Originally Posted By Nemo88 Last year DCA and IOA were pretty close in attendance according to AB.Well someone on another newsgroup found this article,it apparently shows that Universals Orlando resort is having attendance problems.If this is true as DCA continues to rise in attendance,I wonder if it will mean DCA will beat IOA this year,here is the article below: "Caught in a calendar crunch during tough times, Universal Orlando took the unusual step today of announcing some financial numbers that show its Orlando theme parks resort attendance fell 4 percent during the first four months of this year, and that income was about the same as last year. Universal put out a special statement that adds some April 2006 financial data to its usual January-February-March financial report because the big Easter vacation season fell in April this year but fell in March last year. The financial addendum softened more troubling news reported earlier today in the first-quarter financial statement that Universal's parent company, Universal City Development Partners, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Covering January, February and March, but not including the Easter season, that report showed Universal Orlando lost $25 million to start the 2006 calendar year, while suffering a 15 percent drop in combined paid attendance for Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure."
Originally Posted By Nemo88 oopsies,almost forgot the link: <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/custom/tourism/orl-bk-universal051206,0,4123318.story" target="_blank">http://www.orlandosentinel.com /business/custom/tourism/orl-bk-universal051206,0,4123318.story</a>
Originally Posted By ni_teach Nemo88 .. I couldn't get your link to work and yes, I did put the two parts together. Also, why are you picking on Darkbeer, he's a really nice guy.
Originally Posted By Nemo88 Im not pickin on Darkbeer,Im sure hes a very nice guy,I have nothing against him perosnally.I just like to joke around with him about Universal,thats all.Its all in good fun.No hard feelings,I think he knows that.
Originally Posted By disneymomsons forgive me... I am new to the wording, abbreviations here.... what is IOA ?? Thanks.... still learning....
Originally Posted By Westsider It's a theme park 3,000 miles from DCA. It's a companion park to Universal Studios Orlando, owned and operated by Universal. And I'm not quite sure what it has to do with anything here. Nemo88, care to give us a thesis on why we should care about IOA?
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA They're both newer theme parks? They're both companion parks to major theme parks in the country? This is a section discussing DCA? DCA is a newer theme park? Like IOA? And it's fun to compare attendance figures of theme parks?
Originally Posted By oc_dean Pardon me ....... but with the 2fr1 "Buy a ticket to DL, get DCA for FREE", not to mention a huge number of Annual Pass Holders (some 640,000 of them) AND park hoppers AND discounted multi-day tickets ...... I would expect DCA to pull in higher numbers than Islands of Adventure.
Originally Posted By 9oldmen >>Pardon me ....... but with the 2fr1 "Buy a ticket to DL, get DCA for FREE", not to mention a huge number of Annual Pass Holders (some 640,000 of them) AND park hoppers AND discounted multi-day tickets ...... I would expect DCA to pull in higher numbers than Islands of Adventure.<< And yet, for 4 of the last 5 years, it didn't. (4 of the last 6 years, if DCA tops it for 2006). And for 5 of the last 5 years, Universal Orlando proper has been outperforming DCA. That's not spin, it's the truth. The burden in now on the DCA defenders to spin THAT to explain why for the first time in history, we have (a) non-Disney park(s) outperforming a Disney park. Usually the spin goes something like: "Well Florida has more guests from out of town on multi-day visits, with more time to devote an extra day to IOA" etc., even though Disneyland has consistenly been the number 2 most visited park. Personally, I think it has to do with IOA and Universal Orlando just being stronger parks, with a lower percentage of off the shelf carnival rides, and better themeing. Just one opinion of course, but the whole World seems to agree with it.
Originally Posted By oc_dean I love Wikipedia ........... "Disney opened the park with high hopes, but the opening day's crowds were far below predictions. Although anticipation had been high prior to the park's opening, bad word-of-mouth from early visitors on preview days and from the local media discouraged visitors. In 2003, Disney's California Adventure Park saw a 13% increase in attendance and was the only amusement park in America to see a double-digit gain, but offered the "Pay for Disneyland, get Disney's California Adventure for FREE!" for 9 months in 2003, which was a major driver of the additional attendance. In 2004, the park had a 6% increase with 5.6 million visitors. Partial credit for the increase may go to the new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction in Hollywood Pictures Backlot. While these numbers are encouraging, Disney's own internal tracking reveals that the amount of return customers is still far below that of its sister parks. Much of the park's attendance is from guests who have Annual Passes. A much higher percentage of guests use Annual Passes to enter Disney's California Adventure Park as compared to Disneyland. The majority of other park guests are made up from those who have bought a ParkHopper that allows visits to both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure Park, and free admissions that come as a perk for Disney employees. The park sells very few one day tickets that allow admission to just Disney's California Adventure Park."
Originally Posted By trekkeruss FWIW, anyone is free to edit Wikipedia, so while there are facts, there are also editorially slanted opinions.
Originally Posted By leemac <<I would expect DCA to pull in higher numbers than Islands of Adventure.>> Oh, I completely forgot that USF doesn't have APs, heavily discounted multi-day tickets and even "Buy one day and get a year for free". My Bad.
Originally Posted By CMM1 Has not IOA been somewhat of a disappointment to amusement park fans in perhaps a different way from how DCA has a been a disappointment? IOA opened to much fanfare in terms of the "new" technology employed at the park in the Spiderman and Hulk coaster attractions, a unique new show (the Poseideon one), a unique "dueling" coaster concept and the Jurassic Park ride from USH. Not to mention some very slick and entertaining themed areas at the park entrance, in the Seuss kid's area and in the "Sword and Sorcery" region. But since it opened, the park has done nothing but build a small kiddie coaster and resurrect a kid ride that is very low capacity. They has also fooled around with the shows. But since that grand opening, USF has gotten more new attractions while IOA has just sat there waiting for something to give visitors a reason to be interested in it again. At least at DCA they upgraded what was felt to be a very weak park with a very popular WDW attraction, a new show based on a popular Disney property and some movie-related rides.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Pardon me ....... but with the 2fr1 "Buy a ticket to DL, get DCA for FREE", not to mention a huge number of Annual Pass Holders (some 640,000 of them) AND park hoppers AND discounted multi-day tickets ...... I would expect DCA to pull in higher numbers than Islands of Adventure.>> Not to mention the fact that Disney gives away DCA tickets to homeless people and also counts it as an admission if someone heading for Disneyland looks in the direction of DCA. People who support DCA have no ideas and that's why they never win elections. ;-)
Originally Posted By TheRedhead Usually in this section, DCA's poor attendance numbers are held up as the irrefutable "proof" that it is a terrible park. But IOA has failed attendance-wise since it opened as well, and no one declares that to be a terrible park. If anything, IOA is held up to be "that which DCA is not." And people even gave the unoriginal excuse that IOA had a lame, confusing opening ad campaign without the slightest hint of irony. If anything, the continuing poor performance of IOA proves that there's a lot that goes into low attendance. It's not always black-and-white. That goes along perfectly with a discussion about DCA.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt ^^Exactly. It's the old DCA double standard nonsense again. For some reason is a relatively small contigent here that enjoys dishing on DCA for sport.
