2021 Will Be Telling

[Brad Bishop]

With all of the excuses of poor attendance at the parks:

- "Everyone is waiting for SWGE to open"
- "Everyone is waiting for the blackout dates to end"
- "Everyone is waiting for Rise of the Resistance to open"
- "Everyone is waiting for <insert other ride> to open"
- "Everyone is waiting for the 50th anniversary to happen"

2021 will be telling. We may hit 2021 and arrive at: "Huh. I guess everyone WAS waiting for all of these things to happen..."

I don't remember Disneyland having a huge slump in attendance before it's 50th.

If 2021 rolls around and they're still having problems, someone's going to have to acknowledge, "I think we've been doing this wrong with less than premium services and more than premium prices."

Note that with all of the above excuses, they were supposed to be blown away by the attendance because: "People will pay anything," "Star Wars," and, "Yay, Disney!"

I really think that they have more systemic problems than just, "We need to wait for just this one other thing to happen..." I think there's a good chance that they have annoyed a good part of their loyal base and they've given up on it and your average family feels:
- Wow - That's SUPER expensive!
- They're not taking care of things like they used to.
- What's with all the extra fees / up-sells?

Cue the:
- It's a business!
- More room for me!

 

[Moka]

Haven’t noticed too much.. how poor is attendance actually compared to how it normally was?

 

[higgipoker]

Booked for 2 weeks in summer 2020... shall report back with our findings

Edit: Just realized I had written 2021, it;s 2020! lol

 

[eliza61nyc]

With all of the excuses of poor attendance at the parks:

- "Everyone is waiting for SWGE to open"
- "Everyone is waiting for the blackout dates to end"
- "Everyone is waiting for Rise of the Resistance to open"
- "Everyone is waiting for <insert other ride> to open"
- "Everyone is waiting for the 50th anniversary to happen"

2021 will be telling. We may hit 2021 and arrive at: "Huh. I guess everyone WAS waiting for all of these things to happen..."

I don't remember Disneyland having a huge slump in attendance before it's 50th.

If 2021 rolls around and they're still having problems, someone's going to have to acknowledge, "I think we've been doing this wrong with less than premium services and more than premium prices."

Note that with all of the above excuses, they were supposed to be blown away by the attendance because: "People will pay anything," "Star Wars," and, "Yay, Disney!"

I really think that they have more systemic problems than just, "We need to wait for just this one other thing to happen..." I think there's a good chance that they have annoyed a good part of their loyal base and they've given up on it and your average family feels:
- Wow - That's SUPER expensive!
- They're not taking care of things like they used to.
- What's with all the extra fees / up-sells?

Cue the:
- It's a business!
- More room for me!

cue more like "everybody has a crystal ball".

So If they average family feels it's too expensive they will either stop going or they'll find a way to go.
If they have annoyed their supposedly "loyal" base, then they will stop going.
It is a business and they will change directions if the stockholders become unhappy and don't get their ROI.

What do you think is going to happen? The parks are going to go under??

2021??
We'll either have a new president or we won't
We'll either have a recession or we won't (which I think will effect the parks more than anything disney does or doesn't do)
we're predicted to have a student loan, retirement, millennial crisis.

God willing I'll still be around, I'll be retired, going to the parks much more now that I'll have free time and making my kids say "ok, what's she done now" when the phone rings. lol.

 

[John park hopper]

My next set of grandsons from son # 1 will be 6 and 3 in 2021 so we are planning to go sometime in Jan or Feb 2021 No one knows what the future holds but that's the plan

 

[jloucks]

With all of the excuses of poor attendance at the parks:

- "Everyone is waiting for SWGE to open"
- "Everyone is waiting for the blackout dates to end"
- "Everyone is waiting for Rise of the Resistance to open"
- "Everyone is waiting for <insert other ride> to open"
- "Everyone is waiting for the 50th anniversary to happen"

2021 will be telling. We may hit 2021 and arrive at: "Huh. I guess everyone WAS waiting for all of these things to happen..."

I don't remember Disneyland having a huge slump in attendance before it's 50th.

If 2021 rolls around and they're still having problems, someone's going to have to acknowledge, "I think we've been doing this wrong with less than premium services and more than premium prices."

Note that with all of the above excuses, they were supposed to be blown away by the attendance because: "People will pay anything," "Star Wars," and, "Yay, Disney!"

I really think that they have more systemic problems than just, "We need to wait for just this one other thing to happen..." I think there's a good chance that they have annoyed a good part of their loyal base and they've given up on it and your average family feels:
- Wow - That's SUPER expensive!
- They're not taking care of things like they used to.
- What's with all the extra fees / up-sells?

Cue the:
- It's a business!
- More room for me!

Actually, if I recall correctly, the excuse was "everyone staying at home waiting for SWGE crowds to clear out".

Which, for me, was a big deal since that is my biggest limiter on demand. I was so vindicated to hear that I am far from the only one. So many if us that WDW used us as an excuse. Crowd avoiders driving numbers down. Haha, figures.

 

[Dr. Ludwig von Drake]

I admit we are some of the ones who are waiting. Waiting for all the construction to finish and then to try out everything new (but not when it is brand, spanking new).

However, we live in FL so if the waiting gets too hard, we'll be able to jump in a car and be there in 4 hours.

 

[Disneyfreak Jen]

I think part of it is pricing, but I think the main reason it’s slower this fall is because everyone kept saying how crowded it was going to be with Star Wars opening. I think a lot of people booked later—Spring 2020 and forward—to avoid the crowds that were predicted.

 

[SirWillow]

Just got back from our week at Disneyland. Contrary to what you read on the web, the parks were absolutely not hurting for attendance. We were with one passholder during the week and they commented that they were shocked how busy the parks were for an October weekday, because there were a lot of people there.

Passes get unblocked, prices come down, and word gets out that the fears of the parks being over crowded didn't happen, and the people come back again. In force.

We were still able to do pretty much everything we wanted to over the course of 5 days, including multiple times on many rides. But it definitely took a bit of strategic planning for some things.

 

[ppete1975]

Remember when we used to talk about rumors and things being built or closed. I miss the good old days

 

[marni1971]

Just got back from our week at Disneyland. Contrary to what you read on the web, the parks were absolutely not hurting for attendance. We were with one passholder during the week and they commented that they were shocked how busy the parks were for an October weekday, because there were a lot of people there.

Passes get unblocked, prices come down, and word gets out that the fears of the parks being over crowded didn't happen, and the people come back again. In force.

We were still able to do pretty much everything we wanted to over the course of 5 days, including multiple times on many rides. But it definitely took a bit of strategic planning for some things.

It got busier but was still below expectations.

 

[drizgirl]

It got busier but was still below expectations.

Who knew they expect big growth when they unveil expensive new attractions.

 

[danyoung56]

What do you think is going to happen? The parks are going to go under??

My prediction - best case scenario, Disney realizes its mistakes, lowers prices, and does everything it can to woo in the crowds. Worst case - Corporate decides that the parks are too expensive to run, and looks to offload them to a cash rich corp.

 

[xdan0920]

cue more like "everybody has a crystal ball".

So If they average family feels it's too expensive they will either stop going or they'll find a way to go.
If they have annoyed their supposedly "loyal" base, then they will stop going.
It is a business and they will change directions if the stockholders become unhappy and don't get their ROI.

What do you think is going to happen? The parks are going to go under??

2021??
We'll either have a new president or we won't
We'll either have a recession or we won't (which I think will effect the parks more than anything disney does or doesn't do)
we're predicted to have a student loan, retirement, millennial crisis.

God willing I'll still be around, I'll be retired, going to the parks much more now that I'll have free time and making my kids say "ok, what's she done now" when the phone rings. lol.

Defend and deflect. Defend and deflect.

 

[eliza61nyc]

My prediction - best case scenario, Disney realizes its mistakes, lowers prices, and does everything it can to woo in the crowds. Worst case - Corporate decides that the parks are too expensive to run, and looks to offload them to a cash rich corp.

which means in 2021 people will still be kvetching about
1) parks are too crowded
2) new evil corporation knows nothing about running a theme park and are pure greedy evil overlords.
3) the middle class can no longer afford to go
4) back in _____ the parks were so much better, I wished they would go back.

I think it's like the economy, very circular, attendance will go up, then down, then back up again.

 

[Roy G. Dis]

I feel like posts like these are sly attempts at asking, "when will the prices go down?"

 

[HauntedPirate]

My prediction - best case scenario, Disney realizes its mistakes, lowers prices, and does everything it can to woo in the crowds. Worst case - Corporate decides that the parks are too expensive to run, and looks to offload them to a cash rich corp.

Selling off the parks would be corporate suicide, considering the PEP division (Parks, Experiences, and Products) generates roughly half of the profits for the company right now, IIRC. And "Products" isn't exactly leading the group, nor is "Experiences", although it fares better.

 

[SirWillow]

It got busier but was still below expectations.

That's actually a bit frightening. I wouldn't have wanted to be in the parks with the crowds any heavier than they were. Friday night in particular was not pleasant, and we were extremely grateful that we had made dinner and Fantasmic reservations or we likely wouldn't have stayed. And we were very grateful that we decided to take Saturday off. Even the first half of Sunday was much heavier crowds than I normally would want to put up with, but since we were just "cleaning up" at that point it wasn't as big a deal.

But if they're wanting, and especially expecting, heavier crowds than that, then they're wanting unpleasant experiences for the guests and unbearably long lines.

 

[marni1971]

That's actually a bit frightening. I wouldn't have wanted to be in the parks with the crowds any heavier than they were. Friday night in particular was not pleasant, and we were extremely grateful that we had made dinner and Fantasmic reservations or we likely wouldn't have stayed. And we were very grateful that we decided to take Saturday off. Even the first half of Sunday was much heavier crowds than I normally would want to put up with, but since we were just "cleaning up" at that point it wasn't as big a deal.

But if they're wanting, and especially expecting, heavier crowds than that, then they're wanting unpleasant experiences for the guests and unbearably long lines.

We were there over nine days and saw a definite increase in attendance and wait times from September 24th to October 3rd. But still less than I was worried about. It was mostly quite present, although the weekend was busier, as expected.

 

[SirWillow]

We were there over nine days and saw a definite increase in attendance and wait times from September 24th to October 3rd. But still less than I was worried about. It was mostly quite present, although the weekend was busier, as expected.

You were there at the same time I was? At least for a couple of days. Wished I'd known. It would have been nice to meet you- even if just a brief Hello.