Chapek's comments - he doesn't want anyone on this board at WDW any more

[flynnibus]

They seem to be trying to lower demand by increasing costs and frustrations, and lowering offerings and quality. Instead they should be trying to increase supply by building a fifth park, or an entire third resort for the US market. Maybe call it Disneyland+.

They aren't truly trying to lower demand - that's just lip service to the public. They know they are capitalizing on higher yield customers and pushing prices up because the market is willing to pay it. A drop in demand is just a happy byproduct.. because they are counting on higher margins and revenues anyway.

They are just for the first time showing their true MBA styles to the media and talking about it directly instead of hiding behind fluffy nebulous phrases. Basically, they are stepping out from behind the curtain and being aggressive about it.

 

[Cliff]

They aren't truly trying to lower demand - that's just lip service to the public. They know they are capitalizing on higher yield customers and pushing prices up because the market is willing to pay it. A drop in demand is just a happy byproduct.. because they are counting on higher margins and revenues anyway.

They are just for the first time showing their true MBA styles to the media and talking about it directly instead of hiding behind fluffy nebulous phrases. Basically, they are stepping out from behind the curtain and being aggressive about it.

It's hard to know if this high demand, crowded park issue is just a temporary result of the pandemic ending and people just excercising pent up demand to travel to Disney or not. I have heard that Sept has already seen a small slow down but that could be just seasonal.

I would guess that WDW saw a highly sucessfull summer profit season but I think they will want to monitor the next year closely to see if this high demand continues. If this high demand is not a fluke, I could see that being able to justify a 5th park down the road to meet that demand.

Remember....Disney has a MASSIVE cloud of debt over its head tody. Their #1 goal right now is to get that resolved over time. That debt hurts their ability to invest in new projects. Disney's wallet is empty and put a lot of stuff on their credit cards to pay for 20th Fox and to stay affloat.

Because of this, I dobt see them building anything expensive in the parks for 5 years. Its very possible that spending 70 BBBillion on Fox...could have been a GIANT mistake on Iger's part.

 

[Jrb1979]

It's hard to know if this high demand, crowded park issue is just a temporary result of the pandemic ending and people just excercising pent up demand to travel to Disney or not. I have heard that Sept has already seen a small slow down but that could be just seasonal.

I would guess that WDW saw a highly sucessfull summer profit season but I think they will want to monitor the next year closely to see if this high demand continues. If this high demand is not a fluke, I could see that being able to justify a 5th park down the road to meet that demand.

Remember....Disney has a MASSIVE cloud of debt over its head tody. Their #1 goal right now is to get that resolved over time. That debt hurts their ability to invest in new projects. Disney's wallet is empty and put a lot of stuff on their credit cards to pay for 20th Fox and to stay affloat.

Because of this, I dobt see them building anything expensive in the parks for 5 years. Its very possible that spending 70 BBBillion on Fox...could have been a GIANT mistake on Iger's part.

I'm wondering if that's the reason for the lack of big announcements at D23. They don't have to money to spend on major additions.

 

[crazy4disney]

Kinda like when they reskinned one of the best WDI rides ever - maybe the best - to serve as an IP tie to a 15 year old animated movie that didn’t do well (check the chart ) but has considerable product licensing value?

Or “announcing” two Spanish culture based “attractions” for magic kingdom they have zero intention of ever building for positive PR spin?

What are we referring to here bc im drawing a blank? Unless its Splash…

 

[Club Cooloholic]

I read the comments as...expect annual pass access to have limits. Maybe that will be only so many days a month, or more black our days. It's understandable, to a degree. That said maybe they need to build another location in north America to help with crowds. Or maybe even somewhere in south America

 

[networkpro]

It's hard to know if this high demand, crowded park issue is just a temporary result of the pandemic ending and people just excercising pent up demand to travel to Disney or not. I have heard that Sept has already seen a small slow down but that could be just seasonal.

I would guess that WDW saw a highly sucessfull summer profit season but I think they will want to monitor the next year closely to see if this high demand continues. If this high demand is not a fluke, I could see that being able to justify a 5th park down the road to meet that demand.

Remember....Disney has a MASSIVE cloud of debt over its head tody. Their #1 goal right now is to get that resolved over time. That debt hurts their ability to invest in new projects. Disney's wallet is empty and put a lot of stuff on their credit cards to pay for 20th Fox and to stay affloat.

Because of this, I dobt see them building anything expensive in the parks for 5 years. Its very possible that spending 70 BBBillion on Fox...could have been a GIANT mistake on Iger's part.

If you look at the rate they've historically paid off debt :

• Disney long term debt for the quarter ending June 30, 2022 was $46.022B, a 9.95% decline year-over-year.
• Disney long term debt for 2021 was $48.54B, a 8.27% decline from 2020.
• Disney long term debt for 2020 was $52.917B, a 38.78% increase from 2019.
• Disney long term debt for 2019 was $38.129B, a 123.19% increase from 2018.

But total liabilities show a different story

• Disney total liabilities for the quarter ending June 30, 2022 were $107.641B, a 3.11% decline year-over-year.
• Disney total liabilities for 2021 were $110.598B, a 2.37% decline from 2020.
• Disney total liabilities for 2020 were $113.286B, a 13.18% increase from 2019.
• Disney total liabilities for 2019 were $100.095B, a 118.71% increase from 2018.

You can see they accessed their credit facility during the pandemic.

Look at what they owe, vs what they are worth

• Disney total assets for the quarter ending June 30, 2022 were $204.074B, a 0.92% increase year-over-year.
• Disney total assets for 2021 were $203.609B, a 1.02% increase from 2020.
• Disney total assets for 2020 were $201.549B, a 3.9% increase from 2019.
• Disney total assets for 2019 were $193.984B, a 96.74% increase from 2018.

And remember those shareholders ?

• Disney share holder equity for the quarter ending June 30, 2022 was $96.433B, a 5.83% increase year-over-year.
• Disney share holder equity for 2021 was $93.011B, a 5.38% increase from 2020.
• Disney share holder equity for 2020 was $88.263B, a 5.99% decline from 2019.
• Disney share holder equity for 2019 was $93.889B, a 77.71% increase from 2018.

If you take the assets, subtract the liabilities you get the shareholders value. 96.433 billion divided by the 1,823 million existing shares which works out to $96.43.

That's $15.33 less than what the stock closed for today. So the stock purchasers have that much good will for the company in spite of its tangible assets.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I would ask about refund and return policy prior to purchasing.

Indeed.

But that doesn't answer my question.

In this case the company knew the product didn't work, yet they continued to sell it.

Is that a scam?

 

[Lilofan]

Indeed.

But that doesn't answer my question.

In this case the company knew the product didn't work, yet they continued to sell it.

Is that a scam?

Perhaps , like about 40 years ago when tests and customer accidents showed Audi 5000 models had unintended acceleration. Owners claimed pressing on the brakes caused unintended acceleration. Audi defended themselves by claiming owners instead depressed the gas pedal .

 

[flynnibus]

It's hard to know if this high demand, crowded park issue is just a temporary result of the pandemic ending and people just excercising pent up demand to travel to Disney or not. I have heard that Sept has already seen a small slow down but that could be just seasonal.

All the 'the park is empty!' stories are just byproducts of the need to have something to say. This is always a low period due to the end of summer and startup of school for most areas.

I would guess that WDW saw a highly sucessfull summer profit season but I think they will want to monitor the next year closely to see if this high demand continues. If this high demand is not a fluke, I could see that being able to justify a 5th park down the road to meet that demand.

You're not seeing it. Adding capacity means adding overhead. Overhead = committed expense.. increasing your exposure to fluctuations in demand. Instead they would rather drive growth through higher margins and prices. It doesn't increase their overhead yet they get the revenue growth they need.

This is why Disney is so slow to add fixed capacity to the parks or prefer replacing attractions vs adding... it's risk to increase your baseline overhead. Adding a whole new park is the worst case for that.

They are going to keep driving revenue through prices as long as the customers keep coming.

OpEx is what hurts their quarterly reporting.. their lending costs are low.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Disney’s business was disrupted as much as 85% in 2020…that’s EVERYTHING…not just parks…

So they “paid a price”. But Wall Street doesn’t work the “math” way anymore and their stock was artificially inflated bout $75…which they lost this past year. And the “world is flat”

But as far as the “crowding” in parks goes - at least in Florida - you can easily look at their “assumed” aggregate attendance rose on a predictable upward trajectory since they opened and as the area expanded. And Iger added almost no “capacity” within parks.

There’s the “crunch”. It was a strategic and operational “choice”…and failure.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

They aren't truly trying to lower demand - that's just lip service to the public. They know they are capitalizing on higher yield customers and pushing prices up because the market is willing to pay it. A drop in demand is just a happy byproduct.. because they are counting on higher margins and revenues anyway.

They are just for the first time showing their true MBA styles to the media and talking about it directly instead of hiding behind fluffy nebulous phrases. Basically, they are stepping out from behind the curtain and being aggressive about it.

Unfortunately…there’s nothing to dispute here.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

What are we referring to here bc im drawing a blank? Unless its Splash…

…now I’m confused…which happens a lot

 

[crazy4disney]

…now I’m confused…which happens a lot

I was genuinely asking a question bc you said the ride already was rethemed or thats how i took it but cant think of a ride that was possibly best ever other than Splash which is on the chopping block just not chopped yet lol

 

[crazy4disney]

All the 'the park is empty!' stories are just byproducts of the need to have something to say. This is always a low period due to the end of summer

Whatever the reason i will say this i was there 8/26-9/5 and it was “empty” for most part and that included Labor Day weekend which shocked me completely.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Whatever the reason i will say this i was there 8/26-9/5 and it was “empty” for most part and that included Labor Day weekend which shocked me completely.

That is now square within probably the slowest month block of the year. Attendance has shifted a lot over the last 20 years or so

 

[thomas998]

I hate Chapek, but he is referring to annual passholders that go constantly, not necessarily "superfans", right?

There is an easy solution for the passholders, stop selling new ones and start raising the price of the existing ones.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I was genuinely asking a question bc you said the ride already was rethemed or thats how i took it but cant think of a ride that was possibly best ever other than Splash which is on the chopping block just not chopped yet lol

No I was talking about splash…

PATC has a lot of product appeal…and the trade off from splash is of course great from optics standpoint. No question.

But the movie itself didn’t perform well enough to merit a parks ride. I’m not even sure it covered budget? Disney really ballyhooed it’s release - especially on abc - but we didn’t see a PATF2…

Which is good because they put that weird psychedelic “Leif Garrett” song sequence in frozen 2 and we don’t need anything else like that.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

There is an easy solution for the passholders, stop selling new ones and start raising the price of the existing ones.

That doesn’t make any sense.

There’s no “existing ones”…they last for a year and renew.

They more or less have stopped selling new ones - at least in Orlando. And if they don’t resume new sales, the renewals will stop as well. They won’t let “customer preference” determine how long it lingers.

I do find it odd they floated the “membership” idea…sorta…last week prior to geekcon and didn’t mention a peep during.

A weird test balloon kind maneuver. Or Bob just is dumb. You pick.

 

[crazy4disney]

That is now square within probably the slowest month block of the year. Attendance has shifted a lot over the last 20 years or so

I agree. Its been 13 years since ive gone during this time. It was always when we went but never expected the low level we saw.

 

[Jrb1979]

That is now square within probably the slowest month block of the year. Attendance has shifted a lot over the last 20 years or so

It could be that. I think it's going to be slower then normal through the end of the year. Why else would they giving room discounts all the way to Christmas?