Disney chief trumpets MyMagic+, Avatar Land

[ParentsOf4]

Does Bob Iger seriously believe that he can leave the parks as they are in there current state and just add mymagic + and avatarland in 2018 and thats more than enough for WDW? Is he joking?

Iger & crew have raised ticket prices 25% in 3 years (food and merchandise prices even more) and WDW's overall attendance has remained essentially flat with the only addition over that period being one C-ticket attraction and two restaurants.

Heck yes, Iger thinks MM+, Avatarland, and Star Wars Land will be enough.

That and some really good international advertising to draw in more overseas first-timers.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

LV-426>Pandora.

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

Iger & crew have raised ticket prices 25% in 3 years (food and merchandise prices even more) and WDW's overall attendance has remained essentially flat with the only addition over that period being one C-ticket attraction and two restaurants.

Heck yes, Iger thinks MM+, Avatarland, and Star Wars Land will be enough.

That and some really good international advertising to draw in more overseas first-timers.

How long do you think it'll be before people can't afford the parks altogether? I know many are at their breaking point now but I'm sure Iger will raise prices next year (only once if we are lucky) and strap us even more. I'm anticipating the price hikes and feel like I'm priced out.

I guess what my end game question here is how does adding a magic band instead of rides add value to the park going audience while prices go up and quality goes down? And knowing that universal is on their coattails and pulling people away from the wdw resort, why is their build time still 4-10 years??

 

[Matt_Black]

And knowing that universal is on their coattails and pulling people away from the wdw resort, why is their build time still 4-10 years??

Because they had to let go a lot of people due to both decreased travel after 9/11 and then further decreased business because of a bad economy?

 

[ford91exploder]

Does Bob Iger seriously believe that he can leave the parks as they are in there current state and just add mymagic + and avatarland in 2018 and thats more than enough for WDW? Is he joking?

Sadly he's not, Completely out of touch with P&R Division, When HP 2.0 hits next year I would not be surprised to see WDW's total gate go DOWN. Not much of course but if UNI's gate goes up by a substantial fraction and WDW's gate goes down AT ALL. Wall St will be VERY unhappy with TWDC

 

[menamechris]

Because they had to let go a lot of people due to both decreased travel after 9/11 and then further decreased business because of a bad economy?

This doesn't have anything to do with how long it takes them to build something. Just sayin.

 

[asianway]

Side note - theres apparently a "Whats New, Whats Next" press event going on in Paris right now with a lot of big refurbishment projects and general TLC being announced for what seems to be very neglected parks.

 

[Nmoody1]

The same boss that has kept Jay Rasulo as CFO who's ambitious plans for the company have seen him sign off a Fantasyland Expansion that was going to be wrose than what we got, several films flop, buy disneyland paris' debt and then plan to do very little with the park (creating bad press in the form of petitions) and buyback disney stock.....

Tom Staggs who hasnt really done too much wrong but should really be championing WDI to give us thier best ever rides and developing the parks past magicbands etc whilst UNI blows the oroginal orlando powerhouse oit of the water.

Its true that everyone loved eisner then hated him and tge same has happened with Iger.... perhaps a fast moving media company should not keep extending its CEOs shelf life... keep things fresh.

Id love to see hoe long bob, jay and tom would wait to have an extension built on thier house as they seem to think its fine for projects to take literally YEARS

 

[Pixie VaVoom]

Well, if "Pandora" turns out to be a lot of black lighted cardboard pop-ups with led lights...i am gonna wash my hands of it!!! I expect more from Disney than what I could see an any "SixFlags" or "Cedarfair" park. That is why I am willing to PAY more!!! I want RIDES!!! Not overpriced theme food and Meet and greets. here's my 2 cents, if you add about a dollar you can buy a sodapop.

 

[ChrisM]

Meh. That's just a gussied up version of the mech-loader from Aliens. Now THERE was a license they got for the parks that was criminally underused.

"Alien Encounter" in DHS and actually leveraging the "Alien/Aliens" property would be a first rate attraction, even today.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Can you imagine if the powers that be unleashed the imagineers with the intent of scaring the crap out of the "too cool for Disney" teens.

Now that's a park I want to go too!!!!!!

Imagine a roller coaster with a 300' vertical drop...........in the dark!

 

[Matt_Black]

"Alien Encounter" in DHS and actually leveraging the "Alien/Aliens" property would be a first rate attraction, even today.

Absolutely. It's a classic film, despite the later sequels and the Alien/ Predator movies (seriously, how do you screw THAT up?!?), that continues to be referenced again and again in pop culture.

 

[Did Knee]

How long do you think it'll be before people can't afford the parks altogether? I know many are at their breaking point now but I'm sure Iger will raise prices next year (only once if we are lucky) and strap us even more. I'm anticipating the price hikes and feel like I'm priced out.

I feel your pain, I haven't been able to go for a few years now due to the economy. But to take our own personal financial pain and extrapolate that as Eiger and team making a bad financial decisions for Disney isn't right. I am sure they do extensive cost / benefit analysis of every rate hike to arrive at a price point that generates the most income for the WDC. This is a business. The price point is not about us. It's about maximizing the bottom line. As consumers in a capitalist society we kind of have to accept the awful truth: That is just how it works.

 

[ChrisM]

Absolutely. It's a classic film, despite the later sequels and the Alien/ Predator movies (seriously, how do you screw THAT up?!?), that continues to be referenced again and again in pop culture.

And how hard would it be, really? The original incarnation was pretty terrifying as it was. Modify the theme slightly (everyone is simply strapped into a space vessel of some sort and the Alien somehow infiltrates it just after launch), remove some of the lighter-hearted elements (the "tickle"), and have an actual Alien animatronic as the feature.

They'd have to do a refurb every few months just to get the urine stench out of the theater. It'd be utterly horrifying.

 

[Matt_Black]

I feel your pain, I haven't been able to go for a few years now due to the economy. But to take our own personal financial pain and extrapolate that as Eiger and team making a bad financial decisions for Disney isn't right. I am sure they do extensive cost / benefit analysis of every rate hike to arrive at a price point that generates the most income for the WDC. This is a business. The price point is not about us. It's about maximizing the bottom line. As consumers in a capitalist society we kind of have to accept the awful truth: That is just how it works.

And, again, the economy is still recovering. Once things have improved more, the price hikes might not seem so steep.

 

[Matt_Black]

And how hard would it be, really? The original incarnation was pretty terrifying as it was. Modify the theme slightly (everyone is simply strapped into a space vessel of some sort and the Alien somehow infiltrates it just after launch), remove some of the lighter-hearted elements (the "tickle"), and have an actual Alien animatronic as the feature.

They'd have to do a refurb every few months just to get the urine stench out of the theater. It'd be utterly horrifying.

It'd be a difficult sell to the Disney brass, but they'd NEED to include a chest-bursting scene.

 

[ChrisM]

It'd be a difficult sell to the Disney brass, but they'd NEED to include a chest-bursting scene.

They'd almost need to have a "dummy seat" with a strapped in "guest" animatronic that rotated in after the lights went out. People would jockey to be near it after multiple visits.

Could you imagine sitting next to THAT with all of the strobes, shrieking, and other chaos? Even if I was expecting it I would probably crap my pants.

Of course, we'd eventually end up with the Disco Chestburster.

 

[Matt_Black]

They'd almost need to have a "dummy seat" with a strapped in "guest" animatronic that rotated in after the lights went out. People would jockey to be near it after multiple visits.

Could you imagine sitting next to THAT with all of the strobes, shrieking, and other chaos? Even if I was expecting it I would probably crap my pants.

Of course, we'd eventually end up with the Disco Chestburster.

Actually, given what they did with the Legend of Jack Sparrow attraction, film it and use that technology to broadcast it into the viewing area.

 

[CDavid]

It'd be a difficult sell to the Disney brass, but they'd NEED to include a chest-bursting scene.

We want to be scared not nauseated.

 

[ChrisM]

We want to be scared not nauseated.