Disneyland’s Attendance Issues Summer 2019

[nanothegotchi]

You can say that, and I agree with you, but I’ve noticed restaurants are more busy these last few days than before the initial attendance drop.

 

[UNIrd]

Wait times do look a bit healthier today, but it's also Saturday. Smuggler's Run is currently a 55 minute wait.

It's funny to compare it to MK and see how much longer some of the current wait times are for the same attractions in FL vs CA.

Ex:
Peter Pan's Flight - 75min in MK vs 35min in DL
Splash Mountain - 125min in MK vs 60min in DL
Big Thunder Mountain - 125min in MK vs 40min in DL

 

[Nick]

Wait times do look a bit healthier today, but it's also Saturday. Smuggler's Run is currently a 55 minute wait.

It's funny to compare it to MK and see how much longer some of the current wait times are for the same attractions in FL vs CA.

Ex:
Peter Pan's Flight - 75min in MK vs 35min in DL
Splash Mountain - 125min in MK vs 60min in DL
Big Thunder Mountain - 125min in MK vs 40min in DL

A lot of that has to do with inflated wait times at WDW due to MM+, however.

 

[Lucky Planet]

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.

How much would that trip cost including hotel prices ?
Sounds tempting

 

[Nick]

How much would that trip cost including hotel prices ?
Sounds tempting

Airfare would really be your biggest expense on a trip like that.

 

[Thatguyoverwhere]

I hope both of y'all are correct. It could push Disney in the right direction if they were the only ones having a tough summer.

Maybe BGT will have an attendance increase next year? I know that Mako didn't have much of an immediate impact, but it really opened on the worst possible weekend.

Last I checked, pretty much all the Florida parks have been rising in attendance. I can't find the article now, but SeaWorld had something like a 12% increase in attendance this past year, with BGT not far behind (percentage-wise). Even Disney grew by about 1%, and Universal by a little more than that. That article just seems like a whole lotta nothing slapped together by someone with little knowledge of the subject because it was a slow news day; they saw the isolated case of Disneyland's self-inflicted attendance issues and cooked up evidence of a larger trend to make a more compelling article.

 

[Lucky Planet]

On one hand, Pandora was such a smash hit that I could almost forgive them for assuming that Star Wars would sell itself.

On the other hand, since SW has technically been a part of Disney since the late '80s, it just doesn't seem to carry the same "WOW" factor of finally having Star Wars attractions that it did when Potter opened.

I think star wars fatigue is real and i think the drama and controversies behind the last jedi made a lot of peoole turn their backs on star wars as a whole.
A lot of people are just not that invested in the new star wars and a lot of people prefer to be on the marvel train right now.
Toy sales for new star wars has suffered as well. We will see how episode 9 does.

 

[OrlLover]

I think star wars fatigue is real and i think the drama and controversies behind the last jedi made a lot of peoole turn their backs on star wars as a whole.
A lot of people are just not that invested in the new star wars and a lot of people prefer to be on the marvel train right now.
Toy sales for new star wars has suffered as well. We will see how episode 9 does.

I feel like we are beating a dead horse and won’t know for sure until WDW version opens and DL APs are unblocked.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I feel like we are beating a dead horse and won’t know for sure until WDW version opens and DL APs are unblocked.

I guess my point is that if this was marvel related it would have done big regardless. Im just thinking, this wouldnt have happen if it was iron man related or something. Even if the ride wasnt the best

I just cant imagine an iron man or avengers land habing low numbers. Specially seeing how massively Avengers End game did. If disney was able to have made an avengers land, it would have been really really full and crowded

 

[Jamesh22]

I guess my point is that if this was marvel related it would have done big regardless. Im just thinking, this wouldnt have happen if it was iron man related or something. Even if the ride wasnt the best

I just cant imagine an iron man or avengers land habing low numbers. Specially seeing how massively Avengers End game did. If disney was able to have made an avengers land, it would have been really really full and crowded

I think you are right that Marvel 'could' have brought in bigger numbers as it's a more relevant subject. BUT there is absolutely nothing about the DCA Marvel land that gives me confidence that Disney know what to do with the wealth of Marvel IP's.

Marvel absolutely deserves a Billion dollar land(s) just as much as Star Wars.

 

[TheDr]

I guess my point is that if this was marvel related it would have done big regardless. Im just thinking, this wouldnt have happen if it was iron man related or something. Even if the ride wasnt the best

I just cant imagine an iron man or avengers land habing low numbers. Specially seeing how massively Avengers End game did. If disney was able to have made an avengers land, it would have been really really full and crowded

I agree Marvel would be a huge hit, probably bigger than Star Wars. But when they made the decision to build SWGE, the MCU wasn't as successful as it was now, and Star Wars was on the verge of a releasing one Star Wars film per year (Rogue One, TLJ, Solo).

I think the Orlando-Marvel issue is another reason they went with Star Wars, since they could just duplicate the land in California and Orlando.

Hopefully we see more emphasis put on Marvel in the near future.

 

[Nick]

I agree Marvel would be a huge hit, probably bigger than Star Wars. But when they made the decision to build SWGE, the MCU wasn't as successful as it was now, and Star Wars was on the verge of a releasing one Star Wars film per year (Rogue One, TLJ, Solo).

I think the Orlando-Marvel issue is another reason they went with Star Wars, since they could just duplicate the land in California and Orlando.

Hopefully we see more emphasis put on Marvel in the near future.

Yeah, when they announced SWGE it was 2015 before TFA even released. Once that came out to massive success later in the year, I think they felt even more emboldened.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Not to get too into the Star Wars brand discussion, but man does Episode 9 have a lot of pressure on it. Its the final Skywalker film (aka the final Star Wars as you know it) so they need to not only wrap that up, but also wrap up Rey and Kylo, please old and new fans, make $, and give Star Wars another breathe of fresh air. Hopefully JJ Abrams can do that. He did with TFA and TLJ killed all hype amongst a lot of Star Wars people and I truly believe that is having a big effect on this land.

 

[Lucky Planet]

Not to get too into the Star Wars brand discussion, but man does Episode 9 have a lot of pressure on it. Its the final Skywalker film (aka the final Star Wars as you know it) so they need to not only wrap that up, but also wrap up Rey and Kylo, please old and new fans, make $, and give Star Wars another breathe of fresh air. Hopefully JJ Abrams can do that. He did with TFA and TLJ killed all hype amongst a lot of Star Wars people and I truly believe that is having a big effect on this land.

Im sure a lot of people will watch it on opening weekend, i think it will be guaranteed to make 1 billion dollars worldwide.

But te reviews and the repeat visits are what will be interesting .
And the US box office will be interesting to watch. I really hope it is very good. I hope it is a fun movie. But yeah you are right. Expectations are gonna be super high

 

[GhostHost85]

The park was pretty busy today. It was much more manageable and pleasant then what it is like in the Fall and other parts of the off season though. Even earlier in the summer, wait times were low, but the park was far from the "ghost town" that certain people are trying to sell it as.

I know that Disney wants to cram as many people in as possible and they want to do that with spending as little money as possible. However, from an idealistic standpoint, Disneyland should never feel crowded and lines shouldn't be any longer than 30 minutes. The way that I would like this to be achieved is through adding capacity to the park instead of raising prices. I know that I am much more likely to spend money in the park when I am having a good time than when the park is crowded and miserable. Plus, good visits to the park get me to visit more frequently, which results in Disney getting more money from anything I buy there. I have been going way more often this summer thanks to having good experiences.

 

[smoaT]

Well, we have official info finally. In the quarterly report, that I was anxiously expecting, the truth was revealed that yes, Disneyland had/is having and awful summer. Revenue is down, attendance is down, and the huge surprise was that Walt Disney World attendance was also down. They try to downplay it, but I think Disney finally reached a price that the market is not willing to pay. Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

 

[Ron101]

This ride is always having issues with the animatronics

 

[bob albert]

Disney has been greedy enough to push things to a point where attendance is dipping in a strong economy. Imagine it is 2008 again but the parks weren't reasonably affordable enough to begin with. This is the risk they are looking at.

 

[Freak]

Disneyland: “Oh no! Our attendance is dropping despite SWGE opening! What do we do?”

Us: “Duh. Lower prices.”

Disney:

 

[GAcoaster]

The thing is, they have lowered prices. Every day there are huge lines of locals buying the special tickets (what is it like 4 days for less than $200?), but that means the core WDW business (vacationers who stay at WDW) must be way down. I'd guess hotel occupancy rates on property are really down, which will hurt them even more. Especially with 4 hotels under construction right now, they've got to be getting nervous.

I know they have been advertising special bargain hotel rates to CMs internally, but I'm expecting a big bargain package rollout coming soon for GP, especially if the Galaxy's Edge opening is softer than anticipated. Lots of bargain room rates (which re still overpriced) with "free" stuff like dining plan added.