Affect of Harry Potter on Disney

[GrammyJudy]

I was wondering what affect Harry Potter at Universal is having on WDW resorts. Are people so excited about it they are staying at UNiversal? I am hoping they are and that we will see nice discounts this winter to stay at WDW. I am Disney all the way...don't go anywhere else when we are in FL

 

[k&a&c'smom]

Well, for us, a Universal trip is short - 2 days, or 3 days at most. Our WDW stays are much longer; 6 days and up.

This summer, we are stopping at US for one night, to do the WWoHP; the rest of our 8-night stay is at WDW. If other WDW fans are like us, I doubt Disney sees much drop in attendance.

That being said, I expect good discounts to continue as long as the economy is rough - they have to entice people to spend on vacations.

 

[Minniemama350]

I love the series and the movies. have thought that in a few years, when things have died down a little over there, I would go spend a day during one of my WDW weeks. I went to US with my son's school. I don't hate it. I enjoyed myself, but it is NOT the same. I am sure there are US people who feel the same in reverse. Also, on my trips this year, I have not noticed a difference in attendance.

 

[KellyNY]

It definitely affects Disney but I do not think enough for additional discounts, they already have Free DP. And no matter how good discounts are if people want to visit WWOHP, they will. I agree that as long as economy low they will do discounts. BTW, this topic got extremely hot, it still should be somewhere on Community Board, if you interested to read it.

 

[KatMark]

Not sure how or if it will effect Disney. For us personally it doesn't effect us any way -- we are not Harry Potter fans.

 

[jlk806]

Definitely not HP fans here either the whole story makes no sense to me, what Ive actually bothered to pay attention to. Disney all the way for us too! Though we do like Sea World and are considering and offsite trip next spring to include Sea World/Discovery Cove.

 

[rie'smom]

It probably won't have much of an impact except maybe some who are travelling just to see WWOHP and then decide to throw in some WDW time.

 

[francie57]

It won't change our plans since we go to Universal at the beginning of every Disney trip anyway. We will be doing the same thing in three weeks.

 

[DisneyMomma2858]

We considered going just because it looked neat but I am not THAT big of a HP fan to give up a day at the world

 

[disykat]

My teens are Harry Potter fans and even DH and I have read the books. (We used the first couple as read alouds when the kids were smaller.) We're going in December and my kids don't want to take a day away from WDW to go. I was surprised, but when we went to California a few years ago and did Universal and DL in the same trip, they just weren't that impressed with Universal.

 

[Mr_G3]

My family would probably enjoy HP, but not over WDW. We might go one day if we could still do everything in our week at WDW that we like to do.

Having said that, I wonder if it didn't help out considerably when we were there in June. The parks were not nearly as crowded for our 2010 trip as they were in 2009. The only difference was in 2009 we were at WDW during the third week of June, and this year we were there from the 10th to the 16th. By the end of our stay, we realized we hadn't really waited in any lines for very long. The only attractions we needed to FastPass were Toy Story at DHS and Peter Pan at MK. Every thing else was nearly a walk-on. In 2009, we waited in several long lines at each park.

Could the HP opening have been the difference?

 

[Upatnoon]

The biggest impact on Disney is the economy. That said, where Harry Potter is hurting Disney the most is with regional visitors -- families who drive to Orlando and stay off-site. Disney can keep its resorts full with big discounts and then keep those guests from wandering off the reservation with magical express and free dining, but there is no doubt that more regional visitors are going to see Harry Potter because it is new. Nothing drives regional attendance better than a big, new attraction, and the last one I can think of for Disney was Expedition Everest in 2006. And for all the Orlando theme parks, the competion is about to get stiffer with Legoland Florida coming up next year.

 

[Burnt Toast]

Not sure how or if it will effect Disney. For us personally it doesn't effect us any way -- we are not Harry Potter fans.

As someone who has been to the Harry Potter "land" at Universal numerous times... I don't think it really does effect Disney at all. The "land" is just too small, not much to do, though the Butterbeer is good.

 

[RMulieri]

It doesn't really affect Disney all that much.WWoHP is a relatively small park with not much to do there, it could easily be done in less than a day.Disney will be just as busy as it always is, and Disney has alot more to do.

 

[goofy4prez]

I'm not sure how it affects WDW, but for my family it has no impact what so ever. We have no desire to see the attraction at Universal, we have never seen a HP movie, we have never read a book of HP, and we have no such desire to do so in the future.

 

[DznyDreams]

We're taking one day out of our WDW stay to visit UIO for Harry Potter. We've never been to UIO - not ever. I anticipate getting tired of the crowds quickly and catching a cab back to our beloved WDW sooner than anticipated by DH and DD. (I may be wrong....but that doesn't happen often. )

 

[ElizabethB]

Well, HP has lured us off-site for the first time in years! Our teens are big HP fans. So, we're doing 3 nights at Portofino Bay followed by 7 nights at Beach Club. We always rent a car and we don't do the dining plan, so, given the boys' HP enthusiasm, spending part of our vacation at Universal was a no brainer. We're excited to try Portofino Bay -- it looks like a gorgeous resort and a step or two above the Disney deluxes.

This is a first for us at Universal. Would we have gone to the Universal parks and stayed on-site at Universal without HP? Possibly, since we think the boys are at an age to really enjoy it. But, HP sealed the deal.

 

[ShatteredByLoss]

I tired to get my family to stop at WWoHP for a day to just 'see' what it was like. I was immediately labeled the 'Trouble Maker' and told that I was not allowed to burst the 'Disney Bubble' or there would be 'Consequences' LOL

So while I appreciate that they went ahead and made the world (and sincerely wish that Disney would have been able to add it to their portfolio) I don't think I'll be able to tear the family unit away from Disney anytime soon to go and see (and I'll quote) "One Ride, a new que line and some shops!" (end quote!)

Though, part of me still does want to take a peek. I don't think overall it will affect the main core of Disney's customer base. In my trio of misfits, only 1 out of the 3 were interested in going even for a day.

Loss

 

[Coconuts]

My friend visited the world last week and she and her family are huge HP fans. They were very excited to try it; they were able to do that and US in 1 long day. They still did Disney for the rest of the week and stayed at POR.

 

[ols386]

I'm not a Harry Potter fan, but I'm interested in going to see it when we go down next time. I'm really curious about it, that and the fact that there has been so much hype about it.

We would only go to Universal Studios for one day, and the rest of our time would be spent at WDW.