Availability for 50th Celebration - a bust?

[EPCOT-O.G.]

I don’t want to infer too much from availability. I realize the functional caps are gone and I anticipate Oct 1 is going to be a madhouse. I understand rooms may or may not be tough to come by. But. Look at the availability for reservations through the rest of the year. I don’t think this is what they anticipated happening even under reduced expectations. I think the hubris is catching up. I think revenge travel is waning. And add in the suggestion that they’re delaying the opening of Tron and Guardians until after Oct 1, 2022 (the next fiscal year) and it seems Disney knows they’re going to take it in the shorts for the near term at the parks.

 

[Marthasor]

Disney is using this system for far more than just controlling capacity in the parks. I don't think this is any indicator of how crowded or sparse the parks will be in the coming months.

 

[PaladinButters]

Looks right to me. There's always been availability at the parks except for when they had capacity Covid capped - which is over. They've only hit capacity, actually hit it so nobody else could come in, on a few days ever in 50 years.

 

[Eastern]

During May-August when I was looking, you would see all the days as yellow for about 4-5 weeks. The immediate 2 weeks would be gray. So yeah, I think attendance might be declining. Are the parks back to full capacity now?

 

[focusondisney]

Park reservation availability means nothing. At this point, they’re back to 100% capacity. At 100% capacity, closures happen rarely & only on Christmas or New Year’s Eve. And even then, only for a few hours that day. Oct 1st is going to be crowded, don’t think it won’t be.

 

[Eastern]

Oct 1st is going to be crowded, don’t think it won’t be.

I don't think anyone thinks that.

 

[focusondisney]

During May-August when I was looking, you would see all the days as yellow for about 4-5 weeks. The immediate 2 weeks would be gray. So yeah, I think attendance might be declining. Are the parks back to full capacity now?

Disney had limited capacity before. So at that time, all days were booked only to the current capacity. As they increased capacity, availability for future dates increased as well. Ex: if capacity on May 1st was 60%, capacity for all dates, including October 1st was capped at 60%. So at 60%, the day was full & showed as full. Today capacity is 100%, so October 1st can be booked to 100%. So it is green again. But it could still be booked at 95% for all we know. Doesn’t mean that it is less than the 60% it was in May.

 

[focusondisney]

Are the parks back to full capacity now?

I don’t think management has ever given exact numbers. But Chapek announced earlier this year than capacity would be increased & back to 100% by October 1.

 

[AUDramaQueen]

As others have said Disney rarely hit capacity before so this isn't really sort of indication that anything is different from past years.

You're much better off looking at resort room availability to gauge if Disney is going to "take it in the shorts"

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

As others have said Disney rarely hit capacity before so this isn't really sort of indication that anything is different from past years.

You're much better off looking at resort room availability to gauge if Disney is going to "take it in the shorts"

Good idea. In the last thirty seconds I checked the week following the 50th opening, as well as the next weekend (which is a holiday weekend - Columbus Day falls on Oct. 11). Tons of availability at a wide array of hotels. A few dozen confirmed DVC reservations to rent those weeks too, some discounted. And a bunch of openings on the DVC availability tool.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I don’t think management has ever given exact numbers. But Chapek announced earlier this year than capacity would be increased & back to 100% by October 1.

Yea, but he made that announcement prior to Delta and another big spike in Florida mid-summer. I truly am curious regarding what capacity they now are willing to allow in the parks at this time. They never seem to actually commit to information like that, but I have to think it's got to be close to pre-Covid availability. We may never know for certain! But the park reservation availability listed above really surprises me. I really thought October would be packed. But with many people being cautious yet, international travel restricted, and perhaps the price of airline tickets/rental cars/rooms/park tickets are keeping people home.

 

[drkate]

Actually, I rebooked our rental car a week ago as the prices dropped significantly. There are still a ton of cars available, and still cheap flights available. I don't think it's going to be as crowded as we think. Sure, MK will be full of the local people on the 1st, but I think the rest of the weekend may surprise us.

 

[hildarumpole]

We'll be cancelling our trip that begins on Oct. 5th if Disney doesn't change the mask policy to align with other FL theme parks by early next week. Not looking for debate on the issue, just offering a perspective on reason some are choosing not to visit Disney in the near term.

 

[PaladinButters]

You're much better off looking at resort room availability to gauge if Disney is going to "take it in the shorts"

What does room availability normally look like? (We've always booked so far out that I have no idea what that looks like closer to travel dates).

 

[StuckInKS]

Room availability has been opening up more and more. A month ago everything was booked solid for Nov, then more days in Oct started opening up and now there are a ton of options for Nov available. We just booked almost an entire month at POP except for Nov 11-13 (so we are currently booked Oct 25-Nov 11 and Nov 13-Nov 20). There was nothing available at POP or any other value or mod a month ago for even a few days, let alone a whole month. The mods and deluxe options also seem to be pretty open for most of those dates. Maybe not all the way through, but there is much more availability then there was. I am also keeping an eye on DVC rentals and they were really low in Sept and are also starting to head that direction for Oct and Nov (a week at OKW for $1,800 in late Oct, which is just $300 more than we are paying for POP for a week, 3 nights at BLT for $900, 3 nights at AKL for $600, etc.)

 

[jimmymc]

I think the parks are close to if not at full capacity. Remember that parks were rarely close to full capacity pre-covid, and a 50% day is still pretty busy. The more telling story is the lack of DVC and resort availability this fall.

 

[loves to dive]

I must have picked a horrible time to try to book a room. I was looking at any time after Thanksgiving and before say 3 days before Christmas. There were some weeks the only things available were the deluxes at over $1000 a night. I managed to get something at CSR for the week of Dec. 12 and there was one value open the same week. I jumped on it even though that wasn't really the week I wanted to go (I'm fine with CSR but really wanted Dolphin, it was going to be close to $600 more).

 

[chaoskids]

Park reservation availability means nothing. At this point, they’re back to 100% capacity. At 100% capacity, closures happen rarely & only on Christmas or New Year’s Eve. And even then, only for a few hours that day. Oct 1st is going to be crowded, don’t think it won’t be.

I agree with this. Pre Covid it was very rare for the parks to close due to capacity. Since the parks are back to 100% capacity, availability will rarely be an issue.

 

[Dakota731]

I’m glad we booked early. The resort we chose for our December week is full now along with a lot of others.
I’m glad since I certainly wouldn’t want a corporation that employs thousands of people to fail.