A Spirited Perfect Ten

[CaptainAmerica]

They released and moved up the call because a board members spouse passed. Don't know if that is true for sure but that was the rumor going around last night on the boards.

Who is this guy talking? I joined late and this doesn't sound like Bob or Jay.

Was that Staggs?

 

[gmajew]

Who is this guy talking? I joined late and this doesn't sound like Bob or Jay.

Was that Staggs?

I am on a work call cannot dial in right now.... Sucks... but got to pay the bills.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Domestic parks attendance up 2%. The sentinel reported that Disneyland attendance was down so that means WDW was up somewhere more than 2%.

Room nights for Q3 are pacing 7% over prior year.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

$485M in share buybacks, @ParentsOf4 .

 

[punkabella]

They released and moved up the call because a board members spouse passed. Don't know if that is true for sure but that was the rumor going around last night on the boards.

Sheryl Sandburg's husband Dave Goldberg passed away.
Link to article explaining Disney's decision to move up the time.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Star Wars: Nothing specific to announce but we're looking forward to... um... potential future plans... something for the future... potentially... in future years.

 

[Frankie The Beer]

Star Wars in the parks still in development, no announcements coming.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Interesting comments on Star Wars (in general, not in the park). They're consciously going slowly so as to not overwhelm the market. Contrast that to Marvel and their saturation marketing.

 

[Frankie The Beer]

And Iger stokes the SW in the parks fire again. Staggs seems a little more honest while Iger pumps speculation like a salesman.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

And Iger stokes the SW in the parks fire again. Staggs seems a little more honest while Iger pumps speculation like a salesman.

Think so? I definitely agree regarding his past comments, but this one seemed very reserved. His tone seemed to indicate "nothing's coming any time soon."

 

[Frankie The Beer]

Think so? I definitely agree regarding his past comments, but this one seemed very reserved. His tone seemed to indicate "nothing's coming any time soon."

Only based compared to Staggs bluntness. Staggs in my opinion was very "keep your pants on it going to be a while" while Iger was more like, "You never know".

 

[COProgressFan]

I don't disagree that it's negligence and MK is understaffed when it comes to custodial.

I think a lot of the reason you see Epcot, DAK, DHS, etc all looking better though is because all parks are staffed the same for custodial, which is absolutely STUPID. MK is the most attended park in the world, it obviously will need more custodial staff to keep the park (streets/bussing/restrooms/etc) consistently maintained as opposed to parks that are bringing in 7-8 MILLION fewer guests.

That's just terrible management then. Why would a park with 50,000 in daily attendance have the same level of custodial staffing as a park with half that daily attendance?

I can also attest this has really become a major MK issue as of late. As others have mentioned, this wasn't a problem even 2 or 3 years ago, but it seems recently the bathroom situation at MK has been atrocious.

They are so desperate to keep their labor costs down -- god forbid they have a couple extra custodial CM's on hand even if they don't hit their daily attendance projections. (And you see the same thing in staffing at quick serve locations with mobs of crowds and half the registers closed, as well as empty sit-down restaurants that are supposedly "full").

 

[Frankie The Beer]

Iger owning with arrogance. "People can't have cable without the channels we own".

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Iger owning with arrogance. "People can't have cable without the channels we own".

That's not exactly what he said. More along the lines of "you can't start a cable distribution model without the channels we own."

 

[Frankie The Beer]

Iger, Staggs and Rasulo sidestep Shanghi futures questions.

 

[Frankie The Beer]

That's not exactly what he said. More along the lines of "you can't start a cable distribution model without the channels we own."

I got the end of it, my bad. Donut fell out of my mouth, lol.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Embarrassment of riches on the studio side.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Interesting comments on Star Wars (in general, not in the park). They're consciously going slowly so as to not overwhelm the market. Contrast that to Marvel and their saturation marketing.

The new canon's certainly been an aggressive campaign, but yeah, they are taking things easy with certain aspects of it. The comics are currently more focused on filling OT gaps, the Seasonal schedule for the novels. It's really only gonna get more explosive when "Journey to the Force Awakens" starts in September.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Some great numbers again from Disney's Parks & Resorts (P&R).

Let's start with the basics.

P&R revenue for the quarter is $3.8 billion, up a poor 5.6%, the lowest increase since the 2009/2010 recession. However, operating income was up an outstanding 23.9%, the best in 2 years. Overwhelmingly, this is being driven by what’s happening at WDW. Prices are up, attendance is up, and consumers want to vacation in Orlando. All great signs for WDW even if Disney’s International P&R operations continue to struggle.

Looking at the numbers WDW fans should care the most about:

• Domestic P&R Depreciation: $289 million
• Domestic P&R Capital Expenditures: $367 million

This is a much better trend than last quarter, where domestic P&R depreciation actually outpaced capex.

Internationally, Disney continues to invest in Shanghai as Disney reported another $416 million spent on International P&R capex, far outpacing International P&R depreciation. Combined P&R capex was a strong 20.8% of revenue for the quarter. Disney is investing in its theme parks but, right now, it’s mostly overseas.

Repeating what I wrote last quarter, domestic performance shows that WDW needs to build. It needs new attractions to handle increased demand. Pandora helps, a third theater at Soarin’ helps, another track at Toy Story Mania helps, but more is needed.

More is needed at Epcot besides a rethemed Maelstrom. There are pavilions with underutilized space. Unless you enjoy imbibing adult beverages, there’s less to do at today’s Epcot than there was years ago. As a bar, Epcot is doing great. As a theme park, Epcot is struggling.

The DHS redo can’t happen fast enough. There are large areas of the park that need major renovation.

Hopefully, Burbank recognizes that, with the right investment, there’s even more money to be made in Orlando.

 

[Shaman]

I wonder if Disney will try to grab up WB and/or Discovery at some point, as rumors have suggested...especially with all this money that keeps coming in....