Cedar Fair Q3 Results are in

[Benjamin22]

It appears Cedar Fair has performed quite well compared to last year.

Some Highlights - 

6% increase in attendance 

Revenue up 8% 

Net Revenue up 7%

https://ir.cedarfair.com/news/news-details/2019/Cedar-Fair-Announces-2019-Third-Quarter-Results-and-Reports-Record-Performance-for-Its-First-10-Months/default.aspx

[disco2000]

No doubt the gold pass offering this year at Cedar Point had a role in the bump...I expect they had a record September/October given the attendance numbers experienced and chatter on social media about how busy the park was.  And chain-wide second year of "buy a pass for next year get in the rest of this year free" drove attendance numbers up as well.

Question to remain for 2020 will be can they figure out how to accommodate the increases in attendance on peak days so as to not deter people from renewing.  I know many people that based on what they personally experienced at KI and CP in the fall have decided to skip renewal next year.  That is to be expected every year, and hopefully CF tracks this and if they see an increase in this happening, do exit surveys to find out the root cause.

[BoddaH1994]

46 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

No doubt the gold pass offering this year at Cedar Point had a role in the bump...I expect they had a record September/October given the attendance numbers experienced and chatter on social media about how busy the park was.  And chain-wide second year of "buy a pass for next year get in the rest of this year free" drove attendance numbers up as well.

Question to remain for 2020 will be can they figure out how to accommodate the increases in attendance on peak days so as to not deter people from renewing.  I know many people that based on what they personally experienced at KI and CP in the fall have decided to skip renewal next year.  That is to be expected every year, and hopefully CF tracks this and if they see an increase in this happening, do exit surveys to find out the root cause.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend about this. How many people do you think actually think, “this place is so busy that I’m not having fun” vs a “this is just what KI/CP is” mentality and just see long waits as part of the experience? It’s an interesting debate that only exit surveying would be able to decode. 

[disco2000]

15 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I had an interesting conversation with a friend about this. How many people do you think actually think, “this place is so busy that I’m not having fun” vs a “this is just what KI/CP is” mentality and just see long waits as part of the experience? It’s an interesting debate that only exit surveying would be able to decode. 

I certainly think they should investigate that conversation before the issue arises or else we will see extensive giving away the gate like we have never seen if the number of non-renewals outnumbers the number of new passes...

They gave away essentially 5 months of gate with the "buy a pass for next year and get in the rest of this year free" and they are having a great year....what would be the giveaway during a down year?

[BoddaH1994]

6 hours ago, disco2000 said:

I certainly think they should investigate that conversation before the issue arises or else we will see extensive giving away the gate like we have never seen if the number of non-renewals outnumbers the number of new passes...

They gave away essentially 5 months of gate with the "buy a pass for next year and get in the rest of this year free" and they are having a great year....what would be the giveaway during a down year?

They’d lower the prices of passes on a down year. Plus Bring-a-friend seems to be a go to. Both of which destroy the park if they’re not reclaimed quickly. 

[disco2000]

Cedar Fair early season pass sales for 2020 have increased more than 50%.  For every season pass renewal, seven new season passes are being purchased.  Gold passes for Cedar Point are probably a huge driver of that.  Let's hope that they address this increased demand for 2020!