The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

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

They used to run a series with Kevin Yee i believe. Also, they do a part with the hidden mickey guy (forgot the name of him) ran into him once at Epcot, didn't realize until it was to late.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Its budget time. All sorts of rumors will be out there as things are being considered for next years CapEx.

 

[raymusiccity]

Sadly I can and it's horrible.



That's supposed to be attractive to anyone, how? Glad Rowling made the right, smart decision and showed Disney the door.

I'm not really a huge HP fan (just saw the movies for the first time ever last month) but I can appreciate the immense and detailed lands being developed around the books and movies.

I think it was Disney showing her the door. She had too many strings attached for their liking. You can see how her insistence on the size of the gift shops and stores created headaches for customers trying to get in and out of each shop.

It was rumored she wanted a percentage of the gate as well.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I think it was Disney showing her the door. She had too many strings attached for their liking. You can see how her insistence on the size of the gift shops and stores created headaches for customers trying to get in and out of each shop.

It was rumored she wanted a percentage of the gate as well.

Small, impractical, but more authentic shops also came right out of Disney's old play book.

 

[WildcatDen]

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.

Love your level of detail. So, you are saying that when Eisner was in and coming off the Disney Decade, WDW was at 25% and Universal is currently at 26%. What was Universal's during the Disney Decade? Could we be living in the Universal Decade? Lucky for us then.

 

[NearTheEars]

I can't believe that he really said that FB was underwhelming but refers to 7DMT as:
"state of the art animatronics, two awesome airtime hills, catchy music, hairpin turns, and even projections from the original movie. It also is beautiful to look at and very well themed all around."

Now I know you're just doing this for attention!

His quote about the 7DMT is true IMO, but calling the potter stuff underwhelming is crazy.

 

[WildcatDen]

His quote about the 7DMT is true IMO, but calling the potter stuff underwhelming is crazy.

I will say that, armed with Dramamine, I really, REALLY enjoyed FJ. Great ride. Even with the drugs, it was a 2 ride limit. Glad to here Diagon is a bit tamer. Is there a preview on the web or on cable this Sunday? Thought I heard something along those lines.

 

[Goofyernmost]

We'll never see it in our lifetime, but, linking all 4 parks by monorail would eliminate all of the bus exasperation :-( At least it looks like there will soon be a maglev system linking Orlando Airport with the Convention Center!

All that would do is swap bus exasperation for monorail exasperation. The main problem with most people concerning buses is that they 1) do not understand how mass transit works and 2) coupled with that lack of knowledge is the idea that they think that there should be a bus waiting for them whenever they are ready to go and that they must deal with traffic, etc. I worked in mass transit (busing) for many years and considering the type of transit that they do, Disney is very well organized and buses are plentiful.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

I'd love to see Universal give more consideration to financial under performers that might still be strong as themed entertainment.

 

[DinoInstitute]

Im not a fan of dragons.

EDIT: I have been at that for like 5 minutes and it is only getting me more frightened

 

[articos]

Okay..... lets talk some Harry Potter details.

Dont discuss this stuff without putting the spoiler tag around your reply.... There are people who dont want to know.

Spoiler

Universal has taken the Disney RFID from the lunch rush at Be Our Guest and applied it to the Leaky Cauldron. I was sitting down and asked my handler "Is this RFID or something" and half the creative team, eating in the corner, turned to pay attention to me. There's also a number on top of their candle as a backup.

There are interactive wands. I'm not sure of the price. This is similar to the concept of SOMK. First, it will be in both Hogsmeade and DA. Hogsmeade will have nine locations for kids to cast spells while DA will have 25... including 5 in Nocturne Alley. Classic wands that you purchased will not work with it but apparently if you've bought a wand in the past few months, it "should" work. Its an attraction in and of itself and dear god, this will hold kids in the land all day.

Nocturne Alley: Its air conditioned. Very dark. Very creepy. The shop has all the details you would expect from the dark side. Very easy to miss... unless you know what you're looking for.

Leaky Cauldon: Food is pretty good. Best quick service Ive had outside of a burger at FInnegans. It would have been nice to get a coke. Could have went for a beer, but WORK happens.

Horizont Alley & Carkitt Market have a roof. Yes, thats right.... there's a roof over guest areas to keep out the rain.

The shops. Holy crap there's a lot of them... and they sell everything. True to the books, this is a shopping palace, with everything the growing witch or wizard needs. From butter beer flavored ice cream to quiddich supplies, to wands, robes, and owls, its all there. The Weasley brothers joke shop is exactly what you would expect. The shops are bigger than the ones in Hogsmeade.... but not by much.

Did we mention Gringotts dollars, available in 10s and 20s and available to be used at any Universal store? You can exchange your hard earned cash at a 1:1 USD to Wizard Bucks ratio.

Hogsmeade Express: Far beyond what i would expect. A simple transport ride that tells a story. Kings cross is emmaculately recreated, down to the signs. You swipe your park ticket at the very beginning when you enter before going up the queue. There will be kiosks available for upgrading of tickets, purchasing of tickets, etc. Highly entertaining for what it is. Double edged sword tho: there's going to be a huge line for a simple four minute ride.

Gringotts: Hey, Animatronics. And they interact with you. The queue is a tad bland but it is a bank... so I guess thats rather accurate.

Ukrainian Ironbelly Dragon: This is a firebreathing beast that gives no warning before it roars. (It does not seem to operate in the thunder) Its big, its loud and it does have a wallet that says "Bad Mother F***er." Its the centerpiece of the land. Its the cookie, the weenie and something out of Michael Eisner's dreams for Sleeping Beauty's Castle in DLP.

The only thing that will hold this back, the only thing holding Universal back is their front line cast. They really need some training in guest service.

Thats my thoughts..... Remember, answer w/ a spoiler tag.

Don't have time to go back through all the posts, so it may have been noted already, but...

Spoiler

Regarding the dragon, the roar is the warning that it's about to flame on. It is on a cycle, and will not operate in rain or high winds, as you'd expect.

The wizard bucks are gonna quietly mint Universal and WB a ton of money as souvenirs.

And I'm surprised no one caught on to the covered, air-conditioned Alley and Market areas. You can clearly see them from the overhead shots. Pleasantly surprised that no one spilled the beans though.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Don't have time to go back through all the posts, so it may have been noted already, but...

Spoiler

Regarding the dragon, the roar is the warning that it's about to flame on. It is on a cycle, and will not operate in rain or high winds, as you'd expect.

The wizard bucks are gonna quietly mint Universal and WB a ton of money.

And I'm surprised no one caught on to the covered, air-conditioned Alley. You can clearly see it from the overhead shots. Pleasantly surprised that no one spilled the beans though.

Spoiler

I don't recall air conditioning being mentioned, but the covered alley was mentioned a good while ago.

 

[Bairstow]

It's still way too early to close the book on Dragons 2.
This is a family movie in the summer- it's going to have quite a bit of staying power.
Don't forget that the first movie opened strong, but dropped to second place its second weekend, then third, but then RECLAIMED first place on its 4th weekend.
Universal did a great job positioning this movie. It won't face any real competition until July.

 

[Figments Friend]

Wow. We've blown through near 40 pages in two days. Can we slow this down a bit while I go to the grocery store?

Don*t forget to buy some popcorn......

...oh, and some beer!

 

[PhotoDave219]

Don't have time to go back through all the posts, so it may have been noted already, but...

Spoiler

Regarding the dragon, the roar is the warning that it's about to flame on. It is on a cycle, and will not operate in rain or high winds, as you'd expect.

The wizard bucks are gonna quietly mint Universal and WB a ton of money as souvenirs.

And I'm surprised no one caught on to the covered, air-conditioned Alley and Market areas. You can clearly see them from the overhead shots. Pleasantly surprised that no one spilled the beans though.

Okay.... Well....

Spoiler

I did notice the air conditioning & covered areas. The staff from the borks & banks store said it's usually freezing in there.

Both that and the covered area - at the exit of gringotts- fit the area well. You won't have the backups of people blocking the exit because of the rain.

 

[NearTheEars]

This really is not a thread about trip planning, but what makes it trolling is the inclusion of lies.

Not defending his/her opinion, but where were the lies? It read as an opinion to me.

 

[wm49rs]

For the record, I have never been to Universal and have no desire to go to Universal and just booked a two week vacation to Florida in October specifically for the Food and Wine festival and have made no plans to go to Universal. So while everyone wants to say how great Universal is, it still does not intrigue me in the least. Or my grand kids. I keep reading about coasters, Cedar Point has the best coaster collection on the planet and I can't stand that place anymore. Theme parks need substance not coasters.

You mean, like what Universal just created with Diagon Alley?

 

[articos]

Okay.... Well....

Spoiler

I did notice the air conditioning & covered areas. The staff from the borks & banks store said it's usually freezing in there.

Both that and the covered area - at the exit of gringotts- fit the area well. You won't have the backups of people blocking the exit because of the rain.

Oh, I was complimenting you on mentioning it! And saying I was surprised not many people caught it and mentioned prior to opening.

 

[bhg469]

Okay.... Well....

Spoiler

I did notice the air conditioning & covered areas. The staff from the borks & banks store said it's usually freezing in there.

Both that and the covered area - at the exit of gringotts- fit the area well. You won't have the backups of people blocking the exit because of the rain.

Spoiler: question

so, do the bricks open all cool like or what?

 

[PhotoDave219]

Spoiler: question

so, do the bricks open all cool like or what?

I didn't see that. Doesn't mean it won't happen tho.