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

CJR

CJR

Well-Known Member
UNCgolf said:
I like the E.T. ride -- it's one of the few Universal attractions I enjoy. There's not much I care about at IoA either.

But USF is a wasteland for the average guest (the attraction lineup there was much stronger in the 1990s than it is now), and people with young kids are generally better served at WDW overall. I don't see many people with kids in that age group skipping a Disney park to go to USF.

It's not really a concern for Disney, which was my only point (had nothing to do with my personal preferences). I'm sure there are people that prefer USF to IoA, but they're minority -- and I'd be shocked if most of them don't prefer any of the four Disney parks to USF. I believe USF is rated by the general public as the worst of the 6 main Universal/WDW parks by a relatively wide margin.
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This is exactly why we will have Disney passes next year instead of Universal. My DD would only get to enjoy a very small amount of attractions in each park. EU looks to have more to offer her than the other two, but it just isn't enough for the $$.

Once she's 40+ inches and if we have no more children, then we'll probably be all about Universal for a bit.

That's it though, many families have more and that pushes that ideal trip (where we can enjoy most things together) back. Before you know it, by the time Universal becomes a good option, the oldest child is close to graduating high school.

This is exactly why people keep returning to Disney. People want to do quality stuff together and Disney mostly grants that wish.
 
UNCgolf

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
yensidtlaw1969 said:
It's a ride that's built with the design classification of E-Ticket by its creators. Not that hard to understand, and not particularly subjective. The Imagineers are the authority here.

The biggest issue is that marketing has, on occasion, tried to upsell D-Ticket attractions as E-Tickets in publicity materials despite the designers fully admitting it isn't one.

The fact that the A-E Ticketing system is no longer in use for selling admission to attractions has no real impact on the very real ways in which the terms are still used today.
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Did the Imagineers really consider TRON an E ticket?
 
TalkingHead

TalkingHead

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
100 percent. Though they seem to have cracked the code with ILL. If they can monetize the uber expensive attractions for a decade, it does justify more of them.

A la carte. What's old is new again.
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Just have to get the algorithms to account for the portion of the customer base that won’t bother to visit because of perceived inconvenience, paying twice, etc.
 
Henry Mystic

Henry Mystic

Author of "A Manor of Fact"
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/inside-imagineering/

"What I found more interesting was that, after D’Amaro spoke, Iger wanted to say a bit more. Here’s where he put a finer point on things, explaining things in terms that would normally be reserved for earnings calls. That they have reviewed performance of various divisions of the company, and it just made sense for the sake of shareholders, to invest more in Parks & Resorts. That they had the space, stories to tell, and there was guest appetite for expansion. The only thing they didn’t have, until this year, was the free cash flow.

Implicit in this seemed to be an acknowledgment that fans have taken an “I’ll believe it when I see it” viewpoint. Iger was indirectly ‘responding’ to that by pointing out the company has every reason to move full steam ahead on Parks & Resorts because that’s its best business. That the stars have aligned, so to speak, and the fans are about to get what they’ve been wanting.

This was especially significant, as was Iger’s presence at Imagineering in the first place, given that it was on the eve of the annual shareholders meeting. It’s safe to assume that Disney’s CEO is normally pretty busy, but especially so ahead of that–and in a year with a bitterly contested proxy battle. Against that backdrop, Iger’s being at Walt Disney Imagineering felt even more symbolically significant; it reflected where the CEO’s priorities are at that important moment in time."
 
MrPromey

MrPromey

Well-Known Member
UNCgolf said:
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.
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No argument here other than to say that USF apparently saw more guests than two of the four Disney parks in 2022, the most current year we have info for.

Maybe those USF folks were always heading there anyway and maybe the Disney folks just took shorter trips, I guess.

I'm sure EU could pull from both (per-existing Universal) parks but I'm not sure it'll offset the number of people that'll take advantage of new multi-day tickets Universal is sure to start offering to entice longer stays.

In any event, my hope is that EU pushes both companies to up their offerings and especially in the case of WDW, causes them to move back to the guest-centric approach to business that they were once renowned for.

Paying more for worse service and an increasingly frustrating experience is why I haven't been going to WDW. If they'd reverse course on some of that way of doing things, I'd be back in a heartbeat.

I have way more sentimental attachment to that place than up the road.
 
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C

celluloid

Well-Known Member
ToTBellHop said:
Which park has gone 10 years without a new E-ticket, again?
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Notice I said "new" as in not rethemed dynamics to make relevant.
That being said.
Animal Kingdom is about to go through it twice. Everest, then Avatar. From Avatar to the new attractions in the Tropical Americas.(or dang close to it by the time it opens)

If you don't count Frozen and (but the appeal is there, just not the scale) EPCOT has done it too.

Neither Test Track or Frozen's ride dynamics are really new unless you count adding the small scene from an old loading platform.

Toy Story Mania to Toy Storyland had ten years.

Universal has gone through this luckily only once in their dark years and it did not work well for them at IOA. They only had minor additions that expanded the park a bit for fleshed out variety(Flight of the Unicorn Storm Force, and an altered Poseidon, High in the Sky Suess Trolley) the first 11 years of their new theme park and then getting a new land and E-ticket.
 
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Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Henry Mystic said:
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/inside-imagineering/

"What I found more interesting was that, after D’Amaro spoke, Iger wanted to say a bit more. Here’s where he put a finer point on things, explaining things in terms that would normally be reserved for earnings calls. That they have reviewed performance of various divisions of the company, and it just made sense for the sake of shareholders, to invest more in Parks & Resorts. That they had the space, stories to tell, and there was guest appetite for expansion. The only thing they didn’t have, until this year, was the free cash flow.

Implicit in this seemed to be an acknowledgment that fans have taken an “I’ll believe it when I see it” viewpoint. Iger was indirectly ‘responding’ to that by pointing out the company has every reason to move full steam ahead on Parks & Resorts because that’s its best business. That the stars have aligned, so to speak, and the fans are about to get what they’ve been wanting.

This was especially significant, as was Iger’s presence at Imagineering in the first place, given that it was on the eve of the annual shareholders meeting. It’s safe to assume that Disney’s CEO is normally pretty busy, but especially so ahead of that–and in a year with a bitterly contested proxy battle. Against that backdrop, Iger’s being at Walt Disney Imagineering felt even more symbolically significant; it reflected where the CEO’s priorities are at that important moment in time."
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So why did it make sense to ignore the domestic parks needs by and large for two decades?

…I’m sure we’ll get an answer 😳
 
Henry Mystic

Henry Mystic

Author of "A Manor of Fact"
Sirwalterraleigh said:
Grain of salt because one is aggressivley BUILDING and one has tumbleweed rolling past its little office behind horizons (or whatever is there now 🤪)

I don’t think little brother is done and will “yield the floor” so easily. They really haven’t let up for 12 years
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There are financial reasons they couldn’t build post-COVID. Those things have been addressed, mostly related to other segments of the company as you are well aware.

The company internally views the parks now as the biggest growth potential and Iger is putting a legitimate effort to right the ship and is including Walt Disney Imagineering at every step of the process, including being back legends like Bruce Vaughn and Joe Rhode. They are not the only ones.

They’re basically about to add over $2B to each park in the world. What on Earth do you want them to do? Loads of this massive construction will begin in earnest over the next 12 months. Times have changed.
 
Tha Realest

Tha Realest

Well-Known Member
Henry Mystic said:
There are financial reasons they couldn’t build post-COVID. Those things have been addressed, mostly related to other segments of the company as you are well aware.

The company internally views the parks now as the biggest growth potential and Iger is putting a legitimate effort to right the ship and is including Walt Disney Imagineering at every step of the process, including being back legends like Bruce Vaughn and Joe Rhode. They are not the only ones.

They’re basically about to add over $2B to each park in the world. What on Earth do you want them to do? Loads of this massive construction will begin in earnest over the next 12 months. Times have changed.
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The “financial reasons” is that they foolishly spent billions on stuff like Willow, The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Marvels, Lightyear, Strange World, and Artemis Fowl.
 

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