excellent points and well said! we are Disneyworld addicted and have been making a yearly family trip for close to 10 years now (longer for me, my first trip was in 1994) and as much as I love WDW I can forsee a time when it may not be a big deal to miss a trip...unfortunately its all about money so the execs who make the decisions that affect this stuff may never see these points or make the changes needed to return the parks to the values and Magic that they once had.

I think that Disney has been taking advantage of and taking for granted their annual pass holders. Why not have a dedicated line for passholders at the entrance to the parks? Why not have one on the way into parking at Magic Kingdom? Let people know you think they are special. And then there is the matter of the incredible price increase is here for annual passes. My family of five has had them for years, and now lead and everyone else we know is not renewing their annual passes. It is a disappointment, but we can fill the void with other activities in Florida a lot cheaper. The and then there is the matter of the incredible price increase is here for annual passes. My family of five has had them for years, and now lead and everyone else we know is not renewing their annual passes. It is a disappointment, but we can fill the void with other activities in Florida a lot cheaper. I feel that Disney is trying to pay for his part expansions and new rides solely on the backs of the pass holders were there most loyal customers. But that's just my view.

So what do you think would really happen if there where no longer Advanced Dining reservations or Fast Passes? Would chaos ensue or would it actually be okay? I usually really resent having to be that structured for when to eat and what ride to be at. Seems we all managed just fine before and it was much more relaxing in the end!

I agree with 5 out of 6 of these.

(DVC) You *do* realize the DVC booking window is 11 months ... not 7!? If you think about most all other hotels and resorts ... they can book up to 12 months in advance. Accordingly, I do not believe 12 months is an issue. When we purchased DVC in the early 1990's, there was only one resort - DISNEY VACATION CLUB. Members could book 11 months in advance.

If you are DVC, you should understand the concept of Home Resort advantage ... similar to exchanging your RCI time-share points at another RCI resort. If you own a prime week at Hawaiian resort, would you want someone who purchased a $2,500 timeshare in the Pocono Mountains to gobble up prime season in Hawaii?

I think you nailed it! I could NOT agree ore with all of your points! I adore Disney but all this planning takes alot of the fun out of it!

We have a family of 5. Other than Port Orleans or a DV. rental there isn't good place for us to comfortably stay. Compare that to the sizeable rooms at Universal's Portofino Bay and it's a major factor of where we will plan our next Orlando vacation...

Great Article. I agree I prefer to come to the Parks and see how the day unfolds. My biggest complaint is dinner reservations . You shouldn't be able to book multiple restaurants for the same night and then not turn up to one of them. This affects other guests and the staff. I believe Disney has introduced a cancellation fee but is not enough.
I could comment on all that you said but you have said it so well I don't need to

There's no spontaneity anymore. How do I plan a vacation with a 5 year old? If she wants to do Dumbo one day and do it again the next? Get rid of fastpass altogether.
And now there's the problem of outsiders buying and reselling dinner reservations. How do you fix that?

I am greatly concerned with scalpers accessing reservations for meals so that true guests have to pay them an extra fee to eat!! This issue needs to be addressed immediately. With the all the high tech sources, there has to be a way to only allow paying guests to make reservations, only for their party and for only one location per day per meal. This needs to be addressed immediately!

Soarin opened in 2005. Turtle talk with crush openings in 2004. Also- I think it would be inaccurate to say you haven't missed anything in Epcot if you haven't gone since 2003. There are new shows and new restaurants in world showcase, and I would say the restaurants and shows are a big part of why I go there.

#3 is a big one for my wife and I. While we enjoy the classics some of our favorite movies are the newer Big Hero 6 and Inside Out. Not seeing a huge selection of gift shop items or even characters in park, and with no news that any new attractions will be added in the near future I see Disney more and more falling behind on catching the wave of relevancy. In 18 months these movies and their associated products will not have the same draw nor the same consumption rate.

OK so here is my opinion. I have been to Disney World and Disneyland, Disneyland considerable less, I mean I went there maybe 4 times and Disney World bordering 400. This is subject I know that I am pretty well versed in, and yet have more to learn. Here we go. I to have had issues with MDE many more in the early stages then as of late. I was familiar with Stitch, but honestly haven’t seen him in a long while. Safe to say they are making great steps in that area. The WiFi is actually pretty good in Orlando, I didn’t really go on my phone in CA, the thing is I don’t expect to be getting 300mbs in the park. I know that there is thousands of people in the park all of which are connected to the same servers and that eats up a lot of the speed. Still I haven’t had many issues with the WiFi whilst in the parks in recent times. As for prior planning. It isn’t required to do prior planning of the trips. You can, I have, in fact I booked fast passes today for Tuesday. If you want to get ahead, then fine do it. But it isn’t required. Dining reservations can be a problem, everyone wants to eat in Beast’s castle, I mean why not the food is great, more inexpensive, for Disney prices, and the atmosphere is spectacular. However there are so many other dining options out there so that you need not plan ahead, including one the busiest restaurants in the country, located in Tomorrowland. They have many tasty options to please all pallets; vegetarian, carnivore, sweet tooth, kids, healthy and fattening, and not too mention a help yourself topping bar including all you eat hot cheese sauce (my personal favorite) No reservation needed. But alas, for those of you who come to Disney on a vacation and want the whole atmospheric appreciation you may need to funnel through the, truthfully, sometimes difficult process of finding a reservation like you would have to do in the outside world in a place that is in a very high demand. Next on the list the planning. Yes Disney over prepares, or in cases, i.e. Frozen rides, under prepares however I think that it is hard to really expect said fortune 500 company who has its named attached to many movies and to throw money towards premature plan. Saying that Disney should have had a frozen ride in the works already is only safe to say because it did become a worldwide billion dollar+ movie, however we don’t see people expecting a Wall-e ride, or Brave, or Bolt, Tangled, Big Hero 6, there is no way to really know which film is going to hit! Why Rent we making Marvel rides? We could have Whole parks based upon the multi billion dollar coloration that is Marvel, now owned by Disney, there is just too much out there to have a ride for everything. Dinosaur I think is successful because it is fun, yes, but also because it is about dinosaurs which has intrigued the minds of kids for ever, so why shouldn’t it be successful? Now the subject of Half-parks…this is a kind of touchy subject for me. I have had days where I rode the rides and was like now what. But there is a major thing that you have left out. There are a plethora of fantastic. Shows that can be seen throughout the day in every park! And ii m speaking aittle biased here. Because I am an actor who would LOVE to be in the shows there. Think about the Commercial success of The Lion King, to a point where it is still relevant now as one of the longest running shoes on Broadway. Has there ever been a Lion King ride? No! Although I not so secretly have dreamed of one for ever! But what they do/did have was shows! A Lion King show that I watched and cried at where Philharmagic sits now, Festival of the Lion King in Animal Kingdom, And for the educational purposes Circle of Life in Epcot. There are so many wonderful things to do in each park that if you really wanted to there would be no half parks. I do agree however that there is need for some new attractions. But if I can go there for 20+years nearly 400 times ridden every ride and still have fun, and feel a burst of childish excitement everytime I see the Disney World banks welcoming me then they. Ant really be doing that bad.

I don't mind the planning as I think it makes the actual trip more pleasant. Having just returned from Disney World I totally agree with you about Hollywood Studios. They should be ashamed to charge a full days admission with all they have closed there.

I also work for a very large publicly traded company and it seems the larger the company the slower to create and risk innovativness. These companies tend not to want to risk revenue on a new product, be that an attraction or a service depending on the industry, until either someone smaller does it and proves it or a history of something newer grows that says hey, we can get some instant return. I think in some ways Disney had grown into that trap the larger they get. It's that little curse of success. The larger you get, the more you become indentured to the stock holders, the less you are willing to risk money new innovations until it is proven elsewhere. Just one opinion and observation.

Re: Avatar Land
This is the proposed next big project that will be coming. Who cares? It's been YEARS since the movie (which many of us did not see) and now it's "old" ideas. Need more current or classic cartoons/rides.