Disneyland - DCA Park Hopping News

[Another Voice]

It’s just been announced that effective tomorrow (May 5), Park Hopping will be allowed between Disneyland and California Adventure on ALL 3 or 4 Day tickets. These tickets are available for anyone to purchase, not just resort guests. All previously purchased 3 or 4 day Flex tickets will be “upgraded” to allow park hopping as well. These tickets will also be available for locals to purchase, but I haven’t heard how long the “unused” days are good for on the tickets. One day tickets are not changed.

Now for the rumors behind the facts…

The rumbling you hear in the distance is another large piece of the DCA business model crashing to the ground. The original ticket system was designed to extend the average guest’s length of stay and to force a full day at California Adventure. That has failed and Team Disney Anaheim has now realized that DCA is a long, long way from having that kind of impact. Not only are the locals staying away in droves, but rumors say that internal research shows that most out-of-town visitors are choosing to spend their third day at Disneyland rather than having to spend a full day at DCA. Even the Disney-owned ABC affliate here broadcast an interview with a couple that said exactly that.

The new ticketing scheme is designed to facilitate “sampling”. Team Disney Burbank believes that DCA has been victimized by bad weather, bad press, bad marketing, and bad Internet chatter. “If people could only see for themselves,” their thinking goes, “they would see how wonderful California Adventure truly is”. A more cynical subtext is that they also feel that allowing guests to hop over to Disneyland can be used to offset the “lack of value” argument that’s widely thrown against DCA. It’s hoped that this “anger release valve” will improve the word of mouth some. Several for-locals-only type schemes are also in the works to get Southern Californians to “sample” the park. Early marketing surveys, it’s rumored, show an extremely lackluster reception to the return of the Electrical Parade and Team Disney Anaheim has been getting a lot of flak about it (both the return angle and the power supply problem).

Another interesting rumor is the attendance number reporting. The one thing that park hopping will do is to make DCA attendance numbers soar. The actual number of people that visit the park won’t change, but each time a guest enters the park for whatever reason, it will be counted as an “admission”. Spend all day at Disneyland but stop by DCA just to watch the parade, you’re now a DCA admission for that whole day. And with FastPass and the closeness of the two parks, people could cross several times in a single day. Attendance at DCA could easily double just by this change in accounting. You can also expect a major “off the record” campaign using these numbers to “prove” that DCA is alright. Rumor has it that numbers will start “leaking” at Disney-friendly websites and business analysts by the end of the month. Of course inaccurate information is going to hurt the actual operation of the park and the formulas they use at WDW aren’t going to work. It will be fun to watch.

The rumored corporate short term goal is to prevent (or reverse) the perception that California Adventure is a failure. Invitations are going out to shows and TV stations asking them to film in the park and Disney is trying go get some high profile events for the Hyperion Theater (“Is THAT You’re Final Answer?”). Burbank is willing to consider anything to get people into the park. Everything, that is, except what will really work: building a theme park worthy of the name “Disney”.

 

[Mousekateer55]

On a similar subject, Disney (correct this if it is wrong) will allow people with season passes to enter Animal Kingdom on any day during the high peak season when all the other parks have blackouts, except on July 4.

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

Everything, that is, except what will really work: building a theme park worthy of the name “Disney”.

Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Thank you Another Voice!!

 

[swinginevilmike]

Team Disney Burbank believes that DCA has been victimized by bad weather, bad press, bad marketing, and bad Internet chatter.

While we have been victimized with a bad park. I like the bad Internet chatter part....Looks like the DIS and other sites like ours are popping up on Disney's radar now if they take the time to listen to us.....

“If people could only see for themselves,” their thinking goes, “they would see how wonderful California Adventure truly is”.

I've been there three times and personally witnessed California Screamin valley and witnessed all their major attractions go 101 due to techincal problem...If that's wonderful then I guess Paul Pressler is Walt Disney reincarnated...

 

[JeffJewell]

...wow, what a great post.

Thanks for being here.

Jeff

 

[Janet2k]

I enjoyed the post.

 

[CLC]

My son and daughter will be at Disneyland in late June-does this mean we can buy a less expensive 4 day pass [well last week it was less expensive than the LOS tickets that could be purchased at the hotel] for each and they could still park hop whenever they wanted?

 

[gary]

Any news on whether people with AP's get the same perks? It seems to me that if the "upgrade" is free for a 3-or-4 day ticket, it should be free for those of us who committed to a 1-year ticket, too!

Gary

 

[Another Voice]

There are supposed to be plans that would allow annual passholders to purchase discounted California Adventure tickets at the booths - again this to promote "sampling" so the concept is that the AP holders will "bring their friends and share the magic". There's also been some talk about allowing the one-park passes into California Adventure during the slow months (as if it CAN get any slower) and the rest of the changes to the AP themselves haven't been decided yet. There will be some discount schemes for locals and they're working on some sort of "special" tickets for the resort guests (since park hopping was supposed to be exclusive to Disney resorts). Someone is calling this "Disneyland adopts the airline ticket mentaility" - there will be so many different tickets and prices and discounts that it will probably be best to both check disneyland.com and to call guest services many, many times until you find the right deal.

In another giant change, the first of the "kid friendly" ads for California Adventure have just started to run on local TV. What's really funny is that the children in the ads are clearly too short for most of the attractions they're selling. At least the kiddies weren't showing at the wine tasting bar.