Universal Studios Florida: What Do We Think About It?

[Skold]

On the other magical boards, Len Testa says "there's been a lot of churn in the groups that put this report out. I'm a little concerned about the loss of institutional knowledge and connections, so I don't yet fully trust the numbers."

(Another TP guy posts here, I'm drawing a blank, sorry. I do appreciate your insight though!)

Even so, the numbers were subjective before that! Park hoppers, APs, re-entries, etc.

 

[Mad Dog]

On the other magical boards, Len Testa says "there's been a lot of churn in the groups that put this report out. I'm a little concerned about the loss of institutional knowledge and connections, so I don't yet fully trust the numbers."

(Another TP guy posts here, I'm drawing a blank, sorry. I do appreciate your insight though!)

Even so, the numbers were subjective before that! Park hoppers, APs, re-entries, etc.

I don't think we've ever fully trusted the TEA numbers. But they're all we have and it's fun to speculate. Joe's the other TP guy, and he's
always questioned the TEA numbers, even before these new associates. In the past it seemed Universal numbers were under represented
and the WDW secondary parks a bit inflated. We can really see more from the Universal/Comcast and Disney quarterly reports, but
even those get muddied when we're looking at what's happening at individual parks. Revenue is way more important than actual guest
attendance anyway. Park systems like Six Flags almost let guests get in for free, just about.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

I've truly never understood how they count attendance figures. I would assume it's just simply counted by how many tickets are purchased throughout the year - but you can't buy a "USF" or "IOA" ticket - you just buy a single day ticket and pick one.

If I enter USF in the AM, then jump over to IOA, then back to USF - do I count as 2 people for USF and 1 for IOA?

If I jump on Hogwarts Express in London to go to Hogsmeade, does that count as an entry for IOA?

It's all so mind boggling and there's probably really no way to get accurate numbers lol

 

[UniversalRBLX]

It's all so mind boggling and there's probably really no way to get accurate numbers lol

Working on a project far from ready, but in theory you can get a rough estimate of park attendance based on wait-times, number of shows, est. downtime, etc.

It's a lot of data to gather and then calculate... but the opportunity is there.

 

[Mad Dog]

Working on a project far from ready, but in theory you can get a rough estimate of park attendance based on wait-times, number of shows, est. downtime, etc.

It's a lot of data to gather and then calculate... but the opportunity is there.

One thing that complicates WDW crowd levels, and probably one of the reasons even Touring Plans predictions at WDW have been off by so much since April 2024, is that once WDW cleaned up their Disability Pass fraud and abuse in April 2024, WDW waits in line have dropped significantly.
Short of holiday weeks, wait times at the WDW parks are now pretty reasonable. And there's not a whole lot of those electric scooters running
around like before.

 

[rabbitsmoon]

One thing that complicates WDW crowd levels, and probably one of the reasons even Touring Plans predictions at WDW have been off by so much since April 2024, is that once WDW cleaned up their Disability Pass fraud and abuse in April 2024, WDW waits in line have dropped significantly.
Short of holiday weeks, wait times at the WDW parks are now pretty reasonable. And there's not a whole lot of those electric scooters running
around like before.

I'm not sure I understand the connection you're trying to draw between the alleged DAS fraud the number of mobility devices at the resort. Electric scooter or wheelchair use alone doesn't grant you access to virtual waiting services like DAS or AAP.

 

[Mad Dog]

I'm not sure I understand the connection you're trying to draw between the alleged DAS fraud the number of mobility devices at the resort. Electric scooter or wheelchair use alone doesn't grant you access to virtual waiting services like DAS or AAP.

Just one facet. Many used the can't stand for long periods excuse to get LL Disability. Disney basically eliminated that. The LL used to be filled
with those scooters before that change, since they let the scooter people use disability LL. . Now that they're relegated to Stand By, there's not so many scooters in the park. Coincidence?
They also basically ended the 'I have anxiety if I stand in a long line'. They eliminated that also. .....And often, entire groups of 7 or 8 family
followed these people and had access to the Lightening Lane. Curiously, they generally only did a large number of repeat rides at the D/E tickets.
Disney stopped those two, plus a lot of other stuff like urination frequency, that all of us older guys have, but not really a disability. The truly disabled can still get LL access and their waits are shorter now because the LL was also getting overfilled. So it's a win for the truly disabled that deserve it.
Standby moves quicker because the LL is no longer overfilled and delaying Stand By so much.

 

[GAcoaster]

On the other magical boards, Len Testa says "there's been a lot of churn in the groups that put this report out. I'm a little concerned about the loss of institutional knowledge and connections, so I don't yet fully trust the numbers."

(Another TP guy posts here, I'm drawing a blank, sorry. I do appreciate your insight though!)

Even so, the numbers were subjective before that! Park hoppers, APs, re-entries, etc.

That explains why they were so late this year!

I still want to know what goes into these numbers. Do they only count "regular" admissions, or do special events count? So maybe USO does higher numbers than IOA simply because they also count HHN guests towards those numbers? And MK gets to count MNSSHP and MVMCP as additional attendance as well? If someone buys a day ticket and a night event ticket does that count as one visit or two if they stay they whole day? There are so many variables here.

 

[Mad Dog]

That explains why they were so late this year!

I still want to know what goes into these numbers. Do they only count "regular" admissions, or do special events count? So maybe USO does higher numbers than IOA simply because they also count HHN guests towards those numbers? And MK gets to count MNSSHP and MVMCP as additional attendance as well? If someone buys a day ticket and a night event ticket does that count as one visit or two if they stay they whole day? There are so many variables here.

I remember that Theme Park Insider once had one of their more prominent forum contributors address some of those issues. He said that he
had previously done some work for the groups that TEA used prior to 2024. He said a lot of their Orlando park yearly updates were based on
numbers from the Orlando Tourism group, combined with info from groups associated/working with the various parks. He said the attendance
estimates provided only included the first park visited, no special events like HHN/extra charge Holiday nights/Special nights etc. He also
said they used various algorithms to work with. He stressed that these figures are only educated guesses with the available info they have,
even though TEA represents them as being more than that. Now, whether that's all true or not, I don't really know, but he was always very knowledgeable and credible in the contributing articles he wrote for TPI.
So, bottom line....these are probably just educated estimate guesses on the part of parks that don't publicly report attendance figures. Though I believe some of the international parks actually do include real attendance figures in their public business reports.