Walt Disney World takes crowd management to a new level
Posted
To handle over 30 million annual visitors — many of them during this busiest time of year for the megaresort — Disney World long ago turned the art of crowd control into a science. But the putative Happiest Place on Earth has decided it must figure out how to quicken the pace even more. A cultural shift toward impatience — fed by video games and smartphones — is demanding it, park managers say. To stay relevant to the entertain-me-right-this-second generation, Disney must evolve.
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I'm not sure I agree.
Last time I was at Disneyland, it was hella crowded, and I was able to do everything in the park I had planned to do, in spite of a partial-day closure of both sides of the Matterhorn. And for me, the opportunity to walk down alongside the Jungle Cruise service channel was an added bonus... :)
Some of the antics of the Flashlight Gestapo were a bit over-the-top, though. Like the one who prohibited me from entering *-land from the hub via the midway, forcing me to push my way through a very crowded (but not very busy) gift shop instead. Guess why those other people were in the gift shop at at the same time...
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
/X\ _ *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
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/XXXXX\ /XXX\ /XXXX\_ /X\ /XXXXX\ /X\ /X\ /XXXXX
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Although I agreed with demand based pricing earlier, it gets a little more complicated when you want to sell vacation packages in advance. Then again, they black our passholder days based on demand that has been forcast a year in advance, they could probably use the same calculations to adjust pricing. Or better yet, raise the pricing, but offer discount coupons to local businesses that are limited to specific days. That way, they might even be able to get folks to pay the regular rate on those days because they were unaware of the promotion.
In any case, Disneyland has ALWAYS been super crowded this time of year. Spring break too.
I don't see it as any more complicated than what hotels do - set rates based demand, market conditions, projections and known factors.
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