Spirited News & Observations II -- NGE/Baxter

[HMF]

I just voted against every single board member at TWDC. I wish there was away to get more shareholders to do the same. I would love for someone to come along who could put Disney back to the fore front on theme parks and animation.

Internal resistance can be a really good thing.

 

[Clever Name]

You are so clever. You probably are like the one who brings up allegations of Uncle Frank molesting little girls at family Thanksgiving just to see the mayhem and the yams flying. I don't think that's your best effort, though, so no likey.

Just as OLC owns and operates Tokyo Disneyland under a strict licensing agreement with Disney, I think it's well within the BOS to operate DLR in a similar fashion. When a person gets ready to sell a house they fix everything up and slap on a new coat of paint. DLR is undergoing that same sort of ongoing renovation right now.

 

[flynnibus]

I'd like to see how much GAC usage has increased since the enforcement of return times. I speculate that many borderline GAC people that would have used Fastpass under the old rules are now using GAC. While the technology behind acquiring a Fastpass may be improving it seems that usage is becoming more prohibitive. As a result, it's hard to see the advantage of the tradeoff.

Well GAC abuse was already so horrible there.. if it gets any worse I cringe.

 

[HMF]

If an outside company can run the parks better than Disney could then maybe they should sell them. However, I fear American Business ethics might make it impossible to operate them like say OLC.

 

[lazyboy97o]

If an outside company can run the parks better than Disney could then maybe they should sell them. However, I fear American Business ethics might make it impossible to operate them like say OLC.

The Oriental Land Company has contractual obligations and operates in a different culture. It's not out of pure benevolence and there are absolutely no guarantees than even they, without having to fulfill an agreement, would have a similar operation in the US.

 

[Clever Name]

The Oriental Land Company has contractual obligations and operates in a different culture.

Perhaps DLR might be sold to OLC. Toyota, Nissan and Honda all build cars in the USA so I think it could happen.

 

[flynnibus]

I can't believe you think that arguing the same point is more interesting than any of the other topics you could opt for.

What can you say.. Limited Time Magic doesn't really make for compeling news elsewhere on property

And if you don't like or support the amount of capital Disney has invested in NGE, then why argue the merits of it ... or the possible merits?

Because there is potential there.. maybe even enough potential to justify the spend.. but it all boils down to Disney's choices. We'll just have to wait and see how those play out. I find focusing on the money to simply be depressing. Depressing in how absurd Disney dollar spend is.. and how it in turn drives the argument over their prices. I don't come online to make myself down or angry. If that's the case, I just walk away from it. I have enough real world things to deal with that I don't need to spend energy on things just to bring myself down. No thanks.

The money on NextGen is already there and gone.. so no amount of bickering is going to bring it back. Might as well focus on what it's done and what it offers us.

Well, that's something we almost totally agree on, although I'd put Aquatica right up with Disney's H2O parks.
I have never gone six months without a visit since 1974 as far as I can recall, so I've watched the deterioration in the MAGIC close up and first hand. It has been one long steady slide from around 1996 to present. The worst definitely was from Y2K on ...

I really want to do Aquatica and the dolphin stuff. The product looks very interesting to me.. we just didn't have the time for it on the last trip and won't have time again this fall when we return for our next cruise. I stopped going to WDW from about 95-04. Just too busy in the rest of my life during that time and it wasn't till my kids got older and prime ages for the WDW experience did we start looking at going back.

 

[flynnibus]

Yup. Thought so.

Even in agreeing there be disagreeing. What a surprise!

Often the path is far more important than the destination. The same endpoint does not mean the same reasons you got there.

How in the world can you claim that NGE isn't about further milking when that is exactly what sold the model to Disney's BoD in the first place?
A NEW REVENUE MODEL. Disney's NGE is all about milking existing udders that are already bleeding for yet more milk. That they're doing so with kewl to some tech does NOT change the basics.

Because its a model that also offers products and benefits.. not just a manipulation of the customer or practices to refine revenues or expenses. If they purely wanted to milk and nothing else.. why even bother with the new products and services? Just roll out RFID ticket media and integrated billing and be done with it. They wouldn't even need a compelling case to customers - just do it.

 

[flynnibus]

I dont think that it was ever a choice between attractions vs NG....no it was a philsophical choice. It is a choice in how they were going to go forward and conduct buisness. A change that they seem to feel will bring in the most money vs what will give the best park experience. The only real thing that impacts the park experience is FP+ ( atleast from what we know) and thats up for debate. Even you Flynni can not say for sure that this will be a positive impact.....because it hasnt been rolled out as of yet. I think that the real argument most people are trying to convey is this change in philosophy. It goes against and the way the parks were built upon.

Sometimes change is good... we'll just have to see if they are good cooks or if the cake collapses on itself. I certainly don't see their current model as a winner.. so I'm certainly not cheering for the status quo.

Selling off property.. focusing on being a real estate developer... licensing and leasing vs innovating yourself.. obscenely priced boutique offerings.. ignoring show quality.. corner cutting.. driving dining into the ground.. focusing on pretty instead of motivating/touching.. I think the company of the last approx 7-10 years is garbage... one coasting on their past and one desperate to shape the numbers to comply with stupid business targets instead of prioritizing making customers champions of your product.

NextGen at least opens some amazing potentials... I just don't know how far Disney will go. Will it be worth the final $$ cost? I guess we'll know in 5 years or so when we see how the company operates afterwards.

 

[Figments Friend]

Is this the same Tony Baxter project? http://www.insightsandsounds.blogspot.com/2013/02/tony-baxters-jolly-holiday-in-epcot.html

-
I wish !

No..as a poster on that site has already commented, but ANY project forthcoming from Mr. Baxter would be a VERY welcome additon anywhere at WDW these days...but alas, those days are long over it seems.

Remember when Tony WAS allowed to go creatively crazy on WDW Property?
Remember when DIsney was all about producing incredibly immersive, other-worldly attractions in the traditional way?

Here is one of my favorite photos to remember those times....

Barry Braverman, Tony Baxter, and Julie Svendsen brainstorming in the early days of development for the original Journey Into Imagination attraction.

I want those times back...attraction-wise.

 

[OFTeric]

I have already gone through the mourning process that the WDW of my childhood is a memory. I was thinking about the talking fountains they used to have near the Imagination Pavilion and how it had lights and sound... fond memories.

 

[scpergj]

They'll be going up soon too, I'm sure. ... Just not to the crazy points that Disney's will be (you know, someone's gotta pay for all those new door locks and light up Mickey pole readers!)

Wonder when they'll have Disney pole dancers for those light up Mickey ploes!

 

[rael ramone]

I just voted against every single board member at TWDC. I wish there was away to get more shareholders to do the same. I would love for someone to come along who could put Disney back to the fore front on theme parks and animation.

According to the most recent S&P report, 65% of the company is owned by institutions.

And the top 3 (all over 75m shares) according to Thomson Reuters is Vanguard, State Street, and Fidelity.

Index Funds, ETFs, Mutual funds, etc. may be good for small investor diversity, but it's horrible for oversight of the companies in these funds.

If Ken Heebner owns Disney on one of his funds, is he going to care about Splash Mountains non-working animatronics & smelly logs? And all the index funds care about DIS is that it fits within the index. If they ever get kicked out of the S&P 500, then they'll care. (Though the 'politically correct' funds might kick them out over COPPA ).

If that 65% rubberstamps the BoDs recommendations....

 

[DCLcruiser]

I can be upset when the company turns its back on what worked for 45-plus years of theme park development and decides that the appetizer ...nope wrong anaology ... the silverware and plates are more important the quality of the meal and service.

That's what NGE is. Technical bells and whistles designed to empty your bank accounts and push your credit cards to their limits.

That is NOT what made Disney a stand-alone. It might be what makes them just another BRAND, which they are getting closer and closer to being.

Not comments on my theory that DL was a Blue Ocean?

 

[MattM]

The best way to avoid creepy Google Ad's is to stop using Google, no?

 

[MattM]

If Ken Heebner owns Disney on one of his funds, is he going to care about Splash Mountains non-working animatronics & smelly logs? And all the index funds care about DIS is that it fits within the index. If they ever get kicked out of the S&P 500, then they'll care. (Though the 'politically correct' funds might kick them out over COPPA ).

Do people still give Kenny Heebner their money?

 

[PirateFrank]

According to the most recent S&P report, 65% of the company is owned by institutions.

And the top 3 (all over 75m shares) according to Thomson Reuters is Vanguard, State Street, and Fidelity.

Index Funds, ETFs, Mutual funds, etc. may be good for small investor diversity, but it's horrible for oversight of the companies in these funds.

If Ken Heebner owns Disney on one of his funds, is he going to care about Splash Mountains non-working animatronics & smelly logs? And all the index funds care about DIS is that it fits within the index. If they ever get kicked out of the S&P 500, then they'll care. (Though the 'politically correct' funds might kick them out over COPPA ).

If that 65% rubberstamps the BoDs recommendations....

You can't think like this. Profit motive is how the game is played. I know what you're driving at. They don't care. These types of stockholders really only care about protecting the value of their securitized investment offerings, whether it's a pension system or a mutual fund...and if DIS offers either stability or value to that end, that's the reason they invest in DIS.

Every other publicly traded company has the same exact problem. Do you think Apple's investors are all middle-aged housewives with an apple sticker slapped to the back of their family Civic? Google or Amazon investors are just post-hipsters who landed a cool Silicon Alley job in manhattan? Not true. ALL of these companies have similar major investors....and they care about one thing and one thing only. ROI....and how that ROI benefits their own financial products.

So you can't draw DIS out to be some exception to the rule. Each company has to juggle both the expectations of the Board (who are beholden to the Stockholders) with the expectations of customers. Great companies have a Board who's expectations are sympathetic or aligned to that of the customers. Great Companies appoint/hire managers (CEO's, CFOs, CIOs, mid-level, etc) who ensure this.

 

[alphac2005]

The best way to avoid creepy Google Ad's is to stop using Google, no?

If you have Firefox, you can use some great add-on extensions that block cookies, widgets, trackers, etc. I personally like to use Ghostery. The little ghost will make those ads disappear.

 

[MattM]

I get many of the points here against MM+ and privacy concerns. Having your CC hooked up to it is not one of them. If I stopped using websites/visiting companies who had my CC hooked up to some sort of room key, membership card, or stored within them, etc, I would probably just have to stay home.

My point is, if we're going to use the credit card issue and potential identity theft that COULD happen, we have to apply that to every single situation that is similar. Even the companies we like.

 

[MattM]

Answer this question. Why do you think this launched at WDW and not DL...I'd be interested in your answer on that.
/quote]

I am not for nor against this MM+ thing yet, but the answer to this question is most likely because WDW has a for more greater, diverse customer base to mine data from?