What's not worth the money at WDW?

I would be really curious about other things that people have done but aren’t worth it? Like, you did a dessert party and thought it wasn’t great, or you did EMM and didn’t think it was worth the cost. That kind of stuff.

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This, this this. PH to me is well worth the money to me. Although if I were staying offsite, it definitely would not be.

Same. Staying onsite is well worth it for this feeling of immersion.

I am really surprised to hear this. I would say in my experience that Disney QS far exceeds Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and pretty much any QS food at any other theme/amusement park I’ve been to. Now, does that mean it’s fine dining? Of course not. It’s still theme park food, it’s still “fast food/fast casual”, and some are better than others (Satu’li Canteen > Sunshine Seasons > Electric Grill/Cosmic Rays, for example)… And yes, it’s overpriced and expensive, but I look at that as more of a convenience thing - everything at Disney is overpriced…

Yes, absolutely true. Although some of the signature dining is supurb…

#5 I agree completely…

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We did the dessert party at MK the last time we were at WDW and I would never do it again. It was fine…I guess, but it wasn’t anything special for us. We enjoyed watching the fireworks from our hotel room at CR more than we did at the dessert party.

Its all relative. Vacations are expensive and WDW is no exception. I just dropped $4200 for 5-day lift tickets and ski equipment rentals for my family of four for five days of skiing in Colorado. That’s not counting airfare, accomodations, meals and the rental car.

Have you ever eaten on the mountain at a ski resort for lunch? It makes WDW food prices seem downright cheap.:laughing: Compared to skiing, WDW is a bargin considering the park ticket gets you entertainment from as early as 8am until midnight. Skiing is at best 9am till 4pm, if you can last that long.

I don’t disagree with you list per se, but dining in a theme park is always going to be more expensive and it’s no surprise that on property hotel will charge more than one’s outside the gate due to the perks for staying on property – 60 day FP+, free transportation, etc.

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We did the dessert party at MK, before the after party existed. It was worth it for a one time thing to see the HEA projections and to escape the crowds. I wouldn’t do it again though unless there was a new night time show.

Yes! It is definitely just as expensive to take our family of 5 skiing. Especially when our kids were young and they went to all day ski school. That was even more expensive!

Thankfully, my kids are at a level now that we don’t pay for lessons, but yea that was really expensive when we did . . .

If you like the rides offered at EMM, I think it’s a steal. Break it down into what you get for the price tag, and make sure you use “Disney” prices. The rides are all walk on, and if there’s a “cool” cm, they will let you stay in your seat and take another turn so you don’t have to walk through the q again. You also get pictures in an empty park. You also get to be the front of the pack for rope drop and hopefully one other walk on after rope drop. The breakfast, imo, is better than it needs to be. And then you can schedule your fastpasses.

I’m not a fan of the current ride line up at MK, but if they ever offered and “Early Mountain Magic,” I’d be all over it. The EMM at DHS is a must do for us, even if we don’t care about AS2.

The Star Wars Dessert party is also a great value for us. Dig into the details of what’s included. Don’t jsut assume it’s a few desserts and a spot to watch. It’s more.

HEA dessert party… I’d do it again, if the fam wanted to, but much less is included than the SW dessert party.

Both dessert parties, we made them DINNER. Plenty of non sweets at both to eat our fill for a dinner.

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We purchased the Memory Maker Photo Package on our trip two years ago. I did not feel it was anywhere worth any more than half the cost. Maybe if it will be your only trip to WDW for many years “yes” but if you go every 2-3 years “no.”

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I know that what makes us comfortable will change trip to trip. With a toddler, having two different rooms to sleep in is more important than being onsite for us. When ours kids are big enough to sleep in a queen together and go to bed later, I think we’ll definitely want to stay on site.

We did not do PH for our first trip. If we went during party season or stayed in the Epcot resort area, it would be a must.

I do agree that paying to park closer for most people would be a waste. We arrived early for RD every day and got really great parking. We were so close that we didn’t bother waiting for the tram. And when we came back to the parks in the evening, they were filling in the close spaces again.

I would love to do a Christmas or Halloween party, but would have to wait for older kids. I don’t think I would do the dessert party as a family of 4, but would consider it if DH and I took a special trip by ourselves. I’d love to do After Hours at MK or HS (AK doesn’t seem worth it to me just for FOP) but I think we’d only do it on a short trip with no actual park tickets and enjoy the resorts during the day.

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I like having the flexibility of park hopping. If one park is too busy, leave and go to another. I like the idea of going to one park in the morning and finishing up at another in the evening. Especially when it comes to things like Not So Scary Halloween which will effectively kick us out of MK three times during the week of our stay in September.

I like staying onsite but we have only stay moderate and value options. Being able to use the Magic Express to and from the airport and being within walking distance to some things or having free transportation throughout the week offsets some of the costs associated with transportation and is just way more relaxing to me. By the time we rented a car and paid for parking it probably wouldn’t be any cheaper. Plus I like the theming at the resorts on property. Also, we get to use extra magic hours and fast pass windows come earlier.

Quick Service restaurants are all we’ll really eat at. They’re overpriced but we can usually find two or three in each park that have decent options and are pretty ok.

We may eat at a full service restaurant two to three times. But we’re not big eaters. We’ll split meals so it’s not as expensive but they’re not really worth the price tag to us.

In many or most cases I agree that the QS restaurants aren’t as good of quality as McDonald’s, etc. (well, maybe use Wendy’s as the baseline). Fast food in the real world is typically cheap and not healthy or natural, but at least it’s consistent - it almost always looks and tastes the same, regardless of which location or time of day.

Disney food has an unfortunate range in quality depending on when and where you pick it up. Food that’s been sitting under a heat lamp can be unevenly cool / warm; buns can be stale; pizza is rubbery and inedible within minutes; chicken tenders are simply not good. Fast food restaurants have learned how to control for this (which is why their food is so unhealthy).

But when everything works out just right (and when quality control is working), Disney food can be pretty tasty. Nothing beats a corn dog at the Corn Dog Castle at DCA in my book, for example.

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Those are fight’n words! Everyone knows the best corn dogs are at the Little Red Wagon! LOL! I am kidding, I love them both!

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There are times when park hopper is not worth the money, but not in every case.

I get free dining on my upcoming trip if I get hopper, so there’s value there for me beyond just park hopping. Park hopping made sense to me when I stayed at the beach club with DS2 and DS4. We took advantage of the walk to Epcot in the evening with the stroller. Exploring the world showcase a little every day was much more gentle. On another trip, I needed transportation to get to any park, so I arranged the plan to limit bus time and avoid park hopper fees. Park hopper didn’t seem like a good value for that trip.

Staying on-site makes sense for me. I’f I’m not going to be “in the bubble”, I’m going somewhere that’s more “real”. Entering and leaving Disney during a day is not my preference. I think it would be jarring.

I limit QS park dining as much as possible if I don’t have DDP. Even with free dining, it is important to plan QS meals to avoid waiting in line with a hungry family. My experience is that not only are the lines shorter and the tables less crowded at the QS restaurants when you get there before lunch rush, but the food is better assembled and the family’s mood is better. All around better experience. And even on the DDP, splitting QS meals works very well, especially if it helps you avoid the kids meal prices.

The themed TS restaurants are part of the park attractions for me. It’s one of the things that separates WDW from an average industrial entertainment corporation. While I’m sure they try hard at all locations, there’s a lot of quality differences between the restaurants. Pick carefully. While I want to try the pizza at Via Napoli some day, I’ve never been able to justify it because of it didn’t have the right combination of value, experience, & location. I hear the quality is great though.

Buffets seemed like a bad value when I paid out of pocket with kids. DW and I get a better value by sharing an ala cart appetizer and entree. Kids didn’t eat enough at the buffet for the price. In hindsight, Garden Grill is the only fixed price dining that I thought was a decent value because of the quality, characters, and doesn’t require the buffet shuffle with kids, but even with all that, it’s the PPO dining that put it back on the “todo” list for the next trip.

While I like driving during vacations at scenic locations for “real” experiences, I would not like driving to and from theme parks every day. The drive gets routine. No fun when you are tired. The scenery is not there. Too much like commuting. Avoiding the drive is worth a lot to me. But if I drove, I’d get their early and take the best cheap parking, no doubt.

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Having multiple bedrooms has remained more important to us than being onsite. We all sleep so well and it’s just a different vibe being in a home vs a room. Esp given we like 10day or longer trips.

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Oh that’s good to know. We usually stay Airbnb when we travel even without kids, because we prefer the cozy home feel most of the time. It will be interesting to see if that changes, but the Orlando home rentals are so affordable, I could see us being very happy there for years to come. More budget to spend elsewhere. :slight_smile:

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Perhaps Disney World Itself is not worth the cost. I bought an Florida Select Annual Pass last year for about 300 a person and we will be going twice in the year. That price is reasonable to me. But paying 1000s of dollars for make believe is not. The prices are ever increasing but the service is not and my understanding is that the lower level employees and not highly paid so the several price increases per year do not go to pay raises, and to make maters even worse they sometimes decrease staffing during slower seasons so even when you go on an off season to save money you may wait unnecessarily because Disney is not running rides at capacity to save money all the while making money with price increases and “magical extras”. I stayed at an onsite hotel for 2 days and it was unbearable. Then I moved to Bonnet Creek which is a cross the street from Caribbean Beach Resort. For 130 a night we had a bedroom, two baths, washer/ dryer, and about 5 pools. Some even had slides. There was no resort fee and no parking fee. As long as people keep drinking the coolaid Disney will continue to raise prices and then Disney will only be for the super wealth or those willing to to into debt for a Disney vacation.

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