Is FP+ a rsponse to Disney expecting larger crowds overall in the next coming years?

[Stitch850]

Someone may have already addressed this, but I was at WDW and considering it was a week in-between Easter and Memorial and local schools haven't let out, it was swamped in my opinion. I tried to go to go to parks that both EasyWDW and Touring Plans said would be less busy, and I still thought it was very busy, but I'm curious because I've heard attendance rates are at an all time high and I'm curious if FP+ was a response to the expected higher attendance rates. It was so crazy during the week and the weekend, I don't plan on returning again for a while - and both sites said it would be 3 to 5 crowds - I guess we have different definitions of how many people that amounts to.

But I overall I was wondering if FP+ had anything to do with smoothing attendance across the parks, or not.

 

[mesaboy2]

I think that is a clear goal.

 

[shocker]

A real response to increased attendance would be a new park.

 

[TimothyG]

Yes. Attendance rates haven't really grown over the past quarter, but generally they are at all time highs.

I'm a shareholder so I listened in to the quarterly meeting this week and Disney made it clear that FP+ is partially an effort to help more evenly distribute guests through the park. This will help to alleviate traffic in some areas and allow more guests to be in the park at one time.

The other major reason for FP+ (really MyMagic+) is to get guests to pre-plan their vacations more. Guests who pre-plan their vacations tend to spend more money so Disney really wants to get more people to plan ahead. Makes sense because you are psychologically more likely to visit a park on a given vacation day if you have a guarantee that you'll ride a favorite attraction or have a specific experience.