A sequel? Nah, not this one

[Animaniac93-98]

Wasn't RSR the first to break the $300 million mark? At least with that ride you can see where the money went.

 

[JoeCamel]

BTW, if you want your post to get lots of likes, either badmouth Bob Iger or quote @lazyboy97o (or maybe it's the combination of the two?)! View attachment 494809

Pretty sad if that is your goal here.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I'm willing to say that the OP's previous "doom and gloom" thread was entertaining for a bit... but I don't think it packed the wallop they wanted it too, and I doubt this will either.

Prove me wrong, OP!

Yeah, more heavy-handed, branded, concentrated Doom & Gloom.

I've re-iterated this a few times now, but since we have another new thread... threads like this have been a recurring staple of WDWMagic since forever, I know since I've been posting here forever. I believe these are a ploy by TWDC itself so that when the actual news drops, it isn't nearly as bad as the picture painted in the Doom & Gloom threads.

 

[_caleb]

Pretty sad if that is your goal here.

It’s not.

 

[Astro Blaster]

Blessing in disguise that they can’t build a tower at the Poly - the less bastardizing they do to that resort the better.

Also, wasn’t the Fountain of Nations destroyed to make room for that festival dinner party or whatever building that apparently isn’t even happening anymore?! /

 

[UNCgolf]

It's gotta be MyMagic+ and the fastpass+ system and/or the switch to virtual queues parkwide. That's my guess anyway.

0% chance they switch to virtual queues parkwide. It's completely infeasible.

The parks would be absolute miserable nightmares if they did that.

 

[Chomama]

I wouldn’t be shocked if the Rat ride has a virtual queue

 

[Brer Panther]

Been wondering what would be worthwhile to post about as the "thing" I keep hearing about is not ready for public consumption.

Unless it's the parks closing forever, you can tell us.

The new Ratatouille ride seems like its not opening until mid 2021.

Mid-2021? Isn't the ride almost done?

 

[ZedR]

Review Meetings.
Micromanage Vendors.
Review Meeting Review Meetings.
Review Meeting Review Review Meetings.
Executive Review Meetings.
Study Building Actual Spaceship for Authenticity.
Executive Review Review Meeting.
Change Design, Start Again.
Review Meetings.
Micromanage Vendors.
Review Meeting Review Meetings.
Review Meeting Review Review Meetings.
Executive Review Meetings.
Study Building Actual Spaceship for Authenticity.
Executive Review Review Meeting.
Too Expensive, Go Back to Original Design.

I imagine it is exactly like this:

 

[Mr Mindcrime]

When you get greedy you tend to bring it upon yourself. For so long Iger didn’t spend at the parks so now when they are working on so many projects at once it hurts them. If you want people in the parks. You can’t just discount a room. Bring back a park ticket for $50. Give a limit and make people use a drivers liscense to control it like they do for DVC APs. That prevents scammers and companies buying up tickets and selling them for a profit. That way the guests are coming to the parks to spend money.

I think organizations that get too big for their britches lose track of how to run the business. The company I work for. We were a medium size company. Got bought by the number one company in our field and now it’s a complete disaster because they only care about the bottom line instead of how they got where they are today and who got them there.

Disney has some of the most creative minds to be had. Use them on how to get people back in the parks. Make the items needed for an attraction instead of outsourcing. I don’t think anyone ever said, built a $500 million attraction. Keep things fresh, update and build things so there are new experiences. Guardians didn’t need to be a roller coaster. Disneyland was designed for the whole family to enjoy, some can’t enjoy an attraction like that. Could they have redesigned the current attraction and come up with an new concept using the existing footprint. Yes they could. And may have spent $100 mill.

I don’t know. I’m not an expert. But I think when you let the purse strings dictate your every move things like this can happen. A value report shouldn’t be $200 a night. I didn’t pay that much for a brand new Hilton for 6 months living in LA for work. I just looked at changing my resort for my stay in a week and some rooms are well over $500 with a discount. If everything has collapsed, a 20-30% off doesn’t cut it. I’m pretty sure a group of folks with some common sense could get in a room as a team and create a way to bring people back. And I don’t mean executives. They only make it worse.

This begs the question.
When do you price yourself out of the market?

You win the internet this week

 

[Animaniac93-98]

This begs the question.
When do you price yourself out of the market?

Out of curiosity I was looking at prices for park tickets in October:

1-day starts at $120+ tax, but most days it's more than that

3-day starts at $351 + tax (!!)

5-day is $482 + tax, still almost $100/day (!!!!)

Only when you commit to 7-days does the per-day price become more reasonable, but you're still dropping about $550 per adult after tax. And that's a base ticket. No park hopping or water parks. I paid less for my 3-park Universal Orlando AP.

I don't know how people justify paying these prices, even if everything was open as normal.

 

[techgeek]

Wasn't there an actual trip out to the galaxy for research? All in the name of immersion.....
That will dent the budget.

To put some numbers to that comment, NASA is paying SpaceX $55 million a seat for Crew Dragon flights to the ISS. Disney could probably have negotiated a lower ‘tourist’ class price, so the $450 million could easily send the GotG cast and an Imagineer or two into space, for a real mission, and still have cash left over for the roller coaster.

If Disney was just looking to launch a fleet of magical unmanned satellites, $450 million could have bought probably 10 Falcon 9 launches at current pricing.

Disney is making theme park design literally more expensive then rocket science.

 

[JoeCamel]

To put some numbers to that comment, NASA is paying SpaceX $55 million a seat for Crew Dragon flights to the ISS. Disney could probably have negotiated a lower ‘tourist’ class price, so the $450 million could easily send the GotG cast and an Imagineer or two into space, for a real mission, and still have cash left over for the roller coaster.

If Disney was just looking to launch a fleet of magical unmanned satellites, $450 million could have bought probably 10 Falcon 9 launches at current pricing.

Disney is making theme park design literally more expensive then rocket science.

Joe Knows.....

 

[TeriofTerror]

Is the "thing" the end of Fastpass+?
(as we know it)

I feel fine.

 

[deWild]

Been wondering what would be worthwhile to post about as the "thing" I keep hearing about is not ready for public consumption. Having said that, here are some thoughts.

Disney can brag about how much debt cash they raised but the FY21 budgets reflect realism. A lot of low level and mid sized park projects are being crammed into the schedule just so they can use every scrap of cash left this year. It will not be available next year.

China market and Mulan issues are interesting and loop back to rumors about drama at the Chinese parks. Shoulda seen all this coming.

The Guardians ride at Epcot cost $450 million. I am not messing with you all.

There was a huge $200 million plus tower coming to Polynesian before the economy imploded. Now we just get Moana rooms.

Epcot.... that's why I really came on here to post. That park is in serious trouble. The overall low attendance and park hours cuts have been talked to death. What doesn't seem to be discussed too much is how the loss of private events hurts. One medium sized event at Epcot paid for nearly a week's worth of Illuminations shows. This is a fall and winter season where that revenue is knee capped. The forward looking business on this front is not that great. So much so that the whole dinner table looking thing seems "off the table." The point of it was to massively increase event space and revenue ops.

Disney really backed themselves into a corner with the near term operations at Epcot. The new Ratatouille ride seems like its not opening until mid 2021. Word is Burbank wants all parks projects held off until 2021. They think a more appropriate time to bundle and market everything will arise then.

Layoffs.... we all see what is in front of us. Cast member food banks are a depressing sight to see. There are a lot of people to blame for that. Disney being near the bottom given the park closures. Does it even need to be formally called "layoffs" anymore? Furloughed indefinitely seems like a future that's equally as insecure.

I’m guessing that one or both of the Chinese parks will have part of their ownership stake sold, or there will be no 50th anniversary at MK aside from banners.

 

[DVCakaCarlF]

Tell me about it. The better version was 450. This one dropped to 435, then was given the 450 but barrelled through that before being reigned in.

If Chapek is known as the bean counter, how is it that his projects are beyond reasonable in cost? Seems ironic.

Furthermore, I would bet they bid everything out...how can it be that high Competitively?

 

[TJJohn12]

Mid-2021? Isn't the ride almost done?

I mean - tourism demand isn’t there at the moment and opening a new E-ticket isn’t going up that demand with the pressures of the virus and economy. Better to mothball it in a park that doesn’t “need” any added attraction capacity (because there are no visitors to soak up) and play the grand opening card when it will actually drive new visits.

 

[Captain Neo]

*posted by mistake*

 

[aladdin2007]

I mean - tourism demand isn’t there at the moment and opening a new E-ticket isn’t going up that demand with the pressures of the virus and economy. Better to mothball it in a park that doesn’t “need” any added attraction capacity (because there are no visitors to soak up) and play the grand opening card when it will actually drive new visits.

isn't cast a issue as well? Originally I think it would have used mainly the French from the international program.

 

[flyakite]

I apologize if this has been discussed elsewhere, but the comments about annual passes not being available surprised me. Is this only for new annual passes or does this include renewals? Thank you to those bringing me up to date.