Where are the summer crowds?

Originally Posted By wonderingalice

Dang... It must get VERY expensive for folks attending.

 

Originally Posted By disneywatcher

>> Here is more photos, this time from Thursday, July 27th. <<

Just when I think I'm being too tough on the way DCA has been put (or thrown) together, I look at another series of photographs from you and realize that, if anything, I've underestimated what a lazy, uninspired pile that park really is. That's even more the case if my eyesight has been recently acclimatized to DisneySea, following, for example, my browsing through a set of photos posted not long ago at www.jtcent.com (or just within the past few days at laughingplace.com too), where permanent features added late last year to the park in Anaheim (a Mickey Mouse fountain) can be compared with merely temporary, 5th-anniversary features added to the park in Tokyo:
<a href="http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/photos/84474388-M.jpg" target="_blank">http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/ph
otos/84474388-M.jpg</a>

<a href="http://www.jtcent.com/disneysea/special/spx5th/images/5thdecp27.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.jtcent.com/disneyse
a/special/spx5th/images/5thdecp27.jpg</a>

 

Originally Posted By AGKoolAid

When I was there on Tuesday afternoon, around 2pm, the lines looked like this:
-Tower of Terror: 45 min standby
-Playhouse Disney: Filled queue
-Monsters: 25 min standby
-Screamin: 15 minutes (both sides running)
-Maliboomer: 5 minutes
-Soarin': 30 minute standby
-GRR: 45 minute standby

Also, around Sun Plaza, it was filled for the parade. The pics from Dave showing the empty ToT queue on Thursday, was 50% full on Tuesday. AND, it was over 100 degrees too! I think the attendance fluctuates with the days.

Now, I'm not saying DCA is a perfect park, but just because the lines are not huge everyday doesn't mean doomsday! On that same day, over at Disneyland, the lines were not bad at all. Pirates being about 40 minutes. Buzz only 25. Space & Splash, of course, were always huge. With the exception of Pirates & Tower, we didn't wait over 25 minutes at either park all day!

-Andrew/AGKoolAid

 

Originally Posted By BlueOhanaTerror

>>>I think the highest priority should be to get an attraction in the pacific wharf area - a "real" attraction, the bakery and tortilla factories don't count. Has there ever been a 'land' in a disney park without an attraction before?<<<

New Orleans Square, but only for about eight months.

And just for the record, Disney brand name or not, EPCOT actually "was" a hit right out of the box. Guess you kind of had to be there at the time to remember.

 

Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt

I think it's midly comical how every summer someone comes along and starts drilling it in our heads how dire the attendance at DCA is. Yet, somehow, at the end of every year the attendance figures are released and we find that the park is outperforming the previous year. Give it a rest already.

 

Originally Posted By trekkeruss

<<Just when I think I'm being too tough on the way DCA has been put (or thrown) together, I look at another series of photographs from you and realize that, if anything, I've underestimated what a lazy, uninspired pile that park really is.>>

While I won't disagree that DCA is nowhere near TDS in terms of overall execution, the two photos you use to compare the two are hardly dissimilar. The only reason the TDS pic looks much better is because it is a close-up taken in proper lighting. The DCA pic, on the other hand, is a wide shot with poor lighting... no wonder it looks bad in comparison.

 

Originally Posted By Darkbeer

From today's DLR update at MousePlanet....

http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=dl060731xx

>>Another open question that Ed Grier gets to try and figure out is what to do with Disney's California Adventure. While the park has its defenders (including this writer), it remains the case that it simply isn't performing in the way it should. Aggressive discounting for locals has created period of high attendance but those numbers always fade away as soon as people actually have to pay to get into the park. The addition of A Bug's Land and Tower of Terror did not solve the problem, and the initial surge to see Monsters, Inc., seems to have faded quickly, with recent weekend lines down to 20 minutes.<<

 

Originally Posted By berol

I don't think Monsters Inc. would get much longer lines at Disneyland.

 

Originally Posted By disneywatcher

>> The only reason the TDS pic looks much better is because it is a close-up taken in proper lighting. <<

I've been looking at photos of DCA's Hollywood backlot area since 2001 -- and even a bit before then -- and the portion around the new Mickey Mouse fountain has never looked impressive or charming, regardless of angle or lighting (the same is even truer of 5-years worth of shots of Paradise Pier). Moreover, my comparison is based on a sense of the time and effort that's been invested in a permanent change at DCA versus the time and effort that's been put into 5th-anniversary elements -- which will vanish in the next 12 months -- at DisneySea.

 

Originally Posted By disneywatcher

>> While the park has its defenders (including this writer)... <<

And people wonder why DCA is DCA?

 

Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt

"Aggressive discounting for locals has created period of high attendance but those numbers always fade away as soon as people actually have to pay to get into the park."

And isn't the same phenomenon happening at DL after the discount period ends?

 

Originally Posted By Park Hopper

I don't know, is it?

 

Originally Posted By Darkbeer

Interesting comments in the Dl Trip Reports Thread...

<a href="http://mb.laughingplace.com/default.asp?WCI=MsgBoard&WCE=T-78305-P-1&Refresh=0731184136&C=1" target="_blank">http://mb.laughingplace.com/de
fault.asp?WCI=MsgBoard&WCE=T-78305-P-1&Refresh=0731184136&C=1</a>

>>DL was packed- 9AM-2PM, 8PM-10PM. Fireworks were great but crowds were scary. Kids were nervous from the crowds. Couldn't get on BTMRR, IASW, Matterhorn.

DCA.
The Hits: Soarin, Screamin, Tower
Just OK: Bugs, Grizzly, Animation, Monsters Inc
Loser: Sun Wheel, Orange Stinger, Tortilla and Bread Factories
"What?": San Francisco area, no Aladdin, length of TOT, NASTY Fastpass CM at GRR (large hispanic woman about 35 years old - just plain rude!)

DCA was mostly empty except for GRR and Soarin. We were there from 2-8pm and rode Screamin and Tower several times. Many eateries were closed.<<

And as for crowds, this week, the Orange County Register quoted the Anaheim/OC Visitor & Convention Bureau president stated that room occupancy was down around 13%.

<a href="http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/money/homepage/article_1221783.php" target="_blank">http://www.ocregister.com/ocre
gister/money/homepage/article_1221783.php</a>

>>Promotions for the anniversary celebration have boosted local tourism, filling about 85 percent of Anaheim's hotel beds in summer 2005 and more than 75 percent this summer, said Charles Ahlers, president of the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau. Room rates this year rose 7 percent to an average $103.07.

"The 50th anniversary spiked occupancy for all of Anaheim's hotels," Ahlers said. "He's been here at a good time."<<

So attendance is down at both parks, but as a frequent visitor I have noticed that while it is a slow summer at Disneyland, it is really quiet at DCA. I think that that DCA attendance is down a higher percentage than Disneyland, by more than a couple of percentage points....

I hope that in next weeks WDC conference call will address the current attendance, and not just the last quarter.

 

Originally Posted By disneywatcher

I thought this part of that Orange County Register article about Matt Quimet was rather nice. It's too bad he's leaving the DisCo:

>>>>> He arrived at a time when Disneyland, like many other tourist destinations, still suffered from the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Ouimet was known as a hands-on manager, who arrived at 5 a.m. the day of Disney's 50th birthday to check final details for the celebration.

"Diane Disney Miller, Walt's daughter, told me the place has never looked better," he said with pride. <<<<<

 

Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt

"I don't know, is it?"

According to eye-witness reports and (unofficial) insider info from Al, it is.

 

Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt

“And as for crowds, this week, the Orange County Register quoted the Anaheim/OC Visitor & Convention Bureau president stated that room occupancy was down around 13%.â€

I guess this explains why Disney cut the two parks’ operating schedules this summer. Does anyone else suspect that the summer season is becoming less and less important as time goes by? Historically the summer and Christmas seasons were the primary busy times at DL. Now it appears that weekends throughout the year, along with extended promotional periods, are almost as important as summer and holidays as attendance drivers.

 

Originally Posted By fkurucz

>>Now it appears that weekends throughout the year, along with extended promotional periods, are almost as important as summer and holidays as attendance drivers.<<

As an out of towner this is especially noticeable (weekends). Not only is DLR more crowded, but the demographic change is quite visible and noticeable.

 

Originally Posted By Park Hopper

""I don't know, is it?"

According to eye-witness reports and (unofficial) insider info from Al, it is."

To the same extent its happening at DCA?

 

Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt

^^Probably not, but apparently it is happening.

 

Originally Posted By woody

I think I should go to the park. The weather has cooled considerably to bearable range.

With lower attendance, it makes it all worthwhile.