Does Disney "need" a fifth gate?

My guess is that it's 4 to 5 on average. I forget who told me this, but apparently the start and end of the week has the most turnover in the resorts, and not necessarily the weekends themselves. To me that implies a lot of 4 and 5 day trips.

I would've guessed a week is a standard vacation. I prefer two.

Over 20 replies and no has done the "If Disney could support a fifth gate, they'd already have one" joke?

We were all waiting for you to do it. So, thanks.

They don't need a fifth gate as bad as they need another dopey turtle show.

When you go to book a WDW resort online, the tool defaults to a six-night stay. That tells me that the typical stay is shorter than that, and this is Disney's way of trying to upsell. How much shorter is anyone's guess.

Google says the average stay is 6 days, for what that is worth.

We're doing 7 days in Orlando in February, but only expect to spend 1 day at Disney as we drink around the world. Not having kids in tow certainly impacts our time at Disney:)

If that's based on location data, they would be right.

Touchdown:

I can usually polish off AK in a half day using Early entry and that’s with doing Lion King, Nemo and It’s Tough to Be a Bug.

You forgot lunch at Yak & Yeti and Dinner at Tiffins.

Brian Noble:

MK is going to draw the lion's share of WDW attendance, and that's just structural. Building a fifth gate isn't going to draw as much from it as it will from the other three.

Alright, so they built a second Dumbo ride as a proof of concept, the real plan was to just build a second identical magic kingdom. The monorail will automagically direct traffic to the appropriate one in real time, and you will never know the difference. Gate prices are still expected to increase.

If this thread could support a "If Disney could support a fifth gate, they'd already have one" joke, it would have already been posted.

TheMillenniumRider:

the real plan was to just build a second identical magic kingdom.

If capacity was the goal this is how they would do it. They are just inducing more demand with the Magic Kingdom additions.

This blogger has some quotes from an investor event this morning. Disney is very 🤷🏻‍♂️ about Epic Universe.

janfrederick:

If this thread could support...

Not a big fan of Indian Food, but seriously Satauli Cantina in AK is the best quick service at WDW. Their protein bowls are fantastic (my go to is chicken and beef, noodles, green onion chemchurri sauce.)

I can’t imagine the typical vacationer, whether it would be a two-day or six-day stay, would skip Magic Kingdom. It will always be the OG and is so well known as the definitive experience. I’ve known of families, especially those with young kids, who make it a week divided between trips to MK and days at the resort pool. But the fact that everyone goes might justify further expansion and development.

I was doing a little digging around and I see that the South Florida Water Management is asking for a lot of information from Disney relative to the MK expansion (which includes the removal of the Rivers of America). I had not really given it much thought before, but I guess there will be some significant impacts to the drainage basin with the water body being eliminated. It might end up delaying their plans a bit.

Call me old fashioned, but the more I think about the elimination of the River/Steamboat, etc the more I suspect I'm not going to like it. To be fair, I thought Carsland at California Adventure was the highlight of that park. But, I really think this is right project in the wrong location. Disney was able to preserve the River at Disneyland when they added Star Wars. Shame they can't figure out a way to save it in Florida.

The difference is the river is a revenue generator at DL (Fantasmic and it’s lucrative meal packages) and it’s not at MK, plain and simple.

I made a solo trip to MK last month on a travel day after IAAPA (it was 60 degrees and sunny and crowds were sparse the whole week on the after hours events days, I forgot how enjoyable the parks are when you aren't sweating to death) and I had the same thought as I walked through that area. I'm not heartbroken about the changes, but a part of me wonders why they couldn't find a way to expand and not lose the river. That boardwalk that runs along the water from Liberty Square to Big Thunder Mountain is one of my favorite places at WDW. My kid loves Big Thunder Mountain and my wife and I love Haunted Mansion so maybe it's just the nostalgic feeling I get from wearing out that path late at night when the lines get shorter at Magic Kingdom.

RCMAC:

I can’t imagine the typical vacationer, whether it would be a two-day or six-day stay, would skip Magic Kingdom

Call us non-typical. Even my wife said she wants no part of MK on this trip. Granted I suspect our minds will change if grandkids are in our future.

I would never dream of a WDW vacation without a spin on Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion and Pirates. Typical 5.5 day trip for me is 1.5 days at MK, 2 at Epcot, 1.5 at DHS and 0.5 days at AK (but I split them up into half days at 2 parks each day)