Is attendance really down at WDW this or…

[Thepuma]

I don't understand how the last week of August is somehow being compared with June or July?

January is now a busy time. Has been for many years.

It isn't, that's my point.

Except Covid, have booked the SAME weeks Orlando holidays for years and years...so we have a good idea if a park is quieter or busier than the previous date the previous year.

I've not noticed the actual parks any quieter than previous years. I'd actually say it's been busier so far than last year at this time.

I cant comment for Historical June July or August times- but THIS 08/31 to present is not quieter than last years 08/31 to 09/08...we've both said its busier.

The restaurants, from what we've seen (done 10 so far) have been busy as a whole but some were not packed.

My experience for January and September this year is that it felt the same, if not busier than last years January and September.

 

[Thepuma]

Define “busy”?

Did this tell you it was busy?
View attachment 741641

Experience I guess. We've been the same 2 weeks in September for the past 8 years (except 2020) and we get a feel for how busy the parks are from walking round, queueing for drinks, having lunch, waiting in lines etc.

We visit at least 2 parks a day, we've done all 4 twice so far this holiday..so it's easy to get a feel for the parks through experience.

We can't vouch for how busy Other months are compared to previous years...but can only go by January, May and September as that is the times of the year we visit.

 

[MR.Dis]

Experience I guess. We've been the same 2 weeks in September for the past 8 years (except 2020) and we get a feel for how busy the parks are from walking round, queueing for drinks, having lunch, waiting in lines etc.

We visit at least 2 parks a day, we've done all 4 twice so far this holiday..so it's easy to get a feel for the parks through experience.

We can't vouch for how busy Other months are compared to previous years...but can only go by January, May and September as that is the times of the year we visit.

My family has gone the last week of May -first week of June for 10 years now. Every year including this year, the crowds/wait times were greater. The restaurants were incredibly busy and trying to snag a last minute reservation was next to impossible. The reason we started going was that 10 years ago this time period was a bit of a lull prior to the summer busy times. Now it seems the whole traditional vacations time are changing. More and more are going in May and early June with summer having less and less. Than fall hits and up it goes again where fall used to be fairly dead as kids going back to school. There used to be a spike in October as Great Britain kids would be on holiday. Not sure how much vacationing comes from Europe anymore, does anyone have any stats?

 

[LSLS]

Experience I guess. We've been the same 2 weeks in September for the past 8 years (except 2020) and we get a feel for how busy the parks are from walking round, queueing for drinks, having lunch, waiting in lines etc.

We visit at least 2 parks a day, we've done all 4 twice so far this holiday..so it's easy to get a feel for the parks through experience.

We can't vouch for how busy Other months are compared to previous years...but can only go by January, May and September as that is the times of the year we visit.

You can convince me the parks feel the same, but you have no chance of convincing me dining is busy. Just checking for dining tonight (Friday night, at 3:00 on a Friday), I see Akershus, Ohana, Boma, Califonia Grill, Cape May, Chef Mickey, Kona Cafe, Narcossee, Le Cellier, and Tusker all with availability.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Same thing happened to us. We pivoted to Millenium Falcon, but at park opening Rise, Slinky and RocknRoller were down. Our last trip Mickey was down at opening. So ridiculous. And what I truly don't understand is if Rise isn't open yet tell people at the front of the park not when they've already raced over to Galaxy's Edge.

same thing at the other parks - have someone with signs if that is down or Test Track is often down in the mornings, or the Safari at AK

Guess it indicated in the app, but make it easier when people are rushing

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I know people who where there last week. Their observations: 90% of posted wait times were inflated, and usually inflated by at least 50%. Example: A 45 minute wait for Peter Pan on Tuesday (I think) was 20 minutes at most. They never waited more than about 50 minutes for anything. They walked through most of the queue and were in pre-show in 20 minutes for Rise, which had a posted 60 minute wait. The parks, according to everyone in the party, were slow.

We were there and found the posted wait times to be all over the place

Some were definitely less but then like Space was at 25 minutes and we waited 57 (no stoppage, just moved slow), and Speedway was 15 minutes and waited 40

Then in AK we split up and half went to Navi River that had posted 25 minute but was actually a walk on, and half went to Kali River which had posted 5 minute wait but was actually 30 minutes.

Overall, things seemed manageable but things also just fluctuated a lot - there was rain at times so maybe people were moving around from area to area in packs more to avoid the rain or hit up outside stuff when it stopped?

We've gone that last week of August a lot and I'd say it was about on par with prior years - though will say dining was a lot easier to get (maybe lack of dining plan helped with that)

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

My family has gone the last week of May -first week of June for 10 years now. Every year including this year, the crowds/wait times were greater. The restaurants were incredibly busy and trying to snag a last minute reservation was next to impossible. The reason we started going was that 10 years ago this time period was a bit of a lull prior to the summer busy times. Now it seems the whole traditional vacations time are changing. More and more are going in May and early June with summer having less and less. Than fall hits and up it goes again where fall used to be fairly dead as kids going back to school. There used to be a spike in October as Great Britain kids would be on holiday. Not sure how much vacationing comes from Europe anymore, does anyone have any stats?

I was there this year at that time and it was frankly these least busy I’ve seen it about 10 years…if there “crowded”…I’ll take it and Disney would hate it.

You can convince me the parks feel the same, but you have no chance of convincing me dining is busy. Just checking for dining tonight (Friday night, at 3:00 on a Friday), I see Akershus, Ohana, Boma, Califonia Grill, Cape May, Chef Mickey, Kona Cafe, Narcossee, Le Cellier, and Tusker all with availability.

Dining hit the wall a few years ago. It’s gonna take a while to figure out exactly why?

It’s price for sure…but it may be more the prebooking every minute that’s fouling everything up?

They didn’t drop the reservations windows down to 2 hours cause they were “booked”

That’s ceding labor control and they don’t do that unless forced

 

[Thepuma]

You can convince me the parks feel the same, but you have no chance of convincing me dining is busy. Just checking for dining tonight (Friday night, at 3:00 on a Friday), I see Akershus, Ohana, Boma, Califonia Grill, Cape May, Chef Mickey, Kona Cafe, Narcossee, Le Cellier, and Tusker all with availability.

Yeah, this seams to be a recurring theme. The parks themselves not being any quieter in terms of footfall and wait times, but so called extra curricular stuff being a lot quieter.. dining reservations, purchases in the shops etc.

I think that makes sense - a lot of people really still want to come but can only just afford it what with price rises, so they do still come, but cut back on any extras.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Yeah, this seams to be a recurring theme. The parks themselves not being any quieter in terms of footfall and wait times, but so called extra curricular stuff being a lot quieter.. dining reservations, purchases in the shops etc.

I think that makes sense - a lot of people really still want to come but can only just afford it what with price rises, so they do still come, but cut back on any extras.

plus maybe have to decide b/w getting G+/ILL and then subtracting a TS meal or two

also no dining plan is probably playing a bit of a role there too, at least for some locations

 

[Tha Realest]

Yeah, this seams to be a recurring theme. The parks themselves not being any quieter in terms of footfall and wait times, but so called extra curricular stuff being a lot quieter.. dining reservations, purchases in the shops etc.

I think that makes sense - a lot of people really still want to come but can only just afford it what with price rises, so they do still come, but cut back on any extras.

They can always slow down operations. Tougher to make it seem like the restaurants are full.

 

[wannabeBelle]

I wonder if the elimination of the Dining Plan for a few years is playing into this in that people either were ordering from offsite locations or going offsite to dine at other locations in the area. This could be to save money or get a better quality meal for the same or less cost and they are just continuing with that option now? Marie

 

[Ayla]

You can convince me the parks feel the same, but you have no chance of convincing me dining is busy. Just checking for dining tonight (Friday night, at 3:00 on a Friday), I see Akershus, Ohana, Boma, Califonia Grill, Cape May, Chef Mickey, Kona Cafe, Narcossee, Le Cellier, and Tusker all with availability.

Holy crap.

 

[Epcot81Fan]

I wonder if the elimination of the Dining Plan for a few years is playing into this in that people either were ordering from offsite locations or going offsite to dine at other locations in the area. This could be to save money or get a better quality meal for the same or less cost and they are just continuing with that option now? Marie

Absolutely.

The unfortunate part is DDP destroyed the higher end restaurants (why do you need quality when you’re slopping the pre-paid hogs) and when the DDP was paused, the quality wasn’t increased.

Now with the reintroduction of DDP, the restaurants will continue their decline.

I just eat at non-Disney locations at Springs now as at least they are trying.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Yeah, this seams to be a recurring theme. The parks themselves not being any quieter in terms of footfall and wait times, but so called extra curricular stuff being a lot quieter.. dining reservations, purchases in the shops etc.

I think that makes sense - a lot of people really still want to come but can only just afford it what with price rises, so they do still come, but cut back on any extras.

Disastrous for the accountants

plus maybe have to decide b/w getting G+/ILL and then subtracting a TS meal or two

also no dining plan is probably playing a bit of a role there too, at least for some locations

Disastrous for the accountants

I wonder if the elimination of the Dining Plan for a few years is playing into this in that people either were ordering from offsite locations or going offsite to dine at other locations in the area. This could be to save money or get a better quality meal for the same or less cost and they are just continuing with that option now? Marie

Remember that dining plan was an on property thing…so ending it should not force people off property regardless

 

[Tha Realest]

Absolutely.

The unfortunate part is DDP destroyed the higher end restaurants (why do you need quality when you’re slopping the pre-paid hogs) and when the DDP was paused, the quality wasn’t increased.

honest question, has the quality of anything at Disney increased or returned to its pre-pandemic levels?

 

[Epcot81Fan]

honest question, has the quality of anything at Disney increased or returned to its pre-pandemic levels?

Got me there!

I only got: “Ability to charge for what was previously free”?

They are crushing that.

 

[flynnibus]

Experience I guess. We've been the same 2 weeks in September for the past 8 years (except 2020) and we get a feel for how busy the parks are from walking round, queueing for drinks, having lunch, waiting in lines etc.

yeah but you are also talking what is probably the lowest, or lowest 10% period of the entire year. Meaning it's hard to make it look any emptier.. but really easy to seem to look busier.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Holy crap.

just for fun I just checked and did for my family of 5, so not even 2 or 4, so should be harder

Akershsus has 7, 7:25, and 7:30 available

Cali Grill (albeit that is a prefixe now, but still) has 7:10, 8, and 9:40

Chef Mickey's has 6:30; 6:45, 7:50, 8, and more

Garden Grill: 5:55, 6:10, 6:35, 6:40 and more

Liberty Tree Tavern: 5:55 and 6:10

Rodeo Round Up (newest restaurant) has 7:20, 7:50, and 8:55

Sci Fi (usually pretty tough) has 7:40 and 7:55

Space 220 (usually tough) has a 6:15

Story Book Dining with Snow White has 8:30 and 8:45 (granted a little late, but still)

and tons more ....



This might be more than anything whey the dining plan is coming back

 

[TheMaxRebo]

honest question, has the quality of anything at Disney increased or returned to its pre-pandemic levels?

I think there are more options with quick service - I think generally that is better than pre-pandemic ... and still some underrated places with really good food (Sebastians' Bistro we at at last week was excellent ... Story Book Dining was a wonderful meal - legit good food and great characters)

 

[Splash4eva]

just for fun I just checked and did for my family of 5, so not even 2 or 4, so should be harder

Akershsus has 7, 7:25, and 7:30 available

Cali Grill (albeit that is a prefixe now, but still) has 7:10, 8, and 9:40

Chef Mickey's has 6:30; 6:45, 7:50, 8, and more

Garden Grill: 5:55, 6:10, 6:35, 6:40 and more

Liberty Tree Tavern: 5:55 and 6:10

Rodeo Round Up (newest restaurant) has 7:20, 7:50, and 8:55

Sci Fi (usually pretty tough) has 7:40 and 7:55

Space 220 (usually tough) has a 6:15

Story Book Dining with Snow White has 8:30 and 8:45 (granted a little late, but still)

and tons more ....



This might be more than anything whey the dining plan is coming back

FWIW as someone who pretty much has only done character meals/buffets for the past 12-13 years etc. This was more common than you would think. My 180 day window would open and getting reservations were always tough but as the trip got closer and even while i was there i pretty much had multiple options at multiple places for multiple times…. As altho they require a name/cc to book its pretty easy to book more than one restaurant at once. Now with that being said im not saying that is the case now but it can be just part of the reason why and im talking about Thanksgiving week and even last year when i was there end of summer into Labor day. Along with the February break week and Columbus day week.