Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
A 5% drop is YUGE
…for Disney…not for the plebs. They won’t care about your “magic level” as long as you’ll pay and more for what they will give you.
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Is attendance really down at WDW this or…
- Thread starter coachb
- Start date
…for Disney…not for the plebs. They won’t care about your “magic level” as long as you’ll pay and more for what they will give you.
LSLS
Well-Known Member
LOL, that's, um, not quantifiable. Having a feel for the park crowd levels is not a measurable thing. You could be right, but that doesn't make it quantifiable.
Here's the other part of that. Is it possible to feel crowded with less people? If less people are say working the store counter, it could make the store feel like it has more people in it because people are moving slower through lines. Or if less operators are running rides/running them slower than normal, that too, makes things feel more crowded. I have NO idea if that (and other similar things) are occurring, but it's something to consider. What we absolutely do know is hotel bookings are way down, and they are offering some pretty incredible discounts to get locals into the parks. It could be to make things over-crowded and sell more Genie, but it equally could be that they have the ability to ramp up staffing at the parks to accommodate more people and they are trying to get people to book hotels and spend at the parks.
Your conspiracy theories are quite off the all with no basis of evidence.
el_super
Well-Known Member
It's possible they are back up. Their comments about attendance being down were in regard to the 3rd quarter that ended on July 1st. They won't report for Q4 until Nov. It makes sense to a degree that attendance would tick up with the seasonal activation (Halloween / Food and Wine). And of course the point of the discounting is to bring more people...
Marionnette
Well-Known Member
TBH, I don't think that any of those delayed openings were intentional. I was saying that Disney will manipulate the number of guests per hour passing thru attractions in order to keep their wait times within set parameters. You seem to think that Disney intentionally closes attractions to drive guests to other queues, drive up their wait times and therefore sell more Genie+. I just don't subscribe to that theory.
BuddyThomas
Well-Known Member
Hopefully you never have to return for three weeks to such a horrible place again.
BuddyThomas
Well-Known Member
Time for you to find a different vacation spot to drop your three weeks, multiple times a year (what job do you have?????) vacation dollars if you feel this way.
It never crossed my mind to be honest until I recently spoke to an ex Disney Cast member, and then it all made sense.
Let's be honest, the sheer number of times in the last 3 weeks that rides have been on a delayed openening is not just 'coincidence'
PREMiERdrum
Well-Known Member
September being less bad than July and August is still bad.
Plenty to take in based off the latest FL ticket promo.
Note that they've avoided publicly expanding room discounts, though quiet changes have been made. Hotel bookings remain historically soft.
Some interesting comments on announcements and timelines to try and build buzz. We'll see.
Plenty to take in based off the latest FL ticket promo.
Note that they've avoided publicly expanding room discounts, though quiet changes have been made. Hotel bookings remain historically soft.
Some interesting comments on announcements and timelines to try and build buzz. We'll see.
This trip was my last...im off to Japan in January and hopefully Australia next summer. So I've taken your advice already in advance. lol.
No, I don't do 3 weeks 3 times a year..
I do 7 days in January, 10 days in May and 18 days in Aug/Sept...its normally only 2 weeks in Aug/Sept but I had a few days owing to me at work for working the Bank Holidays.
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el_super
Well-Known Member
We will have to wait until the revenue is posted again in November to know for sure, but it sounds like too much weight is being given to ticket discounts and promotions as being negative indicators.
You can sell 100 hotel rooms for $1 and make $100 or sell 50 rooms for $2 and make the same $100 back. 50% decrease in occupancy, but same revenue (plus some savings on operating costs). Discount the remaining inventory and sell a few more rooms at $1.50 and you come out ahead.
This seems to be closer to what is going on with the increases in revenue.
Dranth
Well-Known Member
Entirely possible. Doesn't seem likely given what we know from insiders about bookings but that doesn't rule it out. From a purely selfish point of view, I hope it is down. Got a trip coming up end of November and I would love some low crowd days.
Either way, we will get a reasonable idea of the overall picture come next earnings call.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
For once…I agree with you. 3 weeks is beyond overkill in a manufactured reality.
I bet a much better one
Grimley1968
Well-Known Member
IMO, there could be two possible reasons for such a massive discount being offered to Florida residents:
a) WDW sees a significant lack of attendance, especially from locals (note that this is not necessarily immediately a loss of revenue). So they offer the discount to at least drive up attendance from locals at the parks, even if that won't greatly impact the lack of resort bookings in the short term.
or (far less likely):
b) WDW is attempting to recalibrate the cost of park tickets for locals to better align with a decreased value of the WDW park experience
Given the amount of money and effort Disney has spent in creating the diminished park experience, it's hard to imagine they'd admit their colossal mistakes, even tacitly. So I'm going with a) as the most likely explanation, aided by years of watching discounts rise or fall depending on park attendance or resort bookings.
a) WDW sees a significant lack of attendance, especially from locals (note that this is not necessarily immediately a loss of revenue). So they offer the discount to at least drive up attendance from locals at the parks, even if that won't greatly impact the lack of resort bookings in the short term.
or (far less likely):
b) WDW is attempting to recalibrate the cost of park tickets for locals to better align with a decreased value of the WDW park experience
Given the amount of money and effort Disney has spent in creating the diminished park experience, it's hard to imagine they'd admit their colossal mistakes, even tacitly. So I'm going with a) as the most likely explanation, aided by years of watching discounts rise or fall depending on park attendance or resort bookings.
Ayla
Well-Known Member
It's very common for Europeans/Brits to take 2-4 weeks vacation at a time. That is nothing unusual.
Marionnette
Well-Known Member
This would be true if the hotel rooms themselves were the only driving factor. 50 $2 rooms vs 100 $1 rooms means that 50 fewer families are buying souvenirs, eating at the restaurants or buying park tickets. I'm sure that there is a point of diminished returns where hotel discounts are concerned but Disney doesn't want heads in beds so much as they want feet on Main Street.
This is true if people were only spending their prebooked money on the hotel.
Theme park tickets, Drinks, food, merch and other ancillary opportunities to be forced to be fed within the shopping of your resort.
And I think this is the point. I don't particularly think the parks attendance is down..because the parks are the main reason for people coming. But I think because Disney has put prices up left right and centre, a lot of families can only afford to still come to Orlando if they save money elsewhere, which is staying off site.
If people really enjoy Disney parks then they will do whatever it takes to come. If that means giving up a resort hotel to stay offside instead but still do the parks, then that's the compromise needed.
We spoke to quite a lot of Americans in the parks and was amazed how many come for just a day or two..even those coming hundreds of miles.
Many couldn't quite believe we were doing 3 weeks
...we are crazy and quite hard-core park goers... but, contrary to what you may think (going by my constant rants on here), I do actually enjoy Orlando and its parks. Its just for me it's become harder and harder and more and more expensive to have the same fun we had 4 or 5 years ago.I think the only reason we may return in future is when Epic Universe is open...and of course,if we are coming all that way we will still visit Disney Parks. By then who knows, we may be back to free FP+
Splash4eva
Well-Known Member
Replying to everyone who has responded to my comments about people there and wait times…. As far as im concerned and im sure most if not all would agree. Noone really cares how crowded it is or isnt. If i have to wait 45 minutes for a ride i have to wait 45 minutes. No matter the reason whether because its because its crowded or because Disney choose to load slower…. Im still waiting so in the end thats all we care about when we enter a queue. The rest of these debates imo are irrelevant in regards to wait times.