What if it's not Revenge Travel, but the New Normal?

Set the right expectations for white collar work, be outcome driven, live a happy, lucrative and balanced life.

I agree with this. And its what I have done for better part of 3 decades. Trick is different people find different balances, find happiness in different things and define lucrative differently (and are willing to do more/less for the same level of lucrativeness). Doesn't make anyone right or wrong; just different. Pretty much said that 2 days ago.

No, you insulted my ability as a consultant, with a solid "LOL," remember? You were pretty insistent that clients name the rules and kids today don't understand. Because...

...with very few exceptions, making "a lot" of money will require a lot of work.

Now it just depends on how you define "lucrative?" Not sure if we have a language problem or something else.

On the Disney front, just realized something. Reservations are wide open for the entire Thanksgiving Holiday, and even more interesting, there are regular priced rooms still available (Wed-Sun) at 17 onsite resorts, including all the budgets, most of the moderates and the Poly and Grand (most expensive room was $900 at the Yacht Club, cheapest All Stars at $184.). I think the recession/inflation is finally starting to hit the travel industry. We shall see, but it’s not normal for Disney to be this wide open for a big American Holiday weekend (which for all the international folks is Thanksgiving, second most important holiday to most Americans after Christmas.)

Had I said it was the only thing I said 2 days ago, you might have a point. But I didn't so you don't.

If only you had quoted just a little more. In my first post in this thread (and to be clear, the quote below is not the entirety of my first post in this thread), I said (again, IN PART):

with very few exceptions, making "a lot" of money will require a lot of work. Different people will define "a lot" differently though.

Then later I said (again IN PART -- meaning its not everything I have said):

Another issue I expect is how different people define "a lot" of money (though I stated that already).

And please note, when I said "though I said that already" you didn't appear to have an issue with confusing something I said earlier with everything I said earlier.

And when you mentioned "comfortable," I noted:

And some likely difference in terms of what "comfortable" means.

So does it "now" depend on how you define "lucrative?" No. It always did from my perspective. As I have made totally clear multiple times in this thread. Why that appears to be new to you today is a mystery to me.

Do you think there is a universal definition of "a lot of money," "comfortable" or "lucrative?" Do you think everyone defines working "hard" and "extra" the same way? Or necessary? Do you think everyone finds happiness in the same things? Do you think everyone finds the same optimal balances in life?

Touchdown:

On the Disney front, just realized something. Reservations are wide open for the entire Thanksgiving Holiday

Park reservations aren't available at all levels (single day, resort, and Annual Pass) for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios on a few days in the next week. That said, in remembering my Cast Member days from 8-14 years ago, Thanksgiving week was crowded, but nothing compared to Christmas and New Year's week and even Easter week. Heck, I'm pretty sure MLK and Presidents Day were worse crowd wise.

Just a few things...

Wanting the money without the amount of work normally associated with it is a thing. My husband's company is dealing with it a lot right now. Many of the younger workers get told to do something that is very much a part of their job and decide they don't feel like doing it so they just aren't going to and constantly argue about it. When there is a shortage of workers in the field that complicates it even more, how do you enforce standards when you don't have anyone to replace someone if you fire them? Do we function better with a poor employee or no employee? In some sectors they system feels like it could simply collapse at any time.

As far as continuing high attendance at parks there seem to be groups of people who came through the pandemic in better financial shape than they were going into it for various sometimes odd reasons and people who definitely lost a lot of income and are now trying to play catch up and being kicked while they're down with inflation. I see reasons both groups would be flocking to the parks. Those with money are having big experience vacations, those without are going to the local amusement park because that is what they can afford instead of a vacation. Whether the trends continue I have no clue. I've given up on having concrete expectations for two weeks from now to some extent. My household is doing fine but we seem to be surrounded by dumpster fires just waiting to ignite and things I thought would have straightened themselves out by now haven't.

I feel bad for my department chair. He has a group of younger folks whose primary function seems to be complaining about everything. They complain that their kids don't know anything. I teach the same course as them but my experience is completely different. If my kids don't know something I teach them. They also complain about our curricular resources, but when offered a chance to choose resources say that it's not part of their job. With a teacher shortage they are here to stay. It certainly brings morale down, unless you ignore them. That's what I usually do. Unfortunately bosses can't.

I don’t think this travel is going to sustain itself next year, Disney brought back discounts this winter and earlier this week the Venetian offered me 55% off a room. Clearly advanced bookings are slowing.

Touchdown:

Disney brought back discounts this winter

Maybe I can finally go ride Tower of Terror without a two hour wait.

Well, you can now. It'll just cost you $15.

It’s 90 min right now per app as well

My hope is that the next two weeks at WDW will be manageable. The first two weeks of December used to be prime park time with cooler weather (not this year), all the Christmas stuff in full swing (yes), and often times non existent crowds (not anymore).

Even as a local, I don't mind paying the $15 from time to time if I can actually use it to get on all of the rides it's good for. The one time I bought it I only wound up getting on two rides with it, which was kind of annoying. Reading some of the fan sites, I need to use the "stacking" strategy if I buy it again and gather rides for late afternoon/evening throughout the day. I did it the other way last time, and by the time I could book a third ride the reservation slots were all gone.

Stacking is definitely the way to go. We were able to snag 5-9 reservations each day in June. Prioritizing the high demand rides also allows you to snag some of the less popular rides later in the day.

Good to know. It even seems like the system will let you overlap times (for example, if I have a 2:30-3:30 reservation, I can book a 3:00-4:00 or even a second 2:30-3:30 for a different ride) which was not possible with the old FP+ system.

That is correct. You can multiple reservations that overlap.

i find that the attitude that ThE KiDs DoNt WaNt To WoRk HaRd comes from people who don't pay enough. 🤷‍♂️

Anyone with trouble keeping staff should look within.

I've never gone during the ultra-crowded times, but I don't find stacking to be particularly useful. If I'm headed to a park in the morning and I bought G+, I'm trying to churn through as many Lightning Lanes as I can before lunch. I'd much rather do 1 e-ticket and 4 other rides than 2 e-tickets. I know especially at Hollywood Studios that's not always a possibility, but I generally prefer to become eligible to book through LL use, not through the 120 min. cooldown.

In hindsight we did a modified stack. Right at the opening of the window we prioritized the top one or two rides most likely to be unavailable later in the day. We then started working our way down the list looking for first available. By lunch time we headed back to the hotel and started stacking for the afternoon while keeping an eye on drop times.

In our two days at HS we were able to snag Slinky Dog one day and Tower the other. Every other ride we were able to get without difficulty. At MK we only had difficulty getting a LL reservation on Peter Pan one of the days. The other we snagged one at opening. Everything else we were able to get both days.

Unless you're planning a late arrival, stacking is overrated, IMO.

We just returned from a Thanksgiving week trip. Stacking worked great for us going to AK in the afternoon the day we landed.

But our best day was at Magic Kingdom. We did get the ILL for 7DMT, and with Genie+ used twelve lightning lanes, and ended up riding BTMRR and Space Mountain twice (once standby early in the morning with walk on waits, once with G+ each) with minimal criss-crossing the park. You're not getting that with stacking.

I am working on the Disney side of town today and am done at 4:30, so I am playing the stacking game for the first time today for Hollywood Studios, which is the only park that really isn't a good time if you don't have G+. I can't even remember the last time I was there. So far I have two hard to get rides for this evening on overlapping times, and if I can add a third and possibly a fourth I'll be happy with my $17 purchase.