Reply to Anyone been to Disney the week BEFORE Christmas?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Serious question: is DW ever not completely crazy busy? We've been 6 times at "off peak" times and it was completely nuts every time, except one day when it rained. [/quote]

Slow times no longer exist the way they did ten or more years ago. I went during the fall, not during a US vacation time, several times in the early 90s, and just about everything was a walk-on almost all day. There were some more slow years after Sept. 11th stalled tourism. Then Disney cranked the promotions and discounts into overdrive to eliminate the slow seasons, and now their own hotels are close to full almost any time of year. The outside visitor numbers do vary seasonally, but Disney has gotten really good at tweaking staffing and non-ride entertainment to fit crowds. When there are fewer people, they staff less and run rides at lower load rates - so waits don't go down as dramatically as before. Plus, Fast Pass+ has driven waits up at the rides that never used to get very busy, while reducing waits at headliners slightly - so, again, even at the slowest seasons you're not going to see the empty lines of yore. Oh, and restaurant wise, Disney pushing the meal plans + 180-day booking has filled the table service restaurants, especially during "free dining" promotions. There's several factors aligning to make it feel more and more nuts if you don't have your plans figured out just so. If you have your FP+ and meals planned right, and you know your way around, and you have filled your brain with Disney tips, everything is easier and the crowds don't affect you as much. I've gone during theoretically moderate crowd weeks several times in the past three years and none of those days felt crazy crowded to me. But if you're not over-prepared or already Disney savvy... I see families around me that will probably go home frustrated and swearing never again.

(On the other hand, to be fair, I think the high-crowd times are handled better now than before, thanks to the same obsessive tweaking of staffing and entertainment. When there are big crowds, the rides run more frequently, there are more shows to draw crowds away from rides, there are more special events in the hotels to draw crowds away from the parks, etc.)

But good news: this year Disney seems to finally have pushed too far and started seeing an effect on attendance. That, and Universal is kicking their ass, plus the collapse in Brazilian tourism. I love Disney, but I'm hoping the attendance numbers keep flattening or dropping.[/quote]

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