Is attendance really down at WDW this or…

[HauntedPirate]

There is a good bit of inventory getting wholesaled out right now, and it's not moving very well their either.

Onsite hotels will almost certainly start showing up on Hotwire before the send of summer.

I can't imagine why standard rooms at the Coronado aren't being snapped up for $280/night (before taxes and fees), or AoA suites starting at $368/night (before taxes and fees). They went WAY overboard on room pricing, thinking bounceback travel would continue in perpetuity. Same with park tickets and all the extras they love charging for now. The miscalculation on all fronts in the swamps is astounding. It's almost Star Wars-level bungling.

 

[wannabeBelle]

 

[monothingie]

There is a good bit of inventory getting wholesaled out right now, and it's not moving very well there either.

My Spidey senses tell me there is more than one problem facing the Vacation Kingdom.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Attendance is entirely up to them. I think they are worried about tourist bookings, since they are leading their offerings with multi-day tickets. If they stay soft, they can extend discounting to locals (offer AP add-ons and the like) too keep the park full, but they seriously run the risk of devaluing their product if they discount too much.

It will be interesting to see which way they go, but they definitely need to pay off that park and extracting more revenue from their local fans is going to be painful.

You honestly think Universal is worried about tourist bookings opening up a new theme park?

Disney is the one that should be worried…them taking away days or even full trips away from Disney guests

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

There is a good bit of inventory getting wholesaled out right now, and it's not moving very well their either.

Onsite hotels will almost certainly start showing up on Hotwire before the send of summer.

Because they’ve overpriced everything

Full stop

That is the problem

 

[Saskdw]

You honestly think Universal is worried about tourist bookings opening up a new theme park?

Disney is the one that should be worried…them taking away days or even full trips away from Disney guests

He's not getting the part about the quality of the experience being offered.

Disney used to have an industry leading experience and it wasn't particularly close.
That experience has become extremely tired and watered down.

In theory Epic is a brand new state of the art theme park with all new technology and industry leading theming. People like us will pay a touch more than we really want to for that type of product.

If Disney had that type of product the tone of this thread would be much different.

 

[Saskdw]

Because they’ve overpriced everything

Full stop

That is the problem

I would argue that if they still had an industry leading experience to offer the complaints over the pricing would be a little lower on the volume. But with the current product being offered they are way overpriced.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I would argue that if they still had an industry leading experience to offer the complaints over the pricing would be a little lower on the volume. But with the current product being offered they are way overpriced.

But they started cutting the margins because they lost their tv money and have to support the whole gig with parks now…
That is the elephant here.

It’s not just greed. It’s necessity.

The problem is their “Philosophy” doesn’t fit their reality as it stands.

 

[Splash4eva]

So Disney managed to chase away guests resulting in less folks in the parks while keeping the wait times the same.

Magical

 

[GhostHost1000]

Magical

They can’t reduce wait times TOO much…regardless of crowd levels.

They gotta sell them LL’s

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I would argue that if they still had an industry leading experience to offer the complaints over the pricing would be a little lower on the volume. But with the current product being offered they are way overpriced.

100% this, we’re going on another DCL cruise in January and between the 2 of us it comes out to $1000 per day, we happily pay it because we find DCL worth the money, we decided to add a WDW trip (since we’ll be in FL anyway and haven’t been in 2 years) and we are only doing 3 park days, and we debated only doing 2, we could easily add another day but we don’t feel like HS is worth the overpriced tickets and another night at the overpriced hotel.

Prior to all the cuts and price gouging our average trip at WDW was 6 park days and 8 hotel nights (including travel days), we used to happily pay for an entire week and often wished we could stay longer, now we struggle to justify 3.

Disney used to be a product that justified the highest prices in the industry, they’ve cut so much from the Disney experience the value just isn’t there anymore.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

100% this, we’re going on another DCL cruise in January and between the 2 of us it comes out to $1000 per day, we happily pay it because we find DCL worth the money, we decided to add a WDW trip (since we’ll be in FL anyway and haven’t been in 2 years) and we are only doing 3 park days, and we debated only doing 2, we could easily add another day but we don’t feel like HS is worth the overpriced tickets and another night at the overpriced hotel.

Prior to all the cuts and price gouging our average trip at WDW was 6 park days and 8 hotel nights (including travel days), we used to happily pay for an entire week and often wished we could stay longer, now we struggle to justify 3.

Disney used to be a product that justified the highest prices in the industry, they’ve cut so much from the Disney experience the value just isn’t there anymore.

One word: Celebrity

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

One word: Celebrity

We’re looking at Princess for our upcoming Alaska cruise, we’re still Disney fans at heart so we give them first preference but all the reviews are leading us to the Princess land and sea package though.

I don’t think the “new Disney” is going to create devoted fans that will stick with them like us old timers do, I still have a huge devotion to Uncle Walts company because it was such a massive part of my childhood, it feels like everything they do is trying to drive us away though.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Yes sir, that's the final price on Priceline.

View attachment 800924

Why does it say Bonnet Creek?

 

[Tha Realest]

But they started cutting the margins because they lost their tv money and have to support the whole gig with parks now…
That is the elephant here.

It’s not just greed. It’s necessity.

The problem is their “Philosophy” doesn’t fit their reality as it stands.

Correction:

TV/cable money and box office money.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Why does it say Bonnet Creek?

It’s apparently how PL classifies the area.

 

[hopemax]

Posts like this are just so disingenuous. My post was only addressing how to increase guests. It in no way addressed customer experience. As a kid who loved playing baseball, we always talked about hitting the ball on the sweet spot. Right now Disney is struggling really hard at finding that sweet spot. I fear that the high profit execs are pushing greater prices and not enough attention to declining attendance. So after they spend the 70 some billion to expand and add new attractions, where are the new guests coming from? Since you have already priced out a great many, how high are prices going to be to recover the cost of the expansion? Talk about painting yourself into a corner.

It's always nice after being on various Disney forums since 1996, to be called disingenuous. Thanks for that.

My post is not really about the customer experience. It's also a "painting yourself in a corner" post. In that, due to the attraction sell outs Disney can't attract more people to the park, without leaking a different set of people elsewhere. Your post did not demonstrate an awareness of this possibility. Sometimes in business returning a price to what it was isn't enough, because some other deficiency in the product means it's still a turn off to people.

IMO, that is why we're seeing things like the levers they usually pull, hotel discounts, free dining, not being enough anymore. This feels like a price issue to many, and while it is certainly part of the equation, I don't think it's the key. It's the uncertainty and frustration, due to insufficient attraction capacity. More people are simply aware of how hard it is to actually get on the rides they want.

 

[DisCOT_97]

Idk if this is the right thread, but according to the site that shall not be named, a guest went swimming in the Rivers of America…Well there’s an attendance idea!

 

[Jrb1979]

It's always nice after being on various Disney forums since 1996, to be called disingenuous. Thanks for that.

My post is not really about the customer experience. It's also a "painting yourself in a corner" post. In that, due to the attraction sell outs Disney can't attract more people to the park, without leaking a different set of people elsewhere. Your post did not demonstrate an awareness of this possibility. Sometimes in business returning a price to what it was isn't enough, because some other deficiency in the product means it's still a turn off to people.

IMO, that is why we're seeing things like the levers they usually pull, hotel discounts, free dining, not being enough anymore. This feels like a price issue to many, and while it is certainly part of the equation, I don't think it's the key. It's the uncertainty and frustration, due to insufficient attraction capacity. More people are simply aware of how hard it is to actually get on the rides they want.

I agree they lack capacity. I disagree in guests uncertainty with getting on attractions. That only pertains to the skip the line system. Guests can wait in standby if they really wanted to get any attraction.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Correction:

TV/cable money and box office money.

Movies haven’t been more than 10% for a very long time

Cable…free money…was around 50% 20 years ago…

Now it’s plummeting below 30%