving in a bad direction. Iger made moves to dominate the box office. I’m reserving judgment on Chapek to see how he responds to controversy. Overall, even with the additional spending, I still love the company and the parks.

And I thought making my fast pass reservations was a pain in the ass !

More about the differences to consider. I know the site is legitimate.

I've researched it in the past and will point out a few things. (I've never actually rented DVC points myself, though).

There are definite pros and cons of renting DVC points vs getting a hotel room.

Renting DVC will almost always provide you with a bigger room (suite) at a pretty low cost. They are also located at the deluxe hotels, meaning not only that the facilities are really nice but also that they mostly have terrific locations close to parks. DVC resorts have their own pools and other facilities, plus you can use those of the hotel as well. They will have good sit down restaurants as well as quick service. DVC rooms are timeshares and they will have certain utilities such as washer/dryer and kitchen facilities within the unit, though this depends on the level/size of the unit.

When you rent DVC points, you are renting them from the DVC owner, not from Disney. The owner must make your reservation for you. You will have to provide all necessary info to the owner so that the owner can reserve your room. And you have to trust that they will actually do it, and do everything correctly. This is hopefully where the broker website can simplify things.

With DVC points, you are renting a timeshare. I know that the service is a bit different than a hotel but since I've never stayed in a Disney timeshare I'm not in a position to really comment on that aspect.

If you rent DVC points, it is most likely that you will NOT be able to cancel your reservation. I think this is the biggest thing to make sure you look into before booking. If you are fine with not being able to cancel, then it's no problem but just make sure you clearly know the rules before jumping in.

With Disney hotels, if you make a hotel-only reservation, you can generally cancel or reschedule up to the day before (I think) with no penalty.

For me personally, the cancellation thing is a big deal, and that's why I've never rented points.

At animal kingdom. Pretty busy day

EPOCT has gotten worse and worse over the years. Last year as we were walking back to Boardwalk, we say a 50'ish drunken man verbally and almost physically abusing people. I was waiting for security to come our way but they never did.

Stay away from the Rose and Crown at night.

Iger on the whole didn't take any chances. If you read the book "Disney War", you can see what kind of executive he was. Eisner for all of his faults, took chances and some of them hit pretty well. Iger was brought over from ABC and was nothing more than a network executive. He never had the creativity aspect that Walt, Ron Miller, Eisner, nor even Tom Watson had. Eisner worked with the Imagineers. I've heard Iger and Chapek did not.

Chapek is even worse.

My old neighbor was an Imagineer, now retired. I asked him about Chapek and he went into an angry rant. I don't think he liked Iger much either but there's real vitriol in the company against Chapek. If you have followed Disney the last few years, there have been some reports about tension between Iger and Chapek, with supposed digs at Chapek from Iger on his way out...

I think it's all theater. Iger chose Chapek as his successor. He knew what he was doing and what he'd be getting. Recall that Iger unexpectedly left his post as CEO right before the covid closures. It seems pretty obvious that Iger saw the road ahead and did not want to step down in the middle of a crisis on the date originally planned, ruining his reputation/record. Instead he abandoned ship so that all of the crap hit the fan while technically on Chapek's watch. Meanwhile, Iger stayed at the head on the board to maintain power without accountability.

Now everyone is complaining about Chapek's Disney while longing for the Iger days, as if Chapek wasn't running the parks under Iger or as if Iger wouldn't have been equally ruthless when facing covid challenges. The guy praising the Chinese government in the Disney+ "documentaries" was never the pro-consumer creative force he makes himself out to be. That's all corporate propaganda.

The current CEO does not choose the next CEO, the Board of Directors does. Well, specifically, the Talent Search Committee makes the recommendation to the other Directors. The BOD are the ones who have the power and unless the CEO stacks the BOD with his cronies (as Eisner did), the CEO can only offer the suggestion of their successor.

You are correct on the Corporate Propaganda aspect of it. It's ALL bull shit on what they tell us, their annual reports, their presentations, etc. Fact is that with all of these purchases they have made, they need to find 20% of a ROI or more on them. It's all about $ and the voice of the largest shareholders, which I don't know who it is these days.

So, today is the big day, we are heading back to Disney. My son now measures 43.75 bare foot. We think he will just squeeze in for Space Mountain and the other 44 inch rides. We shouldn’t even need to use the heel boosters.

Cool, have fun

He pulled it off! Hope he has a great time.

That's awesome! 44" is the big breakthrough height at Disney. He can ride almost all the good stuff. Now that primeval whirl is gone, I believe that only leaves rock n roller coaster that he won't be able to ride. (Not including water parks).

Thanks! Back in October I just didn’t think it was possible (as my posts then likely indicated). Tomorrow is Epcot…so no opportunity to find out for sure till Monday. I’ll post some pics!

Wear your LSU shirt, it’s gonna be SLAM PACKED with Louisiana people right now.

If you’re staying at a Disney deluxe resort, take advantage of the extended park hours… lots of rides were walk-on when we did it earlier this month. One night we went on space mountain over and over for an hour with zero wait.

Yep, we’ve done that with Big Thunder before, it’s such an incredible experience.

Yep, we have a good number of Louisiana friends here or so we’ve noticed through social media. Our fellow Mardi Gras escapees.

Alas, we are off branding hotel wise this trip, just staying at a Marriott. We are doing two Universal days in addition to the four Disney days.

Does it make sense if I am already registering for a DAS pass to also get genie plus passes?

I'd say no, probably not. What benefit would you get from Genie+ that you wouldn't similarly get with DAS?

Seems like DAS only lets you sign up for 1 ride at a time. For instance if the ride you want has a 90 minute wait, you reserve your spot so in 90 minutes you can go to the ride and go on it. Then you can sign up for another ride using DAS.

I was thinking if you combine it with Genie, you can sign up for other rides while you wait for the DAS one, and also sign up for another to go on right after the DAS one ends.

I’m just learning about both the genie and DAS. First time we’re going with our kids and it’s gonna be spring vacation so it will be busy

In that case I guess it depends on the nature of the disability. If your group is able to go go go and cram in as many rides as possible then sure, I could see doubling up being of benefit.

The lines were pretty rough at Disney. Genie+ was also not very user friendly. It took me a full day to figure it out, even after reading everything about it on the Disney site. I only got to do four rides with it one day, three rides with it on two days, and one day (at Hollywood Studios) only two rides. So, I averaged three line skips a day only…and I was spending 10+ hours at each park.

I’m not sure what Disney can do about the lines, it is the family destination so it will always have lines…the only answer is for them to: (a) build another park or two, (b) dramatically expand the existing parks with more attractions to eat up some of the lines, or (c) dramatically expand their hours of operation (stay open till midnight). I guess they could also increase prices to the point where people simply stop booking to go there and they are probably more inclined to do that than one of the other three suggestions.

I love Disney, but ouch to those lines. Universal’s express pass system worked better than Genie+ (though granted it was $120 a ticket rather than $15 a ticket).

Yeah...but that's $120 a ticket for the whole day on all the rides. We're probably going to Universal in Hollywood this June when I go out to the NAMM Show...and Disneyland is across the street. They can suck it with their prices and new policies.

When I fly back home from MCO my flight is at 8:00 am. It’s on a Thursday. I’m hearing I need to show up 3 hours ahead of time. Is this true?