Spirited Late Night Musings:
Almost bought jorts today (OK, not a musing ... more a what I was looking at in Macy's deal).
Another great name in American business is likely to disappear very soon as the troubled A&P grocery chain filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in five years. I doubt most people here beyond the small footprint in New England and the NY area even know what they were. I remember when they were in Downtown Kissimmee and Walmart wasn't even in the market. My only point in bringing it up is it's just another example of what can happen to you with decades of corporate mismanagement while others can do what you did better. (No, Disney isn't going out of business tomorrow despite how TPFKaTD-MGMS looks today. But nothing in life is guaranteed beyond death!)
Onto Disney matters after this brief weather bulletin, did y'all hear that there was a MAJOR rain storm in SoCal on Sunday? Anaheim was pummeled ... yes deluged by ... by ... by a quarter of an inch of rain all day (I hear @TP2000 was seen sandbagging in his tony Villa Park 'hood while wearing a monogrammed bath robe and sipping a martini!
) Yes, the remnants of Hurricane Delores gave the Southland some much needed rain (while washing out a bridge on I-10 connecting Palm Springs with Phoenix ... a bridge that was built in 1967!) Hell, the Angels and Padres both had HOME RAINOUTS! The funniest thing is the media coverage (it's always breathless because people in paradise do not know how to deal with rains falling from the heavens!) I heard from KABC-7 (put the kids to bed Matilda, this be scary adult stuff!) that people in DL were wearing PONCHOS!?! !I KNOW!!!! ... Bottom line, I think I sweat more than a quarter of an inch of precip walking from the mailbox to my front door!
Speaking of media. If you are interested in ephemera (a word for something I never knew until I met the Epcot Explorer and he learned me!), the OC Register put out a special edition for DL's 60th that was apparently given away to Guests on Friday. Now, I'm sure I don't know any fanbois there from O-Town who walked away with 36 copies (hopefully 1-2 for me) but you can purchase the commemorative edition thru their website for $10, including shipping. Nice and I don't recall them doing this for the 50th, which I attended.
OK, no more $107 offers for the ASMu any longer. Nope, times must be getting tougher as we move into late summer as now I'm getting $84 Pop Century offers. To be fair, I've paid as much as $79 plus tax for Disney value motels over the years, so I can't really say that isn't a good price if you wish to be on property. But as someone who got rooms for as little as $30 with CM rates and routinely got $49 and $59 AP and FL resident rates, it still feels on the high side of fair.
Ant-Man opened and did grasshopper type numbers pulling in $58 million. Not bad at all, although the company was predicting $65 million and used the 'rain' in SoCal as part of the reason why it didn't reach those levels. Still, with a budget of 'only' $130 million, this film doesn't have to do crazy business to bee (see what I did there?) a buzzing, stinging sensation. I'm seeing it tomorrow!
Congrats to Pixar as Inside Out still hangs strong and went over $300 million in the USA to become the third-biggest film for them behind Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo.
Let's talk a little Shanghai, shall we? Good. Word I'm getting from the left coast is that a lot of folks wish to throw blame for SDL's difficulties on Bob Weis, which I find more than amusing. The issues with that resort go to much higher levels than WDI's 'lead' (who has less creative control than likely anyone to have that title has in the past). People want to paint a picture that leaves out Iger, Staggs and Rasulo's messy relationship with the CCP to fit their own agendas. As I've said, I think the design work on the park largely appears to be top notch. The biggest issue is the decision to place DisneyTown right up against the park.
That decision, btw, wasn't so much a creative one from WDI, but rather an edict from Shendi that WDI designed around. Again, SDL is being sold to many people (as in hundreds of millions) as a place you can come to for entertainment and leisure for FREE. That means, the lake, the shopping area etc. And you can bet these visitors will wind up being put into the attendance. One would hope that reputable organizations like TEA don't simply allow that when Disney/Shendi says ''we had 17 million visitors here in the first nine months'' because that doesn't tell the story. Plenty of people visit the various Downtown Disney's and City Walk's without ever paying to set foot in a theme park.
BTW, a little birdie told me that The Lifestyle Center That Will Officially Be Known as Disney Springs as of October 1st is doing remarkably well despite the insane construction and parking chaos. People are coming and people are spending. But there are a few locations hurting because of the walls and the way traffic is being routed and have let Disney know of their displeasure.
Club 33 seems to be moving forward yet again for WDW. I have no further information at this time. But I have a nagging feeling that they won't be placing this at the MK at all.
Almost bought jorts today (OK, not a musing ... more a what I was looking at in Macy's deal).
Another great name in American business is likely to disappear very soon as the troubled A&P grocery chain filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in five years. I doubt most people here beyond the small footprint in New England and the NY area even know what they were. I remember when they were in Downtown Kissimmee and Walmart wasn't even in the market. My only point in bringing it up is it's just another example of what can happen to you with decades of corporate mismanagement while others can do what you did better. (No, Disney isn't going out of business tomorrow despite how TPFKaTD-MGMS looks today. But nothing in life is guaranteed beyond death!)
Onto Disney matters after this brief weather bulletin, did y'all hear that there was a MAJOR rain storm in SoCal on Sunday? Anaheim was pummeled ... yes deluged by ... by ... by a quarter of an inch of rain all day (I hear @TP2000 was seen sandbagging in his tony Villa Park 'hood while wearing a monogrammed bath robe and sipping a martini!
) Yes, the remnants of Hurricane Delores gave the Southland some much needed rain (while washing out a bridge on I-10 connecting Palm Springs with Phoenix ... a bridge that was built in 1967!) Hell, the Angels and Padres both had HOME RAINOUTS! The funniest thing is the media coverage (it's always breathless because people in paradise do not know how to deal with rains falling from the heavens!) I heard from KABC-7 (put the kids to bed Matilda, this be scary adult stuff!) that people in DL were wearing PONCHOS!?! !I KNOW!!!! ... Bottom line, I think I sweat more than a quarter of an inch of precip walking from the mailbox to my front door!Speaking of media. If you are interested in ephemera (a word for something I never knew until I met the Epcot Explorer and he learned me!), the OC Register put out a special edition for DL's 60th that was apparently given away to Guests on Friday. Now, I'm sure I don't know any fanbois there from O-Town who walked away with 36 copies (hopefully 1-2 for me) but you can purchase the commemorative edition thru their website for $10, including shipping. Nice and I don't recall them doing this for the 50th, which I attended.
OK, no more $107 offers for the ASMu any longer. Nope, times must be getting tougher as we move into late summer as now I'm getting $84 Pop Century offers. To be fair, I've paid as much as $79 plus tax for Disney value motels over the years, so I can't really say that isn't a good price if you wish to be on property. But as someone who got rooms for as little as $30 with CM rates and routinely got $49 and $59 AP and FL resident rates, it still feels on the high side of fair.
Ant-Man opened and did grasshopper type numbers pulling in $58 million. Not bad at all, although the company was predicting $65 million and used the 'rain' in SoCal as part of the reason why it didn't reach those levels. Still, with a budget of 'only' $130 million, this film doesn't have to do crazy business to bee (see what I did there?) a buzzing, stinging sensation. I'm seeing it tomorrow!
Congrats to Pixar as Inside Out still hangs strong and went over $300 million in the USA to become the third-biggest film for them behind Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo.
Let's talk a little Shanghai, shall we? Good. Word I'm getting from the left coast is that a lot of folks wish to throw blame for SDL's difficulties on Bob Weis, which I find more than amusing. The issues with that resort go to much higher levels than WDI's 'lead' (who has less creative control than likely anyone to have that title has in the past). People want to paint a picture that leaves out Iger, Staggs and Rasulo's messy relationship with the CCP to fit their own agendas. As I've said, I think the design work on the park largely appears to be top notch. The biggest issue is the decision to place DisneyTown right up against the park.
That decision, btw, wasn't so much a creative one from WDI, but rather an edict from Shendi that WDI designed around. Again, SDL is being sold to many people (as in hundreds of millions) as a place you can come to for entertainment and leisure for FREE. That means, the lake, the shopping area etc. And you can bet these visitors will wind up being put into the attendance. One would hope that reputable organizations like TEA don't simply allow that when Disney/Shendi says ''we had 17 million visitors here in the first nine months'' because that doesn't tell the story. Plenty of people visit the various Downtown Disney's and City Walk's without ever paying to set foot in a theme park.
BTW, a little birdie told me that The Lifestyle Center That Will Officially Be Known as Disney Springs as of October 1st is doing remarkably well despite the insane construction and parking chaos. People are coming and people are spending. But there are a few locations hurting because of the walls and the way traffic is being routed and have let Disney know of their displeasure.
Club 33 seems to be moving forward yet again for WDW. I have no further information at this time. But I have a nagging feeling that they won't be placing this at the MK at all.
