Disney lowers capacity on low crowd days

[AngiTN]

Ok, I give up and I'm sure it's quite obvious. What is MM?

 

[CAS239]

It is news because it didn't used to happen or at least certainly not to the degree it does now. In the past lower crowds meant low wait times. This no longer being true is news.

Other factors could play a part in increased wait times.. Mainly FP+. I don't think Disney has never not scheduled less workers during slow times

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I don't see this any differently than grocery stores not having all of their check-out lanes open during non busy times of the day.

This is standard procedure.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I pay for Touring Plans and recommend the website. There are a lot of things that are great about the website when it comes to planning your trip and your days. But I never suggest anyone use it to predict what the crowds or waits will be. Since you know, that's like, impossible. Maybe it's time to consider dropping the crowd prediction portion? Still leaves a lot of great info

I completely agree with this! I have had a TP subscription for years and find it useful for many things, but I have found their attraction wait times to be way off.

 

[wfjny]

At many other “Amusement Parks”, think Cedar Fair, Six Flags and the like, this is not an uncommon practice. While part may be due to cost cutting measures, a bigger reason was that for many seasonal parks, the majority of their workforce has returned to what they were doing prior to the park being open. For most, that is school. This is why many parks operate a lower levels on those weekend before and after the heart of the summer season.

Scheduling can also be an issue when you have the unexpected early perfect 72 degree sunny weekend day when these parks are not quite yet staffed up before school lets out.

There are also some issues towards the end of the summer, when some workers are approaching the hours “cap”. I do not know what those caps are or why. Not to turn this into any sort of a political argument, but I have heard from multiple people it was to make sure that the staff remains considered part time. Anyway, the point again is that the staff that was there is no longer available.

On the other hand, Disney tends to have a larger pool of workers. Disney has workers living in dorms. Disney is open, and therefore staffed, 365 days a year. What does it take to open up the other side of Dumbo? Two workers, each earning $10.72 per hour? If just one person over the course of that hour buys some $30 stuffed animal instead of waiting on line, that will cover their labor costs.

Don’t get me wrong, as a Disney stockholder, I totally get the idea to lower your operational costs whenever you can. However, I am also concerned when they do something that potentially alienates their customers. I am sure people much smarter than me at Disney have already weighed this all out.

However, as a Disney Customer, I want to get the most out of my vacation. Waiting on line is one of those things that an integral part of your trip to Disney, but feeling like you are waiting needlessly is not the way to make friends and influence people.

 

[mom2rtk]

MM probably impacts park levels during the week.

If a guest can get a 7DMT FP+ on Wed (instead of the prototypical Mon) then MK becomes busier on a Wed and a little less busy on Mon. But this would be crowd shifting more than pure crowd levels... and can ruin a weekly “best park” prediction.

MM may also be helping in the “locking in” a WDW vacation if guests are less likely to cancel a vacation after getting their FP+ More guests mean higher crowds.

Sure, but more than anything else it's about big data and Disney's ability to respond to that data.

 

[mesaboy2]

Yeah, this is one way WDW gets its money back plunking 10 figures into MDX a few years ago.

 

[Missyrose]

Ok, I give up and I'm sure it's quite obvious. What is MM?

My Magic+

 

[Lisa F]

I am in the minority here, but I really don’t mind this. If it’s not crowded, I don’t think they should be running both sides of Dumbo. Why have a CM there basically doing nothing and running the ride on both sides with empty cars? I don’t mind a minimal wait. I don’t need them to staff someone just so I can walk on a ride.

I don’t think it makes sense at all to have the same amount of capacity on NYE vs a random lower crowd day in May.

I think the point is that the combination of fewer cars and fewer CMs means it's a substantial wait.

it's not like, 0 wait before, now you have to wait 10 minutes

It's like, 45 minutes at christmas or 45 minutes late January, they are staffing to keep the wait a consistent 45 minutes. That is how I am reading the news, whether it is true or not I can't comment.

 

[AngiTN]

My Magic+

I thought of that but I guess I'm totally clueless. I don't see what MM has do to with crowds, waits, or anything. What piece am I missing?

 

[Dug720]

I thought of that but I guess I'm totally clueless. I don't see what MM has do to with crowds, waits, or anything. What piece am I missing?

I was thinking they left the E off EMM.

 

[AngiTN]

I was thinking they left the E off EMM.

Except EMM has no impact on crowds at all. There's no way that can be it either. Number of guests attending EMM is literally the same as adding 1 pin in a box of pins. Taking 1 out, putting 1 in, won't make any difference to the appearance of the number of pins in the box. There aren't enough guests at EMM to have any impact on waits or crowds or anything at all.

 

[CarrieR]

No, it’s MyMagic+ (which is primarily FP+.)

I get not staffing both sides of Dumbo and going from no wait to short wait. It’s short wait to long wait that I object to - which is what’s happening. Low CROWDS no longer equal low WAITS. It doesn’t matter when you go - you should plan to be waiting.

 

[fbarker]

I pay for Touring Plans and recommend the website. There are a lot of things that are great about the website when it comes to planning your trip and your days. But I never suggest anyone use it to predict what the crowds or waits will be. Since you know, that's like, impossible. Maybe it's time to consider dropping the crowd prediction portion? Still leaves a lot of great info

No!! we don't want them to stop predicting crowd predictions.....that will eliminate one thing for the board to debate over and over. If nothing else they provide subject matter material to discuss here!!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

While WDW has pretty much always adjusted staffing and park hours to accommodate expected crowds, they've recently taken it to a new level. It is kind of pointless to again trot out the tired meme: well they are a business, and they get to make money, and they are justified in doing this. That isn't the point.

Where this change matters - per a forum on theme park strategies - is that is has a real impact on touring advice.

These boards have long featured folks bragging about the supreme wisdom of rope dropping, because rope droppers could cover twice as many rides 9am-10am, as those who arrived an hour later.

The change now means that is no longer true. Rope dropping no longer holds the same value it once did for most guests unless they plan to stay until park closing. If you aren't staying until park close, then there is less value in Rope drop. Instead WDW vacations might actually benefit by allowing one's family's night owls to sleep-in a little longer.

 

[Lesley Wake]

I thought of that but I guess I'm totally clueless. I don't see what MM has do to with crowds, waits, or anything. What piece am I missing?

I think its all about the tracking. With the Magicbands and everything, Disney knows how many people were in a particular area of the park or ride at anytime during the day. They can then extrapolate that to the future and adjust staffing accordingly. The amount of data they have on all of our movements must be staggering!

 

[wookiebeck]

I don't see this any differently than grocery stores not having all of their check-out lanes open during non busy times of the day.

This is standard procedure.

Except that my local store has recently been having only two lanes open (our of 20) even during busy times. Waited 30 minutes with ice cream in the cart. It is a cost saving mechanism for the company. Thus if WDW is just following the current standard procedure, they are diminishing the guest experience.

 

[Disneymom1126]

We've been during a few different predicted crowd levels (predicted levels of 2-3 all the way up to Thanksgiving Week and New Years week). General patterns in the parks were basically the same - rope drop and you'll ride till mid-morning without really waiting in lines (with the exception of whatever is new/popular), mid-morning through early evening is when wait times continue to climb (use FP+ and see shows, parades, meet characters, etc), dinner through park close they start to drop again (try to get some additional FP+, go ride the things with shorter wait time).

With FP+ I think there are rides that maybe used to not have longer waits that now the waits are more evenly distributed across the parks. The only really noticeable differences to me when it's super busy vs. just busy are during evening shows and parades (when super busy get their earlier to get a good spot and crowds leaving take longer to disperse), finding seating/waiting in line for food at QS locations can take longer, and walking paths are more crowded. I also think it's more important to have 2 days at Magic Kingdom when it is super busy because then you can balance out your FP+ across the rides better. Aside from first week of January (where we still had a blast and did everything we wanted to do even with crazy crowds), any other trip we have taken the wait times have been basically the same give or take 10-15 minutes on either side. Even this past January 1-6 trip, with good plans, we didn't wait longer than 20 minutes for anything.

I just think there really isn't a time now where you can expect to go and not wait in some lines. I also think it's super important now to plan in advance. I'm sure people who just show up without spending time reading on sites like this to know what to expect are probably overwhelmed! I can't even imagine. People know that we go to Disney about once a year and ask for advice all the time and I always tell them that going in with a plan is super important at Disney.

 

[AngiTN]

I think its all about the tracking. With the Magicbands and everything, Disney knows how many people were in a particular area of the park or ride at anytime during the day. They can then extrapolate that to the future and adjust staffing accordingly. The amount of data they have on all of our movements must be staggering!

LOL.. If they can figure out what I'm doing in the future more power to them.

 

[Runnsally]

I think the point here is that (unlike in the past), Disney is now considering wait times on busy days to be the norm and down-shifting capacity/staffing/etc on less crowded days so waits remain at the “busy” level.