A Spirited Perfect Ten

[CaptainAmerica]

Oh, but I didn't become a Potter fan because it was kewl, either.

Sounds like you did. Us "real" Potter fans were reading the books long before the movies came out.

 

[WDW1974]

My previous posts were about design aesthetics, but since "Disney is a business..."

Marketing, in general, spends an awful lot of time and money researching the psychology of everything related to their products and selling environment. From the colors used in the brand logo, the placement of an item on a shelf, layout and decor of the stores etc. Here's a link, not meant for reading, but to indicate just one of the ways Marketing researches stuff. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/00251740610673332 Disney knows a couple of tricks, REALLY well...nostalgia sells, the emotional proud parent watching their kid, that sells.
On a basic level comfort matters. So if someone is too hot or too cold, you don't get the right environment for maximum sales and satisfaction. I kept hearing that the "new Peter Pan queue is really good," but when I went through it, all my husband and I felt was that the corridors felt so small, and closed in, and despite not normally having a problem with enclosed spaces, we felt like the queue was claustrophobic and thank goodness it was only 9:30AM on a cool day, because we wouldn't want to be stuck there if it was any hotter or more crowded.

The Hub is so wide open, even though distance hasn't changed it feels like it takes so much longer to walk it, than it did before. This is the same thing that happened at DL when they redid the Disneyland Hotel and Downtown Disney. Many people swear that the monorail platform was moved and rebuilt, but it wasn't. But the environment changed enough that people's perception was altered.

Disney used to know these things, either through inherent knowledge and a lot of trial and error. And all that is being sacrificed for one immediate benefit. Yes, more "personal space" is nice, but if you add one positive environmental factor, but make 3 things worse, you are worse off than you were before.

Now, I don't think most guests will be able to articulate any of that, anymore than they can articulate why they like a certain brand logo over another one. But I do think it will show up in people's behavior, and stress levels when touring the park, and ultimately how willing they are to buy, or rate the enjoyment of their day. Again, big business spends a lot of resources figuring out this stuff, and I don't think Disney has given it a second thought.

So, so true.

I can't add more, but I want to make sure that people read this!

 

[Lee]

Sounds like you did. Us "real" Potter fans were reading the books long before the movies came out.

And you were how old when you read your first one?

The age at which you first discovered HP is a factor when judging this sort of thing.

 

[Mike S]

I never read one Potter book, but I intend to. Have seen all films, but not one in a theater (enjoyed them more as they went along and the last 3-4 were excellent). And the theme park lands in O-Town represent some of the finest work in themed design anywhere on the planet.

Oh, but I didn't become a Potter fan because it was kewl, either.

Your opinion of that might change when you read the books. So much better than the movies.

 

[clsteve]

1. NextGen was a capital expenditure. It has nothing to do with profits in the year the cash is spent. Capital expenditures are recognized on the P&L as depreciation over the life of the assets created. So way to criticize the "journalist" with sarcasm quotes when you're apparently the one who's unaware how "profits" work.

Example: I buy a piece of machinery for $20K. There is no expense incurred at the time of purchase because, even though I have $20K less cash, I have a piece of machinery worth $20K, so my asset base is unchanged. My expense is recognized as the piece of machinery ages and declines in value.

2. MagicBands are a very very small component of NextGen.

Paging @ParentsOf4 and @MichWolv to testify. They like you better than me.

Some of NextGen was most definitely capital expenditure and falls under a depreciation schedule. That even includes some of the development.

But, when we decompose NextGen, very little of the "nuts and bolts" were groundbreaking or cutting edge. MB's, RFID, the underlying infrastructure (including servers, network, etc.) all are pretty much basic blocking and tackling, and all have been done before and are in production in much larger and more real time environments than Disney hosts.

As a matter of fact, Disney isn't really in the big leagues when it comes to data size, throughput, complexity, criticality or timeliness - quite the opposite. If the Exxon/Mobils, Walmarts, Dow Jones, and Amazons are at the "PhD level", Disney would be somewhere in 8th grade by comparison. They have overnight batch windows and no mainframe, (unless that's changed recently) just to set where they actually are on the spectrum

So, what caused the huge cost overruns? The Data and the Business Rules the had to be turned into code behind everything Disney is trying to accomplish - presenting those FP ressies to future guests that places them in the Park they want them in and when they want them there. That huge - "datawarehouse- like" entity they want to be able to mine and manipulate. Use it to give those future realtime offerings of discounts, or table service openings based on where you physically are at that moment, and many, many, more, complex algorithms.

That's what was incredibly expensive, that's what caused the cost overruns. That was what was so complex about NextGen since taking those usually horribly defined and documented business requirements from the Execs, Sales, Marketing, Ops etc., and turning them into production-ready code is an art not a science and can take hundreds of man-years to accomplish.

Which is why the Accentures of the world are brought in - very expensive, but they and their brethren are pretty much the only ones who can do it. Neither Disney nor any other company retains that skill set.

Unfortunately, once you "prove" the concept of the software/data warehousing project - the largest expense, it ceases as a depreciable effort. The timing can be very grey, but definitely once you move into true beta (not that 2 year long beta Disney declared publicly). Then, those software development expenses go into FY operating costs - into the maintenance, enhancement buckets. That could have started all the way back to Dec 2012 when I saw CMs, their families and selected guests running around and showing up at rides like HM for their scheduled times that appeared on their IPads.

That was the problem for Disney and what we all saw as the pillaging of Ops budgets across the board for an FY or two. Getting the silly thing to work had crossed over into real, current FY, money that had to come from budgets they didn't plan for.

It happens all the time. And the less sophisticated a corporation is in data, infra. and just in their overall understanding of what they want (Disney), the higher the risk and the higher percentage of cost and time-to-value overruns. Even the most sophisticated corporations overrun by an average of 30 percent. They weren't sophisticated to start. Hence the issue....

And @ParentsOf4, please correct me if I've misstated any of this. I've been more on the running these instead of accounting for these, side of things....

 

[tirian]

I have no desire to set foot in there when the number hits 40,000. With all those ECVs and double wides, it just feels packed when it shouldn't.

That's when it starts feeling crowded, and the Most Visited Park on Earth (since TDL apparently doesn't count) shouldn't feel crowded at 40k.

 

[Bolna]

So, first Alice ... then Maleficent ... now Cinderella ... with Dumbo and Mulan and Jungle Book and POOH?!?!? to come.

Nope, no resting on laurels here.

No, producing cutting edge entertainment by telling new stories.

I am sure someone pointed out by now that you missed the Beauty and the Beast film that is in planning.

However, I expect to be in the minority with this opinion on this board, but I went to see Cinderella and came back thinking that this was one of the most pointless films ever. It was very beautiful and Cate Blanchet (sorry, too lazy to check the spelling) is a fantastic actress. But this is where the positive ends. I can't say any negative about it either besides that they took a lovely and charming film and took out a lot of the charm and failed to replace it with something of value.

Often the term "Disneyfied" can be used very critical meaning that something with cultural value is being sugar coated and made simple for the masses. In that sense of the word, the live action Cinderella felt like a "Disneyfied" version of the original...

 

[tirian]

I am sure someone pointed out by now that you missed the Beauty and the Beast film that is in planning.

However, I expect to be in the minority with this opinion on this board, but I went to see Cinderella and came back thinking that this was one of the most pointless films ever. It was very beautiful and Cate Blanchet (sorry, too lazy to check the spelling) is a fantastic actress. But this is where the positive ends. I can't say any negative about it either besides that they took a lovely and charming film and took out a lot of the charm and failed to replace it with something of value.

Often the term "Disneyfied" can be used very critical meaning that something with cultural value is being sugar coated and made simple for the masses. In that sense of the word, the live action Cinderella felt like a "Disneyfied" version of the original...

If you check out Rotten Tomatoes, you'll see that many professional critics felt the same way. The consensus seems to be "Cinderella" is a good movie, but unnecessary compared to the original animated one.

 

[Bolna]

And you were how old when you read your first one?

The age at which you first discovered HP is a factor when judging this sort of thing.

In which way is the age important? I was 27 when I read my first Harry Potter Book in 1999. So, do I qualify as a judge???

 

[Cesar R M]

This must be a typo..........

no.. I honestly wouldnt survive being in the position of the rabbit.
I would have probably died of an aneurysm right after the owl went back to the hole.

 

[Lee]

In which way is the age important? I was 27 when I read my first Harry Potter Book in 1999. So, do I qualify as a judge???

Well....umm...yes. Yes, you do.

My point was that many adults didn't read the books until their 30s or 40s. They weren't trying to be "cool" by reading them, they heard the books were good so they read them.

Kids were...expected...to have read them at an early age.

I read Sorcerer's Stone in 2004. I was 36ish.

 

[Cesar R M]

Spirited Lifestyler Shot:

Hey, @wdwmagic, do we know whether Disney is providing bloggers/podcasters/Lifestylers (most who live in Central Florida) with free stays at the Poly DVC for its upcoming 'media' event?

really???

 

[Cesar R M]

I flat out don't believe that. Unless, you're talking over the entire day.

You can't have 100,000 people in the MK at the same time. Flat out.

what if they hired japanese subway officers to chunk all the people inside the MK?
gotta push! the executive bonuses are very important!

 

[ThemeParkTraveller]

So a projection show nets a 0.3% attendance increase and actual new physical attractions nets a 20% attendance increase.

A forward thinking business person would take the 20%.

A short term accountant would go for the 0.3% increase a it was accomplished with a low capital projection.

From a guest perspective, what's more enjoyable? A projection show or Harry Potter Land?.

Anyone see the disconnect here?

Comparing just those percentages would be a bit misleading, as OLC's business model has been very successful so far. If you look at the flat increases, TDR has been showing stronger growth than USJ (actual number of increased visitors) in every year except this year. WWoHP is obviously a huge deal, but I fully expect TDR to receive a similar or even higher increase in attendance when they open their Frozen-themed port at TDS.

Fiscal Year Attendance Figures for Tokyo Disney Resort

2014: 31,377,000 persons
2013: 31,298,000 persons
2012: 27,503,000 persons
2011: 25,347,000 persons

Fiscal Year Attendance Figures for Universal Studios Japan

2014: 12,700,000 persons
2013: 10,100,000 persons
2012: 9,700,000 persons
2011: 8,500,000 persons

 

[Cesar R M]

That's a pretty broad brush. I would hope most people are a bit more discerning than that when it comes to blindly following IP. For example, I loved Potter books 1-6, hated book 7, hated all the movies, and have yet to experience the theme park lands so I reserve judgement.

loved the books.. seen The castle and the hogsmeade, looks very good imho.

 

[peter11435]

Ironic ... that in 400-plus pages this is your first comment?

Ironic ... that folks like you are attracted to me like a fanboi to an Imagineer or a Lifestyler to a free movie screening or like a moth to a flame?

That kind of ironic?

Haha.. Don't think too highly of yourself (as if that's even possible for you.) I'm not attracted to you in any way shape or form. I simply read everything this forum has to offer. I have no problem with you or your content. But when you essentially say that someone who doesn't agree with you or share your viewpoint shouldn't be here or post in your thread.. well.. We already know your feelings towards censorship and controlling the message. But I guess those rules don't apply to the almighty 74.

 

[asianway]

Marvel was making movies before 12/09. Indeed, Disney paid Paramount a nice chunk of BO change to simply release Avengers and Iron Man 3.

Marvel had films throughout the 00s. Whether released by Sony, Fox or Paramount, they had product. Plenty.

And, yes, I do believe that some fans (don't know what percentage) are simply fans now because Disney owns Marvel and it is cool to like the products. Plenty of the Disney as a Religion group would fall in here.

Speaking of the church of Bob, a 10 day old member is on the Springs board saying what a great deal $100 boat rides are

 

[ford91exploder]

Well....umm...yes. Yes, you do.

My point was that many adults didn't read the books until their 30s or 40s. They weren't trying to be "cool" by reading them, they heard the books were good so they read them.

Kids were...expected...to have read them at an early age.

I read Sorcerer's Stone in 2004. I was 36ish.

Same here I read the first 3 books while I was at a seminar on federated directories.

 

[ford91exploder]

Some of NextGen was most definitely capital expenditure and falls under a depreciation schedule. That even includes some of the development.

But, when we decompose NextGen, very little of the "nuts and bolts" were groundbreaking or cutting edge. MB's, RFID, the underlying infrastructure (including servers, network, etc.) all are pretty much basic blocking and tackling, and all have been done before and are in production in much larger and more real time environments than Disney hosts.

As a matter of fact, Disney isn't really in the big leagues when it comes to data size, throughput, complexity, criticality or timeliness - quite the opposite. If the Exxon/Mobils, Walmarts, Dow Jones, and Amazons are at the "PhD level", Disney would be somewhere in 8th grade by comparison. They have overnight batch windows and no mainframe, (unless that's changed recently) just set where they actually are on the spectrum

So, what caused the huge cost overruns? The Data and the Business Rules the had to be turned into code behind everything Disney is trying to accomplish - presenting those FP ressies to future guests that places them in the Park they want them in and when they want them there. That huge - "datawarehouse- like" entity they want to be able to mine and manipulate. Use it to give those future realtime offerings of discounts, or table service openings based on where you physically are at that moment, and many, many, more

That's what was incredibly expensive, that's what caused the cost overruns. That was what was so complex about NextGen since taking those usually horribly defined and documented business requirements from the Execs, Sales, Marketing, Ops etc., and turning them into production-ready code is an art not a science and can take hundreds of man-years to accomplish.

Which is why the Accentures of the world are brought in - very expensive, but they and their brethren are pretty much the only ones who can do it. Neither Disney nor any other company retains that skill set.

Unfortunately, once you "prove" the concept of the software/data warehousing project - the largest expense, it ceases as a depreciable effort. The timing can be very grey, but definitely once you move into true beta (not that 2 year long beta Disney declared publicly). Then, those software development expenses go into FY operating costs - into the maintenance, enhancement buckets. That could have started all the way back to Dec 2012 when I saw CMs, their families and selected guests running around and showing up at rides like HM for their scheduled times that appeared on their IPads.

That was the problem for Disney and what we all saw as the pillaging of Ops budgets across the board for an FY or two. Getting the silly thing to work had crossed over into real, current FY, money that had to come from budgets they didn't plan for.

It happens all the time. And the less sophisticated a corporation is in data, infra. and just in their overall understanding of what they want (Disney), the higher the risk and the higher percentage of cost and time-to-value overruns. Even the most sophisticated corporations overrun by an average of 30 percent. They weren't sophisticated to start. Hence the issue....

And @ParentsOf4, please correct me if I've misstated any of this. I've been more on the running these instead of accounting for these side of these things....

As have I but in the data center the plumbing gets very complex very quickly, Especially rules like one is none, two is one and 3 is enough, and needing 3 sets of hardware (virtualization does not help you much here) Production, Backup and Staging plus the test infrastructure.

 

[Stitchon]

So some lunatic decided to shoot himself at Universal Studios Hollywood, by the Despicable Me ride. I've always thought security was too tame at the theme parks, and I bet by next week both Universal resorts will have metal detectors out front. Wouldn't be surprised if Disney follows suit.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/04/03/firefighters-respond-to-medical-call-at-universal-studios/