The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
BrianLo said:
No doubt an investment that will continue to pay out over many quarters to come. These projects are not completely front loaded. I'd expect DCA to still see a significant rise in their 2014 attendance from their 2012 rebuild, in a park that has remained fairly untouched since. Diagon Alley will likely pay out in a similar fashion, which is why its actual attendance projections cannot be properly determined until they have 2-3 quarters under their belt.

Perhaps internally they wanted to pass one of the Disney parks? That's still several million guests they needed to pick up, not realistic in a single year, especially against the Frozen bump to DHS. In the next couple of years though? Absolutely.
Click to expand...
I agree it shouldn't be viewed as just a one time attendance bump. Spirit had posted many pages back that some execs at Universal were not happy with the results from Diagon Alley due to unreasonable expectations and were actually looking to cut back on future projects as a result. I'm just curious how much of a bump they expected. I was actually thinking the numbers may be a little lighter given that comment, but they look pretty good to me.
 
Nubs70

Nubs70

Well-Known Member
Bolna said:
I am actually from Bavaria and the nearest real Biergarten is a block away from my house. I found the Biergarten to be a pretty good representation of German food with a few quirks that were strange to me... I really enjoyed it!
Click to expand...
_media.00000049.jpg


This is the brauhaus I hung out at in Paderborn.
 
JoeCamel

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
BrerJon said:
Here's a question for the financial experts - if we take our dollars away from WDW, but only to other divisions of Parks & Resorts like Disneyland, or the Cruise Line, is anyone at Disney remotely bothered? Or does it not matter because wherever we're spending them, Mickey is still getting those bucks?
Click to expand...

Not on par with the experts but each division has its drones that have to justify their existence so YES it does matter where the money is spent. Everyone working for the "company" is expected to post positive numbers year after year and bring their share of our money home to the company. Increasing the "take" in each division justifies the employment for that division.
 
GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
JoeCamel said:
Not on par with the experts but each division has its drones that have to justify their existence so YES it does matter where the money is spent. Everyone working for the "company" is expected to post positive numbers year after year and bring their share of our money home to the company. Increasing the "take" in each division justifies the employment for that division.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Staggs and Iger may not care as much, but to the management teams at each park it matters.
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
PhotoDave219 said:
The demand of BOG for lunch shows it needs to be a table service restaurant all that time.

The technology is neat-o but the entire concept doesnt work.

And yes, MK needs at least 2 more table service restaurants. Woefully pittiful that theyre not getting on that.
Click to expand...
I'm really surprised that they haven't made the change. We expected it to happen before opening and no one knew it was going to be this popular.
 
devoy1701

devoy1701

Well-Known Member
hopemax said:
There's not really a lack of Table Service options at the MK. It's just that they break out, so it seems like there's not a lot of real choices. Crystal Palace and Cindy's are characters and hard to get into, so they're out. Tony's always has such a bad reputation and it's not convenient. I think people plain, just forget about the Plaza, so then that leaves Liberty Tree and BOG dinner. That's 6. Studios has 5, but somehow it feels like they have tons more than MK. Epcot is an entirely different kettle of fish. While MK, probably could use another non-character, centrally located TS option, making Tony's and the Plaza real choices for people would go a long way.
Click to expand...
I love Tony's. Never had a bad experience there. Are we saying it's not convenient because it's at the front of the park? MK isn't that big....
 
hpyhnt 1000

hpyhnt 1000

Well-Known Member
BrerJon said:
I'm actually quite impressed with the improvement in QS offerings recently - lots of places seem to be offering brocolli as an alternative to fries, Disney do seem to be making more of an effort with their menus (while table service standards continue to plummet in inverse proportion to prices). I had a great meal at Columbia Harbor recently, so that's one area maybe we should be giving them plus marks for.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with you on the QS restaurants, to a point. MK in particular still suffers from atrocious food options. And I dislike the pre-packed salads and plastic brownie cups that now pass for "chocolate cake" all over the resort.

Also, what happened to Disney branded plates and bowls? Seemed like every QS meal is now served on plain paper plates or generic brown food containers. About the only thing still "Disney" branded are the drinks cups. Am I nit-picking? Sure. But its indicative of the continual cheapening of the experience at the parks.

That said, the salmon with cous cous I recently had at Columbia Harbour House wasn't half bad, if a bit bland for my palate. And the quinoa salad over at Tamu Tamu in Africa at AK has got to be the best QS salad on property: lettuce, olives, tomato, cucumber, feta, quinoa, red bell pepper all tossed in a vinagarette type dressing, and with 2 pieces of pita on the side. And best of all it wasn't pre-packed, but tossed to order.
 
Last edited:
GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
hpyhnt 1000 said:
I'd agree with you on the QS restaurants, to a point. MK in particular still suffers from atrocious food options. And I dislike the pre-packed salads and plastic brownie cups that now pass for "chocolate cake" all over the resort.

Also, what happened to Disney branded plates and bowls? Seemed like every QS meal is now served on plain paper plates or generic brown food containers. About the only thing still "Disney" branded are the drinks beverages. Am I nit-picking? Sure. But its indicative of the continual cheapening of the experience at the parks.

That said, the salmon with cous cous I recently had at Columbia Harbour House wasn't half bad, if a bit bland for my pallete. And the quinoa salad over at Tamu Tamu in Africa at AK has got to be the best QS salad on property: lettuce, olives, tomato, feta, quinoa, red bell pepper all tossed in a vinagarette type dressing, and with 2 pieces of pita on the side. And best of all it wasn't pre-packed, but tossed to order.
Click to expand...
The pre-packed stuff is terrible.

I think what they probably need to do is create a few more "high-end" quick service locations like BOG lunch. Maybe some with menu items outside of the generic chicken nuggets, fries and burgers. In order to do this they would need to take the places off of the DDP completely. Then you can charge a little more for quality and service. As a compromise they could add high end items that are excluded from DDP and priced a little higher.
 
ThemeParkJunkee

ThemeParkJunkee

Well-Known Member
Bolna said:
I am actually from Bavaria and the nearest real Biergarten is a block away from my house. I found the Biergarten to be a pretty good representation of German food with a few quirks that were strange to me... I really enjoyed it!
Click to expand...

Having just consumed mass quantities of food there on Sunday, my 100% German BF declared that the German restaurant in our town is ruined forever for him so....I must agree. It was good and a good representations.
 
Disneyhead'71

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
The main reasons Diagonal Alley didn't hit it's targets were 1. They didn't give an opening date until a little over 3 weeks before it opened. And 2. It opened 19 days later than their target date.

19 Days is huge. But after they got it opened, it has been a hit. Some of the stores aren't hitting their target, others are exceeding them. They have also found that quite a few people decided to wait until HHNs to see DA to avoid the craziness surrounding the opening and Summer crowds.

But basically, the fumbled launch is what the problem was.
 
ThemeParkJunkee

ThemeParkJunkee

Well-Known Member
I'm about 30-40 pages behind right now because I have been at WDW since Friday. I have noticed:

CMs are still "friendly" but about 40% appear to be going through motions.
Front line CMs "think" the DHS expansions are going to be the most fabulous thing ever!
AK CMs seem to be most excited about the "Rivers of Light" thing.
There are construction walls everywhere. ..just like four years ago in November and I don't think I will ever see a WDW park that didn't have more construction walls than attractions.
I have not noticed a decrease in general cleanliness of the parks. Some attractions (rides) could use a thorough cleaning.
Splash Mountain really looks good. Very clean, everything working.
New Festival of Fantasy Parade is very visually pleasing but the music needs some work.

Anyway...just checking in.
 
GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Disneyhead'71 said:
The main reasons Diagonal Alley didn't hit it's targets were 1. They didn't give an opening date until a little over 3 weeks before it opened. And 2. It opened 19 days later than their target date.

19 Days is huge. But after they got it opened, it has been a hit. Some of the stores aren't hitting their target, others are exceeding them. They have also found that quite a few people decided to wait until HHNs to see DA to avoid the craziness surrounding the opening and Summer crowds.

But basically, the fumbled launch is what the problem was.
Click to expand...
This sounds pretty logical. Maybe the executives who weren't pleased will rethink cutting the budget on future major projects. It seemed like a pretty bad knee jerk reaction and Universal is on a roll. It would be unfortunate to see it derailed by foolish thinking.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom