News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021

[Disstevefan1]

Said many companies that no longer exist.

Agreed. TWDC will NOT be one of them.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Even the microscopic COVID virus can't kill the Goliath we call TWDC. TWDC and the Disney Parks are invincible. For the many folks they lost there are far, far more folks flocking to their parks, movies, merch. There is no end.

Disney still has the good will of a huge number of guests. COVID is an extraordinary event, and not the fault of the company. I have a strong feeling that we're going to start seeing a lot of that good will start to diminish once they roll out Paid FP and ESPECIALLY once the genie app rolls out. If things fall into place the way some think they will, it's going to get ugly.

 

[JoeCamel]

Agreed. TWDC will NOT be one of them.

How many shares do you own and DVC points?

 

[Disstevefan1]

Disney still has the good will of a huge number of guests. COVID is an extraordinary event, and not the fault of the company. I have a strong feeling that we're going to start seeing a lot of that good will start to diminish once they roll out Paid FP and ESPECIALLY once the genie app rolls out. If things fall into place the way some think they will, it's going to get ugly.

I am interested in what happens when Paid FP and the Genie app rolls out to WDW. It will probably will get ugly and if it does, WDW will do what it always does and change the policies, programs very fast, "In response guests needs".

If an extraordinary event like COVID not only did not hurt them, but helped them, they can easily handle any problems with paid FP and Genie.

 

[Disstevefan1]

How many shares do you own and DVC points?

0 and 0...... I am so stupid..... I remember staring at WDW stock in around 2007 at $14 dollars and saying to myself, "This is not a $14 dollar stock" needless to say I did not buy in... As I said... Stupid.

PS. I could have bought into DVC at $23 a point, I did not do that either... Stupid... In this case I rationalize that I am saving on the annual dues

 

[Minthorne]

Respectfully disagree. I used to think there could be a breaking point for the Disney Parks. The last two years have permanently changed my mind. There is no breaking point. TWDC and the Disney Parks are invincible..

Like Blockbuster!

 

[MisterPenguin]

I’m sure that’s what the initial information releases said, or at least very strongly suggested. I need to try and find them, unless someone with an encyclopaedic memory or Incredible archivist skills can get there first (looking at you, @MisterPenguin ).

Sorry, got nothing on this one.

 

[danlb_2000]

I am interested in what happens when Paid FP and the Genie app rolls out to WDW. It will probably will get ugly and if it does, WDW will do what it always does and change the policies, programs very fast, "In response guests needs".

If an extraordinary event like COVID not only did not hurt them, but helped them, they can easily handle any problems with paid FP and Genie.

Not sure how your figured COVID helped them. Disney lost billions of dollars that they will never get back.

 

[Jon81uk]

When we came to take our first stay onsite, we had slightly more choice. But I still couldn’t book to stay at the Contemporary or Port Orleans, for example, through any of the main U.K. based TAs. This was maybe 12 years ago. And now, even though brochures are as scare as a dodo, we can book most onsite resorts on the U.K. website. And far more U.K. families now stay onsite on 2 week packages instead of renting a private home.

I’m in the UK and booked to stay at Port Orleans Riverside in 2003 with Virgin Holidays, then PO French Quarter in 2007 booking with Disney UK.
Disney have been promoting their own hotels over here for the last 20 years at least.
There has always been an option to rent a villa for larger families and I think before Disney started pushing free dining to get Brits to book more expensive resorts a lot of people did go for the All Star Movies resort.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I wouldn't use the word invincible, we clearly haven't hit a breaking point yet, but there is eventually going to be a breaking point.

Some of us were saying that here 15 years ago.

At this point I now think that breaking point is likely still decades away.

 

[Nubs70]

Even the microscopic COVID virus can't kill the Goliath we call TWDC. TWDC and the Disney Parks are invincible. For the many folks they lost there are far, far more folks flocking to their parks, movies, merch. There is no end.

Oh yes, covid can just as a transitory financial event can disrupt an company and leave it a fractional shell of it previous glory. For instance, GE.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Oh yes, covid can just as a transitory financial event can disrupt an company and leave it a fractional shell of it previous glory. For instance, GE.

Agreed, but TWDC is doing just fine….. Invincible

 

[Disstevefan1]

Not sure how your figured COVID helped them. Disney lost billions of dollars that they will never get back.

As we all can see, TWDC used the pandemic as an excuse to make changes to the parks, changes they always wanted to do. They got rid of the highest paid talent in the parks as well as thousands of front line castmembers, I am guessing many has a lot of time in and we’re getting paid higher than average, introduced park pass reservations, countless changes in food offerings, sky rocketing prices on everything, cut operating hours, and much more in the name of COVID.

You don’t actually think Joe Rohde left on this own, do you?
Have you seen the stock price?

 

[MrPromey]

But does adding more rooms onsite at Disney actually increase the number of guests? I don’t think it does, it just means more guests end up staying onsite.

15-20 years ago, when my kids were little, it was possible in the U.K. to pick up brochures for holidays in Florida. Many were “fly drive” holidays, others were hotels along International Drive. And most brochures had maybe 2 or 3 Disney resorts included at the most.

When we came to take our first stay onsite, we had slightly more choice. But I still couldn’t book to stay at the Contemporary or Port Orleans, for example, through any of the main U.K. based TAs. This was maybe 12 years ago. And now, even though brochures are as scare as a dodo, we can book most onsite resorts on the U.K. website. And far more U.K. families now stay onsite on 2 week packages instead of renting a private home.

I get what you're saying and I know this is going to be an incredibly frustrating and flippant-seeming response but I still believe so.

I've tried to provide a more detailed answer numerous times (several paragraphs each) to provide a coherent response but there are a lot of separate things at play.

I'll just say the following:

• Disney still markets like they are starving for more and they don't market for Central Florida - only for their bubble. They're not playing catch-up with resort builds to meet existing demand, they're trying to get more people to stay on property but also more people to come to the parks so they'll stay on property.

Their strategy is a whole lot different out in Californa for a number of reasons but a lot of it has to do with what they can get away with in Florida that they can't out there (I'm not talking about politics)

• Incentives like free DDP aren't just intended to get you to book rooms on property. They're also to get you to spend more time on property using those incentives. They want you eating a Satu'li bowl in Pandora instead of a Crusty Burger in Simpsons Land in part because you're more likely to spend money on a puppet Banshee than a sorcerer's wand that way.

• The vast majority of WDW guests are domestic. While an international destination, foreign markets are a small percentage of overall guests and your experience, expectation and vacationing habits from a foreign* market are not typical for most of the guests Disney services. (we still love you, though!)

• DVC adds its own nebulous dynamic and every time they expand that, they put more people in property with year-round skin in the game which is absolutely wonderful for Disney on a ton of levels. @Sirwalterraleigh, if so inclined, can provide a lot more details on that, I'm sure.


*it feels so weird saying that because I don't consider people like you and Steve and Martin and many others from your locale to be "foreign" but I guess you guys are.

 

[WDW Pro]

Except that you will probably have a timed window for both rides, and the sample itinerary suggests one “unexpected event” happening in Batuu.

Again, comes down to personal preference, but it would be a very dis-interested participant who chose to wander off to ride Slinky.

Not so unusual, however, if someone wanted lunch at Brown Derby instead of Star Wars fast food.

 

[wedenterprises]

That would be nice. Maybe they can then landscaping the outside in a SW theme and also put in a themed pool. It will then be the closest hotel to DHS. Right now, it's being close to DHS is doing nothing, being that the guests are being driven to Batuu anyway.

Yeah if anything it could be much closer, they could have built a Batuu hotel

 

[nickys]

I get what you're saying and I know this is going to be an incredibly frustrating and flippant-seeming response but I still believe so.

I've tried to provide a more detailed answer numerous times (several paragraphs each) to provide a coherent response but there are a lot of separate things at play.

I'll just say the following:

• Disney still markets like they are starving for more and they don't market for Central Florida - only for their bubble. They're not playing catch-up with resort builds to meet existing demand, they're trying to get more people to stay on property but also more people to come to the parks so they'll stay on property.

Their strategy is a whole lot different out in Californa for a number of reasons but a lot of it has to do with what they can get away with in Florida that they can't out there (I'm not talking about politics)

• Incentives like free DDP aren't just intended to get you to book rooms on property. They're also to get you to spend more time on property using those incentives. They want you eating a Satu'li bowl in Pandora instead of a Crusty Burger in Simpsons Land in part because you're more likely to spend money on a puppet Banshee than a sorcerer's wand that way.

• The vast majority of WDW guests are domestic. While an international destination, foreign markets are a small percentage of overall guests and your experience, expectation and vacationing habits from a foreign* market are not typical for most of the guests Disney services. (we still love you, though!)

• DVC adds its own nebulous dynamic and every time they expand that, they put more people in property with year-round skin in the game which is absolutely wonderful for Disney on a ton of levels. @Sirwalterraleigh, if so inclined, can provide a lot more details on that, I'm sure.


*it feels so weird saying that because I don't consider people like you and Steve and Martin and many others from your locale to be "foreign" but I guess you guys are.

We’re officially aliens I believe

I can see the DVC argument for sure, although people who buy in will have been onsite guests so they’re really just switching from one type of stay to another.

But you said yourself, numbers of visitors are going up anyway. Having more rooms onsite means more people coming to Orlando will stay onsite. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s causing an increase in numbers visiting the parks.

And there’s no way to tell which view is nearest the truth. Except that I’m pretty sure it’s accepted that the numbers of offsite guests > onsite guests.

 

[Nubs70]

As we all can see, TWDC used the pandemic as an excuse to make changes to the parks, changes they always wanted to do. They got rid of the highest paid talent in the parks as well as thousands of front line castmembers, I am guessing many has a lot of time in and we’re getting paid higher than average, introduced park pass reservations, countless changes in food offerings, sky rocketing prices on everything, cut operating hours, and much more in the name of COVID.

You don’t actually think Joe Rohde left on this own, do you?
Have you seen the stock price?

All the benefits described above are all outcomes of business process optimization. The outcomes are in pursuit of the goal in reducing costs to the lowest possible while maintaining or increasing price therefore inflating margin from both ends. In an inflationary environment, this will only maintain margin. This activity is undertaken when your product is felt to be a high volume commodity not a unique mass customized product.

My company went through this exercise last November by cutting heads. Now we are stretched thinner, lost intellectual fire power, and structurally more fragile, less able to respond to rapid change than before November.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

 

[Robbiem]

I’m in the UK and booked to stay at Port Orleans Riverside in 2003 with Virgin Holidays, then PO French Quarter in 2007 booking with Disney UK.
Disney have been promoting their own hotels over here for the last 20 years at least.
There has always been an option to rent a villa for larger families and I think before Disney started pushing free dining to get Brits to book more expensive resorts a lot of people did go for the All Star Movies resort.

i think it was the mid 90s when Disney started making its hotels available to UK travel agents. It was only limited to a few places, even the hotel plaza resorts were fairly restricted to UK visitors back then. Back in the day it was exciting to get the brochures when they came out in August and poor over the photos etc. Ordering the Birnbaum guide from the local library was another thing to look forward to

I remember having to phone Florida with my Mum to book our stay at dixie landings in 1998. In those pre internet days it was very exciting calling the US and actually booking a Disney hotel.