January Occupancy WAAAY Down

[mitros]

I always admit when I am wrong so here goes...My family (except me-had to work) went to MGM today and it was PACKED. Now I know this is a holiday weekend and all but my wife said that no one appeared too worried about the economy today.

So my prediction that Jan would be dead, dead, dead was wrong, wrong, wrong. Maybe it'll come later, maybe not until things get worse or maybe, hopefully the economy will hang on to the point that not everybody is affected.

Anyway, for today at least MGM was crowded.

Yea, Peter, I am convinced from all I have been reading {not just on Disboards} that there will be no slow downs at WDW. Either now, in January, when it USED to be slow, or as the year goes on. Just watch and see.........As I have mentioned in several threads, Disney is agressively packing the parks any way they can. It's belly-to-back unless another catastrophy involving airplanes happens again as on 9/11. It was the only time things were really slow because people were afraid of terrorist activity.

 

[DisneyDadof3]

I always admit when I am wrong so here goes...My family (except me-had to work) went to MGM today and it was PACKED. Now I know this is a holiday weekend and all but my wife said that no one appeared too worried about the economy today.

So my prediction that Jan would be dead, dead, dead was wrong, wrong, wrong. Maybe it'll come later, maybe not until things get worse or maybe, hopefully the economy will hang on to the point that not everybody is affected.

Anyway, for today at least MGM was crowded.

Today was an Early Morning Hour for DHS so it should be more crowded. Also, it is picked as the park to avoid today by one professional touring plan. Either bad luck or bad planning.

 

[CanadianGuy]

It is 17 days into the New Year... Last weekend was marathon.. this weekend is a holiday.. A bit early to be prognosticating about how the economy isn't affecting Disney. (* Jim Hill did exactly that this week btw )

As a close friend with several CM's who rely on tips and crowds to make a living... I can assure you that despite what you feel on visits to the parks.. EVERYTHING including the number of bookings, the number of guests and the hours that CM's get.. are WAY down.

Next week will start seeing the SuperBowl crowds roll in .. but what is next Wednesday going to be like?

 

[dvc at last !]

Just got back on Wednesday and it didn't seem dead to me. I know I couldn't add a day at CSR because it was booked solid. Wait times were were on average 20-30 minutes with of course TSM and Soarin at 60. Of course this was over marathon weekend too.

My DH, DD and DS returned on Wednesday, too. They were there for the Marathon last Sunday. They arrived Friday returned Wednesday.
They said the parks had great crowds.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

My gut still has me hanging with Canadian Guy as I simply can't believe WDW will not be severly impacted. I was speaking of one park, on one day and not the resorts also.

My point for posting was that the Saturday crowd at MGM was unusually heavy and this report is coming from local AP holders who are quite good at reading the signs and I had stated here that the crowds would be way down - At this snapshot in time I was NOT correct. BUT (and this is a BIG but) I will add that RnR was down most of the day, Indy is closed, Sounds Dangerous closed and the Backlot tour was closed ... The crowds did have to go someplace (the other attractions).

 

[ntsammy5]

Anecdotal references are purely based on observation and opinion of what a large/small crowd is not on statistics - it's like the weather's feels like temperatures. The only one who knows what's happening is Disney and they're talking indirectly through all the deals they're offering and the cutbacks they're making. They wouldn't do that if they weren't feeling the affects.

When we were there in November with a couple of other families (we've all been before then) one family thought the crowds were down, another thought they were up and the third thought they were about the same as previous year's crowds. Take your pick.

 

[LVSWL]

My gut still has me hanging with Canadian Guy as I simply can't believe WDW will not be severly impacted. I was speaking of one park, on one day and not the resorts also.

My point for posting was that the Saturday crowd at MGM was unusually heavy and this report is coming from local AP holders who are quite good at reading the signs and I had stated here that the crowds would be way down - At this snapshot in time I was NOT correct. BUT (and this is a BIG but) I will add that RnR was down most of the day, Indy is closed, Sounds Dangerous closed and the Backlot tour was closed ... The crowds did have to go someplace (the other attractions).

Thanks for the info! Do you happen to know why Indy and Sounds Dangerous and Backlot were closed?

 

[doconeill]

Thanks for the info! Do you happen to know why Indy and Sounds Dangerous and Backlot were closed?

Sounds Dangerous I believe has been placed into the "seasonal" category, which means it is generally open only when they feel it necessary.

Studio Backlot is closed for refurb - report is they are adding a new pre-recorded speaker system to the trams.

No idea why Indy would be closed.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Anecdotal references are purely based on observation and opinion of what a large/small crowd is not on statistics - it's like the weather's feels like temperatures. The only one who knows what's happening is Disney and they're talking indirectly through all the deals they're offering and the cutbacks they're making. They wouldn't do that if they weren't feeling the affects.

When we were there in November with a couple of other families (we've all been before then) one family thought the crowds were down, another thought they were up and the third thought they were about the same as previous year's crowds. Take your pick.

My update was meant as NOTHING more than 'anecdotal evidence' ... I thought I made it clear that this was just an update on the crowd of one park on one day issued because I had swore up and down that after the Marathon week the Parks would be very, very slow and this was not the case yesterday.

It is true that many factors go into making a park busy and that things can be done to make a park 'look busy', like closing attractions (as I stated) or only opening a ride partially (two elevators instead of three at ToT).

It seems obvious to me that tough times are coming as at last report the 'buy 4 get three deal' hasn't even sold out! This seems very telling, but still at this point in time the Parks (or at least some of them) are appearing to be very crowded with extremely long wait lines (Toy Story was 80 minutes). When will it actually slow down? I'm not sure but I think it will have to eventually.

 

[ntsammy5]

My update was meant as NOTHING more than 'anecdotal evidence' ...

Sorry I didn't mean to sound like I was being critical of anyone here. I know this is all meant to give people the benefite of individual experiences.

 

[LVSWL]

Sounds Dangerous I believe has been placed into the "seasonal" category, which means it is generally open only when they feel it necessary.

Studio Backlot is closed for refurb - report is they are adding a new pre-recorded speaker system to the trams.

No idea why Indy would be closed.

Thanks!!

 

[CanadianGuy]

It seems obvious to me that tough times are coming as at last report the 'buy 4 get three deal' hasn't even sold out! This seems very telling, but still at this point in time the Parks (or at least some of them) are appearing to be very crowded with extremely long wait lines (Toy Story was 80 minutes). When will it actually slow down? I'm not sure but I think it will have to eventually.

The 4/3 offer has NOT sold out for a great many dates and I half expect the booking window to be extended past January 24th or whatever the current 'closing date' is.

If that doesn't happen, perhaps yet another offer will be foisted out there.

My sources indicate that there have been some dreadfully slow days and stretches already this year.. And February ain't lookin so hot.\

I hate to be "that guy" but when Jim Hill says "The economy hasn't affected Disney nearly as much as they expected.." -- I already start siding with the other side of the argument because he has been so dramatically and spectacularly wrong over and over in the past 24 to 36 months that at some point, presuming he's wrong again is just smart thinking.

 

[MJMcBride]

I just got back. It was real quiet until yesterday when it was crazy crowded

 

[asianway]

Indy was closed for a HS dance competition. There were groups of them everywhere, hence the large crowd at MGM

 

[doconeill]

Indy was closed for a HS dance competition. There were groups of them everywhere, hence the large crowd at MGM

Ironically, DW today put on a Showtime docu on the U.S. Jump Rope Championships from 2007 called "JUMP!", which took place at WDW. The main competition took place at the Milk House, but the exhibition of the winners was at (then) Disney/MGM Studios. I couldn't quite figure out if it was at the Indy theater (with an enclosure set up), or more likely at the Theater Of The Stars (or whatever it is - behind the faux San Francisco hill), which I have never seen so can't be sure.

 

[collcass]

The 4/3 offer has NOT sold out for a great many dates and I half expect the booking window to be extended past January 24th or whatever the current 'closing date' is.

If that doesn't happen, perhaps yet another offer will be foisted out there.

My sources indicate that there have been some dreadfully slow days and stretches already this year.. And February ain't lookin so hot.\

I hate to be "that guy" but when Jim Hill says "The economy hasn't affected Disney nearly as much as they expected.." -- I already start siding with the other side of the argument because he has been so dramatically and spectacularly wrong over and over in the past 24 to 36 months that at some point, presuming he's wrong again is just smart thinking.

This sounds spot on. The trickle down will come to Disney, though it is obviously slower to hit them than many other coroprations. Disney has been adjusting to the failing economy for quite some time now and I'm sure many of the adjustments they make are not seen by any of us visitors. ALso, as stated by previous posters, people book these vacation so far out that they have oodles of time to pay them off. The coming months are when it will be very evident just how hard hit they are.

We went in July 2008. While it was extremely packed at times, I had no problem switching my reservation. We were going to move to Wl for our last 4 nights but the kids enjoyed POR so much they wanted to stay. The CM at the front desk switched our ressie right over and even gave me an awesome AP rate. Thus was July 4th weekend. Actually it was the end of our trip so it would have been the w/e of the 12th.

Anyhow, it will be interesting to see what this year brings. Our trip is scheduled for Nov 20 -Dec 5. I know I probably won't get any good rates Thabksgiving wek but hopefully the following week!

 

[mitros]

Thanks!!

Yea, we were told that a while back by a CM that was leaving for further education. He said they were going to do that ride what they did with the Living with the Land boat ride. {No CM giving a spiel on that one any more either} Just another instance of cutting back on staff. I'm sure Disney is working on other ways to eliminate CMs from other rides as well.

Sorry, this was in reference to a post by doconeill regarding the sound system on the trams .

 

[DisneyLifer87]

I was just there 1/11 - 1/18 and can tell you the crowds were pretty low. Wait times were 30-40 min maximum at only the popular rides [toy story mania, soarin'] from 1/12-1/15 and that was only in mid-afternoon. We never had to wait longer than 15 min until the weekend hit. Then the crowds were usual.

It was fun to actually look at my watch at 10:30am after being in the park an hour and a half and having done practically all of the big rides.

 

[Guzzi]

Candian Guy,
I read your post including;
"I hate to be "that guy" but when Jim Hill says "The economy hasn't
affected Disney nearly as much as they expected.." -- I already start
siding with the other side of the argument because he has been so
dramatically and spectacularly wrong over and over in the past 24 to 36
months that at some point, presuming he's wrong again is just smart
thinking."
and was just wondering (just found Jim Hill's website a couple of weeks ago)what Jim H. has been wrong about over the last couple of years? Im not doubting you, just curious, thanks

 

[knewton64]

I was just there 1/11 - 1/18 and can tell you the crowds were pretty low. Wait times were 30-40 min maximum at only the popular rides [toy story mania, soarin'] from 1/12-1/15 and that was only in mid-afternoon. We never had to wait longer than 15 min until the weekend hit. Then the crowds were usual.

It was fun to actually look at my watch at 10:30am after being in the park an hour and a half and having done practically all of the big rides.

-----
The above posting as I was there too 01-07-09 to 01-11-09 and the crowds were very low.