All resorts booked, but highest crowd level at 6?

[Jchoma]

We have a split stay (CBR & CSR) booked at WDW the week after Thanksgiving. I've been considering changing the CSR portion of our stay to a deluxe resort, but no rooms are available at all, with or without a discount at a remotely affordable rate. Just suites, club level, etc.; there are zero standard rooms 2 nights in a row for the dates I want. I've been checking daily for a month. And that's ok, we will be just fine staying at CSR, but seeing such low availability at the resorts has me questioning how crowds are predicted to be low to average during our stay. On Touring Plans, several parks are estimated at a "3" crowd level during those dates (11/27-12/2); the highest I see is on 12/2 at MK, which is still only a "6". I'm curious, if the resorts are all booked, how are the crowds predicted to be low? I'm wondering if we should expect bigger crowds than what Touring Plans currently predicts.

 

[FSU Girl]

I don't think all resorts being sold out indicates a packed park. Many don't go into the park, there's a lot of construction happening which is taking large chunks of rooms out of commission. But there isn't really a slow season either so it might be a little crowded, but I wouldn't go off just the hotels.

 

[ncc1701]

Both CBR and CSR are undergoing reservations so a sizeable number of rooms are out of inventory. Not sure if any work is going on at other resorts that would effect occupancy.

 

[Monorail_Man_NJ]

Im doing a split stay myself that week. 11/25 - 11/30

The only resort thats a deluxe that is available the entire week is AKL. Try changing around your split stay. Like 2 days / 3 days to 3 days / 2 days etc to see if more stuff opens up. Thats what I did.

Im at GF / AKL

 

[Jchoma]

Im doing a split stay myself that week. 11/25 - 11/30

The only resort thats a deluxe that is available the entire week is AKL. Try changing around your split stay. Like 2 days / 3 days to 3 days / 2 days etc to see if more stuff opens up. Thats what I did.

Im at GF / AKL

We have Free Dining tied to our first stay at CBR and are getting the gift cards, so we're pretty set on keeping those dates and just changing the last few nights. I wish our dates were a bit more flexible, maybe that's the issue!

 

[AngiTN]

I'm not even sold on the fact that the resorts are as sold out as they appear online.
I haven't any insight other than the website has been really wonky for months, ever since their massive fail with their upgrade.
I don't know what's up or what they've done but something just is off.
Will be interesting come fall, that's for sure.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Just two nights is also working against you too. Disney's booking algorithms don't tend to favor short reservations, especially lately. Likely not the sole cause in your situation, but could be a factor.

 

[SL6827]

There are TA that have rooms blocked off during that time as well, I think.

 

[Jchoma]

Ok, this all makes sense. I've had this growing sense of dread that the parks will be packed, so hopefully that's not the case. I know there's never really a slow time at WDW anymore and we're going during Free Dining which will surely increase crowds, but my hope is that it won't be too bad. Crowds were at 5-7 our last trip and it was totally fine.

 

[writerguyfl]

Despite the perception of some folks here, tons of people stay in off-site hotels and visit the Disney Parks.

Imagine if Disney's 30,000 resort rooms were all full at quad occupancy. That's about 120,000 people. Theme park capacity isn't published, but guesses are between 60,000 and 90,000 per park. For parks to fill, you have to look past just the Disney resorts.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I'm guessing it's the two nights that is throwing this off. I don't think the resorts are necessarily sold out. I think as PP mentioned, the algorithms may not be favorable to that two night booking.

 

[DebbieB]

I've gone the first week of December many times since 1998. It's always the same - resorts are full, parks are average. People on this board are freaking out. Park attendance is typically less than half offsite, I think it tilts more onsite during this time, less offsite.

 

[PatMcDuck]

yes, 2 night stays can be tricky, try looking for a longer stay...... I have booked a longer one and then called a day later and tried to remove days from the reservation. They hate when you do that, but worst case they do not allow it, and you have not lost anything.

PS no idea why my font is so big.

 

[Monorail_Man_NJ]

yes, 2 night stays can be tricky, try looking for a longer stay...... I have booked a longer one and then called a day later and tried to remove days from the reservation. They hate when you do that, but worst case they do not allow it, and you have not lost anything.

PS no idea why my font is so big.

Thought you were shouting at us.... LOL

Actually I usually have easier time booking 2-3 days then longer on certain properties.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The point of promos like Free Dining is to tilt lower crowd periods on-site.

 

[Tigger's ally]

I'm not even sold on the fact that the resorts are as sold out as they appear online.
I haven't any insight other than the website has been really wonky for months, ever since their massive fail with their upgrade.
I don't know what's up or what they've done but something just is off.
Will be interesting come fall, that's for sure.

Yeah, I have been monitoring the week we go end of September and basically no rooms left other than the high priced suites. I think all the rooms out for reno's combined with the new "no slow time" might also have the crowd calendars a little out of sorts. They base a lot of their info for those calendars on historical data and what we have seen going on this summer/fall might be reversing that historical data a little bit.

 

[AngiTN]

The point of promos like Free Dining is to tilt lower crowd periods on-site.

Funny thing though, almost all of Oct is blocked out of Free Dining. Yet Oct is almost totally unavailable for on site reservations.
I still do not believe the rooms are almost totally sold out.
Though I also to not hold to the thought that sold out rooms equal crowded parks.

 

[Monorail_Man_NJ]

Another thing to note as well is often times the rooms won't be available on promotional stays. For instance the current one has no rooms at Polynesian. Sold Out. But if I use a pin code rooms are available. Same room.

Take out all PROMOS and more will open up. Disney covers all bases. Free Dining isnt FREE when you pay rack rate and have to buy park hoppers.