OK, I have some free time before going to bed. (Tomorrow is City Hall fun stuff, Mid-Year Budget review followed by a Council Meeting). After Monday night's meeting, went to Kaiser Urgent care, my wife tripped this afternoon while walking on her break....
So, let's look back at history, what Walt first built in 1955 didn't really take into consideration how many folks per hour the attraction could handle, he was more focused on the amount of attractions he could offer to his guests.
But over 1 Million guests the first summer had to make him think about ride coupon sales, and how to create more revenue.
At the same time, the New York World's Fair was starting to plan, and they expected large crowds and asked its vendors/sponsors to make sure they could handle large crowds. Walt Disney wanted to be a major vendor, and had his team to figure out attractions that could handle large crowds.
And the work began, we can see what Walt offered at the World's Fair.
And you can see it at Disneyland. The Matterhorn had two separate tracks, Tomorrowland got Adventures through Inner Space (Omnimover), Flight to the Moon (two theaters), Circle Vision, large 360 degree theater with preshow and PeopleMover.
Then when got to build the Tiki Room, which had a great preshow, but the theaters was of decent, but not great size, he went with an upcharge at first. (Special tickets more expensive than an E ticket).
And he brought the World's Fair attractions back to Anaheim, with their great people eater volumes.
Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and after his death, Country Bear Jamboree and Splash Mountain. All high volume attractions.
Theme Parks and its owners always look at expected PPH when building/buying new attractions. It is an important part of the decision making into what to add and what not to add.
Look at the extreme measures Disney took last summer to try and mitigate the large, expected crowds. While they didn't show up, what would have happened. a low percentage of AP holders and locals (limited CM sign ins), instead tourists and other high paying guests.
What would been the reaction if RotR was operating with the limited hours, PPH and breakdowns. I think Disney would have had a different type of marketing issues, with all the negative guest reviews complaining they couldn't get onto RotR.
They designed Smuggler's Run with multiple theaters to increase capacity.
Why didn't Disney build two sides to RotR, to help out with both capacity, but also with down time, as more than likely, one side could keep operating ?
How much more would have it been to build one more theater building, and outfit it? If the whole land cost $1 Billion, we can guess at $100 to $200 Million. And then you could have looked at offering MaxPass Plus and create additional income.
Not sure what happened in those Management Meetings and discussions with WDI.. But something failed!
Need some sleep, but I think President's Day Week in Mid-February will be a major test to see how Disney handles large crowds, large percentage of out of towners, long hours for over a week straight, etc.
