Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts Tres

[Darth Sidious]

A MEDIA company at that ...

They can't spend a lot on the website since they are likely still licking their wounds from the dot com bubble. wewastedtoomuchmoney.go.com

 

[TalkingHead]

Ruth's and Shula's are both very good for chain restaurants, but I'll take it one step further than that...how many of those same people would even fathom going to a non-chain local restaurant, where the steaks are even better than Shulas/Ruths? Probably none.

Charley's, which has a couple locations around Orlando and one in Tampa (I think?), used to be very good. Haven't been in years, though.

At some point, though, "better than" becomes highly, highly subjective.

I've eaten at local restaurants that are supposedly among the best in the nation, and I've eaten at Ruth's Chris, Shula's, Morton's. Don't recall ever having a bad meal at any of them and wouldn't know how to go about ranking them.

Bottom line: they're all exquisite steaks. Who's ready to grab dinner?

 

[Goofyernmost]

While that sounds lovely, we are waiting for our 25th anniversary to do a longer adult getaway....and we're eyeing the ocean instead. I just can't explain how I felt after leaving WDW. I wasn't sorry to go home....the one thing I always wanted to do was have afternoon tea at the GF and I did that with my daughter. Our trip had good moments, but it just wasn't spectacular. There's nothing Disney is doing that is making me excited to go back. Heresy around these parts, I know...

No, it is getting more and more common to hear that. The reason? Because it's true.

 

[JenniferS]

While that sounds lovely, we are waiting for our 25th anniversary to do a longer adult getaway....and we're eyeing the ocean instead.

We're from Canada where we only have four seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and Construction ... so we also do the beach thing in February most years. The Caribbean trips are for Hubby. The Disney trips are for me.

 

[BryceM]

Have heard from a few folks in O-town that WDW's parks have been very slow the past week to 10 days.

Have also heard that UNI has been packed since Transformers and Springfield debuted ...no reason to doubt any of that. But it should be good to kick us over 200 pages.

I was at DAK today and it was pretty crowded. Very hot as well.

But really, when is a Walt Disney World park not crowded?

 

[Goofyernmost]

I was at DAK today and it was pretty crowded. Very hot as well.

But really, when is a Walt Disney World park not crowded?

Or Hot?

 

[Calvin Coolidge]

I was at DAK today and it was pretty crowded. Very hot as well.

But really, when is a Walt Disney World park not crowded?

When is DAK ever not hot?

 

[BryceM]

When is DAK ever not hot?

True. It was like an oven.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Merf is right about all ... Now, since your secret is out, will you tell us all about the work you did on Disney's America?

Ironically enough, my mother lives about 10 miles from where they would've built that park.

All of the horrifically bad things they predicted for the Haymarket in Manassas area ended up coming true anyways. It's just instead of a theme park they now have suburban sprawl and single-family homes the cost close to million dollars.

 

[stevehousse]

Was never a fan of Disney America! I always imagined it to be like going to those touristy Amish villages! LOL

 

[PhotoDave219]

I was at DAK today and it was pretty crowded. Very hot as well.

But really, when is a Walt Disney World park not crowded?

I went to Canaveral national seashore. It was very hot there. And close at 6 PM. Thank you Congress.

 

[Figments Friend]

To answer the question asked by three different posters above.....

When is WDW ever not crowded,
When is WDW ever not hot,
and...
When is DAK ever not hot as an oven,

ONE WORD gents....

*January *


God i love off-season.....

 

[TalkingHead]

I went to Canaveral national seashore. It was very hot there. And close at 6 PM. Thank you Congress.

One of the best beaches on the Atlantic coast. But I wouldn't want that to become common knowledge.

 

[Mouse Detective]

I went to Canaveral national seashore. It was very hot there. And close at 6 PM. Thank you Congress.

Did you keep your clothes on? I hear that some don't over there.

 

[Nemo14]

Did you keep your clothes on? I hear that some don't over there.

Remember who you're talking to.

 

[JenniferS]

Sort of watched Under the Dome tonight.
Not my cup of tea, but it looks like DH will probably be watching.
Anyone else?

 

[RSoxNo1]

We've stayed at several hotels in the Disneyland area, and my favorite remains the Anaheim Desert Inn, which is literally across the street. I can regularly snag rooms there for ~$100/night.

The nicest hotel we've stayed at in Anaheim is the Hyatt (although its theming obviously doesn't compare with the GCH). We paid ~$100/night for that, too, and received a free upgrade to a suite. The downside is that it's just outside of a reasonable walking distance, so I doubt we'll stay there again.

My sole criterion for Disneyland hotels is whether they're walking distance or not walking distance--not whether they're off-site or on-site.

We've done GCH and I would not say it offered good value for money. We'll probably do Disneyland Hotel for a couple of nights at some point, too, but I similarly expect it to be poor value for money.

I stay at the Anaheim Desert Inn every time I go to Disneyland now.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I'll crawl out of the shadows to add and confirm a few things.

Disney is concerned because Guests aren't spending money, but unique merchandise has vanished from Walt Disney World. I visited Universal Studios over the weekend and spent over $200 on one-of-a-kind HP and Transformers gear, and other people had bags of souvenir crap. Yet I haven't purchased anything other than food on Disney property since Christmas. That includes Epcot, which is obsessed with women's T-shirts, and Hollywood Studios, which has been overrun with identical plush toys. Heck, you can't even get a Test Track keychain or antenna topper at Test Track. Everything costs too much, everything is generic, everything is sold everywhere. Disney needs to fix this ASAP if they want Guests to start spending money again. Right now you can walk through the parks and see very few merch bags.

There's not much to add to the Hollywood Studios discussion, except that several departments have been notified they should prepare to move their offices away from certain areas that are marked for expansion. Oddly enough, the Beauty and the Beast contract renewals are up in the air, but Disney is hiring more stunt men for Indiana Jones.

Cameras, microphones, and speakers have been installed in Mickey's meet and greet rooms in the MK and DAK. The talking heads should go live within a few months.

Now to add my two cent's worth to the Magic Band NextGen discussion. More than anything else, the promise of crowd management sold execs on My Disney Experience ©®™. The explanation goes like this: crowds have reached almost unmanageable levels, and any new attraction will only drive attendance and add to the chaos. Look at how much busier the MK got based on one restaurant and a simple dark ride! Instead of building new rides, the plan is to force Guests to plan each day in advance; eventually Disney can phase out Standby queues at certain attractions and keep people moving all day. The data mining will help schedule CMs, target merchandise to specific demographics, and improve sales pitches.

Is the Magic Band completely horrible? No. But it is being touted as the solution to Ops problems. That, my friends, is the crux of the issue. Execs aren't planning exciting new attractions for the MK and Epcot to increase revenue and drive Guest satisfaction. They are depending on a glorified ride reservation system. Yes, you can use the bands for admission and purchases, but the real goal is to spread Guests throughout the existing attractions. This will take years to implement. Don't expect it next month or even next year. Meanwhile, hope that WDI gets to play with Frontierland (one Imagineer called it "the area you walk through to get to Splash and Thunder") and Tomorrowland, because the goal isn't to improve the MK's attraction roster. The goal is to redistribute crowds to existing locations and hope they spend enough money on Photopass and merchandise to justify the NextGen initiative. That's why Photopass paid for half the bracelet budget, and why a chunk of the billion-dollar price tag went to merch register systems.

Money has been dumped into helping Guests schedule every single ride and spend money on stuffed Mickeys. It's not a bad business plan, it's just not what the average Guest wants to do after all the stress already associated with a Disney vacation.

Meanwhile, a few miles away, Uni is building incredible rides. You know, the things that make people actually want to go to a theme park.

First and foremost, it's always good to see you post on here.
Second, essentially scheduling a guests day (or every guests day) isn't particularly far fetched. In terms of modeling, again I'll reference @lentesta to see what Touring Plans' software is capable of. In theory, Disney could have guests pre-select what attractions they want to experience on a certain day and provided every single guest participated they could optimize each guest's day in such a way that every guest benefits. Yes, some guests would benefit more than others but it's not unreasonable.

It's incredibly complicated but to simplify it say that Peter Pan's Flight has a a daily capacity of 14400 guests (12 hours, 1200 per hour). On an average day it has a standby wait time of 50 minutes and a Fastpass wait time of 10 minutes. Say that 50% of guests wait Standby and 50% of guests wait Fastpass (hypothetical, not actual percentages). This would mean that each guest waits an average of 30 minutes to ride Peter Pan's Flight. In theory, what's stopping all of those 14400 guests from waiting 10 minutes or less each time? If the only way to get on Peter Pan's Flight is through Fastpass, then the wait time can be controlled more easily. The guests won't get in a 50 minute line midday because they can come back at another time and wait 10 minutes.

The problem with this mindset is that human nature sees guests walk by an attraction and make a "decision". They look at the wait time and say yes or no. If Disney is able to eliminate that mindset they would totally revolutionize the way a park operates. The only problem is they're not solving the crowd control issue, they're just changing the "decision" that people make. This points to what will undoubtedly be the fatal flaw of Fastpass+, the belief that all attractions are created equal.

In the above scenario it means all 14400 guests can get on Peter Pan's Flight in under 10 minutes, however it's safe to assume that more that 14,400 guests would make the "decision" that Peter Pan's Flight is well worth a 10 minute wait. This means that those 14400 guests are happy because they get to ride Peter Pan's Flight, but other guests are unhappy because they didn't even get to make that "decision". I see this ultimately playing out with more than 3 FP+ reservations per day. The magic # we've all heard is that a guest is satisfied if they experience 10 rides, show, or nighttime spectaculars during a day. So is that what the end game is? Every guest gets to select their 10 experiences, Disney maps out your day and you go through those 10 experiences with plenty of time in between for shopping and dining?

I know it's cliche, but none of this screams "Disney Magic" to me other than shorter wait times. Part of the fun of Disney is the ability to act on a whim. When you're walking through the park and your child wants to ride Dumbo 6 times in a row, you can do it. I know this is a slippery slope argument as well, but step one of the slippery slope is a step backwards. I've asked it before, and I'll ask it again - what incentive is there for Disney to allow guests to schedule attractions in advance. I'm not buying the "operational efficiency" argument because reports from front line cast members claim the exact opposite.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I thought the FP process for Everest was really well managed, but the ones for Soarin, TSMM, TT are managed very poorly.

Well this is pointing more to attraction demand and capacity. Of the attractions you listed Everest is on the high end of capacity while Soarin', TSMM and TT are on the lower end (with TSMM being the lowest of the ones listed).

The issue here is that outside of Magic Kingdom there aren't enough high demand attractions at the other parks to spread the crowds. There's a reason why the spikes don't occur anywhere near as much in Disneyland. There are a dozen E-tickets in a very small area.

 

[WDW1974]

Ah, another quarter of a million views ...4000 posts ... 200 pages. And I couldn't' have done it without each and every one of you, yes ... Even my 'pals' in Celebration Place and in the Disney Lifestyles circles (who may hate me, but always, always read me).

If I weren't so comfortable here, I'd grab a glass of that cheap (but not TOO cheap) merlot and raise a glass to y'all.