After about a month of discussion and 1200+ posts, I don't recall seeing any questions or observations about why Disney Parks and Resorts didn't see this coming with that much advance notice? Or did they and it was only observed to this group on September 10th?
I would have thought they'd have an inkling of this from resort bookings months out or Fastpass reservations 30-days out? Does this indicate the subset of their customer base whose attendance was soft in September as offsite visitors who don't use Fastpass? Or local season pass holders?
Someone in another thread quoted a 30% decline in attendance starting in late August (presumably year-over-year). If this is accurate, this must have been visible in some of their advance analytics. Or is this number fictional?
If they didn't see this coming, maybe this is part of the rationale for the date-specific ticketing, which is sure to generate the data they need to anticipate seasonal attendance demand.