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?
You win.
It’s all ridiculous!
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Yup. So with your average kid that’s 6 rides and 6 hours of waiting.
With your average kid.
Disney needs to find the magic number of guests to keep wait times under 15 minutes and limit the number in the park to that.
But they won’t. Eff um.
I thought i was going to be the one who had to say it. DISNEY KILLED STAR WARS!
Let’s go to Wally World Dad...
Exactly! Those links just show how far left the Disney brand has become.
My wife grew up in Orange County, 1970s. Her family and all her friends’ families had annual passes to Disney. About once a week each summer, a mom would haul a car load of girls to Anaheim, and drop them off at Disney in the morning. Another mom would pick them up late afternoon.
“They probably still good...but only on “Transgender Pride Day”.
they still do this sh&t at DL. The one thing the media dont report is that its a GHOST town because repeat customers AVOID the day with their families. How do I know? I’m in the biz...and further confirmed by fag business acquaintances of mine. I dont ask them about it, they just tell me and one of them directly works for Disney corporate.
All of the above, and Kathleen Kennedy too.
The arrogance of Disney - raise the prices on tickets to the point where most middle class families can’t do it any more.
The Disneyland blackout days are days some annual pass holders cannot get admission to the park by using the annual pass. The pass holder would need to pay full admission price to enter the park. These are usually the high park attendance days such as holidays, weekends, and now the whole summer of 2019.
The purpose of the blackout days are crowd control, and revenue enhancement - it is better from Disney’s point of view to fill the park with people paying full admission price.
Disneyland has a tiered pricing structure for annual passes. The most expensive annual pass, $1399.00 per year, does not have any blackout dates. The lower cost passholders do have a tiered level of blackout dates.
https://disneyland.disney.go.com/passes/
Why anyone would fork over that kind of money to stand in the heat and wait for a ten minute ride is beyond me!!!
Wow! That makes the annual pass at the Henry Ford Greenfield Village in Dearborn look pretty good! You even get discounted admission to the Ford Rouge plant tours with it. Besides, it’s so much more interesting than Disneyland.
Several of us asked Disney denizens if there was a time to come that was more user friendly. They said February as there were fewer kids about.
It occurred to me that, if not for the kids, what was the point?
I am a fan of the long dead Walt Disney. That said, Disney land and Disney World were never ever on my bucket list. My wife and I went because our grand kids were going to be there. It says right here that Disney World repayed the effort. We were there for a week. I suspect Disney Land is no different.
1968 was my last time....weekend getaway from Camp Pendleton. I believe the admission wsa $12.50!!!!
Thanks for letting me know; added to my knowledge bank. :)
A car back then cost a tenth of what a new car costs today.
So that $12.50 would be around a hundred and twenty-five today.
One of the other online magazines also had mentioned about how empty Galaxy’s Edge was. They were thinking that maybe Disney had over marketed it and scared people off. But, according to most actual Star Wars fans, the reason you gave... That there’s hardly any Star Wars in a Star Wars-themed attraction... was the real culprit behind the lack of attendance.
There is even an actual move to boycott anything to do with Star Wars until Disney apologizes to the fans for the debacle that was ‘The Last Jedi’. Many of them are saying that Kathleen Kennedy, a well-known SJW, completely ruined the whole Mythos behind Star Wars with her Mary Sue main character. One of the major pushers behind this boycott, a YouTuber who goes by the name of Diktor Von Doomcock, his said that their motto is “Without Respect, We Reject”.
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