Disney Playing catch up with Universal... Potter Disney's biggest mistake in 20 years...

[GrammieBee]

Wow, defend your positions at all costs! It's like a civil war. The only point I care to make is for you to look around at what age groups you find predominitely visiting which resort. We certainly noticed a big difference. Perhaps a chance this could have something to do with what is planned where?

 

[wogwog]

I just got home and noticed 5 packages outside my door. They were all magicbands for my August trip and I am going solo. LOL

At last WDW found the fix for the rubber band disaster. Send you 5 and hope the odds favor at least one will actually work correctly.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Me too, my phone never leaves Texas when I goto WDW

But it is part of the tech interactive thing Disney is going for so I think it does matter.

You'll need your phone next visit to WDW. The "My Disney Experience" App is the best way to change things on the fly and search for last minute dining ressies. YMMV as the app has made me nearly throw my phone. Multiple times.

 

[PhotoDave219]

But most of all, the be best at what they do. Go back to five-star service without cutting corners at every turn. Go back to having the reputation that they never have a light bulb out of place. Go back to having amazing food and resorts that take us to a different place. Update EPCOT. Produce shows again, like MMC or even new shows, at Hollywood Studios. [Universal makes "Family Feud" at their studio in Florida.] Produce television (like Walt) live from the park, even maybe an "Inside/Out" type of show on The Disney Channel, but even other shows.

So, yes, add new things like Star Wars land; but most of all, go back to being the best at what they do, and show it to people with enthusiasm.

That. That right there is the "Disney Difference." Guest service is what they became known for and thats what they need to focus on again.

Conversely..... thats something Uni needs to focus on in the next 18 months as they lead into whatever they have planned next. Their guest service is a little lacking.

Being one of the handful on these forums who actually have visited the new expansion.... it is exactly what Disney used to do. The level of detail. The level of immersion. The layers.

Alas, I like both parks. I enjoy Disney (always will) and I enjoy the new things Uni has to offer.... plus I also like to think that my money at Universal goes to paying the salaries of my beloved Philadelphia Flyers. (also owned by ComcastSpectacor which is a subsidary of NBCUniversal).

 

[PhotoDave219]

I don't know about you, but I don't go to a theme park to get preached at. AK's "message" is one of the reasons I find it so boring. I've never visited Rafiki's Planet Watch or that attraction with Simba and so on. SNORE! If that kind of pedantic palaver is what AK is all about, then hey, maybe Disney should buy the rights to Captain Planet...

All I know is that I will forever associate the phrase 'pedantic palaver' with Oswald the lucky Rabbit.

But enough of that palaver, lets get the show on the road.

 

[PhotoDave219]

What I don't get is why it has to be one park or the other? Whats wrong with liking both? Have people truly been brainwashed with that whole "either youre with us or against us" BS?

Disney does a good job with some things.... slipped a lot with things they used to do right but they can still turn it around if they want.

Universal is finally done playing catchup from those dark times when they were under Blackstone and is a major player in the market. They're doing a great job with thrills and continue to put out the best Halloween show in town. Their guest service is lacking still but this new DA expansion takes Uni to an entirely new level.

And parking sucks at both parks.

 

[Longhairbear]

This leads to a significant point. Disney is jealous of the the $$$ Uni is making on its merch, but Disney already has highly themed lands and the biggest IP library on earth—and they do nothing with it.

The lands encourage unique merch. When the MK opened, the shops in Liberty Square sold custom perfumes and magic shop trinkets because those things contributed to the theme. Guests bought them. Long ago, the Studios sold classic Hollywood paraphernalia and people bought it. There's no reason to mention Main Street USA because everyone knows how much better it used to be.

Moving on to the IP, Disney is so trapped by its late 90s Walmart mentality that it's ignoring the merch possibilities from almost 100 years of beloved animated features. Why sell shirts, plush, and collectibles from some of the biggest movies of all time when you can just slap a new date on the exact same clip art used on every other piece of Disney stuff?

The short-sightedness astounds me.

Has Disney ever put out, or licensed a model kit for the Nautilus? I don't remember one. I'd buy one now if they did. As for non Disney merch, didn't Disneyland have a Wonderbra store on Main St. USA?

 

[UpAllNight]

Hey guys and gals, first time poster looooong time reader. Just my take on the situation and a bit of background info...I live in the Uk, I'm a 24 year old man and went to florida for the only time in 2001/2002 (can't quite remember the year!). I'm going again next summer and absolutely can't wait to go back. I was hooked as soon as I went to Orlando and have been itching to get back so have kept in tune with goings on, and now that I'm in a financial position to go again it's only served to increase my forum viewing!

I love both Disney and Universal first up, but one thing that strikes me is how much Universal has changed since I went and how little Disney has moved forward. I'm 100% sure I will love Disney when I return, but it's frustrating how much they could do, and how little they have.

The rides that interest me, since I went, at Universal include HP, Diagon Ally, the Mummy, Simpsons, Rip rockit, despicable me, transformers...at Disney, just Everest and Soaring....for me Disneys new additions do not represent 13/14 years worth of improvements. Disney is giving off an image to me as being stale and even though I love Disney, it's not giving the right impression to people like myself. Universal is lively, fresh, dynamic and changing and there's always a certain appeal in that. Don't get me wrong, I look forward to seeing the new fantasyland and Toy Story Mania, but Disney should be THE place to visit, I think it risks becoming an afterthought.

 

[Mike S]

So I finally caught up with this thread and I don't know why I bothered. Just the standard Disney vs. Universal. All I have to say is that I fully enjoy both resorts with obviously more nostalgia and love for Disney since I started going there much earlier. I really don't know why some people feel they have to pick a side and hate the other, it's only their loss. It's obvious Universal is on an expansion kick right now and that should be good news to any theme park fan. If this ever spurs some kind of REAL reaction from Disney (however unlikely)? Even better. We would all win in that scenario.

 

[Padraig]

What I don't get is why it has to be one park or the other? Whats wrong with liking both? Have people truly been brainwashed with that whole "either youre with us or against us" BS?

I'm not being flippant when I say that "there's something wrong those people". Genuinely. If you were to stick them in an EEG, I'm convinced that you'd find that they're not firing on all cylinders. It seem that whatever is written into their ROM (if you will) in their formative years is gospel and cannot be altered or questioned, whether that be tech products, politics, ideology or theme parks.

 

[Taylor]

What I don't get is why it has to be one park or the other? Whats wrong with liking both? Have people truly been brainwashed with that whole "either youre with us or against us" BS?

Disney does a good job with some things.... slipped a lot with things they used to do right but they can still turn it around if they want.

Universal is finally done playing catchup from those dark times when they were under Blackstone and is a major player in the market. They're doing a great job with thrills and continue to put out the best Halloween show in town. Their guest service is lacking still but this new DA expansion takes Uni to an entirely new level.

And parking sucks at both parks.

for some reason it's human nature to pick sides and make everything a competition. I will never understand it.

 

[StageFrenzy]

That. That right there is the "Disney Difference." Guest service is what they became known for and thats what they need to focus on again.

Conversely..... thats something Uni needs to focus on in the next 18 months as they lead into whatever they have planned next. Their guest service is a little lacking.

Or Blows, not in a good way.

 

[mickeysbrother]

Universal has had tremendous success with Potter- they spent a lot of money and got a lot of money in return.

Disney, meanwhile, didn't spend millions of dollars on building new attractions and offerings... and still made a ton of money off of returning guests with nostalgia.

In fact, the argument could be made that Disney has made as much money off of Potter as Universal has: I'm sure a lot of families have vacations to Orlando specifically to see the new Potter expansion(s), but between the two Universal parks you can really only spend 2 days, 3 days max. To make a 5-6 day vacation, Disney seems like the obvious answer for how a family with kids will spend the other 3-4 days and justify airplane tickets to Florida.

Just because Disney didn't make the same move Universal did doesn't mean they made a mistake.
Universal and Disney might be competitors, but they're not playing the same game.[/QUOTE]


BOOM!!!!!!

 

[Padraig]

In fact, the argument could be made that Disney has made as much money off of Potter as Universal has: I'm sure a lot of families have vacations to Orlando specifically to see the new Potter expansion(s), but between the two Universal parks you can really only spend 2 days, 3 days max. To make a 5-6 day vacation, Disney seems like the obvious answer for how a family with kids will spend the other 3-4 days and justify airplane tickets to Florida.

This is going back a while, but I seem to remember reading that was in fact Disney's thought process. That WWOHP was a good thing and that it would bring them more business. Didn't work out that way though. Hopefully more knowledgeable posters can expand on that.

Take me for example. I'm finally starting to accept that I'd fly over 7,000 km and only do Universal. That's on a short - less than 5 day - break. Even two years ago that was inconceivable to me. Having said that, I'd probably still break and head to Disney for a day. The thought is there though.

 

[WDWDad13]

I think he spelled out his name with powder, rolled a Disney dollar nice and tight and started snorting like Scarface in the last shoot out scene. I hope he isn't floating face down in a pool somewhere after watching a video of Daigon Alley and realized Fantasyland Expansion was outdone and then jumped off the roof in a magical last stand.

Wow...in the words of Cindy Lauper....I see your true colors shining through

 

[WDWDad13]

What I don't get is why it has to be one park or the other? Whats wrong with liking both? Have people truly been brainwashed with that whole "either youre with us or against us" BS?

Disney does a good job with some things.... slipped a lot with things they used to do right but they can still turn it around if they want.

Universal is finally done playing catchup from those dark times when they were under Blackstone and is a major player in the market. They're doing a great job with thrills and continue to put out the best Halloween show in town. Their guest service is lacking still but this new DA expansion takes Uni to an entirely new level.

And parking sucks at both parks.

I agree with everything except Uni being done playing catchup. They always will be due to the amount of land they have to work with in some ways. The Halloween event which is very cool at Uni for sure is simply targeted for a different audience (and age) than the MNSSHP

And yes, parking does suck at both parks lol and right now DTD wins for the worst ugh

 

[ParentsOf4]

Universal has had tremendous success with Potter- they spent a lot of money and got a lot of money in return.

Disney, meanwhile, didn't spend millions of dollars on building new attractions and offerings... and still made a ton of money off of returning guests with nostalgia.

All theme parks, even WDW, survive on frequent updates to their offerings. Nostalgia carries you only so far.

The problem with today's corporate Disney is that failure to invest properly in WDW has hurt company profitability.

Back in WDW's glory days, Disney used to invest ~25% of Parks & Resorts (P&R) revenue back into the product. As a result of that investment, margins typically were in the 18%-24% range. Disney invested a lot of money and made a lot of money in return.

Last year, Disney's P&R investments were down to 15% while margins were under 16%, lower than at any point during WDW's first 30 years of operation.

P&R used to be money-in-the-bank for Disney. Now, P&R's margins are actually lower than the rest of the company. WDW is dragging the company down.

Meanwhile, last year Universal invested 26% of its Theme Parks segment revenue back into its parks. Their margin was over 31%. Universal Orlando pulled Comcast's earnings up.

The old adage "It takes money to make money" is true.

Disney needs to invest intelligently in WDW in order to see the strong returns it once did, in order to see the strong returns Universal is experiencing today.

Instead, Disney spent more than $7B over the last two years buying back company stock. Besides helping boost the stock price so executives can collect bigger bonuses & exercise their stock options, buying stock that's already trading at a PE ratio of 21 isn't a particularly good idea.

Disney has money available to invest in WDW right now. They simply choose not to because it's not in the best interest of their senior executive management.

Things will change. Disney will invest in WDW once again, sooner rather than later. But the low rate of investment over the last 10 years or so really hurt the profitability of WDW.

 

[rangerbob]

We can say that the parks are reaping from each other. We were at Universal last week. As I was walking around I saw numerous mickeybands on people as they were at Universal.

 

[marni1971]

Instead Universal gave us 20 meaningless shops(because JK gets a cut of the merchandise), a puke machine, a very expensive transportation screen based train, and a screen based 3D coaster that really isn't a coaster.

Yeah. Poor them.

Let's see how it turns out for them.

 

[ScoutN]

Yeah. Poor them.

Let's see how it turns out for them.

I know more people that get sick on one of Disney's 100000 spinners. I guess that makes WDW king of puke machines.

So that's voyage of the mermaids: Ursula saves the day. A magic journey through an incomplete warehouse with overly static AAs.

Be our guest in the dolled up high school cafeteria where the show planned originally was cancelled.

7 off skin tone dwarves mediocre on a good day man.

And dumbos duel pukers.

Yepp. Ill take DANNY over that crap