Attendance Down, Revenue Up

[Skywise]

But the last few years of price increases haven't throttled attendance at all really. It kept going up.

It's the cutbacks that are killing them but, again that all quietly happened within the last month or two and although WE know about it I can't believe the news would've disrupted that much attendance so soon.

There's also the possibility that they've lost some goodwill with firing all the IT guys in Florida (DL attendance is fine but it was WDWs that dropped and that's where they laid off the group) and this is a backlash from that too (That's harder to quantify though)

 

[jknc]

This is the 2nd bad earnings report in a row for DIS. The stock price is down 20% from it's highs. These greedy Disney executives are foaming at the mouth in anger over this. They have lost hundreds of millions in personal wealth because of the decline. At this very moment they are having a meeting demanding more ways to cut services and raise prices at theme parks. You thought it was getting bad, wait until you see what's coming.

Disney After Hours event does not currently seem to be a cash cow. Now if they keep MK at 10 pm close throughout summer and offer the DAH twice a week, then perhaps its a more financially viable event.

 

[nicko]

I have been saying all along that this direction of "pay more, get less" will eventually catch up with them. The "Disney apologists" often responded with "then don't go, there are plenty of others who will take your place". Maybe this quarters report says otherwise?

I think that you will see attendance dropping (gradually) for the remainder of 2016 and 2017. I wonder if the biggest drop was from AP holders? They got hit with a huge price increase late last year. Perhaps many did not renew.

I really believe that the never ending price increases well above the rate of inflation and the lack of investment in the parks is finally catching up to them. Please note that I don't consider shops, restaurants, DVC or Disney Springs as an investment in the parks. Sure we will get Star Wars land someday. However, they need to seriously pick up the pace on park construction.

I'm quite glad for the attendance downturn. Maybe this will motivate the executives to stop the WDW cuts and start seriously investing in park expansion again.

I look forward to seeing the Universal attendance numbers.

#thanksshanghai

 

[Enjoying Life]

The strong dollar is keeping international visitors from coming over

The US dollar has been in a major decline since December.
http://www.barchart.com/charts/stocks/$DXY

 

[ellie05]

This is really interesting the only reason the didn't loose money is because of price increases, no wonder they desperately raised everything on a very short spam. I knew the international economy drop was going to affect them I think their nickel and dimming has also affected them.
Now they are saying they meant to do this, but by lower summer rates and a very long free dinning season says otherwise. I think that they are starting to see the decrease translate to the hotels occupancy. Comes fall universal is opening a new hotel and rides.

I don't think it was done on purpose.

 

[Planogirl]

The lack of enough capacity strikes again. It seems unusual for a company to want fewer customers unless they just don't have the capacity to serve them.

 

[nicko]

Disney After Hours event does not currently seem to be a cash cow. Now if they keep MK at 10 pm close throughout summer and offer the DAH twice a week, then perhaps its a more financially viable event.

That would be a horrible deal for customers. They would be trimming back park hours during a very busy time for regular ticket holders, and then reselling that time to After Hours attendees. I think it would generate a lot of ill will with regular summer park goers.

 

[Ellwood970]

The price increases will only get them so far. The strong dollar is keeping international visitors from coming over, and Disney has priced out a large swath of the American consumer. Families with young children aren't generally flush with extra cash for Disney world. Older travelers who do have the money to spend are looking for the high end experience. Disney's cutbacks on services for the deluxe resorts and the club level offerings will cause the travelers looking for the premium experience to look elsewhere. I see a lot of the repeat travelers to Disney beginning to question whether or not it's a good value now - that's got to hurt Disney.

I am one of those. Have gone multiple times since 2000. They were practically begging us to go after 9/11. It is not good value now for me. But I will go back eventually, with substantial discounts.

 

[Shanti]

I really believe that the never ending price increases well above the rate of inflation and the lack of investment in the parks is finally catching up to them.

I think if there is any one factor that is really keeping more of the general public away than before, it isn't lack of investment, firing American employees, or even somewhat higher prices: it's the increasingly relentless crowds. Read the one-star and two-star reviews of WDW on Trip Advisor (that's where the general public shares their opinions of Disney online). The negative reviews focus overwhelmingly on how bad the crowds are and the line waits are, and therefore just not getting to do half of what was available. WDW is going to have to get a handle on the crowd situation, one way or another, to keep their parks attractive long term. Maybe this news is an indication that they've found one way to do it, even if it's not the way we'd prefer.

 

[Rubicon_SS]

I think if Disney were trying to throttle attendance lower to increase the guest experience by raising prices they wouldn't be offering such steep discounts like they are. Free Dining this fall, for example, which we are gladly taking advantage of and hope attendance has dropped even further when we go the week after Thanksgiving!!

 

[Huff]

As far as I know, Disney does not release attendance records. So how has this story derived such?

 

[disneyygirrl]

I hope attendance stays "down" for my trip in July.

Me too!

 

[Shanti]

I think if Disney were trying to throttle attendance lower to increase the guest experience by raising prices they wouldn't be offering such steep discounts like they are. Free Dining this fall, for example, which we are gladly taking advantage of and hope attendance has dropped even further when we go the week after Thanksgiving!!

However, Free Dining is going on for a shorter period than ever before. There were also lots of reports of lower-end room types being harder than ever to get for it, from the very first day it was available.

 

[Huff]

I really believe that the never ending price increases well above the rate of inflation and the lack of investment in the parks is finally catching up to them.

Is the building of Avatar Land, Star Wars Land, Toy Story Land not investing in the parks? Over at Disneyland Resort they spent plenty building Cars land and revamping other areas of California Adventure. They're also building Star Wars Land at Disneyland as well. Quite a bit going on at the parks lately. That said, Disney is coming closer to pricing my family out. Can only go off season with large discounts.

 

[Rubicon_SS]

As far as I know, Disney does not release attendance records. So how has this story derived such?

Because Disney themselves stated park attendance had fallen "moderately". They also said (in the article linked to above) the resorts were down.

 

[Enjoying Life]

There is no pixie dust on Wall Street. You have to accept the fact that Disney is part of corporate America now, where the only thing that matters is the bottom line. They don't care about people's memories or feelings. They don't believe in magic. They only care about how much money they can extract from people.

 

[Huff]

However, Free Dining is going on for a shorter period than ever before. There were also lots of reports of lower-end room types being harder than ever to get for it, from the very first day it was available.

Has it been possible to get free dining over thanksgiving weekend and Christmas in years prior? Usually FD ends at least a week prior making either difficult unless a very long vacation of well over a week. Also seems that summer discounts have been a bit higher than prior years.

 

[Rubicon_SS]

However, Free Dining is going on for a shorter period than ever before. There were also lots of reports of lower-end room types being harder than ever to get for it, from the very first day it was available.

That may be true but we had no problem getting the room we wanted for the dates we wanted so in our case it was a great deal!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I think if there is any one factor that is really keeping more of the general public away than before, it isn't lack of investment, firing American employees, or even somewhat higher prices: it's terrible crowds. Read the one-star and two-star reviews of WDW on Trip Advisor (that's where the general public shares their opinions on Disney online). The negative reviews focus overwhelmingly on how bad the crowds were and the line waits were, and therefore just not getting to do half of what was available. WDW is going to have to get a handle on the crowd situation, one way or another, to keep their parks attractive long term. Maybe this news is an indication that they've found one way to do it, even if it's not the way we'd prefer.

I agree, at least to me, that part of attendance being down is word of mouth about the crowds combined with higher costs at the park..like food costs, parking costs, ticket increases, etc. A lot of people base these aspects based on when they last went so it's a value thing along with how much they can get out of their day

I use Trip Advisor a lot and have been following all 4 parks at WDW and the 2 parks as USO since last August. While USO doesn't seem to see the "omg the crowds" aspect aside from Harry Potter theirs is more related to Express Pass or the process getting into the park combined with Hulk being gone. WDW on the other hand sees "omg the crowds" "what a price rip off I only go to do X # of stuff in X time at X price" "rides kept breaking down" "CMs not as nice", etc. I know though how to read between what is likely an experience gone bad with legitimate concerns and observations versus the guest who did zero research and to be honest, though not trying to be mean, brought some of their negative experience on themselves.

I'm a big believer in reading the bad reviews because a lot of that is individual issues instead of the place but it also can give you insight. Last trip was Sep 2011 and I know just from reading those reviews and being here on the DIS that the Sep 2017 is going to be a different ball game. My touring plan will actually have to be a touring plan versus a "I'd like to go to this park today" and "here's the rides I want to ride" and that's all the planning I did.

 

[Huff]

WDW is going to have to get a handle on the crowd situation, one way or another, to keep their parks attractive long term. Maybe this news is an indication that they've found one way to do it, even if it's not the way we'd prefer.

Bad lines are due to increased demand. To curb that prices are increased until profits and demand balance. Sure Disney can build more attractions to increase capacity (which they are doing) but no where near what demand requires.