News Reedy Creek Improvement District and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District

[Drdcm]

What would a win look like for Disney? Right now they have most of the same control they had before this started with the same tax rates. I don’t think it’s a big win but it’s not a bad loss either. Pretty meh for them. Disney doesn’t need to sue anyone or get a legal win, they have to defend a legally signed contract which is “boring contract law” stuff that few care about. It was a pretty brilliant move to diffuse the situation. A version of cooler heads prevailing by going from a struggle over a hot button social issue to a mundane contract dispute.

As far alienating a large market share I really don’t see that as a big issue. Many people have an opinion one way or the other on the issue that started this whole thing but few actually care enough to act on it. I bet you if you polled people at WDW right now you’d get plenty of people who support the Governor and the bill that started all of this. Didn’t stop them from visiting WDW or watching the Mandalorian or going on a Disney cruise. They may have lost some business but you cannot please everyone and not speaking up would have also alienated some customers so right now the best thing Disney or any corporation can do is to pick a message and stick to it. I think if we look at the NFL as an example we can see that actual business is not greatly impacted despite a small group griping on social media. A very vocal minority claimed they were done with the NFL over the kneeling during the national anthem and claimed the league would suffer as a result. Ratings now are better than ever and the league is thriving. I don’t know how many of those people kept their promises to stop watching but it hasn’t seemed to matter for business.

I’m not sure. I think the current situation is the closest they’ll get to a status quo. Like I said, I assumed that was the goal and the product of back room dealings, I was wrong.

I don’t know if it will impact market share. I do think that outside of central Florida and big Disney fans, the current degree of public awareness is a lot lower than it would be if it became a Desantis V Disney Supreme Court case. Then it becomes NYT, CNN, Fox front page type coverage and analysis. Who knows if it will change peoples behaviors

 

[GoofGoof]

The situation has not been diffused. It escalated, again.

There’s a lot of talk of escalation from the Governor but no action yet. Right now as we sit and chat the district still exists with a new board in charge but Disney has a legally executed contract which protects them from a lot of the negative things we suspected could happen. Not protected from everything, but a lot. Outside of Iger taking a bit of a personal shot at the Governor, Disney has stayed pretty calm and is still publicly talking about their great relationship with FL backed by their large investments they are making in the state going forward. They are certainly not escalating anything.

 

[Mr. Stay Puft]

There are some differences between this case and the one the court ruled upon. But, I still don’t think the First Amendment is their best argument.

These comments will definitely help Disney‘s case when they argue that the state didn’t have a “significant and legitimate public purpose.”

I agree that Disney needs, and is most likely waiting for, more ammo to make a strong case in court under 1A grounds and other legal points their lawyers will make.

But to me, you can't get anymore obvious and blatant about what his and the state's intentions are here.

 

[GoofGoof]

I’m not sure. I think the current situation is the closest they’ll get to a status quo. Like I said, I assumed that was the goal and the product of back room dealings, I was wrong.

I don’t know if it will impact market share. I do think that outside of central Florida and big Disney fans, the current degree of public awareness is a lot lower than it would be if it became a Desantis V Disney Supreme Court case. Then it becomes NYT, CNN, Fox front page type coverage and analysis. Who knows if it will change peoples behaviors

I agree 100% that a public first amendment court case would be bad PR for Disney. A contract law case where if the state sues them it most likely ends up in Federal court but won’t likely reach the Supreme Court is a much better outcome for them.

It’s way too soon to know what the long term impact is to market share. As @lentesta posted a few pages back it seems like there may be some softening of demand at WDW due to politics particularly with the 50+ demographic. Disney is playing the long game here. This particular issue dies when DeSantis goes away: sooner (runs for president) or later (serves out his term). The bigger question is will the decrease in demand be permanent or a temporary blip? In my NFL example it was temporary and as that particular issue faded from the public debates people came back to the product. I think Disney is banking on the same.

 

[LAKid53]

Outside of maybe selling children out of the basement I’d be willing to look the other way on just about anything In-and-Out burger does. No politician should ever punish any business who brings us such tasty joy

I found a replacement for Chick-fil-A. Mainly due to the amount of non-healthy ingredients in their breading.

Slim Chickens. Chicken tenders with a kick like Popeye's. But not as dry as Popeye's. Publix chicken tenders with a bit of spice. Unfortunately, their fries are .

 

[LAKid53]

I still wonder if something got messed up with said potential dealings

I'm wondering if when a board member made comments about going after Disney's IP if that's when corporate decided to stop any backroom negotiations. Disney has always been very protective of its IP, especially Mickey Mouse. Threaten that...lawyers will get involved.

 

[GrumpyFan]

Tampa Bay Times adding fuel to the fire now.

Gov. DeSantisâ ridiculous fight against Disney | Editorial

Governor should drop his retaliation campaign and focus on Florida’s real needs

www.tampabay.com

 

[Drdcm]

I'm wondering if when a board member made comments about going after Disney's IP if that's when corporate decided to stop any backroom negotiations. Disney has always been very protective of its IP, especially Mickey Mouse. Threaten that...lawyers will get involved.

Yeah I wonder too.

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF THIS… but I wonder if the current situation is what the negotiated and the board just couldn’t help themselves to keep their mouths shut. Obviously a conspiracy theory on my part.

 

[Tha Realest]

Universal and WDW have increased prices significantly since the end of the pandemic. Hotel discounts suggest this summer bookings were soft as Guests moved offsite in order to afford higher ticket & food prices and Genie+. In the last quarter, Per Capita Guest Spending was up 8% while Per Room Guest Spending was up only 1%.

Meanwhile, at Universal, we've seen large increases in annual pass and hotel prices. Rather than look at Disney, Universal needs to look at their own pricing policy.

We're past the "revenge vacation" period, when many took post-COVID vacations no matter what the cost. Both Disney and Universal have to get real about what their target customers can afford.

Alternatively, maybe they’ve decided (for the time being) charging less people more is preferable (given staffing issues) than remaining fully staffed and charging more people less.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I'm wondering if when a board member made comments about going after Disney's IP if that's when corporate decided to stop any backroom negotiations. Disney has always been very protective of its IP, especially Mickey Mouse. Threaten that...lawyers will get involved.

The board came into being well after any negotiations would have taken place. The comments just reflect the actual goal. Remember, this same board was shocked at being relegated to doing their actual job.

 

[LAKid53]

Universal and WDW have increased prices significantly since the end of the pandemic. Hotel discounts suggest this summer bookings were soft as Guests moved offsite in order to afford higher ticket & food prices and Genie+. In the last quarter, Per Capita Guest Spending was up 8% while Per Room Guest Spending was up only 1%.

Meanwhile, at Universal, we've seen large increases in annual pass and hotel prices. Rather than look at Disney, Universal needs to look at their own pricing policy.

We're past the "revenge vacation" period, when many took post-COVID vacations no matter what the cost. Both Disney and Universal have to get real about what their target customers can afford.

I think you're on track. Once Spring break week is finished, crowns will lessen and demand will diminish. While some may be making decisions based on politics, many more are due to the cost.

I juat renewed my FL AP. The same level pass has gone up $7.00 a month on the payment plan. Can't imagine how a family of 4 can afford ticket prices these days.

 

[tissandtully]

I think you're on track. Once Spring break week is finished, crowns will lessen and demand will diminish. While some may be making decisions based on politics, many more are due to the cost.

I juat renewed my FL AP. The same level pass has gone up $7.00 a month on the payment plan. Can't imagine how a family of 4 can afford ticket prices these days.

We usually buy our 4 APs and pay in full, but I’ll probably switch to monthly plan this year because it hurts pretty bad now lol

 

[LAKid53]

Yeah I wonder too.

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF THIS… but I wonder if the current situation is what the negotiated and the board just couldn’t help themselves to keep their mouths shut. Obviously a conspiracy theory on my part.

I doubt Disney would have agreed to any negotiation that affected control of their own IP. I think some board members misunderstood their role on the board and stupidly made public comments. One board member in particular.

 

[LAKid53]

We usually buy our 4 APs and pay in full, but I’ll probably switch to monthly plan this year because it hurts pretty bad now lol

Imagine as a Florida Resident paying $1000 for a Sorcerer's pass...times 4. Yikes!

 

[Tha Realest]

I'm unsure what you mean. Theme park crowds are back to normal, while Disney is offering pretty good hotel discounts this summer to increase hotel occupancy. Meanwhile, Park Reservation availability is excellent for regular theme park tickets and nearly all experiences are back to normal.

Certainly, there were serious staffing issues in 2021 and 2022 but, at least recently, Disney does not seem to be behaving as if those staffing issues still exist.

For this summer and beyond, Disney is behaving as if they want more people at the theme parks and hotels, not less.

I don’t think they’ve ever reached full staffing. I think Chapek and McCarthy were clear that they wanted to increase per guest spending and were capping attendance in some cases. Whether the reservations were used as a sluice to direct to DAK or EP is anyone’s guess, but I don’t think attendance has ever reached anywhere near the pre-Covid levels, and I think external and Disney’s own numbers reflect that.

What’s the old saying? You make the same money selling 100 widgets at $10 as you do selling 10 at $100 - something along those lines. I think they decided an operational sweet spot (given staffing issues) was to raise prices at various points across the board to extract as much (of not more) from the 60-70% of guests that would have normally been expected to show up, but haven’t (due to Covid or price increases).

I also don’t know that “it feels busy” or “wait times are comparable to 2019” help much because there’s different factors at play now (again, operational slow downs due to staffing issues, robust G+ and ILL, lack of entertainment options, reservation and park hopping restrictions in place).

 

[ElvisMickey]

You must have read his bio.
Pardon me, "their" bio. I just assumed a name like "Elvis Mickey" was a male. Shame on me.
They are clearly a mouse who is also an Elvis fan.

Hilarious. How many times have you called someone a troll here who doesn’t agree with your politics? Be a better human being…

 

[ElvisMickey]

Disney bottom line has nothing to do with WDW. WDW is actually cash cow. the issue was Disney +, covid shutting down movie income and overall inflation and economy in general. And all corporations are involved in politics since corporations started. They donate to politicians, they hire lobbyist for their causes and in this case they had every right to come out against a law that effects their employees in that state.

And I’m reading this while sitting on the beach at the Polynesian, because I live here. What are you up to?!

 

[ElvisMickey]

Why should we waste our time looking up the bio of someone trolling the thread? I don't care if shows you're Bob Iger, it wouldn't change the quality of your posts here. If you don't want to have discussions with anonymous people, maybe stay away from the internet.

Again, anyone here who pushes back is considered a troll. OK. Some of us have different politics than the 94% of you on these boards.

 

[Riviera Rita]

I just priced the trip I'm doing in August. I booked May last year to get the free dining and gift card offer. I have a really bad habit of occasionally checking to see the price differences and normally they go up, but, now there's an offer that has made the room and ticket cheaper than I'm paying, I'm still several hundred pounds better off in real terms, but, I get the feeling the Brits aren't booking in the numbers they used to. I'm curious to see what the offers are when Disney release 2024 trips next month to the UK market.

 

[Riviera Rita]

We on these threads closely follow Disney activities. However, I suspect the overwhelming majority of potential WDW vacationers have no idea what's going on between Disney and DeSantis.

The vast majority don't care who said what. They care how much it costs to go to WDW.

If DeSantis goes ahead with the taxes that will be passed onto the consumer, so we should all be interested or concerned at the future price increases.