Is attendance really down at WDW this or…

[TheMaxRebo]

Arent there several companies now that book dining reservations and hold them to sell to people? Or they just are paid to constantly check for reservations and book them right away if it pops up? I would think this may play a role in hard to get reservations perhaps?

As far as I know they all just constantly ping the servers and then notify people of an availability.

You have to have a credit card to home most ADRe so maybe some travel agents will buy I don't think many services will do that

 

[Jrb1979]

UBS: ".. tough comps in Orlando .. UBS Evidence Lab data indicates that foot traffic in the domestic parks was down 23% yoy in F3Q (thru 6/24) vs. -5% in F2Q."

 

[Disney Dead Head]

Arent there several companies now that book dining reservations and hold them to sell to people? Or they just are paid to constantly check for reservations and book them right away if it pops up? I would think this may play a role in hard to get reservations perhaps?

I know there use to be companies that did this. With that being said when were there last month we had a 7:30 for Space220 and half the restaurant was empty. We had tried to move up our Res and couldn't find any available times.

 

[Hawkeye_2018]

Most people have now seen all the new attractions over the last couple years. You want bigger crowds, add new attractions and/or lower prices. I really have little interest in going back to Disney anytime soon other than to Epcot to check out some of it's newer offerings.

 

[LSLS]

Most people have now seen all the new attractions over the last couple years. You want bigger crowds, add new attractions and/or lower prices. I really have little interest in going back to Disney anytime soon other than to Epcot to check out some of it's newer offerings.

Yeah, I think this could be a big thing. The only park that didn't feel empty? Magic Kingdom (and Epcot was maybe a bit lighter, but still had a bit of a crowd). Galaxy Edge doesn't have enough stuff that you feel you've missed a bunch after a trip or 2, and Toy Story was hotter than the desert with the sun hitting down. Animal Kingdom, we had done everything there like 4 years ago. Times ago, you'd go down, and there may not be a lot of new things, but a room is under $100 a night and the tickets for 4 days are like $150, so it's not a deal breaker. But if I'm going down and spending $250 for the same room and $500 for the tickets, I don't want the same thing I've done already (at best, more than likely there are less things to see/do).

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Most people have now seen all the new attractions over the last couple years. You want bigger crowds, add new attractions and/or lower prices. I really have little interest in going back to Disney anytime soon other than to Epcot to check out some of it's newer offerings.

definitely part of it and probably explains, at least in part, why Animal Kingdom saw such a drop to their attendance as it is the part with the longest gap to the latest new big thing

Plus even people that go if they have say 5 or 6 day tickets, very unlikely they use more than 1 of those for AK while there are reasons to do the other 3 more than once. Especially EPCOT has 2 relatively new big rides Remy and Guardians (which, people may want to ride multiple times to get different songs and the VQ limits that ability), and MK has Tron plus the return of Happily Ever After (which may at least be new to some people or different from their last trip)

 

[Hawkeye_2018]

I like AK, but I've done it twice and will never do it again until they add multiple new attractions which I'm guessing is years away at best

 

[Smugpugmug]

Last time I posted, I mentioned that I was going to Universal over the weekend and would compare crowd levels to WDW. Well, the parks didn't feel particularly crowded. Rode everything I wanted to without waiting a long time (minus delays, which happened at every other ride I went on). City Walk didn't feel that crowded either. Volcano Bay and the resort pool (stayed at Cabana Bay) were INSANE. Felt way more crowded there than any Orlando theme park I've been to in the past few months.

Last night I did hop over to the Polynesian for dinner and even the resorts on the monorail loop didn't seem that busy.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

@lentesta was quoted here. I was wondering what they were seeing at TouringPlans

 

[LSLS]

Last time I posted, I mentioned that I was going to Universal over the weekend and would compare crowd levels to WDW. Well, the parks didn't feel particularly crowded. Rode everything I wanted to without waiting a long time (minus delays, which happened at every other ride I went on). City Walk didn't feel that crowded either. Volcano Bay and the resort pool (stayed at Cabana Bay) were INSANE. Felt way more crowded there than any Orlando theme park I've been to in the past few months.

Last night I did hop over to the Polynesian for dinner and even the resorts on the monorail loop didn't seem that busy.

Last week we got O'Hana breakfast reservations the day of, so I'll confirm they aren't all that crowded either.

 

[jannerUK]

I keep hoping for quieter crowds when we go from 8/16-8/23, but I know I was just looking for a lunch reservation for 3 at Beaches and Cream and it's not available on any of the days or our trip. Hmm.

Does this not bode well for August or worrying about nothing?

 

[Smugpugmug]

Last week we got O'Hana breakfast reservations the day of, so I'll confirm they aren't all that crowded either.

Ohana dinner showed up as available for a last minute reservation last night. That was unheard of years ago. I saw California Grill and a few other hard to get reservations as well.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Ohana dinner showed up as available for a last minute reservation last night. That was unheard of years ago. I saw California Grill and a few other hard to get reservations as well.

Cali Grill isn't as hard since they switched to the prefixe

But still, seeing so many examples of this, definitely more fuel for the fire

 

[Splash4eva]

If you play the refresh game and even use the mousedining site hard to get places usually free up day before/day of more times than not... at least thats my experience and thats also during thanksgiving week which is traditionally busy

 

[Smugpugmug]

Cali Grill isn't as hard since they switched to the prefixe

But still, seeing so many examples of this, definitely more fuel for the fire

True. The prix fixe aspect of the meal is the reason why I won't book an ADR there. I was just surprised because the ADR time was semi close to MK fireworks time.

 

[ABQ]

DFB jumping on this one as well.

 

[Jrb1979]

All those electrical storms are keeping the people away.

 

[alphac2005]

We were just at Epcot last night and if it weren't for Lightning Lane artificially slowing down the lines, they'd be even shorter. It felt like a throwback evening where you could actually walk around, not be slammed up next to another person, and leisurely enjoy the sights. Epcot Forever was a walk up less than 10 minutes before the show started in prime spots as well.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

All those electrical storms are keeping the people away.

I wish that chart went back further. While I do think WDW is very slow now, I also think it looks even more extreme as 2018/2019 were sort of peak crowds and probably too crowded really. I think it is more in line with 2016ish

 

[Piebald]

is it that people are holding on to reservations and only cancelling last minute and then not enough time for other people who are looking for reservations to find it and book it? Can see not a lot of people on vacation at WDW are going to be undecided on dinner and then last minute say "hey, lets book Topolinos!"

They said they would hoard them then just cancel last minute since the policy changed from 24 or 48 (I don't remember) to 2hr. That's why people are able to find reservations day of or just walk up in some cases to some harder to get into restaurants