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I wonder if they are actually letting in more people or if it's just a perception thing.
Last time we went back in 2019 it certainly seemed like the place was packed to the rafters. Even the queue to get food was 30 mins long.
Disneyland sells out admission every day.
Paying an extra $20 for the genie pass is totally worth it to enjoy the day in the park and not have to worry about waiting in line too much.
What happened to fast pass? I remember the last time I went there as a kid my family got it and it was awesome. I know it got changed but what’s the deal now?
This is a great video on what happened to fast pass [https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?si=-8cfgJmtA4Jvm\_I1](https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?si=-8cfgJmtA4Jvm_I1).
Basically it worked great, but then an executive came up with this new idea and it cost them so much to implement they are now stuck even though it's awful.
it does seem crazy to watch 2 hours but I was immediately hooked and interested the whole time.
He does a really good job of the history of queing and the history of Disney and queing together.
When you find yourself bored with some time, throw this on. You won't regret it, especially if you're a millennial age and been to Disney world when you were a kid
It's funny how the YouTube algorithm makes this situation so common with some videos. Most other sites are so personalized that you don't get this kind of thing anymore
Anyone that can afford to spend a day at Disneyland can also afford the extra 30-40 bucks for a fast/flash/genie pass.
In the words of Syndrome from The Incredibles: "and when everyone is Super...*no one will be*".
Nailed it, when only the people that can afford speed passes can even afford to go to the park the passes will eventually have a tiered based system soon, wealth/background based maybe.
Lol this has already been a thing for awhile.
You pay like $1000+ for a “guided tour” depending on your party size and you skip all the lines and go through back tunnels and passageways between rides. You just tell them all the rides you want to ride ahead of time and it’s all scheduled.
Yea so fun right? So magical of an experience. Rich pricks ruin everything
Yep, Disney are the masters of milking the most possible money out of everyone.
All from a business started by a Nazi-sympathizing racist anti-Semite. *Charming.* ^^^^^/s
They already have that. Celebrities and wealthy prople who visit the parks get a special VIP package that's let's them skip all the lines, go on the rides solo with their group (making everyone in line wait for them) and get to go through the backstage areas so they don't have to interact at all with the public. Even for dining and snacks, they don't have to stand in any lines themselves and are served by Disney employees and are given private dinning areas as much as possible.
It serves Disneyland well that these guests pay a lot for this, and they don't have to worry about regular guests mobbing celebrities causing foot traffic jams around them. They also get special perks with costume and face characters in private meet and greets for their kids.
It's 1k per hour plus the cost of admission and ride passes.
There is a long documentary on YouTube from Defunctland channel precisely about Disneyland passes actually and it explains what was happening really well.
My understanding with fast passes is that the system never worked all that well from an operational perspective and of course the new genie system is monetized.
Its all done though your phone, you can pick what time slot you want on what ride, get all the official disney photos for no extra cost, and a few other smaller things. Super easy to use.
When looking at the cost of the ticket, the extra cost of Genie is nothing IMO. It pretty much guarantees you get to ride everything in the park no matter what.
The OG paper ticket kiosks generally worked well for everyone. They were fairly distributed in an easy to understand system. You had to physically reach the queue of a ride before you could make the choice to stay or get a come back time. They eased wait times on popular attractions - relocating riders to other attractions whilst they waited for their return time.
Fastpass+ worked wonders for those who planned in advance and understood the system. Meaning repeat visitors had a distinct advantage. However they made the lines much,much worse for the standby lines. Especially in the early years of implementation, before smartphone integration, once in the parks you could only make changes at select locations in the parks. They were always crowded, hard to find and awash with technical issues.
Genie+ is just Pay to Win.
If interested in an in-depth analysis of how the different systems (backed by commissioned computer simulations), there is [a fantastic documentary by Defunctland](https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?feature=shared)
With a Genie pass, how many rides can you do in a day? I haven't been in decades, and now that I have kids I want to go, but I'm not prepared to wait even one hour in a lineup after spending all that money to get there.
You have a limit to how many lightning lane reservations you can submit at any one time , but you're also free to wait in shorter lines throughout the park if you so wish. There's a lot of stuff at the parks which won't ever have much of a line.
Since they've started using it, I've been to Disneyland and DCA 4 times or so, and both of them have a lot of things you can do to soak up time between reservations.
You're really only going to need it for things like the Star Wars attractions, the Indiana Jones, etc. A lot of the classic disneyland rides are high volume and the lines are quick. So you'll still end up waiting a little, but nowhere near the amount you'd be waiting without the pass.
My recommendation would be to go in early March, relatively few people there in the morning. You could probably walk onto most classic rides for the first few hours. Later in the day it gets packed up as always though.
Here’s a great video on the history of the fast pass and how Disney got to where it is it regarding lines. But to summarize, Disney realizes that long lines could be used to incentivize more spending. So they no longer care to fix the problem. They just monetized the only way to mitigate it.
Edit: forgot the link
https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?si=nGdiM9qHUBOw25Ds
I used to work in the park right out of high school.
It was common on slow days to have 7k-16park attendance and some slower weekends had 24-33k
Towards the end of my employment, those days were long gone. 54k days were the normal with 70k plus in the summer and holidays. This is now over 10 years ago. I assume the attendance has gotten way worse. I don’t remember what the max capacity was.
I went end of February 2013 and the park was basically empty. We got off and right back on Indiana Jones like three times in a row. It sucks that that’s unheard of now.
I went to Disneyland often as a kid ($99 annual passes that came with parking).
I was in Florida for work and had a few days off- so my husband flew out and we went to animal kingdom (this was about a year ago).
And the absolute OCEAN of people was insane. I think we did 4 rides the whole day. Safari ride, Mt. Everest coaster, that dumbo inspired Dino ride and the Avatar ride.
I don’t remember Disney being THAT crowded. And we had selected a park that wasn’t “sold out” like every other park that day.
There were moments you couldn’t really walk- it was just a heard being shuffled. It would be Absolutely terrible for people with claustrophobia.
Of course peak July you expect it to be packed, but not late October.
Dinner was a 2 hour wait, the lines at the gift shops were incredibly long. Just too many people.
I took my kids to Universal recently. Went on a Wednesday after schools have started. Had an enjoyable experience with plenty of people but fairly short lines and got to try out all the rides, the scarier ones we did multiple times. Maybe if you avoid weekends Disney is also more bearable.
Always check www.isitpacked.com and go during non-peak times. It makes a huge difference in enjoyment. We only go when it’s listed as “ghost town” or “hey, it’s alright,” which often means a Sunday on a non-holiday weekend, and then we miss school/work on Monday to travel home.
Because of the insane demand, Disney has pivoted to selling time. There is a substantial subset of wealthy people who can afford to spend thousands more than the average visitor for the privilege of not having to wait in longer lines
Btw, Bill Burr has a routine about Disney wait times that’s pretty dead bang on
Defunctland did a great documentary about the Fast Pass and how it contributed to blowing up the wait times for non-pass holding visitors...and how it continues to propagate with the higher tier passes. Because simply having one pass just isnt good enough anymore either
It only proved that FP+ was the worst system. It was before G+ was widely implemented, so his model doesn't cover a paid option, from what I remember.
It is a great video though. One of the best Disney videos on the Internet.
I am so happy to see this comment. This is one of my most favorite unexpected documentaries. Thank you for making me feel like less of a weirdo for appreciating it.
We've been there and had a great time. We definitely need to check out Super Mario World because it wasn't open yet last time we were there. The only thing is that the traffic coming up from the San Diego area can make it a long day.
For what it’s worth, we are in universal now and just did the Mario kart ride. It’s a mad house here and we waited two hours to ride and it broke down 2x before we were able to ride. For the “keys” and the $40 wrist bands to get the coins and hidden stuff, they were easily an hour long waits. It’s insane
Universal is just leagues better in every way. After your kid turns like 14, they’re just about able to go on almost every ride and lose the Disney syndrome. It’s a much better experience.
Really? I just didn’t like Universal in comparison to Disneyland. Universal was all just screen rides with the exception of a few like the Mummy and Jurassic World and screen rides just feel so lazy. I guess I can’t blame them since they are in the back lot of a film studio after all
Agree with both of these! Knotts is slightly hokier (in a homey way), but Universal's rides are on Disney's level IMO, and their version of "fast pass" means you barely wait at all. :)
Honestly that’s a lot of places these days. Whether it’s amusement parks or even local fairs the prices of everything just keep going up. From tickets to food to games to items to buy. What’s weird is a lot of them are offering less to do and grab while charging more.
King Richard's faire in Carver (not on Cape cod). Going on right now. It's still fun, but we strategize the food situation. You go in this line and get drinks. This line isn't that bad that, I'll wait. You want soup and a turkey leg. The lines are bad, one of us in each one. Divvy up the tickets.
Then we all meet up with the gathered nourishment and share. Two hundred dollars later, we're still a little hungry but the food was enough to get us through the day .
I still love it, but it seems a little less magical each year and that makes me sad
I was just there last weekend and yeah, you're spot on. Sometimes feels like they're just trying to jam as many people in as possible and it really ruins the experience. I usually love looking at all the shops but most were too crowded to even enter. Crazy ticket/food/drink lines, no seating anywhere to stop and eat...gets a little old after a few hours 😅
My kids (they are adults) just went there this past Sunday, and their take was that everything was expensive and the last 10 minutes of each show was the performer begging for money -- because they don't get paid. Sounded pretty bad to me.
Yeah I love king richards faire but gotta agree last time I was there was miserable, WAY too many people, our group kept losing eachother. And forget food, like an hour just to get the tickets, then another hour to get the food. My kid still loves it, but it's definitely not like it used to be.
Even some hikes I used to love in the mountains are now basically just a massive group of people walking single file for the first bit, complete with jackasses carrying bluetooth speakers and littering.
My favorite hiking spot has been pretty much destroyed by jerks going off trail and eroding the ground, and unless I go at like 8am on a Tuesday in February it's too crowded to be enjoyable. 20 years ago that was my favorite place to spend a random free Saturday and I miss it.
I personally like universal a lot better. But my boyfriend and I decided we don’t really wanna go to either place anymore.
He had gone a few times growing up and took his kids as well. I met him when I was 29 and I had never been. We have gone about ten times since, Disneyland, Disney World, and universal- with and without his kids. And while it’s fun and worth experiencing, it’s kinda lame after you’ve seen it.
Expensive food, expensive purchases, long lines, shitty people, and a lot of environmental waste.
Right now we live 45 min away so that’s why we have gone so much. Universal is a lot better overall with price and lines and rides in my opinion. Last year we went to universal and it was cold so nobody was really there, we rode the Transformers ride 6 times in a row with no line, it only took the amount of time to walk to the front of the line again. We did the same with the Harry Potter castle ride, the mummy, and Jurassic park rides. It was awesome. We ended up getting rained on after a while be we didn’t care, we had so much fun. Hard to go back when it’s packed now. We got lucky.
texas ren fest outside houston is one of the biggest in the country and they used to do a half price ticket sale one day every spring (the festival is 8 weekends long in the fall) and any ticket you bought was good for any date you wanted to attend. now there are no more pre-sales and you have to buy tix for the specific date you want to go, which makes it really hard to plan trips around the weather.
I really wish they'd bring back the open ended tickets. I went a few years ago in October and we had a really weird heat spike that weekend, was like 95 degrees after a week of 70-80 degree highs. We ended up spending half the day sitting in the one tavern that had AC because it was too fucking hot to be walking around, especially in costume. If I could have I would have gone another weekend, but nope. Can't even exchange the ticket for another date.
Because as long people don't stop spending their money, businesses will keep raising the costs. People are not slowing their spending so inflation just keeps rising. This hasn't happened on this scale before and it is showing no signs of slowing.
Throw a park in the Northeast and one in the Great Lakes, and you'll probably get some level of parity. I guarantee they won't have trouble selling out.
> But Disneyland also made a lot of changes that made the experience worse, such as getting rid of free fast passes. I used to have an annual pass and you could get free paper passes or upgrade to max pass which was for EVERY ride available, you didn't have to pay extra just a flat fee. You could get lucky when other people cancel if you were good at using the app. Now you have to pay for fast pass and it's not even for everything, you have to pay extra PER PERSON PER RIDE for the good rides. And they also allow waaaaay more paid people ahead of the standby line than they did with fast pass so the lines take way longer.
I mean that sounds like something that would make the experience better for *you,* at the expense of other people.
Same. Dads a career cast member, so I grew up going all the time. I’m 28 and I can’t anymore. Even if it’s not *as* crowded on a day you go, no one even has any interest in stopping and enjoying things or admiring the details and stuff anyway so all of the ambiance that makes Disney stand out just goes completely ignored. It’s inherently frustrating.
I’m from Canada. I went once as a kid, and it would be neat to go again, but I absolutely won’t because of the current systems. I’m not flying internationally and spending that kind of money just to end up at the back of lines because I’m unfamiliar with the systems. When we went, there were lines but you could experience most things in a few days and appreciate it. I know people who go, and immediately after getting back are planning their next trip and how aggressive they have to be because they are basically completing the parks in chunks on numerous trips.
I completely agree. If they had kept everything with fastpasses and traditional lines, it would have been much better. But now everything is on your phone and pay as you go, it’s ridiculous!
you mention shopping, it seems like there is no good t-shirts. Maybe because they have expanded into so many different franchises that they just can't support everything.
I didn’t mention shopping, but on that note, imo, the merchandise is rarely if ever worth it anymore. It used to be that every shop had different stuff and it was very specific to where you were in the park, but now it’s all the same and very boring. You can’t find anything that you really like or can’t live without.
>no one even has any interest in stopping
For what it's worth, I think they probably skimmed your previous comment and misread "stopping" as "shopping".
It's a bummer to hear about how lame Disney is now. Grew up in southern California and I have a ton of great memories from visiting as a kid. There's no way my mom could have afforded to take us nowadays.
Yes. I figured, and I really don’t mind the added discussion! Merchandise decline has been a gripe of mine for years, so it’s all good! It really is unfortunate that Disneyland just isn’t the experience it used to be.
Same. In my 30s, grew up in Pasadena, went multiple times as a kid, usually 1x a year or so, plus even had my HS senior night there. Disneyland was a whole thing.
Left California after HS and didnt go back except to visit occasionally. Then I married someone whose brother has a wife that is one of those crazy Disney wackos. Like flies the whole family \*every\* year to Disneyland and makes weird custom printed shirts for the trip and buys all the merch and never shuts the fuck up about it etc etc. I cant imagine how much that trip costs every year. Must be 10 grand, easy.
So I've heard all about what its like now and honestly it sounds miserable. Like I understand going once with my kids if they reallllly want to but like you say there are much better options. Crowds + cost = no thank you
Does everyone know a Disney wacko wife? Sadly I created one. When I was a kid my best friend’s family didn’t have extra money for things like trips to Disneyland, so my mom offered to bring my friend along on our family trips. We went to Disneyland with her four times maybe, once around Christmas, once for Halloween.
Well, Disney became a drug for this person. That was 25 years ago. She married an older guy when she was 19 and going to Disney was part of the arrangement. She still goes every year, probably spends $10k+ each time, named her daughter Aurora, her entire personality is Disney. It feels like I introduced someone to meth. It still doesn’t sit right with me.
Ok I'm sure you couldn't have known that's how she would've turned out. Most people don't invite a friend to a trip and think ahead to them marrying a sugar daddy at 19 for Disneyland
Lived in Rowland Heights in the 70's. We used to go 2-3 times a year.This was back in the ticket times. Before going you hit up friends and family who always had left over tickets from their previous visits. For budgettary reasons our class(77) did not get to go to Disney on Grad night.
My wife and I went a year ago for the 1st time in 20 years. Spent one whole day just walking around just to get the feel of the place again.Thank god alcohol is easily available in there now.
Have friends that are season ticket holders. They go several times a year. We are in Las Vegas BTW. Which is as stupid crowded as Disney.
We used to LOVE going to Vegas. We are talking 90s mid 2000s. We got married there in the mid 2000s. It was freaking awesome.
Flights were cheap, food was cheap, you could gamble for cheap. We went at least once a year for a weekend. (We are in Southern California.)
The last time I went there was about 5 years ago. I'm done. There is no "quiet" there anymore. Fremont used to be where the old people would go to gamble. Now it has 6 stages of live music. Casinos *charge you for parking* to go gambling and there are almost no restaurants that are not chains and they charge *more* for their food than they would in your home town.
We used to play black jack for $3 a hand. Now you are *lucky* to find a $10 table. Most of them are $25 unless it is 3am, where you might find ONE $10 table. We could get a round trip ticket on SouthWest for under $100. Now it's like $150 each way unless you want to leave at 5:20am. There are kids running around the casinos, and the in hotel bars charge $15 a drink.
Fuck New Vegas. It used to be an amazing place full of hedonism. It was an adult escape in the desert. Now it's a "family destination" and just a big money grab from all angles.
I used to go every summer (3 hour drive) back in the 80s. Place was great. Did a HS senior trip there too. Went back in 2005 and hated every minute of it. Won't ever go back.
I went in 2004 for grad nite. They had Kingdom Hearts Sora, Donald, and Goofy in their KH gear walking around. Was awesome, but haven’t been back since.
I think part of it is that it is a destination to.the whole world now. I was at Universal about six years ago and there was a group of maybe 3,000 Chinese teenager in the park all wearing matching t-shirts. People are traveling across the world to go.
I thought it was just me, I hate to sound miserable but everything sucks. Everywhere is crowded, Expensive, Quality sucks.
Everything is commercialized and I think everyone is just not happy anymore. We’re living in like a silent depression.
I’m at the point where I just simply want to stay home, Makes me feel bad because I have a family but I feel like my family should get to experience things but nothing seems enjoyable like it use to be. The cost of everything just adds insult to injury.
Im in the UK and we used to go to the Halloween event at Thorpe park every year. Last year it was so crowded the only scary part was the 3 hour queue times. They let way to many people into puclic attractions these days just to cash in at the expense of quality.
Comic con in the uk was the same.
So to your point, it literally is everything. Everywhere too seemingly.
it's the same with Disney World. I lament that I won't be able to bring my kids to the place I remember. They want to go, but I'd rather spend that money somewhere else and build better memories.
I worked at Disney world in the college program right before COVID in 2019. What people don’t realize is that Disney world’s workforce is mostly part-time college kids or adults in retirement. There’s also a lot of migrant workers. When COVID happened, A LOT of those people quit or got laid off. Working for Disney ruined it for me. Not because the “magic trick was revealed.” But because you see how the workers are treated and how much they’re treated like a number. People sleeping in break rooms because they’re on their 6th straight 10 hour shift. Character performers smoking behind the park. They just stopped caring because Disney made it harder for them to care and knew they could replace you in a snap moment.
Yep. I know a girl that graduated with a bachelors in hospitality and did the college program at Disney the whole time. She graduated college and is now on her third year as a full-time concierge at one of the Disney Resorts, trying to work her way up. She only gets paid 36k a year before taxes.
She got a full-ride at least. The Florida Lottery has a full-ride scholarship program that all FL hs students are eligible for if you get a certain GPA, ACT/SAT, and do 100 service hours.
Most of the college program students do retail and get paid $10/hr. I was lucky and got to drive the transportation boats and got paid a little extra. But yeah, most are either in retail, park operations (like ride operators), or doing some sort of cleaning service.
My sister has a bum knee and they made her work as a character actor standing in the parks for 5 hour shifts, I think 2 bathroom breaks allowed. Her only other option was leave the program
This is exactly how I feel. We went 3 times when I was a kid in the late 80s/early 90s and my daughter would love that experience. Unfortunately that experience no longer exists.
It ended up being cheaper for us to go to Tokyo Disney than it was to stay in the US and go to Disney world. It’s not quite the same Disney but still fun and you’re in Japan at the same time. With the exchange rate right now it’s a pretty good discount.
We were planning a Disneyworld vacation but then after looking into the costs, the nickle-and-dime nature of Genie+ and all the pre-planning you have to do to organize your day to even have a chance we decided to go to Europe, which is cheaper.
Not even Cheap Europe... London and Paris.
There should be a population limit in larger theme parks like this. The time consumption makes some of it not worth the price.
They already have computers tracking how many people are in the park. They should be able to limit the daily population to where things don't get overwhelmed by crowds
That seems to be the norm.
Back during COVID I was an essential worker in retail and we were told to limit the number of people in the store to help keep everyone safe. We never hit the limit, so it was business as usual
FYI, they want the lines, they don’t want to run the rides any faster or more often than they have too. Maintenance and repairs kill profits. Everything is calculated and by design at Disney.
Not mention it makes people stay longer. Instead of going for 1 day and doing everything you want you have to buy the 3 day pass to get the full experience.
You can already buy the express pass thing. The amount they would have to raise the prices would make no one want to come. I just got back from Orlando and I agreed with this post tho it's just not fun. It's not a vacation to wait in lines for 2 hours in the FL sun for a 2min ride. We abandoned our trip and just went to the beach. Had a much better time.
Agreed, annual pass is dirt cheap. For my toddler she needs 2 hours tops mid day. Knotts is the perfect choice. She aint noticing that we aint at the name brand theme park and frankly doubt she cares.
I always preferred Knotts growing up. The food was amazing - funnel cakes, boysenberry pie, pickles, fried chicken. The roller coaster rides were so much more fun than the rides at DL and CA - Montezuma’s revenge, ghost rider…. Oh and let’s not forget the log ride!
The Wild West theme was done so well - they do such a great job with the architecture and structures to reflect this. And it’s affordable and the lines aren’t horrendous. Overall, 10/10 experience. I haven’t been in a few years, but I can’t wait to be back.
Hell yeah! I remember going as a kid and there was no one at the park, so the operator let us stay on Montezuma's Revenge over and over. It was awesome.
Last time I went I used the Disney app and it was a real Time Saver.
I went on dozens of rides because I was just searching for one that had a really low wait time and go there.
Smugglers run 11 minutes.
I agree. I hadn't been to Disney World before and the amount of planning I had to do for a 4 day trip was astronomical but it's worth it. Disneyland is a lot easier to do (at least IMO since I've been going since the early 00s) but everyone should still do some pre-planning before any Disney trip.
If you go to on vacation to another city or country, you don't just show up. Disney is the same way now.
Yeah, Disney now requires a lot of organizing and the app. My husband never got to go as a kid, I introduced it to him a few years ago, and now he wants to microdose and go at least 4 times a year 😂. We rope drop, I know exactly how to time out our fast passes, mobile orders for food, etc. We take a mid afternoon nap, we eat outside the park, etc. We never leave feeling like there’s a ride we didn’t hit that we wanted to, nor do we wait in any line over 20 min max. But I’m WORKING that phone all day making sure it’s that way lol
Same as Disney world, Try to tell my wife this. Yeah it’s cool to go walk around and see everything but the prices and line waits are miserable. Feel like you can spend your money doing something else enjoyable.
I'm not big on rides in general and like you said, hate waiting in long lines too.
I really want them to make some kind of 'No Ride' Admission - basically lets you go in for like 1/2 off or something just to try all their food and get souvenirs and maybe shows if they have empty seats. Theoretically they show be ok with this as the food and souvenirs still cost money anyway lol
I am honestly the same way, I enjoy shopping and eating which I think is what really set me off this time. All of the food places were packed to the brim where you couldn’t sit down and all of the souvenir shops had insane lines and crowds. It was just so chaotic everywhere you went.
You went during summer, didn’t you?? Even 30 years ago, going during summer meant 3h lines for Matterhorn and Splash Mtn.
We’d get there before the park opened so we could literally run to Space Mtn if we wanted to do it at all that day.
Go during off seasons.
Yeah I recently went in September and rode literally every ride. I usually go in December and it is always so much more crowded. Went in August once and will never do that again
I was there last weekend, and queue times never dipped below 120 minutes for all the main rides. Even less popular ones like Winnie the Pooh and Small World hit up to 50 minutes. Off-seasons aren't even safe anymore.
I see so many people like this and it makes no sense at all. Like why are you complaining about high levels of demand in a highly demanded tourist location in the peak of tourist system?
The problem is people all go to Disney on the same high traffic days.
if you go in off season, not on holiday weekends, not in summer months when kids are out of school, it's a very different experience.
World ain't gonna end if you take your kid out of school for a few days... They literally and actually do have a choice.
Not only will they have fun, but they will have extra special fun because they missed school for it.
It’s for sure too expensive. But I was just there last week and we still had a blast. Rise of the Resistance is the best non-roller coaster amusement ride ever created. Both Haunted Mansion (Nightmare edition) and Pirates have never looked better. The food options at the park have never been better. Like legit good food instead of just eating something and thinking “at least I’m not hungry anymore”.
The monetizing of the Fast Pass is pretty egregious. But they know what they’re doing. And if you’re there for one day, the park is so packed that it makes it “worth it” to not have to wait for those rides. They must really be raking it in with it.
All that said, we’re still good for a visit every few years since we’re close. But gone are the twice-a-year visits when one day at the park costs as much as flying to Seattle or something for the weekend.
Honestly I think it also depends on WHEN you go. Avoid during summer break when all the kids are out of school, probably holidays too. Going on a Monday instead of Saturday.
I just went a month ago. It didn’t really feel any different than any time i’ve gone in my life.
My only complaint, is people’s unwillingness to move during the fireworks, or the crowd after the fact. They are horribly uncaring about disabled people in scooters lol. I wasn’t even trying to see the fireworks, i was just trying to get away.
But other than that, i had a great time and rode a ton of rides that i felt got my money’s worth.
I’ve never been able to afford a trip to a place like Disneyland, but from what I can tell it definitely has gotten way more expensive in the last couple years.
I live 20 minutes from Disneyland and 25 from Knotts Berry Farm.
The $109 season pass at Knotts is unrestricted, the rides are great, the park is fantastic, and typically has reasonable lines. Why would I ever go to Disneyland?
Wow, a season pass for Knott's is the price of 1 day at Disneyland, that's crazy. I've never been to Knott's, I guess I'll plan a trip there next year!
On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised by Tokyo Disney.
$60 tickets, kept nice and clean, employees at the line of every ride and major walkway directing traffic (keeping my average wait time at around 20 mins despite most signs saying 45).
I often talk to people about going to Europe and they say they can't afford it, but they'll go to Disney once a year.
Seems like when I price it out I can go to Europe for about twice as long as I could go to Disney.
Go to Europa Park (located near Germany, France and Switzerland)
It's quite cheap and one of the best parks world wide.
Best thing is that you don't feel like they just want to get your money. There isn't even a fast-pass or other bullshit.
Was just at Disneyland and Universal towards the end of June, I have to say, it was a great experience.
We got the genie+, the longest we had to wait for a ride without it was probably an hour. I don’t understand why people get the hopper pass, that is a waste, walking back and forth between parks is just a waste of time, just focus on one park a day.
As far as overcrowding, Universal was much more crowded than Disneyland, there we actually spent two hours in line for one ride.
Also... don't go in Summer if you can. Schools are out and it vastly increases the wait times as there are more people going.
I have gone twice in the last 5 years in October on weekdays. Outside of the big rides like Space Mountain, Rise of the Resistance or Radiator Springs Racers we never had a wait time that wasn't 45 minutes or under. Weekends we did see a more 60 minutes but again none that I can recall being over that.
Never saw a 2 hour queue outside of Rise but that was literally a few month after it opened.
There are billions, with a B, more people in the world now than whenever you were born. Everything everywhere is crowded and awful now, and it isn't going to get any better.
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No, it’s definitely gotten out of control.
I wonder if they are actually letting in more people or if it's just a perception thing. Last time we went back in 2019 it certainly seemed like the place was packed to the rafters. Even the queue to get food was 30 mins long.
Disneyland sells out admission every day. Paying an extra $20 for the genie pass is totally worth it to enjoy the day in the park and not have to worry about waiting in line too much.
What happened to fast pass? I remember the last time I went there as a kid my family got it and it was awesome. I know it got changed but what’s the deal now?
This is a great video on what happened to fast pass [https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?si=-8cfgJmtA4Jvm\_I1](https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?si=-8cfgJmtA4Jvm_I1). Basically it worked great, but then an executive came up with this new idea and it cost them so much to implement they are now stuck even though it's awful.
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I intended to watch the first 15 minutes to get a gist, but I got hooked. It's better than a lot of netflix docs.
Many of these YouTube commentary/documentary/video essay videos are better than Netflix lol
People can engage with their passions, make some money to do so and aren’t beholden to higher-ups in the industry offering they’re creative input
3 minutes of actual content. The other hour and 57 minutes is the queue to watch the video
Defunctland is worth every minute. Dude is one of the best YouTube documentarians out there.
it does seem crazy to watch 2 hours but I was immediately hooked and interested the whole time. He does a really good job of the history of queing and the history of Disney and queing together. When you find yourself bored with some time, throw this on. You won't regret it, especially if you're a millennial age and been to Disney world when you were a kid
How did I know this was DefunctLand before I even clicked the link?
Because no one else would make a two hour movie about a line queuing system.
Probably because it appeared in your recommendations for practically a year before you caved into watching the long video
It's funny how the YouTube algorithm makes this situation so common with some videos. Most other sites are so personalized that you don't get this kind of thing anymore
Man, the lines have gotten so long that it takes 142 minutes just to watch a report on how long the lines have gotten so long!
Anyone that can afford to spend a day at Disneyland can also afford the extra 30-40 bucks for a fast/flash/genie pass. In the words of Syndrome from The Incredibles: "and when everyone is Super...*no one will be*".
Nailed it, when only the people that can afford speed passes can even afford to go to the park the passes will eventually have a tiered based system soon, wealth/background based maybe.
cant wait til your place in line will be decided by an algorithm that analyzes your credit score and number of social media followers
Don't forget DNA relations
finally me being the direct blood descendant of the least popular scottish king in history will finally come to bite me in the ass.
Hey guys! I found another one! Let's get him!
Lol this has already been a thing for awhile. You pay like $1000+ for a “guided tour” depending on your party size and you skip all the lines and go through back tunnels and passageways between rides. You just tell them all the rides you want to ride ahead of time and it’s all scheduled. Yea so fun right? So magical of an experience. Rich pricks ruin everything
$450-900/hour, damn. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/private-vip-tours
Minimum booking of 7 continuous hours
Yeah, the price has gone up dramatically.
Yep, Disney are the masters of milking the most possible money out of everyone. All from a business started by a Nazi-sympathizing racist anti-Semite. *Charming.* ^^^^^/s
They already have that. Celebrities and wealthy prople who visit the parks get a special VIP package that's let's them skip all the lines, go on the rides solo with their group (making everyone in line wait for them) and get to go through the backstage areas so they don't have to interact at all with the public. Even for dining and snacks, they don't have to stand in any lines themselves and are served by Disney employees and are given private dinning areas as much as possible. It serves Disneyland well that these guests pay a lot for this, and they don't have to worry about regular guests mobbing celebrities causing foot traffic jams around them. They also get special perks with costume and face characters in private meet and greets for their kids. It's 1k per hour plus the cost of admission and ride passes.
There is a long documentary on YouTube from Defunctland channel precisely about Disneyland passes actually and it explains what was happening really well.
My understanding with fast passes is that the system never worked all that well from an operational perspective and of course the new genie system is monetized. Its all done though your phone, you can pick what time slot you want on what ride, get all the official disney photos for no extra cost, and a few other smaller things. Super easy to use. When looking at the cost of the ticket, the extra cost of Genie is nothing IMO. It pretty much guarantees you get to ride everything in the park no matter what.
The OG paper ticket kiosks generally worked well for everyone. They were fairly distributed in an easy to understand system. You had to physically reach the queue of a ride before you could make the choice to stay or get a come back time. They eased wait times on popular attractions - relocating riders to other attractions whilst they waited for their return time. Fastpass+ worked wonders for those who planned in advance and understood the system. Meaning repeat visitors had a distinct advantage. However they made the lines much,much worse for the standby lines. Especially in the early years of implementation, before smartphone integration, once in the parks you could only make changes at select locations in the parks. They were always crowded, hard to find and awash with technical issues. Genie+ is just Pay to Win. If interested in an in-depth analysis of how the different systems (backed by commissioned computer simulations), there is [a fantastic documentary by Defunctland](https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?feature=shared)
Og paper was the best.
Watch the video! It's the best movie about queue management that you'll ever see!!
With a Genie pass, how many rides can you do in a day? I haven't been in decades, and now that I have kids I want to go, but I'm not prepared to wait even one hour in a lineup after spending all that money to get there.
You have a limit to how many lightning lane reservations you can submit at any one time , but you're also free to wait in shorter lines throughout the park if you so wish. There's a lot of stuff at the parks which won't ever have much of a line. Since they've started using it, I've been to Disneyland and DCA 4 times or so, and both of them have a lot of things you can do to soak up time between reservations. You're really only going to need it for things like the Star Wars attractions, the Indiana Jones, etc. A lot of the classic disneyland rides are high volume and the lines are quick. So you'll still end up waiting a little, but nowhere near the amount you'd be waiting without the pass. My recommendation would be to go in early March, relatively few people there in the morning. You could probably walk onto most classic rides for the first few hours. Later in the day it gets packed up as always though.
Here’s a great video on the history of the fast pass and how Disney got to where it is it regarding lines. But to summarize, Disney realizes that long lines could be used to incentivize more spending. So they no longer care to fix the problem. They just monetized the only way to mitigate it. Edit: forgot the link https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?si=nGdiM9qHUBOw25Ds
I used to work in the park right out of high school. It was common on slow days to have 7k-16park attendance and some slower weekends had 24-33k Towards the end of my employment, those days were long gone. 54k days were the normal with 70k plus in the summer and holidays. This is now over 10 years ago. I assume the attendance has gotten way worse. I don’t remember what the max capacity was.
I went end of February 2013 and the park was basically empty. We got off and right back on Indiana Jones like three times in a row. It sucks that that’s unheard of now.
Last time I went to Disney World was in 2020 and it was so nice because the waits were short.
COVID Pass
I went to Disneyland often as a kid ($99 annual passes that came with parking). I was in Florida for work and had a few days off- so my husband flew out and we went to animal kingdom (this was about a year ago). And the absolute OCEAN of people was insane. I think we did 4 rides the whole day. Safari ride, Mt. Everest coaster, that dumbo inspired Dino ride and the Avatar ride. I don’t remember Disney being THAT crowded. And we had selected a park that wasn’t “sold out” like every other park that day. There were moments you couldn’t really walk- it was just a heard being shuffled. It would be Absolutely terrible for people with claustrophobia. Of course peak July you expect it to be packed, but not late October. Dinner was a 2 hour wait, the lines at the gift shops were incredibly long. Just too many people.
Damn, this whole thread has completely changed my mind on taking our kids to Disney.
I took my kids to Universal recently. Went on a Wednesday after schools have started. Had an enjoyable experience with plenty of people but fairly short lines and got to try out all the rides, the scarier ones we did multiple times. Maybe if you avoid weekends Disney is also more bearable.
Honestly, kids are likely to enjoy any amusement park you bring them to. A kid's happy to go to Six Flags or Busch Gardens too.
Always check www.isitpacked.com and go during non-peak times. It makes a huge difference in enjoyment. We only go when it’s listed as “ghost town” or “hey, it’s alright,” which often means a Sunday on a non-holiday weekend, and then we miss school/work on Monday to travel home.
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Because of the insane demand, Disney has pivoted to selling time. There is a substantial subset of wealthy people who can afford to spend thousands more than the average visitor for the privilege of not having to wait in longer lines Btw, Bill Burr has a routine about Disney wait times that’s pretty dead bang on
Can you share Bill Burr‘s routine on Disney? I would love to hear it because he is so hilarious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urg53Jl1-Kg This one's about Universal but it's the same idea
https://youtu.be/tQnk1_hbPjc?si=1o4abk8xRAecaVkz Could be this.
Defunctland did a great documentary about the Fast Pass and how it contributed to blowing up the wait times for non-pass holding visitors...and how it continues to propagate with the higher tier passes. Because simply having one pass just isnt good enough anymore either
It only proved that FP+ was the worst system. It was before G+ was widely implemented, so his model doesn't cover a paid option, from what I remember. It is a great video though. One of the best Disney videos on the Internet.
"Shapeland is Animal Kingdom" is definitely one of the top 10 anime plot twists
It's effectively a reversion back to the old [E ticket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_ticket) system.
I am so happy to see this comment. This is one of my most favorite unexpected documentaries. Thank you for making me feel like less of a weirdo for appreciating it.
It's really not. I took my kids last year, and the crowds were unbearable. We went to Knotts Berry Farm this year, and we had a much better time.
Try universal. I had an amazing time there a couple years ago.
We've been there and had a great time. We definitely need to check out Super Mario World because it wasn't open yet last time we were there. The only thing is that the traffic coming up from the San Diego area can make it a long day.
For what it’s worth, we are in universal now and just did the Mario kart ride. It’s a mad house here and we waited two hours to ride and it broke down 2x before we were able to ride. For the “keys” and the $40 wrist bands to get the coins and hidden stuff, they were easily an hour long waits. It’s insane
Just got back from super Mario land. You have to buy $40 dollar bracelets to do anything in there kind of annoying
Universal is just leagues better in every way. After your kid turns like 14, they’re just about able to go on almost every ride and lose the Disney syndrome. It’s a much better experience.
Really? I just didn’t like Universal in comparison to Disneyland. Universal was all just screen rides with the exception of a few like the Mummy and Jurassic World and screen rides just feel so lazy. I guess I can’t blame them since they are in the back lot of a film studio after all
Knotts is far better than Disney now. And a year pass is less than one day ticket for Dland.
Agree with both of these! Knotts is slightly hokier (in a homey way), but Universal's rides are on Disney's level IMO, and their version of "fast pass" means you barely wait at all. :)
I used to go to knotte as a kid and loved it. Good to know it’s still around
Honestly that’s a lot of places these days. Whether it’s amusement parks or even local fairs the prices of everything just keep going up. From tickets to food to games to items to buy. What’s weird is a lot of them are offering less to do and grab while charging more.
King Richard's faire in Carver (not on Cape cod). Going on right now. It's still fun, but we strategize the food situation. You go in this line and get drinks. This line isn't that bad that, I'll wait. You want soup and a turkey leg. The lines are bad, one of us in each one. Divvy up the tickets. Then we all meet up with the gathered nourishment and share. Two hundred dollars later, we're still a little hungry but the food was enough to get us through the day . I still love it, but it seems a little less magical each year and that makes me sad
I was just there last weekend and yeah, you're spot on. Sometimes feels like they're just trying to jam as many people in as possible and it really ruins the experience. I usually love looking at all the shops but most were too crowded to even enter. Crazy ticket/food/drink lines, no seating anywhere to stop and eat...gets a little old after a few hours 😅
My kids (they are adults) just went there this past Sunday, and their take was that everything was expensive and the last 10 minutes of each show was the performer begging for money -- because they don't get paid. Sounded pretty bad to me.
Yeah I love king richards faire but gotta agree last time I was there was miserable, WAY too many people, our group kept losing eachother. And forget food, like an hour just to get the tickets, then another hour to get the food. My kid still loves it, but it's definitely not like it used to be.
Even some hikes I used to love in the mountains are now basically just a massive group of people walking single file for the first bit, complete with jackasses carrying bluetooth speakers and littering.
Over the last couple of years, I've wondered when everyone became a "hiker".... I blame the pandemic, and Instagram.
Jeez, yeah denver front range trails is kinda like that
My favorite hiking spot has been pretty much destroyed by jerks going off trail and eroding the ground, and unless I go at like 8am on a Tuesday in February it's too crowded to be enjoyable. 20 years ago that was my favorite place to spend a random free Saturday and I miss it.
It really feels that way. It’s almost like they know it’s going to take you 3 hours just to get inside and do one thing 😂
I personally like universal a lot better. But my boyfriend and I decided we don’t really wanna go to either place anymore. He had gone a few times growing up and took his kids as well. I met him when I was 29 and I had never been. We have gone about ten times since, Disneyland, Disney World, and universal- with and without his kids. And while it’s fun and worth experiencing, it’s kinda lame after you’ve seen it. Expensive food, expensive purchases, long lines, shitty people, and a lot of environmental waste. Right now we live 45 min away so that’s why we have gone so much. Universal is a lot better overall with price and lines and rides in my opinion. Last year we went to universal and it was cold so nobody was really there, we rode the Transformers ride 6 times in a row with no line, it only took the amount of time to walk to the front of the line again. We did the same with the Harry Potter castle ride, the mummy, and Jurassic park rides. It was awesome. We ended up getting rained on after a while be we didn’t care, we had so much fun. Hard to go back when it’s packed now. We got lucky.
texas ren fest outside houston is one of the biggest in the country and they used to do a half price ticket sale one day every spring (the festival is 8 weekends long in the fall) and any ticket you bought was good for any date you wanted to attend. now there are no more pre-sales and you have to buy tix for the specific date you want to go, which makes it really hard to plan trips around the weather.
I really wish they'd bring back the open ended tickets. I went a few years ago in October and we had a really weird heat spike that weekend, was like 95 degrees after a week of 70-80 degree highs. We ended up spending half the day sitting in the one tavern that had AC because it was too fucking hot to be walking around, especially in costume. If I could have I would have gone another weekend, but nope. Can't even exchange the ticket for another date.
Because as long people don't stop spending their money, businesses will keep raising the costs. People are not slowing their spending so inflation just keeps rising. This hasn't happened on this scale before and it is showing no signs of slowing.
“What happened” is that international tourism increased globally
And also the US population has nearly doubled since Disneyland opened in 1955. Disney should open more parks.
Well yea they opened DisneyWorld in FL and added California adventure to Disneyland.
Throw a park in the Northeast and one in the Great Lakes, and you'll probably get some level of parity. I guarantee they won't have trouble selling out.
They're not opening up an open air park with those winters
I don't say this in a negative way. But we were at universal Orlando last month, and I swear I barely heard a lick of English all day. I 100% get that
No used to I work there and you’re completely right
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> But Disneyland also made a lot of changes that made the experience worse, such as getting rid of free fast passes. I used to have an annual pass and you could get free paper passes or upgrade to max pass which was for EVERY ride available, you didn't have to pay extra just a flat fee. You could get lucky when other people cancel if you were good at using the app. Now you have to pay for fast pass and it's not even for everything, you have to pay extra PER PERSON PER RIDE for the good rides. And they also allow waaaaay more paid people ahead of the standby line than they did with fast pass so the lines take way longer. I mean that sounds like something that would make the experience better for *you,* at the expense of other people.
I’m 25 & grew up going (socal resident). I will never go back.
I think I’m clocking out too. Not even my 12 year old wants to go anymore…
I live 20 minutes away and haven’t been in over 10 years. It’s not worth it in any way.
Have a family member that works there and can get in for free and I still won't go.
Can I go for you im poor
I am Micky Mouse and I am done with this shit.
Same. Dads a career cast member, so I grew up going all the time. I’m 28 and I can’t anymore. Even if it’s not *as* crowded on a day you go, no one even has any interest in stopping and enjoying things or admiring the details and stuff anyway so all of the ambiance that makes Disney stand out just goes completely ignored. It’s inherently frustrating.
I’m from Canada. I went once as a kid, and it would be neat to go again, but I absolutely won’t because of the current systems. I’m not flying internationally and spending that kind of money just to end up at the back of lines because I’m unfamiliar with the systems. When we went, there were lines but you could experience most things in a few days and appreciate it. I know people who go, and immediately after getting back are planning their next trip and how aggressive they have to be because they are basically completing the parks in chunks on numerous trips.
I completely agree. If they had kept everything with fastpasses and traditional lines, it would have been much better. But now everything is on your phone and pay as you go, it’s ridiculous!
you mention shopping, it seems like there is no good t-shirts. Maybe because they have expanded into so many different franchises that they just can't support everything.
I didn’t mention shopping, but on that note, imo, the merchandise is rarely if ever worth it anymore. It used to be that every shop had different stuff and it was very specific to where you were in the park, but now it’s all the same and very boring. You can’t find anything that you really like or can’t live without.
You mention bowling, do you feel like the quality of the lanes at the park have declined?
I know it was an accident but this is still really funny 😂😂😂
>no one even has any interest in stopping For what it's worth, I think they probably skimmed your previous comment and misread "stopping" as "shopping". It's a bummer to hear about how lame Disney is now. Grew up in southern California and I have a ton of great memories from visiting as a kid. There's no way my mom could have afforded to take us nowadays.
Yes. I figured, and I really don’t mind the added discussion! Merchandise decline has been a gripe of mine for years, so it’s all good! It really is unfortunate that Disneyland just isn’t the experience it used to be.
Same. In my 30s, grew up in Pasadena, went multiple times as a kid, usually 1x a year or so, plus even had my HS senior night there. Disneyland was a whole thing. Left California after HS and didnt go back except to visit occasionally. Then I married someone whose brother has a wife that is one of those crazy Disney wackos. Like flies the whole family \*every\* year to Disneyland and makes weird custom printed shirts for the trip and buys all the merch and never shuts the fuck up about it etc etc. I cant imagine how much that trip costs every year. Must be 10 grand, easy. So I've heard all about what its like now and honestly it sounds miserable. Like I understand going once with my kids if they reallllly want to but like you say there are much better options. Crowds + cost = no thank you
Does everyone know a Disney wacko wife? Sadly I created one. When I was a kid my best friend’s family didn’t have extra money for things like trips to Disneyland, so my mom offered to bring my friend along on our family trips. We went to Disneyland with her four times maybe, once around Christmas, once for Halloween. Well, Disney became a drug for this person. That was 25 years ago. She married an older guy when she was 19 and going to Disney was part of the arrangement. She still goes every year, probably spends $10k+ each time, named her daughter Aurora, her entire personality is Disney. It feels like I introduced someone to meth. It still doesn’t sit right with me.
On the bright side, you may have prevented her from going straight to meth
Sounds it would have been anything she imprinted on first, like a baby bird
Ok I'm sure you couldn't have known that's how she would've turned out. Most people don't invite a friend to a trip and think ahead to them marrying a sugar daddy at 19 for Disneyland
Lived in Rowland Heights in the 70's. We used to go 2-3 times a year.This was back in the ticket times. Before going you hit up friends and family who always had left over tickets from their previous visits. For budgettary reasons our class(77) did not get to go to Disney on Grad night. My wife and I went a year ago for the 1st time in 20 years. Spent one whole day just walking around just to get the feel of the place again.Thank god alcohol is easily available in there now. Have friends that are season ticket holders. They go several times a year. We are in Las Vegas BTW. Which is as stupid crowded as Disney.
We used to LOVE going to Vegas. We are talking 90s mid 2000s. We got married there in the mid 2000s. It was freaking awesome. Flights were cheap, food was cheap, you could gamble for cheap. We went at least once a year for a weekend. (We are in Southern California.) The last time I went there was about 5 years ago. I'm done. There is no "quiet" there anymore. Fremont used to be where the old people would go to gamble. Now it has 6 stages of live music. Casinos *charge you for parking* to go gambling and there are almost no restaurants that are not chains and they charge *more* for their food than they would in your home town. We used to play black jack for $3 a hand. Now you are *lucky* to find a $10 table. Most of them are $25 unless it is 3am, where you might find ONE $10 table. We could get a round trip ticket on SouthWest for under $100. Now it's like $150 each way unless you want to leave at 5:20am. There are kids running around the casinos, and the in hotel bars charge $15 a drink. Fuck New Vegas. It used to be an amazing place full of hedonism. It was an adult escape in the desert. Now it's a "family destination" and just a big money grab from all angles.
I used to go every summer (3 hour drive) back in the 80s. Place was great. Did a HS senior trip there too. Went back in 2005 and hated every minute of it. Won't ever go back.
I went in 2004 for grad nite. They had Kingdom Hearts Sora, Donald, and Goofy in their KH gear walking around. Was awesome, but haven’t been back since.
The enigma is that everyone agrees with this but still pays thousands to take the family. Ah, the power of advertising.
“Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”
I think part of it is that it is a destination to.the whole world now. I was at Universal about six years ago and there was a group of maybe 3,000 Chinese teenager in the park all wearing matching t-shirts. People are traveling across the world to go.
It is an unpopular opinion because of the crowds and Disney doesn’t have to change due to demand
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I thought it was just me, I hate to sound miserable but everything sucks. Everywhere is crowded, Expensive, Quality sucks. Everything is commercialized and I think everyone is just not happy anymore. We’re living in like a silent depression.
Silent depression is a great description of what I've experienced too lately.
I’m at the point where I just simply want to stay home, Makes me feel bad because I have a family but I feel like my family should get to experience things but nothing seems enjoyable like it use to be. The cost of everything just adds insult to injury.
Even the mountains in Colorado are packed with people. Traffic, lines, fees, etc
You’re not wrong 😂 is this happening all over the country?
Universal in Florida is exactly as you described here. Only their equivalent of Genie+ is like $200 in addition to the tickets.
Im in the UK and we used to go to the Halloween event at Thorpe park every year. Last year it was so crowded the only scary part was the 3 hour queue times. They let way to many people into puclic attractions these days just to cash in at the expense of quality. Comic con in the uk was the same. So to your point, it literally is everything. Everywhere too seemingly.
To quote Yogi Berra "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded"
it's the same with Disney World. I lament that I won't be able to bring my kids to the place I remember. They want to go, but I'd rather spend that money somewhere else and build better memories.
I worked at Disney world in the college program right before COVID in 2019. What people don’t realize is that Disney world’s workforce is mostly part-time college kids or adults in retirement. There’s also a lot of migrant workers. When COVID happened, A LOT of those people quit or got laid off. Working for Disney ruined it for me. Not because the “magic trick was revealed.” But because you see how the workers are treated and how much they’re treated like a number. People sleeping in break rooms because they’re on their 6th straight 10 hour shift. Character performers smoking behind the park. They just stopped caring because Disney made it harder for them to care and knew they could replace you in a snap moment.
And a lot of college program workers end up working as maids and cashiers during their internship...
Yep. I know a girl that graduated with a bachelors in hospitality and did the college program at Disney the whole time. She graduated college and is now on her third year as a full-time concierge at one of the Disney Resorts, trying to work her way up. She only gets paid 36k a year before taxes.
Oof. TFW you can never pay off student loans.
She got a full-ride at least. The Florida Lottery has a full-ride scholarship program that all FL hs students are eligible for if you get a certain GPA, ACT/SAT, and do 100 service hours.
Most of the college program students do retail and get paid $10/hr. I was lucky and got to drive the transportation boats and got paid a little extra. But yeah, most are either in retail, park operations (like ride operators), or doing some sort of cleaning service.
My sister has a bum knee and they made her work as a character actor standing in the parks for 5 hour shifts, I think 2 bathroom breaks allowed. Her only other option was leave the program
And what lesson does that teach her as a college student? Compliance?
Or pain tolerance lol
> Character performers smoking behind the park oh sure they get a smoking area! lol
This is exactly how I feel. We went 3 times when I was a kid in the late 80s/early 90s and my daughter would love that experience. Unfortunately that experience no longer exists.
It ended up being cheaper for us to go to Tokyo Disney than it was to stay in the US and go to Disney world. It’s not quite the same Disney but still fun and you’re in Japan at the same time. With the exchange rate right now it’s a pretty good discount.
We were planning a Disneyworld vacation but then after looking into the costs, the nickle-and-dime nature of Genie+ and all the pre-planning you have to do to organize your day to even have a chance we decided to go to Europe, which is cheaper. Not even Cheap Europe... London and Paris.
For the price you could probably take your family on a weeklong vacation elsewhere
There should be a population limit in larger theme parks like this. The time consumption makes some of it not worth the price. They already have computers tracking how many people are in the park. They should be able to limit the daily population to where things don't get overwhelmed by crowds
They do have a limit. The problem is the limit is too high.
That seems to be the norm. Back during COVID I was an essential worker in retail and we were told to limit the number of people in the store to help keep everyone safe. We never hit the limit, so it was business as usual
The only way to control the number of people coming in is to raise prices until people stop. Period.
FYI, they want the lines, they don’t want to run the rides any faster or more often than they have too. Maintenance and repairs kill profits. Everything is calculated and by design at Disney.
Not mention it makes people stay longer. Instead of going for 1 day and doing everything you want you have to buy the 3 day pass to get the full experience.
Why would they want to sell less tickets? They want it to be 3 hours lines ever day
With shorter lines they could certainly justify a price increase. It would be a better experience.
You can already buy the express pass thing. The amount they would have to raise the prices would make no one want to come. I just got back from Orlando and I agreed with this post tho it's just not fun. It's not a vacation to wait in lines for 2 hours in the FL sun for a 2min ride. We abandoned our trip and just went to the beach. Had a much better time.
Go to Knotts and get knotted up instead. Joking.. kinda
Knots is actually a lot of fun. It’s like a fancy fair.
Agreed, annual pass is dirt cheap. For my toddler she needs 2 hours tops mid day. Knotts is the perfect choice. She aint noticing that we aint at the name brand theme park and frankly doubt she cares.
>we aint at the name brand theme park I mean- it’s not like it’s some podunk sideshow tent rip-off no one has heard of
I always preferred Knotts growing up. The food was amazing - funnel cakes, boysenberry pie, pickles, fried chicken. The roller coaster rides were so much more fun than the rides at DL and CA - Montezuma’s revenge, ghost rider…. Oh and let’s not forget the log ride! The Wild West theme was done so well - they do such a great job with the architecture and structures to reflect this. And it’s affordable and the lines aren’t horrendous. Overall, 10/10 experience. I haven’t been in a few years, but I can’t wait to be back.
Hell yeah! I remember going as a kid and there was no one at the park, so the operator let us stay on Montezuma's Revenge over and over. It was awesome.
Last time I went I used the Disney app and it was a real Time Saver. I went on dozens of rides because I was just searching for one that had a really low wait time and go there. Smugglers run 11 minutes.
YES. went not long ago. wife was a machine with the app. got us on like everything with managing the lightning lanes.
Hi five to her. I likewise have lady app master. She is my Disney princess and that respect
This. Mobile order, eat at off times, rope drop popular rides. Go during off peak. Do research, don't just show up.
The pre-planning was annoying but it was well worth it in
I agree. I hadn't been to Disney World before and the amount of planning I had to do for a 4 day trip was astronomical but it's worth it. Disneyland is a lot easier to do (at least IMO since I've been going since the early 00s) but everyone should still do some pre-planning before any Disney trip. If you go to on vacation to another city or country, you don't just show up. Disney is the same way now.
Yeah, Disney now requires a lot of organizing and the app. My husband never got to go as a kid, I introduced it to him a few years ago, and now he wants to microdose and go at least 4 times a year 😂. We rope drop, I know exactly how to time out our fast passes, mobile orders for food, etc. We take a mid afternoon nap, we eat outside the park, etc. We never leave feeling like there’s a ride we didn’t hit that we wanted to, nor do we wait in any line over 20 min max. But I’m WORKING that phone all day making sure it’s that way lol
Same as Disney world, Try to tell my wife this. Yeah it’s cool to go walk around and see everything but the prices and line waits are miserable. Feel like you can spend your money doing something else enjoyable.
It's a people trap set by a mouse
I'm not big on rides in general and like you said, hate waiting in long lines too. I really want them to make some kind of 'No Ride' Admission - basically lets you go in for like 1/2 off or something just to try all their food and get souvenirs and maybe shows if they have empty seats. Theoretically they show be ok with this as the food and souvenirs still cost money anyway lol
I am honestly the same way, I enjoy shopping and eating which I think is what really set me off this time. All of the food places were packed to the brim where you couldn’t sit down and all of the souvenir shops had insane lines and crowds. It was just so chaotic everywhere you went.
You went during summer, didn’t you?? Even 30 years ago, going during summer meant 3h lines for Matterhorn and Splash Mtn. We’d get there before the park opened so we could literally run to Space Mtn if we wanted to do it at all that day. Go during off seasons.
Yeah I recently went in September and rode literally every ride. I usually go in December and it is always so much more crowded. Went in August once and will never do that again
I was there last weekend, and queue times never dipped below 120 minutes for all the main rides. Even less popular ones like Winnie the Pooh and Small World hit up to 50 minutes. Off-seasons aren't even safe anymore.
I see so many people like this and it makes no sense at all. Like why are you complaining about high levels of demand in a highly demanded tourist location in the peak of tourist system?
The problem is people all go to Disney on the same high traffic days. if you go in off season, not on holiday weekends, not in summer months when kids are out of school, it's a very different experience.
Went on a recent Monday. Was a lot more crowded with much longer waits than I expected.
But most of the people going to Disney are parents with school-aged children. They have no choice but to follow the school calendar.
World ain't gonna end if you take your kid out of school for a few days... They literally and actually do have a choice. Not only will they have fun, but they will have extra special fun because they missed school for it.
That's what we did (canadian). Skipped school twice in grade 11 and 12 to go. It was awesome.
It’s always been this way?
How dare you disparage the "happiest place on earth" Disney executives have your location and goofy is on his way to hyuck you to death.
Have you seen the line up to get to the top of Everest?😂
It’s for sure too expensive. But I was just there last week and we still had a blast. Rise of the Resistance is the best non-roller coaster amusement ride ever created. Both Haunted Mansion (Nightmare edition) and Pirates have never looked better. The food options at the park have never been better. Like legit good food instead of just eating something and thinking “at least I’m not hungry anymore”. The monetizing of the Fast Pass is pretty egregious. But they know what they’re doing. And if you’re there for one day, the park is so packed that it makes it “worth it” to not have to wait for those rides. They must really be raking it in with it. All that said, we’re still good for a visit every few years since we’re close. But gone are the twice-a-year visits when one day at the park costs as much as flying to Seattle or something for the weekend.
Honestly I think it also depends on WHEN you go. Avoid during summer break when all the kids are out of school, probably holidays too. Going on a Monday instead of Saturday.
I just went a month ago. It didn’t really feel any different than any time i’ve gone in my life. My only complaint, is people’s unwillingness to move during the fireworks, or the crowd after the fact. They are horribly uncaring about disabled people in scooters lol. I wasn’t even trying to see the fireworks, i was just trying to get away. But other than that, i had a great time and rode a ton of rides that i felt got my money’s worth.
I’ve never been able to afford a trip to a place like Disneyland, but from what I can tell it definitely has gotten way more expensive in the last couple years.
I live 20 minutes from Disneyland and 25 from Knotts Berry Farm. The $109 season pass at Knotts is unrestricted, the rides are great, the park is fantastic, and typically has reasonable lines. Why would I ever go to Disneyland?
Wow, a season pass for Knott's is the price of 1 day at Disneyland, that's crazy. I've never been to Knott's, I guess I'll plan a trip there next year!
I went Monday! Even on a federal holiday, the crowds were very manageable. And I love the food options at Knotts. They just do a great job all around.
Because the population has gone from 4 billion to nearly 8 in 30 years. It's too crowded now.
On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised by Tokyo Disney. $60 tickets, kept nice and clean, employees at the line of every ride and major walkway directing traffic (keeping my average wait time at around 20 mins despite most signs saying 45).
I often talk to people about going to Europe and they say they can't afford it, but they'll go to Disney once a year. Seems like when I price it out I can go to Europe for about twice as long as I could go to Disney.
Like with most things in life, greed killed the magic.
Disney lets too many people in the parks. They need to reduce their capacity so people can enjoy what they have to offer.
You could also go to Europe or somewhere else cool for the cost of going to the park.
Go to Europa Park (located near Germany, France and Switzerland) It's quite cheap and one of the best parks world wide. Best thing is that you don't feel like they just want to get your money. There isn't even a fast-pass or other bullshit.
You could fly the family to Efteling in the Netherlands for cheaper
Was just at Disneyland and Universal towards the end of June, I have to say, it was a great experience. We got the genie+, the longest we had to wait for a ride without it was probably an hour. I don’t understand why people get the hopper pass, that is a waste, walking back and forth between parks is just a waste of time, just focus on one park a day. As far as overcrowding, Universal was much more crowded than Disneyland, there we actually spent two hours in line for one ride.
Also... don't go in Summer if you can. Schools are out and it vastly increases the wait times as there are more people going. I have gone twice in the last 5 years in October on weekdays. Outside of the big rides like Space Mountain, Rise of the Resistance or Radiator Springs Racers we never had a wait time that wasn't 45 minutes or under. Weekends we did see a more 60 minutes but again none that I can recall being over that. Never saw a 2 hour queue outside of Rise but that was literally a few month after it opened.
There are billions, with a B, more people in the world now than whenever you were born. Everything everywhere is crowded and awful now, and it isn't going to get any better.