Magic Key Renewals?

[SoCalDisneyLover]

The new CEO of Six Flags has said that his plan is to move the chain away from being the "discount" brand and towards a premium experience by pricing people out.


A 1-Day ticket online is $85 and $119 at the gate.

Sounds like if Wendy's suddenly decided to go upscale, and offer a "Premium" dining experience.

It's still Wendy's.

Will be interesting to see how they're going to utilize these higher ticket prices, and provide a product substantially better than what they've had. I doubt they will change much. Sounds more like a money grab

 

[Phroobar]

The question is how far into the future we can project what's happened in 2022. Most of us suspect the long-term patterns won't look quite the same as the short-term ones.

Disneyland will remain packed as long as the internet is fascinated with it. When it becomes unhip again like back in the 80's-90's the pattern will fail. Until then, I maintain they don't need the AP filler group anymore.

 

[Disney Irish]

Random thought, anyone think they might just be waiting until next month at D23 to announce something related to DLR Magic Keys/AP?

 

[Disney Irish]

Disneyland will remain packed as long as the internet is fascinated with it. When it becomes unhip again like back in the 80's-90's the pattern will fail. Until then, I maintain they don't need the AP filler group anymore.

Unless Disney can stop the brand lifestyler/youtube crowd that they themselves created there will always be a desire and need for an AP program of some kind. And while I know that a lot of posters around here abhor the lifestyler/youtuber crowd, Disney wants them in the Park.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Random thought, anyone think they might just be waiting until next month at D23 to announce something related to DLR Magic Keys/AP?

Considering how many passes will expire before then I doubt it, one of the recent theories is the lawsuit goes before a judge in Jan so they may be waiting to see if the judge allows it to proceed as a class action, if it does it may be another six months or more after that for it to actually go through the legal system.

My guess is this is all lawsuit related, which could be another year to resolve.

 

[Disney Irish]

Considering how many passes will expire before then I doubt it, one of the recent theories is the lawsuit goes before a judge in Jan so they may be waiting to see if the judge allows it to proceed as a class action, if it does it may be another six months or more after that for it to actually go through the legal system.

My guess is this is all lawsuit related, which could be another year to resolve.

Easy fix there, just say that any pass that expired in the last month is valid for renewal into whatever they announce.

Also if it really is pending the lawsuit, the earliest is next summer before resolution. But could be into the fall or winter 2023 before there is any type of judgement, unless settled before then. But if Disney was going to settle they would have done so already.

The goal of the people who filed the suit appears to be to get rid of the reservation system completely at least for the Dream Key if not all Keys, and Disney just isn't giving that up without a fight.

 

[CaptinEO]

The new CEO of Six Flags has said that his plan is to move the chain away from being the "discount" brand and towards a premium experience by pricing people out.


A 1-Day ticket online is $85 and $119 at the gate.

Looks like a one day ticket is 99 dollars online due to 14 dollars in "online processing fees".

I wonder what changes the CEO is making to move it from a discount brand. Surely they don't believe that just charging double is enough? If people have to pay more they are going to expect more.

It's odd to increase the price of a product before changing the content of the product.

 

[Emmanuel]

I was looking at Magic Mountain Passes for fun. Wow those are expensive now. I think last year they were 80 but this year it's 200 bucks for the cheapest one.

Knotts Season Passes currently run for $160

If you put all the add ons to the pass (they even have an add on for lockers and their fast lane but both are sold out for the year for season pass holders), the price gets around Disney Parks pass levels.

Season Pass add-ons and prices

All season dining (minus drinks) for both regular and gold passes: $150

Drink Plans (either all season bottle or paper cup): $34.99

All season Parking: $80

FunPix (Cedar Fair equivalent to Photopass): $54.99

(Sold out) Season Pass Locker Rental (1 standard size locker): $165

(Sold out) Season Pass Fast Lane: $625


A season pass plus all those add ons attached is $1,269.98 which is almost $130 cheaper than the dream key and without park reservations since Knotts doesn't do those anymore.

My pass only has the Knotts Scary Farm pass added on for this year. Been finding myself going there a bit more than Disneyland as a result of no park reservations

 

[SoCalDisneyLover]

Knotts Season Passes currently run for $160

If you put all the add ons to the pass (they even have an add on for lockers and their fast lane but both are sold out for the year for season pass holders), the price gets around Disney Parks pass levels.

Season Pass add-ons and prices

All season dining (minus drinks) for both regular and gold passes: $150

Drink Plans (either all season bottle or paper cup): $34.99

All season Parking: $80

FunPix (Cedar Fair equivalent to Photopass): $54.99

(Sold out) Season Pass Locker Rental (1 standard size locker): $165

(Sold out) Season Pass Fast Lane: $625


A season pass plus all those add ons attached is $1,269.98 which is almost $130 cheaper than the dream key and without park reservations since Knotts doesn't do those anymore.

My pass only has the Knotts Scary Farm pass added on for this year. Been finding myself going there a bit more than Disneyland as a result of no park reservations

Imagine if you added all of those to the Dream Key, how much it would cost. 2 Free Meals/Visit. Drinks Every 15 Minutes Each Visit, Locker Rental Every Visit, and Lightning Lane Every Visit.

 

[SuddenStorm]

It's odd to increase the price of a product before changing the content of the product.

This is really interesting to me as well. Anyone with an eye for service, hospitality, design, maintenance, or cleanliness can walk through Magic Mountain and find things left and right that need to be addressed before the product can be considered premium.

Starting with the hot, miserable, ancient parking lot. Resurface it and repaint the lines. Get rid of the atrocious and filthy busses and bring back the tram service- and put shade covers over the the tram waiting area.

Throughout Magic Mountain there are numerous examples of awful architecture and design. Heck, there are pixelated printed signs throughout the park that their sign shop should be embarrassed by.

Six Flags has positioned itself as the 'thrill' provider vs the detailed and immersive Disney and Universal- but there's no reason why they can't have clean, themed, and comfortable queues for their coasters. Why they can't have more sit down options in the park. Why they can't work to improve the service provided by associates. Why they can't renovate every bathroom in the park to make them modern and not run down- and then prioritizing bathroom cleanliness.

They also need to start utilizing that Bear theater they have across from Bugs Bunny World and start getting local groups to come perform- and bigger names if possible. Finding ways to promote and support the community within the park is essential- maybe food festivals promoting local Santa Clarita restaurants? There needs to be reasons for Santa Clarita residents to visit the park- right now it has the reputation of the Junior High hangout spot that falls out of fashion by high school and is avoided by local adults except for the annual or semi annual visit.

I don't think it's impossible for Six Flags to become 'premium', but it's gonna require a lot of heavy lifting.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

This is really interesting to me as well. Anyone with an eye for service, hospitality, design, maintenance, or cleanliness can walk through Magic Mountain and find things left and right that need to be addressed before the product can be considered premium.

Starting with the hot, miserable, ancient parking lot. Resurface it and repaint the lines. Get rid of the atrocious and filthy busses and bring back the tram service- and put shade covers over the the tram waiting area.

Throughout Magic Mountain there are numerous examples of awful architecture and design. Heck, there are pixelated printed signs throughout the park that their sign shop should be embarrassed by.

Six Flags has positioned itself as the 'thrill' provider vs the detailed and immersive Disney and Universal- but there's no reason why they can't have clean, themed, and comfortable queues for their coasters. Why they can't have more sit down options in the park. Why they can't work to improve the service provided by associates. Why they can't renovate every bathroom in the park to make them modern and not run down- and then prioritizing bathroom cleanliness.

They also need to start utilizing that Bear theater they have across from Bugs Bunny World and start getting local groups to come perform- and bigger names if possible. Finding ways to promote and support the community within the park is essential- maybe food festivals promoting local Santa Clarita restaurants? There needs to be reasons for Santa Clarita residents to visit the park- right now it has the reputation of the Junior High hangout spot that falls out of fashion by high school and is avoided by local adults except for the annual or semi annual visit.

I don't think it's impossible for Six Flags to become 'premium', but it's gonna require a lot of heavy lifting.

Six flags parks have always felt like they have an identity crisis, rather than slapping a name on everything and being a bad theme parks they should embrace who they are and focus on being a quality thrill park. They’d be better off reinvesting money spent on licensing back into the parks and just using non themed names on their non themed rides.

 

[CaptinEO]

Knotts Season Passes currently run for $160

If you put all the add ons to the pass (they even have an add on for lockers and their fast lane but both are sold out for the year for season pass holders), the price gets around Disney Parks pass levels.

Season Pass add-ons and prices

All season dining (minus drinks) for both regular and gold passes: $150

Drink Plans (either all season bottle or paper cup): $34.99

All season Parking: $80

FunPix (Cedar Fair equivalent to Photopass): $54.99

(Sold out) Season Pass Locker Rental (1 standard size locker): $165

(Sold out) Season Pass Fast Lane: $625


A season pass plus all those add ons attached is $1,269.98 which is almost $130 cheaper than the dream key and without park reservations since Knotts doesn't do those anymore.

My pass only has the Knotts Scary Farm pass added on for this year. Been finding myself going there a bit more than Disneyland as a result of no park reservations

Wow I had no idea how many add ons knotts has holy cow. How often are people going that these would even be remotely worth it? That's way too much.

 

[Emmanuel]

Wow I had no idea how many add ons knotts has holy cow. How often are people going that these would even be remotely worth it? That's way too much.

Id say they're going a couple of times a month. Knotts has pretty much an event every season with Peanuts Celebration from January to March, Boysenberry Festival from March to April, Summer at Knotts from May to September, Scary and Spooky Farm from September to October and Merry Farm November until after New Years Day.

Thats plenty of reasons for people to go back to Knotts throughout the year

Imagine if you added all of those to the Dream Key, how much it would cost. 2 Free Meals/Visit. Drinks Every 15 Minutes Each Visit, Locker Rental Every Visit, and Lightning Lane Every Visit.

Would probably be more expensive than the Premier Pass that got you into both DL and WDW Parks but would still be limited to both DL and DCA and reservations needed.

Which makes me miss my Signature Plus AP tbh. The Sig+ had the Maxpass and photopass and parking included.

 

[shambolicdefending]

Here's the actual quote from the Six Flags CEO.

It's interesting because he's saying essentially the same thing Disney's been hinting at - they want lower attendance at higher margins. No more big discounts (which the legacy APs all were). Fewer people will come, but they'll pay more and enjoy it more.

“Our guest surveys and our guest interviews had both indicated that customers are willing to pay more for better quality of service. However, we have historically ignored this data, and instead, we prioritized filling our parks to maximum capacity at the expense of the guest experience.

Data shows that guests who came on heavily discounted or free tickets pre-pandemic did not much spend much time, much money in the parks, yet they used up our park capacity. So based on our analysis, our historical reliance on heavy discounting was not the right strategy.

Through premiumization, we will focus on guests who are willing to pay more for a premium experience, which will lessen the crowding of our parks, reducing pressure on our operations, and elevating the guest experience."

 

[Disstevefan1]

“ historically ignored this data, and instead, we prioritized filling our parks to maximum capacity at the expense of the guest experience.”

This is exactly how TWDC operated until the pandemic.
It sure seems like the days of the super value Annual Passes are GONE.
It was surely good while it lasted…

 

[Phroobar]

Here's the actual quote from the Six Flags CEO.

It's interesting because he's saying essentially the same thing Disney's been hinting at - they want lower attendance at higher margins. No more big discounts (which the legacy APs all were). Fewer people will come, but they'll pay more and enjoy it more.

“Our guest surveys and our guest interviews had both indicated that customers are willing to pay more for better quality of service. However, we have historically ignored this data, and instead, we prioritized filling our parks to maximum capacity at the expense of the guest experience.

Data shows that guest who came on heavily discounted or free tickets pre-pandemic did not much spend much time, much money in the parks, yet they used up our park capacity. So based on our analysis, our historical reliance on heavy discounting was not the right strategy.

Through premiumization, we will focus on guests who are willing to pay more for a premium experience, which will lessen the crowding of our parks, reducing pressure on our operations, and elevating the guest experience."

You mean even Six Flags can see Walt's philosophy about show quality? Show quality and guest satisfaction should be first priority over dealing with the masses that mostly destroy with nothing in return.

There should be no AP program. 1 day ticket should be at least $200. Lightning lane should be $80 per person. Disneyland enforces a guest dress code. You can't look homeless when in the park.

 

[Stevek]

Disneyland will remain packed as long as the internet is fascinated with it. When it becomes unhip again like back in the 80's-90's the pattern will fail. Until then, I maintain they don't need the AP filler group anymore.

If there wasn't an AP filler group, it wouldn't be packed. Influencers, Disney addicts and youtubers like Theme Park Steve are still there 5 or more nights a week doing live streams. I don't think there is any way that if the AP program was removed, those former APs would be filling the park daily using day tickets.

 

[Stevek]

Random thought, anyone think they might just be waiting until next month at D23 to announce something related to DLR Magic Keys/AP?

I would love to see them announce at D23 that they were doing a more restrictive program or doing away with it completely. They'd burn the place down

 

[Stevek]

Here's the actual quote from the Six Flags CEO.

It's interesting because he's saying essentially the same thing Disney's been hinting at - they want lower attendance at higher margins. No more big discounts (which the legacy APs all were). Fewer people will come, but they'll pay more and enjoy it more.

“Our guest surveys and our guest interviews had both indicated that customers are willing to pay more for better quality of service. However, we have historically ignored this data, and instead, we prioritized filling our parks to maximum capacity at the expense of the guest experience.

Data shows that guests who came on heavily discounted or free tickets pre-pandemic did not much spend much time, much money in the parks, yet they used up our park capacity. So based on our analysis, our historical reliance on heavy discounting was not the right strategy.

Through premiumization, we will focus on guests who are willing to pay more for a premium experience, which will lessen the crowding of our parks, reducing pressure on our operations, and elevating the guest experience."

Sounds like Disneyland's AP issue.

 

[Stevek]

This is exactly how TWDC operated until the pandemic.
It sure seems like the days of the super value Annual Passes are GONE.
It was surely good while it lasted…

It's how Disneyland operates today.