A Spirited Dirty Dozen ...

[brb1006]

You've heard it all before. Tokyo Disney Sea is the most impressive theme park I've ever visited. Every area takes the best components of theming you'd find in the stateside parks. It is virtually flawless.

The attraction lineup is very good, but I don't think Journey to the Center of the Earth or Pooh's Hunny Hunt (at Disneyland) are worth the trip alone, it really is the entire experience that's plused, and that's especially true at Disney Sea.

You seen Dreamlights or Happiness Is Here?

 

[Marc Davis Fan]

You can find the infamous Disappearing Disney article about Disney botching China here.

Interesting; that article seems to chalk up Hong Kong Disneyland's underperformance to people's unfamiliarity with the concept of a Disney park there, while mostly overlooking the fact that Hong Kong Disneyland was simply not a good park when it opened, and the negative word of mouth spread quickly (quelling initial excitement, in my understanding). Even with the (apparently stellar) improvements, it will continue to take the park a long time to get a "second chance" with pubic opinion.

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

Most character meet and greets in Tokyo are in dedicated areas from what I saw.

While there are some (most Mickey meets, for example), the overwhelming majority of character appearances at TDR are atmosphere. The characters just wander, even the princesses. It's really nice, mostly because the Japanese guests are so polite.

 

[HMF]

Remember Disney fielded dozens of people to counter folks like @WDW1974 and the famous Willow Bay takedown of some unflattering articles about Disney in the HuffPo, Disney has over the years devoted significant effort into silencing dissenting voices but the cuts this spring opened the floodgates and Disney is now gettng unflattering press from all quarters now in the past Disney said it's not true dont publish and in large part other media outlets complied, This is no longer the case.

The question is, Is it enough bad publicity to actually spur change?

 

[ford91exploder]

I use the humble towel animal as an example.

From the corporate perspective, it is a non value added activity. If it takes 5 minutes to assemble 1 animal and 8 animals are made per day, this is 40 minutes per day of waste. If 1 room can be cleaned in 40 minutes, this is 1additional room per day per housekeeper.

From the customer perspective, a towel animal is a nice special intangible that adds value to their experience.

From a corporate perspective the rooms are marketed as a deluxe resort experience. Which means there should be a lot of touches like towel animals etc. and process engineering should have been done on how to create touches like that efficiently

Instead Disney resorts are maintained like motels which advertise hourly rates where quick and cheap cleaning is the desired end result. Who cares whether there are dust bunnies or the windows are clean. Fast n cheap that's the ticket.

 

[ford91exploder]

The question is, Is it enough bad publicity to actually spur change?

Not till there is a real drop in attendance and PRGS. But attendance is falling already and the combination of bad press by diminished experiences and word of mouth about lines and poor ly done resort and dining experiences is going to reinforce that trend

Expect Disney to slow construction remember spirit has already said to expect SWL in DL now 2020-21 instead of 2019. And of course stock repurchases will probably go up as well to keep EPS shiny. Then Iger will float off on his golden parachute leaving an unfixable mess for the next team...

 

[Mike S]

Not till there is a real drop in attendance and PRGS. But attendance is falling already and the combination of bad press by diminished experiences and word of mouth about lines and poor ly done resort and dining experiences is going to reinforce that trend

Expect Disney to slow construction remember spirit has already said to expect SWL in DL now 2020-21 instead of 2019. And of course stock repurchases will probably go up as well to keep EPS shiny. Then Iger will float off on his golden parachute leaving an unfixable mess for the next team...

I'm sure that was about DHS.

 

[asianway]

Most character meet and greets in Tokyo are in dedicated areas from what I saw.

Greeting trails in SEA, mickeys house and Ariel is about it. Most are random

 

[zakattack99]

No. Mutually exclusive. But I am no stranger to either....

Let me derail for a second. I just saw Planet of the Apes for the first time this past weekend... really interesting to see how cinema evolved over the years, glad I get this reference now lol

 

[HMF]

Expect Disney to slow construction remember spirit has already said to expect SWL in DL now 2020-21 instead of 2019. And of course stock repurchases will probably go up as well to keep EPS shiny. Then Iger will float off on his golden parachute leaving an unfixable mess for the next team...

Once again, I want this to blow up in Iger's face. I am doing my part by avoiding the parks and the vast majority of the Studios output.

 

[dupac]

I use the humble towel animal as an example.

From the corporate perspective, it is a non value added activity. If it takes 5 minutes to assemble 1 animal and 8 animals are made per day, this is 40 minutes per day of waste. If 1 room can be cleaned in 40 minutes, this is 1additional room per day per housekeeper.

From the customer perspective, a towel animal is a nice special intangible that adds value to their experience.

Yeah, and that's the kicker! In Lean you should define value from your customer's perspective. Why do customers buy your product over others? Because they value x, y, and z. You shouldn't give consideration to what YOU as a business value, because you're not buying your own product.

 

[zooey]

Once again, I want this to blow up in Iger's face. I am doing my part by avoiding the parks and the vast majority of the Studios output.

Studio output is stellar. They have something like 25% market share for 2016 box office.

 

[Rteetz]

So Disney announced Soarin over California coming back, Tiffins menu, jungle book start date, and frozen opening date, all on a Friday. Friday's are typically slow news days or days they announce closures. Are more closures or some bad news coming later today and all of these announcements are making that not look as bad?

 

[mhochman]

Character Dinning is another thing I just don't get... It is crazy how many of them they have now and how popular they are... I will say we are guilty we eat at the Garden Grill every year but I really enjoy the food.

For us, character meals are part of our touring strategy. Our kids are getting older, but when they were younger, we never had to wait in line for a character because it was easy to say, "oh, we don't need to wait in line, we are having dinner with him later." We had to eat anyway, and it was worth the "premium" price of dining to save the time in the parks.

 

[zakattack99]

So Disney announced Soarin over California coming back, Tiffins menu, jungle book start date, and frozen opening date, all on a Friday. Friday's are typically slow news days or days they announce closures. Are more closures or some bad news coming later today and all of these announcements are making that not look as bad?

No idea about the bad news, but I had the same thoughts about news on Friday. My thought is that Disney knows these are weak offerings and they are trying to keep expectations low.

 

[Katie G]

So Disney announced Soarin over California coming back, Tiffins menu, jungle book start date, and frozen opening date, all on a Friday. Friday's are typically slow news days or days they announce closures. Are more closures or some bad news coming later today and all of these announcements are making that not look as bad?

I think it had to do with FP+ booking window. The article on DPB about Frozen opening said FP+ would be avail to book May 21, so they had to announce today for people to do that.

 

[Rteetz]

I think it had to do with FP+ booking window. The article on DPB about Frozen opening said FP+ would be avail to book May 21, so they had to announce today for people to do that.

I don't know though. They could've made the FP booking day whenever they wanted it didn't have to be tomorrow. It just seems like a lot of stuff for a Friday to announce. Friday's aren't usually days you do that kind of stuff.

 

[brb1006]

Margot Robbie casted as AA Milne's Wife in an upcoming AA Milne biopic called "Goodbye Christopher Robin".
http://variety.com/2016/film/news/m...hristopher-robin-domhnall-gleeson-1201778255/

 

[betty rose]

Not till there is a real drop in attendance and PRGS. But attendance is falling already and the combination of bad press by diminished experiences and word of mouth about lines and poor ly done resort and dining experiences is going to reinforce that trend

Expect Disney to slow construction remember spirit has already said to expect SWL in DL now 2020-21 instead of 2019. And of course stock repurchases will probably go up as well to keep EPS shiny. Then Iger will float off on his golden parachute leaving an unfixable mess for the next team...

I think his golden parachute, is now at the level of a platinum parachute. All for ruining guest's experiences.

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

So Disney announced Soarin over California coming back, Tiffins menu, jungle book start date, and frozen opening date, all on a Friday. Friday's are typically slow news days or days they announce closures. Are more closures or some bad news coming later today and all of these announcements are making that not look as bad?

That was the VERY first thought I had.... I guess we'll have to wait and see what news the day brings.