Amusement Park Attendance Rises 4.2 Percent

[Stacy's a freak]

Regarding DME and this "unfair advantage", I seem to recall that the DME greeters with the white gloves were taken away from the 3rd level (or on whatever level they were originally located to greet passengers). Honestly, when I went about a month ago, I had a hard time finding the DME desk even though I was told where to locate it. It was WAY DOWN the hallwall - I thought that I would walk forever to find it! I found the busses before I found a cast member with while gloves. If this is part of your beef, I would strike DME off of your "unfair advantage" list.

 

[Loves Disney]

Be careful. F-L-A might claim that's unfair.

To follow through with the statement I have made about land,

What makes it more is, Universal has already used up a bunch of its land (has less space left than Disney) while Disney only used up 1/3 of its land. That means, despite the many parks (MGM, EPCOT, etc...) and the water parks, and the resorts, Disney still has 2/3 of its land left to build on!

here is a source of information:

Disney Property Statistics

Disney property covers 30,500 acres or about 47 square miles (about twice the size of the island of Manhattan). The Magic Kingdom is 107 acres (7 acres larger than Disneyland); EPCOT is 300 acres; and MGM is 154 acres.

 

[lynn71092]

I live in Chicago and I would not step one foot in Great America in Gurnee.
The crowds are horrible, nothing is done to stop rude people from cutting in line. The last time I went it was over an hour to ride Batman so for the entire day we rode maybe 5 or 6 rides and we were there all day, mostly standing in lines. Give me Disney any day!!

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

Between the new Magic Your Way passes, The Magical Express bus and packaged dining...even free dining with packages at one point it isn't surprising that WDW took away share from Universal. However next year and the year after could be a different story.

I know that at best I'll spend one or two days in a Disney park next year mainly to visit the Zoo and maybe do the F&W or Christmas party. Otherwise...I either won't be in Orlando or will be visiting the other parks...Universal, Sea World and may be even some of the small parks.

 

[phamton]

What I find strange about this is that other articles quotting the same source, say that Universal Studios Orlando went up 8.5. I did a Google search and only two sites listed that Universal Orlando went down and the others listed it went up and they are all quoting the same source. I am still trying to find the original stats from Amusement Business, Economics Research Associates but this is what two other sources say that quoted them:

Most popular parks

The 10 best-attended North American amusement parks in 2005
Est. 2005 Change
Attendance from
Park (millions) 2004
Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Orlando 16.1 +6.5%
Disneyland Anaheim 14.5 +8.5
Epcot at Walt Disney World Orlando 9.9 +5.5
Disney-MGM Studios Orlando 8.6 +5.0
Disney's Animal Kingdom Orlando 8.2 +5.0
Universal Studios Orlando 6.1 +8.5
Disney's California Adventure Anaheim 5.8 +3.6
Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando 5.8 -8.5
SeaWorld Orlando 5.6 +0.2
Universal Studios Universal City 4.7 -6.0

Sources: Amusement Business, Economics Research Associates

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busi...me27dec27,0,4998229.story?coll=orl-home-promo

http://www.latimes.com/business/cus...764913.story?coll=la-headlines-business-enter

 

[erikthewise]

It seems unlikely that Universal Studios went up 8.5% but Islands of Adventure down the same amount. 8.5% is a substantial change either way, and I can't think of any reason why two parks in the same resort would be going in opposite directions.

 

[phamton]

I still couldn't find the original article but did find the stats for last year (2004). It does show the attendance for Universal for 2004 and it is definitely lower than 2005.

Here are the 2004 stats:
1. Magic Kingdom - WDW (15.1 million), 8% higher than 2003

2. Disneyland (13.3 million), 5% higher than 2003

3. Epcot (9.4 million), 9% higher than 2003

4. Disney-MGM Studios (8.2 million), 5% higher than 2003

5. Disney's Animal Kingdom (7.8 million), 7% higher than 2003

6. Universal Studios - Orlando (6.7 million), 14% higher than 2003

7. Islands of Adventure (6.3 million), 13% higher than 2003

8. Disney's California Adventure (5.6 million), 6% higher than 2003

9. SeaWorld Orlando (5.6 million), 4% higher than 2003

10. Universal Studios Hollywood (5 million) 8% higher than 2003

 

[peter11435]

What I find strange about this is that other articles quotting the same source, say that Universal Studios Orlando went up 8.5. I did a Google search and only two sites listed that Universal Orlando went down and the others listed it went up and they are all quoting the same source.

They should all say down 8.5%.

 

[cocowum]

I copied this from http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/12/26/theme.park.attendance.ap/

Universal's two parks in Orlando, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventures, each declined 8 1/2 percent, while Universal Studios Hollywood had an attendance dip of 6 percent. All three parks came off strong attendance increases in 2004.

Tom Schroder, a Universal spokesman, said 2004's highflying attendance was a tough act to follow.

"The bar was raised so incredibly high for us by spectacular attendance in 2004, combined with a very competitive environment to higher gas prices," Schroder said. "2005 was just slightly less great than 2004."

 

[pedro2112]

I'm not sure if you were aware of this, but having cast members in parts of the airport they aren't supposed to be in, and them doing what they've been doing there (they do a whole lot more than pick up designated ME users) is... what's the word I'm looking for? Oh, right... illegal.

Wrong.

 

[phamton]

I copied this from http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/12/26/theme.park.attendance.ap/

Thanks, I did find a PDF file that had the correct info and showed the decline of the attendance at Universal. I noticed that no one posted a thread like this last year when Universal had a 14% increase which was more than any of the other themeparks including Disney that only had a 5% to 8%. This quote was interesting "Tom Schroder, a Universal spokesman, said 2004's highflying attendance was a tough act to follow."

It seems that because they had a 14 % rise the year before, they couldn't reach those numbers last year. So a decline of 8 1/2% was still much higher than the attendance of 2 years ago.

 

[peter11435]

Thanks, I did find a PDF file that had the correct info and showed the decline of the attendance at Universal. I noticed that no one posted a thread like this last year when Universal had a 14% increase which was more than any of the other themeparks including Disney that only had a 5% to 8%. This quote was interesting "Tom Schroder, a Universal spokesman, said 2004's highflying attendance was a tough act to follow."

It seems that because they had a 14 % rise the year before, they couldn't reach those numbers last year. So a decline of 8 1/2% was still much higher than the attendance of 2 years ago.

Actully there were threads about that last year. Anyway you look at it down is not good no matter how much you went up the year before.

 

[simzac]

At least in the case of Disney parks, these are estimates, as Disney doesn't release official numbers. But I suspect they're pretty good estimates.

I believe Disneyland Tokyo is still #1 worldwide.

I could be wrong, but I think these may be record highs for some of the WDW parks, in particular I do not recall MK coming in over 16M before. Anyone know for sure?

But the really amazing thing (for an Ohioan) is that Kings Island edged out Cedar Point. Cedar Point is generally regarded as the national roller coaster leader, and Kings Island is just a fine regional park (we have season passes).

Actually Tokyo's two theme parks are 3rd and 4th worldwide behind Disney World and Disneyland according to Amusement Business.