The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[marni1971]

HW may have been held up due to lack of suitable infrastructure that is now being addressed.

Hyperion was held up because it was crap.

In all seriousness it had a parking garage and infrastructure improvements earmarked for it too, just like Springs. So it wasn't that.

 

[NearTheEars]

So if I charge people $1.00 to get in using NextGen and attendance goes through the roof...would you agree or disagree that "total attendance" is a good gauge?

No, that's an awful comparison because ticket prices have been increased, not slashed since the rollout of MM+

 

[NJBrandon]

Anyone know if Gringotts is going to be opened tomorrow?

Yes, it will be open at the opening. Whether it will be open 10 minutes after that, who knows.

 

[danlb_2000]

The latest Motley Fool article should be fun:

Comcast Is About to Cream Disney

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/07/comcast-is-about-to-cream-disney.aspx

This should be a nice, calm discussion.

I should have trademarked that.

 

[ChrisFL]

Via twitter:

https://twitter.com/arothwdwc/status/486262063392489474/photo/1

 

[PeterAlt]

HW may have been held up due to lack of suitable infrastructure that is now being addressed. That is what I was refering to. Lack of capital investment at the Studios may be due to insufficient infasructure also. That was what I was saying. A garage that could be shared by Epcot and DHS is a very interesting idea. It could even be 'off-stage' and for employess only. That would help.

I still think Disney intends to invest in WDW heavily due to Uni and the 50th anniversary. I just think they are trying to figure out the details. And there is plenty happening in the meantime. Hub. Pandora. Disney Springs. Etc.

My gut tells me they will be investing in infrastructure there at HS before we see any major expansion there. They could do things like the Door Coaster in the meanwhile. If DLR is interested in Door Coaster, I can't understand why WDW would still not be interested in doing it, especially since it's great filler to have until the expansions can go in (while the infrastructure projects get built). This is something Burbank should override and see to it that that ride gets built at both parks simultaneously.

On my trip recently, my sister and I found HS to be still very "fresh" and should not be made a priority as of now, but the Door Coaster would certainly be something nice to have, while AK and EC get major capital funding. Well, we know AK will, so I say this assuming EC will too. But EC really should get priority funding. Every bit of nook and cranny of that park need to be reevaluated and money thrown at it as part of an emergency initiative to save the park and all the billions of dollars Disney has poured into it until now!

 

[Funmeister]

No, that's an awful comparison because ticket prices have been increased, not slashed since the rollout of MM+

The point was not about the price...the point was about anything can affect tickets/admission showing that sole attendance is a horrible gauge for the success of NextGen.

 

[Captain Chaos]

My favorite is this one
"looney49er Universal has raised their tix prices, and they had to open Transformers the ride which used to be Spider Man after Disney bought the rights to Marvel... the Springfield addition to Universal Studios was not opened last year try longer maybe about 3 years ago when they opened the Simpsons ride (formally known as Back to the Future) , you talk about Disney building out of the box rides, when Universal is just taking old rides putting new names on it, fresh paint, a lil tweak here and there and you got yourself a "new ride" ..." So clueless, just the kind of people Disney loves.

Sounds like several of the members who troll here.

 

[NearTheEars]

The point was not about the price...the point was about anything can affect tickets/admission showing that sole attendance is a horrible gauge for the success of NextGen.

Yeah, I read your post a little further down (tough to keep up here sometimes)

But as PO4 pointed out, it is an important part of the equation. Marketing wise, no matter how dumb some WDW vets may think they are, the bands offer some appeal to first timers and may help boost attendance.

Sales wise .... Eh I think they can be more convenient, but as a frugal shopper, no matter KTTW, band or CC I'm still going to be cheap at the end of the day.

This new system greatly benefits me as a local, so u love it selfishly. It didn't cost me a dime. But it has cost them estimated billions.

And since they have been keeping their cards close, no one knows the official numbers yet.

 

[Funmeister]

Yeah, I read your post a little further down (tough to keep up here sometimes)

But as PO4 pointed out, it is an important part of the equation. Marketing wise, no matter how dumb some WDW vets may think they are, the bands offer some appeal to first timers and may help boost attendance.

Sales wise .... Eh I think they can be more convenient, but as a frugal shopper, no matter KTTW, band or CC I'm still going to be cheap at the end of the day.

This new system greatly benefits me as a local, so u love it selfishly. It didn't cost me a dime. But it has cost them estimated billions.

And since they have been keeping their cards close, no one knows the official numbers yet.

No problem. I agree it is part of the equation but that is not what the original poster who I responded to said. NextGen was deigned more to raise revenue through per cap than attracting new customers.

 

[TeriofTerror]

If people from Disney are reading this forum as @WDW1974 says they do, they should be very afraid of posts like this. This is coming from a long time visitor who is making a permanent change to his vacation habits. This is your core audience telling you it's time to change.

(Sigh) But are we truly Disney's core audience? I love Disney desperately, but I'm starting to feel as though that love may be unrequited. Maybe I'm just in a bad mental place because the Tribe is currently losing to the Yankees, but I'm not feeling the love - and I say this as an AP-holding DVC member. It seems to me as though Disney's target audience is not the uber Disney fan, but rather the family that plans a "trip of a lifetime" every three to five years. Infrequent visitors of that sort would love the convenience of MM+, and really wouldn't notice or care if any new additions have been made, or even if quality has slipped. I feel like I'm still the honors student geek I was in high school, watching Disney court the cheerleaders. But that's probably a deeper look into my psyche than any of you wanted.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

Yeah, I read your post a little further down (tough to keep up here sometimes)

But as PO4 pointed out, it is an important part of the equation. Marketing wise, no matter how dumb some WDW vets may think they are, the bands offer some appeal to first timers and may help boost attendance.

Sales wise .... Eh I think they can be more convenient, but as a frugal shopper, no matter KTTW, band or CC I'm still going to be cheap at the end of the day.

This new system greatly benefits me as a local, so u love it selfishly. It didn't cost me a dime. But it has cost them estimated billions.

And since they have been keeping their cards close, no one knows the official numbers yet.

It has cost us.... Maybe not in $$$ directly, but dont forget that this is the year of a million cuts!

 

[Nubs70]

I have said in the past that the cost savings can clearly be proven. So can certain sales, i.e. magic bands. The problem is increased sales in other areaz are difficult to prove. So are people spending an extra day in one of the parks. Can the reason be proved? No. I still say it was worth it and allowing people to plan in advance is great. I will have my 9 days of fast pass plus selected shortly for my vacation from 9/20 to 9/28. Am I spending an extra day in one of the parks? No. We would have spend every day like we do every year. Will we spend more? Yes but we do that every year anyway. Do I love the new system? Yes. So where does that leave us? My wife will buy all three Frozen magic bands if they are still available in September. Disney will save money on us because we use the magic bands at the food booths at Food and Wine. That is at least 200 charges over the 9 days. Then add all that my wife spends at the stores. All that can be proven is the cost savings. Everything else is speculation but some of it has to be the result of next gen. Profits are all that matters and they will increase.

Extra days can certainly be proven. It can be proven through average park days/guest/stay. Inflection point analysis of CUSUM chart of APRGS will show as plain as the nose on you face. The duration of Time in Park will also show if APers are getting in and out quicker.

 

[homerdance]

I was just going to post this.

It's interesting to see an unbiased person ackowledge exactly what a lot of people here are saying. These types of articles are good as they can only fuel more anxiety in Burbank and hopefully they loosen the purse strings to fight back

One of the bigger takeways is his reference to the 2 park ticket for HE and the lines of people buying the upgrade. Universal hit a home run by squeezing people into buying a 2 park ticket. Really shrewd and just plain smart on their part. Meanwhile, as we talked about earlier Disney missed a golden opportunity with MM+ to make the highly profitable resorts more popular. Forget Gringott's vs Mine Train. From a business prospective Uni's move to increase multi-park tickets vs Disney's missed opportunity with MM+ is the real story of the summer and will have more of an impact on the bottom line than which ride is better.

The "fool" is about clicks not about news, there is a reason why the "outbrain" folks have so many fool articles, but hey, its on the iterweb.

 

[fillerup]

I don't think even the harshest critic would suggest that MM+ won't generate new revenues, maybe even significant new revenues.

But the mid term and long term question is - will it generate enough revenue? Enough revenue to recapture the capital expenditures or even enough revenues to cover what I believe are massive new operating expenses.

This new way of doing business is requiring huge new labor expenditures to support it and due to the nature of technology, will require constant maintenance and relatively frequent upgrades.

I'm skeptical at this point.

 

[GoofGoof]

The "fool" is about clicks not about news, there is a reason why the "outbrain" folks have do many fool articles, buy hey, its on the iterweb.

Not sure what your point is. I didn't say it would win a Pulitzer Prize or anything. It's still relevant to what we are talking about here.

 

[Nubs70]

To me, the integration of mm+ into the transportation would be an incredible move. Having said that, they wont. They will never dump the money needed into it because they have only made transportation worse on resort for years on purpose. No need to improve it.

WDW will just send out an intern with a clipboard and stopwatch to do time studies.

 

[Phil12]

I'm sure you've got it posted somewhere, but I think PCGS was only up 4% on the 10Q posted end of quarter 03/29/2014, while it was 10% for the same quarter 2013. However, attendance growth mirrored that in 3% vs 8% a year prior. Not sure where PRGS was.



Edit....the numbers I'm looking at are "Domestic" I don't know if WDW alone is available anywhere as opposed to combined WDW and DLR

And therein lies the problem. The available figures combine WDW and DLR.

 

[culturenthrills]

I believe most of the queue is indoors and air conditioned, in addition to highly themed. Same with many of the shops. (For example, the "owl shop" is nothing but switchbacks to get into Madam Milkins' for your robe fitting.)

Yeah, I noticed they designed some of the shops to have Q's and some of them are hidden into the scenery. However, they forgot to create one for the ice cream parlor. There is consistently a line out on the street. The great thing is that half the land is either covered or in AC. Brilliant design for Florida weather.

 

[bhg469]

It has cost us.... Maybe not in $$$ directly, but dont forget that this is the year of a million cuts!

It's been a long year..