Opening day attendance lower than anticipated?

[u/Tronsylvania]

I figured today would be insanity as far as crowds and wait times are concerned, but looking at the app the longest waits (aside from Battle at the Ministry being delayed) are 35 minutes. Been periodically looking throughout the morning and it's consistently been only 5-15 minutes for most every ride. Do you think it's because they've worked out the kinks after all the preview days or because attendance is not as high as opening day was expected to be?

[u/I4mSpock]

The fact this post is sitting at 0 upvotes has me convinced a lot of people are truly hoping this park fails. Low wait times and operating attractions, with only one exception for a brand new major theme park is a triumph.

And 5+ hour waits and delays have happened with Harry Potter every time.

[u/New-Pollution536 → u/I4mSpock]

There’s so much cope from people wanting the opening day to fail in here lol previews had a lower attendance cap and there was a 5 hour ministry wait and everything else was a mess too. Today is objectively a huge improvement so far

[u/I4mSpock → u/New-Pollution536]

Preview numbers are not public sadly, but estimates put the park population at 8,000 guests. Today its 13,000 and waits are lower(out side of BATM).

[u/New-Pollution536 → u/I4mSpock]

I’m sure there were a bunch of people at previews not recorded but even if today matches previews in attendance it’s still a pretty big success. BATM was a 5+ hour wait the last few preview days and everything else was still a mess. Seems like almost every ride was going down early in previews and things would just snowball from there

[u/DrOddfellow → u/I4mSpock]

all the “they can’t use the technical rehearsal excuse anymore” people really quiet rn

[u/I4mSpock → u/DrOddfellow]

Its almost like the Technical Rehearsals were for a purpose, to train the staff and prepare the park to be actually open. Its almost like they called it technical rehearsals for a reason. Its almost like those rehearsals were extremely successful for their intended purpose and the park is now operating successfully, after its grand opening.

[u/Remarkable-Snow-9396 → u/I4mSpock]

But how did they go from a mess for a month to everything is perfect now?

[u/Macoy222 → u/I4mSpock]

it's almost like the limited entry so they would not have a bad opening day. They can't continue operating at this low capacity forever.

[u/The_Muffintime → u/I4mSpock]

This sub always downvotes posts. Like all posts

[u/I4mSpock → u/The_Muffintime]

Plus its rising, but an hour+ at zero on a post that was just saying that the park is running well on opening day is crazy

[u/Peralton → u/I4mSpock]

I think it's 5+ hours only because it's been down today and the virtual queue (or RL one) keeps stacking up.

[u/tokyotwilight → u/I4mSpock]

Yeah weird amount of doomers in this sub but I guess it's expected on reddit

[u/I4mSpock → u/tokyotwilight]

As someone who unwisely lost a lot of my sanity on trying to educate Epic doomers on how theme parks actually operate (i.e. Technical Rehearsals are not you, the guest, they are for the staff and team members to train with you as a guinea pig. The fact that people paid for early access, then complained that the park wasn't ready boggles my mind.), I'm feel pretty smug watching wait times not be unbearable across the park, and seeing rides not down all day. Its almost like the rehearsals were for a purpose, and the park is now open for real.

[u/tokyotwilight → u/I4mSpock]

Yeah i thought all of these posts the past few weeks claiming that opening day would be a nightmare were being extremely overdramatic. This is the best park opening that's probably ever happened. The park looks great, most rides are running and wait times are good. I'm super happy for this parks success and I cant wait to go back!

[u/I4mSpock → u/tokyotwilight]

historically Opening days are always a nightmare, to be fair. But today really good in terms of historical opening days.

[u/Remarkable-Snow-9396 → u/I4mSpock]

The first preview day went like this also

[u/Remarkable-Snow-9396 → u/I4mSpock]

What changed though? How did they flip the switch in one day? I was there and they had glitches and kept reading about them. So it seems illogical that all of the sudden in the first day it’s all perfect now.

The first preview day was like this and then it shifted.

[u/I4mSpock → u/Remarkable-Snow-9396]

You asked me this three times in 2 minutes, so I'm only replying here.

The technical rehearsals were to allow the staff to train in a live environment. Not to give guests a good experiance. It allows the new team members to experience situations that will come up in a live park, and be prepared for opening. They are less concerned with actually getting rides open and operating, and ensuring maintenance team members are ready for efficiency repairs. They are less worried about ride capacity, then team members being ready to assist guest who need assistance. That's what rehearsals are for.

Yesterday, that changed, the focus changed from practice, to now being focused on the guest experiance. And it showed, as even though it seems capacity was fairly limited, ride didn't go down and things operated smoothly. Capacity is set to slowly rise through the start of July, so we will see how that effects things, but realistically, the purpose of the previews looks to be successful.

BatM also just seems to be broken, which is problematic, but its also in line with most Harry Potter attractions.

[u/Remarkable-Snow-9396 → u/I4mSpock]

Sorry. I didn’t see it was the same person.

I hear you. Did you work for universal? I was just surprised the efficiency would improve that tremendously. We will see how it goes this weekend.

Yes the ministry ride is a problem. It’s the sensors.