The Spirited 8th Wonder (WDW's Future & You!)

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Not to get off on a tangent but we just did a long weekend at the DVC at Hilton Head. It's pretty nice. Old school Disney in a lot of ways. A high level of service and a lot of stuff to do. While I was there I saw 3 different guys painting things that needed touch up. This wasn't a renovation or anything, it was a maintenance guy doing touch up work since he saw a scrape. I feel like that's how WDW always was in the past.

Not to get too off-topic, but if you think maintenance at the WDW resorts has gotten bad, you need to check out Disneyland Paris. This was the exterior of the Newport Bay Club (a Yacht & Beach Club lookalike) just last week.

In comparison, I'd say maintenance of the WDW resorts is much more consistent. It's the parks (and the overarching business strategy) that need some changes...

 

[GoofGoof]

Call me naive, but if you are disgruntled DVC owner, isn't the easy answer to sell? It seems like DVC still has pretty good resale value, right?

I grew up a Philly sports fan. I've learned to live with disgruntled

Just for the record, I'm not actually a disgruntled DVC owner. I fully admit that I use my points to visit WDW and I actually enjoy myself. I do recognize the issues, but I still go anyway. I'm probably part of the problem, but at least I admit it

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

Not to get too off-topic, but if you think maintenance at the WDW resorts has gotten bad, you need to check out Disneyland Paris. This was the exterior of the Newport Bay Club (a Yacht & Beach Club lookalike) just last week.

In comparison, I'd say maintenance of the WDW resorts is much more consistent. It's the parks (and the overarching business strategy) that need some changes...

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Yep. Admittedly, the hotel is undergoing a refurbishment right now, and it looked fairly intensive. But clearly the refurb is happening out of necessity, not because Euro Disney is being proactive.

 

[Longhairbear]

Glad you are disgruntled.... But as I type this response, I notice you are staying at Saratoga Springs and Boardwalk Villas in 87 days. Maybe this is why Disney won't care. Yes they have our money, but, to the point I was making above, even disgruntled DVC members still go despite being disgruntled. That's the point. 74 says he'd like to see some sort of DVC member uprising. Where would we find such members? I already know the answer is nowhere, unless he knows something else which he hasn't shared on here.

DVC members will still go to WDW, still visit their parks, despite complaining left and right. And I'm not calling you out, I went last year. But, i do have a good reason: my brother wanted to go for the first time in 12 years. So, I went with him. otherwise, yes, my plans were a few days at Universal's parks and doing other things with friends, no WDW parks.

I'll have a good chunk of points for next year (over 400) since I have no trips this year. I'm really tempted to do a solo trip, visit universal, and other sites in Florida with friends, and no Disney parks or restaurants. Or maybe visit other Disney DVC resorts in other states, availability pending of course.

We haven't been to FLA going on 4-5 years, and spend our points here in CA. If we go back to FLA, Wilderness will be our home base for attractions around FLA, not WDW. Of all the deluxe resorts needing DVC conversion, is Grand California. That entire new DVC /hotel wing should be converted, but they won't. It benefits DVC members, not TWDC.

 

[doctornick]

I grew up a Philly sports fan. I've learned to live with disgruntled

Just for the record, I'm not actually a disgruntled DVC owner. I fully admit that I use my points to visit WDW and I actually enjoy myself. I do recognize the issues, but I still go anyway. I'm probably part of the problem, but at least I admit it

Right, I wasn't trying to call out anyone in this thread or anything. But my point is that I don't think there will ever be any sort of "critical mass" of disgruntled DVC owners because if they are that frustrated, they will just sell and get out.

 

[Kman101]

To be fair to DLP (and not to get too off-topic here) but I'm at least seeing lots of pictures popping up of them painting railings, fixing things, etc. (in the parks) so it seems they finally at least have some money but it seems a lot of the entire DLP resort (parks/hotels) need a lot of work after years of neglect. I wonder how much of it is they care enough to do it or if it's all just bad enough that they have to.

 

[GoofGoof]

Right, I wasn't trying to call out anyone in this thread or anything. But my point is that I don't think there will ever be any sort of "critical mass" of disgruntled DVC owners because if they are that frustrated, they will just sell and get out.

This is probably true. I bought my points resale. When we bought I wondered why the people were selling. You get a deed with just names on it, but unlike when I bought my house it was all done by mail so I never met the people face to face. The resale market is pretty active so I'm sure that represents some people who are just over WDW.

 

[TalkingHead]

So the plan is milk the short-term profits for the benefit of a management team that won't be around to deal with the long-term effects?

How very Disney of them.

 

[aladdin2007]

Not to get too off-topic, but if you think maintenance at the WDW resorts has gotten bad, you need to check out Disneyland Paris. This was the exterior of the Newport Bay Club (a Yacht & Beach Club lookalike) just last week.

In comparison, I'd say maintenance of the WDW resorts is much more consistent. It's the parks (and the overarching business strategy) that need some changes...

Agree, but wow are they going for a bates motel theme or what. yikes.

 

[Kman101]

I just can't even fathom how WDW is run by the same company that runs the other parks. No wonder they thought about selling it off in the past. They should of. It seems they treat it like a monkey on their back they barely want to pay attention to instead of the true destination it used to be regarded as. Very sad.

 

[aladdin2007]

So if I understand this right Spirit, were never going to see that new crown jewel, the Mediterranean Resort, built on the seven seas lagoon?

I really wish they would leave WL alone, and just build the Wilderness Junction/Buffalo Junction plan if they wanted more dvc, but of course like you said its all about saving money and doing it the cheaper way by converting rooms and adding a few teepees to the lake. I wonder what Pocahontas would say.

 

[Mike S]

Agree, but wow are they going for a bates motel theme or what. yikes.

Funny you mention that considering what their Haunted Mansion (Phantom Manor) looks like.

 

[PhotoDave219]

So the plan is milk the short-term profits for the benefit of a management team that won't be around to deal with the long-term effects?

How very Disney of them.

Thats the problem of Wall Street anymore. No one wants to invest long term.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Disneyland Paris also gets a ton of characters you never see in the American parks anymore, though that might just be more from them being hand-me-downs from America then fanservice for die-hards.

What I wouldn't give for Disney to pull off some real Long Lost Friends action with this stuff.

 

[bhg469]

Thats the problem of Wall Street anymore. No one wants to invest long term.

This!

Unless you're making the company record profits per quarter, you're a failure... heaven forbid a company has minimum growth due to spending a lot for the future. It's greed and it's ugly.

 

[NoChesterHester]

Thats the problem of Wall Street anymore. No one wants to invest long term.

Truth. System busted.

 

[zweltar]

I appreciate the efforts of posters to avoid going off-topic by repeatedly prefacing off-topic posts by saying "not to go off-toic but..." It makes me chuckle, just a little.

 

[BrianLo]

They knew. They were aware. They had chances to put things on a fast track. And what you have is New Fantasyland, new DVC and MM+ ... (please, I'm begging here, don't take this into a compare and contrast the companies deal ... we've done that in approximately 6,569,900 threads here!) ... But there are no secrets in the business at the highest levels and it was well known what would happen (probably well before I even put it out there).

WDW of course puts nothing on the fast track ever... but isn't Avatar what they decided to do about it? After all the Spring 2011 negotiations and Fall 2011 announcement dates fall in this timeframe when they would have been made aware of the Diagon Alley plans. In fact, it's probably what forced the seemingly misguided move of Avatar.

It wasn't the right move, or remotely close to the best move, but that was their "move".

As for Disney knowing about Potter 2.0 back when the shark was still swimming, that's when the iron should've struck with Lucasfilm. Forget James Cameron and Avatar. They could've saved money and a lot of planning time if they really wanted to fight back.

Yes, but the LucasFilm acquisition didn't come until nearly 2 years after this all went down... The theme parks were an afterthought in that purchase, the movies were the juicy steak Disney was after there.

And, at the rate Disney moves, had that happened - WDW wouldn't be getting anything until 2019... instead of 2017.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Not to get too off-topic, but if you think maintenance at the WDW resorts has gotten bad, you need to check out Disneyland Paris. This was the exterior of the Newport Bay Club (a Yacht & Beach Club lookalike) just last week.

In comparison, I'd say maintenance of the WDW resorts is much more consistent. It's the parks (and the overarching business strategy) that need some changes...

And here's what the other side of the hotel looks like now:

What was at least at one point the largest hotel in Europe is finally getting the total inside/outside rehab it deserves. Much like Sequoia and Santa Fe just got.

Main Street is also finally starting to look like this too: