News Holiday crowds at Walt Disney World theme parks 2022

[Chi84]

I'm going to be there Dec 28-Jan 4, with my in-laws who havent got a clue. I'm dreading the trip.

Because of the conditions at WDW or the in-laws?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The problem isn't attendance. It's Disney's decision not to increase staffing or ride capacity, in order to generate higher profits. Disney has the power to make it easier for guests who visit during holidays. It chooses not to.

(I've never visited during Christmas break, but I've seen this in action during, say, President's Day week. Crowd levels of 8-10, yet attractions running with insufficient staff, only one side of Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Toy Story Midway Mania being used, loading only every third car on the Peoplemover, etc., and no added park hours of operation).

It’s more the growth in attendance vs seats than it is “intentional drag”

We have been at WDW this past week and not until today did wait times jump dramatically. Gene+ jumped to $25 today (mostly $15 a day the past week). Today even with the higher crowds was able to secure 4 rides with it at HS.

Wow…so like $200 for the day…

$50 a pop??

Can’t put a price on “magic”

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I'm going to be there Dec 28-Jan 4, with my in-laws who havent got a clue. I'm dreading the trip.

…if you hear someone whistling…I swear it’s NOT me

 

[Jrb1979]

I’m about to head down for my New Years trip.

We have done the rides so many times we don’t really care what we get to do.

I’ll just buy the genie get some LL and if we get
4-5 rides in a day that’s fine with me.

I’m just happy it’s usually about 50 degrees warmer then back home.

I would never go to Disney with that mindset. There is no way I'm paying that kind of money to ride 4-5 attractions a day. I can think of many other places to go that have warmer weather that cost much less.

 

[Chi84]

I would never go to Disney with that mindset. There is no way I'm paying that kind of money to ride 4-5 attractions a day. I can think of many other places to go that have warmer weather that cost much less.

That’s the great thing about WDW. People go for varying experiences. We never do a ton of rides because there’s so much else we enjoy. Then again we’ve never measured value in terms of number of rides.

 

[Jrb1979]

That’s the great thing about WDW. People go for varying experiences. We never do a ton of rides because there’s so much else we enjoy. Then again we’ve never measured value in terms of number of rides.

Agree with what you said for the most part. Those who go maybe once every few years or are first timers probably want to get their moneys worth when going to the parks. I'm sure there is more that fall into that group then the group that is like how you tour the parks.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I would never go to Disney with that mindset. There is no way I'm paying that kind of money to ride 4-5 attractions a day. I can think of many other places to go that have warmer weather that cost much less.

That’s the mindset of I would say the majority of the repeat offenders around here…including me. Those parks were never built to “pound rides”

…that doesn’t mean I forgive lack of investment and a horrible failure at operations/management.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

That’s the great thing about WDW. People go for varying experiences. We never do a ton of rides because there’s so much else we enjoy. Then again we’ve never measured value in terms of number of rides.

But the value has fallen…

…and here’s where we clutch some pearls

 

[Chi84]

Agree with what you said for the most part. Those who go maybe once every few years or are first timers probably want to get their moneys worth when going to the parks. I'm sure there is more that fall into that group then the group that is like how you tour the parks.

Even when we first started visiting we always split our days between the parks, water parks, resort pools, boat rides, the entertainment at the old Pleasure Island, etc. We never treated WDW like Six Flags as far as going on all the rides, so getting our “money’s worth” meant something different for us.

We defined value more by the variety of things we were able to do in one place in a small amount of time. That’s probably why the value is still there for us.

 

[thomas998]

Don’t worry park goers, Genie+ will solve the problem.

It will when they go to tiered pricing of Genie+, the 25 dollar charge will only be for the low demand days mid week in the off-season. The normal demand times will be jacked up 50 a day, heavier demand will be 75 and these high demand times like Christmas will be 100 a day. And if that doesn't solve the problem they will just double those prices.

 

[LSLS]

It will when they go to tiered pricing of Genie+, the 25 dollar charge will only be for the low demand days mid week in the off-season. The normal demand times will be jacked up 50 a day, heavier demand will be 75 and these high demand times like Christmas will be 100 a day. And if that doesn't solve the problem they will just double those prices.

But Iger told us that the prices were killing the soul of the company. Surely he is going to just eliminate Genie, right?

 

[mdcpr]

I've always been fascinated by the amount of people who will wait so long for a ride. With a lot of planning, FP+ passes on hand (I know these do not exist, but they did the last time we went), and a perfectly timed Touring Plan, we never waited more than 20 min on average per ride.

 

[marni1971]

I've always been fascinated by the amount of people who will wait so long for a ride. With a lot of planning, FP+ passes on hand (I know these do not exist, but they did the last time we went), and a perfectly timed Touring Plan, we never waited more than 20 min on average per ride.

Welcome to the new regime. Pay more to get what you used to get.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

We left yesterday morning after a 10 day trip. Crowds were fine and Magic Kingdom on Thursday and Friday... in fact were very empty where we rope dropped early entry, did ridges, table service lunch, a few more rides and were back at the Poly before the storm on Thursday and by 5 on Friday. We rode everything!

My heart goes out to those visiting this week as it'll be both crowded and miserably cold.

We were there also from the 9th-15th…my wife kept saying that the crowds just didn’t seem to be as busy during these weeks in past years. As a matter of fact, the biggest crowd we encountered the entire week was the Candlelight Processional Monday 12/12…we did rope drop Thursday morning too before the storm hit and we left for the airport and was able to ride 7DMT, Dumbo, Splash, Pooh and Pan all before noon…did the impending storm have something to do with it? Probably, but the crowds just didn’t seem to live up to the hype.

 

[networkpro]

We were there also from the 9th-15th…my wife kept saying that the crowds just didn’t seem to be as busy during these weeks in past years. As a matter of fact, the biggest crowd we encountered the entire week was the Candlelight Processional Monday 12/12…we did rope drop Thursday morning too before the storm hit and we left for the airport and was able to ride 7DMT, Dumbo, Splash, Pooh and Pan all before noon…did the impending storm have something to do with it? Probably, but the crowds just didn’t seem to live up to the hype.

Now the standby line for Josh Gad's Candlelight shows was unreal. It stretched out to Germany.

 

[dreday3]

I wonder how spring bookings are looking.

We aren't going exactly during a holiday - we are scheduled to arrive mid-week the week AFTER Easter week - but it's still kind of spring break I think.
I'm just going to plan on moderate crowds, like our October visits.

 

[DisneyDebRob]

Even if you do pay you will wait, because you won't be able to get more than 2-3 LL attractions per day. Then what? It's standby for that poor family from Seattle or Denver or BFE that only gets to go to Disney World once.

That Seattle family has been through the ringer this year.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I've always been fascinated by the amount of people who will wait so long for a ride. With a lot of planning, FP+ passes on hand (I know these do not exist, but they did the last time we went), and a perfectly timed Touring Plan, we never waited more than 20 min on average per ride.

The least-informed people on a message board like this are probably among the 10% most-informed people in the parks on a given day.

 

[zombiebbq]

Even though we swore we wouldn't, our Universal trip last month brought us to Epcot for a day. I couldn't resist getting a chance to go to the Food and Wine Festival / 50th merch. But besides scoring a boarding group for Guardians, it was as miserable as I feared. Just crowds and crowds of people milling around with absolutely nothing to do. We went on one other ride besides Guardians, the 3 Calballeros. Everything else was slammmed. The entire day was spent wandering around, waiting in line for food, and me staring at the boarding group countdown. It was horrible and completely contrasted our time at Universal.
Definitely got what we deserved on that one since I kept saying "no more Disney". But boy do we really mean it this time after that disaster.
Long story short I can't even imagine the sheer masses of people just doing the same aimless wandering with nothing to do at the parks right now. Big Yikes.

 

[NotCalledBob]

MK and Epcot seem OK-ish so far today.

HWS isn't pretty. But, then when is it ever.

DAK is hideous. 4 hours for FOP?!?

A case of the reservations system backfiring and them pushing too many people to DAK and away from the other parks?

Or maybe the Avatar 2 fan club has decended en masse.