lentesta
Premium Member
This might be it. I hear licensed tour operators can provide paid tours, and those credentials are relatively inexpensive to obtain. Doesn't make sense for free tours, but for paid tours it's straightforward enough.
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The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...
- Thread starter WDW1974
- Start date
This might be it. I hear licensed tour operators can provide paid tours, and those credentials are relatively inexpensive to obtain. Doesn't make sense for free tours, but for paid tours it's straightforward enough.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
This may be true of WDW, but it's not true of TWDC in total. The acquisitions they made (Pixar, Marvel and eventually Lucas) are paying off big time. They even had their own hit movie...something about a snowman and ice with a catchy tuneThe movie studio is doing quite well. Network TV is...well network TV. At best you can say ABC is in no worse shape than any other network. ESPN is still king in sports. I know you personally don't believe it, but college football alone could carry the network. Add in NBA playoffs, MLB coverage and some show on Monday nights in the fall and it's in pretty solid shape. Can they continue to extract aggresive growth in fees from cable companies? Maybe not, but the fees aren't going down. It's a huge money maker. On the P&R side they have a wildly successful and expanding cruise line. A 2nd park opening in China and 2 of the most visited domestic parks. Maybe some things aren't great right now at WDW, but in the grand scheme of things that's only a portion of P&R which is only a portion of the whole company. As a WDW centered forum we tend to extrapolate the issues at WDW to the whole company.
All that being said there is some risk to the business. There is a risk to almost any business. The studios aren't going to hit a home run every time. They will eventually have a big failure. I think there are something like 10 superhero movies slated to come out in the next 7 years. Could be a little bit of overkill there. The parks could face issues if the economy worsens or a 9/11 type event occurred again. They doubled down on their political and foreign currency risks in China. ABC could become a train wreck. Starting with Eisner and working through Iger TWDC has diversified it's business. That helps to counter a major problem in any one area. I'm not saying the company is too big to fail, but I also don't see the imminent demise of the company either.
Point is the company is in no immediate danger of demise but with a relatively small amount of cash on hand and no virtually no ORGANIC growth other than price increases across the board and i'm including their cable properties in this. TWDC is very vulnerable to external events more so than Comcast or TW or other comparable media properties.
Iger has done a good job of pumping the stock price but he has done a miserable job of ensuring long term growth across TWDC's lines of business of which P&R is the poster child.
If you look at the consolidated balance sheets the 'growth' in both their Cable Properties and P&R is entirely price increase driven. Studio properties are showing a small profit and the gaming division is running a huge loss.
Disney has solid prospects but it's headed by a guy who only knows how to generate short term profits. It would benefit from a more long term view - as another poster wrote Disney is a company which needs a strong partnership at the helm to succeed in the model of Walt/Roy and Eisner/Wells - without that the company flounders.
Right now Disney stockholders would benefit from a raider who breaks up the company into its component units as none of the units are performing as well as they could under competent management.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
It has? - Yes it's had so called 'refurbs' but as I understand it they are the standard clean off the obvious grime and replace parts which should have been replaced during nightly maintenance. Not a full scale tear down the ride vehicles and replace all the out of spec components and refurbish the vehicles to 'as new' standards.
If this had been done I don't think we would see the number of breakdowns this ride has suffered.
Or am I totally incorrect on this????
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
With NFL as a model this is a surprise why?
CinematicFusion
Well-Known Member
I do expect you to wait WDW1974, I don't mean that in a negative way. You have been on this board since 2008. You are the biggest Disney fan I've ever run across in all my travels. You are so close to Disney you can tell me details I wouldn't even dream of thinking about. Which is so very cool!
Being so close to something we start to see the cracks most people don't. We understand how the trick works, we can pinpoint the ingredients used in the secret sauce.
You still can see the magic, child like enthusiasm. You are ed Disney is sitting on their hands as with everyone on this board. But you still see the magic.
I'll believe you have given up on Disney the moment you stop posting on this board. That's the moment you decide to walk away from the boyhood crush, give up waiting for the phone call.
I have a strong feeling you will be here in 7 years. You have already been on this board for 7 years...time flies.
Anyway...people on this board love you so...I'm sorry, you are stuck.
You still have to preach the gospel. I've posted enough about Disney's delays and moves that have upset me since starting on this board in 2011.
1. What about Epcot?...it's been 7 years since a new attraction?
2. Might not see new attractions until 2018-20? Wall Street wants to scale back park investment? (This one is looking true)
3. Disney Playing catch up with Universal... Potter Disney's biggest mistake in 20 years...
So, If I get to be a fanboy for a little bit cool. Its refreshing to be positive every now and again. Yen/Yang in life, must have balance.
Winds are changing and I'll stick to that. It's happening right now. I can't change what has happened in the past, I can't bring back what was lost in the past. Live in the here and now with an eye towards the future.
This could be the watershed moment for Disney. (A critical point that marks a division or a change of course; a turning point)
This moment right here....
1. Universal announces in 2007 Potter is coming to Florida. (Maybe this is what kick started everything)
Since then:
Disney announced New Fantasyland in 2009 (Already built)
Disney announced Avatar Pandora in 2011 (Being built as we speak)
Disney announced Downtown Disney Expansion in 2013 (Being built as we speak)
Disney will announce Star Wars in 2015 (This is fact...announced at stock conference call, not at some Disney luncheon after a few drinks...media has reported this stock conference statement everywhere...Disney doesn't announce in 2015 now, and stock analyst start telling stories of things not working in the Magic Kingdom. You know how that goes. Besides...all a setup, Disney marketing machine at work here.)
All things stay on pace...see no reason why they won't judging by the recent past....Disney announces Epcot in 2017. That will happen, I'll put money on it. I even think you have heard rumors of this happening.
In 2020 (give or take one year (2019-2021)...there is going to be some cool stuff at WDW with build out at Epcot happening.
I'll put my reputation on the line. Everyone mark this post because I'm going to get hated on for being so positive. I see the trend...I have seen the vision of the future.
Remember:
Days are long but years are short (learned that as a parent). Patience...things are being built as we speak. As you can see in the picture, I'm wearing my battle armor and prepared for the attack...and I have an awesome pair of 12 sided dice so be very careful!
And this board is lucky to have individuals like WDW1974, Lee, Marni1971. They care..a lot...don't ever doubt it. They should be the ones running Disney.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
As a Comcast customer I can tell you for certain that Comcast's growth is driven by insane price increases
IMHO Comcast's cable business has much more long term uncertainty. Neither company is going anywhere anytime soon, but if you told me 1 won't exist in 25 or 30 years my money would be on Comcast. Of course it has nothing to do with who has better theme parks.
CinematicFusion
Well-Known Member
I snuck that comment in to see if it was true. Looks like it wasn't. That salad dressing guy posted it...so I wanted to see how many calories it had. Turns out Zero good calories with a lot of fat. I won't purchase it as the store anymore.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
As a Comcast customer I can tell you for certain that Comcast's growth is driven by insane price increases
IMHO Comcast's cable business has much more long term uncertainty. Neither company is going anywhere anytime soon, but if you told me 1 won't exist in 25 or 30 years my money would be on Comcast. Of course it has nothing to do with who has better theme parks.
If you look at Comcast - they are busiliy locking up the residential and small business internet access business, With their new Xfinity product they are also building a nationwide network of hotspots (piggybacking on YOUR network access) IF they succeed in their current merger they will serve half of all households in the US.
Just selling 'Net access to a customer base that big is a nice little business - even without IP.
And yes Comcast IS the Antichrist of customer service and price increases BUT their business is GROWING unlike $DIS.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
I suspect the THEATER facade would stay - just no ride in show building and the BAH still needs to go YESTERDAY.
Stevek
Well-Known Member
Which again goes somewhat to prove that he's basically a Disney employee, even if he doesn't wear the nametag. They let him do these tours, do live broadcasts from pretty much everywhere i.e. parks, restaurants and sell his audio tours of the parks. Quite honestly, can't blame or fault the guy. He's clearly passionate about the parks and has turned it into a business...though I can't fathom how a podcast/website/books allows him to afford all the trips he takes (maybe comp'd by Disney?). From what I've heard from just about everyone that has come in contact with him is that he's a very nice/good guy. At the end of the day, he's Disney's biggest WDW brand advocate and I'm sure that they'll do whatever is needed to make sure he continues to favorably spread the WDW gospel.
Smiddimizer
Well-Known Member
I don't disagree, but if that's the case, where's the major impetus for future projects/rumoured major announcements impending for HKDL, Star Wars and the like? Are they still being "forced"? (no pun intended
)
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Thanks. I make a perfectly good Producers joke and it goes ignored.... Lol.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Great graphic, Are you familiar with the work of Edward Tufte he did a lot of the pioneering work in data visualization and this one is worthy of him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Tufte
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Well it's nice to see actual data backing up what most of us locals said for a few years now. There isn't a dead time anymore.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
One thought I great movie ride… There's very little in that park to do Beyond shows & a couple thrill rides.
For the reasons alone that it's a people eater and one of the few rides in the park that do not have a height restriction… That's not going anywhere in the foreseeable future.
I get that it doesn't have the best feedback because it hasn't been updated. Ever. The ride vehicles don't always work. The fire doors don't even work all the time.
So in short, they just cannot risk losing the park capacity.
For the reasons alone that it's a people eater and one of the few rides in the park that do not have a height restriction… That's not going anywhere in the foreseeable future.
I get that it doesn't have the best feedback because it hasn't been updated. Ever. The ride vehicles don't always work. The fire doors don't even work all the time.
So in short, they just cannot risk losing the park capacity.
flynnibus
Premium Member
Disney's "refurbishments" are so misapplied in the fan community. People have unrealistic expectations that every refurb is supposed to be Star Tours 2.0 or something.. or the BTMRR redo.. and they get all y if an attraction comes back from refurb just being the same show. Scheduled closures can be for everything from catch-up work, to mechanical repair, replace, show element upgrades, infrastructure upgrades, safety upgrades, to complete reworks of the attraction.
Not everything can be done during normal off-hours.. and given Disney's shift to non-dedicated maintenance staff, it is not surprising that more extensive work is pushed into scheduled downtimes where teams can spend dedicated time vs time-sliced.
What breakdowns? The ride system is pretty reliable.
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
or more like.. People are getting smarter and reviewing the crowd dates.
Thus selecting the more emptier ones.
I honestly wouldn't go on peak dates even if my life depended on it!
flynnibus
Premium Member
Nah.. that kind of knowledge has been out there since the 80s. People's general vacation availability hasn't changed that much. What is different now is Disney has been creating more and more demand for those previously low periods by creating events like SWW, ESPN Weekends, W&D, RunDisney, etc etc. With greater reason to go 'that week', Disney can convince people to overcome what previous conflicts may have held the people back from coming those weeks. It also creates demand for people to visit more frequently.
SirLink
Well-Known Member
I don't quite understand the logic ... a few scenes could easily be replaced by more modern versions ala Wizard of Oz but the sentiment is still present. So your telling me no teenager has seen Alien, Oz, Indiana Jones, Casablanca, Singin' in the rain, Mary Poppins, any gangster film, any western ... sorry ... "I don't believe you". Maybe your readership is the problem. Yep they won't gut it change out maybe the finale and update the effects that will be about it.