Resorts full = park crowded?

[Mrspeaks]

We are staying on property for a trip in September. I had read that that is usually a less crowded time to be in the parks. However, it looks like almost all the resorts are booked. When that happens are the parks usually crowded?

 

[Disnsyncey]

the on site resorts comprise a FRACTION of the available hotel rooms that people use in Orlando to visit the parks.....I believe that Disney is running some pretty sweet deals for resorts during that time so people coming will stay on property.....so even though there is limited availability, it will def not be as busy as the ACTUAL busy times...

 

[Alesia]

Promotions like free dining pull people who would likely stay offsite to onsite hotels, but it doesn't necessarily increase the total number of people by as much as it would seem.

 

[nkereina]

PPs are correct - it's solely because of free dining that resorts are full, but it doesn't necessarily mean parks will be. People who may normally stay off-site flock to the resorts during free dining because it's such a popular offer. You have to stay on property to take advantage of it. So, resorts and restaurants will be full but not so much the attractions.

 

[loves to dive]

F&W also starts the last week in Sept. so I'm sure a lot of resorts are booked for that. We almost always go in Sept. and while I've been in April, May, August and Oct. I've not noticed the parks any more or less crowded.

 

[PsychoCelloChica]

According to touringplans, there are :

Onsite Rooms 30,469
Offsite Rooms 60,685

Let's say that each room has a capacity of 5, but an actual average fill rate of 4
Onsite: Capacity ~152,000, actual ~122,000
Offsite: Capacity ~304,000, actual ~243,000

Even if Disney's filling the rooms at 90% occupancy for the month (about where they max out). There's no guarantee that the off property locations are filling at their rate (and historically, they have been up to 25% lower than Disney's rate in the 'slow' seasons). So you may have a full house onsite, but FAR fewer day guests coming in. That makes a huge difference.

 

[Mrspeaks]

Thank you.

 

[AngiTN]

But don't be fooled by the phrase "less crowded" and start thinking "not crowded". Less crowded than Christmas week for sure, somewhat less crowded than summer but still very crowded. Especially if you were one of those that last visited say 5-6 years ago. Today's Sept is much more crowded than Sept just 5 years ago.

 

[DisneyFive]

The WDW website is SUPER wonky right now. It tries to apply an offer anytime you look for rooms, and because there are limited rooms tied to each offer, the availability of rooms appears to be very low. There are still tons of room available. You just need to look for rooms under a "room only" booking. The thread linked below discusses it and how to get around it.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/september-question.3438432/#post-54233259

Dan

 

[newdeal]

yeah september 5 years ago you could go during free dining and a good number of rides were walk ons. That doesn't happen anymore. Partially due to the change in fastpass and partially due to increased attendance I am sure

 

[LiveToTravelNicely]

Even if Disney's filling the rooms at 90% occupancy for the month (about where they max out). There's no guarantee that the off property locations are filling at their rate (and historically, they have been up to 25% lower than Disney's rate in the 'slow' seasons). So you may have a full house onsite, but FAR fewer day guests coming in. That makes a huge difference.

I would add that if on property hotels are at 90% occupancy, you can be sure the average number of people that take advantage of EMHs will be roughly the same between busy seasons and September. So, don't expect EMHs to be any different in terms of crowds.

 

[msb578]

The WDW website is SUPER wonky right now. It tries to apply an offer anytime you look for rooms, and because there are limited rooms tied to each offer, the availability of rooms appears to be very low. There are still tons of room available. You just need to look for rooms under a "room only" booking. The thread linked below discusses it and how to get around it.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/september-question.3438432/#post-54233259

Dan

There are also blocks of rooms that are in the hands of resellers (Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com, etc. I agree that the resorts may not be as booked up as they seem to be.

 

[PsychoCelloChica]

I would add that if on property hotels are at 90% occupancy, you can be sure the average number of people that take advantage of EMHs will be roughly the same between busy seasons and September. So, don't expect EMHs to be any different in terms of crowds.

Exactly this! Disney is very good at filling its own rooms (and pulling in people who would stay offsite with the promotions we see). Even at the 'slowest' times of the year, Disney is still filling more than 85% of its rooms, with a near complete occupancy rate at the values, slightly lower for moderates, with the lowest rate for Deluxes (where they can actually still make a profit at only about 50% occupancy).

We went in Dec 2009 with free dining, and our busiest day then couldn't compare with the slowest day we had this past January. The longest 2 waits we had then were for Soarin (missed the FPs for the day and had a 70 minute wait) and Pooh (i have no clue why... but the posted wait time was 20 minutes and it took over 45). Everything else was 'walk-on' or we could easily grab a fastpass for an hour or two later. This last trip, we NEEDED our touring plan and FP+ to accomplish everything we wanted (and still ended up dropping some lower priority things).

I'm very nervous about our trip next month, but since it's our 2nd this year, we're taking a more laid back approach and since we have FP+ for our 'must do' items, I'm not worried. I'm perfectly content to skip something with a 30+ wait and go eat a mickey bar and grab a nap in the Hall of Presidents.

My best advice: Have a touring plan with your Must-Do's, but be willing to deviate from it and roll with the punches. And unless you are park hopping, avoid the park with Extra Magic Hours.

 

[PSUGuy]

In March 2014 we booked a last minute trip on 6 days notice and only All Star Music had rooms of all the Mod and Value resorts. We expected it to be crazy busy but it was what we experienced on many first week in March taken over the years. In short, resort vacancies are not a reliable measure of park crowds.

Bill From PA

 

[dkrauss]

My best advice: Have a touring plan with your Must-Do's, but be willing to deviate from it and roll with the punches. And unless you are park hopping, avoid the park with Extra Magic Hours.

The above truely is the best advise!

Have a great trip!

Doug

 

[Lee & Kerry]

We are staying on property for a trip in September. I had read that that is usually a less crowded time to be in the parks. However, it looks like almost all the resorts are booked. When that happens are the parks usually crowded?

We have come down in September and first part about of October for several years. It seemed to be busy but not even clear she to summer time or holiday crowds. Weekends are busiest as well as the food and wne festival.

 

[jillgunter]

Also if you look at dvc resorts, they are almost always at capacity. Also food and wine is now a huge draw.

 

[Colleen27]

Something else to keep in mind about occupancy during slow times - if there are room rehabs going on, that's when Disney will take blocks of rooms out of use to get the work done. Obviously they aren't going to do it when they're busy! We've had stays where we've seen a whole floor of a building was being worked on and therefore all those rooms were out of inventory.

That said, I've never seen occupancy as slim as it is this Sept. I'm heading down before Food & Wine starts so that's not an explanation, but there are almost no rooms available at all for my dates and most of what is available is the crazy high end (ie $1000/nt rooms at the Grand Floridian). I don't remember offhand exactly when I booked - May or June, I think - and there were no values and only one moderate available for my dates even at rack rate. Our June trip was booked about 45 days in advance and availability was better! I ended up booking through Travelocity to get the room I wanted for Sept.

But WDW's booking system is also getting crazier by the year. Not only were more room types available if I searched for a longer trip (6-7 nights instead of the 4 I'm actually staying), which is something that's been going on for a while, I also got better results by putting in extra guests (more availability for 3 than solo, which I only realized because for a minute I did debate taking my older kids). I'm not sure how much of that is glitch and how much is intentional but it certainly feels to me like WDW is trying to encourage certain types of booking over others.

 

[epcotty]

That's funny, they're devious in their ways