"What's Next" Presentation cancelled.....

[IWant2GoNow]

I feel like the "What's Next" name, seeing as it was released so early, was a tactic to try & get Universal to flinch on announcing Potter 2.0 before they wanted to. I don't really truly believe that but it seems like a plausible scenario. In all actuality, I believe they were going to announce at least one major upcoming project but decided against it because TDO feels they have enough to say with FLE (bathrooms & 4-years-to-build kiddie coaster), new Test Track (positive reviews thus far so they need to pat themselves on the back even though GM foots the bill & made sure the quality was up to par), one-time-use dragons in the sky, & a possible new parade (me personally I think they'll just announce that Spectro is coming back & classify that "new").

As you can see, my expectations of TDO are at a level I never thought I would get to. I used to do everything in my power to go down to WDW once a year, then it became once every two years, but now? There's absolutely nothing to look forward to whatsoever. TT is the same ride but new queue (even as great as the reviews sound) isn't going to get me back down there. I refuse to see FLE half-finished. I'm excited for the quality put into it, but that isn't going to get me back there either. Cutting edge attractions mixed with quality theming & amazing upkeep... THAT is what used to get me down there every year, made me hype up the Yeti to my friends, it's what led me to this site, it's why I felt WDW was the king of theme park resorts... I see through all that now. Is it still an amazing place? Absolutely. But very slowly over a very long time the "Walt Disney" is being sucked out of the "World". I'm not going to throw any Walt quotes around, we've heard them enough to know what kind of man he was. What's sad is everyone at TWDC has all but forgotten he was even alive. "Walt Disney" is almost like a mythical beast to them probably. The heart of Disney is on life support & every cut back on upgrades & expansions, every ride that operates with poor show, every maintenance issue left unkept keeps kicking it. No matter how small, they will all band together like a swarm of mosquitos & snuff it out if TDO, Burbank, TWDC... whoever it is, doesn't change something soon.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

But DCL announced its 2014 intineraries today ... have no idea if they'll have any part of the WDW event this week or not ... but in a very strange (telling?) departure from recent years, they are sticking close to home.

Alaska? No. Hawaii? No. Mexican Riviera from LA? No. Europe? No. ... somewhere new like Asia or Australia? No.

Instead, in what seems like a blast from 2002, in 2014 the four ships will be sailing either Bahamas or Caribbean cruises exclusively with THREE ships based in Port Canaveral (the new ones alongside the returning MAGIC) and the Wonder sailing from both Miami and Galveston.

That is a major retrenchment for Disney into the oversupplied markets and one wonders if this is just a one year blip.

I'm glad I got in touch with @WDW1974 about this yesterday/last night and he pointed me this way. Fuzzy brain with the head cold...I stopped reading this thread after a few pages. TDO crawfishing ~AGAIN~ is nothing new. In fact, it's kinda like their signature nowadays.

So, okay, back to the subject at hand. I realize I'm not the expert on DCL and how they operate. I've been closely following their doings and, admitedly, falling in love with their product for closing in on 2 years. When I saw the post on the Disney Parks Blog yesterday I found what I saw & read quite odd. Just as announcements are highly anticipated and salivated over for the parks by the big time parks fans, there's a huge group of DCL fans who anxiously anticipate announcements from them on baited breathe. It's almost a parallel of what you see within the parks fans. There's knowledgable insiders, long-time cruisers who are very familiar with the ways the company operates, some that get aggravated with things that they feel are sub-par, some that are so infatuated with their object of affection that they can see no wrong no matter how bad it gets, etc. It's strange to observe but then I understand on many levels. Anywhoo, so I read the Parks Blog yesterday, this announcement that the DCL fan world has been sitting on the edge of their seats anxious to receive for months now. It's the 2014 itineraries! We're hoppin' around ready to switch our "placeholder" bookings over to 2014 cruises to score opening day prices PLUS 10% off. Such a hotly anticipated announcement and it seems half of what was laid out was pushing the FLE. How. Totally. Strange. A Disney CRUISE announcement pushing a PARKS product. I know it's not unusual for people to pair a short Disney cruise with a parks trip and, sure, Disney enjoys cashing in on both fronts. I went back to the read the itineraries that were released for a second time and I was (frankly) annoyed.

My first thought was "Wow. Thumping a dead horse that's already been beat to death isn't going to do much." Running all 4 ships out of Florida for almost 5 months on the same beat-down itineraries that all the repeat cruisers have been on time & time again is BORING. Why are they not still sailing out of the alternate off-season, cool weather ports they are choosing for 2012 & 2013? You cannot argue that these sailings aren't selling well enough or that Florida cruises sell better. I don't believe that. Most sailings September thru May out of Galveston are running discounts. The cruise my family is going on in mid-January is almost entirely sold out. Early January's 8-night was sold out last time I looked. The discounting is working and the ship is filling. I can't say the same for the also mostly discounted sailings on the Magic's sister ship out of Miami during the same time period. So, why is the Disney Wonder being pulled from Galveston the first almost 5 months of 2014?

The DCL fans scream & beg for new and interesting itineraries. When DCL releases new & interesting sailings the ships fill up at lightning speed. Why in the world is Disney doing something so ho-hum??? Why are they doing the thing the DCL fans hate the most? A bigger picture comes into focus here. Disney seems to be moving their chess pieces into a defensive position on the larger than just cruise industry gameboard. We all know WDW occupancy isn't what Disney would like. We all know that the Disney parks attendance growth as compared to the competition statistically they're losing the battle. And, let's be honest, even the most passionate of WDW fan knows that the Orlando parks competition have, are, and will be putting out a high enough quality product that the mouse should be concerned and doing something proactive about it. I think this is another angle Disney is playing to attempt to counter their inadequacies in the world of theme park offerings. They're bringing all four ships to Florida, 3 of which will be running less than 7 day itineraries, for the purpose of pushing the (not very competitive with what the competition is doing) parks additions.

Personally, when I feel like I'm being played I'm going to put my thoughts and efforts into making sure whoever thinks they're being so clever only gets the most exact opposite of what it is they want and nothing more. IF I sail out Florida in 2014 while all 4 ships are there (very big IF) I'll be sure to make a pilgrimage to see Harry & company. Maybe I'll go sleep with the fishes-n-whales. I will NOT go to WDW. I'd stay home before I vacationed there. In short, TDO can kiss my proverbial...... well...... you know.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Wait... Are you saying that DCL has just abandoned the West Coast market entirely for 2014? That all four ships in the fleet will be based in the Gulf of Mexico? Not a single itinerary on the West Coast? Wow.

If I'm reading you right, that's huge. And no one else has picked up on this?

Yes, @TP2000, I picked up on this. So have all the big time DCL fans. Disney doesn't need to position a ship where they can offer guests the fun option of pairing Disneyland visit with a west coast cruise. Carsland and DCA2.0 are so excellent on their own that people are running in droves out west. Even during times when Disneyland's resorts used to run fantastic hotel discounts there's next to no discount offers on the table. Why? Not needed. If you build it, they will come. And they ARE! I'd love to be annoyed at the lack of discounts available for the Disneyland Hotel but I'm too happy about seeing this type of payoff for the TDA's willingness to do things right. They did it the way Disney is famous for and it shows...all the way down to the fact that in the off-season when we all know many attractions will be closed for proper refurbs (because Anaheim does not seem to operate in fear of ing off guests because they closed things to care for them properly) they don't NEED to offer any discounts.

While I find it peculiar that Disney chooses to have all four ships in Florida going to mainly the same ports over and over again (I think they will now have weeks when there are ships at Castaway Cay nearly every day), please note that the Magic and Wonder itineraries were only announced up to April 2014. They might very well go either to Europe or the West Coast after the spring in the warm waters.

Oh I'm sure the summer of 2014 will bring some interesting moves for the classic ships. I'm being optomistic, anyway. Still, why aren't they "wintering" these ships at other ports that are selling better than Miami RIGHT NOW? That's where I challenge the choice of winter ports for the classic ships. They won't sell them any better than they are in Galveston. There's a port in New Orleans. I hear the Pixar cruises they did from LA were pretty successful. Why not there? The only answer that I can think of is that WDW needs the ships in Florida. What other reason could there be?

 

[sweetpee_1993]

That's what I was saying, don't know why everyone is searching for the lifeboats. It's a name change, albeit odd, to an already planned announcement/event. Nothing got "canceled." Wished people would stop with their negativity around here...

No, nothing got canceled. You're right. What obviously DID happen is TDO took the pulse of the fan community, saw that they were going to flop magnificently (again) with their lack of announcing anything of substance or interest, so they changed the name in the 11th hour to save face. TDO may not have canceled anything but they changed their accountability for what they had planned. Which, again, is annoyingly nothing interesting. Unfortunately, the competition down the street has a lot going on and plenty to be talking about. TDO? Not-so-much. Herein lies the problem. If you have nothing good to say, why are you drawing attention to yourself at all?

Sometimes I wonder who these PR people TDO has hired are. It's not just Meg & Company that are a joke here. The PR people are pretty laughable as well. Do they pluck these people straight out of college and let them stumble their way thru learning the ropes by playing with the beat-up old Walt Disney World toys? Here's a little tip for TDO totally free of charge: Sometimes it's worthwhile to spend more to hire experienced, proven, & skilled professionals to work for you. Unlike buying a WDW vacation, you usually get what you pay for.

 

[DznyRktekt]

It's like a war. Now WDW Co. is deploying their Navy.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

It's like a war. Now WDW Co. is deploying their Navy.

That's frickin' funny! I love the visual! LOL!

 

[asianway]

No, nothing got canceled. You're right. What obviously DID happen is TDO took the pulse of the fan community, saw that they were going to flop magnificently (again) with their lack of announcing anything of substance or interest, so they changed the name in the 11th hour to save face. TDO may not have canceled anything but they changed their accountability for what they had planned. Which, again, is annoyingly nothing interesting. Unfortunately, the competition down the street has a lot going on and plenty to be talking about. TDO? Not-so-much. Herein lies the problem. If you have nothing good to say, why are you drawing attention to yourself at all?

Sometimes I wonder who these PR people TDO has hired are. It's not just Meg & Company that are a joke here. The PR people are pretty laughable as well. Do they pluck these people straight out of college and let them stumble their way thru learning the ropes by playing with the beat-up old Walt Disney World toys? Here's a little tip for TDO totally free of charge: Sometimes it's worthwhile to spend more to hire experienced, proven, & skilled professionals to work for you. Unlike buying a WDW vacation, you usually get what you pay for.

According to merf - Coyne PR does this type of work for them. Just sent out some info on it.

Maybe they realized the smoke and mirrors that works with the local trailer park residents wont work with the national(global?) press corp.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

According to merf - Coyne PR does this type of work for them. Just sent out some info on it.

Maybe they realized the smoke and mirrors that works with the local trailer park residents wont work with the national(global?) press corp.

Maybe they finally figured out that they've become as predictable and stale as the product they push. LOL! Thanks for the info.

 

[TropicalFig8]

Late on my reaction:

 

[Brian Noble]

why aren't they "wintering" these ships at other ports that are selling better than Miami RIGHT NOW?

They seem to be between a rock and a hard place. So many of the "regulars" insist on a stop at CC that it's hard to sail from anywhere that can't easily get there. But, if they insist on including CC on an itinerary, that pretty much limits what else is possible for a given sail length.

My read of the Eastern Florida focus is that it is a combination of underperforming expectations in Galveston, returning cruisers' desire to visit CC, the disaster that was Mexico (not necessarily DCL's fault, but more Wrong Time Wrong Place), plus a desire by the entire P&R segment to capitalize on New Fantasyland to whatever extent possible.

 

[td1129]

I'm so sick of TDO And I never thought I would. I'm starting to regret booking my trip for next year. I would much rather go to disneyland and give them my business when they have out in over a billion dollars into DCA and actually are giving the feats what they want. Not to mention I really want to expreience cars land.

When you start to become this bitter, you're doing the right thing by just stepping away.

 

[td1129]

Speaking of canceling things, I have cancelled our summer family trip to WDW this year. No wait, I renamed it our summer family trip to USO, IOA, and the Beach. It's just odd I switched everything on the same day TDO proves again to be incompetent of their decision making. I think the name was changed so that details of existing projects "around the world" are discussed. If it stayed a " what's next" title people would be pretty bummed out when it's the same things that have already been announced. This went from possibly something of substance to a re-cap of things happening now IMHO.

Way to stick it to 'em.

 

[Bolna]

Oh I'm sure the summer of 2014 will bring some interesting moves for the classic ships. I'm being optomistic, anyway. Still, why aren't they "wintering" these ships at other ports that are selling better than Miami RIGHT NOW? That's where I challenge the choice of winter ports for the classic ships. They won't sell them any better than they are in Galveston. There's a port in New Orleans. I hear the Pixar cruises they did from LA were pretty successful. Why not there? The only answer that I can think of is that WDW needs the ships in Florida. What other reason could there be?

I think your analyses makes a lot of sense. I was so surprised that they did not go for Southern Caribbean cruises out of Miami. I would have thought that there would be lots of people who would love to go to places like Aruba, Curacao and such and they could still go to Castaway Cay with an itinerary like this. But I think your suspicion of offering shorter cruises to boost WDW attendance might be the reason why they stuck with the itineraries that aren't selling very well right now...

 

[Brian Noble]

When you start to become this bitter, you're doing the right thing by just stepping away.

Way to stick it to 'em.

There's nothing wrong with taking a few trips to other Disney (or even non-Disney) parks. We did the Universal/IoA/Sea World/Aquatica junket this past summer, and had a blast; we're headed to Disneyland plus Knotts this February, and Paris (mostly for Paris, but a little bit for DLP) this summer.

Indeed, if you really *are* unhappy with the way WDW is going, the only way to effectively demonstrate that is to stop visiting.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I think your analyses makes a lot of sense. I was so surprised that they did not go for Southern Caribbean cruises out of Miami. I would have thought that there would be lots of people who would love to go to places like Aruba, Curacao and such and they could still go to Castaway Cay with an itinerary like this. But I think your suspicion of offering shorter cruises to boost WDW attendance might be the reason why they stuck with the itineraries that aren't selling very well right now...

That's just it. There are loads of people absolutely dying to go to those Southern Caribbean ports! Anything as long as it's not the standard, repetitive, same-old same-old. It'd be so easy for DCL to do something different. It's very much like DCL isn't lifting a finger to compete with other cruises or cruise lines. There's something else driving these itinerary choices and it stinks to high-heaven and back. Some people just don't smell it, I guess. Some of us do.

 

[asianway]

That's just it. There are loads of people absolutely dying to go to those Southern Caribbean ports! Anything as long as it's not the standard, repetitive, same-old same-old. It'd be so easy for DCL to do something different. It's very much like DCL isn't lifting a finger to compete with other cruises or cruise lines. There's something else driving these itinerary choices and it stinks to high-heaven and back. Some people just don't smell it, I guess. Some of us do.

It's probably time to update the dining rotation themes from time to time. French, Caribbean,pirate...spice it up a bit.

Theyve done a good job keeping the shows fresh though

 

[Adam5897]

When you start to become this bitter, you're doing the right thing by just stepping away.

Im sorry to sound stupid but what do you mean by "stepping away"?

 

[sweetpee_1993]

It's probably time to update the dining rotation themes from time to time. French, Caribbean,pirate...spice it up a bit.

Theyve done a good job keeping the shows fresh though

I've not cruised enough to be worn out completely on the dining rotation themes entirely. However, I totally foresee those things growing dull to us. I'm still delighted in exploring the options. I'm crossing my fingers when the Magic goes thru it's drydock in the fall there might be some changes. Definitely excited to see what the upgrades will entail. My money is on magic portholes in the inside staterooms. Those have been way too popular on the new ships not to do. Love the shows. They're so well done (to me) and a few offer opportunities to tweak and keep material fresh. That's smart!

 

[WDW1974]

That's just it. There are loads of people absolutely dying to go to those Southern Caribbean ports! Anything as long as it's not the standard, repetitive, same-old same-old. It'd be so easy for DCL to do something different. It's very much like DCL isn't lifting a finger to compete with other cruises or cruise lines. There's something else driving these itinerary choices and it stinks to high-heaven and back. Some people just don't smell it, I guess. Some of us do.

I might as well quote this post as I don't have much time this afternoon and the lovely sweetpea_1993 has done a magnificent job of covering all the bases.

Something about DCL's moves and timing stinks. (Some of the ports ... like Nassau, Atlantis aside, do as well) They are now using four ships to basically do itineraries they were doing a decade ago. I don't care how much you enjoy the DCL product -- and I love it -- doing those same old cruises is very much akin to visiting WDW and seeing the same product. And to see the annnouncement on the Parks Blog was laughable and pathetic because right below a pic of a ship at Castaway Cay was the tired old rendering of New Fantasyland. Can you be more obvious? They're hoping the DCL addicts will take lesser cruises and add/book MAGICal WDW vacations to go alongside.

Half a year (minimally) we'll see four ships now in FL (three at PC and one in MIA), none of them going anywhere different or exotic. It certainly seems like a desperation move to help boost WDW attendance with so many large scale projects opening at UNI/IOA/SW etc.

For full disclosure, I'm taking a five-nighter out of Miami next spring. But I'm doing so in large part because I'm going with a friend who has never cruised before and it's part of a larger 'adventure' ... but DCL isn't going to get my business by taking me places I've been many, many times before (some with Disney, some not).

I also don't buy the whole 'we must see CC or else it isn't a MAGICal Disney cruise' idea either. I think that hay be true for some of the first-timers or the 'we're afraid of places like Alaska and Hawaii, let alone Central America, Mexico, Asia or Europe' crowd. But DCL also attracts many seasoned travelers and cruisers and, rest assured, the last places they want to travel to are the places Disney wants to take them in 2014.

 

[WDW1974]

There's nothing wrong with taking a few trips to other Disney (or even non-Disney) parks. We did the Universal/IoA/Sea World/Aquatica junket this past summer, and had a blast; we're headed to Disneyland plus Knotts this February, and Paris (mostly for Paris, but a little bit for DLP) this summer.

Indeed, if you really *are* unhappy with the way WDW is going, the only way to effectively demonstrate that is to stop visiting.

That doesn't work at all, although I would never advise anyone to visit anywhere (WDW included) if they are miserable.

But if they just don't like the direction management is taking (like myself and the vast majority of so called 'critics') I would say that isn't effective at all. We lose a place we still love and Disney happily replaces us with rubes who think the place has never been better. That's exactly what they want. I don't wish to give them what they so desire. I'd rather try my damndest to make them live up to their own standards and PR.