LETS FIX WDW

[Chef Mickey]

Just to be clear, I'm not in favor of raising prices because I like paying more. I'm in favor of it because it's the only "quick" solution to a problem Disney themselves have created. Expansion, renovation, and updating should have been a pillar in their parks strategy for the last 15 years, but they essentially throttled back to nearly nothing after Animal Kingdom and Fantasyland were completed.

The expansion efforts have frankly been inadequate and unacceptable. Until some of these projects get off the ground and a lot more, crowds will be Disney's biggest friend but also their biggest enemy.

I guarantee you Disney is worried about maintaining a quality guest experience and also exceeding guest expectations. They really do want you to have a good time because if you don't, your experience will impact your desire to come back, tell friends, and will eventually erode their brand.

That is the reason demand based pricing has gotten traction and will be the reason you will see prices continue to increase. If they increased capacity with the times, they wouldn't have this issue and probably would have even bigger crowds, but enough area to spread people out effectively. They are bursting at the seams, particularly at MK and restaurants.

 

[Chef Mickey]

MK has done over 90,000 on New Year's Eve.

And that's the thing...MK might do 90,000, but it's in no way big enough to comfortably handle it. I was there for the year 2000 on New Years Even and I can tell you first hand, it was insanely crowded and almost no fun besides watching the fireworks.

 

[Chef Mickey]

Oust Iger. No other way to say it. Besides, whomever his successor is gonna be (Staggs and Rasulo) has had ample experience in the theme parks, so I'm sure they could spruce things up.

Investors love Iger...he's a TV guy and a margin guy. He sees the parks as a cash cow and a secondary effect of the Disney brand which he feels is driven primarily by TV and movies. The parks, for him, are an accessory to the engine of Disney. He likes the higher margin TV business and just want to churn people through the parks.

He's done essentially nothing in his entire tenure at WDW except new Fantasylan, which was underwhelming and the jury is still out on the more recently announced projects, which were long overdue.

 

[DisneyManOne]

Investors love Iger...he's a TV guy and a margin guy. He sees the parks as a cash cow and a secondary effect of the Disney brand which he feels is driven primarily by TV and movies. The parks, for him, are an accessory to the engine of Disney. He likes the higher margin TV business and just want to churn people through the parks.

He's done essentially nothing in his entire tenure at WDW except new Fantasylan, which was underwhelming and the jury is still out on the more recently announced projects, which were long overdue.

I couldn't agree more, my friend. At least Eisner actually cared about WDW and the other parks, and cared about expanding them and making them better and actually put families first. (Then Wells passed on and Katzenberg left, and things went downhill from there, and then Iger came in, and he seemed promising, but then Frozen came out and things went downhill from there.)

 

[jmancan]

That said, my motivation for increased pricing across the board is primarily based upon controlling crowds. Disney is simply too cheap to deter people from going. I'd also vote for limiting outside Disney property guests or significantly reducing their access.

I also understand this isn't going to happen if it will affect the bottom line, so I'm willing to pay double to decrease crowds by say, 30%.

Disney needs to raise prices, but also reduce the allowed guests because I doubt they'd increase prices enough to actually deter enough people. They have been raising prices, but still draw record crowds.

So, if i am reading this correctly, you think that Disney, a company in the United States of America, should raise their prices so they don't get the most people possible into their parks, spending more money on the stuff inside the parks, and then using the remainder of the money they still have on a hotel room, just because you think it's "too crowded."

 

[marni1971]

And that's the thing...MK might do 90,000, but it's in no way big enough to comfortably handle it.

Absolutely right. Perhaps that's one reason why the phasing should be readdressed and thresholds lowered or actual capacity should be massively expanded. Try as they might people want MK it seems. Not Epcot. Not DHS.

 

[FutureCEO]

Open shuttered attractions (ie. WoL). Simply put, it's bad show, reduces capacity and generally affects value for the consumer.

Bad show is putting less than stellar attractions that are way past there prime still out there.

Carousel of Progress
Country Bears
just to name a couple

 

[EngineJoe]

Get rid of flatbread pizza and carry normal pizza.

 

[Chef Mickey]

So, if i am reading this correctly, you think that Disney, a company in the United States of America, should raise their prices so they don't get the most people possible into their parks, spending more money on the stuff inside the parks, and then using the remainder of the money they still have on a hotel room, just because you think it's "too crowded."

No, you didn't read it correctly. Allow as many as possible in, or cap it and charge the people you do allow in more to make up for the people you kept out. Quite simple actually.

Also, I'm not the only one who thinks it's "too crowded" and even Disney itself is concerned about the crowds. That's why they are discussing demand based pricing.

 

[dizda]

They should use all of the Epcot pavilions for real attractions and not just as glorified seasonal conference/convention halls.

 

[dizda]

Get rid of flatbread pizza and carry normal pizza.

My friends who have been to Italy tell me that actual Italian pizza is not very good. Perhaps the flatbread is a compromise between American pizza and authentic pizza.

 

[dizda]

It will be interesting to see what the fan reaction will be when the second movie comes out. But you have the Star Wars media machine getting warmed up.

I think that the new ride will start to increase interest again and that the sequel will reignite Frozen fever. The original children's fanbase may be getting older, but they are being replaced by younger children just watching the movie and who will be primed for the sequel.

 

[jmancan]

No, you didn't read it correctly. Allow as many as possible in, or cap it and charge the people you do allow in more to make up for the people you kept out. Quite simple actually.

Also, I'm not the only one who thinks it's "too crowded" and even Disney itself is concerned about the crowds. That's why they are discussing demand based pricing.

Yeah, I mean it's a shame Walt Disney only bought such a small amount of land with no planned way to expand anything in any way when he was designing the vacation kingdom of the world. How on earth could someone fit all these people in the paltry 43 square miles of land that WDW has?

Or, if you want to argue that they can't build more attractions to entice people because it would cost too much to create something completely original (something we know the Disney company would never do, that's why Walt only designed Disneyland to be as bare-bones and cheap as possible to make for the highest amount of profit possible, quality be damned), then why don't we see if there are any areas with capacity available for guests that WDW is not using...
Oh look at that, its nearly half of the parks. Not to mention the Zoo and Water Park just sitting and rotting away with no planned future at all.

Also, people are gonna crowd WDW no matter the price. Wanna know why? Because it's freakin' Disney World. If it's not packed to the gills with middle class families on their only big vacation ever, it's gonna be packed with millionaires on their 90th trip to Disney that week. But that "90 trips a week" thing will not last long, no matter the money it makes, because people will get bored. Disney won't add anything to a park people are paying $160+ just to get in, they will just keep the money (as businesses are wont to do), let the park die, and everyone goes home with a hefty paycheck and no reason to work anymore.

If Disney want's to stay a successful company, with the same amount of power and reach that they do now, they would make it practically impossible NOT to go to Disney World, they would be adding more discount resorts (which the people seem to love, especially families), lowering prices, and reopening closed and adding new attractions to the point that everyone has something they HAVE to do at WDW. And if the people that really want to go have the money to do so, then they will probably spend that money. And if people don't have the money to spend, then they will not go to the resort ant not spend money that Disney would receive.

You gotta spend money to make money, not the other way around.

 

[Mr.HatboxGhost]

Yeah, I mean it's a shame Walt Disney only bought such a small amount of land with no planned way to expand anything in any way when he was designing the vacation kingdom of the world. How on earth could someone fit all these people in the paltry 43 square miles of land that WDW has?

Or, if you want to argue that they can't build more attractions to entice people because it would cost too much to create something completely original (something we know the Disney company would never do, that's why Walt only designed Disneyland to be as bare-bones and cheap as possible to make for the highest amount of profit possible, quality be damned), then why don't we see if there are any areas with capacity available for guests that WDW is not using...
Oh look at that, its nearly half of the parks. Not to mention the Zoo and Water Park just sitting and rotting away with no planned future at all.

Also, people are gonna crowd WDW no matter the price. Wanna know why? Because it's freakin' Disney World. If it's not packed to the gills with middle class families on their only big vacation ever, it's gonna be packed with millionaires on their 90th trip to Disney that week. But that "90 trips a week" thing will not last long, no matter the money it makes, because people will get bored. Disney won't add anything to a park people are paying $160+ just to get in, they will just keep the money (as businesses are wont to do), let the park die, and everyone goes home with a hefty paycheck and no reason to work anymore.

If Disney want's to stay a successful company, with the same amount of power and reach that they do now, they would make it practically impossible NOT to go to Disney World, they would be adding more discount resorts (which the people seem to love, especially families), lowering prices, and reopening closed and adding new attractions to the point that everyone has something they HAVE to do at WDW. And if the people that really want to go have the money to do so, then they will probably spend that money. And if people don't have the money to spend, then they will not go to the resort ant not spend money that Disney would receive.

You gotta spend money to make money, not the other way around.

ummm....what?

 

[marni1971]

Bad show is putting less than stellar attractions that are way past there prime still out there.

Carousel of Progress
Country Bears
just to name a couple

Not really. One had an expensive upgrade and the other is getting one. Busy theatres in high capacity attractions would say your argument is wrong.

 

[EngineJoe]

My friends who have been to Italy tell me that actual Italian pizza is not very good. Perhaps the flatbread is a compromise between American pizza and authentic pizza.

Pizza in Rome or Venice may not be really good but authentic Napoli pizza is very good and quite similar to American thin crust pizza. However flatbread pizza is just crackers with tomato paste and cheese on top of it. It's a travesty that you can't get normal pizza anywhere in the Magic Kingdom and that you would have to park hop to Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom just to get normal pizza and not the flatbread crackers.

 

[DisneyOutsider]

Bad show is putting less than stellar attractions that are way past there prime still out there.

Carousel of Progress
Country Bears
just to name a couple

Not even close.

Why is Country Bears bad show? Because it's old??? Bad show would be if the show was not operating as intended ie. something about the attraction is not functioning properly.

If the voices in CoP don't match up with the audio-animatronics' movements, or the on-stage effects aren't working, then it becomes bad show. But simply being an old attraction does not make it bad show.

I can only assume you would have us get rid of Hall of Presidents, It's a Small World and Jungle Cruise while we're at it. Way past their prime.

 

[Nick Wilde]

Oh for the love of all that is holy, will you PLEASE give your endless "Let's raise the prices!!" campaign a freaking rest. We get it. You are well off. Money is no object. You want the prices sky high so that only you and your financially elite comrades can enjoy the park and the rest of us scum can just play in traffic instead. But the whole thing got incredibly tiresome about the 250th time you advocated for this. Enough already. Sheesh.

It's a thread asking for opinions on ways to improve the park. He gave his opinion. You could've just muted him.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Not really. One had an expensive upgrade and the other is getting one. Busy theatres in high capacity attractions would say your argument is wrong.

Carousel of Progress is getting an expensive upgrade as well? I don't recall having heard about that before.

If/when CoP does get an upgrade, I hope the final scene gets some love.

 

[marni1971]

Carousel of Progress is getting an expensive upgrade as well?

Yup. At least that's the plan.