It seems that Bob Chapek, Disney's chairman of parks, experiences and products, had some stabbing comments when he compared the success of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge (SWGE) in Disneyland's opening over the success of Universal's Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (HMCMA) in Islands of Adventure.
The deep secret is that we don’t intend to have lines ... If you build in enough capacity, the rides don’t go down and it operates at 99% efficiency, you shouldn’t have 10-hour lines.”
“So, 10-hour lines are not a sign of success,” he said. “It should be seen as a sign of, frankly, failure.”
The low wait times at the much anticipated SWGE expansion, Disney claims, was due to proper planning before the land opened. Disney upset many people with pre-opening moves such as blocking out annual passholders from attending the park and raising prices by a substantial margin on park tickets and hotels. The low attendance numbers didn't go unnoticed however. During its earnings report earlier this month, Disney CEO Bob Iger noted that park attendance at its domestic Disney Parks fell 3% in the fiscal third quarter.
Critics of Disney have speculated that the low wait times had nothing to do with Disney tactics but rather that the new land wasn't received well by fans. Shares of the company declined partly because of the lower than expected attendance numbers.
Despite the fall in foot traffic, Disney executives were happy with the experience they were able to provide to guests during the first three months the land was open.
Disney’s customer satisfaction scores have indicated that Galaxy’s Edge is the most popular area in the Disneyland park.
What do you think? Was this a skewed shot at Universal or was Disney's crowd control effective? What could Disney or Universal have done to rectify their own individual issues?
Original article here.
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