Disney absolutely does NOT want to reduce crowds at the parks. If this was their goal, they could:
1. Limit Park Passes.
2. Raise ticket prices a lot.
Their goal is to make (even more) money. Crowded parks means more food, beverage, and merchandise sales. Crowded parks means more profit.
It depends on which coast you're on. In Anaheim, the goal very much (maybe 100%) is to reduce crowds,
based on their composition. Disney is (and has been) unhappy with the huge numbers of local AP holders who flood the parks daily, just to wander about for an hour or so, grab a meal, and MAYBE go on a couple of rides. There were a crazy number of people who visited the parks 2 or 3 or more times every week, entering at the same time, hitting the same food locations, and going on the same rides. Over and over and over. You only need to stand on Main Street at fireworks time to realize there seem to be more people standing around you at 9:30 then you saw in the whole park all day long. These folks tend to disproportionately gum up more popular rides and food locations, limiting (in Disney's eyes) the ability of non AP's to fully enjoy (read spend maximum cash) in the parks. The support for this comes in several flavors:
1. The new reservation systems allow for day users and AP's to reserve park admission from different buckets. Disney can limit AP access during peak and holiday periods, and bump up the allocation to day users and out of towners (non AP's). This way, even at the highest AP levels (Dream Key), even though there are no blackout dates, they can still keep AP's at a controlled number through limiting reservation slots.
2. By migrating to the new Genie system, those few (we'll call them E Ticket rides for nostalgic purposes) attractions that get swamped with AP's are now somewhat less appealing. Now, that AP that wants to run into DCA after work on Friday evening just to ride Screamin, Web Slingers, and RSR and grab some chow at Flo's, is slightly less inclined to do so. If you scroll though Facebook pages and other social media, the single biggest complaint/worry BY A LANDSLIDE for the "Legacy Passholders", was when or if FastPass, MaxPass and PhotoPass were ever coming back. Nothing was even a close second. I actually think the higher cost for
Genie+ in Anaheim ($20 versus $15 per person) has less to do with the previously established cost in Anaheim, or the number of parks in Orlando, and again more to do with having control over the habitual local AP holder who's going in 2 or 3 times per week (or more). In a couple of threads, folks asked why you need a PhotoPass when you're going in so often and riding the same rides, and people honestly seem to want all 20 shots going down Splash this week, even though they went down it 25 times last week and the week before as well.
Now obviously Disney isn't doing it out of the kindness of their hearts and love for the day user or out of town guest, but growing stories of park overcrowding had to have some perceived impact on increasing non-AP attendance and the associated higher per-day spending of a non-AP guest. The only head-scratcher was the return of payment plans, which as many AP's had even commented during the great Dark Time before the Key system was announced, was both the biggest contributer to the high AP numbers, and possibly the only hurdle many saw to purchasing a new pass before the Magic Key system was announced.
All this has much less to do with Florida, as the visitor "demographics" are significant;y different so it definitely is a coastal thing.
Definitely not selling but maybe we’ll do larger rooms less often.
(I'm assuming VGF2 will start with 2021 points.)
