So by your account MGM should be facing the same problem as AK becuase by my count it only has 4 "rides" and one of those is the Great Movie ride.
Not really. WITHOUT 2 more E-Tickets and a C and D MGM and AK are already on par attraction wise (except for the nighttime show). I believe this is where the zoo/nahtazu thing comes into play.
At MGM, the non-ride attractions are pretty unique, at least as in the fact that you can't find them in most major cities. On the other hand, many people believe the AK non-ride attractions are no different than what they can find in their local zoo, and many people don't see them.
Look at it this way:
Rides: MGM has ToT/RnR/Star Tours/GMR/Catastrophe Canyon. AK has Dinosaur/Safari/Kali/PW/Triceratops. That's 5 and 5 and so far your logic holds.
Shows: MGM has Mermaid, Beauty, Indiana Jones, Muppets, Playhouse Disney. AK has Lion King, Tarzan, Flights of Wonder, Pocahontas, Tought to be a Bug. Again, that's 5 and 5 and your logic holds.
Here is problem number one. While the quantity and quality of most of the items listed so far is about the same (maybe MGM has the slight advantage), people are't seeing all the AK things listed. No way they can be if they just spend a half day as you can't do them all in 4 or 5 hours. So there is something different going on.
Now we look at the other attractions: MGM has Animation Tour, One Man, Millionaire, Honey I Shrunk playground, Sounds Dangerous (?), parade. AK has Conservation Station, Africa walking trail, Asia walking trail, Boneyard, Tree of Life, parade. While I may be forgetting a few things, it looks about even in this regard. MGM has Fantasmic as well. However, I submit that the MGM other stuff is probably seen by more people. Like I said, people can't find that stuff anywhere else. On the other hand, I think they view the AK stuff differently. Perhaps they think Conservation Station is like the petting zoo at their local zoo, the walkign trails the same thing. While the boneyard may be unique, most people don't take time to appreciate the Tree of Life. So the result is they bypass these things.
While I agree most Disney guests are more for attractions than rides, I think many of the AK attractions just don't grab them the same way - not for lack of quality, but moreso because the concept doesn't grab them. At least that is my take, but I could be wrong. However, objectively looking at the attraction count between MGM and Ak it isn't all that different. Furthermore, objectively assessing how much time it would take to do all things in both parks the result woould be the same. MGM gets bigger numbers even though on paper they are on par - how else would you explain it?
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