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

[RonnieHare]

@ford91exploder was another in his glowing praise of Bob Iger. Almost messiah like praise.

Where is he now? Suddenly become very quiet. It's been known in the industry for a while now, that Bob Iger has no interest in theme parks, the lack of a single e-ticket attraction under his tenure, and one in California is testament what a terrible CEO he is for the theme park division.

The slow time frame for projects has been deliberate as it has been calculated - avoid as long as you possibly can to pay for projects. He just doesn't want to invest in the parks. 2 and half years for an overlay for Frozen ?! 5 years for Avatar ?! Give me a break.

The man is an utter corporate man, caters to his shareholders, above anyone else. His true love is movies - along with his vanity projects that almost destroyed the movie division, JOHN CARTER OF MARS, PRINCE OF PERSIA, LONE RANGER - thee biggest flops in movie history.

A horrendous choice as CEO. The worst thing is we are stuck with him. He can keep liquidating the theme parks, destroy them, take out assets as long as he gets his share holders money and they will not kick him out.

He is no visionary - he is not Steve Jobs who has a passion, he is no Steven Spielberg, nothing. JUST A CORPORATE MAN, who is dictated by $$$ NOTHING ELSE. No love, no even sense of pride or honour in his job, or to create a lasting legacy.

NOTHING. NOTHING. If we do nothing and just watch him destroy our parks he will get away with it.

 

[Andrew C]

@ford91exploder was another in his glowing praise of Bob Iger. Almost messiah like praise.

Where is he now? Suddenly become very quiet. It's been known in the industry for a while now, that Bob Iger has no interest in theme parks, the lack of a single e-ticket attraction under his tenure, and one in California is testament what a terrible CEO he is for the theme park division.

The slow time frame for projects has been deliberate as it has been calculated - avoid as long as you possibly can to pay for projects. He just doesn't want to invest in the parks. 2 and half years for an overlay for Frozen ?! 5 years for Avatar ?! Give me a break.

The man is an utter corporate man, caters to his shareholders, above anyone else. His true love is movies - along with his vanity projects that almost destroyed the movie division, JOHN CARTER OF MARS, PRINCE OF PERSIA, LONE RANGER - thee biggest flops in movie history.

A horrendous choice as CEO. The worst thing is we are stuck with him. He can keep liquidating the theme parks, destroy them, take out assets as long as he gets his share holders money and they will not kick him out.

He is no visionary - he is not Steve Jobs who has a passion, he is no Steven Spielberg, nothing. JUST A CORPORATE MAN, who is dictated by $$$ NOTHING ELSE. No love, no even sense of pride or honour in his job, or to create a lasting legacy.

NOTHING. NOTHING.

 

[cwoms197]

Iger is mad that his pay was cut last year. I have gone to Disney World for the past 7 years straight. I have watched practically every park turn into a wasteland over time. And have continued to watch Universal Orlando grow. I feel that Tom Staggs needs to be brought in for this park to flourish again. Until then, it's not gonna be a fun ride.

 

[RonnieHare]

Iger is mad that his pay was cut last year. I have gone to Disney World for the past 7 years straight. I have watched practically every park turn into a wasteland over time. And have continued to watch Universal Orlando grow. I feel that Tom Staggs needs to be brought in for this park to flourish again. Until then, it's not gonna be a fun ride.

DUDE, BOB IGER NEVER GETS A PAY CUT. His salary only goes up.

By investing nothing in the theme park division his profits are always high. It will be the next CEO who will have to deal with the mess, when attendance drops, because it will.

 

[ford91exploder]

@ford91exploder was another in his glowing praise of Bob Iger. Almost messiah like praise.

Where is he now? Suddenly become very quiet. It's been known in the industry for a while now, that Bob Iger has no interest in theme parks, the lack of a single e-ticket attraction under his tenure, and one in California is testament what a terrible CEO he is for the theme park division.

The slow time frame for projects has been deliberate as it has been calculated - avoid as long as you possibly can to pay for projects. He just doesn't want to invest in the parks. 2 and half years for an overlay for Frozen ?! 5 years for Avatar ?! Give me a break.

The man is an utter corporate man, caters to his shareholders, above anyone else. His true love is movies - along with his vanity projects that almost destroyed the movie division, JOHN CARTER OF MARS, PRINCE OF PERSIA, LONE RANGER - thee biggest flops in movie history.

A horrendous choice as CEO. The worst thing is we are stuck with him. He can keep liquidating the theme parks, destroy them, take out assets as long as he gets his share holders money and they will not kick him out.

He is no visionary - he is not Steve Jobs who has a passion, he is no Steven Spielberg, nothing. JUST A CORPORATE MAN, who is dictated by $$$ NOTHING ELSE. No love, no even sense of pride or honour in his job, or to create a lasting legacy.

NOTHING. NOTHING. If we do nothing and just watch him destroy our parks he will get away with it.

I supported Iger during the 'Save Disney' campaign as his first promise was to fix the damaged relationship with Pixar which he did. He ran off the rails about 2007. He has turned out to be an extremely poor CEO interested only in stock repurchases.

 

[RonnieHare]

I supported Iger during the 'Save Disney' campaign as his first promise was to fix the damaged relationship with Pixar which he did. He ran off the rails about 2007. He has turned out to be an extremely poor CEO interested only in stock repurchases.

Just a few months ago you were defending him to the hill. Hardcore defense. Infact you were praising.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I have a question concerning the CM's. This isn't a put down, in fact, it is more of an encouragement. I know that some of you are represented by a union. Apparently one that is weaker then a watered down cup of tea. If you really want to improve your plight, I suggest that you look into a stronger setup. They may be able to replace a few CM's, but, 60,000 of them is not going to happen. Until the message gets across to management that you're mad as hell and your not going to take it anymore... nothing is going to change.

I'm not talking about massive pay increases, (although a decent one would be helpful, I'm sure) but, at least protection from losing benefits that you had earned previous to certain action that they seem to be able to take. Protection from layoffs not based on seniority (should be last in, first out) Protection from being cut back in hours just to make it so you can no longer have access to benefits that were earned previously. Protection from the "slave labor" of College Programs eliminating serious employee positions that are being relied on to supply a life. There are ways to have both. One should never replace another.

The downside... and yes, there always is a downside, it is much more structured and not always fair especially if a CM that is not producing has a higher seniority. But, that also can be worked out. Another downside would be much leaner numbers of CM's. All expected to carry more weight then they had in the past. Lastly, for those disinterested Guests, it is as good as happened that any costs from more money, will be passed along to the customer. In any arbitration, the fact that Disney is so impressed with spouting the massive profit they have been making, in an effort to win the support of the stockholders, will surely play in favor of any demands for better pay or working conditions. Just a thought!

 

[wm49rs]

Just a few months ago you were defending him to the hill. Hardcore defense. Infact you were praising.

Not that I'm defending him, but do you have examples of this gratuitous defense?

 

[raven]

So, knowing future plans they tell a loyal 30 year employee (cast member by any other name) that it would be to their benefit to perhaps leave earlier so that they can get the benefits. Yup, now there is an evil company. How mean. Suggesting that they leave a few months early so that they can get out with what they have earned. Terrible! Heartless!

Seriously, it's a wonder that most of you folks don't break something jumping to conclusions based on your own distorted idea of what reality is.

Actually that person I was talking about has a friend who works for Add It Up Benefits who called them and made that suggestion to them before they were cut off. That wasn't a company idea.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Iger is mad that his pay was cut last year. I have gone to Disney World for the past 7 years straight. I have watched practically every park turn into a wasteland over time. And have continued to watch Universal Orlando grow. I feel that Tom Staggs needs to be brought in for this park to flourish again. Until then, it's not gonna be a fun ride.

Tom Staggs lead Strategic Planning. Why should he be brought in for whatever?

 

[FrankLapidus]

@ford91exploder was another in his glowing praise of Bob Iger. Almost messiah like praise.

Where is he now? Suddenly become very quiet.

Clearly you don't browse many threads or have been a visitor here for very long if you're accusing @ford91exploder of being quiet in his criticism of Iger.

You're throwing accusations around that are way, way off base. You did it to @PhotoDave219 and you're doing it again here, mistaking tentative support of a new CEO ten years ago as some sort of die-hard devotion. A lot of us were supportive of Iger, a lot of us were willing to give him a chance and now, ten years later, a lot of us aren't happy with his performance. The people you're accusing of going quiet have been anything but, you're directing whatever anger you have at the wrong people.

 

[cwoms197]

Tom Staggs lead Strategic Planning. Why should he be brought in for whatever?

Staggs is basically leading the Shanghi project so at least he has some focus on the parks.

 

[DDLand]

Because it's only now that a) they're taking a more aggressive approach since previous attempts didn't work and b) new Bob is trying a show of force.

Speaking from my limited knowledge - I'm sure others can chime in with more - price rises and far more upcharge events and options didn't work. It's only now there's a realisation previous ideas to make money back wouldn't work.

Ask Rasulo. Oh. You can't.

Like I said above, B) makes perfect sense to me. I'm sure he knows what's transpired before. That the parks and resorts position can make or break careers. If he can fix the years long Imagineering problem, control costs, and effectively launch Shanghai he could get a lot street credit (in Burbank anyway) especially contrasting with ESPN.

A) I still have questions about. From everything that is being released, Domestic Parks and Resorts are on fire. They've been one of the most consistent growth drivers in the last 5 years. WDW has been leading attendance ever higher. Apart from attendance, occupancy keeps trending up too. It's not Disneyland with its small room portfolio that brought occupancy up to 87% from 83%(Full Year from 2014 to 2015). That was Walt Disney World.

If you came to me and said that analysts were concerned that WDW wasn't reaching MyMagic+ growth projections, then I'd understand why they'd need to start scraping the bottom of the barrel for cash to make up the difference. That's not what analysts are doing though. MyMagic+ is old news. No one is following up on MyMagic+. Analysts are in fact excited and impressed by Domestic Parks and Resorts performance. ESPN makes it look really good...

So if it's not external pressures, then it's all internal. You'd say management never realized that MyMagic+ was failure or how terrible a failure it truly was, until now. What tipped them off? Did they not meet projections for the Holiday Quarter? That seems to be the only logical conclusion. Management set a goal in 2012 that by 2016 we'll be at x Revenue at WDW. They had been on track to reach x for the last few years (by ticket price increases and dessert parties), and then in this last quarter or two they'd suddenly started decelerating and that's why we're seeing these cuts.

Why they'd never revise down their estimates is beyond me, but that at least follows. It is peculiar that they'd be dissatisfied with domestic growth in the most recent quarters. For a business once described as "mature,' both Revenue and Operating Income were up healthily this most recent quarter.

I still think it ignores the compelling other reasons I mentioned above. Disney is refocusing its labor allocation and adding offerings. So in order to compensate, they're making cuts in other businesses within the Walt Disney World. That just makes sense. Heck if I realized I was going to have to spend more money on electricity this year, I'd see if I could be more efficient in other areas in my life like water use for example. Same thing I suspect Walt Disney World is doing. The money pool may be a similar size, but it's just going to other items.

 

[DVCOwner]

DUDE, BOB IGER NEVER GETS A PAY CUT. His salary only goes up.

By investing nothing in the theme park division his profits are always high. It will be the next CEO who will have to deal with the mess, when attendance drops, because it will.

When do expect to see this drop in attendance. All trends seem to be up and with Avatar, Star Wars, and Toy Story expanding the parks, I do not see this happening.

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

Staggs is basically leading the Shanghi project so at least he has some focus on the parks.

Staggs is bad news. You don't want Staggs as CEO.

 

[ParentsOf4]

When do expect to see this drop in attendance. All trends seem to be up and with Avatar, Saw Wars, and Toy Story expanding the parks, I do not see this happening.

WDW's attendance has varied due to external economic circumstances, even after Disney added new attractions and entire theme parks.

The long-term trend is slow but steady growth, even though there have been several bumps along the way.

I think the Star Wars Experience will be a huge hit and would be ready to bet money on it.

However, I am not so sure that I'd be willing to bet my life.

 

[ford91exploder]

Just a few months ago you were defending him to the hill. Hardcore defense. Infact you were praising.

No you have me confused with someone else, I have not defended Iger since his cheapening of the Disney experience in 2008. Just ask anyone here.

 

[prberk]

You were one of the chief supporters of Bob Iger when members would post what an utter disgrace of a CEO he had been, defending him as he was your own father. Suspicously quiet now on that front aren't you?

@ford91exploder was another in his glowing praise of Bob Iger. Almost messiah like praise.

Just a few months ago you were defending him to the hill. Hardcore defense. Infact you were praising.

Just curious, @RonnieHare : What was your user ID here back then?

Perhaps we can dig up old posts from you and see if your opinions have changed. Or... we can see if you are a banned member, who is back now with a new account.

You seem to know a whole lot about 10-15 years of postings, having taken the plunge to join the forum just this past Monday.

 

[insaneshadow]

Staggs is bad news. You don't want Staggs as CEO.

I think it would be neat to have a deer as a CEO. Get it?! Because the thing with the word that sounds like the other word? I'm sorry.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I think it would be neat to have a deer as a CEO. Get it?! Because the thing with the word that sounds like the other word? I'm sorry.