Disneyland’s Attendance Issues Summer 2019

[Nick]

I think it depends on the price point.

Disney After Hours in FL is a great way for Disney to test the waters on “boutique pricing”

Personally, I’d spend $150 to have a park with less crowds. But, MaxPass already solves the crowd problem enough for me.

If they were going to cap attendance, the price-point would surely go up way higher than $150.

 

[GadgetGuru]

If they were going to cap attendance, the price-point would surely go up way higher than $150.

Oh yeah, definitely. I could see capped-attendance tickets easily hitting $250.

 

[Nick]

Who’d have thought.
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Should be noted that SR has a much higher capacity than the DL Star Tours. In DHS it's a little different as we have 6 bays instead of DL's 4. Point is, Smuggler's Run is probably seeing more people per day even though ST has the higher wait time.

Wait times do not properly convey popularity when an attraction has a high capacity.

 

[Scott W.]

What you guys are talking about sounds good on paper, but are there REALLY that many rich people to fill up 30K spots a day at an exorbitant pricepoint? Most people like spending multiple days at Disneyland whether they can ride every ride in a single day or not, anyway, so this still wouldn't work for many. I know myself I like to spend at least 3-4 days at DL/DCA when I go. It's not just about the rides, but the atmosphere.

There would be nothing stopping you going for a few days but with less time waiting in lines, you can have more time relaxing in the park.

Like I said above, I hate the idea and like you said, it makes sense on paper. Reality is a completely different thing.

Oh yeah, definitely. I could see capped-attendance tickets easily hitting $250.

If they’re doing 50,000 guests a day on average and wanting to half that, they’d need to double the price, add on the costs of food and drink to for that boutique experience like Discovery Cove and you’re looking at $350 a day.

 

[Nick]

There would be nothing stopping you going for a few days but with less time waiting in lines, you can have more time relaxing in the park.

Like I said above, I hate the idea and like you said, it makes sense on paper. Reality is a completely different thing.

Well, nothing stopping me except the financial limits of what I can justify. I work hard for the money I make and there's a lot of world i've yet to see. I love theme parks, but if i'm going to spend a lot of money on a theme park vacation, i'd rather it be someplace like Tokyo at that point. It can be a cultural vacation first and a theme park vacation second.

Plus, Tokyo Disney is actually affordable. A 4-day pass to TDL and TDS is 22,400 Yen - or $208US. And if I really wanted to get crazy and travel to Hong Kong and Shanghai too, a 2-day HKDL pass is only $92US and a SHDL pass for as little as $47.88 for one day or $95.76 for THREE. That's potentially only $303 on park tickets to see worldwide parks for admission of NINE days(!), plus the chance to visit world class cities. I wouldn't even have to use all 9 of those park ticket days for me to find the worth in spending $300.

As great as Disneyland is (and it is great), there are other things I want to see in the world as well and i've already been to DLR three times. DL's pricing is just bonkers right now, quite frankly.

 

[Evan]

 

[fryoj]

Who’d have thought.
View attachment 10071 View attachment 10072

Should be noted that SR has a much higher capacity than the DL Star Tours. In DHS it's a little different as we have 6 bays instead of DL's 4. Point is, Smuggler's Run is probably seeing more people per day even though ST has the higher wait time.

Wait times do not properly convey popularity when an attraction has a high capacity.

Also, ST has Fast Pass. SR doesn't.

 

[Scott W.]

Well, nothing stopping me except the financial limits of what I can justify. I work hard for the money I make and there's a lot of world i've yet to see. I love theme parks, but if i'm going to spend a lot of money on a theme park vacation, i'd rather it be someplace like Tokyo at that point. It can be a cultural vacation first and a theme park vacation second.

Plus, Tokyo Disney is actually affordable. A 4-day pass to TDL and TDS is 22,400 Yen - or $208US. And if I really wanted to get crazy and travel to Hong Kong and Shanghai too, a 2-day HKDL pass is only $92US and a SHDL pass for as little as $47.88 for one day or $95.76 for THREE. That's potentially only $303 on park tickets to see worldwide parks for admission of NINE days(!), plus the chance to visit world class cities. I wouldn't even have to use all 9 of those park ticket days for me to find the worth in spending $300.

As great as Disneyland is (and it is great), there are other things I want to see in the world as well and i've already been to DLR three times. DL's pricing is just bonkers right now, quite frankly.

I’ll be honest, I think I’m at my breaking point with Disney’s pricing. I’m still on the fence about this year and I pretty much need to go to WDW next year but after that, I think I’m done.

 

[SeventyOne]

I think it’s a bit more of a problem at DL than DHS, but we’ll see. Granted, I never thought it would cause this big of an issue.

Do you mean because of audience, or SW content?

Because as to the latter, DHS has Star Tours. And JTI. And the museum/shop/meet & greets. And the various center stage shows. And SW fireworks. And a gift shop with build-your-own-lightsaber (copied in the full SW room down the street at Once Upon a Toy). And a fireworks show. And used to have SW Weekends. And also had The Void down the street.

As to the former, Idk, the whole locals v. APs thing while true gets overblown. WDW has a fair number of APs spread across the state. And a significant percentage--probably not a majority but significant--are "regulars" who come every year or more often. Hence the explosive growth of DVC. They'll flood Smugglers Run at first because it's new but end of day they're Disney theme park fans, not SW fans. FoP still has huge lines but banshees keep popping up at the Outlets and Property Control. Regulars will ride anything for novelty, but it better have Mickey ears for them to buy it.

 

[mrpeng1]

Locals vs. APs is a small part in this. People thought that the park would be crowded as hell once star wars land opened, and because of that, we are seeing the parks become very dead. That and Chapek and co somehow thought having next to none OT content and setting it on a planet no one even heard of (it didn't even appear in the movies) and have the merchandise cost an arm and a leg for stuff barely above the caliber of out of parks star wars merch ($200 for a lightsaber is stupidly overpriced). That and $150 is way too much for a single day. That being said, I am happy that one of Iger and Chapek's projects failed for once, maybe we'll finally see them enter the late Eisner era, so that way they will learn that maybe their IPs aren't as strong as they thought

 

[Nick]

Do you mean because of audience, or SW content?

Because as to the latter, DHS has Star Tours. And JTI. And the museum/shop/meet & greets. And the various center stage shows. And SW fireworks. And a gift shop with build-your-own-lightsaber (copied in the full SW room down the street at Once Upon a Toy). And a fireworks show. And used to have SW Weekends. And also had The Void down the street.

As to the former, Idk, the whole locals v. APs thing while true gets overblown. WDW has a fair number of APs spread across the state. And a significant percentage--probably not a majority but significant--are "regulars" who come every year or more often. Hence the explosive growth of DVC. They'll flood Smugglers Run at first because it's new but end of day they're Disney theme park fans, not SW fans. FoP still has huge lines but banshees keep popping up at the Outlets and Property Control. Regulars will ride anything for novelty, but it better have Mickey ears for them to buy it.

I’m more talking WDW being more the Vacation Kingdom and while SW has been littered throughout DHS over the past few years, I don’t see it having nearly the effect we’re seeing in DL.

 

[OrlLover]

Locals vs. APs is a small part in this. People thought that the park would be crowded as hell once star wars land opened, and because of that, we are seeing the parks become very dead. That and Chapek and co somehow thought having next to none OT content and setting it on a planet no one even heard of (it didn't even appear in the movies) and have the merchandise cost an arm and a leg for stuff barely above the caliber of out of parks star wars merch ($200 for a lightsaber is stupidly overpriced). That and $150 is way too much for a single day. That being said, I am happy that one of Iger and Chapek's projects failed for once, maybe we'll finally see them enter the late Eisner era, so that way they will learn that maybe their IPs aren't as strong as they thought

So you want something to fail just to spite Chapek and Iger which in reality it doesn’t really. They still get paid but other things take cuts to make up for lost revenue. :thud:

 

[rhino4evr]

Locals vs. APs is a small part in this. People thought that the park would be crowded as hell once star wars land opened, and because of that, we are seeing the parks become very dead. That and Chapek and co somehow thought having next to none OT content and setting it on a planet no one even heard of (it didn't even appear in the movies) and have the merchandise cost an arm and a leg for stuff barely above the caliber of out of parks star wars merch ($200 for a lightsaber is stupidly overpriced). That and $150 is way too much for a single day. That being said, I am happy that one of Iger and Chapek's projects failed for once, maybe we'll finally see them enter the late Eisner era, so that way they will learn that maybe their IPs aren't as strong as they thought

I mean there is bias and then there is straight up admitting you want the park to fail to “teach a lesson”. Snap out of it man.

 

[Mad Dog]

From Touring plans today. They've updated their Disneyland calendar for the Summer & Fall. ; "RECORD LOW WAITS"..."Between June 1st and July 2nd, Disneyland Park saw an average crowd level of 1.5. Last year the same crowd level was 6.4. That's nearly a 5 point dip in crowd level on our scale. This is confirmed by our team's first hand experience in the parks too. Although Galaxy's Edge is very busy, the rest of the park is absolutely dead. You can ride Space Mountain on a Saturday afternoon in Summer with less than a 30 minute wait. That hasn't happened before. Ever. Wait times are not showing signs of increasing either. Disney is scrambling for ways to get people in the park too, with th removal of cast member block outs and bringing back fan favorites like the Main st. electrical Parade and the original Soarin.....Our models predict that these low wait times will continue for the rest of summer and continue on some days in the Fall."

 

[Red Carpet]

My predictions:

Now until block outs lift = light crowds
Between block outs lifting and Rise opening = medium crowds
After Rise opens = insane crowds

 

[tielo]

From Touring plans today. They've updated their Disneyland calendar for the Summer & Fall. ; "RECORD LOW WAITS"..."Between June 1st and July 2nd, Disneyland Park saw an average crowd level of 1.5. Last year the same crowd level was 6.4. That's nearly a 5 point dip in crowd level on our scale. This is confirmed by our team's first hand experience in the parks too. Although Galaxy's Edge is very busy, the rest of the park is absolutely dead. You can ride Space Mountain on a Saturday afternoon in Summer with less than a 30 minute wait. That hasn't happened before. Ever. Wait times are not showing signs of increasing either. Disney is scrambling for ways to get people in the park too, with th removal of cast member block outs and bringing back fan favorites like the Main st. electrical Parade and the original Soarin.....Our models predict that these low wait times will continue for the rest of summer and continue on some days in the Fall."

That is a whole month, it's worrying to say the least. The dip in hotel rooms. food and souvenirs will hurt the company a lot.
I know Universal gets a lot of hate for not announcing rides years in advance but this is for sure part of the problem. Another one is banking on the wrong trilogy and not building a recognizable area. Staged opening also doesn't seem the right choice, probably done to spread development cost and the hope to keep the hype going. Jacking up the prices of tickets, blocking out most AP's and the hate for later Star Wars movies got from long time fans wouldn't help either. Add mediocre reviews for the only ride, the up-charge experiences and the negative reviews of part of the food and drinks and the broken light-sabers.
Put all that together and it seems like a huge amount of wrong choices where Disney clearly don't understand their fans, Star Wars fans and what their theme park is worth to their customers.
I'm sure aggressive cuts will be in place, hurting the brand further, to make up for lost revenue. The spin doctors will work overtime to put the blame on earthquakes, heat and whatever they can blame for outside the company. But the most worrying to me is the future of big investments. Avatar Land was expensive and only shifted the visitors around but didn't add new visitors to the mix in Orlando (judging from hotel sales I hear frequenter at the Dis). What if this is another misfire where it doesn't mater how much money you trow at the park, it doesn't matter so why do that ever again.

 

[mrpeng1]

I mean there is bias and then there is straight up admitting you want the park to fail to “teach a lesson”. Snap out of it man.

Sorry

 

[Scott W.]

So you want something to fail just to spite Chapek and Iger which in reality it doesn’t really. They still get paid but other things take cuts to make up for lost revenue. :thud:

I can understand the getting a lesson part. I think the current pricing is a step too far but they’ll never learn this lesson and my big fear is that they learn the opposite lesson of building new things isn’t worth it resulting in less future investment at the same crazy prices.

After all the posts, I don’t think there is a clear cut reason for the low crowds. It’s a little bit of everything. The recent earthquakes might not help things either for the short term.

 

[mrpeng1]

I can understand the getting a lesson part. I think the current pricing is a step too far but they’ll never learn this lesson and my big fear is that they learn the opposite lesson of building new things isn’t worth it resulting in less future investment at the same crazy prices.

After all the posts, I don’t think there is a clear cut reason for the low crowds. It’s a little bit of everything. The recent earthquakes might not help things either for the short term.

Yeah I overreacted a lot, though you should see some of the reactions on the other Disney sites. Anyways, crowds seem to be increasing for DL.

 

[Red Carpet]

If I was in charge, I would have a special promotion to get people to come who are holding off for the second ride. Buy a day now and get a free return visit after ROTR opens.