News Star Wars Galaxy's Edge opening day reports - Disney's Hollywood Studios

[mikejs78]

You'd think, wouldn't you?!

Falcon at the other park we don't talk about averaged 1385 an hour during its first 45 days of operation from May 31st to mid July, according to the Disney Parks Blog and a calculator. (1 Millionth rider was celebrated on July 15th)
https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...at-star-wars-galaxys-edge-in-disneyland-park/

I could see a 1700 riders per hour being achieved occasionally at the Falcon, but not consistently hour after hour, day after day. Which is why I say 1600-ish is probably best case scenario for an average hourly count over a 16 hour operating day.

Apparently the Resistance ride is slightly lower than Falcon, so I'm just guessing that it's 1500-ish as best case scenario over a 16 hour operating day.

But on a WDI PowerPoint three years ago when the WDI execs were trying to impress Bob Chapek in a Glendale conference room? Yes, I'm sure they used a wildly optimistic number like 1750 prominently in the PowerPoint, as if that hourly target could ever be achieved consistently for hours at a time for a full 16 hour operating day.

You'll forgive me if I take @marni1971's and @RSoxNo1's word over yours in matters like this. So let's say both have an actual, real life capacity of 1700-1750.

Just above 1700 for both. Actual as opposed to THRC.

Falcon has 1800 theoretical but is typically in the 1700-1750 range. You'd think Troy Porter would know this.

And someone who has actually attempted to measure and calculate it.

I timed dispatches (the single rider line is the best place to get enough data to somewhat estimate this).

I'm in agreement with @marni1971 and @RSoxNo1, the ride is running around 1750ish.


Which of course is way better than SDMT and FOP (without FP to boot). Millennium Falcon cannot really be compared to other rides at WDW until we have FP+, once that occurs it is similar to 3 track/theatre TSMM or Soaring.

 

[monothingie]

Certainly. When you have a $20 Trillion dollar economy like the US has, auto sales are just one of many factors.

But for this discussion, where some folks are thinking that US consumers have suddenly closed their wallets this summer which explains why the 1600 riders per hour Millennium Falcon ride rarely has more than a 45 minute wait on either coast, the simple fact that automotive sales increased by 10% in August, 2019 over August, 2018 seems a pretty good indicator that big ticket items are still enjoying a robust marketplace of willing consumers.

I know there's a certain chunk of the population hoping and wishing there will be a full-blown recession in 2020, but right now as the summer of '19 morphs into the fall, American consumers are still buying big ticket items at a healthy clip.

And vacations and leisure time are big ticket items for many Americans. Even Disney's recent earnings calls state that per-customer spending is up at the parks, while attendance remains flat or lower.

Cedar Fair announced a couple days ago that it's attendance is up 6% and spending increased 8% at its parks this summer. They just banked a record $1.12 Billion in profit.

Going up! Cedar Fair reports record revenues

SANDUSKY — Cedar Fair LP said Thursday the company collected record revenues at its chain of 11 amusement parks and five water parks through the first ...

www.toledoblade.com

The economic story in September, 2020 might be different, but we'll need to wait a year for that.

The link contains a quarterly analysis from a travel industry trade group analyzing US travel trends. With regards to leisure travel through June 2019 it did not show any contraction but rather slow growth and is not near previous index lows hit in 2018.

https://www.ustravel.org/system/files/media_root/document/Research_Travel-Trends-Index.pdf

 

[mikejs78]

I just wonder how long it will be until they re-activate the virtual queueing system for either park.

I'm going to make a prediction: October. October is usually a fairly busy time, and it is currently very hard to impossible to find a hotel reservation on property right now during that month. One trend that I noticed last year was that the other parks had higher attendance in general on party nights - I wouldn't be surprised if DHS gets its share of high crowd days on those days, and that they end up having to activate the virtual queue.

Just a guess.

 

[mikejs78]

One thing I bet a lot of us can agree on is that their decision to open half the land in order to get it out there earlier was rather dumb. They should have waited until both rides were ready.

And hopefully the tepid response will get them to add back in the droids, entertainment, drones, the TSR, etc.... Anything that was cut (except the third ride) should and could be added back pretty quickly.

 

[TP2000]

One thing I bet a lot of us can agree on is that their decision to open half the land in order to get it out there earlier was rather dumb. They should have waited until both rides were ready.

And hopefully the tepid response will get them to add back in the droids, entertainment, drones, the TSR, etc.... Anything that was cut (except the third ride) should and could be added back pretty quickly.

I agree.

Of course hindsight is 20-20, but if Burbank and the park execs would have known this was going to be the response on both coasts they would have just waited for Resistance to be ready.

It sounds like Resistance faced some really big construction delays, and that got them panicking and so they just went for it with only the Falcon open. Just like all of us here, the execs surely thought the place would be mobbed even without Resistance open. Oops!

 

[RobWDW1971]

The link contains a quarterly analysis from a travel industry trade group analyzing US travel trends. With regards to leisure travel through June 2019 it did not show any contraction but rather slow growth and is not near previous index lows hit in 2018.

https://www.ustravel.org/system/files/media_root/document/Research_Travel-Trends-Index.pdf

Or....SWGE is just a bad compilation of really terrible creative choices and the public is voting with their wallets? I know, crazy theory, so back to recessions, auto sales, and Halley's comet.

Amazing how on the Hagrid's threads and posts all over social media there is just excitement, buzz, and no discussion of hurricanes and macroeconomic factors. Curious...

 

[mikejs78]

Or....SWGE is just a bad compilation of really terrible creative choices and the public is voting with their wallets? I know, crazy theory, so back to recessions, auto sales, and Halley's comet.

Amazing how on the Hagrid's threads and posts all over social media there is just excitement, buzz, and no discussion of hurricanes and macroeconomic factors. Curious...

So why is Universal struggling at the moment? And why is MK/Epcot/AK struggling? How does SWGE have anything to do with those things?

Your narrative is getting tired.

 

[UNCgolf]

Honestly, I'd be happy if they stopped trying to build large 'immersive' lands around single IPs. The old model of more general themed lands in which different attractions (IP-based or not) could co-exist made and I still think makes far more sense than betting big on single movie franchises.

I would be actually prefer this as well. However, I would not be fine with them deciding this means they shouldn't be spending much money on the parks in general.

 

[Higginbotham587]

I'm going to make a prediction: October. October is usually a fairly busy time, and it is currently very hard to impossible to find a hotel reservation on property right now during that month. One trend that I noticed last year was that the other parks had higher attendance in general on party nights - I wouldn't be surprised if DHS gets its share of high crowd days on those days, and that they end up having to activate the virtual queue.

Just a guess.

I have a friend with a trip scheduled in October and a current plan to go to SWGE on a Saturday when there is no MNSSHP (doing that the night before). I bet it will be crowded. And I’ll ask him to compare it to MK the night before when he will be at the party.

 

[MrPromey]

This is exactly what I was going to say; good thing I read through the more recent posts before commenting.

I'm very afraid this is going to turn into Disney not even attempting to build big immersive areas (and to cuts across the board in the parks) because they'll look at Galaxy's Edge and go, "Waste of money; didn't work to bring in crowds. Spend less money on all future projects."

Yeah, they can't do that though because someone up the road keeps upping the ante. They can survive for a short time but by the time Universal's third (4th, I guess they're calling it) gate opens, Disney's slacking off would have really start to hurt.

They've been able to pretend like Universal isn't a threat for a long time and have kept playing the "blue ocean" game but the fact of the mater is, they now have someone who keeps building immersive hotel experiences and who has and continues to grow as a multi-day attraction.

Nostalgia for what Disney has replace or poorly maintained will not hold them for another decade at the rate their competition is moving.

I wouldn't be surprised if the recent (last couple years) spat of park construction has to do with them finally realizing it's going to be hard to fill hotel rooms in a few years as guest interest starts to turn more to someone else's attractions far more than anything to do with an anniversary.

I mean, does anyone seriously think that without Potter, we'd have gotten the "immersive" design of Star Wars land and for that matter, even what they did with the environment of Avatar?

The anniversary fits a far more marketable narrative but I think that good old fashioned competition is the real motivator at play.

... and that's not a bad thing, in my opinion.

 

[monothingie]

7PM

Falcon 30
7DMT on a party night 40 (no fast pass)

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

American auto sales were up 10% in August '19 compared to August '18.

I use that as it's a big ticket item, often the most expensive thing someone owns besides their home, and to see a huge jump like that means the consumer is feeling very good about things. And it was a sales trend that stretched across all price points; from Honda up 20% and Toyota up 12% to BMW up 7% and Porsche up 14%. https://autoweek.com/article/car-news/new-car-sales-august-2019-winners-and-losers

American consumers aren't pausing when it comes to big ticket items. This year they are actually accelerating their purchases of big ticket items. The economy added another 130,000 jobs in August, unemployment remains at a 50 year low of 3.7%, and wages are rising at 3.2% while inflation remains at only 1.6%.

A WDW trip isn't as much as a car, but it's certainly spendy. We'll need to try another theory why folks are choosing to skip a WDW visit thus far.

I'm increasingly of the opinion that it's as simple as Star Wars Land in its current Chapek format just wasn't enough to overcome the traditional September doldrums on either coast.

You know there are a hundred different ways to look at those things.

Labor Day was “included in August” because of the calendar...

Sales were up in July and August but awful the previous 6 months.

“Unemployment is low”...but “underemployment”
Is very high...

Wages are up? How about for the bulk of people of the people?

Inflation 1.6%? What has it been in Disney pricing year over year?


Besides...I said “pause”...not “shutdown”

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

7PM

Falcon 30
7DMT on a party night 40 (no fast pass)

And mine Train sucks...”big thunder lite”

 

[MisterPenguin]

I’ve been telling friends to avoid DHS until next year.

I just found out why it's so dead in Orlando!!!

 

[Travel Junkie]

Millennium Falcon cannot really be compared to other rides at WDW until we have FP+, once that occurs it is similar to 3 track/theatre TSMM or Soaring.

Exactly. On top of which success or failure can't be determined by the wait time of one ride over a short period of time, which is how some are trying to paint it.

That gets in the way of some people's agenda's though.

 

[Travel Junkie]

Of course hindsight is 20-20, but if Burbank and the park execs would have known this was going to be the response on both coasts they would have just waited for Resistance to be ready.

It sounds like Resistance faced some really big construction delays, and that got them panicking and so they just went for it with only the Falcon open. Just like all of us here, the execs surely thought the place would be mobbed even without Resistance open. Oops!

It would be extremely dumb to let a revenue generator sit there for months even though it is ready, just so they can open it when everything can open at once. Roughly 7 months at DL and 4 months at DHS's revenue is zero if they waited. Instead they have months upon months of $200 lightsabers, $100 droids, overpriced drinks at Oga's, and other merch to account for. Even if it is not as much as first anticipated, they have started getting an ROI on this.

If they had it to do over again, Disney would have put the hype machine into hyperdrive instead of warning of crowd Armageddon and dialed back the extra CM's they hired once they knew the primary ride would be delayed. However, letting a revenue generator sit around gathering dust is the absolute worse thing a business can do. Anyone who would have made that decision does not deserve to make decisions for a company of any size.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Exactly. On top of which success or failure can't be determined by the wait time of one ride over a short period of time, which is how some are trying to paint it.

That gets in the way of some people's agenda's though.

You’re saying a ride can’t be judged based on the traditional traffic? As in people walking up and choosing to go on a brand new ride in the second most famous (arguably) spaceship in entertainment history?

You have to include the prebooked ride rationing that stretches out the wait?

Got it...no agenda here

 

[mikejs78]

You’re saying a ride can’t be judged based on the traditional traffic?

I agree with him. You shouldn't judge the success or failure of an attraction based on wait times over the course of a few weeks. Talk to me in 6 months.

 

[Travel Junkie]

You’re saying a ride can’t be judged based on the traditional traffic? As in people walking up and choosing to go on a brand new ride in the second most famous (arguably) spaceship in entertainment history?

You have to include the prebooked ride rationing that stretches out the wait?

Got it...no agenda here

Savi's workshop is generating roughly $120,000 A DAY in revenue according to Touring Plans. What I am saying is that some people are calling all of Galaxy'd Edge a bust because one ride doesn't have 3 hour waits all hours of the day.

This is not to mention you are judging rides by different criteria. SR doesn't have FP. It's being compared to rides that do.

 

[mikejs78]

This is not to mention you are judging rides by different criteria. SR doesn't have FP. It's being compared to rides that do.

Rides also have different capacity. A 60 minute wait means something different at MF vs Peter Pan, for example, as MF can handle ~1700 pph while Pan only ~800.