What is going on?

[jade1]

I visited in May and December 2021 and did not find the crowds to be any larger than past visits.

Nevertheless, many have said things are more crowded in the last couple of months (March & April.) Meanwhile Disney is also restricting access with Park Pass showing no availability for literally weeks during spring break period.

So, do believe it's true that:

1) the parks are more crowded than before the pandemic, AND
2) even more guests are still being turned away

Is there THAT much demand for the WDW product, in spite of inflation, Genie+, Chapek, politics, high crowds, etc.?

Hard to say. Many have suggested expiring points, cancelled vacations finally happening etc.

I sometimes wonder on restaurants being open, but a lot of empty areas/tables. Some people eater attractions not open yet, parades/Fantasmic grabbed a lot of people.

What about parks hours? Even AK was getting to be a 11PM park, but I haven't looked into it overall.

Wonder if the fly overs have noticed how full parking lots are. That seems like a way to judge capacity to some degree anyway. I don't feel like DHS or EPCOT or MK lots have been nearly as full as the old days when we have parked-but small sample.

 

[Alice in Okie-land]

Can you not see this disparity?

Who wants to work? People work to live, they shouldn't live to work.
Reliance on foreign workers who accept below living wages is not the answer any longer.

I simply shared two facts relayed to me by a hiring manager in the industry. I was not making any political statement or social commentary on the issues of wage rates or foreign workers. Not my wheelhouse.

 

[DCha]

Honestly it boils down to staffing, you can’t let go of that many people and be able to replace them with same quality of the ones that have left.

Staffing is a big key. Also, it is not fair to compare a small footprint like one hotel to the entire Disney World complex and expect staffing to be as easy to replenish.

I think a few of the factors are ( many more not listed ):
- Lack of cultural representatives in Epcot has lead to some distribution of the workforce to Epcot, when before they were able to be allocated elsewhere
- Losing experienced cast members have led to more junior people into certain roles
- Cast members were not happy with the face policies ( was in DW during June 2021 when the policies for indoor was in effect and taken away for vaccinated guests - spoke to a # of the cast members )
- Hospitality in general has been hit with a reduced pool of willing people

I saw how a club level was functioning on my recent trip a month ago. Most of the previous staff were gone and the younger staff mainly spent time chatting and doing minor clean up. In the past, the staff was much older and constantly doing something. I do not think the same training / mentoring is the same. But there is so much to a Disney experience, it is hard to ramp up to the numbers needed to cover it all well. Disney staffing needs are much higher than what Universal needs to operate at.

I sometimes wonder on restaurants being open, but a lot of empty areas/tables.

I think that was true before the pandemic as well. There were many times in the past where we waited to be sat at Crystal Palace or Citricos and saw a bunch of empty tables. I was told it had to do with server rotation. Each server is assigned a section (group of numbers) of tables. There are times when the server rotation / change of staff comes in that will not have the tables assigned for some time.

 

[Disneychick75]

At least Universal hotels, I received daily housekeeping. Club lounge was well stocked with super friendly staff.

I noticed this on our last trip. Universal staff was more like what Disney CMs used to be - friendly, helpful, polite. There was no loud talking between CMs at different checkout stations, no arguing between CMs, just a lot better experience.

 

[SkyGuy]

I visited in May and December 2021 and did not find the crowds to be any larger than past visits.

Nevertheless, many have said things are more crowded in the last couple of months (March & April.) Meanwhile Disney is also restricting access with Park Pass showing no availability for literally weeks during spring break period.

So, do believe it's true that:

1) the parks are more crowded than before the pandemic, AND
2) even more guests are still being turned away

Is there THAT much demand for the WDW product, in spite of inflation, Genie+, Chapek, politics, high crowds, etc.?

I was here in May and November of 2021. I was here in February, March, and am currently here. February was picking up; however, it was more crowded in March and far more crowded now than any of my 2020 or 2021 trips (I have over a dozen under my belt).

 

[DCha]

I noticed this on our last trip. Universal staff was more like what Disney CMs used to be - friendly, helpful, polite. There was no loud talking between CMs at different checkout stations, no arguing between CMs, just a lot better experience.

There were many times at Disney our last trip a month ago where the cast members went out of their way. There are still a lot of CMs that still do a great job.

 

[Disneychick75]

There were many times at Disney our last trip a month ago where the cast members went out of their way. There are still a lot of CMs that still do a great job.

Good to know. Hope we see some of them on our next trip.

 

[DisneynBison]

After our trip a few months ago, Overall compared to other places, I believe Disney is taking guests for granted and not earning our loyalty every day. Disney is made special by its employees always being on point and creating the "magic". Management is putting them in a bad position and not giving them the product we expect. We have went 10 of last 11 years for a total of about 100 days on property. We decided we are not going next year and we will see about the year after. Reports need to get better and Disney needs to earn our dollars.

 

[jade1]

I noticed this on our last trip. Universal staff was more like what Disney CMs used to be - friendly, helpful, polite. There was no loud talking between CMs at different checkout stations, no arguing between CMs, just a lot better experience.

They probably were Disney CMs at one time.

 

[Karin1984]

At the moment, Disney is like Easyjet or other low cost carriers. See how much they can chip away and charge for everything, and figure out what the minimum threshold is they can get away with.

 

[Disneychick75]

They probably were Disney CMs at one time.

Could be, one of my friends is a CM and she told me that it isn't uncommon to have the same people working at both theme parks.

 

[dreiwhit]

FWIW, Disney was going downhill well before Covid happened. I really noticed it during our last trip (2018). If anything, Covid has caused more people to see the problems.

Disney will have to change A LOT before I spend my hard-earned money in the parks again.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I stayed away because of masks.
Many people avoided travel to many places because of masks.
We cancelled / postponed trips to both Disney and Belize due to masks.

And I went to Disney instead of other places *because* of masks and their other safety protocols. It's a wash.

 

[JoyfulHeart]

First, Pheonix is the 5 largest city in the US and Orlando is not even in the top ten. So, Phoenix is actually larger. Also, remember WDW is not actually in Orlando, its a suburb (correct me if I am wrong), so you are most likely commuting if you are working on site, correct? especially with the local area being ugly tourist housing? This is a big difference and massively effects your work force. This is why they were giving bonuses to people who were a shorter commute to WDW. WDW has been keeping closer restrictions with their sister resort in CA than FL mandates. So, they have been a littler strickter. That being said, just like any business, if you see less employees doing the equivalent or close to what more employees have done, you will hire less. especially when you have a loss to cover. It's not like people are not attending. People may complain about the current service, but overall WDW are not being hit in attendance for it. They are charging more for less and have a line out the door to still go to WDW. Over time with this effect the parks? Yes. Will it effect them in the near future, no. Right now MANY people and businesses are living in the here and now and will focus on the long term later.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I truly think Walt Disney World really is desperate for more visitors because ever since and even before the pandemic even started they were starting to show signs of going downhill because there are less commercials advertising Walt Disney World deals and the only Disney park that is getting commercials for deals is Disneyland and I think why Walt Disney World slowly is going downhill is the fact they have taken many of the options that were specially made for resort guests such as Disney Magical Express Minnie Van services housekeeping and discounts for character breakfasts at restaurants and when Disney did away with those perks a lot of people quit going or simply cancelled their trips and it seems that the only time that Walt Disney World gets a lot of deals is during special events and holidays such as the Epcot Food And Wine Festival Boo Bash during Halloween and Christmas when December hits. But even with new stuff added such as the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser and the new Guardians Of The Galaxy ride that's opening soon can't even save Walt Disney World from getting visitors. But I think Walt Disney World may have competition because when I watch Youtube I see commercials for Universal Studios and Busch Gardens advertising deals almost every week and Busch Gardens deals are a lot cheaper than Walt Disney World has and the same thing with Universal Studios because they seem to now become the top theme park chain now. And Busch Gardens has special deals where you can visit Sesame Place for real cheap too. So what I think Walt Disney World should do is offer special deals at lower prices and it would attract more visitors and that would improve it a lot better indeed

 

[starlite_]

I truly think Walt Disney World really is desperate for more visitors because ever since and even before the pandemic even started they were starting to show signs of going downhill because there are less commercials advertising Walt Disney World deals and the only Disney park that is getting commercials for deals is Disneyland and I think why Walt Disney World slowly is going downhill ....

The biggest complaint everyone has about WDW is that it's too crowded. I can assure you, they are not desperate for more visitors or need advertisement.

 

[DLgal]

Just stayed for 2 nights at the Disneyland Hotel. I wasn't home for 5 minutes before a survey about my stay dropped into my inbox. The questions were indicative of the fact that they KNOW guests aren't happy with the limited services. They know. They probably have to get so much "negative feedback" before meaningful changes are made. That's how this all works. They were very interested in my opinion on value, specifically. If you answered that the room was a poor value for the price paid, it opened up a question with a checklist that asked you to indicate which things contributed to the poor value rating, with options like: parking fee too high, limited dining options, limited recreational options, room quality, resort facility closures, lack of daily housekeeping, lack of room service, lack of perks like extra magic hour, lack of chairs at the pool, unfriendly/unresponsive employees.

I'm not sure that WDW cares as much as Disneyland does, but I get almost CONSTANT surveys from Disneyland as a frequent park goer and passholder. And it's been interesting to see how they have made minor tweaks along the way based on an apparent survey feedback. It's a slow process, though.

We would have had every other day housekeeping (thats the standard now), but were only there 2 nights. I didn't miss the housekeeping for just one day.

 

[4Ds4Diz]

Much of the losses can be blamed on the pandemic and the supply chain issues but TWDC policies coming out of the pandemic kept them from rebounding as quickly as they could have. The remained in mask mandates long after Florida relaxed its mandates. Kept the masks for indoor spaces, cues and restaurants far longer than they needed. This was to appease a very small minority of people and kept many many others from going to the parks as they did not wish to wear masks even in indoor spaces. As a result of these profit losses they are slow to bring back staffing as they don't want to pay them until the profit margin increases. If they can run things with minimum staffing and still bring in the guests, give them slightly less of the expected experience but bring in profits, they will do that as long as they can.

This why we canceled our Disney cruise. Too much of the masks and limited services "due to covid". We did a resort stay with 1 day at Epcot. Park was not clean, just like our trip last June. Lots of time to hire and improve things!! Also the staff members I encountered was a different experience. I think they have shifted there staff expectations!

 

[4Ds4Diz]

The biggest complaint everyone has about WDW is that it's too crowded. I can assure you, they are not desperate for more visitors or need advertisement.

It seems more crowded due to lack of shows and parades! Cutbacks!

 

[Dcgc28]

It seems more crowded due to lack of shows and parades! Cutbacks!

What shows are missing from MK? You have the castle show, you have the 3 oclock parade and you have character meet and greets back in effect. I keep seeing this being said over and over but what is missing today? Restaurants might be closed still maybe?