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News Disney plans to accelerate Parks investment to $60 billion over 10 years
- Thread starter CaptainAmerica
- Start date
updownandsideways
Member
Just now realizing the parks are what keeps everything afloat hope they can turn this ship around and bring some life back
Cruise lines and advertising from linear TV and licensing of Disney IP are also a huge sources of revenue.
When the parks were locked down, all those other segments allowed Disney to basically break even despite the cost of park upkeep and investment losses with D+ and no one going to theaters were dragging them down.
And seagulls. Those winged bastards can be mean.
ilovetotravel1977
Well-Known Member
They already have expansion plots being set up. If anyone wants the best Epic Universe info, go to Theme Park Stop on youtube. Alicia Stella and Bioreconstruct have been collaborating on videos for a year now.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
Five years + but yeah
Phicinfan
Well-Known Member
I wonder if Disney realized how much success they would get if they invested even some of this to fix what needs to be fixed....
New track for SM, update to SSE, new Figment based ride in Imagination, update to COP, just general fixes and upkeep with Peterpan, Pooh and Pirates and Jungle cruise.
Heck I love to sit and watch Tiki room, but would love to see some fixes there as well.
even if that reduces SOME of the adds, making those fixes would make many extremely happy
New track for SM, update to SSE, new Figment based ride in Imagination, update to COP, just general fixes and upkeep with Peterpan, Pooh and Pirates and Jungle cruise.
Heck I love to sit and watch Tiki room, but would love to see some fixes there as well.
even if that reduces SOME of the adds, making those fixes would make many extremely happy
DonniePeverley
Well-Known Member
At the risk of scouring 49 pages, can anyone give me a quick synopsis of what (if anything) is going on?
Or is this is just more of the 'this is what we wish could happen / imagineering' type nonsense ?
Or is this is just more of the 'this is what we wish could happen / imagineering' type nonsense ?
danlb_2000
Premium Member
..but would it lead to a noticeable increase in revenue?
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
The plan is too turn Disney into a steel jungle with exposed coaster track throughout the park.
Realistically nothing has been announced other than the money.
Phicinfan
Well-Known Member
with better operation, and more draw, thus having less lines that could lead to more folks going to park? Maybe?
Don't forget more AP lounges, more premium viewing spots only for APs, and more AP availability plus bigger and better discounts. TDO wants to expand the base of AP holders to rival what Disneyland once had.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
Ooooo capacity.....
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
To be fair, you don't want the CEO out there dictating what they're going to do in the parks, especially years in advance. You just want him setting (or, maybe more realistically, signing off on) a budget for the creatives to use and let them to go to work coming up with the best design.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
1) It's unclear what, if any plans Chapek was participatory in prior to his departure. Other than the Avengers E-ticket. Project directions were being pitched by Imagineering in September 2022, but little directional funding seems to have been achieved quite yet (due to lack of will or perhaps just inopportunely timed).
2) Chapek was booted
3) D'amaro and Iger went on a fairly significant parks tour on his return, together. DLR in Dec 2022, WDW in Jan 2023, DLRP in March 2023. I think they were in HKDL twice and SDL twice (to tour them in the summer of 2023 and then for the land openings). This is more park time than Iger has ever spent in a year in his tenure.
4) Iger announced something for Avatar in Disneyland (Feb 2023 quarterly call) following the success of its sequels performance. I highly doubt anything else was even planned or run by Imagineering, somewhat reminiscent of the first time he announced Pandora. I'd count that project as only having started gesticulating, from nothing, for about 12 months now.
5) Bruce Vaughn returns in March 2023.
6) The 10-year, 17 billion dollar budget was floated at WDW early. In part as a political ploy, but also seemed a little too random of a figure. I assume the overall spend strategy was largely being developed with Iger/D'amaro at that time, even if there wasn't the final talley presented to Wall Street.
7) The actual budget plan was announced for Wall Street in September. Timing wise D'amaro confirms the projects at Dinoland and Beyond Big Thunder are still top of mind. Remains wishy-washy.
8) On a subsequent call they affirmed it would be heavier in the back end (likely with a lack of major substance ready to go initially).
9) Disneyland makes more firm commitments to actually spend money specifically on the Disneyland Forward Plot (1.9 with penalties, but more committed to 2.5B). This would be separate from infrastructure spending, other capital spend. The limitations on the specifics of California seem to be pending the zoning approval, they appear particularly sensitive to not repeating the same errors where announced projects were cancelled by city council and business opposition.
10) They reaffirm on the most recent conference call the 60 billion. 70% of which would be ear marked for 'capacity expansion' approximately. Bob states meaningfully every single park in the portfolio would be due to receive expansion. Which seems a bit of a non-answer, but Disneyland Paris has been woefully ignored for longer than that.
11) Everyone insinuates every last dollar will be spent on DCL, not understanding the cruise ship industry pre-fills ship builds a decade in advance... they couldn't spend 60B on DCL even if they wanted to.
So where does that leave us today? I think it's pretty clear Iger set these plans in motion quite quickly behind the scenes early on his arrival. D'amaro seemed keen to sell major projects under Chapek's regime, but there were no firm budgeting commitments we can yet discern. It seems early on some green light occurred that directionally they would need to scale up and start planning projects. Certainly, by Spring 2023.
Why do we not know more? Because really things were bare bones at Imagineering with no real clue of major project spending until 12 months ago (if I'm being generous).
I *think* D23 this August will have meaningful things to show. But those meaningful things will be 18 months in process, only. Which means I think we'll have a very good direction of things to come.
Will major projects be committed to more firmly at D23? I think yes.
Will they be ready to start construction this calendar year? I think very unlikely.
Will they be under construction by D23 2026? I think yes.
Could non-major projects be ready to open for 2025? I'd hope so, and they've managed to sprinkle in some of those already even in the lean times. I.e. Luminous, Country Bears, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, etc.
Will Avengers ever get its E-ticket? Hopefully before Kid Zone gets a replacement of substance...
flynnibus
Premium Member
Huh? The whole presentation was setup by outlining how the investment in parks has turned into a consistent multiplier of revenue…. Then once they established that concept, they talked about spending so you believe what that roi would be like.
peter11435
Well-Known Member
Yep. People around here like to ignore facts like that if they don’t support their agenda.
flynnibus
Premium Member