2017 Theme Park Attendance Data

[GiveMeTheMusic]

Sadly it did and had...

A half open park at full price. There’s a whole psychology class at play here.

Probably gets a lot of help by being in the WDW resort....

You don't understand. It's not physically possible. I would need to see Disney's internal, unedited attendance numbers for DHS to believe otherwise.

If the daily average is 29,375 guests, that means that there were days with lower numbers and days with higher numbers, as it's obviously not the same number of guests all 365 days. 28,000 was DCA's pre-Cars Land capacity LIMIT, and we're to believe DHS averaged 29,375 guests a day with literally half the park closed?

Did DHS close due to capacity every in 2017? It would have needed to do so regularly to make the numbers TEA estimate here. SDL closed for capacity several times in 2017 and is a much larger park with a much higher capacity limit.

Every year something doesn't add up with the WDW numbers, which TEA/AECOM estimates since Disney doesn't release them.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I would say that for 2020, but 2019 is going to be tricky since it will at the most have only a few months of Star Wars Land, some of which will be offset be people putting off visits earlier in the year until it opens.

I think they’ve brilliantly floated “2019” to push bookings/sales...while actually holding the Star Wars land off till 2020...

undercover in broad daylight

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You don't understand. It's not physically possible. I would need to see Disney's internal, unedited attendance numbers for DHS to believe otherwise.

If the daily average is 29,375 guests, that means that there were days with lower numbers and days with higher numbers, as it's obviously not the same number of guests all 365 days. 28,000 was DCA's pre-Cars Land capacity LIMIT, and we're to believe DHS averaged 29,375 guests a day with literally half the park closed?

Did DHS close due to capacity every in 2017? It would have needed to do so regularly to make the numbers TEA estimate here. SDL closed for capacity several times in 2017 and is a much larger park with a much higher capacity limit.

Every year something doesn't add up with the WDW numbers, which TEA/AECOM estimates since Disney doesn't release them.

Attendance isn’t the same as ride capacity.

What do you think the daily operational capacity is at mgm? As in bodies in the park?

 

[danlb_2000]

You don't understand. It's not physically possible. I would need to see Disney's internal, unedited attendance numbers for DHS to believe otherwise.

If the daily average is 29,375 guests, that means that there were days with lower numbers and days with higher numbers, as it's obviously not the same number of guests all 365 days. 28,000 was DCA's pre-Cars Land capacity LIMIT, and we're to believe DHS averaged 29,375 guests a day with literally half the park closed?

Did DHS close due to capacity every in 2017? It would have needed to do so regularly to make the numbers TEA estimate here. SDL closed for capacity several times in 2017 and is a much larger park with a much higher capacity limit.

Every year something doesn't add up with the WDW numbers, which TEA/AECOM estimates since Disney doesn't release them.

29,375 guests doesn't mean they were all in the park at the same time. Some people could be going in the morning and then hopping somewhere else, and different guests were hopping at night to see the DHS nighttime shows.

 

[Andrew C]

29,375 guests doesn't mean they were all in the park at the same time. Some people could be going in the morning and then hopping somewhere else, and different guests were hopping at night to see the DHS nighttime shows.

winner winner!

 

[Kamikaze]

Look how long it took DAK to see its Pandora boost. There were claims around here that it was a complete failure. Apparently not.

After it opened someone said that? Non sarcastically?

 

[ToTBellHop]

After it opened someone said that? Non sarcastically?

Yes.

 

[donsullivan]

After it opened someone said that? Non sarcastically?

Sadly, there are some who are still holding onto that viewpoint.

 

[Coaster Lover]

I just updated the charts to add a projection of Sea World Orlando data since they dropped off the Top 25 and didn't have numbers listed. I took last years data for Sea World and applied the 5.5% attendance drop that the Sea World Resorts group is reported to have at the total level to project a 2017 number for Sea World Orlando. The charts have been updated to reflect that now.


EDIT: I just found the Sea World data later in the North America section of the report and refreshed the charts accordingly. They were actually down 10% in Orlando

Thanks for the update/clarification! When I posted, I believe you already had the footnote about the Sea World numbers, but I must have just overlooked that side-note (hence the deletion of my original post). It's nice having Sea World's numbers in there for reference though, so again, thanks! These charts are awesome (and informative)!

 

[drod1985]

Universal dipped around the time they closed the BTTF ride. Serves them right! Their growth since WWoHP has been good though.

If Pandora saw a 15% YoY increase for Animal Kingdom what are we expecting for Galaxy's Edge? Considering Avatar's relative absence from current pop culture I'd imagine Galaxy's Edge would see a bigger increase. At least 20%? 25%? Anything above about 17% would jump it up to being the second most attended WDW park.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Universal dipped around the time they closed the BTTF ride. Serves them right! Their growth since WWoHP has been good though.

If Pandora saw a 15% YoY increase for Animal Kingdom what are we expecting for Galaxy's Edge? Considering Avatar's relative absence from current pop culture I'd imagine Galaxy's Edge would see a bigger increase. At least 20%? 25%? Anything above about 17% would jump it up to being the second most attended WDW park.

I expect higher than 25. If it can handle the crowds in 2020.

 

[Coaster Lover]

Sadly, there are some who are still holding onto that viewpoint.

Success is all in the eye of the beholder. If some were anticipating a 2.5 million guest increase and they only did a 1.66 million guest increase, then, yes, it would be considered a failure. DCA saw a 2.17 million guest increase from 2011 through 2013 arguably due to Cars Land (Cars Land opened in mid-2012, so end of 2013 would be about 1.5 years after it opened). So, by that comparison, adding 1.66 million guest over a period where Pandora has only been open about 7 months seems to be pretty good growth in my opinion (assuming we continue to see growth at DAK into next year of between 0.5-1.0 million guests).

I expect higher than 25. If it can handle the crowds in 2020.

Have to imagine EPCOT sees a decent bump 2019/2020 just from spill-over guests at Galaxy's Edge. All those guests turned away from Galaxy's Edge, leave the park and see the gondolas a quick way to get to the next closest park. Not to mention the number of guests wanting to hop between those parks just for the novelty of getting to ride the gondolas.

 

[Stripes]

Interestingly, Animal Kingdom had a bigger boost in absolute terms than California Adventure did after Cars Land, by about 200,000 more guests. (Of course, lower percentage wise because DCA was very low in attendance before 2012.)

The best news however, is that Pandora really didn't cannibalize the other parks!

I'd say Disney should be quite pleased with that, and I think this is good news for future expansion at WDW.
Btw, great job @donsullivan !

 

[donsullivan]

Here is another view that covers just the percentage of the total global Disney theme park attendance is clicking the turnstiles/tapstiles at each resort globally. Each is based on the total combined attendance at all theme parks (water parks excluded) at the resort.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Success is all in the eye of the beholder. If some were anticipating a 2.5 million guest increase and they only did a 1.66 million guest increase, then, yes, it would be considered a failure. DCA saw a 2.17 million guest increase from 2011 through 2013 arguably due to Cars Land (Cars Land opened in mid-2012, so end of 2013 would be about 1.5 years after it opened). So, by that comparison, adding 1.66 million guest over a period where Pandora has only been open about 7 months seems to be pretty good growth in my opinion (assuming we continue to see growth at DAK into next year of between 0.5-1.0 million guests).



Have to imagine EPCOT sees a decent bump 2019/2020 just from spill-over guests at Galaxy's Edge. All those guests turned away from Galaxy's Edge, leave the park and see the gondolas a quick way to get to the next closest park. Not to mention the number of guests wanting to hop between those parks just for the novelty of getting to ride the gondolas.

And this is why we are getting Rat.

 

[Mickey5150]

What amazes me is that Universal's best park doesn't have the attendance of DHS. With all the talk on the forums about how Universal is gonna take down WDW I thought their attendance would be better than DHS.

 

[Kamikaze]

Yes.

Sadly, there are some who are still holding onto that viewpoint.

I mean, before it opened, sure. It was an unknown. And IMO the property (Avatar) is still weak - but the land itself can't be called anything other than a success.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

I've been waiting for this data for quite a while, thanks for posting it. Kind of wild how AK is now the 2nd most popular park at WDW. Of course that won't last long. Also as a proud native Texan it's too bad to see Schlitterbahn pushed out of the top water parks.

 

[asianway]

You don't understand. It's not physically possible. I would need to see Disney's internal, unedited attendance numbers for DHS to believe otherwise.

If the daily average is 29,375 guests, that means that there were days with lower numbers and days with higher numbers, as it's obviously not the same number of guests all 365 days. 28,000 was DCA's pre-Cars Land capacity LIMIT, and we're to believe DHS averaged 29,375 guests a day with literally half the park closed?

Did DHS close due to capacity every in 2017? It would have needed to do so regularly to make the numbers TEA estimate here. SDL closed for capacity several times in 2017 and is a much larger park with a much higher capacity limit.

Every year something doesn't add up with the WDW numbers, which TEA/AECOM estimates since Disney doesn't release them.

I have a hard time believing DL outdraws TDL. We know TDL's numbers are accurate, so....

 

[donsullivan]

I have a hard time believing DL outdraws TDL. We know TDL's numbers are accurate, so....

I recently compared OLC attendance numbers for their parks with the historical TEA data available and they both match.