Star Wars Land is Making Disneyland Super Empty

IsItPacked ^ | 6/29/19 | Staff

[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?

[bgill]

After the 3rd installment of Star Wars, I can’t be bothered with them.

With so many of the good old rides being dumped, the high prices and the pandering to gays, I can’t be bothered with Disney.

[faithhopecharity]

ssssssh!’

the DNC candidates will resemble that remark....
and offer “Free” Disneyland passes to all their voters, as a matter of “social justice” (their latest buzzword for communism)

[metmom]

Never been there.

Never plan to be.

Have no desire to.

[LS]

I truly wonder if the stench of LA, SF, and Silicon Valley isn’t spreading over all of CA.

We were going to go this summer, and changed our minds. Going to Vegas instead. We normally drop about $5k over about 3 days at the California Grand and Disney. I said, “Nope. Don’t want to give CA another dime if I can help it.”

[Zhang Fei]

[Cost of one day, one park only ticket to Disneyland this summer: $149 ]

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That’s a lot of money to spend on jumped-up carnival rides.

[Falconspeed]

My grand father took this photo in April 1959. Walt Disney was an amazing business man who found a place in Anaheim to build a train in the 1940's. Then he added stuff for people to look at while riding his train in 1955. My grandparents went to the opening day. I enjoyed going to Disneyland as a child with my grandparents. Then in high school we snuck in for free on weekends. Now it is expensive, crowded and boring. I go maybe once a year. Main Street is still fun and Space Mountain is still the best coaster in America. Michael Eisner destroyed the Disney brand from 1985-2005 and the majority of engineers left. I remember when California Adventure opened in 2001 and Bob Disney said: "I liked it better when it was a parking lot." $149 for a ticket designed to be high. It is the price point just like baseball stadiums and ski resorts. It brings the needed cash and keeps the crowds lower. A $50 ticket would bring the theme park to a stand still: everyone squeezed together an unable to walk.

[PAR35]

There was some sort of a puppet attraction in Atlanta (where CNN is located now) that used to advertise how crowded it was and how reservations were needed. They kept the same marketing approach until they shut down because no one wanted to risk taking their children to ‘that part’ of Atlanta to stand in a long line and risk getting turned away. Ted Turner picked up the space cheap.

The Atlanta major league hockey team tried the same approach, advertising how crowded it would be and how hard it was to get tickets. Until the empty seats drove them to Canada.

Sounds like Disney may have hired a marketing team out of Atlanta.

[PAR35]

I’d also try to make it more affordable for youth to visit

That's the Six Flags model - meaning that the parks get overrun with urban 'youths' with annual passes. Case in point was their Astroworld park in Houston. Suburban whites had to give up on it, and it eventually went the way of big city malls.

[ConservativeMind]

Six Flags has a cost effective membership program now.

For Platinum, it was $8.70 a month for all parks (including water), all parking, all drinks, and discounts on everything else.

You even get three months free after canceling it after 12 months.

A much better option!

[faithhopecharity]

aw gee... (and another FR’er said similar thing)

horrible! but i guess our society has rotted out so much...that...its necessary to do things like this

[GingisK]

The only way to get me into a Disney theme park again is to kill me and then drag my dead body through the gate.

[pepsi_junkie]

I've watched several of Doomcock's videos, I'm on the side of "Star Wars? What's that? Oh that thing that was great 25 years ago? Loved that!" I accepted that "The Force Awakens" was a rehash of the original Star Wars with a less interesting main character (Mary Sue, yes but not yet on the level she'd reach in the next film). "The Last Jedi" broke me.

My opinion: Rian Johnson went into it with intention of trolling the fans. He intentionally did everything he could to not deliver on anything they wanted to see. And that could be okay if he delivered something good. Luke could be a broken man if training Rey gave him purpose and allowed him to fight back from the brink. But no, Rian Johnson didn't offer us an unexpcted arc. Instead he has Luke refuse to help Rey and she trains herself for an afternoon and then she's just better than Luke anyway so he just sucks now. ooh wow didn't everyone love how expectations were subverted?! Actually no. And he did stuff like that over. and over. and over. Until I decided "he's doing this on purpose, he's not just inept. He's trolling us."

[Jonty30]

I once,just for the heck of it,priced out a two week vacation to California to see all the mainstay sites.

I got a bargain price of $8,000.

[married21]

Line for that millenium falcon ride was zero when we came into the park befor 8;00 am. There was a line but it just moved you rt onto the ride. DH and son went later in the afternoon and it was 45 in standby line and 50-75 in regular. (It fluctuated, apparently, but 50 was more like it.)
5 minute Wait on splash mountain in a m. 15 for Pirates of the Caribbean. Standby on Space Mountain was almost walk on. Some rides still were worth using FASTPASS, like star tours and Indiana Jones. Hope that is sort of helpful.

[jeannineinsd]

Sounds like a great day at the park.

[jeannineinsd]

Beautiful picture.

[jeannineinsd]

“Long ago and so far away”

I love the Carpenters!

[jeannineinsd]

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.

Sounds like a fun way to grow up.

[jeannineinsd]

My wife and daughter left 90 minutes ago on a night train with beds to Disneyland Paris for a week vacation.I am home with the puppy.

I hope your wife and daughter have a wonderful vacation.

[jeannineinsd]

My annual premium pass was over $800 per year and when Disney eliminated it in 2015 and replaced it by one around $1000, I decided to move back home to Texas. So thanks, Disney! I am glad I’m not there to see how they ruined DL with that new land which should have gone to California Adventure.

It is only 4 years later and that $800 pass seems like a bargain now. The current price for an annual pass with no blackout dates is $1,399! The lower price annual passes have blackout dates for summer and holidays.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/passes/

I hear Texas is a nice place to live and I hope you are enjoying it there.