My Favorite part of the Original post...
"THIS WILL BE THE BIGGEST EXPANSION IN WDW HISTORY!!"
So it'll be bigger than Everest? Or Sunset Blvd at the Studios? Or Norway/Wonders of Life? The West Side? Pleasure Island? Or Splash Mountain? Big Thunder Mountain? Carribean Plaza? How about Mickey's Birthdayland? New Fantasyland? Or even the Mid 70's Tomorrowland expansion that brought us Space Mountain, The WEDWay, and Carousel of Progress?
I guess we won't include the obvious much larger expansions that have happened in WDW History.... You know... Animal Kingdom, Disney-MGM Studios, EPCOT Center, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, Or you know.... The tens (hundreds?) of thousands of hotel rooms added to the Walt Disney World Resort since it opened with Fort Wilderness, The Contemporary, the Golf Inn, and the Polynesian Villiage....
In the last 4 years, here is what WDW has added:
1. Bay Lake Tower DVC resort
2. Treehouse Villas at Saratoga Springs
3. New Fantasyland
4. Art of Animation resort
5. Villas at Grand Floridian
This leads me to believe that they must think attendance is declining and will continue to decline in the future...only 3 new resorts built in 4 years?!? Yep, they're slipping.
Let's see.... 3 new DVC Properties which they have been selling at ever increasingly inflated prices, 1 regular "value" resort that they started building with a slightly different theme over 10 years ago, and a very modest addition and retheme to one of the most gridlocked sections of the Magic Kingdom. I wouldn't really call that a slam dunk win for Disney.
First off... with the DVC construction, they don't really care, at least short term, if it impacts attendance. Disney gets a HUGE payday just knowing they can sell those points. all the construction costs are guaranteed to be paid back in short order from people buying into the resort and they get a huge profit off those points. On top of that, with the Maintenance fees, The ongoing costs are pretty much covered and disney gets a little profit from them as well due to the management fees. Best of all... it's all locked in money.
Next... Art of Animation. the site was cleared, and several of the buildings were began over a decade ago... and then left abandoned as a ghost town eyesore for YEARS [which we know Disney no longer has issues with if you look at all the empty buildings with the parks]. They ultimately completed the construction of it, with a new theme, in large part to address the 1 type of room which they actually had a legitimate lack of...The Family suites. Again, I wouldn't call this a easy win. Because of Disney's high pricing, and the lack of available accommodations onsite that could hold a family larger than 4, They were starting to lose more and more potential families to offsite options. It just wasn't economical for these families of 5+ to rent 2 value rooms, or bump up to a multi-room DVC villa at rack rates. So they were ultimately able to regain some face by cleaning up and finishing the abandoned construction across the lake from the completed section of the Pop... and retool the original plans to increase the number of family suites so they could try and recapture some of the larger families they were losing to offsite options.
New Fantasyland? Again... It added some capacity to what was already the busiest Park (and section of that park)... in part so they can cram more people in there during the busy times of year when this park routinely reaches capacity.....and they added a tableservice restaurant since the park was really lacking in tableservice options.....something that really started to become apparent as they've pushed the
DDP on everyone. It's a cute little addition to the park, but it really isn't anything groundbreaking... and REALLY doesn't live up to the hype which Disney built up about their new addition. [Honestly.... the years of hype meant that this one section of the park was almost going to need to be the equivalent of the NY Worlds Fair attractions as far as groundbreaking technology, storytelling, and accessability in order to have any chance of living up to the hype...and with today's Jaded public, I doubt anything would live up to that standard].
Either way.... I really wouldn't consider any of the examples you provided as a sure-fire testament to Disney's expectation to continue to grow their attendence at the parks.
If anything, Rising prices, the FP+/NextGen initiative, and the addition of more added-cost extras being offered with the likes of merchandise, tours, etc... Is Disney starting to admit that their ability to further their profit growth by simply increasing the raw attendence numbers is either declining or starting to approach the point of declining. Therefor Disney is starting to take the steps needed so that they can continue their profit growth not by increasing the raw numbers of guests, but by increasing the profit extracted from each guest. (AKA... Going from the less $ from more people approach, to the more $ from less people approach)
As a PP mentioned, WDW is a whole-encompassing experience. Universal may have a few more new rides, but the original arguments were:
A. Disney feels pressure from Universal and must make changes...OR ELSE!
B. Universal is threatening to become a 5-day destination.
I call BS on both.
WDW built NFL, which frankly is nice enough that I actually head back there now. Previously, I avoided Mickey's Toontown like the plague! I actually like the new stuff..and 7DMT will probably be a huge hit and another E-ticket. And it will do what Disney does best: provide another ride that the WHOLE family can go on together.
Even people who like Universal admit there's not really much there past 2 days.
There really is a difference between saying "You can do everything in 2 days", and "There isn't much to do past 2 days". One of the nicest things about the Universal resort is the ability to just relax, take your time, and enjoy a relaxing theme park vacation without needing to run around all commando like the entire stay.
Beyond that.... I will say that Universal has dramatically upped their Game. Is Disney feeling the pressure? honestly.... I'd say yes. Due to the sheer size of the respective resorts, It's obviously not the type pressure where Disney suddenly has to fight for their life. But I would say it is the pressure in seeing how people's vacationing habits are starting to change and they could easily see their total per guest revenue numbers starting to decline as those guests (who are now spending a day or two over at Universal) start spending more of their vacation $$ across town.
Remember on Wall Street, A relatively small change, like a "per share revenue" decrease of less than a nickle could be the different between a huge stock price increase (and bonus's galore) and a massive sell off and stock price plummet (and execs getting fired).
If you look at Disney's stated goals behind the Fast Pass Plus program, with the reserving fastpasses, They mention that one of the goals is to get more of their resort visitors to plan out their entire vacation on the Disney Resort.... The reason being that these guests will then be less tempted to venture off property when they become exposed to advertising in the area for other attractions in the Orlando area.
If you look beyond this a bit... I honestly am not seeing a lot of Disney guests who planned a Disney Vacation being tempted to Visit the Fun Spot, Wonderworks, or Ripley's by seeing an advertisement in the airport or a local coupon book. The hassle and cost just aren't tempting enough for someone planning an onsite Disney vacation. The Temptations are going to come from the Universal resort, Sea World, Discovery Cove, and Aquatica. Those are the "area attractions" which based off their advertising and offerings would be tempting enough to make someone deal with the hassle and expense of transportation off Disney property to go to a non disney Park.
Universal is reminding a lot of People these days what a quality destination can really do when they put their mind and resources behind the effort. It used to be in decades past that Disney was always the one leading the way, but now you just don't see the same type of vision, conviction, or imagination coming out of Disney as you once did. (Seriously.... Look at the amount of groundbreaking and amazing experiences the Disney company brought us in Walt's era.... Or thru the mid-late 70's and Early 80's... Or even thru the early 90's before Frank Well's untimely Death. then look at what they've brought us in the past 15-20 years... when technology has been getting cheaper and more powerful on a daily basis)
I can post something which is nothing more then speculation. Enough confirmations and we can upgrade my speculation to rumor.
