It's important to clarify a couple of things here:
First, Disney didn't say "unfavorable guests," they used the phrase "unfavorable attendance mix" in regards to revenue generated at Disneyland.
Second, this was a financial call. The terms "unfavorable" and "favorable" mean specific things in the finance realm.
Unfavorable means simply that revenues were less than projected OR costs were higher than projected. Favorable means the opposite.
Since we know Disney was speaking on revenue, specifically, all this phrase means IN FINANCIAL SPEAK is "revenues per guest at Disneyland were lower than projected in the last quarter." Or, in other words "the guests who came didn't spend as much money as we projected they would."
Remember, this is the earnings call for ONE quarter. In this quarter, at Disneyland, there were 2 separate discounted ticket offers, a massive Covid surge, and no special festivals or celebrations that would bring in extra revenue. The rides have been plagued by breakdowns. I have to imagine some of that
Genie+/ILL revenue was offset by refunds.
I think this phrase was taken to mean something that it wasn't, but what I think it actually means is even worse than the "unfavorable mix" being AP holders. I think what it actually is referring to are the people who used the discounted resident offer. A.K.A. "the poors."
Remember, for most of this quarter, the 2 lowest passes were blacked out. Some of these people (I know of a few) bought these tickets, but are traditionally the people who pack a lunch and park at the Gardenwalk or Uber over. They don't spend in the parks, especially if they can't even use their discounts due to their blackout.
Disney's error here was offering discounted tickets over the summer. I can't remember this ever happening before, but it would have allowed all those people who bought the lowest tier passes a somewhat affordable way to skirt the summer blackout and still not spend as much as the next higher pass cost.
Disneyland has now had 3 "bad" summers in a row. Look for next summer to have some sort of additional revenue generating event. I suspect we will see either a new summer festival or the expansion of the Food and Wine Festival like WDW has done. This is an easy way to generate interest AND revenue. I also expect significant summer hotel discounts going forward.