NEW WDW 2006 Attendance Figures!

[grandmath]

I'm also incredibly surprised by how poorly Walt Disney Studios Paris is doing. I know it is the black eye in Disney's theme park properties and its small size limits the size of a substantial crowd from ever entering, but I never realized it only attracted 2.2 million visitors a year.

Well that's not totally true.
Most visitors buy now a hopper ticket for their one-day at DLRP. But the attendance per park is only based on which one is visited first in the day.

So the numbers you give represent the people who buy a one day ticket for the WDS only (they are very few) and the people who visit this park first with their hopper pass. Actually, the park attracts way more visitors, about 5 million / year. That's why the global attendance of DLRP (12,8 million) is a better indicator of the health of the Resort.

 

[tomm4004]

How are annual passes counted? If an AP holder goes through the gate is he/she counted as an admission? If so, then the question, especially for a place like DL and DCA where there are apparently 500,000 APs, is how many admissions are AP holders and how many are regular 'paying' guests.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

The only thing those figurs tell me is that if you keep your parks new fresh and exciting they will come, if you spend he haw and not upgrade in 8 years they'll move on.

Still if your an asset stripper even those numbers indicate that a few more years can be wrung out of the park without investing heavily. Sadly.

But just think my little family is in those numbers somewhere

 

[DisneyYorkian74]

How are annual passes counted? If an AP holder goes through the gate is he/she counted as an admission? If so, then the question, especially for a place like DL and DCA where there are apparently 500,000 APs, is how many admissions are AP holders and how many are regular 'paying' guests.

If I understand everything corrrectly,

Then the attendance is counted by only counting the first park a guest enters that day.

The ticket is and can be counted again after that day passes and the guest uses the ticket again the next time they visit a park.

I don't think it matters whether it's an AP ticket or a "regular ticket."

Only Disney knows the details when it comes to the ratio between regular and AP tickets entered, but I have heard reports that 60% of Disneyland's visitors live within 100 miles of the resort and are considered "locals."

 

[tomm4004]

Disney's annual report gives attendance as up 5%, which jives with the numbers given here. Also, it says that theme park admission was $3.1 billion. A quick add of those numbers gives about 70 million admissions. So times 40 bucks or so a pop that would give the three billion.

Also, spending on food and merchandise was $3.2 billion.

Hotel occupancy was:

WDW - 86%
DL - 93%
Overall - 87%

Per room guest spending:

WDW - $211
DL - $287
Overall $218

All of these numbers were up over the previous year.

WDW had 8,834,000 available room nights, or 24,203 per night.
DL had 810,000 available room nights, or 2,219 per night.

 

[DisneyYorkian74]

Disney's annual report gives attendance as up 5%, which jives with the numbers given here. Also, it says that theme park admission was $3.1 billion. A quick add of those numbers gives about 70 million admissions. So times 40 bucks or so a pop that would give the three billion.

Also, spending on food and merchandise was $3.2 billion.

Hotel occupancy was:

WDW - 86%
DL - 93%
Overall - 87%

Per room guest spending:

WDW - $211
DL - $287
Overall $218

All of these numbers were up over the previous year.

WDW had 8,834,000 available room nights, or 24,203 per night.
DL had 810,000 available room nights, or 2,219 per night.

That's great, do you have a link to the report?

 

[tomm4004]

That's great, do you have a link to the report?

Sorry, I have a hard copy. But if you go to Disney corporate or shareholder services it's probably there somewhere. Actually though, this info is in the fine print at the back of the report. Don't know if that would be on the net. Possibly.

 

[Slowjack]

If you haven't been to DCA then you probably shouldn't be talking about it so negatively. It's funny how so many people have such a strong hate for California Adventure, yet they've never even stepped one foot inside the park. :brick:

Btw, you mention standard amusement park rides... What rides are you talking about exactly, besides Paradise Pier? Because most rides at DCA were cloned from WDW. Perhaps you're talking about Grizzly River Run? That ride sure seems like a standard amusement park ride to me

Again, and I don't know another way to say this, I'm not bashing how DCA turned out, but the philosophy behind the design. I never said I had a "strong hate" for the park. What I dislike is when a park seems to have been designed by accountants, regardless of how it turns out.

Yes, I was talking about the Paradise Pier when I referred to standard rides. I know that's just one part of the park--believe me I've seen a lot of stuff about it because I had a trip planned out to Disneyland two years ago that fell through. And Grizzly River Run would be the attraction I would be most excited about if I ever went to DCA, because it looks like the ride that Kali River Rapids was supposed to be.

 

[JikoMarie]

It's really neat to see those numbers. Thanks for posting them.

I've also been enjoying the discussion on DCA and IOA, since I have not been to either park.

Universal Express is free with a stay at either of the three on-site resorts, and is redeemable for as many times as you want (whereas the purchased one is good for one ride per participating attraction). Saved me a good solid 4 hours each day last month.

I think this type of "fast pass" sounds awesome and I hope that Disney gets on board with it when the revamp their fast pass system. I think it would be a wonderful perk to get a special kind of fast pass as a resort guest. Heck, I'd even be willing to pay extra if it meant I saved more time from waiting in line.

We can only hope that Universal is able to turn its attnedance around. It'd be really great if disney started to feel some sort of pressure from Universal again. Disney needs to start fixing some of the things in the park. Orlando management is a joke compared to their counterparts out in Anaheim... but that's a completely different story.

I agree. While everyone is rejoicing at Universal's low attendance figures, I think that it's a bad thing. Disney needs all the competition it can get to keep it on its toes.

 

[Slowjack]

Hi Slowjack!

I think I see the point better now. You aren't necessarily comparing the end result of the parks, but more the effort made and willingness to invest cash. I hear you and agree. I guess I'm hopeful that it is just a matter of "new" parks take a while to mature and work out the kinks and get more rides in them. I was never a fan of the DinoRama either, and Paradise Pier is definitely my least favorite part of DCA. Agreed that it is just adding attractions on the cheap. I would suggest, though, that it is coloring your opinion of DCA. I hope you will consider visiting DCA - not because I'm right and you're wrong and I want to have a debate! But because I feel that park is very Disney quality and am guessing as a Disney fan you would be pleasantly surprised. But then, you are awfully close to WDW where you are, so I'm not sure I would ever choose going to Anaheim over that. I just have family in SoCal and use Disney as a break!

Right, that's what I meant. I'm talking about what they planned to put into it, not what came out.

You are right that Paradise Pier is probably skewing my overall perception, but the truth is the whole concept just doesn't excite me. I mean, every other Disney park takes you to a different time and place. But DCA is a park about California in California. It's like, whenever I see a photo gallery from Tokyo DisneySea, or Disneyland Paris, it makes me want to go there. I've never gotten that feeling from seeing DCA photos.

Another thing that is skewing my perception is how cool the proposals for Westcot and DisneySea looked in comparison. I mean, when after all the different ideas that were floated around, they announced that the second park would be dedicated to California, and would feature a film about the history of the state and tortillas and wine-tasting--well, my enthusiasm never completely recovered, I guess.

Don't worry, though, if I ever get out to Anaheim, I'll definitely check DCA out. I'm always willing to be pleasantly surprised!

 

[jmvd20]

DCA overall is held to a very high standard by locals here in SoCal. We consider Disneyland to be part of our cultural identity as Californians, right alongside surfers and movie stars and the Golden Gate Bridge and Silicon Valley and the Beach Boys blaring from a car radio stuck on a jammed LA freeway. DCA needs to be on par with those major cultural icons, and it doesn't quite live up to that standard yet.

I can definitely understand what you are saying. However it wasn't just people from SoCal that said DCA is not good, people from here in OH etc... Obviously since I have never been to DCA I cannot speak either way. I was just impressed with how DCA looked, or at least was made to look on the TV special. Then again maybe I just had incredibly low expectations based upon the negativity I had heard :shrug:

 

[tomm4004]

It's like, whenever I see a photo gallery from Tokyo DisneySea, or Disneyland Paris, it makes me want to go there. I've never gotten that feeling from seeing DCA photos.

Not to turn this into a DCA vs. TDS thread (too late!) but it was the same for me. The thing is that both parks opened around the same time so we were looking at preview photos and reading descriptions simultaneously. TDS was all about mysterious islands and lost river deltas and other things that fueled the imagination, while DCA was about - California, which is a beautiful state but didn't really grab me as a theme park idea.

In 2001 I had to make a choice and I chose to go to Tokyo. I don't regret it, although I would also like to visit DCA someday.

PS: I'd been to DL many times before, and to TDL.

 

[isitingood]

Thanks for the post,hopefully Disney will continue to improve DCA so it can bump Universial. DCA has been gaining on Universial in attendance every year.