Spirited News & Observations II -- NGE/Baxter

mgf

Well-Known Member
Interesting considering the Next Gen debate on a very similar topic. (Yes: different country, different park, different time, but the same slippery slope argument.)
Disneyland Paris spied on job applicants, French court told
In 2004, the new management of Euro Disney alerted the justice system itself, filing a legal case to denounce these procedures and put a stop to them. The company said the practice had been about ensuring the security of around 10 million people who visited the site each year. But it added that despite any "good intentions" it was a "mistake" to operate in this way.
 

Tim_4

Well-Known Member
While there is some truth to this, it's far from completely accurate. TDO is a completely seperate business entity from TDA and they have full discretion on how they run the resort and over a good deal of the investments in the property. Burbank has been very hands off in regards to Florida since the 90's however that trend appears to be coming to an end. (Thankfully)
Everything you said is very true when it comes to operations, maintenance, and some capital projects, but not monstrosities like NGE.
 

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Never believe Disney's actions (or lack thereof) are the result of some elaborate, well-crafted, secret plan when things could be fully explained by stupidity.

Conspiracy theories tend to fall into that trap pretty easily. More specifically for Disney, it isn't so much dumb moves as it is pursuing the wrong objectives, such as short-term financial numbers at the expense of long-term growth, and the erroneous belief that the market is mature and major new investments will not produce the desired results. Just plain laziness and a general lack of leadership explains much, because while Carsland and Potter prove that the people will come given a compelling enough reason, it's easier to just milk the guests who are coming anyway, and MM+ makes more sense in the business world than animated cars or purple dragons.

Its not a conspiracy - I'm not giving them that much credit. Conspiracys take effort, coordination and absolute secrecy.... none of which I've seen Disney have lately.

We're all (well most anyways) saying that they're following short-term quarterly profits to keep the stock price & wall street happy instead of looking at long-term ROI.
 

George

Liker of Things
Premium Member
If you guys haven't seen the POV videos of Mystic Manor at HKD (spoilers: it's the whole ride, so don't watch if you are going there), check this out... but be prepared to be a bit angry as well, as all the great attractions seem to be finding their ways to Disney parks outside the state of Florida... can you imagine how cool Imagination could be with this kind of technology?
Looks cool, but it's no 3 Caballeros.

Keep in mind that In Florida, most of the effects would work for 3.7 days after opening. Then, after a few months the "Mystic Manor" effects watch thread on magic would mention only 2 or 3 things that worked at all...After 4 years, they would upgrade the attraction so that it all took place in the same essentially empty room and there would be no monkey. After 5 years of this, they would open a new version with a monkey, but all the effects would be replaced with slides of inanimate objects that would have the phrase "I just came to life" projected on it when it was coming to life. No one would believe the old timers description of the original attraction.
 

Genie of the Lamp

Well-Known Member
USH officially got the greenlight for WWOHP along with a master plan for the whole resort (25 yr $1.7 billion evolution plan):
http://micechat.com/27290-universal-studios-hollywood-evolution-plan/
Maybe the BAH will come down at the end of 2013 as said by DHS cm that told a micechat member
couple of Garner Holt articles on LA Times
Dardevil franchise rights revert Disney Brand:
http://www.deadline.com/2013/04/toldja-daredevil-rights-revert-from-fox-to-disney/

Edit: The WWOHP expansion at USH will cost $500 million. Gone/removal will be Gibson Ampitheater and the Curious George attraction their to make way for this land.
 

openendedsky

Well-Known Member
USH officially got the greenlight for WWOHP along with a master plan for the whole resort (25 yr $1.7 billion evolution plan):
http://micechat.com/27290-universal-studios-hollywood-evolution-plan/
Maybe the BAH will come down at the end of 2013 as said by DHS cm that told a micechat member
couple of Garner Holt articles on LA Times
Dardevil franchise rights revert Disney Brand:
http://www.deadline.com/2013/04/toldja-daredevil-rights-revert-from-fox-to-disney/
I was JUST about to post this. Well, the plans for the USH expansion. :D
 

ChrisFL

Premium Member
Exactly. What's the incentive to care here when there is a virtually untapped market with decade of huge growth ahead in consumerism? Most large companies have no interest in the notion of national pride, patriotism, whatever you'd like to call it. It's profit without care. Without getting too academic and off the track here, these publicly traded companies are more and more controlled by a select few, whether it's a hedge fund, corporate raider, etc., and it's causing more and more of the same players to move from company to company, squeezing what they want out of major corporation, one after another. For all of our 401ks or IRAs, the investment of the little people is blip on the radar of the ownership of any of these behemoths today.

What stands out without question and backed by fact is that this mentality is overwhelmingly happening with corporations in the United States. Whether it's corporate pay or investment in the home country, our country is off the charts in a terrible way compared to businesses in countries elsewhere in the world.

Yep, and bringing this back to the topic, this is why Disney is going to Shanghai, expanding in Hong Kong and will probably in another one or two asian countries before doing anything else stateside that's meaningful for a while.
 

Pentacat

Well-Known Member
I don't think you can condemn one decision on the basis or results of another...we're talking about two different personalities here. James Cameron is notoriously difficult to work with -- and while TDO likely balked at numbers being thrown around by JC and WDI, there may very well have been some completely ridiculous demands made by Cameron...and it's not that difficult to imagine. There isn't a cameron movie project that doesn't go wildly over budget - with Avatar and Titanic being in the top 5 of grossly over-budget films. There's likely enough blame to go around on avatarland for the delays and indecision.

I'm not condemning anyone but I believe that the talks between Rowling and TWDC were widely rumored to have ended because TWDC considered her demands to be well beyond what they were willing to accept. Considering that Universal relented to Rowling and agreed that no Coke products would be served in Potter land I'd say she's "protective" if not difficult when it comes to her creation.

The real difference with the Cameron/Avatar deal is that someone high up at TWDC decided it would be a great idea to announce this partnership before any real agreement or plans had been made. They basically created a very public "shotgun marriage" between Cameron, his people and WDI.
 

PirateFrank

Well-Known Member
I'm not condemning anyone but I believe that the talks between Rowling and TWDC were widely rumored to have ended because TWDC considered her demands to be well beyond what they were willing to accept. Considering that Universal relented to Rowling and agreed that no Coke products would be served in Potter land I'd say she's "protective" if not difficult when it comes to her creation.

The real difference with the Cameron/Avatar deal is that someone high up at TWDC decided it would be a great idea to announce this partnership before any real agreement or plans had been made. They basically created a very public "shotgun marriage" between Cameron, his people and WDI.


For enough...I just don't think the two situations are comparable or correlative.
 

misterID

Well-Known Member
If you guys haven't seen the POV videos of Mystic Manor at HKD (spoilers: it's the whole ride, so don't watch if you are going there), check this out... but be prepared to be a bit angry as well, as all the great attractions seem to be finding their ways to Disney parks outside the state of Florida... can you imagine how cool Imagination could be with this kind of technology?



It's cool, but I think Ratatouille is going to be even better. The theming is incredible, though.
 

jt04

Well-Known Member
The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Never believe Disney's actions (or lack thereof) are the result of some elaborate, well-crafted, secret plan when things could be fully explained by stupidity.

Conspiracy theories tend to fall into that trap pretty easily. More specifically for Disney, it isn't so much dumb moves as it is pursuing the wrong objectives, such as short-term financial numbers at the expense of long-term growth, and the erroneous belief that the market is mature and major new investments will not produce the desired results. Just plain laziness and a general lack of leadership explains much, because while Carsland and Potter prove that the people will come given a compelling enough reason, it's easier to just milk the guests who are coming anyway, and MM+ makes more sense in the business world than animated cars or purple dragons.

Well at least we seem to have vanquished the 'cheap' meme to yesterland. I consider that progress for this forum. Your welcome.
 

misterID

Well-Known Member
At some point, when TDL, HKDL, and DRP all have LPS rides and the States have none, people are going to be upset, right?
I would figure that the next major dark ride will have that tech, clone or re-themed clone, I can't see them not doing it... eventually. TDO likes proven, popular attractions and getting it cheap. So when DLR gets there's we'll piggyback them.
 

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