The Spirited Sixth Sense ...

[ParentsOf4]

Obviously with that amount of cash left on the table they need some type of RFID rapidfill program.

This is the part that irritates me the most with WDW's current management.

They are jacking up prices all over the place yet they are nickel-and-diming us every chance they get.

They've become so petty that they don't even recognize what's happening at the macro level.

 

[ford91exploder]

You and WDW 1974 seem to have read the "fluff" included in the Walt Disney Company 2013 Annual report which is sitting next to me as I type. It came in today's mail. Yes, I still get paper copies. Never have so many been duped by so few when it comes to the "Parks and Resorts" division. They begin the management representation with the Florida parks, touting the Fantasyland expansion as "doubling the size of the previous land". They go on to describe Epcot as it exists and has existed for about 15 years..then they describe the Studios in similar fashion. They end with touting the announcement of bringing Avatar and nighttime entertainment to Animal Kingdom. Almost every positive report is located in Studio Entertainment section and acquisitions of intellectual properties and the production of "Frozen".

Fortunately in the required "risk assessment" portion, they list all circumstances beyond their control including "competition" to cover any contingencies. They also mention hurricanes and terrorist attacks so...all bases covered.

Yes, I own Disney Stock. I am first and foremost a person who loves to travel and I love theme parks. I also own Comcast stock, so no favorites. I buy and hold and generally don't pay a bit of attention to these annual reports. I feel that now, I should...Interesting change. As a public service...I also own Starbucks stock...

I know I am a relative newbie here...hope I am not wasting your time...

Welcome to the board @ThemeParkJunkee

 

[StageFrenzy]

You and WDW 1974 seem to have read the "fluff" included in the Walt Disney Company 2013 Annual report which is sitting next to me as I type. It came in today's mail. Yes, I still get paper copies. Never have so many been duped by so few when it comes to the "Parks and Resorts" division. They begin the management representation with the Florida parks, touting the Fantasyland expansion as "doubling the size of the previous land". They go on to describe Epcot as it exists and has existed for about 15 years..then they describe the Studios in similar fashion. They end with touting the announcement of bringing Avatar and nighttime entertainment to Animal Kingdom. Almost every positive report is located in Studio Entertainment section and acquisitions of intellectual properties and the production of "Frozen".

Fortunately in the required "risk assessment" portion, they list all circumstances beyond their control including "competition" to cover any contingencies. They also mention hurricanes and terrorist attacks so...all bases covered.

Yes, I own Disney Stock. I am first and foremost a person who loves to travel and I love theme parks. I also own Comcast stock, so no favorites. I buy and hold and generally don't pay a bit of attention to these annual reports. I feel that now, I should...Interesting change. As a public service...I also own Starbucks stock...

I know I am a relative newbie here...hope I am not wasting your time...

You come with opinions, reasons for said opinions and seem open to counter arguments. Welcome to the Board!

 

[danlb_2000]

You come with opinions, reasons for said opinions and seem open to counter arguments. Welcome to the Board!

He doesn't belong here.

 

[jlsHouston]

Obviously with that amount of cash left on the table they need some type of RFID rapidfill program.

Oh God NO. Don't even use that word please..

 

[ford91exploder]

I still say that Disney & Comcast are gonna have a nasty fight about ESPN's rates....

Oh they are indeed, Comcast I think is willing to take a hit because being able to drop Disney content for roughly 60% of the wired households in the US will do immense damage to their competitor. The reality is WHERE are the disgruntled subs gonna go. In most major metro areas there are no competitors for Cable and High Speed internet except for some legacy copper DSL carriers.

As part of the raid on Disney I would not be surprised if Comcast throttled access to internet based Disney content as well which would benefit us all in that hopefully the the FCC would be forced into changing Internet from 'Entertainment Service' back to 'Common Carrier'

Either way it promises to be an entertaining corporate war.

 

[ford91exploder]

I would hardly call the MK a big construction site. They are building a kiddie coaster in the middle of what was a lagoon. What else? Walkway expansion because they have too many people (and way too many in ECVs and pushing double-wides)? A few buildings with scrims being rehabbed (stuff that used to simply happen and wasn't cause for celebration by fans)?

DAK? They are relocating a show that is closed now and not performing. They recently broke ground on Pandora. That's a big project, but still one that is largely out of view of guests.

FW? Energy is stuck in the 90s. WoL is DoA. Mission Space hasn't changed in 11 years. ... Seas got a cheap Nemo overlay. Land got redone for Soarin, almost a decade ago.Still showing a film from 20 years ago. Imagination? Do we want to go there.

TPFKaTD-MGMS? Nothing at all. Yep, lots of plans. Many thatcamethisclose to fruition, but nothing that has been given funding.

Disney Springs may be a construction project, but it's also just the latest incarnation of a shopping/lifestyle center. No one plans trips to visit. And traffic has turned locals off visiting as well.

DVC is quick easy money for Disney. SHould we be excited that they have so outpriced the market that adding DVC is the only way the deluxe resorts can survive without being a drain on the bottom line?



And TDL makes the MK appear ghetto by comparison, but what's the point?



Nah. What Wall Street wants is to know when, where and how Disney expects the two billion dollar NGE boondoggle to pay off both now and down the line ... the questions that Bob Iger either can't or won't (my guess is a little of both) answer.

I own stock in the company. And I am making a pretty penny on it. Would have literally been able to live on what I could have made had I not had to sell off about 85% of what I owned in 2007 and held on and sold now. But I am not so much interested in the price of a share tomorrow as I am in the health of the company's fundamentals come five years from now and a decade from now. Rest assured, Iger, Rasulo, Staggs and Co. do not because they will all be long gone and have had the ability to sell their massive shares at massive profits well before.

THIS - my biggest concern is TWDC's long term viability which if they continue on their current track is in question. Their current stock price is going to hold until the first significant headwind and I think that will be the ESPN contract. People say 'Content is King' but the recent Viacom vs DTV kerfuffle kind of puts a different spin on it. Viacom wanted an increase of 1Billion in licensing fees from DTV, DTV dropped Viacom, Viacom settled for 100 Million. Not what I'd call a resounding victory for content providers.

 

[aladdin2007]

This is the part that irritates me the most with WDW's current management.

They are jacking up prices all over the place yet they are nickel-and-diming us every chance they get.

They've become so petty that they don't even recognize what's happening at the macro level.

Agree all the way.....and Spirit just out of curiousity what do you think the MK will look like in ten to twenty years? and or the other parks. Do you think there could be a type of management in place again that "gets it" and cares? Whenever the day comes that Iger and co. are out of the picture, do you think its just going to be worse or is there a chance someone that believes in "creativity" could be at the helm again?

 

[ford91exploder]

Nope not a fanboi argument. Someone previously mentioned the merger and the potential 'issues' for Disney's future fee negotiation. There won't be an issue, both parties know they need to reach an agreement.

The issue is now Comcast is in a far stronger negotiating position since they will control about 60% of all cable households and have no reason to accept Disney's this is what we want to charge and you will pay it and like it,

Wall St will be expecting 'Market Efficiencies' and one of them will be the carriage fee's paid to the content providers so Comcast really has no choice in the matter other than to 'take on' TWDC over the fees paid for content especially since TWDC's cable fees are the highest in the industry. This battle has the potential to reshape the provider/carrier landscape depending upon who wins.

ESPN is simply the highest profile, A+E, Disney $NAME, ABC etc are all in this fight.

The intense loathing both BoD's feel for the other will add an interesting subtext.

 

[71jason]

He has a MLP following now? Can't see where he's needed at the toy fair

Come on, you're not THAT shocked, are you?Prior to Twitter threats, my only interaction with Ricky was the time his wife walked into a bar doing Monsters High cosplay.

 

[GoofGoof]

THIS - my biggest concern is TWDC's long term viability which if they continue on their current track is in question. Their current stock price is going to hold until the first significant headwind and I think that will be the ESPN contract. People say 'Content is King' but the recent Viacom vs DTV kerfuffle kind of puts a different spin on it. Viacom wanted an increase of 1Billion in licensing fees from DTV, DTV dropped Viacom, Viacom settled for 100 Million. Not what I'd call a resounding victory for content providers.

From a news article on the settlement:
"The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the new contract. But people familiar with the talks said DirecTV will pay Viacom around $600 million in the first year of the seven-year contract with subsequent mid-single digit percentage increases. That would be a 20 percent increase over the previous contract's $500 million a year that was publicly stated by DirecTV Chief Executive Mike White.

DirecTV previously said Viacom sought a 30 percent increase in carriage fees, equaling $1 billion over five years -- a boost that DirecTV said was not justified."

Hardly a death blow getting a 20% increase over your prior year contract when you were seeking 30%. Plus I'm still not seeing people being as upset about losing MTV, VH1 and Nick as they would be about ESPN or Disney Channel.

Look, as I said in my first post about this merger, I'm sure this will lead to a stronger bargaining position for Comcast but these guys need each other so a deal will be worked out. It's not a death toll for ESPN or Disney networks. We can go around and around for ever on this but since the boss said he doesn't want his thread derailed by this discussion I will agree to disagree and stop discussing it.

 

[71jason]

After riding Despicable Me first thing (60-80 min wait), we avoided USF. I'm betting things got much busier there in the afternoon with the Mardi Gras concert that evening.

Express for DM:MM got up to 35 minutes yesterday afternoon. And queue still looked full when BNL concert was in full swing.

Controversial opinion time: in terms of the general public (rather than online fanbois), Minions and Transformers combined will have a bigger effect on US than Diagon Alley. Everyone downplays those rides but better part of a year out, still pack huge crowds not inflated by FastPass.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Express for DM:MM got up to 35 minutes yesterday afternoon. And queue still looked full when BNL concert was in full swing.

Controversial opinion time: in terms of the general public (rather than online fanbois), Minions and Transformers combined will have a bigger effect on US than Diagon Alley. Everyone downplays those rides but better part of a year out, still pack huge crowds not inflated by FastPass.

Universal has the same problem with Minions Mayhem as DHS has with TSM. It's a popular IP stuck on an attraction with poor capacity.

Among my high school daughters and their friends, the Minions are more popular than Potter or Transformers.

Their boyfriends and their male friends still prefer Transformers and Potter, even more than Marvel.

I find it interesting that high schoolers can openly express a liking for what could be considered children IPs. Based on my contacts throughout the country, it doesn't seem to be an isolated phenomenon either.

It also explains why so many junior high school children consider WDW to be a "kiddie park".

WDW seems genuinely at risk of losing future vacationers as those going today better remember their teenage years spent at Universal rather than their grade school years at WDW.

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

Come on, you're not THAT shocked, are you?Prior to Twitter threats, my only interaction with Ricky was the time his wife walked into a bar doing Monsters High cosplay.

Wow that sounds incredibly embarrassing. Is she young or uh reliving her youth?

 

[ford91exploder]

Universal has the same problem with Minions Mayhem as DHS has with TSM. It's a popular IP stuck on an attraction with poor capacity.

Among my high school daughters and their friends, the Minions are more popular than Potter or Transformers.

Their boyfriends and their male friends still prefer Transformers and Potter, even more than Marvel.

I find it interesting that high schoolers can openly express a liking for what could be considered children IPs. Based on my contacts throughout the country, it doesn't seem to be an isolated phenomenon either.

It also explains why so many of junior high school children consider WDW to be a "kiddie park".

WDW seems genuinely at risk of losing future vacationers as those going today better remember their teenage years spent at Universal rather than their grade school years at WDW.

I coach a FIRST robotics team - so all the kids are high school aged. The kids think my fellow coaches and I are nuts because we love as they call it a 'kiddie park' But they all LOVE the Minions some of them even have fusion Minion/Dr Who shirts of a dozen minions carrying off the Tardis. Bunch of them are going to Orlando for the spring break with families and Disney IS NOT on the itinerary.

Disney has LOST this generation of kids because they have NO IP which appeals to them except perhaps Phineas and Ferb which makes sense since these kids are after all building robots...

 

[TalkingHead]

WDW seems genuinely at risk of losing future vacationers as those going today better remember their teenage years spent at Universal rather than their grade school years at WDW.

Nostalgia's a funny thing, isn't it?

 

[TalkingHead]

Express for DM:MM got up to 35 minutes yesterday afternoon. And queue still looked full when BNL concert was in full swing.

Ugh. Glad we did it first thing. Such a boring line until you get inside. Yeah, putting a popular lowish-capacity ride in the very front of the park is probably not an ideal design solution. I keep wondering what they'll do with the Shrek building if/when they remove it. That could reduce the stress on DM being in the front of the park.

Controversial opinion time: in terms of the general public (rather than online fanbois), Minions and Transformers combined will have a bigger effect on US than Diagon Alley. Everyone downplays those rides but better part of a year out, still pack huge crowds not inflated by FastPass.

It'll be interesting to see how Diagon affects things. I'm assuming merch sales will go through the roof for Potter 2 (but I know Minions sell especially well, too). And I'd guess that the park will get a ton of publicity with Diagon that it didn't necessarily get with DM and Transformers. I'm expecting the worst with Diagon -- any line or crowd I encountered yesterday, I just told myself it was practice for this summer's opening.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

The problem with selling Disney parks like Universal where you can "meet the characters!" is that their attraction mix had little to do with their own IPs. They don't actually have much in the way of rides to represent Lion King, Aladdin, Tangled, Frozen or even older stuff like Jungle Book and Mary Poppins.

Disney used to be sold on great, unique experiences. Which is what they actually offer(ed). Lazy marketing suggests IP differentiation is the best route. That only works if you have that kind of stuff to support it. If you go to WDW expecting rides based on Disney movies, you're going to be disapointed with most of the stuff outside of MK. Even Little Mermaid makes people go "meh".

"Ride the movies" is a popular concept with the general public, but only select Disney areas like Cars land and New Fantasyland truly deliver on that. Disney needs to go back, define and live up to their own standards of what makes a great theme park. Then IPs won't matter so much.

 

[PhotoDave219]

One final question before I call it a Spirited night, but anyone have first-hand knowledge of what the crowds are like at WDW (and/or UNI and/or SWO) on this holiday weekend?

Absolutely insane crowds.

I went to Epcot last night with a sports writer friend. The place was wall-to-wall people. World showcase around 6 o'clock was full. Almost food and wine festival full.

I heard they used every parking lot they have it animal Kingdom yesterday. I had no idea they had a butterfly part of the lot.

Apparently Presidents' Day weekend is coinciding with some winter breaks in the northern states… so not only do we have Argentinian tour groups, cheerleaders, Florida locals here for the weekend, we've got tourists. So yeah.

Not quite Christmas week insanity but very few things are…

 

[Jimmy Thick]

Now in all seriousness about the whole Disney vs Comcast debate, people do know that in 2012 Disney and Comcast signed a unheard of 10 year agreement for providing and distributing content? Comcast is paying like over 6 bucks per sub for ESPN's family alone. So...

By 2022, Comcast will more than likely be an afterthought in the cable distribution business anyway as the cable box will be completely phased out by then.

Just letting people know some facts, now please carry on the current D&G line of what's really not going to happen.

Jimmy Thick- 10 years, there won't be any negotiation in at least 10 years. Think of it as a perpetual contract for 10 years. * Jimmy chuckles *