Discounted tickets and hotels cut cost of visiting Disneyland

WDW is also pushing hotel deals and free DDP that include most of December (after RotR opens and up until the 23rd), which is the strongest indication that Disney is not thrilled with current occupancy projections through the rest of the year. The buzz in the industry is that Disneyland isn't the only major park that is concerned with the recent trends and noticeable reduction of revenue generated by their parks this year, it's just that Disneyland (and WDW) have invested over $1 billion in improvements this year (with more than a billion dollars of additional investment on the books for the next 2-3 years), so the leveling off (and potential reduction) of attendance and spending are coming at a time when Disney would prefer to see an immediate return on their massive, record-breaking investments.

The real question is, have we finally reached the breaking point in terms of price and value from a Disney or other major theme park vacation, or is this a larger sign of the plateauing of the US economy. Other entertainment industries are experiencing slowdowns as well (particularly live sports), but the general travel industry seems to be doing OK. Have we finally reached a saturation point for theme park attractions, and if so, will companies start pulling back their recent rapid expansion plans in reaction to the perceived leveling-off, or will it still be full speed ahead. In other words, could Disney and Universal kick rumored projects further down the road (like the EPCOT renovation or Universal's Fantastic Worlds) or slow their progress to see if this reduction in growth is more prolonged or just a blip on the ever-rising wave?

I think the biggest culprit hear has been pricing. Disney (and Universal to a lesser degree) has been pushing hard up against what the average theme park guest is willing to pay for a day at their parks. Additionally, on-site hotel rates continue to rise despite both companies bringing a record number of new rooms online. Combine sky high prices with tons of empty rooms because there are more to fill, and you can see why there could be trouble ahead. The problem is that these temporary discounts do not solve the overall problem of over-saturation, and actually mask the problems that Disney, in particular, fails to recognize, which is that their on-site rooms are not competitive with the surrounding Orlando hotel market, particularly with the debut of Universal's Endless Summer Resort.

It's been widely written about that many sports teams are searching and begging for new fans because they are bleeding people that can afford to pay exorbitant ticket prices to see live events they can more comfortably see at home, Disney is having a similar problem with a core fanbase that doesn't seem to be getting larger or want to visit as frequently, yet they're adding additional capacity as if they're still growing at 10% every year. Disney has gotten drunk off the revenue that the recent double-digit growth years has brought, and planned expansion to meet or exceed that growth. However, now that the growth has slowed, they still crave (and shareholders demand) the same growth in year over year revenue. That simply can't happen with empty hotel rooms, but also can't happen if they drop rates far beyond where they were a couple years ago. It puts Disney in a tough situation of not wanting to undercut the luxury market they've recently been trying to capture while still clinging to their loyal and long-time blue collar guests. It will be interesting to see if these "sales" become the new normal with previous rack rates only kicking in during the absolute peak times of the year (Christmas, Spring Break, Memorial Day, and 4th of July), or if Disney gives in and lowers the baseline rates to pre-2015 levels (when WDW hotel rates started getting so out of control).

Disney still has thousands of brand new hotel rooms that will be coming online over the next year (including the Riviera Resort, where Disney is trying to commit DVC-owners to purchase points that are ONLY good at the new resort, and not as portable to other DVC resorts as the program was when DVC initially launched), so what they're experiencing now could be the tip of the iceberg. As someone who is planning to visit WDW next January/February, I'm watching the situation very closely, and deliberately NOT making reservations right now because I foresee some serious discounts on the way for on-site rooms during the low periods in early 2020.

And Happy Birthday Disneyland,as the world's first "theme park " opened 64 years ago today- which also makes this the anniversary for the birth of the modern theme park industry:)

This subject probably deserves its own thread or article, but Russell’s post hit a nerve with me when I read his question in the second paragraph of his comment.

"The real question is, have we finally reached the breaking point in terms of price and value from a Disney or other major theme park vacation,…?"

From my point of view, the answer is an emphatic yes!

I’ve been going to theme and amusement parks for well over 50 years now, and I can tell that there’s a difference from the way things used to be, and it’s not necessarily for the better. At the risk of sounding like an old person, I’m going to say that a day at a Disney park 20-30 years ago was a far more enjoyable experience than it is right now. And I’m going to limit my observations to Disney because the regional parks have gotten better, the Busch parks have stayed about the same, and the Universal parks (for now) are like Disney was 20-30 years ago. (I’m talking about the level of enjoyment of the day at the park and not the quality of the offerings in the park in this situation. Universal has pulled even with Disney in terms of quality.)

Now let me say that I’m not setting out to bash Disney. I’ve done a lot of that in the past, and the complaints I’ve had with Disney have been largely been rectified. They’ve aggressively expanded and modernized their parks with new lands and attractions, and they aren’t sitting on their laurels and paying Michael Eisner outrageous sums of money and raising prices in the parks without giving me any significant new attractions. Yeah, I get it, they’re paying Bob Iger outrageous sums of money and raising prices in the parks, but the difference is that now I’m getting new rides and attractions. So, that’s a fair trade - I guess.

We’re getting an embarrassment of riches now. With the addition of Pandora, Animal Kingdom is now a full day park. DCA isn’t a joke anymore and can easily stand on its own merits. DHS has expanded and upgraded with Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge. (Forgive me, but that name always makes me think of the rather pedestrian movie Galaxy Quest and I have trouble associating it with the Star Wars movies.) Epcot is getting a badly needed makeover and no longer resembles a World’s Fair site 20 years after the fair. Disney has stepped up their game, and we’re the beneficiaries - at least I think we are.

But a day at a Disney park isn’t fun anymore – at least not like it used to be. (Oh boy, here comes the old guy stuff.) A long, long time ago (even before Star Wars premiered in the movie theaters) Disney used coupon books so patrons could gain admission to the parks and the attractions. Lines for the marquee attractions were largely self-limiting because the coupon books had a limited number of E-tickets and C-tickets and so on. Once you used up your E-tickets, you either bought more at a fairly exorbitant price or you relegated yourself to the attractions that you could ride with your remaining coupons. (There was even a Transportation coupon to ride the monorail or the ferry to/from the Magic Kingdom to the TTC.) The coupon books tended to spread patrons out among the attractions.

And then Six Flags (I think) started the pay one admission price and ride all the rides you want during the day concept and things started going downhill. Disney loved it because they could save on staff because they didn’t have to have attendants collecting coupons at the entrance to rides and they didn’t have to have coupon sales booths located throughout the parks. And the lines for the popular rides swelled exponentially. To fix that problem, Disney brought out the paper ticket FastPass concept for the popular rides so park-savvy patrons could get an edge over the lesser humans and exhibit their superior theme park patron skills. The easiest way to identify those people is to look for comments in the Discussion Forum like “FastPass+ sucks!” or “FastPass+ is a billion dollar waste of money – why didn’t they build new attractions instead?”

At this point somebody smart out there or who hasn’t wished they never started reading this comment is asking themselves “With Fastpass+ requiring attendants back at the entrances to the rides to make sure you’ve got a FastPass, why don’t we go back to the old coupon books and solve the problem of long lines at the popular attractions?” Well, I could say that the Rubicon has been crossed and we’re never going back to the coupon books, but that’s untrue. With MyMagicPlus and the Magicbands and the My Disney Experience app on your smart phones, you’ve got virtual coupons – at least for three attractions a day and maybe a dining reservation or two.
So why is Disney never going back to the old coupon books whether paper or virtual for all of their rides and allowing the lines in the park to self-regulate?

Because of the concept of maximizing revenue.

Back in the mid-nineties, management gurus were promoting the idea that most companies were leaving money on the table when it came to transactions with their customers. Here’s an example. Get a new cell phone? Well you need the replacement insurance… and the car charger… and the extra house charger… and the expanded data plan… and the wireless earbuds… and so on. And you get to do it all over again in 2-3 years because you are now obsolete and your operating system is no longer supported by your favorite apps. Cars, houses, appliances, clothing – you name it and there is now a multitude of upcharges and options that the companies use to separate you from your money. When was the last time you bought anything from a major retailer without getting upsold? “You can save 25% today if you open up a credit card with us.” Or “Would you like a cinnamon roll or hash browns with your breakfast sandwich and egg burrito this morning?” (No! I’m already at the point of piggery with my desire for both breakfast items! Please don’t put me in the glutton category!)

Upselling is everywhere and Disney has embraced it whole-heartedly. Stay in our resorts! Eat in our restaurants! Buy our merchandise! Oh, and when you get tired of dodging our idiot patrons in the parks with their military grade baby strollers and their fifty pound backpacks, you can enjoy our $50 cupcake and coffee experience or watch the fireworks from a folding chair on the roof of one of the buildings in Tomorrowland for only $100 or you can enjoy an afternoon in one of our spas for only $200! And you can charge it all to that cute little strip of rubberized plastic hanging on your arm. No nasty credit cards or cash necessary! No wonder they call them Magicbands! They magically fill the coffers at Disney with cash. Development of MyMagic+ was the best $1B Disney ever spent.

So putting aside all of the ranting, have we reached the breaking point in terms of price and value from a Disney vacation as Russell has asked? For me, the answer is yes. Between the overcrowded parks, the higher prices, the need to overplan my activities, and the constant upselling, I just don’t enjoy Disney like I used to.

But it’s not really Disney’s fault. Everything they’ve done is to be expected in today’s economy. It’s just that a place that supposed to give us an escape from the hassles of our daily grind seems to have become an exaggerated example of our daily grind. And that’s the problem. Having fun at Disney is rapidly becoming not-fun.

That's a great assessment Tim. I'd say it's becoming increasingly true that visiting WDW has become an awful more like "work" than it used to be (Disneyland less so), and guests are paying exponentially more for the privilege of working their butts off to experience the best WDW has to offer.

I would also agree that the evolution of the WDW experience is not just Disney's fault, their fanatical/OCD Drones have played a significant role in it as well, but Disney has certainly behaved more like a company trying to maximize profit than one that is trying maximize guest satisfaction over the past 10 years.

Not a chance. People are just waiting. It will be a zoo again soon.

Epic rant...

I actually have just been avoiding the US Disney Parks. They take too much planning and calculation to maximize your time there. I have to do that type of planning at work. I don't need to do that for my vacation and time off.

I think once the AP pass holder blackout lifts, the parks will be mad houses again. Disney is only going to move forward with pricing and fast pass systems. Nothing is going to reverse and go back to the "good old days."

About those coupon books... ah PASS.

The principle complaint was you left with about 20-30 "A" tickets you ended up trying to give to someone who didn't want them because they had 15 or 20. Unless you could add a pay as you go OR select ticket option(s) w/qty this will never work. Do you really think Disney is going to lower park admission and do a charge by ride.

By the way Court E is entirely correct. A Disney vacation now takes so much planning on both coasts the mere nightmare of having to changing all your plans (due to inclement weather, emergency closure, or airline outages) just sucks the fun out of it.

It's just asking to price more people out. Unless Disney drops the day pass to $25 I don't see this happening.

$10 dollars per E ticket with party of 6 means $60 bucks dropped every time you want to ride Rise of the Resistance.

Doesn't sound like fun to me........BUFFERING

"Do you really think Disney is going to lower park admission and do a charge by ride."

I don't think that's what Tim is suggesting here. I think Disney is in a way trying to get back to a "ticket" concept through the use of FP+. The system rations rides on top attractions to all guests in about as fair of a way as possible. Everyone is paying a flat fee to walk through the gate, but with that flat fee, guests are getting the chance to book rides on three (3) top "E-ticket" attractions (depending on the park and how Disney chooses to change tiering rules) with minimal waiting. Then, as additional capacity above a ride's baseline throughput becomes available through the day (or as guests alter their plans) additional top attraction FP+ reservations become available. If guests want to ride lesser attractions, they can wait through minimal lines or grab readily available FP+ reservations. The FP+ system is essentially a digital ticket-book if you really think about it. The only drawback is that guests have no option of purchasing additional E-tickets (at least not yet), and have to work hard (and be diligent at making reservations ahead of time) to make sure they secure FP+ reservations for the best of the best (like FoP, SDD, 7DMT, and TestTrack).

Honestly, as much as I HATE FP+, I've learned to live with it, and leverage it to my advantage when visiting WDW. The biggest issue that bugs me about the system is that Disney is more or less forcing guests to make their reservations so far in advance. There's absolutely no reason Disney has to make guests pick their rides times 60+ days before they arrive. I understand the desire to give on-site guests a leg up on off-site guests and spur-of-the-moment visitors, but why not just make that advanced reservation window open 14 days in advance, giving off-site guests a 7-day advance window (or just relegate them to day-of reservations)? I think in concept the FP+ system can work very much like the old ticket system, it's just the months-in-advance planning part of FP+ that is the biggest detriment.

The other issue is that some parks simply don't have enough top attractions with adequate capacity to satisfy all guests (pretty much every park other than MK). What ends up happening is that once all the top attraction FP+ reservations are taken, guests that are slower on the trigger end up booking FP+s for whatever they can get their hands on regardless of the quality of the attraction. This then creates artificial demand and longer standby lines for what are lesser attractions that would normally be "quick hitters" for guests biding time between top rides. While a ride like FoP deservedly has top billing in DAK with FP+ reservations that are gone sometimes 60+ days out, rides like Primeval Whirl or Na'vi River Journey end up with guests flooding the FP+ queues because they grabbed reservations for those attraction after they were unsuccessful getting a FoP time. Guests wanting to just grab a quick ride on those attractions end up yielding to FP+ guests, creating standby lines that would be non-existent if FP+ didn't exist. Aside from the overly advanced planning, the problem with FP+ is that too many attractions are on the system (and too few top rides in most parks) so that guests missing out on the cream of the crop feel good about having a FP+ for something.

Forgive me if I left the impression that I wanted Disney to return to the "good old days." That was certainly not my intent. I was merely trying to identify the forces that have helped shape the Disney Corporation into the entertainment juggernaut that it is these days. I was also trying to identify the cause of my feelings of ennui towards a day at a Disney park. And while I may be in the minority, I don’t think I’m alone in my gradual disenchantment with Disney.

Russell and many others are asking the question, “…have we finally reached the breaking point in terms of price and value from a Disney or other major theme park vacation…?” Court E chimed in with “I actually have just been avoiding the US Disney Parks. They take too much planning and calculation to maximize your time there.” I’ve heard much of the same sentiment from OT and other regulars on this site.

So, what’s Disney doing wrong? Or, more fairly, what’s wrong with our consumer relationship with Disney?

The old complaints of half day parks and few new attractions from 10 years ago are no longer valid. Disney is pouring money into the American parks. We’re getting great new attractions and lands. They’ve resurrected the Marvel and Star Wars brands and even though we may be seeing a bit of market saturation for those IPs in terms of movies, their presence in the theme parks is welcomed with open arms and opened wallets.

Except that the recent blip in attendance during the premiere of Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland reveals that all may not be well in the land of Disney.

Is that a valid assessment or is the recent thinning of crowds at Disneyland just an aberration? David thinks it’s the latter when he says, “People are just waiting. It will be a zoo again soon.” Court E is much of the same opinion when he says, “I think once the AP pass holder blackout lifts, the parks will be mad houses again.” I think they’re right. Russell might have identified an explanation for the phenomenon when he opines “…the evolution of the WDW experience is not just Disney's fault, their fanatical/OCD Drones have played a significant role in it as well,…”

OK, let’s assume that Disney largely cut off the Drones with the AP blackouts for the opening of Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and the interest within the rest of the theme park patron community wasn’t enough to make up the difference and most of Disney’s most loyal customers (the Drones) weren’t willing to pony up an additional $100 to experience Disney’s newest billion dollar plus expansion. And a lot of you are thinking, “Hey! Disney made a misstep by blocking out the AP holders and people are waiting for Rise of the Resistance. This is no big deal!” And you may be right.

But I see a bigger problem here, and I’m going back to the question that I keep avoiding, “What’s wrong with our consumer relationship with Disney?” They’re pouring money into the parks, but far too often the end result is a disappointment.

For me (and many others, I believe), Disney is losing the battle for goodwill.

The cause of the problem is that Disney is doing too many of the wrong Right Things and not enough of the right Right Things. (I’m not a management consultant, and I hereby apologize for what appears to be overstating the obvious.)

Right Things are actions like building more E-ticket attractions or adding lands to the parks or improving the accommodations and the infrastructure on the resort or improving the quality of the IPs in the entertainment streams. The difference between a wrong Right Thing and a right Right Thing is the impact that the Right Thing has on the quality of the experience within the context of experiencing the attraction and the bigger context of experiencing a visit to a Disney park.

Let me use Pandora as an example. In several visits to Disney World since Pandora has been finished, I’ve never been able to get a FastPass time to Flight of Passage or the Navi River Adventure that worked for my entire group. So, I never got to experience them with my family. During a business trip a few weeks ago I had a free Sunday, and I made a side trip to Animal Kingdom for the specific purpose of experiencing both attractions. Due to the late decision point (a day prior) and not being a local like MakoRider, I was unable to get a FastPass for either attraction. I ended up standing in line for a total of 3.5 hours just to experience one notable (Navi River) and one awesome (FoP) attraction. I even tried getting to the park at rope drop but to no avail since everybody entering the park seemed to have the same idea. The end result was that the experience of enjoying two wonderful attractions was severely degraded by the requirement to stand line for an excessive time. Thus while building Pandora was a Right Thing, the failure to account for or balance out the excessive demand for the attractions even a couple of years after the attractions opened turned it into a wrong Right Thing. If they had opened a competing (crowd balancing) attraction within the park or had provided sufficient capacity within the new land to handle the expected crowds it could have been a right Right Thing.

Going on a theme park vacation whether for a day or a week is more than a value and cost equation. It’s an experience like a fine wine or a superbly cooked meal or a top notch Broadway show that takes you from the mere level of consumer to the encompassing level of participant. You are involved by sounds, sights, and aromas that take you to a place outside of your normal existence. Isn’t that the objective of good entertainment?

When I have to literally set up a conference call to make the FastPass reservations for my family, and I find myself constantly consulting the MyDisneyExperience app on my cell phone to be sure that I’m not missing my attraction or dining times while I’m in the park, and I can’t get a decent time to eat in something other than a counter service restaurant without knowing six months in advance when and where I’m going to be in the resort, something is wrong and goodwill is lost. Sadly, on my last two trips to Disney World (stayed in the resort both times), other than a couple of rainy afternoons in Epcot and one very late evening in the Magic Kingdom, my wife and I had the most fun away from the parks and even off Disney property. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.

In conclusion, I’m a firm believer that major failures usually are the result of a series of small errors in decisions over a period of time. Fifty years ago nobody would have believed that Sears and K-Mart would be on life support as corporate entities or that the Big Three in Detroit would be so diminished in the automotive market share with little hope for regaining their supremacy. These companies didn’t set out to be afterthoughts in their industries, but now they are and one day the same could be true of Disney. Right now, they are a behemoth in the entertainment industry, but I’m sensing a trend in the attitude of their consumers. The Baby Boomers are dying off and the following generations don’t nearly seem to have the same affection for all things Disney like the Boomers do. Sure there are Disney Drones in all generational groups, but Disney needs to decide who their primary constituent groups are and provide the entertainment experience that they desire. Is it going to be as an exclusive brand that caters to the upscale market or are they going to keep trying to meet the expectations of multiple market segments and never quite making any one segment other than the Drones truly satisfied? That’s the question that Disney needs to answer.

What a superb analysis Tim - I'm right there with you, though a statement like "top notch Broadway show that takes you from the mere level of consumer to the encompassing level of participant" might bring TH out of the woodwork to gush about how impossibly amazing the Disney experience is, comparing it to a popular Revolutionary-Era musical, followed by a mile long list of all the upcoming WDW projects.

I think Disney is at a crossroad, and needs to decide which way they want to go. They are trying to satisfy multiple demographics and are spending billions of dollars that simply cannot be sustained by guests who only visit once in their lifetime. The issue is that by trying to be everything to everyone, they end up annoying both consumer bases they are trying to court (value conscious guests that cannot keep up with skyrocketing prices and luxury guests who are paying way too much money to stand in lines and deal with crowds and the level of planning needed to avoid the crowds).

I don't know what the solution is, but by trying to cater to both ends of the financial spectrum, Disney cannot possibly serve both equally to a satisfactory level. Disney needs to decide whether they want to chase the big bucks and start behaving like a luxury brand, or go back to being a blue-collar, value destination, eliminating the cast system that they have created within the parks and resorts (i.e. eliminate FP+, stabilize costs, and reduce park investment funded by resort revenue). If Disney does want to still have it's cake and eat it too, perhaps they should look to Sea World, which is the only major operator on the planet that offers standard theme parks and a "luxury" theme park (Discovery Cove). I've been wondering if perhaps the Star Wars Hotel will be the Discovery Cove of WDW, but if Disney wants to serve both ends of the financial spectrum, they need to have discrete products to cater to each group. Right now, WDW doesn't have that, and you can see the tension and dissatisfaction that it creates.

Russell, thanks for clarifying my comments. I'm a two finger typist, and my fingers can't keep up with my thoughts, and sometimes I'm not able to clearly get my thoughts out as they occur.

As far as TH Creative goes, maybe we should start a Discussion Forum thread on the basis of "Where in the World is TH Creative?" I bet the folks here could come up with some rather interesting ideas.

"Where in the World is TH Creative?"

1. Employed by one of the touring companies of Hamilton traveling around the country. Was that you I saw pulling down the stairs at the Hippodrome last Sunday TH?

2. Jetting off to some isolated locale with Joe Rohde "researching" DAK's next major attraction that won't open for another 10 years.

3. Making reservations for the WDW50 and EPCOT's 40th Anniversary Celebrations.

4. Working 70-hour weeks trying to fix the problems with RotR.

5. Outlining his upcoming dissertation to officially categorize every WDW resort as a Theme Park.

6. Sitting at the end of Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar wondering how much longer it will be until MMRR actually opens.

7. Walking around Disney Springs contemplating where they will install the entrance gates, and how much Disney can charge for parking so it can actually be considered a theme park.

8. Appearing as Lionel Hutz, your friendly Jungle Cruise Skipper.

9. Cast as a stand-in for when the Shaman animatronic breaks on Na'vi River Journey.

10. Hitting the e-stop button every 10 minutes on Hagrid's.

11. Stuck in the line at the bank trying to cash those part time employment checks from the Disney PR Department.

12. Getting certified as a "Perspiration Measurement Specialist" on the new Disney gondola system.

13. Discovering if orange jumpsuits make him look slimmer.

No offense intended Russell or Tim, great replies.

Tim, you read like an engineering manual. Please, I need more time to study...

I would not want a scenario in Disney in which I pay for extra access. (To me it's no different than money for influence)

Tim, I do love the wrong "Right Thing".

I say it a little bit differently. A good concept or project executed poorly is still bad. A poor concept or project executed poorly is a disaster. A good concept or project executed properly equals silence.

The first rule I was taught in engineering project management was the greatest compliment is "nothing at all..."

Russell, I am have a hard time digesting the RotR problems. The technical problems (which may exist at some level) happens with everything. To me, this is them finally making the right call and putting quality above ambitious timelines..

What is your outlook on this?

14. Trying to fix the Yeti on Expedition Everest and was last seen in Nepal while doing background research.

15. In the hospital recovering from an overdose due to huffing the leftover "burp" juice from the Lilo and Stitch ride.

I'm not sure what you mean by "outlook". Disney has not specifically announced what has delayed RotR. There are a number of different rumors and speculation about what might be causing the problems. The Cal-OSHA issue mentioned above seems rather plausible and would explain Disney's pivot to focus on finishing the Florida installation (not as far along in construction, but also not subject to Cal-OSHA review). It does sound like this is quite possibly the most complicated attractions Disney has ever developed, and those with close ties with crews working on RotR have repeatedly noted that it will contain MULTIPLE ride systems with a full experience extending up to and maybe even over 30 minutes. Those sources tend to stray when it comes to giving specific details of the overall attraction itself, but the common thread is that they all state that it's more than just a trackless dark ride, which by itself would be a first-of-its-kind installation in the US for Disney.

Think about it - Universal took a motion base and threw it onto an elevator with Transformers. Imagine if Disney did something similar but instead of a regular elevator, it was a drop-ride experience like what's found on ToT/GotG:MB. I'm not saying that's what RotR will be, but that's the type of combination of ride systems many are reporting.

If the Cal-OSHA rumor is true, it sounds like it's not about putting quality above an ambitious timeline, it's about Disney taking the path of least resistance while they deal with an aggressive and overbearing regulatory agency (not saying they're overstepping here, but Cal-OSHA can be a tsunami of red tape). Instead of holding the debut of a land while they deal with an unforeseen regulatory hurdle, they chose to open Galaxy's Edge minus its marquee attraction. I expect when we look back 5-10 years from now, no one will even remember that the land operated for 6+ months without its top attraction.