You do realize that generally, that's a BAD thing right?
Saying Disneyland needs discounted admission reinforces the idea that the audience will always prioritize cheap access over experience. This idea that Disneyland isn't really selling a theme park experience (with rides, and food and merchandise), but really just selling access to come in and sit on a bench and be there. That completely tilts the operational thinking of the park and how financial returns are planned.
Disney doesn't have to spend to improve the guest experience, just continue to lower the price enough to attract people. Long lines at the toll booths, security, no parking lot trams, understaffed facilities and convoluted entrance rules and requirements are all justified by having an AP program. People paying a discount to get in, will always overlook these little failures.
There are all sorts of other negative long term effects too: entitled passholders putting downward pressure on labor retention, long term attraction and expansion spending not being justified by smaller returns, more park area and green space being eaten away for guest accommodation.
You can take almost any complaint made against the park in the last ten years and tie it back to the AP program.
I still disagree that this is the same system. It looks very similar to the old system, to be sure, but the addition of the reservations significantly alters what is being offered. We knew the old APs were dead as soon as they committed to moving forward with reservations only. Bringing back something similar is really meant to help convince the locals to buy into the same system, but most of the power now is with Disney.
It's actually going to be quite some time before we know for sure to what degree access is still available to the former AP crowd and whether the reservations will severely limit access to the park, or be enough of a deterrent to keep people from buying the new memberships. Personally I don't see why anyone would buy into this system without fully knowing or understanding how the reservations will work not just in principal but in practice.
Observational data would indicate that attendance has actually gone up in the last two weeks. I can tell you during my normal commute, the lines for Mickey and Friends and Pixar Pals have both increased significantly and have been back to being out in the street blocking traffic.
Thrill data seems to indicate that I'm not entirely crazy, with the average wait times also increasing over June numbers:
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Most likely this corresponds to the release of the So Cal ticket discounts and general "end of summer/before back to school" trips that would see a spike in attendance pre-Labor Day. This is actually a fairly normal attendance pattern.
Where you might be right, is in thinking what will happen after August. Disney can gauge expected park attendance from their hotel bookings and now park reservations and ticket sales. If their bookings are soft, they might be worried that off-season attendance is going to crater HARD. This makes a lot of sense considering the unavailability of international travel, a domestic travel industry that is in flux, and the concerns over the delta variant and public health lockdowns coming back.
I wouldn't be surprised at all, if Disney actually ended up having competing AP replacements to choose from, and ended up choosing one based solely on future booking numbers looking so bad. Seems off that they would take eight months to come up with something that is "essentially the same as before but just with reservations" right?
