Originally Posted By HongKongDisneyLand According to BusinessWeek: >>>>Disneyland hasn't released attendance numbers, but Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, says that the park is on course to hit its first-year target of 5.6 million visitors................. ..................................... While the Hong Kong part is certainly smaller than what visitors familiar with other Disney parks might expect, Rasulo says the plan is to eventually double its capacity.<<<<<<<< Details:: <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/feb2006/nf2006026_2086.htm" target="_blank">http://www.businessweek.com/bw daily/dnflash/feb2006/nf2006026_2086.htm</a>
Originally Posted By gardabble Let's hope so when Phase 2 reclamation is finished. Anyways, the park seem to have recovered over the CNY fiasco. Good thing Disney did right is blocked out cast member families/friends during that period and now they are coming into the park. Looks the HKDL CNY festivities will last to the 12th. Wonder what they have plans for valentines day?
Originally Posted By SuperDry Lost in all of this CNY business was something that thought was interesting: the notion that the early days of light attendance were caused in part by people assuming that it was going to be jammed and avoiding the park during that time, and that this has since worn off. If this is true, this would explain what I saw: a relatively empty park on the 2nd and 3rd days of operation - I would think it difficult for them to be on track to their first-year goal if this kept up. The same thing happened at TDS, as well as DCA - light attendance at opening. At TDS, things recovered, but they never did at DCA. I guess we'll see come September how HKDL did in its first year.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Well, TDS broke 10 million guests in less than a year, the only theme park anywhere to have done so. And that's with no APs and limited CM passes. So, that makes it a totally different situation than DCA. Now, TDS may be having problems now, but I was referring to a lack of guests right after opening that were scared away by anticipated crowds which then solved itself.
Originally Posted By leemac X, have things been quiet so far this year? HKDL was never going to be a MK-size park with those capacities (80k plus). The intimacy of park is critical to the look that they have adopted.
Originally Posted By Mr X >>>X, have things been quiet so far this year?<<< Hard to say. The park certainly is busy when special events are going on (even those as lame as Dramatic DisneySea)...but when the events are off, yeah it seems awfully dead. just imho.
Originally Posted By Mr X SD, I knew what you meant... I was just commenting on the eerie calm that has seemed to settle over the park (I believe you might have noticed that recently?).
Originally Posted By leemac I really do hate to say I told you so but virtually building out the park from Day 1 was always going to be a recipe for disaster. Pulling ToT up early and developing Raging Spirits off-plan was all a knee-jerk reaction to falling attendance and even worse miserable guest spend averages for F&B and merchandise. I just don't get why they did that. It is such a no-brainer for any park trying to attract locals that you add stuff as often as possible. HKDL seems to be the right model, although more from Day 1 would have been nice. Give people a reason to revisit by adding stuff every year for the first few years.
Originally Posted By leemac X, the other issue that OLC is contending with now is the fact that the special events are only attracting AP-ers. The number of day tickets is falling fast and they are praying that the 5th and ToT reignited it. It really will impact the entire resort if TDS doesn't start to turn it around soon. I should add that we had some new artwork for the TDL Hotel today that Doobie will put up on Latest today.
Originally Posted By Mr X Well, you and I might disagree here (how surprising!), but imo all DisneySea needs to do is come up with better events. That's all the Tokyo crowd cares about, anyway. They don't really care about attractions much (though a new "Pooh" or two wouldn't hurt!). MY first order of business, if I were in charge, would be to either move Halloween from TDL to TDS OR to just throw it into both parks (what the heck...they BOTH do Christmas and they BOTH do New Years, right!?). Sorry, Lee, I can't agree that HKDL is the "right" model for anything...it's lackluster and severely lacking in attractions and charm. Very cookie cutter. Of course, that's one mans opinion. DisneySea, on the other hand, was a grand vision with LOTS of little ins and outs that I sincerely WISH HKDL had bothered to provide.
Originally Posted By Mr X Sorry, I was writing post 12 when post 11 came up... I was not aware of the AP vs. "regular" thing... Not sure if that changes my opinion any, but it's something more for me to consider certainly. >>>It really will impact the entire resort if TDS doesn't start to turn it around soon.<<< From where I'm sitting, it already has (see my posts in the Tokyo section for more info).
Originally Posted By leemac The problem with moving Halloween to TDS is that you are killing the golden goose. October is the strongest non-holiday month for the park and that is entirely driven by Halloween. On the special events front, they have been largely poor since TDS opened. But I think the issue is the theme of the park. It is tough to come up with anything that truly fits IMO. Heck, Mythica looks incredible but does it fit into TDS? No. We will never agree on HKDL and I think most LP-ers that have visited would not agree with the "cookie cutter" comment. Where have we ever seen an Adventureland, Tomorrowland or Fantasyland like that park has? I want a reason to return to the park. Give me new stuff (and not temporary shows and parades) every year. 2006=TL changes, 2007=iasw, 2008=PotC/HM If TDS had adopted that model, they would have definitely been more successful. TDS has to compete with TDL for one day pass sales and if you constantly invest in one or other it isn't going to work.
Originally Posted By leemac I've said before but OLC have to be careful as otherwise the 25th will be a bust for TDL. Spending excessively on TDS to shore it up (ToT, Mythica, a replacement to BraviSEAmo etc.) and the TDL Hotel which is totally excessive (44 billion yen).
Originally Posted By Mr X >>>I think most LP-ers that have visited would not agree with the "cookie cutter" comment.<<< Poor choice of words, sorry. Well, Main Street and the castle sure are "cookie cutter" though, right? But I digress. What I was trying to express was my feeling that the park lacked any little charming things like a side street here or a hidden garden there, those little magical things like that nice "Western" zone in TDL by the river rafts that is off the beaten path, or NOS and it's little side streets and shops at DL, or the neat pathways heading up towards HM at the Magic Kingdom. Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, in particular, just felt like tiny zones that you could stand in the middle of and just see EVERYTHING the land has to offer. Does that make sense? Could you agree with that sentiment, even a bit? Honestly, THAT bummed me out more than the lack of rides! I much enjoyed SpaceMt, Jungle Cruise, and especially Philharmagic...the new ride additions you are talking about certainly will help but until they add some charming nooks and crannies I'll still be disappointed. As for DisneySea, love it. We won't see eye to eye, but again you are not the first person to have unhappy things to say about the park...However, the last time I was there (with SD actually) all we could do was stroll through and marvel at how awsome the place is. Didn't feel that way in HK, sorry.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< The problem with moving Halloween to TDS is that you are killing the golden goose. October is the strongest non-holiday month for the park and that is entirely driven by Halloween. >>> That sounds like something they almost did at DCA last year: move Christmas from DL. I guess they couldn't consider a dual-park celebration like TDR does for Christmas?
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< X, the other issue that OLC is contending with now is the fact that the special events are only attracting AP-ers. The number of day tickets is falling fast and they are praying that the 5th and ToT reignited it. It really will impact the entire resort if TDS doesn't start to turn it around soon. >>> I can’t help but draw a comparison between TDS and DCA in the above statement. If it’s true that TDS special events are attracting APs, then this is a problem. But let’s compare the AP situation between TDS and DCA. Some might find this extreme, but at DCA, I think it’s fair to say that most APs paid essentially nothing to get in (I mean in the sense of an annual basis – obviously APs pay nothing per visit). Remember when DCA opened? At first, there was no AP access. Then, with attendance being dreadful, they added the option to add a DCA AP to a DL one for an additional price, and had very few takers. When that didn’t work, they just added DCA access to the DL AP *without increasing the price*. I think this is rather solid evidence that there is almost no demand for a DCA AP, or even to pay anything on top of a DL AP for DCA access. I suspect that DCA does get some credit for APs in whatever internal budgeting and accounting they use, but if it’s anything at all, it’s almost certainly unfairly biased toward DCA’s favor, considering what I said above about their being almost now pricing power for the DCA component of DL APs. The situation is completely different at TDS. The least amount that a guest could pay to get into TDS on an AP is $245/year (the difference between a DL-only and a 2-park AP, and this is apportioning the 2-park AP to DL at full price rather than dividing it in two). Some pay $338 for a single-park TDS AP. And these prices are in an environment where a single-day, single-park ticket is actually less than it is at DLR ($47 at TDR). So any way you slice it, APs visiting TDS have a dramatically larger per-visit contribution to gate revenue on average than they do at DCA (which is pretty close to $0 as shown by actual market response to various pricing plans). Now of course AP visitors are notorious for spending much less once inside the park, especially on merchandise (APs tend to still need food and beverage, but may be less likely to go full service). But the AP visitors to TDS still make a substantial contribution to gate revenue. It may be nowhere near what TDS needs in order to meet earnings goals, but it’s still in a completely different league than DCA APs.
Originally Posted By Mr X Call me crazy here, but I also believe that Tokyo AP holders also buy a LOT of merchandise actually. At least, they ALWAYS seem to be walking around with armloads of shopping bags and wearing Disney pins and clothes and carrying those silly plush dolls everywhere, no? And this with no special discount (geez, Disney, give em 5 percent off at least!).
Originally Posted By Mr X I shouldn't have even written "move" Halloween, really the only logical idea is to make it a resort wide event. And why should that be any different than Christmas or New Years? But, I suppose that "Dramatic DisneySea" is a much better idea than Halloween, right? I don't even UNDERSTAND what that is...and I'm not the only one!
