This is me, exactly. I have enjoyed planning like crazy for the last decade, but now I just want more flexibility. We just got back from 11 nights in Orlando, 3 at Universal and the rest at Disney. The Universal part was fabulous: express passes mean do what you want, when you want. No need for ADRs booked 6 months in advance, and yet still eat at top restaurants. We left Universal on Saturday afternoon to head to WDW, and I felt so trapped that afternoon/evening. My teen was not feeling well, but we had all sorts of things planned in advance that we didn’t want to miss and were not exactly easy to reschedule. She rallied and we were able to keep all our plans…FPP at HS including watching F!, dinner at my kids’ favorite Disney restaurant Sci-Fi, and tickets to After Hours at HS that cost me $300 on top of regular tickets. We were locked in I was not happy about it. There is just no flexibility to change plan without either losing money, or disrupting other days plans. At this point I just want to pay more and be able to do whatever, whenever. The answer to this is of course joining Club 33 with 16 unlimited FPP a day and any ADR you want day of…but I’d like to think there is an option that meets in the middle somewhere. I don’t really want to pay more, but dang I want some flexibility in our trips without missing out on the things we want to do.
You should see the prices for Lady Gaga!!!
Personally, I think Disney is more like expensive Apple iPhones than Las Vegas. Price fatigue will eventually set in.
LOL yeah…only in movies fortunately… 
I hope so, I really wish one day I’ll be able to visit Disney with real low crowds !!!
Yeah. Well, we’ve all but abandoned iPhone in our household. My wife and daughter still use iPhones, but my daughter gets my wife’s older one when my wife gets a brand new TWO YEAR OLD iphone that hasn’t sold yet in order to afford it. But I can buy 3 or 4 brand new Moto G phones for the price of a new (current) iPhone!
Still love all my Apple products and Disney too–both still worth the price for the quality!
Yeah, but when my son was 2, his other favorite thing was the buses! Where else can i find hotels with pools AND buses? 
How many years ago you paid that for Pop and tickets?
My niece is 2, and her favorite ride in WDW is the little shuttle from the MK parking lot to the docks.
This is why I always encourage people to do Universal as the second part of their trip. It’s so much more relaxing that the vacation ends feeling like a vacation. The other way around, I think I would be stressed out and end the vacation on a lower note.
I agree and usually recommend the same. We usually do WDW first, and I wanted to do that again BUT Universal added those stinking early close nights (6pm both parks for Grad Bash) for 2 of our 3 original nights. We always take a midday break and love evenings in the parks, so the 6pm close was not going to work this time.
It was in 2009. We were there during Super Bowl weekend. The room only discounts for value resorts were much better then.
Honestly the whole FP thing is a bit overblown. I’m going to Orlando on business in a few weeks. It just got finalized last week and I just got park tickets for the couple of days I am able to go to the parks while there. I’m well under the 30 day window, let alone the 60 day window. And you know what? There were only 3 attractions with no FP availability. Three. In all of WDW. Sure they were the newest or most popular rides - SDD, FoP, and 7DMT. But everything else was available - that still leaves a lot.
So no, you don’t have to stay onsite to get good FP attractions.
I get all the complaints about over planning, the rising costs, etc… The real problem is that Disney’s attendance keeps going up year after year. The things like FP+, extra ticket events, etc are partially there to help manage that a little. They are only a band aid though - what’s really needed is a significant boost in the capacity of the parks. Disney has grown faster than it’s attraction capacity has kept up - some of that is just unbelievable demand, some is from mismanagement. But besides all that, they are doing stuff about it - adding more attractions than they have in a long time. They still need to do more than what’s been currently announced though, and at some point they’ll need a 5th gate to help spread out the crowds more. But for now, we need FP+, upcharges, and special ticket events.
Just as a thought exercise - let’s say Disney dropped it’s ticket price by 25%. Can you imagine what the crowds would be like then?
Are they, though? Often, the capacity they are adding offsets capacity they have removed. There are a few things that doesn’t apply. But, for example, SWGE isn’t really adding capacity, since the Backlot tour that used to be there had quite high capacity. Great Movie ride shutdown for the Runaway Railway, so no additional capacity. Guardians is replacing Universe of Energy, so no real increased capacity.
Redoing or replacing rides is not helping capacity at all. There are a few instances where they are ADDING capacity, but overall, it isn’t much. Tron should add capacity…except that the rumor is, Space Mountain will be shutting down shortly after Tron opens for a complete overhaul (perhaps even replacement).
Guess it will depend on your definition of “adding capacity”. If the term is strictly rooted in “area expansion”, then “no.” If, however, it’s rooted in better managing crowds to allow for more people to be in the park without feeling it, then yes.
The rides they are replacing were not heavy traffic areas, which means people were skipping them and being elsewhere. So by redoing them to where they are heavy draws, it’s more or less adding capacity.
This is one of the reasons the magicbands are one of the greatest invention to come to Disney. Able to track all the guests through the parks and where they go allows Disney to have concrete evidence of what can be nixed.
If Disney ever had a solid reason to build a 5th gate, it was the acquisition of Star Wars. The wealth of locales, story elements, and characters is immense; filling an entire park would have been easy. People would flock to it; it would add capacity and would keep DHS from becoming overwhelmed with crowds that it will not be able to handle. The “Star Wars Hotel” could have been built directly adjacent to the park (with a direct entrance) and Disney could have charged pretty much whatever they wanted to and it would still be at capacity. But it would have been expensive. VERY expensive, and although in the long run it would have been a serious money-maker, the current Disney business plan is to maximize quarterly profits, and with that philosophy, it is hard to justify an immense capital outlay that won’t start seeing real “profits” for years.
Star Wars definitely could have used it’s own park. I think it’s only a matter of time before Disney adds a 5th gate. Personally, I’d love to see some sort of Villains Park.
I get your point. But Magic Bands was never needed for this. Still isn’t. They always knew exactly how many people were going to those areas. Every queue had a count, even places such as the stunt show (R.I.P.), etc. Eateries knew based on sales, etc. Magic Bands don’t really help much for historical (as in, stats beyond the moment) data. They had that data just as easily before. Instead Magic Bands offer REAL TIME tracking (should they so choose to use it that way…although, it sounds like they are more likely using your phone’s GPS in the MDE app instead).
This is true. And I’m not saying they aren’t adding some capacity. The amount they are adding is actually VERY small compared to the number of rides they are “adding”, since most of those adds are replacements. But, for example, 7DMT was an addition of capacity to Magic Kingdom. Not a lot, mind you. And likely offset by the fact that at the moment the Train is down for the next couple of years. Once Tron opens, the Train will open back up as well, bringing back on line some lost capacity.