Originally Posted By doombuggy <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/orange_county&id=8647966" target="_blank">http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/st...=8647966</a>
Originally Posted By TP2000 Looks great! I think it's also good that they are expanding their membership from the 400 or so members they have now to 500 or 600 members once 1901 opens. Club 33/1901 membership is still truly small at 600 people, especially in this age of 20+ Million visitors per year in Anaheim and 1 Million Annual Passholders. Club 33 is the 1% of Disneyland Guests, and even that is grossly over-stated. They make up less than 0.005% of Disneyland Guests. Go ahead and lavish them with perks and benefits for that price; it's such a tiny, tiny group of people that they don't even matter to the big picture view of the Disneyland Resort.
Originally Posted By Moon Waffle "Go ahead and lavish them with perks and benefits for that price; it's such a tiny, tiny group of people that they don't even matter to the big picture view of the Disneyland Resort." Oh, I wouldn't say that. The amount of money in memberships alone that this group generate for the resort (not to mention what they likely spend on food, entertainment, etc) probably matters a whole lot to the big picture of the DLR. More money through the system translates into all kinds of benefits to the average guest (new attractions, refurbs, etc.)
Originally Posted By gardenrooms I would assume - but you know what they say - that this is a substantial increase over the old fees. Anyone know what the membership and annual fees used to be? Just curious. Didn't win the lottery.
Originally Posted By TP2000 "Oh, I wouldn't say that. The amount of money in memberships alone that this group generate for the resort (not to mention what they likely spend on food, entertainment, etc) probably matters a whole lot to the big picture of the DLR." 400 people paying 10K per year in dues money equals 4 Million dollars. Plus 100 new people in 2012 paying 25K in initiation dues equals 2.5 Million dollars. That equals 6.5 Million dollars to TDA for Club 33 this year. But I would bet there's 1 Million in extra-costs, like employee salaries (two or three managers with their medical insurance and assoicated costs would be 300K, plus two or three office staff with their medical insurance plus associated costs would be 200K, plus a few extra hostesses to staff doors and events would be 200K, plus the cost of perks like park tours or valet parking at the Grand, etc. would be 300K) That leaves 5.5 Million dollars in profit from the dues/fees of the club. I would think the restaurant eeks out a bit of a profit, but not much. Judging by the menu prices the two times I've eaten there as a guest of Standard Oil, and compared to other high end restaurants in SoCal, the restaurant isn't a huge profit generator any more than your average Morton's steakhouse is. Included in those dues is a a Premiere AP for Disneyland and WDW, plus 50 park hopper tickets valued at $105 per ticket. That's over $5,000 of ticket media for each member, reducing the dues fees hit to the profit line for TDA to just $5,000. So, let's round up and say that gives TDA a profit of 3 Million dollars per year from the operation of Club 33. Not that 3 Million is something to sneeze at, but when it's a little corner of a massive resort dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars per year in costs and profits, feeding into a larger global company dealing with Billions of dollars per year in costs and profits, the 3 Million that Club 33 may pad the bottom line in the best of circumstances isn't that big of a deal. And again, we are talking about a demographic of park guests that is limited to around 500 people. It's a tiny, tiny, tiny sliver of the pie for Disneyland Resort. All that said, it's a minor miracle they've let Club 33 exist for this long and have kept it in it's basic circa 1967 format for this long. The 1901 Lounge thing is a baby step to growing the format and customer demographic of a very minor element of Disneyland's annual profits and customers.
Originally Posted By berol I would think the club's main value is in aiding to get and retain corporate sponsorships.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< 400 people paying 10K per year in dues money equals 4 Million dollars. Plus 100 new people in 2012 paying 25K in initiation dues equals 2.5 Million dollars. >>> You're neglecting that the 400 current members have been grandfathered into the old annual dues of $2500, unless they choose to upgrade to the new membership level. Since the primary benefit of the new membership level is access to Club 1901, I suspect that the vast majority of existing members will stay where they are.
Originally Posted By schnebs As far as anybody knows, is this the first time that Disney has acknowledged the existence of C33 in the mainstream media? If it is, I think it's interesting that they decided to make Disneyland's worst kept secret public. Now if they could just figure out to get the media interested in reporting on DVC...
Originally Posted By SuperDry ^^^ Considering that the story was on the local ABC affiliate, I doubt they had to twist too many arms to make the story happen.
Originally Posted By berol The first was at least 21 years ago. <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1991-09-08/news/mn-3035_1_exclusive-club" target="_blank">http://articles.latimes.com/19...ive-club</a>
Originally Posted By Moon Waffle "Mon 5/7/2012 6:25a I would think the club's main value is in aiding to get and retain corporate sponsorships." Another very good point. This crowd is going to generate a whole lot of $$$ for the Disney company beyond just their membership dues. It matters A LOT to the big picture.
Originally Posted By Dave >>> Premiere AP for Disneyland and WDW<<< since when was WDW included I'll have to ask my source
Originally Posted By disneylandfan8 I'll have to talk to my fairy godmother about visiting the new Club 1901.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney If the Club 33 memberships is really that small why have so many people I know been there? Seems like everyone knows someone with a membership.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>If the Club 33 memberships is really that small why have so many people I know been there? Seems like everyone knows someone with a membership.<< Disney fans can be quite resourceful in finding someone to get them in there. Also, they do rent the joint out to organizations. I managed to have breakfast in there several years ago as a guest of a member of a law students guild (or something - don't remember exactly, but it involved law students and presentations). It was my first visit to Disneyland, EVER, and although I fully understood how staggeringly cool it was to be in Club 33, I can't begin to tell you how badly I wanted the presenters to shut up so I could get OUT of there!
Originally Posted By disneylandfan8 My first trip to Club 33 was an LP breakfast meet. My mother and I were so thrilled to finally get the chance to go! I can only hope that someday the chance for another LP meet will happen, maybe in the new Club 1901?
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "It was my first visit to Disneyland, EVER, and although I fully understood how staggeringly cool it was to be in Club 33, I can't begin to tell you how badly I wanted the presenters to shut up so I could get OUT of there!" LOL. I can imagine!
