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

[mousehockey37]

DHS is mostly a construction zone, FutureWorld is mostly empty along with Soarin' under construction. The World Showcase is seeing Norway being turned into Arendelle and the good entertainment is now gone. Animal Kingdom is finishing up its nighttime show construction and is a hit or miss park for some to start with, along with Avatarland going up. This leaves the Magic Kingdom which is seeing Big Thunder close down later this Spring.

The parks are under renovation which is good, but the bad side to that is this: With EPCOT, DHS not providing much (dependent on how you look at it) and Animal Kingdom being mostly intact, a lot of people are going to be in the Magic Kingdom. It honestly wouldn't surprise me that if later this year during the busy summer season, you see possible phase closings due to people just have nowhere else to go but the Magic Kingdom. Top that off with staff reductions, that will have an impact on ride capacities and efficiency of the rides themselves. This year is starting to turn into a nightmare for WDW, but 1 ride or 100, they'll take your money and not think twice about it.

 

[Jimmy Thick]

In this day and age, I wonder why anyone is shocked when these cuts get made.

This is not Walts company anymore.

It will never have anything to do with Walt ever again.

Disney owes you nothing, yet you owe them a hundred bucks to enter their nirvana.

Once people figure that out, instead of writing emails that will never get read, maybe real change can happen.

Especially when the parks are having record attendance...

Jimmy Thick- Happy, like the song.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Why couldn't they just stop at Disney World? Call me what you will, but the WORLD could fit all the ideas your imagination can possess.

 

[DisneyManOne]

I think Iger has officially turned into the next Eisner...

 

[Disneysea05]

While cutbacks stink sometimes they can be good if done right. My dh still rants about our trip in 2014 the week before Mine train opened. There were 10, Yes 10 employees standing by a roped off entrance telling people it would not be opened until next week. HIs frustration was how many cm's does it take to tell you what a rope and sign would? He stated that is just poor management there. I agreed with him although it did not bug me as bad as it did him. He still talks about it. lol

I just kept thinking how many of those cm's could have been dressed as characters and roaming the park!

More than likely these cast members were the attractions testing team and there was nothing to test at the moment (i.e ride broke down).

 

[culturenthrills]

Meanwhile down the street, the park that closed two attractions and a show for 2017 additions added 4 street shows and additional meet and greets to deal with the crowds. What a concept.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Meanwhile down the street, the park that closed two attractions and a show for 2017 additions added 4 street shows and additional meet and greets to deal with the crowds. What a concept.

Yeah but where am I supposed to dessert-party there? Do they even allow cupcakes on their boats?

 

[Mike S]

Randy - I love your idea of 'engaged' kids - but you would have to do 'time travel' to find anyone under 25 that isn't attached to their phone by an umbilical cord !! Seriously, I have encountered some young folk that are of the attitude..."if you can't do it on a phone...it doesn't exist" !! They have no tolerance for any discourse that last longet than a 'tweet'.

Guess I'm one of the rare ones. This site and Orlando United are the only things close to "social media" I use. I do have a Facebook account too but I don't use it at all.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Iger or Eisner? I think WDW is very much enjoy a building boom second only to the 1990's, thank's to Iger.

Um, sure, if you want to ignore the opening of Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios, Typhoon Lagoon, the Grand Floridian, and Caribbean Beach Resort in the 1980s, or the opening of the Magic Kingdom, the Polynesian, the Contemporary, Fort Wildeness, River Country, and the initial version of Downtown Disney, which occurred in the 1970s.

Yeah, except for WDW's first 30 years, Iger's been the best CEO ever for WDW.

 

[Mike S]

I guess I'll be seeing the effects of this first hand when I go with my sister who's coming down from New Jersey. I'm really starting to question if I'll update my annual pass at all this year. I could always just get a few day pass when Avatar opens. I really hope this doesn't affect Star Wars but it probably will. If Universal was smart they won't slow down at all during this time. Keep building up while Disney cuts down.

 

[Donald Razorduck]

The Hard Rock Park opened in Myrtle Beach, SC in 2008 during the beginning of the economic crash. It lasted just over a year before they closed up shop and sold off the attractions. It's a shame, it wasn't a bad park.

Had a Led Zeppelin themed B&M with a custom remix for the on board audio.




Location had as much to do with it as the economy. It that was opened in Orlando with a resort attached, it would still be around and twice the size. Some say the Moody Blues dark ride is still one of the best ever.

 

[jrhwdw]

Don't get wrong, these cuts are not good but we can't be in THAT much trouble if ROL and AK's longer hours start in April, Symphony is on until May and the just announced new Castle show for MK are still set to go after this news, are we?

Could we be down to only one ROL show a night for now?


As for DLP, if they're losing money, I don't see it! They cut NOTHING from Christmas when they reopened after the attacks. They just opened a new show(temporary show till Frozen summer, but still) and has another one coming to WDSP in July, I think? Plus their Swing into Spring Looks like it might beat last year.

SDL, anyone know if anything has been cut there right before opening , like any entertainment?????

 

[ParentsOf4]

Since a few have mentioned theme park investments, it's time to trot out the following chart, which shows Parks & Resorts growth capex (i.e. capital expenditures above depreciation) as a function of Parks & Resorts revenue:

I've not yet updated it for 2015, when growth capex finished at 12.9%, roughly the same level as when the Dream and Fantasy were launched in 2011 and 2012.

Despite talk of SDL overruns and the troubles at DLP & HKDL, Parks & Resorts is swimming in cash. Even with SDL, theme park investment is far below past levels.

Of course, all that talk about SDL cost overruns didn't stop Disney from spending $2.352 billion in stock repurchases in just the last quarter, more than the reported total investment in SDL.

But hey, Mouse Gear needs to open 1 hour later to save some cash.

P.S. And yes, I've made purchases at Mouse Gear before 10 AM. It's a nice way to kill some time waiting for my 9:50 AM Test Track FP return time.

 

[JohnD]

I would be recommending to colleagues and friends as this point to skip any WDW vacations until after Avatar Land/Toy Story Land/Star Wars Land are all built, since not only are the parks (with the exception of Magic Kingdom) shells of actual theme parks, they are now going to be consistently understaffed with less 'magical moments' going on at the parks. Disney's assertion that they need to cut because Paris is losing money (not by alot) and that Shanghai went over budget (Disney's problem, and it will make this money up when it finally opens), is just them convincing attendees to accept less. Disney has more than enough money to keep its park staffed at 100%, it just knows with record attendance it doesn't have to.

I had a tentative trip planned for week after Memorial Day but work schedule may not allow it anyway. Backup is October which would be only trip this year (two trips last year). I didn't do fall last year because of now last SWW in May and Osborne Lights in November. October this year would yield (regardless of opinion), Frozen ride, Rivers of Light, nighttime Safari, F&W festival, and MNSSHP.

 

[donsullivan]

This seems to have all of the hallmarks of traditional operating expense (OPEX) management. With the upcoming opening of Shanghai they are understandably expecting a huge increase in OPEX over the next couple of quarters to support that. Since Disney reports earnings for all parks together as one unit, they need to offset those high operating expenses somewhere else and the quickest way to do that is managing labor costs at all of the other parks. This is exactly the same thing any corporation in the world, in any business would do. It has nothing to do with the profits they may have reported the last quarter, but everything to do with what they see their operating expenses looking like in the coming months.

In a traditional accounting model, all of the new investment is covered mostly by capital expenditures (CAPEX) which should not be impacted by this kind of OPEX management.

 

[KDM31091]

I think Future World closing at 7pm IS a problem and it IS ridiculous. No, there may not be a ton of people around there at 7pm, but it's literally the front half of the park. Walking through a dark, closed ghost town to get to World Showcase is a little strange.

 

[JohnD]

Wow. Lots of hostility on this. Ok, perspective. Paris is a factor, but not as large a factor as Shanghai. Hopefully once they get that open, the financial pressure will be relieved a bit. But there is a third pressure point that so far has not been mentioned on here. The Parks and Resort are one piece of a much larger puzzle, and right now ESPN has caused enough concern that stock has been going down for months now. Shame really, while ESPN is the larger revenue generator, Wall Street has failed to look at what the entirety of the company can produce even when it's largest piece is producing less of the profit.

That said, the cuts so far have not be "Deal Killers" in my mind. Closing most of Future World at 7pm? Have you been there at 7:30pm? Folks it's a ghost town. I prefer it NOT to happen, I get that, but this cut is ok. I am less okay with the reduced water park hours for this coming up summer. But again thats because I have always enjoy that last hour or two when you feel like you have then entire water park to yourself. Again, while not has ghost town like as Future World can be, definitely understandable that they are choose to cost save there.

I have yet to hear of specific cuts to operations of the attractions while they are operating. I have also been eyeing MK's scheduled operating hours and so far.... no cuts, at least for the few months you can see in advance.

There is a lot of doom and gloom here, but I am just not sure it's time to panic. All this time of cost cutting has happened before, and it will all happen again. I have not seen a cut yet that I feel was an example of Disney Cutting off its nose in spite of its face.

Agree. Besides, FW opens two hours before WS. The action shifts to WS in the evenings. With Soarin closed the only two attractions worth doing are TT and SSE which may still be open past 7 anyway, esp SSE which you could catch on your way out of the park.

 

[Disone]

Um, sure, if you want to ignore the opening of Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios, Typhoon Lagoon, the Grand Floridian, and Caribbean Beach Resort in the 1980s, or the opening of the Magic Kingdom, the Polynesian, the Contemporary, Fort Wildeness, River Country, and the initial version of Downtown Disney, which occurred in the 1970s.

Yeah, except for WDW's first 30 years, Iger's been the best CEO ever for WDW.

Eisner had nothing to do with the the opening of Epcot. Studios opened in may of 89, so 89 to 98, which I simply referred to as the 90's. And this is the largest capital investment since that time period at WDW.

 

[donsullivan]

I think Future World closing at 7pm IS a problem and it IS ridiculous. No, there may not be a ton of people around there at 7pm, but it's literally the front half of the park. Walking through a dark, closed ghost town to get to World Showcase is a little strange.

This is a pretty normal operating model for Epcot where World Showcase opens 2 hours after park opening and Future World closes 2 hours before park closing. For most of Epcot's operating life, that was the normal pattern.

 

[JohnD]

Mouse Gear is interesting. Though at park opening the vast majority of guests do seem to be heading directly to their first attraction. And those heading towards Soaring (yes I know its closed right now but normally....), Nemo, and Imagination (all six of you, lol) don't even see Mousegear. I am ok with it opening late. I am sure its sales during that first hour are nearly non existent and easy to make up one hour later after the park patrons have their first attraction under their belt.

Speaking for myself, I tend to browse in the evening on the way out of the park. Yes, I know you can ship to resort and have done that but I would prefer to purchase and take with me. Wouldn't want to do that in the morning and lug merch around the park.