Budget cuts at Walt Disney World

[Mac30188]

The more I think about the ticket books, the more it seems like it is the "All you can eat buffet" that kicks people out for eating too much food. They could get by with less staff and the parks won't be so crowded if no one stays more then 3 hours and then goes shopping at Disney springs. Ticket books seems like the perfect Disney answer to further push you to go spend more money on property outside of the parks.

 

[tarheelblue8853]

So right now if it looks like cuts to:
- Cast members particularly: Cashiers, kitchen staff, greeters, efficiency positions
- Also entertainment with loss of 2nd MSEP and Fantasmic.
- Josh from easywdw noted on his write up for September that there were no Wishes or MSEP planned at all for a solid 3 weeks but obviously that is subject to change.
- I think I read also fewer extra magic hours
- Sounds like probable no phase 3 of DHS (which to be honest I wasn't holding my breath for anyway)

What else am I missing? I'm interested to know what the general consensus is around these parts..are these cuts permanent or will we possibly see some of these added back at a later date?

 

[rteetz]

Josh from easywdw noted on his write up for September that there were no Wishes or MSEP planned at all for a solid 3 weeks but obviously that is subject to change.

Now I think that's just because they aren't on the calendar yet. I really can't see them not having them at all otherwise there will be a long line at guest relations.

 

[rteetz]

Decent read on the subject

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...ce=yahoo&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article

 

[Travis B]

Decent read on the subject

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...ce=yahoo&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article

This article seems to suggest the cuts in staff are more on the resorts end than the parks end, which if true, makes me a little more hopeful that day-to-day operations in the parks won't suffer due to the cuts. It's hard to know what to believe as - unless I've missed it - nothing besides the painters' lay-offs has been confirmed officially. I don't have any concept of the numbers involved, but I wonder how if such a cut would even make a dent in a huge project like Shanghai, or overages in Pandora's budget. It's just odd.

 

[rteetz]

This article seems to suggest the cuts in staff are more on the resorts end than the parks end, which if true, makes me a little more hopeful that day-to-day operations in the parks won't suffer due to the cuts. It's hard to know what to believe as - unless I've missed it - nothing besides the painters' lay-offs has been confirmed officially. I don't have any concept of the numbers involved, but I wonder how if such a cut would even make a dent in a huge project like Shanghai, or overages in Pandora's budget. It's just odd.

Disney isn't going to confirm anything else officially. The only reason they confirmed the painters which they didn't really was because the sentinel asked them about it.

 

[manning]

It will be pool time and walks around the resorts for me.

 

[sachilles]

Decent read on the subject

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...ce=yahoo&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article

I know I got some people stirred up with my comments on the subject yesterday, but I still think this is making a mountain out of mole hill. Teamsters union, pointing out that their painters are getting laid off "out of sync". Strikes me as more union labor tactics, than any sort of real news.
The other cuts are paired with the slower season approaching, and have not been indicated to be permanent. The painters were seasonal, and had a finite end date anyway, they were just cut loose earlier.
I'd suspect there are about a 100 different levels of painter employed by the parks, as I'm certain the same skill is not required to do detail work on an attraction as is required to repaint a hotel room.

 

[Eoghann]

Decent read on the subject

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...ce=yahoo&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article

The key fact in there (to my mind) is that operating profits have grown 22% on a 9% revenue growth. And yet they still feel the need to shave and scrimp and cut. Those numbers don't scream of a company with payroll that is out of control.

They could certainly spend their money more efficiently when it comes to attractions, but I'm not seeing the need for staff cuts outside of pumping profit margins ever higher to boost that stock price.

 

[MJ6987]

The more I think about the ticket books, the more it seems like it is the "All you can eat buffet" that kicks people out for eating too much food. They could get by with less staff and the parks won't be so crowded if no one stays more then 3 hours and then goes shopping at Disney springs. Ticket books seems like the perfect Disney answer to further push you to go spend more money on property outside of the parks.

Wouldn't it be good for repeat visitors, DVC members, etc who just want to pay a nominal fee to enter the park and not necessarily go on a lot of "E Ticket" attractions?

 

[Eoghann]

Wouldn't it be good for repeat visitors, DVC members, etc who just want to pay a nominal fee to enter the park and not necessarily go on a lot of "E Ticket" attractions?

No, because they would almost certainly structure it so your basic "Magic Ticket" costs $125 and comes with X number of rides. You would then be able to "Enhance the Magic" with additional rides for a modest fee.

Even if they go this route (which is of course pure speculation) there won't be a scenario where you can get in the parks for less than you do now.

 

[MJ6987]

No, because they would almost certainly structure it so your basic "Magic Ticket" costs $125 and comes with X number of rides. You would then be able to "Enhance the Magic" with additional rides for a modest fee.

Even if they go this route (which is of course pure speculation) there won't be a scenario where you can get in the parks for less than you do now.

I read that when they used the old ticket books, the entrance price was the equivalent of $20 today

 

[Eoghann]

I read that when they used the old ticket books, the entrance price was the equivalent of $20 today

When they first introduced park tickets for the Magic Kingdom (rather than attraction books) in 1982 the price was less than $14. Which in todays money would be all of $34.37. Disney's price increases have never been tied to inflation. They won't drop the price to enter the parks below the current level no matter what changes they make. In fact I am certain there will be an increase though $125 is just a random number I picked to illustrate.

 

[Eoghann]

Not really related to budget cuts but I found this while researching old ticket prices. The original 8 E-Ticket rides at the Magic Kingdom were:

Pirates of the Caribbean
Jungle Cruise
Country Bear Jamboree
Haunted Mansion
Hall of Presidents
It's a Small World
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Space Mountain

Now, considering the endless whining these days about "That's not a true E ticket ride", look at that list again. Maybe we should just acknowledge E-Ticket doesn't mean what people try to make it mean? It just means popular.

 

[rteetz]

Not really related to budget cuts but I found this while researching old ticket prices. The original 8 E-Ticket rides at the Magic Kingdom were:

Pirates of the Caribbean
Jungle Cruise
Country Bear Jamboree
Haunted Mansion
Hall of Presidents
It's a Small World
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Space Mountain

Now, considering the endless whining these days about "That's not a true E ticket ride", look at that list again. Maybe we should just acknowledge E-Ticket doesn't mean what people try to make it mean? It just means popular.

Hall of presidents popular?

 

[Eoghann]

Hall of presidents popular?

At one time these were all popular rides. Tastes change of course. But that's sort of the point. E-Ticket doesn't mean thrill ride or spectacular or anything like that. It's a designation by Disney that means... we think lots of people will stand in line for this.

People online tend to throw the term around to look smart but I think they're basically misusing it.

 

[rteetz]

At one time these were all popular rides. Tastes change of course. But that's sort of the point. E-Ticket doesn't mean thrill ride or spectacular or anything like that. It's a designation by Disney that means... we think lots of people will stand in line for this.

People online tend to throw the term around to look smart but I think they're basically misusing it.

That is true but also at the time things like pirates and 20,000 leagues were amazing to people, they used new tech other theme parks didn't. Even hall of presidents, you have a working AA for each president, no other park has something like that.

 

[Josh Hendy]

The key fact in there (to my mind) is that operating profits have grown 22% on a 9% revenue growth. And yet they still feel the need to shave and scrimp and cut. Those numbers don't scream of a company with payroll that is out of control.

It screams of a company with foreign investments that are out of control.

The whole point of having separate business units was to make each unit responsible for its own P/L as much as possible and to make managers of business units work harder and smarter because they will be held responsible for any bad decisions.

It likely indicates that Iger is personally responsible for the Shanghai and Paris fiascos and that he probably argued for them heatedly with the executive team, directors and major shareholders. Only the top guy could force through the slaughtering of a domestic golden goose in order to disguise a lot of terrible investments in hog futures on foreign markets.

 

[Eoghann]

It screams of a company with foreign investments that are out of control.

The whole point of having separate business units was to make each unit responsible for its own P/L as much as possible and to make managers of business units work harder and smarter because they will be held responsible for any bad decisions.

It likely indicates that Iger is personally responsible for the Shanghai and Paris fiascos and that he probably argued for them heatedly with the executive team, directors and major shareholders. Only the top guy could force through the slaughtering of a domestic golden goose in order to disguise a lot of terrible investments in hog futures on foreign markets.

I don't know that you can really blame him for Paris. He inherited a mess there and you either close or dig out. Their plan is solid enough they just have a whole lump of debt to pay off.

 

[adam.adbe]

At one time these were all popular rides. Tastes change of course. But that's sort of the point. E-Ticket doesn't mean thrill ride or spectacular or anything like that. It's a designation by Disney that means... we think lots of people will stand in line for this.

People online tend to throw the term around to look smart but I think they're basically misusing it.

It may have been here or over on wdwmagic, I forget, but I made the point that by any conceivable metric 7DMT is an E Ticket. People choose to burn FastPasses on it; they line up outside the gates half hour before park opening to rope-drop it; they blow money on a pre-gate BOG breakfast to get on it; and they stand in line for north of an hour while they could be doing any number of other things, to ride it. Fans may not feel that it's worthy of the e-ticket coronation, but Disney, while they may not use that term, certainly do.