Congrats to Magic Kingdom!!

[LOL!]

Being number 3 isn't exactly shameful. I would worry more about the poorer performance of the other parks.

Thanks, it's why I started this thread. I had no idea it would be pooh-poohed because MK wasn't #1.

 

[Planogirl]

Thanks, it's why I started this thread. I had no idea it would be pooh-poohed because MK wasn't #1.

Sometimes the focus seems to be to constantly defend MK. MK is pretty good and maybe it is number 3 because some think it's too crowded or some don't like parks or whatever. Number 3 is still very good. But what about those other parks?

 

[grimley1968]

Sometimes the focus seems to be to constantly defend MK. MK is pretty good and maybe it is number 3 because some think it's too crowded or some don't like parks or whatever. Number 3 is still very good. But what about those other parks?

I was stunned DHS, a park with 5 rides and a few shows, got #5 on that list.

 

[Planogirl]

I was stunned DHS, a park with 5 rides and a few shows, got #5 on that list.

I agree that that is really weird. Why in the world would that park beat virtually any other?

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I'm going to say most (many?) people are going to WDW because of their kids. I don't know anyone else in all of my circles, relatives, friends, neighbors, schools, who go to WDW as much as we do. We are the outliers. People I know tend to go once, or perhaps a few times during the years as their children are growing up. I think that is the norm. They are exactly the kind of folks who are going to come back and say that MK was too crowded and they didn't get on enough rides. This is compounded by the fact that they aren't poring over the Disboards catching every touring tip, so they will be the ones who are most disappointed when the monorail doesn't show up or half the rides weren't open during the EMH. That kind of thing.
I'm thinking the IoA rating (I think that Discovery Cove is in a different category) is higher because there is a very motivated group of people going to see Hogsmeade and now Diagon Alley and those two lands are awesome especially for HP fans.

I totally agree that we are outliers amongst the people we know, and most people we know cannot believe we go to Disney as often as we do. Most of these people have also visited since I've known them, and have come back asking why I like it so much, they don't get why we visit so much, they don't understand how we have a good time, blah, blah, blah. The fact is we're Disney fans and we're more predisposed to liking Disney's offerings. Almost everyone else I know who has been there visits because they're "supposed" to take their kids once. So they do. And usually, they hate it. Which makes me feel bad for them, but also makes me feel a little judged by them because we don't hate it and they don't understand our love of it.

As for IoA's rating...having finally visited IoA this summer for the first time since it was in soft openings back in 1999 (or 1998? whichever), I can definitely see why it gets a top rating. Yes, WWoHP has totally drawn in people. But once you get those people into the park, they are free to discover all of this other stuff that they didn't know existed in the park. At Universal Studios, we spent a lot of time in Diagon Alley, but surprisingly had a great time in the other parts of the park as well. Springfield is awesome and we had fun on Transformers and Minions. But over at IoA...Hogsmeade was awesome, but we much preferred Gringotts to the Forbidden Journey (not as scary, not as motion-sickness inducing, and the whole family could ride vs. having to have our youngest sit out in FJ because he wasn't tall enough)...but then we started exploring the rest of the park and OMG it is so much fun! We LOVED the Jurassic Park section. We had by far the most fun as a family on Bluto's Bilgerat Barges. Suess Landing is like a kids' dream come true. And they have super heroes! We spend 2 1/2 days there and wished for more time because we felt like we were missing so much. And that's why we're dropping days from Disney in October. IoA is an unexpected gem. I can totally see why it ranks so high because it has something for everyone and everything is well done.

I think the larger numbers of people in itself lowers the satisfaction for some.

Very true. One of the reasons we enjoyed the Universal part of our stay so much is because we weren't competing with so many other people for the attractions (and we had Express Pass thanks to our onsite Deluxe stay). When those theme park attendance numbers come out I'm HAPPY. I don't enjoy being crammed into the MK with literally 18 million other people.

 

[JimmyV]

I'm thinking the IoA rating (I think that Discovery Cove is in a different category) is higher because there is a very motivated group of people going to see Hogsmeade and now Diagon Alley and those two lands are awesome especially for HP fans.

Another very, very important fact that has a profound impact on the results. Consider the demographic that posts reviews on sites such as Yelp, Urban Spoon and Tripadvisor. Are they more likely to be selfie-taking, social media addicts between the ages of 17-40, or are they more likely to be empty nester retirees? Now, of course I am not saying that the latter group abstains from posting reviews on TA. But if we are being honest, which group do you think dominates? Against that backdrop, consider that that the HP books were published (in the U.S.) between 1998 and 2007. So a person who was 10 years old when the first book debuted is now 27 years old. So when a 30 year old who was a Harry Potter fanatic goes to both the MK to ride the 7DMT and also goes to US/IOA to see Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, which do you think they are going to love more? Tripadvisor ratings are not scientifically gathered. They are self-reports from social media addicts and that naturally skews the age, and to some degree, interests of the populace. As the title of this thread points out: Congrats to the MK. Third place is very impressive. But it should come as no shock that Harry Potter is beating Winnie the Pooh among the people who hang out at TA. If the AARP had a ratings system for theme parks, something else would win. (Quite possibly the MK). And if the PTO/PTA of America had a rating system for theme parks, something else would win. (Quite possibly the MK).

 

[ArwenMarie]

Another very, very important fact that has a profound impact on the results. Consider the demographic that posts reviews on sites such as Yelp, Urban Spoon and Tripadvisor. Are they more likely to be selfie-taking, social media addicts between the ages of 17-40, or are they more likely to be empty nester retirees? Now, of course I am not saying that the latter group abstains from posting reviews on TA. But if we are being honest, which group do you think dominates? Against that backdrop, consider that that the HP books were published (in the U.S.) between 1998 and 2007. So a person who was 10 years old when the first book debuted is now 27 years old. So when a 30 year old who was a Harry Potter fanatic goes to both the MK to ride the 7DMT and also goes to US/IOA to see Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, which do you think they are going to love more? Tripadvisor ratings are not scientifically gathered. They are self-reports from social media addicts and that naturally skews the age, and to some degree, interests of the populace. As the title of this thread points out: Congrats to the MK. Third place is very impressive. But it should come as no shock that Harry Potter is beating Winnie the Pooh among the people who hang out at TA. If the AARP had a ratings system for theme parks, something else would win. (Quite possibly the MK). And if the PTO/PTA of America had a rating system for theme parks, something else would win. (Quite possibly the MK).

Very good point.

 

[JimmyV]

Very good point.

...but very soon, I will be told how wrong I am.

 

[itchin2go]

For tripadvisor I like to throw out the 5s and 1s and read the 3s and 4s. If the place has lots of twos, I don't bother. I get my most helpful votes for reviews I write on 3 star ratings. I just railed on the disgusting Chef Mickeys and gave it a two. Nobody will ever mark that as helpful. Lol.

Good point - and not just on tripadvisor. I have friends who like everything and are rarely disappointed in anything, and then there are people who are pretty unhappy all the time. Hard to pay much attention to their reviews of anything.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

To "compel" and to "force" are two entirely different things. Marketing departments most certainly try to compel people to purchase their product, it's the reason for their very existence. Of course they can't "force" anyone to do it.

And in the example offered, Disney wasn't marketing to kids whose parents could simply say no. They are marketing to grandparents and explaining why it's such a good idea for them to take their grandchildren to Disney World, even going so far as to imply how young it will make them feel.

And maybe Disney Marketing decided to target the grandparents because more parents ARE saying no?

I think they're actually targeting Dads more than any other group. Have you watched anything on ESPN since the purchase? Every commercial break has something for Disney and they are constantly promoting events at WWoS, HS and Boardwalk. Essentially they're saying go for the wife and kids and we'll find something for you as well.

Disney doesn't market to the people who they know they're getting money from anyway. Sure we may get an occasional PIN to encourage a trip but they aren't wasting money to draw in people they already know come and love it.

 

[cakebaker]

Obviously they've identified grandparents as an especially loyal group who might even be able to afford or influence a trip for the whole family.

Sometimes the focus seems to be to constantly defend MK. MK is pretty good and maybe it is number 3 because some think it's too crowded or some don't like parks or whatever. Number 3 is still very good. But what about those other parks?

I don't feel the need to defend the MK's ranking on TA at all. From the outset I've just been curious about some of the rankings and wondering why? I just don't think one can put much stock in those results as an indicator of success because of it- regardless of who was or wasn't #1. There are some who seem to think Disney is reaping what they've sown and looking at the #3 ranking as some indicator of Disney's decline. I certainly don't agree with that, especially looking at the overall results.

 

[flicx]

Sometimes the focus seems to be to constantly defend MK. MK is pretty good and maybe it is number 3 because some think it's too crowded or some don't like parks or whatever. Number 3 is still very good. But what about those other parks?

The magic kingdom is a worthy park and should be near the top. After that the other three, especially EPCOT come up way short in my eyes and apparently others too. EPCOT at number 16 is just plain sad. However Disney has only themselves to blame. The park has been neglected for years now. So many empty pavilions. The worst part is it has such potential, tons of space.

 

[LOL!]

The magic kingdom is a worthy park and should be near the top. After that the other three, especially EPCOT come up way short in my eyes and apparently others too. EPCOT at number 16 is just plain sad. However Disney has only themselves to blame. The park has been neglected for years now. So many empty pavilions. The worst part is it has such potential, tons of space.

Strip away the other parks mentioned and I would agree they have ranked the WDW parks in the correct order.

 

[ArwenMarie]

The magic kingdom is a worthy park and should be near the top. After that the other three, especially EPCOT come up way short in my eyes and apparently others too. EPCOT at number 16 is just plain sad. However Disney has only themselves to blame. The park has been neglected for years now. So many empty pavilions. The worst part is it has such potential, tons of space.

ITA but Epcot I suspect is still insanely profitable from all of the food and drink festivals and restaurants. I think that's why we don't hear any rumors of anything big going on there, it's doing just fine.

 

[PantherPete]

I agree that that is really weird. Why in the world would that park beat virtually any other?

One word: Frozen

DHS has the Frozen Fireworks and the Frozen sing-a-long. And Frozen Mania is just about the hottest fad to hit since the hula hoop.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

We havent been to a Universal park in over ten yrs. We are AP holders for all main 4 WDW and also have SW/BG but havent set foot at Universal. They cost too much for just two parks and not to be Disney, which has four parks, even with FLR. Nothing they have added has appealed to us enough to pay those prices. (Love Transformers and MIB tho).

On the other hand, we go to MK at least several times a month and go to some Disney park 3-4 times a week. For us, that speaks pretty loudly for IOA vs MK and so on for us...

Edit: when I tally up my visits each month, between SWW and great rides, by far, we have gone more to HS more than any other park. We just never get sick of ToT, RnRc, TSMM, ST. It's just our fave park...

 

[jtowntoflorida]

One word: Frozen

DHS has the Frozen Fireworks and the Frozen sing-a-long. And Frozen Mania is just about the hottest fad to hit since the hula hoop.

Well, I also think that Star Wars helps, too. We LOVE DHS and it's because we're Star Wars fans. We can ride Star Tours over and over again because the ride sequence is different each time. And we actually CAN ride it over and over again because lines for it are so short. Our kids can fight with Darth Vader himself. I don't care what we're filling the rest of the day with at DHS...those two things make DHS SO MUCH FUN for us. I remember once I was going to get into a heated discussion about how DHS sucks and is a half day park by disputing those posters with our facts after we'd just returned from a trip that included a 13 hour DHS day without a break. And then I ended up deleting my post before hitting Reply because I realized that we'd ridden Star Tours 6 times that day. Our list of what we accomplished didn't look so impressive with those repeat rides taken out.

If there isn't a Star Wars land announcement at D23, I may cry. For realz.

 

[Bigwands]

Surprise universal islands of adventure is number 1 second is discovery cove

That's fair. With the HP stuff, Universal has really stepped up their game in the family department and Discovery Cove is a unique experience for a lot of people.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Not at all. It simply means that the number of people who are driving the ranking down is comparatively small in relation to the total number of guests. If the number of grumbling haters was 10,000,000 out of 18,000,000 guests per year, you would see a star rating of far lower than 4.5. If the number of haters is 300,000, then perhaps 5 stars becomes 4.5. The point being that WDW has a higher percentage of people who would prefer not to be there than any other amusement/theme park because WDW is unique in its place in Americana as a destination that most everyone strives to attain for their family.





I'll rest on that.

Very interesting that you claim others don't get it. When the information is available to you.

So, I request an actual documented statistic for your claim. Otherwise, your point stands on quicksand.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

To "compel" and to "force" are two entirely different things. Marketing departments most certainly try to compel people to purchase their product, it's the reason for their very existence. Of course they can't "force" anyone to do it.

And in the example offered, Disney wasn't marketing to kids whose parents could simply say no. They are marketing to grandparents and explaining why it's such a good idea for them to take their grandchildren to Disney World, even going so far as to imply how young it will make them feel.

And maybe Disney Marketing decided to target the grandparents because more parents ARE saying no?

LOL.