Where are all the crowds?

[jknc]

Pure speculation on my part but if they’re not @ WDW, they’re likely @ home.

I could be wrong though.

 

[MDIME]

Pure speculation on my part but if they’re not @ WDW, they’re likely @ home.

I could be wrong though.

Or up here in New England. Fall foliage
And 65 as a best round is really awesome!

 

[jknc]

I know many would like to believe cost is the reason for low crowds. I’m not in that camp.

I think it’s more likely due to virus with some folks just waiting for added attractions to be finished.

 

[luv2cheer92]

I’m going in 2 weeks with 5 fully-vaccinated adults (and back-up covid test kits courtesy of my work) so I hope we will be lucky and hope wait time stay low. I do feel bad for the families who cannot go and I’m going to get gifts for all my family friends who can’t.

Wait times shot up quite a bit yesterday, at MK and HS at least. We'll see how the next few days go.

 

[jknc]

Or up here in New England. Fall foliage
And 65 as a best round is really awesome!

Lol. Thanks. I don’t need to give details on the yardage or what par was. 65 just sounds great.

 

[Dakota731]

I’m predicting masks and social distancing will be around for the next 5 years

Depends where you live. We travelled extensively this summer, and there weren’t masks or social distancing anywhere we visited. And where we live it’s never been a thing, and our numbers are the same as anywhere else. So I think a lot depends on what area of the country you are from.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I’m going in 2 weeks with 5 fully-vaccinated adults (and back-up covid test kits courtesy of my work) so I hope we will be lucky and hope wait time stay low. I do feel bad for the families who cannot go and I’m going to get gifts for all my family friends who can’t.

Right now, it feels like locals have made a long weekend out of the 50th. I think a big clue is that Epcot, and AK, were not busy at all yesterday. FL also has the most lax Covid policy in place for schools, so parents may feel fine taking the risk brining kids to the park, knowing that quarantining isn't something they have to account for. I would say that next week will be the big "test" moving forward

 

[sponica]

I skimmed most of these posts, but my 2 cents.

A) Historically, this is a lower crowd time of year. Not ghost town, but also not "omg crowds"
B) Things are still uncompleted- such as guardians of the galaxy and tron
C) The return on investment still isn't there. (Character meet and greets, parades, etc)
D) Children under 12 aren't vaccinated yet. It's why we're not back this year.
E) In most normal years, people were fine pulling kids out of school for a few days. But if this is the first year you've been back full time, parents might not be inclined to pull kids out.

 

[OhBother1984]

Depends where you live. We travelled extensively this summer, and there weren’t masks or social distancing anywhere we visited. And where we live it’s never been a thing, and our numbers are the same as anywhere else. So I think a lot depends on what area of the country you are from.

This is the same as where I live. Schools here don't require masks this year and numbers are just as low as schools with them of similar size. We have jammed packed class rooms too. There are so many things I can do now that don't require a mask, and many of them never did. This includes capacity indoor events and more.

I still don't think Disney will keep them around much longer. There whole staff will be fully vaccinated soon as is and they are still the only theme park in florida that brought them back after the drop and the other parks haven't seen any negative consquence.

 

[TLPL]

Wait times shot up quite a bit yesterday, at MK and HS at least. We'll see how the next few days go.

Yeah I was checking yesterday too, we are going this weekend.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I skimmed most of these posts, but my 2 cents.

A) Historically, this is a lower crowd time of year. Not ghost town, but also not "omg crowds"
B) Things are still uncompleted- such as guardians of the galaxy and tron
C) The return on investment still isn't there. (Character meet and greets, parades, etc)
D) Children under 12 aren't vaccinated yet. It's why we're not back this year.
E) In most normal years, people were fine pulling kids out of school for a few days. But if this is the first year you've been back full time, parents might not be inclined to pull kids out.

we are of one mind on this haha!

 

[stinkpickle]

I can only speak for myself, but room availability looked scarce our fall break (end of this month), so we're doing Universal instead.

 

[monica9]

Depends where you live. We travelled extensively this summer, and there weren’t masks or social distancing anywhere we visited. And where we live it’s never been a thing, and our numbers are the same as anywhere else. So I think a lot depends on what area of the country you are from.

From Connecticut. I only wear it at work since I’m in a hospital. I mean more in general, social distancing, masks, vaccine boosters, it’s all going to be around and all the talk for the next few years.

 

[gharter]

I skimmed most of these posts, but my 2 cents.

A) Historically, this is a lower crowd time of year. Not ghost town, but also not "omg crowds"
B) Things are still uncompleted- such as guardians of the galaxy and tron
C) The return on investment still isn't there. (Character meet and greets, parades, etc)
D) Children under 12 aren't vaccinated yet. It's why we're not back this year.
E) In most normal years, people were fine pulling kids out of school for a few days. But if this is the first year you've been back full time, parents might not be inclined to pull kids out.

October has historically been a busy month with F&W. I'm not sure if extending it as much as they have has made a difference in the people attending. Also, from now till the end of the year is a peak time for DVC with most rooms filled.
I suspect its more C-E as reasons for the lower attendance.

 

[Dakota731]

Whatever the reasons I’m hoping people will stay away for our December trip lol! Though I doubt it - hotels seem booked full

 

[CanucksRock]

Whatever the reasons I’m hoping people will stay away for our December trip lol! Though I doubt it - hotels seem booked full

Weren't hotels booked full for 50th? I have found the parks busy, but ride waits low-reasonable.

 

[Dakota731]

Funny how on the “here and now” thread someone said parks were crowded yesterday! So I take online threads with a grain of salt since one person’s opinion of packed could be totally opposite of another’s.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

Funny how on the “here and now” thread someone said parks were crowded yesterday! So I take online threads with a grain of salt since one person’s opinion of packed could be totally opposite of another’s.

I agree, i wouldn't say that they are "wrong" per say, but they may have just happened to follow the crowd, perception on the ground is typically very different from a birds eye view

 

[PaladinButters]

Funny how on the “here and now” thread someone said parks were crowded yesterday! So I take online threads with a grain of salt since one person’s opinion of packed could be totally opposite of another’s.

Also how the crowd is determined by people. 65 minutes for FoP right now sounds like a ton of people to me but I know it can get a lot worse than that.
I always thought it was "crowded" when we used to go back in the "off season" (I miss that) because there's still tens of thousands of people there. Main St packed, shops a mad house, fireworks and parades jam packed, restaurants fully booked up, but then there would be all this space between attractions where there is room to walk comfortably and wait times wouldn't be bad- so is that not "crowded"? How do you tell somebody it's a crowd level 2 when they are still packed into the bus like sardines? Kinda shifts the perspective all over the place.

 

[neptuneflame]

We were definitely in the mindset that our late Dec trip would have a 50/50 chance of making it due to all the reasons people have laid out above. But then 3 out of 4 of us got Covid (DH and I are fully vaxxed), so now we're definitely planning to go. Gotta put those antibodies to good use while we got them! FWIW we went in May/June and had a great time even with masks indoors and heat and rising crowds. But the declining return on investment has absolutely had us reconsidering future trips.