News Chapek FIRED, Iger New CEO

[Vinnie Mac]

I shudder to think about how awful things would have to get in the future for us to look back on "the glory days of the 2020's".

It's not necessarily that the future will be worse, just different. People do this outside of the realm of theme parks. I've seen many people transition from "I hate the 2010s" to "the 2010's were the good ol' days". People will always think the future is worst than whatever happened in the past because of how different the two times are.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It's not necessarily that the future will be worse, just different. People do this outside of the realm of theme parks. I've seen many people transition from "I hate the 2010s" to "the 2010's were the good ol' days". People will always think the future is worst than whatever happened in the past because of how different the two times are.

Yep…you remember what it was like when the 60’s turned to the 70’s, don’t you? Nobody today would believe the phone was actually atttached to the wall!!

 

[Mac Tonight]

It's not necessarily that the future will be worse, just different. People do this outside of the realm of theme parks. I've seen many people transition from "I hate the 2010s" to "the 2010's were the good ol' days". People will always think the future is worst than whatever happened in the past because of how different the two times are.

For a society that seems obsessed with "progress" so much, this seems heavily ironic.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Build a 5th gate.

I don’t trust WDI to do a good job.

 

[Mac Tonight]

I don’t trust WDI to do a good job.

Knowing Chapek, he’d likely want to call it something like “Disney’s Magical Metaverse” where everything is a pay-to-play type attraction.

“Here at the Magical Metaverse, you can live your own adventure! Provided you have the cash!”

 

[wutisgood]

wasn't disney caught shilling on boards before? The el_super person sounds like one.

 

[MrPromey]

Not the metaverse again! One thing people have wanted more as a result of the pandemic is getting outside in the fresh air and reconnecting with nature, not sticking a headset on and playing around in an Zuckerberg's imaginary advertising world.
And 'ideation'??

All because Mark Zuckerberg thought changing his company's name would make people forget what a cancer on humanity it is.






Shockingly, if new outlets are to be believed, he might have been right - we're doomed as a species.


_

 

[MrPromey]

Yeah, celebrating anniversaries before it officially comes around isn't exactly unusual, especially for theme parks.

Unless you're today's Disney, in which case, you don't really bother, even when the time comes around.

 

[fgmnt]

the main reason - in my experience - why people do this is they see it as a disappointment and therefore won’t look at the simple reasons.

its park cannibalization and longterm labor/overhead commitments…trust me. That’s not an opinion.

yup. It's also apparently easy to forget why the swamps have 4 gates: two can be pretty directly tied to the paranoia and egocentrism of the CEO who was there to break the grounds and cut the ribbons. It's also apparently easy to hand wave the limping and sputtering of subsequent/current management trickling out capital expenditures at all of the non-castle park over the last 20 years.

The Great Movie Ride was replaced because the company was not interested in increasing operational overhead in 2020 beyond what SWGE would be adding to the park from its 2015 operational capacity. This is not something that was exactly delineated in a press release, but I seem to recall numerous insiders saying this when the rumbles started and I didn't fall off the back of a truck yesterday. I don't think the company sees any immediate, material, negative financial impact to this decision or you would have heard of some plans far more expensive yet barely less reactive than whatever the hell they have going on in Sunset Showcase. Sure, the fact the park has trouble keeping all nine of its rides up for more than 90% of a given day isn't great, but the decisionmakers who could solve that problem in any number of ways are not facing any punitive consequences for it, so it is effectively not a problem. The lack of replacement for RoL, the lack of maintained staff for night safaris, and the overdue rehab of EE have rolled DAK back to a half day park, but that doesn't matter as long as you can't tie these things to a drop in per guest spending.

I absolutely have no reason to believe Slappy is a good actor or nice guy, but there is zero motivation from the board or their customer base to do much anything different.

 

[fgmnt]

I don’t trust WDI to do a good job.

I think WDI can still do good work, but not under the advisement from current management in the domestic parks or with respect to completing development of something on time and not openly disrespectful of the value of a US dollar.

To speak nothing of how initiating a seismic shift of the division by moving it across the country while likely still paying well below market rate (a rate they can easily afford!) for the talent they need.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I don’t trust WDI to do a good job.

They’ve been Pretty terrible on a cost/benefit analysis for quite some time

yup. It's also apparently easy to forget why the swamps have 4 gates: two can be pretty directly tied to the paranoia and egocentrism of the CEO who was there to break the grounds and cut the ribbons. It's also apparently easy to hand wave the limping and sputtering of subsequent/current management trickling out capital expenditures at all of the non-castle park over the last 20 years.

The Great Movie Ride was replaced because the company was not interested in increasing operational overhead in 2020 beyond what SWGE would be adding to the park from its 2015 operational capacity. This is not something that was exactly delineated in a press release, but I seem to recall numerous insiders saying this when the rumbles started and I didn't fall off the back of a truck yesterday. I don't think the company sees any immediate, material, negative financial impact to this decision or you would have heard of some plans far more expensive yet barely less reactive than whatever the hell they have going on in Sunset Showcase. Sure, the fact the park has trouble keeping all nine of its rides up for more than 90% of a given day isn't great, but the decisionmakers who could solve that problem in any number of ways are not facing any punitive consequences for it, so it is effectively not a problem. The lack of replacement for RoL, the lack of maintained staff for night safaris, and the overdue rehab of EE have rolled DAK back to a half day park, but that doesn't matter as long as you can't tie these things to a drop in per guest spending.

I absolutely have no reason to believe Slappy is a good actor or nice guy, but there is zero motivation from the board or their customer base to do much anything different.

Woah…easy there, fella…
Cast member alert!

I think WDI can still do good work, but not under the advisement from current management in the domestic parks or with respect to completing development of something on time and not openly disrespectful of the value of a US dollar.

To speak nothing of how initiating a seismic shift of the division by moving it across the country while likely still paying well below market rate (a rate they can easily afford!) for the talent they need.

See above response on this…

 

[fgmnt]

They’ve been Pretty terrible on a cost/benefit analysis for quite some time

Woah…easy there, fella…
Cast member alert!

See above response on this…

I can assure you I have never been nor have ever considered working as a CM for the Walt Disney Company. I can't think of many more punishing employers to work for, many more punishing industries to work in, nor many more punishing cities to live in. No, I just visit friends who are CMs and very very occasionally make an extended trip to the swamps when the whole extended family wants an easy vacation. These are the things I chew on a lot when I'm back home and far away from the swamp.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I can assure you I have never been nor have ever considered working as a CM for the Walt Disney Company. I can't think of many more punishing employers to work for, many more punishing industries to work in, nor many more punishing cities to live in. No, I just visit friends who are CMs and very very occasionally make an extended trip to the swamps when the whole extended family wants an easy vacation. These are the things I chew on a lot when I'm back home and far away from the swamp.

The schtick sounded very CM…they’re getting to you

 

[Lilofan]

yup. It's also apparently easy to forget why the swamps have 4 gates: two can be pretty directly tied to the paranoia and egocentrism of the CEO who was there to break the grounds and cut the ribbons. It's also apparently easy to hand wave the limping and sputtering of subsequent/current management trickling out capital expenditures at all of the non-castle park over the last 20 years.

The Great Movie Ride was replaced because the company was not interested in increasing operational overhead in 2020 beyond what SWGE would be adding to the park from its 2015 operational capacity. This is not something that was exactly delineated in a press release, but I seem to recall numerous insiders saying this when the rumbles started and I didn't fall off the back of a truck yesterday. I don't think the company sees any immediate, material, negative financial impact to this decision or you would have heard of some plans far more expensive yet barely less reactive than whatever the hell they have going on in Sunset Showcase. Sure, the fact the park has trouble keeping all nine of its rides up for more than 90% of a given day isn't great, but the decisionmakers who could solve that problem in any number of ways are not facing any punitive consequences for it, so it is effectively not a problem. The lack of replacement for RoL, the lack of maintained staff for night safaris, and the overdue rehab of EE have rolled DAK back to a half day park, but that doesn't matter as long as you can't tie these things to a drop in per guest spending.

I absolutely have no reason to believe Slappy is a good actor or nice guy, but there is zero motivation from the board or their customer base to do much anything different.

One year back in the day we went to DHS and wanted to ride the Great Movie Ride. The CM advised the ride would be closed for 6 months for a rehab. What goes on for six months for the ride to be shut down.? We rode it a few years later and I could not tell the difference.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I think WDI can still do good work, but not under the advisement from current management in the domestic parks or with respect to completing development of something on time and not openly disrespectful of the value of a US dollar.

To speak nothing of how initiating a seismic shift of the division by moving it across the country while likely still paying well below market rate (a rate they can easily afford!) for the talent they need.

Things like off proportions don’t come down from management. There are a lot of poor design decisions of late that career being dictated from above.

 

[Cesar R M]

wasn't disney caught shilling on boards before? The el_super person sounds like one.

We had a few super hardcore chillers.
But we also had some who only saw the negative at all costs as well.

 

[Dan Deesnee]

Knowing Chapek, he’d likely want to call it something like “Disney’s Magical Metaverse” where everything is a pay-to-play type attraction.

“Here at the Magical Metaverse, you can live your own adventure! Provided you have the cash!”

*shudder

Why would you even give them the idea?!?

One year back in the day we went to DHS and wanted to ride the Great Movie Ride. The CM advised the ride would be closed for 6 months for a rehab. What goes on for six months for the ride to be shut down.? We rode it a few years later and I could not tell the difference.

I've often wondered this. We've been on many many trips in the past decade and frequently a ride we just rode a few months earlier is closed for refurbishments. Several times we've started our trips right as one of those attractions gets reopened. I have never, not once been able to tell what work has been done. The obvious cosmetic flaws always remain...

I get that not all refurbishments are cosmetic. It just seems like there's some low hanging fruit they could tackle. Like the rabbits on the front of the Splash Mountain boats and their blue plastic showing.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I've often wondered this. We've been on many many trips in the past decade and frequently a ride we just rode a few months earlier is closed for refurbishments. Several times we've started our trips right as one of those attractions gets reopened. I have never, not once been able to tell what work has been done. The obvious cosmetic flaws always remain...

I get that not all refurbishments are cosmetic. It just seems like there's some low hanging fruit they could tackle. Like the rabbits on the front of the Splash Mountain boats and their blue plastic showing.

I would never suggest a conspiracy theory …

but my idea was that if they got X number of 101 calls over a period of time…they take it offline and call it “rehab”…to lower the operational cost.

the artist formerly known as “splash mountain” and GMR lends support to that…for many years things were broken the day they opened back up from rehab.

“only the minimum”

 

[fgmnt]

Things like off proportions don’t come down from management. There are a lot of poor design decisions of late that career being dictated from above.

They built their trade on building exterior designs of structures in a way that could trick the human mind through forced perspective and now it's all warehouse buildings in "go away green."

 

[JoeCamel]

I would never suggest a conspiracy theory …

but my idea was that if they got X number of 101 calls over a period of time…they take it offline and call it “rehab”…to lower the operational cost.

the artist formerly known as “splash mountain” and GMR lends support to that…for many years things were broken the day they opened back up from rehab.

“only the minimum”

That and anytime Fred goes on break or takes a vacay they don't run. And sometimes Thursday.....