Jan 2018 wait times longer than Summer 2017: Disney reduced ride capacity

[Getoutyall]

Right now I am trying to move some small mountains so that we can go the week of May 20 vs May 27. (We are staying off property and will not being doing ADR's. I have yet to book a condo, but want to in the next day or so). On the UT website, most of May 20 week is yellow. May 27 is red (Memorial Day weekend). What I am hearing from this thread is that I should stop moving these small mountains (aka rearranging my and DH work schedules which may or may not even be possible) as I may actually be better off with a red week.

My daughter had a tournament the weekend of presidents day weekend. So we were choosing the week before presidents day or the week of presidents day (which ran into a marathon weekend). Every site I found said to do the week before it was predicted low to moderate crowds while the holiday week was high crowds. Looking at the actual crowds for those two weeks it would have been better to choose the week of presidents day instead of the week we chose. Magic kingdom was a 9 everyday we were in Orlando and animal kingdom was predicted to be a 4 the day we went and ended up being a 10!

 

[LiveToTravelNicely]

I specifically remember BTMRR having only one side open, and Peoplemover having reduced people per vehicle. ....... On my September 2012 trip. Obviously they may have reduced staff even more over the years, but I thought I'd share my experience fwiw.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I was going to figure out whether I spend more than that at La Cava every year, and then I decided not to do that analysis.

To add a bit of levity to the discussion, this was very funny.

 

[tlmadden73]

This is really sad. And really worries me, considering 1 of the members of our November trip is a newbie, and I am increasingly worrying about her feeling like it was a waste of money. Of course, to be honest, I'm worried that I am going to feel like it was a waste of money. It would appear that there have been a lot of negative changes since June 2015, and I won't lie - it worries me. I'm really not going to be happy if I spend $2000 out of our really tight budget, to encounter numerous break downs and long lines, especially considering I will have only 1 day at Magic Kingdom.

I worry about that as well when people ask me about WDW advice. I have certain expectations based on my experience (and from reading here).

My wife's aunt and uncle decided to go to WDW for an adult-only trip (there right now) and decided this at the LAST MINUTE (like a week or two before).
I worry they will have a bad experience due to long wait times and it will come back unhappy from the happiest place on earth. (and of course will roll their eyes or criticize us for "wasting money" when we go back).

But hey, if people continue to have this experience and word QUICKLY (thanks to social media) gets out that WDW isn't worth the money, etc. etc .. then the parks will be less crowded and Disney will bring back things to draw more people.

I have a trip coming up in November with my parents and I worry about the same thing. I am debating taking the big dip with Annual Passes. And while that gives me the flexibility (and less pressure) to get it "all" done, I worry that big cost will feel wasted due to crowds and wait times (especially when going with young children (6yo and 2yo).

I worry about my parents for this November trip. The last time they went was January 2010 .. (it was really dead). They will be quite shocked at the difference .. and just aren't as patient or able to wait in long lines like they used to when they took me back in the 80s and 90s.

 

[zillayen]

My wife's aunt and uncle decided to go to WDW for an adult-only trip (there right now) and decided this at the LAST MINUTE (like a week or two before).
I worry they will have a bad experience due to long wait times and it will come back unhappy from the happiest place on earth. (and of course will roll their eyes or criticize us for "wasting money" when we go back).

They might be pleasantly surprised! I was expecting the worst after reading the boards for the last month, but we were very lucky with crowds mostly in the 2-5 range, no ride closures, and lots of pixie dust where the extra FP+ were concerned. I admit I was worried and tempered my expectations and warned my kids we might not get to ride things twice, but we had a really great trip. To the point where I'm itching to go back this summer even though it's not in the cards.

 

[SCSteve]

I wonder if Disney is staffing/running attractions based decade old procedures for January, meanwhile, the parks are now mobbed in January.

And just my opinion, fastpass plus has destroyed WDW as we knew it.....

 

[Princess_Lisa]

The average length of a Disney vacation has probably increased over the years (I mean . .when I was a kid in the 80s .. it was just something else to do for a day or two while in Florida . .not a 7-10 day vacation in itself).

Growing up, we never went for more than 2-3 days (1 day/park). There were only 2-3 parks (MK and Epcot, then MGM once it opened) not counting River Country which we never did.

Now, I'm planning to spend 6-7 days in the parks when I go for my Birthday this year. I'm only planning 1 half-day for Animal Kingdom, so its not just the extra park(s). Some of the difference is I am adding extra partial days at parks due to Tiering (assume both new rides in TSL will be Tier 1, if not all 3) and limiting (currently I only plan to hop for MHNSSHP - based on probable party days) Park Hopping due to FastPasses only being able to be made (in advance) at a single park. I'm also taking a day off, which I never did as a kid. You didn't really need one when you were only there 2-3 days. This adds a day. I see people now taking entire days or multiple days off from the parks.

We saw this too! We were stunned there was any wait time for the People Mover (it's one of my favourite rides) Several times we had a 10-15 minute wait downstairs, when we got the the top, several 'carts' were sent empty and they didn't even have the 'breakdown' orange or red tarpaulin over the top. They were just being sent empty for no reason.

I was surprised by this also. When I started going back to Disney (I hadn't been since October 1996), I don't remember there being a wait for the PeopleMover. There was also AM and PM EMH every single night, but I digress...Now, it seems every time I go there is a long line and it always has some wait, even if only 5 minutes. I've seen even longer (10-15 minute) waits also.

My understanding is that omnimovers have speeds - they can slow down or speed up how fast the vehicles are moving.

That makes sense. I could have sworn one time that the PeopleMover seemed to move faster than previous rides. In that instance, it had just come back online from a breakdown, so I wonder if they sped it up to full speed to clear the line out a bit and were usually running it at reduced speed.

 

[erin1715]

I wonder if Disney is staffing/running attractions based decade old procedures for January, meanwhile, the parks are now mobbed in January.

And just my opinion, fastpass plus has destroyed life as we know it.....

I totally agree.

 

[mshanson3121]

tlmadden73 said: ↑

The average length of a Disney vacation has probably increased over the years (I mean . .when I was a kid in the 80s .. it was just something else to do for a day or two while in Florida . .not a 7-10 day vacation in itself).

Growing up, we never went for more than 2-3 days (1 day/park). There were only 2-3 parks (MK and Epcot, then MGM once it opened) not counting River Country which we never did.

I agree people are spending longer, but I think it's out of necessity due to the massive increase in crowds, but also because there's a 4th gate now, and there's more to do in the parks. I went in '92. We spent 3 days - 2 at MK and 1 at EP. It was over our March break (first week of March). Compared to today, it was dead. There were no lines for character M&Gs - you just walked up to them, or maybe waited for 3 or 4 people in front of you, maybe 5-10 minutes. There was no lining up for an hour before the parade or fireworks. Waits for rides were short. We did every ride there was to do with ease.

Compared to our trip in 2015, when we spent 7 days (granted they were not full days, we mostly did 9-2, or 9-1 and then back for 5 to close), and didn't come close to seeing/doing it all. My son and I waited 45 minutes in line to meet Jesse and Woody. We used FP+ and DAS for rides, and then made use of rope drop, so to be fair, we never waited in line more than 20 minutes. But we also never entered a line if it had more than a 20 minute wait listed, which meant there were several rides we didn't attempt. Rope drop was great, but by 11 it was busy/crowded, on a couple days it was shoulder to shoulder in the bottleneck areas of MK/AK, and slow/hard to navigate.

If I were planning a "real" Disney trip again for the future, especially once SWG has opened, I would not plan anything less than 5 days.

 

[niccikatie]

Reduced Capacity:

I don't think it is a huge conspiracy, I mean your local Six Flags them park reduces capacity during non peak times. Go during the week or the beginning of a season and you can easily see they run less cars (maybe a coaster that normally has two cars running only runs one ... less boats in the river rapids, some of the snack shops aren't open, etc.)

As much as we would love Disney to be running at the same capacity and staffing in January as they do in June (so a lot of rides are walk-ons), that just isn't going to happen.

Disney knows that there are less people coming through the gates so they staff less. Maybe they simply haven't adjusted to increased attendance levels and still working on past years attendance figures. But you'd think that with FP+ .. they would sorta know what the attendance at any park given park at any given day would be.

How some rides have reduced capacity though is odd though. The coasters and boat rides can have vehicles removed. But, how can something like Buzz (a continuously moving ride vehicle) have less people go through it unless there was a time it was just a walk-on?

Bolding mine. Well, it has happened in the past (or at least not staffing reduced enough to cause what we're seeing). We went the first week of February in 2012. It was incredible. The attached pictured was taken at Epcot on 2/2/12. It was almost like having the park to yourself.

I think Disney's motivation in creating these high waits is to sell the tiered multiday tickets. Right now, ticket-wise we're paying the same amount to spend more than 1 day at the parks no matter the time of the year/staffing levels/waits/etc. Now, you'll pay a lower price and get less staff, longer waits, etc. but Disney did you favor! They "lowered" the price!

 

[agame2323]

These are all great points. As someone pointed out earlier, public sentiment has changed and reshaped how people plan. More vacations are being taken during January - March, which was once consider "slow" months.

Disney definitely needs to take a strong look into this and make some changes.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Bolding mine. Well, it has happened in the past (or at least not staffing reduced enough to cause what we're seeing). We went the first week of February in 2012. It was incredible. The attached pictured was taken at Epcot on 2/2/12. It was almost like having the park to yourself.

I think Disney's motivation in creating these high waits is to sell the tiered multiday tickets. Right now, ticket-wise we're paying the same amount to spend more than 1 day at the parks no matter the time of the year/staffing levels/waits/etc. Now, you'll pay a lower price and get less staff, longer waits, etc. but Disney did you favor! They "lowered" the price!

Actually in the DisUnplugged podcast, Pete was suggesting they manipulated the wait times in Jan to be able to say it’s not low time. ‘Oh yeah, it used to be Value season but not anymore. You remember how busy it was in Jan 2018. Sorry, ticket buying public, there is only one day out of the year that qualifies as Value anymore. A Wed in Sept in hurricane years. Have a Magical Day!’

I don’t really think they would go that far ...

I do think they may be manipulating to drive up the appeal of the upsells but that seems like a more normal level of business marketing (but kind of depends on where someone draws the line between marketing and manipulation).

 

[mickeyluv'r]

↑

I agree people are spending longer, but I think it's out of necessity due to the massive increase in crowds, but also because there's a 4th gate now, and there's more to do in the parks.

We aren't. Our trips are shorter.

Except it isn't quite that simple. Comparing 1970's WDW to 2018 WDW is comparing apples to oranges.

When WDW was just MK: MK had far fewer rides and the pricing structure was radically different than it is today or has been in-between those two dates.

Disney's had 4 gates since April 1998. Epcot has removed some attractions/entertainment removed and Illuminations is almost 19 years dated! Epcot has lost entertainment value over the past few years. HS is also a bit limited at present.

There was a LONG time frame where Disney radically structured their pricing to keep guests away from Universal. We got days 5-7 for next to nothing, plus an extra $200 gift card and free airport shuttle to boot!

Alas, now we're back down to WDW visits as short as 1 day, but Diagon Alley is fabulous!

I keep hoping WDW will improve, but I it hasn't happened yet.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Actually in the DisUnplugged podcast, Pete was suggesting they manipulated the wait times in Jan to be able to say it’s not low time. ‘Oh yeah, it used to be Value season but not anymore. You remember how busy it was in Jan 2018. Sorry, ticket buying public, there is only one day out of the year that qualifies as Value anymore. A Wed in Sept in hurricane years. Have a Magical Day!’

I don’t really think they would go that far ...

I do think they may be manipulating to drive up the appeal of the upsells but that seems like a more normal level of business marketing (but kind of depends on where someone draws the line between marketing and manipulation).

I still remember when WDW hotels only had a few pricing seasons, and weekends were the same price as weeknights.

If you want to see how tiered tickets would work, try looking at Disney Paris. The pricing has all kinds of confusing tiers, and every time I looked at the website- over a few weeks- the prices on hotel packages kept changing.

It was such a turn off! No thanks!

I try to avoid businesses that act that way. (Unfortunately, corporate consolidation keeps getting worse, and we're down to few choices every day.)

 

[jenniferhouston2]

We didn't arrive at a cause of reduced capacity until the first week of February, when we started counting riders. View the numbers below with some skepticism. Also, we focused on headliners with high capacity, so changes at attractions like Mad Tea Party wouldn't be picked up through rider counts.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Average Riders/Hour After 2/21: 1,443 Before 2/21: 1,103 (-24%)
Big Thunder (WDW) After 2/21: 1,570 Before: 1,232 (-22%)
Buzz Lightyear (WDW) After 2/21: 1,813 Before: 1,351 (-25%)
Space Mountain (WDW) After 2/21: 1,620 Before: 1,443 (-11%)

Thank you Len for all of your research and data. People may disagree as to the motives/reasoning behind these reduced capacities. But, the reduced capacities were factual and impacted our trip greatly.

 

[disneyseniors]

When was it free for everyone to get in to the park early and have breakfast with some unlimited riding?

When were Halloween and Christmas parties free?

The most popular theme park in the world is crowded. How is this shocking?

And the next question????? ta da: WHY are you so upset over a simple statement IMO????
Have a magical day

 

[disneyseniors]

My daughter had a tournament the weekend of presidents day weekend. So we were choosing the week before presidents day or the week of presidents day (which ran into a marathon weekend). Every site I found said to do the week before it was predicted low to moderate crowds while the holiday week was high crowds. Looking at the actual crowds for those two weeks it would have been better to choose the week of presidents day instead of the week we chose. Magic kingdom was a 9 everyday we were in Orlando and animal kingdom was predicted to be a 4 the day we went and ended up being a 10!

Yes, I get what you are saying! I studied, planned, and figured the best week would be before Spring Break and after the Princess half marathon. I figured that the marathon runners would probably go the week before the marathon as it started on a Thursday, making it a half week before the race.
Well, boy was I wrong!!! It seems a lot of racers stayed the week After the marathon. Guess they thought the same thing
So, my well made plans for a less crowded time did not work out at all. It was really crowded with long wait times for attractions. We only used our 3 allotted fast passes, and were not satisfied with only 3.
so, I know what you mean when you try to plan and it does not work out

 

[disneyseniors]

As other posters have said, the peoplemover seems to be running without filling up the cars, and with longer waits at the bottom of the escalator.
We saw the same thing this past week, and wondered why?
We watched from the line below while in line, and each set of cars only had one car filled, usually with 2 people. That's one car out of 4, I believe? Why did they do that with the longer lines to get on????? It just didn't make sense to us that they would send every set of cars out with only one out of four used?
If anyone has insight into this mystery, please let us know.
I may be wrong in the number of cars in each set, but only one was in use each time.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

As other posters have said, the peoplemover seems to be running without filling up the cars, and with longer waits at the bottom of the escalator.
We saw the same thing this past week, and wondered why?
We watched from the line below while in line, and each set of cars only had one car filled, usually with 2 people. That's one car out of 4, I believe? Why did they do that with the longer lines to get on????? It just didn't make sense to us that they would send every set of cars out with only one out of four used?
If anyone has insight into this mystery, please let us know.
I may be wrong in the number of cars in each set, but only one was in use each time.

This one is easy.... empty PeopleMover cars = less people to evac when it breaks down.

(I kid, I kid....)

 

[ELLH]

I wonder if Disney is staffing/running attractions based decade old procedures for January, meanwhile, the parks are now mobbed in January.

FP+ tells them how many people to expect in the park. They have this data months (think about your FP+ window) in advance. They have all they need to know in order to staff at a level they desire to.