Summer Crowds and Pandora

[Snow's Mom]

I thought 4th of July was supposed to have huge crowds, like a 10 on a Line App. Mine showed 7. This past week, 6's. In JULY? I've been to WDW in July and the crowds were huge, usually 8's. Is the app wrong, or are crowds down this year? I know Disney was hoping Pandora would draw crowds. Maybe not so much?

[chefmickey3]

We leave in 13 days so I have been checking wait times and thought the same thing. I would love to hear from people who have been there in the last few weeks. I am hoping for a less crowded summer. Last year seemed less crowded than in the past - I think February was more crowded than late July. The changes to annual passes with blackout times and the higher day pass rate may be redistributing the crowds to other times of the year. There are still tour groups but the dollar has been relatively strong so that is less appealing except for the very rich. I don't want to get my hopes up because we know how to manage the crowds but it would be nice to not have to manage the crowds constantly!

[Fangorn]

Disney announced in their quarterly earnings report a month or so ago, that park attendance was down 2-3% Iger's plan to reduce attendance without hurting revenue seems to be working, as revenue increased even with that reduction in attendance.

In addition, attendance patterns appear to be shifting, with fewer people going in the summer, and shifting to fall and late spring. School schedules across the country are not nearly as rigid as they once were, with more districts stretching their in-class days over a longer period of time and taking longer, periodic breaks.

Steve

[DizneyRox]

Just saw a story that seems to indicate that Pandora is just pulling visitors from other Disney parks, not increasing attendance overall.

Disney has been about more from less for years now. They don't want more people in the parks, they just want those that come to spend more. Having more people increases their expenses, not necessarily increases profits. You need more staff to handle more people, more people produce more garbage, etc.

[Disney4us2]

I go to Pandora for my banshee flight weekly. I'm there before rope drop. Once in, I follow the mass migration to Pandora to wait at the bridge until the park opens. Once open, it's like a herd of cattle all going for the Flight of Passage. By the time you actually reach the beginning of queue it's 90 minutes or longer. That's at opening. The stand by line stretches along the new pathway going to Africa. I really don't see a decrease in attendance, from my point of view.

[#1donaldfan]

I go to Pandora for my banshee flight weekly. I'm there before rope drop. Once in, I follow the mass migration to Pandora to wait at the bridge until the park opens. Once open, it's like a herd of cattle all going for the Flight of Passage. By the time you actually reach the beginning of queue it's 90 minutes or longer. That's at opening. The stand by line stretches along the new pathway going to Africa. I really don't see a decrease in attendance, from my point of view.

We were just there and did rope drop, actually near the front and virtually walked on Flight of Passage. We were there on a Wednesday morning .. of course we had to wait at the bridge until the park opened but after that we walked right on in ....

[disneycutie165]

In my opinion, Pandora doesn't do much marketing for Disney. "Avatar" was very popular when it came out but the hype has really died since then. I can't remember that many people being excited when they announced the second Avatar. So I don't see a huge draw from Pandora.

I watch a guy on Youtube, Tim Tracker, who goes to Disney often and in all his recent videos from the summer he remarks how the parks are not crowded and it is evident in his videos. Now we are going in two weeks, how are the crowds *usually* in the first week of August?

[Giggy]

The stats I had heard (can't confirm) is compared to this time last year Animal Kingdom crowds are up a little bit but the other three parks the crowds are down a tiny bit, so in a way it may have just diverted people from the other parks to Animal Kingdom.

I have my fingers crossed that crowds aren't too bad at the end of August this year...

[1DisneyNut]

We were there June 29 through July 4 and the crowds were far less than the last time we went on July 4th week in 2006. It was so bad we said we would never go that week again but had to go for a special event this year. I was surprised by the lower crowds. We also heard a lot of people discussing their displeasure with fastpass plus and other changes.