Originally Posted By demderedoseguys ^^ After reading my post, I realize that I may have offended some people on this board. That was not my intention. I used to be one of those people who had to scrap and save for the annual trip to WDW. I just can't stand the giveaways anymore. They are dragging WDW down and making it into being just another destination, when it should be a journey where the excitement of saving and looking forward to the trip is almost as fun as actually being there.
Originally Posted By DVC_dad My Rx for WDW? That's a hard one, especially now that they are fighting for every single park ticket and movie ticket sold in this economy. I always thought that Steve Jobs would have made a fantastic CEO of the whole company, a great replacement for Michael. I'm very certain that Michael would disagree, given the nature of their relationship as Michael departed. I'll always wonder why Michael didn't name a successor, and work to get him into the position. Michael was very vocal that he did not believe Iger could do the role justice. Also, I've often wondered why certain people in the company and on the board, and also as stockholders, always were pushing Michael to hand pick a successor. That's illogical. "Hey Michael, we want you out, but before you go, could you choose someone to take over that will make us happy? We don't trust you to lead anymore, but we trust you to make a good choice that we can't make without you." Stupid. I wonder what SPP and ecdc would say about this. All in all, I'm not so sure there is a fix. I think the thing is just too big to control at this point. It's impossible to micromanage the World now with it's 2 zillion employees, and it's 100 trillion operating budget. The answer would certainly have to start at the top, and come all the way down. Which makes me look at Apple and think of Steve Jobs once again.
Originally Posted By DVC_dad Of course it would be interesting to see Michael brought back. I wonder what he would do, if anything differently now. That happened with Steve at Apple too and look at him now!
Originally Posted By Indigo Having been to WDW a few times recently, I'll tell you that the labor hour cutback has begun. Attractions are being opened later and shuttered earlier. Attraction capacity is being cut back where it results in fewer labor hours. Yesterday morning they were running only one elevator shaft at Tower of Terror. It was an EMH day and crowds were larger than normal with marathon runners in the park. But it wasn't summer busy. Still the queues were all summer time waits. This may not make the average guest happy, but it's the new reality until Disney feels comfortable the economy has recovered. I'm still looking for alternate strategies that will save Disney money now, but not sacrifice show.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I'm still looking for alternate strategies that will save Disney money now, but not sacrifice show. >>> Keep looking. All of the easy and obvious things have already been done, and I suspect that most of the clever ones have as well. <<< Yesterday morning they were running only one elevator shaft at Tower of Terror. It was an EMH day and crowds were larger than normal with marathon runners in the park. But it wasn't summer busy. Still the queues were all summer time waits. >>> "If it's good enough for Six Flags, it's good enough for Disney." Oh my. I remember years ago going to a Six Flags park on a light day in the off season, and remarking at just how long the lines were for the major attractions. Looking closer, it was obvious that many of the roller coasters didn't have all of the trains running, and in some cases just one or two when four could have been running. Since it was so consistent, I figured it must have been done on purpose, but I didn't understand why. I thought that there was no obvious labor savings and how much electricity could be saved? Now I realize the savings would come from overnight labor hours in not having to service as many trains as well as saved apportioned overhaul maintenance. If Disney continues down this path, it's going to get to the same place: long lines for many attractions even on light days.
Originally Posted By demderedoseguys >Yes, it sounds very crazy.< Yes,it's crazy to bring Disney back to what made it successful. Yup,all the giveaways,promotions, free dining,free nights, etc have worked oh so well.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< True during any previous post-war recession, but maybe not a great idea in the current economic environment. >>> <<< Spend for the future now and if stock dips to $19 - the only thing to worry about is large pension plans etc- dumping huge blocks -- for most individual stock holders it would be fine. >>> You've put your finger on what's different about this post-war recession from any of those previously: the way Wall Street works has fundamentally changed, with a large shift in the mid 90's. Among other things, institutional investors now dominate corporate ownership and as a result board of directors influence. Plus, there's such a huge emphasis on quarterly earnings results when prior to the mid-90's, annual results were the focus. A lot of this has to do with instant dissemination of information, and the tools available to analysts to crunch the data. Any institutional investor is going to be primarily focused on short-term results, even to the point of focusing on the next quarter at the expense of the next year. After all, if a big increase could be made next quarter, the institutional investor has the option to sell the stock on the increase before the next set of numbers is out. And, he has constant pressure from whomever his customers are to deliver the numbers in his investment portfolio. The spiraling and ever-increasing pressure this puts on quarterly earnings makes today's corporate environment dramatically different than it was even 20 years ago.
Originally Posted By barboy The #120 plan is crazy because people are broke and/or scared to spend money. Have you noticed how well Walmart and Costco are doing when other large retailing chains are folding up left and right? Have you also noticed how busy bankruptcy lawyers, debt consolidating firms and 'short sales' real estate specialists are these days while cosmetic dermatologists and exotic car dealers(Maserati, Lutus, Aton Martin) have seen their worst months ever? Who and where is this spend happy/high rolling demographic---- a demographic large enough to fill WDW of all places? It's one thing to fill tables at ONE restaurant or rooms at ONE hotel but WDW is way too vast to rely on the select vacationers who are able and willing to drop coin like this is the roaring 20's mid 80's or 1999. If WDW doesn't play by the new economic rules it will die a painful death. These rules include heavy discounting and enticements--- enticements like magical express, buy 4 nights on propery and get 3 free or the free dining. The other 4 resorts in the Disney chain don't need to play by these rules.... YET.... because they are geographically positioned much more favorably. If WDW wants to stay afloat in these times it best fix the attractions, clean the parks and dramtically shorten the operating hrs./days and close up a hotel or four and let them grow weeds indefintely. While we're at it let's hack at least 50% of upper/executive salary as well and yank their expense accounts immediately.
Originally Posted By barboy I did? I'm pretty sure that I got the gist of what you were saying ........unless there was something hidden or undeclared.
Originally Posted By demderedoseguys ^ I was being radical in my comments. The gist of the remarks is that WDW should get back to the basics of what made it great. People are still spending money, but now only spend when there are sales and promotions, be it retailers, auto dealers or Disney trips. Recessions don't last forever.
Originally Posted By demderedoseguys ^Not so much w/ Auto dealers, although getting the financing is the biggest problem.
Originally Posted By DVC_dad Just think of what was given up in the Pixar heist. And what for? What has DIS gotten out of the Pixar deal. A couple of ho-hum movies. pffffft.
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Recessions don't last forever.>> The Great Depression did last 10 years.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^Just saying that because people are hoping that the economy will "bounce back" within a year or so. It might take a bit longer than that. <<People are still spending money>> But apparently nowhere nearly as much as they used to. <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/14/news/economy/nrf_holidaysales/index.htm?postversion=2009011414" target="_blank">http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/1...09011414</a> The "Holiday Retail Sales" chart says it all. We have gone increases as high as 8.3% to negative 2.8%
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<I was being radical in my comments. The gist of the remarks is that WDW should get back to the basics of what made it great.>> Will never happen. You need vision and courage to do things the right way and there isn't any of that at TDO. It's all about getting the stock up a dime today and getting the next fiscal quarter to look better than the last, if ever just slightly. I just wish you could get some honesty from people. I'd respect Bob Iger so much more if he said 'Look we're going to provide a quality family entertainment resort and we're shooting to be better than everyone else, but we can't simply be the company we were two decades ago. The market realities and abject greed of Wall Street won't allow us to push the bounds of creativity and quality like they once did. We'll still be magical, just not as magical as some of our long time fans, employees and shareholders recall.' See, that's the reality or the 'excuse' that gets tossed out as to why Disney won't invest $200-400 million in the MK or Epcot tomorrow. But this PR spin of BS that things are better than ever and Disney is innovating all the while living up to its reputation is complete and utter BS. And I'd rather the truth in any situation, no matter how ugly, then condescension and lies. But that's just me ... <<People are still spending money, but now only spend when there are sales and promotions, be it retailers, auto dealers or Disney trips. Recessions don't last forever.>> Well, I'm of the firm belief we have never had a recession like the one we are in and it's a lot closer to a modern day version of the 1930s than to say 2001 or 1991 or 1983 or 1979 or 1974 etc ... I walked through what's billed as the No. 2 tourist destination in Florida last night and, before the holidays I said that many places were on the verge of closing, well those places are now empty shells (some sadly with shelves and hooks and equipment sitting next to holiday decorations). People aren't buying because most have no money or no credit or no faith that things won't get a whole lot worse (or a combo). I can recall gas rationing as a child in the 70s, the crash of 87 as a teen and the aftermath of 9/11 and if you put the three together I don't think they begin to approach the sheer magnitude of what is happening these days.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Just think of what was given up in the Pixar heist. And what for? What has DIS gotten out of the Pixar deal. A couple of ho-hum movies. pffffft. >> I'm going to assume this was made tongue in cheek?
Originally Posted By demderedoseguys ^^ Don't just look at the numbers. In addition to the recession, the winter weather and 5 fewer shopping days were also listed as culprits in the link provided. Combine that with the fact that: "Consumers showed they were more than willing to wait out retailers this year causing increased pressure on prices." The numbers were bound to be lower than expected. This gets back to my original premise regarding WDw's business model. The public isn't stupid. They just wait for the next Disney freebie. I'm the eternal optimist and firmly believe that if Disney went back to doing business like they did back in the day, with a great product and service, people would find a way to come, deals or no deals. The public will always pay for a quality product.
