Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[CDavid]

This. There is a lifecycle to companies. Why would the mature TWDC behave like a startup? Should the entire company be put at risk over the ideas of one man again? Even if it wanted to, Wall Street and the pension funds and large shareholders wouldn't have any of it.

Better to leave that to young Walt's and George Lucases and Steve Jobses and then acquire creativity through them and their companies.

I don't know that the lifecycle analogy really supports your point, because The Walt Disney Company has certainly been mature for a long time now, and the eventual stages after maturity are old age and death (and before anyone says otherwise - nobody is suggesting we're there yet). In any case, surely you are not suggesting that a mature (established) institution cannot and should not be creative, continuously innovating and producing new content. Disney has vastly greater resources at its disposal now than Walt could have likely imagined; It can afford to take bigger risks without putting the company on the line even when they are unmitigated disasters (NGE, go.com; I hasten to point out that fact in no way makes either of those two examples any less a debacle).

Disney is a creative enterprise. It would indeed eventually fail if the company ever completely lost its creative spirit.

 

[nytimez]

I'm sorry, I agree we'd all be better off without all of this. But it is on this website that mister Skippy is called a . So this website is the appropriate place for @skippyrules104 to call people out on that.

It is certainly an appropriate place for Mrs. Ricky to defend her husband. But it would be an ever better place for Mr. Ricky to do so himself.

 

[Captain Chaos]

It is certainly an appropriate place for Mrs. Ricky to defend her husband. But it would be an ever better place for Mr. Ricky to do so himself.

If Ricky was a man, not a mouse, he would defend himself, not have to hide behind a skirt...

 

[Nubs70]

Fyi - I'm sitting here waiting for Illuminations in a sea of South Americans and the park has the least amount of people in it than I have seen in 4 years.

 

[scout68]

I wouldn't say there's doom and gloom.

I'm suggesting that Disney's market share of the Orlando attractions is eroding.

I'm saying that instead of doing the things they're known for - Quality, family entertainment for everyone, they've eroded their brand by focusing on short term profits.

Disney will not go away but I am fearful that the quality we had years ago has been lost forever through mismanagement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IbXyAXE6vVM

 

[scout68]

sorry I just can't figure out how to post the actual vid.

 

[JimboJones123]

Wonder if Disney will ever try something as iconically epic as Spaceship Earth again?

The only thing close I have see to it is Hogwarts/FJ. Something so big and gaudy that it is recognizable in an instant.

Tower of Terror is close, but still not breathtaking and awe inspiring as Spaceship Earth.

This is what DHS could really use.

 

[GSP Guy]

If Ricky was a man, not a mouse, he would defend himself, not have to hide behind a skirt...

or a keyboard for all involved....lol

 

[Goofyernmost]

@ParentsOf4 - there was another point I was going to make but had to rush and send my post and forgot to make it. Any way, the other point...

• There's a lot of parallels between Walt Disney and Steve Jobs. How Disney drifted so far away from Walt's vision and future road map for the company is an issue that overwhelms me. I've been worried that Apple may stray the same way. So far, Apple seems to be going on as Jobs envisioned, I believe with confidence. Iger is on Apple's Board, so I'm a bit concerned about his influence on the company's direction. On the reverse side of the coin, I'm hoping that Apple and the legacy of Steve Jobs will have an influence on him that he could bring to Disney.

History also shows that Apple did indeed stray from Steve Jobs vision to the point of firing him from his own company. But, with what I'm sure was an overwhelming ego inflater, they begged him to return when it started to fail dramatically. He came back and saved it again. It will stray again now that he has passed away, but, it won't happen right away. Just as soon as all the folks that personally knew Mr. Jobs are retired or moved on and have left the operation to those that have no basis to work with...it will once again become just another company. That is what is or has happened to Disney. For almost a half a century since Walt passed away, the old force has either died or retired or been pushed out and now the ones whose history with the company starts at the Timberlake/Spears era while watching the Mickey Mouse Club are in charge and haven't got a clue.

 

[luv]

I do not recall Dave calling anyone a .

If Ricky was a man, not a mouse, he would defend himself, not have to hide behind a skirt...

Most men wouldn't care much if some online poster called them names. The idea that he should come here to "defend himself" is silly. You don't have to care, much less defend yourself every time some online poster calls you names, lol.

His wife is obviously upset, but he probably doesn't care at all. Why would he?

 

[ParentsOf4]

Fyi - I'm sitting here waiting for Illuminations in a sea of South Americans and the park has the least amount of people in it than I have seen in 4 years.

"Free Dining" was an exciting promotion when first offered a few years ago, a smart strategy to improve short-term results in challenging economic times.

However, theme park ticket prices are up 32% since 2009. After years of the same old tired discounts and significantly higher prices, Disney's "Free Dining" no longer pulls in guests like it used to. Now WDW is surviving on an unusually vibrant economy in Brazil and Argentina.

Disney should take a lesson from Universal and learn that, surprise, it takes more than gimmicks such as "Free Dining" and "FastPass PLUS" along with a fortuitous overseas economy to produce long-term growth.

It takes adding substance to the parks, you know, like what WDW used to do all the time.

 

[Captain Chaos]

or a keyboard for all involved....lol

lol true...

 

[nytimez]

"Free Dining" was an exciting promotion when first offered a few years ago, a smart strategy to improve short-term results in challenging economic times.

However, theme park ticket prices are up 32% since 2009. After years of the same old tired discounts and significantly higher prices, Disney's "Free Dining" no longer pulls in guests like it used to. Now WDW is surviving on an unusually vibrant economy in Brazil and Argentina.

Disney should take a lesson from Universal and learn that, surprise, it takes more than gimmicks such as "Free Dining" and "FastPass PLUS" along with a fortuitous overseas economy to produce long-term growth.

It takes adding substance to the parks, you know, like what WDW used to do all the time.

Would love to know how much rack rates have risen in that time... I suspect it might be even higher than that 32 percent.

 

[doctornick]

Wonder if Disney will ever try something as iconically epic as Spaceship Earth again?

The only thing close I have see to it is Hogwarts/FJ. Something so big and gaudy that it is recognizable in an instant.

Tower of Terror is close, but still not breathtaking and awe inspiring as Spaceship Earth.

This is what DHS could really use.

I have a dream where TDO totally guts out the interior of Sounds Dangerous and American Idol (and combined the buildings) and makes a huge dark ride taking everyone through the Star Wars universe. I know it is not going to happen, but I can hope.

 

[lazyboy97o]

As ford91exploder pointed out, even if it described as doom and gloom its not an unfair assessment of Disney parks & resorts in Orlando right now. How can the suits within TWDC be expected to fix a problem with a business which they fundamentally do not understand?

Better question, perhaps, is just what will get their attention enough to wake the sleeping giant. If there actually is a significant drop in park attendance - defects to Universal primarily - at the studios and AK they'll take notice, but even then I still wonder if they would learn the right lesson.

Even if the attention is grabbed, it is still by people who fundamentally misunderstand theme parks. Who measure them as if they are malls. They're not likely to bring in somebody and then empower him to change the business model and ignite creativity all while spending a lot of money.

 

[PeterAlt]

History also shows that Apple did indeed stray from Steve Jobs vision to the point of firing him from his own company. But, with what I'm sure was an overwhelming ego inflater, they begged him to return when it started to fail dramatically. He came back and saved it again. It will stray again now that he has passed away, but, it won't happen right away. Just as soon as all the folks that personally knew Mr. Jobs are retired or moved on and have left the operation to those that have no basis to work with...it will once again become just another company. That is what is or has happened to Disney. For almost a half a century since Walt passed away, the old force has either died or retired or been pushed out and now the ones whose history with the company starts at the Timberlake/Spears era while watching the Mickey Mouse Club are in charge and haven't got a clue.

I hope that doesn't happen. It could and history does have a habit of repeating itself. Just want to make a correction about the Jobs story of how he returned to Apple. They didn't beg him to come back. What happened was Apple's Board would fire and replace its CEO every six months or so because each quarter's results would keep getting worse than expected. Then they put in Gil Amelio. Amelio figured out that the Mac needed an updated OS desperately. Up until that point, OS development went through a cycle of fits and starts and, because of this, there were no OS update they could ready for release in a reasonable amount of time that they could release that would stand up against the latest version of Windows at that time. Amelio understood two things: (1) that Windows advancements have made Mac's OS uncompetitive and obsolete, and (2) that the only way this could be "fixed" within a reasonable amount of time was to license or buy an advanced OS developed by another company.

During this time, Jobs wasn't having much luck with his new company called NEXT. NEXT had developed an advanced Mac-like computer of the same name that ran an OS developed in-house by NEXT. The problem was that the NEXT computer was extremely expensive and did not sell well because of its price. Jobs then decided NEXT would become a software company and stopped selling the computer, selling the OS as its sole product. Coincidentally, the NEXT OS ran on the same CPU the Mac used, so compatibility was not an issue. Amelio was interested in licensing the NEXT OS for the Mac, so he opened a dialog. Those talks turned into talks about buying out the company NEXT all together. Amelio wanted Jobs to work for the combined company because he thought Jobs would be valuable as an advisor to him. He also needed him to oversee the project to merge the two operating systems.

Six months later, after the merger, earnings reports came in. The numbers did not look good and the Board fired Amelio. The company had no CEO and the Board began searching for a new CEO, never once even considering Jobs for the job. But something strange, cultish happened during this time period when the company literally had no CEO in charge.

The employees at Apple had a cultish respect for Jobs that they took anything he said like gospel. Without a CEO, employees started to approach Jobs for "advice". Whatever advise Jobs gave them, they did, as if the advice were instructions or orders. Before long, the "advice" Jobs gave out actually began to run the company. He was now the defacto CEO.

Soon, the Board would learn that Jobs was actually running the company. Before they could take disciplinary against Jobs, the quarterly earnings reports came in. For the first time in years, the company's earnings were up. The Board decided against taking disciplinary action against Jobs and instead made him "Interim CEO" and they continued their search for permanent CEO.

Each quarter thereafter, earnings would go up significantly over the previous quarter. After a good amount of time, they decided to call off their search for a permanent CEO and they FINALLY decided to get rid of the "Interim" part of his title and made him CEO!

 

[MattM]

If Ricky was a man, not a mouse, he would defend himself, not have to hide behind a skirt...

Yea. The women should just keep their mouths shut and make all us men sandwiches and tend to the babies.

Good for her for going to bat for her husband.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I hope that doesn't happen. It could and history does have a habit of repeating itself. Just want to make a correction about the Jobs story of how he returned to Apple. They didn't beg him to come back. What happened was Apple's Board would fire and replace its CEO every six months or so because each quarter's results would keep getting worse than expected. Then they put in Gil Amelio. Amelio figured out that the Mac needed an updated OS desperately. Up until that point, OS development went through a cycle of fits and starts and, because of this, there were no OS update they could ready for release in a reasonable amount of time that they could release that would stand up against the latest version of Windows at that time. Amelio understood two things: (1) that Windows advancements have made Mac's OS uncompetitive and obsolete, and (2) that the only way this could be "fixed" within a reasonable amount of time was to license or buy an advanced OS developed by another company.

During this time, Jobs wasn't having much luck with his new company called NEXT. NEXT had developed an advanced Mac-like computer of the same name that ran an OS developed in-house by NEXT. The problem was that the NEXT computer was extremely expensive and did not sell well because of its price. Jobs then decided NEXT would become a software company and stopped selling the computer, selling the OS as its sole product. Coincidentally, the NEXT OS ran on the same CPU the Mac used, so compatibility was not an issue. Amelio was interested in licensing the NEXT OS for the Mac, so he opened a dialog. Those talks turned into talks about buying out the company NEXT all together. Amelio wanted Jobs to work for the combined company because he thought Jobs would be valuable as an advisor to him. He also needed him to oversee the project to merge the two operating systems.

Six months later, after the merger, earnings reports came in. The numbers did not look good and the Board fired Amelio. The company had no CEO and the Board began searching for a new CEO, never once even considering Jobs for the job. But something strange, cultish happened during this time period when the company literally had no CEO in charge.

The employees at Apple had a cultish respect for Jobs that they took anything he said like gospel. Without a CEO, employees started to approach Jobs for "advice". Whatever advise Jobs gave them, they did, as if the advice were instructions or orders. Before long, the "advice" Jobs gave out actually began to run the company. He was now the defacto CEO.

Soon, the Board would learn that Jobs was actually running the company. Before they could take disciplinary against Jobs, the quarterly earnings reports came in. For the first time in years, the company's earnings were up. The Board decided against taking disciplinary action against Jobs and instead made him "Interim CEO" and they continued their search for permanent CEO.

Each quarter thereafter, earnings would go up significantly over the previous quarter. After a good amount of time, they decided to call off their search for a permanent CEO and they FINALLY decided to get rid of the "Interim" part of his title and made him CEO!

Interesting but the board let it happen because there was no way to save face without making it look like he just somehow were to sneak in the backdoor and they find him there hard at work, so decided...what the heck, we never took his keys away so I guess it's our fault. Lets just let him stay on. He wouldn't have given all that "advice" or helped the company without prior knowledge of how this was all going to work out. Interesting spin on it though, I guess they have the same PR people as Disney.

 

[Ignohippo]

It really isn't a concept park in the same way EPCOT or Animal Kingdom is. The California theme was just so half-baked and poorly thought-out that you have to discard it and I think that is what they are doing and it seems to be working.

Who wants to go to a park about California when you live in California? If you're visiting Cali, you want to go and see the Golden Gate Bridge, not spend $90 to see a replica of it.

It was a horrific concept from the get-go. They should've completely abandoned it when they re-imagined the park.

 

[PhotoDave219]

If Ricky was a man, not a mouse, he would defend himself, not have to hide behind a skirt...

While all this is amusing, I'm moving on from Ricky & this alleged person purporting themselves to be his wife.


I honestly don't give a flying crap about the situation and I highly encourage everyone else to adapt a similar view....