75 mins for HM!?!?!? Time to fire current Disney parks MGMT

[mefordis]

What on earth has Disney management done to the parks? I cannot fathom spring break causing consistent days of 75 minute lines for Haunted Mansion.

How has management not been fired? I recall various Disney departments encountering unexpected retirements and RIFs but nothing from the theme park side of operations. There is no reason why the current management overseeing Disney theme parks should still be employed. IIRC, Thomas Staggs is the chairman of Walt Disney Theme Parks and Resorts. Why is he still employed? The majority of us hardliners know the exact solution to these fast pass woes for people eater rides, why does Staggs not know how to resolve these issues.

Without question, any other employees/contractors responsible for the magic bands should also be fired. Just the reality of the situation. Enjoy

Fired? I heard Tom Staggs has his eye on Bob Iger's job when his contract is up. I think he thinks this brain child of his will get him there.

 

[MamaBear58]

You maybe meant to say stated your opinion on the matter? If by the obvious you meant your dislike for FP+ or anything they're doing in the parks currently then you mean to say your opinion of those things.

Exactly. Like I said, no reason to believe the OP is an expert on anything other than advancing his (possibly uneducated) opinions on management and PR. Moving on to a more positive thread...

 

[JeremyGNJ]

You mean a busy park is not a bad thing???

Actually, a busy park *IS* a bad thing. Customers don't like it, and it gives negative stories.

What is NOT a bad thing, is selling lots of admission tickets.

So if you can sell a lot of tickets, but people don't stay as long...it's a double win.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

third tier ride like Haunted Mansion.

I think it's fair to characterize Haunted Mansion as a second or third tier ride. (which was my original quote)

IMO:

Top tier: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road, Peter Pan
Second Tier: Winnie the Pooh, It's a Small World, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid
Third Tier: Haunted Mansion, Indianapolis Speedway, Dumbo, Philharmagic

 

[Kristine316]

I go every July.

Despicable Me is longer (as is The Simpsons) because of their ridiculously long pre-shows. Same usually goes for Shrek, Disaster and T2. Transformers was long most likely because the ride kept breaking down.

BTW - Sorry if I came off as rude. Pet peeve of mine is when Disney apologists try to scare people away from Universal. I love both. Not sure if you're one or not, but I think Universal Express is the bomb!!!

I love Universal Express too!! LOVE it.

I wish WDW would have done something similar.

I am thinking about skipping Disney this fall and just spending a week at Universal. I don't know if I can actually go to Orlando though and not do Disney at least a few days but, it is tempting with all this craziness and ubber planning of FP+.

I have a WDW package reserved and all my ADRs in place but, I told myself I would watch over everything this summer and see how things are shaking out and if it seems like it is a mess and stand by lines are insane, I may just cancel the WDW part of our vacation and extend Universal.

 

[Texas Crude]

Oh, and FTR, I was there during spring break last year. I went back to look at what touring plans reported for our MK day, and then what they reported for MK this year on the same Friday. The average wait time this year was 10 mins higher than it was last year. Both days were the same reported crowd level.

Granted, 10 mins isn't a huge deal, and I'm certainly not saying it is, but there was a difference. I'm sure some will say it is due to attendance, but I have faith in Josh's analysis which pretty much said that the attendance increase this year is similar to years' past, and years' past did not see the attendance increase have this kind of effect on wait times.

More rides have FP now, so of course standby waits will be longer. I don't think the average wait time reported now includes the hundreds that are walking on with FP.

Ultimately ride capacity is unchanged

 

[Angel Ariel]

More rides have FP now, so of course standby waits will be longer. I don't think the average wait time reported now includes the hundreds that are walking on with FP.

Ultimately ride capacity is unchanged

I completely agree. I wasn't complaining, just stating a fact. There are many here, though (not necessarily this thread, but on the DIS) who have specifically said that they don't believe FP+ is impacting wait times. I don't think the data supports that.

 

[Kristine316]

You shod check out Josh's crowd calendar at easywdw... You chose a non-recommended park during the busiest week of the year so far and are complaining that the rides are crowded?

I love Josh and his site and have sworn by it and have told everyone I know about it for awhile now... HOWEVER..

his daily recommended parks have been off lately. I have been going to Touring Plans every night to see the "how we did" section. TP uses their own data from actual crowds and compares it to what was predicted for each park for the day previous. They are usually off a little every day but, nothing major. I wasn't too alarmed by that but one thing I have noticed that really shocked me was that Easywdw has been off on its most recommended parks quite a few times recently. Too many times to just shrug it off and say it is a fluke.

Several times recently the busiest crowd of the day is actually the park Easy has most recommended.. for example one day he recommended AK as the best but, AK was a 10 that day and was the busiest park of the four.
Believe me I have been really surprised by this as I have always believed Easy was dead on in its daily predictions. Now, this is from TP's own data and I don't know where they get it or how they calculate it so, maybe they are off but, who knows.

I sort of think everything is out of whack right now. I am going to watch it over the coming months and see if this pattern continues.

 

[poeticdiabetic]

I've been there on Spring Break in 2006 and HM was 70 minutes wait-time. The crowds were so bad that we decided to go at the end of May and the crowds were better. So I didn't see a big deal with this post.

 

[LuvGoofy6]

We transferred from the Yacht Club to Universal's Hard Rock Hotel at Christmas one year. We were at the Yacht Club for 4 nights and at the Hard Rock 2 nights. I was worried that I should have stayed on Disney property and just travelled to Universal for the day. I was glad I didn't do that! The lines were pretty long at Disney with it being the Christmas season. It was busy at Universal too, but with the perk of express pass at Universal we seriously didn't wait more that 5 minutes and that only happened a few times. Usually we walked right on. Our family loved the express pass that Universal offers!

 

[Magpie]

Several times recently the busiest crowd of the day is actually the park Easy has most recommended.. for example one day he recommended AK as the best but, AK was a 10 that day and was the busiest park of the four.

What day was this?

I find it kind of hard to believe Animal Kingdom is ever a "10"... unless every other park is a 10, too. And I can't quite believe it's ever the busiest park of the four, either. That place is a ghost town two hours before close! And it closes early.

What would draw everyone to Animal Kingdom, over the other parks? Some kind of special event? Certainly, it couldn't have been the nighttime entertainment!

(I say with all affection for Animal Kingdom - it's one of my favourite parks! But most people don't seem to share my regard for it, or else they consider it a half-day park.)

 

[bksomody]

This is the fp return line. That's Crazy

 

[jtowntoflorida]

his daily recommended parks have been off lately. I have been going to Touring Plans every night to see the "how we did" section. TP uses their own data from actual crowds and compares it to what was predicted for each park for the day previous. They are usually off a little every day but, nothing major. I wasn't too alarmed by that but one thing I have noticed that really shocked me was that Easywdw has been off on its most recommended parks quite a few times recently. Too many times to just shrug it off and say it is a fluke.

So you're using data from TP to determine how easywdw did on its crowd predictions? That's sorta like comparing apples to oranges, IMO. The only way to validate easywdw's predictions are to know what the actual crowd levels were according to Disney's data.

 

[HydroGuy]

I am so sorry that you had to wait 75 minutes. But at DL 75 minutes is pretty normal. They have long lines for many rides. Submarines 120, SM 120 Soaring120, Bobsleds 100
They don't have FP+.
This is the reason I don't go there in summer, spring break, Christmas. I usually go midweek off season so I don't get lines.
I went to a Mickey's Halloween party and when we got in at 4:00 all the FP were gone from any FP ride. We had to wait until they made the non party people leave to ride.
Then it was the lines for trick or treating that were 120.

I agree 75 minute peak waits are normal at DLR during high season for a few rides like Space Mtn, Indiana Jones and Splash Mtn.

However...

I have been going to DL for almost 50 years and I have never seen a line for Matterhorn bobsleds anywhere near 100 minutes. Maybe 45 tops.

I have not seen 120 minutes for Nemo Subs since it re-opened in 2007. Since then I see that it sometimes gets up to 60 minutes. Space Mtn does get up to 90-100 minutes on busy days but 75 minutes at peak times is more normal. Not 120. Same thing with Soarin. It has been a long time since I have seen a line over 60 minutes long for that. Nothing like 120 for a long time.

 

[Planogirl]

I like both too. But...Universal express is not all that. You still have to wait. We waited like a half hour for Shrek in the express line, and that show was terrible.

The Shrek show isn't a continuous loader and actually takes a while. You will always have to wait for a show like that. As for it being terrible, that is a matter of opinion and in no way affects the lines.

 

[Planogirl]

I think it's fair to characterize Haunted Mansion as a second or third tier ride. (which was my original quote)

IMO:

Top tier: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road, Peter Pan
Second Tier: Winnie the Pooh, It's a Small World, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid
Third Tier: Haunted Mansion, Indianapolis Speedway, Dumbo, Philharmagic

You think that the Haunted Mansion is a lower tier than It's a Small World and the Jungle Cruise? Seriously? I won't even go into where I think the Journey of the Little Mermaid should fall.

Unfortunately for me (since it's my favorite ride), you seem to be the rare person who has such a low opinion of the Haunted Mansion.

 

[Kristine316]

What day was this?

I find it kind of hard to believe Animal Kingdom is ever a "10"... unless every other park is a 10, too. And I can't quite believe it's ever the busiest park of the four, either. That place is a ghost town two hours before close! And it closes early.

What would draw everyone to Animal Kingdom, over the other parks? Some kind of special event? Certainly, it couldn't have been the nighttime entertainment!

(I say with all affection for Animal Kingdom - it's one of my favourite parks! But most people don't seem to share my regard for it, or else they consider it a half-day park.)

I am just writing what I saw on Touring Plans. It was this past Tuesday I believe but, it could have been Wednesday.
No, according to TP not every other park that day was a "10"... according to their data AK was the only park that was a "10" that day. I do believe however that some of them were 9's.

You can believe what you want but, I am writing what TP had in their "how we did" section above the crowd calendar.

 

[mmbl]

I have been going to Disneyworld since 1977 There have always been very long lines during spring break, Easter, 4th of July and Christmas. 75 minutes is nothing new for Spring break. Actually it isn't bad!

I have been going since 1973 and with the old FP system, we NEVER waited more than 20 min even in stand-by lines and we have been to WDW every month of the year. If we end up with 75 minutes on our upcoming trip, we'll skip those attractions and won't renew our AP.

 

[mmbl]

Mr. Staggs is hardly going to be fired when revenues and attendance are at all time highs. Not to mention, running around shouting "you're fired!" at your employees may play well on TV, but in the real world, it's bad management. And companies that are run like that fail very quickly. (Personally, the "Spring Break" explanation makes sense to me, considering kids in Florida and many other states were off from school this past week.) Management is a tough job. I can't presume to guess what any of this looks like from the inside.

Companies that have lousy management or upper execs who screw up so badly, do fire them. That's what the BOD do- get rid of poor upper management.

 

[Kristine316]

So you're using data from TP to determine how easywdw did on its crowd predictions? That's sorta like comparing apples to oranges, IMO. The only way to validate easywdw's predictions are to know what the actual crowd levels were according to Disney's data.

I wrote down TP's actual crowd data as they call it, for each park and then went to Easywdw to look at his calendar and see what parks he recommended for that day. That is how I am coming up with the idea that he may have been off on some of his recommendations. I was curious. I am planning my entire fall vacation around his calendar and suggestions, I want to feel confident about that so I have been checking almost every day for awhile now.

I did comment that I wasn't sure where TP got their data or numbers when they came up with their "actual data" in the "how they did section". I also mentioned that it was possible TP's data could be off. I don't know what to make of it... but, it is curious.

I figured some would question what I wrote because Josh has some very hardcore, loyal supporters and they don't want to know anything that goes against that belief. Truth is I consider myself one of those supporters that has been pretty faithful to Easy's site and recommendations in the past.

I thought it was interesting.. I thought I would share it.. that's all.