The Spirited Sixth Sense ...

[WDW1974]

I understand where you are coming from and the concern, but this is not a daily occurrence though. It's always a baseline problem certainly, but people are clinging to one major event and think it is the norm. It's not like Shanghai has simply ground to a halt and everyone has moved away.

Smog will occasionally be a big enough problem that people will choose to stay home. The same thing happens at any other park that has "weather".

Sweltering heat waves give outdoor performers heat stroke in Hong Kong (I'm sure people were incessantly talking about SARS when that was built). A hurricane will keep you away from WDW. California sliding into the Ocean any given day will keep you away from Anaheim. Japan getting hit by a tsunami will keep you out of those parks too. Way too many people smoke in DLP so there's your side of cancer with snow. You role with the challenges of a location essentially wherever you choose to build a Disney park and adjust accordingly.

The fact that every time some news about Shanghai gets brought up, within a fews posts we have a "Lol Smog" post is really irritating and disruptive to actual conversation. This is of course a greater problem of a joke that was funny once getting repeated over and over again (by many, many different posters) for years because often information is slow! But, that's another battle to deal with another time.

Agree with most of this part of your argument.

BTW, 88 degrees and humid on 2/25 here in paradise ... it's unlikely to drop below 70 tonight. The AC runs continuously making Florida Power and Light very happy. Why do people want to come to this place?

 

[WDW1974]

The joke's on us. Here is a thought: TWDC likes nobody, nobody in online media better than Spirit. You are doing their work for them.

You have no clue how wrong you are. It's not that I don't get where you are coming from below, I actually think I do. ... But I cost Disney way too much in real world terms. They'd love if I choked on this WONDERful mucus and died ... at least a few high level folks.

Sometimes I wonder if Georgie still has a warm place in his cockells for me.

WDW's parks, especially the deal making MK, are pretty much filled to capacity. Demand exceeds supply. This leaves two courses of action: increase supply, or increase prices. The first is mostly an expense, with little roi: it will not make vacationers increase the length of their stay, nor spend more. So the second course is chosen, to increase prices. This sells the suppy to the highest bidder.
(And two minor course of actions: to spread demand out over the year, and to invest in operational efficiency to increase capacity. Disney spends billions on both)

Nope. Three out of four parks could take MANY more MILLIONS of guests annually. Even the MK isn't close to capacity. But it is at a crossroads where Disney actually would have to hire (shudder at $8 an hour) many more crowd control CMs (after visiting TDL, I am convinced they use maybe 20% of Tokyo's on the busiest days of the year and 10% the rest ... really!), add capacity or screw with infrastructure (see thread on new MSUSA bypass and Hub defoliation). We found out recently what direction they have decided on.

The extortionate prices drive people away from WDW. But that is precisely what Disney likes. Disney wants their fans to make good on their threats to visit WDW less frequently, wants them to decide to swap a WDW visit for DL and DCL instead. Disney wants the fans to visit WDW at exorbitant prices every other year, instead of at reasonable prices every year.

Still not quite right. They want as many people at all their parks every day spending as much as possible. All they want to do is move them around to make MK feel less crowded. That's one big OPs selling point of MM+.

And even the point about wanting guests to go to DLR or on the DCL instead isn't really true. They are all part of the same company, but they are also competitive. TDO doesn't want to lose say 1.2 million guests who decide to take a cruise instead, visit DLR instead or, especially, visit overseas resorts instead.

Now all TWDC needs is a social media advocate who tells its customers to cut back trips to WDW and to try the cruises and DL instead. Everytime somebody in this thread declares that he has listened to 74 and will try the cruise this year instead of WDW Blondie gets to throw a dart on a Spirited wall poster.

What about when he tells people to skip WDW for five years if that is what it takes and go to TDR?
What about when he tells the 10-nights at WDW (all on prop, all meals etc) addict to spend a day or two at WDW, but go spend three days at UNI/IOA and days at SWO/BGT?
Or when he tells them to pull a @WDWFigment and go to the Grand Canyon or any of our amazing National Parks?

Nope. Trust me, Dr. Blondie doesn't like me. And I personally would love to see her working at Walmart ... or the Lakeland Ledger (no big difference).

 

[WDW1974]

I'll be honest and say this line of reasoning makes no sense to me. If people can't afford WDW prices, they sure as heck can't afford to fly to California or Tokyo or cruise DCL. I know at this point in life, we can't (well, we could, but I have other priorities like funding retirement and college funds). While some customers may be driven to different Disney business lines, most others will be driven to different businesses and vacation destination destinations period.

Nope, but if someone spends a week or two a year at WDW on property, then there is no way they can't afford DLR and they very likely can afford Paris, Hong Kong and even Tokyo. Cruising too.

WDW addicts are like 500-pounders who say they want to lose weight while ordering a Triple Whopper with extra mayo, chicken nuggets with honey mustard, large fries ... and a Diet Coke. They just can't picture going six months without passing under those arches and sucking from George's teet.

 

[WDW1974]

Spirit, what is this now about they may take out the Maelstrom ride all together and replace it with the meetngreet? This is coming from over in the frozen ride replacing maelstrom thread. Really? More losing rides to meetngreets? I dont know why Im so surprised.

Not happening.

But a Frozen barebones overlay to the ride has been pitched.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Not happening.

But a Frozen barebones overlay to the ride has been pitched.

I'm sure they'll make it in Second Life....

 

[WDW1974]

Source?

C'mon now. I don't site sources 99% of the time because we all wouldn't want to see someone get in trouble or lose a job or stop being a friend or just shut off the info pipeline because someone in the online world had to have a name.

If I said 'Don G., a WDW RR CM (and I hope there isn't one as I made that up), then what's from anyone here saying that Don (and myself) is a liar and you can't believe him?

I have been playing the Disney online game since before there were whores ... back when Loveable Lou was either playing lawyer or laundering money thru his family's Italian restaurant (just kidding about that!) ... my track record is about as good as you're ever going to get online. That isn't my sizeable ego talking, that's simply me stating facts.

 

[WDW1974]

Agreed. Three if you want to count the Verandah--even 1970s crowds justified giving Adventureland its own mass-loader QSR.

Fun fact: prior to the huge Pecos Bill addition/renovation of the 1990s, the Verandah was the largest QSR at the MK.

 

[Scuttle]

Gotta disagree with you on this one, Brian.

I have lived (months at a time) in Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong and I can tell you that smog ... horrific smog ... is China's biggest crisis that they are largely ignoring. Air quality on the best of days is largely what we'd call moderate here in the USA and every other day it can be worse.

I sure wouldn't tell anyone they shouldn't visit those amazing cities or China in general, but to compare it to Florida's thunderstorms, which are absolutely no fun and more dangerous than most folks think, isn't being realistic.

Yes! I know a pilot who works over in China and if jt wasn't for the 200+ salary taxes paid for he'd be back in a heartbeat. He has horror stories. It's bad, very bad.

 

[WDW1974]

and just as easily people are eager to parrot tidbits blindly

This topic in particular is one that everyone jumped onto to escalate by what... 300% in like 2 weeks, and then quickly changed the tune when another voice came into play?

Somethings are just more substantiated than others. The spend/budget discussion just seems like a topic that even insiders would manipulate to their own agenda when talking to people. So why even bother acting like we have some hard facts. I wouldn't trust the guy telling me the number at the watercooler... why would I trust it coming 3rd or 4th hand in a fan community?

I think I am to blame, Flynn ... old buddy!

I stated somewhere that the boondoggle had crossed the $2 billion mark and was ''headed for $2.5'' ... that does NOT mean it is there yet. I have no idea where the number is beyond that it is factually over two billion in spending ... or about double what it was supposed to cost. Can you imagine if EPCOT had cost double? Or New Fantasyland? Or anything ... you know, good or important?

I have no clue where this stops, but based on what is going on behind the scenes (from the price increases that were just decided on a little over a week ago to the killing of some projects entirely -- like Cars Land for Studios -- to others being placed on ice for likely years) I could see this spiraling into a $4.3 billion project or some other obscene number that should have everyone from Franklin and MacPhee to Rasulo and Staggs to Crofton and, yes, Iger fired ... but won't.

George Anthony Kalogridis is the Burbank approved fall guy for this project and he's being compensated handsomely for playing the guy on the bottom!

 

[TowerOfTerror]

If anyone needs something to do while waiting for Avatarland at DAK to open you can always head to your local casino to play the Avatar Slot machine.

 

[stlphil]

I am not on Micechat. But I would guess they are complaining about DLR's huge amount of rehabs at once. That is true. This past weekend, you had Splash Mountain, Nemo Sub Voyage, BTMRR and Small World all closed at the same time ... and Mansion was up and down due to tech issues. Having five E-Tickets in one park down at the same time isn't acceptable. No matter what park.

I would guess people are also angry that DLR management (led by Michael 'Disco Yeti and Dead Dinos' Colglazier) are being very slimy about putting out honest and accurate rehab schedules. As someone planning a trip myself, I do have issues with this.

Is anyone really surprised about this? Coming from AK, Colglazier thinks it's fine to run a park that only has 6 rides running. I'm half surprised he hasn't shut down more.

 

[WDW1974]

Found this Walt Disney quote and thought it could be very relevant to much of the discussion here:

"I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too little collateral."

Great quote that you will never see on a construction wall or touted by an exec in a speech or trotted out by Dr. Blondie to the few straight fanbois who follow her.

 

[WDW1974]

Except that Imagination is still open, and Frozen's success isn't linked to Disney buying reviews.

Everyone is a critic. I love it! Keeps me from just saying 'why bother?'

Imagination was scheduled to be closed Jan. 2nd. WDI was even talking about using the gutted pavilion to test other ride vehicles and effects until Disney decided what was happening with the building. Obviously, something changed.

Disney buys positive reviews and other content all the time, often in very high brow and respected publications that you'd never think would allow that (sometimes they know, sometimes it is just an individual able to plant something). Whether you believe what I know to be factual does not in any way change the nature of said facts.

 

[WDW1974]

Open access social media (Twitter) being particularly festive today for reasons unrelated to this. But learning that bit of knowledge was fun too.

Please feel free to point out anything entertaining I may have missed while playing Fun With Tweets!

 

[WDW1974]

What part of her product do you think is Disney IP? The artwork?

Take a look at the examples on her page ... the Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Goofy ... is there any doubt that those bands are those characters? Look at her INTENT ... her intent is to either make money selling these (again being a parasite off Disney) OR EXTORT the company into saying ''we'll buy your ideas for $50K''

She knows exactly what she is doing and what she wants out of it.

 

[WDW1974]

I've gotten a metric crap tonne of likes for many posts of no substance!

My good hillbilly buddy @Lee is the expert here at saying next to nothing (often simply agreeing with people) and winding up with 41 likes on a post.

I have discussed the issue with his and I am convinced that it is largely because he comes off as a softer version of other Spirits. Realize this: I wouldn't throw myself in front of a train (but not like the vastly overrated House of Cards train toss) for Lee if he didn't meet my standards for toughness, morality and ruthlessness (as the situation required) as well as TDO hatred, of course.

I love the guy (but his wife more), but soft and fuzzy he isn't. Believe me!

 

[WDW1974]

Has anyone else receive a nifty little letter in the mail announcing MM+ from Disney? Does this mean "testing" is over?

I haven't. But my Dad, who hasn't had an AP in over a decade, got the mailer yesterday.

 

[WDW1974]

I really respect what you have to say, but on this I am going to have to argue with you. As a person who enforces IPR violations, if it isn't trademarked or copyrighted, it isn't an IPR violation. I didn't see anything with her bands that are trademarked. Cheap attempt at a look a like, yes but no IPR violations. Now I could have missed something but I didn't see it in what I saw.

And I respect your opinion. I'll just call a a and say that when someone openly tries to extort from a company I am a shareholder of, I have a problem with it.

Disney could easily tell her she either stops selling the bands or stops visiting WDW. And, yes, they could easily get away with that. It is private property.

 

[cheezbat]

Not what I want to hear as I am thinking about a quickee spring trip largely centered on the water parks. Did you complain about any of those (all) issues?

No I didn't...I was with a WDW worker friend and I know he really didn't want me 'embarrassing' him while there. I figured on my next visit in a few weeks if things haven't changed, there will be a complaint from me.

 

[Gabe1]

Agree with most of this part of your argument.

BTW, 88 degrees and humid on 2/25 here in paradise ... it's unlikely to drop below 70 tonight. The AC runs continuously making Florida Power and Light very happy. Why do people want to come to this place?

Right now I can answer that. Tonight and for the following two days we will be sub-zero. I finally had to dig my Christmas Disney Characters out of the 5' snow they were buried in as March is approaching. My Nicor Gas bill is over the top since this is one of the coldest winters in decades and natural gas rates are up 17%, I dream of your 88. Now that humidity thing...well not so much.