More Spirited TEA Musings:
I had a lot of time to think today, most of it not about theme parks but a bit was, and I think the point about Disney largely being a failure for not taking advantage of the 19 million Guests the MK gets to visit its other parks is really a key issues that NEVER gets talked about when these annual number releases become Twit fodder.
How is TDO not an abject failure for neglecting the resort year in and year out?
From a capacity standpoint EPCOT can fit tens of thousands of more Guests into it daily. And because of a smart layout, provided the Promenade is not full of festival kiosks, it can be a comfortable 'more' ... And that doesn't include all the dead areas that have been removed ... let's see we have the entire WoL pavilion, we have the second level of Imagination, we have a chunk of Innoventions, we have the Odyssey complex, we have the World Showplace, we have numerous retail locations in the U.K., in Canada, in France ... that are no longer open.
And the 'answers' for EPCOT right now are a third theater for Soarin and a toon replacement for Maelstrom.
I could go into all the ways The Disney-MGM Studios have been butchered. Or how DAK needs to keep expanding the best park at WDW. But why?
It's all about that Kingdom, bout that Kingdom, no where else (sung to the beat of one of
@Lee's pop faves ''All about that bass.'').
WDW has six gates in the swamps along with a mall/lifestyle center and those 30,000 plus rooms. What the TEA numbers make absolutely clear is that looking at the WDW Resort as the standalone resort it believes it is (Universal? Disney knows not of what you speak? Sea World? Of couurse I can see all of the World from the beach at the Poly if I just sit on the patio of one of those 20 bungalow/huts. I Drive?Are you asking me if I have a license?) can only be described as a staggeringly underperforming asset of The Walt Disney Company. Just look at the numbers. You have a mall that needs to be reinvented yet again. And five of the six gates are glaring examples of Disney failing to capture and capitalize the VERY Guests it already has staying on its property and in its own owned and operated resorts.
Sure, the MK is doing great. No argument there. Nothing to debate. Some here might state that it's current often ghetto state is because it's a victim of its own success. As the resort is currently managed, the MK can only be viewed as the vibrant beating heart that it is. You know what the rest of the gates are? Well, you know that staleness that I have talked about ... that going out of business vibe that lingers in the air like the stench of desperation? Those are the rotting limbs that are on the body of the WDW Resort.
So, WDW Co., how far are you going to get when the only thing people are interested in is the myth of Dizzy World and the majestic fiberglass castle?
I guess to a certain extent I am a business person because I've never looked at these numbers quite the way I did this year. And if you work in P&R and the people above retail managers like George Kalogridis, then you should be very concerned. Not by all the great stuff your true only competitor in the market is is coming up with on an annual basis, but by the fact you can't get your own (already bought) customers that most of your resort is worth their time and vacation dollars.
Talk about lost opportunity. Do they even see it as they shutter more parts of more parks and limit offerings and just raise prices to make up for the New Disney Difference?
Long term, that just isn't going to work. And looking out just 3-4 years from now ... folks, let me put it this way: when you find yourself in a well after you ask yourself ''How did I get here?'' you might want to ready yourself for the inevitable SPLAT!
