Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom RoadTrip last year the Disney Company announced a profit. They said that the ONLY reason they turned a profit was because of attendence at ALL the themem parks. And the one theme part that put them into the profit margin was Hong Kong Disneyland.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<RoadTrip last year the Disney Company announced a profit. They said that the ONLY reason they turned a profit was because of attendence at ALL the themem parks. And the one theme part that put them into the profit margin was Hong Kong Disneyland.>> Source please. That is contrary to everything else I've read. Were the parks profitable last year? Yes they were. Did they provide the majority of Disney's profit? No way.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy I've heard that the parks contribute to the largest percentage of WDC profits annually. But now this discussion has suggested otherwise. I guess I'm going to have to get me an annual report and check the detail.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj The elephant in the room with respect to Disney profits as theme parks is this: Parks & Resorts generated $9B in revenue in 2005. Disney breaks this down into two revenue components -- 1) Merchandise, Food, and Beverage -- $2.9B 2) Admissions -- $2.8B There is about $3.3B in revenue that Disney doesn't specifically disclose for their parks. However, they did disclose figures for 2003 and 2004 hotel stays in their most recent annual report -- accounting for $1.3B in annual revenue from the resort properties. That means about $2B in annual revenue is coming from other sources -- i.e. Cruise Lines, Time Shares, Celebration land sales. I suspect if you stripped out these large revenue generating items, the theme parks would be barely profitable -- if at all.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <That means about $2B in annual revenue is coming from other sources -- i.e. Cruise Lines, Time Shares, Celebration land sales. I suspect if you stripped out these large revenue generating items, the theme parks would be barely profitable -- if at all< True but I think you have to count the DVC and Celebration sales -- as without the WDW resort -- they would not be there either.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj Not saying you don't have to count them -- just that by themselves, theme parks aren't a very profitable business. Even Disney is cash flow negative in theme parks. That means they spend more on annual capital expenditures than they generate profits.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <Not saying you don't have to count them -- just that by themselves, theme parks aren't a very profitable business< Yep agreed-- all you have to do is look up I4 to see that -- and the losses from Six Flags....
Originally Posted By TheTexasKid I've had a different experience, then some of you. Two years ago - Disneyland Paris Last year - Disneyland And I believe I found more litter on the ground at Disneyland, than I did at Disneyland Paris.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Depends on the day and the crowds for each particular day you visit. There are days when the MK is clean, and some others, it is not.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe I have NEVER seen WDW not immaculate>EVER! I have NO idea about this talk of WDW being anything but immaculate. After so many visits, I'm still amazed at how clean they keep it.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< They said that the ONLY reason they turned a profit was because of attendence at ALL the themem parks. And the one theme part that put them into the profit margin was Hong Kong Disneyland. >>> This is almost certainly false. I'd be very surprised if HKDL wasn't bleeding money at the moment, let alone turning a profit. It looks like a ghost town on many days. As RoadTrip said, please provide a reference for what you claim.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< If the majority of Disney's customers wanted greater cleanliness, higher custodial budgets, etc. I'm quite certain that would be provided. But by and large they don't. ... That is what the customers want, so that is what Disney provides. I think if you polled guests at WDW the great majority of them would say the cleanliness of the parks was not only satisfactory, but in fact was very good. Do you think Disney is going to put more money there when most guests think things are fine as they are? >>> But that's precisely the problem. I think it's been reported here that WDW does continual exit polling of its guests, and that one thing that's been done over the last few years is to cut back custodial to the point where it registers a blip on the polling as the place being too dirty. There's a huge variation between being "too dirty" such that that is what comes to peoples' minds as they leave the park, and the traditional high cleanliness standards. I remember from when I was growing up, and also know new visitors to the park from a just few years ago, that remarked at just how clean the place was, especially with all of the people that were there. I'm convinced that that high level of cleanliness that sticks in your head years later does quite a bit to encourage repeat visits, but it's awful hard to measure on an exit poll. Plus, you can make cutbacks that allow you meet your quarterly numbers without affecting revenue, at least in the short term. It's a recipe for cutting things to the point just above where it causes a problem in the short term, regardless of the long term consequences. As far as doing what people "want," that's sometimes a difficult thing to figure out. What people respond to is not always in line with what they ask for, or even what they think they want. For example, in 1955 nobody was asking for and nobody knew they wanted a Disneyland, yet it was hugely successful once it was provided to them. Similarly, I don't think that guests may consciously realize how important high cleanliness and maintenance standards are to their experience, and it takes someone with more vision than looking at the bottom line of a spreadsheet to figure this out.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I really don't see how culture comes into the picture at all. >>> There's no doubt that there are huge cultural differences in society with regard to cleanliness between the US, Europe, and Japan, and I don't think it's a coincidence that the different standards in the park happen to be in line with the society on the outside of the park.
Originally Posted By LuvDatDisney "As far as doing what people "want," that's sometimes a difficult thing to figure out. What people respond to is not always in line with what they ask for, or even what they think they want. For example, in 1955 nobody was asking for and nobody knew they wanted a Disneyland, yet it was hugely successful once it was provided to them. Similarly, I don't think that guests may consciously realize how important high cleanliness and maintenance standards are to their experience, and it takes someone with more vision than looking at the bottom line of a spreadsheet to figure this out." Great point, SuperDry. And one that management apologists seem to ignore. The current strategy seems to be one of 'How far can we push things before people notice?' That's not what WDW was about. Not how it was run. Things were cleaned, even if they weren't dirty. Spic-and-span was the rule. You could almost sleep on the walkways, they were that clean. Disney was all about EXCEEDING GUEST EXPECTATIONS. Now, it's all about meeting much lower expectations, and if that fails ... you just throw in a free buffet at the Crystal Palace. You don't fix what's broken or dirty because that's not the corporate culture at WDW anymore. It's insidious really because once you've got the majority of people conditioned to except far less than what is acceptable, it's damn near impossible to go back to the way things were. Walt knew that having a sparkling clean park that looked new every day was priceless and added a lot to the bottom line in intangible ways, but unfortunately the people running his parks in the 21st century feel quite differently. So next time that filthy bathroom at Disney-MGM's got you down, just head on over to Guest Relations and walk out with dinner at Hollywood and Vine. Really sad.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> As far as doing what people "want," that's sometimes a difficult thing to figure out. << Agreed. Visionary and creative leadership doesn't come from reading poll statistics and then doing what they indicate. Walts only come along once in a great while.
Originally Posted By Fe Maiden <<I remember from when I was growing up, and also know new visitors to the park from a just few years ago, that remarked at just how clean the place was, especially with all of the people that were there. I'm convinced that that high level of cleanliness that sticks in your head years later does quite a bit to encourage repeat visits, but it's awful hard to measure on an exit poll.>> You make a great point and it certainly influenced our visits. While I was only 3 and 6 on our first couple visits, I clearly remember what an impact the cleanliness had on my father. We'd go on other vacations, but they were always planned around trips to WDW. When Six Flags Great Adventure first opened, we took a trip up. It was a miserable experience for many reasons, the wait for the log flume was 4 hours. Having WDW as benchmark, my dad vowed never to step foot in that park again. He's been true to his word.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Last time I was at Great Adventure last summer the Flume wasn't even open.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>Is it really 40 cents? I knew it was high, but I didn't think it was nearly that.<< I was under the impression that ESPN was Disney's #1 cash cow.
