United Parks posts declines in revenue, income and attendance

Another brutal quarter for parks, and stock is down 20% today.

Was just at Busch Gardens Tampa and Sea World Orlando. Those continue to be beautiful parks with decent rides, but the operations are simply pathetic. Slow one train ops on many rides turned what could have been walk ons into 20-30 minute waits in many cases. I couldn't help but feel like I was being squeezed by them as we purchased all day dining one of the days and they don't open most restaurants with the park and many of them close early as well. Combine that with an already early closing and the bad operations on rides and although we did like a lot of elements of the day, it seemed like they could do better to give me my money's worth. It will be a good long while before I give them another dime.

This is brutal (see stock performance) and things are going to get worse. Politics aside, (which your really can’t do) any contraction of flight schedules based on govt shutdown will impact Orlando. There’s no way around that. If it impacts the normally busy holiday season, it’s going to be especially ugly for this company. BGW and SD are not fly to parks in Q4. Orlando most certainly is.

I sometimes wonder, does the CEO or anyone in leadership at United Parks understand they basically own the "Cedar Point of the South" with Busch Gardens Tampa? From Nov to April, that park should be as busy as CP is during the summer with coaster enthusiasts and snow birds willing to hand over their cash like crazy! Same with SeaWorld Orlando which has some great rides. How do you, as a theme park operator living in theme park country, screw up park operations so bad that the people who would WILLINGLY say "Please, take my money" not even want to visit your parks which then leads to poor public perception and results like we have here? Literally, all they have to do is run their rides effectively with no less than 2 trains on coasters with dispatches under 90 seconds. Is it really that hard today? In the 80's we could unload and load a train for dispatch in 30 seconds so offering 90 seconds is being super generous!

This company has gouged customers, and now they have the surpassed maximum point where people will tolerate it. Along with constsnt cost cutting that negatively affects the customer experience like Six Flags.

six Flags negative experience doesn’t cost very much if you’re on a season pass and meal plan. Thats not the case with United Parks

This United Parks article has been on my feed in multiple instances (various news stations, industry affiliated posts, etc.). The flood of comments about how horrific the guest experience has become is staggering. It can’t be the same three coaster nerds posting in each article.

Any self respecting CEO seeing that would immediately implement changes. Sadly, for this group they will stay the course.

For the investment group that owns it, it has been all about squeezing every possible dime they can out of the company with a little regard to how it affects the customer experience and ultimately revenue.

normally one gets what they pay for. As I mentioned before at Six Flags it’s a cheap pass so it’s a correspondingly poor experience.

Dollywood is on the pricey side, but in return it’s a quality experience.

United parks is on the pricey side with a Six Flags experience so it ultimately cannot work.

Besides the bad operations, they keep making the ride lineup more unbalanced than ever at least at BGT with the log flume closed. I have family members that have no interest in visiting because there are literally only 1 or 2 rides for them. Others are probably staying away for the same reason.

For someone too old for the Sesame Street rides and does not want thrill rides and coasters, the current operating rides are the rapids, train and bumper cars. The carousel and Sky Ride ($5 up charge for non pass holders) can be added when they reopen from annual maintenance. For a large park, that really is not enough. There isn’t 1 rotating flat besides the carousel that are staples of most parks like a scrambler, music express or wave swinger. Also no dark rides or anything to ride indoors when it rains and everything else shuts down.

That’s a good point that’s another issue with this company right now

The company has just been adding coasters the last several seasons, which just attracts one type of customer. While BGW may be better rounded than a typical Six Flags park with a decent amount of live entertainment and transportation rides, they aren’t installing anything new for non-thrill customers. Then at some of their parks they up charge for the limited, moderate rides such as the cable skywayS at BGT and San Diego or the sky tower at Orlando (a perfect example at the previous previously mentioned gouging)

Focusing one one type of customer (coaster riders) is not a good formula for growth.

Sometimes I believe that we've seen a lot and maybe enough. The kids nowadays are saturated with plenty of new technology to distract them and keep them away from amusement parks. It's hard to impress them. And on the other hand the economy is not that great so parks cut here and there and the whole experience offered to a hard to please public is diminished. It's no surprise we see parks closing such as SFA, and there will be more. Money for these companies, just like any, is their number one priority.

I think it's relevant to reference my trip reports from SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Tampa in September:

https://www.bannister.org/c...ld_orlando
https://www.bannister.org/c..._tampa_bay

Seems like the increasingly crap experience United Parks is offering is coming home to roost.

I don't think the experience at their parks is worth the amount they are charging. Recently did a family trip to VA and spent 3 days in the Williamsburg area and skipped BG but attended KD twice (2nd train on Pantherian following its closure). As a single-family income, I wasn't willing to spend the amount to cover the family at BG but since we are SF passholders it cost me almost nothing to go to KD. Which I think is becoming (if not already there) truly a great park.

I do love BGW but the park is going in the wrong direction.

Side note took the family to Sea world Orlando back in 2023 and truth be told wasn't worth our time or our money. Sad because I used to really enjoy the park.

Wondering how SF numbers are going to be for Q3?

super7*:

This company has gouged customers

This is my regular reminder that a company providing leisure activities is not price gouging. Charging $200 for a sheet of plywood or $50 for a case of water before a hurricane is price gouging. The fact that you regularly confuse that definition is a reminder of why it's hard to take your emotional rantings with anything other than a grain of salt.

I find it funny they think marketing is there most important solution. Which it is part of the problem, they have been building good stuff.

The biggest problem is the experience compared to when it was run by the Busch’s. Food used to be near Disney and affordable, always clean, and staff friendly and lots of uptime.