The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[WDW1974]

314 pages, seriously? ok can I get the cliff notes version?

Only if I can get paid!

 

[WDW1974]

@WDW1974 do you have any info/insight as to why the sudden change in EMH?

Nope. My guess is that it was for operational efficiencies that are better served by this schedule. But I would need to ask around a bit. The goal was to be done with evening EMH's in the near future ... but that could have shifted too.

And since I can't scam the system with my 'lifetime EMH for free' card anymore, it would only affect me if I am staying on a DVC or CM rate because I won't stay at a WDW resort otherwise (I think my next booked stay is next year!)

 

[BrianLo]

I'd much rather hear about your HKDL experiences myself!

Coming! Gotta do it right after all, currently wasting time in a Cathay lounge waiting to head to Vietnam.

 

[WDW1974]

Random thought: the Chinese don't want American businesses in China unless they can own part of it and reap the benfits of being a 'partner' while the American company manages most of the company, by their various rules of course, and takes in only a portion of the money. Disney falls into this sort of deal with their theme park ownership schemes because China wants domestic ownership. Goldman Sachs owns a brokerage in China where it controls the brokerage but it isn't a fully owned subsidiary. I wonder when China will change these xenophobic rules? Likely not for a very long time.

Somewhat related post but I know there are some people here interested in international business in China. I read an interesting article this morning on the heavy banking regulations the Chinese put on foreign banks in China.

I would not term China's actions as xenophobic, but more protectionist (and controlling) in nature. If you do business in China (I have lived and worked in Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong ... and spent some time in Shenzhen for good measure), you have to understand the game board and the rules when you go in. Things are certainly different there, but it isn't necessarily bad. Just their version of corruption and ours are different flavours of the same toxic beverage. But understand this: the Chinese want to be us. The people love the USA and American entertainment and culture. When GM was going broke here, it was making billions selling Buicks over there. I often think YUM Brands would be a shell company if it wasn't for their Asian operations. It can be a crazy place, but I have never felt more welcome in another country as my Chinese brothers and sisters made me feel every time I was there. I am so looking forward to returning there in 2015.

 

[WDW1974]

if your going to be at UNI july 9-11th let me know..
1st few ales are on me.

Doubt it, but if I am I will drop you a note here.

 

[WDW1974]

Coming! Gotta do it right after all, currently wasting time in a Cathay lounge waiting to head to Vietnam.

OK, I know you are Canadian so that explains the amount of vacation time ... but, dude, you must be close to a Canadian Top One Percenter with all your adventures globetrotting.

 

[BrianLo]

OK, I know you are Canadian so that explains the amount of vacation time ... but, dude, you must be close to a Canadian Top One Percenter with all your adventures globetrotting.

Very definition of faux 1%, but I have a bright future I suppose.

You don't know the half of it (this is the start of a 10 week journey), and the 35000 miles of flights cost me 350 dollars (in business).

Oh, and I'll leave the mystery of the other two resorts I'll eventually get to up in the air!

 

[WDW1974]

The question with China and Shanghai Disney is, is it better to own 48% of the highest attended theme park or not. I think it's well worth it. It will help their movie sales especially since China limits the number of foreign movies. This park will help Disney get all the movies they want into the China market.

First, Disney owns 43% while Shanghai Shendi owns 57%. Not that I am overly into numbers (just see any thread that touts WDW's unofficial official numbers to claim some sort of fanboi superiority over UNI-O-Town).

I don't know where in the world you get the idea that SDL will be the No. 1 attended theme park in China, let alone the world, at this point. I believe you threw some numbers on the table in another discussion talking about capacity, right? Well, I can tell you that at opening SDL will not have the capacity (even in the almost impossible event that people pack it to the rafters every day it is open) to come close to the numbers put up by the Top 10 theme parks on the globe. It's just not that big and won't have enough capacity to do so. They are rushing a Phase II that is really a Phase IA that opens 12-24 months later to address this, but that is largely due to Chinese concerns about Disney doing what it did in HK and axing 60% of the park as soon as the ink dried on the contracts.

You are right about Disney wanting more exposure for its films and, it is hoping, more profits. And that is very important to the success of this beachhead in the mainland. But there are still mighty obstacles to overcome on that end and Disney hasn't made the Chinese happy with many of its moves or its arrogant, dismissive negotiating style (I've actually seen this in person and am still amazed the resort actually happened!)

 

[WDW1974]

Very definition of faux 1%, but I have a bright future I suppose.

You don't know the half of it (this is the start of a 10 week journey), and the 35000 miles of flights cost me 350 dollars (in business).

That is some traveling ... and one helluva deal ... and, yes, I will be hitting you up for all the details when you return. Where exactly are you headed on this odyssey?

 

[WDW1974]

Believe me, with the directions that this thread has gone in, even the Cliff Notes would be the size of War & Peace. Start anywhere and use your imagination to convince yourself that you have been on it all along. You haven't really missed much of any substance.

I won't argue the substance part with you Goof. I will say anyone who wastes time reading and responding to 322 pages (with many more to come) of posts must not value their time very much or must think they're getting a second chance at life when they hit the mythical Pearly Gates (I think these are the ones at the entrance to Diagon Alley!)

 

[WDW1974]

Spririt does this make you a photodave lifestyler?
Making him buy you drinks to say something good about him?
(for those who can't take a joke, unlike the spirit - I am just kidding)

No, actually for years I ran a totally legit tax deductible charitable 'Take a Spirit to Dinner' program since so many folks want a piece of my vacation time and I do have to eat and I tend to take people more seriously when they feed me. ...Dave has been, as a friend, grandfathered in so he doesn't have to take me to dinner or buy me drinks, not that he shouldn't or anything!!!

 

[WDW1974]

A quick phone aside, but what is the deal with girls from 12-29 sticking iPhones in their right back butt pocket? Who sits on their phones? Who doesn't get that this causes screens to break, even from tender young tushes?

I see it all the time and just wonder W-T-F!!!

 

[khale1970]

Yes, they have real 4-star service at the UNI resorts.

I wish my group had gotten a taste of that 4 star service at the Royal Pacific this week. Maybe my expectations were too high after all the rave reviews, but three bad experiences (one at check in, one at the fitness center, and one at the pool side restaurant) over two nights seems excessive. It was our first trip to UNI and first time staying at one of their resorts. It has me thinking I won't stay in one again when we go back in a couple of years.

 

[OC1978]

My very first post. Why, as a faux 1% blogger, are you on Landry's or Macaroni Grill's email lists? You seem to have very good connections @ DW and WDW and maybe the other parks. You obviously are a world traveler and seem to have some familial connection to the parks? When you blog about all your fantastic trips, i just can't understand why you would be spending time looking for discounts at cheap chain restaurants.

 

[BrianLo]

That is some traveling ... and one helluva deal ... and, yes, I will be hitting you up for all the details when you return. Where exactly are you headed on this odyssey?

Short version is some more SE Asian destinations I've not been to before, Sydney, road trip in New Zealand, South America (Incan trail, biking in Ecuador etc.).

Plus DLR midway and UOR at the end.

 

[stevehousse]

A quick phone aside, but what is the deal with girls from 12-29 sticking iPhones in their right back butt pocket? Who sits on their phones? Who doesn't get that this causes screens to break, even from tender young tushes?

I see it all the time and just wonder W-T-F!!!

I will admit as a young adult male, I do keep my iPhone in my back pocket...lol

 

[WDW1974]

I wouldn't call what China is doing "xenophobic" perse, but rather protectionist. If the PRC let the largest multinationals into China with no strings attached, they would decimate domestic businesses which would mean that less wealth reaped in China would stay there. It's more of a you can enter the Chinese market as long as you know that you are a guest here and that we will exert our power over what you can and cannot do. It's funny you brought up Goldman Sachs, aka Cancer, because while they may be held to high standards, the Chinese banking sector certainly is not abiding by them. It does appear that China could experience its first major recession soon thanks to their real estate bubble. Imagine if the Chinese economy is imploding on Shanghai Disneyland's opening day next fall!

Yes!!! THIS!!!

You nailed it. China absolutely wants these major western corps in their country. They just don't want them making all their money and then taking all their money away. They are quite adept at capitalism (something people here also don't understand because they confuse economic system with political systems and think the mechanisms are interchangible) and they are doing what they can to keep as much wealth in the PRC as they can.

I do worry about their housing bubble ... and those ghost cities certainly give one pause. At some point very soon, the CCP is going to have to address the way they have built the economy not being any more sustainable than our Wall Street Ponzi Scheme lie that almost sent the world into chaos in 2008 (how many bankers and execs went to jail for that? Oh, none. I guess it really was credit card debt amongst Americans earning under $75K a year that caused all that damage, not the folks who put in a flawed and totally fixed system!)

And I hope that nothing is imploding when SDL opens since I plan on being there and I plan on showing @Lee and Mrs. Lee and Angie M. (if Cassandra doesn't get her in her sleep!) the real wonders of China! ... It would still be nice if Disney gave us a date as to opening at this point.

Disney, and the other Hollywood majors, don't make money in China. While there is the film import quota you mentioned, the central government only lets the studios take 10-15% of the grosses. For context, studios typically get 50% of the gross here in America and it's in that ballpark in most of the world. To Disney, releasing their films in China are what Alan Horn would call Brand Deposits. Disney wants to establish its BRAND with the Chinese consumer so that they'll buy Disney branded items, send their kids to the Disney English after school program, and yes visit Shanghai Disneyland. The hope is long term that central government will be looser with its restrictions where the Studios get 30-35 percent of the gross and Disney will be able to own a larger chunk of a larger, more developed Shanghai Disneyland.

To TWDC this is all about establishing a beachhead into the country that will soon have the world's largest middle class, but the central government wants to make sure domestic industry has a fair shake.

This is a great post considering you haven't been to China. You nailed most of the salient points. I actually repeated you because I didn't realize how well this was covered.

But SDL is so much more than a theme park resort. It is that beachhead for any/everything TWDC hopes to do in the PRC going forward. That, above all, is why they really can't eff this one up (they are trying though!)

And remember, No Coke, Pepsi!

 

[Darth Sidious]

I would not term China's actions as xenophobic, but more protectionist (and controlling) in nature. If you do business in China (I have lived and worked in Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong ... and spent some time in Shenzhen for good measure), you have to understand the game board and the rules when you go in. Things are certainly different there, but it isn't necessarily bad. Just their version of corruption and ours are different flavours of the same toxic beverage. But understand this: the Chinese want to be us. The people love the USA and American entertainment and culture. When GM was going broke here, it was making billions selling Buicks over there. I often think YUM Brands would be a shell company if it wasn't for their Asian operations. It can be a crazy place, but I have never felt more welcome in another country as my Chinese brothers and sisters made me feel every time I was there. I am so looking forward to returning there in 2015.

Yes, I can agree with what you're saying here for sure. It's semantics in a sense ultimately their protectionist laws can be perceived as xenophobia as they are nationalistic and meant to protect national or state entities. At the same time you're correct the Chinese do love Americans in many ways. I have the opportunity to work with many Chinese at work and people would be surprised to find how much more they believe in the American ideals of free markets and free enterprise than most Americans do today.

Without the willingness to open their borders to the West a lot of that wealth wouldn't be in China. The Chinese government realizes the benefits of capitalism while still exercising firm control over things to keep wealth in China. It is just corrupt in different ways than the American government.

 

[WDW1974]

Time for the Eighth wave. Seventh Heaven has derailed to many times.

Nah, I am thinking of riding this one until the bitter end.
(not having a major summer trip planned certainly helps)

Besides, if this has 400,000 views in a month without me really trying to capture and sustain an audience, I do wonder what would happen if I were more active? If I let more of the inner Spirit out? If I went with a "Bash the Lifestyler of the Day?'' If I did some history lesson that can't be learned by eBaying a 1996 WDC Annual Report or a 1979 Vacationland magazine? ... Yes, we might triple that number easily.

 

[WDW1974]

I dont go into Apple stores because Im not a genital.

Oh, but you do enjoy playing the part quite entertainingly here!