Has Disney’s Strategies To It’s Loyal Customers Finally Caught Up With It?

[Wakey]

Seeing incredibly low wait times and empty restaurants etc on Facebook.

As things stand at this minute, major attractions on 4 July have 25 min wait times. Even ROTR is only 45 minutes.

What is happening, and has Disney upset so many visitors, is it losing the repeat visitor it previously relied upon, particularly with the economy as it is?

Or is this just Disney’s much trumpeted crowd reduction plan in action and this is what they want?

I’d like to know what booking numbers are looking like with Dreams, I know Pete has mentioned these before recently on his YouTube shows

 

[Chupaca bruh]

I think it is a combination of all of that plus it is supposed to be over 100 degrees today.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I do think it's a factor as the park experience being too overly complicated is one of the biggest compliants right now but I also think it's the heat. I'm in Florida right now and you couldn't pay me enough to go to an Orlando theme park today.

I did see that Universal isn't crazy busy today either. As of typing this, Hagrid's is 75 minutes, Velocicoaster 40 and everything else is below 60 minutes.

 

[Wakey]

I do think it's a factor as the park experience being too overly complicated is one of the biggest compliants right now but I also think it's the heat. I'm in Florida right now and you couldn't pay me enough to go to an Orlando theme park today.

I did see that Universal isn't crazy busy today either. As of typing this, Hagrid's is 75 minutes, Velocicoaster 40 and everything else is below 60 minutes.

I think people have had enough of the complication.

Many have gone over the last few years, been overpriced, Genie+ (which I am convinced is going to drive guests away), Lightning Lanes on top, lack of staffing, ride breakdowns, massive crowds.

WDW relies heavily on repeat visitors, maybe many said ‘enough’ and Chapek’s nirvana of a constant queue rich people from Colorado or wherever, desperate to beat down Disney’s door, isn’t there?

 

[RivShore]

As someone above said, it is probably all of the above and a few other things.

I think the fact that MK caped out of reservations and still has reasonable wait times proves that the crowd reduction plan is working.

I also think Covid effects are still working their way thru the travel industry. For 3 years people traveled closer to home and that meant Orlando for many. Now with overseas travel and cruse ships fully opened, really for the first summer travel season since 2019, many are making up for those missed trips. There's probably another year or so to get back to a 2019 normalcy.

That being said, WDW has so many levers it could pull to get attendance up if needed - discounts, free dining, free Genie+, etc. And if we can expect these reasonable wait times going forward, word will quickly spread that you don't even need LL or G+ to get on everything you want.

 

[soniam]

It’s too busy. No one goes there anymore I suspect it’s partly due to people, including locals, avoiding the 4th, which is traditionally horribly busy. Universal’s wait times are low today too.

 

[Leigh L]

I do think it's a factor as the park experience being too overly complicated is one of the biggest compliants right now but I also think it's the heat. I'm in Florida right now and you couldn't pay me enough to go to an Orlando theme park today.

I did see that Universal isn't crazy busy today either. As of typing this, Hagrid's is 75 minutes, Velocicoaster 40 and everything else is below 60 minutes.

We did Universal 6/21-6/23 and WDW 6/26-7/2 and neither park was as busy as they usually are for this week in June.

The heat is crazy hot too. Last year was very hot, but this year was something else as we were preparing to leave, our last 2 park days were miserable hot. I'm so glad we didn't have a park day yesterday as originally planned.

Wait times for Rise were pretty low the last few days, 15 to 45 minutes at various points in the week.

The only ride that was hard to get on was Slinky since it either wasn't running or at half capacity. CM said the heat impacts the ride's functionality.

 

[soniam]

Actually, summers have been less busy over the last 5 years or so for the Orlando theme parks. They aren’t dead times but not Xmas/NYE either. Probably due to heat.

 

[MillauFr]

I'm a bit shocked that anyone shows up in Orlando in May through September. Today in Orlando it was 96 degrees with a 76 degree dewpoint. Not sure anyone could put up with that for more than 15 minutes. As opposed to Disneyland where the temperature was in the mid 70s and with low humidity. Not too difficult to figure out which park people are going to visit in July.

 

[soniam]

I'm a bit shocked that anyone shows up in Orlando in May through September. Today in Orlando it was 96 degrees with a 76 degree dewpoint. Not sure anyone could put up with that for more than 15 minutes. As opposed to Disneyland where the temperature was in the mid 70s and with low humidity. Not too difficult to figure out which park people are going to visit in July.

We live in Texas, so other than the humidity, it might be cooler than at home.

 

[MillauFr]

We live in Texas, so other than the humidity, it might be cooler than at home.

How can you live there with such horrible weather?

 

[Wakey]

Us Brits love hot weather. Generally the hotter the better when we are on holiday as it’s usually cold and raining here, so we like to feel we got value when we go away.

 

[randumb0]

I live here and it's too hot for me to be at a theme park

 

[nancipants]

How can you live there with such horrible weather?

It's a trade off to be warm in the winter. I hate cold, and I doubly hate snow. Plus, I have a pool and air conditioning.

 

[jsergent]

The heat is intense. With the kids getting older, vacations are becoming harder during the school year when we used to go for better weather. Just came back from Orlando a couple weeks ago and it was plenty hot, but the kids aren't in school and so that's when we travel now. Three days Disney- no parks. Three days Universal with parks. We would do it again, but mostly interested in waiting for Universal's new park to open in a couple years.

We were pricing out a Disney trip for next summer just to compare options and the ticket cost is just too high. The value is gone, a parks visit at Disney just isn't worth that much money. For the same price as regular room at Beach Club with 2 days of parks, we booked a beautiful oceanfront condo at a very nice resort on the Atlantic coast. In the end, it is the same amount of money, but one experience will be far superior than the other.

So, no Disney parks for us until who knows when. We haven't been to any of the Disney parks since 2019. When you look at what else can be experienced for the same money, Disney loses its appeal.

 

[bakerworld]

I'll believe Disney strategies are affecting park attendance when the Fall crowd numbers show up low.

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

I can't speak for everyone, but as far as me and many people I know are concerned, we went to the parks a lot the last few years while we waited for normalcy to return to other places. We finally got to go to Aulani and are going on a cruise, both postponed due to Covid. I've seen three friends go on Alaskan cruises just in the past two weeks, and lots making national park road trips. We have a parks trip booked for next year and I'm looking forward to going back, but it's been nice to see some new places.

 

[RivShore]

For the same price as regular room at Beach Club with 2 days of parks, we booked a beautiful oceanfront condo at a very nice resort on the Atlantic coast. In the end, it is the same amount of money, but one experience will be far superior than the other.

Those are two completely different experiences though, aren't they? Beach vs. theme park and condo vs. deluxe resort?

You could also save a boatload on a WDW vacation by staying offsite - heck, you could get a 2 bed 2 bath Cottage at Margarettaville Resort, which is a stones throw away from AK, for much less than half a Disney deluxe resort. That comparison might be closer to your beach condo option.

 

[5kidsmommy]

We never visit in the summer. A) it's just too hot B) we spend time at our local amusement park (Cedar Point) since it's not open year round. We save our Disney trips for when the weather is awful here.

 

[Pommau]

Did an impromptu trip this past weekend 6/30-7/3. Did MK, AK, and Epcot in two days. My bf and I were expecting crowds upon crowds of people even with the weather just because we assumed a lot of out-of-town travelers taking advantage of the days off for the fourth.

Boy were we wrong. Parks were basically empty, even the most popular rides were walk-ons for us, we even regretted buying G+ for the weekend because of how much we did without it, we got on boarding group 1 for TRON, the VQ for Guardians was basically open all day, and we got into Nomad Lounge later in the afternoon with little wait.

I can definitely say the heat played a role in keeping the locals away but the shear lack of crowds at the hotels (the poly of all places had availability the entire weekend) and the fact that park reservations never ran out, tells me Disney's pricing is taking a toll on people travelling. When it costs 40 dollars for two people to ride Tron more than once, you've got a serious problem brewing.