Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[luv]

I talked to a guy from Canada who was walking up past all the cars, to see what was going on (nothing) and then walking back to his car. He planned a trip around this and DROVE from Canada to see it. I don't know if he got there in time for fireworks. Hope so!

The only thing worse than missing out would be driving from Canada and missing out.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Sure, it would be difficult for out-of-state families with school-age children to attend. You visit WDW all the time. Compared to typical crowds, was this crowd different? (Beyond the in-state/out-of-state mix you already mentioned.) Were there many families with children there? Was it mostly adults? How did the crowd distribution differ from normal late night events?

Thanks!

P.S. I know you're in the car. Looking forward to reading your thoughts later.

Voice to text is a wonderful thing.

This is crowd for the villains event was a complete outlier for this time of year. It was mostly 20 to 30-year-olds. It was a younger crowd. You had families but most of those were families with teenagers. There were some families with very small children. But those for the most part where they are specifically for the villains event.

You had several parents with very questionable judgment trying to take their small children out onto a packed dance floor of people clamoring to dance and get pictures with the villains that were circulating around very similar to be May 4 dance party.

Long story short? This was a twentysomething and up event. This was an adult show. And it drew.

Which now makes me wonder exactly who is buying the tickets to Halloween party? Are those the same locals and cast members that were drawn to this villains event?

Considering crowd distribution at the studios for late-night is people going to phantasmic And the numbers are pretty down for this time of year.

You figure your average Friday night in September at the studios you may have 10,000 people in the park based on things I've heard from a couple of different people.

Between what Jimbo heard last night and what I heard last night we have somewhere between 35 and 50,000 people in the park last night. (Depends on your source But they're all saying at least 35,000.) That's at least three times the usual crowd for Friday night. Or more. And they were mostly young adults.

You did not have the young children or the dressed up families that the Halloween party generally attracts. Yes, you still there and have a few guests trying to push a stroller through a crowd of 20,000 people. That's just cause they're freaking idiot.


Villains weekends. It should happen.

 

[flynnibus]

I'm interested in reading your thoughts why the event did not attract more out-of-staters. By your estimate, it was 80% locals and CMs. Why do you think attendance was so heavily local?

For all the same reasons this is basically Disney's lowest time of the year? It's inbetween summer vacations and the fall holidays.. are people going to give up some of their summer vacation in exchange to travel to florida specifically for a few hour party? For something no one is even quite sure exactly how far Disney would go?

This type of event is the quintessential locals promo... how do I offer something to get people over the hump and shift their weekend plans to my product? This is the type of stuff the FL AP holders would come in from out of town to do. But you're not gonna get the Wisconsin family to commit and alter the rest of their year's vacation plans for something that was this big of an unknown.

This was the ultimate 'bring in a headliner band' promotion... but Disney forgot to make up tour t-shirts! They so missed the boat on capitalizing on this crowd.

 

[flynnibus]

Sure, that's possible.

What exactly was so special about last night? Fireworks? They have that nearly every night at other parks. Villains? As you suggested in an earlier post, it's "fur+fabric covered college aged kids"; they have that every day at every park. A DJ? I won't even bother with that one.

IMHO, the only thing special was it was something different; a break from the norm.

Disney has been offering 'a break from the norm' every week this year.. and how exactly have those worked out? It has to be both rare/exclusive/non-frequent AND desirable. Disney has been flopping all year with trying to make things sound 'exclusive' or unusual... but here they offered low-frequency AND desirable at the same time.. and BOOM.. the fire actually ignites.

Furthermore, without MNNSHP at MK (which was poorly attended), DHS would have been less crowded. Alternatively, imagine if last night's MNNSHP was free for all AP holders and CMs. I suspect DHS' crowds would have been appreciably diminished.

I'm quite fine stating my belief that if given the choice of going to MNSSHP or this event.. most would still have picked this. MNSSHP has become whored out, watered down, and stale. I don't doubt having MK closed funneled more people towards the other park, but you're talking about a crowd that is miniscule to start with. It's the second week of sept. Even when the MK was open earlier, it was a ghost town.

IMHO, locals showed up because it was essentially free and something different, not because it was something special.

And I point to 30+ weeks of 'limited time magic' to illustrate how this was something more.. and specifically desirable to people.

 

[yeti]

Montreal...la plus belle ville en amerique du nord. Et les femmes...oh la la!

 

[71jason]

Last night's LTM Villains special event at DHS wasn't enough to cause out-of-staters to plan special trips to WDW. It seems apparent (at least to me ) that it would appeal to locals because, lord knows, WDW has added so little in recent years that, understandably, locals would show up for anything even remotely original.

The fact that Disney management completely bungled planning shows how much they think of locals, you know, the ones that kept WDW open in the post 9/11 economy.

The reason Halloween Horror Nights is such a hit for Universal--the life support that kept it going before Potter--isn't the love of blood and gore. Horror movies are popular, but not that popular. It's that once a year, we as Orlando locals get essentially a brand new theme park, with 8 (give or take) new E-tickets. It's original, it's different, and that makes it the "need to see" event of the season. The party atmosphere certainly doesn't hurt, either.

I think a lot of the same factors were at play last night. As Dave said, this was a crowd of 20 and-30 somethings, almost entirely local. Relatively few kids and slammed bars. Again to echo Dave, how can anybody with an ear to the ground in Orlando not know this was going to be another Leap Day 2012?

BTW, it also shows the difference between WDW and Universal in that Universal goes out of its way to make sure APs get all sorts of benefits to help them enjoy HHN.

 

[JimboJones123]

This should've only been to a shock to somebody who is entirely out of touch with their audience.

Anyone who pays attention to what the cast and locals go insane over, would recognize that this is going to be an epic disaster from a logistical and operations standpoint Unless they treated like it is New Year's Eve.

The bean counters are going to love it because they're going to see how much money they made with so little staff.
Front line however should be very ed off at the bosses after that crap they had to go through yesterday.

But they didn't. They left far too much money on the table. Absolute shame.

 

[nor'easter]

I talked to a guy from Canada who was walking up past all the cars, to see what was going on (nothing) and then walking back to his car. He planned a trip around this and DROVE from Canada to see it. I don't know if he got there in time for fireworks. Hope so!

The only thing worse than missing out would be driving from Canada and missing out.

We Canadians are a hardy lot. Me, I prefer to cycle.

 

[KevinYee]

They have tried numerous times to bring an event to the Studios, TDO always kills it.

I think I've heard that before. I consider it possible the subject will come up AGAIN given the public response this time.

 

[GoofGoof]

If they were doing another land, the dark forest would be the only left to choose from I think. I guess phase 3 could be a stand alone attraction

I guess I see it a little different. Potter phase 3 (if there is one) doesn't need to be another unique land. They could just add a few additional attractions to the 2 existing Potter areas. I would probably agree that trying to have an additional Potterland not connected to the first 2 could be a challenge.

 

[gonnichi]

I guess I see it a little different. Potter phase 3 (if there is one) doesn't need to be another unique land. They could just add a few additional attractions to the 2 existing Potter areas. I would probably agree that trying to have an additional Potterland not connected to the first 2 could be a challenge.

If they add 2 more rides in phase three along with a few shows and more shopping I could almost spend a whole day just doing and redoing Potter attractions! There would be the same number of rides with Potter themes as there are rides at DHS right now, correct? It would be like a 3rd gate to me, lol. One day for IOA one for USO and one for Potterland.

 

[GoofGoof]

If they add 2 more rides in phase three along with a few shows and more shopping I could almost spend a whole day just doing and redoing Potter attractions! There would be the same number of rides with Potter themes as there are rides at DHS right now, correct? It would be like a 3rd gate to me, lol. One day for IOA one for USO and one for Potterland.

Forget phase 3 if they add one additional ride to phase 2 it would equal the number of rides at DHS.
Phase 1 = 3 rides
Phase 2 = Gringots and Hogwarts Express (any others?)

DHS = TOT, RnRC, Star Tours, Backlot Tour and TSMM.

 

[alissafalco]

Nope. It was a good excuse to get a crowd into the #4 park on likely the slowest Friday of the year.

They have tried numerous times to bring an event to the Studios, TDO always kills it.

Whenever I start to get excited about something possibly happening in WDW you always slap me back to reality.

 

[gonnichi]

Forget phase 3 if they add one additional ride to phase 2 it would equal the number of rides at DHS.
Phase 1 = 3 rides
Phase 2 = Gringots and Hogwarts Express (any others?)

DHS = TOT, RnRC, Star Tours, Backlot Tour and TSMM.

Good point, but I counted The Great Movie ride as one of the 6 at DHS. I don't consider Star Tours to be a full ride, you really don't go anywhere, its more of a show that has tilting to me. Just a simulator I guess. I didn't count Flight of the Hypopogriff as a full ride either, its more of a kiddie coaster. But I guess then they are equal at 7 if we count those two as rides with the two additional rides possible for phase 3.

edit or am I still off? does that put universal one up?

 

[Future Guy]

I have this theory: Disney is basically Microsoft circa 2007.

Remember when the first iPhone was released, and signaled a huge shift toward mobile devices and away from the PC market that Microsoft has dominated since forever? Remember how Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reacted? He laughed at it. He laughed and said that Microsoft was very happy with their mobile strategy, thank you very much. And then his company proceeded to merrily sit on their hands and do nothing while Apple, and then Google, proceeded to eat their lunch. Microsoft, with all its money and resources, was incapable of understanding that their industry was undergoing a major paradigm shift. And by the time they finally realized it, it was too late. The only company more clueless is Blackberry-they still think people want smartphones with tiny screens and physical keyboards.

Like Microsoft, Disney's corporate culture makes it unable to understand the threat that Universal's parks-and-resorts business poses to them. They're about to have their lunch eaten. And they won't even realize it until after it happens. If they ever do at all.

 

[GoofGoof]

Good point, but I counted The Great Movie ride as one of the 6 at DHS. I don't consider Star Tours to be a full ride, you really don't go anywhere, its more of a show that has tilting to me. Just a simulator I guess. I didn't count Flight of the Hypopogriff as a full ride either, its more of a kiddie coaster. But I guess then they are equal at 7 if we count those two as rides with the two additional rides possible for phase 3.

edit or am I still off? does that put universal one up?

No you are right. Forgot Great Movie Ride. DHS has 6 rides including Star Tours. Potter will have 5 after phase 2 including the kiddie coaster. If they did 2 rides in phase 3 Potter would be up 1...Unless StarWars Land is open by then

 

[71jason]

No you are right. Forgot Great Movie Ride. DHS has 6 rides including Star Tours. Potter will have 5 after phase 2 including the kiddie coaster. If they did 2 rides in phase 3 Potter would be up 1...Unless StarWars Land is open by then

Counting rides is red ocean. Creating a land that is an attraction onto itself, so that even the gift ships feel like "must see" stops--that's blue ocean.

 

[PhotoDave219]

I think I've heard that before. I consider it possible the subject will come up AGAIN given the public response this time.

I was talking with a senior level person last night and I hope he has the numbers to go to the bosses with.

It sucks that a creative person has to do a statistical analysis anytime they want to do anything cool. That's just messed up.

The internal politics and budgets ate killing the creative spirit of this company.

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

The internal politics and budgets ate killing the creative spirit of this company.

Killing? That funeral was a long time ago. I've never seen a toxic corporate environment like Disney's - it's beyond stifling, it actively pushes out good creatives and businessmen alike.

 

[Darth Sidious]

FWIW...
That's not true... CVS Caremark customers are not tied to CVS (I know.. its my coverage) and the FTC did investigate CVS in the matter of CVS/Caremark but basically backed down. The issues were around anti-competitive behaviors (like sharing info, pricing issues, and guiding customers, etc). Customers use whatever pharmacy they want.

Not entirely true. Your coverage with CVS Caremark may let you go anywhere you'd like, as does mine. Having worked in an independent pharmacy for a few years during college, I can tell you for certain they will let you fill twice out in any pharmacy then require mail order which they consider CVS. Aside from policies that force mail order, they price other pharmacies out by refusing to pay for 3-month supplies and making themselves the only pharmacy that can. There are hundreds of policies for CVS but many of them do this. However, you can get one that doesn't. Some states have passed legislation against these practices as well. New York has not.