Restaurant capacity and live entertainment restrictions are currently limiting Walt Disney World theme park attendance according to Bob Chapek

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I was there last week and I found all the wait time to (unfortunately) be accurate. When I did use LL, wait times were always in the 5-10 minute range.

Gee…you don’t say?

so basically it’s miserable and you spend your time
Boiling if you don’t buy an extra to use the rides you buy the ticket for?

I’m flabbergasted! How can this be??

 

[Kamikaze]

People have reported that Disney Genie+ wait times are far longer than the times posted at the actual ride for the stanbyline.

The accusation is that they're inflating STANDBY times. Why would they inflate the Genie+/LL times? That doesn't make any sense.

 

[TikibirdLand]

I just went by myself last week for 3 days. Just because I needed a few merch pieces that came out. It was disgraceful how busy every point of the park was. It is crazy but they are a for profit, we are switching our Disney to their cruises instead of parks.

yeah, that'll show 'em. And, get your kids some DCL plushies instead of buying them from the park. You'll really be showing the who's boss!

 

[PhilharMagician]

Yes the parks are under built for the amount of guests coming now, but the idea that Disney is purposely trying to make their attractions less efficient is completely false.

Rode Flights of Passage on 3 different days early December and they only ever loaded 2 levels. Park was extremely crowded and Flights of Passage was running 2+ hours waits all day. Either they did not have staff to cover the loading, Mechanical issues all week on those levels or Disney was manipulating the wait times so people would buy ILL (like me). It really stunk of Disney limiting throughput for profit.

 

[castlecake2.0]

Rode Flights of Passage on 3 different days early December and they only ever loaded 2 levels. Park was extremely crowded and Flights of Passage was running 2+ hours waits all day. Either they did not have staff to cover the loading, Mechanical issues all week on those levels or Disney was manipulating the wait times so people would buy ILL (like me). It really stunk of Disney limiting throughput for profit.

It could have been mechanical or staffing. There is no evidence that attractions are purposely being made less efficient to boost genie sales.

 

[TikibirdLand]

You know there are exhibits and attractions in those pavilions, right? Not everything has to be food or interactive with a CM.

yeah, but that's a museum, not a theme park. You want to meet characters and see impromptu vignettes.

 

[brettf22]

Has anyone yet discussed that Disney is (almost certainly) intentionally inflating their wait times so guests feel they've gotten their value out of Genie+... as well as driving guests to purchase the service? I'm pretty darn confident on this one. How long can they keep that up before the shenanigans are figured out?

Paging @lentesta. Any recent actual wait times to verify this?

I’m not @lentesta, but his Touring Plans folks have documented the disparity between posted times and actual wait times. Interestingly, Defunctland’s magnum opus on FastPass noted that this difference seemed to grow greatly way back when Disney started allowing guests to view wait times on their phones.

What’s in question is the reason times are different. Some will say it’s “under promise/over deliver” so guests will be happier when the wait is shorter. Some say it’s to gently direct guests to/from certain attractions. Others say it to guide people to purchase Genie+. I would guess the truth is a combination of many factors.

Edit: here are some of TP’s articles on posted vs. actual wait times:

Posted vs Actual Wait Times – Worst Offenders! | TouringPlans.com Blog

TouringPlans is all about understanding what's actually going on with lines for rides. But most guests base their decisi

touringplans.com

The Wait Time Secret That Disney Won’t Tell You | TouringPlans.com Blog

We've gotten many variations of a single question (or complaint) recently, and they all go something like this: "I used

touringplans.com

Are Wait Times More or Less Accurate For Individual Lightning Lane Attractions? | TouringPlans.com Blog

Disney World has a long history of inflating posted wait times. We've written articles and recorded videos talking about

touringplans.com

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Precisely. Why improve the product or experience when people are willing to shell out money for the product or experience in its current state?

The theme park industry is so young and I do think that in most of our lifetimes we will see how long term lack of investment will come to bite companies in the butt.

I think the “theme park industry” is rather old…it’s being played out as we speak. Once you overprice something…you’re done. Can’t go backwards when you fall off a cliff.

And when you can offer a paid solution to make it marginally better for some while putting them in front of the plebs who only paid full price to get in (making things actively worse for them) and "up to 50%" will pay it, why would you want to kill that cash cow?

This is one of the huge difference between Disney trying to charge for this crap and what most of the other parks offer.

At other parks, it's an up-sell for impatient people willing to pay where it is expected and in many cases controled so that most will not go for it. (and at Universal, it's a sales pitch to improve occupancy at their onsite hotels)

At Disney, many see it as a necessity to make their vacation still feel like some sort of vacation with the state of the parks, today and Bob's pride in showing how many people use it reflects management's understanding of that.

That's possibly the crappiest part of all of this - they're proud of how they've managed to turn their lack of popular capacity into a profit-engine for people already spending ridiculous amounts on what's supposed to be a vacation.

This isn't a problem for management.

Where else in the world could a company run a leisure property like this and be rewarded for it?

This is the whole thing. No one on this or any other Disney fan forum should dispute this. It’s been a slow rollout off this for decades now.

keep lauding the Bobs

 

[peter11435]

When he's making one claim and the figures about Disney parks attendance refute that then I think I have a point.

What figures are you referring to? Park attendance is still capped. It effects different parks in different ways but the limits still exist and he’s explaining why.

 

[peter11435]

People have reported that Disney Genie+ wait times are far longer than the times posted at the actual ride for the stanbyline.

Times posted in the app and on electronic signage at attractions are the same. They are often inflated but not for the reason you think. There is no intentional effort to inflate wait times to encourage Genie+ sales.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Times posted in the app and on electronic signage at attractions are the same. They are often inflated but not for the reason you think. There is no intentional effort to inflate wait times to encourage Genie+ sales.

There’s is absolutely nothing to stop them from doing that…but I don’t think it’s being done.

I think the continued closures of less “sexy” things are to force people into lightning/create demand/raise prices…while skinning overhead costs

great work if people are dusted enough to let you get it

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

It could have been mechanical or staffing. There is no evidence that attractions are purposely being made less efficient to boost genie sales.

This would be something impossible to prove though since the company line will always be something other.

 

[zapple]

Whoever thought we’d look at 2019 as the “good old days“ at Disney parks?


(I’m not saying it was the best, but it’s way better than it’s been for 2 years now and those days ain’t coming back.)

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It could have been mechanical or staffing. There is no evidence that attractions are purposely being made less efficient to boost genie sales.

That’s true…however they have been observed almost daily prior and after the plague running one side of the big ticket rides in the early hours…which means they are sacrificing what they know is maximum operational efficiency and pushing demand later into the day that feeds the money tree.

so we can’t dismiss shenanigans out of hand.

the management are idiots, not morons.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Whoever thought we’d look at 2019 as the “good old days“ at Disney parks?


(I’m not saying it was the best, but it’s way better than it’s been for 2 years now and those days ain’t coming back.)

Sickening isn’t it? It absolutely sucked but now we want that cause it “sucked less”

we laugh around here daily about “YOU are the magic”

but here’s where we should cry: “WE are the problem”


I’d never suggest it…but if everyone took six months…six measly months off…you’d be amazed at who would show back up to the bargaining table.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Or you are informed.

I’ll inform everyone about Chapek: he’s not qualified

 

[castlecake2.0]

This would be something impossible to prove though since the company line will always be something other.

Unless you work for the company and know first hand that nothing has been done to purposely make attractions less efficient. I disagree with a lot of things happening right now but attractions jobs is still to get as many people through them an hour as safely possible.

That’s true…however they have been observed almost daily prior and after the plague running one side of the big ticket rides in the early hours…which means they are sacrificing what they know is maximum operational efficiency and pushing demand later into the day that feeds the money tree.

so we can’t dismiss shenanigans out of hand.

the management are idiots, not morons.

Observed almost daily? What rides? And how would doing that pre Covid feed any money tree? Unless you mean save labor?

I am not defending genie+ at all, I think it’s a terrible excuse for unbuilt capacity, but I have seen nothing change in attraction operations to push purchases.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Unless you work for the company and know first hand that nothing has been done to purposely make attractions less efficient. I disagree with a lot of things happening right now but attractions jobs is still to get as many people through them an hour as safely possible.

Observed almost daily? What rides? And how would doing that pre Covid feed any money tree? Unless you mean save labor?

I am not defending genie+ at all, I think it’s a terrible excuse for unbuilt capacity, but I have seen nothing change in attraction operations to push purchases.

Space…big Thunder…tower…Soarin…out in the open…

you could also hide flight of passage…safari…falcon

to what end?

longer lines and short hours feed the “allure” of special tickets

and the mouse will find the cheese in the corner without thought

by the way…the sure sign people have no insight into the decision process is by saying “for the company”…it’s a dead giveaway. I’d shelve that phrase

 

[seascape]

Attendance is still down from 2019. Resorts are still closed and Restaurants and shows are still closed. Yet, Parks and Resorts still made 1.55 billion. Just think what that means when everything is open. Parks and Resorts will soon make over $8 billion a year and that is without any new expansion and only 1 water park open. Putting this in another light, the combined market cap of Seaworld, Six Flags and Cedar Fair as of yesterdays close was 12.3 billion.

 

[Ayla]

Attendance is still down from 2019. Resorts are still closed and Restaurants and shows are still closed. Yet, Parks and Resorts still made 1.55 billion. Just think what that means when everything is open. Parks and Resorts will soon make over $8 billion a year and that is without any new expansion and only 1 water park open. Putting this in another light, the combined market cap of Seaworld, Six Flags and Cedar Fair as of yesterdays close was 12.3 billion.

What resorts are still closed? ASM and ASSp?