The Spirited 11th Hour ...

[asianway]

.... and at least one of those people you mentioned has a company employee writing tweets for them.....

If it's who I imagine then if there's 1, there's 2.

 

[tirian]

I don't see the MK as being fixed just because it got the very overpraised Fantasyland project, a hideous Hub redo, and opened a restaurant in Adventureland that had been closed since the mid-90s. The MK sorta gets a pass on quality because it still has quantity.

I agree on those points (although the hub doesn't bother me), but much of the MK infrastructure was dry-rotted or deteriorating, and Disney rightly spent money and time refurbishing those buildings. Of course the refurbs wouldn't have been necessary if the parks had been maintained for 15 years, but they weren't.

 

[PhotoDave219]

If it's who I imagine then if there's 1, there's 2.

Yeah, the giant social media behemoth that Celebration Place built around them is a double-edged sword. They do all the brand loyal crap but also put out so much bad and misinformation its ridiculous. WDW could put 90% of them out of business if they used their WDWToday account properly, as a true guest relations arm. Instead, its just another marketing tool.

 

[tirian]

I partly left the company because even though the parks weren't sold, WDC promptly began mass layoffs. I saw the writing on the wall and headed out beforehand; and I was right to do so.

Well, he did look into selling all or part of them. That pesky fact that any entertainment analyst on Wall Street will tell you.

More money? Really? In MDE's last ten years, Disney opened five theme parks across the globe, including a new resort in Hong Kong, a new water park at WDW, a new Cruise Line, countless attractions, parades and entertainment at existing parks. You want me to bring in @ParentsOf4 with pie charts and numbers? And that's nice that you are including a $3 billion tech boondoggle in NGE as part of Iger's accomplishments. You may not have liked what was opened from 1995-2005, but a whole lot more was than what was opened from 2005-2015. How many years do you give someone to show results? A decade isn't enough for you? Because I would have tossed Iger out by 2010-11 based on what was happening at P&R.

And you really think that DIS isn't going to hugely play up an expanded Soarin with new film (borrowed from Shanghai, except for the ending) and an attraction based on Frozen?!?!? Seriously. You wanna go with that?

 

[BernardandBianca]

Nope, expected that they'd be more. Not that Disney would add $50+ to every other previously booked night.

Wow.. yeah 'pound sand' would be my response

Perhaps I missed it, but is there a reason why you didn't just make a new reservation starting when the existing one ends? (Not defending WDW, what they did is reprehensible) but if you truly wanted to stay there, would this have worked?

 

[kagacins]

At this point, Small World just needs to close for a year (or more). It was utterly disgusting the last time I rode it. Caked on dust all over the white facades, grimy boats, broken/non-functioning AAs (didn't the sun in the South Pacific scene used to move), trash in the queue and in the boats, just filth everywhere. This same observations can be placed on just about every attraction at MK.

Out of curiosity, when was the last time you rode it? Rode it twice today with my family today and was actually surprised at the upkeep of the boats, the queue, and the animatronics. Dust is always an issue, but can't agree with the "filth everywhere" sentiment as of today. I did, however, see a sad Coke bottle floating in the Jungle Cruise.

 

[tirian]

Well, he did look into selling all or part of them. That pesky fact that any entertainment analyst on Wall Street will tell you.

More money? Really? In MDE's last ten years, Disney opened five theme parks across the globe, including a new resort in Hong Kong, a new water park at WDW, a new Cruise Line, countless attractions, parades and entertainment at existing parks. You want me to bring in @ParentsOf4 with pie charts and numbers? And that's nice that you are including a $3 billion tech boondoggle in NGE as part of Iger's accomplishments. You may not have liked what was opened from 1995-2005, but a whole lot more was than what was opened from 2005-2015. How many years do you give someone to show results? A decade isn't enough for you? Because I would have tossed Iger out by 2010-11 based on what was happening at P&R.

And you really think that DIS isn't going to hugely play up an expanded Soarin with new film (borrowed from Shanghai, except for the ending) and an attraction based on Frozen?!?!? Seriously. You wanna go with that?

Eisner also understood how to price the parks and resorts fairly instead of price-gouging everyone. Food, hotels, tickets—all are grossly inflated right now.

I have two friends who are legitimate multi-millionaires (one makes about $100m annually) and they consider WDW to be overpriced. As that one told me, "If I'm spending that much, I'd rather go to Europe and stay in a real resort."

Do you think there's a chance of returning to the company's ideals post Iger?

 

[asianway]

Nope, expected that they'd be more. Not that Disney would add $50+ to every other previously booked night.


Perhaps I missed it, but is there a reason why you didn't just make a new reservation starting when the existing one ends? (Not defending WDW, what they did is reprehensible) but if you truly wanted to stay there, would this have worked?

In my case yes but, they didn't call it out so unless I noticed I'd be hosed and I also wanted to avoid the possibility of changing rooms

 

[ford91exploder]

Nope, expected that they'd be more. Not that Disney would add $50+ to every other previously booked night.


Perhaps I missed it, but is there a reason why you didn't just make a new reservation starting when the existing one ends? (Not defending WDW, what they did is reprehensible) but if you truly wanted to stay there, would this have worked?

Considering WDW's history of screwing up linked reservations or making you move I can see why the OP declined (and spent their money at UNI!) Way to Go Disney!

 

[kagacins]

I partly left the company because even though the parks weren't sold, WDC promptly began mass layoffs. I saw the writing on the wall and headed out beforehand; and I was right to do so.

Hey - any chance you might consider leaving your current job and returning to TWDC so that you can return to telling us stuff we're probably not supposed to know in the first place? That would be super appreciated. The same question goes out to literally anyone.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Eisner also understood how to price the parks and resorts fairly instead of price-gouging everyone. Food, hotels, tickets—all are grossly inflated right now.

I have two friends who are legitimate multi-millionaires (one makes about $100m annually) and they consider WDW to be overpriced. As that one told me, "If I'm spending that much, I'd rather go to Europe and stay in a real resort."

Do you think there's a chance of returning to the company's ideals post Iger?

The new DVC "bungalows" over the swampy waters of the Seven Seas Lagoon are a great example. Location and aesthetic issues aside, I don't know how any WDW guest or Disney executive can justify their value of $2000+/night for one of them. You could actually go to Tahiti for LESS money!

Those things are a scar on the face of WDW, and not only because they ruin the shoreline of the Polynesian. I'd pay $2000 to help get rid of the darn things.

 

[DVC91]

I took a peek at those bungalows around Christmas time, granted from OUTSIDE their gate, and could make out what was happening inside some of them that had lights on and...well, I'd rather call the Bungholeows

 

[truecoat]

If LA is such a great football town why has EVERY team based in the area LEFT in the past?. The Chargers, Raiders and Rams ALL were at one time LA teams. Just another case of billionaires sucking up taxpayer provided goodies which would have been better spent encouraging small business (instead LA taxes them to extinction while offering up a FREE stadium to a billionaire)


http://www.citylab.com/work/2015/03/insert-football-team-name-is-moving-to-los-angeles/386878/

The Rams stadium will be privately financed.

 

[COProgressFan]

I took a peek at those bungalows around Christmas time, granted from OUTSIDE their gate, and could make out what was happening inside some of them that had lights on and...well, I'd rather call the Bungholeows

Yikes. I think we've all seen what some of those Disney tourists look like...

 

[truecoat]

There will be fireworks just not on days where smog is a problem.

Here's a video of the fireworks testing in Shanghai. Starts at the 1 minute mark.

 

[Cesar R M]

I don't see the MK as being fixed just because it got the very overpraised Fantasyland project, a hideous Hub redo, and opened a restaurant in Adventureland that had been closed since the mid-90s. The MK sorta gets a pass on quality because it still has quantity.

I actually find it interesting.. that now.. that the park feel packed all the time.. they finally decided to open the restaurants they had closed before.. or reopening replacement rides of things they had closed before.

 

[Cesar R M]

At this point, Small World just needs to close for a year (or more). It was utterly disgusting the last time I rode it. Caked on dust all over the white facades, grimy boats, broken/non-functioning AAs (didn't the sun in the South Pacific scene used to move), trash in the queue and in the boats, just filth everywhere. This same observations can be placed on just about every attraction at MK.

it didnt looked that bad when I rode it on Jan 3-4.
There were some static animatronics and some balloons not moving.. but boats seemed clean, queue was clean.
I now wonder if there are some useless managers that cant manage their cleaning/custodial crew.

 

[Cesar R M]

Nope, expected that they'd be more. Not that Disney would add $50+ to every other previously booked night.


Perhaps I missed it, but is there a reason why you didn't just make a new reservation starting when the existing one ends? (Not defending WDW, what they did is reprehensible) but if you truly wanted to stay there, would this have worked?

Probably the lower retail price.

For example, buying a certain timeslot when theres low attendance usually means lower prices..
when the hotels finally starts to fill up, they jack up the prices based on demand.
So recreating the reservation with same days plus extra days, means the price per day would be higher.
It should explain why they wanted to jack up the price when modifying the older reservation.

The new DVC "bungalows" over the swampy waters of the Seven Seas Lagoon are a great example. Location and aesthetic issues aside, I don't know how any WDW guest or Disney executive can justify their value of $2000+/night for one of them. You could actually go to Tahiti for LESS money!

Those things are a scar on the face of WDW, and not only because they ruin the shoreline of the Polynesian. I'd pay $2000 to help get rid of the darn things.

are you talking about the pizza huts at the poly?

 

[Progress.City]

How come question 2 comes prior to question 1. Are you a disrupter? They are all the rage today. From Netflix, which is at least legal, to Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, DraftKings etc that are basically not!

I will still answer your questions.

2.) Who knows? Everyone and their fanboi will tell you there are 'plans for EPCOT' ... but never anything specific. My guess is they are simply looking at festival ideas to fill in the 3-4 months a year that they don't clutter the place up and reminds you of just how little there is there now.

1.) There is a third phase of the makeover that has a Pixar tie that hasn't been announced yet, but has been widely speculated on.

Thanks for the answers. It was a mistake about the number order, but I left it and did not correct it because it was original.

 

[tirian]

Hey - any chance you might consider leaving your current job and returning to TWDC so that you can return to telling us stuff we're probably not supposed to know in the first place? That would be super appreciated. The same question goes out to literally anyone.

Can't tell if that's sarcasm... Lol.

But I'm a rule follower, and if I got a high position, I would bore you because I wouldn't break the NDA.

Back on topic...