What is going on with Disney parks?

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The crowds on our last trip a few weeks ago October at MK were overwhelming and we go a few times a year for over 30 yrs, we have never witnessed so many people at MK.

The prices are going to go up and up and up for the foreseeable future..

Supply and Demand.

And the demand is getting higher from more international visitors, global economy doing better, as well as an increased local population.
Curious which week you went, I was there Oct 30th-Nov 4th and found the crowds to be incredibly low. I'm sure the week before/after Columbus day weekend would have been more crowded though.
 
Curious which week you went, I was there Oct 30th-Nov 4th and found the crowds to be incredibly low. I'm sure the week before/after Columbus day weekend would have been more crowded though.
1st and 2nd week... envious that you had low crowds :)
 
We were there October 4-12 and the crowds were not bad at all. Today one of my customers struck up Disney with me and we went off in left field as I always do when I meet another Disney fan but she had just got back from a mid October trip and she said it was nuts! Her and her husband both said the crowds were insane. They did MNSSHP and said never again. We did the party even though we said never again the last time and it was enjoyable. Different strokes for different folks. Crowds don't bother us, that's why we are going back Christmas!
 
Yeah, when at EC & HS the crowds were normal even during food and wine festival. We did spend most of our parks days at EC but the one day we went to MK it was bananas, perhaps the day, perhaps the time of day who knows. But it would never and I mean never make me regret going or prevent me from going again!

Love the Dis!
 


We were there October 4-12 and the crowds were not bad at all. Today one of my customers struck up Disney with me and we went off in left field as I always do when I meet another Disney fan but she had just got back from a mid October trip and she said it was nuts! Her and her husband both said the crowds were insane. They did MNSSHP and said never again. We did the party even though we said never again the last time and it was enjoyable. Different strokes for different folks. Crowds don't bother us, that's why we are going back Christmas!

Same time frame for me and if you wanted to see the crowds, they were all at MK on the 9th. And Epcot after 5 on the 4th. And Hollywood after 5 on the 11th.

Totally predictable days & places for it to be busy. The rest of the trip wasn't bad, but a non-Party day between Party days at MK was horrible, and the locals really do turn out on Friday nights!
 
Disney can change this* by adding a few park hours. Just that 1 hour daily EEMH at MK and AK made a huge difference to park flow. Obviously the 3hr EEMH at HS really spread guests out, but the experience shows what a tremendous effect cutting or adding an hour to a park day can have on crowds/waits.

HS is open 9a-9p right after RoR opens? Need more hours than that!

*ETA: I should clarify that changing this means giving more regular park hours during party season. They did have 1 hour EMH but only having 2 days a week to see fireworks without a party ticket also puts an immense strain on MK crowds. For Wed Oct 16th, closing was 10pm. That easily should've been 11pm. It was CL10 that day because of little opportunity for a full day at MK during the week. Disney needs to fix the party season hours.

This is why when asked what is the one thing I would change when it comes to the parks, it’s got to be the hours. I don’t care if they’re EMH or regular, just not a paid event. Consistent extended hours benefit us all, no matter where we stay and no matter what park we go to.

With hours consistently extended crowds spread out, one park is not going to be overwhelmed on the one day a week it has decent hours (hello MK), and wait times decrease which also decreases the need to stress as much about FP and plans. All of that leads to happier guests which in turn should lead to less stressed CMs which helps another one of those common complaints.
 
This is why when asked what is the one thing I would change when it comes to the parks, it’s got to be the hours. I don’t care if they’re EMH or regular, just not a paid event. Consistent extended hours benefit us all, no matter where we stay and no matter what park we go to.

With hours consistently extended crowds spread out, one park is not going to be overwhelmed on the one day a week it has decent hours (hello MK), and wait times decrease which also decreases the need to stress as much about FP and plans. All of that leads to happier guests which in turn should lead to less stressed CMs which helps another one of those common complaints.
A better environment for all!

I understand they need to watch Operation Expenses, but they are making a ton of money to warrant full hours. They probably enjoy making it so crowded so more people feel splurging for EMM or DAH is a value. Guest spending is up in one sector, while guest satisfaction plummets in another.
 


I don’t think they have final hours for December yet. Last year Xmas and New Years weeks the hours were way longer then currently listed for multiple parks. Hopefully they extend the hours this year or it will be a bigger zoo than previous years.
I'm wondering what are they waiting for... the memo it's going to be crowded?

Last year was the 1st in 10 years that Thanksgiving week saw MK open at 9am instead of 8am. It's busier than ever. Disney is making more money than ever. Even in dismal 2010 when the economy was still reeling they opened every day at 8am that week.

One GE ride (in a different park) opened in the slow month of Sept and WDW saw fit to open MK and AK at 8am with 7am EMH every day that month. Thanksgiving through New Years is going to be insanely packed with 9am openings. Hours+ will help, but will they do it? :earsboy:
 
I hope people have had enough already. I know I have. I HATE the new ticket pricing and the parking fees and how it feels compared to the "old" days

I'm there with you, the Disney bubble has totally popped for us. My fiancee just had a "special" birthday and requested only that we don't do theme parks. So we went to St. Augustine instead. I put in a little planning beforehand and we had a blast, it was such an awesome time.

On the trip home, we decided to stop at Disney Springs because it had been about a year since we'd visited. Wow, it was incredibly crowded for a random Sunday with some of the rudest guests I've ever seen. People openly smoking, walking around with their dogs (not service or even support animals, just straight up pets) letting them relieve themselves where ever, and cursing/yelling/fighting in public areas.

We had tickets for Epcot in three weeks at that point but promised each other, never again. We'll maybe consider WDW again when we have kids (yes, we're the cursed childless Millennials right now), but it isn't worth it to us now.

A few weeks later we went to Epcot and it was slammed. Counting just the tickets and the hotel room + parking + resort fees (we stayed on property but in an good neighbor hotel), it cost us more than the entire trip to St. Augustine and all we got were a few rides, an opportunity to spend money on overpriced food and alcohol, and ridiculous crowds.

I loved WDW. I've been going regularly for nearly 20 years, and semi-regularly before that. I have been obsessed with the parks and the thought + magic that goes into them, but they feel dead to me now. As a life long fan of Star Wars the bungling of Star Wars has just confirmed that we're finished with Disney until things change.

It's fine if you still love Disney, no disrespect there. You do you, but I'm done defending and supporting a multibillion dollar multinational corporation.
 
So this is a little off topic but remember when the ShopDisney orders used to come in a nice white box with the blue tissue paper that made each order feel special? That is no longer the case. I did some Christmas shopping and received my order yesterday in a plain brown box. Not really a huge deal but not identifiable as a Disney order either. One of the items that I ordered was an ear hat ornament for my daughter for Christmas. Nothing was wrapped and the ornament was just thrown into the large box with everything else. Of course it was broken after being shipped with no padding! I called and it will be replaced with no problem but it just seems like another area of cost cutting that left me disappointed with Disney.
 
My last order was in a brown box, but it still had the nice tissue paper inside. All the ornaments were also individually boxed with either bubble wrap (the Trader Sam's Hatbox Ghost ornaments) or formed styrofoam (Sketchbook ornaments).
 
It's fine if you still love Disney, no disrespect there. You do you, but I'm done defending and supporting a multibillion dollar multinational corporation.

I understand and agree with many of your comments, but not sure that Disney being a multibillion/multinational corporation needs defending.
 
On the trip home, we decided to stop at Disney Springs because it had been about a year since we'd visited. Wow, it was incredibly crowded for a random Sunday with some of the rudest guests I've ever seen. People openly smoking, walking around with their dogs (not service or even support animals, just straight up pets) letting them relieve themselves where ever, and cursing/yelling/fighting in public areas.

You really did pick a bad time to go. We have spent the day and night at Disney Springs on every trip from 2016 till now and never seen anything like your describing. Last Christmas was super crowded but no cursing or dogs pissing everywhere. Sure we heard a random curse word but nothing over the top. Even this past fall break (October 4-12) we didn't see what your describing and we hit DS 3 times including one Friday night. Sorry you had such a terrible time! Maybe next time will be better.
 
Here's a radical idea. Go with me and don't think about money. What if they nixed the parties and the after hours and all that jazz and just went back to full hours for all? That would certainly spread out crowds - the early risers would be there early and the night owls would be there late. Every night is a fireworks night. Maybe alternate Christmas/Halloween ones with HEA since a lot of people do make MK a two day park. Do the special parades at night and F of F in the day. I'd be there every Halloween and Christmas season if this were the case. We've only ever done 1 party in our 2 years of APs because it basically costs my family of 4 (now that littlest is 3) $400 for 5 hours. Not cool. I really want to see the Christmas parade, but no parade is worth $400. Disney would save money by not having to pay for the "free stuff" like candy and cookies and make money by making folks in the parks at those hours pay for regularly priced food/beverage options.

Yeah - never gonna happen, I know, but not having to juggle around parties would be wonderful!
 
Here's a radical idea. Go with me and don't think about money. What if they nixed the parties and the after hours and all that jazz and just went back to full hours for all? That would certainly spread out crowds - the early risers would be there early and the night owls would be there late. Every night is a fireworks night. Maybe alternate Christmas/Halloween ones with HEA since a lot of people do make MK a two day park. Do the special parades at night and F of F in the day. I'd be there every Halloween and Christmas season if this were the case. We've only ever done 1 party in our 2 years of APs because it basically costs my family of 4 (now that littlest is 3) $400 for 5 hours. Not cool. I really want to see the Christmas parade, but no parade is worth $400. Disney would save money by not having to pay for the "free stuff" like candy and cookies and make money by making folks in the parks at those hours pay for regularly priced food/beverage options.

Yeah - never gonna happen, I know, but not having to juggle around parties would be wonderful!

We all have these fond memories of the Disney movies from when we were kids and how Disney is so magical and family oriented. We grew up with vision and then our kids and now the grandchildren and we all get lost in the nostalgic of it all and we truly want to believe that Disney is a magical place and that they really do care about us and our family's but the cold hard truth of the matter is Disney is a business first and foremost. They are going to do whatever it takes to make as much money as they possibly can, even if it means pricing out the lower income families, that's the true Disney. So yea, they could do alot of things differently to make the parks less crowded and more enjoyable for everyone but that just don't make them money. Supply and demand is one of the key ingredients for making money and Disney has perfected the art of creating demand and then raising the price on supply. The problems that we all see and experience is not because Disney isn't addressing the issues, they are creating them. Everything we see at Disney from the fp, parties, tours, EMH, and so on are all by design with only one thing in mind, how to maximize profits. So, as much as we all would like to believe that Disney has our best interest in mind, the fact remains that it is nothing more than the almighty $1 that drives Disney.
 
Disney is consumer driven, because it is a for-profit business. That's a good thing if you believe in capitalism. Disney is impressive partially because it is data driven, it collects a ton of all kinds of data, and they adjust strategy based on the data. Where does that data come from? The consumer. Disney isn't a saint and it isn't a villain, it's a business.
 
Disney is consumer driven, because it is a for-profit business. That's a good thing if you believe in capitalism. Disney is impressive partially because it is data driven, it collects a ton of all kinds of data, and they adjust strategy based on the data. Where does that data come from? The consumer. Disney isn't a saint and it isn't a villain, it's a business.

From the beginning Disney has portrayed itself as a place for kids and families of all ages to come and get lost in the magic, place where dreams come true, a place that really cares about the kids and bringing families closer, a loving and nurturing place for families. When you portray such an image, people tend to forget that Disney is still a business and it is for that reason that people feel like they are a villain when they do some of the things Disney has done lately. The reality is, Disney is not just a business but they are big business Corp now and as a business they are doing what they feel is right to make the most money possible, and even if as a business they aren't doing anything wrong, they are definitely showing their true colors and it will have an impact on how people view the supposedly most magical place on earth.
 
We all have these fond memories of the Disney movies from when we were kids and how Disney is so magical and family oriented. We grew up with vision and then our kids and now the grandchildren and we all get lost in the nostalgic of it all and we truly want to believe that Disney is a magical place and that they really do care about us and our family's but the cold hard truth of the matter is Disney is a business first and foremost. They are going to do whatever it takes to make as much money as they possibly can, even if it means pricing out the lower income families, that's the true Disney. So yea, they could do alot of things differently to make the parks less crowded and more enjoyable for everyone but that just don't make them money. Supply and demand is one of the key ingredients for making money and Disney has perfected the art of creating demand and then raising the price on supply. The problems that we all see and experience is not because Disney isn't addressing the issues, they are creating them. Everything we see at Disney from the fp, parties, tours, EMH, and so on are all by design with only one thing in mind, how to maximize profits. So, as much as we all would like to believe that Disney has our best interest in mind, the fact remains that it is nothing more than the almighty $1 that drives Disney.
I think this is really a double edged sword for Disney. I don't disagree with you.
Millions of people have bought in to Disney as a purveyor of dreams, of perfect childhoods, of fairytales come true. So, they don't get the leeway others do on change, or even the smallest perceived service failure. On the other hand, with nostalgia tinted glasses, people forgive them more because, well, it's Disney.
As I age, I more, and more, value my perceived view of the care shown to me by businesses I spend money with. This makes me both easier and more difficult to market to.
As of now, I feel less care from Disney than I felt on my first visit. So, I will spend less with them, unless they make me feel better. But, actually, it is not in their interest to bother, since there are a million people who will spend and will buy in emotionally even more wholeheartedly than I have done.
But they also trade on that sense of care and dream and nostalgia, so, eventually, there will be a more generalised tipping point.
 
Here's a radical idea. Go with me and don't think about money. What if they nixed the parties and the after hours and all that jazz and just went back to full hours for all? That would certainly spread out crowds - the early risers would be there early and the night owls would be there late. Every night is a fireworks night. Maybe alternate Christmas/Halloween ones with HEA since a lot of people do make MK a two day park. Do the special parades at night and F of F in the day. I'd be there every Halloween and Christmas season if this were the case. We've only ever done 1 party in our 2 years of APs because it basically costs my family of 4 (now that littlest is 3) $400 for 5 hours. Not cool. I really want to see the Christmas parade, but no parade is worth $400. Disney would save money by not having to pay for the "free stuff" like candy and cookies and make money by making folks in the parks at those hours pay for regularly priced food/beverage options.

Yeah - never gonna happen, I know, but not having to juggle around parties would be wonderful!

This would be nice but unfortunately as much as the parties are selling I don't see them going away. We went to a MNSSHP in September and it was insanely packed! Why change when they can make all of that extra money? People are willing to pay and until that changes nothing else will
 
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