The Spirited Sixth Sense ...

[Atomicmickey]

@WDW1974 Topic for discussion:

WHY does the Cruise Line still understand and practice the 'Disney Difference', but
the parks in Fla. don't get it? Just different management? Can they not charge
enough at the parks, but they can on the ships, to justify it? Why do people get
off the ships and say 'that's the way you do that', and it doesn't apply to the parks?

My only guess is, people spend more on cruises, they must be more profitable
per guest. So, if, say, admission to the parks was 20 dollars more a day--50
dollars more a day--what? Would that 'allow' them to give that level of service
in the parks? Would they?

Or can they, now, with the income level, and for whatever reason, they aren't?

Or are the cruises 'higher level' now, and the parks are consigned to stroller hell
at this point? Meaning, it's 'give the people what they want' taken to its sad extreme.

It seems like 'blue ocean', oddly enough, isn't applying to the cruise ships. Yet?
Only time will tell.

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

@WDW1974 Topic for discussion:

WHY does the Cruise Line still understand and practice the 'Disney Difference', but
the parks in Fla. don't get it? Just different management? Can they not charge
enough at the parks, but they can on the ships, to justify it? Why do people get
off the ships and say 'that's the way you do that', and it doesn't apply to the parks?

My only guess is, people spend more on cruises, they must be more profitable
per guest. So, if, say, admission to the parks was 20 dollars more a day--50
dollars more a day--what? Would that 'allow' them to give that level of service
in the parks? Would they?

Or can they, now, with the income level, and for whatever reason, they aren't?

Or are the cruises 'higher level' now, and the parks are consigned to stroller hell
at this point? Meaning, it's 'give the people what they want' taken to its sad extreme.

It seems like 'blue ocean', oddly enough, isn't applying to the cruise ships. Yet?
Only time will tell.

I think the Florida parks could give that level of excellence but choose not to. After all, they're tourists, what do they know?

The cruise lines are relatively new compared to the parks, no? And don't all new and upcoming things have excellent service and killer attention to detail? It's only when they become second hat that quality falters and cracks appear in the surface.

Of course it's not an excuse, but it's the only other thing besides "captive audience" that I can think of off hand.

@ParentsOf4 might be able to better answer your questions, at least in a more thought provoking, Rizzo-less way.

 

[twebber55]

M

I've always wondered how many people know the daily attendance number and also how they keep it quiet.

My nephew is a cm at dhs and he says they post daily attendence

 

[Jane Doe]

Disney has hit on something with frozen that they haven't had for a very very long time

A winter based children's film released in time for the Christmas holidays?

 

[maxairmike]

M

My nephew is a cm at dhs and he says they post daily attendence

They post a "projection" or estimate, which is usually pretty reliable, but can also be a complete toss-up at times. I've always checked projections for both Uni and Disney parks when I'm not sure if I feel like dealing with crowds some days.

 

[bhg469]

I've always wondered how many people know the daily attendance number and also how they keep it quiet.

In the case of a professional sports team lots of people have that info and its usually pretty close. Its hard to fake attendance numbers when there are many empty seats, same with concerts. Even though people crowd toward the stage, there is that big gap behind everyone that should be occupied if it was a sellout, so the number has to be close. Some concerts will not start until the promoters have a certian % in the house. I do one event every year that is a general admission event that unless you flew overhead you could never count the people unless you had our numbers. This is most similar to a theme park because there are buildings and open areas, as well as high congestion areas that are always full regardless of how far from capacity it is. I have no doubt Disneys numbers are very padded and they use those few capacity days to beat their chests. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't at capacity and reported it as so, just to make it look better. People on site would just go to a different park and spend money so its no loss to Disney to do that.

 

[bhg469]

M

My nephew is a cm at dhs and he says they post daily attendence

So does every sporting event you go to... Do you believe that number on the score board? Like I said in my post below, sporting events are usually close. Festivals and theme parks, they can and do report falsely inflated numbers.

 

[Jane Doe]

And in other news, Disney stock jumps up another $ 1.33,

That Iger just has no clue, even though some stock analysts think Dis could be a 100 dollar stock by years end.

Yessssssssss! Get in there! WDW isn't a shadow of it's former self after all.

 

[ford91exploder]

If this was true why would ESPN be the most valuable cable TV asset around? College football and basketball are wildly popular and MNF still gets insane ratings. ESPN will carry some of the college football playoffs next year. In addition to the stuff mentioned by others above they also carry MLB games, some NASCAR races and some big golf tournaments (US Open & Masters) plus at least part of all 4 tennis grand slam events. ESPN is a must have for any cable system. I'm not saying this deal won't help give Comcast more leverage when negotiating, but they can't afford to just walk away from ESPN either. Content is still king.

ESPN for a long time has been the default option for sports, for many cable operators it accounts for up to 1/3 of programming fees, There are a LOT of new regional sports networks and Comcast and Fox are making a real run at new national sports networks.

Without a mega-carrier like the Comcast + TWC Disney has had almost unlimited flexibility in pricing. Now Comcast can say NO to Disney networks and cut anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of Disney's revenue from their media properties.

Impact on Comcast will be far smaller and they will in all likelihood win the PR war because they can simply break out the numbers and say if we don't do this your cable bills will go up by X. With our NEW Sports programming your bills will go down 15-20% (Once only!)

There WILL be a great deal of sturm und drang on both sides but ultimately I think Disney will be on the losing side of the equation because the 'price increase' strategy will no longer work.

We've already seen this in the Weather Channel pricing themselves out of the market DTV was the FIRST to dump them others WILL follow. For a long time they were fantastic and weather geeks liked it and it was inexpensive to carry, When sold it morphed into a Lifestyle/Reality network and went way up in price.

Bottom line is you need to provide VALUE for the money, Disney's cable properties have not been delivering value commensurate with cost recently and that makes them vulnerable.

 

[englanddg]

@WDW1974 Topic for discussion:

WHY does the Cruise Line still understand and practice the 'Disney Difference', but
the parks in Fla. don't get it? Just different management? Can they not charge
enough at the parks, but they can on the ships, to justify it? Why do people get
off the ships and say 'that's the way you do that', and it doesn't apply to the parks?

My only guess is, people spend more on cruises, they must be more profitable
per guest. So, if, say, admission to the parks was 20 dollars more a day--50
dollars more a day--what? Would that 'allow' them to give that level of service
in the parks? Would they?

Or can they, now, with the income level, and for whatever reason, they aren't?

Or are the cruises 'higher level' now, and the parks are consigned to stroller hell
at this point? Meaning, it's 'give the people what they want' taken to its sad extreme.

It seems like 'blue ocean', oddly enough, isn't applying to the cruise ships. Yet?
Only time will tell.

You misunderstand what "blue ocean" is.

 

[Runnin'Gator]

But NBC and Fox also have the rights to many major markets local teams. A TWC-Comcast merger would mean an increased stake in SNY and ownership of LASportsNet. Going forward, local sports deals will be very important for NBC and Fox. In the Philadelphia area, Comcast charges through the nose for FioS subscribers who want Comcast Sportsnet (Phillies, Flyers, and Sixers). It's easier for subscribers to justify paying high prices for local coverage versus just national. With NBCSN/Comcast Sportsnet, you get both.

So you're saying that Comcast could refuse to negotiate/come to an agreement with ESPN and it would be no big deal? Try taking away just SEC football and UK basketball and see what kind of backlash there would be against Comcast.

 

[Atomicmickey]

You misunderstand what "blue ocean" is.

It was a bad attempt at a pun, sorry. :/

 

[Darth Sidious]

There are other sports networks which carry actual SPORTS and there will be a outcry but as long as people can see the actual GAMES they will not care that they no longer have ESPN.

Example what part of the Olympics does ESPN have - NADA, NFL - NADA, NBA - NADA. ESPN is carrying very little actual SPORT's programming mostly bad talk shows where a couple of has beens discuss the game they USED to play.

You couldn't be more wrong and ESPN has the NFL, NBA, MLB and the World Cup. They have a lot of huge contracts and people watch ESPN to watch those shows you poked fun at. ESPN also has a massive college sports presence and is launching a new network for the SEC later this year.

 

[ford91exploder]

So you're saying that Comcast could refuse to negotiate/come to an agreement with ESPN and it would be no big deal? Try taking away just SEC football and UK basketball and see what kind of backlash there would be against Comcast.

Yes there WILL indeed be a HUGE outcry however present people with the option of a large reduction in their cable bill vs popular sports programming most consumers will vote with their wallet and the SEC will pressure Disney as they are not getting paid.

There have been a lot of these Content/Carrier squabbles recently and the content providers have won NONE of them. Most recent has been Viacom vs DirectTV in the end Viacom backed down, They got a price increase from DTV but it was nowhere near what they were asking for which was an increase of 1 Billion over the contract lifetime what they got was 100 million.

Remember this included MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Channel - a bunch of grade A media properties which appealed to ALL demographics.

 

[ford91exploder]

You could be more wrong and ESPN has the NFL, NBA, MLB and the World Cup. They have a lot of huge contracts and people watch ESPN to watch those shows you poked fun at. ESPN also has a massive college sports presence and is launching a new network for the SEC later this year.

What ESPN does NOT have is EXCLUSIVE rights to those properties and ESPN spends little time actually broadcasting the GAMES they put up highlights on SportsCenter.

For the NBA you are watching TNT, For NFL Fox and NBC (Comcast), MLB (local affiliates), World Cup for football is carried on multiple channels. The SEC network is about the only exclusive deal they have along with the Masters.

I'm NOT a sports fan - DW is a huge fan however and ESPN is rarely her first choice for watching games my DBIL who is a college basketball ref and another huge sports fan also rarely watches games on ESPN.

What i'm saying here is ESPN is a paper tiger and they have a relatively small amount of unique programming, they do however have a massive marketing machine which makes them seem bigger than they are in reality and use that as leverage with cable carriers.

With the TWC+Comcast merger making Comcast THE DOMINANT pipe into the home in most major metro markets they will have enormous leverage over content providers and Disney is a competitor and they have a vested interest in crushing Disney as it benefits their bottom line.

 

[lazyboy97o]

@WDW1974 Topic for discussion:

WHY does the Cruise Line still understand and practice the 'Disney Difference', but
the parks in Fla. don't get it? Just different management? Can they not charge
enough at the parks, but they can on the ships, to justify it? Why do people get
off the ships and say 'that's the way you do that', and it doesn't apply to the parks?

My only guess is, people spend more on cruises, they must be more profitable
per guest. So, if, say, admission to the parks was 20 dollars more a day--50
dollars more a day--what? Would that 'allow' them to give that level of service
in the parks? Would they?

Or can they, now, with the income level, and for whatever reason, they aren't?

Or are the cruises 'higher level' now, and the parks are consigned to stroller hell
at this point? Meaning, it's 'give the people what they want' taken to its sad extreme.

It seems like 'blue ocean', oddly enough, isn't applying to the cruise ships. Yet?
Only time will tell.

I think it comes down to cruising being a legitimate and acceptable form of recreation to many Disney executives.

 

[WDWDad13]

A winter based children's film released in time for the Christmas holidays?

Yeah that's exactly what I was saying

 

[Irie]

Except for the NHL which is practically ignored on SportsCenter.

Thank God.

 

[71jason]

It was a bad attempt at a pun, sorry. :/

The irony: DCL is a perfect example of "blue ocean" theory. They all but reinvented the cruise ship experience, opening cruising up to a new market--primarily families with children--who were far less likely to sail before. Their biggest competitors have been forced to play catch-up and go down the path Disney led.

 

[71jason]

I think it comes down to cruising being a legitimate and acceptable form of recreation to many Disney executives.

Hadn't thought of this, but excellent point