giantgolfer
Well-Known Member
I want the parks to be back to what it used to be. A full Disney experience.
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Walt Disney World Park Hours cut starting September 8 2020
- Thread starter durangojim
- Start date
I want the parks to be back to what it used to be. A full Disney experience.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
I agree. Throughout this pandemic we have been doing some things in unconventional ways and finding new ways to have fun. Not a lot of things I would want to permanently change, but finding new ways to still make things work and have some fun.
mlayton144
Well-Known Member
Disney only wants more crowds - which mean more merch sales, more meals, more hotel rooms sold - no question about it
mlayton144
Well-Known Member
I was answering about long-term , if you don’t agree then you are smoking crack
GoofGoof
Premium Member
I don’t think anyone would dispute that in a post Covid world. For now it’s a balancing act between safe crowd size and making enough money to stay afloat.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
I disagree. I love being able to ride attractions multiple times. Last year when I went to Universal I managed 10 rides on the Mummy over 4 days and loved every minute of it. At Cedar Point I rode Maverick 8 times in 2 days and didn't find it monotonous.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
It’s an interesting discussion, and I can see positives to both sides. We went to Hershey Park once on a day with heavy rain. The park was empty and it was kinda uncomfortable being soaked, but every ride was a walk on and my kids did all the major coasters multiple times. It was definitely fun even though we were soaked enough that we all had to put our shoes in the bathroom of the hotel room to sleep that night because of the wet shoe smell
But you must remember those people CHOSE to go and not wear a mask.
Apparently your opinion isn't as absolutely correct as you think.
But Disney has so few rides that folks clamor to ride all day. Peter Pan normally has an hour long line. Will people now ride it for hours of short line joy?
Would folks ride Pirates over and over? How about Space, if you can't use the handicap ramp, and instead have to do the quarter mile walk around for a reride?
I would certainly enjoy an afternoon and evening Mansion ride. Anad ride it twice in a row, including from unload to load once at the Happy Haunts Ball. would I ride it 3 times in a row like Nitro at Great Adventure? Eh, maybe.
Really, the mountains are the only rides folks hit hard at MNSSHP. Then hit Epcot and AK, and there really isn't anything I'm dying to ride 5 times in a row. If only Dinosaur was Indy. if I could hit 2 parks in a day, thar would change EVERYTHING.
And of course the Studios has moderate lines, and you have to win a lottery ro even ride the new ride.
The crowds pretty much prove that lots of rides, but no Princesses or fireworks isn't much of a bargain at $125 a day.
Dan Deesnee
Well-Known Member
I have no doubt that they obviously don't want people getting sick or hurt.
But let's be realistic, they're a gigantic global corporate business, what they really want is to get things back to normal churning out dollars like they used to. If they could open the parks with tons of people and lift some of the restrictions, without it looking bad on them as a company, you know for a fact they would do it.
Again, it's about optics.
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Big difference between coasters and dark rides I can and have ridden Magnum XL 200 15 times in a row, there are only 6 rides I would consider doing that many times at WDW (Splash, BTMRR, TTA, ToT, Mania, Everest.) I love HM but I would be bored by the 3rd lap, they just arent the same.
The company won’t put guests at any more risk than they have to. Sure they’d love to open with long hours and no capacity limits. But they won’t until it’s deemed safe enough.
There’s more measures and procedures been put in place behind the scenes than even I’d have believed. They’re as safe as they think they can be and will work to that metric. Whatever level it is at.
There’s more measures and procedures been put in place behind the scenes than even I’d have believed. They’re as safe as they think they can be and will work to that metric. Whatever level it is at.
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GoofGoof
Premium Member
For Disney it’s about the long game. If they wanted to they could relax safety and push things as far as the government will allow them right now. The governor of FL is practically begging them to reduce restrictions. The problem is the short term gains from doing that would be offset by a longer term loss of business. While more people may show up some other people will stop going if the feeling is that it’s no longer safe. TWDC is also using the safe and successful re-opening of WDW to put pressure on the government in CA to allow DLR to re-open. That’s a much stronger argument while WDW is having a successful run so far. They also face potential legal liability which I think is less of a concern as the hit to their reputation. Disney has spent decades marketing their parks as safe and family friendly and that reputation extends beyond WDW. It’s much to risk for a few extra bucks. They also seem to have the benefit of a “free pass” from Wall Street. Investors realize that this year is historically bad but the future outlook of the company is still bright.
On the employee side it’s a tough situation. Companies have to make hard calls all the time about employees In this case they aren’t even permanently severing the workers. They are still paying them benefits and letting them keep seniority. It’s not great, but Disney is taking on costs that they could eliminate if they did formal layoffs. Its a bigger failure on the part of the state of FL for having poor unemployment benefits to begin with and the federal government for not getting their act together to extend benefits faster.
Oh dear.
They have really good forecasting tools to make decisions. There is no demand to go to Disney World, or anywhere else for that matter for the near to mid term anyway. The hours you see posted reflect the extent of maximized forecasted demand. They've scheduled hours through Thanksgiving and you see what they have given the guests.
You can plainly see Disney's strategy for the next couple of quarters: Appeal to locals and guests in nearby states with generous offers, Appeal to AP holders (however many are left) with generous offers. Appeal to their loyal repeat customers who make multiple trips within a short period with special PIN offers (I've gotten three since August). Their marketing is very targeted and very specific to the type of guest they would like to have. (knowing that most won't even consider traveling at the moment)
Dan Deesnee
Well-Known Member
Demand absolutely exists and I'd wager it's high. The real issue is that Disney has made it not worth the average persons money to go right now, so they are choosing to wait. I know of hundreds of people (anecdotal evidence, I know) that have flown to go on vacations the past few months. Mexico, etc.
You however are reading it as, well they are reducing hours so people must not want to go. It's the other way around. They want to go, but reduced hours, etc. makes it a pass for many people.
Universal is lifting restrictions on on-ride social distancing, and they'll likely continue to outpace Disney on loosening restrictions. The reason is simple, if Universal does it first and doesn't get bad press over it, Disney knows they're fine lifting those restrictions too.
Case in point, Universal opened earlier than Disney thought they would, and then had to open earlier than planned. This will continue.
Total BS. I doubt you can name even 6 of the "hundreds of people" you know.
You want to gauge demand look at the pricing of airfare. That will tell you everything.
A roundtrip ticket from EWR to MCO (United) over Thanksgiving is less than $125. First Class is less than $475. Last year economy roundtrip was over $1K and First Class over $2500. Christmas same deal. Most planes which used to be 95+% full are now leaving barely half full (accounting for blocked out middle aisles on airlines that do that).
Look at Disney.
If you're a DVC member you can access the availability tool, and it has openings. If you know how to search the reservation tools you can pretty much find any room you want on property even with a pin code or AP offer. Amazing considering the number of non-DVC resorts which are closed.
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GoofGoof
Premium Member
I’m not following this. So if the tourist demand is there why would Disney and Universal cut hours and also keep resorts closed? They aren’t hitting park capacity limits except maybe on some weekends and that’s only because they opened the flood gates for locals with lifted AP restrictions and at Universal offered a “free“ AP through Christmas with the purchase of a 1 day ticket. If demand from tourists increased Disney would limit the AP access again and take the more lucrative tourist money in.
Air travel is still way, way down. Some people are flying but Disney doesn’t make money on “some people”, they need the masses to fly. It’s just not happening yet, especially with FL on the quarantine list for many of the states that make up their key demographic.
Why is USO laying off so many team members? Why is everyone in travel and hospitality laying off so many people?