Crowd Outlook

[Aluminum Falcon]

Again, I may very well be a lone wolf, but a significant reason that my DW and I are not traveling to WDW last year or this year is because EP remains under construction. It was (is?) my favorite park. I won't go back until and unless it's fixed. It is ugly. The barges were hideous. The construction walls are hideous. I'm not paying for an expensive theme park ticket to look at construction walls in the middle of a park.

That i can understand. I just fall into giving Dis the benefit of the doubt with what's transpired across the globe recently

 

[HokieRaven5]

Again, I may very well be a lone wolf, but a significant reason that my DW and I are not traveling to WDW last year or this year is because EP remains under construction. It was (is?) my favorite park. I won't go back until and unless it's fixed. It is ugly. The barges were hideous. The construction walls are hideous. I'm not paying for an expensive theme park ticket to look at construction walls in the middle of a park.

Totally justified, every person has their own limit on what they’re willing to accept for their experience.

We here being fanatics have a tendency to be hyper focused on everything Disney does where maybe the mass general audience probably doesn’t know these things or think anything of these things. There are plenty of Disney parks issue stories are out there, the masses just don’t seem to fully care about them the same way we do.

Masses mostly just know a Disney vacation is $$$$.

 

[wabbott]

That i can understand. I just fall into giving Dis the benefit of the doubt with what's transpired across the globe recently

That's a fair point of view. As I've often stated, I think DIS buying CapCities ABC back in 1995 was not a good strategic fit. All the growth of the company since has been the purchases of IP assets - Pixar, Marvel, etc, and the development of park attractions based on the IP themes. With the network burden, it became too much to oversee.

In my opinion.

 

[greeneyedchick]

I"m not sure anyone is saying they are going out of business. I will say that there are a lot of people, and i mean a lot, based on people's responses here in this forum, and other places ive read on social media that were a "captive audience" of disney, meaning they just automatically booked vacations to WDW every single year, that have looked at other places to vacation and a lot of the times its the nickle and diming of disney over the past 10 years or so that made them do that.

We're one of those captive fans. we just got back from a weekend in NY, both of my boys, ages 11 and 12, asked to go back to NY next year for a weeklong vacation instead of disney.

Dont be surprised that if the massive price increase, along with the complexity to plan a disney vacation has pushed some out of their comfort zone and started to look at other places.

I could write a how to book (most of us on this forum are big enough disney fans that could do it) on how to vacation at disney. Now, after finally stepping out of my comfort zone and doing something i knew nothing about, i'm looking forward to doing it more often.

am i done with Disney? absolutely not, but it means i'm no longer a captive guest and will vacation at other places and visit disney much less often.

I love disney, they arent going anywhere, if attendance does suffer, they've been there before, and they'll offer discounts and be ok.

btw, i'm that guy that is currently listening to disney background music while i work, i havent lost my love of the place.

I'm planning a trip to NYC right now. Any hotel suggestions?

 

[wabbott]

I'm planning a trip to NYC right now. Any hotel suggestions?

We stayed here back in May. Walking distance to Wall Street and Seaport. At the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.

https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/ny...ce=1_MjA4MzY3NC03MTUtbG9jYXRpb24ud2Vic2l0ZQ==
Hampton Inn Manhattan-Seaport-Financial District

If ever we go back, we want to stay in the Grand Central Terminal neighborhood, as GCT is a hub for rail, subways, and busses.

 

[greeneyedchick]

I can't emphasize this enough, the pandemic shook how the parks run/ran and they are still recovering. If you look to the past prior to the pandemic i think you would sing a different tune.

I don't understand why they didn't use the time when the parks were closed to speed up construction. Prior to that Disney never closed (with the exception of a few days for hurricanes). Yet somehow, they used to finish construction projects faster. They were also better at hiding unsightly construction. They should have taken advantage of closed parks to do what they needed instead of laying off everyone.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

That's a fair point of view. As I've often stated, I think DIS buying CapCities ABC back in 1995 was not a good strategic fit. All the growth of the company since has been the purchases of IP assets - Pixar, Marvel, etc, and the development of park attractions based on the IP themes. With the network burden, it became too much to oversee.

In my opinion.

I think they do a fairly decent job compartmentalizing their different segments, and i won't beat them up for expanding their business. I think the primary problem is that media across the board is in flux. Sports betting, Streaming, Culture Wars, ect. all have massive impacts on Disney. I believe personally that they'll be fine, but there are rough waters ahead in the marketplace.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I don't understand why they didn't use the time when the parks were closed to speed up construction. Prior to that Disney never closed (with the exception of a few days for hurricanes). Yet somehow, they used to finish construction projects faster. They were also better at hiding unsightly construction. They should have taken advantage of closed parks to do what they needed instead of laying off everyone.

In hindsight sure, but at the time no one knew what the future held, and it looked awfully grim. It would have been downright irresponsible to not pull back on the parks at the time, since that was the largest segment of their business that was affected.

 

[irlandaise]

In hindsight sure, but at the time no one knew what the future held, and it looked awfully grim. It would have been downright irresponsible to not pull back on the parks at the time, since that was the largest segment of their business that was affected.

Also, the construction industry had imploded. Materials got very expensive and very hard to obtain.

 

[wabbott]

I think they do a fairly decent job compartmentalizing their different segments, and i won't beat them up for expanding their business. I think the primary problem is that media across the board is in flux. Sports betting, Streaming, Culture Wars, ect. all have massive impacts on Disney. I believe personally that they'll be fine, but there are rough waters ahead in the marketplace.

Take a look at this interview this morning with the WSJ's Robbie Whelan. He says that "people close to Iger" who are familiar with his thinking claim he's anxious to reduce linear tv exposure.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DIS?p=DIS

 

[BrianL]

I'm not one to clamour for new, new, new all the time, but at this point htey should at least have some solid plans in place for underutilized areas of the park. AK for example - I always liked Dinoland USA, though it could have used something more. Instead it LOST Primeval Whirl. That area is now very sad, and needs something. Personally I'd keep it Dinos, but really do up something nice there.

 

[Suger Mag]

It's not so much that it's not enough, they need to continue with that pace as all parks other than MK need more attractions.

which is funny you say that... as most everything on that list is not in MK.

I would love to see an expansion where Dinoland is. I would bet that is where the WDW park$$ go next, they won't announce for a bit, got to milk the 50th.. and the 100th... and anything else first

 

[Smugpugmug]

I'm not one to clamour for new, new, new all the time, but at this point htey should at least have some solid plans in place for underutilized areas of the park. AK for example - I always liked Dinoland USA, though it could have used something more. Instead it LOST Primeval Whirl. That area is now very sad, and needs something. Personally I'd keep it Dinos, but really do up something nice there.

If the work being done in Shanghai is anything to go by, I would rather it not be Zootopia. Doesn't fit the vibe of AK in any way.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

Take a look at this interview this morning with the WSJ's Robbie Whelan. He says that "people close to Iger" who are familiar with his thinking claim he's anxious to reduce linear tv exposure.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DIS?p=DIS

i can see why he would be, no one knows the correct answer right now and a lot of companies are waiting to watch everyone else make the mistakes

 

[ChipnDale79]

I'm planning a trip to NYC right now. Any hotel suggestions?

yeah i wish i could tell you, but there are so many to choose from. We stayed near times square, i dont think we'll do that again, we'd probably stay somewhere else.

plan plan plan. We walked about as much as we do at disney, no issues with the subway.

it was a blast.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I'm not one to clamour for new, new, new all the time, but at this point htey should at least have some solid plans in place for underutilized areas of the park. AK for example - I always liked Dinoland USA, though it could have used something more. Instead it LOST Primeval Whirl. That area is now very sad, and needs something. Personally I'd keep it Dinos, but really do up something nice there.

i love countdown to extinction, but that area does not fit into any of Disneys parks from its inception and i won't be sad to see it go

 

[HokieRaven5]

In hindsight sure, but at the time no one knew what the future held, and it looked awfully grim. It would have been downright irresponsible to not pull back on the parks at the time, since that was the largest segment of their business that was affected.

Also have no idea how they were handling situations for contractors, a majority of what they were building (with the exception of the center of EPCOT) were classified as indoor attractions. Disney may have implemented a limit on the amount of contractors/workers allowed at a given time.

Where I work implemented similar restrictions on our contractors doing renovations to our buildings during that time.

The Universal comparison that’s brought up is Velocicoaster which is an outdoor coaster, and other than the queue and loading station wouldn’t fall under those types of possible restrictions.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

which is funny you say that... as nothing on that list is in MK.

I would love to see an expansion where Dinoland is. I would bet that is where the WDW park$$ go next, they won't announce for a bit, got to milk the 50th.. and the 100th... and anything else first

Well, Tron, but i'll let it slide haha

 

[Suger Mag]

I'm not one to clamour for new, new, new all the time, but at this point htey should at least have some solid plans in place for underutilized areas of the park. AK for example - I always liked Dinoland USA, though it could have used something more. Instead it LOST Primeval Whirl. That area is now very sad, and needs something. Personally I'd keep it Dinos, but really do up something nice there.

was very sad to see PW go... i always felt like that whole asphalt area of Dinoland never really meshed with the rest of the AK park. And poor Dinosaur has seen some better days.

 

[HokieRaven5]

was very sad to see PW go... i always felt like that whole asphalt area of Dinoland never really meshed with the rest of the AK park. And poor Dinosaur has seen some better days.

That area is now the Animal Kingdom Solarium. Come on out and bake in the Florida Sun.