Is attendance really down at WDW this or…

[Disstevefan1]

The Ann. Busch pavilion where they had free samples of beer which we spent many afternoons drinking many samples with conch fritters we purchased is what I missed back in the day at Sea World Orlando.

Ah the good ol' days....

 

[Jrb1979]

In regards to SeaWorld, how the park is viewed is night and day depending on who you talk to.

Watching different coaster vloggers on YouTube, many of them say SeaWorld is one of the best Florida parks.

Compare that to many here view it as an average to bad park.

 

[Disstevefan1]

In regards to SeaWorld, how the park is viewed is night and day depending on who you talk to.

Watching different coaster vloggers on YouTube, many of them say SeaWorld is one of the best Florida parks.

Compare that to many here view it as an average to bad park.

There are SeaWorld haters just like there are Universal haters.

I really did not think SeaWorld would survive the hit piece Blackfish.

I guess most folks knew the facts and ignored this documentary.

 

[GhostHost1000]

SeaWorld like Dollywood needs way more indoor rides

 

[Jrb1979]

SeaWorld like Dollywood needs way more indoor rides

Disagree. Those parks were never built to have multiple dark rides.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Disagree. Those parks were never built to have multiple dark rides.

why not? They could build more of those. That would tremendously help them as well. When I was last at seaworld an area storm shut down the entire park basically

 

[Lilofan]

SeaWorld like Dollywood needs way more indoor rides

There was for years a revolving door of exec in charge who ran Sea World Orlando at one time. Some didn't even last a few years in charge.

 

[Jrb1979]

why not? They could build more of those. That would tremendously help them as well. When I was last at seaworld an area storm shut down the entire park basically

They did try doing that with the Penguin encounter and the Arctic Circle simulator. Even Journey to Atlantis.

None of them did much to draw in guests. What they are doing is working? It's a popular park with locals. Their new Penguin trek coaster is getting great reviews.

 

[Saskdw]

In regards to SeaWorld, how the park is viewed is night and day depending on who you talk to.

Watching different coaster vloggers on YouTube, many of them say SeaWorld is one of the best Florida parks.

Compare that to many here view it as an average to bad park.

How high a person rates Sea World will vary greatly depending on their love for roller coasters. If you don't like or don't ride the high end coasters that takes the best part of Sea World out of the equation.

 

[GhostHost1000]

They did try doing that with the Penguin encounter and the Arctic Circle simulator. Even Journey to Atlantis.

None of them did much to draw in guests. What they are doing is working? It's a popular park with locals. Their new Penguin trek coaster is getting great reviews.

That penguin ride was kinda dumb. They need to bring back the pets show and have a few indoor dark rides like a little mermaid and buzz type stuff

It “could” be a really nice park

 

[Lilofan]

How high a person rates Sea World will vary greatly depending on their love for roller coasters. If you don't like or don't ride the high end coasters that takes the best part of Sea World out of the equation.

One of the few nice things about Sea World is when Rick Scott came for the grand opening of the first Wawa to open up in FL , one block away from the entrance of SW.

 

[hopemax]

On my June trip, we went to SeaWorld on the free admission for veterans promo they ran. Previously, I went a couple time in 2015-2016, when my Dad got an AP for a year or 2, after my Mom passed.

We paid for parking, locker rental plan, coke & pretzel at the Orca show, and lunch. It was about $100 for the day.

It was okay, we got all the big rides in. I liked the park better when it had things like Turtle Trek and even the crazy Wild Arctic simulator. Even though we didn’t do the little rides, I liked the Sesame Street area. Got a photo with The Count and Cookie Monster.

But I mostly felt like I was in a Roller Coaster Tycoon game. And even my Dad agreed we were good, for another several years without visiting.

 

[John park hopper]

Disney stock 96.02

Now 95.46@3 PM

 

[JoeCamel]

I must have a timewarp here...

 

[Lilofan]

For what seaworld gives in promotions they are making up for the absolutely insane price of food and hidden charges. Not to mention how awful all the food is outside of festivals. Makes disney look good

Just stay across the street at the hotel by the entrance of Sea World , eat the good complimentary buffet breakfast then walk less than 5 min to SW . At least you will be full for the next few hours.

 

[BrianLo]

The general sentiment among the Youtubers I follow is that Universal is reasonably busy and not struggling to the degree some of you are trying to indicate. In fact one of them actually references people on forums trying to indicate that and that it isn't true.

Offering a deal to locals doesn't necessarily mean they are desperate. They know people are waiting for Epic and just being proactive instead of reactive.

I'm not on the ground there, but there seems to be a lot of conflicting information.

It's from filings, not YouTubers...

I'm a bit surprised how we have hundreds of pages of people criticizing anyone for doubting Disney attendance is down (which no one actually doubts, that's just being repetitively echo'd by a group of posters), but so strongly defending Universal against the same trend line.

Both resorts are having attendance declines. Universal has a far better reason for it though, vacation deferral for the next big product.

 

[tl77]

I've been going to WDW since 1979, last trip was 2018 around 4th of July and it was kind of crowded but a lot of things were still "walk on". I remember the Little Mermaid that year was a a walk on... but I just got back from a 9 Day trip yesterday and the crowd levels were significantly lower than they had been in 2018, it was like Disney World in the late 80's early 90's in terms of crowds, nothing was more than an hour.

I loved it, but I don't know if it's "a problem" for them, certainly not ideal for them though... all the parks closed much earlier than they did in 2018, the ticket prices were about $100 more for a 6 day park hopper, so with less entertainment and much shorter hours I'm sure Disney can operate and generate a profit in the short term, but tome it felt like a combination of "Them still bouncing back from Covid, and still not having a clear direction what the future of their parks should be"

And since their new "terms and conditions" now... in some roundabout way... is stating that they own any suggestions people make online, I'm not going to spend a lot of my time explaining how to fix the mess they're in for free. I will say The new Star Wars land was really impressive, but I only spent a half day there, and 2 of those hours were spent waiting in line for the 2 rides they have... whereas I spent 2 and a half days at Magic Kingdom because of the verity of stuff there. I'd rather spend my time riding lots of short rides at MK than standing around in the "pretty rockwork" queues at Star Wars and Avatar.

WDW is not like any other theme park in the world, including Disney's other parks...

The Magic Kingdom is the only Castle Park that is "only classic Disney Stuff" no Star Tours, Captain EO, Indiana Jones at Magic Kingdom and the should keep it that way. Magic Kingdom should continue to be the "Family Friendly, Classic Disney and Americana" Park.

Disney's Hollywood Studios is like a more "hip, glamourous, and grown up" version of Magic Kingdom. Hollywood Studios should be more geared toward the 18 to 34 year old demographic. Tower of Terror being it's icon probably isn't a bad thing, MK is "cute and wholesome" DHS should be more "the thrill park". If they were going to build a Disney Villains land anywhere it should be at DHS, and make that old "Villain Mountain" ride concept the centerpiece of it

EPCOT Center was originally 2 parks in 1 but they both revolved around "humanity". World Showcase was about "The Past" of human civilization, and Future World" was about our "The Future" (although most of the rides had a history lesson that stated in the past) I'm looking forward to seeing the Test Track/World of Motion redo, and I'm really hoping the Guardians of the Galaxy thing catches fire and burns completely to the ground... more small fun rides, less big stupid rides, and ZERO big ugly blue buildings

...and Disney's Animal Kingdom is basically the inverse of Epcot, instead of "Humanity and Technology" it's about "Animals and Nature" the naturalistic environment is the beauty of it, but the lack of indoor air conditioned rides makes it a challenge to endure.

Disney has 4 distinctly different parks to explore, I think it's going to be worth the visit every few years for quite a while... but they really need to work on creating films that people want to see at the movie theater and then go visit at those parks, otherwise they could end up in a bad place financially. "Raising Prices" and telling yourselves "we can keep raising prices because we're the best" is a doomed strategy long term.

 

[Vacationeer]

I must have a timewarp here...

View attachment 801865

And a premonition! 3pm temp was 95.46f in Orlando

 

[Vacationeer]

hoping the Guardians of the Galaxy thing catches fire and burns completely to the ground

That was painful to read. GotG is amazing. I don’t love all the IP being shoehorned into EP but if you want to take a ride through the universe, Guardians Cosmic Rewind is the best Earthly way to do that.

 

[GhostHost1000]

They just reported on a national cable news network about the Universal Florida resident ticket deal and was showing images of their theme park. With all the things going on in the US lately, this was actually mentioned. Surprising.