I surfed over to the Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau, clicked on Research and found some interesting info. Orlando has about 111,000 hotel rooms of which, I think, about 25,000+ are Disney - the Lake Buena Vista area has about 35,000. There will be about 114,000 rooms in Orlando by end of year. The Lake Buena Vista area was -10.6% occupancy for June 2003 over 2002 - average room $98.37. The week of 8/3/03 thru 8/9/03 was -3.6% over 2002 - average room down to $85.93.
So even with the FTP, Disney is still probably way under where they want to be. A lot better, but not above water yet. They're probably hoping the improvement will continue without more deep discounts. Keep in mind that these stats are both compared to a fall off the cliff in 2001. The post-FTP stats ought to be interesting.
I'm not in marketing at Disney, but I'd bet they are tearing hair as to how to proceed over the next 6 months or so. Nearly 43,000,000 people are expected to visit Orlando this year, and Disney's got a LOT of room and attraction competition out there. Not even a third of these people (14 million+) will visit much less stay at Disney. (Yes, I was surprised by this, too.) All of this probably has a big effect on what's going on with room and AP discounts right now. They've tried giving rooms and tickets away. What next? I'd love to be a fly on the wall at marketing meetings.
For one thing, much as we'd like to think otherwise, I doubt that angry AP holders and Disboard discount hounds are #1 and 2 on the top of their to-do list. But it never hurts to let them know how you feel!
