Attendance Tracker

[UniversalRBLX]

It's the "Potter" effect: people delaying their vacations.

 

[UNIrd]

As a passholder, I didn't realize how out-of-touch I was with how much park tickets cost now until I was there this weekend. Walking in to DAK on Friday, the ticket booths showed a 1-Day 1-Park ticket was $122, while DHS on Saturday and Epcot on Sunday were $129. I know they had been pricing MK higher so does that mean it's in the $135 range now?

If someone would've asked me, I would've said about $105.

 

[bob albert]

As a passholder, I didn't realize how out-of-touch I was with how much park tickets cost now until I was there this weekend. Walking in to DAK on Friday, the ticket booths showed a 1-Day 1-Park ticket was $122, while DHS on Saturday and Epcot on Sunday were $129. I know they had been pricing MK higher so does that mean it's in the $135 range now?

If someone would've asked me, I would've said about $105.

One days are insane and out of touch with inflation and most of the rest of the industry .It really doesn't make a lot of sense that local passes are so cheap when Disney is able to count on charging such higher rates for everyone else.

 

[SeventyOne]

Christmas spending up over 5%, lowest gas prices in a while, DHS a construction zone that in theory guests are skipping because of Star Wars--and still MK only went to a Phase 1 closing NYE for a few hours.

Then January 2 free dining announced for this Summer.

Insert "Everything is fine" dog here.

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

Christmas spending up over 5%, lowest gas prices in a while, DHS a construction zone that in theory guests are skipping because of Star Wars--and still MK only went to a Phase 1 closing NYE for a few hours.

Then January 2 free dining announced for this Summer.

Insert "Everything is fine" dog here.

Once again, if they were trying to price people out so they could cut services like some here claim, they wouldn’t be doing the dining thing.

 

[JoeCamel]

Once again, if they were trying to price people out so they could cut services like some here claim, they wouldn’t be doing the dining thing.

I think that was tried a few years ago and found not to work so well, now it is "take all you can as fast as you can". They got things to pay for.

 

[Mad Dog]

Now they've (WDW) also added 30% hotel discounts during the Peak summer weeks of July & August. Projections must be softer than ice cream melting in the Florida summer heat. .

 

[Scott W.]

Now they've (WDW) also added 30% hotel discounts during the Peak summer weeks of July & August. Projections must be softer than ice cream melting in the Florida summer heat. .

Imagine all the people booking to go see Star Wars because they seen summer 2019 for Disneyland.

 

[JoeCamel]

Imagine all the people booking to go see Star Wars because they seen summer 2019 for Disneyland.

Gee, people get confused about what is where?
Can you direct me to HP world please? Says the guest in DHS

 

[bob albert]

Free Dining makes sense if you think about it. The change to dynamic pricing combined with the ticket requirements means Disney is already extracting so much more money during this time that they can pretty much give away the dining. Between ticket and hotel rates it has to cost at least $100 a day extra for a family of four in the summer.

Imagine all the people booking to go see Star Wars because they seen summer 2019 for Disneyland.

I doubt that is very much a factor if all stars is hitting $50 a night on priceline.

 

[Nick]

Free dining hasn't been a good deal in about a decade imo. Maybe with dynamic pricing that's changed now, but that's only because everything is increasing in price much faster than the rate of inflation. All "free" dining is is a marketing play to get people to book simply because they think they're getting a good deal.

 

[bob albert]

Free dining hasn't been a good deal in about a decade imo. Maybe with dynamic pricing that's changed now, but that's only because everything is increasing in price much faster than the rate of inflation. All "free" dining is is a marketing play to get people to book simply because they think they're getting a good deal.

I meant free dining is a worse deal with dynamic pricing when they attach it to more expensive times of the year for the other requirements because it would be a net wash for many budget minded people. When you were able to get free dining during the value season a few years ago it was most certainly a very good deal if you could fill a value hotel with four people esp four adults. Actually it may be still a good deal for a very small number of days considering I think it does extend into September which is value season I believe.

 

[Scott W.]

Free Dining makes sense if you think about it. The change to dynamic pricing combined with the ticket requirements means Disney is already extracting so much more money during this time that they can pretty much give away the dining. Between ticket and hotel rates it has to cost at least $100 a day extra for a family of four in the summer.

I doubt that is very much a factor if all stars is hitting $50 a night on priceline.

If you’re adding flights and tickets on top of it for a family of 4, it’s a huge deal.

Free dining hasn't been a good deal in about a decade imo. Maybe with dynamic pricing that's changed now, but that's only because everything is increasing in price much faster than the rate of inflation. All "free" dining is is a marketing play to get people to book simply because they think they're getting a good deal.

Yup, looking at it for last year, it was a crappy deal.

 

[Disneyhead]

It's fairly common for Disney to increase prices and then when there are soft periods, to throw out a few discounts.

 

[bob albert]

It's fairly common for Disney to increase prices and then when there are soft periods, to throw out a few discounts.

yea and they have made a dynamic pricing structure to reflect the soft periods and then changed the discounts to the opposite periods. This is historically not common at all.

 

[Mad Dog]

BUT....looking at Touring Plans daily crowd calendar, it sure looks like WDW & Universal have had a heck of a good 2 week Holiday season. (Disclaimer: Crowd calendar is only a good indicator of how crowded a park is, not an actual attendance count)

 

[Nick]

BUT....looking at Touring Plans daily crowd calendar, it sure looks like WDW & Universal have had a heck of a good 2 week Holiday season. (Disclaimer: Crowd calendar is only a good indicator of how crowded a park is, not an actual attendance count)

USF & IOA didn't get all that busy until Friday the 21st, which was the first weekend that Orlando schools were out. Earlier that week, there were a few days with less than 15,000 people in USF. Most of the "Hell week", crowds were around 35-40k, except for last Friday, when both parks hit capacity. Navigating the park never felt hard, the wait times were pretty significant though all week. This is where KZ being open is both a good and a bad thing. Good bc it keeps the park capacity up in short term, but bad because if there was a major E ticket or two back there, capacity would be so much higher.

 

[Mad Dog]

USF & IOA didn't get all that busy until Friday the 21st, which was the first weekend that Orlando schools were out. Earlier that week, there were a few days with less than 15,000 people in USF. Most of the "Hell week", crowds were around 35-40k, except for last Friday, when both parks hit capacity. Navigating the park never felt hard, the wait times were pretty significant though all week. This is where KZ being open is both a good and a bad thing. Good bc it keeps the park capacity up in short term, but bad because if there was a major E ticket or two back there, capacity would be so much higher.

Good to hear that. That basically fits in with the 'two week' time frame I was talking about. And Thurs. Fri. Sat. should be pretty decent too. I'd guess the really good weather has helped too....I recall some past 2 week Holiday stretches where Universal would get a number of 6,7,8 level crowds interspersed with the level 10's. This year it's been straight level 10's except for two days of level 8's, for that two week period. It seems Universal is starting to catch up to WDW, which kind of owned Christmas weeks in the past, for the Christmas week crowds. Not quite there , but moving in the right direction.

 

[Nick]

Good to hear that. That basically fits in with the 'two week' time frame I was talking about. And Thurs. Fri. Sat. should be pretty decent too. I'd guess the really good weather has helped too....I recall some past 2 week Holiday stretches where Universal would get a number of 6,7,8 level crowds interspersed with the level 10's. This year it's been straight level 10's except for two days of level 8's, for that two week period. It seems Universal is starting to catch up to WDW, which kind of owned Christmas weeks in the past, for the Christmas week crowds. Not quite there , but moving in the right direction.

It is, but the park touring dynamic is different at WDW than at UOR as well.

At WDW, the parks are spread out enough where most people only do one park per day. At UOR, both IOA and USF are either a 5 minute walk or a train ride away from each other. So the real reason for all days being 10's is because most people have park hoppers now, meaning that the parks don't really slow down until near park close. And just imagine a capacity day at both parks. I don't think of it as x number of people are in USF and y are in IOA, I think of it as 100,000 or so being there between the parks. The only WDW park that can compete with that number is MK and while neither Universal park can, the sheer amount of people being there between the two parks with most of them likely having park hoppers makes the parks feel more constantly crowded.

 

[Mad Dog]

It is, but the park touring dynamic is different at WDW than at UOR as well.

At WDW, the parks are spread out enough where most people only do one park per day. At UOR, both IOA and USF are either a 5 minute walk or a train ride away from each other. So the real reason for all days being 10's is because most people have park hoppers now, meaning that the parks don't really slow down until near park close. And just imagine a capacity day at both parks. I don't think of it as x number of people are in USF and y are in IOA, I think of it as 100,000 or so being there between the parks. The only WDW park that can compete with that number is MK and while neither Universal park can, the sheer amount of people being there between the two parks with most of them likely having park hoppers makes the parks feel more constantly crowded.

Good point :thumbsup:...Yes, Universal Execs. says 80% of all tickets are park hoppers since HE opened. I tour that way also. I almost always do both parks every day I'm there. Before HE, I rarely did both, even though they're only a short 5 minute walk away. HE is the gift (for Universal) that keeps on giving....And, yes, the parks almost always have a crowded feeling now. I usually go in slow to moderate seasons. The ride lines are often short, but the streets are still usually crowded with people. So the parks usually never feel dead.