More Cuts in Store? About This Page:

[chezp]

It's very sad to hear park attendance is struggling so much, but in the current climate, it's hardly surprising. I hope it picks up again really soon. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

Cheryl

[RocklandRVers]

Barring anything too traumatic the RVers will do our part to boost attendance 3 times in 2003! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

If we let the terrorists make us change our travel habits then they have won. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] Our family will not let these thugs spoil our fun. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img]

[Versafox]

I feel pretty much like Rockland -- we'll be there. In spite of a rotten economy, in spite of the threat of war, in spite of all the other "stuff" that's going on -- we'll be there.

Still, in view of how poorly the economy is doing overall, it would be surprising if Disney did NOT have to make some cut backs. And why not? Everyone else has had to cut back!

The economy is like the weather. Wait long enough, and it will change.

[Shell_of_the_South]

I think this will pass soon. Remember how many cutbacks came in after 9/11, and they were temporary too. I guess we all better spend some more money on Disney movies, Disney clothes, Disney gifts, etc. (like nobody here does that anyway! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] )

[stonewall]

Aunt Polly's wasn't serving lunch when we were there recently and I did notice some "random fireworks" going off at odd times in the MK after the park was closed(we could see the fireworks from our room).Despite President's Week, attendance was light and the resort was not at capacity. FastPasses were not in effect at Splash Mountain on 2 days, and rides were walk-ons after the fireworks until closing.We had a great time though and have booked the next trip already!

[Bert & Sully]

More and more stuff is being cut even as we speak it seems.

[Wendyismyname]

This is from aTourGuideMike.com
It is on the left side of the home page so it's for every one.

"For the second half of March, the 16th through the 31st, three more SpectroMagics at the Magic Kingdom were cut, leaving Saturday night as the only itinerary option to view the popular nighttime parade"

"The Fantasy In the Sky Fireworks remain for every evening at 7:15 p.m. The exception is 8 p.m. on Sat, March 22, Mon, March 24, and Sat, March 29."

"Epcot's Future World begins closing at 6 p.m. instead of the usual 7 p.m. beginning on Sunday, March 23 and continues with the new hours through the first two weeks of April (and its last week as well). There were no more cuts at the other two theme parks."

"Blizzard Beach will now remain closed through the entire month of March, and not open until Wednesday, April 9. During the busiest two weeks of April both before and after Easter, the park will close at 6 p.m. instead of the previously scheduled 7 p.m."

"Typhoon Lagoon remains open, but its closure was also reduced to 6 p.m. from 7 p.m. during the busy two weeks of Easter as well."

Also, MK hours for april have been CUT!! Now I'm really pissed, [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] er, excuse me honked off! Of course they can change....

Thanks guys for listening! I hope you can catch this post!

Wendy

I'll post more tomorrow about April when it becomes available on tourguidemike!

[pflamingo]

According to my folks, who aren't necessarily the most reliable sources of info and may have just been trying to make me feel better about not getting the elephant job, Disney has imposed a hiring freeze. That was pretty shocking, b/c when I lived in Orlando, Disney was one place that was always hiring. That can't bode well for the economy in the area.

I feel bad for the CM's who may be losing hours, and the people in the area who really need those jobs.

I know it's a bummer to have the hours cut back. When we were there in January, everything pretty well closed up by 7:00. On the other hand, we used the early closing hours to explore the resort (WL - awesome!), go to the movie at Ft. Wilderness, and go to PI - things we didn't bother with in the past when the parks were open late. We had so much fun! Remember, even early closing is better than not being there at all! I keep trying to finesse the finances to find a way to get in one more trip before our AP's expire. Don't care what time they close, just wanna go again!

[ 03-10-2003, 08:03 PM: Message edited by: pflamingo ]

[Bert & Sully]

Pat we've been reading that in our local papers up here as well. They have articles about WDW practically daily.

[OffKilter_Lynn]

The economy is like the weather. Wait long enough, and it will change.

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">Good thought - and shorter days at Disney are better than no days!

[MindibellCM]

When we were at Disney in September 2002 we met up with one of college friends that was a manager at Animal Kingdom. She left Animal Kingdom in May of 2001 and Disney was already having problems. Her roommate still works there and keeps her updates but she told us that the department managers had been asked to do operating plans for a 5% drop, 10% drop and a 25% drop in attendance. She knew it was getting bad and 9/11 didn't help much. She said one of their options was to do black days where on given days certain parks would be closed. I'm glad to see that hasn't happened yet. When we were down in December (1st part) it seemed that the lines were longer than we anticipated but I don't think they had as many openned. We were back the last weekend in Jan and it was pretty empty.

[Brant]

Due to low attendance, an entire wing of AKL is closed, two floor of Yacht/Beach Club. Pop Century is also being shelved until further notice...

...DVC is going full speed ahead with Saratoga Springs though. DVC is a huge moneymaker for Disneym they are putting everything into it right now.

[Disney Fan]

Ack! We won't make it back until Dec, I hope things are looking up by then! Our Disney Store closed also without any notice (at least not that I was aware of). I'm completely bummed.