HydroGuy
A Pirate's Life For Me
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2005
I have nothing against AP holders! And I am stepping out on a limb here because I have never had an AP to DLR. But I know enough people who have APs and read enough here and other places that I think I can do a credible job of generalizing some AP trends for DLR newbies and even WDW vets who may or may not be AP holders at WDW.
A key word here is that I am generalizing. That means not all AP holders fit the description or psychology I discuss here. But enough do that I think this information is worth posting.
There have been an increasing number of questions lately about how the growth of APs has affected DLR attendance. For WDW vets it should be clearly understood that what you know about WDW AP holders mostly does not apply at DLR.
First let me start with a quote from a recent online article from a respected source, Al Lutz:
http://miceage.micechat.com/allutz/al072809a.htm
Hence many of the AP holders at DLR are from Southern California. With a population of 20 million, DLR has lots to work with. Most living in SoCal are within distance of a day trip to DLR and that is a key difference from WDW. WDW visitors in general tend to come from out of the Orlando area and stay for awhile when they are at WDW. If they have an AP they may take only one or a few longer trips each year.
As many DLR AP holders are within driving distance, they tend to take more day trips. And further, since they can get to DLR easily it is much easier for them to invest disproportionate amounts of time for anything new. They can and do "pop in" for a short visit in the evening after work, for example. They may ride a couple rides and then just leave. Some go to DLR every single weekend to hang with friends.
For example, when the Finding Nemo Sub ride opened in June 2007 and the POTC ride refurb with Jack Sparrow opened in June 2006, one could find four hour lines for these rides at first. Why? Because AP holders who live close by can stop in to ride only that ride. They can just bring a book and wait it out. They are not spending thousands of dollars on a long vacation where waiting for four hours is a waste of time. They can and do just stop in after work at 7PM and wait. For those of us on a once-a-year visit we cannot compete with that kind of patience and have to work around it.
Another thing about DLR AP holders that people are noticing more and more are the effect of blockout dates. As the APs become lower in price they have more dates blocked out. And for high season dates (like late June to late August) the lower level APs are entirely blocked out.
What happens then is that many AP holders tend to "squeeze in" one last visit before the blockout period and then rush back to DLR when the blockout lifts. This can cause lumpy attendance like it did this past June where a refurbed Fantasmic and new fireworks show opened. Before the blockout the attendance was abnormally large because so many AP holders wanted to squeeze in and see the new offerings. Huge crowds? Who cares? These AP holders were only there to see one thing for the most part.
After the blockout went into effect the attendance went way down. In recent weeks there have been a lot more questions posted here than normal about AP holders for next month (August) and next summer of 2010 with people trying to figure out what the blockouts actually are and how to work around them.
I hope that gives a better idea to folks a bit mystified by the whole thing. And for any AP holders out there, please feel free to comment and even disagree! My dear nieces have APs and as I said right up front, I am not complaining here about APs or AP holders. I am merely trying to clarify this for people who just do not know.
FWIW, to see a blockout schedule click here:
http://www.mouseplanet.com/misc.php?pg=blackout
ETA: Here is a direct link to my post #147 in this thread which has links to other threads from August 2009 which discuss the crowd levels by people who were visiting DLR in August.
www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33401005&postcount=147
A key word here is that I am generalizing. That means not all AP holders fit the description or psychology I discuss here. But enough do that I think this information is worth posting.
There have been an increasing number of questions lately about how the growth of APs has affected DLR attendance. For WDW vets it should be clearly understood that what you know about WDW AP holders mostly does not apply at DLR.
First let me start with a quote from a recent online article from a respected source, Al Lutz:
http://miceage.micechat.com/allutz/al072809a.htm
At the present time DLR has four levels of AP. Two levels are exclusively for Southern California residents.It's those swarms of Annual Passholders that give TDA pause when it comes to crazy stunts like bringing back Captain EO. Just this summer the total number of Disneyland Annual Passholders has now solidly risen above the 800,000 mark, and it's still rising by thousands every month. You can bet that price increases are on the way this fall, but it's those huge numbers and the problems they increasingly cause for crowd control, parking and any number of operational issues that have forced TDA to take a step back. In response, a new TDA executive committee was just formed that has been tasked with taking a hard look at the Annual Passholder program to try and quantify exactly what kind of impacts it now has on the compact Resort area.
We've detailed for you in previous updates the irony of having summer weekends in July and August that are less crowded than weekends in February and November due to simply blocking out hundreds of thousands of Annual Passholders. And we've also told you how difficult it is to get a parking space at Disneyland on a Sunday when all of the Annual Passholders push the passenger per vehicle ratio down to nearly one person per can, instead of the casual tourists who have an average of over three people per car.
Anyone who has been caught in the ridiculous crowd control and overwhelmed facilities whenever something new opens in Anaheim or during the final days leading towards an extended blockout period knows that there are obviously more Annual Passholders than the 54 year old park was designed to accommodate. But with the nightmare crowd control this past June for the opening days of Nightastic, and the overwhelming new World of Color show just seven months away, TDA has decided it can't keep on growing the Annual Pass program as it has for the past decade.
Price increases are obviously a focus from this new committee, but they'll also be looking at phasing in blockout periods more gradually to prevent giant spikes in attendance on certain dates, as well as other pricing and demographic options that could cut down on the sheer volume of people that could descend on the Resort at any one time. The whole point of the Billion dollar DCA expansion is to increase the attractiveness of the Resort to multi-day tourists who spend far more money than local Annual Passholders. But an overcrowded park full of locals killing a few hours of leisure time at steerage rates certainly makes those tourists think twice of ever returning to Disneyland, and TDA knows they've reached the breaking point and something must be done. We'll keep you posted on the outcome of that new committee, if the price increases on the way don't tell the story enough.
Hence many of the AP holders at DLR are from Southern California. With a population of 20 million, DLR has lots to work with. Most living in SoCal are within distance of a day trip to DLR and that is a key difference from WDW. WDW visitors in general tend to come from out of the Orlando area and stay for awhile when they are at WDW. If they have an AP they may take only one or a few longer trips each year.
As many DLR AP holders are within driving distance, they tend to take more day trips. And further, since they can get to DLR easily it is much easier for them to invest disproportionate amounts of time for anything new. They can and do "pop in" for a short visit in the evening after work, for example. They may ride a couple rides and then just leave. Some go to DLR every single weekend to hang with friends.
For example, when the Finding Nemo Sub ride opened in June 2007 and the POTC ride refurb with Jack Sparrow opened in June 2006, one could find four hour lines for these rides at first. Why? Because AP holders who live close by can stop in to ride only that ride. They can just bring a book and wait it out. They are not spending thousands of dollars on a long vacation where waiting for four hours is a waste of time. They can and do just stop in after work at 7PM and wait. For those of us on a once-a-year visit we cannot compete with that kind of patience and have to work around it.
Another thing about DLR AP holders that people are noticing more and more are the effect of blockout dates. As the APs become lower in price they have more dates blocked out. And for high season dates (like late June to late August) the lower level APs are entirely blocked out.
What happens then is that many AP holders tend to "squeeze in" one last visit before the blockout period and then rush back to DLR when the blockout lifts. This can cause lumpy attendance like it did this past June where a refurbed Fantasmic and new fireworks show opened. Before the blockout the attendance was abnormally large because so many AP holders wanted to squeeze in and see the new offerings. Huge crowds? Who cares? These AP holders were only there to see one thing for the most part.
After the blockout went into effect the attendance went way down. In recent weeks there have been a lot more questions posted here than normal about AP holders for next month (August) and next summer of 2010 with people trying to figure out what the blockouts actually are and how to work around them.
I hope that gives a better idea to folks a bit mystified by the whole thing. And for any AP holders out there, please feel free to comment and even disagree! My dear nieces have APs and as I said right up front, I am not complaining here about APs or AP holders. I am merely trying to clarify this for people who just do not know.
FWIW, to see a blockout schedule click here:
http://www.mouseplanet.com/misc.php?pg=blackout
ETA: Here is a direct link to my post #147 in this thread which has links to other threads from August 2009 which discuss the crowd levels by people who were visiting DLR in August.
www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33401005&postcount=147