Disney in more trouble than it seems??

Mr. Tickle

Member
[FONT=&quot]Unemployment is at is highest since the Carter years. Our economy of borrow & spend is over. The middle class is going broke (Disney’s core audience) & the inflation train is coming. In other words, this is just the beginning & things are going to get a lot worse. Disney should have invested in its core products (Parks & merchandise.), & not so much property. If you have too much property without guests, the operating costs will drag them down eventually & quality will go down as well with everything else.
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Kamikaze

Well-Known Member
[FONT=&quot]Unemployment is at is highest since the Carter years. Our economy of borrow & spend is over. The middle class is going broke (Disney’s core audience) & the inflation train is coming. In other words, this is just the beginning & things are going to get a lot worse. Disney should have invested in its core products (Parks & merchandise.), & not so much property. If you have too much property without guests, the operating costs will drag them down eventually & quality will go down as well with everything else.
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I'm guessing by 'property', you mean hotels. For your logic to work, you have to assume that they cannot temporarily close a hotel when there isn't any bookings going on. This is not the case. If they were ever in a situation where they had low enough booking levels to warrant entire hotel closures, they would do it. I seriously doubt things will get THAT dire. There are a lot more things Disney can do to still make money and give discounts.
 

Mr. Tickle

Member
I'm guessing by 'property', you mean hotels. For your logic to work, you have to assume that they cannot temporarily close a hotel when there isn't any bookings going on. This is not the case. If they were ever in a situation where they had low enough booking levels to warrant entire hotel closures, they would do it.


If this recession (or depression) lasts a few years then closing hotels would be bad. Cast members would be out of work & the buildings would deteriorate from not being used. I love Disney, but how many hotels & DVC properties do they really need? How much is too much? When your customer base is running out of cash then it's time to rethink how to run things. Once a company gets too big through never ending expansion it will fail due to finances. Everything does eventually, no business is immune.
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
That was interesting. A few things jumped out at me, tho. Disney does offer discounts and "gives things away". That's not something new that just happened with the current economic crunch. There have been little perks and gimmes with the packages as long as we've been going and that's been since 2004. The free dining promotion has been going on in September for the last couple years, at least (I'm not sure off the top of my head exactly how many years it's been offered). Then, at the end where the article states that you can use the pay for 4 get 3 free deal is good at the value resorts isn't really accurate, either. I just booked this specific discount at the Contemporary. It's available at more than just the value resorts. Those little points that stood out to me totally screamed that the author of this article or blog or whatever isn't entirely educated in what they've written about and perhaps should've done more research. Thanks for sharing the link, tho. It's interesting to see/hear what other impressions are outside of the fan boards. :D
 

yankspy

Well-Known Member
[FONT=&quot]Unemployment is at is highest since the Carter years. Our economy of borrow & spend is over. The middle class is going broke (Disney’s core audience) & the inflation train is coming. In other words, this is just the beginning & things are going to get a lot worse. Disney should have invested in its core products (Parks & merchandise.), & not so much property. If you have too much property without guests, the operating costs will drag them down eventually & quality will go down as well with everything else.[/FONT]
I am not sure where you got that from. It is at 6.5% which is a fourteen year high. It was around 9% during Carter. When it hits depression levels (20%-25%) then it would be something new. :)

I would also add that it was around 10% for much of 1982-83. Don't drink the kool-aid just yet.
 

heliumalias

Member
That was interesting. A few things jumped out at me, tho. Disney does offer discounts and "gives things away". That's not something new that just happened with the current economic crunch. There have been little perks and gimmes with the packages as long as we've been going and that's been since 2004. :D

They've certainly been doing it a lot longer than that. When DVC first started they gave away pairs of length of stay unlimited park tickets (which covered everything except AK) for use until about 1999. Not to mention when they still had things like the Magic Kingdom Club.
 

celticdog

Well-Known Member
Oh, how quickly we forget.

Back in 2003 and 2004 Disney offered a very similair package where you got seven nights for the price of four nights. I think it was called the Fairytale Fantasy package. We took advantage of it.

Back in 2001, Disney gave big discounts on WDW and cruise packages. We had booked very early, however we were able to get a retroactive refund on a cruise.

Back in 1999 and early 2000, some rooms at select deluxe resorts were going for $99 a night. Animal Kingdom Lodge had a fall/winter package that was for $99 a night.

Back in 1999 if you were a member of the Magic Kingdom Club, you could get some really deep discounts.


I have been waiting for Disney to start offering some good deals and it has started. The article isn't 100% correct, we all also know that that by purchasing multiday tickets in advance you can get some discounts on the tickets.
 

danesporty

Member
All these articles are saying the sky is falling and that Disney is in huge trouble. Well no one seems to be on real solid groud at the moment and disney is feeling the affects as well. Disney will come out of it and be fine. There have been tough times before and its always gotten better in time. Eventually everything will turn around and we are just going to have to deal with less money going into the parks. For the average tourist they wont really notice much but for the people like us who are die hards we will notice every little thing that is being cut or put on hold. Its just a phase and eventually things will get better. People will not stop going to Disney no matter what! And we just need to keep the faith in Disney, the place that we have all grown to love!
 

rainfully

Well-Known Member
Ya know... it's all in how you word it... "Stay 4 nights get 3 free" sounds a lot better than "Stay 7 nights, save 34%"

The $200 gift card is a pretty good deal, though!
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
It is at 6.5% which is a fourteen year high. It was around 9% during Carter. When it hits depression levels (20%-25%) then it would be something new. :)

I would also add that it was around 10% for much of 1982-83. Don't drink the kool-aid just yet.

National unemployment hit 12.5% in 1982! It rose to 6.5% last month, which historically speaking is still rather low. Heck, in many western european countries (like France or Belgium) unemployment hovered between 8% and 10% for most of the past 10 years!

It's funny how so many of these younger folks around today have no personal experience with a decent recession and a year or two of tough economic times. The economy stumbles and the media screams bloody murder about it to keep you tuned in until the commercial break, and these kids today really buy into it and think this is something new.

Recessions happen regularly and can be a whole lot worse than what we've seen in 2008 or what we're facing for 2009! :lol:
 

Mr. Tickle

Member
National unemployment hit 12.5% in 1982! It rose to 6.5% last month, which historically speaking is still rather low. Heck, in many western european countries (like France or Belgium) unemployment hovered between 8% and 10% for most of the past 10 years!

It's funny how so many of these younger folks around today have no personal experience with a decent recession and a year or two of tough economic times. The economy stumbles and the media screams bloody murder about it to keep you tuned in until the commercial break, and these kids today really buy into it and think this is something new.

Recessions happen regularly and can be a whole lot worse than what we've seen in 2008 or what we're facing for 2009! :lol:


I'm sure the Soviets felt the same way right before their economy went poof! When the country is broke, it's broke. All we do as a country is borrow and spend. An economy stumbling is one thing, but borrowing billions without a way to repay it going to make things much worse.
 

Mr. Tickle

Member
I am not sure where you got that from. It is at 6.5% which is a fourteen year high. It was around 9% during Carter. When it hits depression levels (20%-25%) then it would be something new. :)

I would also add that it was around 10% for much of 1982-83. Don't drink the kool-aid just yet.


Unemployment during the Carter years; 1977 6.9%, 1978 6.0%, 1979 5.0%, 1980 7.0%.
 

Gorjus

Well-Known Member
Disney understands the economy better than politicians and some voters do. If you give people more buying power for their money, or if you give them back some of their money, or if you don't take as much money away from them, they will spend it, thus more revenue.

Cases in point:
Buy 4 get 3 free (nights in a hotel room)------my sister is coming to Orlando when she thought she was going to have to skip this year.

Cast member 50% discount.-----I'm buying Christmas presents for people I thought I was going to have to say no to this year.

Free Dining plan.-----people coming to WDW knowing the normally high food bill has been eliminated from their budget.

People are spending money they normally wouldn't spend because it gets them more.
 

NCState

Member
Ya know... it's all in how you word it... "Stay 4 nights get 3 free" sounds a lot better than "Stay 7 nights, save 34%"

The $200 gift card is a pretty good deal, though!

We saw this on TV last night and thought WOW we use to only know this on the boards or Mousesavers. Eco must be hurting Disney for them to put it out in the main stream media.
 

Epcotbob

Well-Known Member
Economic booms and busts are always over-stated. During the boom, I remember people saying the Dow would go over 20,000 that house prices would just continue to explode, that gas would go up to $10 / gallon.

I remember thinking, that "can't" happen....the middle class simply can't afford half-million dollars for a basic house and they also can't afford $10 / gallon gas.....once you price the middle class out of something, then your market shrinks till it's unsustainable.

Now everyone is talking about depression ??

I think we are going through a correction, and though painful, I don't think it will be as bad as is being predicted. In the mean time, there will be some great deals to be had!!
 

DisneyYorkian74

Active Member
WDW is doing just fine according to Disney's 4th quarter earning report.

Attendance and guest spending are both up for now...

WDW could see a decrease in 2009, but I wouldn't worry about a company that makes billions of dollars in profit every year.
 

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