California Adventure larger gate than Disneyland?

[DVCOwner]

I have heard that with the opening of Cars Land, more guests are going to California Adventure than Disneyland. Can anyone confirm this? If this is true, then maybe Disney will see that improving a park with a major upgrade will get more people into the gate.

 

[Thunderstruck]

I think this is probably to be expected during the first opening months or so of Carsland. My guess is within a year attendance will regress more to a mean, but for sure it would be encouraging for Disney for CA to have numbers similar to Disneyland Park.

 

[koryadams]

I have heard that with the opening of Cars Land, more guests are going to California Adventure than Disneyland. Can anyone confirm this? If this is true, then maybe Disney will see that improving a park with a major upgrade will get more people into the gate.

well to me, this is good...for now! I think it is because Cars Land just opened. so maybe within a year, it will even out again. I haven't been to either yet and will go to both!

 

[Slowjack]

I doubt this will last beyond the first few months. Disneyland typically pulls in 2.5x the numbers of DCA. For the latter to get above the former would mean Disneyland had become a ghost town. I've heard that DCA's attendance figures have exceeded expectations from the Cars Land opening, though.

 

[dsollie]

After visiting in June, it felt like DCA was much more of a "full day park" than it sounds like it used to be. To try and make a direct comparison, there seemed to be more to do there than at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, which gets the same "1/2 day park" distinction from the guidebooks.

 

[Californian Elitist]

If this is true, then maybe Disney will see that improving a park with a major upgrade will get more people into the gate.

Disney already knows this, really. That's why they decided to give DCA Cars Land and not just a few new rides here and there. Right now DCA is pulling in more numbers than Disneyland, but only by about 10k. I'm sure it'll even out.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I doubt this will last beyond the first few months. Disneyland typically pulls in 2.5x the numbers of DCA. For the latter to get above the former would mean Disneyland had become a ghost town. I've heard that DCA's attendance figures have exceeded expectations from the Cars Land opening, though.

Not really. It just means people have to enter Disney's California Adventure before they enter Disneyland.

 

[dsollie]

Not really. It just means people have to enter Disney's California Adventure before they enter Disneyland.

I am not exactly sure what you mean by this? Are you stating that the majority of people are entering DCA first, and then heading over to Disneyland later? Please clarify.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I am not exactly sure what you mean by this? Are you stating that the majority of people are entering DCA first, and then heading over to Disneyland later? Please clarify.

Attendance counts are based on which park at a multipark resort is entered first. Go to one park for five minute I the morning and spend the rest of the day at the other, you count towards the first park not the one you were in all day.

 

[fosse76]

I was there the week of July 4th, and Disneyland Park was nowhere near as crowded as it was when I was there for Presiden't Day weekend. The longest wait I saw for Indiana Jones and Space Mountain was 45 minutes. President's Day they bothe were at 90 minute wait times throughout the day.

I personally believe that Carsland is simply cannibalizing Disneyland's guests. While it may be true that people are probably going to visit DCA first, I don't think the number of guests flocking to Disneyland later in the day is significantly more than it was in the past. Enough Disneyland guests are leaving when DCA guests are hopping to DL, so it is essentially a wash. For most tourists, Disneyland is a stop on their Southern California trip. And I have a feeling many guests in the past simply didn't view DCA as worth their time. So the guests who would have stayed at Disneyland and not hopped are hopping over to DCA.

 

[dsollie]

Attendance counts are based on which park at a multipark resort is entered first. Go to one park for five minute I the morning and spend the rest of the day at the other, you count towards the first park not the one you were in all day.

Thanks for the clarification.

With the popularity of Carsland, it does seem likely that the more "educated" guests are entering DCA first, picking up passes for RSR, and then deciding what they want to do next. There is evidence of this in the very small crowds at Disneyland in the mornings. However, in a way agreeing with what fosse76 says above, it was not like Disneyland filled up in the afternoons either (last week of June). It stayed relatively quiet there all day long.

I think another good bit of information that could be had is this: what percentage of guests actually buy park hopper tickets, or visit on passes that allow park hopping? Does anyone know this?

 

[Mukta]

I am a DL local and I am used to DL crowds over the summer. This summer, the crowds at DL have been much lighter. It does seem like most of the people are in DCA vs DL.