Rumor: No Festival of Fantasy February-April 2017

ford91exploder

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
TheDude23 said:
If this is true...what a disaster. How can you go from multiple parades in a day (I'm only counting Festival and Electrical) to a large stretch of time without any? Horrible planning.
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Rodan75 said:
I know this is sacrilege, but I wonder if this is an operational trial to see if they can get away without doing a parade at MK? I know there is a lot of love out there for Disney's big parades. But in a park as busy as the MK, I feel like they are nothing but a nightmare. As an adult they stress me out, I can't imagine how much stress this adds to the average family during a typical day at the park.

I know folks would be quick to jump on the 'cutting by degrees', but would people be less horrible during the day if they weren't stressing themselves out navigating to and from the parades?
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I don't think so, Disney has become so expensive and requiring so much pre-planning people knock themselves out trying to get the 'value' out of the vacation and that translates to attitudes.

In a way I'm sure it IS a test to see if MK can rid themselves of the expense of parades.
 
biggy H

biggy H

Well-Known Member
The OP said that there was going to be construction on the warehouses ie BUILDINGS not the floats themselves so from that it would mean the floats would have to be stored somewhere else between parades and there might not be anyway close backstage suitable to store them in the mean time.

itsgonnahappen said:
According to a couple of sources backstage, Festival of Fantasy will halt performances throughout February, March, and April. The reason given by one source claimed that there will be construction on the float warehouses backstage during this time.
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B

Bandini

Well-Known Member
biggy H said:
The OP said that there was going to be construction on the warehouses ie BUILDINGS not the floats themselves so from that it would mean the floats would have to be stored somewhere else between parades and there might not be anyway close backstage suitable to store them in the mean time.
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If the parades were generating revenue, what do you want to bet that temporary warehouses would be erected?
 
FerretAfros

FerretAfros

Well-Known Member
Could this be related to paving projects in the park? I don't know the paving history, but just by looking at it I would guess it's been at least 15-20 years since there has been a major paving project on the parade route, if not longer. Given the millions of pedestrians, daily parades, and overnight maintenance vehicles, the pavement it likely near the end of its usable life

DL has recently repaved much of its parade route during late-winter (done in phases, typically every other year). It's one of those things that goes completely unnoticed, but is integral to making the parks work. And of course, if any one area needs to be replaced, the entire parade has to be taken offline
 
monothingie

monothingie

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop
Premium Member
FerretAfros said:
Could this be related to paving projects in the park? I don't know the paving history, but just by looking at it I would guess it's been at least 15-20 years since there has been a major paving project on the parade route, if not longer. Given the millions of pedestrians, daily parades, and overnight maintenance vehicles, the pavement it likely near the end of its usable life

DL has recently repaved much of its parade route during late-winter (done in phases, typically every other year). It's one of those things that goes completely unnoticed, but is integral to making the parks work. And of course, if any one area needs to be replaced, the entire parade has to be taken offline
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There is no "Pavement" at WDW Parks. All walkways and "streets" in the park are all poured reinforced concrete, which in Florida's climate (no freezing and rock salt) can have a very long life span. Parts that crack or pose a saftey hazard are cordoned off and redone. The last major project at the MK on Main Street I believe was removal of the curbs.
 
CaptainAmerica

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
ford91exploder said:
Yup amazing all the 'refurbishments' happening since the earnings call statement that 2017 would be a 'challenging' year. And of course WDW responds by cutting even more
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What are you talking about? 2017 will be a "challenging year" because 1) subscriber losses at ESPN, 2) new NBA TV contract, and 3) Rogue One isn't going to do anywhere near what The Force Awakens did. None of that is going to be recuperated via the elimination of hourly positions in the Magic Kingdom.
 
ford91exploder

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
biggy H said:
The OP said that there was going to be construction on the warehouses ie BUILDINGS not the floats themselves so from that it would mean the floats would have to be stored somewhere else between parades and there might not be anyway close backstage suitable to store them in the mean time.
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Bandini said:
If the parades were generating revenue, what do you want to bet that temporary warehouses would be erected?
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That would be a sucker bet :) If the parades were REVENUE generating the temporary white warehouses used for construction equipment would blossom overnight
 
Prince Thomas

Prince Thomas

Well-Known Member
Rodan75 said:
I know this is sacrilege, but I wonder if this is an operational trial to see if they can get away without doing a parade at MK? I know there is a lot of love out there for Disney's big parades. But in a park as busy as the MK, I feel like they are nothing but a nightmare. As an adult they stress me out, I can't imagine how much stress this adds to the average family during a typical day at the park.

I know folks would be quick to jump on the 'cutting by degrees', but would people be less horrible during the day if they weren't stressing themselves out navigating to and from the parades?
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Really??!!??........
 
ford91exploder

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
CaptainAmerica said:
What are you talking about? 2017 will be a "challenging year" because 1) subscriber losses at ESPN, 2) new NBA TV contract, and 3) Rogue One isn't going to do anywhere near what The Force Awakens did. None of that is going to be recuperated via the elimination of hourly positions in the Magic Kingdom.
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The earnings call ALSO called out that P&R had a 'challenging' revenue outlook for 2017 , No detail provided but I assume bookings for 2017 are down. Remember I was doing the play by play for the FY 2016 earnings call.

It's just amazing what's down for refurbishment for almost a full quarter for next year,

It appears that TWDC is in panic mode and is now cutting anything and everything to attempt to make the numbers look good.
 
CaptainAmerica

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
ford91exploder said:
The earnings call ALSO called out that P&R had a 'challenging' revenue outlook for 2017 , No detail provided but I assume bookings for 2017 are down. Remember I was doing the play by play for the FY 2016 earnings call.
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Why are you lying?

"As we look to fiscal 2017, we expect to deliver modest EPS growth for the year due to some comparability factors.

Let's start with Cable where we expect fiscal 2017 programming costs to be up about 8% versus fiscal 2016, driven primarily by the first year of our new NBA contract, which accounts for $600 million of that increase.

Our Parks and Resorts segment is positioned for continued growth in 2017 due in part to the opening of Avatar Land at Walt Disney World and a full year of results from Shanghai Disney Resort. There are three parks comparability items I'd like to mention. First, Hurricane Matthew disrupted our operations at Walt Disney World in early October, which resulted in the closure of our parks for about a day and a half. We estimate the impact of the hurricane on Q1 operating income to be approximately $40 million. Second, due to the impact of Hurricane Matthew and the conversion of rooms at Wilderness Lodge to Vacation Club units, Q1 total domestic resort reservations are pacing down about 2% while booked rates are pacing up 3%. And third, I'd like to point out that one week of the winter holiday period will fall in Q2, whereas the entire holiday fell in Q1 last year. As a result, this will shift about $20 million of OI from Q1 into Q2.

Turning to the Studio, Bob discussed the strength of our slate in Q1 and it's worth mentioning we will also release Beauty and the Beast, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the fifth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, and Cars 3 during the year. While we remain thrilled with our Studio business and the great films we have in the pipeline, I'll remind everyone that results in fiscal 2017 will comp against a record-breaking 2016, due in part to the phenomenal success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

At Consumer Products & Interactive Media, while we expect operating income growth for the full year, we expect OI to be down more than 20% in the first quarter due to the strength of Star Wars and Frozen merchandise licensing and our licensed Star Wars Battlefront game in Q1 last year. And finally, results in fiscal 2017 will be adversely impacted by about $175 million due to FX rates and higher pension expense. Also, in terms of net interest expense, the $100 million you saw in the fourth quarter represents a reasonable quarterly run rate for the year.

We're very pleased with our fiscal 2016 results which once again demonstrate that our strategy of investing in high-quality, branded content, coupled with great execution and a balanced approach to capital allocation continues to generate solid earnings growth. Once again, we expect to deliver modest earnings growth in fiscal 2017 and, as Bob said, we feel extremely confident that we'll return to more robust earnings growth in fiscal 2018 and beyond."
 
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