TWDC Earnings

[DManRightHere]

Thats some staggering profits for a company that is constantly raising prices and constantly making cuts.

That's exactly what every company in the world wants to do. When the customers aren't happy, they will stop giving the company money and then the company will have to spend money to get what the customers want and hopefully get the customers back.

 

[PhotoDave219]

That's exactly what every company in the world wants to do. When the customers aren't happy, they will stop giving the company money and then the company will have to spend money to get what the customers want and hopefully get the customers back.

So why not continually reinvest to insure the customers are always happy?

Even $100M /quarter would go a LONG ways and is a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Jimmy Thick]

Ever think maybe, just maybe, MM+ is making things a little more efficient and that could be causing an additional 3k more people in MK?

That answer to logical?

Jimmy Thick- Have to believe Disney was carrying the Universal parks last holiday season based on that fact alone.

 

[MinnieM123]

Anyone else see the interview with Bob Iger last evening on the Willis Report? While channel surfing, I happened to catch the interview (it was on after 6:30 p.m., EST, on Fox Business).

Financial reports from big business always confuse me, so I really can't comment on the $ specifics of what he said. Others here on the forum (with financial backgrounds) may be more qualified to interpret those statements.

As CEO, his responses were presented in a positive light about the company (no surprise there). Just an observation though: I thought that his on-camera demeanor came across as being a bit rigid. That may not amount to a hill of beans, but it did catch my attention. Perhaps off-camera, he might be a bit more relaxed.

 

[rbiggar]

Perhaps the capacity increase was on each day, accomplished by getting people to leave sooner, having used up their 3 fastpass+?

 

[kittybubbles]

Does accommodate really equate to capacity? His job is to spin everything in a positive light. Since he was talking about MM+, and I think Parentsof4 mentioned something along these lines, I think that he was talking about FP+ in a context that during the holiday rush, they gave out FastPasses to 3k more guest each day than this time last year.

Guest were accommodated by being able to reserve a ride time. Now I do not think it means anything as the increase could just be because FP (in any form) did not exists for rides like POTC, teacups, HM...so they should be able to accommodate more guest.

But the statement is so vague and meaningless that I do not think anyone will ever really know what his definition of accommodate means in the statements context.

 

[Nubs70]

Anyone else see the interview with Bob Iger last evening on the Willis Report? While channel surfing, I happened to catch the interview (it was on after 6:30 p.m., EST, on Fox Business).

Financial reports from big business always confuse me, so I really can't comment on the $ specifics of what he said. Others here on the forum (with financial backgrounds) may be more qualified to interpret those statements.

As CEO, his responses were presented in a positive light about the company (no surprise there). Just an observation though: I thought that his on-camera demeanor came across as being a bit rigid. That may not amount to a hill of beans, but it did catch my attention. Perhaps off-camera, he might be a bit more relaxed.

When you spin, you fabricate. When you fabricate, you tend to become very focused on the script which comes off as being rigid.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Ok, while I was listening to the white noise...found this:

Editor's Note: The USALI is the standard for hotel accounting. Hotel owners, operators, accountants, consultants, analysts, educators, attorneys, lenders, and investors all rely on it as the “common language” for hotel financial statements and statistics. This article that discusses recent guideline changes has been added to the franchise encyclopedia as a resource for lodging owners and staff.
Major Changes of 10th Edition

Available Rooms is defined as all rooms in the hotel that are used for guest overnight occupancy. The count of available rooms will not be reduced unless a room is out of order for a minimum of six consecutive months due to a non-discretionary event (i.e. fire, hurricane, etc…), or an entire rooms department is completely closed for a minimum of 30 days.

Doesnt sound consistent with closing down whole floors and removing them from the books to inflate occupancy rates. Does it @WDW1974 ?

In 2013, Disney listed 10,558,000 available room nights at its domestic resorts.

Per Disney's statements regarding hotel capacity in its 10-K filing, Disney has 11,060,000 rooms available domestically. (This is the 2013 number. It does not include the 106-room VGF, which opened in Fiscal Year 2014, adding another 39,000 room nights.)

That's a difference of less than 5%.

If these rooms are taken into account, domestic occupancy (which is almost all about WDW since WDW has about 90% of the domestic rooms) drops from 79% to 75%.

Disney might be taking large blocks of rooms out-of-service but, IMHO, having 1-in-20 rooms out-of-service is not something that raises overt concern.

 

[twebber55]

Ever think maybe, just maybe, MM+ is making things a little more efficient and that could be causing an additional 3k more people in MK?

That answer to logical?

Jimmy Thick- Have to believe Disney was carrying the Universal parks last holiday season based on that fact alone.

that what i was thinking....

 

[John]

I

Disney might be taking large blocks of rooms out-of-service but, IMHO, having 1-in-20 rooms out-of-service is not something that raises overt concern.

I would tend to agree.....if and that is what is key "if" the numbers are accurate. How much stock can we put in the numbers being given?

 

[ParentsOf4]

I would tend to agree.....if and that is what is key "if" the numbers are accurate. How much stock can we put in the numbers being given?

These are statements on Disney's 10-K filing to the SEC. They better be accurate.

Independent of the filing, I've collected data regarding hotel capacity at all of Disney's domestic resorts. Within the margin of some obvious rounding in the 10-K, I calculate a number that's basically the same as Disney's 10-K filing.

 

[John]

Ever think maybe, just maybe, MM+ is making things a little more efficient and that could be causing an additional 3k more people in MK?

That answer to logical?

Jimmy Thick- Have to believe Disney was carrying the Universal parks last holiday season based on that fact alone.

You could be 100% correct, you also could be wrong. Does efficiency equal a better guest experience? Efficiency on who's behalf? Disney or the guest? I was extremely efficient with the old system. But you know what, I like that about you....a "glass half full" kind of guy.

 

[John]

These are statements on Disney's 10-K filing to the SEC. They better be accurate.

Independent of the filing, I've collected data regarding hotel capacity at all of Disney's domestic resorts. Within the margin of some obvious rounding in the 10-K, I calculate a number that's basically the same as Disney's 10-K filing.

@ParentsOf4 so if a room goes unoccupied can Disney write that off as a loss?

 

[asianway]

@ParentsOf4 so if a room goes unoccupied can Disney write that off as a loss?

It's not a loss it's inventory that perished. The practice in question makes the occupied room percent statistic look higher because you are reducing the denominator in the equation

 

[asianway]

... Here and I thought that New Fantasyland added an additional 3k to guest capacity.

Technically that opened at the beginning of Oct '12 so is mostly already in the year over year comparison

 

[Darth Sidious]

These are statements on Disney's 10-K filing to the SEC. They better be accurate.

Independent of the filing, I've collected data regarding hotel capacity at all of Disney's domestic resorts. Within the margin of some obvious rounding in the 10-K, I calculate a number that's basically the same as Disney's 10-K filing.

Yes, that would be illegal to make up a number in the 10-K. Sarbanes-Oxley would cause some issues for Bob and Jay if they did make stuff up.

 

[ford91exploder]

Yes, that would be illegal to make up a number in the 10-K. Sarbanes-Oxley would cause some issues for Bob and Jay if they did make stuff up.

But as long as the company is 'making' money who would call them on it, I really wish the SEC would investigate wildly profitable companies with the same scrutiny that companies generating large losses incur.

Disney's occupancy claims defy the ghost towns that are the larger resorts these days, AND lots of people are renting cars because of the pricing of car rentals in the MCO market, One of the few places in the US where car rentals are more expensive is Silicon Valley.

In short I'm having a problem reconciling the ground truth with the numbers Disney is putting up, Yes the parks ARE full, the resorts ARE NOT with the exception of the values.

 

[danlb_2000]

Ever think maybe, just maybe, MM+ is making things a little more efficient and that could be causing an additional 3k more people in MK?

That answer to logical?

Jimmy Thick- Have to believe Disney was carrying the Universal parks last holiday season based on that fact alone.

As much as I hate to agree with Jimmy, this is how I interpreted what Iger was saying when I listened to the call yesterday. If the popular rides were not running at 100% capacity for the entire time the park was opening, MM+ could be helping to distribute people into times when the ride wasn't at 100%.

 

[Mammymouse]

check the 'rooms department' clause all you need is to close the floor for 30 days, look at the parking lots over the holidays - half empty at most of the deluxes and the stories of empty buses to/from deluxes those tell the tale better

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. I've not been able to book my DVC in the last couple years as easily, and sometimes there's no vacancy at all, as in my previous years since I joined in 1997. I knew it wasn't just because they had offered a special AP to DVCers recently as many have offered as the reason.

 

[WDWDad13]

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. I've not been able to book my DVC in the last couple years as easily, and sometimes there's no vacancy at all, as in my previous years since I joined in 1997. I knew it wasn't just because they had offered a special AP to DVCers recently as many have offered as the reason.

I don't think DVC applies as much to this though...