Originally Posted By MPierce >> I was not trying to rig the inquiry. I had no idea what dates the marathon was. I tried again using the dates of 1/17/09 check-in and 1/24/09 check-out. Here are the results; << I never thought you were trying to rig the figures RT, and I never thought the dates, and availability you posted were anything other than accurate. I just find it difficult to believe that all the value resorts, and CBR are sold out for January. Something just doesn't make sense here. I know the buy 4 get 3 is a good deal, but I just don't see it going over that big. I very well could be wrong, but does anybody find it hard to believe that WDW is packing them in this well during a recession. I've got to do some more checking.
Originally Posted By itsme <<Right smack dab in the middle of those dates is the marathon. It always sells out. Why not give them a call, and talk to a real person. You might be surprised what you come up with. Try not using the days of 1/10 & 1/11. >> Why go through checking all different weeks? If that one week is pretty full that week alone will represent about an 25% booking for the month, So if that's the case the REST of the month the hotels could be almost empty, they would need to only book about 10% of the rooms to hit the 35% number which anyone with a brain knows no matter how tough times are they will book at least that much. Now I guess the new spin will be Disney cant be smart enough to get people to go to such a bad place and enjoy themselves when times are a little tough, how long before the claims come in that they are hiding rooms. The only thing here that makes clear sense is this thread is a major fail.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> Now I guess the new spin will be Disney cant be smart enough to get people to go to such a bad place and enjoy themselves when times are a little tough, how long before the claims come in that they are hiding rooms. The only thing here that makes clear sense is this thread is a major fail. << Do I detect a tone of confrontation in your post? Spirit wasw merely passing on information that he was given. By the way anyone with a brain might wait until all the reports were in before making such a bold statement. I myself don't know for sure about anything that happens at WDW. Spirits information has proven accurate in the past, so I'm very willing to wait and see what the actual figures turn out to be. One way or the other let me assure you that I will find out what the bookings are like.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Maybe President Bush needs to make another speech like after 9/11, to tell us to continue spending money and take trips to Walt Disney World.>> I think if he told people that water was wet, people wouldn't believe him.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 << I think our next trip will be summer 2010 to DL.>>> huh? Last Friday you said WDW with us in 2010?
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<The WDC no longer has leaders like Walt, and Roy Disney. I just don't get a sense of passion for the parks. I very well could be wrong though, I certainly hope so.>> You don't see passion? You obviously aren't looking in my direction. <<I noticed a particularly visious attack against you Spirit,by some Jerk named CBOMB on another forum. They sure can be mean over there! >> Yes. He reminds of some rightwing redneck wackjob I know ... rest assured, he'll learn his place!
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<I normally go every year at the end of January RT. I can only say that as the years have past, WDW has seemed more crowded every year. I can't give you actual numbers, but the Wilderness Lodge always seems like it has a pretty good crowd. I couldn't even begin to imagine how empty 35% would feel.>> Very scary. That's how it felt in 2001. Imagine being at the Mara at DAK Lodge at 6 p.m. and being the SOLE guest having dinner while 8-10 CMs nervously mill about and wait on you like you're a king but in a very uncomfortable kingdom. Typical January load levels I believe to be in the mid-upper 60s, FWIW. And I said on another site that this number will likely go up. College FB bowl games bring many fans to Florida and once they are here, they tend to visit WDW. Not to mention this year it's OB times two as the Miami game hosts the national championship on Jan. 8th. Since those teams haven't been determined many people who will come, haven't made plans. BUT ... it is important to realize that even if that number goes up, which it is sure to, into the 40s or even 50s, Disney still will be doing very poorly. With 30,000 rooms on property, having 13,000 sitting empty nightly isn't a good thing. As to my pal, he only seems to come into the LP to stalk me and take shots. It gets old, but not to him. Why would I ever want to post something that isn't true? Even if it isn't my fault, it would harm my credibility.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << And I said on another site that this number will likely go up. College FB bowl games bring many fans to Florida and once they are here, they tend to visit WDW. Not to mention this year it's OB times two as the Miami game hosts the national championship on Jan. 8th. Since those teams haven't been determined many people who will come, haven't made plans. >> And the backpedaling begins. When confronted with facts disputing the initial claim, a scenario that will allow the OP to explain a way out of the initial statements is developed on the fly.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 Does Disney normally close down rooms(like wings or buildings) during slow season for refub?
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<What % of that Trillion will have absolutely no impact on people? I probably have 70K of credit available that I've never used and never will use. If my limits were all cut by 50% it would be a big who cares? It wouldn't even impact my FICO. >> If you get your credit cut by 50% it certainly will affect you in the views of the credit bureaus ... and why do all discussions of the recession/depression we have in this country always go back to things not being that bad for you or in your area? I'm living better than most, but my God I am not arrogant enough to believe that people aren't in bigtime trouble. <<Again, I am certainly not unique. There are many people out there who have credit cards with significant credit limits who NEVER use them.>> Yeah. And most experts will tell you that isn't very smart these days. A friend of mine, who has excellent credit as does his wife owns numerous homes (a few with mortgages as he uses them for rentals) just got a letter from AmEx this week -- after buying his son a brand new car for college for $18,000 cash -- they told him they had reviewed his file and were lowering his $14,000 limit to $6,000 (he owes them about $5,800). Told the wife to forget about Christmas shopping. A neighbor of mine, who's a doctor, recently had a $25,000 line with Chase that was unused dropped to $2,500. People are having credit stripped from them even if their credit is excellent as the companies want to screw the consumers while getting money from them in the form of government bailouts. It all makes me physically ill to think about. So to assume people have money and credit to book magical WDW vacations isn't just naive, it's dumb. Reality says differently and all the special offers in the world aren't likely to significantly improve that. But for the umpteenth time, Trippy, I am happy things aren't bad for you. Seriously. Just stop assuming you are typical ... much like your views here, you are far from it! ;-)
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 So does that mean that paying my Amex in full each month is not helping me?
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 >> I was reading in The Sunday paper most American Households have $10,000 in credit card debt!!! OMG!! << <<I have an aquaitance that had $70,000 of credit card debt. What do you think his chances of climbing out of that hole were.>> Next to impossible. And unlike American companies that make billions of debt (trillions actually) disappear like it never existed, just try as an individual to rid yourself of that kind of debt. It will follow his great grandchildren under some of the laws that have been enacted under Pres... Ok ... not going here ... you all started talking about individuals, I was talking about Disney's occupancy in January ... you go discuss whatever you want. But I am not going near these waters because we all know where it will end up. Enjoy!
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Sorry Spirit. No Cigar. Not even Close. << <<Right smack dab in the middle of those dates is the marathon. It always sells out. Why not give them a call, and talk to a real person. You might be surprised what you come up with. Try not using the days of 1/10 & 1/11. >> You can NEVER go by Disney's online ressies ... never!
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Again, I am making no judgment of any LP'er (thanks for the clarification MPierce). I just think The Spirit may have been given poor information. I certainly don't think he is trying to deceive anyone.>> I am sticking to my info. I trust the source. And I trust the spirit who backed it. And scary as it may be, even Jim Hill has gone with that number and I KNOW my sources are not his. Another thing that needs to be considered is that Disney is NOT putting all of its inventory out there. This is SOP at Disney. But now it is more of an issue as Disney is trying to gauge responses to offers to see what new measures (including closing resorts and/or blocks of rooms/buildings) may be needed. If someone calls Disney to book Pop Century from Jan. 2-9 and is told it is booked solid that means absolutely nothing without a context ... as The Mouse may be holding back 500 rooms at just that one resort. There are also times when I would expect it to be tougher to get rooms ... Jan. 1-3, Marathon weekend and MLK weekends come to mind. But it means nothing in regards to the validity of the info that was handed to me.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Do I detect a tone of confrontation in your post? Spirit wasw merely passing on information that he was given. By the way anyone with a brain might wait until all the reports were in before making such a bold statement. I myself don't know for sure about anything that happens at WDW. Spirits information has proven accurate in the past, so I'm very willing to wait and see what the actual figures turn out to be. One way or the other let me assure you that I will find out what the bookings are like. >> Oh, c'mon, you're a mindless minion Pierce ... what do you know? You worship The Spirit! But SportGoofy and itsme are management apologists who only seem to appear in threads I post to take shots at me personally. I don't really care, but that's been their track record. Just so it is crystal clear ... I stand 100% behind the fact that as of late last week when the information was forwarded to me the CURRENT booking level for WDW resorts for the entire month of January (for however many rooms Disney management has put out in the systems at CRO) was around 35%. No backpedaling. No nothing. Just that ...
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << Another thing that needs to be considered is that Disney is NOT putting all of its inventory out there. This is SOP at Disney. >> Witholding inventory less than two months out from a projected booking date? Give me a break. It's standard for hotel operators to hold back inventory for advance reservations, but we're talking months/years in advance. 30 days out from a reservation period you are likely to see a pretty accurate reflection on what is available and what is not. What business interest could it possibly serve to deny people the opportunity to reserve a room, particularly if times are so bad that they can't fill 2/3 of their rooms supposedly? Why continue to push this bad data to people on the message boards? It's no secret the economy is in the toilet. Of course, it stands to reason that reservations levels are down. Is it really necessary to invent ludicrously low occupancy figures out of thin air to justify a new message board posting?
Originally Posted By kennect OH Spirit, AE cut my credit line in half about six weeks ago...I sort of freaked out at the notice and then later read that AE was one of the first to do such under these type circumstances...Big deal, it is no skin off my back... After 9/11 I remember checking into the Yacht Club when all of a sudden our cheap parking lot view was upgraded to top viewing location...I asked what the deal was and the gal at the desk told me they were only at 25 percent occupancy...I guess it was cheaper at the time to keep all of the guest in the same area...Weird thing though was the idea the hotel seemed rather busy for so few people...
Originally Posted By kennect And Spirit and everyone, My business here was going fine until October and the bad news hit...For what I do people just quit spending...I thought the Christmas season would loosen folks up a bit but it hasn't...I don't know if panic truly set in here with the public but things here are really tough...No one is spending any money on things they don't need...Well, what I do they don't need so tomorrow I am applying for a temp job for the months of Jan. and Feb. ...Maybe by mid year I can get back to what I do as a regular thing....
Originally Posted By FenwayGirl We went last January during MLK week and it was College Cheerleading/Dance competition weekend. It was a zoo!!
