Imagine Key Blockout dates for 2024

[DLgal]

Not all locals. Summer tickets were for CA Residents, not So Cal Residents. Very slight distinction but worth mentioning it cause there were locals excluded in each.

What do you mean by this bolded part?

 

[LKing]

Disney seems happy to continue leveraging neighborhood hotels for stays and only expanding on the DVC side of the house for the past decade of planning. It seems all efforts are being put into DisneyForward

Interesting point. They need community support for DisneylandForward. There could be some strategy in keeping neighboring businesses and local residents happy.

 

[DLgal]

Interesting point. They need community support for DisneylandForward. There could be some strategy in keeping neighboring businesses and local residents happy.

Exactly. Disney is happy with their share of hotel revenue in Anaheim. They make the big bucks inside the gates anyway.

 

[joseph821]

Exactly. Disney is happy with their share of hotel revenue in Anaheim. They make the big bucks inside the gates anyway.

Disney is happy with their hotel bookings I would think. They run regular hotel sales to firm up hotel occupancy. They get people like me from NY that have 8 day trips to DL at GCH and then I drop money in the parks for food, events/tours and collectibles.

 

[starlite_]

What do you mean by this bolded part?

For the So Cal tickets (Spring), norther California, USA was excluded but it included Norther Baja California, Mexico.
CA Resident tickets (Summer), included norther California, USA but not Norther Baja California, Mexico.

Disney is counting "locals" as all of the ppl that live in those zip codes. But as you can see, there was a slight dif on what segment of "locals" was included in each promotion. Not super sure on why they decided to make that distinction, but I thought it important to mention so the dif type of promotions don't get mixed up.

 

[DLgal]

For the So Cal tickets (Spring), norther California, USA was excluded but it included Norther Baja California, Mexico.
CA Resident tickets (Summer), included norther California, USA but not Norther Baja California, Mexico.

Disney is counting "locals" as all of the ppl that live in those zip codes. But as you can see, there was a slight dif on what segment of "locals" was included in each promotion. Not super sure on why they decided to make that distinction, but I thought it important to mention so the dif type of promotions don't get mixed up.

Oh, okay. I wasn't aware of the Baja California exclusion on the summer discount.

 

[starlite_]

Oh, okay. I wasn't aware of the Baja California exclusion on the summer discount.

Me either till I read the small print. I was very disappointed.

 

[nalabear]

Makes sense on restricting summer promo discounts to SoCal. It shows that they projected lower attendance for full fare tickets even during summer and wanted to bolster that with the SoCal promotional during summer (instead of reopening certain MKs).

It'll be interesting to see if a Fall shoulder all California pass will be offered up for Oct1-Nov 20. It's a lot shorter AND lots of OBB dates in there. It maybe a good time to open Believe MKs for a short burst of revenue IMHO

 

[joseph821]

Very interesting. I just came home from a Disneyland vacation from 8/9 to 8/16 at GCH. I just got a mailer in the regular mail today about Disneyland for the upcoming Halloween and Christmas/Holiday season. And I just got a WDW Disney Destinations email about WDW. It seems that Disney/Disneyland is targeting regular guests now. ALso, I live in the NYC Metro area on Long Island, on TV Disney is promoting WDW a lot. I think Disneyland attendance and hotels must be doing better than WDW right now.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I find it interesting that they extended the CA resident ticket offers into the summer this year. That's not something they had done in the past. Or did they do this for the first time Summer 2022? It's all blending together at this point. Regardless, offering discounted tickets but ONLY to So Cal/CA residents over the summer shows that they DO rely on the "locals" to fill the parks year round. These offers used to only come around between Jan-May in the past. The current offer was all summer and goes through 9/25.

My guess is that this offer is a carrot being dangled to blocked out Magic Keys over the summer. Pretty sure a lot of those people bought these tickets considering that Key discounts continue to work even on blocked out days. The only thing that doesn't work on blackout days is the parking discount.

They did it the summer after reopening from covid. I remember because I got really burned. They announced Magic Keys shortly after releasing the three-day ticket and would not allow us to upgrade them. Never been so mad at Disney!

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

duplicate post

 

[DLgal]

They did it the summer after reopening from covid. I remember because I got really burned. They announced Magic Keys shortly after releasing the three-day ticket and would not allow us to upgrade them. Never been so mad at Disney!

Oh yeah, I remember that. Although it was a late summer offer though, right? It didn't cover June and July.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Oh yeah, I remember that. Although it was a late summer offer though, right? It didn't cover June and July.

Yes, I think it started in August.

 

[DontSpamMe]

Interesting thread. All of the keys are a gigantic bargain no matter the level compared to purchasing a day ticket every time they enter. People with the "hoity toity" Inspire key who attend weekly are hardly paying their fair share.

I do think Disney needs the MK revenue but I also think they would love to kick those people to the curb. I don't think there's much debate that day ticket holders spend more per person daily than MK holders. Disney would love to see a 70/30 split of day ticket vs MK, but right now I'd bet it's closer to 50/50 if not a majority of guests are MKs. This weekend for example the MK calendar is booked while the day ticket is wide open.

As for the hotels, the price per night of onsite hotels has increased significantly since 2019. Once you see how the system works it's hard to justify the extra cost of an on-site hotel when compared to the much more affordable hotels on Harbor and Katella.

2024 will be an interesting year for DL. I think it's safe to say the COVID demand is dying and we will start to see a better true reflection of the state of the parks.

 

[CO2CA]

Interesting thread. All of the keys are a gigantic bargain no matter the level compared to purchasing a day ticket every time they enter. People with the "hoity toity" Inspire key who attend weekly are hardly paying their fair share.

I do think Disney needs the MK revenue but I also think they would love to kick those people to the curb. I don't think there's much debate that day ticket holders spend more per person daily than MK holders. Disney would love to see a 70/30 split of day ticket vs MK, but right now I'd bet it's closer to 50/50 if not a majority of guests are MKs. This weekend for example the MK calendar is booked while the day ticket is wide open.

As for the hotels, the price per night of onsite hotels has increased significantly since 2019. Once you see how the system works it's hard to justify the extra cost of an on-site hotel when compared to the much more affordable hotels on Harbor and Katella.

2024 will be an interesting year for DL. I think it's safe to say the COVID demand is dying and we will start to see a better true reflection of the state of the parks.

Agreed - and it's even worse when they do monthly payments.

Didn't one of the Disney executives say passholders created an undesirable mix or something. People were so mad about that, but it makes sense from a business perspective. Multi-day vacationers are going to be spending at a higher rate, hands down. They would much rather have the higher spenders than those who may go for a couple hours every week but spend less.

 

[LKing]

Didn't one of the Disney executives say passholders created an undesirable mix or something.

When was that said?

I used to see groups of high school students hanging out in the parks after school. I don't see that as much anymore. Maybe that is what they were referring to, and is why they are keeping the reservation system in CA.

 

[joseph821]

When was that said?

I used to see groups of high school students hanging out in the parks after school. I don't see that as much anymore. Maybe that is what they were referring to, and is why they are keeping the reservation system in CA.

I agree. The reservation system at Disneyland will remain. Disney uses it to keep operating expenses down and control attendance. WDW is much bigger and gets mostly out-of-town visitors and international visitors. Disneyland's attendance is majority So Ca locals and Keys. Disneyland is never going to allow Keys to just go to Disneyland at the spur of the moment. Those days are over. Disneyland severly restricts the sale of Keys and they are not giving that up.

 

[nalabear]

Former CEO said it on a fiscal quarter call about having more favorable mixed attendance (ie not MKs). MKs provide a base income. everyone gets that and should get that. Disney uses focused 'local' promotions fill the next tranche and then high profits for the true visitors.

It makes business sense, yes. Not so much for the 'little guy'.

They could do an after-hours access for MKs; but the local population is SO Large, it's a very sharp double edge. I rather like the evenings now with a more sedate crowd with much of the little ones wasted and back in the hotel.

 

[CO2CA]

Yeah it was more so about attendance levels but some people took it wrong or out of context and thought he was alluding to behavior (the phrase unfavorable mix standing on its own does not sound great, so I can kind of see where the outrage was coming from TBH).

 

[DLgal]

Agreed - and it's even worse when they do monthly payments.

Didn't one of the Disney executives say passholders created an undesirable mix or something. People were so mad about that, but it makes sense from a business perspective. Multi-day vacationers are going to be spending at a higher rate, hands down. They would much rather have the higher spenders than those who may go for a couple hours every week but spend less.

That's what they want, but they will never get that here. The culture is different and Disneyland is and has always been a locals park. My family moved to northern CA in 1994 and I didn't even step foot in Disneyland until 1996 and that was for Grad Nite. Didn't come back until I moved to So Cal in 2001. And we were a HUGE Disney family when we lived in NJ. We went to WDW every other year growing up. Disneyland wasn't even on our radar as a place to visit once we moved to CA, and I'm not sure why. We kept flying to Orlando as a family.

When they decided to add DCA and Downtown Disney and the Grand Californian and Paradise Pier hotels, they were desperately trying to make this a "vacation destination" like WDW, but it has never really worked. Sure, they have increased their reach of non local visitors, but they will always need to have the support of the locals here.

You can see how WDW has practically eliminated the annual passes over there and they are doing fine. WDW probably never needed an annual pass program at all. It seems to be a reluctant offering over there. But they do have the vacationers to support the parks and hotels over there.