Magic Key weekend reservations GONE through 2021

[SherylLC]

YIKES!
#1 holy cow, when did that happen?
#2 am I getting my 1,399 dollars worth?

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Interestingly, today is currently available for DCA (as of 7:20am). Both parks were available for today for most of yesterday evening (from 6:30 onward).

#1 It's varied, but all 2021 weekends have been gone periodically for awhile. For instance, this past Sunday, 10/10 at noon, there were no weekend days available for the rest of 2021, but then they re-added a whole batch for next week, so 10/23 and 10/30 were open for awhile. October has been 100% "sold out" several times, going back to October 6, but it usually doesn't stay like that for long.

The availability will continue to fluctuate as Disney adds/moves reservations in batches, in addition to people cancelling. I picked up Saturday 12/4 this week on a cancellation - it's been gone for two weeks. I have my eye on 11/20 and 12/12, as well as Christmas Day, and based on how things have worked so far, I'm pretty confident I'll be able to pick them up at some point.

#2 I suppose that depends on a lot of factors and perceptions. Presumably, you currently have days reserved (hopefully including weekends?), which are contributing value. A lot would depend on your willingness/ability to pick up reservations that open up as time goes on.

 

[PirateBrigade]

Pure speculation: they’re prioritizing the single/multi day ticket bucket (makes $ense), and as time moves forward, they’ll reallocate to the AP bucket if those sales are tracking below expectations.

At least, that’s what I would do.

oh and follow @skyegirl1999’s advice re: being persistent

 

[longboard55]

This really gives Disney a lot more power to control crowds, do not think it is going away. We might consider a cheaper pass next year, looks like it will be more of a twice a month deal. You need to plan ahead and not overbook

 

[SherylLC]

Good to hear they open availability when they can. I have weekend in December planned but with no tickets

 

[PirateBrigade]

This really gives Disney a lot more power to control crowds, do not think it is going away.

I don’t think Disney cares about its guests that way, it is probably well loved because they can staff the parks appropriately, and not accidentally pay more for excess/unneeded CM hours.

I really want to know what the magic # is…the attendance # that maximizes revenue per guest, minimizes staff hours, and still gets visitors to mark that they would return to spend more $$.

 

[AndrewC]

Crowds are crushing right now. 75 minutes for Indy right now, over 50 minutes for Falcon, etc. By 9am all the top rides in Disney were 45 minutes or longer. Sure they might be holding back pass spots for single day, but they also are seeing huge demand.

That said, I scanned into the park today at 9am and immediately booked next Saturday on my pass thanks to the resort bucket. So that still seems extremely robust and now makes my stay on property a lot more valuable.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I really want to know what the magic # is…the attendance # that maximizes revenue per guest, minimizes staff hours, and still gets visitors to mark that they would return to spend more $$.

I think they're trying to work that out in real time. They are currently on the "let's make the crowds ABSOLUTELY BONKERS and see what happens" side of that equation...

 

[Dory92130]

Crowds are crushing right now. 75 minutes for Indy right now, over 50 minutes for Falcon, etc. By 9am all the top rides in Disney were 45 minutes or longer. Sure they might be holding back pass spots for single day, but they also are seeing huge demand.

That said, I scanned into the park today at 9am and immediately booked next Saturday on my pass thanks to the resort bucket. So that still seems extremely robust and now makes my stay on property a lot more valuable.

Yeah, despite the heat today looks like another giant saturday crush.

We have reservations starting at DL tomorrow. Let's see how that plays out. Moved our November 7 overnight to 28th instead hoping the Sunday after turkey day will be lighter

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I don’t think Disney cares about its guests that way, it is probably well loved because they can staff the parks appropriately, and not accidentally pay more for excess/unneeded CM hours.

Coming back to this... I feel like people talk about Disney "controlling crowds" as if that means they're trying to keep crowds low. Clearly, that is not the case. What they would like to do is prevent low crowd days, or at least balance the hours and staffing accordingly at times attendance is lower. They would also like to have better control of the crowd flow within the park (hence, the new Genie program presumably ordering people around in ways convenient to them). Magic Keys are definitely helping - I know people who have booked weekdays because they "can't get weekends and want to see Halloween." That's gotta be absolutely ideal for Disney.

I was surprised in August/early September - in spite of having reservation numbers, the parks were largely overstaffed and over-houred for the low crowds. September 1, I was able to wander in on a Wednesday evening at 8pm, book a Webslingers BG, and enjoy largely empty parks with rides running at high capacity until 11pm. In hindsight, I think they must have thought that Magic Keys would immediately lead to higher attendance, although I'm still not sure why they were so "off" for days in mid-August.

But I wonder if that might have been last time that kind of situation exists - a park with the hours and staffing for more people than are there. Because, even if attendance numbers are "low" in, say, January, I'm doubtful they're going to be running the parks from 8-11 with rides running at full capacity.

 

[AndrewC]

I’m always a little skeptical with not fully staffed. I suspect there are some days that happens, but I think Disney largely tries to run rides as close to capacity as possible unless it’s really low crowds. More time waiting in line is less time buying food (huge profits) and merchandise (huge profits).

 

[Dory92130]

You want some disincentive for lines waiting. go on few rides; grab grub on way to next ride. If walk-on everywhere; more incentive to ride ride ride than to grab and queue up a little. Too long lines, people have less transit opportunities to grab something.

20-30 min is a sweet spot IMHO for standby rides. Genie+ allows for more dwell times between rides too = eating more.

That's what we do with our DAS. We eat, eat, eat and then ride. then eat eat eat/ride. Just wish Food festival comes back again!

 

[Dory92130]

Good to hear they open availability when they can. I have weekend in December planned but with no tickets

Troll the buckets on Thursday and Friday. Lots of folk (self included) grabbed several weekends and cancel 1-2 days before as plans solidify.

 

[AndrewC]

Yes. I don’t think walk on is ideal for them, but probably under 40 minute waits. People can bang out a few rides in two hours and then go break with food/merch before getting back to it. If most your morning results in two maybe three rides, you’re likely to want to keep pushing hard all afternoon rather then buy anything… or leave in frustration.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I’m always a little skeptical with not fully staffed. I suspect there are some days that happens, but I think Disney largely tries to run rides as close to capacity as possible unless it’s really low crowds. More time waiting in line is less time buying food (huge profits) and merchandise (huge profits).

This is spoken like someone who has never waited 50 minutes in line for Storybook Land while you watch the same three boats roll through over and over.

It was much less of an issue by at least 2019 than previously, but the idea of Disney dropping staff/hours/ride capacity for "low crowd" times has definitely been a thing - which was fine until you hit a day with low staffing + high crowds. In my experience, it peaked as a problem during "AP Days" in February/March 2017. When the parks don't open until 10am, several major rides are under refurb, and you have the first non-rainy day in awhile... and you end up with MADNESS crowds while you're only running half the entry gates and one side of Big Thunder... yikes. Never have I comforted so many crying tourist mothers... (This is also the time period that taught me to hate crowd calendars. "I pulled the kids from school and flew down from Canada because I read online that it would be a ghost town!" )

But I digress... They've also been adjusting staffing/ride capacity to match crowd levels at WDW (where they've had much better attendance forecast capability) for awhile.

I think the ideal is certainly to have full parks and need as much capacity as they can get, though.