OMG ... It was seriously packed today!

[Astylla]

The happiest surprise I ever got was the time I took my kid and my sister's two kids during the week before Labour Day. I was so afraid it would be super crowded with summer crowds. It was glorious weather and not crowded at all. All the local kids were back in school that week

I've been there on Labor Day many years and every year people would chime in " It will be miserable , don't go " , etc. Same with Thanksgiving day and Black Friday but after 7 years going back to back it was some of my favorite times to go. While it would be logical to say and assume , sometimes things in practice are far different. Of course this year after things have changed could shift some but I doubt it will be as dramatic as some assume. WDW on the other hand is another beast in itself.

 

[Steven G]

A few years ago, I was there on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve was a lot nicer than I expected, and definitely better than some spring break days, especially up until noon or so. It then got busy, but then was pretty nice in the evening.
Christmas Day was insane, I won't do that again.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Work on Pirates and NOS from Jan-Mar then. Just after Holidays and before Spring Break
Toontown, work in phases, For example, Keep Roger open and close/wall up everything else. Then when Spring Break is over close it all.

Jan-Mar? Well the weather would like a word. After drowning in Dec, sure we’ve been bone dry. Record like bone dry actually but Disney could not have predicted that and it would not have been a wise investment to plan all that outdoor work during months they had decent odds of getting rained out.

The Toontown remodel isn’t a cute little redo. They’re basically ripping it out and re-building. That type of vibration in the ground would utterly screw with operating a ride like Rodger Rabbit. They need a year so give up Spring Break 2021 or 2022. I’d pick 2021 as well because the new Mickey and Minnie ride has been humming along on construction for the last couple years, don’t want that thing sitting around waiting for the rest of toon town to catch up.

Now practically speaking, what could Disney do to buffer this since now is the right time to do the work? Allow less people in the parks and/or increase offerings in other areas. What in the blazes happened to Nemo is unknown but getting that open would provide one more attraction. A show at the theater in Fantasyland. A show at the theater in DCA. All things that could help with crowds. If the parks are slammed beyond enjoyable operating capacity, they need to decrease capacity. Which they could do with the click of a button for not sold-out days so not doing that is just Disney being Cheap.

 

[gottalovepluto]

These closures are due to heavy construction work in both areas. They are completely redoing the elevated walkways in front of the Rivers of America to eliminate the step down, creating a smoothing slope instead, from what I've heard. They are also removing the 2 diseased trees from the entrance to POTC and reworking the queue. This is all to prepare for the return of Fantasmic.

Toontown is undergoing its massive refurbishment project to reopen next spring with the new ride and updated play area.

I’m picturing how many people must have tripped around ROA over the years- YIKES!!! Yeah, they need to get that fixed…

 

[StormyCA]

I’m picturing how many people must have tripped around ROA over the years- YIKES!!! Yeah, they need to get that fixed…

You can put me in that number! Plus, I don't do stairs. Getting rid of the stairs and making them into a gentle slope will work great for me!

 

[brightlined]

Toontown, work in phases, For example, Keep Roger open and close/wall up everything else. Then when Spring Break is over close it all.

Toontown was a mess in January. I rode Roger in January, and it seemed obvious to me that it was overdue for a refurb. (Among other things, the car I rode in was broken.) Part of the area around the exit was closed off because of existing construction.





I feel like they could have closed Toontown in December if not for the crowds. (I was a bit baffled by the timing of the "Mickey's private party" thing, which I'd bet is the only reason it stayed open.)

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Jan-Mar? Well the weather would like a word. After drowning in Dec, sure we’ve been bone dry. Record like bone dry actually but Disney could not have predicted that and it would not have been a wise investment to plan all that outdoor work during months they had decent odds of getting rained out.

The Toontown remodel isn’t a cute little redo. They’re basically ripping it out and re-building. That type of vibration in the ground would utterly screw with operating a ride like Rodger Rabbit. They need a year so give up Spring Break 2021 or 2022. I’d pick 2021 as well because the new Mickey and Minnie ride has been humming along on construction for the last couple years, don’t want that thing sitting around waiting for the rest of toon town to catch up.

Now practically speaking, what could Disney do to buffer this since now is the right time to do the work? Allow less people in the parks and/or increase offerings in other areas. What in the blazes happened to Nemo is unknown but getting that open would provide one more attraction. A show at the theater in Fantasyland. A show at the theater in DCA. All things that could help with crowds. If the parks are slammed beyond enjoyable operating capacity, they need to decrease capacity. Which they could do with the click of a button for not sold-out days so not doing that is just Disney being Cheap.

I think having the theater shows back would really help with afternoon crowds for sure in both parks. Hopefully with the nighttime entertainment coming back, we will see the theater shows coming back next!

 

[gottalovepluto]

I think having the theater shows back would really help with afternoon crowds for sure in both parks. Hopefully with the nighttime entertainment coming back, we will see the theater shows coming back next!

I think Lion King is heading to Fantasyland this summer but no word on Hyperion.

(Aladdin! Aladdin! Aladdin!… hey, a girl can dream )

 

[COASTIEandMATE]

I think Lion King is heading to Fantasyland this summer but no word on Hyperion.

(Aladdin! Aladdin! Aladdin!… hey, a girl can dream )

We miss Aladdin at the DCA too!!

 

[pokee99]

That's what they said about summer 2021. It didn't pan out. In fact, it was so UNbusy that Disneyland frantically rolled out the magic key program much earlier than they had planned. And remember summer 2019, when Galaxy's Edge opened and everyone said it would be a packed nightmare? That didn't pan out either. It was comically slow that whole summer.

I've been a local passholder for 22 years now. Summer is NEVER that busy here. People overestimate how many people from out of state come here in the summer. This is not Orlando.

The beaches are crowded in summer. The theme parks...not so much. Locals tend to leave town in the summer and go on their own vacations, and the 2 tiers of passholders who are blocked out ALL SUMMER removes a huge portion of guests from the parks.

Seriously, if July ends up being more crowded than literally any other month in the previous year, I'll come back here and eat crow.

I think this year will be VERY different than 2021... Canadians, Australians and so many people around the world are starting to travel again. Last year we still had to test to return home... this summer we won't. Last summer most Canadians didn't want to go anywhere near the US, let alone one of the most crowded places in the US. I know sooo many people that have rescheduled their canceled 2019 Disneyland trip for summer 2022. We almost did until we realized we could make March work, despite having to test on the way home.

It's a new world out there. Despite your very logical predictions based on your vast experience, I think it'll be a consistently busy year. The Disney withdrawal is real, and everyone's gonna need their fix!

 

[pokee99]

I completely agree. That last week of August where the majority go APs/Keys are still blocked AND most out of state schools are back in session is the sweet spot. In elementary and middle, my daughter didn't go back to school until after Labor Day so we'd spend the whole week there. Now my daughter's high school starts the first week of August. She also used to get 4 weeks of winter break so she had the first 2 weeks of January off, and the first two weeks of April for spring break. It worked out perfectly for just missing the big crowds. Her new school schedule made Keys not worth it to us.

I guess the bright side is, now that we aren't spending $15,000+ a year visiting DLR, we can now plan two long vacations instead of one plus visit my family who lives out of the country more than once a year.

The last week of August is generally less busy everywhere. I usually travel that week when I travel in the summer because it's my hubby's bday. I've been to Florida 6 times and it's always been during that week/labor day weekend, and I've always managed to avoid getting stuck in a hurricane (a couple of close calls, though... lol!).

 

[DLgal]

I think this year will be VERY different than 2021... Canadians, Australians and so many people around the world are starting to travel again. Last year we still had to test to return home... this summer we won't. Last summer most Canadians didn't want to go anywhere near the US, let alone one of the most crowded places in the US. I know sooo many people that have rescheduled their canceled 2019 Disneyland trip for summer 2022. We almost did until we realized we could make March work, despite having to test on the way home.

It's a new world out there. Despite your very logical predictions based on your vast experience, I think it'll be a consistently busy year. The Disney withdrawal is real, and everyone's gonna need their fix!

I guess we'll see. There are already Canadians. descending. Sat with a family on the Pal A Round yesterday from Canada.

However, it is noteworthy that this month has largely been "sold out" for day ticket guests, but not for Magic Keys and it's still not anywhere near what crowds used to look like pre pandemic. Disney has already said they will NOT be returning to those crowd numbers, ever. The new norm will be "pretty crowded" most of the time as the reservation system attempts to maximize the per guest spend ratio. There is a Magic number where it's crowded, but not too crowded where people stop spending money. There is a tipping point and Disney is desperately trying to get just to that point on a daily basis.

They're frantically trying to find the balance, and we know this because they are CONSTANTLY sending out surveys that point to this fact and making little operational tweaks here and there.

What they really NEED to get under control is the ride breakdown situation, because that can very quickly undermine everything else they try to do to maximize guest satisfaction (and thus, guest spending). When people are not having fun, and feeling aggravated by long lines and frequent breakdowns, they simply leave.

 

[pokee99]

I guess we'll see. There are already Canadians. descending. Sat with a family on the Pal A Round yesterday from Canada.

However, it is noteworthy that this month has largely been "sold out" for day ticket guests, but not for Magic Keys and it's still not anywhere near what crowds used to look like pre pandemic. Disney has already said they will NOT be returning to those crowd numbers, ever. The new norm will be "pretty crowded" most of the time as the reservation system attempts to maximize the per guest spend ratio. There is a Magic number where it's crowded, but not too crowded where people stop spending money. There is a tipping point and Disney is desperately trying to get just to that point on a daily basis.

They're frantically trying to find the balance, and we know this because they are CONSTANTLY sending out surveys that point to this fact and making little operational tweaks here and there.

What they really NEED to get under control is the ride breakdown situation, because that can very quickly undermine everything else they try to do to maximize guest satisfaction (and this, guest spending). When people are not having fun, and feeling aggravated by long lines and frequent breakdowns, they simply leave.

Yup, when we were there last Saturday - Tuesday, there were at least 3-4 rides down at some point all day. It was worse on Monday and Tuesday. Indy was the repeat offender every single day. We got an early morning experience pass out of it on our second day.

I'm pretty fascinated by Disney's ability to analyze all that data to find a balance and fix reoccurring problems. I'll be eager to see how they deal with the ever-increasing crowd problems.

 

[DLgal]

Yup, when we were there last Saturday - Tuesday, there were at least 3-4 rides down at some point all day. It was worse on Monday and Tuesday. Indy was the repeat offender every single day. We got an early morning experience pass out of it on our second day.

I'm pretty fascinated by Disney's ability to analyze all that data to find a balance and fix reoccurring problems. I'll be eager to see how they deal with the ever-increasing crowd problems.

Yesterday DCA was a poop show, to put it mildly. RSR was down ALL morning. It came back up around 12:30pm. Incredicoaster had a 90 min line all morning due to only running one side until mid afternoon. Webslingers went down. Guardians went down. Incredicoaster was up and down from 11am through the rest of the day. The swings went down around 10:30 and never came back up for the rest of the day. At one point, Monsters Inc had a 150 min line. Grizzly River Run is closed for refurbishment. The Redwood Creek trail didn't open until noon? There was, at times, nothing to do that didn't require at least a 60 minute wait. Once 1pm hit, people left DCA in droves to go over to DL and they never went back to DCA. We did. It was dead at the F&W Fest booths at prime dinner time. I'm talking 5:30-8:30. DEAD. Every booth was a walk up. That is not good. It was a Saturday night.

It seems like right now, Disney is trying to find a way to cut down on "no shows" at the parks so they can maximize the number of people who actually show up. It is mind boggling that they sold the Magic Keys with the RULE that they would penalize no shows and they only JUST now started to enforce it, almost 7 months after launching the program.

They could fix this SO EASILY by simply allowing same day cancellations up until, say, noon. At the same time, they could simply open the parks up to ANYONE who wants to come in. Go back to selling a limited number of tickets at the gates. Find a way to ping Magic Key holders via the app with a special discount if they come in that day last minute. Give them an extra 5-10% dining discount for the day. Give them $5-10 off parking for the day. Give a coupon for a free Mickey Bar. Whatever.

They seem to want the reservation system in order to control their staffing levels, but the system is not guest friendly, and so they aren't maximizing the guest count the way they want to.

The problem now isn't crowds that are too big, it's either not ENOUGH crowds or unhappy crowds. Both of those are bad.

And don't even get me started about how much of a disaster Genie+ has been for standby lines. This program is short term $$$ at the expense of long term guest satisfaction.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

It seems like a common theme for when the parks feel most crowded is directly related to rides being down more than any other factor, plus the inability to hop whenever to help spread crowds more evenly. Unless they address the ride stability issue, it seems hard to imagine crowding issues settling down :/

 

[pokee99]

Yesterday DCA was a poop show, to put it mildly. RSR was down ALL morning. It came back up around 12:30pm. Incredicoaster had a 90 min line all morning due to only running one side until mid afternoon. Webslingers went down. Guardians went down. Incredicoaster was up and down from 11am through the rest of the day. The swings went down around 10:30 and never came back up for the rest of the day. At one point, Monsters Inc had a 150 min line. Grizzly River Run is closed for refurbishment. The Redwood Creek trail didn't open until noon? There was, at times, nothing to do that didn't require at least a 60 minute wait. Once 1pm hit, people left DCA in droves to go over to DL and they never went back to DCA. We did. It was dead at the F&W Fest booths at prime dinner time. I'm talking 5:30-8:30. DEAD. Every booth was a walk up. That is not good. It was a Saturday night.

It seems like right now, Disney is trying to find a way to cut down on "no shows" at the parks so they can maximize the number of people who actually show up. It is mind boggling that they sold the Magic Keys with the RULE that they would penalize no shows and they only JUST now started to enforce it, almost 7 months after launching the program.

They could fix this SO EASILY by simply allowing same day cancellations up until, say, noon. At the same time, they could simply open the parks up to ANYONE who wants to come in. Go back to selling a limited number of tickets at the gates. Find a way to ping Magic Key holders via the app with a special discount if they come in that day last minute. Give them an extra 5-10% dining discount for the day. Give them $5-10 off parking for the day. Give a coupon for a free Mickey Bar. Whatever.

They seem to want the reservation system in order to control their staffing levels, but the system is not guest friendly, and so they aren't maximizing the guest count the way they want to.

The problem now isn't crowds that are too big, it's either not ENOUGH crowds or unhappy crowds. Both of those are bad.

And don't even get me started about how much of a disaster Genie+ has been for standby lines. This program is short term $$$ at the expense of long term guest satisfaction.

Wow! This is a lot to digest!

You know when Guardians goes down, there's a real problem (I mean, it's an elevator!!! Multiple elevators! Lol). They must simply be having staffing issues, don't you think?

DCA was pretty dead last Saturday night too, when I was there, but all the rides were up, at least. RSR did go down briefly and wrecked our 5 min wait for single rider roll, but we were satisfied with riding a few times.

I hope you filled out some of the surveys and that Disney is paying attention to people like you!!!

This all strikes me as post-Covid scrambling, and it may sort itself out as the months and years go by. Yeah, I wrote years... it could take a while!

 

[DLgal]

Wow! This is a lot to digest!

You know when Guardians goes down, there's a real problem (I mean, it's an elevator!!! Multiple elevators! Lol). They must simply be having staffing issues, don't you think?

DCA was pretty dead last Saturday night too, when I was there, but all the rides were up, at least. RSR did go down briefly and wrecked our 5 min wait for single rider roll, but we were satisfied with riding a few times.

I hope you filled out some of the surveys and that Disney is paying attention to people like you!!!

This all strikes me as post-Covid scrambling, and it may sort itself out as the months and years go by. Yeah, I wrote years... it could take a while!

You know, I get a LOT of surveys. Only VERY rarely do they ask questions about ride breakdowns. I can recall maybe one survey that asked if we got to ride everything we wanted and if not, why not and ride being "unavailable" was an option, but that does not necessarily point to a breakdown (could be referencing a ride closed for refurbishment).

I have to assume at this point that there is a massive labor problem in the maintenance department. There is really no other excuse for the amount of time rides remain down once they go offline. There is no good excuse as to why the darn Silly Symphony Swings would just shut down FOR THE DAY at 10:30 am. We saw them "testing" for a good hour before they just shut the whole thing down and even went so far as to remove the attraction CMs who stand there and tell people the ride is down. They just abandoned the whole ride. I've never seen that and I have no good explanation on such a basic ride. What could possibly have broken that could not be quickly fixed? My kids love this little ride and not having it available (along with the Golden Zephyr for much of the day) to kill time in the Pier area while waiting on our DAS return time really stunk.

And why do some rides literally go down EVERY SINGLE DAY without fail? Space Mountain and Indiana Jones, I'm looking at you.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

You know, I get a LOT of surveys. Only VERY rarely do they ask questions about ride breakdowns. I can recall maybe one survey that asked if we got to ride everything we wanted and if not, why not and ride being "unavailable" was an option, but that does not necessarily point to a breakdown (could be referencing a ride closed for refurbishment).

I have to assume at this point that there is a massive labor problem in the maintenance department. There is really no other excuse for the amount of time rides remain down once they go offline. There is no good excuse as to why the darn Silly Symphony Swings would just shut down FOR THE DAY at 10:30 am. We saw them "testing" for a good hour before they just shut the whole thing down and even went so far as to remove the attraction CMs who stand there and tell people the ride is down. They just abandoned the whole ride. I've never seen that and I have no good explanation on such a basic ride. What could possibly have broken that could not be quickly fixed? My kids love this little ride and not having it available (along with the Golden Zephyr for much of the day) to kill time in the Pier area while waiting on our DAS return time really stunk.

And why do some rides literally go down EVERY SINGLE DAY without fail? Space Mountain and Indiana Jones, I'm looking at you.

I remember reading on another thread a theory that a lot of the ride downtime is related to guest behavior - items falling out on RSR track, guests failing to load/unload properly for Space causing timing issues with cars... Indy has just always been a problem child though, so I doubt those breakdowns are guest-related. Pretty decent theory for RSR and Space though.

Even beyond the downtimes though, there seem to be a lot of reports of rides not fully functional/effects missing. I hear it most for HM, RSR and RotR. Hopefully they will be able to better staff maintenance and get some of these issues addressed, but if they aren't getting survey information about it, maybe they aren't realizing how big of a problem it is :/

 

[DLgal]

I remember reading on another thread a theory that a lot of the ride downtime is related to guest behavior - items falling out on RSR track, guests failing to load/unload properly for Space causing timing issues with cars... Indy has just always been a problem child though, so I doubt those breakdowns are guest-related. Pretty decent theory for RSR and Space though.

Even beyond the downtimes though, there seem to be a lot of reports of rides not fully functional/effects missing. I hear it most for HM, RSR and RotR. Hopefully they will be able to better staff maintenance and get some of these issues addressed, but if they aren't getting survey information about it, maybe they aren't realizing how big of a problem it is :/

I'm sure a certain percentage of ride downtime is due to guest behavior or fallen items. But these should not cause HOURS LONG downtime. RSR never even opened up yesterday morning. It was down from park opening for almost 5 hours. That's unacceptable. That nice family from Canada asked us if the ride was down for refurbishment and I told them it wasn't, and that a closure this long was unusual (but then I quickly realized it's not THAT unusual these days, unfortunately). They said "well, this is our one day here so we hope it opens up eventually." How sad is that? I hope that family got on it later.

 

[kristensideaoffun]

I'm sure a certain percentage of ride downtime is due to guest behavior or fallen items. But these should not cause HOURS LONG downtime. RSR never even opened up yesterday morning. It was down from park opening for almost 5 hours. That's unacceptable. That nice family from Canada asked us if the ride was down for refurbishment and I told them it wasn't, and that a closure this long was unusual (but then I quickly realized it's not THAT unusual these days, unfortunately). They said "well, this is our one day here so we hope it opens up eventually." How sad is that? I hope that family got on it later.

Totally pathetic. Didn’t an Executive recently announce that they were very close to being fully staffed at pre-pandemic levels? The downtime for rides shows this is definitely not true. Perhaps they are fully staffed in areas that actually make them money like retail, food, etc and aren’t prioritizing ride maintenance because, whether a ride is working or not, it’s not making them any additional money (not counting the paid LL rides). We are staying at DLH now and I’m pretty shocked at the price jumps for parking, food, and beverages here. This is the first time we’ve self-parked because my husband couldn’t bring himself to pay $50+ tips for valet service. Disney didn’t have to try to squeeze money out of us before, we willingly formed it over. Now that I feel like I am being nickeled and dimed, I am watching more closely what we spend here.