tirian
Well-Known Member
Third parties usually offer better food and merch than Disney, except for the loss of Main Street Bakery.
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
A Spirited Perfect Ten
- Thread starter WDW1974
- Start date
tirian
Well-Known Member
I want SSE to be an E, but the second half knocks off half a point.
tirian
Well-Known Member
Spirited Weekend Quickees:
A late Happy Birthday to the best leader TWDC has ever had who isn't named Walt. Many more, MDE!!!
Is it true Willow Bay is under so much pressure at USC that she considered bailing out of Thursday night's Women in Leadership event? I hear she has to had to answer tough questions. So sorry. #firewillowbay #disneycensors #IgerpowerlessinChina
Fans who are focused on the fact snack bars at WDW are, according to @wdwmagic, swapping menus/locales are why you get third tracks for crappy rides like TSMM instead of new cutting edge attractions.
Want to know why Bob Iger (he of the censored Disney CEO Fumbles Entry to China Op-Ed) can't have his picture shown at SDL? Look no further than the strange /curious choices made in HKDL's expansion. More on this to come ... Soon.
Why are people looking to change my narrative now? Have I hit too close to home?
My biggest 'issue' with current WDW projects is they seem totally lacking in art direction. Things are decorated and not themed way too often . The Cracker Barrel may have great Sunday chicken, right @Lee?, but assorted country mass-produced and aged knick knacks are not theming. Disney seems to have forgotten this. Decisions are made (take the new Hub, please, because I sure as hell don't want it!) with no sense of the staging that was part of the original build of the area. Sure, it started with toonish giant hats and wands, but now it is seen in everything from park infrastructure 'enhancements' to attraction show buildings and queues to retail and dining decor.
Art design basically exists only in individual projects and in no way takes into account the environment in which the new things exist. It is terrible. It shows no depth, unlike the layers of intricate theming you just get at DAK, not to mention state of the art stuff like UNI's Diagon Alley.
Disney used to be about transporting you somewhere and now the only place they want to take you is to BRAND advocate brainwashing sessions.
How many MAJOR attractions will UNI build by the time the MK adds a new E-Ticket or EPCOT adds something of substance?
Some folks ...
The Willow Bay news has hit the media in central US. Journalists are quietly discussing the circumstances, and the conversation usually involves the word "corruption."
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
Is it true Willow Bay is under so much pressure at USC that she considered bailing out of Thursday night's Women in Leadership event? I hear she has to had to answer tough questions. So sorry. #firewillowbay #disneycensors #IgerpowerlessinChina.
Want to know why Bob Iger (he of the censored Disney CEO Fumbles Entry to China Op-Ed) can't have his picture shown at SDL? Look no further than the strange /curious choices made in HKDL's expansion. More on this to come ... Soon.
One more thing I didn't make clear in my earlier post about operating margins.
The margins narrative feeds directly into the Disney CEO Fumbles Entry to China story squashed by Willow Bay. Recall that the article questioned the financial wisdom of Disney investing billions in China. ("Sorry Mickey, they’re just not that into you.")
As noted in the deleted article, "The Walt Disney Company has a history of stumbling if not outright tumbling in its efforts to export Disney’s brand of Americana. For reference, look no further than Euro Disney — now known as Disneyland Paris — and Hong Kong Disneyland."
Disney's own financial data supports this statement. To date, Disney's international Parks & Resorts financial performance has not been good.
Iger has been a fairly conservative steward of the company. IMO, Shanghai is the boldest maneuver he's every orchestrated in his 10 years as Disney CEO. In many ways, it's very un-Iger like.
You wonder how much of Iger's ego is tied Shanghai Disneyland, Iger wanting to leave a legacy that's more than just steadying what was a rocking boat.
I think Shanghai Disneyland will be a success but @WDW1974 is right to keep coming back to this. This is a real story that the media appears to be afraid to cover.
I miss the days of independent journalism.
It played at the Berlin Film Festival in February outside the competition and I read a few critiques here in Germany that said that it was sad that it was not in the competition as it might have had a shot at a Golden Bear (that's the price they give out there). Especially since the original animated Cinderella won a Golden Bear in the first ever Berlin Film Festival in 1951.
I'm a dude in the 30's.. kinda hard to just "go there" and see a childrens movie.
I already feel funny watching cartoons and movies ALONE... movies like "The penguins of madagascar"
I don't think it is a pure children's film. Kenneth Branagh is a serious director and as I posted earlier, it premiered in Berlin during the rather prestigious Berlin Film Festival.
A real story of corruption is in front of them yet they would rather talk about her Yoda dress at the Oscars.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
I'm surprised you (or no one else) has chimed in about Tokyo Disneyland (TDL) ticket prices yet.
I just did a quick conversion. A 1-day ticket at TDL is $53.12. A 4-day hopper ticket is $136.95.
Of course, Disney just raised the price of a 1-day ticket to the Magic Kingdom to $105. A 4-day hopper MYW ticket is $369.
"But Disney is a business ..." blah, blah, blah.
Careful, there is a certain fallacy with drawing too much out of margins/"the numbers". It's easy to celebrate the historically high nature of OLC's margins, but the actual reason they were so high in the last few years has to do with virtually no recent investment and a 30th anniversary celebration with over the top attendance growth. OLC has been investing even less than WDW (sorry, I know that's hard for people to swallow) in the past few years, and their margins reflect that.
I'm not saying that's a bad thing, OLC needed to recoup their heavy TDS/expansion investments before proceeding, but there is a context and story behind their recent stellar margins (the story is they needed to make some of their money back first).
OLC's margins will soon take a dive, but that's because they are about to seriously invest in multiple expansions. If we focus too much on the numbers, one could make the statement that OLC would be headed in the wrong direction, but we all know that is just about the opposite of the case.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
Want to know why Bob Iger (he of the censored Disney CEO Fumbles Entry to China Op-Ed) can't have his picture shown at SDL? Look no further than the strange /curious choices made in HKDL's expansion. More on this to come ... Soon.
Does this mean you can talk about the HKDL expansion.......?!?
Mike S
Well-Known Member
Hopefully IoA too since it's much closer to homeDoes this mean you can talk about the HKDL expansion.......?!?
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
I'm surprised you (or no one else) has chimed in about Tokyo Disneyland (TDL) ticket prices yet.
I just did a quick conversion. A 1-day ticket at TDL is $53.12. A 4-day hopper ticket is $136.95.
Of course, Disney just raised the price of a 1-day ticket to the Magic Kingdom to $105. A 4-day hopper MYW ticket is $369.
"But Disney is a business ..." blah, blah, blah.
And this is in Tokyo - one of the most expensive cities to live in on the planet.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Guess the pot stirring that some are doing is having an effect.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
...more frozen...
...50 shades of carp...
You forgot the KHAAAAAANNNNNN...
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
Yes, I agree about the investment level at OLC but capex does not directly affect operating margin. Instead, it indirectly affects it through depreciation.
At OLC, depreciation has been 10.2% of revenue over the last 5 fiscal years.
At Disney Parks & Resorts, depreciation has been 9.9% over the last 5 fiscal years, essentially a wash.
As for a 30th anniversary celebration, don't WDW and DLR celebrate 5-year anniversaries too?
I don't mean to be snarky; I agree, OLC was pushing the 30th anniversary pretty hard. However, OLC also had to recover from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, putting it at a distinct disadvantage over the last 5 years, the period I covered. Even with that, OLC averaged a margin of 17.9% over the last 5 years; Disney averaged 14.7%.
P.S. Oh, and wasn't Disney pushing Frozen everything pretty hard?
Last edited:
Captain Neo
Well-Known Member
Spirit Innoventions/Carousel theater is closing at the end of the month at Disneyland. Is it becoming a 60th. Museum or being prepped for demolition for Star Wars land?
stevehousse
Well-Known Member
It's suppose to be a 60th museum and also will feature promo stuff for the upcoming Tomorrowland movie...
tirian
Well-Known Member
Best GIF on the Internet.Does this mean you can talk about the HKDL expansion.......?!?
Lee
Adventurer
If you could link...
Good.
And it isn't just pot stirring that's going on.
An investigation is under way, on some level, at USC.
Last edited:
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
Thats what I usually do, unfortunately.. not all movies are visible at later hours in my town
you didnt read my full comment.
(as in me Watching animated flicks)