A Spirited Perfect Ten

[Yensid1974]

Just gonna put this here.....

Don't expect a WDW Star Wars announcement at D23.

based on opinion, or inside information?

 

[JediMasterMatt]

You've got to zoom your Google Earth image out just a bit, and reference an article Al Lutz/Miceage wrote a year ago, plus be following the political drama in Anaheim City Hall over their contentious streetcar plan, and also gab it up at a Villa Park cocktail party with the right real estate insiders, and then the Carousel Inn becomes an obviously valuable piece of property for Disneyland and its near future.

The Carousel Inn connects the business park that Miceage says Disney bought a year ago to Harbor Blvd., perfectly sized for a sky bridge over Harbor connecting a 8,000+ space parking structure to the Resort.

The original plan was for Anaheim to take the Park Vue Inn and IHOP property a block south via eminent domain, and have Anaheim use the ground level for a streetcar station and maintenance facility, while Disney built a sky bridge overhead that connected the Resort to the structure. But the recent re-routing of the Anaheim streetcar to Disney Way would derail (pun intended) that plan. This Carousel Inn purchase would appear to be a way for Disney to get the planned sky bridge over Harbor to connect to the new parking structure, while avoiding the Anaheim streetcar drama and any nasty eminent domain lawsuits and bad press.

What's also nice is that this land grab and parking plan would appear to save the Pizza Press. The Pizza Press is the location with the best custom-made pizza for miles around and dozens of local craft beers on tap, open daily until 1AM, and just a 5 minute stroll from Main Street USA. http://www.thepizzapress.com/

Interesting theory. I forgot all about that business park. Was any proof ever shown that Disney indeed owns it now? The ped bridge definitely would make sense if so ...

EDIT: and are you suggesting that the Pizza Press might be a good place for 'Angie' and I to meet you this summer?

The Carousel Inn is a very small plot; but, it does have strategic value from long term perspective. The making the buyer known publicly is the weird part of the story to me. Tipping their hand if they want to aggressively move on any other sellers it would seem.

We've been staying at the Camelot recently, which is next door to the Carousel, so the best I could think of is if they did want to open up a pedestrian pass through to the parking behind would be my best short term guess.

At least Pizza Press is safe. Many a nights I pop in there after the parks.

Spirit - it's your kind of place. Not many lifestylers there... just a few drunken locals and tourists and occasionally some Cast Members.

 

[ULPO46]

based on opinion, or inside information?

It's only Rumor. I highly doubt that Disney will state anything official yet just in case New Star Wars Reboot is a Box Office Flop, which lets face it we all know this will rake in serious cash flow into the WDC. But who knows, maybe Disney surprises us at the next shareholders meeting with another Iger fail.

 

[JediMasterMatt]

But WDW and the 'net have conditioned many a guest to expect discounts, so Disney just keeps raising prices and then discounts. I don't get it, but we all saw what happened when J.C Penny went away from sales in favor of lower prices all the time ... once people expect a discount, the expect it. So who cares if a room rate goes up 42% in five years, so long as you're getting 20% off that rate?

Same logic applies to FastPass and + version of it now...

"So who cares if a Stand by line goes up 42% in five years, so long as you're getting 20% off that line by getting a FastPass+ for the attraction in a hour."

The genie is way, way too far out of the bottle now to ever be put back.

Conditioning has taught us FastPass is fast, no matter how slow it makes everything.

 

[PhotoDave219]

based on opinion, or inside information?

Based on my sources as well as several other peoples. It's not opinion or a guess or anything of the like.

I would love to be wrong here… But that's highly unlikely.

 

[PhotoDave219]

It's only Rumor. I highly doubt that Disney will state anything official yet just in case New Star Wars Reboot is a Box Office Flop, which lets face it we all know this will rake in serious cash flow into the WDC. But who knows, maybe Disney surprises us at the next shareholders meeting with another Iger fail.

So are you suggesting to me that my sources as well as other people sources are wrong? That none of us actually went to those people and ask the questions that we asked?

You'll have to forgive me but I got pretty ed off when people call me a liar.

 

[ULPO46]

Your not a liar. Disney is strange some times. They might state that they will do something they might not say anything. Sorry if I offended you I don't mean to call you a liar everyone gets called one on here from time to time no hard feelings.

 

[doctornick]

Based on my sources as well as several other peoples. It's not opinion or a guess or anything of the like.

I would love to be wrong here… But that's highly unlikely.

but you are saying that they will announce Star Wars for DL, just not for WDW/DHS, right?

I'd be surprised if they don't make any sort of Star Wars at the parks announcements at D23 after hinting it for so long. But I could buy it being limited to plans for DL.

That said, will we get any announcements regarding WDW at D23? Maybe some Pandora details, but anything new that has not been announced? Pixar stuff?

 

[Skippy]

I'd be surprised if they don't make any sort of Star Wars at the parks announcements at D23 after hinting it for so long. But I could buy it being limited to plans for DL.

Agreed. And that would probably be enough to keep fans on both sides from complaining too much for now.
It would just be disappointing due to the current state of DHS. What they're waiting for, I'm not sure - unless plans are really still too early to announce anything.

 

[bhg469]

So are you suggesting to me that my sources as well as other people sources are wrong? That none of us actually went to those people and ask the questions that we asked?

You'll have to forgive me but I got pretty ****ed off when people call me a liar.

And that unfortunately makes me wish you didn't have good sources!! Your fear of disney screwing it up are very possible as there is little motivation for them to do it right since they are already gleefully raising prices with no backlash.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

And that unfortunately makes me wish you didn't have good sources!! Your fear od disney screwing it up are very possible as there is little motivation for them to do it right since they are already gleefully raising prices with no backlash.

It could be a "greed is good" situation. You seem to be describing a Disney that's fat, happy, and content with the growth they're sustaining through price increases. Expansion (whether Star Wars or whatever else) would be driven by a desire to compound that growth even further. If they can get back to the point that WDW requires a full six days to experience, they can patch the cracks that Potter has managed to make in the bubble. That requires more to do in DHS.

 

[PhotoDave219]

but you are saying that they will announce Star Wars for DL, just not for WDW/DHS, right?

I'd be surprised if they don't make any sort of Star Wars at the parks announcements at D23 after hinting it for so long. But I could buy it being limited to plans for DL.

That said, will we get any announcements regarding WDW at D23? Maybe some Pandora details, but anything new that has not been announced? Pixar stuff?

I'm saying its *possible* to be announced for DL. That was not the main focus of what I was asking around about.

I did not go into details about what will be announced at D23; I was rather selfish about SW but thats what I'm primarily interested in.

 

[doctornick]

It could be a "greed is good" situation. You seem to be describing a Disney that's fat, happy, and content with the growth they're sustaining through price increases. Expansion (whether Star Wars or whatever else) would be driven by a desire to compound that growth even further. If they can get back to the point that WDW requires a full six days to experience, they can patch the cracks that Potter has managed to make in the bubble. That requires more to do in DHS.

Y'know, it would be interesting to have real numbers -- and not just attendance but more specific revenue numbers -- to see what impact Potter really has had on WDW. My off the cuff feeling is that it hasn't hurt attendance at all -- maybe losing a day or two off of some people's multi-day tickets, but made up by Ptter bringing guests to central Florida that otherwise wouldn't be coming (i.e. maybe even helped attendance). Sea World seems to have have lost days to Uni more than WDW.

but the big impact I would think would be on hotel stays and merch sales. If those have taken a tumble due to HP, then I would be surprised by TDO's slow and small response. They probably haven't been impacted that much or else we'd see the likes of Star Wars being fast-tracked.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

When we drive down from Philly to WDW we usually make it to Daytona around 11:30 at night and grab a room at the Hilton Garden Inn or Residence Inn. You can see the grandstands from the room. A 1BR suite in August runs about $130. Same room on race weekend is $800-$1000.

Which is 2 weekends a year.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

but the big impact I would think would be on hotel stays and merch sales. If those have taken a tumble due to HP, then I would be surprised by TDO's slow and small response. They probably haven't been impacted that much or else we'd see the likes of Star Wars being fast-tracked.

Don't forget food and beverage. I just mentioned this in the Marvel thread, but the cost of a guest going to Universal isn't just one day of park admission. It's substantially more likely that the guest who goes to Potter (and thus has a rental car) also stays at the Holiday Inn (lost room nights), shops at the outlets (lost merch sales), and eats at Applebee's (lost F&B).

 

[AEfx]

I gave you a list off the top of my head that goes back to 2003 (and by no means is complete). How is that ''few and far between?"

A movie studio release slate is generally more than 2-3 films a year. That is few and far between.

I'm not talking about originality, which I agree with you on. That wasn't the metric we were talking about (you can't change the finish line when the race has already started!)

I wasn't changing the finish line, but more clearly illustrating why Disney needed purchases like Lucasfilm and Marvel - because there are only so many animated classics they can bastardize for live action, and only so many theme park attractions they can base pictures on.

All of the films I gave were financial successes. Some were blockbusters, but all were solid bank.

Pirates has generated billions at the box office, and sold huge amounts of merchandise, and is still going.

I can tell you flat out out that all the Pirates films were huge successes. Even the last, which had a budget in the $360-370 million (yes, that's insane) still made over a billion dollars. That makes it a big success by any standard. And Maleficent was a big success ... yes.

I think your thoughts on Pirates merchandising is too park-centric - there is very little merchandise at general retail. They slather the parks in it but you don't find it at Toys R Us, except for the occasional item that ends up in clearance, or paper products for kids birthday parties occasionally. No where near the entire aisles that are devoted to Marvel and Star Wars. Not even a drop in the bucket.

We all know that US grosses are more important because of the percentage of $$$ that flows back to the Studio.

Which is why I said what I did about Pirates 4 - the lion's share of gross came from international sales (4:1 over US grosses).

I'm not arguing that POTC doesn't do very well, but as far as franchises go - it's largely all they've got, and it's getting long in the tooth. It also is pretty much centered around Johnny Depp - a very precarious thing for a franchise to be so largely dependent on one star.

The question you posed was what has Disney done at the BO with its own product and I answered that. ... There is very little doubt that Marvel and Lucas products will be huge draws for the next few years. It's beyond that when fatigue sets in and a $250 million film makes $87 million in the USA when times will be interesting.

I may be wrong, but I don't see Ant-Man being a huge film by any stretch. Wait until a few films are outright bombs.

Well, I thought the same about Iron Man...and Guardians...etc. We have no idea, though - fatigue definitely hasn't set in, yet. But it's entirely possible.

The bottom line really is - if Disney were solely relying on it's "in house" output, it would be far, far less financially well-off than it is with Lucasfilm and Marvel. They likely will end the decade as the #1 movie studio on the backs of those purchases, making them brilliantly smart choices to add to the portfolio, and makes them a perfect match for Disney and their merchandising prowess. I just can't see how this can be interpreted as harming "the BRAND" - as it's certainly strengthening and expanding the audience for all things Disney past "Princesses and Pirates".

 

[Cesar R M]

Liar.

from "Backstroke of the West"

 

[71jason]

I agree it is high but as others have pointed out very few pay if anyone the rack rate.
it is a cheap promotional ploy by companies to let everyone think they get a deal.

People say this all the time--just like I used to say it about single-day tickets. Thing is, actually talking to people in ticketing, the vast majority sold ARE single-day tickets.

Unless you or someone you know has first-hand experience behind a WDW front desk, I don't know that I believe this.

 

[FigmentJedi]

You know those guys trying to sell that decommissioned Monorail on eBay? Nobody went for it, so they're driving it around. It came home yesterday. Here it is at the Poly.

 

[Goofyernmost]

People say this all the time--just like I used to say it about single-day tickets. Thing is, actually talking to people in ticketing, the vast majority sold ARE single-day tickets.

Unless you or someone you know has first-hand experience behind a WDW front desk, I don't know that I believe this.

Well, yes. The ticket booths would primarily be selling single day tickets. Those that are staying longer and/or are staying onsite or off, would probably buy their multi-day tickets, like I do, ahead of time or with the package. Their primary purpose for existing would be to sell single day tickets. That, however, certainly wouldn't rank up their as any impressive percentage of daily guests.