Is attendance really down at WDW this or…

[John park hopper]

There is no way Disney will give up Genie --huge revenue generator and easy to manipulate in their favor

 

[Bastet]

Why is Disney the only park operater considered to be wrong for charging for skip the line?

 

[Bastet]

Are you saying Express paas isnt a large revenue generator for Universal?

 

[Andrew25]

There is no way Disney will give up Genie --huge revenue generator and easy to manipulate in their favor

They won't give it up, the issue is what happens if they see hotel demand drop. They'll easily eat the $20-35 a person if they notice that people are starting to stay offsite.

Why is Disney the only park operater considered to be wrong for charging for skip the line?

Don't think that's the issue, the problem is with how many people are using the skip the line queue at WDW. Skip the line options will always be a thing at parks, but when you're doing 1 stand by to 50 lightning lane ratios... something's wrong.

 

[Bastet]

Question for DAS users - if it is a replacement for you to wait outisde of a standby queue, why are you allowed to hold a DAS pass and q for another ride? Anyone else waiting in a standby line cant do this unless they are using genie+! No wonder usage has increased!!!

 

[LSLS]

Why is Disney the only park operater considered to be wrong for charging for skip the line?

Because A.) It was free before, and anytime you take something that was not a paid for option and make it paid for, it makes people angry, B.) it has been linked to much longer wait times in standby with the amount they sell/let through, and C.) it's not a slam dunk when you buy it. I buy at Cedar Point, I go to the front of every coaster as much as I want. I buy at Disney, I still need to sign up to get to the front, I can only do it once for a ride, and there are no guarantees I get to use it more than 2 or 3 times at the park.

 

[_caleb]

I refuse to pay for G+ and LL so last week's visit was absolutely the least productive in 20 years.

They were really frustrated that they were having to pay an additional $150+ a day every day of their 5 day visit at WDW in order to accomplish anything.

Prior to last week we were there the second week of December and the experience was somewhat the same although we accomplished slightly more.

I can honestly say it would never occur to me to use the words “productive” or “accomplish” in a discussion about vacation.

 

[Willmark]

Because A.) It was free before, and anytime you take something that was not a paid for option and make it paid for, it makes people angry, B.) it has been linked to much longer wait times in standby with the amount they sell/let through, and C.) it's not a slam dunk when you buy it. I buy at Cedar Point, I go to the front of every coaster as much as I want. I buy at Disney, I still need to sign up to get to the front, I can only do it once for a ride, and there are no guarantees I get to use it more than 2 or 3 times at the park.

Cedar Point is the gold standard IMO; I’ll gladly pay for the service they offer.

Disney’s attempt at this is laughably bad in comparison.

 

[jpinkc]

Are you saying Express paas isnt a large revenue generator for Universal?

Oh its a generator, its just not as Necessary at Uni as we found on our trip. If we had not broken down and done G+ and ILL we would not have ridden nearly as many rides as we did. We tried to not use it but after our second, HOUR AND A HALF stand by line we were done. It did not help that we HAD to use it for ROTR and SR at HS, we tried to wait in line for RR and tapped out on it.

Its more of a difference of approaches. Disney almost makes it required, where as Universal its not as pushed as necessary.

 

[HauntedPirate]

I have bad news... September is busy, and arguably has become one of the busier periods now. For the past few years it's been just as busy as any other time frame. Not to mention that Not So Scary inflates waits on non-party nights now, so you either take a hit on visiting any empty MK with no fireworks, or visit MK with 1.5-2 days worth of guests.

We were there in September 2022 (the latter half of the month) and that was not our experience at all.

 

[Andrew25]

We were there in September 2022 (the latter half of the month) and that was not our experience at all.

I'm local so I visit quite often, last year was bizarre crowd-wise. There were a few nights at DHS that were bizarrely busy in September, artificially inflated due to events at MK. But even on non-party nights I found the parks to be busy.

June/July was a rather quiet period, it picked up in September and then through October once they started to push FL Resident deals.

 

[GhostHost1000]

It sounds like there is some momentum internally to re-incentivize onsite bookings with additional inclusions.

Without specifics, I wouldn't be surprised if some form of DME and maybe, just maybe, "free" Genie+ with certain tiers of hotel package stays were in play. It's one of the few levers they have available that could take effect prior to EU's opening.

I hope they remember their DVC members
In these additional inclusions

 

[LSLS]

Cedar Point is the gold standard IMO; I’ll gladly pay for the service they offer.

Disney’s attempt at this is laughably bad in comparison.

I know you are talking fast pass, but it was genuinely shocking in the last few years how much Cedar Point customer service has stepped up and WDW has stepped back as well.

But yeah, Cedar Point is done well, and it doesn't feel totally oversold either when you are there. People get through faster, but it's not like you sit waiting for 5 minutes for them to finish the fast pass people before letting 2 groups of standby through. The lines keep moving (even when long).

 

[lentesta]

I also believe he said that the company believes the abuse of DAS is because people are doing everything they can to avoid paying for G+ - therefore the root problem is still G+.

I was going to save this story for another time, but this seems relevant.

Last Sunday I was doing a VIP tour with my extended family. Everyone but the old people (my mom) and the delicate people (me and my sister Chrissy) go on Guardians. Mom, Chrissy, and I go to Connections Cafe to wait in chairs, with A/C.

As we're waiting to order, the two families in front of us start talking. The first family is telling the second how great DAS is - they've been on 7 rides by lunch, no waiting, they've already got stuff lined up for the afternoon, etc.

The dad in the second family says "It sounds great but I don't think we qualify."

The first dad says (and I'm paraphrasing) "No no no no no - they can't check. You just say something about autism and how your kids can't wait in line. And it's FREE! We're saving so much money!" HE CONTINUES to explain the DAS process, including the minimum you need to say, and urges the second family to go sign up right after eating.

I look at Chrissy (she's done the DAS counting). Chrissy looks at me. We exchange the "people suck" look and continue to wait for our sodas.

 

[HauntedPirate]

I hope they remember their DVC members
In these additional inclusions

Why would they do that? They already have your money, you're now a third-class citizen. Thanks, Bob's and Josh!!

 

[HauntedPirate]

I was going to save this story for another time, but this seems relevant.

Last Sunday I was doing a VIP tour with my extended family. Everyone but the old people (my mom) and the delicate people (me and my sister Chrissy) go on Guardians. Mom, Chrissy, and I go to Connections Cafe to wait in chairs, with A/C.

As we're waiting to order, the two families in front of us start talking. The first family is telling the second how great DAS is - they've been on 7 rides by lunch, no waiting, they've already got stuff lined up for the afternoon, etc.

The dad in the second family says "It sounds great but I don't think we qualify."

The first dad says (and I'm paraphrasing) "No no no no no - they can't check. You just say something about autism and how your kids can't wait in line. And it's FREE! We're saving so much money!" HE CONTINUES to explain the DAS process, including the minimum you need to say, and urges the second family to go sign up right after eating.

I look at Chrissy (she's done the DAS counting). Chrissy looks at me. We exchange the "people suck" look and continue to wait for our sodas.

The first part of the last sentence says it all.

People like that will likely cause the DAS system to be re-worked. Again. Is there a law that would prevent Disney from requiring a doctor's note to obtain a DAS pass? Genuine question to anyone, I'm not a lawyer.

 

[Lilofan]

I was going to save this story for another time, but this seems relevant.

Last Sunday I was doing a VIP tour with my extended family. Everyone but the old people (my mom) and the delicate people (me and my sister Chrissy) go on Guardians. Mom, Chrissy, and I go to Connections Cafe to wait in chairs, with A/C.

As we're waiting to order, the two families in front of us start talking. The first family is telling the second how great DAS is - they've been on 7 rides by lunch, no waiting, they've already got stuff lined up for the afternoon, etc.

The dad in the second family says "It sounds great but I don't think we qualify."

The first dad says (and I'm paraphrasing) "No no no no no - they can't check. You just say something about autism and how your kids can't wait in line. And it's FREE! We're saving so much money!" HE CONTINUES to explain the DAS process, including the minimum you need to say, and urges the second family to go sign up right after eating.

I look at Chrissy (she's done the DAS counting). Chrissy looks at me. We exchange the "people suck" look and continue to wait for our sodas.

Some guests will circumvent the system. In another cases(s) some actually paying for and on the receiving end locals benefiting - ie ( NYC moms drama DAS approx 11 years ago. ).

 

[LittleBuford]

I was going to save this story for another time, but this seems relevant.

Last Sunday I was doing a VIP tour with my extended family. Everyone but the old people (my mom) and the delicate people (me and my sister Chrissy) go on Guardians. Mom, Chrissy, and I go to Connections Cafe to wait in chairs, with A/C.

As we're waiting to order, the two families in front of us start talking. The first family is telling the second how great DAS is - they've been on 7 rides by lunch, no waiting, they've already got stuff lined up for the afternoon, etc.

The dad in the second family says "It sounds great but I don't think we qualify."

The first dad says (and I'm paraphrasing) "No no no no no - they can't check. You just say something about autism and how your kids can't wait in line. And it's FREE! We're saving so much money!" HE CONTINUES to explain the DAS process, including the minimum you need to say, and urges the second family to go sign up right after eating.

I look at Chrissy (she's done the DAS counting). Chrissy looks at me. We exchange the "people suck" look and continue to wait for our sodas.

What a terrible man! How did the other dad respond?

 

[Jrb1979]

The first part of the last sentence says it all.

People like that will likely cause the DAS system to be re-worked. Again. Is there a law that would prevent Disney from requiring a doctor's note to obtain a DAS pass? Genuine question to anyone, I'm not a lawyer.

They need to go back to how it was with paper FP. If you had DAS you went to the attraction and they gave a return time of whatever the posted wait time was.

I always thought the point of DAS wasn't to give them shorter waits but to avoid waiting in line.

 

[Brian]

I always thought the point of DAS wasn't to give them shorter waits but to avoid waiting in line.

It is. Your return time is calculated as five minutes less than the posted wait time.