Here is how I see it with my rose colored glasses.
Disney Springs will move DVC memberships at SSR. Pandora and other adds coming to DAK will move DVC memberships at the AKL. Proving that adding content to the resorts has wide-ranging economic benefits. The ultimate win-win. I just have more faith in people than many here. I just don't think there is some grand conspiritorial money grab going on. If there was there would not be construction going on every where you look. OBJ even had an article documenting all the progress.
... And the cutback on the Space Mountain refurb was because they were infusing the money into the New Fantasyland, right jt?
Look, I can appreciate that you're trying to keep an upbeat view. But I also think it's simplistic and naive.
- Disney Springs isn't being built to help sell what small amount of points might still be available at SSR. It's being built because they wanted to create their own version of CityWalk that would be attractive enough to 3rd parties to lease there so they can take a cut without having to own and operate the places themselves.
- Pandora isn't being built to help sell what small amount of point might still be available at Kidani. It's being built as a knee-jerk reaction to the Boy Wonder, and because it's a well known and universal (ha) fact that capacity at the park is a problem. It's a half-day park, more so than Studios, even. It vastly underperforms compared to the other parks, and I'm quite certain it has the highest operating expense due to the animals. They had to do something. The numbers for that park have to be all kinds of backwards.
I don't think my earlier post to you is conspiratorial in even the smallest sense. It's just reality. It's not like it's some big secret. You can see proof in almost everything at WDW. You can see where they're putting their money. You can see where they're NOT putting their money. You can see the quarterly numbers. All you have to do is sit back and observe what's going on a bit, and the picture gets clear quickly.
They've been selling DVC like crazy for a long time now. If you were correct, where are those billions that they've taken in since then? Where's the new gate? If you take the list of all the park improvements from the past 10 years and the assumed cost of those additions, and divided by 10 (for a per year investment amount), I think the number would be shockingly low. Then compare that to, for example, JUST the BLT. When that was planned, I think someone here figured out what Disney was going to make after they sold all the points there, and if I recall, it was
$720,000,000. Seven hundred and twenty MILLION dollars. To sell out a timeshare that no one actually OWNS any part of! And that doesn't count yearly dues and cost reductions attaching it to the Contemp gave them, or locking in a customer base to spending further vacation dollars associated with the property. That number is coming from memory, so forgive me if I'm remembering wrong. It's been years. But I really think that's right. And that's just one DVC property. One of how many they've been building? And I might add that the cost per point was lower when they put BLT up too. The margins are even higher now.
That's proof, in that single building, that my view is reality. That building is a microchosm of the issue. It's not a conspiracy... It's just a bad business practice that eventually will be a massive issue. It may not be for decades... But it WILL be a massive issue. They can still fix it, but who will? Who will be willing to turn the massive ship around, no matter how difficult and tricky it might be? Especially when that person knows they're only at the helm for a short period of time?
Walt's gone, and he's been replaced by mercenary CEO's who smile for the cameras and then retreat to their boardrooms to discuss how to keep the share price up. That's not conspiracy, that's reality. I wish it weren't. But it is.
