2017 Theme Park Attendance Data

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The wait times and difficulty getting fastpasses would say otherwise for Frozen Ever After.

I don’t want to get into a tangent...but I’m gonna guess you haven’t been tracking the picture that fastpass 2.0 is beginning to paint?

Prebooked fast pass and “short” 2 hour standbys are what we’re seeing

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I'm glad you enjoy it. That doesn't change the fact that in 2017, half of the park's physical footprint was inaccessible due to construction, a.k.a. closed. It's not an insult to the park or a comment on its quality - the park is literally smaller than it was previously while SWGE and TSL are under construction.

Don’t even bother...this one will die on that hill as long as disney will charge for it...

 

[EricsBiscuit]

Strange to see some people congratulating Disney on record theme park attendance. Are you really genuinely happy the parks have so many people in them? Has it positively impacted your recent vacations to WDW? I feel like it says so much more about Disney's failed attempts at keeping crowd numbers down, as publicly stated, with the price increases. People will pay whatever it takes to go to WDW it seems. Knowing that, maybe the next attempt to limit the crowds will be anything other than raising prices.

This wins the award for most shortsighted post of the year. Honestly

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

They didn’t bother me in the slightest, in fact, they make good photo backdrops. The Star Wars additions made the park better than what it was before, in my opinion.. and the opinion of many others who also went to the past in the past 2 years.
There’s no way that HS lost half of it’s capacity due to construction.

It did...it’s not in dispute...and you probably don’t want to be on the mountain when the snow comes this time...

But I’m sorry...how did Star Wars “made” anything better at this point in the space/time continuum? That has to be a typo...but I have this scary feeling it wasn’t?

 

[21stamps]

I'm glad you enjoy it. That doesn't change the fact that in 2017, half of the park's physical footprint was inaccessible due to construction, a.k.a. closed. It's not an insult to the park or a comment on its quality - the park is literally smaller than it was previously while SWGE and TSL are under construction.

The construction made the park go to half the possible capacity? This is a fact? I find that hard to believe.

 

[Disone]

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.k

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.

IDK. If Dak is hosting 12.5 with its roster of attractions, I can see DHS doing 10.7 with its line up. Think about. Fantasmic by itself seat 6K with standing room for 3k more... so lets be conservative and its hosting only the 6k per show. Most night SWGS is too close to Fantasmic so thats another..... 3k watching that? So in the hours it takes those show to play out, almost 1/3 of the average daily attendance is accounted for. So now 20K a day to see the rest sometime during the day? It seems doable. Do not take my examples verbatim, I get there are cross overs and many of the first 9k are the same population riding the rides and attractions, but DHS has some HIGH capacity attractions. TOTS, INDY STUNT SHOW, FROZEN can all host thousands all at the same time and 1.5 hours later do it again. Tower, ST's, and RNRC are all high capacity attraction. TS has third track now making it a bit higher now. And there there is everthing else includes several full service resturants that are 1)large, 2) open all day, and 3) fully booked. I do not find 29k a day unreasonable.

 

[winstongator]

I fearlessly predict DHS will be top five in 2019.

You had half a year of Pandora drive 15% growth. Basic idea, add half of that for a full-year of Pandora and it's at just over 13M. I'd say a conservative estimate for DHS attendance increase is 25%, putting it at a bit over 13M as well. Total WDW non water park attendance will top 60M, easily by 2021. 14k more guests per day. Say 4k more rooms. Will the new construction add that much?

 

[winstongator]

Park hoppers and first clicks help

I did quite a few short DHS trips in 2017. Morning to hit RnRC, ToT - multiple times - half days w/o hotel with my daughters.

 

[winstongator]

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 !

I think Pandora drives overall resort attendance increases. More people drawn to WDW, and people try to to hit all 4 parks, especially if they don't go very often.

 

[winstongator]

Hollywood Studios will draw well over 12 million in 2020. In fact I am expecting over 13 million. Will it be crowded? Of course but its Star Wars. As for Hollywood Studios attendance in 2017, I still went 3 times, but I have a season pass.

I did 7 trips to HS. Many were quick hops. Morning rope-drop for RnRC, ToT & Star Tours. One day was DHS, breakfast at Ohana, Epcot, AK for Everest, Dinosaur & Rivers of Light. How people visit the park will be dramatically different after TSL & SWGE are open.

 

[winstongator]

The most fascinating trend in the attendance report is how soon a Chinese company will pass Universal into 3rd place. It really looks like next year Oct Parks could pass Universal, or certainly in 2020. They are only 6,578,000 behind Universal and they had 10,610,000 increase in their own attendance in 2017. China is still growing much faster than the US and Europe. Fantawild also is growing much faster than any of the other themepark companies and looks like they will pass Universal in 3 to 5 years. Even Disney and Merlin have to worry about staying number 1 and 2 based on the growth the Chineese companies are experiencing. If either of those 2 decide to expand outside of China and buy Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Seaworld or Parques Reunidos they would become number 2 and pass Merlin.

From my foggy memory, China's middle class either already is, or will soon be more people than the total US. It could easily double over the next 20 years. The numbers are huge. To be fair, the total numbers don't really matter. What matters is getting return on the amount they invest in parks.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You had half a year of Pandora drive 15% growth. Basic idea, add half of that for a full-year of Pandora and it's at just over 13M. I'd say a conservative estimate for DHS attendance increase is 25%, putting it at a bit over 13M as well. Total WDW non water park attendance will top 60M, easily by 2021. 14k more guests per day. Say 4k more rooms. Will the new construction add that much?

40,000 rooms onsite near capacity...hundreds of thousands outside the gates not nearly so full...plus a zillion rentals/timeshares

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

From my foggy memory, China's middle class either already is, or will soon be more people than the total US. It could easily double over the next 20 years. The numbers are huge. To be fair, the total numbers don't really matter. What matters is getting return on the amount they invest in parks.

No doubt on the middle class...

Basically the only stores growing in this country are aldi, dollar stores, and tj maxxx

...you don’t have to have three degrees in advanced economics to see where the “masses” are heading.

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

I don't disagree at all. The parks are all really nice and well operated. They just did such a horrible job managing the massive misinformation campaign against them that I fear they may never recover. I desperately hope they do find a new way forward but if attendance keeps declining it becomes financially challenging to raise the bar.

For what it’s worth, it’s my understanding that attendance is finally trending upward in 2018. And considering the amount I’m there, I would have to agree based on what we’ve seen .

Edit: just saw this article. So it hasn’t been our imagination. Ironic that it’s on the CNN website though. http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/08/investing/seaworld-attendance-earnings-stock-blackfish/index.html

 

[WDWTank]

So about 55,000,000 Total for the Maingates?

...the good news is that policy of “raising prices to limit attendance for the good of the guests” is working to a T

That’s a dumb policy.

 

[Rodan75]

The scariest thing about these numbers is how unbearable WDW will be by the 50th. Hotels are already full, MK has unbearable crowds on the reg, not enough to do at the other parks with too few new attractions coming. And the big draw of SWGE.

They need to double up on attractions now. Or just not run an add campaign for the 50th.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

That’s a dumb policy.

...or an outright hoax

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The scariest thing about these numbers is how unbearable WDW will be by the 50th. Hotels are already full, MK has unbearable crowds on the reg, not enough to do at the other parks with too few new attractions coming. And the big draw of SWGE.

They need to double up on attractions now. Or just not run an add campaign for the 50th.

It’s not Disneyland...

I have an honest question/ poll: who do you know that would wait or come early for the “50th”?....the days of the pink castle and wand are kinda past in Orlando. It’s an interesting thing to watch...for sure.

 

[Disone]

I don't disagree at all. The parks are all really nice and well operated. They just did such a horrible job managing the massive misinformation campaign against them that I fear they may never recover. I desperately hope they do find a new way forward but if attendance keeps declining it becomes financially challenging to raise the bar.

I've been an annual passholder for SeaWorld Orlando for longer than I know. It's been over 10 years. I don't know the exact number. I was really surprised to see that they reported SeaWorld Orlando specifically as being 10% down in 2017. Another 10%? In 2017? I did not feel that at all. If anything it felt more busy. I'm not going to say it felt like it is finally recovered, but it definitely felt like the bleeding has stopped and attendance was trending in the right direction. I'd even say the same thing for 2016. It didn't feel like a park that was losing people left and right and still bleeding attendance. But 10% is quite a drop. It does make me question that number. It's just not what I've experienced When I'm Gone.

 

[gorillaball]

I did 7 trips to HS. Many were quick hops. Morning rope-drop for RnRC, ToT & Star Tours. One day was DHS, breakfast at Ohana, Epcot, AK for Everest, Dinosaur & Rivers of Light. How people visit the park will be dramatically different after TSL & SWGE are open.

It will be interesting for sure, maybe it won't jump by much in reality as a stat. If 29,000 people going for 3-4 hours suddenly try to go all day then does it sit at capacity many days. You could double the attendance without doubling the front gate clicks. Will it be so crazy that people go all day once but avoid the chaos other days of a trip.