This is a great comparison.
Our family doesn't like "relaxing vacations" like on beaches or cruises, so the national parks are great. Also, Washington DC is a busy vacation.
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Attendance drop in the parks... I wonder why
- Thread starter THEMEPARKPIONEER
- Start date
Our family doesn't like "relaxing vacations" like on beaches or cruises, so the national parks are great. Also, Washington DC is a busy vacation.
Weather_Lady
Well-Known Member
From where I sit, firmly ensconced in the lower-middle class, my family and other local families have started spacing out or scaling down our Disney trips due to price increases. We're all still going (and having a marvelous time!), but we're going for shorter periods, or less often, and are more likely to stay offsite and bring much of our own food instead of dining in the parks. I'm not sure whether that has anything to do with lower crowds (or even if there are lower crowds), but I can say that for my income bracket, Disney's price increases are resulting in Disney getting less of our time and money instead of more. Then again, I don't think that matters much to Disney - I get the feeling the company is more interested in the "high rollers" right now (those willing to invest in multiple upcharge events and VIP-type experiences, something most of my friends not only don't do, but even mock as a waste of money), rather than the frugal Average Joes who are content to get as much "bang for your buck" as they can from a standard ticket with none of the trimmings.
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Otterhead
Well-Known Member
It's apples and oranges really. I love going to WDW but by no means is it a stress-free hassle-free place to visit, and the price can be difficult to justify. My last visit was heavily discounted thanks to using a DVC membership for the room, but even so, room + admissions + dining plan + memory maker + flights came out to around $3k a person for the week. Compare that to the European river cruise my parents just went on: about the same price for 16 days in Europe, flights and meals included. But I'd argue that if you love the experiences at WDW, comparing it to other vacations is just silly. It's its own experience.
21stamps
Well-Known Member
What line were they on??? Please give me more info on that. I haven't been able to find one less than $7k for fare alone. I've been shopping for my parents for awhile..we're (my siblings and I) trying to give them one for their 50th anniversary.
Otterhead
Well-Known Member
Check out Grand Circle Travel. Their river cruises are really excellent and are specifically geared to retirees and older travelers.
21stamps
Well-Known Member
Thank you!! We've been looking at Viking, even when they had a "2 for 1" sale the prices were still extremely high. I'll check Grand Cirlcle Travel!
Me too. $3,000? Sign me up on this one.
Disney should be concerned when it comes to their guests and their disposable income. When people are seeing the European River Cruises with airfare are about the same as a trip to WDW, more and more people may choose to skip WDW.
21stamps
Well-Known Member
Not to mention I don't think the European River Cruise companies and WDW are going for the same target market.
L.C. Clench
Well-Known Member
https://www.adventuresbydisney.com/europe/river-cruise/
Disney's target market is anyone with money and they want it all.
21stamps
Well-Known Member
Oh I didn't realize that ABD and WDW were the same thing.
L.C. Clench
Well-Known Member
You'll never know the exact dates but in the quarterly reports they acknowledged attendance was down. You also may never notice in terms of how crowded the parks feel because thanks to ADRs and MM+ they can better staff down to crowd levels so that regardless of how many people are there the crowds feel bad.
The most frightening thing is that they feel he solution to the reduced attendance numbers is to build more hotel rooms as opposed to improving the park experience.
L.C. Clench
Well-Known Member
This implies they see overcrowding as a problem. You see it as an inconvenience but they most likely see it as maximizing profits.
No one advertises in hopes that people don't come and they sure aren't advertising packages to reduce costs through offsite partner hotels if they also aren't aware that reduced visitors is in part due to increased costs.
Grimley1968
Well-Known Member
Personally, I think the real reason for MM+'s 60/30-day window, and ADRs' 180-day window is so Disney can adjust their staffing to have a minimal required number for each, not for any direct guest benefit. Not that it's wrong for Disney to want to eliminate wasteful staffing when it's not needed, but I think this has at least as big an impact on attraction wait times as actual crowds.
Otterhead
Well-Known Member
They absolutely do. They're trying to curb overcrowding in all of the parks (not just WDW) by offering fewer giveaways to overseas travelers, adjusting prices of annual passes, and having more off-season festivals to help bring people in year-round rather than just during school vacations and Food & Wine.
L.C. Clench
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure those are attempts to drive down attendance. Reducing discounts and increasing prices may well lead to decreased attendance but the most likely reason is they believed people would continue to come regardless and pay more on top of that. If they really wanted less attendance Iger wouldn't have addressed the lower numbers by indicating they needed to build more hotels to bring the numbers up. I just think they've overestimated how much people would be willing to pay but they're also conditioning people for what will be a a record breaking 2021.
L.C. Clench
Well-Known Member
Is this an attempt at a sarcastic response or really not understanding the connection between the two?
Andrew C
You know what's funny?
Iger specifically said last year (Q2 or Q3 call I think) that some of the decisions were made knowing that it would cost them on attendance. It was an expectation.
L.C. Clench
Well-Known Member
I guess when I heard "move attendance from peak periods" I took that to mean they hoped to move it to "off season periods" not move it somewhere else completely.