Is attendance really down at WDW this or…

[Chi84]

We arrive tomorrow evening - *plenty* of options still on the board.

(We're going to Summerhouse on the Lake for the first time)

This is how it should be.

 

[JD80]

The original FP system was nice because it let you be two places at once: In line for a ride and out shopping or eating.

Under the current arrangement, you can be at 3 (or more?) places at once, depending on how much you're willing to pay.

Gate clicks are decidedly down, but if 2/3rds of the guests are in multiple places at once, it can feel much busier than it actually is.

That is not how you do that analysis. They are still X amount of people in the park. If you want to say there may be less people in standby at any given point, then sure. But people in multiple places? LL doesn't create an additional multiplier.

 

[JD80]

Purely anecdotal but I just made our dining reservations for January and I’ve never seen so many options, on previous trips I’ve had to stalk the website to get reservations at places like Be our guest, Le Cellier, etc, this trip everything was available, even Cinderella and Akershus. I’m hopeful this is a sign of a slow visit but as I didn’t bother reserving any of them either due to the prices it’s possible it’s just a sign prices are too high.

I did get Liberty Tree, Boathouse, Chefs de France (lunch), and Biergarten at the exact times I wanted though, kind of nice to be able to eat at 6pm every night rather than having dinner at 4 one night, 8 the next night, etc based on what times were available.

Sit down dinner is down with some exceptions for sure. Prefixe menus and LL (for two reasons) are the main culprit I bet.

 

[Trauma]

Would definitely break this up into a group of 5/4. You probably need to coordinate with a member of your party to do this! (Depending on what mood the app is in.) Bolded because I didn’t want you to set an alarm to do the 6:00 am drop only to realize you can only put one reservation in your name. If you want a second reservation at an overlapping time, it needs to be under someone else’s account. If you have their login you can do it that way or you can text back and forth to select coordinating times.

(If that’s changed and anyone is aware, let me know.)

I want to thank you and @wannabeBelle for your advice. I was easily able to get into my reservations by splitting my party in two.

 

[JoeCamel]

I want to thank you and @wannabeBelle for your advice. I was easily able to get into my reservations by splitting my party in two.

Who has to sit at the kiddie table?

 

[networkpro]

Purely anecdotal but I just made our dining reservations for January and I’ve never seen so many options, on previous trips I’ve had to stalk the website to get reservations at places like Be our guest, Le Cellier, etc, this trip everything was available, even Cinderella and Akershus. I’m hopeful this is a sign of a slow visit but as I didn’t bother reserving any of them either due to the prices it’s possible it’s just a sign prices are too high.

I did get Liberty Tree, Boathouse, Chefs de France (lunch), and Biergarten at the exact times I wanted though, kind of nice to be able to eat at 6pm every night rather than having dinner at 4 one night, 8 the next night, etc based on what times were available.

My sympathies in advance if you get BoG, Cindy's or Cali grill. They aren't very good currently.

 

[PREMiERdrum]

That is not how you do that analysis. They are still X amount of people in the park. If you want to say there may be less people in standby at any given point, then sure. But people in multiple places? LL doesn't create an additional multiplier.

I get what you're saying, but each "spot" you're holding simultaneously displaces another guest. Flat capacity and the ability to wait for more things at the same time makes your pathways seem busier than they would have been previously with the same number of guests.

 

[UNCgolf]

I get what you're saying, but each "spot" you're holding simultaneously displaces another guest. Flat capacity and the ability to wait for more things at the same time makes your pathways seem busier than they would have been previously with the same number of guests.

And not just the pathways, but the shops etc. too.

A park with 20k guests and all rides standby would feel significantly less crowded than a park with an equal 20k guests, but 15k of them are just waiting on their next VQ spot.

 

[Trauma]

Who has to sit at the kiddie table?

The youngest will be 18.

Even the kiddie table has grow up

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

My sympathies in advance if you get BoG, Cindy's or Cali grill. They aren't very good currently.

I think this will be our first MK trip we aren’t going to BoG since it opened, we used to love going there for lunch, the French onion soup, French dip sandwich, and gray stuff was an amazing lunch, unfortunately they took away that option, then we tried breakfast one year and all I remember is getting the exact same food we’d have gotten at our Disney hotel but at twice the price, needless to say we’ve never been back for breakfast, last trip we tried dinner there and although it was good we’d rather go to a great place like Boathouse if we’re spending $75 a person.

We love the setting, and enjoy the food, but it’s just not worth the money anymore.

We really enjoyed Cinderellas castle when we went but it was a one and done for us, a really fun experience but way to expensive for the food quality. Cali grill has never been on our radar, we’ve left the park for dinner a few times but we always seem to end up at one of the Polynesian restaurants.

 

[UNCgolf]

I think this will be our first MK trip we aren’t going to BoG since it opened, we used to love going there for lunch, the French onion soup, French dip sandwich, and gray stuff was an amazing lunch, unfortunately they took away that option, then we tried breakfast one year and all I remember is getting the exact same food we’d have gotten at our Disney hotel but at twice the price, needless to say we’ve never been back for breakfast, last trip we tried dinner there and although it was good we’d rather go to a great place like Boathouse if we’re spending $75 a person.

We love the setting, and enjoy the food, but it’s just not worth the money anymore.

We really enjoyed Cinderellas castle when we went but it was a one and done for us, a really fun experience but way to expensive for the food quality. Cali grill has never been on our radar, we’ve left the park for dinner a few times but we always seem to end up at one of the Polynesian restaurants.

The only time I went to BoG was for breakfast, and yeah, it wasn't very good.

You were essentially just paying for the setting, and I don't think the setting really works. I wasn't that impressed with it -- it probably would be better if it wasn't set up like a big loud cafeteria, though.

The setting at Cinderella's Castle is much better, but I don't care about the character dining aspect and you pay a huge additional upcharge there for the characters.

California Grill switched to prix fixe so it's definitely an avoid IMO. But I didn't think it was that great before, either. Flying Fish was significantly better and so was some of the food at Disney Springs.

 

[James Alucobond]

The only time I went to BoG was for breakfast, and yeah, it wasn't very good.

You were essentially just paying for the setting, and I don't think the setting really works. I wasn't that impressed with it -- it probably would be better if it wasn't set up like a big loud cafeteria, though.

Dinner is not much better, unfortunately. Lunch was somewhat okay when it existed because it was more reasonably priced, but the entire setup is hampered by the fact that it was meant to convert for different dining experiences throughout the day. If they're going to stick to it being upscale table service all day, the seating and floorplan need a rethink.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I think this will be our first MK trip we aren’t going to BoG since it opened, we used to love going there for lunch, the French onion soup, French dip sandwich, and gray stuff was an amazing lunch, unfortunately they took away that option, then we tried breakfast one year and all I remember is getting the exact same food we’d have gotten at our Disney hotel but at twice the price, needless to say we’ve never been back for breakfast, last trip we tried dinner there and although it was good we’d rather go to a great place like Boathouse if we’re spending $75 a person.

We love the setting, and enjoy the food, but it’s just not worth the money anymore.

We really enjoyed Cinderellas castle when we went but it was a one and done for us, a really fun experience but way to expensive for the food quality. Cali grill has never been on our radar, we’ve left the park for dinner a few times but we always seem to end up at one of the Polynesian restaurants.

We haven't gone to BOG since the movie to prix fixe for both lunch and dinner. We loved lunch. I enjoyed the croque monsieur, the atmosphere was great. That it was quick service and big and cool was amazing. Now? Primo Piatto has that sandwich, and a gluten-free version that's delicious - so we'll be going there for the foreseeable future. None of us eats enough to have a 3 course meal at Disney.

 

[C33Mom]

Our issue with BoG is two fold: (1) is that it’s been extremely slow when one member of the party has an unusual allergy— I appreciate the caution but I think they lost track of us, we were there nearly 3 hours one time and 90m+ the other, and (2) it’s really really heavy for mid-day meal at a theme park. We never made it before it became prix-fixe, but it sounds much more our speed.

 

[Touchdown]

I still enjoy BOG. The fillet is solid (and makes the price much more palatable) the French onion soup is delicious, and 2 out of the three desserts on the trio I really like, the truffle is just ok.

 

[JD80]

I get what you're saying, but each "spot" you're holding simultaneously displaces another guest. Flat capacity and the ability to wait for more things at the same time makes your pathways seem busier than they would have been previously with the same number of guests.

Yes but not by a drastic number you originally wrote.

 

[The Lochness Monsta]

Makes you think, if it is a mad scene crowd-wise than why go? I'd rather stay home and save my money for an adult vacay.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

Boarding groups/lightning lane is part of it.

They've taken a significant number of people out of standby lines and put them elsewhere in the park, which increases crowding.

Obviously there was already some of this with FastPass, but eliminating standby entirely on a few attractions (the ones most likely to draw long lines, too) and increasing the number of LLs available exacerbated it.

Except having a BG number doesn't get parkgoers on the rides all that quickly, it merely gets them into what is often a fairly long (standby) queue. I'd venture to say some of the people who end up waiting that long would not choose to wait in the queue if the wait time was posted.

 

[lewisc]

Except having a BG number doesn't get parkgoers on the rides all that quickly, it merely gets them into what is often a fairly long (standby) queue. I'd venture to say some of the people who end up waiting that long would not choose to wait in the queue if the wait time was posted.

VQ allows Disney to limit and eliminate the overflow queue. The line for Guardians is mostly inside. A better look. Guests aren't getting tortured by the heat.

LL guests keep the VQ guests in line longer.

 

[JD80]

VQs for me over the years for both GotG and Tron were 40+ minutes. Even EEH a week ago for GotG was long.