Attendance Tracker

[Ron101]

Speaking for Universal at least:

I’ve seen all sorts of advertising for Toy Story Land. TV commercials, banner ads, news articles, social media sponsored posts.

I don’t remember seeing a single mention for F&F. A couple press pieces online during the grand opening. That’s about it. Certainly not any paid advertisements.

Maybe I just have a bad memory on these things, but I haven’t seen Universal do a strong media push in a long time. I would think that this would be a stronger attendance year for Disney since they’re pushing their new land hard.

For Universal Studios Hollywood, I've seen the "You won't believe what we've become" commercial so many times on TV. I also hear the commercial on the radio all the time.

 

[Chris]

Universal Studios Hollywood attendance has been doing nothing but going up lately...

The park is becoming nearly unbearable.

 

[UNIrd]

I know a lot of people who have been doing DAK for the first time ever this year, and they've done Disney a few times before. For the first time ever... 20 years later. Let that sink in.

But yet somehow it still feels indirectly because of Pandora. No one's saying they have to go see Pandora or Avatarland, etc. the same way Harry Potter was easily identifiable as the reason to suddenly visit "Harry Potter World" at IOA and USF.

 

[Mad Dog]

I know a lot of people who have been doing DAK for the first time ever this year, and they've done Disney a few times before. For the first time ever... 20 years later. Let that sink in.

But yet somehow it still feels indirectly because of Pandora. No one's saying they have to go see Pandora or Avatarland, etc. the same way Harry Potter was easily identifiable as the reason to suddenly visit "Harry Potter World" at IOA and USF.

DAK crowd calendar,per Touring Plans, has been maintaining strong crowd levels since last summer. Perhaps it's just a much more rounded park since they built Pandora, a fairly impressive though not Potter level land, which has a really good ride, added a night show, added Kilimanjaro Safari night ride, Tree of Life night projection show, and extended hours into the evening which would give it the feel of a full day park, more so than before. I'm thinking it's the combination of all that. A lot of new stuff over a short period of time probably makes that park feel fresh and new. I'd think DHS will be like that once GESWL opens. TSL, by itself, is not enough to get that same feel.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I know a lot of people who have been doing DAK for the first time ever this year, and they've done Disney a few times before. For the first time ever... 20 years later. Let that sink in.

But yet somehow it still feels indirectly because of Pandora. No one's saying they have to go see Pandora or Avatarland, etc. the same way Harry Potter was easily identifiable as the reason to suddenly visit "Harry Potter World" at IOA and USF.

DAK has always suffered from a "it's a zoo and I have one of those near me" syndrome.



Adding a land based on pure rides and not animals (take this how you see fit) makes it feel more like a theme park and something to visit. Possibly not a direct factor in visiting it changes the overall perception of a park. This is what Potter did.

 

[twebber55]

DAK crowd calendar,per Touring Plans, has been maintaining strong crowd levels since last summer. Perhaps it's just a much more rounded park since they built Pandora, a fairly impressive though not Potter level land, which has a really good ride, added a night show, added Kilimanjaro Safari night ride, Tree of Life night projection show, and extended hours into the evening which would give it the feel of a full day park, more so than before. I'm thinking it's the combination of all that. A lot of new stuff over a short period of time probably makes that park feel fresh and new. I'd think DHS will be like that once GESWL opens. TSL, by itself, is not enough to get that same feel.

great points
i will say that all of the night time stuff opened in 2016 and did help put didnt really drive attendance at DAK it wasnt until Pandora until we saw much bigger attendance draws
im confident the numbers back me up on this

But anyways it does look like a soft summer for both resorts
when i was at Universal 2 weeks ago lines were pretty short. i mean my last day in the parks at 1030 AM FJ had a 10 minute wait

 

[Mad Dog]

great points
i will say that all of the night time stuff opened in 2016 and did help put didnt really drive attendance at DAK it wasnt until Pandora until we saw much bigger attendance draws
im confident the numbers back me up on this

But anyways it does look like a soft summer for both resorts
when i was at Universal 2 weeks ago lines were pretty short. i mean my last day in the parks at 1030 AM FJ had a 10 minute wait

Yes, you're right that the initial night time AK stuff didn't seem to increase attendance until Pandora opened. Pandora was the catalyst, for sure. But now that the crowds seem sustained over a year since Pandora opened, it seems the combination of all that stuff is keeping the momentum, and feeling of a real full day theme park, going. And I neglected to mention the Lion King area and themed food court in Africa a couple of years ago. I was really impressed with the beauty of that addition when I was in the park last year. Though it didn't attract attendance, it was sure a nice addition. I haven't seen Pandora yet since I refuse to stand in long lines for any attraction. But, from what I've seen, I would speculate that Africa is still the best overall land in AK.

 

[twebber55]

Yes, you're right that the initial night time AK stuff didn't seem to increase attendance until Pandora opened. Pandora was the catalyst, for sure. But now that the crowds seem sustained over a year since Pandora opened, it seems the combination of all that stuff is keeping the momentum, and feeling of a real full day theme park, going. And I neglected to mention the Lion King area and themed food court in Africa a couple of years ago. I was really impressed with the beauty of that addition when I was in the park last year. Though it didn't attract attendance, it was sure a nice addition. I haven't seen Pandora yet since I refuse to stand in long lines for any attraction. But, from what I've seen, I would speculate that Africa is still the best overall land in AK.

totally agree on all points
and lets face it DAK could use another land

 

[Mad Dog]

totally agree on all points
and lets face it DAK could use another land

Yes. I'd like to see a 'real' land where the Conservation area is. That would make that train ride, that's already there, more like an attraction. That conservation area is just a waste of time for the effort to get there.

 

[UNIrd]

I haven't seen Pandora yet since I refuse to stand in long lines for any attraction. But, from what I've seen, I would speculate that Africa is still the best overall land in AK.

That's the other trend I've noticed. Even though these new additions is what's peaking their interest to visit now, when it comes to planning their day, they're not even doing the Pandora attractions. One, the FPs already gone by the time they book them so they end up getting the Kilimanjaro Safaris, Dinosaur, and something else... And balking at the wait times for FOP or River Journey once they're in the park since capacity is so dire.

So essentially they're still doing the same things they would've ended up doing had they visited DAK 20 years ago.
At least they're visiting the park and seeing how beautiful it is. And hopefully they at least get to see how gorgeous Pandora is on the outside and getting a few selfies out of it. :ears:

 

[SeventyOne]

Having been at the parks this week.... This seems wildly unnecessary Seemed like a very typical 4th week at both resorts.

Tuesday evening they hadn't even set up signage along World Drive, which they typically do when they anticipate phased closings in the coming days. I heard nothing about MK closing, either. Fourth week has definitely been in decline the past few years, but that still surprised me.

 

[jtsalien]

DAK has always suffered from a "it's a zoo and I have one of those near me" syndrome.



Adding a land based on pure rides and not animals (take this how you see fit) makes it feel more like a theme park and something to visit. Possibly not a direct factor in visiting it changes the overall perception of a park. This is what Potter did.

And yet they've learned nothing from this in the last 20 years....

Epcot is becoming/has become the food and wine park. I don't know that one more ride will fix that.

And the Studios is the "Why bother?" Park. And will probably stay that way for many when Star Wars breaks it

 

[Mad Dog]

Tuesday evening they hadn't even set up signage along World Drive, which they typically do when they anticipate phased closings in the coming days. I heard nothing about MK closing, either. Fourth week has definitely been in decline the past few years, but that still surprised me.

After a fairly slow Saturday, today (Sunday) is looking even a bit slower than Saturday at WDW.

 

[Ridgepole]

I wonder what hotel occupancy is?

 

[Mad Dog]

I wonder what hotel occupancy is?

On Touring Plans today, they're announcing changes to their WDW crowd calendar, mostly downward. From TP, "The increase in Disney hotel promotions suggests that reservations are down"

 

[jtsalien]

I wonder what hotel occupancy is?

Hotels are holding up much better than attendance and spending at Universal.

 

[UNIrd]

Hotels are holding up much better than attendance and spending at Universal.

Twice when I've checked in at Cabana, I've noticed they have some document that shows their occupancy rates for each day of the week. I don't know if anyone else has seen it or if it's just me that's like

when there's anything having to do with Universal. But they've been doing mighty fine, especially on weekends.

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

It seems like there weren't many reports of an attendance decline last summer, compared to this summer and two summers ago. Once again, 2017's additions were vastly better than 2016's and 2018's.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

It seems like there weren't many reports of an attendance decline last summer, compared to this summer and two summers ago. Once again, 2017's additions were vastly better than 2016's and 2018's.

A new water park for UO and a new land for WDW boosted attendance.

I would not be surprised if Universal gets major attendance surge during HHN as Stranger Things would bring in many people

 

[Ron101]

At Universal Studios Hollywood, Costco Pass members were sent an email to visit for an extra day during the long mid-June to mid-August blackout period. You can only make one reservation per passholder to visit on a select date, most likely the weekdays. Are the summer crowds weak this year over at USH?