What is the solution to insane crowds & wait times???

[Ermise]

I dont know why people keep insisting a 5th gate will improve crowds?? All it will do is entice more people and the crowds will remain.

Agreed. It is the same logic of saying additional highway lanes will improve traffic when in practice it just makes it even more congested.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

Agreed. It is the same logic of saying additional highway lanes will improve traffic when in practice it just makes it even more congested.

I would love a 5th gate, but not for the purpose of crowd reduction. The logic that a brand new park would somehow reduce crowds in WDW seems slightly convoluted to me lol.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

I wonder if getting back to being fully staffed would help. Reopen shows that suck in a lot of people. Rides operating at full capacity all day long. Maybe longer hours.

Quit building more DVC resorts?

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

I do feel like crowds will level out in the next 2 years or so. You have a LOT of "revenge travel" going on right not and staffing and offerings are still not back to normal. I agree with another poster that a 5th gate will not help at all and could actually make it worse for a while.

I hope this is true (levelling out in 2 years or so). And I like the term "revenge travel."

 

[JLong06]

I don't have the 2022 Q1 data yet, but as of December 31, 2021 --> posted wait times in 3 out of the 4 parks were still lower than they were in the same time frame in 2019. The exception... Hollywood Studios.

Interested of course in what the data says about January to Mid April of this year.

 

[xipotec]

Disney has a park reservation system. How about they set the max number at a point where they can adequately serve those guests.

This would be fantastic, if they actyally cared about guest experience anymore, but they do not.

Like most corporations, all that matters is Wall Street stock holders.

 

[mistysue]

Upping staff and reopening and creating crowd absorbers. There are parks without parades - why? When AK had a parade (seriously, best parade ever) we all got an awesome parade and everyone was happy and occupied for those who wanted walk on rides!

Even having the kid cot stations staffed absorbs 5-10 people per showcase at all times, and they need more of those slow constant load type things at every park- like mansion, pirates, peoplemover, little mermaid- they occupy SO MANY PEOPLE.

They need to reopen dining reservations- I know some like to do walk ups but there is table service not filling up because they are holding back times and people make other plans because they weren't available. People used to leave the parks, come late, or take a break because they had a reservation at a hotel- now those people are wandering the park standing in lines or competing for QS mobile orders and it's making everyone miserable AND causing people to miss out on dining they were excited for! Plus, they ate in 20 minutes instead of 90 minutes or up to 3-4 hours if they went somewhere by bus! Talk about a golden opportunity for crowd control.

When it got busy they used to add ride cars or somehow run things faster, it seems like that went away- why?

 

[xipotec]

Upping staff and reopening and creating crowd absorbers. There are parks without parades - why? When AK had a parade (seriously, best parade ever) we all got an awesome parade and everyone was happy and occupied for those who wanted walk on rides!

Even having the kid cot stations staffed absorbs 5-10 people per showcase at all times, and they need more of those slow constant load type things at every park- like mansion, pirates, peoplemover, little mermaid- they occupy SO MANY PEOPLE.

They need to reopen dining reservations- I know some like to do walk ups but there is table service not filling up because they are holding back times and people make other plans because they weren't available. People used to leave the parks, come late, or take a break because they had a reservation at a hotel- now those people are wandering the park standing in lines or competing for QS mobile orders and it's making everyone miserable AND causing people to miss out on dining they were excited for! Plus, they ate in 20 minutes instead of 90 minutes or up to 3-4 hours if they went somewhere by bus! Talk about a golden opportunity for crowd control.

When it got busy they used to add ride cars or somehow run things faster, it seems like that went away- why?

The last part of your post is because they have to have a certain number of people to operate a ride at a certain capacity.

They do not want to pay the labor.

 

[Jrb1979]

This is my thought too. People keep saying, "oh but the parks are still full so they're doing something right." NO. People are still coming DESPITE Disney's errors. They're coming out of pent up demand for travel, and out of pure HOPE that despite the issues, Disney will actually still be magic. People are coming and hoping to be proven wrong. I am going in a few weeks, and am hoping that myself.

The cliff will come once this initial surge dies down. Once the people who haven't been to Disney since pre-pandemic come back, and potentially see that things maybe aren't as great as they remember. Once, maybe, they HAVE been proven wrong and they see that their hope that things would still be wonderful has been displaced.

Now, I AM hoping to be proven wrong, and maybe I will be. But if enough people aren't convinced, yes, that cliff will be coming. It will be interesting to see how it plays out if or when that does occur.

Once Epic Universe opens and Disney is in this dumpster fire it's in right now you will see a drastic switch. I mean it's already happening. I know it's anecdotal but I have seen lots of former Dis loyalists that are jumping ship to Universal now.

 

[mistysue]

The last part of your post is because they have to have a certain number of people to operate a ride at a certain capacity.

They do not want to pay the labor.

That is what I suspected, so just upping labor fixes that too.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

Once Epic Universe opens and Disney is in this dumpster fire it's in right now you will see a drastic switch. I mean it's already happening. I know it's anecdotal but I have seen lots of former Dis loyalists that are jumping ship to Universal now.

I'm really interested in Epic Universe, and I've been a pretty dedicated Disney girl in terms o theme parks. I've only done Universal once, and that was as a day trip while staying on-site at Disney. But Epic Universe is sounding pretty great, and by the time it opens my kids will be old/tall enough to really enjoy it. Depending on how our upcoming Disney trip goes, we just might put a pause on theme park vacations in general until EU.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Once Epic Universe opens and Disney is in this dumpster fire it's in right now you will see a drastic switch. I mean it's already happening. I know it's anecdotal but I have seen lots of former Dis loyalists that are jumping ship to Universal now.

yes--that's us. At some point in 2019, one of my kids said we are just Disney people; we're not going to Universal. Now we stay in our DVC villa but spend half the time at Universal.

 

[revdon64]

I wonder if getting back to being fully staffed would help. Reopen shows that suck in a lot of people. Rides operating at full capacity all day long. Maybe longer hours.

Quit building more DVC resorts?

I suspect this is a big part of the problem right now. I also suspect that with the news out of Tallahassee today, it's not going to get better.

 

[ChanaC]

Someone brought up the park reservation system, and it would be interesting if they started lower the park capacity. I don't think they will though. People complain enough that they can't get a reservation, and lowering the amount of reservations available will just cause more headaches.

I do wonder how the economy will affect things in the near future. I think a lot of people are traveling this year because they couldn't the last year or two, but with the way prices have gone up for everything (rent, houses, food, gas, etc.) I think people will start looking at their budgets and realizing an expensive vacation just isn't in the cards.

It's also interesting seeing people in these forums talk about not going back to Disney, or limited how much they go. I totally believe and understand that, and agree with the complaints about prices, wait times, all the extra fees, reduced on-property perks, etc. But I bet if you poll the average Disney park goer, a majority don't spend time or the forums or do much travel planning at all. This is especially true for the people coming for their first time. They only see the commercials, they probably haven't heard about all the complaints, and if they are new guests than they probably don't realize what resort perks have changed and what FastPass was like in the past. So they keep coming.

And don't get me started on the people who don't plan. As a former CM I've seen it all. Not saying you need to plan every minute of every day, the amount of people who would, say, walk into MK and get upset that it's closing early for an event, or didn't realize they had to get FastPasses in advance (back in my day when that was a thing...), or not realize that Harry Potter world isn't in Epcot or Space Mountain isn't in Universal Studios... you'd be surprised. All this to say is that there are a lot of people who do next to zero planning ahead of time and thus don't realize what the parks look like now vs then is a lot.

 

[PinkPixel]

In my opinion, there are only three things that would truly reduce Disney crowds and wait times:

1. A massive downturn in the economy.

2. Even HIGHER prices at the resort.

3. A legitimate full sized fifth gate.

What else do you think could actually help?

Ron DeSantis?

 

[Boopuff]

We all love to look back at Disney of yesteryear and get all dewy eyed. Fact of the matter is there are more and more people on the planet. Population is growing and growing... More international travel (who get some nice incentives), large group events, over more months (used to be limited to a few times a year but now it seems every month has some big event). All of this adds to the amount of folks in the parks. And to top it all off, Disney is doing all they can to re-hire and hire new CMS, but many have moved on. Just go, do what you want, and just enjoy. I think a lot of folks just need to slow down, and just enjoy.

 

[xipotec]

That is what I suspected, so just upping labor fixes that too.

Labor would fix most economic issues these days, but the Corps do not want to sacrifice profits.
They have been trained to expect double digit growth year after year, without any labor increases.

 

[PittPantherfan]

I am curious to know what % of those in park have Genie+? Haven't seen that info anywhere.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I am curious to know what % of those in park have Genie+? Haven't seen that info anywhere.

Back in November Bob Chapek said it was about 33-35% and as of February he said it jumped up to 50%. With how insane the standby lines are lately, I don't blame people for buying it but it does ultimately make Genie+ have less value when there are more people buying into it than there are LL slots available. Disney really should cap Genie+ sales like Universal does with Express but they'll never do that.