New Longest Wait King at Hollywood Studios?

 

When it comes to Disney knowledge, sometimes you take things for granted.  If we're specifically talking about wait times, the common wisdom is that the newest ride in any park is going to have the highest wait times until a newer ride appears.  This isn't always the case - sometimes the new attraction is a lower tier ride (not an "E Ticket", for those who like the lingo) and once the new ride smell wears off, the previous busiest ride will take over again.

In recent years, a lot of big attractions have debuted at Disney World, and largely the pattern has remained true.  When Star Wars Galaxy's Edge opened in 2019, the two rides in that new land shot to the top of the wait time lists at Hollywood Studios.  Millenium Falcon Smuggler's Run has largely receded into the pack with a lot of the existing rides, which makes sense - Smuggler's Run was the "b" attraction in Galaxy's Edge.

Best Resort For Each Park

I try to do a few things with this blog - make some posts with current, relevant Disney news, as well as giving my commentary on that news, break down some hard data and write some fun, opinion pieces.  Those first two aren't necessarily "fun" posts but I think they're important in the context of planning a Disney World trip.  

I noticed I've done a lot of those first two posts lately and not a lot of that third, more fun type.  I'm not even sure this one qualifies!  But sometimes I just like to give my opinion about various things Disney - if I didn't want to write things like this, why do I have a blog at all (you might be asking yourself that anyway)?  So today I wanted to talk about various resorts throughout Walt Disney World property and come up with the "best" resort to stay at for each park.

July 4th Crowd Report

 

As promised (threatened?) last week, I wanted to take a look at the crowds at Walt Disney World on and around July 4th.  Some interesting data emerged from last week, and I thought we would talk about it in the context of overall crowd levels, touch a bit more on the weekday/weekend dynamic and see if we can figure out why these numbers were the way they were.

If you've ever watched the fireworks from Disney's 4th of July celebration (usually taking place on both 7/3 and 7/4 at Magic Kingdom), the crowds in the hub look daunting.  It might lead you to believe that crowds were out of control around this time. But the actual numbers here would lead you to the opposite conclusion.  As a side note, looking at crowds just in the hub around fireworks time (for ANY show) give a skewed view of what that day's crowds were like.  Most people who remain in Magic Kingdom at that time are watching the fireworks, meaning a large number of people are condensed into a relatively small space.  That also means wait times during the fireworks will generally be substantially lower.  But I digress ...

Weekday vs. Weekend Crowd Analysis

 

I keep a pretty regular eye on the crowd patterns at Walt Disney World ... so you don't have to!  Even when I don't have a trip coming up, I am interested in trends, as that can inform a decision on when to visit again.  Things have shifted a lot over the years, and Disney has gotten more savvy by programming events during formerly "slow" times to even out crowd levels throughout the year.

Actually, that's not entirely true.  Some things are beyond Disney's control, such as school breaks, holidays and weather.  Christmas season will ALWAYS be busy (a bold prediction if I do say so) and a time such as early September, with hurricane season in full effect and schools just back in session, will likely be quieter.  Disney's goal really is just to bring in more people during slow times - a good rule of thumb is that it's never really "slow" at any time, just varying degrees of busy.

Genie+ Now Priced Per Park

 

Disney recently announced more changes to Genie+ - they simply can't stop tinkering with it!  The journey to this point has been a long one, so I won't recap all of it but some of the "highlights" include Genie+ not being available for pre-purchase, variable pricing by date and the ability to modify your reservation (that last one at least is a positive).

The variable pricing was probably the biggest sea change, as originally it came out as one fixed price. Now the pricing is based on Disney's expected crowd level, meaning that the busier and more crowded the parks are, the more Genie+ would cost you.  Disney has pushed the envelope with the pricing, maxing out (so far) at $35 per person during this past Easter season.

Disney World Ticket Price Inflation

 

If you live in the real world, you won't be surprised to hear that things today cost more than things did a year ago.  And that things a year ago cost more than these same things five years ago.  This is true pretty much everywhere, and Walt Disney World is no exception.  If you last went on a trip ten years ago and wanted to price out that exact vacation again now, you should be prepared for some sticker shock.

But do all increases happen at the same rate?  I got to thinking about this when I saw the shocking increase in ticket prices between our last trip and our upcoming one, and I did some digging.  The short answer is no - at least in this particular case, the percentage increase in ticket prices is far higher than other increases.  But there are several factors that might affect this, which we'll discuss below.  The bigger question is why this is, and I'm not sure I have a great answer to that.

The Disney Dining Plan - Is It Right For You?

 

We're back today with a topic that carries a lot of weight among Disney fans - the return of the Disney Dining Plan.  As noted in that post, the original announcement was short on details.  Now that the Dining Plan is available to book (for visits starting January 9, 2024), we have a lot more information about what is included, what isn't, and most importantly, the pricing.

This post will take a look at those things and try to answer the impossible question - is the Disney Dining Plan "worth it"?  Or at the very least, is it right for YOU.  As you might surmise from the word "impossible", there is no real way to answer that question (if you're looking for a simple yes/no, you can probably stop reading this right now).  But we're going to crunch some numbers and talk about how these plans can best be leveraged for your vacation, and then you will hopefully have the information you need to make an informed decision.