A Spirited Perfect Ten

Zac Skellington

Zac Skellington

Well-Known Member
WDW1974 said:
Those wait times are all inflated by MM+. Mermaid would never have a 25-minute wait without it. And I can tell you that based on four trips to WDW in the last 12 months that the average wait time of Pirates has gone from walkon-10 minutes to 25-45 minutes. That is the NEW normal.
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The posted wait times for Mermaid are greatly exaggerated to make the ride appear to be popular. Usually only wait half as long as what's posted.
 
Cesar R M

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
PhotoDave219 said:
You guys done feeding the troll yet? If not, i know just the cheesesteaks.....
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dont forget that Disney is a business.

7fiq8fg.gif
 
the.dreamfinder

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
I always suspected that "something" changed when Cameron finally gave the go ahead. I suspected that something was just a serious plussing to the boat ride, but who knows... maybe there was some nebulous promise about a third attraction in a phase two (that likely will never happen).
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I believe there was a rumor Cameron was interested in a concept WDI pitched him for an E Ticket that would have utilized motorbike coaster vehicles attached to KUKA arms. Naturally, you can imagine why that didn't go anywhere. However it's entirely possible that that proposal might be the rumored new attraction Spirit is talking about.
 
Cesar R M

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
TalkingHead said:
Just think how deluded you have to be to think buying a Figment comic book can do "a lot of good" and will show Disney how "beloved and relevant" these characters are.

Boy, the crap that swirls in the Twitter toilet bowl.
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speaking of that figment comic. Didnt they went into more editions? because the firsts were all sold out?
 
Cesar R M

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
WDW1974 said:
Spirited Shanghai Dumplings of the Day:

The flagship Disney Store in Shanghai now has a definite opening date (I told y'all recently that it would be the week of May 18th) and that date is May 20th. Billed as the largest Disney Store on the globe and supposedly featuring a true preview center of the Shanghai Disney Resort, Disney is making a huge deal of this.

Bob Iger and Tom Staggs are both scheduled to be there. I'm sure pictures will be allowed. They are also doing a site walk thru at SDL. One would have to think that by now, Zenia Mucha has been given approval from the Shendi overlords to release photos and video of said visit. It is less than a year to Grand Opening and you have to have proof the CEO can actually walk the resort considering how much they have been touting it to the media and analysts, all without saying anything.

To say SDL in 2016 will actually have a positive impact in their financials is an incredibly bold statement to make considering all the indications to the contrary.

As soon as they finish at SDL, they'll be wheels up quickly to be back in Anaheim for the official kickoff of the 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration at DL. They may bookend the big week with a visit for the media whorefest at DLR the prior weekend, but Bob and Tom's planner hasn't gotten back to me on that one.

Speaking of Shanghai, Princess Cruises announced today that its brand new (as yet unnamed) ship in said city not long after RCCL said it will relocate its new Quantum of the Seas to Shanghai starting in 2017. One wonders how far behind Disney will get in the Asian cruise market before it seals the deal on the pair of new ships it is adding. It would appear the Disney Dream is Europe-bound in 2017, but could it wind up in Asia instead?

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article20287773.html

I thought about linking to Brooks Barnes PR piece on Disney's results and decided that I could do better things than give it attention it doesn't need (by it, I am referring to BB, not the story).

Lots of talk on Florida radio today about the new Kong attraction coming to IOA next year. And not in a paid way, but personalities just talking about it. No whores/Lifestylers or Mommy Bloggers needed.
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I'm actually wondering.. The wonder drydock is long needed. Have they scheduled the dry dock changes for the Wonder yet?
Have they even ordered new ships?
Seems the RCLL and all other companies (except disney) is actively renovating and upgrading their fleets.
 
Cesar R M

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
A correction, Quantum is returning in 2017, they'll have already completed a season in Shanghai. Originally I was planning a to do both it and SDL a year or so ago... back when there was some semblance of hope it would be opening in 2015. Disney could support way more than 4 cruise ships, I don't think they need to be one of the big boys, but they are so niche with only 4 ships in that market (which is becoming more and more global). Even 6 ships doesn't really cut it.

As to the point about SDL impacting financials? Just ask @ParentsOf4, you don't really need a "positive" impact so much as a halt in spending year over year to spin the resort in a positive light. They will definitely do just that.
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Isnt the Anthem replacing the Quantum in Shangai?
the Anthem was just recently added to the RCLL fleet.

lazyboy97o said:
Maybe they accidentally created a third attraction for Pandora...
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themed bathrooms? or M&G with a blue man in stilts?
:hilarious:
 
Cesar R M

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
GoofGoof said:
I don't disagree with any of this.

I was responding specifically to a post that stated someone from Disney actually said they see Orlando as a mature market. While we can all draw the conclusion that they feel this way based on the slow pace of building if they actually start making this claim publicly it's a pretty ominous statement. When a company publicly calls a market they operate in "mature" it's usually either to explain why they are not investing any more in that market, explain less than stellar results in that market or to prepare for an exit from that market. The results have been pretty good for several years now at WDW and I seriously doubt they are planning an exit from Orlando so if execs from TWDC are calling Orlando a mature market it's probably a sign they don't plan to invest much there. It also directly contradicts the billions spent over the last few years on MM+, FLE and now Avatar. Forget about whether we like those investments or think they should have invested more. These are corporate executives who rarely speak "off script". Analysts would come down pretty hard on them if they tried to justify large capital spend on a mature market.
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Id say MM+ was just a PR excuse to justify the required renovation of the backend (which includes the upgrades of all ancient disney systems)
It was NEEDED, MM improvements or not.
 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Cesar R M said:
Isnt the Anthem replacing the Quantum in Shangai?
the Anthem was just recently added to the RCLL fleet.
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Nope, Quantum is the one that will homeport in Shanghai for the foreseeable future, and I believe is en-route for Shanghai after spending its initial season in Florida. Anthem (the just released sister ship) is taking residence in New Jersey, although is still in Europe for the moment. The third under construction is for Australia eventually.

A lot of NA cruisers were outraged when they heard RCCL had the 'audacity' to move a new ship to a foreign market (despite the fact they are still getting a sister ship anyways). That's the mentality though, that the world revolves around the Caribbean market. If the cruise markets want to expand though, they can't send their second rate, decades old ships. I for one think it was a very good move.

Unlike a theme park, if it doesn't work with the market, you can always just bring it back.


Edit: Correction, apparently Ovation (the third ship), will also spend some of its time in China, based out of Tianjin (an hour or so by HSR from Beijing). Three of their older ships will also have China itineraries. That might have been what @WDW1974 was also referring to.
 
Cesar R M

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
Nope, Quantum is the one that will homeport in Shanghai for the foreseeable future, and I believe is en-route for Shanghai after spending its initial season in Florida. Anthem (the just released sister ship) is taking residence in New Jersey, although is still in Europe for the moment. The third under construction is for Australia eventually.

A lot of NA cruisers were outraged when they heard RCCL had the 'audacity' to move a new ship to a foreign market (despite the fact they are still getting a sister ship anyways). That's the mentality though, that the world revolves around the Caribbean market. If the cruise markets want to expand though, they can't send their second rate, decades old ships. I for one think it was a very good move.

Unlike a theme park, if it doesn't work with the market, you can always just bring it back.


Edit: Correction, apparently Ovation (the third ship), will also spend some of its time in China, based out of Tianjin (an hour or so by HSR from Beijing). Three of their older ships will also have China itineraries. That might have been what @WDW1974 was also referring to.
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And here I was thinking they were going to add another OASIS vessel before another QUANTUM class.
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
ParentsOf4 said:
I had to highlight this bizarre exchange regarding MyMagic+ during the earnings call.

Question from Alexia Quadrani, an analyst at JP Morgan:

It seems like MyMagic+ has really improved capacity at Disney World. And you've had a number of record attendance quarters lately. I guess how much can you continue to see those gains? And any color on how international visitors may have trended in the quarter?
​
Answer from CEO Bob Iger:

Sure, Alexia. So as you know that MyMagic+ has had an impact, especially as we've now started to anniversary the startup costs that we had there. And it really is integrated into the total Walt Disney World guest experience. So it's difficult to say just how much it contributed because it's so integrated, but it clearly was a contributor to results.

We've got roughly half of our guests now entering the parks with Magic Bands and the response from those guests has been overwhelmingly positive. So we are very pleased with that.

My Magic Band -- or MyMagic+ as a driver going forward, will still be a factor, but perhaps not with as great an impact as we've seen just in this quarter. Again, as it becomes even more integrated into the base experience.

Looking forward, I think that we're most excited about what we see in terms of the prospects outside of the United States, with the opening of Shanghai Disney Resort next year, and that should drive growth well into the future.

Having said that, though, we saw strong international attendance this year at our domestic parks. There's no question that those results have been strong. And the top line growth, coupled with the close mining of the expense line, has resulted in strong growth and we hope to see our results continue there.
​
Huh?

Last quarter, Iger reported:

We did see in the quarter a positive impact to the bottom line from MyMagic+, just the beginnings of it. We will continue to see more of that. But we do not have data that we can share with you right now about specific guest spending.​

More than 2 years after Staggs introduced MyMagic+ to the public, Disney was seeing "just the beginnings of" "a positive impact to the bottom line from MyMagic+." Yet, as Iger said pretty much every quarter before that, "But we do not have data that we can share with you right now."

This quarter, Iger reports "So as you know that MyMagic+ has had an impact, especially as we've now started to anniversary the startup costs that we had there." So as I mentioned in my earlier post about P&R's expenses and quoting from Disney's 10Q:

The decrease in infrastructure costs reflected higher costs in the prior-year quarter in connection with the launch of MyMagic+​

In other words, Iger is echoing what's in the 10Q, which is that the only financial 'improvement' from MyMagic+ occurred because they don't have rollout costs anymore. More than a year after they first started making MyMagic+ available to Guests, I sure hope not.

Then we get the even more bizarre:

MyMagic+ as a driver going forward, will still be a factor, but perhaps not with as great an impact as we've seen just in this quarter.​

WHAT????!!!!!

Last quarter, you reported "just the beginnings of" "a positive impact to the bottom line from MyMagic+." This quarter you reported that MyMagic+'s 'improvement' was the result of an absence of "startup costs" while, at the same time, stated that MyMagic+ will "perhaps not with as great an impact as we've seen just in this quarter."

But the only "impact" you reported this quarter was that you stopped throwing money at MyMagic+!

Now you're telling us that in the future, MyMagic+ will "perhaps not with as great an impact" as the quarter that you just stopped throwing money at it!

I don't curse on these threads but I was tempted to write one when I read this double-speak.

Then we get this strange statement from Iger:

So it's difficult to say just how much it contributed because it's so integrated, but it clearly was a contributor to results.​

During numerous earnings calls you've been telling us about all these great metrics that show that MyMagic+ is 'working', even though you don't want to discuss them with us. Now you are sure that "it clearly was a contributor to results" even though "it's difficult to say just how much it contributed."

What about all those great metrics you kept hinting at? How the heck do you know it "clearly was a contributor" if it's "difficult to say just how much it contributed?"

"Our wide receiver played a great game even though he didn't catch a pass or make a downfield block. But he clearly was a contributor."

Oh, and then Iger follows up that gem with essentially "Let's talk about Shanghai instead (even though you didn't ask about it) because I don't want to talk about MyMagic+ anymore."

I hate to say it because I really wanted to wait for Iger's great announcement that MyMagic+ was a rousing success, but if this is the best we're going to get, then it's time to declare MyMagic+ a financial failure.
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Fantastically thorough job.
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
WDW1974 said:
I want some extra info. My UNI sources are basically never wrong and I sure hope this info isn't designed to stop the ALL UNI CAN DO IS SCREENZ crowd. I'd love it if that info is correct!



I would be surprised bordering on shocked, which is why I've kept it under wraps for months. There's no way it was added into the $500 million (before overruns) budget. They would have had to get extra funding. I just can't believe that happened unless it was always intended and simply put off due to all the NGE spending.
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There was that whole Phase 2 component... perhaps that's what this is?
 
Mike S

Mike S

Well-Known Member
doctornick said:
Yeah, there was that rumor about Pandora opening in phases. Is it possible that Phase 1 is both the Soarin' ride and boat ride and Phase 2 could be this third attraction? Seems unlikely, but would be nice.
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What would be nice is if they got their act together and stopped with this whole "phases" nonsense. To a degree, I can partially understand SDMT opening later than the rest of NFL (how much later is a different topic entirely) but Avatar? No. Makes absolutely no sense to me at all. The whole construction area is backstage. There is no real sensible reason why it should have to open in phases.
 
WDW1974

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Spirited Late Night Musings:

Apparently, the entire P&R upper management team as well as all the top company leadership (minus Willow Bay's favorite mealticket) is currently at DLR getting a preview of all the entertainment offerings for the 60th Anniversary.

Also, it appears the new WoC show has some major issues (that hopefully will be addressed after tonight's preview). It seems as though the show -- though a Steve Davison joint -- was largely dictated by marketing and is not what it needs to be.

There was some filming going on around WDW property this week, and it appears some of it will play into the Shanghai Disney Resort. I'm not quite sure how yet. We shall see. Could be advertising campaign or an instructional campaign because Disney needs to teach locals just what a Disney theme park is and how you consume that product. Yes, again, for real.

While I won't be visiting the O-Town Rocco's Tacos on my next visit, I will definitely try the Boathouse after some reviews by people I respect.

And to end of a food note, I have a 12:30 a.m. craving for fried chicken and it will go unanswered.
 

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