The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[flyerjab]

Maybe so. I'm not unhappy with FLE like a lot of people here (it has some drawbacks, but overall is a pretty solid addition). If Avland ends up on the same level as FLE and that's settling for mediocrity then I'll take it over the next CEO not investing a dime in WDW for his whole tenure.

I also am 'not unhappy' with FLE, as @GoofGoof so aptly put it. The one ride where they settled for a lead off walk as opposed to a home run is TLM - this ride should be better. Other than that I enjoy the new expansion.

I think that the one advantage Pandora has is that it will be a unique experience in Orlando. An alien landscape that will come alive, especially at night, is something I see as a singular attraction that won't be available at any other WDW or UNI park. This isn't another pyro display, or show, or parade. This is a place where the forest will glow, plants react, and waterfalls cascade down from mountains floating over 100 feet above your head. I am very much expecting this expansion to be an incredible experience just to be there.

I notice how other posters comment at times about how parks take on an almost different personality after the sun goes down. I can't see how that could be any more impactful than in this park. It won't be lanterns lighting up the paths. The paths themselves will light up for you as you pass. Add to that a state of the art simulator E-ticket and a family boat ride and this expansion will have really added to a park that has needed attention.

 

[tirian]

Thanks a lot. Just a sad, sad situation.

Hope there's peace for everyone involved.

 

[lebeau]

I also am 'not unhappy' with FLE, as @GoofGoof so aptly put it. The one ride where they settled for a lead off walk as opposed to a home run is TLM - this ride should be better. Other than that I enjoy the new expansion.

I think that the one advantage Pandora has is that it will be a unique experience in Orlando. An alien landscape that will come alive, especially at night, is something I see as a

7 Dwarfs needs another show scene if you ask me.

 

[Mike S]

Budget has already been slashed ... yes, slashed on one major project (not the monkey ride). And others are in jeopardy due to ignorant UNI execs who thought that Potter 2.0 would be an immediate 1.0 meteoric rise in numbers.

Which it hasn't been, despite setting records for the park this summer.

Sometimes I do wonder if any execs have any common sense the way that organizations are being run.

I'm guessing the KidZone makeover. I really hope whatever was rumored for Jurassic Park doesn't get slashed. On a final note it'll get a little slow around here without you but you have to be with family and I understand.

 

[tirian]

And the racket from the misplaced stage outside.

God I sound old.

It's okay; I'll put tennis balls on your walker for you.

 

[lebeau]

I'm guessing the KidZone makeover. I really hope whatever was rumored for Jurassic Park doesn't get slashed. On a final note it'll get a little slow around here without you but you have to be with family and I understand.

How much slower can it get? We have a bunch of threads about iPay.

 

[WDW1974]

First, congrats on hitting 20,000 likes

For the first 3 quarters of fiscal year 2014, Disney's Domestic Parks & Resorts Revenue was up only 8.4%. In case anyone thinks this is good, it averaged 10.7% the 3 years before that. In other words, in MyMagic+'s first year of widespread deployment, revenue growth has slowed down.

MyMagic+ is not to blame. Economic events in South America have dampened growth at both WDW and Uni.

Furthermore, both WDW and Uni are guilty of aggressive price increases from 2011 to 2013. These increases also are inhibiting growth in 2014.

Taken together, the two have turned what could have been a great summer into only a good one. Expectations are not being met at both at WDW and at Uni.

Yes, but UNI broke records and was unhappy based on crazily unrealistic projections. ... Disney ... Disney ... I think the biggest thing they can crow about is that the Frozen Summer promo helped bring their Studios park back from the brink.

I'd also argue that economic factors in the USA and the UK hurt Disney more than South America. Brazil is now the No. 2 market for WDW after the USA. Even with WDW being a bargain and UKers (like @wdwmagic and @marni1971 etc) having some crazy fixation with O-Town and awful Florida weather, issues in the economy over there have affected travel to the USA.

At this point, there's almost no way Disney is going to be able to point to MyMagic+ as a source of revenue growth. In order to save face, Iger and Rasulo are going to have to focus on Operating Income growth.

As I explained earlier, this is going to improve but only because Disney has stopped throwing money at MyMagic+.

I previously suggested we should wait at least 3 or 4 more quarters before deciding if MyMagic+ was financially successful. Based on the word gymnastics Iger & Rasulo have been performing lately, it appears they already feel that MyMagic+ is a financial dud.

Yes. I read your post, but didn't really comment. No doubt the bottom line will look better simply because Disney isn't throwing any money it can find at NGE as of now. As you stated in that previous post, it's like Staggs and Rasulo lying about how much this really cost because they can hide the costs (hundreds of millions) in all sorts of places.

Also, remember they thought this was something they'd be able to exploit worldwide and that isn't ever going to happen. So, all those costs are simply a WDW noose.

 

[Next Big Thing]

@WDW1974 Any thoughts on Eisner pimping Netflix's Bojack Horseman so publicly? (Or him saying a certain former US Vice President was Doctor Strangelove masquerading as "#PrincessAurora"? *popcorn* )

BoJack Horseman is a good show. That's my thoughts.

 

[Mike S]

How much slower can it get? We have a bunch of threads about iPay.

Very true, I guess I mean this particular thread getting slow. Incoming food discussion.

 

[WDW1974]

Revenue growth from MM+ was never going to be quantifiable. They are still talking up the point that they believe that if people make plans before arriving they spend more time (and money) on property and less elsewhere in Orlando. Let's assume for a minute that this statement is 100% true. How could you ever quantify those gains? I suppose they could have some internal metrics tracking number of days spent in the parks, but the spending part is nearly impossible to quantify. This is why I was always skeptical of the revenue percentages thrown around here.

I guess you make it up as you go along ...

 

[lazyboy97o]

Sure, in the beginning. But I have friends who have computers that are 5, 10 and even 15 years old that are still quite useable. ... Apple may be whoring the iPhone 6, but they're already thinking how they can sell you the iPhone 9 and 3/4ers.

And if you keep reading you'll get to the point where I posted from a still usable six year old iPod touch. As I have also repeatedly say, while Apple definitely likes people to buy new devices they are hardly a good choice for poster child of a fast refresh cycle, especially for phones. Almost every other manufacturer is on a yearly release schedule for their flagship phone, with some being faster, and very few offering updates for as long as Apple does.

Of course, there were agendas and yellow journalism. But surely, you'd agree that there is far more mis-information out there today due to the Internet. How many times do people say ''I saw this online'' to rationalize some outlandish claim. I'd much rather have taken my chances with the newspapers I grew up with and read from the 1970s right into the 21st century.

I've already said repeatedly that I do not deny the increase in available information, but true and bunk. My point all along has been that there have been prior innovations that also made available far more information, and just like now there were plenty decrying the new wave of misinformation.

 

[danv3]

If Avatar fails, the next CEO will have an excellent excuse never to build at WDW for the rest of his tenure.

So Rasulo is will be hoping for failure then.

 

[WDW1974]

Technology is moving fast....what Apple is doing is no different than most all other forms of technology lately and due to competition, they really don't have a choice. Do you think a case for any other 6 year old phone would be selling for more than $3.99? Most people probably aren't using the same PC/laptop they were 6 years ago. Many don't have the same TV they did 6 years ago....or video game console....or DVD player....or digital camera. There is no basis for focusing negativity on Apple when they are no different from the competition.

I'll argue the computer and TV points vigorously ... or until I decide to just watch the NFL game.

Most folks in my circles are definitely in what remains of the middle class to folks who are filthy rich (some who still act like they are poor, but that's another story). They don't replace computers or TVs every year or even every three.

I can tell you I was using a 1996 JVC big screen (yeah, box, obviously) and a 2004 Gateway plasma (that at the time was one of the priciest state of the art TVs) until very recently when the 96 TV was donated since it just plain took up too much space and the 04 TV blew. I am hoping their replacements are still working just fine in 5-10 years.

Only tech geeks with too much money buy throwaway electronics (what they do to the environment is quite disgusting!)

Oh, my DVD player was moved to a spare room when the new TVs came and I bought my first Blu Ray (can you imagine this didn't happen until 2013?!?!) And my current camera was bought in 2008.

But I was using an ancient flip phone until 18 months ago too (and happy about that!)

 

[ParentsOf4]

Comparatively, when MGM opened, Norway, Wonders of Life, and Mickey's Birthdayland all opened within the same year. There is a great series of articles that Jim Hill wrote a while ago about the plans for the Animal Kingdom and why Beastly Kingdom isn't getting built

Beastly Kingdom didn't get built because Disney's Parks & Resorts domestic capex reached Eisner's all-time high of 31% in 1998. Eisner was spending money like the proverbial drunken sailor and yet theme park purists like Jim Hill were clamoring for more.

Since WDW's opening in 1971, the only time capex ever has been higher was in fiscal years 1981 and 1982. (You remember, that little old thing called EPCOT. ) Iger has never come close to 31% domestic capex.

Jill Hill called it "the Walt Disney Company's recent cost cutting craze" but 31% was unsustainable. A realistic number would have been closer to 17%.

Eisner was under tremendous pressure to cut spending yet he already had committed to DCA.

Meanwhile, financial expectations were sky-high for DAK. DAK did not meet them, not even close. If Jim Hill wanted more built, he should have gone door-to-door telling everyone he could to go visit WDW and spend money.

By the time Jim Hill published his piece on December 31, 2000, Parks & Resorts revenue was already flatlining and, by the end of 2001, would absolutely crater.

I understand where Jim Hill is coming from but, like so many armchair quarterbacks, he has no appreciation of the business side of what it's like to have spending go throw the roof while those with no business sense think that throwing in a couple of hundred million more should be no big deal, all because Jim Hill wanted Beastly Kingdom.

 

[WDW1974]

I agree with this. I'm not trying to defend MM+ or more specifically FP+.

The original post that started this discussion was from a poster saying they felt like Disney was trying to tie them to their phone. I disagreed and said that people are already tied to their phones so Disney was just providing them with the ability to use MM+ from their phones. If that service didn't exist a lot of people would be killing them for not having it. Not everybody, but the masses these days are hooked on smart phones.

So, people are addicted to something that isn't all that healthy for them ... and Disney should make it easier to feed that addiction? I just don't think so.

But one day some moron is going to stick their iPad up in front of my face to tape the entire PotC ride and I am going to accidentally knock that piece of (blank) into the water. Oops.

 

[GoofGoof]

I guess you make it up as you go along ...

In that case it's already a success

There has to be some sort of internal metric that they are using to track it. I doubt they will ever talk about it publicly though. Just more of the same double talk until analysts eventually move on to something else.

 

[WDW1974]

They last far longer than that. I've had mine for three years and it still works as good as day 1. I think it's just like cars. Don't make them perfect, because we want people to have to get a new one down the road. That, and some of these Appleheads are so addicted to their tech that they need something new yearly to get their fix, and it doesn't matter how good or cheap the 'new' thing is.
(Sounds like some Pixiedusters too!)

Want a car that lasts? Don't buy an American one. Amazing how I have never had issues with my Mercdees and Hondas over the years, but every American car I have owned (from the Big 3) were made like no one really gave a damn about making a quality product.

I just found out that an old Honda I sold to a friend for his son to use at college about 8-9 years ago is still ''running like new'' after 14 years and over 200,000 miles.

 

[BrianLo]

Budget has already been slashed ... yes, slashed on one major project (not the monkey ride). And others are in jeopardy due to ignorant UNI execs who thought that Potter 2.0 would be an immediate 1.0 meteoric rise in numbers.

Which it hasn't been, despite setting records for the park this summer.

Sometimes I do wonder if any execs have any common sense the way that organizations are being run.

First of all my sympathy to you and your family. You will be missed... and I hope we get our HKDL announcement by the time you are back!

Thanks for replying - it is shortsighted. I'd understand if there was absolutely no uptick in attendance to get skittish, but these expansions always pay out slowly (and steadily) for a few years before revitalized parks reach their new baseline.

Christmas will be the more telling metric rather than opening (which they aggressively tried to stymie from all indications...)

 

[WDW1974]

@WDW1974 do you have any idea about when the announcement for the frozen ride will be made?

Ask Dr. Blondie or Crazy Gary or Scary Steven at the DPB when their next whorefest is scheduled. That's when it will be announced (and, yes, construction will likely be well under way by then)

 

[GoofGoof]

So, people are addicted to something that isn't all that healthy for them ... and Disney should make it easier to feed that addiction? I just don't think so.

But one day some moron is going to stick their iPad up in front of my face to tape the entire PotC ride and I am going to accidentally knock that piece of (blank) into the water. Oops.

I don't think they have a problem feeding that addiction in the parks or really any addictions (except maybe smoking, they have made it pretty hard to smoke on property).

I don't get the iPad thing at all. It's a terrible camera and makes no sense to be used for that purpose considering you can get a good quality digital camera that takes pictures and movies and fits easily in the palm of your hand for well under $100.