During the Chapek time, paid daily parking at resorts went into effect. When Iger came back the parking at resorts went back to free parking.
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Is attendance really down at WDW this or…
- Thread starter coachb
- Start date
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
Grimley1968
Well-Known Member
Speaking only for myself, I'm not too bothered by WDW prices increasing, especially due to inflation. But I am greatly bothered by the combination of WDW increasing their prices while also consistently reducing the value we get from a WDW vacation.
Increase the value of a WDW vacation (they have to know by now via guest complaints and sites like this how value has been decreasing for them) and I'd bet many of the complaints about increased prices would go away, especially as wages eventually catch up to slowing inflation.
Increase the value of a WDW vacation (they have to know by now via guest complaints and sites like this how value has been decreasing for them) and I'd bet many of the complaints about increased prices would go away, especially as wages eventually catch up to slowing inflation.
el_super
Well-Known Member
The problem here is, you'd competing against a mass of consumers that want the product at the cheapest possible price. They don't are if portion sizes are lowered, immensities removed, services are altered.... as long as they are still getting the core product for as little as possible.
That's where you will see Disney start adding things back as extra cost add-on.
Nubs70
Well-Known Member
Inflation is a.good part of the spike post covid. The surge was pent up demand financed by stimmy money. The.latter stages of peak demand is because of the inflation caused by stimmy money. We need to travel now for other will cost much more in the future. Now WDW customers are forgoing variable costs of merch, dining, in bubble accomodations to experience the parks due to up charged costs.
The average WDW customer only has so much they can spend and are reallocating purchases to have the bare minimum experience.
Now that the value of the bare minimum experience of a park visit is not worth the cost, travellers are still traveling but to destinations other than WDW.
el_super
Well-Known Member
Apparently they are all going to Disneyland instead.
JD80
Well-Known Member
Assuming it was an earnest statement, I can only assume it takes time to restructure costs overall. Not that I want to give Iger the benefit of the doubt here at all, but way too much relies on those number to just change it in a year, when hotel prices have been published for an extended period of time.
JD80
Well-Known Member
Broadly speaking, wages are finally starting to outpace inflation just a bit starting a year ago.
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
Nubs70
Well-Known Member
At the surface, this graph looks promising. In actuality, the inflation line (black line) is the monthly individual inflation rate compared to the same month of the prior year. To be completely transparent, that black line should be additive (always a positive slope) unless there is a deflationary period, which the economy has not experienced yet.
If you think this economy is bad, wait till a deflationary period hits. People will not buy things now because things will be cheaper in the future.
Laketravis
Well-Known Member
To support what @PREMiERdrum mentioned - there are currently two room discount options with broad appeal available thru the first week of October. Yet when I search for availability for either of them throughout September, there are virtually no rooms available at the values, few at the moderates, and plenty at the deluxe level. If I search solely at rack rate, plenty of value options are available. So the rooms are there, just not at a discount from rack, and even then the discount search algorithms cleverly present the highest margin options.
A similar search for next month actually produced a bit more value options under the general public discount (but not for AP) yet Priceline offered the same room(s) within just a few dollars of the WDW site discount price.
That doesn't indicate any sort of motivation to reduce cost to me - in fact, it seems more like an effort to force bookings at full price and preserve total potential revenue.
A similar search for next month actually produced a bit more value options under the general public discount (but not for AP) yet Priceline offered the same room(s) within just a few dollars of the WDW site discount price.
That doesn't indicate any sort of motivation to reduce cost to me - in fact, it seems more like an effort to force bookings at full price and preserve total potential revenue.
Nubs70
Well-Known Member
How so?
Rate of inflation is to inflation as position is to speed. The rate of inflation is the 1st derivative of inflation.
The rate of inflation is decreasing but inflation is still increasing. In the above graph, wages are gaining in respect to the rate of inflation but are still falling in respect to total inflation.
Rate of inflation is to inflation as position is to speed. The rate of inflation is the 1st derivative of inflation.
DisneyHead123
Well-Known Member
I think the unprecedented post Covid demand probably hurt in that people came flooding to the parks in huge numbers, right when the parks were offering less than they had in a long time. Some of that was Disney’s fault - the rollout of Genie+ and LLs, more prix fixe menus, no MDE. Some they probably couldn’t help, like staffing shortages that meant poorer service, supply chain issues, irregular housekeeping, missing character experiences and so on. I remember TripAdvisor reviews from that time period being a series of absolutely enraged 1 star reviews. I think things are settling down now but the bad word of mouth from that time will take awhile to correct. People had strong feelings about those visits and they shared them (angrily) with friends and family who might have been potential visitors.
Grimley1968
Well-Known Member
I will say that this tracks with their historical behavior with discounts. We always used to try to go during fall break, which is always the first full week of October for us. Unfortunately for us, many, many school systems in our part of the country within an easy drive of WDW had the exact same fall break. So WDW often ended one discount period around 9/30 and began another one maybe the day after Columbus Day. They'd often have "free" dining available for us, but not any room discounts. It doesn't surprise me to read that that behavior continues, and that behavior is definitely not going to result in reducing prices.
In the past, we just dealt with it since we felt there was great value in the overall vacation. Not anymore.
CntrlFlPete
Well-Known Member
I am not one to gage the crowd based on queue wait times. I base my view of the crowd based on how comfortable I am walking around the parks. In my opinion, the 'in' season over the past year has been around RunDisney events. That is when the parks have been crowded in my eyes.
When I hear someone mention main street and the hub during fireworks, I think of the parties -- folks how go for the unique events feel the event is oversold, those going to ride rides say they got a lot done.
I tend to visit the parks to walk around and or take pictures. I know I can make a small crowd look big and I can make a big crowd look small based on where I focus the lense. I know the pics I am about to show are from the afternoon when folks will go back to the resort to take a break from the heat.
here is 6/10/24 around noon
10 minutes later, I had already made it to France -- I saw three tables w/ guest inside the restaurant. I took this photo because I cannot recall when I last saw that fountain w/o guest sitting on the front wall.
Over to the MK on 6/17/24 noon:
one hour later:
When I hear someone mention main street and the hub during fireworks, I think of the parties -- folks how go for the unique events feel the event is oversold, those going to ride rides say they got a lot done.
I tend to visit the parks to walk around and or take pictures. I know I can make a small crowd look big and I can make a big crowd look small based on where I focus the lense. I know the pics I am about to show are from the afternoon when folks will go back to the resort to take a break from the heat.
here is 6/10/24 around noon
10 minutes later, I had already made it to France -- I saw three tables w/ guest inside the restaurant. I took this photo because I cannot recall when I last saw that fountain w/o guest sitting on the front wall.
Over to the MK on 6/17/24 noon:
one hour later:
I'm still bothered about the seafood buffet dinner at Yacht and Beach. We had a great feast including crab legs years ago. Now crab legs is an extra charge. What the heck?
Willmark
Well-Known Member
So instead, the Mouse continues the game of chicken with the customers continuing to hope they blink first?
Everyday needs like food, gas, housing or a non-essential item like and overpriced vacation destination.
My money is on Disney eventually having to capitulate at some point. Their timeline is up against some headwinds like inflation which isn’t going to end anytime soon.
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Grimley1968
Well-Known Member
Wow - that's usually one of the bottleneck areas of MK.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
I agree. From what it sounds like is they are going to see how Epic Universe plays out. In their mind Epic Universe is going to draw many to Orlando and some of those guests will visit Disney.
Beautiful weather for sure at DLR.