Disney World Guests Want Less Planning, More Surprises - Inside the Magic

A Walt Disney World Resort vacation requires a lot of planning. Guests must make Park Pass reservations for EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. To shorten wait times, Guests must use the Disney Genie app to purchase Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane service on the day of their Disney Park visit, a replacement for the formerly free FastPass+ service.

Almost every Table Service dining reservation at the Disney Parks, Resorts, and Disney Springs requires a reservation, which can be made 60 days before your vacation. Unique experiences like Savi’s Workshop and Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique need similar reservations, which book up almost instantly. Even if you’re eating at a Quick Service dining location, you’ll have to plan ahead to snag a coveted table and place a mobile order to skip the long walk-up line.

Related: Disneyland Resort Cast Member Publicly Blasts Genie+, Calls It “A Trap”

While this pre-planning can make for a magical vacation, it’s also incredibly stressful. Guests overwhelmingly report dissatisfaction with Genie+ and the Park Reservation system.

This week, Walt Disney World Resort fans gathered on Reddit to discuss one change they’d like to make to Walt Disney World Resort. One of the most popular requested changes started with u/arm4261021, who wrote:

I miss being able to be spontaneous at Disney World. Now, almost every aspect of a trip needs to be planned out. Park rez, dining rez, LL rez. It’s too much.

Many other Disney Park fans agreed. u/Bubbly_Donut said they miss being able to put their phone away at the Disney Parks. “Now it needs to be out 24/7 to check things,” they wrote. “Does not feel like a vacation from reality in that sense.”

u/MagicBez reported that, from experience, it’s nearly impossible to vacation at Walt Disney World Resort without access to a smartphone and the My Disney Experience app:

I managed to drop and break my phone a few days into a trip last year and it made things really difficult.

I ended up with a little printed list of our dining reservations and forever asking for paper menus at restaurants.

…oh so my answer would be menus at restaurants even with a working phone, I hate ordering via mobile.

“I always wonder if it would be possible for Disney to have 1-2 evenings a week where there are no dining reservations and it’s walk up only,” u/americanpeony wrote.

Though u/arm4261021 agreed with this response, they felt it probably wouldn’t happen:

i also think they require all of these reservations to artificially increase demand. they want you to feel like you’re missing out if you don’t make a reservation to do all of these things.

Do you like pre-planning your Disney vacation or prefer being more spontaneous?