Disney World Low Attendance Paradox

Capsin4

Capsin4

Well-Known Member
wdisney9000 said:
"Slashing expenses" (overhead costs) is not profit. It is a short term boost to the bottom line. What happens in the next quarter? You slash expenses again? Reduce staff again and raise prices? That is not sustainable and the product/experience will diminish.
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It’s certainly one part of the profit equation as is increased prices. Unlike continued price increases, expense cutting isn’t meant to be interminable. It just establishes a new baseline.
Not sure what you’re argument is. They’ve made it clear that raising prices to reduce and redistribute crowds while enabling cost reductions is a goal. A goal that will be tricky to manage correctly as there are too many variables and their sensitivity is probably not well understood. You can be sure that’s something they’re looking at.

You’re right about guest experience though. That’s already been proven out.
 
correcaminos

correcaminos

Well-Known Member
Sirwalterraleigh said:
In no way do they want diminished crowds for one single minute. Come on, now...let’s stop with this, please? Common sense test.

October sucks, frankly...they should have extended hours...instead they cut them and do silly upsells.

Never again
May is typically a slow month...maybe the best month on the whole
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No need to be rude since you misunderstood what I meant and took one word and ran with it. They want the crowds even, not totally diminished. Totally different idea. They've been trying to balance the crowds out for years and seem to finally be there.
 
Jimmy Thick

Jimmy Thick

Well-Known Member
Low attendance? When was this “low attendance” when I was there two weeks ago? I vividly remembered the parks being busy, not impossible but nowhere considered “low attendance”.

I wonder if people predicting such baloney are actually going to the parks, or just generalizing and creating numbers based in phone apps.
 
wdisney9000

wdisney9000

Truindenashendubapreser
Premium Member
Capsin4 said:
They’ve made it clear that raising prices to reduce and redistribute crowds while enabling cost reductions is a goal
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I (personally) dont think any of the price hikes were specifically meant to reduce or redistribute crowds. I think they were just flat our price hikes due to new offerings, Pandora, TSL, GE, etc. The problem (IMO) is that theyve been raising prices for years without offering anything new (on a large scale such as an entire land) so it would have been a good balance to keep the price increases on par with prior years. Have you watched any interviews with Chapek? His arrogance outshines any faux comments about guest satisfaction.

The only effective way to redistribute crowds and/or lower wait times is attraction capacity. Plain and simple.

Capsin4 said:
Unlike continued price increases, expense cutting isn’t meant to be interminable. It just establishes a new baseline.
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By establishing the new baseline through reducing overhead costs, it leaves them with only one option to increase the bottom line without further diminishing the product come next quarter, which is to increase profits. Raising prices on remaining customers to make up for the loss of lower attendance is a can that can only be kicked so far down the road. Increasing attendance and gaining new customers would be far easier than trying to squeeze blood from a stone.
 
Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
wdisney9000 said:
@lazyboy97o made the most astute observation yet. Why would they keep building resorts if they wanted lower attendance?
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Actually that could be open for interpretation.

They’ve built a convention tower and all timeshares.

The reality is they would not have built a single room at rack designed for vacationing from the 2008 AoA rooms - which was mothballed 2001 pop - Until the mixed use fort wilderness rooms open.

Or about 15 years.

DVC is a license for you to pay their bills...so they would never stop that no matter what attendance goals are.

But they are - of course - looking for more attendance. We need to end amateur hour on this.
 
Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Jimmy Thick said:
Low attendance? When was this “low attendance” when I was there two weeks ago? I vividly remembered the parks being busy, not impossible but nowhere considered “low attendance”.

I wonder if people predicting such baloney are actually going to the parks, or just generalizing and creating numbers based in phone apps.
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Attendance is never “low”...that is a mischaracterization.

Below projections or expectations would be more accurate. Disney doesn’t like that because they - like all Wall Street companies - benefit from cashing their own checks in advance. That’s how the individuals get filthy rich
 
Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
helenabear said:
No need to be rude since you misunderstood what I meant and took one word and ran with it. They want the crowds even, not totally diminished. Totally different idea. They've been trying to balance the crowds out for years and seem to finally be there.
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Did I come off as harsh again? Darn.

I apologize and agree with your point...spread is warranted. But contrary to many (not you) statements - there’s no desire for reduced attendance. The goal is balance and increase. It maximizes overhead and increase profits
 
Family_Man

Family_Man

Member
Just some fuel for the comments

Bob Iger said in February 2019
"what we're also trying to do is use that popularity to manage guest experience a little bit better in the sense that -- we know that crowding can be an issue and that when our parks are the most crowded, the guest experience is not what we would like it to be. So, we're leveraging the popularity to obviously increase pricing and to spread demand to get much more strategic about how we're pricing.

So, the parks are still accessible, but in the highest peak periods who are trying basically to manage the attendance so that the guest experience isn't diminished by the popularity. "

https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-...y-co-dis-q1-2019-earnings-conference-cal.aspx

Some people are suggesting Disney wants crowds to go down overall to make guests happy. But Iger's comments seem clear they are only concerned with crowd levels on super busy peak days. The comments also suggest that they are happy with guest satisfaction with all non-peak crowd levels. They may only really be concerned about crowds on days when the ticket prices are $159 (Christmas-New Years Eve)
 
Family_Man

Family_Man

Member
Also amusing to see Bob Iger say that Star Wars land is going to be so popular he is just going to tweet that its open and he told marketing to keep their budget low for announcing its open.

"I would say, by the way, on the marketing expense side. Don't expect much. I'm thinking that I should just tweet, "It's opening," and that would be enough. I think we're going to end up with incredibly popular and in demand product with these two new lands. They are large. They are beautiful. They're extremely innovative. They obviously leverage the popularity of the "Star Wars" brand.

I think we're going to have absolutely no problem gaining attention for them or to them. It's not going to take much marketing to do that. That's a signal that I just sent to our parks and resorts people to keep that budget really low."

https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-...y-co-dis-q1-2019-earnings-conference-cal.aspx
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Capsin4 said:
You’re confusing visitors with onsite quests. They can have lower attendance and more onsite guests. This actually supports the idea of getting more dollars from fewer visitors.
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I actually said timeshares. Part of this idea that Disney wants to reduce visitation is that they are focusing more on less frequent visitors, particularly those “once in a lifetime” visitors who are just splurging. This group of visitors are also used to justify cuts to services and offerings.
 
xdan0920

xdan0920

Think for yourselfer
Jimmy Thick said:
Low attendance? When was this “low attendance” when I was there two weeks ago? I vividly remembered the parks being busy, not impossible but nowhere considered “low attendance”.

I wonder if people predicting such baloney are actually going to the parks, or just generalizing and creating numbers based in phone apps.
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Again. That’s down to staffing issues.
 

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