A Spirited 15 Rounds ...

[nevol]

Marvel at DCA is ... is ... something that will be happening sometime in the future and will include a few really kewl attractions that may be open in 5-7 years time.

The part of me that is really just curious they've been cooking up with this E-ticket is excited to hear this. And the part of me that likes to hear that parks and resorts can sorta kinda keep a plan for more than 2 years. The rest of me is meh! The delay is kind of a good thing. Maybe someone will have better ideas for the space/funds/park between now and then.

 

[AEfx]

Even Eisner took many risks, some of which were mostly mistakes, including acquiring Fox Family & Saban Entertainment (which included the Power Rangers franchise & the US English-dubbed version of Digimon).

He also ran the feature film business into the ground, had Disney making tripe like "Cinderella III", almost lost Pixar, and a dozen other things that were largely due to the fact that no one in Hollywood could stand working with him by the end, he had burned so many bridges.

 

[FigmentJedi]

He also ran the feature film business into the ground, had Disney making tripe like "Cinderella III", almost lost Pixar, and a dozen other things that were largely due to the fact that no one in Hollywood could stand working with him by the end, he had burned so many bridges.

Cinderella 3 was actually one of the good DTVquels between the self-aware humor and the third act featuring Cinderella having to escape a demonic pumpkin coach speedingly wildly towards a cliff, and stealing a horse to crash her own wedding.

 

[IanDLBZF]

He also ran the feature film business into the ground, had Disney making tripe like "Cinderella III", almost lost Pixar, and a dozen other things that were largely due to the fact that no one in Hollywood could stand working with him by the end, he had burned so many bridges.

And overall, IMO, Eisner was a true idiot from the start. He ruined Epcot, he gave us the carnival garbage known as DinoLand, too many things to say about him.

 

[nevol]

Even Eisner took many risks, some of which were mostly mistakes, including acquiring Fox Family & Saban Entertainment (which included the Power Rangers franchise & the US English-dubbed version of Digimon).

Let's encourage "calculated risk."

 

[nevol]

As you can see from the comment above from the thread starter, I'm thought of as an Iger-lover around these parts for my middle-of-the-road view on him.

Replying as I get caught up. Sorry if I missed something! Yea, and not trying to fight you on Iger's merits. I'm just suggesting that Iger was really interested in certain divisions of the company and knew how to steer them better than others. He has even said so himself that Eisner had a great cinematic eye for the parks, implying that he not-so-much, or has learned from those few experiences they had at the parks together. Iger has been more hands-off. Maybe the next character will take more of an active role in Parks, while hoping that the winner of the rat race to CEO position isn't Chapek.

 

[pacolovestacos]

Yes, it is.

That's what Bob Iger has done best at CEO of TWDC. You didn't think he was spending his own money, did you?

You misunderstood me. Disney is a publicly traded company, not a philanthropic entity, so you're advocating that they spend $25M of shareholder money for the hurricane victims. $2.5M was more than generous.

 

[wm49rs]

You misunderstood me. Disney is a publicly traded company, not a philanthropic entity, so you're advocating that they spend $25M of shareholder money for the hurricane victims. $2.5M was more than generous.

No, he's suggesting they take more than $2.5 of the stellar profits they report every quarter and give it to hurricane relief. A move that wouldn't impact the shareholders much at all....

 

[ParentsOf4]

Bob took a lot of risk too. He spent, what, $17 billion acquiring Pixar, LucasFilm, and Marvel? Those aren't the type of spending practices that wall street favors in their quarterly earnings reports. The wall street complex doesn't incentivize those types of long-term investments and CEOs don't typically make them, despite their long-term earning potential and the potential to create jobs and innovation.

Actually, Wall Street generally embraced all three acquisitions.

It's always possible to find dissenting opinions but the general consensus was that all three fit well into Disney's portfolio, and that Iger negotiated good purchase prices for all three.

Pixar was a marriage that was going to happen as soon as Eisner left, Marvel was a smart piece of negotiation, and LucasFilms sort of just fell into Disney's lap when George Lucas decided to sell.

Except for a few dessenting voices, Wall Street mostly recognized the synergy of these acquisitions. They recognized that corporate Disney could derive value from these properties, value that would have been more difficult to realize if they had remained independent.

All were viewed as good acquisitions. Few considered them risky.

 

[alphac2005]

Bob took a lot of risk too. He spent, what, $17 billion acquiring Pixar, LucasFilm, and Marvel? Those aren't the type of spending practices that wall street favors in their quarterly earnings reports. The wall street complex doesn't incentivize those types of long-term investments and CEOs don't typically make them, despite their long-term earning potential and the potential to create jobs and innovation. His successor too could and will be a risk-taker. I'm merely defining "risks" in that case as "any interest in or understanding of the Disney Parks division whatsoever." Iger is setting up the company nicely through acquisitions, saving of their film divisions, embracing technology, and setting up the company for a more successful navigation of the technological storm/disruption in cable chord cutting/digital streaming/box office slumps. Who is to say that Parks or Disney Consumer Products, with their Disney stores in shopping malls that are closing by the thousands as people shop online, won't need some life support between 2019 and 2029?

In the world of risk management, the three assets that Iger had the company purchase are as sure bet as you have in entertainment and consumer products. When you look into Disney's forays outside of these three acquisitions, nearly all of the high-tech gambles have been complete flops. Massive overvaluation of smaller companies that Disney has ended up disbanding, shuttering, or slightly absorbing into the company. BAMtech is one of the only examples of a success that the company has invested in and it too was an established money making operation.

I personally don't see the big three as risks, rather near perfect acquisitions to help weather ups and downs of various segments of the company in business cycles. My big disappointment is that Iger has done nearly everything in a risk adverse way outside of the obvious three money printing operations and BAMtech. He's sucked the life out of allowing the company to think creatively outside of the realm of their licensed properties.

 

[floridagirl57]

I have to qualify this by saying my last visit was in late 2013. But I found the park to be maintained at standards better than Disney. I loved the animal exhibits and the coasters are great. They had quality entertainment as well. BTW, at that time, I had an AP to all their parks, so I was there quite a few times.

I can't speak to your experiences, obviously. And the company has been hit hard due to letting crazies and fake news decide the fate of having orcas at Sea World. But I love the place.

You should visit again this year. I would be very interested to hear your take on it. It is a beautiful park and the coasters are a lot of fun, but I just find the quality to be lacking. They did a good job with theaming the new Cobras Curse coaster, and its fun too. The deals are incredible though, passholders frequently get free admission for friends and after Irma there is a promotion right now for BOGO tickets.
Also, very excited to read your blog, always enjoy reading your thoughts and insight on this forum.

 

[ford91exploder]

You are preaching to the converted. As you can see from the comment above from the thread starter, I'm thought of as an Iger-lover around these parts for my middle-of-the-road view on him.

I just see Avatar as a the one big gamble that clearly didn't pay off. In a dozen years of being a CEO, I don't think that's a terrible track record.

Some of us see the Avatar mistake a a symptom of a bigger problem as in Iger goes after the BIGGEST shiny objects without thinking. Avatar, Maker Studios where he sunk a half billion of the companies money whereupon the supporting talent quit because they DID NOT want to work for Disney, leaving the 'Star' behind who was subsequently revealed to be a disgusting sample of humanity, yet a bit of due dilligence would have discovered many similar examples

MLBam which is dying on the vine because Iger does not understand that one cannot map the old business model onto new tech and more importantly new viewing habits.

Iger consistently goes after the biggest fish with no clue as to what he'll do when he catches them.

Star Wars deserves its own dedicated Park not an underwhelming 2 rides and a restaurant (+50 or so merchandising locations). I say this even as a non-fan I understand the multigenerational appeal of the source material which Iger clearly does not.

In short Iger is an stolid banker who belongs at Goldman-Sachs not as the head of the (formerly) most creative company in the world

 

[Nemo14]

I will never understand people who travel to the other side of the world to spend an OCD amount of time in a theme park and skip actually experiencing the amazing place they are at.

The same could be said about those who travel to WDW without seeing anything else in Florida or, even worse in MHO, those who go to Disneyland without seeing anything else in CA. There's a whole lot of world out there that isn't animatronic!

 

[GeneralZod]

And who in the hell is holding a gun to your head and making you read? Addicted?

Not at all. It is just interesting to watch online personas and make lame comments because I don't take any of this seriously. Although you gotta admit the idea of an anti-buddy-cop show with a couple of curmudgeons, that complain about everything, is quite compelling; I'd certainly watch that.

 

[wannabeBelle]

Was told to expect "major" entertainment cuts at WDW starting this fall, but most after Christmas holiday period unless numbers drastically improve. Was told there is consideration to dropping many night shows to a rotation instead of a nightly basis. Was also told this isn't etched in stone ... but may be following the fourth quarter earnings report.

Um does anyone realize that that is WHY people are coming?? They want entertainment, live as well as rides, firework shows etc. If you are cutting entertainment across the board, it would seem to follow that attendance would continue to decline, no?? Thank you for your insights Spirit, as unwanted as they may be, I do appreciate you sharing. Marie

 

[wdisney9000]

This!!! Disney puts a lot of emphasis on the marketing of families. That includes people taking their kids, because Mom and Dad took them. Once you start missing generations and the kids dont have that great family memory to look back on and recreate with their kids, it is going to take a LONG time to get back that kind of guest. Marie

That is one thing that has made me curious with TWDC over the last 5 or so years. A well run business is aware of customer acquisition vs retention costs. I am sure Disney has spent good time and money on this subject so what metric are they working off that has them so focused on acquiring new customers vs retaining current ones? One could argue that Disney is aware that their customer base is extremely loyal so why offer a reason to remain a customer if their hooked? but you could counter that with the ever increasing price hikes and the stagnant "deals" they offer loyal customers. The bounce back deals are never anything dramatically different from the current promotions the website offers. AP room discounts were far better in the past as well and much easy to obtain room without booking 6 months in advance.

 

[jakeman]

MLBam which is dying on the vine because Iger does not understand that one cannot map the old business model onto new tech and more importantly new viewing habits.

Good thing Disney only invested in BAMTech and not all of MLBam then.

If you meant BAMTech, then I would be interested to see some evidence of how it's "dying on the vine"? I mean it only provides services for MLB, NHL, HBO Now, PGA, WWE, Playstation Vue, and theBlaze (per the wiki).

It's not being used in the way you think it should be used as quickly as you think it should be, which is fine as that's your opinion. One that I agree with, but it's not dying on the vine.

 

[rael ramone]

Thinking back to the Irma storm response.

One would (and should) question having extra cast members on hand to add 'extra MAGIC' to resort guests when they should have been home with their families. But at the same time, look at the effect of those extra hands on deck had on resort guests...

People are a big reason why WDW is a success. Pleasant interactions from waiters to line attendants to janitorial add significantly to the experience. Even if you see a lack of upkeep that results from those same people not having enough numbers and/or not equipped to do their jobs to the level that the Heritage and Price Point require.

Reduce those people even more, and you hurt the base experience even more. And it's the base experience that everyone there, including the 10 per-centers, are there to enjoy.

 

[DisneyFan18]

I asked about whether Disney was going to have any EPCOT-related announcements around 10/1 and ... crickets. I am starting to think there won't be any, perhaps even to get Wall Street's attention off all the spending that is finally happening in the swamps.

Spirit, do you think that we will have to wait until D23 2019 to hear the rest of the Epcot announcements then?

P.S. I really want to know more about the U.K. attraction (the suspense is killing me), and basically all of the projects, so I hope I'm wrong and we hear more soon.

 

[rael ramone]

$373 on the mass produced mess at Food and Wine?!?! Truly insane! Thanks to a dear CM's discount, I believe that's close to what I paid for my first Disney Cruise this past spring! I can't imagine throwing that amount away on samples of food.

Even before they had the Mouse Arrest Bands where you could use to buy stuff, they were selling 'gift cards' on a wrist wire to make it easier to buy more F&W, and the largest denomination you could get is $1500...