They have continued to amaze me with their dedication, perseverance and resilience as we found innovative ways to safely entertain nearly 7 million guests as a preferred entertainment choice.
First, on a comparable period basis, attendance trends in open parks have increased from 20% to 25% of 2019 levels in the second quarter to 35% in the third quarter to 51% in the fourth quarter.
Total attendance for the quarter was 2.2 million guests, 338,000 of which came from the four parks that offered modified Holiday in the Park lights without rides and our drive-through safari in New Jersey.
Revenue in the quarter was down $152 million or 58% to $109 million as a result of a 65% decline in attendance.
Sponsorship, international and accommodations revenue in the fourth quarter declined by $8 million due to the deferral of most sponsorship revenue and the suspension of the majority of our accommodations operations.
Guest spending per capita in the quarter increased 17% driven by a 16% increase in admissions spending per capita and a 19% increase in in-park spending per capita.
Attendance from our Active Pass Base in the fourth quarter represented 55% of total attendance versus 71% for the fourth quarter of 2019 demonstrating our success in attracting visitation of single-day guests.
On the cost side, cash, operating and SG&A expenses decreased by $30 million or 18%, primarily due to the following: first, cost saving measures, primarily related to reduced salaries and wages and lower Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park related costs due to the restricted operating environment and our organization redesign completed in October; second, lower advertising costs; third, savings in utilities and other costs related to the fact that several of our parks were not operating or were operating with a reduced product offering.
These cost savings were offset by a charge of $19 million due to an increase in legal reserves.
Excluding the litigation charge, cash costs decreased by $49 million or 29%.
While we have taken measures to reduce our variable costs, we retained 90% of our full-time members and maintained their benefits in order to position ourselves to reopen parks as safely and as soon as possible.
We reduced salaries of all employees by 25% during 2020 in order to preserve cash and our Directors also deferred their compensation for the last three quarters of 2020.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $39 million which included a $19 million increase in legal reserves compared to income of $72 million in the prior year period.
Attendance of 6.8 million guests was down 79% from prior year.
Total revenue of $357 million was down 76% driven by lower attendance due to park closures, limited operations.
Total guest spending per capita increased more than $6 or 14% due to a higher percentage of single-day guests and the positive revenue impact from members who have remained past their initial 12-month commitment period.
Attendance from our Active Pass Base for the full year represented 56% of total attendance versus 63% for full year 2019.
Cash, operating and SG&A expenses were down 35% for the year due to cost savings measures taken immediately after we suspended operations.
This cost reduction offset a portion of the revenue decline resulting in an adjusted EBITDA loss of $231 million.
Fully diluted GAAP loss per share was $4.99, a decline of $7.10 primarily due to the lower attendance in our parks.
As of today, only about 20% of current members have chosen to pause their membership.
We are pleased with the retention of our very large Active Pass Base, which included 1.7 million members and 2.1 million season pass holders at the end of 2020.
Our Active Pass Base was approximately flat compared to the end of the third quarter 2020 when we had 1.9 million members and 1.9 million season pass holders.
Our Active Pass Base at the end of 2020 is down 51% compared to the end of 2019.
That being said, because we extended our 2020 season passes through the end of 2021, our Active Pass Base, as of today, is down less than 10% versus the same day last year, which preceded the pandemic's impact.
Deferred revenue as of December 31, 2020 was $205 million, up $61 million or 42% to prior year as we expect to recognize most of this deferred revenue in 2021.
Total capital expenditures for the year were $98 million, a reduction of 30% from 2019.
Our liquidity position, as of December 31, was $618 million.
This included $460 million of available revolver capacity, net of $21 million of letters of credit and $158 billion of cash.
This compares to a liquidity position of $673 million as of September 30, 2020.
Net cash outflow for the quarter was $56 million, representing an average of $19 million per month.
As a reminder, our net cash outflow in the fourth quarter included partnership park distributions that represented an average of $7 million per month.
Our fourth quarter cash flow benefited by $8 million from the sale of some excess land in New Jersey, which was not in our prior estimates.
Without the landfill, our net cash outflow was $21 million per month, an improvement from our prior estimates of $25 million to $30 million.
We estimate that our net cash outflow in the first quarter of 2021 will be higher than normal or approximately $53 million to $58 million per month.
Second, the timing of interest payments on our newly issued $725 million of senior secured debt.
I would now like to give you an update on the progress of our transformation plan.
Executing the transformation plan will require one-time cost of approximately $70 million through 2021, including $60 million of cash and $10 million of non-cash write-offs.
So far, $35 million has been incurred through the end of 2020, including the non-cash write-offs of $10 million.
We expect to incur the remaining $35 million by the end of 2021.
We expect the transformation plan to unlock $80 million to $110 million in incremental annual run rate EBITDA once fully implemented and the company is now operating in a normal business environment.
In 2021, we expect to achieve $30 million to $35 million from our organization redesign and other fixed cost reductions.
In January alone, we realized more than $2 million of fixed cost value due to transformation, so we are well on track to achieve our estimated savings for 2021.
We expect to ramp up to the full amount of benefits as attendance grows to 2019 levels.
First, as we announced last fall, we reduced our full time headcount costs by approximately 10%.
As we announced last December, we are changing our method of determining our fiscal quarters and fiscal years, such that each fiscal quarter shall consist of 13 consecutive weeks ending on a Sunday.
Each fiscal year shall consist of 52 weeks or 53 weeks and shall end on the Sunday closest to December 31.
During the years when there are 53 weeks, the fourth quarter shall consist of 14 weeks.
As Sandeep mentioned, we have moved quickly to streamline our organization and reduced other fixed costs and we expect to realize $30 million to $35 million of fixed cost savings in 2021.
We expect our transformation initiatives to create a new adjusted EBITDA baseline of $530 million to $560 million once our plan is implemented and we are operating in a more normal business environment.
We expect to maintain our annual capital expenditures at 9% to 10% of revenue.
Second, use free cash flow to pay down debt and return our net leverage ratio to between 3 and 4 times.

Summary:
Revenue in the quarter was down $152 million or 58% to $109 million as a result of a 65% decline in attendance.
We estimate that our net cash outflow in the first quarter of 2021 will be higher than normal or approximately $53 million to $58 million per month.
I would now like to give you an update on the progress of our transformation plan.
In January alone, we realized more than $2 million of fixed cost value due to transformation, so we are well on track to achieve our estimated savings for 2021.
We expect to ramp up to the full amount of benefits as attendance grows to 2019 levels.
We expect to maintain our annual capital expenditures at 9% to 10% of revenue.