THE LOS ANGELES EARTHQUAKE : Few Visitors Appear to Be Changing Plans : Tourists Mostly Take Shaking in Stride

At the Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, the Tony Orlando & Dawn exhibit got to rocking and rolling so hard that one of the figures fell over and fractured into five pieces. At nearby Knott’s Berry Farm, about $5,000 worth of jellies and jams were ruined when rows of jars jiggled off gift store shelves.

And at the Disneyland Hotel, 10 guests checked out early, deciding they would rather see tomorrow than “Tomorrowland.”

But aside from from such minor incidents, the quake had little impact on Southland tourist businesses or tourists’ plans to travel to and from the area.

Although some hotels reported cancellations because of the quake, most hotel chains, travel agencies and auto rental firms said customers were not changing their travel plans as a result of the temblor. Major airlines reported no more cancellations or no-shows than usual.

Attendance was down at some Southern California tourist attractions. The J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu reported a third fewer visitors than normal. Three bus tours were canceled, spokeswoman Denise Yarfitz said.

About 4,500 people took the popular Universal Studios tour Thursday, down from the normal 5,500, reservations coordinator Jim Schafer said.

Knott’s Berry Farm said attendance was off 30%, and a spokesman attributed the decline to the earthquake.

Disneyland officials said crowds were about average. “This is a pretty light day for us anyway, with school in session and it being a weekday,” spokesman Bob Roth said.

Disneyland opened on time, but only 75% of the attractions were operating as crews inspected the remaining rides for damage. Knott’s Berry Farm shut down its 20-story-high “Skyjump” and stagecoach attractions.

“We shut the stagecoach because we didn’t want to take a chance of the horses being agitated in case of an aftershock,” said spokesman Stuart Zanville. “And we thought if there was an aftershock, someone wouldn’t want to be up 20 stories high.”

At the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, 10 rooms--out of 800 that were occupied--were emptied Thursday morning by guests who cited the earthquake as their reason for checking out, hotel spokeswoman Janine Fiddelke said.

And at least four parties canceled reservations because of the earthquake, while 10 more changed their reservations to a future date, she said.

One Orange County hotel reported that it actually benefited from the quake. The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel said a Pasadena woman reserved a room for the night because she feared aftershocks.

“We were surprised that the guests didn’t really panic,” said Holiday Inn-Hollywood spokeswoman Kathy Thomas. “Some of them requested to be moved to the lower floors, but no one left.”

Travel agencies also said there was no panic.

An employee at the Travel Hut travel agency in Westbury, N.Y., reported “no cancellations or change of plans for travel going out to the West Coast today.”

“There has been no rush of people wanting to get out of town,” said Jan Duuring, spokesman for Thomas Cook Travel USA in Long Beach.

Some travel agencies, however, are preparing for the possibility that travelers may become stranded or otherwise inconvenienced. A New York spokeswoman for American Express Co. said the company’s locations in Beverly Hills and Costa Mesa will remain open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Damage reports ranged from “not even a broken window” at Disneyland to losses of up to $20,000 at the Movieland Wax Museum.

“We had some interior walls bent and doors that wouldn’t close right,” said John White, manager of the wax museum. “We had glass all over the the place. . . . We were about 30 minutes late opening.”

Only one of the museum’s 200 wax figures was damaged--the life-size likeness of Joyce Vincent-Wilson, a singer in the popular ‘60s pop group Tony Orlando & Dawn. White said the museum would replace the damaged wax figure.

“It’s one of the ones that people usually look at (to) bring back old memories,” White said.

Times staff writer Terry Pristin contributed to this report.