Help! I've lost my Disney Magic!

[Jaime McLarty]

I have been lucky, most of my trips to WDW have been fantastic, but I do recall this one time I wanted to seriously throttle a CM.

My first Christmas trip to WDW was in December 2007. I went with my parents and for the most part had a pretty good time. There was one experience though that I ended up going to Town Hall and speaking to guest services about. Now let me give a little background. My Dad was about to have a second spinal fusion about a week after that trip, so he was in a wheelchair for most of the trip. He could get up and walk onto a ride, but standing and waiting wasn't an option as it would cause him extreme pain. We were waiting to go into the Philharmagic show, the CM at the front was fantastic. Dad stayed in the wheelchair until it was time to go into the outer room before going to the seating. We were told he would immediately transfer from the outer room immediately to a chair in the auditorium. The CM in the outer room had different ideas, because my Dad could stand and walk (for very short periods of time) I think he thought we were lying about needing the wheelchair. We had to wait in the outer lobby for another disabled family to leave the Auditorium (Which was completely fine), so my dad was squatting down and leaning against a pole to help with his back, the CM told him to stand or leave. I said he needed to sit down, he was in extreme pain and could just go into the auditorium to sit, we (my mother and I) would wait in the outer lobby (so it didn't look like we were trying to skip the line). He laughed at us said "Yeah right" and again told my Dad to stand or leave. Dad stood and leaned against the pole, again trying to relieve the pain in his back, and he got yelled at again by the same CM for leaning. Now keep in mind that this is in a room full of people waiting to go into the auditorium that he was yelling at my Dad. Dad was so embarrassed that he said it was fine, my Mom and I replied it wasn't. Now I will admit, when you mess with a family member of mine, I can get quite defensive and angry. So after the show I headed straight to Town Hall and asked for a manager. I guess the look on my face was enough to tell the CM that I wasn't kidding. They went to get the Manager and he came out to the desk. He was a VERY nice man, who asked what happened. I explained everything. As the story went on, he got more and more appalled. He then asked for the name of the CM and the time we were there. I gave him both and he knew the person I was talking about, apparently that wasn't the first complaint. He told me he would personally take care of this and he was soooooo sorry. I walked by the Philharmagic about 10-15 minutes later and that CM was nowhere to be seen.

Moral of the story is, things happen. I think Disney tries to screen people when interviewing them, but some slip through the cracks as they can in all businesses. I would always recommend getting the CM's name and heading to guest relations to speak to a manager. Disney can't fix something (or someone) if they don't know there is an issue.

Also maybe a break is a good thing. I always leave about 2-4 years in between my trips to WDW, mainly for money reasons, but I think it also helps with keeping the magic alive. Even that one experience didn't ruin my day. I talked to a manager and they were informed what happened, from there the only choice was to move on and continue having a magical trip.

I hope you are able to find the magic again!

 

[epcotty]

Let it be for about a year after this last trip, and if you still feel that way, then maybe try somewhere else instead

 

[rk4983]

I feel the same way about WDW, everything seems outdated and that lost the magic for me. I love Disneyland in California, I think its way way better than WDW. Go other places, I went on a cruise and it was the most amazing vacation, with the money you spend in WDW you can go just about anywhere.

 

[robl45]

I'm pretty sure we are skipping next year after going the past 3 years. Its just really not the same anymore. When I was a kid it was much different and even 10 or 12 years ago it was different. Everything is way too much of a hassle now too.

Simple little things have become a huge production and its just not enjoyable anymore. In march I lost a paper fast pass and I asked at the hotel if they could replace it. Nope the hotels can't give out fastpasses was the response. They did the year before when the power went out at the resort so clearly they could. Went to guest services at the park and no problem they replaced it, but I was trying to avoid wasting more time.

I remember about 12 years ago, my wife was wearing her birthday button when we went over memorial day weekend. The cast member when we got off of aerosmith asked what she wanted for her birthday and she jokingly said to ride this ride again. He said sure and took us back on the ride. I keep thinking of that moment as that was when there was magic.

Having my 70 year old mother sit on the floor for 45 minutes at test track after waiting 45 minutes or more because the ride stopped for rain isn't magical either.

Want to have someone join you at Disney that didn't decide 6 months plus before, forget it, because god forbid they add the person to your reservation. That would cause huge problems because you know they run a well oiled machine at these restaurants and the reservation time you have is always when you get sat down LOL.

And then of course there is closing the magic kingdom down early so they can hoard everyone into Pandora, but then if you stay offsite, your just getting royally screwed. I always stay onsite, but its really not fair and with the lines there I can only imagine they just figure people will show up, say forget it and drop some money in the gift shop.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

oops

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

I think w/o the family issues you may have still felt slighted but NOT AS MUCH. Add it up the way it happened and I understand completely.
I think a few vacations elsewhere can remedy your feelings. Sometime ABSENCE does make the HEART GROW FONDER.

 

[serenitynow]

Hopefully time will take the edge off of some of your bad feelings about your trip. As a family, we have had some great Disney trips, okay Disney trips and some BAD Disney trips. I have to admit that some of our favorite family stories have been about bad trips we never thought we'd be laughing about someday. The nice family vacations somewhat blur together, but the bad times seem to be the most memorable, in a funny way.

 

[nessz79]

We have had this happen. We are in a 2+ year break before we head back next March. It took this long to feel excited about going back. When you lose your Disney magic/mojo, just explore elsewhere for a while. Chances are, it will come back!

 

[luvthemouse71]

Hi everyone!

I need some help, I've lost that special feeling in my heart when I think about Disney. I'm wondering if this has happened to any of you and how you got it back.

I've waited a few months to write this to let feelings settle and see if I'd feel better about Disney over time, I don't.

So we went to WDW in April. The whole family, me, my wife and young daughter and both sets of grandparents. We had been at WDW twice before (and DLP once) and had fantastic experiences, even negative interactions were very well recovered by WDW. I expected the same this time, not everything was Disney's fault but they didn't recover any of their negative interactions well.

A lot of my favourite parts of Disney were tainted by one thing or another.

I didn't get to ride Haunted Mansion because a cast member forgot me (I skipped the stretching room with my daughter, they brought us through to a spot near the exit where they said another CM would take us to the loading area). The CM in the loading area told the rest of my family to get on the ride or leave and wouldn't send someone to get me. When a CM finally realized what happened, the rest of the family was coming off the ride and we had an ADR to get to outside the park so we didn't have time to ride again. They offered FPs that ended up in the garbage because we were leaving the park (we had told them that when they gave them to us).

My wife and I didn't get to ride Soarin'. We split the party up because my daughter can't ride. We had Fastpasses and the first group scanned their MagicBands and entered the FP queue (and yes they went in the FP queue, I walk them there). Somewhere (I never got this part straight) in the queue, a CM pulled them out of line and placed them in another line (I'm guessing the Standby queue). Two hours later they come out. The rest of our FP are expired, when I explained what happened the CM got defensive, denied they pulled the grandparents from the FP queue and accused us of trying to scam FP.

A CM on Pirates mocked me. The first part of the queue wasn't set up correctly and a section of rope was missing. Some despicable guests were jumping the queue at that spot. I mentioned it to the CM where the line splits before the bridge, after I moved on, he looked at my parents (I don't think he realized we were together) and said "What does that idiot expect me to do?" and rolled his eyes. Obviously, I was quite upset and didn't exactly enjoy the ride.

Some personal things happened on the trip as well. We missed our Expedition Everest FP and didn't get to ride because a family member forgot to pack diapers and we had to turn around and go back to the condo. Another family member had a meltdown at Epcot and we missed the Flower and Garden food kiosks (which was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most). We missed the Star Wars fireworks because of other circumstances at HS. We got separated after Wishes on our last night and took over an hour to find everyone again, and then tempers flared.

Sorry to make this sound so whiny, I just wanted to get into what spoiled Disney for me.

I'm sure some of you have had bad experiences at WDW before, how did you make it feel better?

I seriously need some pixie dust because months later I still don't want to hear about WDW nor would I consider another vacation. This is from someone that is such a Disney fanatic that people tease me about going so often and talking about Disney constantly.

Help!

We used to go to WDW twice a year, we've gone to about every 18 months now. I still love Disney but I think we went so much before that it got a little boring. My sister and I also got hooked on cruises so we have been replacing the second WDW trip with that. We do have a Disney cruise in November- I heard that these are good for getting that Disney mojo back. We are also spending one day at AoA pre cruise. Probably won't do a park but we haven't made up our minds about that yet.

I hear you about certain things tainting your view..we took my niece during February vacation. We land in Orlando, get to the hotel, and my niece says she doesn't feel well. I take her temperature ( I'm a nurse so my first aid kit has everything in it, lol) and it's 104.2!!! We sponge her down and give her some childrens' ibuprofen. Fever did come down.. She was sick for about 3 days of a weeklong trip. The crowds were ridiculous, my shoes failed me and I had a ginormous blister. My mom, who I love dearly, doesn't travel well and did some complaining at first about the crowds. It took a good few days, but we pushed through and still made some good memories. My niece wants to go back.

Never again during school vacation though and better shoes next time!!

 

[Denise K W]

I have been lucky, most of my trips to WDW have been fantastic, but I do recall this one time I wanted to seriously throttle a CM.

My first Christmas trip to WDW was in December 2007. I went with my parents and for the most part had a pretty good time. There was one experience though that I ended up going to Town Hall and speaking to guest services about. Now let me give a little background. My Dad was about to have a second spinal fusion about a week after that trip, so he was in a wheelchair for most of the trip. He could get up and walk onto a ride, but standing and waiting wasn't an option as it would cause him extreme pain. We were waiting to go into the Philharmagic show, the CM at the front was fantastic. Dad stayed in the wheelchair until it was time to go into the outer room before going to the seating. We were told he would immediately transfer from the outer room immediately to a chair in the auditorium. The CM in the outer room had different ideas, because my Dad could stand and walk (for very short periods of time) I think he thought we were lying about needing the wheelchair. We had to wait in the outer lobby for another disabled family to leave the Auditorium (Which was completely fine), so my dad was squatting down and leaning against a pole to help with his back, the CM told him to stand or leave. I said he needed to sit down, he was in extreme pain and could just go into the auditorium to sit, we (my mother and I) would wait in the outer lobby (so it didn't look like we were trying to skip the line). He laughed at us said "Yeah right" and again told my Dad to stand or leave. Dad stood and leaned against the pole, again trying to relieve the pain in his back, and he got yelled at again by the same CM for leaning. Now keep in mind that this is in a room full of people waiting to go into the auditorium that he was yelling at my Dad. Dad was so embarrassed that he said it was fine, my Mom and I replied it wasn't. Now I will admit, when you mess with a family member of mine, I can get quite defensive and angry. So after the show I headed straight to Town Hall and asked for a manager. I guess the look on my face was enough to tell the CM that I wasn't kidding. They went to get the Manager and he came out to the desk. He was a VERY nice man, who asked what happened. I explained everything. As the story went on, he got more and more appalled. He then asked for the name of the CM and the time we were there. I gave him both and he knew the person I was talking about, apparently that wasn't the first complaint. He told me he would personally take care of this and he was soooooo sorry. I walked by the Philharmagic about 10-15 minutes later and that CM was nowhere to be seen.

We used to go to WDW twice a year, we've gone to about every 18 months now. I still love Disney but I think we went so much before that it got a little boring. My sister and I also got hooked on cruises so we have been replacing the second WDW trip with that. We do have a Disney cruise in November- I heard that these are good for getting that Disney mojo back. We are also spending one day at AoA pre cruise. Probably won't do a park but we haven't made up our minds about that yet.

I hear you about certain things tainting your view..we took my niece during February vacation. We land in Orlando, get to the hotel, and my niece says she doesn't feel well. I take her temperature ( I'm a nurse so my first aid kit has everything in it, lol) and it's 104.2!!! We sponge her down and give her some childrens' ibuprofen. Fever did come down.. She was sick for about 3 days of a weeklong trip. The crowds were ridiculous, my shoes failed me and I had a ginormous blister. My mom, who I love dearly, doesn't travel well and did some complaining at first about the crowds. It took a good few days, but we pushed through and still made some good memories. My niece wants to go back.

Never again during school vacation though and better shoes next time!!

Moral of the story is, things happen. I think Disney tries to screen people when interviewing them, but some slip through the cracks as they can in all businesses. I would always recommend getting the CM's name and heading to guest relations to speak to a manager. Disney can't fix something (or someone) if they don't know there is an issue.

Also maybe a break is a good thing. I always leave about 2-4 years in between my trips to WDW, mainly for money reasons, but I think it also helps with keeping the magic alive. Even that one experience didn't ruin my day. I talked to a manager and they were informed what happened, from there the only choice was to move on and continue having a magical trip.

I hope you are able to find the magic again!

Omg!
That place happen to me. I had surgery on my right ankle about 5 years ago i am fine when I walk but sometimes if I am standing along period of time I have to sit. This happen to the same place they told us to stand I was not to sit. But then they told me to stand but not the other kids who were all sitting
I told my husband we will not be going to that place again only place we had an issue like that
This is why we usually do fast passes because I cannot stand in line and my husband does not want to get the hassle of a scooter because I dont need it all the time.

 

[StraightToDumbo]

By far the thing that causes us to develop a negative view on Disney is bringing EXTENDED FAMILY. They can kill that Disney MOJO faster than you can say "We aint doin no rope drop!"

We've gone just a few months after terrible family trip and had THE BEST time. No rules, no baggage, just the people you love most in the world.

 

[Rachel Ann]

A slightly different way to keep the magic alive - Myself and 2 of my three kids use Disney names for our Starbucks and other food orders, whenever we have to give them a name. My Starbucks name is Minnie, my daughter's is Cindy (for Cinderella) and my son's is Peter (for Peter Pan). It invariably makes us smile when the person behind the counter calls out "order is up for Minnie," or "Cindy, your frappe is ready," ect. We get a kick out of it. I've used "Minnie" several times at different places and sometimes someone will ask "Minnie Mouse?," but for the most part, they're too busy doing their jobs to care that much.

 

[Bob Dolewhip]

101pongo, I feel you. Our last trip was full of Disney Disappointnents, always because they just couldn't get it together. I almost got in a fight with a CM.
I understand that they are just people trying to do their jobs. Just don't tell me X when the truth is Y. Don't tell me I have to stand when I see an open seat. Don't tell me I can't have the thing I already paid for. Basic stuff.
I do feel like Disney is undermining their ability to create the magic by pushing too hard on the side of greed. If you nickel and dime me and whatever the equivalent of that is for the employees then it pits us against each other. Me demanding my money's worth and them trying to do their jobs underpaid, undertrained, and understaffed.
I try to focus on the positive things that we loved on our trip. There were so many awesome CMs, particularly the ones working with kids, who made up for the BS we had to deal with.