Does anyone know exactly when Mouseplanet's preview photos of TDS were taken? It doesn't look too busy.

Soft opening attendance has been growing since day one (way back on July 28), but the range of guests so far has been anywhere from around 7 thousand to around 30 thousand daily.

When the park opens, crowds surpassing 50 thousand are expected, but the big question is how many guests will be allowed into the park? Will they let 50 thousand guests in, or will they cut that number down to improve the guest experience?

For the last 18 years, Tokyo Disneyland has had to regularly turn away guests at the gate, because the park routinely hits full capacity on weekends, and I think the same will apply to Tokyo DisneySea.

Will BOTH parks be turning away guests on September 4th? Now THAT would be something, wouldn't it? It juuuuust might happen. On the 4th. And the 5th. And most likely on the weekend (9th and 10th).

Will it be a runaway smash? Most people who've actually seen the park are saying with bug-eyes "If this park ISN'T a smash, I'd be shocked!" There is no sinking feeling of fear about any element of Tokyo DisneySea's overall presentation. As the preview days keep coming, confidence is building among the last 'weak' area of the park: the cast members themselves.

It will be fun to compare attendance estimates and actual numbers for TDS and TDL with the numbers for Disneyland and California Adventure as Al did in a previous DIG report. Quite honestly, I think what was SUPPOSED to happen in Anaheim will most certainly happen here, and at a minimum, at that!

Wow. Let's say 30 days of previews at 20,000 per day average. That's 600,000 people. Who are these lucky pups? That's a big litter.

Maybe there will be no one left to go. :)

Let's see...

10 days of cast previews are already in the books, and it looks like a huge wave of stockholders (and the highest bidders for stockholder tickets on Yahoo Japan Auctions!) are here now. Local residents get 2 weekends (police advised residents in Urayasu city to be especially careful to lock their doors this weekend, since most of the city is turning up), and then all the way to opening day, the various park sponsors get their day as well.

So, I figure that from June 29 through to opening, there will be around 800 thousand guests who have had a chance to preview the park.

That translates to 800 thousand people telling their friends about the amazing level of detail and richness of Tokyo DisneySea. That's another benefit of building a quality park- the word of mouth from people who have actually been there (AND have had a good experience) is pure gold- better than any advertisement campaign.

Originally posted by wtg2000
Wow. Let's say 30 days of previews at 20,000 per day average. That's 600,000 people. Who are these lucky pups? That's a big litter.

Maybe there will be no one left to go. :)

"Waaaaa ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!" says Lani-chan.

Surely you gest, wtg2k!! Japan has half the population of the entire United States crammed into land the size of California... most of which is mountaineous and unlivable. Don't worry -- the Japanese are used to going repeatedly to places they like.

TokyoInsider -- I'm sure glad to hear they close the gates. I have visions of Japanese beaches in August and shudder to think it would be that crowded in the Disney parks!!

Originally posted by lani
I'm sure glad to hear they close the gates. I have visions of Japanese beaches in August and shudder to think it would be that crowded in the Disney parks!!

Here's a scary point: OLC WOULD cram the gates. Disney is the company that puts its foot down and forces OLC to close the park admissions to prevent overcrowding. Disney reserves that authority (and invokes it quite often) in order to preserve the guest experience.

OLC is great for shelling out tons of money on their parks, but they are willing to blow the guest experience completely by trying to jam everybody in. They STILL don't get that, even after 18 years of operation. Thus, the Disney rep on-site to make a decision to close the park or not when things get busy.

Again, you can see how this strange hybrid of Disney and OLC works to provide the best possible product (bought and paid for by OLC) with the best environment for guest enjoyment (enforced by Disney).

Originally posted by wtg2000
Does anyone know exactly when Mouseplanet's preview photos of TDS were taken? It doesn't look too busy.

It doesn't look too busy because the photos were taken during preview days.

The park is NOT open yet.

Bear in mind that this property is TWICE the size of the land that DCA sits on(so the relatively sparse crowds sesn in those photos WILL seem to be thin)but will eventually handle crowds that the Emperor and his Evil Apprentice can ONLY dream about!!!

I wonder if anti-walt is actually concerned, he must think that 90% of americans will never see TDS because its in Japan and thus they have little or no chance to travel overseas and therefore will continue spending money for his empire of the ants:D sorry I just had to throw that in, the public MUST know about TDS and that is the weak link in the emporers deathstar, myself I would rent a billboard alonside a freeway in southern caifornia and put up a poster advertising TDS, OR.... print up about 10,000 flyers and hire some kids to put them on windshields of cars at all the nearby resturants, motels and parking lots near Disneyland in the next couple of weeks, and do the same in Orlando.

I like your style Mr. D.

Man-this place is MUCH better than the fascist stomping grounds of Der Fuhrer....erm, I mean Laughing Place.

"You will worship Paul Pressler....you will NOT say disparaging comments about DCA....the Golden Zephyr is a better attraction than JttCotE....immersive theming is NOT a requirement for a Disney park...."

I could go on ALL day, couldn't I?

;)

You are sooo right Brad, I used to post at LP quite often until it got to the point that anything unfavorable was deleated by the head moderator, though I live in Alaska and only visit a Disney park once a year I do get very much involved whenever I can to try to improve my next adventure. Working in Alaska is often seasonal and from 6-9 months a year but its condensed to 12 hour or more days (almost constant daylight in summer) and 6-7 day workweeks so when my season is over I treat my family to the best vacation we can drum up, this next vacation will be about 3 days at IOA and 11 days inside WDW at a Home away from Home resort, Very often through my surfing on the internet I come across news and even rumors I share with friends but only here at MP do I feel that the consensus of trying to improve Disney can actually happen. I do not know why LP has to take such a stance and I can only surmise that the leadership has some form of "outside" influence or contributors that are pro eisner. Hopefully Al Lutz will never be bought out or bribed to the point that he will be deleating nebative Disney and just post all the cheerleading of say DCA or anything else that is obviously part of eisners empire, sure Al may come off as a crusading Ralph Nader but I believe in his vision and I hope many else do as well, its sad when the grand visions of a man cannot bear fruit and is ransacked and pillaged when he is gone such as Walt but that is the truth, MP has changed policies at DisCo and it may do so again and again, all it needs is positive supporters that can maintain a clear and definitive goal, to bring back the majic we grew up with at Disney and not the current ways of marketing and developements, case to point out, TDS and its stunning achievements already spoken as the best of Walt Disney but unfortunately its not availabe to the average American guest, at least to most anyway....I am closer to Tokyo than Orlando