Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge (Disney's Hollywood Studios)

[rastuso]

It’s actually around 60 minutes most of the time outside of peak seasons. And just because people randomly get in line for a ride doesn’t mean they thought it was worth it.

Anyone who gets into lines that long are likely tourists who don’t know what they’re waiting for, not NRJ fanboys parading it’s brilliance. It’s a side effect of the park suffering from a lack of ride capacity.

Go on DISboards. They'll set you straight

And it was 2 hours on a week day in November when I was there, thankfully with a FP+.

 

[rhino4evr]

I love the overwhelming positivity Rat Sumo brings to these boards.

 

[Nick]

I love the overwhelming positivity Rat Sumo brings to these boards.

So much. I’ve thought of telling him to tone it down at points actually because I honestly don’t know if I can handle this much positivity in my life.

 

[rastuso]

Just being realistic. You are talking a crowd who waits all day every day 45 minutes at least to ride Peter Pan. Then wait 30 minutes to ride Small Word, which was a walkon for decades.

Waiting 2 hours for a high tech dark ride is fine for them.

I really don't think the FUBARness of SWGE can be overstated without Disney rolling a massively unique access plan. Just raw numbers, they will do great to give 50,000 rides a day TOTAL if they are open 7 am to midnight. And that's with near perfect operation. I can see them getting 50k visitors a day for quite a while. They average what, 30k now? But likely see 40k a day with hoppers. That means no one can ride both rides without creating someone who rides neither.

The only hope is that DL takes teh brunt of crazies, and is running smooth before DHS opens. But WDW just has too many guests. I can't see a scenario where DHS doesn't hit capacity almost daily.

Others hint at this. I give out some numbers to show these thoughts aren't "negative", they are very realistic and reasonable forecasts.

 

[Nick]

I’m not saying it won’t be crazy either, but i’m Just saying I think some of the examples that you’re giving aren’t the best. The ride wait times are inflated due to FP+ and due to the parks not having enough rides they get lines.

People aren’t having fun waiting 30 mins for HM or Small World, but sometimes those are the shortest waits, which is the real problem. Not enough capacity to match demand.

 

[Doug A.]

Which in itself is kind of a paradox because adding capacity (new rides, attractions and shows) will inevitably bring more guests. On principle we usually don’t wait for a ride unless it’s 30 mins or less depending on the day/ride more than that is just miserable at times.

 

[leavesonthelawn]

But, Hondo Ohnoaka! He's huge amongst the hardcore literary canon book readers. They number in the hundreds of thousands! They'll have tears in their eyes finally seeing the briefly mentioned Black Spire Outpost in real life.

The rest of us will go, "cool rock work for this generic spaceport never used in the movies", where are the rides? Where are Luke, and Leia? Oh, not here, that blows... AWESOME, there's the Falcon, can I get a photo op with Han? No? Oh, ummm. Oh, cool, Kylo Ren. Sure wish there was a Vader AA,, that would be a dream come true. Oh well, lets go to the Cantina for a drink. Wait, it's a two hour wait to get in, and it's not THE Cantina? Oh, hey, Matterhorn..."

Not sure I agree, I had never seen Avatar but still had a massive emotional connection to Pandora that I cannot explain. Similar things happened to my "normal" non theme park mad friends.

Similarly I love Thunder Mesa in Paris, I can sit there watching for hours.

As well, I'm not really a character meet person but the interaction we had with Kylo Ren was very entertaining.

I think any immersive environment can resonate with the general public as long as its done well.

 

[rhino4evr]

Let me know when the theme park apocalypse is here. The waits for Galaxy Edge rides will be told in ancient message board text hundreds of years from now.

 

[NuteGunrayWasFramed]

Just being realistic. You are talking a crowd who waits all day every day 45 minutes at least to ride Peter Pan. Then wait 30 minutes to ride Small Word, which was a walkon for decades.

Waiting 2 hours for a high tech dark ride is fine for them.

I really don't think the FUBARness of SWGE can be overstated without Disney rolling a massively unique access plan. Just raw numbers, they will do great to give 50,000 rides a day TOTAL if they are open 7 am to midnight. And that's with near perfect operation. I can see them getting 50k visitors a day for quite a while. They average what, 30k now? But likely see 40k a day with hoppers. That means no one can ride both rides without creating someone who rides neither.

The only hope is that DL takes teh brunt of crazies, and is running smooth before DHS opens. But WDW just has too many guests. I can't see a scenario where DHS doesn't hit capacity almost daily.

Others hint at this. I give out some numbers to show these thoughts aren't "negative", they are very realistic and reasonable forecasts.

I’m just going to say, your crowd numbers are super inflated. It’s nearly half of that you’re describing on most days.

 

[SkiBum]

I’m just going to say, your crowd numbers are super inflated. It’s nearly half of that you’re describing on most days.

I think that DHS is quoted as having around 8,000,000 guests which averages out to about 21,000 guests per day. At 10,000,000, it is around 27,000/day. However, both of these don't take into account when the park is at max during Christmas week, spring break, etc. or if Disney inflates the number by how they count visitors. Still, the 30K/day wasn't too far off.

We rode the Navi River Journey this year and the line was 60 minutes. However, it was one of those where we exited thinking, "Never again unless the line is 20 minutes long". Slink Dog was a 75 minute wait. We enjoyed it but waiting that long for a ride isn't easy. I just can't imagine waiting two hours plus, which is what Flight of Passage pulls on somewhat busy days.

Which in itself is kind of a paradox because adding capacity (new rides, attractions and shows) will inevitably bring more guests. On principle we usually don’t wait for a ride unless it’s 30 mins or less depending on the day/ride more than that is just miserable at times.

The only thing that could help is that there will only be so much demand. If Disney builds all four parks out with rides/attractions, capacity goes up and the crowds "should" be spread across all four parks. Right now, MK has almost twice as many visitors as each of the other three parks. Regarding additional visitors, I'm not sure how much upward the demand would shift. At the end of the day, it is an expensive vacation that a lot of people either cannot afford or choose not to afford.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Adding more capacity to a park works, but the problem is that everyone wants to the ride the same rides. Everyone wants to ride Pirates, Space, Splash, etc. but nobody is doing Carousel of Progress, PeopleMover, etc. If the land is successful as we all hope it does, I hope they immediately start working on that rumored expansion plot.

 

[Mad Dog]

So many hotel rooms. So many daily visitors. The numbers are daunting. Even a poor new attraction would get swamped, let alone two E tickets like these. There's really no solution to long lines since the numbers just don't work, no matter how you divide them up. Hopefully both rides have the better capacity that is being rumored, and not the low capacity that the vast majority of new WDW attractions have. But even that won't be enough to keep stand by times reasonable. Expect the worst, and multiply that. It won't be pretty

 

[SeventyOne]

DHS is going to be a train wreck. It doesn't have the capacity nor the infrastructure to handle the crowds.

This can't be understated. For all the construction, they basically switched out Hotel Plaza Blvd for Osceola Parkway--neither is World Drive, both have a fair amount of daily traffic already. Even though a fair number will wait hours for the Cantina, there aren't enough other quick-serve restaurants left in the park to handle a capacity crowd. Everyone on the board seems focused on fitting guests into the land, but there are even larger issues with the park itself.

They do lottery for the shows (Universal does it for HHN) and I think you can make that work. Here’s another idea: for the first few months eliminate the FastPass lines, they literally only add time to standby. Make the entrance to GE a separate FastPass booking. Think of it as a dining reservation but in this case a time slot in which you can be in GE (you have to leave at a certain point...how they’d enforce that I’m not sure.) People who have paid to stay on Disney property have an extra perk, the experience isn’t completely jam-packed, and it isn’t too far off from the system already in place. Coming from working in the parks, admittedly a few years ago, I definitely see Disney anticipating this one. The infrastructure isn’t maxed out, Disney just chooses to not run them at full capacity for the sake of reducing overhead. And trust me, plenty of factors reduced numbers in 2016 resulting in temporary halting of DAK’s nighttime hours, so Disney isn’t untouchable there.

These are some rational plans that would be fairly effective. But I don't see you monetizing anything here, so I don't see TDO doing it. I'm convinced at this point GE will have some sort of pay-to-play element at least thru Spring Break 2020.

So many hotel rooms. So many daily visitors. The numbers are daunting. Even a poor new attraction would get swamped, let alone two E tickets like these. There's really no solution to long lines since the numbers just don't work, no matter how you divide them up.

WDW has over 50k rooms. Assume average 3 guests, even if less than a third use EMH, your park goes to capacity before official open. Why I think there has to be a paid separate admission here.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

"Premium FastPass+"

 

[NuteGunrayWasFramed]

I think that DHS is quoted as having around 8,000,000 guests which averages out to about 21,000 guests per day. At 10,000,000, it is around 27,000/day. However, both of these don't take into account when the park is at max during Christmas week, spring break, etc. or if Disney inflates the number by how they count visitors. Still, the 30K/day wasn't too far off.

Let me put it in perspective, in 2016 pre-Pandora DAK would be slammed if 25k were in the park, an average day was around 21k. According to numbers, that year the average guest count was 30k a day. I never saw a day at that park reach that amount, not even over Christmas. (Worked KSR from June until August, fiancé was at TITW from May till Jan) There is no way that DHS, which only has slightly higher capacity during the SW:GE expansion, that they're anywhere near that number and not at consistent 2 hour waits for everything. They simply have less to do and the numbers online aren’t reliable.

 

[Jones14]

Adding more capacity to a park works, but the problem is that everyone wants to the ride the same rides. Everyone wants to ride Pirates, Space, Splash, etc. but nobody is doing Carousel of Progress, PeopleMover, etc. If the land is successful as we all hope it does, I hope they immediately start working on that rumored expansion plot.

That’s why maximizing existing capacity and a healthy refurb schedule is so important. An updated CoP, double-row boats on Pan, a Philharmagic update, and new scenes for the PeopleMover (plus a good refurb to keep it running all day) would help the park immensely.

Give people incentives to do the attractions that have the space to handle them.

 

[Mad Dog]

Let me put it in perspective, in 2016 pre-Pandora DAK would be slammed if 25k were in the park, an average day was around 21k. According to numbers, that year the average guest count was 30k a day. I never saw a day at that park reach that amount, not even over Christmas. (Worked KSR from June until August, fiancé was at TITW from May till Jan) There is no way that DHS, which only has slightly higher capacity during the SW:GE expansion, that they're anywhere near that number and not at consistent 2 hour waits for everything. They simply have less to do and the numbers online aren’t reliable.

Yes. Some of the key insiders on this site have been essentially saying the same over the years, and that the TEA numbers for AK & DHS have been significantly inflated.

 

[rastuso]

I think that DHS is quoted as having around 8,000,000 guests which averages out to about 21,000 guests per day. At 10,000,000, it is around 27,000/day. However, both of these don't take into account when the park is at max during Christmas week, spring break, etc. or if Disney inflates the number by how they count visitors. Still, the 30K/day wasn't too far off.

We rode the Navi River Journey this year and the line was 60 minutes. However, it was one of those where we exited thinking, "Never again unless the line is 20 minutes long". Slink Dog was a 75 minute wait. We enjoyed it but waiting that long for a ride isn't easy. I just can't imagine waiting two hours plus, which is what Flight of Passage pulls on somewhat busy days.



The only thing that could help is that there will only be so much demand. If Disney builds all four parks out with rides/attractions, capacity goes up and the crowds "should" be spread across all four parks. Right now, MK has almost twice as many visitors as each of the other three parks. Regarding additional visitors, I'm not sure how much upward the demand would shift. At the end of the day, it is an expensive vacation that a lot of people either cannot afford or choose not to afford.

TEA 2017 says almost 11 million. The 30,000 is not even close to being overly inflated. TEA doesn't include park hoppers coming to DHS at night for Fantasmic and dinner ressies.

 

[Nick]

This can't be understated. For all the construction, they basically switched out Hotel Plaza Blvd for Osceola Parkway--neither is World Drive, both have a fair amount of daily traffic already. Even though a fair number will wait hours for the Cantina, there aren't enough other quick-serve restaurants left in the park to handle a capacity crowd. Everyone on the board seems focused on fitting guests into the land, but there are even larger issues with the park itself.

Here’s to hoping they work on in-park stuff over the next 10 months or so to prepare. For example, they could put Starring Rolls back to use (or at least the space). It’s been sitting abandoned for about 3 years now. Also, find a better way to use Sounds Dangerous theater. Change out Little Mermaid or BatB (or at least ENCLOSE BatB). Update Fantasmic! Announce an Indy Land at D23.

The park needs sooooo much help still. I didn’t even mention Animation Courtyard, the expansion land next to BatB, or the room TSL has for expansion (right at the entrance if Walt Disney Presents was demolished... a sit down or a fourth ride could go there).

 

[rastuso]

So many hotel rooms. So many daily visitors. The numbers are daunting. Even a poor new attraction would get swamped, let alone two E tickets like these. There's really no solution to long lines since the numbers just don't work, no matter how you divide them up. Hopefully both rides have the better capacity that is being rumored, and not the low capacity that the vast majority of new WDW attractions have. But even that won't be enough to keep stand by times reasonable. Expect the worst, and multiply that. It won't be pretty

Disney just doesn't get the capacity issue. I mean, NRJ blows, and the Imagineers, outside of rainbow farting unicorn believer Rhode, knew that. But they also knew Dwarf Hill got mobbed for years, being a pretty mediocre ride with about 20 seconds of dark ride.

They clearly got this with th D23 onslaught of new rides being completely unprecedented.

NRJ should have had MUCH bigger boats. It's dumb founding how small they are for a new ride.

Falcon could have easily had 50% more capacity with just two more pod setups. They should have known damn good and well that the land would be absolutely slammed, and they needed a massive capacity. Especially after FoP's theater issues crippled it when it opened. One pod setup breaks down, and SR has a laughable capacity. Why put in new rides with lower capacity than Midway Mania, that had significant money spent to add 50% capacity.

RotR is a bit harder. They best fill every damn seat, and dispatch exactly on time as much as possible. It is the ride with the potential of getting MASSIVE buzz. It could have easily had 50% more capacity with Spider-man sized vehicles. Heck, do an emergency redesign, removing the droids from the front, and adding a third row. They could well get 12 people on a vehicle with the same footprint. As long as the elevators could take the increased load.

Why doesn't Disney think of these things? If they don't, they need new Imagineers. If they do, and just don't care, my guess, then they just suck at guest satisfaction now.