Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Are we talking cupcakes and martinis?
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A lower attendance future for WDW?
- Thread starter havoc315
- Start date
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
No they don't but the 2 Bob's don't know that. They just look at how they can make Wall Street happy. That's all that matters now.
CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
More like Mickey's Vomit in the Trash Can Outside Pecos Bill's Because You Went to Biergarten and Had a Liter of Beer and Lukewarm Sausage Last Night and Also It's 103 Degrees So You Have Heat Stroke and Food Poisoning at the Same Time Party.
Not that I would know.....
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
Only if you purchase a ticket AND the $139/person (only $129 for kids) premium package. Otherwise you get to sweat to Donald’s Very Patriotic Fireworks Spectacular.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
I've been to Orlando every month of the year except June, July and August.
Summer, in the past, was busy and expensive because the kids were out of school and it is [apparently] unbearably hot and humid. Does not sound like a good vacation to me. I suspect many North Easterners feel the same way, which is why they choose to escape the cooler Fall weather instead by going in October.
If summer is truly "low season" than they need to price it accordingly.
CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
Nobody in the Northeast is looking to "escape" October weather. October in New England is heaven.
I would agree. The fall colors that I have seen when visiting is incredible.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
When I say "North East", I'm including everything from Western NY and southern ON to the states bordering New England like PA.
October weather is hit or miss for the region, especially latter in the month. Certainly more desirable to go on vacation then vs the summer months when it's already hot and humid at home.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
FTFY
The weather is extreme...and that sucks.
But I agree there has been a massive shift away from the summer over the last 10-20 years.
1. Some school calendars are non-traditional. The September - June calendar is stupid anyway. That allows more rotating attendance
2. Summer is proof of the ripoff of “special ticketed events” and why I rail at them.
Why aren’t they needed in the summer? Because the ops hours are still under the old model.
They are open longer...which handles the crowd. If it’s crowded, they just open for 2 hours longer. Crowd management 101. In the fall and winter, they make you pay $130 a head for the flex/overflow time.
“Magic”
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Hasn’t felt like “heaven” in Fenway...before the first 4 brewskis warm you up.
80 in October holds a lot of appeal for most of the north after they close their pools for the year and start to get remorse.
They have already been moving the DVC point chart in that direction, but really -- DVC is a small percentage of total WDW guests.
At most, DVC is 10,000 - 15,000 guests at any given time. And occupancy at DVC is consistently high. Not like occupancy is 50% during the summer and 95% during Food and Wine.
So the difference in DVC guests at the park in October vs July, is likely no more than a couple thousand people, total, at most.
The issue is simply that as travel has become more globalized (pre-Covid), vacation demand has become more complicated than the school calendar.
Put aside that it's a theme park, who would want to go to Florida swamp in the middle of summer? Options for family vacations have grown, where everyone isn't clamoring to swelter in Florida summer heat. Families are taking more cruises, more international travel, etc, than decades ago. October is indeed a much more desirable time to be in Florida.
Sir_Cliff
Well-Known Member
I agree with this take. My impression from their recent actions and statements is that they're not wildly enthusiastic about crowds growing exponentially into eternity. The parks already require huge investments to deal with current crowd levels and I imagine guest surveys show crowding as a if not the major negative. Honestly doesn't seem crazy that they'd want find a way to keep increasing revenue (all Wall Street really cares about) while controlling attendance growth (as opposed to limiting capacity). The possibility of keeping date-specific reservations along with variable pricing must be very appealing in that regard.
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CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
There's also the issue that you can't run fireworks and projections shows at 7:00 in July because it's not dark outside yet. If the big nighttime spectaculars rely on darkness, Summer will always have later hours than the rest of the year.
But they may look to avoid Florida June-August.
What is bizarre is on NYE in Epcot we saw a fireworks show at 6pm and the skies were barely dark.
CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
Some of you have obviously never lived in Florida. Spoiler alert: It's still hot as hell in Florida in October, too. The weather argument is bunk to me.
Summer: Crappy and hot in the Northeast, really crappy and really hot in Florida.
October: Gorgeous in the Northeast, still crappy and hot in Florida.
"It's the weather" might be legit if we were talking about July versus March, but between July versus October it's not a major driver.
CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
Sure, that might push them to Florida in March. It's not going to push them to Florida in October. If they're going in October, it's for other reasons.
I have lived in Florida. (though it's been a while).
October - Orlando: Average high, 85, average low 68
July -- Average high, 92, average low, 75.
While 85 is still pretty warm, it is a lot more bearable than 92, to me.
Yes, summer hours will almost certainly always be a bit longer, simply because daylight is longer.