Current crowds: Temporary boost? Or permanent shift?

[MakiraMarlena]

Some of the positions they need help with, like culinary and housekeeping, they are giving signing bonuses for. If there's any former CMs still waiting to be called back (assuming they want to be called back), they may be in entertainment.

It might also take international travel to become a thing again. I'm working on a trip to London and US still requires a negative test to reenter although there's no more quarantine there. Many still don't want to run the risk of getting stuck in another country.

 

[Kmedders]

I think a lot of those people will be disappointed when they "look elsewhere" and realize that COVID didn't just make Disney worse, it made everywhere worse. Don't like the labor shortage taking away daily housekeeping at Port Orleans French Quarter? Come on down to Ocean City, New Jersey where the labor shortage will have you waiting 45 minutes for some fish tacos. Don't like inflation's impact on QS F&B prices at Cosmic Ray's? Come on down to Lake Compounce where chicken strips and fries are $14.99.

Such a good point. This is not a Disney issue - it's an everywhere issue.

 

[Kmedders]

There is also a subset of the population that is going to continue to go to Florida for vacations due to the relaxed vaccine requirements. My kids cannot have the vaccine - therefore, cruises are off the table for us, Hawaii is out of the picture, etc.

 

[bjcaed]

hoping the reinstating of the College Program will help build the workforce. I now a lot of kids headed there for summer and fall.
We can hope

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Some of the positions they need help with, like culinary and housekeeping, they are giving signing bonuses for. If there's any former CMs still waiting to be called back (assuming they want to be called back), they may be in entertainment.

It might also take international travel to become a thing again. I'm working on a trip to London and US still requires a negative test to reenter although there's no more quarantine there. Many still don't want to run the risk of getting stuck in another country.

International travel and international labor. Huge percentages of the staff at World Showcase, Animal Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom Lodge come here on cultural representative programs, which require a specific type of visa. Then you have the more traditional immigrant visas that have a huge backlog right now due to COVID.

 

[Haagen Dawgs]

I’ll take the opposite view. Attendance was already spiking pre-Covid in 2019. In fact, park revenues nearly mirrored each other, though the sources of that revenue were quite different in the details. The population continues to increase, Disney continues to build on their existing 34,000 rooms, and they learned through Covid that they can cut a bunch of corners and demand won’t be hampered. I think the crowds are here to stay and capacity limits will continue to be reached.

 

[TwinsDadG]

As part of this...has anyone seen better dining options? Do we think this will also level off? Near impossible to secure any dining reservations...and now only 60 days out!!

 

[Darcy03231]

As part of this...has anyone seen better dining options? Do we think this will also level off? Near impossible to secure any dining reservations...and now only 60 days out!!

Honestly, we found the best thing was to eat off-site. Last trip we stayed at AKL and it was really easy to get out onto 192. We'd typically have a big breakfast, snack in the park and then go off-site for an early dinner. This only works if you have a car though.

If staying on-site without a car you're kind of stuck. I think that the restaurants in Disney Springs are better than those in the parks, if you want to go that route.

 

[zillayen]

As part of this...has anyone seen better dining options? Do we think this will also level off? Near impossible to secure any dining reservations...and now only 60 days out!!

Keep checking! I found spots this week for plenty of dining options when we are there next week. We won’t be at the most popular places, but we for sure have somewhere to eat dinner each night at a reasonable time that’s convenient for the park we’re in that day.

And I always check periodically when we’re there for what’s available the next day since there’s that 1 day cancellation rule. Sometimes stuff pops up then!

 

[Day-al]

Another aspect to consider.. the future of gas prices and their effect on the transportation sector as well as food and beverage. Which are both big components in most people’s vacations. Will that diminish crowds or the travel industry as a whole? I hope not, but at this point anything is possible.

 

[Canadisney Fly]

Just a thought on the crowds - there is more to it than the number of people (bear with me here). If January or March attendance is feeling like Christmas, but there is still availability at the resorts (which I did see when looking at a possible March trip), I suspect it's a combination of a) more people staying offsite or locals with APs, and b) COVID-related staffing issues. As others have noted, service EVERYWHERE is compromised, supply chains are disrupted, lines are longer for everything, so many aspects of the experience that we normally attribute to park attendance are likely higher than what would have been experienced in the past.

A delay in getting a ride or two back on line (especially if it's a popular one) will push substantial crowds out into the main arteries, less-experienced staff create inefficiencies in the system, a general reduction in level of tolerance for accepting things being "less than" after two years of restriction - death by a thousand cuts.

Reading the reports and just seeing the impacts of the pandemic on day to day living has caused me to readjust my expectations for my trip to WDW in August this year with my 80 year old aunt and 16 year old son - I will try to avoid the natural tendency to compare it to previous visits and treat it as a "first trip in a (not quite post-) pandemic world". I may even ask for a First Time button . After two years of relative isolation, I find myself being far less comfortable in ANY crowd!

 

[modavi]

That’s a great point, one I had not considered. It’s kind of like a traffic jam where one errant car breaking at the wrong time causes a chain reaction leading to a traffic jam. I wonder when these staffing issues might finally get sorted out, or if this is the new norm going forward.

 

[kimmar067]

WARNING: This is NOT a political statement.

Do you think that many people are now CANCELING their WDW trip because of the 'dispute' between Florida/Desantis and WDW, or are they in the minority? Just wondering....

 

[kimmar067]

Just a thought on the crowds - there is more to it than the number of people (bear with me here). If January or March attendance is feeling like Christmas....

I can attest to that...we were there end of January, which is typically 'slow season' and it was very difficult getting reservations for an on-property resort , as well as ADR's for restaurants...