I wonder how the Studios will handle the Toy Story and Star Wars queues

They should honestly do ONLY FastPasses, something like this:

  • Make 70% or so of the FP available in the normal way FP are distributed.
  • Reserve about 30% of the FP for distribution the day-of. This will eliminate the stand-by line entirely.
  • So, what you are left with is a situation where, if you walk in to the park without already having a FP, you can walk to the ride and, instead of getting in the stand-by line, get a FP. If all the FP are gone, then try again tomorrow.
I see this as a win/win because the guests spend less time in line, which guests like because they can do other things, and Disney likes because less time in line means more time to shop/eat/drink.

The other issue with this is it won't just be the mad dash to get to the rides, it will be to get in the land itself - there is promise of all the interaction with the CMs fully in role as people on that planet, droids to interact with, that they will know your reputation and respond in kind, etc. ... obviously the rides will be very popular but people will want to spend a lot of time in the land itself so you need some system for people to get into the land and wait to get into the land (Like they had to do for Pandora when it first opened, but to a much greater degree)
 
Except I think the bum rush to get those 30% of FPs will be a disaster. Remember the old system where people used to storm the rope drop gates at MK to get Space Mountain or Splash? This would be 100x worse and you'd still have people trying to get in line the day before to try and make sure they got one the next morning. I think there has to be an inconvenience factor in the Park to dissuade some people. So I think there still needs to be a line you return to and have to give up part of your day to get in.

Maybe you are right, but I just hate to see lines that are over 120 minutes. I don't think Disney should even allow it, even if people are "willing" to wait. Because:

  • People think they are willing, then about 60 minutes in to the 120+ minute wait they realize that they...aren't. But now they are basically stuck.
  • It creates claustrophobic conditions and puts people in a bad mood.
  • There isn't easy access to water or bathrooms while in line.
  • It is just bad optics for WDW to have wait time of 120+ minutes posted.
  • No one will fondly remember the huge wait times when the get home and reminisce about their vacation. This will cause them to not return and to bad-mouth WDW to friends.
 
Wow after reading these predictions, hoping CL allows 90 days for Star Wars FP+. Even 1 attraction on one day, and the 2nd on another.
 
I like the idea of a return time, but add one thing, a time to enter SWGE itself. That would be at some point before the line return time so they could still walk around the land, etc...Let's say, their line return time is 1 hour (i.e. the line is never more than 60 minutes), but they can enter SWGE 1-2 hours before that time. Basically a double return time - you arrive at 9 AM, get a 2 PM line return time, you do other stuff for the next 3-4 hours, then head over to SWGE for 1-2 hours before getting in line.
 


I like the idea of a return time, but add one thing, a time to enter SWGE itself. That would be at some point before the line return time so they could still walk around the land, etc...Let's say, their line return time is 1 hour (i.e. the line is never more than 60 minutes), but they can enter SWGE 1-2 hours before that time. Basically a double return time - you arrive at 9 AM, get a 2 PM line return time, you do other stuff for the next 3-4 hours, then head over to SWGE for 1-2 hours before getting in line.
The rides exit into SW:GE. I don't think you'll be able to just kick people out after they ride the rides, so once you get in, I'd assume you can stay in. Kind of like Pandora. It's the getting in that needs to be regulated. I'd assume, like Pandora, the land will be more or less packed, but also kind of self-regulating. Mainly you will have a majority of people that want to do the rides, a lot of people that will hang out, and a few people that will dive into the minutia of the land. As it becomes more crowded, the first and second part will exit because... frankly... it's uncomfortable. The last group... well, you kind of never get rid of them. But you can't exactly just kick people out easily.

The only thing I will say, because the land is supposed to have some level of interaction, is that an hour or two after you enter, your interaction ends. Since I'd assume a lot of it will be driven by Magic Bands, the bands should be able to track that kind of thing. The end of interaction kind of prompts you to leave, but doesn't force you to do so. This system would have to be very clearly marked or people will lose their minds.
 
FWIW, people are already complaining about the crowded parks and huge wait times. A couple of weekends ago, my wife found a non-disney, non-disney-fan travel website. Neither of us can remember which site, but a lot of the reviews of WDW were scathing. Huge crowds, long lines, high wait times, i'll never come back, those kinds of comments.

IMHO, Disney has a problem on their hands.

Not really. They have demand getting close to capacity caps that has allowed them to focus on top 5% income guests.
 
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I wonder what the capacity of SWL will be. If HS capacity is supposed to 75,000 (estimated), and the park is 135 acres, if anyone knew how physically big SWL is, we could get close on estimating capacity of the land pretty darn easily.
 


I wonder what the capacity of SWL will be. If HS capacity is supposed to 75,000 (estimated), and the park is 135 acres, if anyone knew how physically big SWL is, we could get close on estimating capacity of the land pretty darn easily.
Wikipedia says 14 acres
 
Yes, Disney announced that as the size during D23 2015.

Now not all 14 acres will be guest areas. That takes into account backstage areas for the land as well. This is the largest Disney expansion ever done in their parks.

True. But the 135 acres of DHS in general includes the backstage areas as well. It would be easy to say 75K people in 135 acres equates to roughly 7500 people in 14 acres, assuming the density of buildings and backstage areas is roughly equivalent for SW:GE to all of DHS. Which it probably isn't since Echo Lake is a large open area. Still, you can probably say that the capacity for SW:GE is between 5K and 10K, but that kind of variance isn't real helpful.

The other thing that isn't real helpful is if the parking lot is included in those 135 acres and how much is undeveloped area. Kind of skews the numbers so you can't really do much with this comparison.
 
I think Toy Story Land won't be too bad - crowded and long lines, sure - but nothing unusually

SW:GE is like something we've never seen before. They are setting up the land itself to be so interactive with the shop owners being in character and droids to interact with, etc that people are going to want to spend a lot of time just in the land and I really think disney will need to limit crowds in the land itself (even more than they did for Pandora) - because if it is too crowded to move, how can you really enjoy the land?

Plus there will be people that have no interest really in the rest of WDW and are just coming for SW:GE to the impact to the rest of DHS and rest of WDW in general will be very interesting

AGREE, this will be like nothing we've had before. This is why I am hoping for SW EMM and/or After Hours SW. It will give folks another option, it gives folks who enjoy lower crowds an option and my stock has no issue with folks spending more money.

Oh and please for an AP Preview. We did the Pandora Preview, was great, and then didn't return to that land until October.
 
True. But the 135 acres of DHS in general includes the backstage areas as well. It would be easy to say 75K people in 135 acres equates to roughly 7500 people in 14 acres, assuming the density of buildings and backstage areas is roughly equivalent for SW:GE to all of DHS. Which it probably isn't since Echo Lake is a large open area. Still, you can probably say that the capacity for SW:GE is between 5K and 10K, but that kind of variance isn't real helpful.

The other thing that isn't real helpful is if the parking lot is included in those 135 acres and how much is undeveloped area. Kind of skews the numbers so you can't really do much with this comparison.

IDK, I think even those very rough numbers have some value. How many people are going to try to get in that day, and will get into the Studios only be very upset they aren't getting into SWL? Now of course, no one will stay in SWL all day, but if HS gets to capacity, those percentages look ugly.

Knowing more about the parking lots, etc. would be awesome, wouldn't it?
 
IDK, I think even those very rough numbers have some value. How many people are going to try to get in that day, and will get into the Studios only be very upset they aren't getting into SWL? Now of course, no one will stay in SWL all day, but if HS gets to capacity, those percentages look ugly.

Knowing more about the parking lots, etc. would be awesome, wouldn't it?
Yes. Though the numbers I really want are the hourly capacity numbers for the two SW:GE rides. I think that would tell us a lot about how Disney is viewing the long term popularity for this land.

For example, I think Avatar was built as a moderately popular land over the long term. That is why FoP has a lower capacity than Soarin and the boat ride has a relatively low hourly capacity. Together, they'll represent a land that, over the long term, is expected to be busier than AK as a whole, but not actually a driver of massive crowds. Now, did budget play a role? Absolutely. But Disney ended up with a measured land that has expansion possibilities, but wasn't all in from the start for crowds. The two attractions together work out around 2500 people operationally an hour, or less than the three true people eaters at MK individually.

I think with the SW:GE attractions you will see a much larger capacity from the get go. I would be surprised if the Battle Attraction doesn't have one of the higher hourly numbers in all WDW. I'm not sure they can touch HM, PotC or Small World, those are products of a different time, but I'm guessing they get up over 2k of real operational capacity like TSMM. And I don't expect the Falcon ride to have a capacity around 1000 either like Navi River. Maybe more like 1800. If they don't hit these types of numbers and are around the 1500/1000 of the Avatar rides, they've royally screwed up.
 
Yes. Though the numbers I really want are the hourly capacity numbers for the two SW:GE rides. I think that would tell us a lot about how Disney is viewing the long term popularity for this land.

For example, I think Avatar was built as a moderately popular land over the long term. That is why FoP has a lower capacity than Soarin and the boat ride has a relatively low hourly capacity. Together, they'll represent a land that, over the long term, is expected to be busier than AK as a whole, but not actually a driver of massive crowds. Now, did budget play a role? Absolutely. But Disney ended up with a measured land that has expansion possibilities, but wasn't all in from the start for crowds. The two attractions together work out around 2500 people operationally an hour, or less than the three true people eaters at MK individually.

I think with the SW:GE attractions you will see a much larger capacity from the get go. I would be surprised if the Battle Attraction doesn't have one of the higher hourly numbers in all WDW. I'm not sure they can touch HM, PotC or Small World, those are products of a different time, but I'm guessing they get up over 2k of real operational capacity like TSMM. And I don't expect the Falcon ride to have a capacity around 1000 either like Navi River. Maybe more like 1800. If they don't hit these types of numbers and are around the 1500/1000 of the Avatar rides, they've royally screwed up.
I’ve heard they will both be above 1500 however they likely still won’t be as high as they need to be. No matter how high capacity these attractions are the demand will still be greater especially if they are good.
 
I’ve heard they will both be above 1500 however they likely still won’t be as high as they need to be. No matter how high capacity these attractions are the demand will still be greater especially if they are good.
No doubt they are not built for maximum demand, nothing ever is or should be built that way. But they need to be very high capacity rides if Disney is building this land to what we believe demand will be long term. I think Avatar is actually pretty close to the proper long term demand level on those attractions. Sure it's jammed up now, but that land is still the shiny new toy. I think SW:GE had better be closer to 4000 per hour combined than the 2500 per hour that Avatar carries. If not, Disney has really dropped the ball in my opinion.
 
Not really. They have demand getting close to capacity caps that has allowed them to focus on top 5% income guests.

Exactly. And that is fine with them, as that 5% has 50% of the wealth, so it's just a matter of getting them to part with some of it.

They can get one guest that will pay $1000 a day as opposed to a group of 3-4 spending slightly less.
 
Disneyland is going’s to struggle with local traffic and people going to SWL. Orlando is going to struggle because of the amount of people it’s going to draw back to WDW, when tied with all the other new stuff opening.

We really need to be honest here, it’s going to be a struggle to enjoy for the first few years, once we are past the 50th, then it will ease. During the first year unless your staying on property, I think it will be hard to do even get on both rides with a fastpass
 

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