Hello all. I’ve been watching the Crowd Calendar since my last week of January went up several points each day.
This week marks the first week that CL’s significantly increased after the recent update. What I’ve noticed is, the section where they come back and say “How did we do” has been showing significant difference between predicted and actual. Days predicted 9 have been 5-6. 10s as low as 6 as well.
Is this possibly a sign of things to come the rest of the month?
I think we have to see what happens this week. Last year it was after marathon weekend that Disney significantly cut staffing and ride capacity, driving up the CLs. That is part of what went into this recent CL update. I think if this week happens and the CLs stay lower, that we can assume that Disney recognized that it was a disaster last year and isn’t repeating that trend.
So how bad did things get, and how much of a fuss was made about it last year? I’ve heard various things but couldn’t find a thread about it.
Did it get a lot of complaints, and even into the media?
It got a ton of complaints from what @len said (he may be able to shed more light on that), and very low guest satisfaction scores. People expect crowds like that at Christmas or in the Summer. Not in January.
I think this is a great point. If Disney artificially creates the same lines that people come to expect in more popular times, there is much less incentive to pull kids out of school, brave the unpredictable weather, and short park hours.
If it’s going to be 10 either way, I’d rather do spring break than last week of January. Disney could do exactly what they are trying to avoid. Get less crowds due to their artificial crowd creating.
It is also noteworthy that Marathon Weekend last year fell immediately after New Years - like I flew down on the 2nd, and the marathon was on the 7th.
This year we had a year in between - my Tuesday travel day was the 8th and the marathon was today.