The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[dhall]

...
Say what you will about the man, but he left a great legacy behind. Those same shortcuts he mentions are almost commonplace in WDW today.

That he did -- left the legacy behind, and in the last five years of his tenure, gradually instituted the era of declining quality and shortcuts that you lament.

In retrospect, the folks complaining about the napkins & fries were right.

 

[mgpan]

"Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo said...

We have known for a really long time that getting our visitors to Walt Disney World to make decisions about where they spend their time before they leave home is a powerful driver of visits per guest. When they get into the Orlando market and their time isn't yet planned, they can be subject to everything you see down there, which is a lot of in-city marketing for all the many products that people have put there to basically bleed off the feed that we fundamentally motivate.

So if we can get people to plan their vacation before they leave home, we know that we get more time with them."

Well if that was the goal all along, Universal is going to make sure that doesn't happen, at least this summer!
Quite a few guest booking those 4 night minimum WWoHP packages!

Nelly,

Great to bring that quote back up again, especially the part in bold. It is what our long time posters have been saying in a nutshell. "Bleed off the feed THEY motivate?" If this is indicative of the thinking of Rasulo, Iger, et al., it basically says they believe they built Orlando, it is theirs, and the only reason anyone goes to Orlando is because of them and their parks. No reason to change a thing or worry about expanding, improving or doing anything other than maintaining the current state of offerings. The only reason anyone goes anywhere else in Orlando is because they are distracted by a billboard on I-4. All other attractions are evil blood sucking enterprises.

Do they not realize, the time for blind hatred of "those other products" is over, they've been around quite some time, and have now discovered they can gain a bigger share of tourist dollars as WDW lives of its history and nostalgia. If they truly believe this, and apparently they do, they're blind to what is actually taking place and refuse to believe the obvious. But as I've stated previously, wealthy investors and major players on the Street may be asking questions now but they are many times patient to a fault. They don't want to attack one of their own until absolutely necessary. This statement points to that, as it basically says pay no attention to the little carnivals in the area, we are TWDC and we shall reign forever, or at least long enough for us personally to have a lucrative cushion to land on.

 

[RSoxNo1]

But FP+ wasn't around when that one debuted. I think some folks are going to be"spoiled" by FP+. Whether or not that translates to lots of families choosing WDW over Uni (or any other park) solely for the convenience remains to be seen but there's bound to be a few. This was Disney's whole play with MM+ to begin with wasn't it?

And I agree with Parentsof4 (and most on here) that Express pass and FP+ fatten up the lines unnecessarily. Is the common family thinking about that though? Like me, they just want to get to the front.

Fastpass has existed since 98-99 (I don't recall which year. As for priority lines making the standby wait longer, this is nothing new. With Express Pass though, at least the company is getting money out of it. Having said that, I'm not suggesting Disney move to a paid system.

 

[PhotoDave219]

OFF Topic but Happening now: LAFD Evac'ing Six Flags Magic Mountain after reported derailment. http://t.co/vINHJ13xMY

Unclear as to what exactly happened, reported two serious but not life threatning injuries.

Edit: A car clearly derailed as I'm watching this.

 

[Gabe1]

@ParentsOf4 thanks for posting the article Cream Disney. Good read!

 

[FigmentJedi]

I don't think it's been brought up in these threads, despite it going on for a month, but Tokyo's Once Upon a Time is pretty nifty, the Gaston sequence for the climax in particular standing out. Give it a lot of extra pyro and it'd be a great replacement for both Wishes and Celebrate the Magic. Would mesh pretty nicely with Festival of Fantasy and that whole "We finally finished the damn Fantasyland expansion, let's celebrate" angle they had with it and it pretty much covers the MK Fantasyland bases.

 

[Mouse Trap]

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 can't imagine the sort of losses I would have accumulated if I listened to the fools at Motley Fool over the years. It's no more than a blog for the common investor to get his opinion out.

 

[StageFrenzy]

OFF Topic but Happening now: LAFD Evac'ing Six Flags Magic Mountain after reported derailment. http://t.co/vINHJ13xMY

Unclear as to what exactly happened, reported two serious but not life threatning injuries.

Edit: A car clearly derailed as I'm watching this.

I hesitated to "like" that because I don't like when things derail including threads.

 

[Ranch Dressing]

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.

Is that the same Comcast the Fool keeps claiming Disney is going to put out of business every year from the cable perspective? Motley Fool is like the National Enquiror of the stock world, no one with any investment savvy takes them seriously.

 

[PhotoDave219]

I hesitated to "like" that because I don't like when things derail including threads.

Watching this is very interesting. Right now, they are chaining the train in place including the car that is just hanging in mid air. Its not up very high tho.

 

[StageFrenzy]

Watching this is very interesting. Right now, they are chaining the train in place including the car that is just hanging in mid air. Its not up very high tho.

I liked some of the commentary. I think they braced/chained it to the support?

 

[cw1982]

Watching this is very interesting. Right now, they are chaining the train in place including the car that is just hanging in mid air. Its not up very high tho.

Did they get everyone out?

 

[Nemo14]

Watching this is very interesting. Right now, they are chaining the train in place including the car that is just hanging in mid air. Its not up very high tho.

*faints*

 

[PhotoDave219]

I liked some of the commentary. I think they braced/chained it to the support?

Thats what they seem to be doing right now, yes.

Did they get everyone out?

Not yet. First two cars are still full. Eight passengers. First car is the one that derailed.

Magic Mountain officials are being quoted as saying that the train hit a tree and then derailed.

This is the ride in question. Better photo of the cars here.

Image of the rescue efforts & derailed car here.

Purported Photo from on the train

 

[Nemo14]

Thats what they seem to be doing right now, yes.


Not yet. First two cars are still full. Eight passengers. First car is the one that derailed.

Magic Mountain officials are being quoted as saying that the train hit a tree and then derailed.

This is the ride in question. Better photo of the cars here.

Image of the rescue efforts & derailed car here.

Purported Photo from on the train

Hit a tree???!!!!

 

[NearTheEars]

Thats what they seem to be doing right now, yes.


Not yet. First two cars are still full. Eight passengers. First car is the one that derailed.

Magic Mountain officials are being quoted as saying that the train hit a tree and then derailed.

This is the ride in question. Better photo of the cars here.

Image of the rescue efforts & derailed car here.

Purported Photo from on the train

Yikes! The train reminds me of the Iron Dragon at Cedar Point. Rode that tons of times as a kid.

 

[bhg469]

Thats what they seem to be doing right now, yes.


Not yet. First two cars are still full. Eight passengers. First car is the one that derailed.

Magic Mountain officials are being quoted as saying that the train hit a tree and then derailed.

This is the ride in question. Better photo of the cars here.

Image of the rescue efforts & derailed car here.

Purported Photo from on the train

Sounds horrifying...
I guess disney is being proactive by taking out all the trees.

Not funny I know..

 

[Travel Junkie]

Ninja is anywhere between 20 to 50 feet off the ground as it twists and turns along the side of a mountain. Either a branch fell on the track or one of the cars swung too far one way and struck a tree.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Hit a tree???!!!!

If you look in that bottom photo, purported to be from on the ride, it looks like a tree is against the tracks.

Crappy to speculate, I know I hate it when others do, but thats what SFMM is saying and that looks like a tree to me.

My sincere hat off to the LA County Fire Technical Rescue guys. They are putting harnesses on the trapped guests before lifting them into a cherry picker. Insane stuff.

 

[Mike S]

Hit a tree???!!!!

It must've come out of nowhere for a coaster on a fixed track to suddenly hit one.