The World's Most Magical Celebration - Walt Disney World's 50th anniversary

[Matthew]

12. Covid and fear of crowds by many, including families that are also not going to movies in person because vaccines aren’t available for kids younger than 12.

Nailed it. I wouldn’t take my family into any type of large crowd at the moment.

 

[Matthew]

Anyone know if Universal has been low crowds recently too or just Disney?

All the reporting I’ve seen say it’s extremely quiet over there as well.

 

[mikejs78]

Look I’m not going to argue back and forth with a pixie duster.

Your right.

Disney is doing great!!

They have just had a disaster of a 50th.

Two new nighttime shows that that did not go over well at all.

Kite tails shows the future of entertainment is going to be 6 flags quality.

Just when the bad taste of all this is about to wash out of your mouth…

Here comes genie+ to remind everyone that it’s all about the guest experience!

All of this good news must be a sign of an effective and visionary CEO.

All is well in pixie dust land.

Not saying all is well at Disney. There's much to criticize. You just took it completely over the top by criticizing every single aspect of the company, even those that are doing well.

Also the shows (Harm and Enchantment) are not quite getting the negative reviews you mentioned by those who've seen it in the parks.

 

[wtyy21]

Not saying all is well at Disney. There's much to criticize. You just took it completely over the top by criticizing every single aspect of the company, even those that are doing well.

Also the shows (Harm and Enchantment) are not quite getting the negative reviews you mentioned by those who've seen it in the parks.

If you watching both shows in-person, i believe the shows are not receiving negative reviews than those watched streaming. I tend to prefer Harmonious (original A-mode pyro version) over Enchantment for those who watching the show online due to stunning visual effects.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I have been at Disney for a week now. Resorts seem empty. Parks other than MK yesterday were empty.

We are from the Florida Keys - Key West. Tourism has been busy for a year. This is not a travel issue, its a destination issue.

Key West is primarily a destination for adults. Walt Disney World is primarily a destination for families.

Walt Disney World has *always* been slow this time of year. Even the parents who don't mind taking their kids out of school for a Disney trip tend to not want to take them out of the first few weeks of school. Also, every parent I know has pretty much sworn of travel with kids until the FAA either drops the mask mandate entirely or raises the age to 5 or 12 like the rest of the world. Masking a two year old for three hours is next to impossible.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I feel like D23's gonna be hit with protests next month.

Destination D isn't really an event. It's a glorified merchandise cart.

 

[John park hopper]

I can see why people were standing in line to get a bucket of popcorn, just out of curiosity I checked Ebay for 50th merchandize. Depending on color 60- 120 bucks (plus shipping), free maps 7 bucks the list of 50th stuff for sale was long.

 

[wtyy21]

Some answers to why Disney is not busy:

1. Large and Small Conventions are not happening right now.

2. Brazilian travel groups are not visiting

3. The Florida Resident 3-4 day promotion ended a few weeks ago outside of the one that runs all the time that is more expensive.

4. No Florida resident discounts on hotel rooms until December.

5. Schools are back in session. This is the return of the slow season Disney used to get.

6. Annual passes lost a huge perk with free fast pass going away.

7. No real concerts at Epcot Food and Wine

8. Velocicoaster and Hagrids Coaster is a much bigger draw locally than Ratatouille.

9. No recent animation hits recently that drives visits like the Frozen years. Onward, Soul, Luca, and Raya aren’t driving theme park visits. Animation hasn’t been great since Lasseter has been gone.

10. People are waiting for parades and fantasmic to return along with other live entertainment.

11. People are waiting until Guardians and Tron open up.

12. Covid and fear of crowds by many, including families that are also not going to movies in person because vaccines aren’t available for kids younger than 12.

Disneyland in west coast and overseas Disney parks (ex. TDR) have better entertainment experiences and offerings than those who live in East Coast (WDW).

 

[mikejs78]

Also, every parent I know has pretty much sworn of travel with kids until the FAA either drops the mask mandate entirely or raises the age to 5 or 12 like the rest of the world. Masking a two year old for three hours is next to impossible.

Hard disagree. My 4 year old masks easily, and every parent I've talked to is waiting for vaccinations for their kids (myself included) before they travel. Most don't care about the mask requirement.

 

[mikejs78]

Disneyland in west coast and overseas Disney parks (ex. TDR) have better entertainment experiences and offerings than those who live in East Coast (WDW).

Such as?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Hard disagree. My 4 year old masks easily, and every parent I've talked to is waiting for vaccinations for their kids (myself included) before they travel. Most don't care about the mask requirement.

Your 4 year old isn't a 2 year old, which is what I said.

 

[wtyy21]

Such as?

In the past (2005), there were many entertainment offerings for their (Disneyland) 50th anniversary, such as Remember... Dreams Come True fireworks, Parade of Dreams, and many nostalgia-based experiences. Walt Disney World today has a room to make more entertainment offerings for its 50th anniversary that will be lasted for 18 months, but so bad their entertainment offerings were in good-mediocre as for now.

 

[mikejs78]

In the past, there were many entertainment offerings for their (Disneyland) 50th anniversary, such as Remember... Dreams Come True fireworks, Parade of Dreams, and many nostalgia-based experiences. Walt Disney World today has a room to make more entertainment offerings for its 50th anniversary, but so bad their entertainment offerings were in good-mediocre as for now.

WDW also had some great entertainment offerings in the past. Fantasmic. Reflections of Earth.

What does Disneyland have *today* that is more/better entertainment than what WDW has, which is what your original statement said?

 

[FutureCEO]

I don't believe that there will be in-person protest next month on Destination D23. It is very usual event.

The majority of the bloggers will be there and most of them are pro-Disney no matter what happens

 

[matt9112]

That's there point.

I just booked Polynesian for 8 days in May next year. ENTIRE month was available. Not only at Poly but at many, many other dvc resorts. I've been a DVC member for years and I've never seen it like this...ever.

Also it was not just for May. February March and April had insane amounts of availability too.

Disney has a major problem on their hands. There is no way anyone senior that handles WDW is not aware of this.

Question is, how will they react?

I used to be local filler at silver level. Spending far too little for the mouse. But now im nothing no money. I hope it was worth it to the mouse house. Saying no is hard but the guys down the street treat me a little better.

 

[beertiki]

Key West is full of adults and drunks, but the rest of the Keys are full of family's renting houses. My work has me at many rentals or at houses next to rentals. I see them hanging out at the pool and on their boats.

Spent 5 days at Atlantis, Bahamas this spring. That was busier than Disney.

We are driving back to the Keys now. Usually we would be discussing another trip right now in the car. Instead we talked about how the food sucked, no housekeeping, and how Disney seems to have changed for us.

 

[aladdin2007]

Some answers to why Disney is not busy:

1. Large and Small Conventions are not happening right now.

2. Brazilian travel groups are not visiting

3. The Florida Resident 3-4 day promotion ended a few weeks ago outside of the one that runs all the time that is more expensive.

4. No Florida resident discounts on hotel rooms until December.

5. Schools are back in session. This is the return of the slow season Disney used to get.

6. Annual passes lost a huge perk with free fast pass going away.

7. No real concerts at Epcot Food and Wine

8. Velocicoaster and Hagrids Coaster is a much bigger draw locally than Ratatouille.

9. No recent animation hits recently that drives visits like the Frozen years. Onward, Soul, Luca, and Raya aren’t driving theme park visits. Animation hasn’t been great since Lasseter has been gone.

10. People are waiting for parades and fantasmic to return along with other live entertainment.

11. People are waiting until Guardians and Tron open up.

12. Covid and fear of crowds by many, including families that are also not going to movies in person because vaccines aren’t available for kids younger than 12.

I would like to add a 13th one...its become too complicated. I think people are throwing up their hands and deciding to not bother.
I heard more complaints the other day about mobile ordering, and I know cast heard even worse. People couldn't get food, its just plain stupid. Between that mess and having to have reservations to get in and having to win a lottery to get on a certain rides etc etc, I think people are just not going to bother with all this anymore, and the resentment about having to pay extra money to get on a ride once their horrid genie goes live has the public really turned off......... Also I can not go on enough about how great cast was on the 50th, it was actually almost depressing because they tried so hard and everyone was so nice, but it was almost like they were told to not mention or talk about the 50th hardly. Something is dire wrong with both corporate (well we know that already) and TDO and local management. To me it feels like they have sold it to another company and its not being ran by Disney anymore, that's what the day felt like.

and now that I think about it, I wish there could have been a way to have all the guests on main street sing happy birthday to the park at the same time. That would really have shown management how bad they failed.
The park was just too quiet.

 

[JohnD]

If you watching both shows in-person, i believe the shows are not receiving negative reviews than those watched streaming. I tend to prefer Harmonious (original A-mode pyro version) over Enchantment for those who watching the show online due to stunning visual effects.

Okay. About Harmonious. Saw it in person last night. I have a different take.

Too much dependence on whiz bang gizmos: Stargate and taco projections, water effects, and robotic arms flailing about. Then came the music and fireworks. It’s as if the budget was all sunk into tech then they remembered at the last minute they needed to add a score and fireworks. (Yes, there were fireworks. But obviously they wanted to impress us with tech. Why else leave those monstrosities in the middle of WS lagoon.) Was I impressed by the tech? Sure. Was I wowed by the show as a whole? No.

Give me a good fireworks show with an excellent musical score any day. Sometimes less is more.

 

[FutureCEO]

Family resemblance

 

[mikejs78]

Okay. About Harmonious. Saw it in person last night. I have a different take.

Too much dependence on whiz bang gizmos: Stargate and taco projections, water effects, and robotic arms flailing about. Then came the music and fireworks. It’s as if the budget was all sunk into tech then they remembered at the last minute they needed to add a score and fireworks. Was I impressed by the tech? Sure. Was I wowed by the show as a whole? No.

Give me a good fireworks show with an excellent musical score any day. Sometimes less is more.

Worth noting that apparently they ended up with supply issues with some of the fireworks.