The Spirited Sixth Sense ...

Lord_Vader

Lord_Vader

Join me, together we can rule the galaxy.
mgpan said:
That's what concerns me about the huge increases and price points WDW resorts command these days. I don't get that "immersed in the Magic" feeling when staying offsite at WDW.
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We have done both on and offsite, personally I prefer the onsite bubble. I enjoy not driving everywhere all the time (I do a lot of driving for myself, DW & DS) even using WDW transportation is more relaxing to me, we exersize patience. The price points are very high for WDW resorts at all levels but they continue to sell rooms, to us included. I like walking from my room to the parks (EC/DHS) from the BW resorts, I am not terribly fond of the busses but it is much easier to accept than piling in the car and driving to another parking lot and having to deal with traffic issues, making sure if we park-hop we get back to the original lot, etc.

I find the resort prices very high compared to off-site hotels and in general the rooms are decent. The Deluxe rooms are much better than the Value but simply put the price to stay off-property is low but I pay to high a price (non-monitarily) in access. I would have to drive in and out of WDW every day we went, traffic is a nightmare on I4 most of the times I have driven on it and I simply do not want to deal with that on vacation and am willing to pay a high premium to eliminate it. If WDWs occupancy rate is anything close to 80% I believe that there are a lot of others that feel the same way and are willing to pay the price.
 
bhg469

bhg469

Well-Known Member
GLaDOS said:
No. Kong is going into the plot next to JPRA. It is not, however, a clone of King Kong 360. It's a whole new experience. A JP attraction will go somewhere else in the land currently sitting dormant.
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I don't really follow any blogs because well.. They're bloggers.. But are there any descriptions of both attractions?
 
GLaDOS

GLaDOS

Well-Known Member
bhg469 said:
I don't really follow any blogs because well.. They're bloggers.. But are there any descriptions of both attractions?
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No. Orlando United has the best Kong description on it somewhere, but it's unknown how much made it into the final attraction.
 
Cesar R M

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
GLaDOS said:
Universal has multiple cakes and are eating them too.
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eating? dont you mean DEVOURING?
FfGuHg2.jpg


Lord_Vader said:
As a customer you have the right to get upset, stop using a companies services or file never ending complaints but a customer does not have a right to know about giant capital expeditures at all, the fact we know anything is simply a benefit of insider information. The board has a right to know, even shareholders have a right at a certain level of expenditure but not a customer. If a local grocery store decides to upgrade their entire register, inventory, scheduling, online, pharmacy and accounting systems, it is not a customer right to know how much they are spending at all. There will also be impacts to the customers during the transistion and testing phases that may cause longer lines, cashier training issues, management problems, and may result in the grocery store losing some customers during the transition. If the store management had any clue they would account for some of those in the cost of the project to better forecast the real expense.

In TDOs case, they had a very outdated backend data network full of disjointed, incompatible systems that required a massive upgrade sooner than later. The integration projects that seem to be going on in the background to consolidate systems to support long-term strategic growth, the ability to expand or add new features and the new "features" we know of today to track movement, plan resources, and support marketing through data analysis is quite complex and very expensive to implement even on a small scale.

I agree with you that a company should compete for customer dollars, they all compete just in different ways. Not all companies follow the same path to acheive their primary goal; to separate you from your hard earned cash and customers may find the products offered by company A are more compelling than company B. Just look at iPhone vs. Android, XBONE vs PS4 and so on. Each company has a product they are selling, in most cases it is simply a matter of price except the iPhone which is still the #1 phone made but Android OS is more popular because of the vast variety of phones, options and a lot of times cost. If a company does not provide a product or service you are willing to pay for at their price point simply walk away, I do it all the time.

Any company will bleed you dry of cash if they can as a matter of practice, even your local dry-cleaners will do all your laundry for you for a price (too steep in my opinion) but they will milk you for everthing they can, WDW is no different except in the product set and method.
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Exactly what was going in my mind related to upgrading their ageing systems!!
I dont think noone would explained the affair better than you.
 
jakeman

jakeman

Well-Known Member
Lord_Vader said:
As a customer you have the right to get upset, stop using a companies services or file never ending complaints but a customer does not have a right to know about giant capital expeditures at all, the fact we know anything is simply a benefit of insider information. The board has a right to know, even shareholders have a right at a certain level of expenditure but not a customer. If a local grocery store decides to upgrade their entire register, inventory, scheduling, online, pharmacy and accounting systems, it is not a customer right to know how much they are spending at all. There will also be impacts to the customers during the transistion and testing phases that may cause longer lines, cashier training issues, management problems, and may result in the grocery store losing some customers during the transition. If the store management had any clue they would account for some of those in the cost of the project to better forecast the real expense.

In TDOs case, they had a very outdated backend data network full of disjointed, incompatible systems that required a massive upgrade sooner than later. The integration projects that seem to be going on in the background to consolidate systems to support long-term strategic growth, the ability to expand or add new features and the new "features" we know of today to track movement, plan resources, and support marketing through data analysis is quite complex and very expensive to implement even on a small scale.

I agree with you that a company should compete for customer dollars, they all compete just in different ways. Not all companies follow the same path to acheive their primary goal; to separate you from your hard earned cash and customers may find the products offered by company A are more compelling than company B. Just look at iPhone vs. Android, XBONE vs PS4 and so on. Each company has a product they are selling, in most cases it is simply a matter of price except the iPhone which is still the #1 phone made but Android OS is more popular because of the vast variety of phones, options and a lot of times cost. If a company does not provide a product or service you are willing to pay for at their price point simply walk away, I do it all the time.

Any company will bleed you dry of cash if they can as a matter of practice, even your local dry-cleaners will do all your laundry for you for a price (too steep in my opinion) but they will milk you for everthing they can, WDW is no different except in the product set and method.
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Door is that way --->

I kindly ask that you take the logic out with you please.
 
Stevek

Stevek

Well-Known Member
Rodan75 said:
How is belittling parenting choices material for this thread? This is petty and silly.
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I agree. I know my kids better than anyone or any website. If I choose, for a few days out of a year, to let my kids stay up and push them around a theme park at 10pm, that's my business and does not make me a bad parent. Several late night trips to Disneyland in their younger years, 2 trips to WDW and somehow, despite my poor parenting skills, they are both honor students and star athletes. Imagine how great they would have been if I made them sleep 10-12 hours every night.
 
michmousefan

michmousefan

Well-Known Member
Lee said:
I'm seeing that tonight.
Everything I'm hearing about it sounds great. And Cap is my favorite Avenger.
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I saw it last night... pretty much loved it, except for a few quibbles about tone. Also helps explain what was going on in the last SHIELD episode and will make watching the next few weeks very interesting. Talk about your vertical integration!

Was particularly great 'cause Cap, Black Widow, Fury and Falcon all got their own opportunities to shine. Almost like a mini-Avengers. And the Russos did a fine job with the action scenes in particular. I really like how it expanded the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
 
the.dreamfinder

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
I hope someone saved a copy of that. For future reference, if anyone comes across something like that, please save a copy before posting it here. Celebration Place is monitoring this site, especially a SPIRITED thread like this one.
 
HM Spectre

HM Spectre

Well-Known Member
Lord_Vader said:
Any company will bleed you dry of cash if they can as a matter of practice, even your local dry-cleaners will do all your laundry for you for a price (too steep in my opinion) but they will milk you for everthing they can, WDW is no different except in the product set and method.
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Maybe it's just me but I strongly disagree with running a company this way. The problem with bleeding your customer dry is that when they run dry, they don't have anything left to give... and when they realize what you're doing, they may not come back.

Yes, WDW can increase ticket/parking prices $_______ and get away with it. Yes, WDW can charge exorbitant amounts for resorts while slashing service and get away with it. Yes, WDW can cut show quality, maintenance, slash attraction budgets etc. and get away with it. You get the idea... if you want to max out your price point, you can.

The thing is though, budgeting customers aren't going to exceed their budgets. When the price points on ticketing and resorts are stressing those budgets, people cut. They cut dining. They stay off-site. They skip the shops. They chop a day off their vacation. You're not going to get an extra dollar from people stretching their dollar already.

Customers who aren't concerned about budgets won't have those issues, but they'll instead see the declining quality and value for their dollar and stay away. They'll take a vacation to Europe instead of Orlando. They'll stay at a 5 star resort and eat at a 5 star restaurant instead of paying for one in name only.

Increasing quality and having fair prices runs counter to the methodology above.

Yet, when budget conscious customers are getting a great deal on tickets and resorts, they can afford to eat on property or buy more merchandise. When the quality is increased, the quality consicious customer finds more offerings worth spending their money on. Both find ways to spend their budgets anyway. Even more importantly, when customers feel like they've gotten great value for their money, they become repeat customers.

What I hate about the MM+ investment is that it shows management believes the best way to operate is to milk the current customer base through targeted marketing and tracking rather than grow through re-investment in the parks.

WDW 4 park attendance from 2008-2012 has grown from 47.1M to 48.5M (roughly 3%). In that same timeframe, the US population has grown approximately 3.2%. Attendance is stagnant. They're not growing. Meanwhile, Universal spends a fraction of MM+'s budget on Potter and attendance at IoA jumps from 5.95M in 2010 to 7.98M in 2012 (34% increase).

Invest in your customers and they'll invest in you. Nickel and dime your customers and they'll nickel and dime you right back.

TDO doesn't seem to understand based on their business strategy, but it is indeed possible to kill the golden goose.
 

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