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

[wm49rs]

Closing down Lights Motor show down - the excuse given was that they need space for workers equipment and construction, is the biggest load of nonsense i've ever heard. Disney is huge, are you telling me they can't bloody down their tools in another area? How on earth did Universal manage it with even less space, and build Diagon Alley in 2 and a bit years ?!

Whether you liked Lights Motor Action show is irrelevant, it took in a huge amount of people, and was a standalone attraction that was pretty good for the first timer. CLOSING DOWN THIS ATTRACTION IS TO SAVE MONEY. NO OTHER REASON.

Quoting oneself; characteristic of a true bell end. No surprise there....

 

[marni1971]

Over the past several years they've been focusing filling up their resorts more than anything. Now the issue is that it's created overcrowding in the parks but they don't seem to be worried about it and continue to cut guests experiences to make even more bank.

But Fastpass plus will help manage more guests without actually making it bigger.

Right?

 

[note2001]

I find this FAR more repulsive than any cut to us, the guests (e.g. no more turkey legs at DAK isn't THAT big of a deal to me and I actually think it's unrelated). To treat your employees like this while you rake in record profits is appalling. A company that prides itself (or used to) in service should value those that provide the service. Is the "Disney Difference" not a thing any more?

Disney is just following the model set forth by other American based companies:

1 . Create a good product / Gather a customer base / Report great earnings / Appease the stock holder Gods / Management gets bonuses.

2. Cut personnel essential to maintaining and furthering the product base / Save $$$ / Report great earnings / Appease the stock holder Gods / Management buys their third vacation homes with their bonuses

3. Customer base gets upset & starts leaving / Boost prices claiming you have a high quality product / offer unheard of discounts / customers don't think twice and return / Report Great Earnings / Pass the bubbly ...

Repeat steps 2 & 3 until you've damaged the company so bad the board catches on and CEO and CFO are fired.

 

[EpcoTim]

They really are hurting

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...loyees-to-chip-in-to-pay-copyright-lobbyists/

 

[note2001]

They really are hurting

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...loyees-to-chip-in-to-pay-copyright-lobbyists/

This is deserving of its own thread, I'm sure we could have a long diverse discussion regarding lobbyists in general.

 

[Andrew C]

This is deserving of its own thread, I'm sure we could have a long diverse discussion regarding lobbyists in general.

hahah, could we?

 

[FrankLapidus]

Closing down Lights Motor show down - the excuse given was that they need space for workers equipment and construction, is the biggest load of nonsense i've ever heard. Disney is huge, are you telling me they can't bloody down their tools in another area? How on earth did Universal manage it with even less space, and build Diagon Alley in 2 and a bit years ?!

Whether you liked Lights Motor Action show is irrelevant, it took in a huge amount of people, and was a standalone attraction that was pretty good for the first timer. CLOSING DOWN THIS ATTRACTION IS TO SAVE MONEY. NO OTHER REASON.

You really aren't stating anything that hasn't already been said before.

The show is closed and soon it will go the same way as Catastrophe Canyon. Back when you were posting as AmUK you bleated on and on incessantly about wanting to see boots on the ground and work being done at DHS. Well now its getting done, the deadwood is being cleared to make way for the expansions that are to come. And you're still complaining.

DHS is in large part a mess because of attractions like that show that were never particularly good in the first place but were left alone because it papered over growing cracks, it sat a lot of people on some bleachers a few times a day to watch a stunt show that was pretty mediocre. And it isn't the only contributing factor to the mess in the park that is getting an overdue axe.

They stuck the hat in the centre of the park for a temporary celebration and just left it there; its gone. They ruined the Backlot Tour; its gone. They ruined the Magic of Animation tour; its gone. They created Pixar Place and decided not to expand on the one attraction they put there; they're adding more. They've been content to waste a lot of space on forced perspective facades on SOA; that will be going.

Disney may have created the mess at DHS but they've done and are doing a lot to fix it. It might have taken longer than anyone would have hoped, and it might take longer to complete than anyone would like, but they're making visible progress. They've identified and are in the process of removing those issues having committed a huge amount of money to fixing the park's problems, creating new immersive lands and adding attractions that people will actually want to do rather than feel compelled to because there isn't much else there.

If Disney have chosen to close Lights, Motor, etc to use that land for equipment and construction then that's one cut I'm not going to complain about. That area of the park is going to be a building site whether you choose to believe that that is a factor in the closure or not, pretty much the entire back-end of DHS is getting levelled in order to make room for additions that will actually make the park worthwhile again, that will make use of space that has been wasted for far too long.

In your previous guise on this forum you wanted action, you wanted progress at DHS. Well now you're getting it.

Many of these cuts are indefensible, that is inarguable.

Cutting mediocre attractions to make way for a multi-million dollar overhaul of a struggling park is defensible in my view.

 

[Cesar R M]

They put a lot of thought into how they price tickets to encourage the longer timeframe. Given the current state of the parks and my lack of enthusiasm for the whole thing, I considered just getting a 5-day pass for my upcoming 10-day trip. But they price to discourage this kind of thriftiness. A 5-day adult base ticket is $315, a 10-day is $365. So for $40 I double the value of the ticket.

yes, but that savings gets offset if you stay at disney hotels.
their overprice pretty much kills any "savings".

 

[dstrawn9889]

yes, but that savings gets offset if you stay at disney hotels.
their overprice pretty much kills any "savings".

so what would you rate to the POR outside the boundary? Wyndham? we really aren't talking about a lot of price difference... 50 bucks? to not have to drive anywhere?

 

[Cesar R M]

The close that loophole and they start losing out on 5 nights of resort stays. I don't see that being a very good strategy.

Agree, its all part of filling the resort with ridiculously high prices.

 

[COProgressFan]

so what would you rate to the POR outside the boundary? Wyndham? we really aren't talking about a lot of price difference... 50 bucks? to not have to drive anywhere?
View attachment 132418
View attachment 132419

I almost don't want to give away the secret here, but.... You can often rent 2 bedroom villas at Wyndham Bonnet Creek for as little as $120 per night (no additional tax, no resort fees, and the price obviously varies based on season) when you rent directly from an owner or through a broker. Just like how you can rent from DVC owners. Going directly through Wyndham is not the way to go.

We've done this many times. It's a great resort, surrounded by Disney property on 3 sides, and again, a 2 bedroom villa is usually less than the cost of a regular room at Disney value resort.

 

[Cesar R M]

so what would you rate to the POR outside the boundary? Wyndham? we really aren't talking about a lot of price difference... 50 bucks? to not have to drive anywhere?
View attachment 132418
View attachment 132419

how is the service on the Wyndham? is it 4 star or 5 star service?
Apart from the gorgeous grounds and areas at POR, id say POR is 2 to 3 stars service wise.

And pretty sure these prices are on the low end. During busy times POR is 250-275 USD approximately for each single room.
The lowest of the moderates I've seen, was 150-175 USD for COR.
And that was using Convention discount.
Rack rate was 240 USD and POR was 260 in January.


Also, dont most non Disney hotels near WDW have their own free shuttles to WDW Parks?

I almost don't want to give away the secret here, but.... You can often rent 2 bedroom villas at Wyndham Bonnet Creek for as little as $120 per night (no additional tax, no resort fees, and the price obviously varies based on season) when you rent directly from an owner or through a broker. Just like how you can rent from DVC owners. Going directly through Wyndham is not the way to go.

We've done this many times. It's a great resort, surrounded by Disney property on 3 sides, and again, a 2 bedroom villa is usually less than the cost of a regular room at Disney value resort.

Agree, Also for these RACK prices you could rent DVC points on AKL and have a way better rooms (sans daily cleaning service)

And another also, You can easily get better prices using discount systems like Expedia for hotels like hilton..etc..
While Disney hotels are almost always high.

 

[ford91exploder]

Disney is just following the model set forth by other American based companies:

1 . Create a good product / Gather a customer base / Report great earnings / Appease the stock holder Gods / Management gets bonuses.

2. Cut personnel essential to maintaining and furthering the product base / Save $$$ / Report great earnings / Appease the stock holder Gods / Management buys their third vacation homes with their bonuses

3. Customer base gets upset & starts leaving / Boost prices claiming you have a high quality product / offer unheard of discounts / customers don't think twice and return / Report Great Earnings / Pass the bubbly ...

Repeat steps 2 & 3 until you've damaged the company so bad the board catches on and CEO and CFO are fired.

You forgot step 4

Feds come in seize all records, Generate arrest warrants for mid-level managers for 'accounting fraud' everyone else in company loses their job and careers are abruptly ended for the average worker...

 

[ford91exploder]

I find this FAR more repulsive than any cut to us, the guests (e.g. no more turkey legs at DAK isn't THAT big of a deal to me and I actually think it's unrelated). To treat your employees like this while you rake in record profits is appalling. A company that prides itself (or used to) in service should value those that provide the service. Is the "Disney Difference" not a thing any more?

Nope The Disney Difference is dead at least the version we grew up with, The New Disney Difference is how many accounting tricks can we use to boost profits while slashing guest service on all levels.

 

[betty rose]

Extremely difficult! You can only do so by a written letter for only one week prior to the date you joined. I've written letters and they've claimed they "never received it" and had to pay another $500 in dues for yet another year. The next year I sent a Certified Letter with Return Receipt and got out. No calls, no letter asking why I left, nothing.



I'm certainly not an advocate for DVC but all of those things are stated in the contract and informed about when taking a DVC tour. DVC, Time Share, Vacation Ownership or whatever else you want to call it is basically your own home for a stretch of time and most don't provided daily services like at a hotel.

It was much different when we bought in. Things have changed, we were unable to go to the meetings, to change things. We had other obligations, and it was too far too fly in. Is that our fault? Yes, we should have thought ahead. Let the buyer beware. That's all I have to say on the subject.

 

[DVCOwner]

Nope The Disney Difference is dead at least the version we grew up with, The New Disney Difference is how many accounting tricks can we use to boost profits while slashing guest service on all levels.

I think I have heard you say that once or twice.

 

[DVCOwner]

It was much different when we bought in. Things have changed, we were unable to go to the meetings, to change things. We had other obligations, and it was too far too fly in. Is that our fault? Yes, we should have thought ahead. Let the buyer beware. That's all I have to say on the subject.

You are in luck, unless you pruchased in the last few years, the resell market is way up. You should be able to sell for at lease what you paid for your points.

 

[Cesar R M]

You are in luck, unless you pruchased in the last few years, the resell market is way up. You should be able to sell for at lease what you paid for your points.

Just a question, did your DVC unit fees really go way higher these years? and are more in the road?

 

[No Name]

the reason those movies flopped wasn't down to him

i think people are forgetting, the guy made the choice to buy the star wars franchise and then invisted in a dying park (DHS) to create an experience based on that franchise

people need to relax.

He invested in Hollywood Studios? Hmmm. Please show me where those new investments are. To date, Iger has invested almost nothing into DHS. Toy Story Midway Mania (I'm 99% sure) was approved my MDE in his final days as CEO. And it's laughable that you're using Star Wars land to defend Iger. You can't give him credit for something that hasn't even begun construction yet. He may finally be investing in the park but it's absolutely unacceptable that three parks will go a decade or more without an addition/ new ride. I know that rides aren't the whole story, but in the last 7 years, only 2 new rides have opened and 2 have closed, for a net gain of 0 rides. Shameful.

 

[MotherOfBirds]

I was going to break down and use my tax return to get an annual pass, but that's definitely not happening now.