News Cost Cutting Measures Coming Early 2025

[networkpro]

So I’ll give my thoughts on this. I don’t think Disney is going to cancel these projects. Universal is going to wipe the floor with them if they do.

I just priced out a trip at the Grand Helios with express pass etc and it’s still half the price of a Disney trip.

I have to wait and see how good Epic is but what if it’s amazing ? Who is going to pay double to go to Disney?

True, but Universal is hedging their bets by forcing people that want to go to either be a current passholder who can buy a dated one day admission or others have to buy a package which contains one Epic day and other days at other parks. They don't want any of their current parks to become ghost towns.

 

[Jrb1979]

True, but Universal is hedging their bets by forcing people that want to go to either be a current passholder who can buy a dated one day admission or others have to buy a package which contains one Epic day and other days at other parks. They don't want any of their current parks to become ghost towns.

That's for now. They have already said before park opening they will have day tickets available.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

True, but Universal is hedging their bets by forcing people that want to go to either be a current passholder who can buy a dated one day admission or others have to buy a package which contains one Epic day and other days at other parks. They don't want any of their current parks to become ghost towns.

Their parks won’t become ghost towns

Because while epic is the lure…the marketplace has arranged it now where there’s way more value in staying in one compound as opposed to 20 years ago when you could alternate in between without taking a big hit in what you’re paying/getting

And it’s not hard to trace how it got there

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

followed by improved metrics post Epic..

Maybe. Maybe not.

 

[IanDLBZF]

The last real significant tightening (during normal times) was 2015 against Shanghai. It really did nothing to WDW's capital expenditure plan. Quarterly belt tightening is pretty normal when we know they are having a soft 2 quarters followed by improved metrics post Epic..

Fact check, that was early 2016 AFAIK.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Their parks won’t become ghost towns

Because while epic is the lure…the marketplace has arranged it now where there’s way more value in staying in one compound as opposed to 20 years ago when you could alternate in between without taking a big hit in what you’re paying/getting

And it’s not hard to trace how it got there

WDW’s end of non-expiring tickets was the first of the mutually assured destructive volleys that WDW and Uni flung at each other making combined trips much more expensive.

 

[Jrb1979]

We could reduce 75% of this thread if people understood the difference between operational cost cutting and capital expenditure.

How did we escalate from they are reducing kitchen staff to Tropical Americas is in trouble?

The last real significant tightening (during normal times) was 2015 against Shanghai. It really did nothing to WDW's capital expenditure plan. Quarterly belt tightening is pretty normal when we know they are having a soft 2 quarters followed by improved metrics post Epic..

IMO that's a terrible way to run the parks. I know many of you will say that's normal for most companies now. At one point Disney was the standard and guest satisfaction was almost on the same level as quarterly earnings.

 

[WorldExplorer]

Uh, did you WATCH that bomb?

That has nothing to do with whether or not a movie is a bomb.

 

[Dranth]

Now I get you say “Elon” and not tesla…

But the reality is anyone who has invested money in Disney since 8/7/2015 and held it…will have made nothing other than a rather pathetic dividend…sometimes

Math is a real killer when we put on our rose colored fan glasses

I was responding to someone saying Disney was running the company like Elon. I made a half serious joke about how they aren't because they make money. Obviously Elon makes money, as do some of his companies, but he does like to run a lot of them at some pretty massive losses.

No where in there was stock a part of the discussion.

It was brought up in response to my post and everything after that was pointing out how the stock is often disconnected from the reality of a company. Tesla is a great example of exactly that.

Anyway, if you want to talk about it more shoot me a message as I think I have helped derail the thread enough at this point.

 

[Dranth]

IMO that's a terrible way to run the parks. I know many of you will say that's normal for most companies now. At one point Disney was the standard and guest satisfaction was almost on the same level as quarterly earnings.

I bet most of us wish Disney was still run like it was in the past in many ways. The issue is that they can't without being punished in the market. That is just the reality of being a public company these days.

That doesn't mean they are doing everything right or can't do better within those restrictions but reality is there will always be pressure to cut and reduce costs. There will always be pressure to increase revenue through new streams and raising prices on existing offerings.

The goal of any top-level leadership at Disney, in my opinion, should be to cling as closely as they can to the values and ideas that brought the company up while acknowledging that times change and dealing with the reality of now. Current management, to be generous, has been a mixed bag there. We'll see what happens with new management but whoever it is will face the same pressures and demands. The hope is that they find a better way to deal with it.

 

[larryz]

That has nothing to do with whether or not a movie is a bomb.

It does to me... I can't help it if other people like bad movies. Most people went to see it/bought it because (a) dinosaurs (little kids love dinosaurs), (b) Disney and (c) the tie-in with McDonald's.

 

[larryz]

Is that a new Mel Brooks movie?

I think I heard it in a Sly and the Family Stone song...

"Doom-schlocka-locka-locka..."

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

I think I heard it in a Sly and the Family Stone song...

"Doom-schlocka-locka-locka..."

Maybe that's in the soundtrack.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The last real significant tightening (during normal times) was 2015 against Shanghai. It really did nothing to WDW's capital expenditure plan. Quarterly belt tightening is pretty normal when we know they are having a soft 2 quarters followed by improved metrics post Epic..

This is perhaps the king of the wdw podcaster myths…only “Eisner was the worst ever!!” Even rivals it

They turned the screws on their bread and butter compound to start charging way more for less product…and it continues every day since.

It wouldn’t matter if they had opened a park on mars run by Hitler….they were still gonna do this in the US parks…

Cognitive dissonance

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

Understanding that a particular stock has massively underperformed the market for going on 4 seems to be a very difficult concept…

…but I’m sure all investors are wrong and D+ will make those trillions soon

Is there a reason why you’re so aggressively rude to people when you engage them in conversation? There are ways to disagree with people that don’t involve speaking to them that way.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Is there a reason why you’re so aggressively rude to people when you engage them in conversation? There are ways to disagree with people that don’t involve speaking to them that way.

…age combined with geography…mostly

And since you brought it up…let me clarify. That was pointing out a frequent excuse made by Disney fans…for Disney…which is insane. But it’s not directed toward one poster.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I was responding to someone saying Disney was running the company like Elon. I made a half serious joke about how they aren't because they make money. Obviously Elon makes money, as do some of his companies, but he does like to run a lot of them at some pretty massive losses.

No where in there was stock a part of the discussion.

It was brought up in response to my post and everything after that was pointing out how the stock is often disconnected from the reality of a company. Tesla is a great example of exactly that.

Anyway, if you want to talk about it more shoot me a message as I think I have helped derail the thread enough at this point.

No that’s fair enough…case closed.

I was getting the “…but it’s not DISNEY” vibe…which really has almost no oomph behind it anymore like it once did. That well is running dry. Bob.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

WDW’s end of non-expiring tickets was the first of the mutually assured destructive volleys that WDW and Uni flung at each other making combined trips much more expensive.

No expiration…doubling the price in 10 years (or less)…whacking people for park hoping (it used to be $5 a day essentially…for years….last I looked it was like $65?)…instead of a 14 day window on length of stay tickets…it’s now “+2”. - if that?…cutting down the benefit of buying more days at steep discounts…and of course all the nice little perks like killing the airport shuttle and adding more parking fees…

We looked at split stay type deal coming out of the plague - maybe 2021? - and the math said you were just gonna end up paying double if you tried to do two shorter stays at each as opposed to just picking one.

 

[Tha Realest]

Is there a reason why you’re so aggressively rude to people when you engage them in conversation? There are ways to disagree with people that don’t involve speaking to them that way.

This is the post he was responding to. His response was appropriate and proportional

 

[lazyboy97o]

The issue is that they can't without being punished in the market. That is just the reality of being a public company these days.

It’s not the reality of the market. You just highlighted how the market doesn’t just act in one uniform way towards public companies. Disney’s problem is one of leadership. They don’t know or like theme parks and therefore lack the ability to justify the very basics of the business.