Spirited News & Observations II -- NGE/Baxter

[Darth Sidious]

If you go back and search for random threads on this, there's no question there was a huge increase in tourism around Orlando last year, particularly noticable in the Fall. (In fairness, Summer is always busy so harder to notice.) Look for threads about the biggest crowds at Halloween Horror Nights in 5 or 6 years or Food & Wine being slammed like never before. Or if you're familiar with west 192 or I-Drive, head down either road and notice how many new restaurants weren't there mid-2011.

Two caveats about this tho:

(1) Universal is pulling in a bigger "slice" of this than ever before, and it's only going to get bigger with their current building spree. There's some debate, but a lot of people think that off-site hotels have benefited more from this boom than WDW hotels--the growth in off-site restaurants might tend to confirm this.

(2) While the trend continued into 2013, particularly MLK and Mardi Gras thru Presidents Day weekend, I imagine those trips were booked a couple months ago. With the SSI increase (or whatever it is) in January and gas flirting with $4 a gallon, the rest of 2013 could go back to 2009-2010 levels fairly quickly. At least Universal will still have new rides to entice locals to come out.

Great post.

 

[Genie of the Lamp]

If you go back and search for random threads on this, there's no question there was a huge increase in tourism around Orlando last year, particularly noticable in the Fall. (In fairness, Summer is always busy so harder to notice.) Look for threads about the biggest crowds at Halloween Horror Nights in 5 or 6 years or Food & Wine being slammed like never before. Or if you're familiar with west 192 or I-Drive, head down either road and notice how many new restaurants weren't there mid-2011.

Two caveats about this tho:

(1) Universal is pulling in a bigger "slice" of this than ever before, and it's only going to get bigger with their current building spree. There's some debate, but a lot of people think that off-site hotels have benefited more from this boom than WDW hotels--the growth in off-site restaurants might tend to confirm this.

(2) While the trend continued into 2013, particularly MLK and Mardi Gras thru Presidents Day weekend, I imagine those trips were booked a couple months ago. With the SSI increase (or whatever it is) in January and gas flirting with $4 a gallon, the rest of 2013 could go back to 2009-2010 levels fairly quickly. At least Universal will still have new rides to entice locals to come out.

I guess I was too lazy to go back and search for threads pertaining to this claim. But I'll look and see the comparisons. Still proves that Orlando is the #1 Tourist Destination in the world IMO. Not a Florida Local (19 year old Pittsburgh fellow) so you have the upper advantage on me here as I was just posting this info to members on here who aren't from O-TOWN or Fl being that I vacation to this area with my family every 3-5 years. Yeah the UNI resorts are really benefiting from the Parks Expeidture projects on both coasts but in this case we'll say Uni Orlando parks. Yeah, most vacationers who go to Orlando to visit the theme park(s) generally book their trips about 3-4 months in advance. Yeah gas is an issue with transportation, so if that were to go in effect, you would definitely see more of you guys (fla locals) attending UNI be it with their park prices for fla locals and new/state of the art attractions to go along with other micro reasonings. But yeah great post. Must suck to live through this some times huh?

 

[John]

That's literally not true, and in fact not even close to being correct. Yes, dramatically increased wages would result in higher prices being passed along to the consumer, but as a very rough guesstimate, we're talking about price increases of maybe 25 to 30 cents an item on average (reflects more than double the current minimum wage). That's not insignifcant, but in theory greater disposable income for the masses helps everyone - more business, more jobs, and reduced need for government assistance (food stamps, etc.) for starters.

I get your point, but to suggest a dollar cheeseburger would have to cost eight times as much to support living wages is ludicrous. Minimum wage jobs may not be intended as careers to support a family, but too many people do indeed have to live on such low wages - and that's a problem.

I agree with you on the hamburger analogy....a tad bit of hyperbol, but you get the point. What I disagree with you about is what the increase in cost per item might be. It wouldnt be 25 to 30 cents on a TV sold at Best buy. I think you are not includeing what the entire cost is to the employer. Not only is it a raise in what they pay per hour but what the increase would be in matching fed. taxes, workmans comp. unemployment ins. matching SS. etc. Its more then just a few cents. Multiply this times thousands of employees and it is a substantial number.

The plight of the lower middle class is much more complex then just a quick fix with increaseing the minimum wage. Any increase would help, but as you said even if the cost was passed along at 25 or 30 cent an item....it would add up quickly so what would be the actual net? Not to mention if the wage incresed the employers also might cut back on employees. There is no easy solution. A knee jerk fix isnt the answer. Although you may have a different opinion I dont think mine is as ludicrous as you say.

 

[WDW1974]

Quite busy of late, but I had to drop in to note that there are numerous reportings of folks logging into MyDisneyExperience only to wind up with the personal information OF OTHERS!

So, I have to ask ... where are the defenders of Disney (I see @flynnibus is busy defending Carnival Cruise Lines to the audience on the DCL board) and MM+?

What you have to ask yourself is why anyone should/would trust this company with tracking your children and handing them all of this personal info on them and you, when they can't even prevent folks from pulling up other guests' info now?

Just think about that for a bit. This isn't one person on the DIS Boards. This is now multiple people, including here. ... and wel all know that most people don't post on fan forums, so one can easily extraoplate that these aren't a few 'isolated incidents' but a major flaw with Disney's security protocols.

Now ... I need to get back to real world issues (like brand new 15-year old Disney-MGM Studios beach towels!), but I'd hope you're all paying attention. ... Or do y'all just trust Disney?

I don't.

 

[Lee]

Now ... I need to get back to real world issues (like brand new 15-year old Disney-MGM Studios beach towels!)...

Ahh...organizing the Spirited Archives...

 

[GoofGoof]

Quite busy of late, but I had to drop in to note that there are numerous reportings of folks logging into MyDisneyExperience only to wind up with the personal information OF OTHERS!

So, I have to ask ... where are the defenders of Disney (I see @flynnibus is busy defending Carnival Cruise Lines to the audience on the DCL board) and MM+?

What you have to ask yourself is why anyone should/would trust this company with tracking your children and handing them all of this personal info on them and you, when they can't even prevent folks from pulling up other guests' info now?

Just think about that for a bit. This isn't one person on the DIS Boards. This is now multiple people, including here. ... and wel all know that most people don't post on fan forums, so one can easily extraoplate that these aren't a few 'isolated incidents' but a major flaw with Disney's security protocols.

Now ... I need to get back to real world issues (like brand new 15-year old Disney-MGM Studios beach towels!), but I'd hope you're all paying attention. ... Or do y'all just trust Disney?

I don't.

I guess I have been a Disney defender or at least when it comes to MM+ privacy issues I have been. This is not acceptable. Having glitches is one thing. Seeing someone else's room reservation or ADRs is disturbing but not the end of the world, but when people's entire profile is visible including I am assuming credit card numbers and addresses and whatever else was entered that's unacceptable. I assume they are working round the clock to fix the problems, but IMHO they should probably take the whole system down, revert back to the old reservation pages for now and fix the problems rather than risk further exposure of personal info. The reason people rarely question Google or Amazon is because this doesn't happen to them or at least we rarely hear about it if it does while a lot of people are skeptical of Facebook due to highly public privacy issues. Disney has to work quickly to resolve this or they will be lumped in with the Facebooks of the world as not trustworthy.

 

[WDWFanDave]

Quite busy of late, but I had to drop in to note that there are numerous reportings of folks logging into MyDisneyExperience only to wind up with the personal information OF OTHERS!

So, I have to ask ... where are the defenders of Disney (I see @flynnibus is busy defending Carnival Cruise Lines to the audience on the DCL board) and MM+?

What you have to ask yourself is why anyone should/would trust this company with tracking your children and handing them all of this personal info on them and you, when they can't even prevent folks from pulling up other guests' info now?

Just think about that for a bit. This isn't one person on the DIS Boards. This is now multiple people, including here. ... and wel all know that most people don't post on fan forums, so one can easily extraoplate that these aren't a few 'isolated incidents' but a major flaw with Disney's security protocols.

Now ... I need to get back to real world issues (like brand new 15-year old Disney-MGM Studios beach towels!), but I'd hope you're all paying attention. ... Or do y'all just trust Disney?

I don't.

Well, for the heck of it, I decided to log in. Got the right name, but all of our other info that was previously there has now been stripped from the profile. Wonder who it ended up with? It was there when we used the app during our October vacation. Interesting stuff.

Also, had a huge update to the T&Cs to read through...

Glad it will be a bit before we return. Wonder if they'll ever figure it out...

 

[WDW1974]

Of the two stories, I find the former one far worse than the the latter.

In one you have a child sexually abused. In the other you have a child inconvenienced. Hardly comparable.

They are both bad. But one is simply an individual and one who was a child himself when the abuse allegedly began (I don't know why, but I have an easier time explaining the behavior of a 14-year-old on a 12-year-old than say a 58-year-old on a 10-year-old ... but that is just me).

I don't view as what was done to that child or countless others (such as one at O'Hare that I almost got myself arrested for) as simply inconvenience. I view it as child abuse condoned and approved by the TSA to keep Americans in line ... but I have a brain and realize our security is largely a joke and we have become such sheeple that if the government said you and your kids needed body cavity searches to fly and protect us from 'the evildoers' that a vast majority of people would be ignorant enough to agree to that.

Frankly, I don't believe I should have to take my shoes off everytime I'm at an airport and I've this far been able to avoid going thru a strip search machine by my own nerfarious ways. 9/11 happened because of organizational ing matches and incompetence on all levels from the FBI up to the Oval Office and if something like that, or worse, happens again it will be because of the same. Not because we didn't molest children or adults or intimidate, scare and coerce them at an airport check-point.

***Spirited rant over***

 

[WDW1974]

This is going to be a Public Relations nightmare

That's where social media whores and BRAND ADVOCATES come in.

But, no, it isn't going to be enough. Disney is currently proving that it can't be trusted with securing guests' information. And we are not even in any sort of operational mode for NGE.

But Tony Baxter and Imagineers and thinkers like him were wrong, what guests visit WDW for is datamining/24/7 control and planning ... not for the best immersive family themed entertainment attractions in the business. ... Yeah, those MAGICBands are waaaay kewl ... sure!

 

[yoyoflamingo]

What you have to ask yourself is why anyone should/would trust this company with tracking your children and handing them all of this personal info on them and you, when they can't even prevent folks from pulling up other guests' info now?

Just think about that for a bit. This isn't one person on the DIS Boards. This is now multiple people, including here. ... and wel all know that most people don't post on fan forums, so one can easily extraoplate that these aren't a few 'isolated incidents' but a major flaw with Disney's security protocols.

Now ... I need to get back to real world issues (like brand new 15-year old Disney-MGM Studios beach towels!), but I'd hope you're all paying attention. ... Or do y'all just trust Disney?

This is the part that makes me even more wary. Not that it's just one person, but multiple people who are having the same problem. Sounds like MM+ definitely has a long way to go before it's live; the longer the better in my opinion.

And, still have a nice River Country beach towel in good shape - still use it!

 

[WDW1974]

I watched this story this morning, and maybe I'm being too harsh, but I was really more upset with the parents on this one. As parents, yes it's our job to protect our children, but this was not some stranger abducting and molesting their child. It's a sad world we live in where there are people capable of using children to carry in weapons, explosives, etc. But the truth is, these people do exist, so we have rules in place to protect innocent people from dying at the hands of terrorists. We might not like it, and indeed we might resent it, but it's the way things are done, and we do our kids a great disservice if we don't prepare them for following rules.
In the case of this child, extra measures were necessary, and they will continue to be throughout her life.

*steps off soapbox*

No offense, and I won't throw your soapbox at you, but I don't blame the parents. I blame the government (this is something they deserve blame on, not when they try and make sure everyone has healthcare access or when they try and raise taxes to pay our bills or when they try and restrict gun access to some sane levels). No one should have to be subjected to what these rent-a-cops in the TSA do. No one. ... And since no one has ever tried to use a child as an explosive device, one might rationally say that it is more than ridiculous and against what we as a nation are about to subject children to abuse by strangers at the airport. I witnessed one of the sickest displays of that in Chicago coming back to the USA from China (evil, vile, Commie, Godless, pinko China where they don't subject their citizens to crap like that!) at Christmastime in 2010 and I was very close to getting myself arreseted as an eight-year-old boy with some severe disabiity was almost pushed out of his wheelchair by some TSA dude that just had to run his hands over his bottom. Sorry, if that is what we've come to as a nation, then I'm pretty sure I won't be living here much longer.

The fact that something 'could' happen in some far out scenario is not a justifictaion for taking away basic rights for us and our children (and, please, please, don't tell me that no one is being forced to fly ... please don't go there).

 

[Lee]

(and, please, please, don't tell me that no one is being forced to fly ... please don't go there).

No, flying is a must.

But, it might be time to go ahead and pick up a nice Bombardier Challenger for your Spirited travel needs. Hey, if its good enough for Bob...

That way you can just skip all that airport unpleasantness altogether.
(I got dibs on a front-facing seat.)

 

[WDW1974]

Why stop at taking Walts first name off the company? They seem to value ESPN above all else, why not just change the name of the company to ESPN.

ESPN is an incredibly well-run machine that prints money.

ESPN isn't the problem with Disney at all.

It is one of the things Disney does right.

P&R as a unit and WDW in specific are a different animal.

 

[WDW1974]

DisneyParks Twitter - "When we go into that new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right." - Walt Disney

The company has moved so far away from Walt and what he was all about that ... I dunno even know what to say ... then you have someone with ties to Walt's Nine Old Men and building WDW like a Tony Baxter and you treat him like a used piece of toilet paper and ... this is a company lacking all vision in so many areas.

They just acquire IP and use that to make you forget that they can't create compelling IP anymore (although I am very psyched about a possible Pixar project down the road!). Now, at WDW it's all smoke and mirrors marketing plus technology now that has more glitches in it than my systems here in the Spirit Cave (and there are plenty, just ask @Lee)

But, hey, let's all get excited about new park maps and toilets!

 

[Cody5242]

I wish Disney wouldn't of stopped ESPN the weekend that was a great event

 

[WDW1974]

Walt might not have been a great business man, but he understood one fundamental rule in business: You cannot nickle and dime quality and you must invest in evolving your product. You can never settle or be satisfied. No genius ever is. They keep pushing ahead.

Exactly. You may want to head over to the Disney and More blog. They put up the original Walt Disney is coming to Florida press conference. I am not sure whether I had ever seen the entire thing before (and I researched writing a book on the subject once upon a time!) ... it is an interesting glimpse as to what Walt was thinking about with the property now known as WDW.

But, sadly, today's WDW is all about nickel and diming and evolving better ways of extracting more revenue from the guest pool.

To use Walt's famous quote, Disney has been all about resting on its laurels since the dawn of the 21st century (likely before). It shows. When UNI is building things like WWoHP, how can the 'New Fantasyland' be WDW's answer? HOW!??!?

 

[PirateFrank]

This may be off a tangent, but I view the TSA issue *far* more disturbing....

At the end of the day, a Disney employee being caught doing inappropriate things with a child, is awful. But it's still against the law.

A TSA agent harassing, stealing from and groping children -- is tragic, because it is done with the full force of the agency....it legalizes what the above disney employee did.


One is a shame....another is shameful.

 

[WDW1974]

Before you "jump of the ledge", look to the history books for a glimpse of hope. Disneyland was a mess in the 1990s with few new attractions, neglected maintenance and a change in focus of management. Management was replaced and it eventually turned around. The WDW issues are larger scale since the resort is much larger, but with the right management the ship could be righted.

I see this point come up frequently and while it is possible to make a comparison, I'd also say that it isn't a very fair/easy one. Circumstances were and are so different ... and while DL suffered ... it did so for a relatively brief period, 5-6 years from Tomorrowland 98 opening to Matt taking over as Prez. And even during that period, the entire resort was improved greatly. DCA was added (even if flawed, it allowed for what is there today), the Grand Californian was added, DD was added. The entire Anaheim Resort area was redeveloped.

No excuses to what went on at DL, though. Guests died in the multiple incidents that were Disney's fault. And the old park fell into disprepair.

WDW is a city. And it has needs all over the place. Four theme parks, two water parks, plus one decaying rotting hulk of one. Transportation is a nightmare. And all at the time the company decides to spend $1.5 billion on a datamining/trip planning system designed to bring in more/new revenue and one that is highly flawed ... it honestly is the perfect storm to make WDW a place that many people 'used to love'.

 

[WDW1974]

Here's a question I'm digging up again for our insiders, is there any chance of SGE leaving soon? Or has any effort on that front been completely forgotten?

HAH!!!

Funny. Oh, you were serious?

I'd expect that thing to sit there for at least another decade, maybe at some point growing so unpopular that they open it only during busier times. Replacing it is not even remotely on the radar.

 

[WDW1974]

Minimum wage jobs are not supposed be be jobs where you are to make a living on. These are entry level positions mostly. A way for young people to build a resume or have a part time job. If you made a job working at Mickey D's a "living wage" job we would be paying $8.00 for a cheeseburger. Its all relative. The cost of living would go up therefor making that same job now a non living wage job again and it becomes cyclical. In this economy you need a skill someone wants to pay you for. Making cheeseburgers isnt one of them.

The oil lobby which you refer to is is the local municipals wanting to increase the hefty tax on fuel. Another way to "tax" us to death. Not to mention the value of the dollar has a big part in reason as to why gas prices are what they are. In your statement you seem to abore the idea of having to pay 4 or 5 dollars for a gallon of gas but wont mind paying $8.00 for a cheeseburger? Which is it?

That's just not true. In-N-Out burger was paying kids $14 an hour in Vegas almost a decade ago ... the prices didn't go up. ... And in a country where the top one percent has decided that they'd very much like it if at least 96% of the rest made minimum wage, we have a problem. Again, minimum wage in Australia is about the equivalent of $16.50 in USD. How much more is a cheeseburger there than here. It's a weak argument.

And the oil lobby is the one that has allowed speculators and not true supply and demand issues to determine market price when you go for a fill up. ExxonMobil and Co don't mind it. They'll say it isn't their fault as they make billions in profits each quarter. Gas should be a lot closer to $3 right now based on simple market conditions. IT isn't, though, is it?

Seriously, there are better things to defend than a $7.75 minimum wage that would have most people homeless if they had to live on it and BIG OIL.