On layoffs, very bad attendance, and Iger's legacy being one of disgrace

Castmbr

Active Member
For less than a week in the parks, my wife and I spent two weeks in Europe last year, went to five countries, stayed in excellent hotels, ate awesome meals, got drunk nightly, and saw several historic sights.

This statement above about Disney is a real and recently internally acknowledged problem going forward....they built their rev models on the high rev numbers on overpriced everything and perfect scenarios . The no cash reserve strategy could render Disney very vulnerable to a very bad take over.
 

beertiki

Well-Known Member
Here in the Florida Keys, 6.5 hours south of WDW. Tourism is done. All we get are people from Miami on the weekends. It was reported that over 100 business electric accounts in Key West were switched off and turned on in the landlords name. Every few days another restaurant closes for good. Most people do not want to get on a plane, so all you get are visitors from 8 hours away or less. WDW and Key West can not survive without people who fly in, and stay for a week.

When I saw photos of CM with both masks and face shields, and plastic dividers in the Jungle Cruise, I did not see it as looking like they are going above and beyond for safety. It just looks scary. Like some horror movie.

My family has been going to WDW for 24 years. We have lots of great memories. What makes it magical is how so much never changes, and you enjoy it the same way you did 20 years ago. There is no way I am going to WDW to wear a mask, use hand sanitizer every hour, only go to one park, no Trader Sam's, and try to keep distanced from a bunch of bratty kids. That's not a vacation.
 

WDW Pro

Well-Known Member
Awww can’t take some humor?

So you got nervous and messaged me this:

I’ll circle back in a couple days with whatever films I know are in development. Aside from anything I’m actively working on I don’t exactly track production status in my free time. But I’ll pass along some titles in a bit.

So you had nothing, never had anything, feigned knowledge, cried off topic when required to produce, then trolled in private messages. My guess is you're furiously hitting the report button, and will likely get evidence of your trolling removed. Very impressive.
 

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
Here in the Florida Keys, 6.5 hours south of WDW. Tourism is done. All we get are people from Miami on the weekends. It was reported that over 100 business electric accounts in Key West were switched off and turned on in the landlords name. Every few days another restaurant closes for good. Most people do not want to get on a plane, so all you get are visitors from 8 hours away or less. WDW and Key West can not survive without people who fly in, and stay for a week.

When I saw photos of CM with both masks and face shields, and plastic dividers in the Jungle Cruise, I did not see it as looking like they are going above and beyond for safety. It just looks scary. Like some horror movie.

My family has been going to WDW for 24 years. We have lots of great memories. What makes it magical is how so much never changes, and you enjoy it the same way you did 20 years ago. There is no way I am going to WDW to wear a mask, use hand sanitizer every hour, only go to one park, no Trader Sam's, and try to keep distanced from a bunch of bratty kids. That's not a vacation.

It is a horror movie. We’ll endure and somehow get thru it.... somehow.
 

oceanbreeze77

Well-Known Member
Again, no Covid or politics. Thank you.
I get not wanting to turn this into a covid thread, but its very hard to not mention covid when looking at the economic impact that covid has had, especially in a thread about the economic troubles disney is currently facing. Really we won't see our economy salvaged until we have control over covid. And its all intertwined. The food market, travel market, schools, jobs, everything. Food prices have gone wayyy up,and the stock is becoming more scarce due to covid. That would definitely impact Disneys selection of shipments. Airlines are beginning to fly at or near the level they were in April, cancelling thousands of flights once again. Right now a lot of people are getting unemployment, some probably use that to go to wdw. When that money runs out Friday, I think disney will see even less bookings. When school is back in session, online or in person, there will be less time for families to take summer trips.
Disney would be telling a different story right now if covid never happened.
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
Most people do not want to get on a plane, so all you get are visitors from 8 hours away or less.
That is not correct. Most people ARE NOT ALLOWED to get on a plane. International travel is literally impossible and domestic travel from your big source states of tourists requires a 14 day quarantine when you enter the state and a 14 day quarantine when you get home.
 

Nubs70

Well-Known Member
It can be a lot cheaper if you plan it right and don't splurge.

Pre Covid, I've seen MIA-LIS and MIA-CGN for $300-ish RT. So Lisbon or Cologne, both excellent cities.

You can find 3-star hotels for $60-70/nt through hotwire/priceline (and a European 3-star IME is equivalent to a 3.5-4 start in the US), and if you do it right, for under $100/day you can have 3 good meals, drink a fair bit, and get around the city you go to.
The German breakfast spreads included in your room rate are incredible. The Berlin Hampton Inn breakfast bar is about 3x linear distance of Crystal Palace.

Breakfast spread at US Hampton Inn consists of reconstituted Nerf omlette with cheese and greasy turkey sausage patties. So depressing.

Load up on breakfast, brat or currywurst for lunch, then decent dinner. Easily feed yourself for $40/day or less.
 

coasterphil

Well-Known Member
Orlando as a market is dead until at least Q3 2021, and that's assuming a vaccine or therapeutic is widely available by that point which is no guarantee.

Everyone has been absolutely decimated, and those businesses foolish enough to reopen based on hope that demand would pick up once people saw things were open again are now in worse shape than those who have stayed closed until they actually see the demand. Even stuff on the books continues to evaporate as news fails to get better. I'd be shocked if there aren't major hotels reclosing in the next month or two, and if the majority of those that haven't reopened don't come back until 21. The restaurant/bar closures should start happening soon too as PPP money runs out.

To those that blame the pricing strategies for the lack of demand at WDW, look at Vegas for why that's hardly the magic bullet. They dropped rates like crazy, and now they're the weekend hangout for the least desirable folks from California/Arizona. You aren't making money on the type of folks drawn to a COVID hotspot for limited offerings at $99 a night when you usually charge $399. Those people aren't spending money in the restuarants, on the casino floors, or in your retail. They're getting ripped on a Walgreens bottle of vodka in their room and creating a headche for the staff trying to ensure folks are following COVID regulations so they aren't shut down/fined.

All these premium tourism markets need the meetings/events business back in a big way, and for middle/upper class tourism to pick up to fill in the rest. Right now, the only markets succeeding are rural, limited service destinations (since cuts at your econolodge experience aren't the same as the cuts at the Ritz) and waterfront (because everyone loves the beach). From my view, Disney needs to work harder to figure out how to make things more appealing for the resort guest. Shifting availability to tightwad APs isn't going to help, and it might just frighten off the few folks that are currently willing to pay top dollar for their low attendance trip. Figure out a way to leverage all those folks that have been paying for VIPs tours all these years and made DSA such a huge area of expansion.
 

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
From my view, Disney needs to work harder to figure out how to make things more appealing for the resort guest. Shifting availability to tightwad APs isn't going to help, and it might just frighten off the few folks that are currently willing to pay top dollar for their low attendance trip. Figure out a way to leverage all those folks that have been paying for VIPs tours all these years and made DSA such a huge area of expansion.
In the short term, though, are there really enough people who can/are willing to travel longer distances to stay at a WDW resort? I agree that slashing rates to rock bottom is likely to create more issues than it solves. For the time being, though, I struggle to see what they can do to attract the usual resort guests to travel to Florida in the midst of a pandemic. It seems more a matter of waiting until the situation improves. As the pent-up demand hasn't materialised by now, allowing in more APs who may at least buy a soda while they're there is one of the few options they have to generate extra revenue.
 
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