I wonder if Iger's lack of focus on the Parks division is because Disney stock is at an all time high. Just a funny feeling about how much the corporate mentality is involved in these decisions. HOnestly I think that the highest management could be getting ready to spin off the theme parks and let someone else run them, not next year, but maybe in the next 10yrs.
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MiceAge on the latest news regarding MyMagic+ : Read it and weep.
- Thread starter marni1971
- Start date
Sue_Vongello
Well-Known Member
Wow. What a shock.
Need evidence this article is accurate? How about what we know:
1. The rollout of MM+ is way behind schedule.
2. MM+ is overbudget and not turning profit yet.
3. There have been zero attraction announcements since Avatar which was what like 3 years ago?
What does that add up to?
It adds up to that everyone on this board with a pulse and a tenth of a working brain called MM+ a pointless, overpriced, diversionary tactic when we first heard rumors about it long ago and KNEW that if they just spent the same amount of money on upgrading the parks, attractions, maintenance, and basic infrastructure it would have turned more of a ROI than this ever will ...
Further it shows that Iger, Rasulo, et al have no idea what they are doing, what company they are running, and what their profit centers are capable of ... that is no longer an opinion, it's fact because this has been such a calculated disaster, and that nobody in upper management questioned it's viability is so crazy ...
Anyway ... this article is just confirmation of what we can already see with our eyes ... and it ... it just sucks.
Need evidence this article is accurate? How about what we know:
1. The rollout of MM+ is way behind schedule.
2. MM+ is overbudget and not turning profit yet.
3. There have been zero attraction announcements since Avatar which was what like 3 years ago?
What does that add up to?
It adds up to that everyone on this board with a pulse and a tenth of a working brain called MM+ a pointless, overpriced, diversionary tactic when we first heard rumors about it long ago and KNEW that if they just spent the same amount of money on upgrading the parks, attractions, maintenance, and basic infrastructure it would have turned more of a ROI than this ever will ...
Further it shows that Iger, Rasulo, et al have no idea what they are doing, what company they are running, and what their profit centers are capable of ... that is no longer an opinion, it's fact because this has been such a calculated disaster, and that nobody in upper management questioned it's viability is so crazy ...
Anyway ... this article is just confirmation of what we can already see with our eyes ... and it ... it just sucks.
Stevek
Well-Known Member
While I'm not a fan of the Star Wars'ing of DL TL, it's disappointing to hear that the MM fiasco is having an impact on DL and the immediate future of the resort. I had kinda written off WDW and any future visits (we're near DL) but I was hopeful that we'd see some more positive additions to DL, especially for the 60th. Doesn't mean it won't happen but it seems pretty clear (assuming the article is right) that what will happen or be announced will be dramatically scaled back.
And as someone else asked, how the heck does Rasulo still have a job? He must have naked pictures of someone higher up in Disney because the average Joe that blows it this big in any job would be gone by now. He must be great a laying the blame at the feet of everyone else.
And as someone else asked, how the heck does Rasulo still have a job? He must have naked pictures of someone higher up in Disney because the average Joe that blows it this big in any job would be gone by now. He must be great a laying the blame at the feet of everyone else.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
That is not the business model and it hasn't been since the mid-1990s.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
Would that be the worst thing in the world?
Broke is all relative. The company has never been more profitable at any point in its existence.
WDPR however IS forced to hit and maintain very unreasonable profit targets for the type of business they are in. This is the main reason why there is always a sense of desperation around Disney Parks these days even with record amounts of cash coming in. Disney is selling $12 hot dogs and happily booking the profits while crying poverty and chipping away at the guest experience. Pure blue ocean strategy. Assume that your market space is uncontested and fleece your customer base for all its worth. The last major iconic American brand that concluded that its business was too mature to grow organically and pursued blue ocean strategies was Anheuser-Busch. They're part of a European beer conglomerate now.
Who knows where Disney Parks will end up in five years?
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
The problem is you need to have merchandise which people want to BUY, The current offerings at the US parks do not fall into this category,
We used to buy a LOT of pins - there were new and unique ones all the time, This is no longer the case and now where we used to spend perhaps $150 per trip,
Now it's an effort to break $30 per trip because there is almost NOTHING new and with decline in overall quality a cheaply done pin just does not cut it
ABQ
Well-Known Member
Perhaps, but we need to look beyond to parks alone when speaking of TWDC's financial health.
Paraphrasing someone else analyzing them on Seeking Alpha, but based on released figures, which is all we have to go by, he said this as of the last quarterly earnings call:
Disney's net income and diluted earnings per share leapt 12% and 13%, respectively, while cash provided by operations improved significantly from last year's quarter, to $2.74 billion. Free cash flow in the quarter nearly tripled to $1.75 billion (or 15.1% of sales). For the year, free cash flow totaled $6.7 billion, or 14.8% of annual revenue. Disney continues to be a fantastic cash-flow generator.
Rinx
Well-Known Member
I love it!! You didn't ever have to work in Operations to see that this was going to be an atrocious idea. Most of us saw this coming years ago. Forgive me, but I think it's almost hilarious just how serious of a problem this is. Now of course I hope it doesn't lead to layoffs in WDI. But the fact that that is a possibility because of MM+ and that they are so grossly over budget and behind yet continue to plow on and waste even more money, makes me smirk and shake my head. Just accept it as a failure and move on to better things. It's ok to make mistakes, it happens. Just stop before it gets even more out of hand and millions more are spent. The longer this carries on the more serious consequences there will be. If Disney does not learn from this, there will be serious trouble in the years to come, especially in WDW parks.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Agree with your points and that 'Blue Ocean' is a deeply flawed strategy, Don't take this the wrong way but I see some alarming parallels with ENRON in the current TWDC which was also 'wildly profitable'.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
And what does that prove? Was he at this meeting?
Yessir indeed but at tremendous expense to long term sustainability in theme parks. Disney is deferring maintenance in Orlando that will cost many times over to fully rectify in the future instead of properly taking rides down now. They have also decided to lever up the books at Reedy Creek and make the district float debt to pay for WDW improvements. This is going to allow Disney to maintain facilities in Orlando to some decent standard while slowly removing costs from WDPR the business and making those costs Reedy Creek's problem. If all you care about is the stock price through 2016 then its a great idea but Reedy Creek's balance sheet is gonna look like Disneyland Paris when they are done.
Where does Disney go to strip mine cash next? DVC also being exploited as a growth engine, but after what they just did the only way to keep that growing is by building bigger towers and building more of them. Because the market for timeshare consumers really is endless, right?
Virtual Toad
Well-Known Member
Ever hear of the housing bubble?
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
But they are not ACTING like they are flush with cash if they were that profitable the MM+ boondoggle would simply be swept under the rug - 'whoopsie our bad' Like Microsoft with the Surface RT - wrote off 2 Billion in inventory, HP's tablet 1B+ writeoff.
What's interesting is technically both companies are much less profitable than Disney MSFT 37.55 but they did not do a massive companywide retrenchment after these highly publicized whoopsies.
That's why I'm wondering about the REAL state of TWDC.
devoy1701
Well-Known Member
Right now it sounds like the mandate just covers WDI/Creative labor. Physical construction such as that of the Mine Train or Disney Springs wouldn't be covered under this mandate right now. Nor would whatever has been "finalized" of the Avatar project. Though, I would assume that they have not made as much progress on Avatar as they would have us believe and that this would have significant impact on the design/attractions of Avatar.
P&R only makes up about 18% of the company's revenues. I think they're FAR from broke...though perhaps starting to feel a pinch of over-extension isn't far off. They've made many large purchases over the last 3-4 years with Marvel and Lucas Arts.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
Explain to me what unsecured debt has to do with this.
PREMiERdrum
Well-Known Member
But doesn't TWDC silo their separate arms fairly rigidly? P&R are depended on heavily for positive cashflow to help cleanup other ventures' shortfalls? It's a house of cards... They can't afford to lose the cash they expect from P&R because they need it to pay the bills elsewhere.
Oh yeah.... The $2 billion elephant in the room at WDPR: Disneyland Paris.
Lots of stories and narratives and gossip will be forthcoming about how "Disneyland Paris has scared Disney out of spending big money in theme parks" for the second time. Fixing that mess is going to be painful for WDC's balance sheet and it's gonna need to be done sooner rather than later.
Lots of stories and narratives and gossip will be forthcoming about how "Disneyland Paris has scared Disney out of spending big money in theme parks" for the second time. Fixing that mess is going to be painful for WDC's balance sheet and it's gonna need to be done sooner rather than later.