Is attendance really down at WDW this or…

[MisterPenguin]

I was just able to switch my rack rate Pop Century stay in late October to a 35% discount AP rate. Saved about $200.

 

[monothingie]

I was just able to switch my rack rate Pop Century stay in late October to a %35 discount AP rate. Saved about $200.

Igloo Suite?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Igloo Suite?

Kitchen walk-in freezer!!

 

[Nunu]

I was just able to switch my rack rate Pop Century stay in late October to a %35 discount AP rate. Saved about $200.

Lucky you!

I've been trying to switch my early Sept reservation (same resort) at an AP discount, with no success. I'll keep trying, you being able to get it, gives me hope.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Lucky you!

I've been trying to switch my early Sept reservation (same resort) at an AP discount, with no success. I'll keep trying, you being able to get it, gives me hope.

I just grabbed a brand new reservation at the discount rate, then cancel the previous reservation.

 

[UNCgolf]

Please explain how they can blame using other chargers instead of their own when they no longer include one? They don't do this.

I also never said they are some superior company. I just said nickel and diming isn't their thing.

If your phone is damaged and you use a third party charger that doesn't meet Apple's stated standards, that gives them grounds to void your warranty.

That doesn't mean it's likely to happen (it isn't for a variety of reasons), but they absolutely can. As @flynnibus stated above, they haven't stopped making chargers. They just require you to purchase them separately if you don't already have one.

 

[WaltsTreasureChest]

All of the available reservations in July for highly desired restaurant locations.

Whaaaa

 

[scottb411]

Just finishing my final day of six nights at Disney visiting any of the parks for the first time during normal operating hours(I have done a couple of MK After Hours) in 10 years and the crowds seemed to be what I remember 10 years ago. Using G+ at all four parks, we were able to ride all of the major attractions and then some. A lot of standby lines for top attractions were 80-90 minutes without G+ so glad that we got it. Using extended hours in the morning and night, we were able to ride all of the ILL attractions with a 20-40 minute standby. My family liked all of the new additions (for us is going back starting with Avatar) and Guardians of the Galaxy is a game-changer. Disney did a great job on that ride.

 

[Big T 1963]

Mist be nice to be a local , work all day, drive to park have a nice dinner , fireworks then drive home.

The closest I'll be to WDW is Sarasota FL (Lido Beach) in September a more relaxing Florida vacation see you at the bar at 5pm

 

[Lilofan]

The closest I'll be to WDW is Sarasota FL (Lido Beach) in September a more relaxing Florida vacation see you at the bar at 5pm

Vacationed there too. St Armands Circle is not what its all cracked up to be. For down home Amish food, check out Yoders Restaurant in Sarasota.

 

[Big T 1963]

Vacationed there too. St Armands Circle is not what its all cracked up to be. For down home Amish food, check out Yoders Restaurant in Sarasota.

That's a place my SIL told me about I also want to go to Der Dutchman I heard that is a good place to get and food bakery items

 

[Lilofan]

That's a place my SIL told me about I also want to go to Der Dutchman I heard that is a good place to get and food bakery items

Both places are on the same street, Bahia. Der Dutchman and the competition , Yoders. If WDW could get the recipe for the finger licking good fried chicken of Yoders, that would be incredible.

 

[Pepper's Ghost]

Preface: Sorry for the long post. I started typing and my fingers wouldn't stop.

I may have missed it, but aside from price gouging, nickle & diming, terrible upkeep/maintenance, lack of real expansion (not ride or land replacement), etc.... I think that runaway inflation is really hurting the parks too. I've said for the last 12 to 18 months. These price increases and incredibly anti-consumer practices are catching up with them, or will catch up with them in the very near future. I haven't seen so many WDW vacation commercials in my life. Disney seems to be bleeding out.

The problem is once you push away customers as harshly as they have, those customers start to find different options that they might fall in love with. If you see your family vacation to WDW will cost you more than going to Hawaii, or basically anywhere, once you take that trip to Hawaii (or wherever) you might enjoy it more than Disney. It might make you wonder why you didn't diversify your vacation choices much sooner. What used to be an annual trip to see the Mouse House becomes an annual trip to various other wonderful destinations. That's not good for the Mouse. (Btw, I realize that many people do diversify their vacations, but tons of people spend every vacation dollar with Disney.)

The mere possibility of that happening goes against decades of Disney's strictly held practices.... keep people on property and isolated. They now have pushed people away and consumers are no longer isolated/loyal to WDW vacations. That's a mistake that could hurt Disney for the next decade while they try to expand, and then continue to lower prices to try to make the decision to go back to WDW a viable one. That's what greed does. It's incredibly shortsighted. It increases net revenue for the short term... a year or even multiple years, but once you push those customers away, it's not as easy to get them back. I've been saying it here for many years. Disney has been working very hard to anger their customer base to the point where they lose most of them. They can try to keep cutting services, maintenance, etc. but there's a point of diminishing returns. You're not going to win people back with lower prices if the product is garbage.

Now, when I say garbage I'm talking about the tremendous cut backs, lack of options, nothing new to draw crowds, etc. They just keep shooting themselves in the foot. Rather than spending those inflated profits on making the parks better to attract the next generation of fans and bury the competition, they're cutting to the bone and pushing even more people away. Disney is in a sad state at the moment and it's a problem of their own making. They should be using their profits to improve and bolster sales for the future by making WDW a destination people NEED to visit annually rather than upset consumers to the point they don't want to go at all.

Add to that the fact they've made it so difficult for the infrequent visitor to adequately plan a vacation without a PhD. It used to be that you spent months planning a WDW vacation to be way ahead of the rest of the crowd when you got there. It was an advantage to plan and research long before. Now, if you're not an obsessive early planner, you get there and have a terrible vacation and miss out on what should be an enjoyable vacation. I have to think that almost everyone reading this at one time or another was told at an entertainment venue that you needed to reserve something months in advance, but you just found out about it 15 mins ago. Now, that's your entire WDW vacation. It $ucks and takes away all spontaneity. No more "I just got an unexpected bonus at work... LET'S GO TO WDW NEXT MONTH!" Or how about, "I didn't know that restaurant was there. Let's go!" to find out that their first available walkin is at 9:30pm if available at all. Well... except that if attendance craters I guess spontaneity will again be a distinct possibility.

 

[Nubs70]

Preface: Sorry for the long post. I started typing and my fingers wouldn't stop.

I may have missed it, but aside from price gouging, nickle & diming, terrible upkeep/maintenance, lack of real expansion (not ride or land replacement), etc.... I think that runaway inflation is really hurting the parks too. I've said for the last 12 to 18 months. These price increases and incredibly anti-consumer practices are catching up with them, or will catch up with them in the very near future. I haven't seen so many WDW vacation commercials in my life. Disney seems to be bleeding out.

The problem is once you push away customers as harshly as they have, those customers start to find different options that they might fall in love with. If you see your family vacation to WDW will cost you more than going to Hawaii, or basically anywhere, once you take that trip to Hawaii (or wherever) you might enjoy it more than Disney. It might make you wonder why you didn't diversify your vacation choices much sooner. What used to be an annual trip to see the Mouse House becomes an annual trip to various other wonderful destinations. That's not good for the Mouse. (Btw, I realize that many people do diversify their vacations, but tons of people spend every vacation dollar with Disney.)

The mere possibility of that happening goes against decades of Disney's strictly held practices.... keep people on property and isolated. They now have pushed people away and consumers are no longer isolated/loyal to WDW vacations. That's a mistake that could hurt Disney for the next decade while they try to expand, and then continue to lower prices to try to make the decision to go back to WDW a viable. That's what greed does. It's incredibly shortsighted. It increases net revenue for the short term... a year or even multiple years, but once you push those customers away, it's not as easy to get them back. I've been saying it here for many years. Disney has been working very hard to anger their customer base to the point where they lose most of them. They can try to keep cutting services, maintenance, etc. but there's a point of diminishing returns. You're not going to win people back with lower prices if the product is garbage.

Now, when I say garbage I'm talking about the tremendous cut backs, lack of options, nothing new to draw crowds, etc. They just keep shooting themselves in the foot. Rather than spending those inflated profits on making the parks better to attract the next generation of fans and bury the competition, they're cutting to the bone and pushing even more people away. Disney is in a sad state at the moment and it's a problem of their own making. They should be using their profits to improve and bolster sales for the future by making WDW a destination people NEED to visit annually rather than upset consumers to the point they don't want to go at all.

Add to that the fact they've made it so difficult for the infrequent visitor to adequately plan a vacation without a PhD. It used to be that you spent months planning a WDW vacation to be way ahead of the rest of the crowd when you got there. It was an advantage to plan and research long before. Now, if you're not an obsessive early planner, you get there and have a terrible vacation and miss out on seemingly enjoyable vacation. I have to think that almost everyone reading this at one time or another was told at an entertainment venue that you needed to reserve something months in advance, but you just found out about it 15 mins ago. Now, that's your entire WDW vacation. It $ucks and takes away all spontaneity. No more "I just got an unexpected bonus at work... LET'S GO TO WDW NEXT MONTH!" Or how about, "I didn't know that restaurant was there. Let's go!" to find out that their first available walkin is at 9:30pm if available at all. Well... except that if attendance craters I guess spontaneity will again be a distinct possibility.

My family used to go at least once per year. It was great with taking small kids. DME with luggage transfer made the transfer from airport to resort a no stress endeavor. CM's were top notch. The other visitors were quite friendly and courteous. Then prices started climbing. Additionally, the "perks" began to go away, pre-planning began to increase, and phones began to become integral to the experience.

So as prices climbed, I sat down at the computer, with the same level of pre planning, I discovered we could go to Europe for the same cost, if not slightly cheaper. Instead of the facsimiles of countries found at EPCOT, we could experience the real thing.

In my daughter's case, visiting the real thing inspired her to:
1. Obtain a HNC from University of Scotland
2. Take summer term classes at University of Glasgow.
3. Enroll in intensive German language training at the Goethe Institute.
4. 1 year study abroad at the University of Vienna
5. Internship in Vienna at an American expat magazine.

However, #4 and #5 were shutdown within a week due to Covid.

While WDW was fun, a greater value can be gotten by traveling to the real thing for a similar cost.

P.S. The only things that ate authentic about the Biergarten are the flags on the wall.

 

[Pepper's Ghost]

My family used to go at least once per year. It was great with taking small kids. DME with luggage transfer made the transfer from airport to resort a no stress endeavor. CM's were top notch. The other visitors were quite friendly and courteous. Then prices started climbing. Additionally, the "perks" began to go away, pre-planning began to increase, and phones began to become integral to the experience.

So as prices climbed, I sat down at the computer, with the same level of pre planning, I discovered we could go to Europe for the same cost, if not slightly cheaper. Instead of the facsimiles of countries found at EPCOT, we could experience the real thing.

In my daughter's case, visiting the real thing inspired her to:
1. Obtain a HNC from University of Scotland
2. Take summer term classes at University of Glasgow.
3. Enroll in intensive German language training at the Goethe Institute.
4. 1 year study abroad at the University of Vienna
5. Internship in Vienna at an American expat magazine.

However, #4 and #5 were shutdown within a week due to Covid.

While WDW was fun, a greater value can be gotten by traveling to the real thing for a similar cost.

P.S. The only things that ate authentic about the Biergarten are the flags on the wall.

Yeah, the phone part is annoying as h3ll. I like having everything at my finger tips and take advantage of the conveniences my phone offers, but I'm adamantly anti-phones when it comes to the fact that it has replaced actual human interaction. Social media is the devil... almost literally. It has evolved into something far, far worse than it was initially intended. Before most people used it to keep friends and family abroad in touch with the goings on in your life, to see how the kids grow, etc. Now it's a way to try and show people why they should be envious of you. Look at what I'm eating. See my dream vacation, etc. The only thing is that it's not real life. Sure that's a beautiful picture of a pretty girl in front of a beautiful sunset or whatever. But it took that beautiful girl 75 pictures to make sure it didn't look like she had a double-chin, and it also doesn't show the 45 min argument she had with her husband or boyfriend after that because she was wasting their time taking pics of herself, or texting, or posting on FB. That doesn't even touch on the fact that nerds invented a way for their kids to get bullied even after they leave the classroom. Cyber bullying is WAY worse than classroom bullying was because there's absolutely no teachers to happen to walk past as it's happening and can be relentless. Now kids are inundated with evil which drives many of them to do evil things, whether to hurt others or themselves. Social media has destroyed much of society.

Sorry for the sidetrack, but my point is that now Disney is forcing you to stare at your phone the whole trip rather than enjoying yourself. If you want to achieve anywhere close to what you used to be able to on trips in the past, you have to stay glued to your phone. People have already replaced conversation with their phones without the need of the Mouse giving an excuse to do it. I have ZERO interest in it and is one main reason why I haven't visited in many years. I miss "my WDW" from 20 years ago. In the meantime, I'll continue to enjoy my relaxing vacations elsewhere until something over there changes significantly.

 

[DisneyCane]

This could be considered bundling which is illegal. Having to buy 2 separate items in order for a warranty.

If the charger was included with the phone, the warranty provisions would be ok.

They certainly can't require use with only Apple approved chargers if they don't include it with the purchase. However, if a 3rd party charger put out some large over voltage or something that damaged the phone they can definitely deny a claim. I'm pretty sure Apple logs what chargers were attached so they can tell if it was an Apple approved charger when a phone comes in for warranty service.

It's kind of like if you fill your gasoline car with diesel fuel the car manufacturer won't cover the repairs. However, they can't just blanket deny claims if they say to use Mobil gas and you fill up with Shell gas.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Preface: Sorry for the long post. I started typing and my fingers wouldn't stop.

I may have missed it, but aside from price gouging, nickle & diming, terrible upkeep/maintenance, lack of real expansion (not ride or land replacement), etc.... I think that runaway inflation is really hurting the parks too. I've said for the last 12 to 18 months. These price increases and incredibly anti-consumer practices are catching up with them, or will catch up with them in the very near future. I haven't seen so many WDW vacation commercials in my life. Disney seems to be bleeding out.

The problem is once you push away customers as harshly as they have, those customers start to find different options that they might fall in love with. If you see your family vacation to WDW will cost you more than going to Hawaii, or basically anywhere, once you take that trip to Hawaii (or wherever) you might enjoy it more than Disney. It might make you wonder why you didn't diversify your vacation choices much sooner. What used to be an annual trip to see the Mouse House becomes an annual trip to various other wonderful destinations. That's not good for the Mouse. (Btw, I realize that many people do diversify their vacations, but tons of people spend every vacation dollar with Disney.)

The mere possibility of that happening goes against decades of Disney's strictly held practices.... keep people on property and isolated. They now have pushed people away and consumers are no longer isolated/loyal to WDW vacations. That's a mistake that could hurt Disney for the next decade while they try to expand, and then continue to lower prices to try to make the decision to go back to WDW a viable one. That's what greed does. It's incredibly shortsighted. It increases net revenue for the short term... a year or even multiple years, but once you push those customers away, it's not as easy to get them back. I've been saying it here for many years. Disney has been working very hard to anger their customer base to the point where they lose most of them. They can try to keep cutting services, maintenance, etc. but there's a point of diminishing returns. You're not going to win people back with lower prices if the product is garbage.

Now, when I say garbage I'm talking about the tremendous cut backs, lack of options, nothing new to draw crowds, etc. They just keep shooting themselves in the foot. Rather than spending those inflated profits on making the parks better to attract the next generation of fans and bury the competition, they're cutting to the bone and pushing even more people away. Disney is in a sad state at the moment and it's a problem of their own making. They should be using their profits to improve and bolster sales for the future by making WDW a destination people NEED to visit annually rather than upset consumers to the point they don't want to go at all.

Add to that the fact they've made it so difficult for the infrequent visitor to adequately plan a vacation without a PhD. It used to be that you spent months planning a WDW vacation to be way ahead of the rest of the crowd when you got there. It was an advantage to plan and research long before. Now, if you're not an obsessive early planner, you get there and have a terrible vacation and miss out on what should be an enjoyable vacation. I have to think that almost everyone reading this at one time or another was told at an entertainment venue that you needed to reserve something months in advance, but you just found out about it 15 mins ago. Now, that's your entire WDW vacation. It $ucks and takes away all spontaneity. No more "I just got an unexpected bonus at work... LET'S GO TO WDW NEXT MONTH!" Or how about, "I didn't know that restaurant was there. Let's go!" to find out that their first available walkin is at 9:30pm if available at all. Well... except that if attendance craters I guess spontaneity will again be a distinct possibility.

I agree with you 100%. We are one of those families who won't be back if and when they ever go back to caring about their guests and caring about their sadly maintained attractions. We are just one family but we have a big family and their kids and grandkids won't be back either. They have already found other fun destinations that they prefer. So, it's not just one family, it will snowball down through the generations. Disney was such a wonderful, magical place that we returned and returned to with our growing family, and I recommended and help plan for friends. Now, we go to Universal, and other beach destinations, and state parks. So, I agree with you completely and sadly.

 

[Pepper's Ghost]

I agree with you 100%. We are one of those families who won't be back if and when they ever go back to caring about their guests and caring about their sadly maintained attractions. We are just one family but we have a big family and their kids and grandkids won't be back either. They have already found other fun destinations that they prefer. So, it's not just one family, it will snowball down through the generations. Disney was such a wonderful, magical place that we returned and returned to with our growing family, and I recommended and help plan for friends. Now, we go to Universal, and other beach destinations, and state parks. So, I agree with you completely and sadly.

I absolutely respect this decision, and the desire to stick with it. So many people leave nasty comments about Disney on forums, Twitter and the like, but when vacation time comes around they're back at WDW feeding the beast that supposedly upset them so much. My last vacation to WDW was in 2009, and it wasn't enjoyable. I decided to wait a couple of years before I'd go again and joined this forum to keep an eye on trends. Then the changes I read about got worse and worse. FP+, Genie, etc. I have zero interest in spending my vacations on my phone and planning several months in advance just to keep up with the Joneses. I'm happy to do lots of homework to make it MORE enjoyable, but not to get the bare minimum or miss out on everything. And I hate that the price you pay in advance is just the beginning. You spend several thousand in advance, but meals aside you're likely to spend a thousand plus more with all the extras they've started selling ala carte.

Like I've said, you can fool lots of people a first time pretending the cost will be one thing, but when they get there it's tons more. After people see their credit card bill, that's likely the last time they'll see the mouse for a long time. That could be adding to what's happening right now. So many people rushed to have a great time at WDW, and so many of them had sticker shock from their credit card bills afterwards that they're not going back the next year. That could also explain the mad rush to WDW post-pandemic, and the precipitous drop in attendance recently.

 

[UNCgolf]

This could be considered bundling which is illegal. Having to buy 2 separate items in order for a warranty.

If the charger was included with the phone, the warranty provisions would be ok.

I'm not sure it would fall under bundling anyways (although law school was years ago), but in this case it's not restricted to Apple manufactured chargers -- they just have to meet specific standards. A third party charger wouldn't void a warranty if it met Apple's standards.

 

[DisneyNeighbor]

Isn’t this thread on attendance? if people want to waste their life discussing apple charging cords go somewhere else. I drop in to see what attendance at the park is like, and I see nothing but childish arguing over unimportant stuff. Can a moderator address this please?