If you had to choose which way would you have spent the billion dollars?

[bedogged]

Fix the Monorail! With all the new DVCs being built along it, the Monorail will be required to movie even more people. If anything is left over, repair other rides that need it.

 

[Luscien]

You don't have to charge per ride for it to make sense. Spreading people across all rides can get more people thru the gate.

Bean Counters love Yield Management. It means they can force higher utilization of existing resources without having to spend money on new ones.

There is a hard limit to the number of people they are legally allowed to have in the park. Hence why they close MK on 4th of July and NYE.

If 100 people is my limit, and I only charge for coming through the gate, whether they all ride 1 ride with a line of 100 or 10 rides with a line of 10 doesn't matter. I've got the same amount of money. Ride utilization does not factor into gate when you only charge for gate.

Forcing higher utilization doesn't net you more money unless you're charging per ride.

Tell me that you're trying to get them to the other side of the park so they shop more, eat more or whatever else costs more and you might have an argument, but right now, you don't.

 

[flicx]

Interesting so far close to a 10 to 1 difference in how the billion should have been spent.

 

[scholastica]

Yes the poll is kind of silly. I think that they will keep bringing people in by far if they add more lands/attractions. People will just shrug and give up on FP+ or do it by the book and complain about it the entire time. I'd much rather see the money go into the parks than even more be spent on FP+/My Magic+. I am not surprised the poll shows that at all.

 

[Laketravis]

There is a hard limit to the number of people they are legally allowed to have in the park. Hence why they close MK on 4th of July and NYE.

If 100 people is my limit, and I only charge for coming through the gate, whether they all ride 1 ride with a line of 100 or 10 rides with a line of 10 doesn't matter. I've got the same amount of money. Ride utilization does not factor into gate when you only charge for gate.

Forcing higher utilization doesn't net you more money unless you're charging per ride.

Tell me that you're trying to get them to the other side of the park so they shop more, eat more or whatever else costs more and you might have an argument, but right now, you don't.

Oh, okay. Silly me. Yield Management has nothing to do with getting more guests to use more resources in a more efficient manner.

I never said anything about netting more money, but I'm glad you were able to point that out for me.

 

[flicx]

I wouldn't call the poll silly, more kinda what Disney execs should have been thinking IMO. If they were looking to improve the guest experience and attract more customers what better way than more rides and park improvements. I'm still waiting to be amazed by fast pass plus and MM plus. I still like the common sense approach new rides equal lots of customers whether they are return or new.

 

[MinniesPymp]

• Bean counters see some attractions with long lines, others with no lines at all.
  
• Bean counters objective is to squeeze the last ounce of profitability from aging nostalgic equity.
  
• Bean counters convince C-level that it is smarter to use technology to equally distribute guests throughout the attractions and parks instead of building new, popular attractions.
  
• Bean counters assume that guests will be okay with being diverted to attractions that they had little interest in before and will fall for the artificially created illusion of demand.
  
• Bean counters say Oooops.

There is a hard limit to the number of people they are legally allowed to have in the park. Hence why they close MK on 4th of July and NYE.

If 100 people is my limit, and I only charge for coming through the gate, whether they all ride 1 ride with a line of 100 or 10 rides with a line of 10 doesn't matter. I've got the same amount of money. Ride utilization does not factor into gate when you only charge for gate.

Forcing higher utilization doesn't net you more money unless you're charging per ride.

Tell me that you're trying to get them to the other side of the park so they shop more, eat more or whatever else costs more and you might have an argument, but right now, you don't.

I don't see where Lake claimed anything about netting more money, it looks like he was talking about Disney spending money on squeezing more out of what they already have instead of spending money to build more.

 

[TLSnell1981]

A major new attraction like Expedition Everest can cost $100 Million, give or take.

A "copy" (different version) of an existing attraction can cost much less.

So, I'd have duplicated Cars Land from DLR/DCA
and built a second version of TSM with a
theme that was different than Toy Story (maybe, WALL-E)
and built a second version of Soarin' (different subject for the film,)
and had a new thrill attraction built at Epcot
(like a "Matterhorn-like roller coaster "Mt. Fuji" at the Japan Pavilion)
and rebuild Mr. Toad at Epcot's UK.

And, had a LOT of money left over for MAINTENANCE of existing attractions.

Good list Sadly, they've decided on Avatarland. (Need puking emoticon)

The rides are not nearly as much fun on line.

You make me smile.

 

[Luscien]

You don't have to charge per ride for it to make sense. Spreading people across all rides can get more people thru the gate.

Bean Counters love Yield Management. It means they can force higher utilization of existing resources without having to spend money on new ones.

Ok, clearly I am missing something and I need help understanding. Can you explain how spreading people more evenly across the rides can get more people through the gate, as you stated?

 

[Luscien]

I don't see where Lake claimed anything about netting more money, it looks like he was talking about Disney spending money on squeezing more out of what they already have instead of spending money to build more.

Ok, help me understand how the use of the words "...squeeze the last ounce of profitability..." doesn't refer to netting more money?

 

[Laketravis]

Ok, clearly I am missing something and I need help understanding. Can you explain how spreading people more evenly across the rides can get more people through the gate, as you stated?

Sure:

• FP's reserved in advance contributes to smoother and somewhat metered daily park intake
  
• Strategic allocation of those FP's via optimized algorithms (there is a reason you can't select less than 3)
  
• Higher guest turnover each day as more guests are able to compress their attraction reservation windows down to 3 hours
  
• Bringing multiple parks into the total yield equation will facilitate the movement of guests between parks, resulting in forced equilibrium between lightly loaded and heavily loaded parks on the same day.

There's more, but that's something to chew on for now. The patent provides additional insight as well.

 

[flicx]

A major new attraction like Expedition Everest can cost $100 Million, give or take.

A "copy" (different version) of an existing attraction can cost much less.

So, I'd have duplicated Cars Land from DLR/DCA
and built a second version of TSM with a
theme that was different than Toy Story (maybe, WALL-E)
and built a second version of Soarin' (different subject for the film,)
and had a new thrill attraction built at Epcot
(like a "Matterhorn-like roller coaster "Mt. Fuji" at the Japan Pavilion)
and rebuild Mr. Toad at Epcot's UK.

And, had a LOT of money left over for MAINTENANCE of existing attractions.

Robo are you Michael Eisner? He really liked to add attractions and these sound pretty good. I especially like Mr. Toad in UK. I really miss that ride!

 

[TLSnell1981]

Robo are you Michael Eisner? He really liked to add attractions and these sound pretty good. I especially like Mr. Toad in UK. I really miss that ride!

I never knew, just how much, I'd miss Michael Eisner.

 

[flicx]

I never knew, just how much, I'd miss Michael Eisner.

Amen to that! Just look at what got done at Disney World while he was there and compare it to Iger, and you see quite a difference!

 

[imLissy]

I'd invest in NextGen over another park or even park improvements. Fastpass+ is a very small part of what they are investing in and no where near a billion dollars of the NextGen budget is going towards it.. The real investment is in better data for marketing, forecasting, and CRM in general along with the technology to offer a more personalized experience (all for a price of course).

Yes. It's all about the data and marketing. Big data, gets shoved in my face on a daily basis.

 

[Laketravis]

Ok, clearly I am missing something and I need help understanding. Can you explain how spreading people more evenly across the rides can get more people through the gate, as you stated?

And confirmed today by Disney during the investor call:

"Iger stated that MM+ allowed them to accommodate more than 3 thousand more guests than normal in the MK during the busiest holiday season.(Christmas)"

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Insure that a Disney vacation takes 6-7 days to accomplish!

Limiting fastpasses makes Doing Disney take longer. Disney isnt interested in helping people maximize their time and see most of the major attractions in 4 parks in 4-5 days. That leaves too much of a window to go to UO/IOA, Seaworld or Legoland. The average person has a one week vacation, Disney needs to take a week.

So use a FP to see a show or parade that never needed one to enjoy. That is one less major attraction you can see today. Thats OK, you can return tomorrow.

 

[Luscien]

And confirmed today by Disney during the investor call:

"Iger stated that MM+ allowed them to accommodate more than 3 thousand more guests than normal in the MK during the busiest holiday season.(Christmas)"

Did he says as a direct result of FP+? Did he say accommodate them where and how? I didn't listen to the call so i don't know but if not, you can't be sure that there's a direct cause specifically from the FP+ portion of MM+.

 

[Laketravis]

I didn't listen to the call so i don't know.

You can listen to the call online here:

Disney Q1FY2014 Investor Call

 

[Luscien]

You can listen to the call online here:

Disney Q1FY2014 Investor Call

I figured I could find it when I have the time to listen.

Are you saying that he did say FP+ and not MM+ specifically then? Or you just want me to listen to the call?