Attendance 2015

[sanddunerider]

With the 1st quarter almost over, I was wondering how they attendance projection to actual numbers were comparing,,

I know last weekend sat/sun, there were about 21,000.. I think that is one of the lower weekends this year.  seem to me they are doing pretty well so far..

Any input from someone in the know?

[sanddunerider]

on a lighter note.....  21,800 people in the city on Saturday, the 12th...

Rain coming today, that will slow down the traffic today.....

[runner1960]

on a lighter note.....  21,800 people in the city on Saturday, the 12th...

Rain coming today, that will slow down the traffic today.....

Had not planned on going this year but we made a unexpected trip this weekend Huge crowd Saturday but it seemed manageable. Got there about 11 and left at 7. I expected something like the weekend before but it was a great time.

[DianaGail]

Heading down next Sunday.  Here's hoping for light crowds!

[sanddunerider]

poor end to a good weekend, only 2600 there today, with all the rain....

[runner1960]

Lots of bad comments on Facebook and Twitter again. They must have really dropped the ball on parking later in the day Saturday. People reporting parking miles away with no buses again.

[shavethewhales]

I wonder what's changed? They've been doing this for years now, but I never remember them having so many issues with people not even being able to get to the park. It seemed like they still had a ton of buses, but we never had to park way out in the boonies this time. Have there been cutbacks to the parking system, or is there just more traffic in general? I wonder if they might revert their focus for 2017 into parking instead of a new attraction...

Did they get rid of all the old school buses? I saw a couple recently, but they looked newer and were painted white.

[chittlins]

I wonder what's changed? They've been doing this for years now, but I never remember them having so many issues with people not even being able to get to the park. It seemed like they still had a ton of buses, but we never had to park way out in the boonies this time. Have there been cutbacks to the parking system, or is there just more traffic in general? I wonder if they might revert their focus for 2017 into parking instead of a new attraction...

Did they get rid of all the old school buses? I saw a couple recently, but they looked newer and were painted white.

Need more infrasteucture,  You have to be able to handle your boom days   but in park infrasteucture ture goes hand in hand with attraction additions. I understand the GE being a dead end but traffic flow would be better if it was connected to the OR area and FL area. As for parking, a huge deck that consolidates lots of it but it'll have to be funded by parking fees.

[Copper]

People are not leaving in huge numbers after the tree lighting and parade.  The warm weather means they don't have to rush out after these events.  They can stay and have fun while the rides and attractions are open till closing. 

So this means there aren't tons of parking spaces available to guest arriving later in the day.  You can add more buses which they have done, but if the guest aren't leaving there are no spots available to stick all the cars heading SDCs way.

[Jemmicat]

We had a problem on Dec. 6 when leaving where we got on the tram and they stopped at stop 3 first.... then didn't go to stop 2. 2 people had gotten on at stop 3 so we had to go all the way back up front to let them off as there is no turn around. They said they were going to drop them off and leave... instead, they waited for more people to get on and THEN went to stop 3 again before we got to 2. It took us 30 minutes to actually get to our car. We should have gotten off and walked... But they didn't want us getting off either.

First time that ever happened. And was a real PITA as we were leaving the area after getting to our car. Pushed our home arrival later than we wanted.

[runner1960]

People are not leaving in huge numbers after the tree lighting and parade.  The warm weather means they don't have to rush out after these events.  They can stay and have fun while the rides and attractions are open till closing. 

So this means there aren't tons of parking spaces available to guest arriving later in the day.  You can add more buses which they have done, but if the guest aren't leaving there are no spots available to stick all the cars heading SDCs way.

Not really sure this is the total problem. One guest said they waited for over a hour as 5 empty buses headed back to pick up more inbound. Finally had to flag down a bus and ask them what the problem was.This post has since been deleted from Facebook as has several others. I some people were upset with the standard generic answer they were given. Seeing how many people were paying for parking Saturday I would think that there is plenty of revenue for parking improvements.

[shavethewhales]

I don't get why they simply don't stop at every stop each time. Especially for the trams at the main 3 stops. Unless it's one of the last runs of the night, there's always someone for each stop, so I don't know why they keep asking a full tram of people who needs off where.

But yeah, I suspected the temperature being nicer was a big part of it. It's always nice when it gets cold and you end up with the park to yourself at closing time.

[biscuitcreek]

When we were at the park last month, we parked in lot 5. When it came time to leave we were in line with over 30 folks and we watched 4 trams and buses pass us by to go pick up the people who were waiting for stops 2 and 3. Some of those vehicles left with less than full loads while we were standing there for about 15 minutes waiting for a ride to lot 5.

Got to be a better way.....

[sanddunerider]

WOW!!  I saw some posts again on sat about traffic backed up...  So I checked and found out the attendance count for yesterday, sat the 19th...Was....................................
wait for it................................................
......................................................24,857!!

The park was expecting about 15,000,   Surprise!!!!

[runner1960]

WOW!!  I saw some posts again on sat about traffic backed up...  So I checked and found out the attendance count for yesterday, sat the 19th...Was....................................
wait for it................................................
......................................................24,857!!

The park was expecting about 15,000,   Surprise!!!!

So, Just a question. How can year after year do they constantly underestimate attendance? They are taking a hit on Facebook and Twitter again after yesterday. This happens all the time and the park seems to never be prepared. Hello, its a sunny day on a Saturday in December. I am not slamming them but come on you have the historical numbers to work with. Their is no excuse to be unprepared.