Universal and IOA attendance is still behind Animal Kingdoms...

[ncligs]

Article in todays Orlando paper(4-21) states that IOA and Universal attendance is still behind WDW's Animal Kingdom.


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busi...1,0,4778532.story?coll=orl-business-headlines

 

[Robinrs]

This doesn't surprise me due to the fact that the Animal Kingdom is included in with the Disney Park Hopper. Anyone on earth knows about Disneyworld, even I didn't have much knowledge of the "other" parks until 1999.

I wonder how it would do if the tickets were to be bought just based on the merits of that park?

The Orlando Sentinel posted the 2002 attendance records as follows:

1. Magic Kingdom; 14 million, down 5%
2. Disneyland; 12.7 million, UP 3%
3. Epcot; 8.3 million, down 8%
4. MGM Studios, 8 million, down 4%
5. Animal Kingdom, 7.3 million, down 6%
6. Universal Studios Florida, 6.9 million, down 6%
7. Islands of Adventure, 6.1 million, UP 10%
8. Universal Studios Hollywood, 5.2 million, UP 10%
9. Sea World Orlando, 5 million, down 2%
10. California Adventure, 4.7 million, down 6%

IOA is the only Orlando park that posted UP attendance. I think without the Walt Disney legacy, the absolutely loyal childhood memory folks and with no pixie dust or magic, that says aLOT for that park.

Thank you ncligs, for taking time to post this tidbit of knowledge for us.

 

[Cindy B]

Robin.. I do have to agree.. Animal Kingdom is included in the hopper. I personally would not have gone if it wasn't included.

Think of how USF/IOA have to "stand alone", not have to share something on a 50 or /30 year traditions. Disneyland has been around a very long time, and well Disney World has as well.

 

[EUROPA]

Originally posted by ncligs
Article in todays Orlando paper(4-21) states that IOA and Universal attendance is still behind WDW's Animal Kingdom.


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busi...1,0,4778532.story?coll=orl-business-headlines

I would not be so quick to trust thoes numbers you read...

 

[andrewgh423]

At least the number of people going there is Up!

 

[pheneix]

I hope Disney enjoyed 2002, because it will be the last year for a long, long time that AK will have higher attendance than Universal Studios. The Studios have been posting increases all year, and they are only getting stronger at the year goes on. As for Animal Kingdom? Attendance is down AGAIN. They're going to need a miracle to even break 7 million.

The sad part is that by the time Everest opens in 2006 Animal Kingdom will probably be busted out of the Orlando ranks and become a nice friends with DCA.

 

[Planogirl]

I wonder if attendance is actually STILL higher? These are 2002 figures after all and I know that Disney does not release attendance figures. Does Universal? I suspect that these are estimates.

 

[pheneix]

>>>I wonder if attendance is actually STILL higher?<<<

Yes. I have been hearing numerous stories this year about how "***** dept. was caught by surprise with stronger crowds than expected" or "the projections never showed us having this." About the only time this happened last year was when Universal set some new attendance records over Spring Break (and DEFINITELY during Halloween Horror Nights, but that is a different matter altogether).

BTW, I read from a CM on WDWMagic that AK only had 21,000 guests over Easter Sunday. I'm not sure of the validity of that figure (and probably won't have the chance to check it out for my self), but if it were true, it would speak VOLUMES about the park's underperformance (the Magic Kingdom was projected to have upwards of 55k on that day).

Do any employees here happen to know how the parks did yesterday?

 

[TreeOfLife]

It is still reason to worry Disney the fact that guests don't skip WDW parks to spend a vacation in Universal, but can't go to Orlando and skip Universal altogether...

I would not worry much about those numbers. As long as Universal can afford pampering their guests like no other family vacation destination rather than taking away perks, their chances of standing strong are far better.

 

[Paris]

If you really wanted to get picky about attendance you can argue that Animal Kingdom closes at least 2 and sometimes as many as 5 hours earlier than both of the Universal Orlando parks.

There's obviously no way to do this since neither company will spill the beans, but if you were to calculate attendance in terms of park hours by guests in total I'd be shocked if IOA and USF weren't comfortably ahead of AK on that count (and, in theory, per capita spending at the parks).

 

[highlander447]

I think u can't compare Universal with AK as really AK is competing with MK for guests not Universal

 

[degenerationxwwfwdw1]

The most surprising thing to me is how USF can have more attendence than IOA. Is this because USF has a much bigger capacity that on extremely busy days IOA will have to close to guests while USF can accept more guests. Otherwise that makes no sense to me. IOA is newer and is clearly "better".

 

[Paris]

Originally posted by degenerationxwwfwdw1
The most surprising thing to me is how USF can have more attendence than IOA.

It's not a capacity issue. It's a familiarity issue. If you look at Disney's attendance it lines up the same way, with the parks ranked in attendance related to seniority.

I agree with you about IOA being better, yet if you stand at the end of Citywalk, where folks have to follow the arrow to their park of choice USF wins.

Then again, maybe everyone else is slowly catching on since IOA was the only park to gain in attendance last year. With USF getting three new rides, maybe IOA won't overtake USF any time soon though.

 

[Aisling]

Animal Kingdom is so peaceful, I love it there.

 

[Planogirl]

Originally posted by degenerationxwwfwdw1
The most surprising thing to me is how USF can have more attendence than IOA. Is this because USF has a much bigger capacity that on extremely busy days IOA will have to close to guests while USF can accept more guests. Otherwise that makes no sense to me. IOA is newer and is clearly "better".

I think that USF may be more family friendly right now. The coasters and big drops on the water rides intimidated my son (and me too in one case! ) so we spent only one day in IOA while we spent two in USF. I expect that to change as he gets older.

 

[The Sweetness]

Ofcourse it makes perfect sense that a fam is more likely to buy single all inclusive tix for all of the Dis majors than tix for Uni. Even with the flex thing inc Bush Gardens, the Dis parks are all *connected* and much more convenient. I am a 32 Y old FL native, and will be having my first UNI trip soon. I am soooooo excited but thats not the point...

I dont mind at all that USF/SW will be less crowded, more space for me...

 

[TreeOfLife]

Animal Kingdom is so peaceful, I love it there.

I know, I do too. But too many dum dums wanted it to be more like an amusement park so low attendance is forcing imagineer airheads to fill it with more rides...

But back to USF, I still find it impressive that keeping "lower attendance" than a Disney park they're still able to give more perks and better deals to their guests...

I mean, shouldn't it be the other way around?

 

[BarryHom]

WDW has always been a 500 lb. gorilla. When people think of a vacation at a theme park, they think Disney. Thus, most people will venture only to WDW and not know of the neat stuff outside their gates. But we know which is the better park.

 

[the Dark Marauder]

When I was getting interviewed before getting hired, I remember saying "I've always liked Universal better Disney," which is a true statement.

 

[mom23guys2]

We were in AK on 4/24 and it was packed, but so was IOA on 4/22. Sometimes its just a matter of when you visit the parks. Sometimes it seems empty but the crowds may be in another area or park. I know we went on Star Tours with no wait on the same day that AK was so crowded and there was standing room only at Fantasmic but we were able to get a great spot for Illuminations only 10 minutes before it started (As you can see we moved around quite a bit that day). Yet 2 days later Illuminations was packed.