This narrative is also flawed and just flat out wrong. What I gain in FP on peter pan (save 90 minutes) I might pay in riding buzz (10 minutes) b there are way more rides to absorb the few headline ones with 90+ minute waits.
What's flawed is the assumption that you're going to save 90 minutes if the posted wait time is 90 minutes.
First, FP has never meant immediate access. I frequently waited 30 minutes in FP lines such as FOP. Even Peter Pan has FP wait times of 15 minutes. Disney is going to have every reason to sell as many FP as Guests are willing to purchase, meaning the paid FP line could easily be as long as the 'free' legacy FP line.
Second, wait times are nearly always overstated, sometimes by a lot. With Guests paying for FP, Disney will have every incentive to inflate posted wait times even further.
Third, the new FP system at Disneyland Paris does not grant immediate access. You pay for a return time, which for popular rides might be hours from now. (I shutter to think what will happen if ROTR ever uses a paid FP system. I would not be surprised if Guests pay $40 per person to experience ROTR 6 or 8 hours later in the day.)
Fourth, the system at Disneyland Paris allows Guests to get free return times for the Standby line. This means even if the posted wait time is 90 minutes, you are not going to stand in line for 90 minutes. If WDW implements a similar system, the
physical Standby wait time might never be more than 30-60 minutes.
You and your family might very well end up paying $72 to save perhaps 20 minutes of standing in line.
And this is something that Disney used to give you
for free!
(OK, included in the price of your theme park ticket.)
on top of that, overall attendance has increased from 47,146,000 in 2008 to 58,311,000 in 2018 That’s over a 20% increase.
new attractions bring more guests, not less. So adding capacity won’t help since it will add more attendance.
No, new attractions are
not bringing more Guests to WDW; demographics are.
First, the U.S. population has grown by 20% since DAK opened in 1998.
Second, Disney has aggressively advertised overseas in recent years, particularly in South America and the U.K. When DAK opened in 1998, overseas visitors made up a small portion of WDW's attendance. Prior to COVID, that number had grown to about 20% of WDW annual attendance.
Combine those two factors and it becomes apparent that attractions are not the driving force behind WDW's attendance increase. WDW simply has a much larger market to sell to than it did in 1998.
WDW needs to significantly increase attraction capacity to handle its increased market, something it hasn't done much of since 1998.
) yet?
