Originally Posted By SuperDry It absolutely makes sense for a Disney survey to include the other two parks, for at least a couple of reasons: First, the other parks are a reality and compete with WDW for guests, perhaps especially in the day-tripping local market. Second, for a survey of this type, it's desirable in several ways for the sponsor of the survey to not be readily identifiable, as that can skew the results.
Originally Posted By bayrr326 <<Like I've said, all appears well in O-Town right now. But I've been told some folks think that the drop-off won't wait for the traditional second week of August ... but that it'll will start about a week after July 4th.>> You are pretty much in the ballpark on that one based on what I have heard. Things are looking pretty bad for the fall. It will be interesting to see how bad and if we all of a sudden get some pretty good deals for AP rates at the resorts. I think that gas prices, the increase in the cost of living, the credit crunch(many people were using their home equity line of credit to pay for vacations), stagnant wages are all combining as one big storm that could hit the industry pretty hard. Hell, we were gonna go over there tomorrow evening to catch the new 4th of July fireworks at MK but with money being so tight it just isn't worth it in gas to go over there for the evening.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> Like I've said, all appears well in O-Town right now. But I've been told some folks think that the drop-off won't wait for the traditional second week of August ... but that it'll will start about a week after July 4th << I'm waiting for the big spike in gas prices this week. The oil companys have always screwed the driving public when it comes to holidays. Independence Day should be a pretty good gauage in a coming slow down in travel. I do think WDW hasn't started feeling the effect yet because the people attending now planned these trips sometime back. The real indicator is going to be come Thanksgiving.
