DCA Discounts Back Again

[Another Voice]

Remember last month when Disney made a huge deal in the press about ending discounts because things were looking up? Remember how they said that attendance at California Adventure was “good” and that they didn’t need to discount any more? Remember when June 19th was going to be the last discounted day?

This morning Disney is offering two different discount deals to California Adventure for Southern California Residents. They are the same deals that were available last summer:

Two Park Hoppers: you get two tickets that can either be used to visit a single park on two different days or to visit both parks on the same day. These aren’t really “park hoppers” in the WDW sense of the term, you just two single park admission tickets for a discounted price. How and when you use them is up to you.

Kids Free: At DCA only, adults get in for the kid’s price, kids get in free. This offer is good only for Southern California residents (proof of address is required).*

Both offers are good through September 3rd.

This is simply a survival move for the park as their attendance continues to fall well short of expectations. Since Disneyland is at or exceeding expectations the problem clearly lies with California Adventure itself. Unfortunately, reviving last year’s discount promotions seems to be just one more band-aid being applied instead of a serious attempt to correct the situation.

Yes Captain, Universal Studios Hollywood is also offering a big discount but for a much different reason. USH relies very heavily on foreign tourists and that business is still down tremendously due to 9/11. Universal’s discounts are an attempt to make up for some of that lost business by recruiting locals. Where a typical local will go to Disneyland about once a year, for Universal it’s about once every 7 years.


* Sorry Mr. Weiss. They're still looking to rake in big bucks from out-of-towners. They've given up any kind of effort to attract tourists to DCA and figure that those that do show up would have shown up anyway.

 

[Werner Weiss]

Originally posted by Another Voice
* Sorry Mr. Weiss. They're still looking to rake in big bucks from out-of-towners. They've given up any kind of effort to attract tourists to DCA and figure that those that do show up would have shown up anyway.

Alas, they won't rake in big bucks from us this summer. We'll be spending our "big bucks" at various spots throughout Southern California, but not at 1313 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim, California.

If DCA isn't a good value for Southern Californians without substantial discounts, then why is DCA supposedly worth big bucks to those of us who have already seen MuppetVision and Tough to Be a Bug multiple times in Florida?

What I don't understand is why Disneyland Resort multi-day tickets expire -- unlike WDW multi-day tickets, which never expire. If Disneyland Resort management wants a quick increase in revenue, all they have to do is offer multi-day Park Hoppers that don't expire. I know we'd buy such tickets and keep the unused days for future visits. I imagine a lot of other people would too. The revenue would hit the books immediately, and the buyers of the tickets would have an incentive to come back and use those days because they've already paid for them. Revenue increases. Attendance increases. In-park spending increases.

 

[Bob O]

Does this mean i will get no discounts in Dec as a out of state vistor????

 

[Peter Pirate]

Well, they'll be getting the Pirates money! I just booked 4 nights at the Grand Californian for the end of July/begnning of August and we're really looking forward to it (all of it).

Note: Just sFYI, the DL leg is sandwiched between 3 nights in SF and 4 nights in Vegas...Who know's when we'll go west again!

 

[Bob O]

Peter Pirate, im assuming the SF stands for San Francisco and not Six Flags!! As in SF Magic Mountain.

 

[Werner Weiss]

Originally posted by Bob O
Does this mean i will get no discounts in Dec as a out of state vistor????

So far, all DCA discounts (except for normal Disney Club discounts) have been available only to Southern Californians.

For our family, that would mean four 1-day adult tickets to DCA. (Disney considers my daughters to be adults because they're over 9 years old.) That's $180 plus parking and meals -- all for a theme park that has no appeal to my wife and kids, and that I'd like to see just to see it, not because I'm excited about what it offers.

 

[Bob O]

I will suck it up and pay as i dont know when i will be out west again. Im hoping its better than what i have heard!

 

[Another Voice]

Looking at California Adventure’s attendance, you’ll have plenty of company for your non-DCA trips Mr. Weiss. The people who understand your problem and all of the problems with the park don’t have the authority to fix things. Those at the top with the authority won’t admit to such a public failure. The end result is that the place will limp down the road to oblivion.

Disney’s thinking is that even discounts won’t make California Adventure attractive to out-of-state visitors. Those who want to see the place are going to see it irregardless of price, so why not charge them full fare? A full price DCA encourages people to by buy multiple day passes and keeps them on property longer.

Disneyland multi-day tickets expire to prevent them from competing with the even more lucrative Annual Passports. The low end pass is only about ten bucks more than a two day passport, having the passports expire is just one more incentive to have people upgrade to an Annual. Disney gets a shot at the guest’s wallet a couple more times that way within the same year. Locals with unexpired passports would likely just hold on to them until the next annual trip.

And the Pirate comes out to the proper side of the country! This is going to be very interesting. I truly wish you could have seen ‘SuperStar Limo’. It would have been a fitting way for you to leap into Car #3.

 

[HorizonsFan]

This is slightly off topic, but I was wondering:
Who decides where Southern California ends and Northern California begins and what is the accepted point of demarcation?

 

[d-r]

Originally posted by Werner Weiss


If DCA isn't a good value for Southern Californians without substantial discounts, then why is DCA supposedly worth big bucks to those of us who have already seen MuppetVision and Tough to Be a Bug multiple times in Florida?

Do you also not go to walt disney world because they give florida residents a seasonal annual pass for $280 or four day park hoppers for $99?


I agree about the tickets running out - for that matter, I wish that tickets weren't separate for DL and WDW, and that we could use our annual passes from wdw at DL. A couple of years ago we wanted to go to DL but didn't because it seemed silly buying tickets when we already had passes for WDW - we didn't go to DL until our WDW AP's expired, and now we have WDW APs again so going ot DL seems silly again - living in Michigan, the travel time isn't that much different really, and DL makes sense for a quick weekend trip, but it is hard to do if you already have passes to WDW. As for the tickets running out, when we went to DL last year they had a two-day ticket plus one day free if you stayed on property, and they were hoppers. We used on of the days for a partial travel day that we wouldn't have bought a ticket for otherwise, but since it timed out we used it. Two days is about right for the DL resort, IMHO.

The demographics of the guests are different there.

DR

 

[Werner Weiss]

Originally posted by d-r
Do you also not go to walt disney world because they give florida residents a seasonal annual pass for $280 or four day park hoppers for $99?

That's not the issue. I'm not saying that Disney shouldn't offer discounts to locals. I'm not boycotting DCA to protest that they won't give me a Southern California resident discount.

The issue is whether DCA -- or any other visitor attraction, for that matter -- is worth our time and money. It doesn't matter what they charge other people, or how appealing it is to other people. We make our plans based on what they charge us, how appealing it is to us, and what alternatives are available.

Right now, I can't justify spending over $200 for admissions, parking, and Disney-priced food to visit DCA, a park that offers us little more than "Soarin' over Califonia" and "The Power of Blast" and a chance to see Disney's new approach to Imagineering. (We're not fans of thrill rides, and we've seen the 3-D movies multiple times.)

Other Southern Califonia attractions are much more appealing to us. We'll use our limited time accordingly.

 

[d-r]

Well I can understand that. Cool.

Out of curiousity, I had checked on disney club and there is $10 off a child or adults 3 day hopper pass, and 2-night packages at paradise pier and grand ca. that include hopper passes, but it doesn't sound like that would help you - the three day ticket would be a good deal at about $100, but they expire.

They just have a different demographic out there. Maybe they should offer tickets that don't expire to people who live OUTSIDE of California - I think that people from outside of CA are such a smaller percentage of their business that their models focus on CA'ions. I think the assumption is that out of staters will stay at a resort and get a package.

I really wish that tickets would be good for either FL or CA.

DR

 

[WDWHound]

We just visited DCA for the first time a few months ago. Now, since I am a card carrying car #3 passenger, what I am about to say may surprise some folks, but we actually liked the place. I definintely don't think its up to the same standards as other Disney parks, but its not a huge smoking pit of boredom either.

The jewel of this place is the animation pavillion. As far as I could tell, this was the only place where the imagaineers were allowed to run wild and free, and boy does it show. The quality of this one attraction was just amazing. We spent an hour in the Beast's library alone.This pavillion is almost worth the price of admission on its own. In fact, we spent most of our time in the Hollywood Backlot section of the park (where the Animation Pavillion is located). This is easily the best part of the park. For some reason, it's also the only section of the park they open late (it opens at noon). Does anyone know why they are doing this?

The other notable attraction in DCA is Soarin, which is as good as you've heard it is. The most contraversial section of the park, Paradise Pier, was just OK. It was slightly better than your average Six Flags. We enjoyed it, but didn't find it memorable. Its main attraction, California Screamin, is a good coaster, but not in my top 10. This section of the park appears to have been an honest mistake. Fun to visit once, but little ot no reapeat visit value.

Is DCA a bad park? No. Is DCA up to Disney Standards? No (except for the animation pavillion). Is it worth the non discounted price of admission? No, but as part of a four day park hopper, it wasn't a bad deal. All in all, I rate the place one notch above Six Flags, but 2 notches below any other Disney Park (including AK) or any Universal Park.

 

[Another Voice]

Very true, Mr. Weiss. There are a lot of people around these boards that still don’t seem to get the concept that guests make up their own minds based on the value they see. If a park fails to deliver, the public will make their own assessment. Platitudes about parks “DCA has such potential” and “AK is a passive park that people don’t get” mean nothing.

Of course the funniest scene in this whole tragedy is that the original concept for California Adventure was that its recreation of California was supposed to be MORE appealing than the actual sights. There are rumors of marketing meetings where Disney planned how to answer complaints from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce about siphoning off the tourist trade and partnerships with those “poor” central coast cities that would soon be wanting for visitors. The whole Disneyland Resort project was driven by a stunning combination of absolute arrogance mixed with some stunning stupidity.

For the discounts, Disneyland uses your ZIP Code as the definition and draws the line at Bakersfield. For marketing, Disney defines Southern California as the range of a single day visit. Although I think driving from Bakersfield, spending a full day at Disneyland, and then driving back to Bakersfield would be really pushing it.

For the out-of-towners, Disney’s goal is to sell packages – not tickets. The Company wants to turn Disneyland in a mini-WDW and so they had visions of selling the exact same deals as in Florida. B selling a guest a hotel & ticket combo, the company thinks it also locks them onto the property. So they get all those high-margin meal and merchandise sales as well. The original plan for the Disneyland Resort called for five hotels. Luckily for everyone, that plan was scaled back for a number of reasons.

I think the Disneyland expiring tickets is a model for WDW. Look at the emphasis already placed on Length-of-Stay tickets. Given the booming market in ticket resales and the economic factors, I think it’s only a matter of time before they put a clock on Orlando.

P.S. - The Animation exhibit is well done, but it really is mostly a better organized clone of the Florida exhibit. It has the 'Return to Neverland' film, an exhibit of production art and the 'Mulan' Meet a Animator (or an actor playing one in this case). The Interactive section is new and is very nice. Why it hasn't been cloned to Florida yet is a slight mystery.

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

So, the Pirate is heading west. Well, at least we can finally get an objective take on DCA.

YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING!!!!

 

[Another Voice]

Hmm. I don’t know if “We’re the worst Disney park, but we still beat Six Flags!” is going to make a great tag line.

The people who post on this board are self-selected Disney fans. It’s only natural that we would tend to have a much higher opinion of DCA than the general public. Go over to a Six Flags board and you’ll find just as many people who think about Magic Mountain in the same way. The problem for California Adventure is the general public has a very low opinion of the place.

Whatever one thinks about DCA as an artistic achievement, it is very much a business. No one in Burbank really cares about how much “magic” tumbles off the side of Grizzly Peak – they want wallets through the turnstile. My “behind the scenes” viewpoint tells me that if Disney would present a quality product for the guests, they are more likely to receive the financial rewards they crave. At the very least they would have had at least 200 extra dollars from Mr. Weiss this summer.

If the company would simply get to work on fixing the problems, rather than whining about the weather and nasty people on the Internet, the place could be turned around. That’s not going to happen if the only “solutions” being put in place are low rent marketing ploys, kiddy carny rides and budget version clones.

 

[airlarry!]

Monsieur AV:

Serious question here. What would you do, if put back in your rightful place as head of parks to DCA to fix this mess? I'm guessing level the place, but that is probably not realistic, eh?

 

[Planogirl]

It's interesting that DCA was supposed to provide a more attractive representation of California than the state itself. I'm toying with the idea of buying two days worth of single day passes to Disneyland and skipping DCA because there's so much to see and do in that part of California and our time is so limited too. I'm having trouble justifying 3 day hoppers just to include DCA when we've already seen so much of it before.

I really think that more out of towners would go to DCA just to give it a chance if Disney offered some kind of incentive. But hey, there's always the Beach Boys.

 

[Peter Pirate]

Say what you will about the promo's...But Disney announces the Beach Boys and a couple days later the Pirate announces a visit westward!

 

[Another Voice]

Pirate: “Disney announces the Beach Boys and a couple days later the Pirate announces a visit westward!”

Sir, with all due respect, you either take this whole brand thing far too seriously or dude, you seriously need to spring for cable television. They even have boxes now that hook up to your TV so that you can watch movies in your own home!

Back to the matter at hand. Disney needs to make a hard, adult-level decision. They have three options at this point: spend an additional $300-$500 million to make California Adventure a real Disney theme park; turn the existing area into a super-sized entertainment/shopping/restaurant zone with rides; or somehow combine it with Disneyland as one park.

None of these choices are pleasant, and that’s why no one has had the guts yet to make them. But as it stands now the place is only appealing to the fans. Nice if you happen to be one of The Company’s true believers, but not very nice if you happen to be one of The Company’s stockholders. Things don’t fix themselves and the public isn’t going to wake up one morning and realize that they missed “all the details” in the place and eargly cough up the forty-five bucks they've held onto.

Disney opened a park that does not interest its audience and they need to fix it.