The Spirited Back Nine ...

Mike S

Mike S

Well-Known Member
Tahu said:
Now at Universal Japan, you can get in the Eva



Can easily see them going this route for Pacific Rim here in the west.
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image.jpg
 
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ParentsOf4

ParentsOf4

Well-Known Member
justavoice said:
Curious what parentsof4 thinks about how the lower gas prices will impact Disney in the coming year.

On one hand I think more disposable income will mean more people paying for Park upgrades ie fireworks dessert bar, Disney character dining and wanting that Magical Disney experience. AFRAID that numbers will be high for park income and be used as reinforcement that current management is doing the right things at Disney parks. With that fear is that increased attendance will increase wear and tear on the parks and expose the condition problems faster and more pronounced which could be GOOD.

I have seen the park numbers increase over the past 10 years in the time that I usually attend, Jan, May, Jun and Oct. I think it has been discussed about the caliber of cliental visiting the Disney resorts and parks, and I am not trying to be an elitist with the following statement: The guest visiting the park are rude, crass, pushy, demanding, and focused on rides at all cost and not the experience. With the US economy seeming to show signs of rebounding, one of my rental buildings houses an upscale restaurant that has witnessed a 15% increase this Christmas season and will top last years sales by at least 10% to the mid 7 figure level. I think the problem that WDW is going to be facing is that the demand will be greater for entertainment that they will be able to accomodate. Not hotels but parks. Magic Kingdom is always busy, EPCOT will have standard festivals and alcohol seeking guests, Animal Kingdom will attempt to move to an evening park but many of the animal experiences are not designed for lights and Avatar is several years still away and then the rework of DHS means the limited park is very thin even with carnival rides coming per earlier rumour on here. To me demand will be pushed to the top two and those parks are already showing signs of the stress. Will those breakdowns and forced refurbs be enough to draw attention to the current problem of limiting maintance while increasing usage?

I may be out in leftfield and completely wrong on all accounts but I am just very curious with economy turning and more people with income to spend if they are going to fall for Disney lite compared to the park of the 70's 80's and even 90's that I knew.

At least something other than beef in tacos to talk about
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WDW will see record crowds in 2015.

Lower gas prices put money in people's pockets and has had a powerful psychological effect. The U.S. economy is steadily improving, and domestic visitors make up approximately 80% of all WDW Guests.

Frozen-at-the-parks and a completed New Fantasyland will continue to draw Guests. Even Universal's investment in Diagon Alley will help attract more visitors to WDW as Universal remains only a 2-day visit for most.

Big domestic theme park announcements in 2015 will get people talking about WDW and DLR, reminding them it just might be time for another visit.

With the exception of DVC, Disney kept prices in check in 2014. Tickets were up 4.3%, food by 4.6%, and hotels by 3%. More of the same in 2015 will assure record crowds.

Disney's biggest problem could be those record crowds. Surveys consistently show that theme park enjoyment is inversely proportional to crowd levels. Disney is in the business of selling fun, and it's no fun standing in line 90 minutes for SDMT, 180 minutes for the Anna & Elsa meet-and-greet, 40 minutes for Big Thunder Mountain, 50 minutes for Splash Mountain, 30 minutes for Pirates of the Caribbean, 30 minutes for Haunted Mansion, and 40 minutes for Winnie the Pooh even with FastPass+ selections for Space Mountain, Peter Pan's Flight, and Dumbo.

Meanwhile, 3 theme parks aren't worth a full day visit for most Guests.

WDW has a horrible capacity problem, caused by Disney largely ignoring 3 of its Orlando theme parks for over a decade.

Retheming Maelstrom into a Frozen attraction is not a solution; it's part of the problem.

Yes, there are other improvements on the horizon but Disney risks alienating a large segment of its customer base if it continues to drag its feet on some seriously needed capital improvements, the way it has for Pandora.
 
hpyhnt 1000

hpyhnt 1000

Well-Known Member
ParentsOf4 said:
Yes, there are other improvements on the horizon but Disney risks alienating a large segment of its customer base if it continues to drag its feet on some seriously needed capital improvements, the way it has for Pandora.
Click to expand...

This many times over.

And it's not just new rides at the parks. Just look at the transportation infrastructure at WDW. The bus system is still often frustrating and unpredictable, and as we move into 2015, the lack of real time arrival info at all parks and resorts remains inexcusable. The monorails are in pathetic condition. All watercraft resort wide could benefit from a thorough refurbishment and overhaul. DHS parking access needs to be completely redesigned. The MK toll plaza interchange needs redesigning. The TTC continues to be an embarrassing first and last impression of the MK. Epcot's bus area desperately needs an overhaul. Traffic in and around DTD is often a nightmare (though work is being done to help fix this).

Thats just off the top of my head in terms of road/transportation infrastructure. It doesn't even touch the resorts or theme parks. Trouble is, fixing all these things will cost a LOT of money with no tangible monetary return, which is probably why they've been put off for years. In many respects, WDW is still operating on infrastructure from the 80s; it's rapidly proving to be inadequate.
 
Q

Quinnmac000

Well-Known Member
Tahu said:
Now at Universal Japan, you can get in the Eva



Can easily see them going this route for Pacific Rim here in the west.
Click to expand...


Or they can transport their entire new videogame/anime based area to FL? Then Disney can go and try to get Nintendo IPs and there could be a mass battle between tourists trying to decide which park they would rather go to...the one with Call of Duty and WOW, or Disney if they had Mario and Pokemon.

img_map.png
 
the.dreamfinder

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Iger the Acquirer's puff piece in Fortune is up.
http://fortune.com/2014/12/29/disney-ceo-bob-iger-empire-of-tech
It's what you would expect, but there were some interesting bits.
  • Someone let it slip to Fortune that Interactive may be absorbed by Consumer Products this year
  • Shanghai Disneyland is still "on track" for a late 2015 opening even though we know they'll be lucky to make the first half of 2016
  • "ILM is advising Pixar on how to animate lifelike tusks for a project currently in development"
  • Under a graphic titled "Iger's Biggest Bets" NextGen is listed as having cost $1.56 Billion, but that amount is broken into two (EDIT: it appears the author may have made a typo and meant to say TWDC spent $563 Million on Playdom)
  • Disney claims MagicBands cannot track individual guests, only then to bring up the trackers used by the wait staff at BoG to locate guests
  • Staggs spouts a Waltism
 
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GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
the.dreamfinder said:
Iger the Acquirer's puff piece in Fortune is up.
http://fortune.com/2014/12/29/disney-ceo-bob-iger-empire-of-tech
It's what you would expect, but there were some interesting bits.
  • Someone let it slip to Fortune that Interactive may be absorbed by Consumer Products this year
  • Shanghai Disneyland is still "on track" for a late 2015 opening even though we know they'll be lucky to make the first half of 2016
  • "ILM is advising Pixar on how to animate lifelike tusks for a project currently in development"
  • Under a graphic titled "Iger's Biggest Bets" NextGen is listed as having cost $1.56 Billion, but that amount is broken into two
  • Disney claims MagicBands cannot track individual guests, only then to bring up the trackers used by the wait staff at BoG to locate guests
  • Staggs spouts a Waltism
Click to expand...
I missed the part where they said magic bands cannot track individual guests. The article did mention that they are currently not using the bands to track lost children at the parks. Because they say they are "currently not using the bands" for this instead of "the bands are not capable of tracking lost children" implies to me that they are capable, but the system is not setup to do it currently. It's similar to EZpass (I think it's called surpass in Florida). Some people were reluctant to use EZPass when it first came out because they thought the government would use it to track individuals and give out tickets (if you travel 80 miles between tolls in 1 hour then your average speed had to be 80 mph so if the speed limit is 65 Mph they could mail you a ticket for speeding). The government had to ensure people that the system would not be used that way and it has not been. The system is technically capable of doing just that, but isn't currently setup to do it.

So the official price tag for MM+ is up to $1.56B. That's probably as high as they will publicly go. The project is fully rolled out now so it's unlikely they will continue to increase it. That number is pretty close to the number thrown around here.
 
Rteetz

Rteetz

Well-Known Member
the.dreamfinder said:
Iger the Acquirer's puff piece in Fortune is up.
http://fortune.com/2014/12/29/disney-ceo-bob-iger-empire-of-tech
It's what you would expect, but there were some interesting bits.
  • Someone let it slip to Fortune that Interactive may be absorbed by Consumer Products this year
  • Shanghai Disneyland is still "on track" for a late 2015 opening even though we know they'll be lucky to make the first half of 2016
  • "ILM is advising Pixar on how to animate lifelike tusks for a project currently in development"
  • Under a graphic titled "Iger's Biggest Bets" NextGen is listed as having cost $1.56 Billion, but that amount is broken into two
  • Disney claims MagicBands cannot track individual guests, only then to bring up the trackers used by the wait staff at BoG to locate guests
  • Staggs spouts a Waltism
Click to expand...
I thought it was an interesting article. Anytime someone interviews Staggs he says the same Walt quote the parks will never be complete. Come on Tom find a new quote.
 
Bairstow

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
Tahu said:
Now at Universal Japan, you can get in the Eva



Can easily see them going this route for Pacific Rim here in the west.
Click to expand...


Wow, that's nuts.
I like the shot of the women watching the show/ride and having about a gallon of cartoon blood being splashed at them.

The area at Fuji-Q seems to be limited to a number of barely-animated walk-through dioramas.
I guess this one will be taking things a step further.

http://www.madman.com.au/news/a-tour-through-evangelion-world-at-fuji-q-highland-japan/

IMG_7382.jpg


 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
GoofGoof said:
I missed the part where they said magic bands cannot track individual guests. The article did mention that they are currently not using the bands to track lost children at the parks. Because they say they are "currently not using the bands" for this instead of "the bands are not capable of tracking lost children" implies to me that they are capable, but the system is not setup to do it currently. It's similar to EZpass (I think it's called surpass in Florida). Some people were reluctant to use EZPass when it first came out because they thought the government would use it to track individuals and give out tickets (if you travel 80 miles between tolls in 1 hour then your average speed had to be 80 mph so if the speed limit is 65 Mph they could mail you a ticket for speeding). The government had to ensure people that the system would not be used that way and it has not been. The system is technically capable of doing just that, but isn't currently setup to do it.

So the official price tag for MM+ is up to $1.56B. That's probably as high as they will publicly go. The project is fully rolled out now so it's unlikely they will continue to increase it. That number is pretty close to the number thrown around here.
Click to expand...
That's funny because I'm sure that I have seen on one of the Disney boards a report by a family that they were able to use the tracking system to find their lost child. It took only minutes to do instead of a massive search.

It amazing how .44B becomes a number that is casually called "pretty close". :happy:
 
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I

Ignohippo

Well-Known Member
ParentsOf4 said:
Disney's biggest problem could be those record crowds. Surveys consistently show that theme park enjoyment is inversely proportional to crowd levels. Disney is in the business of selling fun, and it's no fun standing in line 90 minutes for SDMT, 180 minutes for the Anna & Elsa meet-and-greet, 40 minutes for Big Thunder Mountain, 50 minutes for Splash Mountain, 30 minutes for Pirates of the Caribbean, 30 minutes for Haunted Mansion, and 40 minutes for Winnie the Pooh even with FastPass+ selections for Space Mountain, Peter Pan's Flight, and Dumbo.

Meanwhile, 3 theme parks aren't worth a full day visit for most Guests.

WDW has a horrible capacity problem, caused by Disney largely ignoring 3 of its Orlando theme parks for over a decade.

Retheming Maelstrom into a Frozen attraction is not a solution; it's part of the problem.

Yes, there are other improvements on the horizon but Disney risks alienating a large segment of its customer base if it continues to drag its feet on some seriously needed capital improvements, the way it has for Pandora.
Click to expand...


Great post.

Pretty ironic that Disney may finally plan expansions due to the better economic climate, yet may miss them entirely. Who knows what will happen economically by 2020?

Too little. Too late.
 
the.dreamfinder

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Ignohippo said:
Great post.

Pretty ironic that Disney may finally plan expansions due to the better economic climate, yet may miss them entirely. Who knows what will happen economically by 2020?

Too little. Too late.
Click to expand...
There's no reason why a company the size of Disney shouldn't take advantage of a recession to spend money on new projects during it. You have better leverage against your contractors because they need work, the growth in attendence slows a bit allowing for some extra flexibility, and , on the inverse of your observation, the economy may be in a better place on opening day.
 
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