WDW Magazine December 2016 - 2017 Crowds at WDW | Page 18

Any other trends in crowds, discounts, or operating hours that you think
our readers should know about for 2017?

Carl – It’s really dangerous to make predictions on any of those items but that’s never

stopped me before.

Disney crowds were down quite a bit in 2016. My guess is, that will stabilize in 2017 but
there won’t be a lot of growth. I do think that discounts will be better, or at least there will be
more rooms available than in 2016. Either that or Disney should just quit offering discounts.
Park hours? Ha. Nope. I’m not touching that one.

Dave – In the past year, Disney has shifted to managing the parks for operating income, not

for attendance growth, and has been willing to raise some prices enough to drive some
people away, and cut some park hours and ride capacity—increasing waits—if it can save
some money. This has made discounts harder to get and waits more unpredictable than in
the recent past. At some point, Pandora – The World of Avatar will open at the Animal
Kingdom, and it’ll be interesting to see what effect that has.
Thanks so much for your time, Dave and Carl!

If you have more questions about when to visit in 2017, be sure to check out
dadsguidetowdw.com and yourfirstvisit.net for more great insight from these two Disney
planning experts!