d-r
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- Joined
- May 31, 2000
I just got off the phone with Colter, a CRO agent (BTW, we are up to 8 people now for our drinking around the world trip MLK weekend 2002 if anyone else wants to take up the challenge).
I called to book another room for our trip, and while Colter was pecking on his computer I asked "So, are things getting back to normal down there?" Colter insisted that the resorts were at the expected occupancy rates for this time of year. I told him that I heard some things on the news, and he said that he thought that the news reports had been exaggerated. He gave as an example a news clip he had seen on the local news, which showed two people walking down main street to illustrate how empty the parks were. But Colter said that the clip was filmed at 7:30 AM and the two people were cast members arriving to work. He said that the weekends were packed, and I said "a lot of locals are probably coming" and he laughed and said "yeah, they are really taking advantage of off season this year."
So, if the parks are empty during the week and packed with locals on the weekends, maybe cutting surprise mornings for a while and cutting back on hours for a while isn't so bad. I don't believe that these changes are meant to be permanent, and like a lot of seasonal changes will be removed when the place is packed again. I've been there for off season when there were bigger than expected crowds and the hours were lengthened that day, or an extra parade / fantasmic show was added, for example (I've also been there when they canceled the late fantasmic show for that night). Off season hours are always reduced, although these seem more drastic than usual. But I am guessing that they have gotten pretty good at gauging the hours vs. crowds balance at wdw and can adjust it as necessary. I'm also guessing this is why they haven't released hours yet for the next couple of months, they are probably trying to wait to get the best data possible.
So is Colter blowing me smoke, or is there some truth in what he is saying? This is an off time of year anyway, you know. I was reminded of a trip we took in Oct. of 1998 in which all of the parks seemed really empty - here are some pictures of Melissa and I - we don't get up early, we don't do early entry or anything, so these are pretty much afternoon pictures. I remember that Epcot seemed so vacant that it reminded me of a 1970/80's sci-fi movie about a post-apocoloptic world or something. I remember Melissa was joking that there would be real estate signs in front of the pavillions if this kept up. I still can't stand to see a line for living with a land because I got spoiled by walking on that trip. We never waited for anything. Melissa just said that the picture of her at Epcot was probably at about 3:00 on a Friday in Oct. 1998. The people behind me in the picture at magic kingdom are the cm's that take pictures. I guess my point is that this is off season anyway. I wonder how things will be from President's day until after Easter? I guess it depends a lot on world events.
<img src = "http://www.msu.edu/~meece/melissaepcot.jpg">
<img src = "http://www.msu.edu/~meece/d-rcastle2.jpg">
I called to book another room for our trip, and while Colter was pecking on his computer I asked "So, are things getting back to normal down there?" Colter insisted that the resorts were at the expected occupancy rates for this time of year. I told him that I heard some things on the news, and he said that he thought that the news reports had been exaggerated. He gave as an example a news clip he had seen on the local news, which showed two people walking down main street to illustrate how empty the parks were. But Colter said that the clip was filmed at 7:30 AM and the two people were cast members arriving to work. He said that the weekends were packed, and I said "a lot of locals are probably coming" and he laughed and said "yeah, they are really taking advantage of off season this year."
So, if the parks are empty during the week and packed with locals on the weekends, maybe cutting surprise mornings for a while and cutting back on hours for a while isn't so bad. I don't believe that these changes are meant to be permanent, and like a lot of seasonal changes will be removed when the place is packed again. I've been there for off season when there were bigger than expected crowds and the hours were lengthened that day, or an extra parade / fantasmic show was added, for example (I've also been there when they canceled the late fantasmic show for that night). Off season hours are always reduced, although these seem more drastic than usual. But I am guessing that they have gotten pretty good at gauging the hours vs. crowds balance at wdw and can adjust it as necessary. I'm also guessing this is why they haven't released hours yet for the next couple of months, they are probably trying to wait to get the best data possible.
So is Colter blowing me smoke, or is there some truth in what he is saying? This is an off time of year anyway, you know. I was reminded of a trip we took in Oct. of 1998 in which all of the parks seemed really empty - here are some pictures of Melissa and I - we don't get up early, we don't do early entry or anything, so these are pretty much afternoon pictures. I remember that Epcot seemed so vacant that it reminded me of a 1970/80's sci-fi movie about a post-apocoloptic world or something. I remember Melissa was joking that there would be real estate signs in front of the pavillions if this kept up. I still can't stand to see a line for living with a land because I got spoiled by walking on that trip. We never waited for anything. Melissa just said that the picture of her at Epcot was probably at about 3:00 on a Friday in Oct. 1998. The people behind me in the picture at magic kingdom are the cm's that take pictures. I guess my point is that this is off season anyway. I wonder how things will be from President's day until after Easter? I guess it depends a lot on world events.
<img src = "http://www.msu.edu/~meece/melissaepcot.jpg">
<img src = "http://www.msu.edu/~meece/d-rcastle2.jpg">
