DCA Attendance Up

[Sarangel]

No big surprises, given the discounts they've been handing out, but the LA Times reports:

Walt Disney Co.'s 5-month-old California Adventure has doubled its daily turnout in recent weeks using discounts and a revived attraction to boost lagging attendance, a park executive said.

Last month, Disney began offering discounts for Southern California residents to the Anaheim theme park. And this week, Disney began the annual summer performances of the "Electrical Parade" of Disney characters through California Adventure.

The promotions come after a weakening U.S. economy hurt attendance at Disney's parks in Anaheim and Orlando, analysts have said. The lower theme park attendance is expected to contribute to a decline in profit for Burbank-based Disney in the fiscal quarter ended June 30.

Cynthia Harriss, president of Disneyland Resort, said she's "optimistic" that the current volume of traffic will hold up through the summer, based on the number of calls that Disney's travel business is receiving.

 

[fboy9287]

Thats good news. What is happening here though?

 

[Another Voice]

Ballerinas must weep with envy over the ability of these executives to spin…..

The period that this pertains to was the Fourth of July and the weekend leading up to it. Now when the park was pulling in 4,000 people a day in April, doubling that figure on July Fourth really isn’t all that hard. The numbers counted also included the park hoppers – each and every time they entered the park. In addition to kids get in free and deep adult discounts, Disney also mailed out close to a quarter million FREE kids tickets to Annual Pass Holders, instituted kids get in free for three day passes (not just Southern California residents), has been sending out several thousand tickets to community groups and radio giveaways, giving away free tickets people who buy ticket plans for the Angels baseball team, sent out free tickets and are allowing extra sign-ins for cast members, running a free call-in program where some 30% of the callers get free tickets, and a few other promotions. The week also marked the introduction of the Main Street Electrical Parade into the California Adventure which brought the Annual Pass holders out in herds after the promised free merchandise.

The result – paid attendance is near its lowest point since the park opened. And the crowds have sent guest complaints soaring. The attractions can not handle the strain and most of the large attractions (the water ride, the roller coaster, ‘Soaring’) are experiencing lengthy down times (four or more hours). The advertising campaign to make the park seem kid friendly is now causing two major problems. The place still doesn’t have anything for children but now the guest are REALLY mad about that. Second, the campaign has convinced the demographic the park was designed for – those upscale wine drinkers, Wolfgang Puck diners who want to shop – it’s convinced them that DCA is nothing but a child’s amusement park. Interest from Disney’s target group has plummeted.

And the worse part about this – even management knows the attendance boost is only temporary. “Rumors” are swirling that after Labor Day, California Adventure is going to a five day a week operation, open from Noon until 6:00pm. Even more cuts (and cuts to Disneyland) are possible. The second round of layoffs is “rumored” to be just before October 1.

The Disney PR machine is on turbo in advance of the earnings announcements You can expect a lot of these “statements” for the next couple of weeks. Just take them for what their worth.

 

[Captain Crook]

AV, let me first say that I tend to believe all that you are saying, but let me ask, is there any possibility you think you could be wrong? Can you see any area or scenerio that you could possibly have misread? I have no hidden agenda or ambush planned here, only an honest question...

 

[All Aboard]

Still, if reduced admission is the only way to draw guests, then it is better than shutdown.

Earlier, someone stated that DCA would be losing money on every guest that came through the turnstiles. I suspect that is not true. Without the advantage of financials, I can only speculate that DCA is covering variable guest costs with parking, food and merchandise. Similar to what we have here in FL, I get into all of the WDW parks for next to nothing - $150 a year. For that I go 40 or so days. Is WDW losing money on me? Heck no, to that I can attest.

While they are certainly operating well below the margin they would have if they were attracting more guests at full price, they are better off with this strategy than shutting the gates. Then you are amortizing (or writing off) a huge asset with no revenue.

As long as DCA is covering variable costs, it should do what it can to maximize revenue. If that means practically giving away admission to locals, then so be it.

 

[YoHo]

One thing that reduced hours and day will definatly do is give crews more time, daylight time (which is sometimes needed even for Disney) to work on improving the park without interfereing with guests.



Not that that was the goal, but it is an unexpected advantage.

 

[Quentin Disney]

Originally posted by Another Voice
. “Rumors” are swirling that after Labor Day, California Adventure is going to a five day a week operation, open from Noon until 6:00pm

FIVE DAYS A WEEK? Man, if the people who actually booked vacations during that time found out that DCA was closed during their vacation, wouldn't they be angry? If this were to be true, I can't imagine how the media would react to something like that!

Someone in Burbank need to be put out of its misery SOON!

 

[Laurajean1014]

They build it and we will come...................

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

if the people who actually booked vacations during that time found out that DCA was closed during their vacation, wouldn't they be angry?

Yeah!! Sounds like Wally World in National Lampoon's Vacation!!

Hope they hire better security than a John Candy type.

 

[Another Voice]

Captain, sir. First let me say that I truly hope I am wrong. I was never a big fan of the current plan, but this thing has turned out far worse than any nightmare scenario I could have come up with. I know the impact that Euro Disney had on the morale of the company, and this is shaping up to be even worse than that.

It’s really impossible to say what’s going to happen because of the mass confusion that seems to have gripped the place. The whole discount/free kids took a lot of people be surprise (personally, I never thought they would do it) and so any idea is pretty much fair game right now. Executives and departments are scrambling to cover themselves and there seems to be little coordination. And half the company is more than willing to let Pressler, Braverman and friends twist in the wind for a while.

One of the other rumors that’s just hit the internet is the ‘Bug Town’ fix – this week’s attempt to put more children’s rides in the park. Right now according to the “rumor”, bumper cars, a mini-kiddie coaster and spinner will be put in the farm area. All of these “rides” will be without a height restriction and will be purchased right off the shelf. One of the nastier rumors claims that management actually selected the rides by thumbing through a carnival supplier’s catalog. It’s “rumored” that the decision on building a clone of ‘Tower of Terror’ has been postponed until after summer and ‘Millionaire’ opens. A lot of plans have been drawn up and the favored plan this week may not be the plan next week.

As for the financials, I think the only copy of the true numbers are locked in a vault on the fifth floor of the Team Disney building in Burbank. There are indications that DCA is not covering its operating costs and that was the cause of the first wave of attraction and restaurant closings. The Annual Pass crowd out here is very different than the one for WDW. On average, the Disneyland AP visits more often, but spends less money per visit. The result is a higher demand for services and at a lower margin. One of the fixes at DCA is to goose more money out of the pass holders through the picnic lunches, more pin trading, reserved parade seating (for a fee) and special events (with merchandise for sale). But the financials for the place were designed around out-of-town guests spending an entire day in the park with the purchase of at least two meals.

It’s rumored that Disney thinks it can hide the messy details about the financials, but knows it can’t hide the attendance figures. Thus, the effort to get as many bodies in the place with no regard for the cost. When Euro Disney first opened, everyone knew that the problem was too many hotel rooms but that the fundamentals of the place were right. There seems to be a growing feeling that California Adventure is flawed from the foundation up. The concept of DCA as an Epcot-like adult-oriented park has been completely abandoned now. But no one can articulate what the new concept should be – everyone’s just trying as many quick fixes as possible.

 

[F.C. Fan]

YoHo

They'll be letting employees go. There will be skeleton crews doing the work. That's why they're going to shorter days and hours for the park, to not loose money. It really is sad cause from what I 've seen and read on that park, it has alot of potential and just like the Florida parks deserves better than that.