Mike S
Well-Known Member
They just bought more stake in DLP. They're not selling any parks.
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Cuts coming to every area of parks and resorts - thanks to Shanghai and Paris
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
DAK, Yes huge investment so far so I agree with that one, OTOH DHS is only a few million so far, Please note this is ACTUAL spending not a mythical big budget expansion which has yet to move a shovelful of dirt. In corporate america capital expansions vanish as soon as the analyst community does not like them. And the analysts would be happier with a fat quarter in a downturn and the promise of lower ongoing expenses that the promise of increased revenues in 5 years.
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
Im talking about the future and in case "crap hits the fan". Not now when Disney is swimming in money.
Disone
Well-Known Member
mixed messaging but they are adding back a small percent of the cuts they made and are in the decision making process of choosing which cuts to add back. At they same time they have been asked to streamline costs and elminated those costs that are unneeded.
roj2323
Well-Known Member
This is just simple common sense and should have been done 20 years ago. The problem with Disney is it runs a lot like the military. Each part has it's own leadership team and budget and not spending that entire budget means you might not get as much next year. This unfortunately means that over time there's a culture of wasted money that could otherwise go towards profits or other park operations needs. The reverse of this is incentivized budget trimming but that too has it's drawbacks as Quality of service and safety tend to go first in this situation. Fortunately Disney is more intelegent than this so they tend to give each leadership team a list of suggested cutbacks as well as a list of items to not cut. For cast this typically means a lack of over time, hours cutbacks (part timers might only see one shift a week instead of 3) and a noticeable lack of extra help in your work area. It's not something the guests would notice naturally but it does make the job more difficult and you might not get your break exactly on time. Other areas that get trimmed are refurbishments and new ideas. For example they might stretch the 24month refurbishment of trash cans to 36 months and the yearly refurbishment of rides might just get the basics taken care of so it runs smoothly and is safe but the animatronics might just get a lube job instead of a complete rebuild. Other areas they can trim without a great impact to guests is Time. The amount of time the park is open, Character Meet & greet hours, Ride & attraction operation hours exc. All of this adds up and can lead to huge savings but it's a fine line. Cut too much and the guests will notice not only a lack of things to do but also a lack of morale within the cast. Cut too little and you don't meet the operational budget needs.
I'm a firm believer that Disney Park Operations needs a completely new way of running their parks as the current system is dysfunctional by design.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
The biggest change would be to abandon the Paul Pressler business model instituted in the 1990s and return to the prior model the parks started with. Walt Disney World right now is merely a geographic cluster of competing businesses that happen to share ownership, it is not a singular experience that is guided and shaped as such.
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ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Ironically the 'Singular Experience' model also gave the best FINANCIAL returns for WDW along with the best Guest experience. What did old dead guy Walt say oh yeah 'Quality will out'.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
It sure is a cluster.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Expect them to hit in October, As Iger needs Q1 FY17 'Numbers' to beat Q1FY16
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
And getting WORSE every day...
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
Why not run them with cash bar as a booze cruise?
prberk
Well-Known Member
For what it is worth, I thought I would share this.
I had lunch yesterday after church with two young Chinese gentlemen who are currently college students but came to visit for the weekend as one had been an exchange students in our area during high school and keeps in touch. I gave my friend something I had bought for him at EPCOT, and the other student brought up the new Shanghai resort.
He said that he had not been to it, but that what he heard from the news was that it was losing money, and that tourists were not going because it was too expensive. His phrasing was along the lines of "nobody wants to go, because they have heard it is very expensive."
That sounds like something we have heard around here.
In an earlier conversation (last spring) I had asked him about it and he knew about it's opening but not much more at that time, except that it was for kids. He was curious as to why I liked Disney World, because it seemed to be for kids.
Just thought you all might be interested in hearing the perspective of a regular 19-year old Chinese student. Sounds like Disney marketing and management has been as myopic in China as it has been here lately. And they do not see the consequences. Granted, this is the perspective of only one student (whose home I understand is not that far from Shanghai), but it is familiar enough to tell me that it is probably not that far off the mark.
And I do think it is significant that he is hearing about the losses and the expense from the Chinese news and friends. Both of the students have said that they believe that the Chinese news channels all operate within government control.
I had lunch yesterday after church with two young Chinese gentlemen who are currently college students but came to visit for the weekend as one had been an exchange students in our area during high school and keeps in touch. I gave my friend something I had bought for him at EPCOT, and the other student brought up the new Shanghai resort.
He said that he had not been to it, but that what he heard from the news was that it was losing money, and that tourists were not going because it was too expensive. His phrasing was along the lines of "nobody wants to go, because they have heard it is very expensive."
That sounds like something we have heard around here.
In an earlier conversation (last spring) I had asked him about it and he knew about it's opening but not much more at that time, except that it was for kids. He was curious as to why I liked Disney World, because it seemed to be for kids.
Just thought you all might be interested in hearing the perspective of a regular 19-year old Chinese student. Sounds like Disney marketing and management has been as myopic in China as it has been here lately. And they do not see the consequences. Granted, this is the perspective of only one student (whose home I understand is not that far from Shanghai), but it is familiar enough to tell me that it is probably not that far off the mark.
And I do think it is significant that he is hearing about the losses and the expense from the Chinese news and friends. Both of the students have said that they believe that the Chinese news channels all operate within government control.
xdan0920
Think for yourselfer
This would be wonderful. I also think there is a sub 1% chance it happens. Take shopping....Forget the idea of a shop operating at a lossin deference to theme, they won't even let shops operate with marginal profits. Each shop must hit it's profit target, or else Anna and Elsa dolls are invading. It's a bummer, but the fact is, WDW is moving away from the cohesive theme model every day.
Brad Bishop
Well-Known Member
That's interesting. It's anecdotal, of course, but interesting.
Just to play Devil's Advocate:
- All of the parks have a hard time getting off the ground. Disneyland had a miserable opening Summer. WDW (MK) went for a good decade of being nearly empty outside of Summer. EPCOT got off to a bumpy start ("It's boring.."). DHS had a rocky start - granted, it was rushed to market which didn't help. I don't know about AK. Paris had problems and, from what I've read, they're still there today. HK has had issues with attendance, from what I understand. Now it's Shanghai. I think that the only exception to this may be Tokyo Disneyland. I think they've had it pretty good the entire time (not run by Disney).
- Theme parks were new with Disneyland. WDW's problems can somewhat be attributed to the culture at the time, along with gas prices and generally reduced travel (you'd typically vacation close to home rather than drive and flying was out of the question for the average family until the airlines were deregulated in the 1980s.
But, that being said... With Paris, HK, and Shanghai the Disney name was known. Disney parks were known. Travel wasn't an issue and these parks should have had a fairly easy time getting off the ground but that hasn't happened.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I don't think single college students have been Disney's target audience, in any market, ever.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
The parks have been at minimum moderately successful and continue to meet internal targets.
I would not draw anything from a disinterested 19 year old. That's honestly worse than a bus driver... at least the bus driver has been to the parks.
Much more than Tokyo though, they are marketing squarely to the family demo initially. I expect that will change with time.
The parks that are floundering right now are Wanda's.
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
Don't lump the performance of Disney's domestic theme parks with their international counterparts. Both DL and WDW were big financial successes from the start, and remained so throughout their first decade.
And don't blame slow off season months on Disney. In the 1970s, most families would have considered it unacceptable to pull children out of school for vacations. Given this market reality, the Magic Kingdom's attendance was incredibly strong throughout the 1970s despite two major recessions.
Conversely, Disney's international properties (recall that Disney does not own TDL) have always struggled. DLP and HKDL have lost money more often than not.
In general, Disney’s theme parks have struggled to export Disney's brand of Americana.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Even this is not quite the whole story. Euro Disneyland did fine in terms of visitation while guest spending was never going to be met (being based too much on Tokyo Disneyland). The Walt Disney Company does not necessarily care if the international parks are profitable as Disney still collects their licensing and operating fees.
