TEA/AECOM Attendance Report 2022
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$174 for DHS is INSANE. Even $154 for DAK is.
- Aug 7, 2018
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Not saying it’s right… but the price for operating Rise daily is why DHS is so heavily priced. Also why it likely isn’t getting any additions to that park anytime soon from what I know.
- Jun 27, 2017
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I’m looking at USH and it’s pretty not busy for a 4th of July…I might end up going there tonight
- Aug 18, 2017
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Sucks to hear. When can we expect crowds to pick back up again? Travel nationwide is supposedly really high this year.
Air Travel is up but hotel bookings are still down for June 2023 compared to pre-covid. So people may be traveling but they may not be traveling to vacation spots but for other reasons.
www.ustravel.org
The Latest Travel Data
Monthly member-exclusive summary of the latest economic, consumer and travel indicators, trends and analysis featuring key highlights from the U.S. Travel Insights Dashboard.
- Total travel spending improved to 1.4% above May 2022 levels and was up 5.5% year-to-date through May 2023,
- Air travel demand appears to have stabilized somewhat and remained up 10% in May from the same month last year.
- Hotel demand remained below pre-pandemic levels for the third consecutive month and was down 2% in May.
- Overseas arrivals made little improvement and remained 26% below 2019 levels in May.
- Jul 18, 2008
- 6,796
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I was there this weekend and how was hoping for crowds to be manageable and to make the most of it for what's typically a hellish time to go. The only thing that was hellish were the temperatures.
I could not believe my eyes at some of the wait times. I mean, they were some of the lowest I had seen EVER. Turns out it was a combination of the lower level APs being blocked out, CMs being blocked out, and FL Res tickets being blocked out. Also, some people not wanting to feel like they're on the surface of the sun.
The next time that'll happen is Labor Day weekend so let's plan accordingly.
Some of the wait times I saw in the middle of the day:
Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railaway - 15 minutes (5 minutes at 8pm)
Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run - 15 minutes
Soarin' - 15 minutes
Remy's Ratatouille Adventure - 30 minutes
Kilimanjaro Safaris - 5 minutes
Expedition Everest - 5 minutes
I could not believe my eyes at some of the wait times. I mean, they were some of the lowest I had seen EVER. Turns out it was a combination of the lower level APs being blocked out, CMs being blocked out, and FL Res tickets being blocked out. Also, some people not wanting to feel like they're on the surface of the sun.
The next time that'll happen is Labor Day weekend so let's plan accordingly.
Some of the wait times I saw in the middle of the day:
Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railaway - 15 minutes (5 minutes at 8pm)
Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run - 15 minutes
Soarin' - 15 minutes
Remy's Ratatouille Adventure - 30 minutes
Kilimanjaro Safaris - 5 minutes
Expedition Everest - 5 minutes
July Fourth. DHS at a Touring Plans Level ONE. Never saw anything like that short of a coming hurricane day....High costs, overly complex planning, over reliance on cell phones, Genie Plus CONFUSION, less entertainment, less extras. combined with the end of post covid celebration...It's all adding up, and it's coming to roost.....The lower crowds have been there for a few months now, and when the locals can't come, there's not enough turned off tourists to fill the parks.....If this doesn't open Burbank's eyes, nothing will. Time to stop funneling money into losing films and use the profits of the theme parks for the parks, not the Disney + sinkhole.
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- Oct 14, 2011
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Here to echo a lot of other experiences regarding crowds. Myself and my brother and his family stayed at Riviera Resort (which is great btw) on his DVC membership over the Memorial Day weekend last month and really couldn’t believe how not crowded WDW as a whole was. Was at the pool bar quite a bit and the staff were also very confused at the light crowds they saw that weekend.
Was also in Orlando last week for work and went to universal and again experienced pretty manageable crowds. A bit busier than WDW was but still not uncomfortably crowded. Think the longest I waited was 40 minutes for single rider at hagrids which showed only 90 standby mid day. Crazy.
Was also in Orlando last week for work and went to universal and again experienced pretty manageable crowds. A bit busier than WDW was but still not uncomfortably crowded. Think the longest I waited was 40 minutes for single rider at hagrids which showed only 90 standby mid day. Crazy.
- Aug 7, 2018
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Honeslty, if you can afford it, sounds like a terrific time to plan a WDW trip. I’ve been eying January next year when it’s traditionally slow. I can’t even imagine what it’ll be like if it’s like this on July 4th… maybe I can finally ride 7DMT!
Hold your horses... this past January was very busy with marathons/special convention events. January has become the new July.
Seems like the crowds are avoiding holiday weekends and the typical busier periods, deciding to move their trips to historic lower crowded days.
Packing them in, backing them up I-Drive and Central Florida Pkwy. (It's hard in the Summer when your CVS is located smack-dab between SW and Aquatica.) Dirt-cheap APs and free beer are effective,
This has been a trend for close to a decade--Fourth of July week hasn't been crazy busy for years, while "Fall Break" has seen Christmas-like crowds, particularly before anyone in Florida (including WDW management) knew it was a thing and priced accordingly. But anecdotal evidence plus what I'm reading here suggests something more this year.
Beyond the scope of this forum, but WDW and the state of Florida becoming political lightning rods can't be helping things. But anecdotal story, after packing in the crowds for it's top annual event last year, AEW had trouble selling tickets this year. Like a 20% drop. Did surveys to find out why, fans said Orlando is just too expensive. Those are two potentially powerful arguments against making a trip down here. (And WDW and UOR been jacking up AP rates, so fewer locals to fill in the gaps.)
OR…just keep let them doing what they’re doing. The guest experience is better than it has been in a while with these crowds
In all seriousness, this weekend was shocking but I also did notice the insanely unseasonal crowds earlier in the year. Maybe peak season is just shifting. Truthfully, dynamic pricing and local blockouts making the parks more pleasant for higher-spending tourists during travel seasons isn’t necessarily a bad trend…
Yes. I'm privately cheering an attendance collapse. My late April visit to WDW was nice since the lines weren't bad.OR…just keep let them doing what they’re doing. The guest experience is better than it has been in a while with these crowds
In all seriousness, this weekend was shocking but I also did notice the insanely unseasonal crowds earlier in the year. Maybe peak season is just shifting. Truthfully, dynamic pricing and local blockouts making the parks more pleasant for higher-spending tourists during travel seasons isn’t necessarily a bad trend…
Cruise lines are a big beneficiary of travel this year.Air Travel is up but hotel bookings are still down for June 2023 compared to pre-covid. So people may be traveling but they may not be traveling to vacation spots but for other reasons.
The Latest Travel Data
Monthly member-exclusive summary of the latest economic, consumer and travel indicators, trends and analysis featuring key highlights from the U.S. Travel Insights Dashboard.
- Total travel spending improved to 1.4% above May 2022 levels and was up 5.5% year-to-date through May 2023,
- Air travel demand appears to have stabilized somewhat and remained up 10% in May from the same month last year.
- Hotel demand remained below pre-pandemic levels for the third consecutive month and was down 2% in May.
- Overseas arrivals made little improvement and remained 26% below 2019 levels in May.
A few people on the Universal AP group posted that they were able to get good AP December 2023 rates on Portofino and Hard Rock this past week. Last year nothing was made available until close to the end of the year and the rates were sky high on what little was offered on the deluxe resorts. I think this tells us something.
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- Aug 18, 2017
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My first thought is: very sad to see, but I can fully believe that peak times are shifting as well.
Crazy thought: what if theme parks aren’t the major family destinations they used to be?
CAVEAT: one slow 4th of July is not enough data to make a determination one way or another…so this take is coming in hot.
But the world is smaller now. Transportation is easier, there are more lodging options than ever, and planning a vacation takes a couple of hours of using Google. You can travel anywhere in the world you want with much fewer barriers than the generation that grew up using Disney and Universal vacations as religious pilgrimages.
There’s also not a lot of Instagram value in the theme parks. A picture of Hogwarts or Cinderella Castle looks good on a feed—once. Not worth much without some pictures of the Eiffel Tower, Waikiki Beach, One Vanderbilt, the Taj Mahal, the Colisseum, etc. to supplement that. And that’s important to the generation that currently has the most spending power in the tourism space.
The major draw to a theme park is the rides…which are just becoming less and less impressive. 20 years ago, Soarin’ was a technical marvel…now you can ride an equivalent in Vancouver, Niagara Falls, and a whole bunch of other accessible tourist spots. Ride tech has even become less novel within the parks themselves; Spider-Man is arguably still the standard for theme park dark rides because the tech hasn’t been significantly improved upon in over 20 years…the newest rides today are rolling out different iterations of the same concept of motion vehicle riding past a 3-D screen. The most unique ride experience you can get comes on a roller coaster due to the sheer variety in design…but Velocicoaster and Hulk, great as they are, have suitable equivalents at regional parks across the world.
The parks still clearly appeal to a massive population…but is this the population that needs to take a week off to visit while their kids are off school? Or is it a population of people who now work from home, don’t have to adhere to school schedules, and largely live within a short distance that makes making a special visit to walk through a tribute store or try a new drink doable? Aka, people who will flock to the parks on a cool weather, low-price day while they have better things to do on major holidays? With how rapidly Florida has grown in the last three years, are we sure Annual Passholders aren’t making up a majority of the parks’ attendance any given day? Probably not, but the population is growing enough that the state could feasibly support that.
CAVEAT: one slow 4th of July is not enough data to make a determination one way or another…so this take is coming in hot.
But the world is smaller now. Transportation is easier, there are more lodging options than ever, and planning a vacation takes a couple of hours of using Google. You can travel anywhere in the world you want with much fewer barriers than the generation that grew up using Disney and Universal vacations as religious pilgrimages.
There’s also not a lot of Instagram value in the theme parks. A picture of Hogwarts or Cinderella Castle looks good on a feed—once. Not worth much without some pictures of the Eiffel Tower, Waikiki Beach, One Vanderbilt, the Taj Mahal, the Colisseum, etc. to supplement that. And that’s important to the generation that currently has the most spending power in the tourism space.
The major draw to a theme park is the rides…which are just becoming less and less impressive. 20 years ago, Soarin’ was a technical marvel…now you can ride an equivalent in Vancouver, Niagara Falls, and a whole bunch of other accessible tourist spots. Ride tech has even become less novel within the parks themselves; Spider-Man is arguably still the standard for theme park dark rides because the tech hasn’t been significantly improved upon in over 20 years…the newest rides today are rolling out different iterations of the same concept of motion vehicle riding past a 3-D screen. The most unique ride experience you can get comes on a roller coaster due to the sheer variety in design…but Velocicoaster and Hulk, great as they are, have suitable equivalents at regional parks across the world.
The parks still clearly appeal to a massive population…but is this the population that needs to take a week off to visit while their kids are off school? Or is it a population of people who now work from home, don’t have to adhere to school schedules, and largely live within a short distance that makes making a special visit to walk through a tribute store or try a new drink doable? Aka, people who will flock to the parks on a cool weather, low-price day while they have better things to do on major holidays? With how rapidly Florida has grown in the last three years, are we sure Annual Passholders aren’t making up a majority of the parks’ attendance any given day? Probably not, but the population is growing enough that the state could feasibly support that.
- Aug 18, 2017
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- 6,197
Interesting. I guess the question is, how do the parks respond?
Obviously I believe that this is part of why IPs are so prevalent.
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Yes and no. Instagram definitely does have value in what people going to. However, actual travel trends put out by CNBC/American Expreess etc does not correlate with the date you are providing. For travel, people are now wanting to be trend setters and finding those hidden gem locations. They want exclusive and unique. Its almost hipster like in fact.
68% of respondents agree that they pride themselves on finding lesser-known vacation spots before they become popular
2024 Global Travel Trends Report
The 2024 Global Travel Trends Report from American Express uncovers the driving forces behind why people are traveling right now.
www.americanexpress.com
Travel abroad is poised 'for a big comeback' in 2023 as Americans eye trips to Asia, Europe
Travel abroad will boom in 2023. Some 31% of Americans more interested in international than domestic travel, according to Destination Analysts.
www.cnbc.com
I think the better statement would be people want an authentic experience where they feel part of something rather than a manufactured experience which is what is happening with the theme parks.
