Star Wars themed land announced for Disneyland

[Deleted member 107043]

And how would I prove any statements?

Articles, quotes from execs, Disney blog posts, business analysis and reports, etc.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Articles, quotes from execs, Disney blog posts, business analysis and reports, etc.

No executive is going to go on record saying a large part of their business is something they dislike but stupid people eat it up. It's all there in the actions. Can you tell us why nobody with real theme park experience has run them in nearly 20 years? Why people from HR are considered so important (but not so important as to needing to be replaced)?

 

[Deleted member 107043]

Can you tell us why nobody with real theme park experience has run them in nearly 20 years?

In the long history of Disney theme parks I would wager that more people without theme park experience have run them than those who have. How much experience did Walt have in running theme parks? My question to you is why does it matter?

Why people from HR are considered so important (but not so important as to needing to be replaced)?

I don't understand this question.

 

[lazyboy97o]

In the long history of Disney theme parks I would wager that more people without theme park experience have run them than those who have. How much experience did Walt have in running theme parks? My question to you is why does it matter?

It matters bcause it shows Disney's view of the business. Working in the parks is clearly a dead end for larger aspirations within the company. Strategic Planning was the worst of Eisner's cronies, and its biggest names instead of being purged were promoted and successively put in charge of the theme parks, which they thought Paul Pressler ran brilliantly.

Meg Crofton had no actual experience with the parks when she became President of Walt Disney World. Her leadership has just been honored with a window, but her last position, which she was the first to hold, has not been filled since her retirement nearly half a year ago.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

It matters bcause it shows Disney's view of the business. Working in the parks is clearly a dead end for larger aspirations within the company. Strategic Planning was the worst of Eisner's cronies, and its biggest names instead of being purged were promoted and successively put in charge of the theme parks, which they thought Paul Pressler ran brilliantly.

Meg Crofton had no actual experience with the parks when she became President of Walt Disney World. Her leadership has just been honored with a window, but her last position, which she was the first to hold, has not been filled since her retirement nearly half a year ago.

I honestly can't muster the strength to care about the boring details of how this person ran the parks versus that person, or the snooze inducing particulars of their corporate resumes. What I do care about are outcomes, and you are right that some of Disney's resort managers have appeared clueless and lack passion for the business. Obviously Cynthia Harriss was a terrible fit for DLR, but luckily her tenure ended a long time ago.

In any case, judgement errors and phony personas don't prove that the company's executives or resort operations managers "dislike" themed entertainment, nor are they an indication that they think customers are "stupid". The enormous amount of capitol being invested in Disney's parks from here to China today is just one indication out of literally hundreds that show that the opposite is true.

What I sense from you is that you have an ax to grind with Disney management. Disney isn't running Disneyland the way that you want, so you've drawn up this elaborate narrative in your head because you're angry.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I honestly can't muster the strength to care about the boring details of how this person ran the parks versus that person, or the snooze inducing particulars of their corporate resumes. What I do care about are outcomes, and you are right that some of Disney's resort managers have appeared clueless and lack passion for the business. Obviously Cynthia Harriss was a terrible fit for DLR, but luckily her tenure ended a long time ago.

In any case, judgement errors and phony personas don't prove that the company's executives or resort operations managers "dislike" themed entertainment, nor are they an indication that they think customers are "stupid". The enormous amount of capitol being invested in Disney's parks from here to China today is just one indication out of literally hundreds that show that the opposite is true.

What I sense from you is that you have an ax to grind with Disney management. Disney isn't running Disneyland the way that you want, so you've drawn up this elaborate narrative in your head because you're angry.

How can you be in any position to declare that I have just made it up when you admit to not caring about the pertinent details? Cynthia Harris may have left but she remains a gold standard so much so that Disney has just repeated the Consumer Products to Parks and Resorts idea. Even the outcomes you claim to be the hallmark of concern don't exist, are significantly less compared to other business units and are overly puffed up by Asian owners.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

Mmmmmkaaaay......

 

[Phroobar]

Just a side note, Star Wars is looking at topping the current opening weekend record with just presales alone.

 

[Curious Constance]

Disney is going to make so much money from this movie, the merchandise, and then Star Wars land, that they will run out of places to put it all. They'll probably have to start shredding it into tiny pieces and blowing it out the snow machines on Main Street at Christmas time.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

Disney is going to make so much money from this movie, the merchandise, and then Star Wars land, that they will run out of places to put it all. They'll probably have to start shredding it into tiny pieces and blowing it out the snow machines on Main Street at Christmas time.

 

[TP2000]

Cynthia Harris may have left but she remains a gold standard so much so that Disney has just repeated the Consumer Products to Parks and Resorts idea. Even the outcomes you claim to be the hallmark of concern don't exist, are significantly less compared to other business units and are overly puffed up by Asian owners.

Cynthia Harriss was truly awful, I think that's something we can all agree on. But to be fair to Bob Chapek, Cynthia was just an overgrown shop clerk running the Disney Stores while Chapek was a strategy guy running the Merchandise arm that designed and created the plastic crap that mall-drones like Cynthia would then upsell with faux perkiness. I'm far more comfortable with a strategy guy like Chapek running the parks than I would be had it been someone from mall operations like a Disney Store exec.

Back OT...

@phruby is right, pre-sales for Star Wars tickets didn't just set a new record, they broke the old record 8 to 10 times over and shut down the Internet sales sites for much of the country. Movie theater chains are now scrambling to add even more screens for Star Wars, Disney's competitor movie studios are panicking and trying to reposition all the other movies they were releasing at Christmas, big box stores are scrambling for extra merchandise, etc., etc.

In short, it's pandemonium. And it's only October.

This was a click-worthy story for America this week, but in the movie industry here in Southern California it's truly the story of the year, if not the decade. The financial press out of New York has also taken notice. http://fortune.com/2015/10/21/star-wars-the-force-awakens-tickets/

Around the country, newspapers are running stories today updating local readers on the status of available tickets for December 18th at various theaters. Here's such an article for my old stomping grounds of Boston. The movie doesn't open for two more months!!! http://www.boston.com/entertainment...ght-and-day/NJReB8mY9GVCbcfPQcmmtO/story.html

 

[Curious Constance]

lol

 

[lazyboy97o]

Cynthia Harriss was truly awful, I think that's something we can all agree on. But to be fair to Bob Chapek, Cynthia was just an overgrown shop clerk running the Disney Stores while Chapek was a strategy guy running the Merchandise arm that designed and created the plastic crap that mall-drones like Cynthia would then upsell with faux perkiness. I'm far more comfortable with a strategy guy like Chapek running the parks than I would be had it been someone from mall operations like a Disney Store exec.

Chapek is directly following the Strategic Planning boys who, along with Eisner, saw Pressler as brilliant for his growth and the way he changed the Parks and Resorts business model, a model that remains fully in force.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

In short, it's pandemonium. And it's only October.

It's truly amazing. Even I'm surprised and I anticipated people losing their minds, but no way did I expect this. Disneyland and DHS are going to be out of control when the gates of SW Land swing open in a few years. Disney has a monster on its hands.

 

[ForeverAnna]

I probably won't see it until January. I don't need to deal with that madness.

 

[TP2000]

It's truly amazing. Even I'm surprised and I anticipated people losing their minds, but no way did I expect this. Disneyland and DHS are going to be out of control when the gates of SW Land swing open in a few years. Disney has a monster on its hands.

Before that, I'm worried about how Disneyland is going to manage the crowds for Season Of The Force simultaneously with the usual Christmas madness.

It might not have been a good idea after all to push up Season Of The Force to mid November, instead of launching it all the day the movie opens and most of the AP's are conveniently blocked out for two weeks until after New Year's.

Poor Disneyland, they just keep thinking of new ways to kick the crap out of that park.

 

[Curious Constance]

I better hurry and buy tickets. I want to go on Saturday though, the 19th, and from what I can tell, they are only selling the 18th so far. Or am I wrong and missing all the tickets for the 19th!?

 

[yookeroo]

I got tickets for the 20th.

 

[Curious Constance]

Where at?

 

[Curious Constance]

Nevermind, figured it out.