APs -- How do you keep that excited Disney feeling over multiple trips?

Walt Disney World
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So my current (tentative) plan is to get myself an AP for the 50th anniversary year. I would probably be looking at one longer trip with family and then 3-5 long weekends solo. Going multiple times in a year would be a major change for me. I’ve been lucky enough to go to WDW a bunch, but it’s always been with a 2-or-3 year gap in between. I did back-to-back trips in December 2018 & 2019, and even that felt strange – like I’d just left and was already coming back.

I’m worried that some of the “specialness” of a Disney trip will be lost if I’m coming every few months. Even my trip in 2019 felt a little more old hat, since I was seeing the same Christmas decorations as the year before, eating at the same booths as the year before, etc.

So what do you do to keep that Disney excitement going over multiple trips in a year? Do you plan a different focus for certain trips than others? Make sure to do something new every time? I’m irrationally worried that if I go too much I won’t love it the way I do now – tell me I’m wrong, liners! :grin:

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Hi @dunegirl! How exciting! I don’t often have an AP but when I do I plan out long weekends for “events”. I love Flower and Garden, so I will plan a long weekend in April or May (depending on Easter), the fall I plan the Halloween party or Food and Wine and a trip over to Universal for HHNs. Have you ever been to the Festival of the Arts?

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I have not but it looks like so much fun! I think I’d try to hit Arts and Flower & Garden for sure – I’ve not been to either.

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I’m sorry. This does not compute.

No seriously. Not an issue.

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Back when I had an AP, I enjoyed “no repeat dining” trips. All my meals would be at restaurants that I had never visited before, or had major menu changes.(except bars) Committing to the challenge, forced me to have new experiences.

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We went a little crazy after buying DVC and went 4 times that year, since then we have been doing 3 trips/year even though we said our plan would be twice yearly.
I was also worried we would get sick of it, but honestly there is just so much to see and do. We have made it a goal to do something we really liked from last trip as well as something new each trip, whether it is a different ride, character, meal, etc to keep experiencing new things, which honestly will likely be easier during the anniversary year with so many new rides and celebrations starting.
We have also felt like more trips have kept some of the stress off. Our first trip we didn’t know when we would return so I felt like we needed to squeeze as much in as possible, and it was really disappointed if we fell behind schedule. The more we have gone, the less stressful it has been because we now decide what the priority is to do/see and then the rest is just bonus and what we are feeling in the moment.

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I’ve been fortunate that every trip with my AP has had something “new”. July - I hadn’t been in 5 years - Avatar. September- first F&W Festival, SWGE (plus first time on SDD, because we never got to it in July), January - ROTR, enjoying time with my 6 y.o. niece. Next up April - Flower & Garden Festival, MMRR, Earth Day at Animal Kingdom. I have enjoyed every trip! (Even though I got sick 2/3 of them :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)

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You’re wrong.
I’ve lost count how many times we have been and it’s still magical. There are always new things being added–rides, shows, special event, restaurants. Sometimes we travel with other family members or friends which can be exciting (usually :rofl:). The great thing about an AP is that we don’t feel the need to always do RD to closing (sometimes we do). We don’t freak out if we don’t get a certain FPP because there is always another trip coming up. It’s more relaxing.
Enjoy that AP!!

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I had the same concern before getting my AP. If I go enough, the excitement fades, it all becomes all hum drum, boring, routine, and yadda yadda yadda… and with me not being a major ride advocate, it was even more of a concern.

The good news it’s not a major issue. I won’t say it’s exactly the same excitement I had the first time I went, but with so much to do, you can go several times in consecutive months, and still find new things to do. And then there’s just the joy of just “being there.” Everyone (well almost everyone) is so dang nice and it’s a nice pause from the real world. There’s a reason why it’s called “the bubble.”

The biggest lament I’ve had, because of multiple trips, is I’ve lost the “I hope this goes as I expect” feeling. I now KNOW it’s going to be exactly what I’m expecting.

And the hardest part I’ve found is every time I go I want to do it all, in fact, I want to do even more each time. And sometimes that conflicts, badly. For example, I want to spend a morning relaxing in the hotel…buuuut I also want to spend the morning in MK. It also conflicts with my wallet.

While there is so much to do, I tend to gravitate toward the things I like the most. Which can be a bit of a problem because that’s when the up charges start “making sense” because they allow you to enjoy those things that you really enjoyed with little hassle. “7DMT was pretty fun… but that line… oh, $100 for a DAH (remember you get a discount)? SURRRRE!!!” :rofl:

Get it, use it, and enjoy. Worst possible case scenario? You DO go several times, and you do get bored. But the thing still has paid for itself and you answer the question that you had definitively. :slight_smile:

For me, this will mark the 3rd year running I’ve renewed and I’m not even on the fence about it.

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I love this idea. We do tend to go back to our favorites over & over, at the expense of trying new dining.

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This was exactly what I was worried about!

Well . . . except for the fact that all those extra trips probably wouldn’t happen without the AP. So I’m not sure “has paid for itself” is really something I can tell myself truthfully. But, shhhhhhhhhh – I like your way of thinking about it way better. And to be honest I’m not one to worry about having “wasted money” on an AP after the fact. It’s more the emotional than the financial aspect of going so often that had me worried. But I think everyone on this thread has convinced me it’s not going to be a real problem!

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I just wrapped up my first ever year on an AP. I understand where you are coming from. After having multiple trips before this I was worried about how the frequency would change my perception of the parks. I can say that for me it definitely did change the way I looked at it. Honestly, a little bit of the “specialness” of going to WDW was starting to wear off by the end. But, at the same time, the level of comfort grew so much more. I had become fairly comfortable before the AP, but being able to walk around and not stress about getting on a certain ride, or doing a certain thing made it so much more enjoyable. I could just catch something I missed on the next trip. Sure there were some things that were seasonal you had to catch, but it allowed me that flexibility to catch them. It really became so much more enjoyable to stop and check out some of the other details that make this place what it is. So, even though the special feeling of being able to go was fading a little. The special feeling of being there did not, it grew for me and my family.

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When I was a kid, we briefly went multiple times a year with APs for a few years in a row. It was wonderful. You lose the pressure to see every single attraction every day and you just enjoy being in the parks. You can soak up the atmosphere and really relax. You’ll spend more time doing the things you love compared to the things you feel like you “need to” --it was the exact opposite of a packed day, running from rope drop to the kiss goodnight.

Some will tell you I missed out on “real travel” … Well, agree to disagree. My one regret about it is that it profoundly changed my relationship with the parks in a way that is now too expensive for me to provide for my own kid. Despite being far more financially stable than my parents were, the parks are just really expensive now.

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This is a very good point as well – I always tell myself “this trip, we’ll make more time to do the streetmosphere, etc., that we usually walk past on our way to another ride” . . . and then every time that stuff gets cut because it’s just so hard to miss a headliner in favor of something “smaller.” With an AP I should finally be able to force myself to stop and smell the roses a bit!

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As someone who used to go about every 4-5 years, then suddenly had a child who did the Disney College Program twice, then stayed for a couple of years as a CM, thus I was going all the time to drop the kid off, pick the kid up, then visit the kid…

I’ve never had the problem of getting excited for every trip.
In fact, having a trip to plan kept me in a state of pseudo-anticipation-euphoria,
which I realized was missing from my life when there was a period where I
had no trip planned, after always having at least one (and at one point 3!)
trips to look forward to. (I know, I know, first-world problems…)
But the “let down” was real, and once I realized why it was there.
It taught me not to connect my “happiness” to a theme park. :wink:

Anyway, there is one thing that did change:
I no longer had to do everything on every trip, and I actually (gasp!)
didn’t do RD a few times. (“We’ll get to that next time.”)

Yeah, I got spoiled rotten.

One thing I learned is that AK became my 2nd favorite park because
I spent a couple of days just enjoying all the animals, and observing
the stellar entertainment & exhibits without rushing to all the rides.
I highly recommend trying that.

I also learned to appreciate the live entertainment that much more,
especially in MK. The Main St. Philharmonic & Dapper Dans are
now favs of mine.

I hope to retire to FL in a couple of years, and have an AP.
I’ll probably have a better answer for you then, because it’s a
great question. I do wonder if living there and having an AP
will reduce the “special” aspect of it. I don’t think it will, as
there is so much to do there. But one never knows.

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I got my first AP when I had to travel to WDW, now I live in Orlando and, while things are different, it’s still exciting and fun to go to the parks. I do miss out a little bit on the planning phase (no more planning spreadsheets :disappointed_relieved:) but I don’t miss out on the planning stress.

As everyone else has said, it’s so much more relaxed. I do what I feel like and can indulge a lot of wandering and people watching which would never, ever have fit into one of my plans. It’s also fun to find your spots - those places you go when you know you need a break from the crowd, some of the quiet places that I easily missed when I was bolting from attraction to attraction.

Even when I had to travel with my AP I made several trips a year and I never got bored. But I’ve also worked in the parks, so maybe I’m not your best reference point.