Originally Posted By bayrr326 According to the Orlando Sentinel- <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-daily-disney/os-disney-earnings-20110208,0,7426349.story" target="_blank">http://www.orlandosentinel.com...49.story</a> "But attendance also perked up, by 2 percent, between the two coasts, despite disruptive weather during the quarter that included heavy rains in Southern California and a post-Christmas blizzard that grounded air travel across the Northeast. Although it did not provide specific figures, Disney said Disney World attendance was up "more than 2 percent" during the quarter while Disneyland, in Anaheim, Calif., was "slightly down" from last year. Disney suggested its Orlando theme parks are benefitting from the huge crowds being drawn to the region by Universal Orlando's popular Wizarding World of Harry Potter." So Disney can thank Potter too for improving their bottom line. I don't buy the whole increase in guest spending due to reductions in discounting. Really? Oh and how about all those coupons that were showing up on guest reciepts for discounts on merchandise and extending the AP discount to most theme park stores. So no discounting going on there.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Notice how it says it's for both coasts. DL certainly has seemed more crowded in the last year, and DCA has actually had people in it! The "heavy rains" out here really aren't ever that bad (people tend to overreact when it only rains 10 times a year), and are much less than in previous years, though earlier in the season. I would guess that DLR's numbers are helping out WDW's, from what I've read about their attendance since Potter opened.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper ^^^Apparently not. DL was apparently lower than WDW in attendance than WDW.
Originally Posted By Christi22222 ^^^ But why did they specifically state that WDW attendance was up? I am really confused by this as it seems to go against what we've been believing. Also, regarding the rain in So Cal....I went for a few days in October. I have been to DL many times in my life, lived in OC twice for a couple years, went to so Cal and Disney 5 times last year. The rain in October was un-freaking-believable!! Came as close as I can imagine to ruining a trip. We usually just buck up, are glad the crowds are thinned, and have fun. But man, this was a test. You were soaked repeatedly. It was truly relentless. Mickey's Halloween Party was pretty dead due to the rain, and much was closed. So I actually buy the weather issue this go around, and usually I don't.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros "DL was apparently lower than WDW in attendance than WDW." That's find; WDW is huge and has 4 parks, against DLR's two. DLR could have had a huge increase, while WDW had a huge decrease (though I honestly don't think either were 'huge'), and still not be anywhere near the numbers of WDW attendance. It's not about the actual numbers, it's relative growth. The overall net change was minimal, but it seems like the change at each resort was much greater.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<That's find; WDW is huge and has 4 parks, against DLR's two. DLR could have had a huge increase, while WDW had a huge decrease (though I honestly don't think either were 'huge'), and still not be anywhere near the numbers of WDW attendance. It's not about the actual numbers, it's relative growth. The overall net change was minimal, but it seems like the change at each resort was much greater.>> Sorry, my first post was terrible. What I meant to say was that DL apparently had a 2% decrease in attendance, while WDW had over a 2% increase.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<That's find; WDW is huge and has 4 parks, against DLR's two. DLR could have had a huge increase, while WDW had a huge decrease (though I honestly don't think either were 'huge'), and still not be anywhere near the numbers of WDW attendance. It's not about the actual numbers, it's relative growth. The overall net change was minimal, but it seems like the change at each resort was much greater.>> Sorry, my first post was terrible. What I meant to say was that DL apparently had a 2% decrease in attendance, while WDW had over a 2% increase.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<That's find; WDW is huge and has 4 parks, against DLR's two. DLR could have had a huge increase, while WDW had a huge decrease (though I honestly don't think either were 'huge'), and still not be anywhere near the numbers of WDW attendance. It's not about the actual numbers, it's relative growth. The overall net change was minimal, but it seems like the change at each resort was much greater.>> Sorry, my first post was terrible. What I meant to say was that DL apparently had a 2% decrease in attendance, while WDW had over a 2% increase.
Originally Posted By Manfried Three times the reading fun. Don't you hate it when the system does that?
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt “So Disney can thank Potter too for improving their bottom line. I don't buy the whole increase in guest spending due to reductions in discounting.” It makes perfect sense. Less discounting = more money on the bottom line. The interesting thing is that Disney managed to increase attendance on the heels of Universal without building a brand new power house attraction. Without the benefit of careful analysis these results seem to fly in the face of those who think that Disney needs to step its game to compete with the new Wizarding World at Universal. “The "heavy rains" out here really aren't ever that bad (people tend to overreact when it only rains 10 times a year)” Spoken like a true Southern Californian. It definitely rains way more than 10 times a year down there.
Originally Posted By fkurucz So where did the bulk of the new profoit come from? Movies? The Parks? ABC/ESPN?
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<Without the benefit of careful analysis these results seem to fly in the face of those who think that Disney needs to step its game to compete with the new Wizarding World at Universal.>> I don't give a crap about them competing for profits, attendance, or hotel reservations. Disney is always going to beat Universal out there. I want them to compete creatively. Because in the past 10 years, Uni has left them in the dust in that respect.
Originally Posted By fkurucz I just looked at the press release. While they beat expectations by 54%, year on year profits are flat.
Originally Posted By leemac <<While they beat expectations by 54%, year on year profits are flat.>> Huh? Op income wasn't flat - it was up 54%.
Originally Posted By leemac It was a great quarter for WDP&R - virtually every metric was up - increased guest attendance, increased occupancy and increased guest spend. The latter was up due to increased ticket prices and higher F&B/merch spend. Although not split out it seems both HKDL and DLRP were up too. Only slight blemish was DCL - but then there was scheduled dry dock and the upcoming launch of the Dream to push costs up. Incredibly the company spent over $1bn on its WDP&R property last quarter alone - that was more than four times the amount in the comparative period. Money is being spent left, right and center.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Even though it is not only quite possible that Disney is benefiting from the increased numbers for "Wizard" this indicates a situation of some long range concern. For years, Universal, SeaWorld and others lived off Disney overflow. People went to Disney and spent some time at those others as well. This is the first time that I can remember hearing that people went to Universal and also spent some time at Disney. Doesn't that reflect a huge swing in public perception and identification of the "leader" in the business? Shouldn't that be a serious wake up call for the highly educated suits at Disney. Just think about it...Disney is no longer the main attraction, it is the "heck, we might as well go to that one too" attraction. In my mind this is all very telling and hopefully someone with much more pull than I have (I have none BTW) will notice and sound the alarm. The tide has started to turn. The current attendance figures mean nothing based on this information...the future ones will hold the rest of the story.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper ^^^^Very god post, and something that I've been trying to explain to people as well.
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ The point is that IoA's attendance was in the toilet - so any movement up from the base is going to look very good. Sure they added 2m additional clicks for 2010 (when Potter was only open for little more than half the calendar year) but combined both of those Uni parks are probably getting as many guests as Epcot which runs to c.12m if the estimates are correct (I can't comment). So in short WDW is still the king of the swamps - that isn't going to change any time soon. The trick will be to see if that continues to be the case. Uni would need to continue to add millions of guests every year to begin to be anything more than an annoying gnat bite.
