Economy doesn't appear to be affecting park attendance

[hurry_back86]

I was in Disney World all last week and I must say the park attendance was very high. So high in fact that waiting times were around 100 minutes for thrill rides most of the day. If you wanted a fastpass, you had to get it before noon, otherwise you were out of luck. Anyone else notice this? I visit every year in the summer and this has to be the worst I've seen it.

My theory is that due to Space Mountain being closed, more people are getting their fill by heading to the other thrill rides in the parks causing these long wait times.

 

[Dragonrider1227]

Very interesting. Bet a lot of them arn't staying on property or buying stuff on property

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Attendance is pretty stable, in fact, even a bit higher than this time last year due to the deep discounts being offered. However, this has come at the cost of lower profits.

It'll be interesting to see how long Disney will keep these discounts or if the economy improves enough in the near future to shift things back to a growth period.

 

[Rob562]

Also remember that the Free Dining period started a week or two ago. That always spikes the attendance a bit this time of year...

-Rob

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Attendance cant be that wonderful or why would free dining be available for most of next year to UK guests?

 

[WWallaceII]

Attendance cant be that wonderful or why would free dining be available for most of next year to UK guests?

 

[durangojim]

There's a difference between high attendance and high revenue. Disney has been offering more discounts than I can remember in the past to keep attendance high. That doesn't mean people are buying merchandise or extras like they have in the past though. I know from personal experience we've cut back on certain things we've done on past trips. Good to see the parks are still busy but I wouldn't take it as a sign that the economy hasn't affected the parks.

 

[bgraham34]

There's a difference between high attendance and high revenue. Disney has been offering more discounts than I can remember in the past to keep attendance high. That doesn't been people are buying merchandise or extras like they have in the past though. I know from personal experience we've cut back on certain things we've done on past trips. Good to see the parks are still busy but I wouldn't take it as a sign that the economy hasn't affected the parks.

Exactly. That is what happened with Disney's quarterly earnings. Profit was down from Disney World considerably but attendance stayed around the same. Most people are spending less and Disney is giving great perks just to get people into the parks.

 

[Mystic]

Very interesting. Bet a lot of them arn't staying on property or buying stuff on property

Actually you'll find it's the opposite. When I was there in June we had a number of attractions with 90+ minute waits and the majority of the guests in the park WERE hotel guests, not locals. I kept seeing the same guests over and over again. We actually struck up a conversation with one gentleman and his daughters at early EMH at MK one morning and ran into the same family at evening EMH at DHS two nights later. Also we kept seeing the same family that was staying in the same building as us at POFQ in the parks at different times throughout our stay.

 

[wdwmomof3]

I have also seen a bunch of people on other boards posting about losing their jobs but they are still going to Disney. :shrug: I guess nothing will stop some folks from going. :ROFLOL:

 

[lighteningqueen]

With the free Dining up to Dec 16th this time. you can't afford not to go one last time. Our plane tickets were 120.00 round trip 240.00. I can't drive the 2 days we did the last 2 years for that and spend 4 nights of hotel and food even one way up. That's why we are all going. The total trip will be 1700.00 for 10 days tickets dining and all. No, we shouldn't have spent that as our business is at a all time worst this whole year, but I bet we won't get to go for a long long time again. Last year we bought nothing from the shops. Just nothing worth the price that was on most items. Not unusual and purposeful enough to spend hard earned money on. Take that back bought 2 more mugs cos we had to have something. Now a total of 7 mugs form 2 trips and nothing else. But boy the memories are there forever. Hope this last time will be great. This time we can eat. last year we had one meal per day trying to save money and not on the dining plan.Nor have we ever had any discounts until this year. Somehow we managed and didn't even bother us we were to busy standing in lines for a ride.

 

[DisneyRunner]

We arrived home Wednesday night. I thought the parks were busy. Tuesday we rode the monorail thru EPCOT and the stand by time for Test Track was 90 minutes at about 3:30 in the afternoon. I did not buy any shirts this time, I felt they were too expensive.

 

[harveyt0206]

We too planned this trip earlier in the year when things weren't so financially tight for us. We both are still employed, thank goodness, but have had all our credit cards practically double the interest rates making our minimum payments increase significantly. This has caused a greater strain on our monthly finances. The sad thing is that we have absolutely no late payments on any of our cards, so these increases were not due to us not paying our bills. When I called to ask about the increase I was essentially told that the new regulations for credit cards that are being imposed are causing the credit cards to increase rates now while they legally can.

Long story short, we now have to figure out areas to cut costs in order to stay current on our new, improved monthly credit card fees. We hope to eliminate all credit card debt in the next few years. We, like many families, have overused or depended on those cards for way to long. My lesson has been learned.

Sorry to drift so far off topic, but this has been weighing on my mind recently and when I hear so many people say "this is the last trip we will be taking for a very long time", I can certainly empathize.

~cheers all,
Tracy

 

[lighteningqueen]

I totally understand you... I tried to use a chase card to hold a hotel room last month on we usually always pay cash upon check out as we do a show in that city and make cash, well sometimes in better economy days. I was flored they had closed my account that day. I had unused credit on that card I could have used had I know this. I was livid... Why didn't they tell me so not to be embarrassed and the reason being as you said doing this before the new rules came in. I think the president was wrong to allow them time to do this. After all this is why the economy is like it is and now it is even worse with these high intrest rates. They are making it impossible for most to pay these fees now every month andwhat I told them was... You are hoping we do not pay these bills so you can cry to the government that we are not paying up to get stimulas money. If they had given each and every american say 5000.00 each we could all have stimulated and paid these bills therefore no one would be stiffing the CC company. Enough of that. But it has put a damper on the trip. I will not be charging anything to pay these darn things off hopefully on about 5-6 years and lets see who is hurting then when we all are paid up..I will take 200.00 cash for extras at Disney and hope to come home with most all of it since everything will be paid for before we go.

 

[harveyt0206]

I hear ya LighteningQueen. Hopefully it won't damper your WDW vacation too much. I'm trying to stay positive.

 

[lighteningqueen]

No damper here.... I do not have to have any of the merchandise offered. we are 54, and the grandkids don't have to have it. I can buy it online if they just insist, since they are DGS 6 yrs DGS,18 mths and DGD 2 mths old. I hope to take them to California Disney next summer. its a shorter trip less expensive and just enough for the 2 little ones.But we shall see. Right now this is going to be a Grandmama and Granddad trip and hopefully one that we will see much more other than Character lines ha ha

 

[DisneyCanadian]

I totally understand you... I tried to use a chase card to hold a hotel room last month on we usually always pay cash upon check out as we do a show in that city and make cash, well sometimes in better economy days. I was flored they had closed my account that day. I had unused credit on that card I could have used had I know this. I was livid... Why didn't they tell me so not to be embarrassed and the reason being as you said doing this before the new rules came in. I think the president was wrong to allow them time to do this. After all this is why the economy is like it is and now it is even worse with these high intrest rates. They are making it impossible for most to pay these fees now every month andwhat I told them was... You are hoping we do not pay these bills so you can cry to the government that we are not paying up to get stimulas money. If they had given each and every american say 5000.00 each we could all have stimulated and paid these bills therefore no one would be stiffing the CC company. Enough of that. But it has put a damper on the trip. I will not be charging anything to pay these darn things off hopefully on about 5-6 years and lets see who is hurting then when we all are paid up..I will take 200.00 cash for extras at Disney and hope to come home with most all of it since everything will be paid for before we go.

because 75% of americans probably would not have paid their bills, even if they had been given 5000

 

[WI DISNEY FAN]

because 75% of americans probably would not have paid their bills, even if they had been given 5000

Ouch that stung a little!

 

[Goofnut1980]

Well I have a Chase card too.. I had a low interest rate.. but because I don't keep a high balance and I generally pay it off every month.. My rate just went to 29% percent.. I was like.. Hello are you serious???

The gov't should have announced all rates must be at a certain percent.. not... raise it while you can!!!
I am thankful for my job at Staples but 8k a year is a far cry from the 60k I made before.. Thank goodness for the union keeping my job... NOT.. .haha.. I'm not bitter, truthfully.. But I had to go back to school so I can try another line of work... I hope everyone without a job can find something so they can have a wonderful Christmas.. I hate to see kids go without :veryconfu