Thanks to the both of you for posting.
It's nice so many recognize that WDW's problems aren't from a single source. It's complicated, very complicated. A weak economy is a problem, excess hotel construction is a problem, overpriced rooms are a problem, lack of exciting additions is a problem, competition is a problem, DVC is a problem, advertising strategy is a problem. Overriding it all though, the
total price of a WDW vacation is the greatest problem.
It's difficult to show the total price in a single graph. There are so many variables. However, nearly everyone who visits WDW buys a ticket. And those vacationing at WDW tend to buy multiday tickets. WDW's multiday ticket prices are representative of what's occurring at the macro level.
What the growing number of empty rooms is indicative of is a management team that does not respect its customer, of a business that is beginning to price itself out of its core market. It's indicative of an organization that's a few years away from potentially serious economic trouble.
WDW is selling theme park tickets because of its former greatness, because of nostalgia, because of what Roy Disney created, because of what Card Walker and Michael Eisner expanded on. Not because of anything being done by current leadership.
People hear about record profits, record attendance, but don't look behind those numbers to see where they are coming from and what they mean for the future.
Corporate Disney is using latest trends from lean manufacturing and cost accounting to prop up margins. They cut corners, removing details that separated WDW from the competition and, in doing so, cheapen the product. They raise the price of a 5-day ticket by $15 and then offer a $10 limited-time "discount". These tricks are indicative of a management team more concerned with this year's annual bonus than with the health of the organization 5 or 10 years from now, of a management team that has no vision. Of a team that has no heart for the theme park business. How much more can extracted from paying customers before it begins to boomerang?
They green-light NextGen and yet let J.K. Rowling walk. They move forward with Avatar Land yet dither on Star Wars Land. They expand their most popular theme park yet let three theme parks languish. They market towards little children whose parents are struggling to make ends meet yet ignore the tens-of-millions of North American adults best able to afford WDW's prices.
It's not leadership whose decisions instill confidence.
Ultimately, all roads lead to the top; to Iger, Rasulo, and Staggs. Those in Orlando are just foot soldiers. It's the generals in Burbank that are sending them their marching orders.
WDW desperately need someone in charge who has that "vision thing" and who possesses enough clout to make things happen. Instead they have a bunch of administrators who should be working on Wall Street. Or at Walmart.
