Star Wars Land announced for Disney's Hollywood Studios

[justintheharris]

It should have been expected.

* They raised prices significantly on APs. Possibly more than the market can really bear.
* They instituted blackout dates for non-signature APs, which they haven't done in the past for June.
* They basically said "biggest thing ever. Massive crowds".
* They pumped up the new land but made it reservation only. So there was lots of good press, but it didn't last because people couldn't see it for themselves.
*Are people even aware that the reservation system is over?

I think that the combo of all those things plus the fact that DLR is very different than WDW contributed to a perfect storm. The smart thing for them now is to start advertising it like crazy, and lift the Deluxe AP blackouts.

I also don't think you'll see a repeat of this in WDW.

But that happens for probably every expansion. Something different is afoot.

 

[TP2000]

But that happens for probably every expansion. Something different is afoot.

Bingo! Something different is definitely afoot here. This is not normal, and not what was supposed to happen.

It's turning into a gorgeous SoCal summer evening here at 7:00pm, and Disneyland is dead and open until Midnight. They haven't used the Star Wars Land Virtual Queue system since Monday afternoon.

The wait time for Millennium Falcon is currently listed at 35 minutes, but likely actually running less than that. All other E Tickets at Disneyland and DCA are in the 5 to 25 minute range right now. I'm having dinner on the patio as I type this and then am going to Uber over to Disneyland to go ride Millennium Falcon a couple of times just to see Star Wars Land for the first time myself and see what all the non-fuss is about. Wish me luck!

 

[WDW Pro]

The Virtual Queue system was turned off in late afternoon on the first day (Monday), and has not been turned on since. For the past two days Star Wars Land has just been open access to anyone who wants to wander in, all day from 8:00AM to Midnight.

The weather in Anaheim is typically SoCal summer perfect; here at 3:00 PM it is currently sunny and 74 degrees with a light sea breeze.

Here is a tweet from about an hour ago, which sums it all up. All other E Tickets in both Disneyland and DCA currently have a 5 to 30 minute wait. Both parks are basically dead.



EDIT: Now at 4:00pm Disneyland time, the current posted wait time for Millennium Falcon is 35 minutes.

But Jt04 believes those photos are "fake news".

There are 57 different reasons you can invent for why Disneyland is empty at the same time they open a BILLION dollar, largest expansion in the history of the park. But there is only one reason that is actually realistically true: People... don't... care. And once you accept that people don't care about a billion dollar Star Wars expansion, then you can wrap your head around what level of damage has been done to that franchise.

 

[mikejs78]

But that happens for probably every expansion. Something different is afoot.

Bingo! Something different is definitely afoot here. This is not normal, and not what was supposed to happen.

It's turning into a gorgeous SoCal summer evening here at 7:00pm, and Disneyland is dead and open until Midnight. They haven't used the Star Wars Land Virtual Queue system since Monday afternoon.

The wait time for Millennium Falcon is currently listed at 35 minutes, but likely actually running less than that. All other E Tickets at Disneyland and DCA are in the 5 to 25 minute range right now. I'm having dinner on the patio as I type this and then am going to Uber over to Disneyland to go ride Millennium Falcon a couple of times just to see Star Wars Land for the first time myself and see what all the non-fuss is about. Wish me luck!

It absolutely does.*not* happen for every new opening. They've never done massive blackout dates like this. They've never raised prices this much, this fast. They've never pushed the idea that it would be SO HUGE before - with reservations, virtual queues, etc...

But Jt04 believes those photos are "fake news".

There are 57 different reasons you can invent for why Disneyland is empty at the same time they open a BILLION dollar, largest expansion in the history of the park. But there is only one reason that is actually realistically true: People... don't... care. And once you accept that people don't care about a billion dollar Star Wars expansion, then you can wrap your head around what level of damage has been done to that franchise.

Fake news. If that were the case, Disneyland would be as busy as it usually is in June but Galaxy's Edge would be dead. Instead all of DL is dead. Your hatred of the new movies is clouding your logic.

 

[doctornick]

But Jt04 believes those photos are "fake news".

There are 57 different reasons you can invent for why Disneyland is empty at the same time they open a BILLION dollar, largest expansion in the history of the park. But there is only one reason that is actually realistically true: People... don't... care. And once you accept that people don't care about a billion dollar Star Wars expansion, then you can wrap your head around what level of damage has been done to that franchise.

No. Because if this was just about Star Wars then the rest of the park would be its usual mobbed self for late June. Instead its a veritable ghost town. If it it was just that people hated Star Wars that wouldn't stop them from riding Splash Mountain.

I have a strong feeling that we'll see the land at DHS be a madhouse at opening because Disney will do a 180 and actually encourage people to come to the opening and not do any blackouts (which I don't think was planned anyway). Certainly the reservation system which seemed to perhaps deter guests will not be used.

 

[Joesixtoe]

It's already vertical with concept art out there. Their best chance right now is to knock it out of the ballpark with Episode 9. If not, they've done real damage to the franchise for a significant amount of time. Imagine if in Endgame, Ironman's character arc was completely flipped at the last minute, and he literally died of exhaustion after skipping out on any real fight. That would be ridiculously stupid and people would be fleeing Marvel like crazy. Instead they did it the right way and people love Marvel even more. Yet, Lucasfilm actually went full stupid with Luke, and did so after 40 years of people waiting to see him as a Jedi Master. Genius!

Exactly what I have been saying all along. We got to see Yoda, OB1, and Palps do some cool stuff in the prequels, so we wanted to see Luke do the same. Lucasfilm just didn't get this since they are so involved with all aspects of the galaxy st
ory as a whole, that they didn't understand our connection to Luke. Honor the past while bringing in new characters, that simple.

 

[WDW Pro]

Exactly what I have been saying all along. We got to see Yoda, OB1, and Palps do some cool stuff in the prequels, so we wanted to see Luke do the same. Lucasfilm just didn't get this since they are so involved with all aspects of the galaxy st
ory as a whole, that they didn't understand our connection to Luke. Honor the past while bringing in new characters, that simple.

What is amazing is the people saying "oh Disneyland is more dead than a rainy day in February... but it's not the Star Wars land's fault!" Like geez, if you spend a billion dollars and your theme park is officially listed on the crowd tracker app as "Ghost Town", maybe, just maybe, you screwed up. Some people will hold onto a narrative at all costs though, because changing their opinion means they were wrong and people generally don't like being wrong. Being wrong indicates you're not as good at analyzing something as you perceive yourself to be.

 

[mikejs78]

No. Because if this was just about Star Wars then the rest of the park would be its usual mobbed self for late June. Instead its a veritable ghost town. If it it was just that people hated Star Wars that wouldn't stop them from riding Splash Mountain.

I have a strong feeling that we'll see the land at DHS be a madhouse at opening because Disney will do a 180 and actually encourage people to come to the opening and not do any blackouts (which I don't think was planned anyway). Certainly the reservation system which seemed to perhaps deter guests will not be used.

Disney made a *huge* mistake building Splash Mountain. No one cares about Song of the South or log flume rides. I mean, it only has a 15 minute wait right now. How good could it be?

Seriously, you're exactly right. I think this has more to do with DL botching the launch (even though it seemed reasonable given the hype) than people supposedly not liking star wars.

 

[mikejs78]

What is amazing is the people saying "oh Disneyland is more dead than a rainy day in February... but it's not the Star Wars land's fault!" Like geez, if you spend a billion dollars and your theme park is officially listed on the crowd tracker app as "Ghost Town", maybe, just maybe, you screwed up. Some people will hold onto a narrative at all costs though, because changing their opinion means they were wrong and people generally don't like being wrong. Being wrong indicates you're not as good at analyzing something as you perceive yourself to be.

I find your lack of logic... disturbing.

 

[WDW Pro]

I find your lack of logic... disturbing.

Quotes the character who learned he was terribly wrong.... but doesn't realize it.

 

[mikejs78]

Quotes the character who learned he was terribly wrong.... but doesn't realize it.

 

[planodisney]

To say that Disneyland is empty because people aren’t excited about Star Wars makes absolutely ZERO logical sense.
So to believe that, you would have to believe that the masses that would usually be there, hate Star Wars so much that they aren’t just not excited about it, they are so angry it’s there that they are boycotting DLR altogether.
Do you realize how stupid of a hypothesis that is?

 

[MisterPenguin]

To say that Disneyland is empty because people aren’t excited about Star Wars makes absolutely ZERO logical sense.
So to believe that, you would have to believe that the masses that would usually be there, hate Star Wars so much that they aren’t just not excited about it, they are so angry it’s there that they are boycotting DLR altogether.
Do you realize how stupid of a hypothesis that is?

A star wars killed my brother once.

 

[WDW Pro]

I find your lack of logic... disturbing.

To say that Disneyland is empty because people aren’t excited about Star Wars makes absolutely ZERO logical sense.
So to believe that, you would have to believe that the masses that would usually be there, hate Star Wars so much that they aren’t just not excited about it, they are so angry it’s there that they are boycotting DLR altogether.
Do you realize how stupid of a hypothesis that is?

This is so simple that I can only assume your preconceived narrative is holding you back from getting it.

Disney made expensive modifications to their park to accommodate the huge crowds that would come for their billion dollar Star Wars expansion based on the the sequel trilogy. Disney built a new parking garage to handle the masses that would soon come crashing down on the resort. Disney raised prices and blocked out AP holders because in a metro area of 20 million people, there would be so many Star Wars fans that the park would would be slammed otherwise. They had a media day with hundreds (if not thousands) of streamers, influencers, YouTubers, etc. They had weeks of controlled special reservation openings to perfectly control the numbers and make early takes as positive as possible. And then they opened the doors...

... and literally nobody came. Nobody. Disneyland was listed as a "ghost town" by a crowd observation app. With all the AP holders locked out, and a drastically smaller group entering the park to see the billion dollar expansion, the bad PR began to trickle out. Now we're finding out that Disneyland Management is in full panic mode, holding twice daily meetings to determine how many hourly workers they can send home in order to try to save money. It's also leaked that even when Smuggler's Run shows thirty minute wait times, it's actually a walk on. It's getting on forums. It's getting on YouTube.

To quote you: Do you realize how stupid it is to not get this?

 

[ImperfectPixie]

This is so simple that I can only assume your preconceived narrative is holding you back from getting it.

Disney made expensive modifications to their park to accommodate the huge crowds that would come for their billion dollar Star Wars expansion based on the the sequel trilogy. Disney built a new parking garage to handle the masses that would soon come crashing down on the resort. Disney raised prices and blocked out AP holders because in a metro area of 20 million people, there would be so many Star Wars fans that the park would would be slammed otherwise. They had a media day with hundreds (if not thousands) of streamers, influencers, YouTubers, etc. They had weeks of controlled special reservation openings to perfectly control the numbers and make early takes as positive as possible. And then they opened the doors...

... and literally nobody came. Nobody. Disneyland was listed as a "ghost town" by a crowd observation app. With all the AP holders locked out, and a drastically smaller group entering the park to see the billion dollar expansion, the bad PR began to trickle out. Now we're finding out that Disneyland Management is in full panic mode, holding twice daily meetings to determine how many hourly workers they can send home in order to try to save money. It's also leaked that even when Smuggler's Run shows thirty minute wait times, it's actually a walk on. It's getting on forums. It's getting on YouTube.

To quote you: Do you realize how stupid it is to not get this?

Do you realize that people are still afraid that Galaxy's Edge is going to be crazy because they don't follow forums or Facebook groups the way some of us do? Someone told me just yesterday that she's been trying to get her friends to go with her but they keep refusing because they're convinced it will be a madhouse.

 

[peter11435]

Do you realize that people are still afraid that Galaxy's Edge is going to be crazy because they don't follow forums or Facebook groups the way some of us do? Someone told me just yesterday that she's been trying to get her friends to go with her but they keep refusing because they're convinced it will be a madhouse.

Exactly. This isn’t because there is no demand for galaxies edge. This is because there is the perception of insane demand scaring off many combined with excessive blackouts limiting others.

 

[The Pho]

Do you realize that people are still afraid that Galaxy's Edge is going to be crazy because they don't follow forums or Facebook groups the way some of us do? Someone told me just yesterday that she's been trying to get her friends to go with her but they keep refusing because they're convinced it will be a madhouse.

They did a great job of convincing people it would be chaos. Convincing them otherwise isn’t easy now because most are content with waiting a while. Very few people actually pay attention to any of this stuff, even big Disney fans are clueless half the time.

 

[NormC]

Don't you just love when newbies (self-proclaimed Pro) join the forums just to troll. If it was only Star Wars the rest of the park would be seeing its normal crowds. I think the big mistake made here is blocking out APs which are the usual summertime mass in Disneyland. They expected the non-AP crowd to fill in the empty space left by the blocked APs and it didn't happen. This is because the average Disney fan doesn't know about block out dates and are avoiding the perceived crowds. I personally have planned to avoid the crowds of GE until all the attractions are open.

 

[planodisney]

This is so simple that I can only assume your preconceived narrative is holding you back from getting it.

Disney made expensive modifications to their park to accommodate the huge crowds that would come for their billion dollar Star Wars expansion based on the the sequel trilogy. Disney built a new parking garage to handle the masses that would soon come crashing down on the resort. Disney raised prices and blocked out AP holders because in a metro area of 20 million people, there would be so many Star Wars fans that the park would would be slammed otherwise. They had a media day with hundreds (if not thousands) of streamers, influencers, YouTubers, etc. They had weeks of controlled special reservation openings to perfectly control the numbers and make early takes as positive as possible. And then they opened the doors...

... and literally nobody came. Nobody. Disneyland was listed as a "ghost town" by a crowd observation app. With all the AP holders locked out, and a drastically smaller group entering the park to see the billion dollar expansion, the bad PR began to trickle out. Now we're finding out that Disneyland Management is in full panic mode, holding twice daily meetings to determine how many hourly workers they can send home in order to try to save money. It's also leaked that even when Smuggler's Run shows thirty minute wait times, it's actually a walk on. It's getting on forums. It's getting on YouTube.

To quote you: Do you realize how stupid it is to not get this?

Do you realize how stupid it is to present an argument that has absolutely nothing to do with what I said?
My point isn’t that crowds aren’t low and far below what they should be.
My point is toward people who are suggesting that the reason is because Star Wars isn’t popular anymore or because the new land is terrible.
My point is that if you look at all of the factors, to believe THAT is the reason is idiotic. My evidence is that if THOSE were the reasons, the park would still be full but GE would be empty.
That isn’t the case.
The obvious reasons would be
1. No national marketing
2. Scared people off with MASSIVE CROWD talk
3. People are waiting for the entire land to open
4. Price Increases
5. They’ve spread out the IMMEDIATE demand more than they expected by using the reservation system and staggering the ride openings

 

[MisterPenguin]

Assemble the bloggers!