So NOW DL has low crowds.....

[GoingSince1990]

Wait times today at noon are insanely low... RSR 30 mins? Space mountain walk on? Wow.....

A few minutes ago RSR was 25 mins while Monsters Inc 30 mins! First time I’ve ever seen Monsters longer than RSR! RSR now up to 35 mins posted. ON EDIT- actual RSR wait was 19 mins!

 

[GoingSince1990]

Now Guardians 15 mins, Monsters Inc 5 mins. Definitely not the worst time to be at DCA!

 

[Epicnemesis]

The low crowds are why the magic key is coming so soon, and why it’s basically just the old pass with reservations.

Disney thought they could fill the parks all year with day tickets. Then they saw they couldn’t so they did the California select tickets, then they saw that didn’t even move the needle and they hit the panic button.

 

[dieumeye]

The low crowds are why the magic key is coming so soon, and why it’s basically just the old pass with reservations.

Disney thought they could fill the parks all year with day tickets. Then they saw they couldn’t so they did the California select tickets, then they saw that didn’t even move the needle and they hit the panic button.

That seems to be the speculation. If it’s true, I hope Magic Key STILL doesn’t work so they’re forced to drop reservations.

It does seem like they really want that money that local AP holders supposedly don’t spend!

 

[gelatoni fan]

That seems to be the speculation. If it’s true, I hope Magic Key STILL doesn’t work so they’re forced to drop reservations.

It does seem like they really want that money that local AP holders supposedly don’t spend!

I don't think they'll drop reservations because even if some people don't go because of them, the ability to predict demand for staffing and stocking are still valuable.

But I always think people underestimate how much APs spend. The entire pin trading community is basically APs who can regularly buy new pins. I recently saw racks of limited edition park pins go on clearance at a Disney store outlet which I have never seen before in my life. This means that the merchandise clearly wasn't selling in the parks. We also have people who try all the new foods or purchase other seasonal merchandise.

We'll see how Magic Keys go but I get the feeling that many of Disney's decisions over the past couple of years have turned many people away from the company and many former APs have discovered that they can live without going to Disneyland.

 

[mom2rtk]

My personal feeling is that Disney knew all along they were going to bring back at least something similar to the old APs. But they also needed to make sure those APs were willing to drop top dollar to visit the parks in the short term while out of state guests were forbidden to visit (at least initially) or were hesitant to visit.

I think they used them for a while. Now everyone who paid top dollar for a return visit has to decide if they want to jump back in and ante up yet again for the new passes.

 

[mom2rtk]

The low crowds are why the magic key is coming so soon, and why it’s basically just the old pass with reservations.

Disney thought they could fill the parks all year with day tickets. Then they saw they couldn’t so they did the California select tickets, then they saw that didn’t even move the needle and they hit the panic button.

If Disney made long term plans based on a couple months in the middle of a pandemic, then they aren't the astute business people I thought they were.

And honestly, I didn't see a single post about low crowds until after the announcement was made.

 

[Bigmace]

We were at DCA yesterday and the crowds were light. Had about a 30 minute wait for RSR, grizzly river run, and web slingers. About a 10 minute wait for mission break out. Pretty much every other ride was a walk on except for soarin, which half the ride was broken down most of the day.
Hopefully Disneyland is light today too.

 

[Psymonds]

probably 2/3 of California kids went back to school between last week and this week, the rest go back next week. Our six flags ends their weekday operation next week... summer is getting to be over.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

And honestly, I didn't see a single post about low crowds until after the announcement was made.

But Disney had access to the reservation numbers… for the first time, they knew exactly how many people were planning to come and when.

I don’t think it was a “panic button,” necessarily, but I do think that if there had been robust reservations continuing onward, we wouldn’t see Magic Keys back yet.

I am also surprised that for all the talk of “reimagining” APs, we ended up with… APs with reservations. It does indicate that the “AP population” is something they wanted to hold on to.

 

[pdp]

All this talk about kids going back to school this week and next week, and factor in the Magic Keys starting on August 25, would you say between now and August 25 would be a good time to go in terms of low crowds?

 

[mom2rtk]

But Disney had access to the reservation numbers… for the first time, they knew exactly how many people were planning to come and when.

I don’t think it was a “panic button,” necessarily, but I do think that if there had been robust reservations continuing onward, we wouldn’t see Magic Keys back yet.

I am also surprised that for all the talk of “reimagining” APs, we ended up with… APs with reservations. It does indicate that the “AP population” is something they wanted to hold on to.

Yes Disney has access. But we don’t know if they were reacting to an upcoming drop in reservations or if the drop was a reaction to the announcement of APs coming back.

Honestly, I’m sure there’s a bit of a drop every year at this time. If Disney went into this not expecting to see one this year as well and only roll this out as a reaction to that short-term problem, then once again they are the astute business people I gave them credit for being.

I stand by my assessment. They planned this all along.

 

[smartlabelprint]

All this talk about kids going back to school this week and next week, and factor in the Magic Keys starting on August 25, would you say between now and August 25 would be a good time to go in terms of low crowds?

Personally I’d be flying down this week if it wasn’t for Delta variant and my unvaxxed baby.

 

[DLRExpert]

What is going to be interesting is if the MKers start booking a ton of reservations only to cancel them just before the day they reserved.

I assume the every day guest is not checking reservations all that often. If they see a day unavailable they will just cancel it and schedule their visit on an available date.

Removing reservations fixes that potential issue.

I think Disney would be smart enough to separate day and MK guest reservations but who knows.

 

[DLRExpert]

Btw another low Wait Time day at the parks

 

[CherylGonz]

I hope it stays this way. We are there Aug 18-22. Schools are in session and Magic Key starts on the 25th. Been watching the reservation calendar and so far no days are unavailable. Crossing my fingers.

 

[PirateBrigade]

But Disney had access to the reservation numbers… for the first time, they knew exactly how many people were planning to come and when.

I don’t think it was a “panic button,” necessarily, but I do think that if there had been robust reservations continuing onward, we wouldn’t see Magic Keys back yet.

I am also surprised that for all the talk of “reimagining” APs, we ended up with… APs with reservations. It does indicate that the “AP population” is something they wanted to hold on to.

On the quarterly call, Chapek said reservations for the fall were higher than their attendance over the summer. I have a few thoughts/ideas about that:

1) He's not lying, and even if fall reservations > summer attendance, it was not enough for them. Hence the restart of AP.

2) He's not lying, but perhaps people were pulling back their reservations in response to the delta variant surge, so the trajectory is negative. Hence, restart of AP.

3) He's too busy slinging mud at Scarlett Johansson to give us a better answer.

I also don't think DLR will relinquish reservations, but they may just set the cap so high, it doesn't matter. This bodes well for locals, I just hope we don't return to 10/10 bursting-at-the-seams parks on Fridays/Saturdays in October.

 

[PirateBrigade]

I hope it stays this way. We are there Aug 18-22. Schools are in session and Magic Key starts on the 25th. Been watching the reservation calendar and so far no days are unavailable. Crossing my fingers.

Did we confirm whether APs and ticketed patients pull from different reservation buckets?

 

[gelatoni fan]

All this talk about kids going back to school this week and next week, and factor in the Magic Keys starting on August 25, would you say between now and August 25 would be a good time to go in terms of low crowds?

Most likely. I think that the last few days of this month and the beginning of September will be crazy busy. Hong Kong Disneyland's last reopening hit during the Lunar New Year so only Platinum passes and ticket holders were allowed in. The park was basically dead and Merida was waiting for guests to come meet her. Once Gold passes were allowed in, all the reservations for about a week were full and waits for princesses returned to like an hour and a half wait.

What is going to be interesting is if the MKers start booking a ton of reservations only to cancel them just before the day they reserved.

I assume the every day guest is not checking reservations all that often. If they see a day unavailable they will just cancel it and schedule their visit on an available date.

Removing reservations fixes that potential issue.

I think Disney would be smart enough to separate day and MK guest reservations but who knows.

I don't know if a lot of MKers will cancel. Having only 4 or 6 reservations for 90 days isn't very much so I imagine most people will have their reservations tied up. However, I am planning around the potential for no reservation availability. I'll only have 1 remaining reservation for an upcoming 3 day trip due to my other reservations being tied up in a later trip. If it turns on the last two days of this trip have zero reservation availability, I'll cancel the entire thing. But I don't imagine many people will do this and instead just not even bother with that 3 day trip due to the uncertainty involved.

I think that most likely MK and ticket holders will pull from different buckets. But we won't know for sure until the system actually starts up.

 

[Epicnemesis]

Did we confirm whether APs and ticketed patients pull from different reservation buckets?

Someone works in the medical field!

(or is insinuating everyone who goes to Disney is crazy)