News Bob Iger is back! Chapek is out!!

[lazyboy97o]

Lets see what the numbers say when 2022 attendance figures come out. From 2015-2019, attendance at MK only fluctuated by about 400k. Pandora did add around 3 million people, but that had stabilized after that one year. Epcot has also stayed very stagnant by attendance, even with the addition of Frozen Ever After. DHS, saw somewhere between 200k and 600k people added for Toy Story Land. My suspicion is that attendance is not the main driver in why the parks feel as crowded/lines are as long as they are. In other words, they don't need to control the crowds more in terms of limiting attendance, they need to address the reasons it feels so much worse.

Crowding is something that can be controlled and shaped. Disney wants it to feel crowded because it changes expectations. They’ve got people paying to make crowding worse.

 

[pdude81]

I feel like Disney missed out here on NFL Sunday ticket. I was hoping Iger would ride in and buy something else to shake things up, but not the case. It's just confusing that they will pay more for Monday night football (one game per week) each year than Google will pay for Sunday ticket.

 

[el_super]

Thats what Disney is saying, have we hit 2019 crowd levels?? Believe what you want.

You don't have to believe the actual attendance is the same to realize that the demand is just as high if not higher than 2019. They've raised prices, they implemented reservations, they added Genie+ and despite almost universal agreement that these are detriments to the overall experience, people are still going and the parks are making more and more money each quarter.

At a certain point, if you believe these were really hurting the experience, you'd have to think that people would stop going. So far it hasn't happened.

 

[el_super]

More needs to be done to control the crowds….like park expansion and offerings that keeps up with the crowds rather than stagnation and price gouging

So which is better? A incredibly expensive park with lots of attractions, or a cheap park with heavy crowds?

 

[Rickcat96]

You don't have to believe the actual attendance is the same to realize that the demand is just as high if not higher than 2019. They've raised prices, they implemented reservations, they added Genie+ and despite almost universal agreement that these are detriments to the overall experience, people are still going and the parks are making more and more money each quarter.

At a certain point, if you believe these were really hurting the experience, you'd have to think that people would stop going. So far it hasn't happened.

Bob is that you? Thanks for the email btw

 

[GhostHost1000]

So which is better? A incredibly expensive park with lots of attractions, or a cheap park with heavy crowds?

How about a resort destination with plenty of attractions and parks to spread out the crowds that doesn’t take a doctorate degree to plan, navigate and enjoy or a second mortgage to stay at a value resort for some.

 

[GhostHost1000]

You don't have to believe the actual attendance is the same to realize that the demand is just as high if not higher than 2019. They've raised prices, they implemented reservations, they added Genie+ and despite almost universal agreement that these are detriments to the overall experience, people are still going and the parks are making more and more money each quarter.

At a certain point, if you believe these were really hurting the experience, you'd have to think that people would stop going. So far it hasn't happened.

I still believe some of the crowds are from the post Covid return many of which who are not liking the new Disney and may not return as often as they did in the past. Time will tell

 

[GimpYancIent]

So which is better? A incredibly expensive park with lots of attractions, or a cheap park with heavy crowds?

Neither. There will be folks that don't care about the cost and want to have their experience at their leisure. There will be folks that don't want to spend a lot just to do some rides, have some simple fun and nothing more. If an amusement venue designs itself to serve a particular niche crowd that's what it will get.

 

[LittleBuford]

Im leaving for a week at DisneyLand on Tuesday...Ive never been less excited for a Disney trip. Its sad that I feel like a combination of price, stress of the stupid pay-to-ride Genie service and lack of expected services is just killing my love for the parks. Bob doesnt get it, I doubt he ever will. Now is the worst time to be a Disney fan.

May I ask why you’re going through with the trip given your lack of excitement? I’m not being rhetorical.

 

[el_super]

How about a resort destination with plenty of attractions and parks to spread out the crowds that doesn’t take a doctorate degree to plan, navigate and enjoy or a second mortgage to stay at a value resort for some.

You can't have it both ways. You can't have a park that is relatively cheap to get into, but has thousands of acres of real estate and 100s of attractions. It's an unrealistic expectation. If the parks were to go thru and start expanding and building new things, you better believe that prices would keep going up.

 

[Rickcat96]

I still believe some of the crowds are from the post Covid return many of which who are not liking the new Disney and may not return as often as they did in the past. Time will tell

add in uncertain economic stuff for the next 12 months too.

Disney is a no-win scenario right now, if the economy is distressed in 2023, on top of the cut back to save money will make the parks even more miserable.

 

[thomas998]

You can tell a difference between before outsourcing and after? TWDC has not been at the forefront of tech for many years

Well I just highlighted one failure and I'm pretty confident that for everyone someone notices outside the company there are a couple dozen more that an outsider will never see. Hopefully these low rent IS folks don't start screwing up ride computers and causing accidents.

 

[GhostHost1000]

You can't have it both ways. You can't have a park that is relatively cheap to get into, but has thousands of acres of real estate and 100s of attractions. It's an unrealistic expectation. If the parks were to go thru and start expanding and building new things, you better believe that prices would keep going up.

Depends on how they manage they finances, not use the parks to pay for all the other Disney owned bills, and not cost 10x more than it should to build something there

 

[el_super]

Depends on how they manage they finances, not use the parks to pay for all the other Disney owned finances, and not cost 10x more than it should to build something there

Is there really evidence that they aren't using their finances appropriately? I get that parks fans would want 100% investment back in the parks, but what areas of the company actually make the most money and make the wisest investments? At the point that fans are falling over themselves saying the parks are too expensive, it would seem that theme parks have no path toward recouping any future investment costs.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Is there really evidence that they aren't using their finances appropriately? I get that parks fans would want 100% investment back in the parks, but what areas of the company actually make the most money and make the wisest investments? At the point that fans are falling over themselves saying the parks are too expensive, it would seem that theme parks have no path toward recouping any future investment costs.

In the spirit of the season…
You serious Clark?

 

[LSLS]

You don't have to believe the actual attendance is the same to realize that the demand is just as high if not higher than 2019. They've raised prices, they implemented reservations, they added Genie+ and despite almost universal agreement that these are detriments to the overall experience, people are still going and the parks are making more and more money each quarter.

At a certain point, if you believe these were really hurting the experience, you'd have to think that people would stop going. So far it hasn't happened.

I'm not sure I understand this. So you concede attendance is down, but people haven't stopped going at all? Also, if attendance is down and crowding is up, wouldn't that point to there being other issues than needing to simply raise prices higher to limit attendance more (i.e. more of what Pete mentioned)?

 

[Chip Chipperson]

I feel like Disney missed out here on NFL Sunday ticket. I was hoping Iger would ride in and buy something else to shake things up, but not the case. It's just confusing that they will pay more for Monday night football (one game per week) each year than Google will pay for Sunday ticket.

My best guess is that the ad revenue from Monday Night Football (and the Manningcast version of the broadcast) outweighs the price they pay for the broadcast rights, but the Sunday Ticket package has less appeal since it only benefits fans whose favorite team is out of their broadcast area and don't want to hang out in bars all day, hardcore fans who want to be able to watch every game without going to a bar, and bars who get the fans in those 2 categories who don't mind hanging out in a bar all day and/or don't want to pay the cost of Sunday Ticket (plus the cost of whatever provider holds the rights at the moment - DirecTV now and apparently YouTube going forward). With the price for the Sunday Ticket rights going crazy, it may have reached a point where Disney didn't see a way for them to gain enough ESPN+ subscribers to make the deal profitable. At around $300 for Sunday Ticket, YouTube will need a whole lot of subscribers to break even. According to CNBC, DirecTV was losing $500 million/year on the deal while paying $1.5 million/year for the rights. YouTube is apparently not requiring a YouTube TV subscription, which removes a big barrier for potential Sunday Ticket subscribers since it would make cable subscribers choose between cancelling cable in favor of YouTube's TV service or doubling up on cable and YouTube TV just to be able to get Sunday Ticket - so that's a good move for Google and NFL fans, but I don't know if Disney would have been as willing to make Sunday Ticket available without an ESPN+ subscription since it's an obvious way to drive subscription growth.

 

[CaptainMickey]

I feel like Disney missed out here on NFL Sunday ticket. I was hoping Iger would ride in and buy something else to shake things up, but not the case. It's just confusing that they will pay more for Monday night football (one game per week) each year than Google will pay for Sunday ticket.

100% agree. Sunday Ticket would be a tremendous driver for ESPN+ and it would have an incredible halo effect for them. Additionally, it would keep Google out of the live (NFL) sports market. A lot of sports fans will be on Youtube on Sundays now, not ESPN+.

 

[Pancho]

I like the a la cart option, if it's real. i'd rather just watch my fav teams games than need to buy all the games. that's a dream come true.

 

[el_super]

In the spirit of the season…
You serious Clark?

Yep. You want to say the parks are too epensive... sure I can understand that. Then how do you propose to recoup investment costs?