CTXRover
Well-Known Member
I think its great that the ride has been well received. Its a fun ride and imo deserves it. Its also smart on Universal's part to keep the ride in the news after it has opened. Its a great benchmark to reach.
From a brief google search I just did, it doesn't seem like Disney has recently celebrated how quickly 1 million riders rode any of their newer rides, nor is that much out there about how many individual riders have gone on a particular ride. However, its fair to assume that it was likely very close, if not faster, for some of DIsney's bigger openings over recent years. When it opened, Mission:Space was touted as being one of Disney's biggest launches for a ride and was responsible for a 4-5 % boost in attendance for the park from 2002 to 2003, despite only being open for half of 2003, per an official Disney press release in early 2004. It was reported to officially have 11.8 million riders in its first 33 months from opening of August 2003 to news reports in May 2006 when it first introduced the alternative version (it did have a period of unofficial previews for 2-3 months prior to that, when the ride was not operating at 100% capacity making initial comparisons difficult). That breaks down to approximately 1 million riders every 3 months over a 3 year time period. Since we know attendance does wax and wane throughout the year, its safe to assume that in summer months more people walked through the gates than during say September or October. Additionally, there was a lot of bent up demand for Mission:Space when it first opened which tapered off in 2005-2006 from news reports about the intensity of the ride. I imagine that Mission:Space likely saw figures very close in its first few months, particularly since it was responsible for a mice boost in attendance in its first 7-9 months of operation. The effect on USF's annual attendance will be the real marker for how well The Simpsons is helping the park. But that doesn't diminish a pretty impressive record for the resort.
From a brief google search I just did, it doesn't seem like Disney has recently celebrated how quickly 1 million riders rode any of their newer rides, nor is that much out there about how many individual riders have gone on a particular ride. However, its fair to assume that it was likely very close, if not faster, for some of DIsney's bigger openings over recent years. When it opened, Mission:Space was touted as being one of Disney's biggest launches for a ride and was responsible for a 4-5 % boost in attendance for the park from 2002 to 2003, despite only being open for half of 2003, per an official Disney press release in early 2004. It was reported to officially have 11.8 million riders in its first 33 months from opening of August 2003 to news reports in May 2006 when it first introduced the alternative version (it did have a period of unofficial previews for 2-3 months prior to that, when the ride was not operating at 100% capacity making initial comparisons difficult). That breaks down to approximately 1 million riders every 3 months over a 3 year time period. Since we know attendance does wax and wane throughout the year, its safe to assume that in summer months more people walked through the gates than during say September or October. Additionally, there was a lot of bent up demand for Mission:Space when it first opened which tapered off in 2005-2006 from news reports about the intensity of the ride. I imagine that Mission:Space likely saw figures very close in its first few months, particularly since it was responsible for a mice boost in attendance in its first 7-9 months of operation. The effect on USF's annual attendance will be the real marker for how well The Simpsons is helping the park. But that doesn't diminish a pretty impressive record for the resort.
