no, they have not done this in the last few years at least.I took advantage of the dvc discount for 13 month passes. I don’t know if they do that every year but def nice.
Attendance didn’t drop by a lot though. The parks are still very crowded.
Disney does not release attendance numbers.Attendance is down significantly from what I understood. A couple % drop over the last couple years. The parks are crowded at certain points, and maybe even more crowded than ever at those points (and those points have shifted) but according to the investor calls for the last couple years, attendance is down quite significantly.
I mean, look at the extent of the promotions they have been offering this year, especially over the summer, stuff that hasn't been seen since Sept 11th, or the market crash, not just on rooms, on tickets, on food and merch, pretty crazy deals (though on massively increased prices of course).
But, as is also noted, revenues are up as per person spending has increased more than attendance has dropped off, so fewer people paying more still = $$$ for Disney.
Disney does not release attendance numbers.
http://www.teaconnect.org/images/files/TEA_235_103719_170601.pdf
According to the TEA numbers (closest estimates we have).
2016 MK - 20,395,000
2015 MK - 20,492,000
-.5% decrease
Epcot and AK both saw -.7% drops DHS -.5%
Those drops are not very significant.
This is fairly typical every year. Everyone starts speculating when the next price increase is coming. For most years, the price increase comes in February. Mousesavers always sends out a notice that a price increase is coming.
However, now tickets have an expiration date (I think all tickets purchased now expire at the end of 2018) so making an advance ticket purchase really doesn't save a lot, especially if your purchasing tickets several years prior to your trip.
I would gladly pay $200 a ticket for lower crowds. Even during the "slow" times, the parks are crowded.
Rumor? Disney makes this a guarantee.
I am waiting to see what increases are coming as our AP renewal date is mid-February. If they go as steep with increases as DCL this year, I can safely say I will not be purchasing again.
When TSL and SWars opens up will that possibly draw crowds from the other parks? If you had no interest in going to the studios, could you experience lesser crowds in other parks?
There was a drop in tourism overall last year I believe so it wasn’t just MK losing out. Universal has been on a steady increase due to their newer additions. However they are still a long long way from catching MK in terms of attendance.It's significant when your competition saw an increase of almost 14%. It's also significant when you consider that the last time MK saw a drop was 9/11, and that there hasn't been a decline in attendance across all global parks - which is what happened in 2016, in over a decade. When the major papers (NY Times etc...) are reporting on the attendance drop, yeah, it's significant.
How lasting is the significance? Hard to say. Will have to see what the 2017 numbers were. But as someone else mentioned, given how many promos etc... they were running, I'm guessing they're still trending downward.
There was a drop in tourism overall last year I believe so it wasn’t just MK losing out. Universal has been on a steady increase due to their newer additions. However they are still a long long way from catching MK in terms of attendance.
If we see the drop in 2017 then that is something significant but at this point a .5-.7 drop at each WDW park is not very significant.There's been a drop in tourism for years - Disney typically wasn't affected.
Exactly. We would go for 6-7 days instead of 10+ and get way more done if lines were shorter.I always wondered if that could be a strategy - really jack up the ticket price but then lower the max capacity number by quite a bit ... so this way you pay for less days but can get more done in those fewer days due to lower crowds and Disney still makes the same $ (actually, potentially more as if you get more different people they each probably by some souvenirs each trip so maybe even more $)
Less people inside the parks = less $$$$ spent on merchandise, food and water so I wouldn't count on this strategy ever happening. Disney is about making money, not making parks more enjoyable for us consumers (sadly).I always wondered if that could be a strategy - really jack up the ticket price but then lower the max capacity number by quite a bit ... so this way you pay for less days but can get more done in those fewer days due to lower crowds and Disney still makes the same $ (actually, potentially more as if you get more different people they each probably by some souvenirs each trip so maybe even more $)
I think the biggest issue with this idea is that if you completely price the average family out of WDW, it will start to loose a lot of its appeal. Not to the diehard Disney fans, but if it becomes unattainable to 75% of the country, something else will raise up and take its place as the must do family vacation. Once that happens, a decent chunk of the 25% that can afford will start to loose interest.I always wondered if that could be a strategy - really jack up the ticket price but then lower the max capacity number by quite a bit ... so this way you pay for less days but can get more done in those fewer days due to lower crowds and Disney still makes the same $ (actually, potentially more as if you get more different people they each probably by some souvenirs each trip so maybe even more $)