Semi regular WDW exec shuffle

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Ummm that is what I said???
Pronoun foul!!!!

Two minutes in the sin bin!!!

1687177113594.jpeg
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
As a VP of Hotels and Premium Experiences perhaps she was the sacrificial lamb in the failure of the Star Wars hotel experience?
Should be…because what they’re doing is not working.
There are also no “premium experiences”. Parks weren’t designed for that. Stay in your lane.
Perhaps, she was also visiting the Starcruiser when I worked there. Seemed like she really liked the experience was always happy to be there. Would suck if she was, but I guess since the real fault lies with Chapek and he’s already gone…
Nope. It was always who was in the corner suite…for far too long
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
VIP Tours are a part of “premium experiences”, as well as other things at WDW including the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser which truly provided a “premium” guest experience.
Vip tours are high priced day tickets and they have a long history…no problem with that. It’s been 65 years

Starcruiser is/was a disaster that no one paid for. Badly conceived and setup. Failure to understand what you’re basing it on at a top corporate level will do that.

“Results based business”

How are $225 a point dvc sales in a softening market going?
 

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
VIP Tours are a part of “premium experiences”, as well as other things at WDW including the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser which truly provided a “premium” guest experience.
Before building the failure of the Galactic Star cruiser wasn't there research and development done before committing to this complete dud?
 

MagicHappens1971

Well-Known Member
Before building the failure of the Galactic Star cruiser wasn't there research and development done before committing to this complete dud?
Years and years of R&D. It was designed along with Galaxy’s Edge.

I think most of its downfalls comes from crazy mandates from Disney (Iger & Co) & Lucasfilm, for locking both Galaxy’s Edge & the starcruiser into the sequel trilogy. Some of it’s other problems stem from the mandate to create new characters because “we’re in world” and they didn’t want characters like Rey & Kylo, to interact with guests and say “canon-breaking” things by accident.

It doesn’t help that these characters and the ship have NEVER been seen before. Not including some part of the Halcyon in BoBF or Mando or something prior to it opening was a mistake. They thought they could release a 5 part comic series (that didn’t even finish releasing until December of last year), with elements of the back story of the ship and those characters.

Another fundamental mistake was the mishandling of the marketing of this experience. Others of us have mentioned it by the moment anyone called it a “hotel” or the “Star Wars hotel”, it was lost. The marketing & ads didn’t resemble the experience at all and made it look worse than it is. (I personally think the experience is incredible)

What continues to baffle me, is that it was sold out (with paying guests) from March - August of 2022 (there were some “free” guests on the first few cruises but not after that). It had a pretty slow fall, picked up a little bit around Christmastime, and has since fallen off. The fact that Disney is not attempting to rework the highest guest rated “hotel” & “entertainment” (in WDW history) on property after just a few short years of operating is confusing. It seems like they just wanted the tax write off.
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Years and years of R&D. It was designed along with Galaxy’s Edge.

I think most of its downfalls comes from crazy mandates from Disney (Iger & Co) & Lucasfilm, for locking both Galaxy’s Edge & the starcruiser into the sequel trilogy. Some of it’s other problems stem from the mandate to create new characters because “we’re in world” and they didn’t want characters like Rey & Kylo, to interact with guests and say “canon-breaking” things by accident.

It doesn’t help that these characters and the ship have NEVER been seen before. Not including some part of the Halcyon in BoBF or Mando or something prior to it opening was a mistake. They thought they could release a 5 part comic series (that didn’t even finish releasing until December of last year), with elements of the back story of the ship and those characters.

Another fundamental mistake was the mishandling of the marketing of this experience. Others of us have mentioned it by the moment anyone called it a “hotel” or the “Star Wars hotel”, it was lost. The marketing & ads didn’t resemble the experience at all and made it look worse than it is. (I personally think the experience is incredible)

What continues to baffle me, is that it was sold out (with paying guests) from March - August of 2022 (there were some “free” guests on the first few cruises but not after that). It had a pretty slow fall, picked up a little bit around Christmastime, and has since fallen off. The fact that Disney is not attempting to rework the highest guest rated “hotel” & “entertainment” (in WDW history) on property after just a few short years of operating is confusing. It seems like they just wanted the tax write off.
Seems reasonable…in its level of “unreasonable”…at least?

Certainly it could have worked…but we see a lot of Disney wrestling with itself on a number of levels.

First is it’s not “premium”. That’s a huge problem as they have appeared to have outpriced themselves? That’s catastrophic…but for a different time.

They also failed to realize that their “trilogy” was a high earning disaster.
What? That makes no sense? I agree in every case EXCEPT Star Wars. The only franchise to make money off failure. Now twice. It’s a credit to just how huge/impactful the first 3 were in their time and place.

Great insight, as usual 👍🏻 much appreciated.
 

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
Perhaps, she was also visiting the Starcruiser when I worked there. Seemed like she really liked the experience was always happy to be there. Would suck if she was, but I guess since the real fault lies with Chapek and he’s already gone…
A part of the exec role is the happy motivating cheerleader for the team don't ever let them see you sweat attitude when meeting with staff.
 

Chomama

Well-Known Member
As a VP of Hotels and Premium Experiences perhaps she was the sacrificial lamb in the failure of the Star Wars hotel experience?
I definitely don’t know why she resigned BUT I do know that she was not respected by her team and was considered a bully.
 

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
I definitely don’t know why she resigned BUT I do know that she was not respected by her team and was considered a bully.
She was an exec with 28 years of service at Ritz Carlton hotels before Disney hired her. I've stayed at their properties with superior guest service, accommodations but the friendliness of their staff pales in comparison to Disney cast.
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
She was an exec with 28 years of service at Ritz Carlton hotels before Disney hired her. I've stayed at their properties with superior guest service, accommodations but the friendliness of their staff pales in comparison to Disney cast.
Service requires experience and standards…silly smiles are very cheap
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Whatever she tried to instill and share from her extensive Ritz Carlton career to her short career with Disney did not pan out. If you don't have the support of your teams, your career will be short lived.
I’m not surprised at all…Disney is always unwilling hoteliers and they don’t do the “industry standards things”. They have very expensive properties but do not see value investing on expensive staff and disposable goods/services

Oil and water…for sure
 

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