Attendance Tracker

[Disneyhead]

You probably know more than me, raising my questions of people adjusting Orlando vacations less than a month before. It's very possible it's down 20% year over year, I don't buy the Pulse/Gator/etc issues. Same for the country being "more divided than ever" causing issues.

The issue is Disney's aggressive pricing, lack of new attractions, deferred maintenance, and entertainment and hours cuts at.....WDW.

It's not Pulse/gators.

Disney pissed off their core demo. End of story.

 

[Galaxy Defender]

Coming from the coal fields of West Virginia, that is true in more ways than one.

Never thought of it that way. Very true.

 

[sparky]

The issue is Disney's aggressive pricing, lack of new attractions, deferred maintenance, and entertainment and hours cuts at.....WDW.

It's not Pulse/gators.

Disney pissed off their core demo. End of story.

and just isn't that the saddest part? They had the most dedicated fan base, and they just alienated them.

 

[Brian G.]

Today, Animal Kingdom was pretty dead. Got there around 12 pm, and the parking lot seemed empty. Safaris was walk-on for most of the time I was there, and FotLK was about 65-70% full during our viewing. You wouldn't have guessed it was July. It reminded me of pre-Everest crowds.

 

[Galaxy Defender]

The issue is Disney's aggressive pricing, lack of new attractions, deferred maintenance, and entertainment and hours cuts at.....WDW.

It's not Pulse/gators.

Disney pissed off their core demo. End of story.

I still think the bigger part of the attendance drop is a heavy loss of Brazilians. They have a strong love of WDW. That will come back as their economy recovers. Losses due to what you list will only come back if Disney earns them back.

 

[Mad Dog]

Today, Animal Kingdom was pretty dead. Got there around 12 pm, and the parking lot seemed empty. Safaris was walk-on for most of the time I was there, and FotLK was about 65-70% full during our viewing. You wouldn't have guessed it was July. It reminded me of pre-Everest crowds.

The line times for AK, Epcot & DHS on Friday, were among the lowest I've seen all year. MK though was a high moderate crowd....Universal Studios was high moderate and IOA was low moderate. (per TP)...... and keep in mind that WDW ride times have been inflated (Len Testa is guessing 15% plus inflated line times) this year due to staffing cuts and My Magic+ modifications. So that essentially means that AK, Epcot, and DHS were really low. That's been the story on WDW all week.

 

[Galaxy Defender]

The line times for AK, Epcot & DHS on Friday, were among the lowest I've seen all year. MK though was a high moderate crowd....Universal Studios was high moderate and IOA was low moderate. (per TP)...... and keep in mind that WDW ride times have been inflated (Len Testa is guessing 15% plus inflated line times) this year due to staffing cuts and My Magic+ modifications. So that essentially means that AK, Epcot, and DHS were really low. That's been the story on WDW all week.

Amazing.

My Magic+, Disney's answer to Skynet.

 

[epcyclopedia]

Speaking of Skynet - with MM+ they should know how many guests plan to attend a few weeks out and even be able to staff some hourly things accordingly.

Why do I get the feeling the data is there but being ignored?

 

[Galaxy Defender]

Speaking of Skynet - with MM+ they should know how many guests plan to attend a few weeks out and even be able to staff some hourly things accordingly.

Why do I get the feeling the data is there but being ignored?

The cynic in me says there is a difference between knowing how much to staff and how much you want/are willing to staff.

 

[epcyclopedia]

I think part of it is that MM+ also provides data that won't trend to fit anyone's prerogative.

So instead of things changing because of the reality versus the fantasy - it is ignored.

Imagine if you had a ride/show that the fandom said no one liked. But your guest surveys said it was fine and even enjoyed by some.

Surveys win right?

But then, even on your busiest days, guests won't book at FP+ for the attraction.

I think the switch where it doesn't force 3 picks on you has proven very sobering for some.

 

[Galaxy Defender]

I think part of it is that MM+ also provides data that won't trend to fit anyone's prerogative.

So instead of things changing because of the reality versus the fantasy - it is ignored.

I hate it when reality gets in the way of fantasy.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Speaking of Skynet - with MM+ they should know how many guests plan to attend a few weeks out and even be able to staff some hourly things accordingly.

Why do I get the feeling the data is there but being ignored?

I think that was a proposed reason for MM+ that never panned out in reality.

 

[SkiBum]

The issue is Disney's aggressive pricing, lack of new attractions, deferred maintenance, and entertainment and hours cuts at.....WDW.

It's not Pulse/gators.

Disney pissed off their core demo. End of story.

You hit it on the head. Stagnant parks and a lack of new offerings. EPCOT has at least two pavilions shuttered, Mission Space was hampered by early bad press (and injuries) and people worrying a little about motion sickness, and just doesn't offer much else (World Showcase is enjoyable but lacking). Studios, well, enough has been said about that. AK's only real new offering was Everest (some years ago). MK brought the NFE which had one success (SDMT), one meh ride (although I like Little Mermaid), one very expensive meet-n-greet, and a restaurant. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

People want something new and they want new rides. A new show on the water isn't going to bring in fans. It just offers an enhancement. People can tell when parks have been ignored. I've talked about this before. My "home park" is Kings Island in Ohio. When Paramount owned it, they invested in some rides early on and then, after a few years, stated that they were going to add family-friendly rides. They ignored a huge core of their attendees. What happened? People went up to Cedar Point or other parks with more thrilling offerings and KI became kind of a ghost town. Cedar Fair purchased the Paramount parks, began investing in the parks, cleaning up the parks, and adding thrill rides. KI has experienced much better attendance. So, new rides bring new visitors and repeat visitors. Disney set up the standard for the modern day theme park but has now ignored what made them successful

Earlier this week, I set up my FP+ selections (which I still hate) for a trip in mid-September. I get that it is back-to-school time but I was able to select SDMT each day as well as Frozen (if I actually ride it is another question). I have never seen the FP+ offerings of everything as I did this time.

 

[Galaxy Defender]

Theme Park Insider has weighed in on the attendance debate. Not that much new in it, but the reader comments are interesting. The replies are level headed and all seem to agree traffic is down.

Is theme park attendance up or down this summer?

 

[Galaxy Defender]

Most the comments here have been about WDW. How have the crowds been at UO so far this summer. When I was there in early June it seemed about normal.

 

[SeventyOne]

Yeah, Orlando is WDW for many people from away. There is no city, there is no Doc Phillips, there is no Tupperware or Lockheed. I know because I was just as unaware when I first drove on I4. I assumed it would be gentle-drive-happy-town. I assume the rest of the country assumed this, or assumed this until recently.

Go on the DIS some time, people ask how far to a restaurant downtown or even Yellow Dog in Gotha, thinking it's right off property, maybe a 5-minute cab ride. Ditto Magic games.

 

[Disneyhead]

Go on the DIS some time, people ask how far to a restaurant downtown or even Yellow Dog in Gotha, thinking it's right off property, maybe a 5-minute cab ride. Ditto Magic games.

Mmmmm, Yellow Dog. Love that place.

 

[blue180]

I think BriMan hit the nail on the head back on page 1. We used to make our way down to UOR at least twice a year from the NYC area, but have started to realize that it is becoming expensive for the few days we are actually there. I think we did a comparison of how this past March we could have done 3 days at Universal or 6 days in Puerto Rico. Granted, it also depends on the type of vacation you are looking to go for, but it is interesting just as prices are increasing and in many ways being hard to justify spending less days there when you could be somewhere else longer.

 

[Mad Dog]

And, Disneyland was also slow for the Fourth of July holidays.I mentioned that earlier, but it's probably part of the answer of why WDW is slow this week. No Pulse or gator in Anaheim.....And, though Universal Orlando was slow on the 4th (that's really not one of their better days anyway, since they don't have much in the way of fireworks), crowds since July 1 seem around normal for summer, looking at wait times.

 

[UNIrd]

USO doesn't seem too busy right now either. Other than Transformers at 120min and Minions at 60, nothing else is over an hour wait.