Yeah last month we needed reservations for Library of Congress and the Air and Space museum. Don't remember needing one for Natural History. You need them for a number of things now including the Washington Monument (but I think the W.M. has been that way for a while)
Agree with this as well. When I look at what our July trip is costing, I'm starting to wonder if we'll start to go every other year. And we are DVC and have been going since 2010 2-3 times a year. Tickets + cost of Genie has really gone up.
Yes. Our exact cost for 2 tickets were 1214.00.
Last time I checked AAA tickets appeared to have the best prices. Fees were added at checkout. I don't remember if the bottom line price was a dollar more or a dollar less then UT.
Universal AP has to be cheaper because it only gives you access to two parks, so in theory it should be half the cost of a WDW AP.
Not sure about park tickets, but summer has been the cheapest time for hotels (at least for us) in the past 15 years. Lower attendance in the summer is nothing new, but for some reason it has been flipped into a weird narrative.
As a holder of both - do you think Universal has the same frequent "visit-ability" as WDW? For instance, i don't think I have ever heard of people heading to one of the UO parks for dinner, yet we do that often with Epcot, between the many restaurants and the festivals.
Maybe it is worse this summer.
Oh gosh, no! We have never gone into a Universal park just for the purpose of dining.
I personally don't care if crowds are less. I'm only annoyed when reading posts about empty parks while I'm physically there, and especially while I'm waiting in a deep line to use my secret bathroom.
Plus, I've already posted the thrill data blog which shows wait times at Universal are down roughly the same amount as well. So all the finger pointing at things specific to Disney seem to be misguided.
Almost all of your points imply that this is something unique to Disney but that is not born out by the data. Wait times are down at Universal as well, which means it's a broader trend, rather than the result of any specific decisions made my Disney parks management.
And let's not forget that in 2017 FP+ was included with your admission. If you want the same FP-type experience, you would need to add the price of Genie+ and one ILL to the $189 for an equal comparison.
CityWalk has better restaurants, so we don't feel the need to go into the parks to eat. When we had APs at Disney, we liked the idea of going to EPCOT for dinner, but the reality is that it takes too much effort to get into the park just to eat at a restaurant. At least Universal's security line is fast and their walk from the shaded parking garage to CityWalk has lots of those people movers. If I wanted to go to Mythos for dinner, it wouldn't be a much longer walk to go into the park. I would be surprised that people are going to the Disney parks just to dine if they weren't already on property.
I will add that we do go to Universal just to see the Mardi Gras parade, Halloween decorations, and the Macy's Christmas parade. Going to concerts is also a lot easier at Universal than seeing the ones at EPCOT.
We probably go for a meal at Epcot an average of a once or twice a month, especially if there is a concert we want to see. Don't find getting in a problem at all, later in the day (on a weekday), parking is close enough to walk and never a security line.
Thanks for the graph! Where are these data from?Almost all of your points imply that this is something unique to Disney but that is not born out by the data. Wait times are down at Universal as well, which means it's a broader trend, rather than the result of any specific decisions made my Disney parks management.
