What Global Recession?

[hellotim]

We went to WDW in August this year. We went in August 2007 and we knew to avoid MK on a Saturday. We didn't expect to see the parks so full. I thought folks had no money this year due to the recession but there was no sign of it at WDW. The other parks like Universal and Seworld were quiet enough but Disney, wow I have never seen so many people squashed like sardines into one place. Problem was that most of the rides had at least a 1 hour wait and some had 2 hours. I have never seen the fast past distributions runnng out before lunch time before. Disney really need to find some way of sorting out the queues on the more popular rides.

 

[Mandrake]

The all global recession issue has always been exaggerated. Sometimes ago everybody was sure the world was at its end, now everybody is sure there is no recession at all. Have you asked how many of those people had just lost their jobs? Probably no one. Because those who lost their job during the current recession do not visit disneyworld.

 

[Justin the Hook]

Maybe you were down when people were still vacationing. My friend is down this week and she emailed me last night and said that the parks are completely empty. They waited 10 minutes for Splash Mountain and no wait for anything else at the MK.

 

[artesian]

What weekend in Aug out of curiosity?

 

[Colleen27]

I suspect the original poster had the misfortune of being there for that one week where free dining lined up with Southern summer vacation. From the thread titles on the Theme Parks board, it sounds to me like that was pretty much a mess. I have IRL friends who were there the week before Labor Day for their annual trip and had lighter crowds than they'd ever seen that week, though there's no telling whether that was recession effect or just because Labor Day was so late this year.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Packed parks don't really tell the whole picture, the bigger question is how much were people spending on souvenirs and food.

 

[hellotim]

we stayed from the 6th to the 20th of August. All 14 days were cramed!

 

[hellotim]

My wife works at a scholl and with examinations etc its hard to justify taking the kids out of school even if it is to go to WDW. We did this back in 2003 when the kids were in primary school. Looks like we will have to put up with the crowds. Does anyone know which period is quieter, Easter, Summer, October half term or Christmas?

 

[EyeLuvDisney]

Does anyone know which period is quieter, Easter, Summer, October half term or Christmas?

I have heard Christmas in Disney World is a mad house. My wife and I were there last year for her birthday which is the day before Halloween. We were there for 10 days. Parks were not that bad. We were able to ride Expedition Everest and Aerosmith two times in a row without a wait. That was during a week day. We noticed the weekends seemed a little busier. Think there were more locals there those days. My mother-in-law has a friend who is a cast member; she said the best day to go is Super Bowl Sunday.

I am actually leaving tomorrow for a 10 day trip to Disney World.

 

[Colleen27]

we stayed from the 6th to the 20th of August. All 14 days were cramed!

Year, that's normal for the peak of summer vacations (pretty much mid-June to mid/late Aug), and this year was bad because Disney offered some SPECTACULAR deals for that time. The 4/3 was huge, right there with the deals they offered to get people traveling after 9/11, and free dining usually doesn't start until most of the country is back to school. To grossly oversimplify for the sake of brevity, a 10% unemployment rate means 90% of the workforce is still employed, and Disney did a great job of attracting that 90% this year with the discounts they offered.

Where signs of the recession could really be seen was in spending - people are still going to Disney, but they're buying less once they're there.

 

[Colleen27]

My wife works at a scholl and with examinations etc its hard to justify taking the kids out of school even if it is to go to WDW. We did this back in 2003 when the kids were in primary school. Looks like we will have to put up with the crowds. Does anyone know which period is quieter, Easter, Summer, October half term or Christmas?

October, unless you're able to go very late in the summer, like the week before Labor Day. Easter and Christmas are both peak periods with peak pricing, and personally I avoid those times like the plague. I've no interest in paying top dollar to deal with wall-to-wall, capacity crowds.

 

[scrappin2ofeach]

We were there the weekend of Aug 22 and I was shocked at the amount of crowd. The amount of people coming off the fairy as we were leaving around lunchtime made me question if they could fit even one more person on there. We went Sept 9th for my birthday though, and almost everything was walk-on at MK and Epcot. The only line we had the entire day was TestTrack and that was only a ten minute wait. I couldn't believe the difference!