2016 TEA Themed Entertainment Attendance Report

[Bolt]

So, the question is will Volcano Bay be classified as a theme park, as they call it, or will fall under the water park category.

 

[UpAllNight]

I want Universal to keep building, growing, and getting better, because that seems to be the only thing that will motivate the WDC into building and adding attractions at WDW.

I agree but also think Disney will be breathing a sigh of relief over Universals recent direction (if not their increased attendance despite some questionable decisions!) If Universal get Nintendo right, and expand Potter again, Disney will notice a difference.

 

[ChrisFL]

I agree but also think Disney will be breathing a sigh of relief over Universals recent direction (if not their increased attendance despite some questionable decisions!) If Universal get Nintendo right, and expand Potter again, Disney will notice a difference.

Seeing the lower numbers at IOA, I guess that is part of why we may get a big replacement for Dragon Challenge soon

 

[OvertheHorizon]

I agree but also think Disney will be breathing a sigh of relief over Universals recent direction (if not their increased attendance despite some questionable decisions!) If Universal get Nintendo right, and expand Potter again, Disney will notice a difference.

Didn't Universal acquire additional land recently (not contiguous with their current parks), which could be used to buld another park? From 1971 to 1998 (27 years), Disney built four parks, two water parks (plus closing one water park), developed Downtown Disney, and built a ton of hotels. Then development (in spite of all the available land at WDW) slowed in favor of acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and building a giant park in Shanghai. Yes, we've seen New Fantasyland and Disney Springs, but it wasn't until Universal stepped up its game and started developing Harry Potter parks that WDW's drawing boards started to fill up. And more is necessary, especially in Epcot. Animal Kingdom my finally be a full day experience. DHS will be mobbed after 2019.

 

[Coaster Lover]

It'll be interesting to see what Universal's gameplan is over the next few years. I mean, building a new water park was a fabulous idea and much needed for Universal to transfrom itself into a "destination" that people spend a full week at (and not just a couple of parks that are add-on days for a Disney vacation or coupled with days at Sea World/Busch Gardens). Harry Potter was simply a home run for them and I'm sure they will try to ride that dragon (pun intended) for at least a few more attractions, but they certainly can't base their long term future on Harry Potter alone. I think Nintendo has the promise to do big things, but where to after that?

Regardless, it all seems to be working out in the favor of the guests. Universal steps up and really starts investing, sees huge increases in visitors, Disney really starts ramping up, Universal continues to have big investments in the pipeline for the next few years, so does Disney... and in the end, we as guests get some of the world's best amusement park attractions all in one city... can't complain!

 

[UpAllNight]

It'll be interesting to see what Universal's gameplan is over the next few years. I mean, building a new water park was a fabulous idea and much needed for Universal to transfrom itself into a "destination" that people spend a full week at (and not just a couple of parks that are add-on days for a Disney vacation or coupled with days at Sea World/Busch Gardens). Harry Potter was simply a home run for them and I'm sure they will try to ride that dragon (pun intended) for at least a few more attractions, but they certainly can't base their long term future on Harry Potter alone. I think Nintendo has the promise to do big things, but where to after that?

Regardless, it all seems to be working out in the favor of the guests. Universal steps up and really starts investing, sees huge increases in visitors, Disney really starts ramping up, Universal continues to have big investments in the pipeline for the next few years, so does Disney... and in the end, we as guests get some of the world's best amusement park attractions all in one city... can't complain!

Everyone gets something different from the parks and it's great there's so many options in Orlando.

For us having returned just recently we set aside 6 full days to do the 3 Universal parks but in the end felt 4 was plenty and ended up doing a few more at the other offerings at Orlando. This despite Universal being are favourite on our last trip. I feel the Studios park is very samey and in general Universals attendance is slower on a morning than Disney and drops off significantly after 5pm so it's actually really easy to get on everything a few times if you arrive early or stay late. Now this isn't nessecerily their fault, and I've never experienced a Disney park where I've managed to achieve the same thing so I don't know if Universals parks just feel like there's less to do or if Disneys manic attendance and overcrowding stretches their days out...it's probably a mixture of both.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel Universal still have some way to go in bulking out their 2 parks to become a week long destination. For other reasons, namely guest experience, Disney also need to persue expansion more aggressively than they have done this past decade.

But it is increadibly exciting in Orlando right now.

 

[Tavernacle12]

I'm still baffled that Hollywood Studios didn't fall harder considering how much of the park is closed. I suppose people who were going there at all were never spending more than a day there anyways, so now they're just spending even less time there instead of full on abandoning it?

 

[seascape]

Frozen Summer and Star Wars fireworks. This summer, Music of Pixar, Star, new projection show and no matter what some people say some good rides. ToT, RnRC. TMM. Then there are stoll some other shows to take up time and make this a full day.

 

[Rodan75]

Didn't we expect that?


I disagree- I think they are relatively accurate- and it concurs with all the quarterly earnings calls we've heard. They have had decreased attendance while having more revenue and significantly more profit- near double digit profit. They're making more money from less people.
And while that sounds great in theory- because who wouldnt mind paying a little more for fewer crowds? In reality, they are using MM+ and Magic Bands to control operations and staffing, so not only are you having the same wait times you've always had- but you're also having no "slow" times anymore as staffing and ops can be reduced to reflect that. Resulting in? More profits. The revenue increases are a result of price hikes, while the profits- which are double the % increase of revenue- are a result of staffing/ops cuts where they are able (namely, slower periods). The only benefit we get is less crowds on pathways.
That all said- Disney and it's shareholders are getting exactly what they want.

Well said.

 

[danlb_2000]

I'm still baffled that Hollywood Studios didn't fall harder considering how much of the park is closed. I suppose people who were going there at all were never spending more than a day there anyways, so now they're just spending even less time there instead of full on abandoning it?

I imagine bloggers taking pictures of the construction have offset the loses from normal guests.

 

[UpAllNight]

Frozen Summer and Star Wars fireworks. This summer, Music of Pixar, Star, new projection show and no matter what some people say some good rides. ToT, RnRC. TMM. Then there are stoll some other shows to take up time and make this a full day.

For many first time visitors, DHS is their favourite park. If you've never seen any of the shows, they, along with some great rides and good nightime offerings can make the park look amazing. It's when you return 20 years later and the same shows are still on is when issues can occur.

 

[Jon81uk]

I'm still baffled that Hollywood Studios didn't fall harder considering how much of the park is closed. I suppose people who were going there at all were never spending more than a day there anyways, so now they're just spending even less time there instead of full on abandoning it?

Despite a lot of things being built only one attraction (lights motors action) actually closed. So for a first time visitor there are still a lot of things worth seeing at DHS. Plus all the new star was Live stuff helps promote the park to repeat visitors.

 

[ChrisFL]

Despite a lot of things being built only one attraction (lights motors action) actually closed. So for a first time visitor there are still a lot of things worth seeing at DHS. Plus all the new star was Live stuff helps promote the park to repeat visitors.

In that year only one attraction closed, but a few other attractions closed just prior to that, Backlot Tour, American Idol...not that those were big draws anymore

 

[Tavernacle12]

Despite a lot of things being built only one attraction (lights motors action) actually closed. So for a first time visitor there are still a lot of things worth seeing at DHS. Plus all the new star was Live stuff helps promote the park to repeat visitors.

In that year only one attraction closed, but a few other attractions closed just prior to that, Backlot Tour, American Idol...not that those were big draws anymore

Streets of America, Honey I Shrunk The Children Playground, Osborne Lights, Animation Academy, various meet and greets, Star Wars Weekends, and that Pirates of the Caribbean thing all closed too. Obviously, none of those were large draws (besides SWW), but at least a good third of the park, if not more, isn't traversable anymore.

 

[Tavernacle12]

I disagree. WDW attendance needs to be spread out between the four major parks. No way would I want MK attendance to increase. It would be a better guest experience for MK attendance to drop, and attendance at HS and AK to increase as a result of the new lands. Adding more attractions to MK would just draw larger crowds.

Ideally for Disney all parks would see an increase in attendance, but it'd be spread out better, and MK would get the capacity it needed to accommodate this.

 

[RSoxNo1]

For those keeping track at home, MK, DHS and DAK had their attendance peak in 2015. Depending on the info, Epcot's attendance peaked in 1997 or 1987.

2016 also marked the first time that Disney failed to capture 70% of the Orlando market share since 2004.

If DAK has an attendance increase of 10% and Epcot is 1%, DAK will pass Epcot in attendance.

 

[JoeCamel]

For those keeping track at home, MK, DHS and DAK had their attendance peak in 2015. Depending on the info, Epcot's attendance peaked in 1997 or 1987.

2016 also marked the first time that Disney failed to capture 70% of the Orlando market share since 2004.

If DAK has an attendance increase of 10% and Epcot is 1%, DAK will pass Epcot in attendance.

And as their stated goal they are reaping more money from less people. #ThanksMM+

 

[DDLand]

Fascinating. In terms of attendance, the entire chain had a relatively rough year. Disneyland's decline was expected as the 60th began to wind down and the newness of the offerings wore off; in fact I remember reading that the decline was less than anticipated.

The rest of the properties are a different story.

Walt Disney World didn't go into last year empty handed. It's true that Walt Disney World had been raising prices and anticipated some of this -and perhaps even worked towards it-but at the same time they still wanted higher attendance in certain parks. While it seems sort of like a long time ago, last summer Walt Disney World had something in its arsenal that was supposed to change the playing field.

Frozen.

From the attendance report, it's become starkly clear that Frozen did nothing to significantly move attendance at Epcot. While it opened nearly halfway through the year, some of that should be discernible in this report. Frozen either stopped a decline so bad that Epcot would have been down hundreds of thousands of guests more, or it did practically nothing. Either case that's embarrassing.

This scenario may explain the recent Epcot expansion/makeover push. Frozen was supposed to be their silver bullet, but instead Epcot was one of their biggest attendance declines. It lost more individual guests than Disney's Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios in spite of having the marketing push behind a new ride to sustain it. Speaking of DAK, the River of Lights debacle was also on display. Last year was supposed to mark the beginning of a rebirth of a new DAK, like WoC did for DCA. Frankly attendance at DAK also was supposed to be up, but because of the schedule things didn't pan out.

Between tech glitches and overhyped rides WDW managed to have a crappy year. It's worth pointing out they did face headwinds: Pulse Tragedy, the Alligator Tragedy, Zika, and Hurricane Matthew (they couldn't catch a break last year), but that's hardly an excuse when looking at the strong results from Universal Orlando. This year Disney should turn the tide, but 2016 should serve as reminder that stagnation is not a long term strategy.

Hong Kong Disneyland was a disaster. Paris was a nightmare. Japan should also realize stagnation is not a longterm strategy, especially next to the results of USJ.

Shanghai's strong year was almost entirely engulfed by the poor planning and lack of vision of the entire Walt Disney Parks and Resorts family. Every single Disney park was down last year. Universal should be lauded for their performance.

I think 2017 should be a return to growth for WDP&R, but they should have been investing years ago. Oh well...

 

[DDLand]

2016 also marked the first time that Disney failed to capture 70% of the Orlando market share since 2004.

I feel like this was bound to happen. Really looking at that graph, I see a correction has taken place. There is now a strong number two player. The current division feels about right.

Also for the people saying Disney likes attendance declines, don't be shocked if Iger is triumphantly sharing the news of record attendance at Disney's Animal Kingdom during the next conference call.

Disney likes attendance declines except when they are getting increased attendance.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Great thread. Thanks.