Josh D'Amaro comments on rising prices and "additional" or removed services: "An inevitable result of progress"

[Smiley/OCD]

Which ones? Mostly select/focused service I imagine as that is the standard in the industry. And Embassy Suites as mentioned previously.

When my DW and I set up at a toy show, we stay at a Quality Inn in Delaware…free breakfast with sausage, eggs, waffles, etc. NO membership required…I’ll be complementary and say a few steps above Motel 6.
When my daughter and I drove cross country to take her to school, all the motels we stayed at, Best Western, La Quinta and Holiday Inn (and the express too) offered the same perk.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Which is precisely why the "they need more capacity" argument is bunk.

You really got the “gift of miss” going on thjs thread.

Adding attractions to existing parks doesn’t add much to the operation/overhead. And people aren’t booking vacations specifically for new rides.

Adding new gates is a tremendously large operational cost for the longterm.

People have an informal “7 day limit” on vacation length…that’s what was learned after dak. But they spend more/are happier with More offerings.

So you add new rides to parks they were already going to…it increases their in park time and likely profit yield on ancillaries.

You add another park, they skip days in the others to go to the new one. No net gain/yield for the cost.

But this all the actually reality in wdw…don’t let me try and block you from trying to make a point that doesn’t fit the facts

 

[Lilofan]

When my DW and I set up at a toy show, we stay at a Quality Inn in Delaware…free breakfast with sausage, eggs, waffles, etc. NO membership required…I’ll be complementary and say a few steps above Motel 6.
When my daughter and I drove cross country to take her to school, all the motels we stayed at, Best Western, La Quinta and Holiday Inn (and the express too) offered the same perk.

Stayed in many a free hot breakfast hotels. Before checkout out and getting back on the road, stocked up on the free coffee, sandwiches, fruit, yogurt and cookies, bottle water and that provided us with lunch on the road complimentary of the hotel we checked out of.

 

[BuddyThomas]

With talks with OLC apparently charging more soon but limiting capacity, it makes me wonder if Disney will follow suit. Yes it's inevitably going to out price people in Japan, but at least the park experience will be probably a lot better. A less crowded park with limited capacity certainly sounds like a better experience to me.

But that's likely wishful thinking for the Disney owned parks/US parks. The park reservation system cleary has been used as a quota system. Disney seems to have absolutely no intention of limiting. It makes me wonder since people are truly willing to pay $200 for 3 or 5-hour long special events, if we will be seeing $200 park tickets soon.

Considering that people still value entertainment so much that they remain willing to pay $319.25 to sit in a premium seat on Broadway for 2.5 hours to watch Hamilton, a $200 park ticket soon would not surprise me at all.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Stayed in many a free hot breakfast hotels. Before checkout out and getting back on the road, stocked up on the free coffee, sandwiches, fruit, yogurt and cookies, bottle water and that provided us with lunch on the road complimentary of the hotel we checked out of.

Gotta love those Midwest bagels…we stayed in La Grange, Iowa on our trip (and went to the American Pickers store)…could’ve used them for bait in the Mississippi!! But I had to try one, JUST HAD TO!! Lol

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Considering that people still value entertainment so much that they remain willing to pay $319.25 to sit in a premium seat on Broadway for 2.5 hours to watch Hamilton, a $200 park ticket soon would not surprise me at all.

Considering people will pay $200 bucks to go to a Springsteen show, IMHO, just a bar band that made it for THIS Jersey boy should answer your question…

 

[el_super]

You really got the “gift of miss” going on thjs thread.

Adding attractions to existing parks doesn’t add much to the operation/overhead. And people aren’t booking vacations specifically for new rides.

Quick... tell Chapek before they open Tron... maybe he can still get his money back.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Quick... tell Chapek before they open Tron... maybe he can still get his money back.

So you edited the quote, selectively…then tried to turn it around to say something it STILL doesn’t say?

You’re on today.

 

[el_super]

So you edited the quote, selectively…then tried to turn it around to say something it STILL doesn’t say?

You’re on today.

I mean it's not like you're really arguing with good intentions... especially if you're going to try to argue that new attractions aren't built to drive visitation. People don't come for New Attractions? Really? What do you think they are coming out for? Entertainment? Character Meetings?

And the overhead? Really? The cost to Disney in capital is immense. Disney builds the most expensive attractions on the planet.

You can't be seriously suggesting that Disney needs to spend money on additional capacity, at a rate that is higher than the rest of the industry, with no clear path to recoup the costs. It's silly.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I mean it's not like you're really arguing with good intentions... especially if you're going to try to argue that new attractions aren't built to drive visitation. People don't come for New Attractions? Really? What do you think they are coming out for? Entertainment? Character Meetings?

And the overhead? Really? The cost to Disney in capital is immense. Disney builds the most expensive attractions on the planet.

You can't be seriously suggesting that Disney needs to spend money on additional capacity, at a rate that is higher than the rest of the industry, with no clear path to recoup the costs. It's silly.

I’m just telling you the situation in the swamp…at least certain parts of it…

It’s not really a “debate”

Somehow you’re trying to say they shouldn’t bother reinvesting in those parks and should charge a fortune? And to what end? How do you think you’d benefit?

Aren’t you a Disneylander anyway? Might be a bit out of your lane.

But we all have our own stories.

 

[GimpYancIent]

Quick... tell Chapek before they open Tron... maybe he can still get his money back.

I am waiting to see if a special upcharge will occur for TRON specially the first rides.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Netflix is sinking because Disney killed it, not because streaming is dying.

This isn't true at all. Netflix is sinking because Wall Street had absurdly unrealistic expectations for its success (and the success of streaming in general) and wildly overvalued it as a result.

Remember, Disney Plus isn't some goliath, it MIGHT stop losing money in 2024... by the same projections that once saw Netflix as the most invincibly powerful company in Hollywood.

Streaming isn't dying. It's a new secondary distribution pipeline for film content. Secondary distribution methods have changed before - witness the rise of home video. Its just that this time, for a variety of reasons, the corporate community lost their mind and all perspective regarding the change.

Disney didn't kill Netflix. Everyone else creating their own streaming service did (Disney was part of that, of course, but as far as I remember, Netflix never had most of Disney's catalogue anyways).

Netflix was the success it was because it was a one stop shop for everything. As soon as other companies started pulling their material from Netflix, it caused huge problems. Even though Peacock is floundering, removing the Office (and Parks and Recreation, to a lesser extent) from Netflix probably caused more pain to Netflix than anything Disney has done.

Streaming isn't going anywhere, but no company is going to recreate the success Netflix had in the early days when they had almost everything in one place.

I think this tweet is interesting to see today…

 

[Jrb1979]

But attendance is still down. Whether you want to admit it or not, that's entirely Disney's doing.

I don't think it has anything to do with them. IMO that pent up demand surge is nearing its end.

 

[JoeCamel]

I think this tweet is interesting to see today…

I wonder how much stock Mikey owns? I could look it up but....

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

But attendance is still down. Whether you want to admit it or not, that's entirely Disney's doing.

What?

They’ve made ZERO effort to reduce attendance. The world shut down 2 years ago…it was “in the news”…

Their on property rooms have been available the whole time. They had a large percentage mothballed because the demand didn’t warrant opening blocks…

With dvc, they restricted the borrowing of contract points because availability is a Mathematic equation that was never designed to not be filled 365 days a year. They couldn’t just throw the brake on without it collapsing

Now all that stuff is over after the restrictions just recently have come to an end point…and they have rooms available.

There’s really been no “limits” on attendance. Have you noticed how park reservations are available “somewhere” each day? And they come on and off?

You think that’s an attendance cap? Or is it allocating to use staff and keep those costs tightly control?


…I have some beans to sell you.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I wonder how much stock Mikey owns? I could look it up but....

He and Jane made a few bucks…
They probably have some “legacy shares” stashed away

 

[erasure fan1]

By what metric do you think they need additional capacity? If the argument is that capacity is too low for the crowds that are attending (at the current price point) why hasn't that had a negative impact on attendance anyway? If the place is a bad experience because of long lines, why wouldn't fewer people go resulting in .... appropriate wait times?

If the wait times are at a point where they are not negatively impacting the desire to return, then the capacity is appropriate.

You right in the sense that Disney isn't adding capacity, because why spend a dime when people are more than willing to show up with less to do and double the cost. The question is, will that be a sustainable philosophy. The parks absolutely need capacity, does Disney care? Absolutely not. Because by the time it matters, management will have thier cash and it will be someone else's problem.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Texas seems too expensive, ideally they would want a place they could control the local govt. like New Mexico but that’s too dry, maybe Kansas (but that would need either a giant roof or plenty of indoor places for the cold months.

Despite its hot summers Texas is the most logical choice IF Disney ever builds a third US Castle park. Texas is forecast to pass CA as the most populous state in about 20 years, it would just be a new DL full of locals year round, and the locals wouldn’t care about the weather like tourists would.

Disney would be smart to buy some land north of Houston to set themselves up for the future.

You right in the sense that Disney isn't adding capacity, because why spend a dime when people are more than willing to show up with less to do and double the cost. The question is, will that be a sustainable philosophy. The parks absolutely need capacity, does Disney care? Absolutely not. Because by the time it matters, management will have thier cash and it will be someone else's problem.

Unfortunately true, the current castle park capacity for DL and MK combined is about 40 million a year, a third castle park would probably poach a couple million from each park plus add another 15 million visitors on top of that. Long term you’d think they’d want that extra capacity but it would take years to pay off, current management would get stuck with the bill but gone before the eventual payoff so it’ll likely never happen.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Ah i always look forward to Posts from people taking about things they claim to not have experienced in a long time, and have no plans on going back to. It’s a lot like talking to my 4yr old nephew about Disney, except he at least has been there in the past year and is going again in December, so he actually has first hand knowledge. But keep posting on a message board about a place your not going to, and things you haven’t and won’t experience. You can call back to the Olden days of E-ticket rides and paper tickets, pre internet sales as if they have any bearing on the real world or present day.

I was there less than a year ago. I’ll be there again in less than a month. Members of my family were there less than a week ago. The only thing I haven’t been on is GotG. So do I know what I’m talking about? Damn right I do. I’ve been involved with multiple Fortune 100 companies, and left them better places. But please, you should keep talking down to everyone like you’re the smartest person in the room and the only one who thinks they know business.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Can’t wait for all those millions of people who aren’t currently visiting the parks to start visiting to replace those “done with Disney”, and visit every year, and pay tens of thousands of dollars every trip with zero complaints. I mean, they’re all just queued up waiting, right? Money burning a hole in their pockets? They also want Disney to charge them more, because that will increase the magic! We can close the forums down now, all the smrt bizness people around here have it all figured out.