WDW future.
Fascinating.
Just wondering if you have a perspective on the lack of major projects going on at WDW. Even the rumor mill has gone dry.
I know you can't reveal any proprietary information you may have, just wanted to get your take on WDW's next 5 to 10 years and if we can expect anything substantial besides completion of the monorail build out and a 5th gate. Just kidding on the last part.
Thanks.
You all give me way too much insider credit
. I've been away for 10 years now and even though I still see some of my longtime WDI friends, we try to keep the lunch topics away from shoptalk. I only know what I see online. I'm better with WDI history. You guys know more for sure.
As to the future, I can only speculate based on probably less insider info than you already have. Obviously, money is tight, but having said that, they are spending it and lots of it, but only where they have to. WDW has a built in audience so they probably feel that when tourism picks up (as the Dollar drops lower and lower) they will get the pent up demand back as in the past. Look at how much it probably cost just to rename the MGM Studios. Millions in signage, etc. Or to keep up with the Downtown Disney vacancy , PI, etc. It all adds up. They are building more Cruise Ships, that is a massive tab. Does not leave that much for other things. "Hall of Presidents" isn't free either. All these upgrades get expensive because they redo the projection, audio, lighting, etc. I bet the total fiscal year spend out there based on tons of smaller projects and hotel expansion is pretty huge.
I think that is one of the biggest issues for WDW going forward. The cost of maintaining it is so huge (just in dryrot!) that it ends up eating at Capital for new projects when times are lean. The whole busing thing is "broken" as well and getting around is a nightmare and ends up losing the company money as the audience is not spending when they are lost in the ozone of the bus network waiting around. That's expensive to fix as well. They should IMHO close some hotels (like in Europe) for a season (clean them up in a deep rehab) and save money there so the other hotels are staffed correctly and the show does not suffer.
The other big one that affects new shows is attracting or losing sponsors. That is huge $$ for the company and tougher than ever. In this economy renewing sponsorships IMHO is next to impossible unless the sponsor sells their stuff at WDW. Coke stays... but GM, or HP? Yeah right. New attractions $$$ like Mission:Space or GM Test Track are mostly capitalized by that sponsor revenue.
When Universal opens Harry Potter and if it pulls market share away, I'd guess that will fuel (as it has in the past) a more competitive new attraction strategy.
If history is any indicator, they will import new attractions from elsewhere
to amortize the value from the DCA redo. The Cars ride or Mermaid ride if they are good. If they do more parks and innovate some new things for those markets, then there may be something exciting out there. It was too bad that the 20K Subs went away as they could have done something cool given the new interest in 20k movie prequels. Or if cash is still lean, they do spectacular shows instead of rides. I think that Davidson is hot for them so they may Band-Aid the parks with his shows like the "World of Color" fountain thing or similar to keep costs down. EPCOT is harder as it's more difficult to adapt content for that. Soarin' was a stretch but is a big success with guests. The digital initiatives will likely get to be more popular as well, like the "Kim Possible" thing or the in-park R&D stuff that drives guest satisfaction and makes things look fresh.
We are in an unprecedented economic territory right now, and I'm actually surprised that the WDC is doing as much as it is, given their vulnerability and flat stock.
DCA has core placemaking issues so they've dumped huge $$$ into it to bring it up to it's cousin next door, so even DL is suffering from lack of new product. That alone is a big step for them. Long term thinking is rare but in that case they are committed and I'm sure that draws down the pool of cash.
Having spewed all of that uninformed blather, I think Kevin Yee, who lives WDW would give you a better spin. I tried!
Fantasyland, the most...Sheesh. Greenery. A Canal. Landscaping around the castle.