A Spirited Perfect Ten

[bhg469]

No - Eisner would not have acquired Pixar as he was not going to do business with 'Long Haired Hippies' as he called Jobs and the Pixar team.

These days he'd be against the dumb hipsters with curly mustaches. I knew I liked Eisner.

 

[wdisney9000]

Just as a heads up,
I'm a shareholder, and got notice of voting on the BOD, and other business. The internet, and phone voting systems refuse to accept my valid voting number. It's all very complicated, and seemingly designed that way.Calling back to re enter the voting system, a recording told me to say I had given the wrong info, and am barred from continuing.

Thats crazy. So your just locked out now? Keep us updated on what happens. Please, sir.

 

[ford91exploder]

Isn't it funny how years later we have a much better attitude about Eisner than during the Save Disney campaign? No one would have imagined (except for me back then maybe) that we would go nostalgic about his reign.

At the end Eisner needed to go as he started believing his press releases, But unlike Iger Eisner loved what DISNEY stood for as a whole it was not simply a 'BRAND'.

 

[Rodan75]

As I have previously posted, any hotel company would die for 80% plus occupancy. Further, once it’s near 90 its time to start building more rooms. Look back and you will see I previously posted Disney should start planning more hotel rooms. The time is now here. They can't wait much longer. Build 5,000 more moderate and value hotels over the next few years. That along with the Flamingo Crossing hotels will take care of the majority of rooms. However, they also need to build a big new DVC resorts at River Country. That would take care of the deluxe rooms. Then as Pof4 has said and so have many others it's time to start building more capacity in the 4 existing parks and plan on the 5th. This is needed or the is no more room for growth. Disney needs to plan capacity for 75,000,000 in attendance in 2021. 7% increase in attendance for the quarter and 3% more in future reservations shows they need more capacity.

I genuinely believe that Iger and team are now reading from @ParentsOf4 's playbook. They definitely signalled, without providing specific guidance, that big CapEx projects are coming in addition to those formally announced. I would, however, feel better if they were giving specific guidance that CapEx was increasing to handle increased capacity needs.

 

[Rodan75]

That's not fair. Eisner did much to launch where we are today.

Iger has as well.

I don't really dislike either of them. Though, I will give Eisner one credit that Iger doesn't have...he actually WANTED to become my generations Walt Disney.

Iger could care less.

Didn't the board specifically pick Iger because he didn't want to be the 'Walt Disney' figure for the company. He seems to have pretty happily allowed folks like Lassetter to take that creative role. I think the Eisner / Iger argument is really 'Does TWDC need someone to replicate Walt Disney, or does it need to focus on 'business'.

Personally, I don't want someone pretending to be Walt Disney 3.0. But I agree with the rantings that we need someone with some spark and creativity to be a public face of TWDC (Not necessarily the CEO). Iger was the right choice for this decade, but the next decade requires something different and something more.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Are hotel occupancy rates high or low? A big issue used to be, WDW hotels are at historic lows. But now, we need more rooms in property? That doesn't jive.

Disney reported very large increases in theme park attendance and hotel occupancy in the most recently completed fiscal quarter.

 

[WildcatDen]

As I have previously posted, any hotel company would die for 80% plus occupancy. Further, once it’s near 90 its time to start building more rooms. Look back and you will see I previously posted Disney should start planning more hotel rooms. The time is now here. They can't wait much longer. Build 5,000 more moderate and value hotels over the next few years. That along with the Flamingo Crossing hotels will take care of the majority of rooms. However, they also need to build a big new DVC resorts at River Country. That would take care of the deluxe rooms. Then as Pof4 has said and so have many others it's time to start building more capacity in the 4 existing parks and plan on the 5th. This is needed or the is no more room for growth. Disney needs to plan capacity for 75,000,000 in attendance in 2021. 7% increase in attendance for the quarter and 3% more in future reservations shows they need more capacity.

I liked this, not so much because I agree with what you are saying, but simply because the 7% number is the same percentage I believe Viagra claims. . .

 

[Rodan75]

Disney reported very large increases in theme park attendance and hotel occupancy in the most recently completed fiscal quarter.

The funny thing is that all year folks were saying that obviously the occupancy was down because they were offering special room rates. But it seems like the truth is that they are finally getting their crap together on targeting their advertising.

 

[WildcatDen]

I'd love to see a new _____________ pop up.

A word of caution, they give you that "4 HOUR" disclaimer for a reason.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Huh, would you look at that: Apparently DIsney weren't the only people that dropped the ball on the Potter rights, Nintendo was close to locking exclusive rights to Harry Potter and making it into a video game franchise.

http://www.unseen64.net/2015/02/09/nintendo-harry-potter-games-pitch/

 

[Rteetz]

Iger and Staggs in DHS

 

[PhotoDave219]

Isn't it funny how years later we have a much better attitude about Eisner than during the Save Disney campaign? No one would have imagined (except for me back then maybe) that we would go nostalgic about his reign.

We're Realistic. Most of us still despise what he did in the second half of his rain. All of us despise the strategic planning board and the internal politics and the corporate culture that he created.

We look at the good things that he did between 8494 just shape and develop the company and the theme parks as a whole. It was very very good.

you look at what he did between 94 and 2004 and everyone realized he had to go.

 

[PhotoDave219]

I didn't quite "get" your entire post...but...

Ego or not, Eisner embraced many of Walt's ideals, and he was the single guiding hand behind the massive expansion of WDW.

Did he always do well? No. Did he destroy his own legacy? Sure. But, at one point, he truly cared.

Honestly, had it not been for the loss of Wells, I suspect we'd all have a vastly different memory of Eisner's time at the helm, because until then, he had been knocking home runs left and right for the most part.

Exactly which is why most of us look it is raining into different time periods… Before 94 and after 94.

 

[bhg469]

Iger and Staggs in DHS

She thanked them?! Id thank him for possibly saving star wars but if I saw him in the parks that "thanks" would be nothing but sarcasm..

 

[matt78]

Huh, would you look at that: Apparently DIsney weren't the only people that dropped the ball on the Potter rights, Nintendo was close to locking exclusive rights to Harry Potter and making it into a video game franchise.

http://www.unseen64.net/2015/02/09/nintendo-harry-potter-games-pitch/

I'm glad this never happened. According to that article it was likely the movies would have ever been made had Nintendo won the rights. Its not really dropping the ball when Nintendo couldn't give J.K what she wanted which was either a TV or movie deal.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Iger and Staggs in DHS

So Celebration Place totally didn't tip that Lifestyler off, right?

 

[Phil12]

Nope. Eisner actually thought Pixar had outlived it's usefulness and that a flop was inevitable because there was no way a streak like that could go on forever. Better to create Circle 7 and do crappy in-house sequels then keep Pixar around.

That's exactly what he said publicly and everyone bought it. He had a strategy to buy Pixar. You may remember that no other studio would touch Pixar with a ten foot pole. Jobs was unable to get any other studio to agree to distribute Pixar films once the Disney contract ran out. Eisner knew the value of Pixar and he didn't want to pay the price Jobs was asking. Remember also that Eisner said, "Yesterday we saw for the second time the new Pixar movie, Finding Nemo, that comes out next May. This will be a reality check for those guys. It's okay, but nowhere near as good as their previous films. Of course they think that it's great." That quote was "leaked" to the L.A. Times. Do you think that leak was accidental?

Eisner's wanted to drive down the value of Pixar and then buy it cheap. However, due in part to the "Save Disney" fiasco, Eisner's plans fell apart. In 2005 Pixar broke off from the Disney distribution deal. What other studio jumped in to distribute Pixar films? A year went by and no other studio expressed an interest in striking up a deal with Pixar. I wonder why? Yet, in 2006 Iger buys Pixar for $7.4 billion in Walt Disney stock. That deal had a very bad smell.

And let me add that Jobs and Roy E. Disney along with Stanley Gold were on the same team doing everything they could to derail Eisner. They succeeded. I think that had Eisner had full backing from the BoD he could have cut a deal to buy Pixar for far less than the Iger deal. But, we'll never know. I sincerely hope that all the "Save Disney" supporters are still enthralled with Iger.

 

[flynnibus]

Isn't it funny how years later we have a much better attitude about Eisner than during the Save Disney campaign? No one would have imagined (except for me back then maybe) that we would go nostalgic about his reign.

Past achievements.. vs current trajectory. That's the difference. Eisner had history and good achievements... but he was pointing in a very bad direction for going forward. Hence the need for change.

 

[ford91exploder]

Didn't the board specifically pick Iger because he didn't want to be the 'Walt Disney' figure for the company. He seems to have pretty happily allowed folks like Lassetter to take that creative role. I think the Eisner / Iger argument is really 'Does TWDC need someone to replicate Walt Disney, or does it need to focus on 'business'.

Personally, I don't want someone pretending to be Walt Disney 3.0. But I agree with the rantings that we need someone with some spark and creativity to be a public face of TWDC (Not necessarily the CEO). Iger was the right choice for this decade, but the next decade requires something different and something more.

Beautiful Bob shmoozed the BoD for the top slot, @WDW1974 has the story on that but Bob was on his way off the Eisner succession list mainly for his LACK of creativity and perhaps more important lack of RESPECT for the creative process.

 

[ParentsOf4]

The funny thing is that all year folks were saying that obviously the occupancy was down because they were offering special room rates. But it seems like the truth is that they are finally getting their **** together on targeting their advertising.

The following charts the number of empty hotel rooms at WDW and DLR. (Keep in mind that WDW has nearly 90% of domestic room inventory, so this number really is about what's happening at WDW.)

WDW & DLR had more empty hotel rooms in 2013 than they did in the post-9/11 economy. For a management team with a laser-like focus on optimizing operations, 2013 was a shocking number.

With record crowds at WDW, 2014's 83% occupancy rate is disappointing but 1Q2015's 89% is strong.

More than anything, I'm guessing the improving economy has been the biggest factor for occupancy gains in 2014 and 1Q2015. Hotel occupancies are up at both onsite and offsite hotels. Another guess is that gas prices have helped tremendously because of the psychological effect they've had on consumer spending.

In addition, slower price increases and WDW hotel discounts have helped. In 2014 and 2015, WDW rack rates are up only about 3%. I don't have numbers in front of me but I think it the average increase for offsite hotels was around 5.5% in 2014. Disney management is being more market-conscious in its pricing strategy.

A third factor for 1Q2015 is that WDW took 361 rooms at the Polynesian out of service for conversion to DVC, a little more than 1% of inventory.

Just looking at the 2013 number, you can see that all of this is a relatively recent development. Before 2014, the number was going in the wrong direction.

If the number stays at 89% for the rest of 2015, then I suspect occupancy is right where Disney wants it.