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

[marni1971]

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.

TP is probably right with the lower figure so far. It can take weeks, months for cast to get to grips with systems and protocols and in the process become more efficient.

 

[Stripes]

I liked the land...I’m on record.

It’s underbuilt as usual...but what they blew a billion on works.

It’s about STAR WARS...people aren’t down with this. We have marvel to point to...people are “down”. Minor character spinoff movies are good for a billion...all of them. Couldn’t get a kindergarten class to watch solo...or 45 year old lifetime Star Wars fanatics who owned Kenner toys and probably still do.

Even the press for episode 9 over the last year is one of “can he pull it off?” Not “anticipation”

Hell, Adam driver gave an interview in January where he said this was “their last shot” (paraphrase)

I will always thank he and hamill for their absolute candor with the fans. They get it.

The reaction to the lands...which is “measured” on the lower end of expectations...is more about Star Wars than the parks to me.

Something has been “building” for along time that is coming to a head now.

If 9 isn’t great...and doesn’t reverse the creative slide the franchise is in...that’s where the damn breaks.

The prequels and oversaturated merchandise push for 20 years didn’t quite do it...but now it’s go time.

If 9 isn’t fantastic...They should embrace the OT characters in the lands and make no bones about it being symbolic of how they are going to earn the Star Wars mystique back.

The minute after they fire Kathy Kennedy...of course.

Think I’m kidding? Emotional? Saying this for kicks?

Stay tuned

If 9 doesn’t receive rave reviews from the public (I don‘t give a **** what critics think) Kennedy will be canned in days. I actually do have hope though that they can turn this around. JJ is a fantastic filmmaker.

 

[SparkyMG]

This may provide one piece of the puzzle as to why SW:GE is slower than expected:

WASHINGTON POST - More people are traveling the world than ever. But the number coming to America is dropping.
Here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/trav...-than-ever-number-coming-america-is-dropping/

 

[seascape]

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.

Universal does have better rides and attractions for teenages through age 40. But what about adults with money. Does anyone here really think Universal is a resort that people 50 and older want to go to? WDW has rides and attractions for everyone and especially for those over 50, who are the people with money to spend.

 

[mikejs78]

If 9 doesn’t receive rave reviews from the public (I don‘t give a **** what critics think) Kennedy will be canned in days. I actually do have hope though that they can turn this around. JJ is a fantastic filmmaker.

Rave reviews from the "public" don't mean anything. TLJ got rave reviews from the public. Solo got decent but not great reviews from the public.

It all comes down to the box office.

 

[Steph15251]

Universal does have better rides and attractions for teenages through age 40. But what about adults with money. Does anyone here really think Universal is a resort that people 50 and older want to go to? WDW has rides and attractions for everyone and especially for those over 50, who are the people with money to spend.

Universal ,I feel has mostly roller coasters and screen based rides.

 

[Jlasoon]

Rave reviews from the "public" don't mean anything. TLJ got rave reviews from the public. Solo got decent but not great reviews from the public.

It all comes down to the box office.

I'm sorry but TLJ felt like a gigantic troll job. You can't recover from that abomination. No amount of lens flare & nostalgia will fix that mess - sorry JJ. As for SWGE, no one has an emotional connection to this new trilogy, None. As a local I look forward to seeing this land completely deserted in the not too distant future.

 

[Jlasoon]

I'm not really a major Star Wars fan, although like most Americans I love Chewbacca and Han Solo and Darth Vader.
But you're probably right.

Well lucky for you, they don't really exist in this 'NEW' Disney Star Wars universe.

 

[RSoxNo1]

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.

Chapek stated 1800 publicly for Falcon. Definitely seems like a reach, but I’ve been told California is regularly hitting 1700-1750 now.

 

[lentesta]

TP is probably right with the lower figure so far. It can take weeks, months for cast to get to grips with systems and protocols and in the process become more efficient.

I'll send someone out this week to count riders exiting per hour.

 

[RSoxNo1]

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.

Isn’t Pan closer to 1100-1200?

 

[RSoxNo1]

Of course, I don't blame you. But that One Millionth Rider that the Disney Parks Blog touted after the first 45 days of operation was very telling. The Falcon at the Anaheim park averaged 1,388 riders per hour during its first six weeks of operation this summer. That means a few hours were 1,600, a few hours were 1,150, and there were lots of 1,300 hours in between.

Turntables shut down for a bit, a kid throws up in one of the cockpits and its taken offline for 30 minutes, a video screen is broken for the day, etc.

I imagine the DHS clone of the Falcon is doing about the same during its first month or two of operation. CM's who work in Anaheim's Star Wars Land who post on another board are saying that if the Falcon gets anything above 1,600 for a single hour that's considered something to celebrate.

But let's just say the real-world realities don't intrude on Falcon at DHS, and that it gets 1,700 per hour consistently for 16 hours every day, day after day, week after week, through calendar year 2020. That's still a fairly weak hourly capacity for an E Ticket. 52 year old Pirates of the Caribbean gets 2,900 per hour, Haunted Mansion gets 2,100, Small World does 2,500 per hour, the Epcot Center Omnimovers all did north of 2,000 per hour, as does the 3-theater version of Soarin' at Epcot. Etc., etc.

1,700 per hour is nothing to really brag about, even if that was something that happened consistently hourly and daily, instead of just once in awhile when the stars aligned, every single guest understood English instructions, not a single guest was disabled, and the CM's were on fire.

I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong @marni1971 and @RSoxNo1) that ~1700 was actual based on real world usage. Theoretical was higher.

I've also learned not to trust DPB or random "cast members" online. So I'm sticking with my 1700 assumption.

Agree with you in general about rides not having enough capaciry, but that's an issue with modern attraction design, not with this attraction in particular. For modern e-tickets, it's actually pretty good.

Totally get that 1,700 was some mythical figure used to sell the concept by WDI, and it still shows up on PowerPoint shows and spreadsheets as the goal. But the real world figures are obviously lower, especially during the first few months of operation.

The real world figure for the first 45 days, confirmed by the Disney Parks Blog itself and quite reasonable, was 1,388 riders per hour for the Anaheim version.

Modern E Tickets are a disaster when it comes to hourly capacity. When you've got Celebrity Imagineers and Parks Executives who get free valet parking and unlimited Fastpasses handed out to them whenever they enter the park, why should they care what the hourly capacity is of the headliner rides they build? Why would they personally care? Let the schleppy tourists from unfashionable flyover states wait in that miserable Standby line and fight over what few Fastpasses are available. Who cares about them? I got my next parks project approved and bought a Tesla!

But historically, post 1965 until about the 1990's, Disney parks tried to get as much capacity as possible out of the E Ticket rides they built. It would be nice if Bob Chapek was smart enough to know that, and the current Imagineers weren't so coddled and out of touch that they also knew that.

But here we are my friend, arguing over whether the big Millennium Falcon E Ticket has a real world goal of 1,700 an hour or 1,600 an hour! Either one of those numbers is pathetic, to be honest.

If you’re basing your numbers solely on the DPB post you’re erroneously assuming that the ride always has a line. It definitely didn’t during the preview period.

 

[beertiki]

Lifelong SW fan, been to WDW at least 50 times over the last 20 years. Did the AP preview last month.

If given the choice of a FOP FP or a falcon, I would take the FOP every time. I know that the falcon is not the "big" ride for the land, but, I would have expected more than a video game in the Falcon cockpit. SW land was well done, and there are lots of details from all the movies to find, but I did not leave there with the big WOW that I had from FOP. Pandora just seemed too fake, and it was underwhelming at night, but FOP is so good that we feel it's worth a 90 minute wait. We go do the ride, then leave. I could see the opposite with SW land, if the wait was 35 minutes, I do not think I would get in line, but still walk around the land. Everything could, and should change with ROTR, but I am stuck with a first impression that is just average at best. Neither Pandora or SW comes close to the immersion I felt at Diagon Alley, and I never read one of the books or payed more than 50% attention to the movies when my wife watched them. With star wars land, I feel like I went to a restaurant that opened early, and had an average appetizer, they were not serving entrees, and I left hungry.

 

[marni1971]

I'll send someone out this week to count riders exiting per hour.

Try and ascertain how many tables are running if you do. If the figures come out say below expectations that could be a reason.

 

[mikejs78]

Isn’t Pan closer to 1100-1200?

Maybe. I got that figure off a site, so it could obviously be wrong. But regardless, it's low.

 

[SOOMIN]

Universal does have better rides and attractions for teenages through age 40. But what about adults with money. Does anyone here really think Universal is a resort that people 50 and older want to go to? WDW has rides and attractions for everyone and especially for those over 50, who are the people with money to spend.

I like Universal and I'm over 50. Are you supposed to stop liking rides at 50 ?????

 

[Movielover]

Universal ,I feel has mostly roller coasters and screen based rides.

It's really a shame that Universal Orlando's originally rides had so many problems technically which led to their eventually replacement. Totally Fun Company had a lot on their plate with the extreme complexity of both Kongfrontation and Earthquake, plus adding Back To The Future and trying to get them all ready for opening must have been a huge task. Then there was Ride and Show Engineering which was just pure incompetence when it came to their design of JAWS the Ride, forcing Totally Fun to be brought in to completely redesign it. Those rides were truly spectacular.

 

[networkpro]

I'll send someone out this week to count riders exiting per hour.

Let us know when, I'll supply the blue milk with rum.

 

[networkpro]

I like Universal and I'm over 50. Are you supposed to stop liking rides at 50 ?????

Nope, otherwise think of all the children that would be stuck going to one park and thats it. Its attracting customers of all ages thats the real objective as the majority of children are not independently wealthy.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

If 9 doesn’t receive rave reviews from the public (I don‘t give a **** what critics think) Kennedy will be canned in days. I actually do have hope though that they can turn this around. JJ is a fantastic filmmaker.

That may be...but he has not proven himself to be a fantastic Star Wars writer...for whatever reason. There is a clear difference.

Universal does have better rides and attractions for teenages through age 40. But what about adults with money. Does anyone here really think Universal is a resort that people 50 and older want to go to? WDW has rides and attractions for everyone and especially for those over 50, who are the people with money to spend.

While this is currently true...universal has made up a lot of ground on overall appeal in the last 10 years. They really revitalized their parks and expanded their hotels. Disney has built a couple of lands and a mall that is not very Disney at all.

Now...granted there was a huge difference...but the gap is a bit smaller.

Universal also can’t replicate the natural emotional pull with young children and parents...but I think they know that and are positioning themselves somewhere in between six flags and Disney. Disney is timid with its rides...it’s all about limiting ride additions and fastpass throughput. That’s the only so explain their recent choices.

Rave reviews from the "public" don't mean anything. TLJ got rave reviews from the public. Solo got decent but not great reviews from the public.

It all comes down to the box office.

Both 7 and 8 got great reviews from the critics and the Public follows suit. Neither were very good Star Wars movies at all. No characters and no emotion...forced conflict that feels completely on a page.

I remember getting the papers to “save” when 7 came out...but I didn’t read them. I looked at the front page “Star Wars is back!” Byline at the top of the USA Today with a picture of Ford.

But it wasn’t...I think everyone writing an article about Star Wars needs to be required to watch the OT prior to reviewing any new movie...because I think their memories are failing them.

Only rogue one at times and a little bit of revenge of the sith even attempted to hit the right notes with the pacing, the score and the actor performance. Just a smidge.

I really wish that Disney had gotten Spielberg for 9...pay the ransom...he maybe could have gotten Lucas involved but controlled him. Wouldn’t make kingdom of the crystal skull mistakes twice...I hope