Nmoody1
Well-Known Member
Queen of hearts? No villains... Kids might get scared! We can't even get villains at the Halloween parties!
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
The Mad Hatter set to leave Magic Kingdom this weekend
- Thread starter brb1006
- Start date
Queen of hearts? No villains... Kids might get scared! We can't even get villains at the Halloween parties!
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Welcome to Iger's Toddler Kingdom
It used to happen years ago.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Yes it did - before villains were deemed 'too scary' for fearful 4 year olds.
Horizons '83
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
I totally agree but being in Finance, I understand why these things happen. Parks expense budgets are cut every year (there is a natural cut that occurs to cover any merit increases for employees) and Sales targets must grow every year to satisfy wall street. At some point it will cause show issues, if it hasn't already.
Nmoody1
Well-Known Member
Those were the days
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Given that why can OLC continue to run licensed Disney parks to the standard WDW was once run in one of the five most expensive cities in the world (Tokyo) and at a cost per day 2/3 of that in Orlando.
The answer of course is that TWDC uses WDW as an ATM to finance non-park related facets of Disney's business and for the past 15 years have not even reinvested enough capital to even maintain plant and equipment at a steady state,
The reality is to Iger's team P&R is the red headed stepchild of the company and it's only kept around because it throws off 10 billion in spendable cash (which is immediately spent on Stock Buybacks). In 2007 Iger tried to sell WDW to Prince Alaweed (of DLP fame) the finance crisis put an end to that but barring the finance crisis WDW probably would have been sold.
Disney Dad 3000
Well-Known Member
Hate to hear the Hatter is leaving MK. I don't know if it was a one off basis, but I know we saw him in January and I believe again in March at Epcot around the UK and Intl gateway entrance
asianway
Well-Known Member
one off - and will be less frequent now that he isnt at the tea cups
DisneyDaver
Well-Known Member
This used to drive me nuts as a kid. I kept wanting to see different characters and every morning, there would be TweedleDum and TweedleDee and then as I approached the castle, Prince John seemed to always be there.
DisneyDaver
Well-Known Member
But as long as the guests keep coming, TWDC will continue to do so with WDW ... and frankly, as a public company if the WDW parks fill up anyways, then TWDC should continue to act this way. I spend less time at WDW (and more at Universal) then I used to because of this (and I'm hoping for change), but I understand the realities of how a public company is obligated to act. If/when the crowds decrease at WDW, then we will very likely see a change in how TWDC treats WDW and things will improve.
Ag11gani
Well-Known Member
Well considering that WDW has 4 park and TDR has two parks and then WDW has 22 hotles or someting like that and Tokyo has 4 OLC run ones though.
But with that said the parks should be run like Tokyo and hopefully one day they will. Except they probaly won't so?
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
There is a big difference between boosting short term stock prices and maximizing long term shareholder value though Wall St likes to conflate the two these days. Right now the ONLY thing holding up Disney's stock prices is the record level of buybacks poured into the market.
In reality TWDC is more like Wile E Coyote when he runs out over a cliff and just hangs there for a moment until he begins to fall.
Disney at best has 30 days of cash on hand. Yeah they are sitting on a huge pile of treasury shares which they could re-issue but what if the market is not in a buying mood but rather a panic selling mode. Not good for Disney or it's fans.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Minus the hotels that WDW has and OLC does not. the two OLC parks based on where they are located probably cost MORE to operate than WDW's four parks.
DisneyDaver
Well-Known Member
Fair points. But what is good for TWDC isn't necessarily the same a what we big WDW fans think is best for WDW. I would guess that we make up a very small minority of WDW goers and that the casual guest doesn't care about the fact there is not much new and that the existing attractions haven't been properly cared for. Among my social group, many go to WDW every few years with their family, love it while they are there and don't think about WDW between visits. They don't care about the details that we often focus on.
And Pinocchio or Robin Hood.
asianway
Well-Known Member
But they sell a crapton more merch
Speedy71
Well-Known Member
Which amazes me that they are run by the same company.