What Went Wrong During Spring Break at Disney World
My days at Walt Disney World during the peak week of spring break went surprisingly well. As covered in the first installment of this two-part series, I was pleasantly surprised by the overall experience and how much I was able to accomplish despite 9/10 or 10/10 crowd levels on many days.
With that said, it was not all perfect and magical. Some of these things have been or will be recurring issues during busier dates throughout 2023 at Walt Disney World, so I want to address them here so you can plan accordingly. As always, being prepared for a particular problem before it arises can lead to much better outcomes in the parks.
That’s particularly true here, as many of the issues I encountered could be avoided or minimized–it just took recognizing them and pivoting to different strategy. This meant doing things at different times of day, changing course, or even not spending extra money on methods for beating the crowds. Anyway, let’s dig in and take a look at how things went “wrong” during my spring break at Walt Disney World…
Weekday Daytime Crowds – Again, this visit was during spring break for Central Florida and other school districts around the country. Our Spring Break 2023 Crowd Calendar for Walt Disney World forecast this to be the worst week of March or April 2023 at Walt Disney World. Although that caught some fans by surprise who expect Easter to be worse, this was backed by precedent. Last year, crowd levels were 10/10 and the average wait time was 51 minutes during this same week.
Accordingly, it’s not entirely fair to say that crowd levels were something going “wrong.” To the contrary, this went almost exactly as expected, it just was not ideal. I knew what I was getting myself into, as did just about anyone else who opted to do Walt Disney World during this particular week. If anything, overall crowds were better than expected, with an average wait time of “only” 48 minutes and level of 9/10. That’s better than last year!
However, those numbers are skewed. The early morning and late night wait times were actually much lower than expected, as were Saturday and Sunday. Honestly, it’s hard to complain about either of those things–especially given that my plan all along was to go hard during the beginning and end of each day, and knock out “easier” attractions during the middle of the day. Nevertheless, some of the very long daytime lines and high wait times were a bit jarring. I’m just happy that I didn’t have to wait in them, for the most part.
Dining Lines & Seating – The exception to “for that most part” frequently came at restaurants. This is nothing new, but it’s still notable for infrequent visitors. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing Mobile Order, either. Many counter service restaurants in parks that aren’t EPCOT have long lines at both the cash registers and for Mobile Order pickup. And perhaps this is just my personal impression, but this is arguably worse than attractions since this isn’t neatly organized into queues–it’s more of an anxiety-inducing free for all.
It’s often not much better once you have your food, as finding a table can be incredibly difficult. (Probably less of a problem for larger parties, as you can send someone to grab one–I didn’t have that luxury.) At Magic Kingdom, I spotted tons of guests awkwardly eating on steps, balancing trays on planters, or doing garbage can dining. And they weren’t even bloggers!
All of this is exacerbated by the crowds. When standby lines are longer, people are more likely to give up and seek out a place to get off their feet and crash. You see a lot of people without food, and their heads on tables or playing on their phones. The initial impulse, if you’re wandering aimlessly with a tray of hot-ish food that’s cooling by the second, is to be frustrated at your fellow guests for selfishly hoarding tables despite having no food.
This impulse is incorrect. It’s like getting mad at other passengers on a flight for “hogging” overhead bin space, reclining seats, or rushing to board. In both cases, it’s the company that created this problem and has the means to solve it. Being mad at your fellow guests is misplaced–you’re both dealing with different symptoms of the same underlying problem.
As has been the case for a while, Disney needs to open more restaurants and add more seating. There’s absolutely no excuse for Tomorrowland Terrace and Aunt Polly’s being closed right now, or Be Our Guest Restaurant not doing its more efficient lunch and breakfast services. Animal Kingdom should have all of its kiosks open, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios should have built 3 new dining venues in the time it took to construct Toy Story Roundup Rodeo BBQ.
Lightning Lane Lines – A couple months ago, I started noticing improved Lightning Lane availability at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and EPCOT. (Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom were good to begin with, so no changes there.) Initially, I wrote this off as occurring during the slower winter off-season months.
When it continued during Presidents’ Day and Mardi Gras, there had to be some other explanation. It couldn’t have been that fewer people were purchasing the Genie+ service because this happened even on days it sold out. Only Yogi Berra can explain something being both in lower and higher demand simultaneously, so that wasn’t it. My other theory was that Walt Disney World had improved capacity and the various tweaks made to Genie+ were finally paying off.
That charitable assumption now seems naive. Throughout my days both using Genie+ and standby lines, I experienced and observed the most likely culprit: longer Lightning Lanes. The returns for many attractions had overflow queues and Cast Members outside with “Lightning Lane Starts Here” signs. To be sure, this has occurred in the past. But I’ve never seen it at this many attractions or with this degree of regularity.
I’ve done dozens of Genie+ tests since it launched, and the only attraction where this previously happened with regularity was Peter Pan’s Flight. It was an occasional occurrence elsewhere, particularly on busy days or as rides returned from downtime. During spring break, I would estimate that between half and three-quarters of Lightning Lanes for popular attractions (the only ones for which I use Genie+) had non-negligible lines outside their return tapstiles.
For the most part, this did not result in significant delays with the Lightning Lane. On average, my waits were only 5-10 minutes from arrival at the Lightning Lane to the merge point. Some attractions were a tad longer, with a few reaching 15-20 minutes. On attractions with triple-digit posted standby wait times, this is still a considerable time savings. So what’s the issue?
In large part, the problem is the cause of the backup, which is more Lightning Lanes being distributed. If Genie+ is offering more Lightning Lane selections, that leads to a minor logjam at the return tapstiles and, more importantly, a major one at the merge point. To alleviate this, the ratio of Lightning Lane to standby guests (which is always variable, and has been since the FastPass days) necessarily changes to accommodate more Lightning Lane guests.
The brunt of this is borne by standby guests, who wait in longer and/or slower moving lines in order to keep the Lightning Lanes moving at an “acceptable” pace. This is how you get a posted wait time of 120 minutes for Peter Pan’s Flight with only a small portion of the standby queue in use and very few people entering the line.
As someone who prides myself on leveraging savvy strategy, I also found this put a significant damper on the value I derived from Lightning Lanes. This will not be an issue for the average Genie+ buyer, as they will use paid FastPass during the heart of park operating hours and, without a doubt, come out ahead as compared to waiting in long standby lines.
However, a big part of my research is to determine what’s objectively the best method for saving time in each park, whether that be Lightning Lanes, Early Entry, Extended Evening Hours, rope drop, or last few hours, park closing, etc. With this, I can recognize that I’m most definitely an outlier as compared to the average guest…but so are you if you’re following the advice here!
Point being, there were exceedingly few scenarios where Genie+ was the best method for minimizing wait times. With almost every attraction that I tested, there was a superior strategy. About the only exceptions that come to mind are Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and I’m simply making assumptions with those since I did not (and will not) purchase Individual Lightning Lanes. Even then, I waited less than 30 minutes for both via standby or virtual queue on multiple occasions.
With Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Peter Pan’s Flight, Frozen Ever After, Slinky Dog Dash, Jungle Cruise, and plenty of others, there were alternative approaches with approximately the same wait (or less). Granted, those required being up early or out late, but it’s always been the case that the early bird and night owl gets the worm (or mice, ironically, in the case of owls) at Walt Disney World.
This actually returns to a theory mentioned in the first installment of this spring break report. Genie+ and Lightning Lanes have simultaneously created a false sense of security among guests who use them, and a defeatist attitude among those who don’t. It’s as if paid line-skipping is viewed as the silver bullet for beating wait times. That’s simply not true, but people assume it’s the best, and many don’t bother with alternative tactics as a result. What is accurate is that Genie+ is best for beating crowds during the heart of the day, making it an ideal option for those visiting the parks between (roughly) the hours of 10 am and 6 pm.
The Mandalorian – For a site that prides itself in photography, this blog has a disturbing lack of Mandalorian and Baby Yoda photos. That’s because conditions have never been “perfect” when we’ve seen them at Disneyland. In an ideal world, I’d use a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens from a great distance, or a longer prime lenses capable of buttery bokeh. These lenses are heavy, and as I get older, I’m usually too lazy to carry them. Even if I did have them, there are usually a few people around the characters, so I’ll just get good photos later, I tell myself.
Well, that “later” certainly did not arrive on any of my days in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I thought I’d have a competitive advantage because I knew where the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda appear on stage, but I was very wrong. The crowds camped out even 15 minutes before Mando and Grogu show up made anything I’ve ever encountered seem like small potatoes. The Batuu East version of these characters have Swifties-caliber fan followings, making their California counterparts look like Smash Mouth groupies.
The duo were consistently mobbed by hordes of guests, effectively preventing the characters from actually wandering more than 20 feet into Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. It was pure chaos, and not at all the organic encounters I’ve come to expect from free-roaming characters (including the Star Wars ones) at Disneyland.
But you know what? Guests absolutely love it. The comments I overheard were a far cry from my curmudgeonly internal monologue. Everyone in my vicinity was visibly and audibly excited to even get a peek at the Mandalorian and Grogu. The sentiment was overwhelmingly and unanimously positive. I haven’t heard one way or the other, but I’d imagine guest satisfaction for this character encounter is absolutely off the charts.
It thus might be “wrong” of me to categorize this as something going wrong. Nevertheless, I think there needs to be a better way to do crowd control for these characters. Reactions were resoundingly positive among those who got photos with them, but that’s at least in part due to selection bias. It’s also true that only a very small fraction of guests saw the duo because they never made it into the main arteries of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. While demand and crowds are high, putting the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda in a ground level area with some separation from guests would be perfect. Avengers Campus does this with certain characters, and it works well with allowing ‘clean’ selfies and interactions–but preventing the heroes from being overwhelmed.
Early Entry at Magic Kingdom – Being a blogger requires rolling with the punches, and taking the good with the bad for the sake of “research.” It may be absurd to even call it that (not like this is hard-hitting investigative journalism), or complain about visiting Magic Kingdom–but that’s exactly where I’m at with Early Entry at Magic Kingdom. I do not enjoy doing this, and would only continue to do so for the sake of sunrise photos if it weren’t a topic of interest to Walt Disney World vacation planners.
I’ve identified the problem with Early Entry at Magic Kingdom in the past. To recap, it starts too late and is, by far, the park people prioritize for Early Entry. This means it has the one-two punch of demand and accessibility. It also doesn’t help that only two lands are open, and there are only 3 really popular rides between the two lands.
I did Early Entry at Magic Kingdom on what ended up being the least busy day of the week, and it was still chaotic. Sensing somewhat lower crowds, I opted to do the SDMT Shuffle. This was against my better judgment, but again, this is for the sake of research and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is the attraction most people want to do during Early Entry.
The couple behind me got into an argument about their “poor” place in line, which is notable not because adult meltdowns resulting from this are uncommon (they’re quite common), but because they were wrong. It was both a rousing success from the standpoint of line placement and the simple fact that Seven Dwarfs Mine Train didn’t have a delayed opening. Vibes-wise, they were absolutely right, but that would’ve been true almost any day during Early Entry at Magic Kingdom.
My Early Entry experiences at Animal Kingdom, EPCOT, and Hollywood Studios were all far superior. That goes both for the vibes and for the sense of accomplishment. Suffice to say, if you do Early Entry at Magic Kingdom first (as many people do) and have a negative experience (as many people do), don’t let that dissuade you from Early Entry at the other parks (as it does for many people).
Ride Downtime – These days, everyone seems to think they experienced atypically bad ride breakdowns. In reality, that’s because attraction downtime is far higher than its historical average. Disney disputes this, but it is well-documented (and true).
I’m honestly not sure whether that explanation makes it better or worse. Misery loves company, so perhaps you take solace knowing others are in the same boat. Or maybe you’re mad that Disney doesn’t address this known issue. (Honestly, I don’t know if it’s something they even can fully address. Remember how we warned of the loss of institutional knowledge with the furloughs and layoffs back in 2020? Well, look no further than this for the “fruits” of that short-sighted decision, as maintenance departments have been decimated and have far fewer years of tenure.)
Either way, this was a pronounced issue during the peak week of spring break. I can’t say conclusively that this was something that went “wrong” any worse than it did 2 weeks ago or 2 months ago, but it’s definitely noticeable relative to 2019 and earlier. Space Mountain has been closed for multiple hours per day with such regularity that part of me wonders whether its breakdowns were part of the motivation for TRON Lightcycle Run’s official soft opening.
Prices – Again, this isn’t so much something going “wrong” as me knowing what I was getting myself into and still voluntarily signing up for it. Still, prices are high during spring break, in ways big and small. While I was happy with my experience at All Star Sports, the main reason I booked that resort was because there were few deals to be found on anything else. (Also, Sarah would probably prefer I save the lavish stays for trips we do together. Just a guess, though!)
Beyond hotels and ticket prices being predictably high, there were also little ways costs add up. Uber and Lyft prices were significantly higher ($80+ between MCO and WDW!); Genie+ and Lightning Lanes were at their peak season prices, too. All of that adds up, especially on top of higher base prices for the core components of the package.
Ultimately, this is a relatively short list of issues I encountered during spring break at Walt Disney World, and very few of them came by surprise. So in reality, most of this isn’t “things going wrong” so much as it is “predictable problems.” Some of them did catch me by surprise, but probably shouldn’t have.
More importantly, now that you’re armed with this knowledge, you can make adjustments for your upcoming trip during spring break or summer, when the same type of issues with likely arise with regularity. That knowledge coupled with the tips from our ‘What Went Right During Spring Break at Walt Disney World‘ post and upcoming run-throughs of Early Entry and Extended Evening Hours (etc.), you should be able to easily strategize, beat the crowds, accomplish a lot, and have enjoyable experiences at Walt Disney World–even during peak season!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
If you’ve already visited Walt Disney World during spring break this year, what was your experience? If you’ve visited this same week in prior years, how do you think this year compares? Thoughts about anything else covered here? If you’re a frequent visitor during this timeframe, what’s your take on crowds, wait times, seasonal spirit, weather, etc? Agree or disagree with my assessment of spring break? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We stopped going during spring break, Christmas, 4th July and Feb break. The crowds are ridiculous and not fun. When I have to wait to pee at Disney, you know it’s the to leave
That’s what I call minding your p’s and queues 🙂
My family spent our 2023 Spring Break at WDW 3/12-3/18. The kids are 8, 11 & 14 and we haven’t been in 7 years.
We stayed at the Riviera in a studio (to have a kitchen and 3 beds) using DVC points – that was $4500/6-nights. I hated the Skyliner (buckets of terror IMO) so that was a bust. But overall, much nicer than our stay at French Quarter last time.
Our park tickets were about $1600 for a family of 5 and then we ended up using some variation of Genie+ and ILL. It averaged $200/day extra to reduce wait times, $1000 for the trip. Our food costs were on the low side but we made a huge oopsie and went into Be Our Guest during a morning rain storm and left $500 poorer – I’ll never get over paying $67 for my 11-year olds chicken tenders (she didn’t even eat them so I carried them in my pocket all day out of hope and spite lol). Other than that we spent about $250/day on food for a family of 5.
All this to say – we had a nice trip. Only a few long rides (Ratatouille, Rise, Mickey & Minnie Runaway Railway, Peter Pan, Snow White) over an hour and only 1 monumental price-gouging meal. But the trip cost about $10k for a family of 5. And though we did stay at a Deluxe hotel, we felt middle of the road for expenses.
My chief complaint about WDW is they should have some discounts for families with kids to make the experience feel slightly more affordable. And extended evening hours from 11pm-1 am is a joke for us.
Thanks for all the tips that made our trip as easy as it was. Rope drop was harder than expected but everything else went exactly as planned.
The kids 10-and-over pay adult price for prix-fixe meals policy would be a fantastic opportunity for Iger to address and gain some good will back from guests. At the very least, older kids (I would suggest up to age 17) should have the option to order from the kids or adult menu at the posted price. Appetites and food taste varies so widely for kids and teens.
We made the rounds on all our favorite character meals while my older daughter was still 9. She is an incredibly picky eater and I will not pay $50-90 for her to eat chicken fingers, so we won’t be doing those meals again for a long while.
Your comments about QS dining and lack of seating is one of the things that drives me crazy about busy times. When people ask about Spring Break crowds they also talk about ride wait times but not realizing there are also long line ups for everything else (popcorn, bathrooms, QS!) Mobile order has helped a lot but the tried and true of “eat before or after the rush” I’ve been in line waiting for Columbia Harbour house to open at 11 am. Night and day from 12:30-2.
We had our first trip to Disneyland this past week (we have been to Disney World many times). I noticed a lot of ride downtime there and assumed it was a Disneyland thing since we haven’t been to World in a few years. It makes me sad and frustrated that apparently it is an issue at both parks. 🙁
I know I have stated this before, Walt Disney World has a resort issue. Way to many, in fact the current hotel room capacity is listed as 37,159 for 4 parks and 2 water parks. Universal Studios Orlando has 6,737 hotel room capacity for currently 2 major parks and 1 water park. Disney is killing its Florida resort, another major theme park is needed at Disney World. They could do something on the lines of a more thrill park like Cedar Point! Really it’s an over saturation issue at Florida and it does make the Disney experience POOR. One should not be glued to the phone to have an enjoyable family vacation. I want to spend time with my family laughing and having fun. Isn’t that a point of a vacation, to get away from reality/work? Just saying! I love Disney but something needs fixed!
Both of Universal parks have the guest capacity of roughly half of WDW’s smallest parks, so that’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. If anything, park attendance has grown far greater than Disney hotel capacity, to the point that off-site guests account for somewhere between 60% and two-thirds of total park attendance.
From my perspective, the issue is that 30-40 years ago WDW had two 2-day parks and now has about four 1-day parks, in part due to total attraction length shortening. (If anything, AK hasn’t fully returned to full-day park status.) If individual attractions are going to be shorter, Disney is going to need more of them just to match what used to make visitors extend their trips by choice.
We’re going for the first time in the end of June (usually go during Spring Break or Christmas Break). Any predictions on how busy it should be? We honestly don’t know what to expect. We have always gone at times when it is SUPER busy, so it won’t really shock us one way or the other. Just trying to figure out if we should temper our expectations or have even more time for things we don’t normally get to do. There will be 9 of us, too. 2 in their 70s, 2 in their 40s, 2 in their 20s, and three kids (10, 6, 6). Thanks!
Andrew, we’ve been to WDW at all times of the year and you should be prepared for lots of rain in June. Yes, there are summer crowds, but as Tom says, go early like half an hour or more before the morning extra hours. Most of the parks are open and you’ll have lots of ride opportunity. Also, take a break in the middle of the day. Swim, visit putt-putt golf, take a rest and dry off. Then, go back around 5:00 to spend the evening doing the rest of the park. It works to help keep everyone fresh and happy when you deal with occasional hiccups in your plan.
From what I’ve read, pretty much if you can go another time, do so instead. Went this past November, actually did OK with early entry and never used Genie plus/lightning lane. Part of this is because we spent a week and were able to hit the parks a second time for early entry and go in the direction the crowds weren’t heading. Went on rides when the fireworks at Magic Kingdom were showing and got on a bunch of good rides with minimal wait. That means I didn’t see the show but a choice had to be made. I was leery going on that trip because of what Disney had taken away from previous visits. At this point, I’d like to go back to Florida but do Universal but who knows, the wife may have other suggestions. 🙂
We were there the week of March 13th and visited Magic Kingdom, Hollywood, and Epcot. Both days at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood were sold-out days. We stayed off-site this time, and were unable to take advantage of early-entry. We bought Genie+ for Magic and Hollywood. Despite high crowds, we were able to ride and do everything we wanted in each park! Aside from standby-by waits for Rise of the Resistance and Remy’s, which were both about 2 hours, the longest we waited for any other ride was about 40 minutes (Seven Dwarfs and Frozen). I did notice alot of down-time on several rides, more than usual it seemed. Rise was actual shut down off and on all day, so we were probably lucky to ride it.
I was able to get 6 Genie+ rides in Magic: Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Small World, Peter Pan, Big Thunder, and Winnie the Pooh – in that order. We rope dropped Jungle Cruise since that was not open for early entry, and walked right on that, Pirates, and Magic Carpets before the crowd caught up to us. For Hollywood – we were able to do 4 Genie+ rides: Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railway, Toy Story Mania, Slinky Dog, and Alien Swirling Saucers.
Our strategy for Epcot went a little out the window because we got one of the first boarding groups on Guardians, but we re-adjusted and still rode everything with 40 minute or less waits (except Remy’s – that line is always the worst!) and had a great day.
Sounds like an incredibly efficient trip given the timing–thanks for sharing your experience!
These are great points, Tom! I was so relieved at all the unexpected positives last week, that I hadn’t focused my “part 1” response on any of these issues. BUT- last week I experienced downtime delays on the Peoplemover, Guardians, Flight of Passage, and Space Mountain. Lightening Lanes line times were easily twice as long as I had experienced over the summer, with Navi River maxing out at 30 minutes, and then there was no Shaman at the end of the ride! IMO, there is no point to that ride except to see the impressive animatronic! ADRs we’re no guarantee of protection against the fight to locate a table. We waited 45-minutes past our reservation time to be seated at Sci Fi. It was still a more pleasant trip than I had anticipated, but now I’m wondering how much of that is tied to the very low expectatuI had set for myself. In the end, I believe that all of the complaints are well-founded, but the “never again” rants miss out on the fact that a bad day in Disney World is still better than a good day most other places. Just watching the Viva Gaia band get dads joyfully dancing along with their kids on this cold Sunday morning was worth the price of admission.
Sorry to hear about your negatives!
It’s too much research for one person, but someone really should put together data on ADR wait times. There are certain restaurants that I KNOW are notorious for overbooking, and Sci-Fi would be at the top of that list.
Others include Plaza, Be Our Guest, 50’s, Chefs de France, and pretty much all character dining. That’s just off the top of my head, and is hardly exhaustive. Anyone wanting to be seated quickly should do first or last seatings at those.
Disney may have done fairly well at capping attendance in an extraordinarily busy Spring Break for Florida. Orlando International and Tampa airports seem to have been record-busy. I’m sort of happy to have canceled an incredibly cheap ticket to England.
I’m on the airport’s media list (very prestigious), and the numbers coming through have been wild. The thing is, they could be even busier if they had the capacity for it!
Where can we read more about where Mando and Grogu are and what times to anticipate them? Will it be in MDE? Thank you! (Yes, we want to be part of that crowd, ha)
They aren’t published anywhere, and it’s one of those things that they’ll keep changing to keep guests on their toes and avoid crowds loitering around, waiting for the characters.
If you’re going in the next couple weeks, your best bet for lower crowds is being in the area in my first photo at about 10 am.
Early Entry at Magic Kingdom is awful. It took over 30 minutes from the time we got off the bus until we were actually in the park on Tuesday. They really needed additional staff to help guests who were having issues scanning tickets so other staff could keep the lines moving for everyone else. When we finally made it in we decided to do Peter Pan first and a mom behind us in line was nearly in tears because she had “ruined the day” by getting in a “70 minute line”. Fortunately for all of us, it was only 20 minutes. Not a very magical start to the day for anyone.
We also noticed increased ride downtime this trip. Cosmic Rewind, Flight of Passage, and Dinosaur all had issues while we were in line for them this week.
Ouch, that is an unfortunate way to start the day!
I had a similar experience getting into Magic Kingdom, as my bag went off (as it always does if I bring too many lenses) and I had to stand in a very long line for additional screening.
Just came back- we were there 3/5-3/14. When we first got there it was so hot- 90’s- I was not acclimated at all, being from NY where we got hit w/ 7ft of snow this year, twice! We went to MK twice – once at the beginning and once at the end. We go every year about this time usually first/second week of March depending on fla spring break( I like to avoid that, if I can) . We definitely hit the sweet spot in between busy times. The second day of MK was certainly busier due to fla spring break, but manageable. Not busy- like the presidents week we went preCovid, that was insane. The first time we went to MK pirates was down most of the day. The second time we went it was also down most of the day. We actually never got on. These two MK days were separated by about 6 days. I definitely noticed rides being down more than normal. We also opted to do EP twice, last minute I dropped AK reservations (super easy to do, with the modify option) and went to EP instead- mostly to ride guardians as much as we could. It’s truly the best ride ever! Wait time for Remy’s was posted as 60min and it was only about 30. Thankfully we did that early bc the ride went down for the rest of the day. I have never seen so many rides down so often and throughout all the parks. One bonus- we rode the People Mover and space mountain was down, got some cool pics of inside with the lights on. That was fun.
I’m intrigued to know more about the ride downtime statistics. I was not able to view the WSJ article you linked to, but the New York Times coverage of that topics established that ride downtime was increasing, but not calculate if it was increasing more than would be expected.
From an engineering perspective, you’d expect the chances of experiencing a breakdown to increase with load. Imagine that each ride vehicle has X% chance of failing. As you add more ride vehicles, the overall chance of any one vehicle failing increases by X% for each vehicle. By the same token, there is a small chance each rider will cause a problem, say dropping a phone, deliberately leaving a safety restraint undone to post on social media, or even tripping getting on or off a ride.
So, there is no getting around the fact that the more people get on a ride, the more likely it will be that the ride experiences some sort of incident that will halt the queue. What I haven’t seen calculated yet is wether the increase in stoppages is more than one would expect given the experienced volume levels. It’s also difficult to crunch the numbers at all since there doesn’t appear to be a reliable database of ride outages.
1) I think it’s more about a lack of quality preventative maintenance than anything else. Not that Disney has been neglecting upkeep since 2020, but rather, that they’ve lost some of the old timers who knew the ins and outs of certain attractions.
2) I wouldn’t assume that there has been an increase in volume levels. To the contrary, I suspect it has been a decrease when you look at operating hours plus extended hours.
/boring financial/project managerial
I also suspect that maintenance schedules had to have fallen behind at some point over the past two or so years, due to numbers of personnel, possible materials shortages, and the experience of the employees. Disney needs to spend more time (and more money) just to catch up with the original schedule. Since there haven’t been increases in WDW maintenance efforts (let alone rumors that it’s improved to DL levels of maintenance), it would have been hard to catch up to where the level of maintenance should be, even if they hadn’t lost all that hands-on experience. The new pay increases will help them compete for some of those superior workers, but WDW is still going to spend more time on maintenance than previously just to get to the past level of performance.
Fun read. I must say though, as a tall human I do pass some of the blame onto the person in front of me if they choose to recline. While the company may have enabled the behavior, I just can’t let the people off the hook.
To each their own, but I’ll never understand this reasoning. This isn’t even like other behavior that companies tolerate or indirectly encourage; if airplane seats were not meant to recline, that feature could be removed.
Haha, fair enough. My counterpoint would be it’s situational. If you don’t have anyone behind you (rare these days), or a small person who isn’t impacted, then have at it. Recline until you can’t recline anymore. If the person behind you is 6’5”, and you know your marginal increase in comfort is going to make them miserable, decline to recline :-). Again, great report!
Aren’t crowds like the ones around Mando & Grogu one of the reasons typically given for WDW favoring the more formal meet and greets vs. free roaming characters? I personally *far* prefer the free roaming characters, but there are certain ones where it is probably better to put them in a more structured setting and just have people wait. (Mickey, Grogu, and those gals from Arendale all definitely fall in that category.)
Also, just a theory, but I think Disneyland’s location is part of why they are better able to have free roaming characters without massive crowds. People in LA have probably seen famous people wandering around at some point and therefore have more practice “playing it cool” (ie freaking out silently but not immediately mobbing the celebrity). Orlando locals and the tourists have much less experience with this, so when they see someone very famous and objectively awesome like Grogu, of course they’re going to mob him to the point where he can barely move.
“Walt Disney World guests have no chill.”
That’s a line that someone at Disney once said to me, and I’ve repeated many times (especially in this context), as it is very apt.
And you’re right that people in LA have seen famous people walking around…regularly, at Disneyland! 😉
Tom, great post, thanks again. Question: Where does the Early Entry lining up happen for MK and Hollywood Studios? Does the line form at the turnstiles where you initially swipe your phone to get into the parks, closer to the rides, etc.? Is your photo above the ROTR early entry line? (one of the photos above Mando) Curious to know where the people cramming initially happens.
Also, I’ve read that people are actually admitted before the 30-minute early entry (eg, before 8am in the case of an 8:30am HS opening). Is that true? How early do you recommend that one gets to MK and HS in the morning — without having the be person #1 into the park, but relatively close to the front of the line?
Check out these posts: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/hollywood-studios-early-entry-strategy-tips/
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/magic-kingdom-early-entry-spring-2022-report/
I’ll have new posts for all parks very soon, but the how the process works is still accurate for both MK and DHS.
Wow. The only LESS pleasant experience I can think of other than what you described here are visits to Times Square on New Years Eve or the San Gennaro Feast in NYC. In all cases, grossly overcrowded, person to person touching making for an horrific memory. WHAT is fun about this, exactly? Beyond the exorbitant charges, excessive wait times and then getting nickled and dimed EVEN MORE in a vain attempt to get to the head of the line, I ask again is this worth the money? The time out of your life? Prices rise and TOO MANY People are permitted entry to the park, even while facilities operate at half speed or as you suggest, ride breakdown is becoming more frequent. The open secret here: Disney only cares about the MONEY. It does NOT acre about customer experience. Long lines and not even a place to sit to eat?? Mediocre food and hotel rooms. How is this remotely fun or worth the cost? Add to this, needing to be a computer geek in order to figure out the ride booking and everything else. Not worth the effort on any level. I used to LOVE Disney but its now on my list of places I will not go. Their obvious woke agenda is yet another reason.
It has been some time since I took my children to Discovery Cove, but I DO recall that ATTENDANCE THERE WAS LIMITED. They booked only so many customers and then NO MORE, in order to preserve the experience. It was spectacular, to say the least. Well worth the cost of admission. Unless Disney moves to this model, its overburdened and inadequate system will reach the point of no return. It will become a haven of a handful of super-rich who have money to throw away on an ever lessening return of value. Everyone else will have moved on. Sad and appalled to see this happen.
I can think of a lot less pleasant experiences than WDW, so your rant is a serious case of first world problems. WDW will never be solely dependent on the super-rich, there just aren’t enough of them. What will happen though is the technophobic legacy fans will fade away.
Btw, please lose the CAPS. Thanks
Interesting analogy, doll. Disney as a whole is a “first world” sort of place. You don’t SERIOUSLY think that a 4 day admission ticket for more than $600 for ONE person is remotely friendly to the middle class, or God forbid, POOR people, do you? That price doesnt assume any line jumping fees. And a one day admission for a family of four at that price would be…??? And seriously, who does one day? Well, you get the picture I think. Yes, NON first worlders visit Disney. They save for years to do so and then never come again. At the rate Disney is going they are well on their way to excluding a significant portion of what used to be their customer base. Visiting or not, by the way, is not a “problem” for me. Have visited a dozen times, both coasts, in better days. Been there, done that. I was not posting a RANT. I am simply observing the sad decline of a once wonderful institution. Walt Disney wanted a place for FAMILIES to go. Not become the exclusive domain of the hip, the wealthy, the techno wiz kids and those who want to get inebriated in the restaurants. I think he would be horrified. This is just an amusement park and a person should NOT need a Masters Degree ( although in fact I have one) to determine how to simply enjoy what they have already paid for. Wishing the so-called “technophobic” gone as you seem to, would be a dim business strategy as well. That I am posting online should be a HINT that I am not technophobic myself. But my strong conviction is that vacation should NOT feel like WORK. P.S.—- I don’t intend to “lose the CAPS”.
You sound insufferable. I’m sure your attendance will be missed.
I’m with you LJ. I agree with everything you’ve said. For the record, I’ve been going to Disney every year since 1973, sometimes two or three times a year, and I’m far from wealthy. Very far. My next trip to Florida is coming up soon and that will be at Universal Orlando. First time.
lol I started to post something along the lines of ‘why post a Disney rant on a Disney blog?’ which turned into a rant about how much less of a value these parks are compared to even five years ago….so I guess I agree, though there are probably better places to vent than here….
I get it, change is hard. Suggest you ask a teenager to help you with Disney’s technology. You don’t need a master’s degree, but reading Tom’s articles and being open minded enough to adopt the methods he recommends helps a lot. You might want to consider doctoral studies to help with your capitalization problem. Have a magical day!
I would just be happier if a post was automatically deleted any time the word ‘woke’ was used. It has no impact on anyone’s enjoyment at Disneyworld so it’s not relevant to your own comment, it is definitely not relevant to this topic, and it has never been relevant to any topic on this blog. Apologies, Tom, I’m just getting so tired of seeing it brought up…
@Maggie – The site actually does have a ton of auto-moderating features that flag comments for review. I approved that one because I stopped reading when it became clear it was a random rant in response to the title, and not the substance of the post.
You’d probably be more disheartened if you saw how many comments do not get through. It’s become pretty common in the last year for random people (or maybe bots?) to spam Disney sites and social media with that type of thing. Some of the stuff is…quite disturbing.
Well Tom. A final word and then I shall exit. First, I have subscribed to your newsletter for YEARS. I am not on a rant against Disney. Nor am I a BOT or a spammer. For most of my life I have been a huge Disney cheer-leader. In the past, I have convinced numerous people with zero interest to go. In fact only two months ago I passed your web site to a family member who was going to Disney with children for the first time. I remain, as I have been for many years, a stockholder. Stock which by the way, has taken a significant hit due to poor decision making and other elements. I am crushed at the turn the company has taken. The article remarked about 10/10 crowds and an inability to find a place to sit once you finally obtained any food. It talked about a “short list of issues” -mostly cost centered- and “predictable problems”. How am I NOT addressing the article by talking about crowding, ride breakdowns and costs myself?? And how, for the money expended, are those things supposed to be positives? Or are customers supposed to keep shrugging off paying more for less? Like Park Hopper tickets that could only hop when they said so? Its too bad that some of your posters object to my “woke” observation. Maybe they dont care that the company has had several children’s movies BOMB recently due in no small part to woke elements they insist on injecting into these productions, which parents do NOT want. But that lost revenue has to be made up someplace. Maybe the parks?? Finally I note I was not the only person here whose Disney glasses are less than rosie. You know, the posters to whom you replied “Ouch” or ” Sorry to hear about your negatives” to name a few. Nobody wishes I had fewer negative observations more than me. . Have fun.
@Tom My tolerance for certain comments is what has kept me from having a social media presence, as I’d just rather not endure the elevated stress in my life. Thus, the more I learn about what you have to go through to make this site a welcoming and informative place the more impressed I am. I know you hear it a bunch but here’s one more: Thank you.
A popular Florida vacation spot is crowded at Spring Break? Pull the other one! The idea that someone would plan a vacation for a time that’s known to be super crowded and then be upset by the crowds doesn’t seem rational.
The funny thing is that Disney has been criticized for the crowds and ride breakdowns since the first day Disneyland opened. And yet the parks continued to grow in popularity despite the yearly complaints about crowd size. “No one goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
If I’m planning a WDW trip for my family, we always try to place it in a known downtime to enjoy the parks at their emptiest. But as someone with relatives in Orlando, I often will be in town primarily for family events like Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’ll invariably decide to visit at least one day, expecting the park to be crowded beyond belief. You just have to adjust your expectations to enjoy the parks that way. There is a special, joyous energy to the big crowds, and we expect the rides to be backed up and so enjoy everything else. It’s a great time to take more time to listen to the roaming musical acts and search out exhibits, topiaries, scavenger hunts, etc.
I booked a last minute ‘consolation prize’ trip for myself next week to ride Tron, since I missed out on the AP previews. It’s doing me better in terms of trip cost, at least (those rising Lyft costs are nicely offset by the St. PATTY’S Sunshine Flyer 10$ tickets). I was just planning on doing counter service at odd times (11 and 4) but with your experience would you say it’s better to snag those last-minute, night-before table reservations?
Also thanks for the Mandolorian update. I was thinking I’d like to see him if the crowds weren’t too bad but I really don’t want that kind of…competition. What is great at Galaxy’s edge are the unexpected and organic interactions where you actually form a brief connection with the character…not joining a mob trying to catch their attention like a zoo animal. (I’d rather meet Fett or Shand anyhow.) Seems like the fast meet-n-greet lines for CA really would be nice, or someone to just form some semblance of order. First Order, maybe. Anyhow, could you tell if they were using pre-recorded dialog or was it free-flow?
I’d definitely try to snag a last minute ADR for Magic Kingdom. Or you could do several meals at the Lunching Pad, which is what I did. (Not an actual recommendation–I had to test out the new menu.) Eating at off-hours should work fine elsewhere. EPCOT was no issue whatsoever.
To my knowledge, dialogue is pre-recorded but dynamic. It makes sense in context, but is not happening on the fly. It’s effective enough, but not as good as the SWGE face characters, who are awesome IMO.
The Lunching Pad? I don’t think anyone understands how much you go through in the name of science. ;-;
I was at WDW for Princess, and Rise of the Resistance AND Mickey and Minnie were down at the time my travel party rope dropped Studios for EMH. With Rock n Roller Coaster being down for maintenance, it meant everyone made a dash to Toy Story Land. We thankfully got Slinky Dog on G+, and could do TSM and Alien Swirls with a limited wait since the big demand was Slinky Dog. I’m all for new rides, but newer, finicky technology doesn’t help when it keeps going down. We finally got to do M&MRR, but Rise of the Resistance was down for a second time, which I took as a sign from the ride gods.
Ouch!
I have been VERY lucky with Rise of the Resistance breakdowns lately, to the point that it feels like I’m tempting fate each time I jump in the standby line…because my run has gotta come to an end at some point.