WDW is no longer (if it ever was) a place to just go and play it by ear. If you want to hit every major attraction on your visit and minimize waiting in line, you have to use every advantage in the book to help. Make FP+ reservations MONTHS in advance, use their on-line My Disney app so you can make last minute additions, make dinner reservations (at the better restaurants) weeks in advance and months for the best places. Also, know the park layouts and use something like Touring Plans to understand how to move through the parks and which rides to hit first, second, third, etc. And most of all, don't sleep in. Be at the park 30 minutes to 1 hr before opening to enjoy the coveted rope drop short lines, which last for about 45 minutes - not much more, and only if you are at the front of the pack by being there early!

Some feel this takes all the fun out of the trip, and to a certain extent it does. But if you have made the decision to enjoy WDW and are spending the small fortune to go, why not experience your full money's worth? I personally love WDW and would go twice a year if I could afford it and stay on the monorail route. As it is, we try to go every few years. Friends of mine that live near Orlando have annual passes and stop by many times a year when crowds are small, so the need to do everything in a couple of days is not an issue for them.

I hope WDW doesn't change the FP system and require more event type entrances. That would suck and might possibly be the final straw to stop me from going. Its already expensive enough!

Well, I thought I was the king of managing WDW lines, or at least, maybe a prince. But even I admit to waits on some rides. Like maybe 45 minutes for my second ride of the day on Flight of the Nav'ii for instance. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the new Star Wars rides yet so that remains to be seen. But if you are able to get on anything, and only wait 15 minutes - you have much to teach me. How do you do it? Just a few tips?

There's no such thing as a low attendance day at WDW anymore. With very very few exceptions.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again! It's all over 2 hours after rope drop. If you haven't hit all of the biggest attractions by then and are starting on the secondary attractions, you're gonna wait in a long line. By the time its after lunch, you should be down to Sesame Street 3D, Hall of Presidents, Mickey's Philharmagic, Carousel of Progress, etc.

Even if it was all fast pass, all the time, it still wouldn't help. Most attractions have a pre-show where everyone is crowded together. Think R'NR, TZ, Haunted Mansion, Dinosaur, Flight of Passage, etc etc. If you skip the pre-show, you would miss a great deal of the fun. The only solution is for us to discover a vaccine or effective treatment, so the corona virus is of no more significance than a cold.

If masks are required, I'm out. No way I'm vacationing in Florida and having to wear a mask. Heat and humidity, discomfort, stupid tan lines, lousy vacation pictures. No way. I'll go when everything is back to normal. If it never gets there, I guess I just never go back. And I have been to WDW probably for 6 or 7 one week visits over the last 10 years or so. But I have a vision of what the Disney experience should be, and has been in the past. And I'm just not willing to accept anything less.

Jiko is awesome! Expensive, but worth it!

When wdw fully opens with absolutely no restrictions whatsoever I'll go back. That includes indoor dining at all restaurants. Until then, I'm out. Just not worth it for a much lesser experience considering the very high cost of flights, hotel, food, airport parking, kennel fees for the dogs, souvenirs, tee shirts and park admission. With limited vacation time, I plan to do something else until things go back to normal.
If I lived 10 miles from Orlando and could make numerous low cost mini-trips throughout the year, my attitude would be different. But living a thousand miles away, disney is a destination vacation. As such, it has to be worth the cost and commitment. As it is now with all the stupid rules, it isnt.

I don't know anything about DVC so I can't add anything to the conversation. But I know a fair amount about WDW vacations, having been there multiple times over the past 10 years or so. Biggest rule in my book - stay on WDW property, preferable on the monorail route. It makes getting to and from Magic Kingdom and Epcot simple and quick. With the prices you will be paying, you want (at least I do) to maximize your time in the parks, seeing attractions, doing rides, etc. You don't want to spend any more time than necessary on buses or travelling to and from parks.
Second rule - never sleep in! Get to the park at least 45 minutes before it opens. That way you can hit the big attractions several times before the sleepy heads show up. And finally, make all of your fast pass and dining reservations as soon as you can - to the minute! Literally minutes after the 2 or 3 month window opens, fast passes for the biggest attractions are already getting booked.
Note - with all of the Covid crap going on, WDW is doing things differently now and Fastpasses aren't being used according to what I have read. So none of the above advice may be valid any longer. I personally won't go back until everything is open and operating normally and the face mask requirement has been lifted. That's just the way I look at it, but it isn't a "magical time" if I have to wear a mask the whole day. Hopefully things get back to normal by next year!

So who should compensate park workers? Us? Through higher taxes? Why should someone who is out and working for a living give their money to someone who is at home not working? Or why should someone who is already unemployed or underemployed due to Covid have to have their taxes raised? Open the parks, put in place the best sensible precautions that are reasonable, and let those that want to go go and those that want to stay at home stay at home. Then the business will either sink or swim on its own.

Everything has been closed for most of the year now. In my opinion, enough is enough. Let's start people working again. Many places are already open and are not seeing any issues. Restaurants in my area are open for indoor dining and everything is going well with no sudden increase of cases. Too late for many local business and restaurants in my area that are now permanently closed. The owners couldn't hold out any longer, are out of work, perhaps for a very long time, and possibly bankrupt. How long does this go on? When its not you, its easy to say longer. Maybe until the end of 2021. But when its you or your family, things look a little different.

Although I love WDW and have been many times over the past 10 years, I can not bring myself to spend a week there wearing a mask (which drives me crazy after about 30 minutes) and without Parkhoppers and Fast passes. Parkhoppers and FP+ are the only way I have found to avoid waiting in long lines for the more popular attractions, and I won't spend the money for a week on-site stay at WDW with the chance that I will not have been able to experience every attraction I want to see.

On a related matter, my family visited my wife's family in Myrtle Beach and Charlestown, SC over the holidays. I wore no masks on the street and we ate out several times in restaurants where a mask was worn until seated and then taken off. Bars were also open in a similar manner. We toured the USS Yorktown while there. When we returned to PA, my 21 y/o son got a Covid test only because he was required to before returning to work. To his and our great surprise, it came back positive, despite his feeling ABSOLUTELY no sickness whatsoever. As his dad of 69, I got a test several days later which was negative. Its been more than 2 weeks now since we returned and nobody in my family of 4 or my wife's family of 4 has had any signs of sickness whatsoever. Maybe my kid's test was a false positive?

I KNOW that people are getting Covid and getting very sick and dying. At least that's what I am told although I have not seen this (thankfully) in my personal social circle. I know personally at least 6 people who definitively have had Covid and called it a mild cold. I KNOW not everyone's experience is the same! And this is not meant to disrespect anyone who has a family member or relative or friend who is very sick or has passed. I'm just saying I personally can't say with absolute certainty that all of this mask and social distancing is doing a damn thing to stop the spread. It just seems like if you are going to get it, you do. And if it is going to hit you harder than the next guy, it will. There just seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.

Most of the people that I know that got it took great precautions to protect themselves yet they still got it. And many I know who take no precautions whatsoever have never gotten it. I also don't think the vaccine is the ultimate solution. A new strain could come out at any time which the vaccine may or may not be effective against. I'm starting to lean towards the thought that we just open everything back up, let everyone live their lives as they wish, mask or no mask, stay home or go out, cautious or not so cautious, everyone decide for themselves. But accept the consequences of their decision. I know not everyone will agree with this but what we are doing now is having marginal success at best in my opinion. And don't say that if we weren't doing what we are doing that the disease would be hundreds or times worse. There's no basis to state that from what I have seen. Things have just not been that straightforward and logical.

I'm honestly not trying to be contentious but it seems to me it is difficult to discuss your Disney experience, good or bad, without mentioning you know, the thing. Especially if
very vigorous enforcement of rules or certain practices materially affect someone's enjoyment or ride waits.

This genie system seems to me to be a rip off. I now will have to pay 60 per day for a family of 4 (say 300 total for a 5 day stay) to get what I got for free with fastpass. Couple that with no parkhoppers and the loss of convenience and fun by eliminating magical Express and it adds up to me probably not going back for the forseeable future. Fp could get complicated for sure but how is ror an improvement when in order to have a chance of getting on you have to synchronize your watch like you're invading Normandy and execute with precision of literally 2 or 3 seconds?? That sucks! WTH is disney thinking?? It was my favorite vacation destination but I dont see going back anytime soon. Maybe if attendance drops they will get their minds right.

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

You make a great deal of sense, but I take exactly the opposite approach. Our family of 4 has been to WDW probably 6 or 7 times in the last ten years, and on each trip it has gotten more and more stressful. I am a park commando and spend literally weeks prior to the trip researching Touring Plans for the best time of the year to travel, the best days to visit each park, what order should the attractions be visited, etc. Which rides can utilize single rider for shorter lines, when to buy Genie+ or ILL, etc.

Besides all that, we need to make reservations literally months in advance in order to get into the better restaurants. Because the trip is already expensive, adding in flights for 4 to Orlando, kennel costs for two dogs, airport parking for the week, park admissions, meal costs, and now a ride from the airport since Magical Express is no more, and purchase of the new "line shorteners", I feel that we really NEED to maximize our experience while there to help justify the extra cost.

We have found that the added cost of staying on property, and specifically on the monorail, can be worth it in terms of getting you into the parks quickly and maximizing your time on the rides. We tend to prefer the Polynesian, which is very expensive, but also very nice and very conveniently located. If not on property, I hate waiting for the bus to arrive, driving for ten or fifteen minutes to get to the park, and related activities. With the monorail (or maybe now the Skyliner which we have not tried), that time could be spent on rides.

I would say our family of 4 typically spends on the order of $8k or more for a week long trip. Probably closer to 10k if you add in meals, wine, etc.

With that kind of investment, I could never justify missing out on a major attraction. To commit that kind of money and not be able to ride all of the latest rides would make me crazy. I feel like I HAVE to get everything on my list done on each trip to justify the expense.

Maybe if I lived in Orlando and could make many small trips throughout the year, it would be better as you could hit the major attractions over a period of a few weeks or months, but unfortunately, we live in PA. Also unfortunately, we can't justify spending the kind of cash a WDW trip costs more than every few years give or take. We are blessed to have been able to afford to do it as often as we have in the past.

WDW has gotten more and more stressful for me with each new trip. Since by intense planning, I have been able to do everything on my to-do list up to now, I would say that in the end, the trips have all been a success. But the pre-trip stress worrying about everything being planned to the smallest detail gets worse each time. It definitely takes a lot of the fun away for us but I don't really see any solution with increasing costs, crowds, and WDW's attempts to level all times of the year so there are now no more down times.

All having been said, when it goes well, WDW is one of the most fun places in the world to visit, it's worth the money, and we totally love it. I just hope it doesn't get so bad, we are forced to give it up and go somewhere else. It's a tradition for my family that we really enjoy, and I hope to enjoy it with my grandkids in the future.

Four flights from PHL to Orlando, 7 nights at Polynesian at around 3k-5k depending on rates, 7 days meals and drinks for 4, 7 days park admissions with park hoppers times 4, airport parking, 7 nights in a kennel for our two Dobes, etc. Adds up fast!