A Spirited Perfect Ten

[SYRIK2000]

Thanks!

Okay, for those playing the home game (like me)..... The offer is:

- Valid June 6 through August 13th.
- Limited Number of Rooms.
- Min 1 Night, Max 14 Nights
- Proof of Florida Residency Required
- Cannot be combined with any other discounts or promotions.
- Offer excludes 3-bedroom villas, campsites, Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort, Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter, The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Disney’s Art of Animation Resort – The Little Mermaid standard rooms.

I guess we should check availability for this weekend, right? Right. (Fri-Sun)

What do we get?
$134/Night at Pop. (Rack rate is $168)
$139/Night at AS-S/ASM (Rack is $174)
$150/Night at Coronado (Rack is $201)
$336/Night at AoA (Rack is $420)
$167/Night at CBR (Rack is $223)
$293/Night at Beach Club (Rack is $391)
$312/Night at Contemporary (Rack is $416)
$222/Night at OKW. (Rack is $343)
$345/Night at GFla. (Rack is $532?!?!)
$222/Night at Saratoga ($343)
$255/Night at Boardwalk ($393)
$254/Night at BW Villas ($392)
$411/Night at Beach Club Villas ($548!?!?)

Unavailable - DAK Lodge
$158/Night - ASM (No Discount)
$196/Night - PO-FQ. (No Discount)
Unavailable - Poly
Unavailable - WL
$452/Night - Poly Bungalows (No Discount)
$475/Night - BLT (No Mayo)
$518/Night - Villas at GF
Unavailable - DAK Kidani Village
Unavailable - Cabins at Wildy Campground
Unavailable - WL Villas
Unavailable - DAK Villas Jambo House
$85/Night - Campground.

Not sure I would describe any of this as heavily discounted.

AoA is $420 for a standard room. Wow so much for value resort.

 

[doctornick]

Maybe not an exact number, but he does have at least 15-20 years of this stuff in mind.

Which, of course, is the kind of thing you'd want from a creative. I get that WDW1974 isn't a big fan of the MCU movies, despite liking Ant-Man, but the criticism of Feige seems odd to me considering how much we tend to slam corporate types on these pages. Here's a creative guy, the type that actually makes stuff, is largely being left alone by the suits and is churning out hit after hit. And not just commercially but critically -- every Marvel Studios movie is "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes and many are very well regarded for the genre.

I would think that Feige having a long term vision and plan would be regarded as a good thing. He's not being reactionary and acting on sudden trends, but is executing a philosophy that is in it for the long haul. Personally, I think that it is fantastic that Disney has someone like him working for them running Marvel Studios and would to have every division having someone with the same passion for their product.

 

[bhg469]

Kevin Smith has lost a crapton of weight since those photos.

Indeed he has. I believe he's down nearly 100lbs.

 

[PREMiERdrum]

AoA is $420 for a standard room. Wow so much for value resort.

That's for a Family Suite. Still overpriced, but it's *not* the Little Mermaid Standard Rooms going for $420.

 

[doctornick]

I'm hearing that a new daytime show could be coming to the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater....

I'm been asking for that for years -- why waste that space during the day?

 

[bhg469]

Honestly? Who knows? He's talked of dozens of films. And a mind like that probably has dozens more in his brain.

I don't want to rip Marvel when they just put a smile on my face with an entertaining film ... but I just wish they'd lose the 'ego' (the same one Bob Iger showed at Sun Valley with his 'We're Marvel'' comment.)

When I see a film, I'm only thinking about THAT film. I don't want to ponder the next 11, which is why I didn't need the SECOND added scene in the credits (yeah, the one way at the end!)

The second after credits scene in the first avengers was probably one of my favorite parts of the movie. The teaser stuff in them is usually not anything I look forward to, unless they're showing a major character.

The second after credits scene from avengers was funny, had nothing to do with teasers or spoilers and was very reminiscent of Joss Whedon and his ability to make scenes humorous and entertaining with little to no dialogue. It's a shame that Marvel/Disney ruined their relationship with him.

Now I want shawrama.

 

[Rutt]

During my June trip I experienced this multiple times especially with Mine Train. Wait times at night always had it at 60 minutes, but in reality we only waited 15-20 minutes.

When we were there in 2014, my son and I did it three times in one day, each wait posted at 60 mins or more, and yet never waited more than 20 minutes.

POTC was the same, posted at 45 yet we walked on.

 

[burgess]

I agree and hate resort fees with a passion. I think @WDWFigment feels likewise.

That said, until the evil government steps in and regulates the industry some they will continue (like making seats smaller on aircraft as people get larger).

$189 at the Waldorf (including the fee) is still much better to me than paying the same or more for a WDW moderate and worlds better than paying $300-800 a night for a WDW deluxe with no resort fee, just a huge pixie dust premium.

Oh, I'm sure. When I'm in Florida, I usually end up paying (much) less than $100 a night for a three or four bedroom condo. I would never pay the pixie dust premium.

 

[bhg469]

Oh, I'm sure. When I'm in Florida, I usually end up paying (much) less than $100 a night for a three or four bedroom condo. I would never pay the pixie dust premium.

The cost difference of renting a car and paying for parking used to be the reason to stay onsite... now? Not a chance! Last time we stayed, we had a cm discount and the only resort in our price range we could get was CBR. We probably would only consider it again wit a cm discount only. That resort was definitely not even worth the discounted rate for regular guests.

 

[Nemo14]

The cost difference of renting a car and paying for parking used to be the reason to stay onsite... now? Not a chance! Last time we stayed, we had a cm discount and the only resort in our price range we could get was CBR. We probably would only consider it again wit a cm discount only. That resort was definitely not even worth the discounted rate for regular guests.

We've rented a 3 br condo for a week, rented a car, paid for parking, and still saved quite a bit over even staying in a "value" resort.

 

[stlphil]

Nope. haven't heard a thing. Thought we'd get that info as well as an opening date last week ... but ...



In some places, yes. And, while there are always local deals at Disney resorts, I would hope that at opening that isn't the case in Shanghai, especially considering that locals will likely make up 85% of the visitors.

Thanks much for the answers.

It occurs to me that by making the admission price artificially low enough, that they could get to the "predicted" 27 million attendance in the first year, or any other arbitrary figure. Should the Chinese overlords want this (not saying they do), Disney may not have the power to prevent it.

 

[burgess]

We've rented a 3 br condo for a week, rented a car, paid for parking, and still saved quite a bit over even staying in a "value" resort.

It's true, and it's crazy how hard it is to convince first-time visitors that they don't need to stay on Disney property to have a good time. I can tell them I've been to Disney World more times than any doctor would recommend, so I should know, but nobody listens. That's the real power of the Disney BRAND I guess.

 

[VJ]

BTW, on the seasonal deal, I had MAGICal Sunday chicken today at the Cracker Barrel thanks to another forum member here! and couldn't help but notice they had a huge display of Thanksgiving merchandise IN FREAKING JULY!?!! I've never worked in retail (that should be obvious ...) but I've spent a lifetime as a consumer and I've never known anyone in my life who was thinking about buying Turkey Day decor/items in the middle of summer. It's all very sickening ...

Christmas in July was just the beginning, Spirit!

 

[wogwog]

Thanks much for the answers.

It occurs to me that by making the admission price artificially low enough, that they could get to the "predicted" 27 million attendance in the first year, or any other arbitrary figure. Should the Chinese overlords want this (not saying they do), Disney may not have the power to prevent it.

The attendance will be what the Chinese want it to be.

 

[BrianLo]

I don't think companies should be doing business with repressive regimes like in the UAE. (Yes, I'm ready to hear about China next and I can easily make the argument why SDL isn't a smart decision) I don't know enough about the particulars here, but I know the original deal was for an entire Marvel park. I'd guess that Disney could have gotten out of this one if they desired and paid to.

The IOA and gambling issues are totally different. On the first, Disney had and has absolutely no say in the matter. On the second, Disney has lied and distorted because they don't want to lose their huge convention business to mega resorts on SoBe. It's protecting what they view as their turf ... not that it matters now because with Cuba opening up I'm quite certain the Vegas gaming companies would rather go in there and will!

Precisely. Without the contract particulars it's all guesswork on our behalf and it's not particularly fair to condemn them for a project we don't really know the particulars of.

Should Disney have paid to get out of a contract predating the acquisition in a market they don't have any desire to personally enter anyways? Perhaps to fulfill a higher moral calling. I don't know the associated cost to do so, but not re-negging on a licensing deal they had no part of in the first place does not particularly make them hypocrites, cheap maybe.

We also do not know what the contract with gambling vendors consists of either. You insist that this is different than the Marvel deal with Universal, and yet we don't actually have the contracts to prove it one way or another. That's my only criticism here, we have no evidence for or against.

I agree that perhaps these incidents are more an indicator of how Marvel as a company wasn't perfectly aligned to how Disney likes to (or at least publicly pretends to) operate buisness. What we are guessing on is whether Disney is unwilling, slow or unable to pick up the pieces.

 

[skubersky]

Today's Spirited Reading:

A story in the Guardian on the O-Town turf battle between DIS and UNI. Sorta weak. Only two sources and you'll recognize them both from the online world right @skubersky?

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/21/walt-disney-world-universal-studios-theme-parks

I wouldn't say weak, since I always like seeing my name in print ;-)
I believe this is what we call "lifestyle" or soft news, as opposed to an investigative expose in the business section. Still, it's rare to see anything in a UK paper that questions Disney's supremecy.

The funny thing is that we talked for an hour but they only used 2 sentences. And my only request was that they mention my book & newspaper, both of which got cut out...

 

[SYRIK2000]

Precisely. Without the contract particulars it's all guesswork on our behalf and it's not particularly fair to condemn them for a project we don't really know the particulars of.

Should Disney have paid to get out of a contract predating the acquisition in a market they don't have any desire to personally enter anyways? Perhaps to fulfill a higher moral calling. I don't know the associated cost to do so, but not re-negging on a licensing deal they had no part of in the first place does not particularly make them hypocrites, cheap maybe.

We also do not know what the contract with gambling vendors consists of either. You insist that this is different than the Marvel deal with Universal, and yet we don't actually have the contracts to prove it one way or another. That's my only criticism here, we have no evidence for or against.

I agree that perhaps these incidents are more an indicator of how Marvel as a company wasn't perfectly aligned to how Disney likes to (or at least publicly pretends to) operate buisness. What we are guessing on is whether Disney is unwilling, slow or unable to pick up the pieces.

Also keep in mind with the Marvel contract. Universal has to pay Disney. That must chafe them a little.

 

[flynnibus]

And The Spirit doubts me when I write that WDW will need a 5th theme park by 2025?

And support that statement with a graph?

View attachment 102282

It only took one visit for me to agree with Discovery Cove that as a customer... prioritizing service over growth would bring me back.

 

[flynnibus]

Kinda weird how the attendance seems to take a dip in the first few years after a new park opens, at least according to that graph. Maybe people are assuming it will be overly packed due to the grand opening, and stay away to let the "new" wear off for a year or so.

Global and National events play a huge part in most of those dips.

 

[BrianLo]

-Sindbad's Storybook Voyage is the most under-appreciated attraction in the Disneyverse.

Agreed. It always is overshadowed by JTTCOE or Pooh's Hunny Hunt whenever anyone talks about Tokyo. Another that is up there for being under-appreciated is 20k Leagues.

Did you ever have a chance to ride the original Sindbad?

It is the weakest land in the park and the ride just plain isn't very good. It's Sea World's Wild Arctic with slightly better effects but no kewl animal exhibits when you exit. I'm not saying that Nemo is the best solution here, but with everything else they are building, adding changing ... well, I get why this was done. Easy fix.

Sorry @WDWFigment - I'm with the Spirit on this one. Time for StormRider to take a hike.