Disney theme park attendance down 5%, company beat up on weak DVD sales

Ive gone during the "busy season" (heck Ive even been there for the 4th of July week) and its not bad. The park has longer hours (especially if you stay on site for instance I was riding rides at the MK at 3 am one day) and you just need to work that fastpass. During my week there, I rode all the rides I wanted to, and managed to never wait more then an hour for anything.

Its just like any park, be sure to get there early, do the popular rides ASAP (or get Fastpass) and then move on to the shorter queues, then in the evening ride the big rides again.

(I like Disney because it's a theme park, but I'm no Disneyphile.)

I haven't been to Disney World since '01. Back then, there was a way to get more Fastpasses than one at a time. I seem to recall that there was a bug in the system allowing more than one fastpass at a time. You could get a fastpass for a second ride just before you boarded your first fastpass ride.

I heard a while back that the bug was fixed. Did they make it to where they "redeem" your fastpass when you board the ride, thus letting the system know when you are allowed to obtain another fastpass? Or is it still possible to get a second one before boarding your first fastpassed ride?

My family has been considering taking a trip down there to visit my Aunt, who lives about 20 minutes away from Disney, sometime soon. They go every year or so. I usuially don't go with them, but this year may be different. They almost always go to Disney while there. My Mother hasn't been to Disney since 1976, and she's been talking about wanting to go lately.

OOPS - Was I rambling? Sorry. ;)

Your Fastpass tells you when you're eligible to get another - it's printed at the bottom of the Fastpass. I believe the rule is that you can get another one once the current one comes due or two hours (whichever comes first).

The beauty of playing the system at Disney is in the fact that you can arrive anytime after the time on your pass - not just during the one hour window printed on the ticket. Makes it easy to collect them throughout the day and use them all in the evening. We even ended up with passes we never used a couple of nights.

Another interesting aspect of the whole system is that many rides are dual setups of the same system (Space Mountain, Primeval Whirl, Soarin', etc.) and as far as I could tell, in general, one side was being used for Fastpass and the other for standby. Essentially you had a ride that was reservation only (1/2 of the double install) and one that used the old way of standing in line.

Between that and the necessity for advanced reservations if you hope to dine at practically any restaurant in the park, it got really close at times to simply scheduling your entire day ahead of time. Disney will offer this sooner than later...they're almost there.

^And I for one have no problem with that. I usually do that myself anyways. Its really nice to make all those decisions before you go on vacation so that you and your group dont spend what ends up (over your whole vacation) hours sitting around discussing what you do next. The hours, EMH and night show schedules are published 6 months in advance, you can figure everything out then so that when it comes to being there the only thing you have to decide is when/if you want to ride a certain ride.

Yeah, I don't necessarily have a problem with it either. In the past, I've gotten negative responses when I've claimed that it will come to that someday. So there's a certain segment that doesn't like the idea.

On top of that, after seeing it firsthand last week, if you don't realize how the game is played, I can see how your vacation is going to be less than optimal.

If we'd have gone with any less of a game plan, I'd have been pissed at how hard 'doing Disney' would have been.

Before we left I suspected I was preplanning way too much, but now that the week is over, in hindsight I think I planned just enough to get by.

Typically you can get your next pass just before or at the time your current pass can be used. It's pretty easy to stack them continuously without putting a lot of effort into it. The time in between ends up being easily filled by walking, watching street entertainment, eating and shopping, I found. It's a pretty good system if you ask me. It seemed crazy crowded when I was there in November too, but the crowds never seemed to be a hindrance to me doing anything I wanted.

Thanks Gonch and Jeff. Jeff, I remember stacking FastPasses when I was there.

Gonch, I'm one of those people who wouldn't want to plan my entire Disney day in advance. Seems kind of anal. I prefer to take my time and enjoy the sites.

Could you imagine having your entire day at IOA planned? At 12:45 we are scheduled to board Spiderman. At 1:05, we are scheduled to view the scenery from the lake. At 1:15 we are scheduled to browse through the Alternivers Superhero Store and buy an X-Men t-shirt, the black one with Pofessor X standing in front, size XL, and a Spiderman keychain to give to my nephue. At 1:30 we are scheduled to enter Toon Town and eat a Cheeseburger, Fries, and a medium Sprite at Wimpies. At 2:00, we are scheduled to ride Bilg Rat Barge...ect.

That just doesn't sound fun to me, but to each his own.

Yes, but that's literally what many Disney diehards do. There are entire websites devoted to helping people do just that - plan an itinerary for getting the most out of a Disney visit.

I even think it's partially necessary if you even remotely want to do as much Disney as you can.

I was there last week - widely considered one of the slowest times of the year. Without a game plan (not as anal as 10:15 at this ride, 10:30 at that show, but still a general plan) we'd have had to skip a lot. With a plan we were able to stay ahead of the game and give ourselves not only the chance to do the attractions we wanted, but also just do things at our own pace. Without a plan something would have had to give.

There is a way to tour Disney 'right' and a way to do it like everyone else. The 'right' way just involves some planning/scheduling.

I know we often say Disney is different, but it really is. More than I imagined or remembered. It's tough to compare to any other park experience out there on all levels.

For those who really like looking for loopholes in the system, its easy to stack multiple fast passes for the same ride in the same day. Especially with TSM.

Just involves multiple people and going into the early morning FP rush.

Because there are usually piles of people at TSM in the morning, the Cast Members usually sit by the machine and bypass the ticket scanner and ask you "how many" to reduce the FP line quicker. You show them your park ticket and they hand give you those numbers.

There are multiple lines, you step out, go to the one on the opposite end with another party member with same park tickets, which you would either put in machine at that time (thus being locked into the time and no longer able to get FPs during) or another cast member who hands you yet another set (thus being able to hop into yet another line with same park tickets).

I however dont advocate this method (cough), but it is possible to stack up a wealth of TSM tickets in a short period.

- Shameful Disney Dork

We even ended up with passes we never used a couple of nights.

This happens to me almost every day. I'm getting a bit better at only pulling ones I have a good chance of using, but still.

Gonch,I'm one of those people who wouldn't want to plan my entire Disney dayin advance. Seems kind of anal. I prefer to take my time and enjoy thesites.

Then you'll either see fewer attractions, or you'll have to skip some of the headliners. It's that simple.

You don't really need to plan a whole day, though---it's usually enough to line up the bottleneck attractions (either riding them or getting FP for them) in the first hour or two. After that, things can be pretty loose.

I don't go commando every day, though. I throw in days where we sleep in, show up late, and just sort of work through the "lesser" attractions that tend not to build up big lines. Last May we went down for a just-the-parents trip. We spent a couple days in Epcot checking out the Flower & Garden show. Each day was really great, but we arrived when we felt like it (once after a pretty late night at Adventurer's Club---Kungaloosh!) and just sort of ambled around. We road Soarin' once each day by pulling a fastpass on our way in, and riding it on the way out. Otherwise, we enjoyed the displayes, the live entertainment, and a few of the films in the various pavillions. Both were really fun days.

And, really, these strategies are no different from how most of us visit our local seasonal amusement park---you visit things based on how the overall crowd ebbs and flows throughout the day. I can have a great day at Cedar Point any day of the year, arriving at any time of the day. But the set of rides I visit when I arrive at opening on a day in May or early June is a lot different than the set I visit if I arrive mid-afternoon in late July.

Edited to add: the other thing I'm noticing is that each time we go, we're a lot more relaxed about things. I usually have an idea about where I'm going to be each day before I get there. And, we mostly stick to it, though it always changes a little bit in the moment. This year, I just haven't bothered.

The best thing that happened to us July 3rd was that Disney for some reason thought we had checked out of our hotel (we were leaving the next day) and canceled our room charge ability, hotel access, and meal plan on our tickets. After an hour clearing things up, we managed to get new cards sent to us while we were eating our sit down meal for the day. Well, on a whim we decided to see if our old cards still worked with fastpass, and sure enough they did. So for the rest of the day (approx 10 hours) we had two cards to get fastpass the rest of the day. We never waited in a normal queue the rest of the day.

Brian Noble said:

Combine this with the asinine choice of Disney in particular to force you to watch all previews and ads before you can get to the actual main movie

Am I the only person whose kids like watching the ads? I've also found that it's possible to skip them....because my kids complain...

But here's where I have a problem. For kids, yes, it's fine. But the difference between the classics and the made-to-make-you-buy-another-straight-to-dvd-sequel-for-the-kids is that those of us who are adults and enjoy good storytelling and appreciate the hard work the hand drawn animation required are also interested in buying or own copies.
We are also less likely to buy those discs if we can't skip to the movie when we have the time, or worse for them, are less inclined to buy any of their other offerings.

Disney's family approach is well founded, but when it's a hassle for those of us who appreciate hard work, I'm not inclined to buy any of their newer titles for myself and will give that money to people who do care and still entertain me. Pixar's movies have sold lots because it extends beyond the family only and appeals to adults. It may not be as big a group, but surely those sales figures add up over time.

My own experience was the week right after Thanksgiving a few years ago and except for Peter Pan, I was able to walk onto most everything with under a 30 min wait. I can't imagine being able to top that ever again! For the record, much as I loved ToT, Muppets 3D and Rock N Roller Coaster, the Magic Kingdom was by far the most enjoyable park of DW. One day, I'll have to make it to DL and see the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean there.

I know the menu button works on WALL-E on Bluray. Did it this weekend when my nephew was over (and he LOVES that movie).

The Menu button works for all Disney DVDs. For the ones with "Fastpass" even if you miss the chance at the beginning to choose the menu you can always still press menu at anytime (or next for that matter to switch to the next preview and eventually advance to the movie)

The only thing you cant skip is the the quick "Disney" montage at the beginning.

That's my experience too---I'm able to bypass the commercials, and I know I can, because my kids bitch when I do it.

Unfortunately, you can't bypass the commercials in their parks. ;)

I'm not one to be against advertising, but things like the completely unrelated 5-minute-long Kodak commercial that you're forced to watch before entering the "Honey I Shrunk The Audience" theatre was a bit too much for even me.

Then I'm 100% positive that you love Ellen's Universe of Energy. :-D

I take it I'm lucky that it was closed for the duration of my visit.

Oh no, it was worth it to see Jamie Lee Curtis kick her ass at Jeopardy.

I could understand having Ellen in the video (even as annoying as she is) but did they really need to have her standing in the ride every day? Or was that actually an animatronic?

I'm curious how long before the Verizon guy or Chad are inserted into SSE.