News Disney names D’Amaro as Chairman Disney Parks Experiences and Products

[gerarar]

Josh D’Amaro posted on IG his farewell to WDW:

Congratulations to the Disney Springs Cast and the whole Walt Disney World team on the spectacular reopening of Disney Springs this week. It was a special moment and one I will never forget as I move onto my new role.
To all of the Cast Members who have warmly welcomed me into the Walt Disney World family....Thank You.
To all of our guests that have stopped to say “hello” to me....Thank You.
While my time here at WDW was relatively short, it was incredibly special.
Our Resort will now be in the caring hands of @jeffvahle...an incredible leader and an amazing person.
I will miss you all greatly. Please take care.




Around the same time, new VP Jeff Vahle posted on IG thanking Josh on his new role in WDW:

Yesterday was an important and much-anticipated day for Walt Disney World as we began welcoming guests back to Disney Springs. I'm heartened by these first steps toward bringing the magic back and so proud of our Cast’s incredible efforts to get us to this day. I'm beyond thrilled to be back as part of the WDW family and work alongside such a phenomenal team. It means a great deal to me to take on my new role as president of this very special place during this challenging time. I know that we will get through this together. I want to thank @joshdamaro for his amazing leadership and thrilled for him as he moves on to be our Chairman. I look forward to meeting you all soon.

 

[rreading]

And yet they just keep going back to the same few properties... Nobody was catching up when the mandate was given. Of course if you sell of the parks that’s extra licensing fees.

I think that you must have forgotten the Incredicoaster! (what a lame offering!)

They've certainly put in plenty of Pixar. SW and Indiana Jones were already present. Clearly they're limited with Marvel at WDW but they're definitely trying. Fox properties are a but more out of their target zone but Sound of Music could be embraced.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

Josh D’Amaro posted on IG his farewell to WDW:

Congratulations to the Disney Springs Cast and the whole Walt Disney World team on the spectacular reopening of Disney Springs this week. It was a special moment and one I will never forget as I move onto my new role.
To all of the Cast Members who have warmly welcomed me into the Walt Disney World family....Thank You.
To all of our guests that have stopped to say “hello” to me....Thank You.
While my time here at WDW was relatively short, it was incredibly special.
Our Resort will now be in the caring hands of @jeffvahle...an incredible leader and an amazing person.
I will miss you all greatly. Please take care.




Around the same time, new VP Jeff Vahle posted on IG thanking Josh on his new role in WDW:

Yesterday was an important and much-anticipated day for Walt Disney World as we began welcoming guests back to Disney Springs. I'm heartened by these first steps toward bringing the magic back and so proud of our Cast’s incredible efforts to get us to this day. I'm beyond thrilled to be back as part of the WDW family and work alongside such a phenomenal team. It means a great deal to me to take on my new role as president of this very special place during this challenging time. I know that we will get through this together. I want to thank @joshdamaro for his amazing leadership and thrilled for him as he moves on to be our Chairman. I look forward to meeting you all soon.

Josh: Cast. Cast. Cast. "caring hands" "miss you all"
#getsit

 

[Kate F]

Josh D’Amaro posted on IG his farewell to WDW:

Congratulations to the Disney Springs Cast and the whole Walt Disney World team on the spectacular reopening of Disney Springs this week. It was a special moment and one I will never forget as I move onto my new role.
To all of the Cast Members who have warmly welcomed me into the Walt Disney World family....Thank You.
To all of our guests that have stopped to say “hello” to me....Thank You.
While my time here at WDW was relatively short, it was incredibly special.
Our Resort will now be in the caring hands of @jeffvahle...an incredible leader and an amazing person.
I will miss you all greatly. Please take care.




Around the same time, new VP Jeff Vahle posted on IG thanking Josh on his new role in WDW:

Yesterday was an important and much-anticipated day for Walt Disney World as we began welcoming guests back to Disney Springs. I'm heartened by these first steps toward bringing the magic back and so proud of our Cast’s incredible efforts to get us to this day. I'm beyond thrilled to be back as part of the WDW family and work alongside such a phenomenal team. It means a great deal to me to take on my new role as president of this very special place during this challenging time. I know that we will get through this together. I want to thank @joshdamaro for his amazing leadership and thrilled for him as he moves on to be our Chairman. I look forward to meeting you all soon.

Those pictures reinforce my desire to wait until things are relatively back to normal before going back to WDW.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Josh D’Amaro posted on IG his farewell to WDW:

This shows that Jeff is half a head taller than Josh...

But then again, maybe Josh is just tiny compared to the average guest?...

 

[gerarar]

Those pictures reinforce my desire to wait until things are relatively back to normal before going back to WDW.

If anything, the number of checks and safety/health procedures being enacted at Disney Springs is better than what’s being done at my local Walmart or Wegmans. I probably won’t go as far as saying one place is safer than the other, but oh well.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

The cost of Everest doesn't get brought up because it was a particularly frugal project. On the contrary, Everest gets used as a benchmark because the $100 million budget was mind-bogglingly lavish for a theme park attraction at the time (though I believe after its overruns, Mission:Space ended up in that same ballpark a few years prior).

If you go back and check out some of the attraction's pre-opening media, it's easy to see how big and extravagant the whole thing was. Research expeditions to Nepal! A detailed mythology to be explained in the queue 'museum'! An expansion of the park's physical size with a whole new sub-section of Asia! Three intertwined-but-separate structures! An animatronic with the thrust of a 747!

And yet, just 5 years later, WDI was spending the same amount on a pretty straightforward book report dark ride of an animated movie, whose development costs were shared between two locations, and required tens of millions more to properly finish a few years later. I remember hearing $70M thrown around for WWOHP, though I'm not sure whether that was for the whole land or just Forbidden Journey; regardless, it shows that competitors can build WDI-caliber additions for a fraction of the price.

These days, it seems like even a simple flat ride from WDI is approaching the once-mind-boggling price of $100M, while the starting price for an E-ticket is $250M. And let's not even talk about the cost of Cosmic Rewind, either in terms of dollars or lost future opportunities for the park.

To your point about going over budget, it's actually rare that projects go significantly over once the budget has been approved. Sure, overruns may cause some scope reductions (dark rooms in Indiana Jones Adventure, attraction pads left for future expansion), but its rare for new projects to require large additional sums of money. Once the wheels are in motion, the bank isn't going to increase the funding without serious scrutiny. Even your examples of the original builds on DL and EPCOT Center mostly stuck to their approved budgets, though both required additional investments in their first few years of operation to keep up with demand.

Was Everest a good return on investment, in the sense that it brought a lot more guests/spending to the park for its price? Yes, it's one of the best examples of that. Was it a low-budget attraction? Absolutely not. And that it seems inexpensive today shows how much WDI's costs have spiraled out of control in recent years.

DL was waaaayy over budget. I recommend you read the book Three Years In Wonderland which is a biography on CV Wood, DL’s first employee and covers the park’s construction extensively.

 

[Squishy]

 

[Giss Neric]

I have seen people wearing no masks in International Drive area with security, no one asked them to put their masks back on. I went to City Walk with people no masks, no TMs told them to put it back on.

I guess no one wants to make a scene. We don't know the temper of these people. It's either they will make a huge scene out of it or they will comply cause they forgot. It's a very sensitive situation.

That tweet was making it seem like Disney was not doing it's job which is unfair. Don't call out people in one place when you're not calling out other people on other places.

 

[Nunu]

I have seen people wearing no masks in International Drive area with security, no one asked them to put their masks back on. I went to City Walk with people no masks, no TMs told them to put it back on.

I guess no one wants to make a scene. We don't know the temper of these people. It's either they will make a huge scene out of it or they will comply cause they forgot. It's a very sensitive situation.

That tweet was making it seem like Disney was not doing it's job which is unfair. Don't call out people in one place when you're not calling out other people on other places.

I agree. Also, I see Josh giving that couple the "evil eye". He knows better than to make a scene, just imagine how quickly the media would jump on that!

 

[Nunu]

This shows that Jeff is half a head taller than Josh...

View attachment 471873

But then again, maybe Josh is just tiny compared to the average guest?...
View attachment 471874

Take into account that at the fountain, Josh has his hips tilted to the side and his legs are spread wider than Jeff's. (I can't believe I'm typing this! ). Anyway, by the photos I've seen of that day, I also noticed that Josh's stance was that of a model "working it" on the runway, haha!

 

[Ldno]

Didn’t know some of ya’ll hated Everest that bad, IMHO Everest is one of my favorite rides from Disney because of THEMING, if you ever wait it out in the queue and read into the mythology of the yeti, you get so immersed into to that by the time you take the train and explore and get derailed, there’s nothing like it. This is one of Vekoma’s great coasters but the theming of this is above and beyond anything disney has ever done in terms of starting out in the travel agency, to the yeti temple, gardens, yeti museum, then the train station. Fastpass queue borrows a bit from this but not the whole thing.

Josh is the savior the parks need, he’s more hands on and can see the parks changing towards the right direction IMHO! Not worried about it one bit.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The Riviera is one of the few things that I’ve liked and you haven’t.

I’m gonna send you two a gift card for a nice, quiet candlelit dinner

Everest is an absolutely fantastic attraction, the best at WDW in my opinion. It’s also a shining example of how to build a structure that adds to the theming of the park and the excitement of the ride, something they could use a reminder on.

On the topic of the thread, Josh D’Amaro is a thirst trap regardless of height.

What have you been riding? I’m serious.

That is a steel shell in there with two show rooms mounted in it. One with a gigantic lawn ornament. If you want to go with “structure integration”...tower, splash and Disneyland big thunder put it to shame.

Expedition Everest is one of Vekoma's best rides. Vekoma doesn't have a good track record with their coasters before but their coasters built for Disney happens to be very good. Now Vekoma is creating amazing coasters. I hope Cosmic Rewind will be one of those since it's being built by the new and improved Vekoma.

not exactly a high bar to reach for vekoma. The “Dutch thrashers”

The cost of Everest doesn't get brought up because it was a particularly frugal project. On the contrary, Everest gets used as a benchmark because the $100 million budget was mind-bogglingly lavish for a theme park attraction at the time (though I believe after its overruns, Mission:Space ended up in that same ballpark a few years prior).

If you go back and check out some of the attraction's pre-opening media, it's easy to see how big and extravagant the whole thing was. Research expeditions to Nepal! A detailed mythology to be explained in the queue 'museum'! An expansion of the park's physical size with a whole new sub-section of Asia! Three intertwined-but-separate structures! An animatronic with the thrust of a 747!

And yet, just 5 years later, WDI was spending the same amount on a pretty straightforward book report dark ride of an animated movie, whose development costs were shared between two locations, and required tens of millions more to properly finish a few years later. I remember hearing $70M thrown around for WWOHP, though I'm not sure whether that was for the whole land or just Forbidden Journey; regardless, it shows that competitors can build WDI-caliber additions for a fraction of the price.

These days, it seems like even a simple flat ride from WDI is approaching the once-mind-boggling price of $100M, while the starting price for an E-ticket is $250M. And let's not even talk about the cost of Cosmic Rewind, either in terms of dollars or lost future opportunities for the park.

To your point about going over budget, it's actually rare that projects go significantly over once the budget has been approved. Sure, overruns may cause some scope reductions (dark rooms in Indiana Jones Adventure, attraction pads left for future expansion), but its rare for new projects to require large additional sums of money. Once the wheels are in motion, the bank isn't going to increase the funding without serious scrutiny. Even your examples of the original builds on DL and EPCOT Center mostly stuck to their approved budgets, though both required additional investments in their first few years of operation to keep up with demand.

Was Everest a good return on investment, in the sense that it brought a lot more guests/spending to the park for its price? Yes, it's one of the best examples of that. Was it a low-budget attraction? Absolutely not. And that it seems inexpensive today shows how much WDI's costs have spiraled out of control in recent years.

Research junkets to Nepal...yeah...

That’s Joe. I never believed that the budget didn’t go massively over...that’s almost a given with the “artist” involved.

Didn’t Malcolm Gladwell write about how tall people are more likely to be successful? It was in one of his books...

and he was RIGHT!!

I’m a tall guy myself at 6’4, and I’m always aware of height. I know I’m not the tallest overall, but I enjoy being the tallest in my groups. If that makes sense haha.

I’ve got to steer clear of D’Amaro now LOL

Tall!?!

Is that the top of your head I see down there?

 

[Communicora]

Around the same time, new VP Jeff Vahle posted on IG thanking Josh on his new role in WDW:

Yesterday was an important and much-anticipated day for Walt Disney World as we began welcoming guests back to Disney Springs. I'm heartened by these first steps toward bringing the magic back and so proud of our Cast’s incredible efforts to get us to this day. I'm beyond thrilled to be back as part of the WDW family and work alongside such a phenomenal team. It means a great deal to me to take on my new role as president of this very special place during this challenging time. I know that we will get through this together. I want to thank @joshdamaro for his amazing leadership and thrilled for him as he moves on to be our Chairman. I look forward to meeting you all soon.

Jeff needs to get some better fitting dress shirts.

 

[Lilofan]

Jeff needs to get some better fitting dress shirts.

He spent most of his Disney career in charge of Facilities and Engineering. Not exactly Wall Street attire.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

He spent most of his Disney career in charge of Facilities and Engineering. Not exactly Wall Street attire.

Doesn’t mean you can’t dress well

 

[Tom P.]

Everest was all eisner

It also is to this day an engineering failure.

People that laud it REALLY need to go on some rollercoasters...it’s nothing earth shattering without the yeti

Can I ask an off-topic question?

I am not a thrill ride person. I do not ride rollercoasters. So I have never ridden Everest, with or without the yeti. The most I have seen of it is walking past it in the park.

But all I ever hear about regarding Everest is the yeti, the yeti, the yeti.

Can anyone explain to someone who has never been on the ride why the yeti is so important?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Can I ask an off-topic question?

I am not a thrill ride person. I do not ride rollercoasters. So I have never ridden Everest, with or without the yeti. The most I have seen of it is walking past it in the park.

But all I ever hear about regarding Everest is the yeti, the yeti, the yeti.

Can anyone explain to someone who has never been on the ride why the yeti is so important?

I’m not sure it is that important...

...except that Disney doesn’t build “rides”...they build story based concepts.

Without the yeti...the concept of the ride...from gate to gate...is incomplete.

It’s not a great pure rollercoaster. People act like it is- but it’s not. Disney isn’t for rollercoasters as we know.

So the whole concept needs the yeti to be complete. It’s splash mountain without the AA or Tower without the show scenes.

It’s also Disney largest mechanical failure in wdw - maybe ever.

And that rubs some as it crosses the “line”

 

[Ravenclaw78]

I’m not sure it is that important...

...except that Disney doesn’t build “rides”...they build story based concepts.

Without the yeti...the concept of the ride...from gate to gate...is incomplete.

It’s not a great pure rollercoaster. People act like it is- but it’s not. Disney isn’t for rollercoasters as we know.

So the whole concept needs the yeti to be complete. It’s splash mountain without the AA or Tower without the show scenes.

It’s also Disney largest mechanical failure in wdw - maybe ever.

And that rubs some as it crosses the “line”

Also, the Yeti is still there, it just has strobe lighting to simulate motion instead of its arm actually swinging at you. I'd wager that the vast majority of WDW guests have no idea it ever moved and wouldn't care if they did know, but for many among the message-board demographic it has become a symbol of everything they feel is wrong about the parks today.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Jeff needs to get some better fitting dress shirts.

The shoulder seams fit right; they fall right at the 'corner' of the shoulder. So, the issue is that the manufacturer assumes someone that wide and tall is also big in the belly. All he needs to do is look for 'trim' or 'athletic' fit. Or, with his supposed salary increase, get them tailored.

Disney really needs to hire someone to do image for all their top execs. For being a millionaire, Iger's been known to wear eye-rolling fashion. And let's not forget about a certain someone with a penchant for spay-on jeans. And Filoni's gotta lose the hat.