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

[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.

 

[lazyboy97o]

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.

You haven’t pushed back against anything, just hurled insults. Do please provide evidence that is contrary to the primary sources that have been cited.

 

[Disstevefan1]

The stupidest thing I heard was about adding tolls.

That won’t hurt Disney. It mostly hurts the locals, many could be his voters.

What am I saying, this is not about the locals, this is all about HIM trying to win a war he stared that he can’t possibly win, for the sake of winning and nothing else.

What a mess.

 

[ElvisMickey]

You haven’t pushed back against anything, just hurled insults. Do please provide evidence that is contrary to the primary sources that have been cited.

Insults? Is Disney financially hurting right now…yes or no. Simple answer…

 

[lazyboy97o]

Insults? Is Disney financially hurting right now…yes or no. Simple answer…

That doesn’t matter. You made dubious claims regarding the origins and purposes of the district contrary to primary documents produced by the state of Florida. Please provide the counter evidence.

 

[ElvisMickey]

You haven’t pushed back against anything, just hurled insults. Do please provide evidence that is contrary to the primary sources that have been cited.

Did you even see this?

 

[lazyboy97o]

Did you even see this?

Please provide evidence that support your assertions regarding the district.

 

[Hakunamatata]

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

Ive pretty much told my young adult kids be grateful if I renew you at pixie pass level and if I do, Merry Christmas.

 

[ElvisMickey]

Please provide evidence that support your assertions regarding the district.

Right. Because you agree with bullying.

And, I can walk to the district in 5 minutes from where I live..don’t need you to talk down to me

 

[lazyboy97o]

Right. Because you agree with bullying.

And, I can walk to the district in 5 minutes from where I live..don’t need you to talk down to me

This is all still irrelevant. Please provide evidence that supports your claims that the primary sources provided are inaccurate.

 

[ElvisMickey]

This is all still irrelevant. Please provide evidence that supports your claims that the primary sources provided are inaccurate.

 

[Tha Realest]

The whole "we want fewer people spending more money" thing made sense during COVID when space was limited and facilities were understaffed. We do not see that anymore. As long as there is room, Disney is packing 'em in.

For regular tickets, Park Reservations are now available at all theme park tickets for the foreseeable future. Instead, Park Reservations have become a way to limit annual pass access and to force regular ticket holders into the larger theme parks (Epcot & DAK) on busier days, a way to more evenly distribute crowds.

We don’t have to guess how crowded Disney wants the theme parks or hotels to be. With Park Reservations and hotel rooms both available for the foreseeable future, then Disney wants it more crowded.

This means they are not reaching their targets. The question is, why?

Earlier it was suggested that this is because of the Disney/DeSantis spat. I seriously doubt the overwhelming majority care. Instead, it's mostly about the cost of a WDW or Universal visit.

Oh I have no doubt demand softened. I don’t think it’s the Disney/Desantis thing per se, but rather the - how to be delicate here- perceived shift in the way Disney has entered the culture wars. Disney’s become a punching bag on a certain news network, and I do think that has affected a desire of a certain cohort to visit. That cohort isn’t listening to the FL Gov, but rather Tucker Carlson. The FL Gov wants to score points with the sorts of people who listen to Tucker Carlson, and that’s what I think drives *some* of this.

My personal view is that the ending of Covid/stimulus payments, inflation, and increased economic uncertainty have forced many to cut back on travel. Seeing tons of deals on airfare and hotels that is pretty remarkable. Disney has to be affected by that.

I do think during Covid they used the levers and restrictions in place to squeeze more money out of the fewer guests that came. I think it reached a saturation points at year, but this year demand has softened and even the games they play with staffing and variable pricing aren’t as effective anymore.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Disney’s become a punching bag on a certain news network, and I do think that has affected a desire of a certain cohort to visit.

Plenty of people are totally OK with that.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Frankly I’m surprised this has escalated so far. Neither of them should want this to escalate further. I thought for sure there was some back door dealing that would allow Disney to keep doing what they’re doing.

The way this has played out is mind boggling, when they first announced the dissolution of RCiD I commented it was a publicity stunt and they’d quietly undo it behind closed doors, but they didn’t. When the legislature suggested undoing the bill over the bond payments I thought they’d finally shown their hand and that would be the end of this, but he didn’t allow it.

I mistakenly assumed this was all campaign fodder, something to get his name in the papers but not something he’d ever actually go through with because the RCiD benefited everyone.

Now that they’ve actually done it, and continue to escalate the situation, I can’t give him the benefit of the doubt anymore, assuming this is just headline grabbing, he’s gone from questionable campaigning to actually hurting his state for personal gain.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Oh my goodness, the guy who doesn't even understand what the word "pertinent" means and perplexingly thinks that just because the board changes for a government it somehow gives them the right to nullify any contract it wants.

Thank you for posting this video, at least it explains why you are so misinformed. This is a group of jokers on YouTube that somehow thinks Disney's army of lawyers doesn't understand basic contract or developer agreement law in the State of Florida.