The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[marni1971]

Universal is ripping it's customers off on this. I would complain if Disney did this to ride the monorail between the MK and Epcot. It's just wrong and everyone here knows it.

A lot of people here would argue its either worth it or single park passes were in the minority anyway.

The money, vision, scale and sheer will being thrown into these projects more than makes up for any les. Right now developments up the road are just how WDW used to be. And that's of huge appeal. I'd be happy to pay extra to experience a few days of a true premium product.

If you don't like it don't go. Simple.

 

[marni1971]

This is a distinct possibility.

The area does not seem like it can hold the amount of guests that will flood the area.

Plans are in place to minimise this happening again.

 

[seascape]

Respectfully, there's another way to look at the issue of theme park parking.

WDW averages over 5000 empty hotel rooms per night. Maybe if they priced their hotels so that those rooms were full, fewer people would stay offsite and there wouldn't be a need for an overflow area?

WDW has over 34,000 hotel rooms and averages a little over 87 percent occupancy. Universal has less than 5000 rooms total.

 

[Nemo14]

So, Disney isn't afraid of UNI taking business away, right? Just in from a kind friend in Burbank, but look at Fallon's set now and look at clips of it from Monday. You'll notice some significant changes that were the result of TWDC threatening via Zenia and legal to go to the government and file a complaint because of what was perceived by Disney as constant advertising for free (even if they are the same company, no money was exchanged, no ad time bought). So suddenly the UNI globe disappeared and the UNI arch was made tougher to make out/blurred and Fallon was moved into a blocking position in front of it.

Yes, Disney is that petty. Really. Mindblowingly petty. ...

If only that much effort and attention to detail could be used to improve their own parks....

The issue isn't that Disney can't do this caliber work. They can.

The issue is Disney doesn't really care whether they do or not and they'd rather do as little as possible at WDW.

Thats pretty much what I'm saying, yes. The two HP parts of the park are essentially their own world

You know, after reading this and other sterling reviews (including Dave's) one thing still gnaws at me. The average guest at WDW today does not seem to be interested in total immersion. They love things like fastpass+ and ADR's because they can ride more rides and "do" more. Even recent comments here about DAK cites its "lack of rides" that makes it less enjoyable. Did Disney create this atmosphere by removing things like benches and trees, or did they react to it? The answer is probably a little of both, but those of us who were fortunate enough to experience that elusive immersion factor at WDW back "in the day" do appreciate UNI's efforts to bring it back.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Haha, and no one did.

I will, LOL.


It's kind of like the two types of men who generally went to a vintage Britney concert before she was of age (leaving aside the guys who's girlfriends dragged them).

If it's a gay guy trying to meet Princesses, that normally is cute and somewhat adorkable in some circles, harmless, a gay guy who wants to meet/see a character he "idolizes". OMG! You know?

If it's a straight guy, it's creepy and gross and you can't help but put some sexual yuckiness to it.


That's why when I go to a Britney concert, or stand in line for a female character (Leia has been the only one, I have, I think) I go a bit out of my way to flash my gay card - normally, everyone involved is very much relieved.

Just for this when I'm meeting characters or Leia I flash my gay card too and I'm as straight as Carrie Fisher's lines of coke!

 

[ParentsOf4]

But yet they're 'sold out' much of the time. Alright, sure.

Just like Advanced Dining Reservations (ADR), it appears that Disney is manipulating hotel room availability in order to balance the load. Restaurants and hotels both become less efficient to operate if some are crowded while others are empty.

Sadly, today's Disney is more concerned with operational efficiency than with customer satisfaction.

At today's WDW, we, the paying customers, are largely thought of as production inventory to be optimized by those "sharp pencil guys" Walt Disney used to rail against while he was still alive.

 

[Darth Sidious]

Tonight Show is just taking the park back to what was it was planned for, but hasn't been used for in a long time.

Absolutely agreed. I love what they're doing right now. Disney could be doing it too and they really should let loose a little and get back to it. Right now if they had Kimmell at WDW they'd have such tight control over everything and the plugs they make that it wouldn't be the same.

 

[TeriofTerror]

What Universal did was to take a page out of Disney Imagineering 101 and turn it into a thesis project.

Its not difficult. Disney came up with the concept. Hopefully this is a push in the right direction.

So, what you're saying is:
"You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you wanna sell it."
(I'm not at all serious, btw. I think it looks amazing and cannot wait to check it out. It's just that your comment reminded me so much of that scene!)

 

[asianway]

I can't keep track of these folks without a whiteboard and pics ... if he runs Attractions, who are the Rosebooms and how do they fit in?

And any Disney-specific Lifestylers get credentialed for this?

Banks seems like a true fan and a nice guy, not picking on him - just trying to figure out how much cash this enterprise throws off to support:

Matt
His wife
His son
Banks
The female host
Isn't there a second female host?
The cutie patootie new girl
The out of the loop guy
Is Anthony Armenia part of this?


Sounds like there's money here, lots of it and I want in

 

[ParentsOf4]

The issue isn't that Disney can't do this caliber work. They can.

The issue is Disney doesn't really care whether they do or not and they'd rather do as little as possible at WDW.

Disney's Parks & Resorts (P&R) investments have been at record low levels under Iger.

With the notable exception of Cars Land, which reportedly was ramrodded through despite Rasulo's strenuous objection, most of Disney's P&R investments under Iger have been in cruise ships or overseas.

Since Iger took charge at the beginning of FY2006, WDW has generated roughly $55B in revenue, yet the only appreciable capital investments (vs. required FF&E and capital maintenance) have been MyMagic+ (which mostly was a long overdue infrastructure upgrade required due to deferred capital maintenance resulting from Disney's constant attempts in recent years to squeeze out those pennies), the New Fantasyland, and Toy Story Mania (TSM).

Essentially, we've spent $55 Billion over 8 years and received the $425M New Fantasyland and the $80M TSM in return. For anyone who's counting, that's less than 1%.

Unless you also want to count timeshares which, by the way, are self-financing and more than pay for themselves with healthy profits in just a few years.

The amount of money being reinvested in WDW's theme parks under Iger is insulting to paying customers.

 

[LithiumBill]

Hey can you throw spoiler tags around your original post?

Also the videos dont do it justice.

Will do.

And that is what I figured, can;t judge until I get there.

 

[ParentsOf4]

It's amazing to me that journalists can be so incompetent with details. Never mind the "Harry Potter park" and "one ride" business, the article says the interactive wands are $35 when they're actually $45 (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

In general, don't blame the journalists.

Like any profession, there are those who are incompetent.

However, in today's economic climate, most journalists are not given enough time to fully investigate what they write. It's a case of "Hurry up and finish this story so you can start the next one".

 

[WildcatDen]

even if I think Patricia Heaton is a nut in the real world.

Are their any conservatives you don't have superiority issues with?

 

[ParentsOf4]

WDW has over 34,000 hotel rooms and averages a little over 87 percent occupancy. Universal has less than 5000 rooms total.

Disney controls about 24,000 hotel room and another 3,000 timeshare "two bedroom equivalents". After the opening of the 1,800-room Cabana Bay, Universal has 4,200 rooms.

In 2013, Disney's domestic occupancy rate was 79%. That number is inflated by DVC. Looking at just WDW's hotels, the occupancy rate was about 76%.

Taking it one step further, Disney designated about 4% of their rooms as unavailable in 2013. Rooms taken of inventory are not counted against the occupancy rate.

After putting it all together, about 72% of WDW's hotel rooms were occupied in 2013.

For Metro Orlando, WDW's hotel occupancy rate is average. It's actually below average for the immediate WDW vicinity.

Considering the tremendous advantages Disney has over the local hotel competition, Disney should be embarrassed by its poor occupancy rate.

 

[seascape]

Disney's Parks & Resort (P&R) investments have been at record low levels under Iger. With the notable exception of Cars Land, which reportedly was ramrodded through despite Rasulo's strenuous objection, most of Disney's P&R investments under Iger have been in cruise ships or overseas.

Since Iger took charge at the beginning of FY2006, WDW has generated roughly $55B in revenue, yet the only appreciable capital investments (vs. required FF&E and capital maintenance) have been MyMagic+ (which mostly was a long overdue infrastructure upgrade required due to deferred capital maintenance resulting from Disney's constant attempts in recent years to squeeze out those pennies), the New Fantasyland, and Toy Story Mania (TSM).

Essentially, we've spent $55 Billion over 8 years and received the $425M New Fantasyland and the $80M TSM in return. For anyone who's counting, that's less than 1%.

Unless you also want to count timeshares which, by the way, are self-financing and more than pay for themselves with a healthy profit in just a few years.

The amount of money being reinvested in WDW's theme parks under Iger is insulting to paying customers.

I know many here have complained about the lack of upgrades in the parks. However, to say the only investments have been NFL and next gen is wrong. Have you seen what is going on at Downtown Disney? How about the road improvments. Unlike other parks the internal roadways at WDW have to be paid by Disney. That comes out of the 55 billion too. I know I would like to see more improvements but the planning costs have been paid. The infrastructure is now in place. I expect the next 7 years to be amazing. We will get Pandora, Star Wars, upgrades of both Future World and World Show Case, Rivers of Light, and at least one other major addition to DHS and AK.

TDO has much more to take care of and build in the Disney Parks Division than Comcast. Also ask investment analysts if they think Disney expansion in Asia is better investment than Universals and they will tell you the growth is in Asia and Disney made the better decision. Shanghai Disney land will pass all the US based theme parks in attendance shortly after it opens. For those who doubt it think of this. Macau has 1/4 the hotel rooms that Los Vegas has but does 7 times the revenue. China is a gold mine waiting to happen. Also just a few years ago no water park in China was near the top in attendance and now their top park blows away all other water parks in attendance. Complain all you want about Disney but their parks Division is doing much better than any other companies theme parks.

 

[lebeau]

I doubt it because they know about Pandora. And whatever elsa is on the way that is causing Disney to invest so heavily in infrastructure. That is not just for the inevitable crowds that will wander down from Universal.

Remember when Universal used to draw crowds from Disney. Is the shoe on the other foot already?

 

[seascape]

Disney controls about 24,000 hotel room and another 3,000 timeshare "two bedroom equivalents". After the opening of the 1,800-room Cabana Bay, Universal has 4,200 rooms.

In 2013, Disney's domestic occupancy rate was 79%. That number is inflated by DVC. Looking at just WDW's hotels, the occupancy rate was about 76%.

Taking it one step further, Disney designated about 4% of their rooms as unavailable in 2013. Rooms taken of inventory are not counted against the occupancy rate.

After putting it all together, about 72% of WDW's hotel rooms were occupied in 2013.

For Metro Orlando, WDW's hotel occupancy rate is average. It's actually below average for the immediate WDW vicinity.

Considering the tremendous advantages Disney has over the local hotel competition, Disney should be embarrassed by its poor occupancy rate.

I will get you exact number later. But in not counting Art of Animation there were just about 25000 rooms owned by Disney. I know I included the leased hotels on hotel row and the D&S but it is 34000 rooms in property.

 

[ParentsOf4]

I know many here have complained about the lack of upgrades in the parks. However, to say the only investments have been NFL and next gen is wrong. Have you seen what is going on at Downtown Disney? How about the road improvments.

Respectfully, additional retail space in DTD does not represent improvements to the theme parks. Essentially, Disney is taking their existing mall and making it bigger. I suspect most of us already have several malls closer to home.

Iger and Rasulo build timeshares and stores because they can tie it directly to revenue. They don't 'get' theme parks.

Projects such as road improvements generally are lumped under capital maintenance. These projects are counted as capital expenditures (capex) but are expenditures needed to keep the facilities operational.

In 2013, Disney spent $2.1B on capex. Most of that (at least 2/3) was on Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment (FF&E) or capital maintenance. P&R revenue was at $14B. In other words, Disney spent 15% of revenue on capex.

For comparison, Eisner averaged over 25% before 9/11.

Last year, Universal's capex came in at 26%.

Organizations that are actually investing in their theme parks are spending north of 20%.

Iger and Rasulo are at 15%, with most of what could be considered true investment dollars this year being spent overseas in Shanghai.

Iger and Rasulo have never appreciated WDW's real potential. When it comes to WDW, they'd rather coast.

 

[alphac2005]

Universal still gets small things produced, but it's so hard to get major productions to want to come to Orlando. What does Universal's Sound stages offer that can't be found in Louisiana (where production is booming) or in Miami (the REAL East coast Hollywood)? Nothing.

The Tonight Show and those type of things work if they come here because it's theme park, so it's basically a giant playground for Jimmy and his show. It also mainly allows for a lot of cross promotion. But as far as regular production? It's just hard to get people to want to come to Orlando.

What Orlando envisioned to be is what Atlanta has become in television and film production. The industry in Georgia has exploded with countless movie studios, production facilities, and so-forth. Pinewood opened their second U.S. studios (the other being L.A.) recently, Tyler Perry's empire is growing so much that he's in talks to buy a former Army base and convert it into a mega studios, Screen Gems is constantly busy with work south of the city. It goes on and on. The amount of series on the air and films that have and are being produced in the metro area are simply staggering. There was already a rock solid foundation of talent with all the production at the Turner properties, but a 30% sales tax rebate incentive exploded the industry and outside of NY & LA, it's the biggest production area in the United States. And you're completely right about Louisiana as it has in many ways shifted work from the Wilmington, NC area to Louisiana.

 

[ParentsOf4]

I will get you exact number later. But in not counting Art of Animation there were just about 25000 rooms owned by Disney. I know I included the leased hotels on hotel row and the D&S but it is 34000 rooms in property.

I suggest you refer to Disney's 10K filing to the SEC:

"As of September 28, 2013, the Company owned and operated 18 resort hotels at the Walt Disney World Resort, with a total of approximately 24,000 rooms and 3,010 vacation club units. Resort facilities include 468,000 square feet of conference meeting space and Disney’s Fort Wilderness camping and recreational area, which offers approximately 800 campsites."

You might be confusing hotels that are on property but are not owned by Disney (e.g. the Swan & Dolphin). For these, Disney collects a royalty. There are approximately 6,400 rooms that fall into this category. (There's also the 586-room Shades of Green that Disney has relinquished ownership of.) These are not included in the occupancy rate reported on Disney's 10K.