Slow economy not good for Orlando

What makes a park "regional?" Would that be the smaller parks like Kennywood, Holiday World etc? Are they the ones doing better? Sorry for asking these questions, I'm from Aussie.

Orlando is more of a destination, while everything else primarily draws from the locals. Even parks like Cedar Point and Magic Mountain tend to draw people from their areas, not the other side of the country.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

If this weekend is any indication, Kennywood is having a VERY good summer :-)


But yes, parks like the various Six Flags, Kennywood, and even Cedar Point to an extent, are "regional" parks. Only coaster nuts like us actually travel to them, most of their draw is people within easy driving distance.



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--Greg

http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/

Interesting. What about international travellers visiting Orlando? Or are they just a small slice of the pie? I was one a year & a half ago. :)

I live just north of Orlando and have annuals to all the local parks and have definitely noticed a slow-down! You can actually do all of Universal or IOA in one day easily. Although I feel that their Express Pass system is a big help in this aspect (but that's an argument for another thread). My wife works at EPCOT and they've seen the lack of crowds at their parks as well.
This is good and bad. Good for those of us that want to head over to one of the parks for the day since we can ride pretty much everything multiple times (especially the coasters) and the wait times are very low. Bad in the fact that the locations are most likely looking at this as a time to scale back on any future additions. Hopefully this will only be a temporary thing and the crowds will pick back up.

-Shady

Kennywood is having a very good year so far. I was there on Sunday for Kennykon and it was, If I remember correctly, the second most crowded day of the year. The park stayed open until 11:15 for the general public which is unheard of at most parks due to the enormous crowds. Also, on Saturday, I think the crowds were the biggest of the year. The park has been really crowded, so Kennywood must be doing quite well this probably, most likely due to advertising for Phantom's Revenge, which is an amazing coaster by the way.
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Dave

Would anyone know if BGT is ever crowded? I got several walk ons on Kumba and Montu during the course of one day, It seems that the only lines in that park are for Gwazi and Python...:)

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B&M Loyalist 4-Life

Speaking of Busch, does anyone know if in past years Busch Gardens Williamsburg has had to use the overflow lot across the street on a regular basis? almost everyday I pass its in use, which means the park is getting lots of people...

I believe that the economy is not the only reason the Orlando area is down a bit. We all remember what a huge media blitz that Disney put out celebrating the millenium (Epcot) and Universal put out a huge national blitz celebrating the opening of IOA (even though it was a year old). These two factors brought alot of people to the area and for many families this is a trip made only once every several years.

Dont forget, that the Dollar is very expensive for europeans at the moment. A few years ago a holiday in Florida was very cheap, due to the dollar and cheap flights. Now the dollar has gone up nearly a "third" of its value and flights are not cheap anymore. This means that lots of tourists skip Florida and the US for their holidays. I know, that tourists can be a pain in the ..., but Florida is all based on tourism, and the themeparks will be the first to suffer, cause the admission is far from being cheap as well.

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i was a teenage rollercoaster designer

Ok, I don't see how that is possible. Seriously, Orlando can't be in bad shape. I don't see how that is possible.

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Don't Fight It: Ride It! Raging Bull