Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[marni1971]

I completely agree. Staying on Universal property feels like a bubble as well. It may not be as big of one (for now), but it's a bubble none the less.

And this is one area Comcast plan on expanding upon. Expanding. Not exploiting.

 

[willtravel]

I bet less people will complain about NextGen when they are near a Aloha Isle and get an alert notification of a coupon to use to get one lol

OOOOHHHH good one. Never thought about those red light specials they could do while you are there or in a particular area. OOOOOHHHHH................

 

[matt9112]

Pool and hotel were both amazing. My Disney exec friend put it quite simply ''We have nothing that can compete with that product, just as we can't compete with the new Bonnet Creek resorts or the Ritz.''

I am very late for an appointment, but will discuss more tonight or tomorrow.

if as you astern many execs and higher level management knows of there own shortcoming and the fact they cannot even compete with competitions offerings why don't they? i mean really without the sugar coated finger pointing...if they NOW KNOW what the problem is why don't they NOW FIX the problem? forget how they fell behind...or anything on any coffee table...why cant they just pump cash? better yet why cant burbank step in the figurative government of a Detroit automaker?

 

[GLaDOS]

And this is one area Comcast plan on expanding upon. Expanding. Not exploiting.

I look forward to it, especially now with Cabana Bay coming along which will allow me to stay on property more.

 

[marni1971]

if as you astern many execs and higher level management knows of there own shortcoming and the fact they cannot even compete with competitions offerings why don't they? i mean really without the sugar coated finger pointing...if they NOW KNOW what the problem is why don't they NOW FIX the problem? forget how they fell behind...or anything on any coffee table...why cant they just pump cash? better yet why cant burbank step in the figurative government of a Detroit automaker?

Two reasons in a nutshell. Many uppers still refuse to acknowledge there's a problem. Those that do think they are saving things with NextGen. Sadly the few not in either camp are not big enough. Surely nothing can touch the golden goose that is WDW. In the short term they may still be right. Medium term perhaps. And that's dangerous.

 

[Sam Magic]

Scrap NGE, and just get back to building world class attractions, that's what will make them money. But unfortunately I'm afraid this will not happen that ship sailed long ago!

I want to be on the ship! Leave this hell hole!

 

[yeti]

Now predicting:WDW1974 as an avatar will disappear, and UNI2013 will be born.

 

[Darth Sidious]

The original pro forma showed a huge upside and way lower cost than what's been incurred in reality. Based on the assumptions, the cost benefit analysis was tremendously positive. The failure was in the execution of bringing those assumptions to reality.

I can totally see that. The problematic part can often be forecasting real world unknowns. Your forecasts can only be accurate in the circumstances you expected. Things in real world can balloon quickly. I'm sure most people never envisioned how much it would cost but being billions in on it... You may as well take the hit on the chin and finish it.

 

[SirLink]

Two reasons in a nutshell. Many uppers still refuse to acknowledge there's a problem. Those that do think they are saving things with NextGen. Sadly the few not in either camp are not big enough. Surely nothing can touch the golden goose that is WDW. In the short term they may still be right. Medium term perhaps. And that's dangerous.

Can I ask for clarification of the 'uppers' are they the ones at Burbank or in the office where a thousand bonus' shine?

 

[fosse76]

One of my complaints is Disney is getting too crowded no matter when you visted. I would like a lessor crowd like you mention above.

I appauld Disney for trying to get wait times under control. I don't know about FP+ and walking around looking at my smartphone instead of the magic around me.

Are there policies about driving a stroller while aquiring a FP+?

The best way for Disney to get wait times under control is to ADD MORE ATTRACTIONS!!!!! Obviously they can't only add headliners (since ideally that would increase crowds), but they need to add more attractions that can fill the time between riding headline attractions. More dark rides in Fantasyland would be a start. And I would say adding a single rider line at Space Mountain would help its capacity.

 

[Lee]

Redheads are fun.

But red is natures color for danger

Brother, don't I know it...

 

[Blueliner]

Pool and hotel were both amazing. My Disney exec friend put it quite simply ''We have nothing that can compete with that product, just as we can't compete with the new Bonnet Creek resorts or the Ritz.''

I am very late for an appointment, but will discuss more tonight or tomorrow.

We are DVC members, happily so due to an inexpensive secondary market purchase at the Boardwalk. However, we used up this year's points at the Grand Calfornian during spring break (Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure, and the Grand Californian all were incredible). We plan to bank next year's points to check out Aulani in a couple years.

I recently reserved a week in a 2BR Bonnet Creek villa for our Spring Break in March 2014 to take advantage of the $399 DVC annual passes we could not pass up. Bonnet Creek looks really nice, and it will average less than $175 per night. We are really looking forward to it, and I don't see how it will not be an excellent value.

I forsee a lot of time at Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, and the resort itself, although we are sure to spend some time in the four WDW theme parks.

 

[culturenthrills]

The problem is it is too far along to "fail." It will never be what they intended it to be but it will always be here in some capacity.

You mean just like go.com

 

[Sam Magic]

I apologize in advance for the extreme generalization, but from what I understand, the point of NextGen was to give Disney more information on how people tour the parks, what they buy, when they buy, how often they buy, etc for better utilization of attractions, product placement, and product offerings. All being disguised as a way to "enhance" your experience in the parks.

 

[marni1971]

cant the WDI pull strings?

Nope. TDO pay WDIs payroll for anything built in Orlando.

 

[DocMcHulk]

I really hope they call the Universal Monorail the Unirail.

I believe they are calling it the Hogwarts Express

 

[Travel Junkie]

why would ANYONE believe that just because of NextGen... Disney thinks they don't have to "add new rides or attractions or anything" lol sometimes we all get our panties in a bunch for believing things that aren't true just because someone on a message board made them think that way

go grab a dole whip or a butterbeer and enjoy Orlando... hell enjoy something YOLO lol

P&R has a budget. They decided to spend a large chunk of it on NGE instead of new attractions. It is an either or situation. You can't add NGE at its price tag AND new attractions. Now with it going over budget the money has to come from somwhere, so guess what? The parks will have fewer enchancements in the future to make up for cost overruns. There is a reason why WDW is cutting parades and other services they used to provide. The money must come from somewhere.

There was an interesting article than ran a little while back on Micechat. It was written by a former Disneyland accountant who basically admitted that the money allocated to fix DCA affected new projects at WDW including the budget for New Fantasyland.

So yes, one reason why a lot of people are bothered by NGE is that it will influence WDW in other ways.

 

[marni1971]

Can I ask for clarification of the 'uppers' are they the ones at Burbank or in the office where a thousand bonus' shine?

Both. Burbank are slowly seeing the bigger picture but moving at the speed a bloated, top heavy corporation typically moves at.

 

[marni1971]

I believe they are calling it the Hogwarts Express

I think that'll be know as the fantastic small ride that moves between two parks.

 

[GrumpyFan]

The original pro forma showed a huge upside and way lower cost than what's been incurred in reality. Based on the assumptions, the cost benefit analysis was tremendously positive. The failure was in the execution of bringing those assumptions to reality.

I told myself I wasn't going to wade into yet another messy discussion of NGE, but couldn't resist the temptation. [Huge Sigh!] That, and I didn't want to cloud this discussion any further away from WDW1974s postings, there's just too much to try and read thru all of this to try and keep on top of. In reality, I think it would be best if this were part of a whole other discussion, but since it's not, I'm curious if anybody knows what the original pitch was for NGE? Why did they buy into it?

In the end it sounds like there was major scope creep on the project, and marketing jumped into the mix of it because they saw value in extracting the data.

I'm hoping that in a few more years there will be a new book published (a la, Disney War) by an insider that details this fiasco, because I'm really curious about it.

Regardless, reading thru much of the comments and the news today from OS on Comcast's spending future for UNI, it just casts a very very dark cloud over WDW right now, and it seems to be a cloud that's growing in size.