A Spirited Perfect Ten

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
This may just be anecdotal, but I haven't seen the better training at Universal result in better service. Even with flaws I still think Disney has better customer service.
It depends where at what resort you are. I think Universal/Loews resorts and Signature Restaurants have a higher level of service than the Disney resorts equivalent. GUest Relations at both parks are about the same. Front line CMs/TMs is a mixed bag at both resorts.
 

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
I don't know the prices but the one in California offered drinks without the glasses. I even think you get a clean glass if you buy one.

A few months ago I got my wife a $40 drink in vegas at the sugar factory, it didn't come with the glass :)
What did you think about Sugar Factory? They are opening one at I-Drive 360. The menu looks great.
 

bhg469

Well-Known Member
What did you think about Sugar Factory? They are opening one at I-Drive 360. The menu looks great.
I honestly felt like it was a blatant ripoff of cheesecake factory with higher prices and fancier drinks only 1/100th the menu options. Obviously cheesecake factory has an overly huge menu but I just wanted a few more options. Food i had did tate good though.

The drinks are pretty crazy though, most of them are over the top and almost a show in themselves.

I didn't drink there but I did have an amazing coctail at the chandelier bar in the cosmopolitan. It was almost like an old fashioned with chili infused something or other lol!
 
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Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
It depends where at what resort you are. I think Universal/Loews resorts and Signature Restaurants have a higher level of service than the Disney resorts equivalent. GUest Relations at both parks are about the same. Front line CMs/TMs is a mixed bag at both resorts.

I would agree with this and suggest that Lowes' handling of hotel operations is the likely reason why service is better.
 

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
Apparently I can't say a person's twitter handle here so I'll just say a user on twitter is trolling the people waiting today by taking his glass from the trader Sams in California and walking by the people lined up. I like the snark!

Apparently it's a banned member.

You know some people are totally different in real life as they are online… And then there are people like this
 

theRIOT

Active Member
Ok lets get something straight. CP's are some of the hardest working cast members on property. They are given the worst hours sometimes with 14 days between days off and up until recently Minimum wage. They have no benefits and are expected to put up with Tourists asking the same dumb questions and acting generally like idiots on a regular basis. TO top this all off their commute can take an hour or more each way to and from the housing complexes because Disney likes to have trans star run giant loops to every housing complex and there's only like 6-8 bus schedules. SO in short get off their cases. If they want to play on their rare day off in the parks, they have certainly earned it and they don't need to spend their HARD earned money in the parks if they don't want to.

ROJ2323 <-- Former CP and trainer and proud of it.


I know there have been many great and super hard-working CPs. I knew plenty. I'm sure you are among them.
But I also know from my experience working at WDW, that I and many other non-CP CMs would be given the least amount of hours possible while the CPs were guaranteed 40 every week.
The problem was, they didn't want the shifts. The day the schedule would post, I couldn't tell you how many of them came running to me and others to try and dump days worth of shifts.
I just saw an awful lot of them treating their time there like a big party while the rest of us were picking up shifts all over property to get the bills paid.
 
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Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
One possible theory someone proposed in one of these threads is that the 25M may include both gate clicks and visitors to the shopping/dining area outside the park. Referring to all "visitors" of the complex whether they paid to get in or not.
I suppose the numbers would also mean the hotels as well, right?
 

ParentsOf4

Well-Known Member
I'm sorry I still haven't seen a decent reconciliation of how Iger is a penny pincher but he spent an absurd am out of money on Next Gen (and China, etc). It's a mistake to claim he's not investing in the product for the future. He's spending. You just don't like HOW, which is a separate conversation. "Iger is cheap" is, at best, a shaky premise on which to build your criticism.
Don't make @ParentsOf4 break out his capital spending graphs.:cool: Agreed that I'm not a fan of the way he's spending P&R money. I could live without another park in China. DCA 2.0 was his greatest achievement in P&R.

I'm more negative about the cost cutting than lack of new investment. Just fix what's there and it would be a great start. My personal opinion is the next billion at WDW should be spent on major refurbs instead of new stuff.
Don't invoke my name unless you want a graph. :D

It's an interesting topic. How much has Disney been investing in its Parks & Resorts segment under Iger?

By now, those who read my posts know that I rarely discuss absolute dollars because (for example) $100M spent in 1972 is not the same as $100M spent in 2015. IMO, inflation calculators are poor ways to compare eras so I don't use them. Similarly, spending $100M when a company operates 1 theme park is not the same as spending $100M when a company operates 5 theme parks.

To normalize the effects of both, I tend to look at percentage of revenue. In my experience, this is consistent with the thinking of many corporate leaders. Companies tend to set budgets with total revenue in mind. A company with $1B in annual revenue has different cost expectations than a company with $5B in annual revenue. Looking at the percentage of how much they invest gives insight into that company's business strategy.

The Disney of 1982 spending $1B to build EPCOT Center is much more aggressive than the Disney of 2015 spending $2B (i.e. 43% of $5B) to build Shanghai Disneyland. Whether you look at company-wide revenue or just Parks & Resorts revenue, the Disney of 1982 truly went out on a limb for EPCOT Center. In 2015, the entire Shanghai Disneyland venture could be a colossal failure and yet it would represent much less than one year of Disney's stock repurchase plan or only a fraction of one year of Parks & Resorts revenue.

Another item to consider when evaluating Disney's Parks & Resorts investments is depreciation. Amusement parks are physical asset intensive. Over time, these deteriorate and need to be repaired or replaced. Day-to-day maintenance is covered as an operating expense. However, long-term maintenance typically is covered as a capital expenditure.

Over the last 5 years, Disney's P&R depreciation has been about 10% of P&R revenue. If this seems high to you, then consider that it is lower than the other amusement park companies that I follow with the exception of Merlin Entertainments, which is only slightly lower. This is not because Disney's assets are aging less :D, but because Disney's revenue is strong relative to its physical assets.

Since companies don't report maintenance and growth capex separately, one method used estimate growth capex is to assume that maintenance capex should equal depreciation. At a theme park, this can be as minor as replacing rotting structures to a complete revamp of an attraction. For the purposes of determining how much a company is investing (versus simply maintaining), capex spent above depreciation can be considered growth capex.

With all of the above explanations out of the way :D, the following graph (yet another one from me!) gives some idea of how much Disney has spent on the growth of its domestic and international Parks & Resorts business since the opening of Walt Disney World on October 1, 1971, with most major capex projects (except hotels) identified:

Disney Growth Capex.jpg


Please note that 1995 is a special case. There were multiple simultaneous smaller projects ongoing, the net effect being a huge spike in capex in 1994.

I look at this graph and conclude that Iger is the Disney CEO who has invested the least in his Parks & Resorts segment, even taking into account his large investments in Shanghai and on cruise ships. Iger might have spent over a billion dollars on NextGen but once that cost is spread over the several years it took to develop and deploy, it represents only a fraction of what Disney's Parks & Resorts segment is generating.
 
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GoofGoof

Premium Member
It depends where at what resort you are. I think Universal/Loews resorts and Signature Restaurants have a higher level of service than the Disney resorts equivalent. GUest Relations at both parks are about the same. Front line CMs/TMs is a mixed bag at both resorts.
Fair point. I was really just talking about parks. I've never stayed at a Universal hotel but I've heard good things and I've always liked Lowes hotels whenever I've stayed at them. I never noticed a significant difference at Universal with park or quick service staff.
We look at things like transaction times, "hustle," ability to answer questions. Our experience with TM's have never made us question whether that TM KNEW the details of their job. Maybe they aren't always so sugary sweet and smiling. But also anecdotal, they have seemed more proficient and efficient in their tasks.

For example, on my last trip to AK, I bought some mystery pin boxes, a few single pins and a Sven Christmas ornament. The CM was going to put them in a bag together without wrapping the Sven in anything to protect it from breakage. That's a basic retail skill.
Fair point. I don't think I have spent enough time at Universal to have a really educated opinion. I've never had an issue with service but I've never experienced anything that wowed me either.
 

roj2323

Well-Known Member
I know there have been many great and super hard-working CPs. I knew plenty. I'm sure you are among them.
But I also know from my experience working at WDW, that I and many other non-CP CMs would be given the least amount of hours possible while the CPs were guaranteed 40 every week.
The problem was, they didn't want the shifts. The day the schedule would post, I couldn't tell you how many of them came running to me and others to try and dump days worth of shifts.
I just saw an awful lot of them treating their time there like a big party while the rest of us were picking up shifts all over property to get the bills paid.

I agree that the guaranteed hours is/was BS. I think they addressed the issue in some way when they moved the minimum wage up for everyone including cp's to $9 an hour. This I think dissuades the scheduling team from giving preference to cp's solely based on budget concerns. Now that they have done this they also need to reduce the number of guaranteed hours to cp's. I have to say however that full timers are only guaranteed 32 hours a week. The reason it's not higher is because the union wasn't willing to fight for it. Also part timers are not guaranteed any hours.

As for cp's giving away hours I'm sure you as well as many others, especially part timers, were happy to take the shifts. I don't see what's wrong with giving away shifts provided the cp's realize they can't just call in if they can't get rid of it. That actually was the larger concern in my area as we only had one one extra scheduled per sex ( I was custodial). After two call ins we were short staffed and everyone else had to pickup the slack.

Edit: fixed my horrendous spelling.
 
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bhg469

Well-Known Member

flynnibus

Premium Member
Yet I see no one approaching the bar to, you know, buy something! Lol I know it's just opening but I guarantee every person through there was just rushing to be the first to photograph the place Instead of actually ordering something.

Saw photos immediately after with people at the bar, etc. For some people this is their 'job' so I don't hold any grudges about that... meanwhile I'm buried in the engine bay of my car for the afternoon. There are worst things people could be tied to. Different strokes for different folks...

But what is interesting is... they already are saying the nautilus cup wasn't available... just think of all those people in line who wanted XYZ cup and won't get it. I sure hope Disney stocked heavy on the front side for their mugs :) Imagine the fanboi angst over cup shortages!
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
While some will say (correctly) that is is within people's right* to spend 5, 6 or more hours of the day hanging around a hotel their not even staying at or attending for convention/business reasons, I do personally find it very tacky.

The Poly is not a theme park, it's a hotel. As such, it's not really designed or equipped to handle so many hundreds of people descending en mass to visit one particular food and beverage area at the same time.

I give kudos to Disney and hotel ops for making some kind of organized queue and handing out Dole Whips to guests waiting in line, but I feel bad for the people actually staying in the hotel who will have to navigate the masses to get to where they want to go, or deal with the increased noise when they might just want to have an afternoon map (twitter pics show the queue extending well beyond the main lobby). Not to mention the custodial staff who will have to deal with a bigger clean up well into the early morning hours.

These fans just look so impatient, and frankly kind of selfish, for not being able to wait a week or two to see the place in person and for not caring about how people spending hundreds of dollars (per night) to stay at the resort might feel about the situation.

Just my $0.02

*Well, techinically the hotel is private property, which means Disney could kick them out if they felt like it, but you get what I'm saying.
 
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Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
Saw photos immediately after with people at the bar, etc. For some people this is their 'job' so I don't hold any grudges about that... meanwhile I'm buried in the engine bay of my car for the afternoon. There are worst things people could be tied to. Different strokes for different folks...

But what is interesting is... they already are saying the nautilus cup wasn't available... just think of all those people in line who wanted XYZ cup and won't get it. I sure hope Disney stocked heavy on the front side for their mugs :) Imagine the fanboi angst over cup shortages!
but will they get a balloon and commemorative pin like those who were first in the garage opening? ;)
 

TalkingHead

Well-Known Member
The Trader Sam's opening should be a case study in social media hype, social awkwardness, and Disney addiction.

Really, any grad students want to tackle that for their dissertation? Side note, I've wondered how long it takes to finish an MA when you spend most of your waking hours discussing Disney theme parks on Twitter. Guess that's not a polite thing to wonder out loud.

Or maybe it's more fun to agonize over acquiring each of the Disney faux-tiki glasses. (Because, you know, the glasses are only special and worth having because they're "Disney" -- this is where the Disneyana hype man shows up with his mouse ears, Magicband, and limited edition Disney aloha shirt and says, "Collect all twelve!")
 

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