Do Ride Closures Affect Your Trip Planning?

Visiting WDW when a major attraction is closed is kind of a bummer. Yes, rides need to be refurbished and improved, and I'm glad that those measures are taken (except when they completely ruin a ride *coughImaginationcough*). But shutting down a major attraction means diverting the flow of traffic elsewhere, creating bottlenecks in other areas, plus there's that aww-man-I-was-really-looking-forward-to-that factor.

 I visited WDW in 2009 when Space Mountain was being spruced up, and it just wasn't the same. Tomorrowland turned into a ghost town (which, on the plus side, meant you could ride Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin as many times as you wanted without a FastPass), but Frontierland became completely overcrowded because everyone looking for a ride with a height restriction flooded those queues.

My family is currently in planning mode, and WDW is making things difficult. We were hoping to go in May, but now with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad being closed for refurbishment and Test Track being closed to incorporate Chevrolet as the new sponsor, we may need to rethink our plans. Between two of our favorite attractions being down and nothing of interest really being open in New Fantasyland yet, it feels like we're going to be getting a diluted experience. Last year, we skipped a trip to WDW because of all the construction and went to Iceland instead. It was one of the best travel decisions we ever made.

Granted, there will be things that will be new to us since the last time we visited, like Via Napoli, La Hacienda de San Angel, and the new Star Tours. But it still feels like we're being shortchanged somehow, even though I'm sure we'll still have plenty of fun. I'd love your feedback - is the Magic Kingdom still overwhelmed by construction walls? And how much does the open/closed status of an attraction affect your overall enjoyment of the parks?

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Related Links:
* Why I'm Not Going to WDW This Year
* Hell to the No
* The Sob Heard Round the World