TEA Global Attendance Index is out

[Stripes]

That’s the complete opposite of what we encountered in November 2024!

There was at least one attendant in each one of the larger bathrooms and often one in the smaller ones too. They were cleaning constantly.

Trash in the gutters on Main Street? That’s incredible.

Absolutely. I swear, there was an attendant in every restroom I went in that was actively cleaning up and addressing the restroom’s needs. And Main Street gutters “filled” with trash? Utter nonsense.

 

[LittleBuford]

The story is Disney thought the crowd levels where to high leading to lower guest satisfaction pre covid.

That means that Disney has an idea what crowd levels lead to improved satisfaction.

Why not just lower the capacity to the level that leads to improved satisfaction and raise the prices to whatever they need to be to maintain their revenue goals.

Currently you can pay an ever increasing ticket price and still end up in an overcrowded park if you pick an unlucky day.

I wouldn’t mind paying more if it came with a guarantee ( capacity limits ) that prevented the park from being overcrowded and miserable.

I can’t tell how serious you’re being, but there’s obviously a balance to be struck between limiting crowds and not making the parks prohibitively expensive. Frankly, I’d take crowds over “exclusivity” any day. Part of the joy of Disney is that it brings together a lot of people from different walks of life; for me, at least, the experience would be less enjoyable if they priced out all but the wealthiest.

 

[Jrb1979]

These benefits are still offered for a price. Is it a reduction in value due to the new charges? Sure. But, I don’t view the fact that you have to pay for these as “damaging the experience.”

Umm…what? What resort in 2019 has no theme in 2025?

Well, I think most people visiting WDW find their experience is worse when they are battling crowds.

I think you’ve made clear in your posting history that your family values thrills above anything else. Nothing wrong with that, but I’m not sure it makes sense for a family with those preferences to vacation at WDW. You’ve said before that Disney shouldn’t have built Cosmic Rewind unless they put it at the same thrill level as Velocicoaster. With that perspective, I absolutely think a park like Cedar Point is a better value for your family.

Yes we prefer thrills but we did enjoy the Disney parks for their immersive dark rides. We don't go to Disney for the thrills. When we do an Orlando trip we add SeaWorld to fill the thrills void.

With the removal of perks and the increased cost, it's not worth it anymore. Being I have 5 weeks PTO a year, it's either take 1 week for a Disney trip and the other 4 weeks doing a staycation. Or take 5 weeks visiting Dollywood, Cedar Point and a week vacation in January or February to a warm climate.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Disneyland was immaculate on our June 2024 trip. I was actually surprised by the bathrooms. Did not expect them to smell so nice and be so clean

 

[James Alucobond]

To add to the anecdotal accounts, my pre-COVID 2020 experience was definitely the absolute worst from the perspective of how enjoyable the parks were. My party got shoved around by a horde of people at DAK opening, and FoP wait times were immediately hours long by the time we reached the land. At HS, Rise was at the height of the awful lottery system, and Runaway Railway had just opened to very long lines. EPCOT was wall city. FastPass was no help whatsoever on anything that actually mattered aside from maybe Frozen. We basically skipped everything that had newly opened since our last visit because it was too much of a hassle. We still had a great time at our resort and riding older attractions, but the situation felt seriously untenable.

In my two visits since, there's not been a single new ride I've had to skip, and I've not even needed Multi Pass for any of it. On a couple of occasions, I bought an ILL, but only if I wanted to get a very specific time for something like FoP or TRON as a scheduling convenience (e.g. going to a park late to accommodate breakfast).

As far as maintenance goes, I've not experienced many issues, but I also tend to not use the in-park restrooms. The worst I saw was neglected maintenance one evening at the outdoor tables on the west side of Pecos Bill.

 

[Stripes]

Or take 5 weeks visiting Dollywood, Cedar Point and a week vacation in January or February to a warm climate.

Nearly 5 weeks at Cedar Point? I’d rather die. LOL!

But seriously, different strokes for different folks. With you and your family’s preferences, I can quite easily understand why you would prefer to attend amusement parks that offer things you enjoy at a much lower cost and stretch the length of your vacation.

But, I think there’s also a reason why Disney parks received 145 million visitors in 2024, and Six Flags operated parks received 50 million. Different strokes for different folks.