News Disney plans to accelerate Parks investment to $60 billion over 10 years

[CalebS]

This company has been so full of crap recently, I’ll believe it when i see actually construction actively going on. I will say this board has been so dead and jaded for several years now ( rightfully so ) and it is nice to see some sort of hope of some improvement

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

This is one of my biggest grips over this. They take YEARS to do this stuff and we end up with a NET LOSS of attractions!!!

Sometimes I do think this is their strategy to keep Genie+ and ILL in demand!

Well that’s the strategy that’s losing them business

More to come

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

This company has been so full of crap recently, I’ll believe it when i see actually construction actively going on. I will say this board has been so dead and jaded for several years now ( rightfully so ) and it is nice to see some sort of hope of some improvement

…say it with me…TOTS

 

[fgmnt]

That would be a hit…they need it at studios

I think it would be great at Studios but it to me seems like an opportunity to make MK a real four quadrant park again and also would being (I expect) the first bar in MK.

You know, if they make it.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Wait a minute…I totally flew past the “cheap annual passes”

They one annual they sell is $1550 a year…and they didn’t sell many

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

That makes no sense. Higher attractions per guests per hour would clearly be seen as a better value.

Wait times don't seem to be a major deterrent.

If they wanted to give guests a better experience they could do that now by eliminating the cheap admission for locals.

Even with the capacity controlling reservation system, Disney always seems intent on cramming as many people in as possible, using annual passes and other discounts to squeeze out every penny they can get.

 

[Jrb1979]

Wait times don't seem to be a major deterrent.

If they wanted to give guests a better experience they could do that now by eliminating the cheap admission for locals.

Even with the capacity controlling reservation system, Disney always seems intent on cramming as many people in as possible, using annual passes and other discounts to squeeze out every penny they can get.

That's how all parks work. They are supposed to be built with lots of capacity in mind. Have lots attractions shows streetmosphere and places to eat to keep people busy and off the walkways for most of the day.

 

[Haymarket2008]

With all this expansion and investment getting the green light, I'd be shocked if the rest of the sorely needed EPCOT aren't wrapped up.

Can anyone give a hint there?? LOL

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Wait times don't seem to be a major deterrent.

If they wanted to give guests a better experience they could do that now by eliminating the cheap admission for locals.

Even with the capacity controlling reservation system, Disney always seems intent on cramming as many people in as possible, using annual passes and other discounts to squeeze out every penny they can get.

With all due respect…that is not whats going on in Orlando right now

You got a case for Disneyland…but not the swamp

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

That's how all parks work. They are supposed to be built with lots of capacity in mind. Have lots attractions shows streetmosphere and places to eat to keep people busy and off the walkways for most of the day.

That’s exactly how Disney parks make money…

Happier people buy more items with the profit margins

It does NOT come from tickets and line skips

It’s not just what you sell…it’s how much you clear on it. And guess what’s sometimes 90% profit?

Hint: it’s made in sweatshops in the parking lot of Shanghai Disneyland

 

[PREMiERdrum]

That’s exactly how Disney parks make money…

Happier people buy more items with the profit margins

It does NOT come from tickets and line skips

It’s not just what you sell…it’s how much you clear on it. And guess what’s sometimes 90% profit?

Hint: it’s made in sweatshops in the parking lot of Shanghai Disneyland

And it took them *this long* to realize that nickel-and-diming the guests with sky high rack rates, tickets, and Genie+ charges cuts into their interest in the high-margin stuff you WANT to sell.

 

[Jrb1979]

And it took them *this long* to realize that nickel-and-diming the guests with sky high rack rates, tickets, and Genie+ charges cuts into their interest in the high-margin stuff you WANT to sell.

While it's good to see them finally building new attractions, it feels like a lot of it is more E-ticket level. They need more smaller scale attractions to fill the parks

 

[Disstevefan1]

Wait times don't seem to be a major deterrent.

If they wanted to give guests a better experience they could do that now by eliminating the cheap admission for locals.

Even with the capacity controlling reservation system, Disney always seems intent on cramming as many people in as possible, using annual passes and other discounts to squeeze out every penny they can get.

Disagree. Attendance is down and the wait times are up because of the failed Genie+ system.

 

[PREMiERdrum]

While it's good to see them finally building new attractions, it feels like a lot of it is more E-ticket level. They need more smaller scale attractions to fill the parks

There are a dozen options for additive B and C tickets for all 4 parks, plenty that could be open in 18 months. There's currently no interest. At this point I'm hoping the 3rd Tropical Americas attraction stays on track.

 

[MrPromey]

I'm not talking about our individual preferences -- it has nothing to do with where I personally want to go. I'm talking about the general public; USF is widely considered the weakest park right now.

I also think you're missing the overall point. If you only go to Universal, then you're kind of irrelevant to this conversation because it's about people who split trips and visit both. Until USF is fixed, people on split trips are more likely to replace USF with EU than they are to drop a Disney day for an additional full day at USF (i.e., they'll just replace a USF day with an EU day). I think Universal knows this, too, which is why they have plans in the works to make major changes to USF.

Also, the Murder She Wrote experience may have been better than Transformers! Transformers is truly awful.

But seriously... although Diagon Alley as a whole is tremendous and an improvement over Jaws, the Jaws attraction was far better than Gringotts. Kongfrontation was much better than the new Kong ride (although that's at IoA and Kongfrontation itself was replaced by Revenge of the Mummy, which is quite good), Twister was better than Race Through New York, Earthquake was better than Fast & the Furious, and Back to the Future was better than Simpsons.

Pop quiz!: Without looking it up, do you remember who the surprise guest star was at the end of MSW?

...

You were speaking a lot in terms of what "you" prefer and what "you" like which is why I was asking. That left the impression that it had everything to do with where you personally want to go.

Your commentary was strongly peppered with your own personal thoughts on Diagon Ally, for instance. I didn't realize you were intending to speak for the masses when making those comments.

I was originally speaking on broad terms and was responding when you were comparing the two parks and saying USF was the lesser and I was trying to point out that the demographics of who is going would strongly influence that.

If you're not specifically interested in thrill attractions or have members of your party that can't do them, IOA would not be the preferred choice regardless of if someone thinks the theme of Toon Lagoon resonates more with contemporary audiences than something like Transformers*/Minions or not.

You brought Disney back into things in response to the thrill ride stuff and didn't seem to understand why anyone would choose Universal over Disney if that were the case.

Before explaining why someone might make that choice, I thought it would be helpful to better understand where you were coming from to make sure I was actually bringing to light a different point of view.

If you don't want to share, no biggie.

I'll Just end on saying I don't like Transfomers*, either (the ride or the movies) but how busy the attraction always is leads me to beleive that mine is not the popular opinion and we're not talking about our personal opinions, right?


*As the person who plans trips, is responsible for getting everyone safely there, navigating the parks, making sure everyone is happy and fed, who gets everyone back safely and who pays for it all, I still end up riding it on almost every trip. Why? The same reason Disny has, for the time lost me as a paying customer to their parks. While I don't claim everyone like me are the whole reason attendance is currently at lower levels for some WDW parks than USO, it might be that those who find themselves in my position are part of the puzzle.

 

[Jrb1979]

There are a dozen options for additive B and C tickets for all 4 parks, plenty that could be open in 18 months. There's currently no interest. At this point I'm hoping the 3rd Tropical Americas attraction stays on track.

They don't get parks and never have. Not everything new has to be an E-ticket. This tells me all they care about is how much ROI they can get with LL

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

And it took them *this long* to realize that nickel-and-diming the guests with sky high rack rates, tickets, and Genie+ charges cuts into their interest in the high-margin stuff you WANT to sell.

Apparently

They sold themselves that the “brand” had no price ceilings…

And even if it is partially correct…making bad product rejected by the mass market ain’t the way to secure it

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

They don't get parks and never have. Not everything new has to be an E-ticket. This tells me all they care about is how much ROI they can get with LL

The ghosts of Disney pass get it. They practically invented it.

Did they need 5 sit down restaurants? Or characters popping out of the tunnels all over the place? Or boutique giftshops crammed in odd spaces?

No…but its all part of the same model: move people around…vary the sensory stimulation…get them happy

Happy = spending.

Not hard.

“Premium ticket events” were you basically spin in the turnstile at 6:59 pm and walk back in at twice the price and 7 am scrambles for an 11:15 spot on Peter Pan?

Nah…bad Stanford advice there

 

[UNCgolf]

Pop quiz!: Without looking it up, do you remember who the surprise guest star was at the end of MSW?

...

You were speaking a lot in terms of what "you" prefer and what "you" like which is why I was asking. That left the impression that it had everything to do with where you personally want to go.

Your commentary was strongly peppered with your own personal thoughts on Diagon Ally, for instance. I didn't realize you were intending to speak for the masses when making those comments.

I was originally speaking on broad terms and was responding when you were comparing the two parks and saying USF was the lesser and I was trying to point out that the demographics of who is going would strongly influence that.

If you're not specifically interested in thrill attractions or have members of your party that can't do them, IOA would not be the preferred choice regardless of if someone thinks the theme of Toon Lagoon resonates more with contemporary audiences than something like Transformers*/Minions or not.

You brought Disney back into things in response to the thrill ride stuff and didn't seem to understand why anyone would choose Universal over Disney if that were the case.

Before explaining why someone might make that choice, I thought it would be helpful to better understand where you were coming from to make sure I was actually bringing to light a different point of view.

If you don't want to share, no biggie.

I'll Just end on saying I don't like Transfomers*, either (the ride or the movies) but how busy the attraction always is leads me to beleive that mine is not the popular opinion and we're not talking about our personal opinions, right?


*As the person who plans trips, is responsible for getting everyone safely there, navigating the parks, making sure everyone is happy and fed, who gets everyone back safely and who pays for it all, I still end up riding it on almost every trip. Why? The same reason Disny has, for the time lost me as a paying customer to their parks. While I don't claim everyone like me are the whole reason attendance is currently at lower levels for some WDW parks than USO, it might be that those who find themselves in my position are part of the puzzle.

While I'm not really sure how you read my posts and came away thinking I was solely talking about myself and not the general public, I personally don't care about thrill rides unless they're heavily themed. Physical thrill alone doesn't do much for me -- neither USF or IOA have much I care about (most of the non-thrill rides are mediocre at best), and EU doesn't look to have an especially great attraction lineup either.

Regardless, I think it would be hard to look at all the data and think anything other than EU seriously hurting USF for split trip visitors. While I don't have any trouble believing there are people who like USF more than IOA or any of the Disney parks, the information we have says those people are a minority (and probably a relatively small one).

Universal is aware of this and knows they need to spend significant money on USF going forward.

 

[BrianLo]

There are a dozen options for additive B and C tickets for all 4 parks, plenty that could be open in 18 months. There's currently no interest. At this point I'm hoping the 3rd Tropical Americas attraction stays on track.

It’s the natural consequence of Genie+ and ILL. While it encourages lavish investment, because money can be directly recouped from in demand major attractions - it completely diminishes the desire or clear return on the very small experiences.

Had you told people 20 years ago Disney was going to stop with the spinners and only ‘attempt’ to build E-E+ attractions, people would be elated. But there comes a point of being unbalanced.