Cuts coming to every area of parks and resorts - thanks to Shanghai and Paris

[Cesar R M]

lol. Yep. You win. i see how you could get that from my post. Feel better?

I could share a series of knock knock jokes with you, but I feel it'd be too risky. Imma let you win.

Me and my room full of big fig friends think you're silly.

are they imaginary friends with foamheads ?

 

[Buried20KLeague]

are they imaginary friends with foamheads ?

They may be. I'm too lonely to notice.

 

[matt9112]

Eh. It's all smoke and mirrors.

The smart money is to stay virtually on property in the Wyndham Bonnet Creek by renting from an owner, then pay for what you want to eat out of your pocket. Your $1800 magic would be certainly lower.

Obviously you know that, but still.

Hated staying off property it's a middle ground a moderate resort gets you the TS plan and being Disney fans we book the best.

 

[tirian]

Here are a few facts about MM from someone who helped launch it (me!):

• In the early days of FP+ planning, the cast tests with the green cards were disastrous for Ops. (But the cards were a boon for CMs who could double up on FPs for almost a year.)
• The first round of Magic Bands was disastrous. Nothing worked—not even hotel doors.
• At one point, the entire tech team was replaced because they couldn't get anything to function.
• Along the entire development period, IT guys kept pointing out that the tech infrastructure would have to be replaced frequently and the MM program would never pay itself off. Leadership ignored their warnings.
• FP+ has proven to be an undeniable disaster for scheduling, Ops, and IT.
• ALL test phases of FP+ failed, and Disney leadership doggedly pushed through with the program anyway.
• The program has been considered such a failure that it won't be duplicated anywhere else. Elements will make their way to other parks, but not the entire MM package.
• The purpose of FP+ was to redistribute guest flow to avoid building new attractions. That was it. Nobody was trying to make your vacation more magical; they were trying to avoid investing in the theme parks. So they threw money into a pit and ended up building new things anyway.

I'll give leadership the benefit of the doubt that they tried something new and it simply didn't work. This happens to businesses all the time.

But at some point, if you're a wise leader and not a blind egotist, you accept something isn't working and you pull the plug before it keeps draining money out of your company.

Just a quick followup on a point @Lee posted and I extrapolated on, but word from very well-placed folks came in this evening (yes, I am living the life of a true Faux Top One Percenter in Europe right now) that backed up the chatter that more than Chappie laying down the law and certainly much more than anything happening with ESPN or DLP, these cuts are all related to two factors. Just two:

1.) Shanghai Disneyland (AKA Bob Iger's biggest Legacy project, followed by Lucasfilm and Marvel) is an over budget disaster that keeps getting worse and eating money more than the typical O-Town fanboi living off of Mommy and Daddy's money. And beyond opening, this park has a guaranteed Phase II coming that hasn't been budgeted or paid for yet and,
2.) MM+ is an unmitigated failure. Don't care one iota whether you like your MAGIC Bands or if they made your sixth WDW resort stay since May of 2013 so much more MAGICal. There were financial projections/guarantees made for this project and what it was expected to achieve and, despite all that placed PR content (you recall when that Austin dude just happened to wander in here because he really cared about your opinions and wasn't doing Burbank's biding, right? and y'all lapped it up almost as sickeningly as you did the Con Man of the Hills BS mea culpa!) it can't hide the fact that it will likely never even earn back the money that has been thrown into it, yet alone result in that 11% increase so prominently and proudly crowed about for years as WDW stagnated and rotted and y'all got excited over new toilets and uncharge parties.

And I'll leave you with this nugget to ponder: TWDC and WDW have never been more profitable. So, ask yourself if this is how they handle uncharted prosperity, just how will they handle some adversity ... especially with the global economy (this time led by China) poised for a major downturn?

Don't any of you cause any discomfort by actually voicing complaints to the execs? Nope. You might find yourself relegated to UNI's parks. (Oh, and while they are certainly better in O-Town right now, the fact remains that their leadership is basically as clueless as Disney's ... The Boy Who Lived makes up for a lot of shortcomings, just don't let the UNI Wave Wanders hear I told you so!)

 

[jt04]

Now, it seems like I remember that Disney was one of the first companies to voluntarily comply with the Affordable Care Act back when it was first being rolled out. Didn't they offer compliant healthcare almost right off the bat?

Do I remember that right?

And if so, (or even if not), as the healthcare costs for businesses have spiraled, has this been a major contributing factor to the bottom line at resorts? What I mean is, has it caused costs for full-time (or even almost full-time) people who qualify for benefits to rise?

Has Disney tried, as some businesses did, to keep people under 30 hours, so as not to have to provide health-care for them?

This is not political -- I just want to know if I remembered that right, and how they are treating it today, because healthcare itself in the service industry is usually one place that affects the hours and decisions businesses make. And it would seem to affect this one.

You deserve an honorary doctorate from Harvard.

 

[jt04]

I'm not gonna go back and read 24 pages to see if anyone else has pointed this out, but...

Cuts aren't just due to Paris and Shanghai.
Remember when a certain @WDW1974 mentioned that Disney was expecting an 11% increase in revenue thanks to the billions spent on MM+/NextGen?

Yeah, well...that hasn't materialized. Likely never will. (Shocking, huh?)

Now they are looking to find pennies wherever they can.
Cuts. Surge pricing. Possible tiered pricing.

Yeah...that was money well spent...

This is why I should be a paid consultant.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Now, it seems like I remember that Disney was one of the first companies to voluntarily comply with the Affordable Care Act back when it was first being rolled out. Didn't they offer compliant healthcare almost right off the bat?

Do I remember that right?

And if so, (or even if not), as the healthcare costs for businesses have spiraled, has this been a major contributing factor to the bottom line at resorts? What I mean is, has it caused costs for full-time (or even almost full-time) people who qualify for benefits to rise?

Has Disney tried, as some businesses did, to keep people under 30 hours, so as not to have to provide health-care for them?

This is not political -- I just want to know if I remembered that right, and how they are treating it today, because healthcare itself in the service industry is usually one place that affects the hours and decisions businesses make. And it would seem to affect this one.

Disney made a huge deal out of moving a very, very small number of people up to full time status while slashing hours everywhere else.

 

[Mike S]

Here are a few facts about MM from someone who helped launch it (me!):

• In the early days of FP+ planning, the cast tests with the green cards were disastrous for Ops. (But the cards were a boon for CMs who could double up on FPs for almost a year.)
• The first round of Magic Bands was disastrous. Nothing worked—not even hotel doors.
• At one point, the entire tech team was replaced because they couldn't get anything to function.
• Along the entire development period, IT guys kept pointing out that the tech infrastructure would have to be replaced frequently and the MM program would never pay itself off. Leadership ignored their warnings.
• FP+ has proven to be an undeniable disaster for scheduling, Ops, and IT.
• ALL test phases of FP+ failed, and Disney leadership doggedly pushed through with the program anyway.
• The program has been considered such a failure that it won't be duplicated anywhere else. Elements will make their way to other parks, but not the entire MM package.
• The purpose of FP+ was to redistribute guest flow to avoid building new attractions. That was it. Nobody was trying to make your vacation more magical; they were trying to avoid investing in the theme parks. So they threw money into a pit and ended up building new things anyway.

I'll give leadership the benefit of the doubt that they tried something new and it simply didn't work. This happens to businesses all the time.

But at some point, if you're a wise leader and not a blind egotist, you accept something isn't working and you pull the plug before it keeps draining money out of your company.

And they make the cast members and paying guests pay for their mistakes. You know, there's another company I follow that handled this kind of thing quite differently. When they hit some hard times the CEO took a 50% pay cut and other executives took cuts as well.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Hated staying off property it's a middle ground a moderate resort gets you the TS plan and being Disney fans we book the best.

I get it. I used to be you.

Know what changed my life? A visit to Tokyo Disney.

 

[ford91exploder]

And they make the cast members and paying guests pay for their mistakes. You know, there's another company I follow that handled this kind of thing quite differently. When they hit some hard times the CEO took a 50% pay cut and other executives took cuts as well.

That's because the executives were committed to the success of the company and it's stakeholders (ie its customers and employees), Iger is for Iger and don't EVER forget that when analyzing his decisions.

 

[ford91exploder]

I get it. I used to be you.

Know what changed my life? A visit to Tokyo Disney.

That will change your perspective a Disney park run as Walt wanted a Disney park run.

 

[AshleyPureHeart]

Fantasmic is going to one night a week....Saturday night
Kilimanjaro Safari's animal stock will all be sold to other institutions and zoos. Cardboard cutouts will be up in their place. Hopefully the guest won't notice.
Magic Words with Mickey will no longer operate as is. The photopass photographer will try to do their best Mickey voice impression while taking photos. Hopefully the guests won't notice.
Star Wars Launch Bay will operate seasonally. Right now the plan is to only operate it when a new Star Wars movie opens.
The plastic from discarded Magic Bands will now be sent to Central Shops to be melted down for new Small World dolls.
Festival of the Lion King will now require a $15 upcharge per guest to make a FastPass reservation.
Toy Story Mania will now operate as a "Premium Ride Experience". Only guests staying at 4Seasons will be able to ride.
Magic Kingdom will now charge a Festival of Fantasy Parade "In Front" Experience fee for all guests standing on route. If guests want to have memorable experiences with characters on parade route it will now cost them.
Bob "Chappie" Chapek and Tom Staggs will now be visiting the parks more often taking photos and signing autographs for guests but at the same time charging a "Executive Experience" $50 fee for any guest who approaches them. The thought is it will help the bottom line.
Most character dining will remove the characters and now require guests to use their imagination by imagining the characters being there visiting their table. If any guest questions the new "Imagine the Characters at Your Table" policy they are to be encouraged to be more magical and use their imagination more.

This is so funny! I know the budget cuts wouldn't go that far, but it reminds me of this video that parodied the practice of putting Disney films in the vault and claimed that Disney would do crazy things after The Lion King was put in the Disney Vault:

As for my thoughts on this issue, I agree with the people who claim the budget cuts are NOT reasonable, since a Disney park in China could be a possible success, since China is a heavily populated country, and Disney is so popular, China tends to make a lot of unauthorized Disney merchandise!

 

[lazyboy97o]

As for my thoughts on this issue, I agree with the people who claim the budget cuts are NOT reasonable, since a Disney park in China could be a possible success, since China is a heavily populated country, and Disney is so popular, China tends to make a lot of unauthorized Disney merchandise!

The park being over budget is not related to it being popular after opening.

 

[John]

Here are a few facts about MM from someone who helped launch it (me!):

• In the early days of FP+ planning, the cast tests with the green cards were disastrous for Ops. (But the cards were a boon for CMs who could double up on FPs for almost a year.)
• The first round of Magic Bands was disastrous. Nothing worked—not even hotel doors.
• At one point, the entire tech team was replaced because they couldn't get anything to function.
• Along the entire development period, IT guys kept pointing out that the tech infrastructure would have to be replaced frequently and the MM program would never pay itself off. Leadership ignored their warnings.
• FP+ has proven to be an undeniable disaster for scheduling, Ops, and IT.
• ALL test phases of FP+ failed, and Disney leadership doggedly pushed through with the program anyway.
• The program has been considered such a failure that it won't be duplicated anywhere else. Elements will make their way to other parks, but not the entire MM package.
• The purpose of FP+ was to redistribute guest flow to avoid building new attractions. That was it. Nobody was trying to make your vacation more magical; they were trying to avoid investing in the theme parks. So they threw money into a pit and ended up building new things anyway.

I'll give leadership the benefit of the doubt that they tried something new and it simply didn't work. This happens to businesses all the time.

But at some point, if you're a wise leader and not a blind egotist, you accept something isn't working and you pull the plug before it keeps draining money out of your company.

Given your track record around these parts I appreciate the insight. How often do we get information like this?......right from the source. I try not to antagonize the pixie dusters but I cant help but think of all the conversations that went on here since MM+ inception. So we now know the TRUTH, MM+ and the MB was a huge waste of money.

 

[Chris82]

• The purpose of FP+ was to redistribute guest flow to avoid building new attractions. That was it. Nobody was trying to make your vacation more magical; they were trying to avoid investing in the theme parks. So they threw money into a pit and ended up building new things anyway.

Not that I don't believe you, but I don't understand this logic. How does FP+ avoid the need to build new attractions (at least, in theory)?

If I understand this at all, it's deeply discouraging, because it means that instead of the ten years of staleness being the result of unintentional neglect or financial difficulties, it was a deliberate (and evidently cynical) policy. So I'd like to understand how on earth FP+ was supposed to obviate fresh attractions.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Not that I don't believe you, but I don't understand this logic. How does FP+ avoid the need to build new attractions (at least, in theory)?

Better crowd distribution. By optimizing existing capacity, there would be less of a need to add any more (ie new attractions). It's why so many more attractions were added to the current FP lineup.

 

[DarthMileZ]

just please don't ever close WDW.

 

[Chris82]

Better crowd distribution. By optimizing existing capacity, there would be less of a need to add any more (ie new attractions). It's why so many more attractions were added to the current FP lineup.

So... the idea is if I spend 30 more minutes in line for Journey into Imagination, I won't be sad that they haven't added a new attraction to Epcot since the Bush administration?

 

[ToTBellHop]

So... the idea is if I spend 30 more minutes in line for Journey into Imagination, I won't be sad that they haven't added a new attraction to Epcot since the Bush administration?

Well, the idea was to ensure that guests actually visit the walk-on rides which are now seldom walk-on. You might not go on JII if you didn't have the FP that the tiered system at Epcot forced you to take. They've artificially increased capacity by forcing guests to go on stale rides they'd otherwise skip. However, turns out we still actually like new attractions and many are disenfranchised by FP+ (see the appalling roll-out for APs). But we now get the pleasure of seeing rides like JII, LwtL, and GMR with actual wait times and rides like Pirates and Mansion with significantly increased waits. I never used to see 50-minute waits for Mansion. Now it peaks at 45-minutes on even the quietest days. I miss being able to get on HM four or five times in an hour. Now we have to preschedule our rides and only get on HM a few times in a vacation (it is my favorite. We used to go on it probably 10x in a week...grrr).

 

[hopemax]

Well, the idea was to ensure that guests actually visit the walk-on rides which are now seldom walk-on. You might not go on JII if you didn't have the FP that the tiered system at Epcot forced you to take. They've artificially increased capacity by forcing guests to go on stale rides they'd otherwise skip. However, turns out we still actually like new attractions and many are disenfranchised by FP+ (see the appalling roll-out for APs). But we now get the pleasure of seeing rides like JII, LwtL, and GMR with actual wait times and rides like Pirates and Mansion with significantly increased waits. I never used to see 50-minute waits for Mansion. Now it peaks at 45-minutes on even the quietest days. I miss being able to get on HM four or five times in an hour. Now we have to preschedule our rides and only get on HM a few times in a vacation (it is my favorite. We used to go on it probably 10x in a week...grrr).

The idealistic version is that you weren't being "forced" and that in the old system, you really, really wanted to ride those rides, if only you weren't stuck in this really long Soarin line. Win-win, no wait and do something else you really wanted. And in the case of HM, Pirates, Buzz, Jungle Cruise, Spaceship Earth that might have been the case, and why those lines get so long now. People were freed to actually experience them. You do the big rides first, and then what else you still have time to do. If someone guarantees the big rides later in the day, then people don't all rush to the big rides first thing, do these other things earlier, and so they operate at full capacity sooner in the day, and fill up some of the late day empty slots (as if there really were a lot of them on big rides). But yeah, the idea was there are many rides that do not use their full capacity, and over the course of the day, enough ride spots for everyone to experience 10 attractions, or whatever the "got their money's worth number, they have determined." So the park has enough capacity, and people are just stupidly not using it.

In theory, say, you have a map and you need to visit 5 checkpoints and get a stamp. If everyone rushes to checkpoint 1, then 2, then 3, you will have 4 out of 5 checkpoints empty, and one with a long line. Instead, if people start with some people to checkpoint 1, some to checkpoint 2, some to 3, etc. It doesn't matter if people go 1,2,3,4,5 or 2,4,5,3,1. In theory all checkpoints will have some people at it, and no checkpoint will be empty. A better distribution.

But at WDW all attractions are not equal. There are reasons beyond simply being stuck in another line, that people choose not to do things. Let's say people knew at checkpoint 3 they were handing out free $100 bills, but only to the first 1000 people. Even if you tell people, "start at checkpoint 4 or 1 or 2" after they finish that one, everyone will still head to checkpoint 3 leaving the other checkpoints empty until people collected their $100. At WDW, people still rush certain attraction over others, only now it's a list of several more things instead of just the Mountains/most Thrilling ride. Which meant if you thought WDW didn't have enough capacity to handle all the things people really want to do, before FP, now you know they REALLY don't have enough capacity and there are a lot of areas that need to be improved because people ain't ever going to pick them.