Universal Puts Disney's Reopening on Defensive

[Gringrinngghost]

How much more can they reduce? Universal is already closing at 6 and Sea World is closed completely Tues/Thurs.

Universal can easily reduce hours even further if they wanted to and still limit capacity.

It has more to do with operating cost , VS attendance and guest spending level as results of the first couple weeks come in than it does concern about uptick in cases.

Yes and No.

 

[homerdance]

Disney could have ramped up EPCOT construction and finished several other major projects faster without guests in the way. Instead they pulled back and conserved cash during the shut down.

There is also the issue of worker safety. The spread of COVID is not limited to vacationers, it also can infect construction/factory workers. So having people work on these projects would be somewhat irresponsible also.

 

[disneygeek90]

Universal can easily reduce hours even further if they wanted to and still limit capacity.


Yes and No.

10-5? I hope people aren't buying day tickets lol

 

[Quackers5000]

10-5? I hope people aren't buying day tickets lol

They could be going the seaworld route and closing some days of the week as well to reduce hours, always an option considering it sounds like some days outside weekends are fairly slow.

 

[jt04]

There is also the issue of worker safety. The spread of COVID is not limited to vacationers, it also can infect construction/factory workers. So having people work on these projects would be somewhat irresponsible also.

Keeping people from working may be more irresponsible.

 

[GoofGoof]

There is also the issue of worker safety. The spread of COVID is not limited to vacationers, it also can infect construction/factory workers. So having people work on these projects would be somewhat irresponsible also.

I don’t disagree. But if the choice is having front line CMs interact with tourists from all over the country while the parks are open or having construction crews that are primarily local interact with each other while the parks are closed either way a set of workers is at risk. It’s less risk for a local crew because it’s much easier to trace and test. Worker at the site tests positive, everyone gets tested before going back and you isolate the sick. For the parks it’s not practical to test everyone all the time and nearly impossible to trace spread.

 

[GoofGoof]

They could be going the seaworld route and closing some days of the week as well to reduce hours, always an option considering it sounds like some days outside weekends are fairly slow.

I always thought that was a possibility for Disney too. Not in July but come Sept if demand is still way down they could stagger one park closed each weekday Mon-Thur. Keep all 4 open on the weekends. It makes a lot of sense operationally.

Universal could close IOA on Mon/Wed and Studios on Tue/Thur. You theoretically cut pure park operating costs in half and still have enough capacity to meet demand. You lose some revenue on muti-park tickets and would have to either close the train or maybe just make it round trip. Or they could keep Potterlands open in both parks all the time and just rope off the exits out of the lands. If Studios park is closed the only way to get to Diagon Alley would be by HE. Sorta like the train at AK to conservation station minus the smelly animals

 

[CircusPeanuts]

I was going to say that the guy clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about if he thinks a lot of the bloat is making *only* 75k/year.

Might want to take a trip over to Glassdoor to look through Florida-filtered Disney Parks salaries. Most “middle management” Disney couples where both are CMs clear a minimum of 200 a year. How do you think Winter Garden blew up?

wut? Lol. The majority of the folks making over 100k a year at WDW are director level and above. Hardly would consider that “middle management”.
There’s an awful lot of folks living in Windermere / Winter Garden / Hamlin who are VERY “house poor” - and quite a few (some of who I know personally) whose parents paid for their home since their management salary of 40-50k a year ain’t cutting it on a 350k house.

 

[jt04]

I always thought that was a possibility for Disney too. Not in July but come Sept if demand is still way down they could stagger one park closed each weekday Mon-Thur. Keep all 4 open on the weekends. It makes a lot of sense operationally.

Universal could close IOA on Mon/Wed and Studios on Tue/Thur. You theoretically cut pure park operating costs in half and still have enough capacity to meet demand. You lose some revenue on muti-park tickets and would have to either close the train or maybe just make it round trip. Or they could keep Potterlands open in both parks all the time and just rope off the exits out of the lands. If Studios park is closed the only way to get to Diagon Alley would be by HE. Sorta like the train at AK to conservation station minus the smelly animals

It would prove more expensive in the long run for Uni to adopt this. Resorts make it necessary to have the parks available daily. They can reduce or adjust hours though seasonally. IMO.

 

[disneygeek90]

I always thought that was a possibility for Disney too. Not in July but come Sept if demand is still way down they could stagger one park closed each weekday Mon-Thur. Keep all 4 open on the weekends. It makes a lot of sense operationally.

Universal could close IOA on Mon/Wed and Studios on Tue/Thur. You theoretically cut pure park operating costs in half and still have enough capacity to meet demand. You lose some revenue on muti-park tickets and would have to either close the train or maybe just make it round trip. Or they could keep Potterlands open in both parks all the time and just rope off the exits out of the lands. If Studios park is closed the only way to get to Diagon Alley would be by HE. Sorta like the train at AK to conservation station minus the smelly animals

That's just asking the park open to be at capacity, though. While they're surely operating below normal revenue I don't think they'd want to deal with turning guests away and a headache at guest services.

 

[GoofGoof]

It would prove more expensive in the long run for Uni to adopt this. Resorts make it necessary to have the parks available daily. They can reduce or adjust hours though seasonally. IMO.

If the crowds are non-existent during the week but big on the weekends (so far that’s the case) then it makes a ton of sense. There are 9,000 hotel rooms at Uni but I doubt they are anywhere close to selling out. Probably 50% capacity at best during the week. When schools in FL go back in mid-Aug the demand will drop even further (off a cliff). We can’t assume demand will just increase linearly as time goes on and that’s not even factoring in any situations involving case counts or second waves.

 

[GoofGoof]

That's just asking the park open to be at capacity, though. While they're surely operating below normal revenue I don't think they'd want to deal with turning guests away and a headache at guest services.

Assuming the number of guests at both Universal parks mid-week doesn’t exceed the allowed capacity for 1 park there’s nobody to turn away. If there’s enough demand to fill more than 1 park (like on the weekends) then that’s even better and you keep both parks open. Sea World doesn’t have that option. Uni and Disney do.

 

[jt04]

If the crowds are non-existent during the week but big on the weekends (so far that’s the case) then it makes a ton of sense. There are 9,000 hotel rooms at Uni but I doubt they are anywhere close to selling out. Probably 50% capacity at best during the week. When schools in FL go back in mid-Aug the demand will drop even further (off a cliff). We can’t assume demand will just increase linearly as time goes on and that’s not even factoring in any situations involving case counts or second waves.

I just think if people are paying top dollar to stay on property they expect the parks to be available. If not many may not return in the future. Disney is at least letting people know when the parks are opening.

 

[BurnyMcBurnerface]

wut? Lol. The majority of the folks making over 100k a year at WDW are director level and above. Hardly would consider that “middle management”.
There’s an awful lot of folks living in Windermere / Winter Garden / Hamlin who are VERY “house poor” - and quite a few (some of who I know personally) whose parents paid for their home since their management salary of 40-50k a year ain’t cutting it on a 350k house.

That is not anywhere close to true.

Go look up finance manager or marketing manager on Glassdoor and report back what you see. Not senior manager... just manager. And those are just the jobs titles that there are a lot of and doesn’t account for all the random corners of bloat.

I’m just going to assume that your frontline management friends don’t have any idea how their pay grades stack up against their support teams who sit in the air conditioning all day.

 

[CircusPeanuts]

That is not anywhere close to true.

Go look up finance manager or marketing manager on Glassdoor and report back what you see. Not senior manager... just manager. And those are just the jobs titles that there are a lot of and doesn’t account for all the random corners of bloat.

I could show you many articles about the inaccuracy of salaries on Glassdoor (since it’s user submitted and not verified) or tell you my years of personal experience... but I don’t think you will listen. And yes - finance managers and marketing managers make slightly more than leaders in the parks - but not that much more by any stretch.

 

[BurnyMcBurnerface]

I could show you many articles about the inaccuracy of salaries on Glassdoor (since it’s user submitted and not verified) or tell you my years of personal experience... but I don’t think you will listen. And yes - finance managers and marketing managers make slightly more than leaders in the parks - but not that much more by any stretch.

I said go look at Glassdoor because my knowledge of what my friends make aligns roughly with what’s there. A financial analyst on day one makes more than the most senior GSMs by a decent amount.

If you don’t want believe that, I don’t know what to say.

 

[TrojanUSC]

wut? Lol. The majority of the folks making over 100k a year at WDW are director level and above. Hardly would consider that “middle management”.
There’s an awful lot of folks living in Windermere / Winter Garden / Hamlin who are VERY “house poor” - and quite a few (some of who I know personally) whose parents paid for their home since their management salary of 40-50k a year ain’t cutting it on a 350k house.

Yeah, WDW is a notoriously bottom heavy organization. Very hard to get above the Manager level. In Burbank where VPs and Directors are a dime a dozen, there are very few in Orlando, comparatively. It was always stunning with someone with a Manager-level title would be interacting with a VP in Burbank, even though their jobs were basically the same, in addition to the Manager having more direct reports.

 

[BurnyMcBurnerface]

Yeah, WDW is a notoriously bottom heavy organization. Very hard to get above the Manager level. In Burbank where VPs and Directors are a dime a dozen, there are very few in Orlando, comparatively. It was always stunning with someone with a Manager-level title would be interacting with a VP in Burbank, even though their jobs were basically the same, in addition to the Manager having more direct reports.

Right, because they aren’t operating anything in Burbank.

It would make sense for an operations director-level at WDW to be over hundreds of frontline CMs. It would make no sense for a Burbank director to be over hundreds of analysts. Apples and oranges.

 

[TrojanUSC]

Right, because they aren’t operating anything in Burbank.

It would make sense for an operations director-level at WDW to be over hundreds of frontline CMs. It would make no sense for a Burbank director to be over hundreds of analysts. Apples and oranges.

That's true but what I was speaking of. There's VPs in Florida with 8000 direct reports. However, I was speaking more to professional roles (PR, Marketing, accounting, etc) where there are Managers in Florida but have the same responsibilities and # of direct reports as Directors in VPs in other units of the company.

 

[Lilofan]

I was going to say that the guy clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about if he thinks a lot of the bloat is making *only* 75k/year.

Might want to take a trip over to Glassdoor to look through Florida-filtered Disney Parks salaries. Most “middle management” Disney couples where both are CMs clear a minimum of 200 a year. How do you think Winter Garden blew up?

Glass door is inaccurate. Middle mgt couples at Disney clear $200K a year?. Pure fantasy. More like $110K a year if they work in operations. Winter Garden blew up as slaves to debt mentality. Live above your means and drown in debt.