OMG. touring plans just updated my May dates from a 6 to 9 and 10. What?

[gharter]

Our April dates just jumped today. 2's are now 5-6, 3's are 6-7.

 

[DaisyNY]

Our April dates just jumped today. 2's are now 5-6, 3's are 6-7.

Join the crowd...our March dates 1st - 9th are looking much busier...Increase in park hours just recently released...Going to change up a lot of my preplanning. Thankfully all adults so we'll hit most of the parks 3-11ish (MK and EP) and use early morning for DHS and AK.

 

[MouseMapper]

I realize crowds are larger than expected right now but really?

This happened to me today for my April trip. I am arriving on Easter Sunday (4/17), which was originally slated by TouringPlans to be a 3/10 at Magic Kingdom - I was shocked when I saw it was that low - but has now gone up to a 5/10. The levels for the following week all rose a bit, too. Personally, I love TouringPlans, but I think that their system is based on traditional crowd patterns, which have been drastically altered both by the pandemic and by the 50th Anniversary crowds.

 

[teachmedis]

Hard to plan ahead when you can’t book anything until 7am day of. And that is a crap shoot. I’ve told everyone in my party to expect much less than we usually get done. Then if something. Happens to go right it s a bonus.

You can still plan to either use or not use genie, you can plan to rope drop, you can plan which rides you'd like to rope drop, and which rides you'd like to try to get with genie. You can plan to hit attractions before closing. You can pick filler attractions you'd like to see. You can plan your meals. You need to plan your park days. You can make a list of must dos, and make sure to have strategies to try to accomplish those. You can also plan to be flexible. There's plenty you can plan.

 

[Aurora79]

My prediction (fwiw just as someone who’s been following this for the past few years), it’s going to be crazy busy every month for the foreseeable future as people are taking those trips they put off or booking new trips because they just want things to be normal again. Just stay calm, plan the best you can, but have backup plans and reasonable expectations.

Our plan is to do what we can at the parks, but to mainly just remember we are on vacation and to enjoy ourselves, even if that means escaping to a lounge or our resort more often than in previous trips.

 

[Figmentv]

We’re going to be at WDW from 6/29-7/5. TP is showing crowd levels to be around 4 or 5 each day. I can’t even imagine levels being that low at that time. I’m betting we’re looking at 9&10 every day. We’re just going to go with the flow and do the best we can without exhausting ourselves.

 

[lentesta]

I think it's a couple of things:

• With omicron (and COVID in general) case numbers dropping rapidly, we're seeing a pretty fast return to travel.
• It looks like at least 10% of guests were reluctant to travel until WDW dropped the indoor mask mandate. My guess is it's closer to 20%.
• Genie+ increases standby wait times.

The Genie+ thing is tough because it's a feedback loop: People without G+ see standby wait times go up, so they purchase G+, which further increases standby wait times. And because it's not free and is one-at-a-time in most cases, G+ lacks the crowd distribution mechanism of the old Fastpass system. My guess is we'll see a G+ price increase to tamp down demand a bit and keep standby waits lower.

I could be wrong about all of this.

 

[Brian Noble]

My guess is we'll see a G+ price increase to tamp down demand a bit and keep standby waits lower.

It does seem as though G+ is too successful. There was a point or two in the quarterly earnings call when they mentioned expecting lower uptake.

 

[Haagen Dawgs]

It does seem as though G+ is too successful. There was a point or two in the quarterly earnings call when they mentioned expecting lower uptake.

I just had the image of the CEO’s on that call having their eyeballs spin until they landed on $$$.

 

[gharter]

It does seem as though G+ is too successful. There was a point or two in the quarterly earnings call when they mentioned expecting lower uptake.

If too many people are purchasing it, suspect it won't be too long before the price goes up and up and . . . .

 

[mcd2745]

I’m curious what dates? There are some big conventions over Memorial Day in Orlando. The nation’s largest cross-disability event brings in about 10,000 people with disabilities and their families. And the FPEA homeschool convention is that same weekend.

Fantastic. We're going Memorial Day weekend.

I agree with everyone speaking to pent-up demand. Also, we've heard reports about how the response to the 50th Anniversary has been disappointing so far (from Disney's perspective). I think for many people, if you weren't going to be there Oct 1 2021, there's no difference if you went Oct 2 2021 or March 2023 or any time in between. So there was no rush to go the last few months of 2021, then add in Covid/Omicron. So now we're seeing that demand that had been expected a few months back.

 

[sponica]

I honestly wasn't surprised when I got that email. You have 2020 trips being FINALLY completed (raises hand) some 2021 trips being finally completed or some people decided to just bite the bullet and go earlier than planned.

I'm mentally viewing this trip as the 2022 trip and hopefully in 2024 things will be more in line with what I expect.

 

[Brian Noble]

we've heard reports about how the response to the 50th Anniversary has been disappointing so far (from Disney's perspective).

That’s definitely not the message I took from the most recent quarterly earnings call.

 

[itf]

If too many people are purchasing it, suspect it won't be too long before the price goes up and up and . . . .

At the moment it's serving nobody well it seems but at the same time I'm sceptical that the demand can be easily reduced by modest price hikes. As people have said on other threads, it's a small cost vs the cost of the vacation and if it's seen as 'essential' people will pay for it because of the relative cost vs the overall trip. I don't think you'd see any significant reduction below $25 a day personally. And I wonder if ROTR would still sell out at double.

 

[jknc]

I completely disagree with plan and organize. With the amount of ride breakdowns I’ve seen, you can throw planning out the window. Plan on all of 2022 being level 7-10 crowds.

Case in point, there’s so few attractions open for ETPE it’s one and done on what is open.

 

[jknc]

That’s definitely not the message I took from the most recent quarterly earnings call.

Leaving now, didn’t even know it’s the 50th

 

[Brett Wyman]

What dates? It could be a glitch. It has happened before. Look to see if they made an update on their blog about a glitch. If it is a glitch, they will correct in a day or two and send out an email update.

Definitely not a glitch. We were just there 2-11 to 2-20 and TP was way under for every day of their predictions for that time span(I always look at their "What we predicted what we saw.") numbers for our dates. So they are just right sizing based on current levels. YES it is that crazy there right now. Time of year apparently does not currently matter.

We saw(and heard) tons of Europeans, tons of Latin Americans, and tons of good old fashion Americans "working from home".

 

[TheyCallMeStacey]

I feel like anytime there was a green indicator or low crowds note on a crowd calendar is where everyone booked their once-cancelled vacations. I am just assuming its going to be wall - to - wall crowds (and prepping the kids for the same).

 

[robinb]

Fantastic. We're going Memorial Day weekend.

Any holiday is super crowded. Look at the reports for this weekend (Presidents Day + Jersey Week) ... it's been insane!

 

[Brian Noble]

Leaving now, didn’t even know it’s the 50th

The earnings report did, and I know which one Disney cares about more.