What Are the Most Ridiculous Things Disney Makes Us Do?
Disney vacations provide constant joy. That doesn’t mean that Disney doesn’t expect a lot from its guests, though.
What are the most ridiculous things Disney makes us do during a vacation? Here are a few big asks.
Photo:visitorlando.com
Wake up before 7 a.m. to Fight Our Phones
MickeyBlog has referenced the 7 a.m. struggle on several occasions. That’s our term for the strange requirement Disney asks of theme park tourists.
You must awaken early and have your phone ready to book essential elements of your park visit that day.
Photo: Disney
At 7 a.m., the system opens. At this moment, you must purchase Disney Genie+, book your Disney Genie+ selections for the day, and you’re not even done yet.
Once you’ve completed the Disney Genie+ process, you must turn your attention to your Lightning Lane selection, something over which you have little control.
Photo: Disney/The Street
Disney will assign you a time slot. Then, you must build your entire day around that Lightning Lane booking.
Whether or not you’re a morning person is irrelevant. What matters is that Disney expects everyone to do this at the same time, even though many people like to sleep in while on vacation.
Photo: Disney Music
Why won’t Disney let us sleep? We were already up late for the fireworks!
Stare at Our Phones Constantly
I’m not one of those people who rant about smartphones ruining societies.
Photo: wirefly.com
In fact, I’m an early adopter who loves technology.
Even so, I must admit that there’s truth to the argument that Disney has overcorrected in the smartphone era.
Nowadays, the Disney Genie tip board functions as a necessity during a park visit.
Photo: Disney
When you’re standing in line for one attraction, you’re likely checking your phone to plan what’s next.
Even worse, some people don’t plan ahead like that.
Instead, they start checking their phones while they’re walking to the next thing, causing traffic jams in the parks.
Disney’s constant quest to improve traffic flow and attraction throughput has led to overreliance on smartphones.
Photo: Disney
Sadly, while we understand the reasons why Disney implemented this, it does diminish the park experience.
Keep Phone Charged
What’s the other aspect of having to use your phone all day at the park?
You drain the battery.
Photo: Disney
Here’s the wild thing about My Disney Experience, the app that matters most to guests during a visit. It’s a resource hog.
For this reason, frequent Disney guests must plan backup phone charging strategies throughout the day.
Photo: Disney
We walk around with charging cords and batteries, and we scope out the places at restaurants and sitting areas where we can plug in our phones.
Some of us exchange fuel rods at the stations, while others use solar cases.
Photo:FuelRod.om
In short, Disney’s demand that we use our smartphones creates multiple aggravations.
A modest proposal, Disney: How about you add more USB charging stations in the parks?
Photo: CMIT.com
That would solve both problems, as we could also take our time and enjoy the place while we wait on our battery juice.
Find Our Way from the Airport
No, I’m not letting this one go.
Photo: Forbes
For out of state guests who fly into Orlando International Airport (MCO), the elimination of Magical Express feels like an attack.
You won’t truly appreciate this frustration until you watch your rideshare driver circle the airport twice trying to find you.
Photo: Uber
It’s that much worse when you wave them down and they ignore you, which has happened to us.
We’re seasoned pros by this point, though.
I feel the worst for first-time guests at MCO.
Photo: Twitter/Orlando Internation Airport
They’re flying into a strange airport, have no idea where to go, and must choose which stranger to trust as soon as they touch down.
The system is demonstrably worse, while not saving Disney much money.
Photo: OIA
Disney needs to fix this issue. The requirement just feels unfair.
Force Us to Play the Bus Lottery
Disney has improved an impressive number of park experiences over the past decade.
Bus Transportation
Alas, transportation remains an exercise in chaos.
Disney has improved its resorts so that some of the bus stations show estimated arrival times.
Photo: Disney
For reasons passing understanding, no such digital displays appear at the theme parks, the place where you’re most likely to need a bus.
As a result, you wind up playing the worst game at Disney whether you want to or not.
Disney bus
You’re playing the bus lottery, in hopes the one that you like will arrive, preferably in a timely fashion.
I say from personal experience that the bus lottery is a fickle game with the odds loaded against you more than anything in a Las Vegas casino.
Disney bus
There are few things at Disney as frustrating as watching one hotel deliver five-plus buses to an empty stall while you wait for your bus – and this happens a surprisingly frequent number of times.
I’m sure that the bus guru in charge of Disney’s system is a brilliant human being. Even so, I will never understand why Disney hasn’t improved the theme park bus system in the era of big data.
Plan Months Ahead of Time
Some people are vacation planners and look forward to strategizing their next trip.
I wasn’t one of them until we started going to Disney regularly.
Photo:seoclerk.com
Now, I really don’t have much choice.
I always marvel at the strangeness of the situation, as I’m not a planner in my home life.
Disney planning
Over the past decade, there have been times when I have known the place where I would eat six months ahead of time, but not that night. It’s ridiculous.
Name another thing you do in your daily life that’s supposed to be a stress reliever yet requires such early planning.
Schedule Park Passes
Yes, I can still feel your outrage.
Photo: Attractions Magazine
When Disney introduced Park Passes, nobody blinked an eye.
It was a business necessity we happily accepted in exchange for the park reopening during the pandemic.
Photo: Disney
Those were our feelings in 2020. It’s 2023 now.
We already own park passes for Disney. We call them “admission tickets.”
There is absolutely no reason for park pass requirements.
Photo: Disney
Disney has kept them in place because the system maximizes staffing efficiency.
Guests would be perfectly okay with that tradeoff if Disney were also cutting costs at the parks.
Photo: Vecteezy
As we all know, the opposite has happened. Disney is raising prices even though it’s saving money on staffing via Park Passes.
Some recent rumors suggested that Disney might modify or even eliminate Park Passes.
Until those changes occur, this request remains patently absurd. When we pay for theme park tickets, we should be able to go into the park we want. Period.
