News Disney CEO Bob Chapek reiterates his belief that park reservations are now an essential part of Disney's theme parks business

[LSLS]

Well if you want to keep your ill-informed hot takes, without actually knowing or understanding what the impacts were. Go for it.

If I have an ill-informed hot take, please site me the place where the room cost was dropped when the service was discontinued. Because there is less than no chance you are going to convince me that when they create the cost of their rooms, they did not have that cost factored into the cost and profit.

 

[flynnibus]

Disney didn't pay for. The guest paid for it.

Oh boo hoo with this nonsense hairsplitting.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Disney didn't pay for. The guest paid for it.

That is not correct. The bill to Mears was paid for by Disney.

 

[el_super]

So no matter what the cost is, it's still Disney's decision to stop or not. Same as it was their decision to start in the first place.

OK I see what you're trying to say here... but the "no matter what the costs" is a really big hurdle to just set aside. It's still an assumption that Disney could have just thrown money at Mears to keep the program (assuming that Mears was willing/able to step into the role that Bags had, without violating any other contracts or obligations). It is an even bigger assumption to think that the prices offered would have been worth it to Disney.

If I have an ill-informed hot take, please site me the place where the room cost was dropped when the service was discontinued.

That's not how the costs work. Hotel rates are maximized to the amount that people are willing to spend for that room on a given night. Do services really factor into that? Probably not all that much. The real question is how much would the room rates have gone up if they had kept the service around? Would they be higher than they are today?

That is not correct. The bill to Mears was paid for by Disney.

I'm surprised (not really) that so many people here are so willing to gloss over Mears role in this change. If the baggage service was so unique and amazing, why hasn't Mears continued it without Disney? Why haven't more people just contacted Bags Inc and requested the service ala cart as they are doing with Mears?

It's also rather interesting to see some of the numbers posted online for ridership counts. DME was estimated to have only carried 2.3 million guests in 2013. That was a year that MK saw something over 18 million guests. Those numbers, even 7 years into the service, are pretty terrible. If only 10-20% of your guests were using the service, I can see why it would be too expensive to keep it around.

 

[LSLS]

That's not how the costs work. Hotel rates are maximized to the amount that people are willing to spend for that room on a given night. Do services really factor into that? Probably not all that much. The real question is how much would the room rates have gone up if they had kept the service around? Would they be higher than they are today?

You are making the case that multi-billion dollar Disney does not factor in their costs when pricing rooms? That the company that does whatever they can to get as much data as they possibly can, doesn't know how much all their perks cost on a per room basis?

Honestly, I'm not even sure where the argument is at right now. So Disney is not being cheap when they discontinued DME because it was a costly and logistically difficult thing to provide, but not so difficult and costly that they actually know how that cost breaks down for a room?

 

[el_super]

You are making the case that multi-billion dollar Disney does not factor in their costs when pricing rooms? That the company that does whatever they can to get as much data as they possibly can, doesn't know how much all their perks cost on a per room basis?

Oh I'm sure they do know. That isn't the point though. The drop in hotel room rates would have only occurred if there was a corresponding drop in demand due to DME being discontinued. There wasn't, so the hotel rates didn't go down.

 

[UNCgolf]

I'm surprised (not really) that so many people here are so willing to gloss over Mears role in this change. If the baggage service was so unique and amazing, why hasn't Mears continued it without Disney? Why haven't more people just contacted Bags Inc and requested the service ala cart as they are doing with Mears?

This probably wouldn't be possible. I don't think Disney would be on-board with an outside company like Bags, Inc. delivering luggage to their resorts in bulk without Disney's own involvement, if only for security reasons.

 

[Epcot82Guy]

I don’t think poor customer service is being taught in schools. I am a hospitality management major within in a pretty highly ranked program, and that is not being taught. Maybe in business schools, there is less of an emphasis on service. Anyway… what I really wanted to respond with was, saying they took away DME is poor customer service is not true. Saying that they now charge for resort parking isn’t poor customer service. Poor customer service has also been seen in the parks, but has become more visible to us due to social media, and the labor shortage in the country. Every bunch of apples has a bad one or whatever they say.

There actually is a bigger issue here that I think your point highlights. In so many cases in our modern corporate world, large companies aren't being run by people trained and with experience in the given industry. It's always been a trope, but it shows. Marriott isn't run by a hotelier. Disney isn't run by a creative or guest services person.

I'm by no means arguing the CEO needs to have that background. That has never been the case - even in Walt's day, where he knew a balance to his creativity was necessary. Rather, we've hit a period where the corporate profit is the end all be all. So, the incentives have changed. This is especially true as we are allowing more and more consolidation into mega corps. And, when you don't have someone at or near the top who still remembers what it's like on the ground (assuming they ever were on the ground), it has consequences.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

DME was estimated to have only carried 2.3 million guests in 2013. That was a year that MK saw something over 18 million guests. Those numbers, even 7 years into the service, are pretty terrible. If only 10-20% of your guests were using the service, I can see why it would be too expensive to keep it around.

Of those 18 million how many flew in to MCO and were staying at a WDW Resort?
That’s how you would know what percentage were using the service.

 

[el_super]

This probably wouldn't be possible. I don't think Disney would be on-board with an outside company like Bags, Inc. delivering luggage to their resorts in bulk without Disney's own involvement, if only for security reasons.

That doesn't sound accurate. I'm sure the resort receives delivery trucks all day and night and somehow they manage it.

The bags are still getting to their resorts/rooms whether they come on a bus or a box truck anyway.

 

[flynnibus]

Of those 2.3 million how many flew in to MCO and were staying at a WDW Resort?
That’s how you would know what percentage were using the service.

Logic can not touch him...

 

[el_super]

Of those 2.3 million how many flew in to MCO and were staying at a WDW Resort?
That’s how you would know what percentage were using the service.

Uhm what? You think there is some percentage of people that used Disney Magical Express that were not staying at a Disney property?

Or are you trying to suggest that, since some of the busses went to the cruise port, that the actual number of unique visitors is lower than the 2.3 million?

Logic can not touch him...

So you agree with him that a percentage of people using Disney Magical Express were not actual Disney customers? This is bizarre.

 

[flynnibus]

So you agree with him that a percentage of people using Disney Magical Express were not actual Disney customers? This is bizarre.

Comical.. he laid out for you the fallacy of your logic because you are using completely wrong data points and you still don't get it.

The attach rate for DME is not
DMERiders / "MK Attendance" as you eluded to

It's DMERiders / "MCO users heading to WDW"

MK Attendance != "MCO users heading to WDW"

 

[el_super]

Comical.. he laid out for you the fallacy of your logic because you are using completely wrong data points and you still don't get it.

Yeah I get it, you want to be right here, but continually saying I'm wrong, doesn't really make it so.

You want to come up with your own numbers that just show that DME was this amazing product that was used by 90% of visitors traveling to WDW? Go for it. It's not really going to change the fact that it's gone and apparently has made absolutely no negative impact on demand over the last year.

 

[flynnibus]

Yeah I get it, you want to be right here, but continually saying I'm wrong, doesn't really make it so.

You want to come up with your own numbers that just show that DME was this amazing product that was used by 90% of visitors traveling to WDW? Go for it. It's not really going to change the fact that it's gone and apparently has made absolutely no negative impact on demand over the last year.

Hey, I'm not the one who tried to insert a utilization cite into the discussion -- So stop trying to deflect and make this about me for debunking your bogus claim. You made an assertion that was completely wrong not just in accuracy but even in concept. Own it.

Stick to the talking points handed to you.. because when you go rogue it's obvious.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Yeah I get it, you want to be right here, but continually saying I'm wrong, doesn't really make it so.

You want to come up with your own numbers that just show that DME was this amazing product that was used by 90% of visitors traveling to WDW? Go for it. It's not really going to change the fact that it's gone and apparently has made absolutely no negative impact on demand over the last year.

This is just rich. You have now repeatedly ignored the explanation, cut an explanation from the quote, claimed it doesn't exist and then repeated the fallacy.

 

[flynnibus]

<el_super> 2.3 million people used DME... there are 350million people in the US.. clearly the number of people using it sucks and Disney should have stopped it, and this is why Disney stopped it.

<el_super> continually saying I'm wrong, doesn't really make it so.


For once you are right el_super... you being wrong is what makes it so.

(sarcasm font implied.. for the reading impaired)

 

[el_super]

Hey, I'm not the one who tried to insert a utilization cite into the discussion -- So stop trying to deflect and make this about me for debunking your bogus claim. You made an assertion that was completely wrong not just in accuracy but even in concept. Own it.

Nothing I said has been factually incorrect.

This is just rich. You have now repeatedly ignored the explanation, cut an explanation from the quote, claimed it doesn't exist and then repeated the fallacy.

I mean let's just get to it: there has been absolutely no facts or information presented to counter any of the claims made about Disney Magical Express. None. Nothing.

Just opinions and misinformation from a group that wants so desperately to hold onto this idea that Disney is in the wrong. Who would have ever guessed that people on the internet would ever insult someone in an attempt to hold on to their flawed world view!

You want to prove me wrong? Go ahead and post a cited source that indicates what the annual passenger count from MCO to WDW is.

 

[lazyboy97o]

You want to prove me wrong? Go ahead and post a cited source that indicates what the annual passenger count from MCO to WDW is.

You jumped into this claiming basic, widely known information wasn’t known. You’ve been given information. You don’t know what you are even talking about at the most basic level, or what needs to be compared to what. You don’t know what is correct because you demonstrated at the beginning that you are completely clueless. You assume over and over that because you cannot know others cannot. Even now, we don’t need to know the specific number of passengers to know the correct formula.

 

[el_super]

You jumped into this claiming basic, widely known information wasn’t known. You’ve been given information. You don’t know what you are even talking about at the most basic level, or what needs to be compared to what. You assume over and over that because you cannot know others cannot. Even now, we don’t need to know the specific number of passengers to know the correct formula.

So you don't have the information and yet seem so sure that you are right? Got it.