Walt be like...WTF!
Posted on 06/30/2019 12:25:50 PM PDT by jeannineinsd
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is turning Disneyland into a virtual ghost town, and the park is now scrambling to boost attendance this summer.
The highly anticipated new land debuted on May 31, but with a reservation-only system in place, the big crowds never showed up. When Star Wars Land officially opened to the general public on June 24, the expected onslaught of massive crowds didn’t arrive either.
The line for Disneyland’s newest attraction, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, now struggles to reach even a 60min wait throughout the day, while the rest of a nearly-deserted park musters waits of only 10-20min for most rides. In fact, many of the days since the opening of Star Wars Land are some of the least crowded days this year, according to the Disneyland Crowd Calendar. Now less than a week after its public debut, crowds are still at historical lows and the park is making major moves to fix it.
So, what exactly is going on? The lackluster attendance so far may be to blame on the extreme precautions the park took ahead of the opening. Disney expected chaos—and so did everyone else.
Crowds “blocked out”
An empty Disneyland after the opening of Star Wars says more about the popularity of the annual pass program than anything else, including the new land. With so many annual passholders, especially locals (SoCal Select), the parks tend to attract more crowds on days when passes are valid. On days when more APs are blocked out, Disneyland tends to be less crowded. Disney just recently launched the Flex Annual Pass to counter this problem, but the effect passholders have on bringing down attendance levels is on full display early this summer thanks to a surge of AP blockout dates. Just over a year ago, Disneyland made the decision to block out all annual passes (except the very highest tiers) for the summer season this year, anticipating record-breaking attendance for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Disney even introduced park-specific blockout dates to steer crowds away from Disneyland and into California Adventure for the summer.
Now, less than a month into the new land’s opening, Disney is trying to attract those passholders back to Disneyland.
Please come back, APs! (and bring your friends!) Demand for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has yet to live up to expectations, but Disneyland is already taking drastic measures to try to reverse the trend before the summer is over.
Disneyland is bringing back the “Bring a Friend” promotion for annual passholders. Now through August 30, 2019, APs can bring a friend with the purchase of a 1-Day Park Hopper ticket for $99. There’s also a major change from last year’s “Bring a Friend” deal: if your pass is blocked out, you can still purchase the ticket at $99 for both yourself and your friend. You can buy up to three tickets per passholder.
Still, the promotion stops short of unblocking passes for the summer—something many passholders have been clamoring for after seeing a near-empty park. “At this time, blockout dates are not being lifted,” Disney says.
If the return of discounted tickets isn’t enough to bring in the crowds, park officials are hoping that the return of a Disneyland classic will. The Main Street Electrical Parade is also making a surprise return to Disneyland for a “limited-time encore engagement” beginning August 2 through September 30, 2019. A quick glance at Disneyland’s wait times tells you all you need to know about why the park is making big moves this summer. Light crowds and short lines was the norm throughout June, and when the reservation requirement was lifted on June 24, attendance just never picked up. While the average wait for Millennium Falcon hovers around a modest 60min or less throughout the day, the rest of Disneyland enjoys minimal wait times and even walk-on’s for many rides.
The short lines may not last for long though, as the AP ticket promotion kicks in and word spreads that Disneyland is actually not crowded at all for once. Late June/early July is also historically more manageable at the Disneyland Resort, so crowds are expected to pick up later in the summer season.
It’s also important to keep in mind that not all of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is open yet, as the land is being opened in two phases. The new land’s other major attraction, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, is set to open in the next phase “later this year,” according to Disney. Disneyland—and just about everyone else—expected the worst from Star Wars Land, but the precautions the park took early on to handle any capacity issues are proving to be working a little too well. It’s still too early to tell exactly how much of an impact the new summer promotions will have on crowds, but if attendance doesn’t pick soon, more changes may be on the way.
For the best and worst days to visit Disneyland, be sure to keep an eye on the Disneyland Crowd Calendar. The forecast is updated regularly, so check back often.
What do you think of the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge so far? Are you planning on visiting Disneyland soon?
I’m still flabbergasted they didn’t go with Timothy Zahn’s Grand Admiral Thrawn trilogy. What a great character.
There is an old Hollywood line that every great villain must have enough humanity that you love him some. That was Thrawn.
I will never understand that call.
I think Star Wars is over.
Too many people figured they could milk that cow for whatever it was that was important to them, the fans be damned.
Well, the Golden Goose has finally expired. O body is going to be able to exploit this franchise again, because thee is nothing left.
Can you tell me a little bit about the Falcon ride?
the reservation period is over
people made reservations, but it was difficult to manage in an open area. So they stopped doing reservations.
they have raised the prices several times the last 5 years but people still come. For some from other countries and other areas of the US this is a once in lifetime destination for their children.
Keeps the riff-raff out.
he offered to run the monorail to downtown anaheim and the city said no thanx.
Can’t scramble for more people...when you support aborting them all. Hope Disney goes down the tubes enough to fir that asshole.
10-20 minute wait for a ride seems very reasonable, far better than scheduling an appointment.
Walt be like...WTF!
#21 I made the Kessel run faster then that and at less cost.
Han Solo
The new trilogy could not look more like a sadistic premeditated murder of the original franchise and everything people loved about it.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Disney sees an investor suit over the question of why pay $4B for SW only to destroy it on purpose.
The highly anticipated new land debuted on May 31...
Gosh, a flop, right when the summer heat is kicking up? What a crazy outcome.
Disney makes their appeal to the 2% who are totally PC... not the 98% of middle-of-the road type folks.
when cars back then hit 100 thousand miles they went to the junkyard.. now their just broken in
You are put in teams of six. You have two pilots, two shooters and two engineers. The latter fix the problems caused by the others, apparently. Your team goes on the mission. Not sure how many “missions” the ride has going at a time. You are not aware of where all the other people went, really. The team of six is seated together in the cockpit. You get a result at the end saying how well you did at your job.
A lot of us SoCal locals just simply don’t go in summer anyway. Too hot, long lines. We might go for Halloween.
Yep. My husband said it reminded him of the 1980 Olympics. There was a concern about how bad traffic was going to be, so most Angelenos either left town or stayed at home for two weeks, so the result was light traffic, instead of the anticipated problems. Southern Californians make pragmatic adjustments like that.
We thank you very much jeannineinsd!
My daughter really earned after doing so well from a first year at a new school.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.