Crowd Outlook

[Disneychick75]

Back many years ago, when we had no choice but go in the summer, we found a tactic that seemed to work somewhat. Rope drop, then back to the room around noon. Wait for the daily afternoon thunderstorm, don our ponchos and just wade right through it. The storms flushed quite a bit of the crowds out, and cooled things off to boot. After the storms, the evenings after dark were relatively pleasant.

Great idea! I've also thought about letting the kids swim during the day and going to the parks at night. That way, they could sleep in rather than getting up at the crack of dawn. That would depend upon whether the parks have after hours because I'm not paying extra.

 

[clarker99]

I will awaken this thread with some data I pulled from visitflorida.org

Florida tourists 2023 vs 2019

Total
2019 131.069m
2023 135.018m

International
2019 9.801m
2023 8.309m

Canada
2019 4.088
2023 3.822

Still air to come out of the domestic post-Covid Florida travel boom. International/Canada with room to grow back to 2019 levels.

Essentially, what will seem like FLA tourism weakness will likely be tourism regressing back to pre-Covid levels.

Signs of that regression may have already started in the Oct-Dec 2024 timeframe:

Q4 Domestic FLA visitors
2019 27.132m
2023 26.392M

Q423 was 1st time post-covid opening that FLA visitors dipped below a corresponding 2019 quarter. After the FLA covid tourism boom we may have a corresponding trough period coming up.


(data from visitflorida.org)

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I will awaken this thread with some data I pulled from visitflorida.org

Florida tourists 2023 vs 2019

Total
2019 131.069m
2023 135.018m

International
2019 9.801m
2023 8.309m

Canada
2019 4.088
2023 3.822

Still air to come out of the domestic post-Covid Florida travel boom. International/Canada with room to grow back to 2019 levels.

Essentially, what will seem like FLA tourism weakness will likely be tourism regressing back to pre-Covid levels.

Signs of that regression may have already started in the Oct-Dec 2024 timeframe:

Q4 Domestic FLA visitors
2019 27.132m
2023 26.392M

Q423 was 1st time post-covid opening that FLA visitors dipped below a corresponding 2019 quarter. After the FLA covid tourism boom we may have a corresponding trough period coming up.

View attachment 842112
(data from visitflorida.org)

I think that's a pretty reasonable expectation, i wouldn't be shocked to see Florida tourism drop below 2019 levels at some point either.

I do think that it's safe to say revenge travel is waning, and the people boycotting the mouse has been a lot to do about nothing. On that point, have you seen the international rates of flights/ costs of trips in general? it looks like everyone else is catching up to Dis in terms of cost.

 

[TinkAgainU]

I think that's a pretty reasonable expectation, i wouldn't be shocked to see Florida tourism drop below 2019 levels at some point either.

I do think that it's safe to say revenge travel is waning, and the people boycotting the mouse has been a lot to do about nothing. On that point, have you seen the international rates of flights/ costs of trips in general? it looks like everyone else is catching up to Dis in terms of cost.

Agreed. People were willing to push the financial envelope to get back to life after Covid concerns ... but now with flights, hotels, cars, even food having increased so much, fewer knee jerk travel plans.

I doubt Disney's "views" have made much of a change for 99% of travelers. My guess is even DeSantis's family would have gone back to Disney if they could do it incognito ... they're probably wishing he'd made his point with Hooters instead lol.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

I think that's a pretty reasonable expectation, i wouldn't be shocked to see Florida tourism drop below 2019 levels at some point either.

I do think that it's safe to say revenge travel is waning, and the people boycotting the mouse has been a lot to do about nothing. On that point, have you seen the international rates of flights/ costs of trips in general? it looks like everyone else is catching up to Dis in terms of cost.

I am ready for numbers to go down some, its just been too dang crowded at all the theme parks and such.

 

[clarker99]

I am ready for numbers to go down some, its just been too dang crowded at all the theme parks and such.

2010's were just a steady increase. I am intrigued how this all plays out for the next few years.

 

[Disneychick75]

Don't know if this is indicative of crowds but CRT reservations have several times available for every meal each day of our trip.

 

[wabbott]

As we had noted on other threads (as did others), the week of 4/7-4/13 had fairly light crowds throughout WDW.

On the way home, we stopped off @ PC Beach for a week of R&R to recover. The beach was as uncrowded as we have seen in several years. Many of the high-rise hotels along Front Beach Road had parking lots that were half empty. Our favorite restaurant, Captain Anderson's, had quite a few empty tables both nights we dined there.

Anyone have any reports of what WDW crowds were for April 14-20? What about other travel locations around the US?

 

[TinkAgainU]

...
Anyone have any reports of what WDW crowds were for April 14-20? What about other travel locations around the US?

Just some observations that the CA parks seemed full a week before Spring Break and relatively quiet (by comparison) last week. I think schools try to push around their days off to give staff time off when it's not as crowded, so actual "Spring Break" can vary a lot area by area, year by year.

I think everyone anticipated less travel this year after the Post-Covid flurry, even before prices went up for food, flights etc. When Disney is pushing passes and discounts, you can safely assume They see things slacking. They have access to numbers none of us will ever see.

 

[fatmanatee]

As we had noted on other threads (as did others), the week of 4/7-4/13 had fairly light crowds throughout WDW.

On the way home, we stopped off @ PC Beach for a week of R&R to recover. The beach was as uncrowded as we have seen in several years. Many of the high-rise hotels along Front Beach Road had parking lots that were half empty. Our favorite restaurant, Captain Anderson's, had quite a few empty tables both nights we dined there.

Anyone have any reports of what WDW crowds were for April 14-20? What about other travel locations around the US?

This weekend is a runDisney weekend (I did the same one last year), can’t speak to crowds but I'd guess it's at least somewhat busy as a result of that group. FWIW when I ran the same weekend last year it seemed pretty crowded, following week had a cheer competition and there was definitely a sense of things settling down.