A Spirited Perfect Ten

[ford91exploder]

Dwight Schrute would be proud! Are you also Assistant (to the) Regional Manager. lol

No, I'm one of the guys who have to think about what happens if a fire breaks out in a key facility and how to move the functions to another one. I get paid to D&G

 

[clsteve]

For the prices Disney charges today, Parks & Resorts' margins should be through the roof. Today's Disney should have obscene margins - like Universal's Theme Parks division has right now.
Instead, Parks & Resorts is clawing its way to reach the worst days of WDW's Golden Age.

You bringing in Universal Studios into the mix suggests that they understand efficient Theme Park management better. That's actually an interesting premise. Do you think it has to do with Resort hotels? Disney has considerably more rooms then Universal.

Perhaps because UNI wanted to concentrate on PARKS and leave hotels to the professionals in the field, And Lowe's margins are about right for their market segment. Good hotels ARE expensive to operate

It seems that Comcast sees the business for exactly what it is - a Theme Park Business - which can be very successful and profitable if run that way.

Understanding that, they have the Park experience as their main driver incl revenue. Cutting edge technology, immersion and rides.

Keep it fresh, keep it new, keep'em coming.....

While Disney is/has been in the Resort/lock guests in Vacation Business which has created a huge infrastructure beast that has to be fed - solely owned resort hotels, transportation, restaurants, golf courses, roads, infrastructure, land, etc., Parks and pushing 70,000 employees.

Two line items from Disney Company open source:

58,000 employees are employed by Walt Disney World as of 2006, spending more than $1.1 billion on payroll and $478 million in benefits each year

69,900 employees are employed by Walt Disney World as of 2013, spending more than $1.8 billion on payroll and $1.0 billion in benefits each year​

Take note of the doubling of the Benefits.

Everything Disney has done - NextGen, venue closures, etc., has been focused on reducing/optimizing headcount and those liabilities. Their 10K's also seem to show significant effort in shoring up/reducing pension plan liabilities.

Contrast that with Comcast at UOR and their relationship with Loews, for example.

Comcast seems to know exactly what they want to be and is playing it very smart. Being the smaller more nimble #2 is often a very good place to be since you get to benefit from observing what the more mature #1 did well and what they did/do poorly.

Sorry for the long first post......

 

[asianway]

The biggest reason I think is Universal is doing what WDW once did, They are investing in new attractions and experiences which encourage people to go BACK and bring their friends with them. The OLD WDW model generated record profits for decades and that model STILL works, Iger is trying to run P&R the way Wall St thinks it should be run and failing miserably and that's because cuts in attractions/menus/entertainment is not a viable strategy for success in this market.

TWDC should sell P&R to OLC who actually KNOW how to run a 'Disney' park and collect the license fees before they damage P&R beyond repair.

I just got a AP mailing from UNI asking whether I wanted to sign up to be a float rider in their Mardi Gras parade, When was the LAST time WDW did something special for their AP holders. Where do YOU want to spend your money?, Most people prefer to spend money at a place that caters to you not one that regards you as one more sheep to be fleeced.

As to the Hotel's WDW once was a full service resort, At one time there was a program where you could pay a one time fee which was equal to one day's hotel stay and you could then take advantage of as many Sea Raycer, Horseback rides, Greens fees (carts still extra) and all that other entertainment for the length of your stay at any venue at WDW. Now all that stuff is charged by the hour.

During the 80's and 90's WDW was a resort with theme parks, Now I'm not sure what it is any longer...

The last WDW AP event of any consequence was the Everest 5th anniversary in 2011. Contrast that to the DL weekly movie showings and quarterly park wide parties that have had some special entertainment. And they also did an extra Indy 20th event for good measure last month

 

[ford91exploder]

Look back at history at all the wars fought over religion. Then realize that to these people Disney is their religion

That's probably the most insightful comment I've ever heard on this subject, For me Disney has always been a fun escape from reality but it's never been on the level of a religion for me. Expressed like that it makes sense why some of the posters make vile ad hominem attacks on other posters who do not agree with their world view.

 

[wdisney9000]

Look back at history at all the wars fought over religion. Then realize that to these people Disney is their religion

That really is true. Sadly theyre used as pawns and the company knows they will sacrifice themselves and their sense of logic for their deity. #TikiShrug

 

[asianway]

It seems that Comcast sees the business for exactly what it is - a Theme Park Business - which can be very successful and profitable if run that way.

Understanding that, they have the Park experience as their main driver incl revenue. Cutting edge technology, immersion and rides.

Keep it fresh, keep it new, keep'em coming.....

While Disney is/has been in the Resort/lock guests in Vacation Business which has created a huge infrastructure beast that has to be fed - solely owned resort hotels, transportation, restaurants, golf courses, roads, infrastructure, land, etc., Parks and pushing 70,000 employees.

Two line items from Disney Company open source:

58,000 employees are employed by Walt Disney World as of 2006, spending more than $1.1 billion on payroll and $478 million in benefits each year

69,900 employees are employed by Walt Disney World as of 2013, spending more than $1.8 billion on payroll and $1.0 billion in benefits each year​

Take note of the doubling of the Benefits.

Everything Disney has done - NextGen, venue closures, etc., has been focused on reducing/optimizing headcount and those liabilities. Their 10K's also seem to show significant effort in shoring up/reducing pension plan liabilities.

Contrast that with Comcast at UOR and their relationship with Lowes, for example.

Comcast seems to know exactly what they want to be and is playing it very smart. Being the smaller more nimble #2 is often a very good place to be since you get to benefit from observing what the more mature #1 did well and what they did/do poorly.

Sorry for the long first post......

Obscene management bonuses roll into benefits keep that in mind

 

[ford91exploder]

It seems that Comcast sees the business for exactly what it is - a Theme Park Business - which can be very successful and profitable if run that way.

Understanding that, they have the Park experience as their main driver incl revenue. Cutting edge technology, immersion and rides.

Keep it fresh, keep it new, keep'em coming.....

While Disney is/has been in the Resort/lock guests in Vacation Business which has created a huge infrastructure beast that has to be fed - solely owned resort hotels, transportation, restaurants, golf courses, roads, infrastructure, land, etc., Parks and pushing 70,000 employees.

Two line items from Disney Company open source:

58,000 employees are employed by Walt Disney World as of 2006, spending more than $1.1 billion on payroll and $478 million in benefits each year

69,900 employees are employed by Walt Disney World as of 2013, spending more than $1.8 billion on payroll and $1.0 billion in benefits each year​

Take note of the doubling of the Benefits.

Everything Disney has done - NextGen, venue closures, etc., has been focused on reducing/optimizing headcount and those liabilities. Their 10K's also seem to show significant effort in shoring up/reducing pension plan liabilities.

Contrast that with Comcast at UOR and their relationship with Lowes, for example.

Comcast seems to know exactly what they want to be and is playing it very smart. Being the smaller more nimble #2 is often a very good place to be since you get to benefit from observing what the more mature #1 did well and what they did/do poorly.

Sorry for the long first post......

Hi @clsteve Thoughtful posters of any stripe are always welcome here as are long posts with thought provoking content, Welcome to WDWMagic!

 

[ford91exploder]

Obscene management bonuses roll into benefits keep that in mind

And those have ballooned since the Iger regime has taken over TWDC.

 

[clsteve]

Hi @clsteve Thoughtful posters of any stripe are always welcome here as are long posts with thought provoking content, Welcome to WDWMagic!

Thanks.

And I promise no posts nor threads about bathroom theme-ing nor the quality of mousekeeping towel animals....

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Making it up? Just curious...do you know how much training the company puts front line Cast Members (mainly custodial) through on how to handle bloodbourne pathogens? I wasnt pulling that out of my *** for giggles. The company takes that pretty serious. I am not exaggerating when I say the training is almost funny how strict and over the top it is. I guess this can seem pretty crazy for those who have never worked for the company especially for those non-custodial Cast Members. Oh well..to each their own...especially those not in the know.

Yeah, I've seen the booklet. I understand that "bloodborne pathogens" are a real thing. What you're "making up" is any semblance of a link whatsoever between the new hub and those blodborne pathogens.

It's like talking about Ebola (a real thing) but arguing that you're more likely to catch it if you ride Space Mountain at night on the second Tuesday in November.

 

[Funmeister]

Yeah, I've seen the booklet. I understand that "bloodborne pathogens" are a real thing. What you're "making up" is any semblance of a link whatsoever between the new hub and those blodborne pathogens.

It's like talking about Ebola (a real thing) but arguing that you're more likely to catch it if you ride Space Mountain at night on the second Tuesday in November.

No my original post was about staph actually. It "mutated" into bloodborne pathogens as a general discussion of health. That was not the original point of discussion. I think you are reading into my post a bit much to make it out to be more than what it is.

 

[jakeman]

Name-calling or other middle-school behavior? That has no place here, but neither you or I are going to change those people.

So this got me thinking about name calling. Just for shiggles I went back just 5 pages and pulled post that labeled a group in what could be considered a disparaging remarks on both sides of the fence. I really only tried to include remarks specifically about a tangible person or groups of people that would probably be interested in posting. I also tried to pull both sides and didn't pull any self-referential post (i.e., I'm a Pixie Duster or D&G).

The results were interesting. on 4 out of the 5 pages people or groups of people are referred to negatively just for essentially having a different set of preferences (that being WDW in it's current state rather than the past). The middle two are especially interesting as it refers to current guest as savages and vagrants.

I think that urethra theory could really be a problem for some pixie dusters.

I firmly believe that the vagrants will always find a way because credit cards are a thing. I see price hikes stopping people who spend their money wisely from going.

Savages have more self respect...

People just don't know me as well because I don't go around acting like an immature middle schooler.

Just something to consider when posting.

EDIT: In the interest of equivalence, if I missed any that was negligence on my part and feel free to respond with them. I started on page 425.

EDIT AGAIN: Also, I'm making no claims that I've not lobbed a few out there in my day. This was solely an attempt to put some metrics around an interesting issue in forum discourse.

 

[Horizons1]

Burn the pixie dusters and bloggers!!!

 

[ford91exploder]

What shall we call the Disney Religion @asianway ? One of them is hard at work carrying out the Dishad this morning

 

[asianway]

What shall we call the Disney Religion @asianway ? One of them is hard at work carrying out the Dishad this morning

Hey man, you can't say Dishad on a message board

 

[hopemax]

You are rapidly becoming one of my favorite posters @hopemax as you illustrate the reasons why the experience at WDW is degrading.

Disney seems to be operating under the assumption the customers will ALWAYS come because the brand is strong, Yet every move Disney makes recently has been diluting the brand. I can recall when Disney toys were of Playmobil quality and they LASTED.

What TWDC is capitalizing on now is decades of now departed quality, Some will say no one cares about quality products and experiences any longer, I do not believe that to be true and at least in the theme park space Universal is generating huge profits even as they upgrade their parks, attractions and merchandise, At the same time Disney is struggling to match profit margins seen in the worst years of prior management teams.

Disney is no longer hiring the best CM's I've watched many times as a CM with a poor grasp of english struggles to operate a register or computer. There is a manual there but the CM never uses it making me wonder are they too proud to admit they don't know how to do something or are they functionally illiterate and cannot look up the instructions. Both are equally bad from a guest experience standpoint.

Yet you see the 'old line' CM's with white hair look in the manual frequently as they know there is no shame in admitting they don't know how to do something and that's why the manual was written in the first place.

The overwhelming feeling I get from WDW is TWDC is milking it dry before discarding it, I've been at many organizations on the verge of failure (I've been there to PREVENT the failure from occurring ) and the vibe is very similar as the staff is always sullen and in a 'keep your head down' mode.

And now I'm some people's least favorite poster I've been doing this fan speculation a long time now, so I've gotten better at articulation, lol.

I really believe that we are past the point of "opinion" and Disney is making poor operational decisions. And if you brought in an operational team from any business to really observe the situation, they would be taken aback. Disney used to do secret shoppers, now they don't. I don't think they'd like the answers they'd get (outside of how much attention their 5 year old little pirates and princesses received). Disney has such an impressive brand loyalty system, they get by. And how do you tell a billion dollar operation that they are doing things wrong? Disney could be making so much more money. So much more.

And that feeling you have, I have it too. The changes, cuts and the attitudes, just have that aura of desperation, and are becoming increasingly disruptive to the guest experience. So even the top line numbers may still be increasing, something is going to snap. I don't know where, I don't know when...although I'd look toward CM turnover as an indicator. Untrained and unprepared staff, can't keep this ship on course. I haven't seen it work in any other business, it would be naive to think Disney is immune. Also, a couple weeks ago, there was a News 13 report that businesses at the Orlando shopping areas were seeing large decline in sales because the Brazilian economy is faltering (increased inflation, unemployment, and GDP declines). Don't know how much that will affect WDW, but that would be the type of bump that could be a big problem, because of the softness in domestic attendance, and non-admission spending.

 

[ford91exploder]

Hey man, you can't say Dishad on a message board

 

[ford91exploder]

And now I'm some people's least favorite poster I've been doing this fan speculation a long time now, so I've gotten better at articulation, lol.

I really believe that we are past the point of "opinion" and Disney is making poor operational decisions. And if you brought in an operational team from any business to really observe the situation, they would be taken aback. Disney used to do secret shoppers, now they don't. I don't think they'd like the answers they'd get (outside of how much attention their 5 year old little pirates and princesses received). Disney has such an impressive brand loyalty system, they get by. And how do you tell a billion dollar operation that they are doing things wrong? Disney could be making so much more money. So much more.

And that feeling you have, I have it too. The changes, cuts and the attitudes, just have that aura of desperation, and are becoming increasingly disruptive to the guest experience. So even the top line numbers may still be increasing, something is going to snap. I don't know where, I don't know when...although I'd look toward CM turnover as an indicator. Untrained and unprepared staff, can't keep this ship on course. I haven't seen it work in any other business, it would be naive to think Disney is immune. Also, a couple weeks ago, there was a News 13 report that businesses at the Orlando shopping areas were seeing large decline in sales because the Brazilian economy is faltering (increased inflation, unemployment, and GDP declines). Don't know how much that will affect WDW, but that would be the type of bump that could be a big problem, because of the softness in domestic attendance, and non-admission spending.

Well at least you are in good company, I'm a reformed pixie duster I used to really drink the kool-aid then I got a really nasty wake up call in the form of a botched Christmas vacation as a result joined the D&G brigade and WDW just keeps getting worse.

Had a Grand Villa over Christmas with family, When I checked in the coffee pot was broken, there was dust everywhere and in one of the rooms the veneer had been pulled off the front of the furnishings, How is this by ANY means acceptable in one of WDW premier resorts in their BEST CLASS of Room. Obviously went to front desk and requested a manager because i did not want to get the bill for damage to room.

And I'm a D&G'er for pointing stuff like this out, I'm sorry this is utterly unacceptable and you did not see stuff like this even as recently as 3 years ago.

 

[asianway]

And now I'm some people's least favorite poster I've been doing this fan speculation a long time now, so I've gotten better at articulation, lol.

I really believe that we are past the point of "opinion" and Disney is making poor operational decisions. And if you brought in an operational team from any business to really observe the situation, they would be taken aback. Disney used to do secret shoppers, now they don't. I don't think they'd like the answers they'd get (outside of how much attention their 5 year old little pirates and princesses received). Disney has such an impressive brand loyalty system, they get by. And how do you tell a billion dollar operation that they are doing things wrong? Disney could be making so much more money. So much more.

And that feeling you have, I have it too. The changes, cuts and the attitudes, just have that aura of desperation, and are becoming increasingly disruptive to the guest experience. So even the top line numbers may still be increasing, something is going to snap. I don't know where, I don't know when...although I'd look toward CM turnover as an indicator. Untrained and unprepared staff, can't keep this ship on course. I haven't seen it work in any other business, it would be naive to think Disney is immune. Also, a couple weeks ago, there was a News 13 report that businesses at the Orlando shopping areas were seeing large decline in sales because the Brazilian economy is faltering (increased inflation, unemployment, and GDP declines). Don't know how much that will affect WDW, but that would be the type of bump that could be a big problem, because of the softness in domestic attendance, and non-admission spending.

DI has another #dthink chat going on right now where they tell you the right way to do everything yet never practiced in operations anymore

 

[PhotoDave219]

Your mature responses are always so wonderful. I've been around here just as long as you. People just don't know me as well because I don't go around acting like an immature middle schooler.

Didn't answer the question. Who are you?