The bus all to ourselves

[wendysue]

It's Sunday at about 7:30 and we just left the MK. I'm not sure if Sundays are typically slow, but while we were there, we walked on almost everything. Did HM twice in about 20 minutes. Got off, walked back on. Pirates, Jungle Cruise and BTMM almost as quick. But the greatest thing was having the Pop Century bus ALL to ourselves on the way back. The bus driver even took a picture, as he thought it was a bit strange, considering how busy it has been the last week. This is GREAT.

 

[wendysue]

The holiday lights were on and it's beautiful on Main Street. The castle was lit, (although I thought it was being lit Monday night). We will be at MVMCP tomorrow night. Can't wait.

 

[Nemo14]

It's Sunday at about 7:30 and we just left the MK. I'm not sure if Sundays are typically slow, but while we were there, we walked on almost everything. Did HM twice in about 20 minutes. Got off, walked back on. Pirates, Jungle Cruise and BTMM almost as quick. But the greatest thing was having the Pop Century bus ALL to ourselves on the way back. The bus driver even took a picture, as he thought it was a bit strange, considering how busy it has been the last week. This is GREAT.

Wow! That's great - I wonder what's up.....?

 

[Uncle Lupe]

Did he take the long way to Pop? If you know what I mean.

 

[smk]

The holiday lights were on and it's beautiful on Main Street. The castle was lit, (although I thought it was being lit Monday night). We will be at MVMCP tomorrow night. Can't wait.

Beautiful! I hope to see it lit like this one day. I hate the crowds at Disney around Christmas but now it is clear I should go this time next year and get the best of the decorations and no crowds! Have fun at the party, hope no one else is there but you two!

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Oh wow that's awesome!

 

[ABigBrassBand]

That's fabulous! The castle looks beautiful, and you're so lucky! Hope it's like that when I get there, but we're going on a weekend.

 

[Clever Name]

This is indicative of the reduced park visitation, low resort occupancy and the abated convention business that WDW has routinely experienced for the last 6 quarters (18 months).

 

[Mikester71]

Must have been nice to have the bus all to yourselves! When we stay at Pop during our Spring Break in March, I'm lucky if I get a chance to even sit down ONCE the whole 10 days we are down there due to all the passengers jammed on the buses! Of course even if I am the first one on the bus, I still offer my seat up to someone else, so it is my fault anyways!

 

[powlessfamily4]

Wow ... that must have been wonderful! I have 9 days left until we leave for our advenure. I can only hope even one of ou days is like that.

 

[rodserling27]

That sounds like so much fun! Glad you had a good time. I love when there are very few people on the bus. My sister and I always like to have conversations with the bus drivers about life (and Disney, of course, laughing at their misinformation :lol

 

[PhilharMagician]

This is indicative of the reduced park visitation, low resort occupancy and the abated convention business that WDW has routinely experienced for the last 6 quarters (18 months).

Am I missing something??? Occupancy has been down??

 

[zurgandfriend]

It was like that in December 2007 we walked onto every attraction and had a bus to ourselves a few times. We had originally planned to eat our lunches counter service for the trip but we changes our minds and we got seated as walk ups to every restaurant we attempted.

 

[bgraham34]

I do recall on multiple occasions my wife and I have had the bus to ourselves. It is so weird when that happens. But I love it.

 

[PHSCoach]

Had several buses this past July that were empty. Glad the driver didn't wait for more riders. Even more strange was on year flying home to NY there were only four of us on the plane.

 

[Fable McCloud]

There were a few times in October '08 that we had to bus to ASM to ourselves either in the morning or the evening. We'd go first thing in the morning and leave at the last possible moment, so it was nice to not have to deal with a ton of people jamming onto a busy bus.

 

[4everDory]

Wow! That's really awesome you had the bus to yourselves! One reason we've avoided staying at Pop (we've stayed at the Beach Club, instead) is b/c of the bus lines and lack of seats on the buses. Maybe there is hope! (We do like staying deluxe, though :animwink: )

 

[Clever Name]

Am I missing something??? Occupancy has been down??

Here are the figures that Disney has made public. In fact, attendance at all of the WDW parks and resorts has actually suffered a much greater decline.

“Decreased operating income at Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort and Anaheim’s Disneyland Resort was attributed to higher operating costs, lower attendance and lower hotel occupancy. Attendance at domestic parks fell 3 percent, with a 2 percent decline at Walt Disney World and a 4 percent decline at Disneyland. Occupancy at the Orlando hotels was 83 percent, about 8 percentage points lower than the previous year; Anaheim occupancy was 80 percent, or down 3 percentage points.

Disney attributed the decrease in attendance, in part, to a shift in the Easter holiday period, in relationship to the company’s reporting period. When adjusting for that shift, Disney estimated combined attendance was down by only 1 percent compared to prior year.”

http://www.examiner.com/disney-travel-in-national/disney-s-third-quarter-exceeds-expectations-disney-cautiously-optimistic-about-theme-parks?render=print

Of course, the "offcial" 83% occupancy rate for WDW is actually much lower. They are counting in that figure rooms that have been sold off in blocks to big travel agencies such as Expedia. Many of those rooms are never booked but Disney counts them as occupied even though the rooms are really vacant. It's "Hollywood accounting" at its finest.

I forgot to add that on Thursday, November 11th the Walt Disney Company will hold a live audio webcast to discuss the fiscal full year and the company’s fourth quarter 2010 financial results. The webcast will begin at 4:30pm EST/1:30pm PST. It will be interesting to hear.

 

[PhilharMagician]

Here are the figures that Disney has made public. In fact, attendance at all of the WDW parks and resorts has actually suffered a much greater decline.

“Decreased operating income at Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort and Anaheim’s Disneyland Resort was attributed to higher operating costs, lower attendance and lower hotel occupancy. Attendance at domestic parks fell 3 percent, with a 2 percent decline at Walt Disney World and a 4 percent decline at Disneyland. Occupancy at the Orlando hotels was 83 percent, about 8 percentage points lower than the previous year; Anaheim occupancy was 80 percent, or down 3 percentage points.

Disney attributed the decrease in attendance, in part, to a shift in the Easter holiday period, in relationship to the company’s reporting period. When adjusting for that shift, Disney estimated combined attendance was down by only 1 percent compared to prior year.”

http://www.examiner.com/disney-travel-in-national/disney-s-third-quarter-exceeds-expectations-disney-cautiously-optimistic-about-theme-parks?render=print

Of course, the "offcial" 83% occupancy rate for WDW is actually much lower. They are counting in that figure rooms that have been sold off in blocks to big travel agencies such as Expedia. Many of those rooms are never booked but Disney counts them as occupied even though the rooms are really vacant. It's "Hollywood accounting" at its finest.

I forgot to add that on Thursday, November 11th the Walt Disney Company will hold a live audio webcast to discuss the fiscal full year and the company’s fourth quarter 2010 financial results. The webcast will begin at 4:30pm EST/1:30pm PST. It will be interesting to hear.

Thank you for the detailed reply. I understand the booking were off prior to Q3, but they are up now from every indicator I have seen. The article even states that Q3 alone helped elevate the YTD numbers. Hours have been extended constantly over the past few months and during the free dining in September the crowds were very very heavy. Many people have been complaining about booking rooms for the first few weeks in December and there have been none available for months. I have never had any problems in years past booking during that time.

Anyway, I was just confused that you had said the last 6 quarters had lower occupancy and fewer park visitors. I would agree that prior to Q3 that is correct, but not since April of this year. Also the attendance numbers for 2009 were up about between 1/2% - 1% for the WDW parks which was driven by higher numbers in the first and second quarters for that period.

Clip from TEA 2009 Theame park report.

In 2009, the top-25 global parks attracted approximately 185 million visits compared to 186 million in 2008. North American parks experienced a slight decline of just over 1 percent, buoyed in large part by the strong performance of the Disney parks. In light of the overall US economy’s decline of 2.5 percent based on Real GDP Growth, the theme park industry fared quite well. In Europe and Asia, parks were slightly down, while Mexico and Latin America overall experienced an increase.

 

[Clever Name]

Thank you for the detailed reply. I understand the booking were off prior to Q3, but they are up now from every indicator I have seen. The article even states that Q3 alone helped elevate the YTD numbers. Hours have been extended constantly over the past few months and during the free dining in September the crowds were very very heavy. Many people have been complaining about booking rooms for the first few weeks in December and there have been none available for months. I have never had any problems in years past booking during that time.

I would urge anyone who has had a problem booking a WDW resort during December to call their TA or Disney CRO. WDW currently has an abundance of vacant resort rooms at all levels (Deluxe, Moderate, Value and Campground) and advance bookings continue to be very low. The lack of substantial discounts has backfired on WDW which is one of the reasons why all their resort rooms are now listed on Priceline. You can also book online at the WDW website: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/

Anyway, I was just confused that you had said the last 6 quarters had lower occupancy and fewer park visitors. I would agree that prior to Q3 that is correct, but not since April of this year. Also the attendance numbers for 2009 were up about between 1/2% - 1% for the WDW parks which was driven by higher numbers in the first and second quarters for that period.

Clip from TEA 2009 Theame park report.

In 2009, the top-25 global parks attracted approximately 185 million visits compared to 186 million in 2008. North American parks experienced a slight decline of just over 1 percent, buoyed in large part by the strong performance of the Disney parks. In light of the overall US economy’s decline of 2.5 percent based on Real GDP Growth, the theme park industry fared quite well. In Europe and Asia, parks were slightly down, while Mexico and Latin America overall experienced an increase.

The figures compiled by the Themed Entertainment Association are derived from information supplied by Disney. Let’s use resort occupancy figures as an example. WDW sells off large blocks of resort rooms to independent travel agencies such as AAA, Expedia, Travelocity and many others. When those room blocks are sold, two things happen. First, the rooms are removed from the Disney CRO inventory because only the TA can now book those rooms. The room blocks also have date stamps. The various travel agencies only control the rooms for a specified period of time and when that time elapses, the rooms go back into Disney CRO inventory.

The interesting thing is that during the entire time the travel agencies have the room blocks, Disney lists them as occupied. It doesn’t matter whether or not the room actually gets rented. During busy visitation periods I often hear reports that WDW resorts are “booked solid”. Often guests will either call Disney CRO or book on the Internet and be told that no rooms are available. And, as far as the Disney CRO is concerned they have indeed booked all “available” rooms. So, if the Disney reservationist is sticking to the script, they will tell you to try again later and you might get lucky if another party cancels.

What they don’t tell you (they can’t tell you by contractual agreement) is that a whole block of rooms could open up when a travel agency date stamp expires and the rooms “magically” now come back into Disney CRO inventory. Experienced WDW travelers know to check multiple sources for resort availability. There is no one stop shopping for resort rooms at WDW.