-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Sentinel reports that MyMagic+ executive vice president Nick Franklin will be leaving in July
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Only for you young kids, us old folks can't hang till 5am
Speak for yourself. I can still hang...I just need about a week to recover
BigTxEars
Well-Known Member
Who knows, $100 per mile for the monorail, $2 billion for next gen, it's all guesses on here IMO. Who know why this guy left, better offer, family issues, tired of working and wants to enjoy his wealth, fired, broke some company policy.....seems to me it could be a number of different reason.
I keep reading about Wall Street being concerned about next gen and it's negative financial impact on the parks. That might be true as well but the stock price sure is not showing that. Who knows.
I keep reading about Wall Street being concerned about next gen and it's negative financial impact on the parks. That might be true as well but the stock price sure is not showing that. Who knows.
BigTxEars
Well-Known Member
Speak for yourself. I can still hang...I just need about a week to recover
Not me, the mind is willing but not the body
But feel free to party on as I doze on the couch in the lounge
Rodan75
Well-Known Member
They've been hiring a number of Director level positions that look very much like the transition for this project from launch phase to operational phase. It isn't unusual for an exec who took on one of these 'move the mountain ' projects to use the project as a catapult to another company....successful or not. What they learned from the experience has value to every company who wants to explore this tech, except TWDC - they learned the lessons already.
He may have been fired or it could be amicable. We will probably never know the unfiltered truth.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
These are all excellent points, but unfortunately the app and Fastpass+ are the largest consumer facing components of this. Both are significantly better than where they were a year ago, and here's hoping they continue to improve.
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
But which budget? This year's budget? Last year's budget? The original budget? The R&D budget? The budget for Operations? The budget that included all the features that were descoped because of overruns elsewhere?
When Brooks Barnes wrote for The New York Times:
"Seated in his office at Disney headquarters in Burbank, Calif., a smiling Mr. Staggs dismissed such chatter. He said that the initiative had stayed within budget."
Barnes accurately reported Staggs' response.
As a seasoned senior executive with numerous public speaking appearances under his belt, Staggs would know exactly what he could say without opening up the company to a lawsuit for making materially false statements to stockholders. Staggs would have had a specific budget in mind and, for that budget, the program would have been “within budget”.
Most budgets are based on their similarity to other projects. Those who generate accurate budgets do so usually because what's being estimated is similar to something they've done in the past.
In the case of NextGen, we have to give Disney credit for coming up with something that was significantly different than previous projects.
However, that also means that it was extremely difficult to accurately estimate.
As others have suggested, few projects of this magnitude adhere to their original budgets. It should surprise no one that NextGen is over its original budget while simultaneously under-delivering on content.
NextGen is behind schedule. A project simply does not overrun schedule without also overrunning budget.
Last edited:
Right, even though I used the word "liar" doesn't mean I think that anyone opened up the company to a lawsuit. Just that you can't make the argument, like some were here, that since an executive said to a newspaper that the project was within budget that means the total spend is therefore less than $1 billion (or pick your figure that has been floated out there).
To paraphrase Mark Twain, there are lies, damn lies, and statements intended for shareholders.
COProgressFan
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what you mean. You will always need a credit card for the final charge of purchases made on your band, no? Do you think people are just going to pay in wads of cash?
(Or am I supposed to give Mickey my bank account number too?
)
CDavid
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what you mean. You will always need a credit card for the final charge of purchases made on your band, no? Do you think people are just going to pay in wads of cash?
(Or am I supposed to give Mickey my bank account number too?
I believe @Ignohippo was suggesting that eventually Disney might require guests submit a credit card for resort check-in (as most major hotel chains already do).
I'm not sure what you mean. You will always need a credit card for the final charge of purchases made on your band, no? Do you think people are just going to pay in wads of cash?
(Or am I supposed to give Mickey my bank account number too?
Eventually every guest will have a Magic Band and they will be strongly encouraged to link a credit card to it (I imagine they may give a 1-2% discount if you use your Magic Band for spending – like a Target Red Card). Some merch locations and restaurants have already had scanners added.
That way, Disney will know exactly how much you spend, on what, in which stores, and how you move around the park by the timing of your purchases and FastPass redemptions.
More importantly though, people tend to spend more when they aren't paying with cash or a credit card. It is much more "convenient" to swipe your band than reach into a wallet or purse and it doesn't feel like you're actually spending money.
If this "convenience" adds just 5% of purchases for the average guest, then that would be an increase of hundreds of millions of dollars every year when applied to every single visitor.
That is the future of the Magic Band and the main reason for this initiative.
Exactly. Thank you.
But it won't be just for resort guests, it will be for every visitor. It won't be a necessity, but guests will be strongly encouraged through incentives (small discounts, free Magic "Bandit" or extra FastPasses) to link their MBs to their credit cards or bank accounts.
It's coming my friends. Very, very soon.
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
Thats a shame he seemed such a lovely man.
rael ramone
Well-Known Member
My thoughts, based on what I've read in this thread:
MM-Minus in the minds of management is a *failure*. Even if every guest sang it's praises, it's not making enough to cover the expense (and it would still be a failure in their eyes if it merely broke even).
Franklins continued employment by the Mouse was dependent on this system generating a sizeable return in short order. Perhaps he quit, but if he did it was to avoid the pink slip that was inevitably coming.
MM-Minus in the minds of management is a *failure*. Even if every guest sang it's praises, it's not making enough to cover the expense (and it would still be a failure in their eyes if it merely broke even).
Franklins continued employment by the Mouse was dependent on this system generating a sizeable return in short order. Perhaps he quit, but if he did it was to avoid the pink slip that was inevitably coming.
dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what you mean. You will always need a credit card for the final charge of purchases made on your band, no? Do you think people are just going to pay in wads of cash?
(Or am I supposed to give Mickey my bank account number too?
I believe the original comment was related to not having to hand over your credit card every time you do a transaction. Cutting out the chance of a server or other employee "skimming" your card while you are there. The same reason why some restaurants have acquired mobile CC processing devices, the CC never leaves your sight. So the odds of lots of smaller scale fraud are being eliminated as the only time you show you card is when they swipe it on check in. Except now the central backend DB does open itself to be a promising target for hackers, however it's really no different than before since you have been able to room charge for years.
The main reason? With all due respect I can not agree with that. (please note I said "all due respect", not trying to argue) Perhaps they know there are financially uneducated people who will spend more with their card when linked to their band and this was a factor that played into the idea of MB's but I dont think the number of people is that big. That pendulum swings both ways as well. If a guest checks their account at end of the day and sees how much they charged and freaks out, they will cut their over spending immediately. Ive watched my sister do it a million times, and she makes big bucks. Disney isnt like Vegas where a person will run themselves dry in the hopes of hitting the jackpot or get back what they lost.
The pixie dust is strong and we all make a few extra purchases but very few are foolish enough to haphazardly spend money their entire vacation. Some will, yes, but many are already on a tight budget when they arrive and others have pre-set amounts of spending for the day or have purchased prepaid cards. I very much agree that Disney will start to offer discounts or promos on merch to entice guests to spend more but I think they will not rule out those spending cash as well.
dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
What business would prefer a customer use a CC over cash? None that I know of as those CC fees the business pays each and every time a CC is used add up and add up quickly. Not even Mickey has the leverage to do away with those charges.
You would be surprised. Disassociating cash from the purchase does help to drive more sales. This is the same reason why casinos use chips instead of cash. People tend to buy more on credit, either thinking they will just pay it off later, or that it's no big deal.
And WDW actually does a great job of driving down charges. This is one of the reasons why they would love everyone to pay via magic band. There are typically 2 fees associated with a CC transaction. I believe they are called the interchange fee and the transaction fee. The interchange fee is a set charge per transaction just to run the card. The transaction fee is a percentage of the total transaction when it gets approved. Figure something like $.05-.10 plus 1-3%. This is why lots of places try to discourage you from charging a pack of gum as the fees eat up their entire profit. But since WDW can tack all the transactions together and run them at once, they save a fortune on fees. They have been doing this for ages with room charges, and if they can extend it to non resort guests with the magic bands, it's more profit. Figure 5-10 swipes a day at a nickle a swipe, adds up really fast.
flynnibus
Premium Member
What business would prefer a customer use a CC over cash? None that I know of as those CC fees the business pays each and every time a CC is used add up and add up quickly. Not even Mickey has the leverage to do away with those charges.
you are skipping over the inbetween answer...
buying on house accounts
Disney wants people to buy on credit because it increases sales.. but Disney wants to reduce it's card fees... pushing people to use house accounts does both.
GymLeaderPhil
Well-Known Member
The plans to add credit cards to MagicBands got scrapped. Annual Passholders were supposed to have that feature. The financial institutions that Disney approached overwhelmingly said no thank you.