TWDC 2QFY16 Earnings Call Thread

[RSoxNo1]

The biggest takeaway here is that they are willing to user pricing to moderate attendance. It reinforces what many like @WDW1974 and @ParentsOf4 have been stating for years.

 

[betty rose]

Funny enough, I was at the MK this past weekend and I noticed lots of the same ... I 'may' even be writing about what I saw.

Please do. I'm interested to hear your take on what is happening to Disney. We will see for ourselves in June.

 

[Speedy71]

Why are they so nonchalant about this. This is what happens when you neglect a park.

 

[GhostHost1000]

IMO universal has more exciting things to offer then WDW.

eh... that depends on your perspective... I'm not a harry potter fan and it seems like they are milking that utter all over

 

[GhostHost1000]

The alignment of the New Years and Easter holidays definitely affects the Q1, Q2, and Q3 numbers.

In addition, the 365-day calendar does not line up neatly with 52 weeks in a year, meaning Disney occasionally has a 53-week year, noticeably affecting the numbers reported by Parks & Resorts.

I agree it affects it in some way... but probably not enough to cause a "modest decrease"?

 

[Speedy71]

eh... that depends on your perspective... I'm not a harry potter fan and it seems like they are milking that utter all over

What I mean is they are adding Kong and the new Hulk refurb to the mix.

 

[disneyflush]

That is kind of my point. They don't want to see big increases in attendance at the moment. They want to moderate it due to some of the facts you mention here. They have nowhere to put them.

The DVC build-out over the last decade has basically rendered useless any concept that the company actually cares about 'where are we going to put them' once they arrive. If they were seriously interested in lowering crowd levels (beyond the perfectly formed narrative of 'we raised prices in an attempt to lower crowds') they wouldn't offer discounted rooms, or after-hours events (with such low ticket points that crowd levels during the day wouldn't see any relief), or free dining, or summer magic packages.

Iger taking reduced attendance levels and basically saying, 'We totally meant to do that" sounds like the ultimate in foresight and leadership but it isn't reality. I think it is the first time he had to have an answer for the question, "Raising prices across the board has never had a negative effect on attendance levels but for the first time we are seeing a decline, now what?"

If prices are a primary reason for the decline then the decline will speed up as the vacation planning cycle catches up to the price hikes announcement date. That 3 - 6 month buffer will fade away and the effect of people booking with the updated pricing model will be pretty clear.

 

[GhostHost1000]

What I mean is they are adding Kong and the new Hulk refurb to the mix.

Kong looks cool.... new Hulk refurb... eh...while good... it's just another exposed coaster

 

[ford91exploder]

The DVC build-out over the last decade has basically rendered useless any concept that the company actually cares about 'where are we going to put them' once they arrive. If they were seriously interested in lowering crowd levels (beyond the perfectly formed narrative of 'we raised prices in an attempt to lower crowds') they wouldn't offer discounted rooms, or after-hours events (with such low ticket points that crowd levels during the day wouldn't see any relief), or free dining, or summer magic packages.

Iger taking reduced attendance levels and basically saying, 'We totally meant to do that" sounds like the ultimate in foresight and leadership but it isn't reality. I think it is the first time he had to have an answer for the question, "Raising prices across the board has never had a negative effect on attendance levels but for the first time we are seeing a decline, now what?"

If prices are a primary reason for the decline then the decline will speed up as the vacation planning cycle catches up to the price hikes announcement date. That 3 - 6 month buffer will fade away and the effect of people booking with the updated pricing model will be pretty clear.

And it will be UGLY, So ugly Bob may not make his 2018 departure plan

 

[Speedy71]

Kong looks cool.... new Hulk refurb... eh...while good... it's just another exposed coaster

But it's a refurb all the same god I miss those. And it shows that they at least care about the park.

 

[ford91exploder]

Why are they so nonchalant about this. This is what happens when you neglect a park.

Because you can never let them see you bleed.

Seriously I don't think Disney's BoD anticipated this and just assumed that stateside park pricing and quality cuts were infinitely elastic and that for every loyal fan like us who does not visit because the value has been taken away there are 2-3 ready and willing to replace us.

This is the first indication that the legions of people waiting to take the place of long time fans do not exist in the numbers Disney's BoD thought they did and in fact may not exist at all.

 

[ford91exploder]

But it's a refurb all the same god I miss those. And it shows that they at least care about the park.

It's also an incredible upgrade to the attraction and carries on Uni's tradition of creating a memorial to a past attraction, i.e. Jaws for sale at the fish market and now Hulk holding a section of the old coaster.

 

[Speedy71]

eh... that depends on your perspective... I'm not a harry potter fan and it seems like they are milking that utter all over

And lets not pretend disney hasn't milked anything.

 

[betty rose]

that's not what will happen for the majority IMO... some can only go during the summer months when kids are out of school so they will either pay more, or not go at all

We can only do our family trip in summer. We are DVC and still went out for breakfast lunch and dinner, all at Disney. This year we are renting a car, buying groceries, for an easy breakfast. And going to City Walk, and other places outside of DW for dinners. We are looking to take snacks in for lunch. We are also going to let our AP be the last one. Next year, we will stay in DVC and go to Universal. Good job, Bob Iger. As an aside, we have been going to Disney World since it opened. We have two grandson itching to go to UNI. The youngest is not quite tall enough for UNI, but when he is...it's buh by Bob.

 

[ford91exploder]

eh... that depends on your perspective... I'm not a harry potter fan and it seems like they are milking that utter all over

IF you ARE a HP fan and DW and I confess to being HP fans and being in line at midnight every year for our copies of the books, HP land is an amazing experience. No it's not for everyone but it's been FAR too long since Disney did anything of that scope stateside.

 

[ford91exploder]

We can only do our family trip in summer. We are DVC and still went out for breakfast lunch and dinner, all at Disney. This year we are renting a car, buying groceries, for an easy breakfast. And going to City Walk, and other places outside of DW for dinners. We are looking to take snacks in for lunch. We are also going to let our AP be the last one. Next year, we will stay in DVC and go to Universal. Good job, Bob Iger. As an aside, we have been going to Disney World since it opened. We have two grandson itching to go to UNI. The youngest is quite tall enough for UNI, but when he is...it's buh by Bob.

Pretty much the same here, Stay at DVC visit elsewhere, Well done Bob and Team, well done indeed.

 

[ChipNDale79]

We can only do our family trip in summer. We are DVC and still went out for breakfast lunch and dinner, all at Disney. This year we are renting a car, buying groceries, for an easy breakfast. And going to City Walk, and other places outside of DW for dinners. We are looking to take snacks in for lunch. We are also going to let our AP be the last one. Next year, we will stay in DVC and go to Universal. Good job, Bob Iger. As an aside, we have been going to Disney World since it opened. We have two grandson itching to go to UNI. The youngest is quite tall enough for UNI, but when he is...it's buh by Bob.

I cannot tell you how many times that I have read a post similar to this on other message boards as well.

Many long time visitors are skipping this year, and its because WDW has pushed the envelope too far on pricing and cost cutting. I truly believe Disney forgot that WDW is a tourist destination and no tourist destination is bullet proof.

They did not expect or did they plan on a reduction in attendance.

 

[betty rose]

I'm expecting significant drops especially around the Holidays when Disney finds out just how many people visited WDW at Christmas JUST to see the Osborne Lights.

We certainly did that. And we have no plans to go during the Christmas holiday's anymore. Those lights were fantastic.

 

[betty rose]

I was going to comment about these statistics but it was recently brought to my attention that I'm one of "those people" who only have negative things to say....

You have the right to your opinion. IMHO.

 

[RobbinsDad]

It's been said already but regarding Infinity - after two new versions in consecutive years (DI2 and DI3) and the strength of Skylanders and other competitors, I'm not surprised at all. I always thought it was ridiculous that a paid web-based upgrade to existing devices wasn't available, rather than spending 200+ bucks on a new device.