Universal Puts Disney's Reopening on Defensive

[oceanbreeze77]

Ask anyone who has worked in a service business or retail for a time, most confrontations with guests never end well. We've been conditioned to believe that the customer is always right. Disney knows this.

also some Disney clientele can get quite aggressive.

 

[Tony Perkis]

also some Disney clientele can get quite aggressive.

There is a level of entitlement to Disney APs that make reopening more difficult.

 

[Rider]

Ask anyone who has worked in a service business or retail for a time, most confrontations with guests never end well. We've been conditioned to believe that the customer is always right. Disney knows this.

Yep... and it's really strange that the less important something is... the more upset people get. I've worked guest relations at a non-Disney park and I've also worked as management at a very large bank. The people at the bank who I talk to about issues they are having with amounts of money that get into the 6 or 7 digits are always super calm about it. But tell one mom that her kid is too short to ride a giant roller coaster and you won't hear the end of it.

 

[zengoth]

You all do know Asian countries have been wearing masks for years now with humidity and high heat. If they can do, it American's can do it. All I'm hearing is excuses. If you can't handle the heat, stay home.

And if you can’t stand the heat at home, better move to the North pole.
oh wait

Heat wave hits the Arctic, raising temperatures to 86 degrees

An unprecedented heat wave has the Arctic in its grips. The event is caused by a strong high pressure system moving in from Siberia that has been intensified by climate change.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Don't forget Stephen Colbert and Seth Myers. They have made late night TV unwatchable.

Those two don’t work for Disney...

And late has always poked fun at the pols...since the 60’s - at least

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It all comes down to California and their executive orders. It seems like the California government is shifting gears now that other states are successfully open. Previously they had been saying things would remain shut down for months longer.

There have been pretty good/steady drops In numbers there so I’m sure they’ll re-evaluate that
A lot of the “hot spots” have started to dwindle...including where I’m at.

 

[Epcotbob]

Wow, interesting read....I hadn’t noticed this forum till now. I’m surprised they had internal plans to essentially take the summer off and leisurely open by the end of August...that's crazy.

I still think they will start phased openings of WDW mid to late June. I also think Disneyland will be open sometime in August....maybe even July.

I have zero inside info, I’m just basing that on what I think will happen as states are now reopening their economies. It will be fast and furious, those states that try to keep everything shutdown will increasingly be on the defensive to justify what will be increasingly viewed as draconian and an overreach.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Wow, interesting read....I hadn’t noticed this forum till now. I’m surprised they had internal plans to essentially take the summer off and leisurely open by the end of August...that's crazy.

I still think they will start phased openings of WDW mid to late June. I also think Disneyland will be open sometime in August....maybe even July.

I have zero inside info, I’m just basing that on what I think will happen as states are now reopening their economies. It will be fast and furious, those states that try to keep everything shutdown will increasingly be on the defensive to justify what will be increasingly viewed as draconian and an overreach.

I think the missing component is where is the money going to come from?

That’s two fold: crushing economics only beginning to take hold and hesitancy to travel combined with schedule disruptions.

Disney serves no purpose to themselves by being open unless they can get mass crowds. The numbers can’t be throttled back on the scale people think.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Can they?

Americans are fatter, more out-of-shape, and prone to disease and hospitalization.

Amen

And dumber.

Double amen

 

[monothingie]

And his show is the worst because of it.

It isn’t shocking to see the correlation between his decision to not make his show politically and the ratings plunge of The Tonight Show relative to its late night counterparts.

This post is completely wrong, For this season Fallon’s show is second slightly behind Colbert in the TV ratings. That said Fallon clobbers them all when it comes to TV and streaming viewers combined. It isn’t even close. Fallon is by far the most watched host on late night TV.

My post is out of date, but it wasn’t wrong entirely.

A Sharp Decline for Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show’ (Published 2017)

The latest ratings show that viewers are tuning out NBC’s fun-and-games approach and flocking to the politically engaged Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.

www.nytimes.com

Not exactly...

Fox’s ‘Greg Gutfeld Show’ tops Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel in late-night ratings race

“The Greg Gutfeld Show” on Fox News finished April with an average of 2.86 million viewers, marking its highest ratings in program history while topping broadcast late-night rivals on C…

thehill.com

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Okay, I’ve gotten a couple messages about WDW Pro and some other people here have been asking me some things, so here goes:

I have no idea who WDW Pro is.

My sources seem to indicate that “secure circuit” doesn’t seem to exist. It never did. I don’t know if my sources are mistaken, but these are the same internal sources (not the ones at Turner) who told me the GMR was closing. I tend to trust them.

WDW has been investigating multiple opening plans, and one includes ONLY World Showcase in Food and Wine festival mode, and only the Epcot resorts open, as well as Hollywood Studios. The idea here is the transportation systems can accommodate social distancing via Skyliner, and no buses, boats, or monorails will need to be operated. The problem with Magic Kingdom is the walkable nature, or rather, lack there of.

There is simply no way to operate the Magic Kingdom transportation with social distancing in place with normalization of park hours. The only way this can be established is if they require not only timed entry to the park, but also timed exits from the park. Reopening the MK is disaster because of the parking situation. The only solution being talked about is to run parking trams up and down World Drive under the water bridge and have it work as a massive exodus system, a la Disneyland and the Mickey & Friends Parking garage. Even then, they would still need to use ferry boat service to reach a decent capacity, and re-allocate parking teams from other parks.

Re-opening the parks will be a disaster, but the MK is a disaster waiting to happen or epic proportions. It’s very likely that MK will be the last to open.

I can’t speak for anything else WDW Pro is saying, although nothing seems all that far off. Anyway, take this with a grain of salt.

I’m often told I’m crazy...and since I agree with this - you must be crazy too.

Wdw needs crowds to operate and that means everything built since 1967 has been designed to move mass with speed. I can’t stress this enough.
It’s the only way they make money and that’s the only way it makes sense to open.

How in da hell do you do that if you want to give the impression your priorities are now the EXACT opposite of that?

Tough calls.
I still think the dwarf building in Burbank wanted one of two things:
1. Orders not to open
2. The “herd immunity” mentality to take over and a lot of scientific luck.

They’re getting neither...stuck right smack dab in the middle in Florida. California too. Paris too. Japan too.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Not exactly...

Fox’s ‘Greg Gutfeld Show’ tops Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel in late-night ratings race

“The Greg Gutfeld Show” on Fox News finished April with an average of 2.86 million viewers, marking its highest ratings in program history while topping broadcast late-night rivals on C…

thehill.com

That’s not quite the same...

That show is not on a broadcast network and following a local news lead in...

And it’s been documented for about 20 years how that station has a viewership that almost never changes the channel at remarkable numbers.

They have more people glued in than a hallmark channel Christmas movie marathon during a snowstorm

 

[Hcalvert]

Who asked the cast members? They didnt take a vote of every cast member. No one asked my husband what he wanted. This decision was backed by a few union representatives, not the cast as a whole.

I’m not saying NO CMs support this, but acting like every CM is grateful for this rule is just as ridiculous as saying none want it either. CMs didn’t have a say.

I bet it was a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) and those don't have to be voted on by the members. I hate MOUs as they give opinions and options that may not be popular amongst the members. I feel that they should have at least sent out a survey to the members to find out what was most important to them to determine non-negotiables---just like bargaining a new contract.

Case in point: My bargaining team is having the audacity to ask for raises with my school district losing at least 2 million next year. No! I just want the current contract to continue instead, but I or anyone else, was not asked. This may or may not be a popular opinion amongst the members, but they didn't even bother to ask us to find out. I want to point out that I have a unpopular view in my district as I feel that the teachers are fairly and maybe overly compensated in some cases and we have a great healthcare plan (no deductibles or copays and paying $150/month for family coverage that includes health, dental, and vision). I had way less when I taught in Florida and definitely value holding on to what we already got than getting a raise. Also, our levy was voted down in May as well, which resulted in some layoffs and further complicates things. I rather whatever pennies the district can pinch together go to the kids than to me or other adults (very unpopular opinion and radical, I know, especially for an union steward ).

 

[monothingie]

That’s not quite the same...

That show is not on a broadcast network and following a local news lead in...

I'll take the Neilson Company's take on it instead. Neilson puts it in the same ratings class and I'll just leave it with the people whose entire company's focus is to provide viewer ratings for media companies and advertisers.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I bet it was a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) and those don't have to be voted on by the members. I hate MOUs as they give opinions and options that may not be popular amongst the members. I feel that they should have at least sent out a survey to the members to find out what was most important to them to determine non-negotiables---just like bargaining a new contract. Case in point: My bargaining team is having the audacity to ask for raises with my school district losing at least 2 million next year. No! I just want the current contract to continue instead, but I or anyone else, was not asked.

I’m sure it was done for PR/negotiating options for both sides...It’s just unclear what those may be as of yet. We could speculate but it’s just that.

When it hit the boards that “there you have it...masks mandatory”...my first response based on labor experience in wdw was “that’s cute”

Aka...not set in stone at all.

 

[Tony Perkis]

Not exactly...

Fox’s ‘Greg Gutfeld Show’ tops Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel in late-night ratings race

“The Greg Gutfeld Show” on Fox News finished April with an average of 2.86 million viewers, marking its highest ratings in program history while topping broadcast late-night rivals on C…

thehill.com

This is why I said my information was out of date.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I'll take the Neilson Company's take on it instead. Neilson puts it in the same ratings class and I'll just leave it with the people whose entire company's focus is to provide viewer ratings for media companies and advertisers.

Fine...

But you missed the crux - they don’t change the channel.

How does the 10 o’clock hour ratings comp to fluctuation on the broadcasts? I better it’s rather “consistent”. That show falls in a “24 hour block schedule” model.

Not debating the effectiveness of it...it’s impressive. It is what it is.

Like mtv not showing a music video for 25 years or history channel showing nothing relevant to history for 15.

Gotta go with what sells.

 

[Getachew]

Okay, I’ve gotten a couple messages about WDW Pro and some other people here have been asking me some things, so here goes:

I have no idea who WDW Pro is.

My sources seem to indicate that “secure circuit” doesn’t seem to exist. It never did. I don’t know if my sources are mistaken, but these are the same internal sources (not the ones at Turner) who told me the GMR was closing. I tend to trust them.

WDW has been investigating multiple opening plans, and one includes ONLY World Showcase in Food and Wine festival mode, and only the Epcot resorts open, as well as Hollywood Studios. The idea here is the transportation systems can accommodate social distancing via Skyliner, and no buses, boats, or monorails will need to be operated. The problem with Magic Kingdom is the walkable nature, or rather, lack there of.

There is simply no way to operate the Magic Kingdom transportation with social distancing in place with normalization of park hours. The only way this can be established is if they require not only timed entry to the park, but also timed exits from the park. Reopening the MK is disaster because of the parking situation. The only solution being talked about is to run parking trams up and down World Drive under the water bridge and have it work as a massive exodus system, a la Disneyland and the Mickey & Friends Parking garage. Even then, they would still need to use ferry boat service to reach a decent capacity, and re-allocate parking teams from other parks.

Re-opening the parks will be a disaster, but the MK is a disaster waiting to happen or epic proportions. It’s very likely that MK will be the last to open.

I can’t speak for anything else WDW Pro is saying, although nothing seems all that far off. Anyway, take this with a grain of salt.

Interesting stuff. MK last? That's shocking, but it's true that it will likely be the hardest to open up for a variety of reasons. Any other insiders hear anything like this?

 

[VaderTron]

Ask anyone who has worked in a service business or retail for a time, most confrontations with guests never end well. We've been conditioned to believe that the customer is always right. Disney knows this.

I have watched many businesses tell their potential customers that a mask is a necessity to enter their premises. This resulted in at least two people that I observed while waiting to enter a store choosing to walk away and not do business there. However, it kept me as a customer. (If they had let the non-mask wearer in I would have left myself and not come back either. I've been back three times since.) So, it just takes being more than a scared little baby to tell another person what they are doing is unacceptable and enforce the rules. The worst case is you have to have them escorted out. The result will be confidence that would draw back dozens more customers for every one they lose. (Those ones are staying away for now because of lack of confidence of rule enforcement.)


My friend works in a medical office building. There was a patient coming in for an outpatient surgical procedure. However, the patient did not have a mask and was yelling at those prohibiting his entrance in the lobby about "his rights and freedoms". The doctor himself acted like the grown man he was and came down himself and told the irate patient he must wear a mask. The man continued to argue even with the doctor that he had an appointment and had a right to be there even if he wasn't wearing a mask. The doctor said, "You no longer have an appointment because you are no longer my patient and are dismissed. If you don't leave I will call the authorities and have you arrested for trespassing."

That's how the matter is handled with idiots. Good riddance.

 

[Herdman]

Those two don’t work for Disney...

And late has always poked fun at the pols...since the 60’s - at least

I agree totally, but a joke or two as part of their monologue, not the entire thing.