bhg469
Well-Known Member
You've described every music artist in the past decade.
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The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...
- Thread starter WDW1974
- Start date
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Good stuff.If you think about it, what Disney has done at WDW is dump their unique low-margin merchandise & food and replace it with generic high-margin merchandise & food.
What we'd do is dump the low-margin bulbs and realign our resources to sell more high-margin bulbs. We'd chase both sales and margins. Accepting the status quo is never an option.
We'd let Walmart sell the high-volume, low-margin bulbs. Considering what has happened to the WDW product since Iger took over, it seems like an appropriate comparison.
If our investors can't get the return they want from us, they'll put their money elsewhere. Lucky for us, we have shareholders who are in it for the long hall and recognize that product investments we've made in the past are paying off today, while product investments we make today will payoff tomorrow.
In the end, the goal is to improve both sales and margins. If we are wasting valuable company resources selling low-margin products, then we our doing our investors a disservice.
In 2013, Universal Theme Parks spent $1.5B to make $700M, which is not exactly like selling 10 light bulbs a week.
In 2013, Universal invested 26% of Theme Parks revenue for improvements. The money Universal spent last year for Diagon Alley will pay off big-time for years to come. Universal was smart and invested in the right product.
In 2013, Disney's P&R had to spend $11.8B in order to make $2.2B.
In 2013 and the first half of 2014, Disney invested 15% in P&R. For some reason, Disney decided it would rather spend the extra billions they had lying around buying back company stock, which was trading at a PE of 21.
Kinda suggests Disney doesn't have confidence in their own P&R segment to provide a better return.
Even if they were broken up into standalone businesses, both Universal's Theme Parks segment and Disney's Parks & Resorts segment would be too large for most single investors. As standalone companies, a theoretical "Universal Theme Parks Company" would be outperforming its "Disney Parks & Resort" counterpart by a two-to-one spread.
In such a match-up, the smart money would be on the mythical "Universal Theme Parks Company". The smart money would be on the company that's hungry for business, not the one that's coasting on past glory.
Still, if you want to look at the companies as a whole, Comcast generated more revenue and more cash than Disney.
In 2013, Disney's gross margin from all operations was 23.8% while its P&R margin was 15.8%.
At Comcast, gross margin from all operations was 21.0%, while Theme Parks ran at 31.5%.
Uni's Theme Parks pulled the company up whereas Disney's P&R pulled the company down.
As I've stated before, one Theme Parks organization is being run intelligently.
The other one is being run considerably less so.
Is it any wonder Iger & company are unhappy with P&R?
Here is the real question. What will Disney do about this? Is there hope that a new CEO can really turn things around? Increasing the P&R investment percentage from 15% to 30% of revenue would mean an increase in capital spending of over $2B per year. I'm all for that as a fan, but is it realistic? It would take some pretty big stones to start your new job as CEO and show up at the first BOD meeting with a plan to spend an additional $2B per year essentially reversing the course set by Iger who is considered by Wall Street and the BOD as a very successful CEO. I have no doubt a guy like Eisner would have both the ego and the stones to do something like that, but unless they go outside TWDC I don't see anyone who fits that bill in house.
In defense of the weatherman and his cronies, Universal is in an aggressive growth phase for their business in Orlando. While it's complete bunk that WDW is a mature business with no growth potential, it's also not in the same phase as Universal either so I don't expect the company to engage in the mythical "theme park war". WDW needs smart and steady growth. Spending over a billion on MM+ doesn't exactly fit the bill of smart
. I do think FLE was a good investment and I'm optimistic that Avatarland and the rest of the AK plans are also a step in the right direction.
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
Disney doesn't need to spend 30% to make WDW dynamic once again, to knock the wind out of Universal's sails.
Based on P&R's $14B in sales in 2013, an extra 5% spent at WDW for the next 5 years would work wonders.
5% of $14B is $700M per year. Over 5 years, that's $3.5B.
Even at WDI's bloated prices, that's Star Wars Land, Cars Land, and so much more.
$3.5B turns Pandora into what it should be. $3.5B fixes Epcot.
Spending at 20% (rather than today's 15%) still is below P&R's historic average, but does so much at WDW.
Instead, Disney has committed to spend something in the order of $8B on a stock buyback program.
Clearly, corporate doesn't have faith in its organization at WDW to execute. They're spending the money elsewhere, expecting a better return.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
I watched the video of it. Looks more like Spiderman/Transformers than Hunny Hunt or Mystic Manor. That's not a bad thing, but it's not what I was expecting.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
No, just because I don't see Diagon Alley influencing the greater built environment the way Main Street, USA influenced a reaction to modernism and suburbanism.
71jason
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I've met a couple of them. This is LBV, a small corner of a big city. The number of professionals of a certain age is limited. We all tend to run in the same circles, at least those of us who get out in the real world.
I know everyone pictures a cartoon mouse running the show, but the fact is, TDO is just people. People who go to dog parks, grocery stores, bars ...
71jason
Well-Known Member
I was thinking sitcoms where cast visits the parks.
Funmeister
Well-Known Member
So you think it is safe for an obese person to literally get off the sofa and run a marathon? Do you realize how dangerous that is?
71jason
Well-Known Member
How the hell Wall-e is a date rapist? Is the writer a supposed self named "Feminist"? ((
(note the quotes, because I have yet to see a real feminist attacking all men for everything)
Nubs70
Well-Known Member
Improving one's fitness is a good thing, however the purpose and history of a marathon is different. It has been a prerequisite for over 2000 years that one should be fit prior to undertaking a marathon considering the first marathon had a 100% mortality rate.
Another consideration when taking part in any race of whatever length, is to be considerate of others. Take time to be aware of your surroundings so as not to impede the progress of others. If you are entering a choke point, do not stop to admire the view rather stop before or after as not to interfere with others.
If your purpose is to treat the marathon as a walking social event, sign up for a 5k or your local Color Run.
Another consideration when taking part in any race of whatever length, is to be considerate of others. Take time to be aware of your surroundings so as not to impede the progress of others. If you are entering a choke point, do not stop to admire the view rather stop before or after as not to interfere with others.
If your purpose is to treat the marathon as a walking social event, sign up for a 5k or your local Color Run.
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yellowstone7123
Member
I have been to DL twice and enjoyed it, but unfortunately prior to Cars Land. I love the islands but only go with friends and family on private boats, cruise ships have never interested me.
The price I pay for my family's stay at WDW is very high but I made the choice, it is what it is. We usually go between Thanksgiving and Christmas when it is slightly less crowded. We did go at the end of July two years ago for a baseball tournament and I would have gladly paid twice the price for park admission if it would have cut the crowds in half. I would consider the Waldorf, I have stayed at two of their other properties, the one at WDW looks nice.
Unless things change at WDW, meaning better service and offerings for adults, I don't see it being a place I would go without kids. Hopefully, in the future when my kids are gone, I'll have to take some grandkids! There might be a new ride by then!
wogwog
Well-Known Member
Understatement of the thread. I know socially, neighbors and such, many of the poor souls trying to make this disaster work, from front line to much higher up. Massive amounts of guests every day to educate who no nothing about it or could not figure it out before arrival. This will take years to change the awareness level since every day has once in a lifetime guests or every many years guests. Often they take verbal abuse over the guest thinking it is complicated, unnecessary, fixed something that was not broken, on and on. For everyone who likes to plan the new magical Iger way another guest arrives clueless. Silly people thought going to a theme park was simple.
The bands still fail a lot. The system still crashes often. Fast passes still disappear. Photopass still has pix disappear. Rooms still fail to open after working previously.
In fairness, I have not used the system even being local to WDW area. But any friend or relative who has used the MM stuff are at best in the group of who needs the hassle.
It may get better slowly with a continual infusion of $. $ that could have fixed the parks.
flynnibus
Premium Member
wogwog
Well-Known Member
Interesting visual from magic kingdom today. The fast pass lines are spilling out in to the main arteries. I guess this how you increase capacity with mm+.
Edit: fast pass for btmr was a 20 min wait...[/QUOTE
But how can that be?
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
FP+ at BTMRR is problematic and it's all in the area before the first check point. Once you're past that things are fine, but hordes of people crowd around the first check, are slow to figure it out, cut in line and have forced CMs to have a make-shift pre-queue to handle the situation.
You could say this problem exists everywhere, but it appeared worse at BTMRR.
bhg469
Well-Known Member
I guarantee I will cross paths with Dave professionally someday around springtime when he's snapping pics of the mlb teams, it's inevitable of they keep sending me to fl. That's why I started using spoiler tags.
It seems that the readers don't allow for much error. Have to bullseye the band to it every time. Off by a little and you get a line.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Maleficent could make $600+ million worldwide (it's at $521 million now), but will that be enough to break even?
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
thanks!