News Park attendance showing significant softness heading into the Fall 2018

[wannabeBelle]

You have to eat, they got you by the ****s

Not if you have a rental car, can call an uber/cab, order in from local places, or order groceries from any one of a number of places. Marie

 

[MisterPenguin]

I’ve had three. And they were anything but brief. More like very revealing.

Sounds more like fellow guests were just hitting on you!

 

[marni1971]

Sounds more like fellow guests were just hitting on you!

 

[Figments Friend]

Not sure if this has been mentioned already, but I forgot to include it in my original post here....

Since I have been here on property over the last few days I have seen the most survey CMs ever when entering or leaving the Parks.
This was before I had heard the news here about numbers being down.
I've been stopped three times asking for my direct imput into Cast experience, Park cleanliness, and Transportation quality.
Another one just wanted to know where I was from and what my zip code was.
There literally seemed to be a army of them every time I entered or exited.

I do enjoy giving them my feedback, and I was glad to tell them the temporary bus area on one side of the depo at DHS needs additional shade coverage.
Witnessed a situation there while waiting for a All Star Resort bus there three days ago that definitely needed addressing.
Guests were forced to line up in the direct sun with very little shade protection, while several other areas had adaqute portable tent coverage.
What was ironic was with the way the sun travels, the side with the least amount of tents was getting the most sun exposure.

Survey taker specifically wanted my full story on the bus area situation and how I would readdress it.
I let em' have my view in a tasteful yet clear way.
Let's see if anything happens....

-

 

[FullSailDan]

Not so much for airlines I can assure you. We don't get any discount on any of the major carriers that I have ever looked into. So I am just looking around online the same as anyone else. From what I understand, that was not always the case. Airlines used to give TA's discounts but that was not in place when I started which is over 10 years ago at this point. Marie

Airlines are focus on their business clients now. Leisure travel just doesn't do enough business for them to incentivize. It's amazing to me when I compare my corporate booking page to the web fares, and further shocking when you realize most airlines give us free baggage, priority boarding, priority upgrades, and drink vouchers. The sad part is since I fly over 150K miles a year, I'm the highest tier for almost all the US airlines, (I just can't do the southwest musical chairs loading) and they still give better deals and priority to my company booked fares.

 

[FullSailDan]

This annoys me and my wife to no end! We will still will eat there from time to time because we still think it is one of the better QS on property. However we have skipped lunch all together at the MK because of this as well.

Yup, it was the only place in MK we ate at QS wise. It was relatively healthy, tasted good, and was reasonbly priced. Now... we avoid MK food at all costs and usually eat before we head into the park for the night.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Looking at reservation availability at the Swolphin, I do indeed see cheap, week-long availability in mid-September.

That all changes the first week of October going all the way to January. Almost no full-week stays available and the price is in the upper two hundreds and lower three hundreds.

While that is just anecdotal, I wouldn't count on this slump continuing into October.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Airlines are focus on their business clients now. Leisure travel just doesn't do enough business for them to incentivize. It's amazing to me when I compare my corporate booking page to the web fares, and further shocking when you realize most airlines give us free baggage, priority boarding, priority upgrades, and drink vouchers. The sad part is since I fly over 150K miles a year, I'm the highest tier for almost all the US airlines, (I just can't do the southwest musical chairs loading) and they still give better deals and priority to my company booked fares.

Truth.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

? Not sure as to which point your are referring...

We were there Labir Day (took in the Camping World Kick Off as well), and were amazed at the emptiness of the Parks.....this shouldn’t have been a “slow” time, and we were able to ride ToT over and over. While riding ToT over and over st night is not unheard of, R&R was a 15 minute wait, so we took it in twice as well. Same thing for Soaring.....

Amazed at the the differing experiences many peeps posting now are having....

This comment is in reference to the “old e-ticket rides” being easier to ride after recent/ongoing expansions

**edit**posted from my iPhone...please excuse typos.....and why is everyone around me driving weird?

I was there to same time and even though it was as close to DEAD you’ll ever see...I didn’t see the free flowing access that you describe.

There were some lower than normal wait times and some dips...particularly magic kingdom...but I also saw 2 hour toy story lines, 100 on test track, and 60+ on rockinroler coaster, space mountain etc. at times.

They simple cannot handle crowds with the prebooked fastpasses...it’s not working. That is the “best case scenario”...when they open the new stuff and crowds are high...it will be gridlocked mess. Which may be what they wanted all along.

Nothing under construction alleviates the problem that the stagnation era is causing now...very likely it will get worse.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

FP ratio has been cut for quite a lot of attractions due to standby time complaints. Passage in particular.

So instead of sitting in a short, non moving line for 2 hours...you don’t get a fastpass and can stand in a slow moving 75-90 minutes line?

...geniuses...I tell you

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Adapt or die. TDO waited way too long to build any new significant park offerings coming out of the recession. They should have anticipated this strong economy 10 years out and had been ready for it.

People are really underestimating how fast Orlando is growing. Once terminal C opens at the airport and the i4 project is done Orlando is going to explode with growth as it already is.

Yeah...but a recession - which is guaranteed and likely to hit with less notice than ever before - will grind that to a halt as it always does. It’s an Orlando fact.

The economy is built on bubbles...again...so crash is inevitable.

It is what it always is.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

You increase wages and prices will rise accordingly. I imagine price hikes on some small items are seen as fairly benign ways to even it all out.

Except this price increase is unrelated to the wage increase as...well...the union literally just ratified the contract. Full effect doesn't occur until 2021, and by then prices will have gone up as per the norm anyway.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

Not if you have a rental car, can call an uber/cab, order in from local places, or order groceries from any one of a number of places. Marie

Coming from someone who visits frequently I can understand this line of thinking. It's not so much of an impact on your day to break up your park visit go eat off property and come back or even go back to your room. For first timers or once in a lifetime guests who aren't as savvy and want to maximize their time in the parks, this might be seen as more time consuming and complicated than it's worth. This is Disney's captive audience.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Florida on pace to have a record high in tourists for 2018.



WDW has a big problem.

 

[wannabeBelle]

Coming from someone who visits frequently I can understand this line of thinking. It's not so much of an impact on your day to break up your park visit go eat off property and come back or even go back to your room. For first timers or once in a lifetime guests who aren't as savvy and want to maximize their time in the parks, this might be seen as more time consuming and complicated than it's worth. This is Disney's captive audience.

Absolutely true, I completely agree. Just putting out there that there are some other options available and it isnt as hard as you might think. Marie

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

No, I'd believe that no question. And it might not come from merch or food sales but in other areas. Passholder exclusive events (what little there are) and weekend resort rates were a big one. It was very common for the bulk of reservations on a Friday night to check in to be DVC and AP reservations.

Fun Side Note: If you're DVC and you book a regular resort room with points, you're locked into whatever bed type you book. Don't book a king and expect it to be changed to two queens when you arrive because that's what you actually wanted. Member Services are the only ones that can change or modify those reservations, resort front desk can't do a thing about it. So when you show up at 11 pm expecting a bed type you didn't book, don't get mad at me when the only office that can modify your reservation is closed for the night.

I guess I should have said Parks, Resorts, Food and Merchandise.....basically I meant Disney would want AP holders down there spending $$$, not just buying a Pass and staying home.

Your Fun Side Note - could not AGREE more! It amazes me to see someone raising Cain when they are told the room is what they reserved and it has to be changed at Member Services....well done!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'll admit that I have never worked the front desk of a hotel. But I have worked at the corporate level at a major chain. The way it was explained to me was the rooms out of order were subtracted from available inventory.

So if all of the rooms are available: 85 occupied rooms / 100 available rooms = 85% occupancy

But if 5 rooms are out of order: 85 occupied rooms / (100 total rooms - 5 out of order) = 89.5% occupancy

I believe this is the industry norm as we used this methodology to report internally and externally. But this was decades ago and I can't remember what I had for breakfast today.

Creative wordsmithing. It doesnt say "because of" just "reflecting" or inclusive of.

No. See the post from @Lensman quoting Iger. It's explicitly the other way around.

 

[ABQ]

Looking at reservation availability at the Swolphin, I do indeed see cheap, week-long availability in mid-September.

That all changes the first week of October going all the way to January. Almost no full-week stays available and the price is in the upper two hundreds and lower three hundreds.

While that is just anecdotal, I wouldn't count on this slump continuing into October.

hmm, and they don't get the MLB Winter Meetings this year, as they are in Las Vegas this time around.

 

[asianway]

No. See the post from @Lensman quoting Iger. It's explicitly the other way around.

Not putting any faith in mumble mouth to think on his feet

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Florida on pace to have a record high in tourists for 2018.



WDW has a big problem.

The only common sense interpretation is to agree with your assessment of the data.

I can’t explain this enough - to have any “softness” in the business in a “boom” economy in WDW is just impossible to explain away. There are not 10s of millions of people “waiting for galaxys edge”...

1. Normal people don’t care enough...that’s becoming a weboard excuse/myth
2. It’s not the hottest property out there currently
3. If the prices were attractive...they would have backfilled the void.

It’s a combination of prices, the state of the experience, and twdco shrinking its customer pool through a mix of the two prior reasons.