Crowds!

[Elephantay]

We love WDW, own DVC, and hate crowds! When it's wall to wall people we leave the parks and enjoy our resort or other places on property. Monorail and bus waits can be ridiculous. We know there's really no longer a slow time at WDW, and looking at the enormous new lodge getting built which will add thousands of onsite guests are wondering....Where is everyone going to go? What impact will this have on transportation and staying onsite perks ( few, but a little extra park time can go a long way). The parks are already mobbed, parties sell out, and the biggest resort ever isn't even open!

 

[Marthasor]

So, probably going to get flamed for this, but, if WDW really wanted to reduce crowds, they would eliminate the FL resident annual passes. You are making the assumption that most of the people crowding the parks are out-of-town, resort-staying guests. I would speculate it's locals. I find the crowd level dips fairly substantially when there are FL resident AP blockout dates. Just because WDW is building a gigantic new DVC resort doesn't automatically mean it will be filled with guests. If resort capacity were really an issue, there wouldn't still be a TON of resort availability for one of the busiest weeks of the year (Christmas through New Year's). Just checked and almost every resort is available. So, while parks may be crowded and parties are selling out, the resorts aren't. I think the new resort is just another DVC play to get people to buy more timeshare points - I don't know if that will actually translate into more people going to the parks. If demand were that high, we wouldn't be seeing numerous discounts and promotions to try to get people to book the resorts.

 

[OKW Lover]

Adding a resort will have no impact on the parks. All a new resort does is get more people to actually stay on property instead of an off property hotel. The number of people in the parks is unchanged.

 

[DizDaD7]

We love WDW, own DVC, and hate crowds! When it's wall to wall people we leave the parks and enjoy our resort or other places on property. Monorail and bus waits can be ridiculous. We know there's really no longer a slow time at WDW, and looking at the enormous new lodge getting built which will add thousands of onsite guests are wondering....Where is everyone going to go? What impact will this have on transportation and staying onsite perks ( few, but a little extra park time can go a long way). The parks are already mobbed, parties sell out, and the biggest resort ever isn't even open!

In my eyes, I see it as a possible 5th gate? One could hope, and it will take the thunder away from Epic perhaps...

 

[fla4fun]

So, probably going to get flamed for this, but, if WDW really wanted to reduce crowds, they would eliminate the FL resident annual passes. You are making the assumption that most of the people crowding the parks are out-of-town, resort-staying guests. I would speculate it's locals. I find the crowd level dips fairly substantially when there are FL resident AP blockout dates. Just because WDW is building a gigantic new DVC resort doesn't automatically mean it will be filled with guests. If resort capacity were really an issue, there wouldn't still be a TON of resort availability for one of the busiest weeks of the year (Christmas through New Year's). Just checked and almost every resort is available. So, while parks may be crowded and parties are selling out, the resorts aren't. I think the new resort is just another DVC play to get people to buy more timeshare points - I don't know if that will actually translate into more people going to the parks. If demand were that high, we wouldn't be seeing numerous discounts and promotions to try to get people to book the resorts.

I won’t flame you, because it’s all speculation, but I disagree that it’s locals driving up the crowds on a regular basis. Of course, it depends on your definition of local as well. I consider locals to be within a hour’s drive of WDW. You may consider the entire state of Florida as locals, or even Georgia since Disney has been focusing marketing towards Georgia residents recently. The most obvious local central Florida impact is at Epcot on the weekends for Food and Wine. However, I have been a local for decades and I don’t know anyone, other than my family, who goes to the theme parks regularly or has a Disney AP. I do know a couple of people with UO APs. Most of the locals I know can’t afford Disney or UO. The few who can try to go during the least crowded times because they don’t like crowds either. I think it’s more of a mix of locals and out of towners than you might expect, especially out of towners willing and able to drive vs. flying.

I think the reason the Disney resorts aren’t at full occupancy is because they are overpriced for what you get compared to off property resorts. The luxury resorts that have been built in Orlando are way above and beyond anything Disney offers. People who want a luxury experience aren’t staying at a Disney resort. On the other end of the spectrum, as more people become price conscious, they start looking for ways to reduce their travel budgets. One of the most obvious ways is staying off property. Disney has been running a lot of specials trying to entice people to stay on site, and as they continue to add inventory that will only make their occupancy situation worse.

Not sure what the best solution to the issue is. They can continue the huge price increases, which hasn’t helped much. They can further reduce capacity by putting everyone back on park reservations and limiting those reservations to a set capacity level low enough to affect crowding. They could do some mix of the two, or something totally different. I know you won’t catch me there Thanksgiving week, Christmas week, or the two weeks around Easter, ever.

 

[SL6827]

I forsee the 30 extra minutes in the morning becoming Deluxe exclusive.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I forsee the 30 extra minutes in the morning becoming Deluxe exclusive.

I sure hope not. They already have EEH. Also, the parks would be overcrowded with too many guests waiting for park opening.

 

[MyNewAP]

We love WDW, own DVC, and hate crowds! When it's wall to wall people we leave the parks and enjoy our resort or other places on property. Monorail and bus waits can be ridiculous. We know there's really no longer a slow time at WDW, and looking at the enormous new lodge getting built which will add thousands of onsite guests are wondering....Where is everyone going to go? What impact will this have on transportation and staying onsite perks ( few, but a little extra park time can go a long way). The parks are already mobbed, parties sell out, and the biggest resort ever isn't even open!

Attendance at all four parks is still well below 2019 levels, and there are still slower times, and slower days at each park. To me, the World feels pleasantly less busy than it did a decade ago

Most new changes seem focused on keeping attendance stagnant, but increasing how much each guest spends. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually WDW, like DL, limits how many people (including locals) can have APs at any given time.

 

[mom2rtk]

I think at WDW it very much depends on which park you are at on a given day. Especially during hard ticket party season.

But I also think Disney has gotten really good at "right sizing" staffing in the parks based on the data they have. So even when attendance is down, it still feels busy.