News Park attendance showing significant softness heading into the Fall 2018

[Princess Leia]

Epcot was dead today. Zero lines for the food and wine booths and we walked onto Soarin at 5pm. Really great day!

On the one hand, this makes me sad since Epcot still has a lot to offer and I think a lot of resort guests overlook that. On the other hand... I will be there one month from tomorrow with my friend’s wedding party, and for purely selfish reasons, I would like an empty park to celebrate in

 

[Squishy]

*Cough* *Cough* Now's the time to lower prices

 

[DisneyCane]

[QUOTE="TheGuyThatMakesSwords Check out the MAP, showing the home areas of those visiting. This can be VERY informative.

You think that is real and accurate?[/QUOTE]
If people pin their location somewhere near reality it is. My face always makes a dot wherever I clicked on the map.

 

[JoeCamel]

You think that is real and accurate?

If people pin their location somewhere near reality it is. My face always makes a dot wherever I clicked on the map.[/QUOTE]
But like surveys what you are seeing are those that chose to do it. It is a self selecting sample. I have been going since '83 and have never pinned my location. If TDO released the demo for everyone who entered the park on that day then it would be representative but when you self select it is not accurate.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Or maybe Disney has finally reached a tipping point where it has outpaced inflation over the past couple of years while wages quietly remain flat and stagnate. The constant cost cutting and up charging everything, I think has finally got the word out to the rest of the world. Do I like Disney sure I do, but I’m not going to pay those prices while most parks other than the magic kingdom barely offers anything of substance. One could argue there was more to do 10-15 years ago in those parks and you didn’t feel like you were getting ripped off. You felt satisfied with what you paid for and the expectations were upheld.

...jeez...If you go to the truth jugular that fast...

The crowd gets bored

 

[Lensman]

If people pin their location somewhere near reality it is. My face always makes a dot wherever I clicked on the map.
But like surveys what you are seeing are those that chose to do it. It is a self selecting sample. I have been going since '83 and have never pinned my location. If TDO released the demo for everyone who entered the park on that day then it would be representative but when you self select it is not accurate.

Good point! It's always good to correct for self-selection bias, but in this case since it's a simple "where are you from" question, I think the traditional self-selection biases wouldn't have that much effect. Maybe people from Florida would be less likely to self-select but otherwise I'd say you'd notice some gross changes between a normal day and the past week.

It's not only people from the affected areas who might have canceled their trips. There was at least one person who asked in another thread about the risks of driving down from New England. I heard that the governor of North Carolina asked people not to drive into or through the state if they could help it.

 

[Princess Leia]

*Cough* *Cough* Now's the time to lower prices

I highly doubt Disney’s going to turn around and say ‘Oh, my bad!’ with the ticket prices at this point, but it would be nice if they started slashing the food prices a bit.

 

[Squishy]

I highly doubt Disney’s going to turn around and say ‘Oh, my bad!’ with the ticket prices at this point, but it would be nice if they started slashing the food prices a bit.

Well they need to learn someone cause some guy at TDO thinks that cutting more things will help increase attendance. They should atleast try to add more things and see where that goes, Sad part is disney is a billion dollar company and yet they have to cut things from the park..

 

[John park hopper]

Good point! It's always good to correct for self-selection bias, but in this case since it's a simple "where are you from" question, I think the traditional self-selection biases wouldn't have that much effect. Maybe people from Florida would be less likely to self-select but otherwise I'd say you'd notice some gross changes between a normal day and the past week.

It's not only people from the affected areas who might have canceled their trips. There was at least one person who asked in another thread about the risks of driving down from New England. I heard that the governor of North Carolina asked people not to drive into or through the state if they could help it.

Section of I-95 (9 miles) closed around Dillion NC due to flooding just reported on the news. Best to stay out of NC for awhile.

 

[disneyworlddad]

I was there this weekend. Friday night Disney Springs was packed! We were there from around 8:30ish to 10. MK was also packed on Saturday and so was Epcot. The amount of NC and SC plates I saw on the drive home was impressive. I think there might have been more of them than Florida.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

*Cough* *Cough* Now's the time to lower prices

Nah. This is temporary. And what really matters is the all-powerful per guest spending.

 

[GhostHost1000]

this time of year is usually the slowest for WDW - are numbers down from the norm including other time periods this year?

 

[Jedi Stitch]

two reasons
1. TSL never connected with the fans in terms of theme park success
2. Star Wars opens next year

TSL, by the pictures I have seam are quite nice. The themeing is good, but I think it pales a bit when you compare it to Carsland at DCA or the fact that Disney set it own bar, and then doesn't hit it.

 

[Jedi Stitch]

"soft" time. It is a slow season, because of the hurricane factor. You can try to tighten the belt, but if you inflate wait times and have bad weather, then people dont want to go.

 

[Foolish Mortal]

I'll be heading down 9/30, the crowds will be back by then ! guaranteed.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

That was my assumption at the time, seeing the line, but it may have been caused by the Attraction being down for a time.
I just happened to be walking by POTC and noticed the line running out into the walkway and stretching almost to the point of being right across from the Tiki Room entrance.
Never seen it like that...it got my attention enough to snap this quick photo -

View attachment 314087

That was Tuesday night.

Sunday night I saw long waits the couple of times I walked by, but the line didn't stretch out onto the walkway.
Just a full queue.

That may have been the initial rush after the attraction reopened. The majority of the extended queue is in the big plaza before you enter the building and if the attraction had been down the Cast Members may not have had time to set up the outdoor queue. This is also exacerbated by the fact that the attraction used to have 2 indoor standby lines but now only has one due to them adding FastPass.

 

[geekza]

I spoke with a friend of mine today who is a MK CM and he said he hasn't noticed any softness, but it's just one person's observation and he's at the MK, which tends to have attendance that ranges from crowded to OMG I CAN'T BREATHE, so take that for what it's worth.

 

[disneygeek90]

I spoke with a friend of mine today who is a MK CM and he said he hasn't noticed any softness, but it's just one person's observation and he's at the MK, which tends to have attendance that ranges from crowded to OMG I CAN'T BREATHE, so take that for what it's worth.

Reasons MK is easily my least visited park.

 

[boufa]

I love how attendance is down and at least to many people posting here, its because it rained last year.

Sure hurricanes happen, but look at the history, the odds of getting a hurricane at Disney World is very, very low. Even last year. The park was affected by storms something like 4 days max. out of 183 days in the hurricane season, that's only 2% of the time, or 1% of the year. Then figure the park has only closed a handful of times in almost 50 years.... you have a very, very tiny chance of being their ever during a hurricane.

Which is why I will be there first week of November, and while I will certainly look at the forecast, I won't worry about hurricanes.

 

[Andsome]

My brother went to MK the other day, he told me that it wasn't too terribly crowded. Average wait time around the park was 15 minutes according to him.