***January 2022 Thread*** - Kicking Off 2022 with WDW!

[crazyventures]

Leaving on Saturday morning and I've packed and re-packed approximately 1,000 times. Looks like I'll be relying on layers! I'm hoping we won't run into any weather travel delays since we're leaving from CA.

 

[Gary Stocker]

Well my flight back was canceled and staying until Sunday morning now. Hopefully that storm will have cleared NJ. Extra night about 200 more at French quarter. Safe travels everyone!

 

[scrappinginontario]

we are in Rochester, but flying out of Buffalo as it was a lot cheaper. Checking the weather now and it says that Saturday will be very cold, but no snow. Fingers crossed we can take off with no problems.

May I ask what time you're flying out? We fly out of Buffalo Saturday too.

 

[hulagirl87]

May I ask what time you're flying out? We fly out of Buffalo Saturday too.

our flight leaves at 11:10am. I've never been to the Buffalo airport before so we will be leaving extra early to make sure we know where to go, and we will be parking our car for the week, so there's that added in too. I will feel so much better once the plane touches down in Orlando!

 

[DisneyBelle27]

Well, the plan to switch our flight to this morning instead of tomorrow b/c of the impending snowstorm went off without a hitch! 6:40am flight this morning, landed only 5 min late at 9:40am b/c they had to de-ice the plane first. After a bathroom stop, the bags came out in about 10min, Uber came in 5 min, and our room was ready at the Hilton Disney Springs when we got there around 11!

I was able to do work emails on the plane & Uber ride, & set up my work laptop on the desk in our room w/a view of Disney Springs (& I can just faintly see ToT & Spaceship Earth wayyy in the distance)!

Weather app says it's 71 out, and the sun is coming in the window!

Later after work hours we'll stroll over to Disney Springs for the evening!

I'm kinda grateful for the snowstorm now, b/c it's added this extra time here!

This time tomorrow, we'll have checked into Kidani Village, have had lunch at Sanaa, and will probably be relaxing and getting ready to go to Epcot!

 

[JFox]

1 week back post trip. Finally feel recovered even through I am not caught up on laundry. Just saw a story on DFB that the pink and blue Mickey balloon popcorn buckets are back! I missed them by a week . They were the only souvenirs I wanted and I missed them.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

We arrived home Friday after our 10 day trip. This was the strangest Jan trip we have ever experienced, and I'm not talking about the cool temps (which I actually much prefer). Crowds were terrible. Wait times were ridiculous. Even a few lightning lanes had significant wait times vs the old fast pass system. Lots of rides went down. Stores didn't seem as well-stocked as past trips (not a surprise considering shipping and manufacturing issues but disappointing regardless). But the most disheartening thing we experienced were rude cast members. At Dok Ondar, one cast member was so rude to my 18 yr old daughter that 4 other cast members who witnessed the incident immediately jumped in to apologize to my daughter and inform the cast member right in front of her that she absolutely could not talk to guests that way. It left my daughter terribly shaken. Thankfully, we also had some fantastic cast member interactions sprinkled throughout the trip, so that helped, but it appears perhaps Disney has slacked on cast member training since reopening. I also did not enjoy waking up before 7 am each day to book our LL and IALL choices. I much prefer the old way of having a good schedule of 3 of our top choice rides pre-booked 60 days ahead. Spent way too much time with my face in my phone and felt like the genie + system made for a comparatively inefficient method of touring the parks for our tastes. On a happier note, AKL was - as always - a fabulous respite from the craziness of the parks, so we don't entirely regret our DVC membership yet. My daughter and I have a girls' trip planned in Dec. After that, we might be doing some resort only trips - or hitting up Universal while using our DVC points. We actually did go to Universal this trip, and while their express passes are quite pricey, we prefer the way they operate so much more than genie +. Our day there was so fun and pleasant thanks to no stress or worries about getting on rides.

 

[DaniellePoppins]

We arrived home Friday after our 10 day trip. This was the strangest Jan trip we have ever experienced, and I'm not talking about the cool temps (which I actually much prefer). Crowds were terrible. Wait times were ridiculous. Even a few lightning lanes had significant wait times vs the old fast pass system. Lots of rides went down. Stores didn't seem as well-stocked as past trips (not a surprise considering shipping and manufacturing issues but disappointing regardless). But the most disheartening thing we experienced were rude cast members. At Dok Ondar, one cast member was so rude to my 18 yr old daughter that 4 other cast members who witnessed the incident immediately jumped in to apologize to my daughter and inform the cast member right in front of her that she absolutely could not talk to guests that way. It left my daughter terribly shaken. Thankfully, we also had some fantastic cast member interactions sprinkled throughout the trip, so that helped, but it appears perhaps Disney has slacked on cast member training since reopening. I also did not enjoy waking up before 7 am each day to book our LL and IALL choices. I much prefer the old way of having a good schedule of 3 of our top choice rides pre-booked 60 days ahead. Spent way too much time with my face in my phone and felt like the genie + system made for a comparatively inefficient method of touring the parks for our tastes. On a happier note, AKL was - as always - a fabulous respite from the craziness of the parks, so we don't entirely regret our DVC membership yet. My daughter and I have a girls' trip planned in Dec. After that, we might be doing some resort only trips - or hitting up Universal while using our DVC points. We actually did go to Universal this trip, and while their express passes are quite pricey, we prefer the way they operate so much more than genie +. Our day there was so fun and pleasant thanks to no stress or worries about getting on rides.

I felt a lot of the same honestly. I didn't encounter any rude cast members though. I'm sorry your had that experience. All the encounters I had were really great. I was actually kinda surprised at that to be honest. Not that I've had bad encounters, but just my own personality would have been extremely tested by the conditions down there with crowds, under-staffing, and just generally rude people everywhere. I don't know how they do it, especially considering I know they are underpaid. I also didn't sleep well the entire trip. Anxiety over needing to get up early and maintain my schedule with the huge crowds left me having a hard time settling down and staying asleep. The whole trip left me mentally and physically exhausted. I didn't find Genie useful at all except the day I was in HS and one of my days in MK when I happened to end up with a couple extra LL passes from an issue I had. I found lines to be much longer than normal for January, but moved quite a bit faster than posted times. Is that to push people into buying Genie+ or because people aren't really using it much so there's less LL to Standby ratio happening? I honestly don't know.

I'm not regretting my booking of the September trip though. I'm home now 9 days and I already miss the atmosphere. I just hope September stays true to form with crowds. I know it will be beastly hot, but I'll be happy to take breaks mid day and cool off if it means being able to enjoy a quieter time. I'm happy I'm not at POP again. The size and atmosphere there was not my style. I liked the room itself and the skyliner, but otherwise, meh. I'm happy to be at POFQ again for September. After September though I definitely see a WDW break coming again.

 

[disney-inspired]

Got back Monday from our trip.
My younger sister tested positive for COVID yesterday so I'm getting tested today. My parents are currently negative but will retest on Monday. I have zero symptoms so hopefully will be negative. I'm triple vaxxed.

Quick thoughts from my trip
- It was so cold. I was frozen most of the trip and we only got sunny days for the last 2-3 days of our trip. I know better for next time.

- IT WAS SO CROWDED. Wait times were insane and the droves of people really mucked up the wait times. I did buy Genie+ for our HS day as well as ILL for ROTR. I also paid for ILL for Remy because I wasn't waiting 120 minutes (ridiculous). We did time some waits and found it them to be about 10-15 minutes less than posted outside of the ride.
I don't want to go back in January but am planning for 2023 because that's when it works for my friends. Not sure if this year was mostly revenge travel. TouringPlans was way off on crowd levels and won't be paying for that next time because they have been going off historical data when we are obviously outside of the norm.
Next time I go back with my family will be in a September. I can handle heat being from southern California desert and hope that the crowds are more true to form when we go again (probably 3-4 years).

- I LOVED my stay at the Polynesian and will want to stay there again but during the summer so I can take advantage of the pool and relaxing on the beach to watch fireworks and the water parade.

- Housekeeping was poor. I understand they are dealing with employee shortage but hope my next trip has better (more?) service.

- Used Tiffany Towncar and will use them again. On time, friendly and great service. It was nice not having to wait for Mears.

 

[disney-inspired]

Anxiety over needing to get up early and maintain my schedule with the huge crowds left me having a hard time settling down and staying asleep. The whole trip left me mentally and physically exhausted. I didn't find Genie useful at all except the day I was in HS and one of my days in MK when I happened to end up with a couple extra LL passes from an issue I had. I found lines to be much longer than normal for January, but moved quite a bit faster than posted times. Is that to push people into buying Genie+ or because people aren't really using it much so there's less LL to Standby ratio happening? I honestly don't know.

I can totally relate to your anxiety. I dreamt twice! that I overslept and didn't get my family's LL choices.

 

[DaniellePoppins]

- IT WAS SO CROWDED. Wait times were insane and the droves of people really mucked up the wait times. I did buy Genie+ for our HS day as well as ILL for ROTR. I also paid for ILL for Remy because I wasn't waiting 120 minutes (ridiculous). We did time some waits and found it them to be about 10-15 minutes less than posted outside of the ride.
I don't want to go back in January but am planning for 2023 because that's when it works for my friends. Not sure if this year was mostly revenge travel. TouringPlans was way off on crowd levels and won't be paying for that next time because they have been going off historical data when we are obviously outside of the norm.
Next time I go back with my family will be in a September. I can handle heat being from southern California desert and hope that the crowds are more true to form when we go again (probably 3-4 years).

- Housekeeping was poor. I understand they are dealing with employee shortage but hope my next trip has better (more?) service.

- Used Tiffany Towncar and will use them again. On time, friendly and great service. It was nice not having to wait for Mears.

I'm sorry you guys came in contact with "the bug". I thankfully was okay, also triple vaxxed, wore a kn95, and tested while I was there. Those at home tests travel well lol.

I felt a LOT of the same as you did. It was crowded and lines were long, but not as long as what Disney claimed. Walking drove me nuts though. People with strollers I swear are on a mission to kill. And thanks to phones no one looks where they are going. Touring Plans is definitely going by "the norm" and not taking into consideration that Disney is "easy" covid travel. No mandates for vax or testing. So if people had to pick somewhere to go where things are more lax, that's probably it. I think this past month was a combo of desperate people taking advantage of that and rescheduled trips. Its going to take a couple years to probably shake out for sure if January is now a busy month for real or not.

I agree about housekeeping as well. They definitely skipped one of the days they should have come into clean for me. I only had service once and it was just fresh towels and empty garbage. I know not to expect a lot, but it would have been nice if they were in twice during my stay and had at least also made the bed. The fact that you had the same problem in a deluxe hotel as I did in a value doesn't offer much hope though. Let's just hope staffing won't be so awful by September as I see you are going again like me. After that I don't see another WDW trip in my future until at least 5 years has passed. I would love to try to reschedule the 2020 Disneyland trip I lost though.

I also used Tiffany and loved them. Definitely will use them again instead of trying Mears or doing an Uber/Lyft. I know price wise its more, but its just so much more convenient to have that level of service.

 

[ItsOnlyMoney]

We just got back from 10-hotel 8-park days. (also 2 more days at Universal) We had a good time in spite of....
Cold, rained 4 or 5 days (the whole day, not showers). We brought ponchos and warm clothes.
Crowded - wow. The rain didn't keep anyone away, I think.
I found this week several wait times were UNDER estimated. We waited 60 min at HM (posted 45) 50 min at K safari (posted 35) A couple of others, can't remember off hand.
IF you can get there early enough (DH not happy to get up early) many rides were walk on. (not of course the new rides) one MK day we walked on jungle cruise, pirates, and haunted mansion before 10:30.
Be it known that SOMETIMES when ROR is down for "tech difficulties" it may be because someone threw up and they have to clean and sanitize just about everywhere.
Only saw about a half dozen people not following mask rules.
I did wait about 60 for ROR (well 80 min plus clean up 20), RRJ, Remy, Didn't wait for Frozen but did buy a ILL for FOP. We don't do rollercoasters but I am ok with other thrill rides. We'd planned a more leisurely trip in any case.
Food was quite good, (even walking 15,000 - 20,000 steps I put on 6 lbs) We ate table service about 5 times.
Bus service really good except twice.
We stayed at FQ PO - housekeeping came in most days to empty trash and every other day for towels.

 

[disney-inspired]

I'm sorry you guys came in contact with "the bug". I thankfully was okay, also triple vaxxed, wore a kn95, and tested while I was there. Those at home tests travel well lol.

I felt a LOT of the same as you did. It was crowded and lines were long, but not as long as what Disney claimed. Walking drove me nuts though. People with strollers I swear are on a mission to kill. And thanks to phones no one looks where they are going. Touring Plans is definitely going by "the norm" and not taking into consideration that Disney is "easy" covid travel. No mandates for vax or testing. So if people had to pick somewhere to go where things are more lax, that's probably it. I think this past month was a combo of desperate people taking advantage of that and rescheduled trips. Its going to take a couple years to probably shake out for sure if January is now a busy month for real or not.

I agree about housekeeping as well. They definitely skipped one of the days they should have come into clean for me. I only had service once and it was just fresh towels and empty garbage. I know not to expect a lot, but it would have been nice if they were in twice during my stay and had at least also made the bed. The fact that you had the same problem in a deluxe hotel as I did in a value doesn't offer much hope though. Let's just hope staffing won't be so awful by September as I see you are going again like me. After that I don't see another WDW trip in my future until at least 5 years has passed. I would love to try to reschedule the 2020 Disneyland trip I lost though.

I also used Tiffany and loved them. Definitely will use them again instead of trying Mears or doing an Uber/Lyft. I know price wise its more, but its just so much more convenient to have that level of service.

I wore mostly cloth or disposable masks except for on the plane. I did double up (disposable and cloth) at times because it was SO COLD and it kept my face warm.
As far as housekeeping, they really should be going on the days they agree to when you check in - I think they skipped a day with us as well. I don't think they've put 2 and 2 together yet - with all the restrictions, people (us) are doing food orders for pick up and eating in our rooms more frequently and those tiny little trash cans barely hold anything.

I can see doing WDW again with friends because it's all much cheaper when our room is split three ways. Also 3 people travel easier than 9 people. It was quite a thing for all of us to get onto transportation but since I had an ECV, we all got loaded on first which helped a lot. I would make sure my nieces doubled up and sat on laps to avoid taking up extra seats when there was a lot of people.
My family would love to plan for a Tokyo Disney trip but that's a few years down the line to save money and for travel restrictions to ease up.

I'm in California so I have an AP for Disneyland - going again March. It's been awhile since I've been to my home park.

 

[disney-inspired]

We just got back from 10-hotel 8-park days. (also 2 more days at Universal) We had a good time in spite of....
Cold, rained 4 or 5 days (the whole day, not showers). We brought ponchos and warm clothes.
Crowded - wow. The rain didn't keep anyone away, I think.
I found this week several wait times were UNDER estimated. We waited 60 min at HM (posted 45) 50 min at K safari (posted 35) A couple of others, can't remember off hand.
IF you can get there early enough (DH not happy to get up early) many rides were walk on. (not of course the new rides) one MK day we walked on jungle cruise, pirates, and haunted mansion before 10:30.
Be it known that SOMETIMES when ROR is down for "tech difficulties" it may be because someone threw up and they have to clean and sanitize just about everywhere.
Only saw about a half dozen people not following mask rules.
I did wait about 60 for ROR (well 80 min plus clean up 20), RRJ, Remy, Didn't wait for Frozen but did buy a ILL for FOP. We don't do rollercoasters but I am ok with other thrill rides. We'd planned a more leisurely trip in any case.
Food was quite good, (even walking 15,000 - 20,000 steps I put on 6 lbs) We ate table service about 5 times.
Bus service really good except twice.
We stayed at FQ PO - housekeeping came in most days to empty trash and every other day for towels.

I really loved our few days at POFQ - it's so small and convenient. I def would stay there again.

 

[DaniellePoppins]

Be it known that SOMETIMES when ROR is down for "tech difficulties" it may be because someone threw up and they have to clean and sanitize just about everywhere.

We stayed at FQ PO - housekeeping came in most days to empty trash and every other day for towels.

LOL I had no idea that's why it seemed to only go down for short periods of time the day I was there! That's actually good to know in a way that its likely not really a problem with the ride that will keep it down all day. Although wow, I LOVED it and I can be sometimes sensitive to rides, but I didn't think it was that much to cause motion sickness. They should maybe warn a bit more for that I guess. You've given me hope for September since I'm at FQ that things might be just better staffed there since its smaller.

As far as housekeeping, they really should be going on the days they agree to when you check in - I think they skipped a day with us as well. I don't think they've put 2 and 2 together yet - with all the restrictions, people (us) are doing food orders for pick up and eating in our rooms more frequently and those tiny little trash cans barely hold anything.

My family would love to plan for a Tokyo Disney trip but that's a few years down the line to save money and for travel restrictions to ease up.

Yes exactly with those garbages. I had breakfast in the room every day and had dinner there one night. It wasn't even big enough for one person's garbage in the main room. At least there was also a bathroom garbage backup.

I'd love to do all the parks one day. My goals for upcoming trips are nothing next year as I hope to get a new puppy. 2024 - Paris and River Cruise (I would love to squeeze in DLP, but timing away from work and finances would make that VERY unlikely.) 2025 - DL Cali, 2026 - Possibly Non Disney Orlando, Universal, Sea World, Nasa. My friend and I have a bday a week apart and are talking about a girls trip/cruise somewhere in there as well.

 

[ItsOnlyMoney]

Although wow, I LOVED it and I can be sometimes sensitive to rides, but I didn't think it was that much to cause motion sickness. They should maybe warn a bit more for that I guess.

I'm guessing it's the drop out of the ship spot. I don't get motion sickness but I closed my eyes for that.

 

[DaniellePoppins]

@ItsOnlyMoney
I was worried about that drop too. Not a fan of drops like that and I refuse to ever do ToT for that reason, but it was so fast it didn't get to me.

 

[disney-inspired]

I'm sorry you guys came in contact with "the bug". I thankfully was okay, also triple vaxxed, wore a kn95, and tested while I was there. Those at home tests travel well lol.

Thankfully I'm negative

 

[DaniellePoppins]

Thankfully I'm negative

Excellent news!

 

[vicarrieous]

We went Jan 20-29th and echo what some of the previous posters said. It was crowded, wait times were high, temps were low, and we weren't impressed with Genie+ and really struggled to find how to best use it with how we do Disney.

Although we still enjoyed our trip and found ways to find magic, we definitely MISSED fast pass and having our day geared up with a plan and 3 FP's scheduled. We also felt that rope drop and early entry was WAY busier than our past Jan trips. We got to park generally 45ish minutes before early entry and just spent that time prewaiting for a ride. It definitely felt busy even in that early 30 minutes much more than typical Extra Magic Hours or traditional rope drop that we experienced in the past.

We debated not going Jan any more, but also felt like every other time might be just as busy outside of early Sept. We think next year we will do less park days and go to Universal for 1 or 2.