Disney's Star Wars Lands may be an up charge attraction when they open

From MiceAge, so it's a fan site reporting a rumor, take it with the appropriately sized grain of salt. But it's an interesting idea, and one I'd endorse*.

"Recently Disney has been having separate ticket “Events” such as Mickey’s Halloween Party, the Main Street Electrical Parade Premiere and the Tower Of Terror 13th Hour Party. Word is leaking out that when Star Wars Land opens Memorial Day Weekend in 2019, Disney may launch the “Summer Of Star Wars” at Disneyland and Disney World. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, Star Wars Land will open to guests only with a separate ticket for the “event” priced at $95 per day. Tickets will be scanned at each of the three entrances to Star Wars Land using the MaxPass system coming online this summer. This would essentially make Star Wars Land an additional gate at the parks for the first three months that would not be covered by annual passes. That’s one way to address the crowding concerns and make a little money in the process. Let’s hope this isn’t the final plan."

*Of course, if it was Star Trek Land, I'd be up in arms over the injustice :-)

Sorry about the poor grammar in the title. The system won't save my changes.

And those sites are really good at rumors that are real, right?

There's enough IP to make a separate Star Wars park, without question, but they're not building enough to justify a stand-alone park yet. It wouldn't make sense to pack it in behind DHS if they were really intent on doing it.

Seems like a horrible way to garner positive media around the opening of a new product.

Jeff said:
And those sites are really good at rumors that are real, right?

MiceAge is usually pretty good about sourcing rumors, but still, it's a rumor on a fan site. That said, making extra money off Star Wars Land in the first few months it's open makes sense.

And as Jetsetter notes, it would help control the hordes of fans that will want to descend on SWL when it opens.

That's predicated on the assumption that more people will come explicitly for this and pay extra money for it. That's a lot of assumptions.

As big of Star Wars fan that I am, in addition to having the means to afford it, I would pass. I agree with Jeff that there simply would not be enough there to justify that.

Hell, there's barely enough in Hollywood Studios as it is, and now the idea would be to create a separate gate fee for a small park within a small park?

From my perspective, it's the Star Wars land (and coming Pixar land) that justifies Hollywood Studios. We've actually skipped it entirely on our past two trips, only because the two girls don't want to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster or Tower of Terror (Guardians?). It just hasn't been worth it.

We're actually planning our next Disney trip around this park's opening; this would alter those plans significantly. As in, we wouldn't be going.

Will it be wild when it opens? Sure...it will still be wild a year after that, and a year after that. There will be consistent hordes descending upon it.

So why not make money off of the wild hoards when they come at opening?

So, I, myself have not been to Disney since the late 70's, way before Epcot. Much of that has been my own fault.

However, when I saw Star Wars Land set to open, I was gonna bite the bullet and go, as expensive as it is to do so. Now, if this turns out to be true, I may still go anyway, but that seriously cuts into one's budget when you are a single parent who makes little money and have a son who loves Star Wars as much as, if not more than me.

Don't say Guardians.

Are we in denial? :)

Shades said:
So why not make money off of the wild hoards when they come at opening?

Because we don't think there are wild hoards. That's what we're getting at.

No one is going to suggest it's not going to be crazy popular. Of course it will. But so was the Frozen ride, and so is meeting Anna and Elsa; we're not talking about one attraction that is opening, but rather a whole new section with lots to see and do and (hopefully) eat (not to mention that for many guests Pandora will also be a new destination).

I do think wild hoards...even for this...is a stretch. It will just be really busy. You know, like the rest of Disney.

Something that I don't think the uber "fans" get about Disney is that despite all of the revenue opportunities they come up with, the core product is still the core product. The new stuff has not, in any ways that are obvious to me, detracted from the core product. You can do adventure stuff at AK, but not at the expense of the safari. You can do a dessert party at Magic Kingdom or Epcot, but you can still see the fireworks. Fastpasses don't cost extra. I can't think of anything that has been a new or big deal that you had to pay extra for in the four years I've lived here. I think Disney is sensitive to that.

Disney World will see and increase in guest visitors from the opening Star Wars land, but nothing which could justify something to this extent. I can definitely see dessert party type activities, evening hours for resort guests, early entry admission and ultimately after hours hard ticket events like mentioned in the post. This would require AP holds to pay extra to gain entry into those events. Disney World is trying to spread the wealth of visitors to stay in one park all day or hop between parks just not the Magic Kingdom. This is the ultimate goal in my mind is to finally take the pressure of the Magic Kingdom in the evening hours and through out the day in general. They need Pandora and Star Wars land to accomplish this type of guest distribution here in Orlando.

Now with this in mind, Disneyland is a whole completely different beast. My work has taken me to the west coast frequently over the past 18 months and I did break down an purchase a Disneyland Annual Pass due to this much travel. Disneyland Annual Passholders are slightly crazy to the extreme. They often refer to Disneyland as "their park." Having spent a lot of time in Disneyland this past year, I cannot imagine how they plan on dealing with the crowds of visitors the park can have on any given day. I can see them limiting access to Star Wars land during the opening few months. I mean their Star Tours ride constantly has waits exceeding 60 minutes even on slow days. I know we have more capacity here in Orlando, but still they line up to ride Star Tours over and over in Disneyland. I think the new Max Pass feature is a test for the resort to see if they can possibly open Star Wars Land without traditional paper fastpass on the attractions.

I also cannot see them opening at the same time. Disneyland is WAY ahead of us here in Orlando. The chatter I hear from the inside around town is we are 8 to 10 months behind Disneyland at this point. Now Disney can certainly place the foot on the accelerator here if they choose, but who knows...I often joke with my friends slow and steady wins the race.

MiceAge is at Disneyland skewed site. I could see this happening there, because of that parks AP problem. You think they would just block out every level but the premier pass that summer, but there would be a lot of butt hurt people out there if they did.

They also watched last summer as Universal severely limited AP access to the park for Potters opening and due to this their attendance dropped. Disney does not want that to happen, allowing APs into the parks but not into the new land without an upcharge allows them to have high attendance counts without overwhelming the new land.

I doubt they do this in Florida.

Disney wouldn’t be the first park to do this. PortAventura’s new Ferrari Land will require an upcharge, with admission for annual passholders costing 35 euro.

reading, it's tough:

"Thank you for reading all the way to the end of Star Wars Land News. Because you were so attentive, you are the first to know: April Fools! The part about Star Wars Land being a separate ticket event for the first summer is a prank. However…it is something to think about. Let’s watch the comments and see who reads the whole thing."

Of course, why the author would do that on a post dated 3:00 am on March 30th, I have no idea. Then again, I really hate AFD, and all the lame@ss attempts at it, so maybe it's just me. Of course, Miceage resident crank Lutz loves AFD, so he's probably peeved that one of his juniors attempted to steal his thunder and bungled it poorly.

Actually George Takei wins AFD this year, with a 6 minute after midnight EDT post saying he's running for Devin Nunes' Congressional seat.

Jeff said:

I can't think of anything that has been a new or big deal that you had to pay extra for in the four years I've lived here. I think Disney is sensitive to that.

while not "a new" deal, moving the holiday parade to the hard ticket MVMCP is one example, no? (not sure if that falls within the 4 year window or not)

I don't speak acronym, so I have no idea what you're talking about.