DIS Shareholders and Stock Info ONLY

wabbott said:
Normally, Bloomberg is behind a paywall, but not today, at least for me. In case it is blocked for other readers, I'm posting the entire article.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...heaper-tickets-hotels-meals-new-deals-in-2024

How Walt Disney World Is Trying to Make Amends With Unhappy Guests
Disney’s price hikes, crowds and customer service missteps have caused many to sour on the parks. Now the company is working to earn them back.

By Daryl Austin
July 22, 2024 at 6:05 AM CDT

“I think Disney has lost our family for good,” says Lindsey Robertson, a mother of two in Dallas. She was describing how Walt Disney Co.’s Orlando parks have gone from her happy place to a source of mounting frustrations. “We’ve had back-to-back negative experiences with staff, the stand-by lines are out of control, and the cost has become insurmountable.”

Robertson isn’t the only one who has soured on a place that’s often billed as “the happiest on Earth.”

Between the issues she cites—the cost of a high-end trip to the Florida parks has now reached around $40,000 for a family of four—plus poorly managed crowds and clunky reservations systems, Walt Disney World (WDW) is suffering from a social sentiment crisis. On Yelp, the number of four- and five-star reviews has tumbled from almost 52% in 2019 to 33% in 2022. Last year, more than 40% of Yelp reviewers gave the theme parks a one- or two-star review.

Meanwhile, Magic Kingdom park attendance sunk almost 20% in the same years, from 21 million visitors in 2019 to 17 million in 2022, the most recent full year for which data is available.

“Many cast members have become condescending and outright rude,” adds Katy Dean, a mother of six and a contributor to the website New Orleans Mom. “During my last visit, cast members were also on their cellphones and disengaged from guests, and one was dripping with attitude when we had a misunderstanding.”

The complaints are adding up. In June, the fumbled reimagining of Splash Mountain left fans deflated. Weeks later, the company overhauled its already-complicated Genie+ ride reservations systems—it’ll now be called Lightning Lane Multi Pass, and carry different rules for different guests. The company has also added more blackout dates for season passholders, continued to raise ticket and food prices beyond the pace of inflation, introduced parking fees for resort guests and nixed free airport transfers for WDW hotel guests. It’s enough to convince loyalists that a Disney villain took over the corporate reins.

But customer service is listening, Disney says. “We hear about the complaints, and we’ve had many trainings on improving guest interaction and the guest experience overall,” one Magic Kingdom guest experience manager tells Bloomberg, speaking on condition of anonymity because they didn’t have authorization to discuss the matter. “The guest experience remains a top priority for any Disney theme park visit,” adds Disney spokesperson Melissa Britt.

Here’s what the company is doing to make things right, both in the immediate and longer terms, along with expert opinions on whether it all meets the mark. Untangling problems of this magnitude, it turns out, is a tall order—even for those with fairy godmothers on staff.

Crowds and Wait Times

The new Lightning Lane Multi Pass ride reservations system, which goes into effect on July 24, aims to resolve at least some complaints about long waits and ease of access—even if its reception has been lukewarm. Rather than having to book multiple time slots for rides at 7 a.m. sharp the same day, it now allows Disney hotel guests to book a full week in advance, while other visitors will see reservations open three days out.

Costs, which can range from $30 per person per day to more than $100, remain unchanged, but a few rides no longer cost extra to reserve. (Among them: Frozen Ever After and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad.) International visitors may get a short shrift, though, with advance reservations available only for those who have onsite lodging reservations or are physically in the US and Canada.

People waiting to enter the Magic Kingdom in Orlando.Photographer: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
Len Testa, co-author of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and the president of TouringPlans.com, a company that compiles park data and surveys hundreds of thousands of Disney guests annually, likens the previous Genie+ system to “a Taylor Swift concert-level competition kickstarting each morning of your vacation.” The new changes “are a huge change in the right direction,” he says, “though they will still have kinks to work out.”

Another wait-reducing strategy involves dispersing guests to more rides and attractions, including a second daily Festival of Fantasy parade that began at the Magic Kingdom in May. A promised 14-acre park expansion—announced in early 2024 as part of a $60 billion, 10-year investment plan—should also help, but details remain thin.

Not all changes meant to help with lines have been well received. An overhaul to the Disability Access Service program in May was intended to minimize abuse of the system, which grants Lightning Lane or disability access entrance to those who need it. Already the new criteria have rendered even some wheelchair-using guests with serious health conditions ineligible; one such story shared on TikTok by a parkgoer with Guillain-Barré syndrome sparked a social media outcry, reaching 1.7 million views in just two weeks.

The arrival area that leads towards the Magic Kingdom, where the lines begin.Photographer: Brian Carlson/Bloomberg

Addressing Cost

News you may have missed: Starting in May, WDW started to quietly discount ticket prices, which had hit a high of $254 for a one-day park hopper ticket. Through Sept. 24, the company now offers $89-a-day access for people buying three-day tickets, with the caveat that guests can use the tickets to visit only Hollywood Studios, EPCOT and Animal Kingdom. (Magic Kingdom access is purchased separately at full price.)

On the hotel front, WDW has introduced cheaper nightly rates at value resorts such as Disney’s All-Star Movies, Music and Sports Resorts, starting around $100. Google Hotels confirms the price drops, with rates of $125 in mid-January reflecting a 27% discount. Still, the rock-bottom rates are offered only on the least-busy days of the year, typically in January and February, with prices otherwise ranging $200 to $300 per night at the same spots. More affordable accommodations are coming soon with the expansion of Disney’s timeshare arm, Disney Vacation Club; two new properties are expected by the end of 2024.

Even incremental food costs add up sneakily these days. That shift started in July 2018, when WDW shifted from a la carte menus to fixed-price formats at some of its more popular restaurants. The Magic Kingdom’s Beauty and the Beast-themed Be Our Guest tripled the cost of lunch to about $300 for a family of four after taxes and gratuity. It was the start of a precipitous decline in customer satisfaction, says Testa, who saw those scores fall from 90% to almost 60% after the price hikes.

Disney reintroduced dining plans this summer, which trim 20% to 30% from food expenses for the average family. To use them, you buy a set number of meal credits for about $30 per child per day and $95 per adult, which can be redeemed for meals or snacks at quick-service restaurants and even character dining experiences. Other changes are more subtle, such as more affordable quick-service dining options, lower-priced kid’s meal choices and relaxed cancellation policies at restaurants.

Testa praises many of the changes—and has seen the needle move a bit on customer satisfaction—but remains skeptical that Disney is doing enough to make the parks affordable to families. “Disney has long been willing to sacrifice a certain number of positive ratings for a certain amount of revenue,” he says, pointing to the persistence of fixed-price menus as a prime example.

The Magic Is Returning–for Some

In his 2023 fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Bob Iger noted that guest experience ratings were improving in every park. With more changes expected to be announced at the D23 fan expo in August, its most loyal guests are hopeful the trend will continue.

“This past visit was the first time in a long time I felt we actually stood in shorter lines at the park,” says frequent visitor Paul Taylor, a retail supervisor in Jacksonville, Florida, after a visit to Hollywood Studios in April.

Kendra Wharton, a cosmetologist from Chesapeake, Virginia, says that customer service has also improved. “When my family visited during the pandemic, a couple employees were snappy,” she explains. “But everyone was much more accommodating and friendly this past visit.”

Graham Brooks, the president of Thrill Data—a company that tracks and compiles data around theme park wait times—agrees that for many Disney guests, “the magic is finally returning.” But he finds it unlikely that the company will fully restore its pre-pandemic luster and appeal.

Even if it did, New Orleans mom Dean says it would be too little, too late. “Our constantly feeling nickel-and-dimed and being mistreated by cast members” has put the family off Disney for good, she says. “The magic just isn’t there any more for us—we’re spending our vacationing dollars elsewhere now.”
Click to expand...
So Disney's publicity department finally starts to counter all the negativity of the last year or so? This kind of stuff really makes me question current leadership. Why were there not responses to all those "it costs $40k to go to WDW" headlines right away? Why does it take 6 months? Those review drops are also concerning and should have been countered in words and deeds months ago. Instead, they let the narrative take hold. Makes no sense.
 
This is beyond me to know, but does anyone have a read on the DL Strike and it's impact on the stock? Seems like short-term movement of the the stock might also be assuming a possible strike this week?
 
akadada said:
This is beyond me to know, but does anyone have a read on the DL Strike and it's impact on the stock? Seems like short-term movement of the the stock might also be assuming a possible strike this week?
Click to expand...
Netflix and Comcast earnings recently probably have more to do with the drop than anything associated with the strike.
 

50-day MA is pretty telling. I dumped my DIS weeklies about 2 months ago.

I see sub $80 again on the latest pullback cycle.
 
CMCSA down nearly 7% on that bad report and DIS down about half that. How low can the PE's go on these tech adjacent stocks? DIS is sub 20 and CMCSA is sub 10. This sector is still very much out of favor...
 
All the Comcast Park comments from today's call:

Now, let's turn to parks, where our results were down in both revenue and EBITDA when compared to last year's record performance, with two-thirds of the decline driven by lower attendance at our domestic parks. We attribute this to a number of factors.


First, is what now appears to be a COVID recovery pull-forward of a magnitude we hadn't previously appreciated. I think it's important to zoom out and look at how this business has trended over the past few years. Going back to 2022 and 2023, parks were clearly the early beneficiaries of substantial rebounds in tourism and travel after the pandemic, resulting in a surge in demand that contributed to us reaching record results for both of those years. More recently, other travel options, including cruises and international tourism, given the strength of the dollar, have experienced their own surge in demand, which caused visitation rates at our parks to normalize.


The second factor affecting attendance at our domestic parks is the timing of our investments in new attractions, where we are light in Florida in advance of next year's opening of Epic and our lapping of Super Nintendo World in Hollywood is creating some headwinds for us as well.


While the parks results are below our original expectations for the year, we still view parks as a terrific long-term growth business for us. We couldn't be more excited about the opening of Epic Universe in 2025, as we've been releasing new details about Epic's Five Immersive Worlds, the consumer reaction has been tremendous. And recently, we opened an Epic Universe Preview Center in Orlando and the foot traffic and guest enthusiasm have been off the charts. So, we look forward to Epic Universe having a meaningful impact by driving incremental attendance, longer visits and higher per-cap spending once the park opens in 2025.

-----
I'll detail these results further, starting with theme parks. Revenue decreased 11% and EBITDA declined 24% in the quarter compared to last year's record level for a second quarter. As Mike highlighted, two-thirds of the decline was driven by our domestic parks, due to lower attendance compared to last year, largely reflecting two factors; normalization in demand post-COVID, combined with the timing of our domestic attractions.


This is the first full quarter comparison to the highly successful opening of Super Nintendo World in Hollywood early last year, which drove that park's record results in the second quarter of last year. And we haven't launched a major new attraction in Orlando since VelociCoaster in 2021 in anticipation of Epic Universe, which we originally planned to open this year.


On the international side, underlying growth at our park in Osaka continues, partially offset by foreign currency as well as some softness at Universal Beijing due to the local macroeconomic environment.


To reiterate, we couldn't be more bullish about the long-term trajectory of parks. In addition to Epic Universe, we have a fantastic slate of new attractions and experiences on the horizon, Donkey Kong Country in Osaka and a Fast and Furious Roller Coaster in Hollywood, as well as the Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas and our Universal Kids Resort coming to Texas.

----------
And, Ben, it's Mike on parks. So, to hit on that again and appreciate the question, I think we covered a lot in the earlier remarks, but I'll start where Brian last finished, which is, we couldn't be more excited about and confident in the long-term trajectory of the parks business, particularly as we look ahead to next year with Epic Universe, which is truly -- looking truly unbelievable. And then, other attractions coming, Hollywood is going to get a Coaster and Donkey Kong Country into Osaka in the latter part of this year. Timing, TBD on both of those.


But in the near term, I think the domestic attendance challenge that was -- what drove two-thirds of the poor comparison, the factors causing that, which is really the COVID pull-forward that we talked about and the timing of attractions, particularly in Hollywood lapping Super Nintendo, and in Florida, the fact that we originally planned to have Epic opened this year, but with COVID pushed it back, and so have a lull in the action. We haven't started a new big attraction since VelociCoaster in 2021.


So, as a result of that, I think the factors, even though we're excited about Hollywood Horror Nights in the second half of the year and a little bit of moving past the lapping, I think the trends that we are experiencing likely continue until we get to -- until we get to Epic opening up sometime next year.

-----

They are pretty much saying post covid travel is normalizing and they have some tough comps when comparing to last year's Nintendo opening.
 
RivShore said:
All the Comcast Park comments from today's call:

Now, let's turn to parks, where our results were down in both revenue and EBITDA when compared to last year's record performance, with two-thirds of the decline driven by lower attendance at our domestic parks. We attribute this to a number of factors.


First, is what now appears to be a COVID recovery pull-forward of a magnitude we hadn't previously appreciated. I think it's important to zoom out and look at how this business has trended over the past few years. Going back to 2022 and 2023, parks were clearly the early beneficiaries of substantial rebounds in tourism and travel after the pandemic, resulting in a surge in demand that contributed to us reaching record results for both of those years. More recently, other travel options, including cruises and international tourism, given the strength of the dollar, have experienced their own surge in demand, which caused visitation rates at our parks to normalize.


The second factor affecting attendance at our domestic parks is the timing of our investments in new attractions, where we are light in Florida in advance of next year's opening of Epic and our lapping of Super Nintendo World in Hollywood is creating some headwinds for us as well.


While the parks results are below our original expectations for the year, we still view parks as a terrific long-term growth business for us. We couldn't be more excited about the opening of Epic Universe in 2025, as we've been releasing new details about Epic's Five Immersive Worlds, the consumer reaction has been tremendous. And recently, we opened an Epic Universe Preview Center in Orlando and the foot traffic and guest enthusiasm have been off the charts. So, we look forward to Epic Universe having a meaningful impact by driving incremental attendance, longer visits and higher per-cap spending once the park opens in 2025.

-----
I'll detail these results further, starting with theme parks. Revenue decreased 11% and EBITDA declined 24% in the quarter compared to last year's record level for a second quarter. As Mike highlighted, two-thirds of the decline was driven by our domestic parks, due to lower attendance compared to last year, largely reflecting two factors; normalization in demand post-COVID, combined with the timing of our domestic attractions.


This is the first full quarter comparison to the highly successful opening of Super Nintendo World in Hollywood early last year, which drove that park's record results in the second quarter of last year. And we haven't launched a major new attraction in Orlando since VelociCoaster in 2021 in anticipation of Epic Universe, which we originally planned to open this year.


On the international side, underlying growth at our park in Osaka continues, partially offset by foreign currency as well as some softness at Universal Beijing due to the local macroeconomic environment.


To reiterate, we couldn't be more bullish about the long-term trajectory of parks. In addition to Epic Universe, we have a fantastic slate of new attractions and experiences on the horizon, Donkey Kong Country in Osaka and a Fast and Furious Roller Coaster in Hollywood, as well as the Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas and our Universal Kids Resort coming to Texas.

----------
And, Ben, it's Mike on parks. So, to hit on that again and appreciate the question, I think we covered a lot in the earlier remarks, but I'll start where Brian last finished, which is, we couldn't be more excited about and confident in the long-term trajectory of the parks business, particularly as we look ahead to next year with Epic Universe, which is truly -- looking truly unbelievable. And then, other attractions coming, Hollywood is going to get a Coaster and Donkey Kong Country into Osaka in the latter part of this year. Timing, TBD on both of those.


But in the near term, I think the domestic attendance challenge that was -- what drove two-thirds of the poor comparison, the factors causing that, which is really the COVID pull-forward that we talked about and the timing of attractions, particularly in Hollywood lapping Super Nintendo, and in Florida, the fact that we originally planned to have Epic opened this year, but with COVID pushed it back, and so have a lull in the action. We haven't started a new big attraction since VelociCoaster in 2021.


So, as a result of that, I think the factors, even though we're excited about Hollywood Horror Nights in the second half of the year and a little bit of moving past the lapping, I think the trends that we are experiencing likely continue until we get to -- until we get to Epic opening up sometime next year.

-----

They are pretty much saying post covid travel is normalizing and they have some tough comps when comparing to last year's Nintendo opening.
Click to expand...
A new industry buzzword has been born: Covid pull-forward
 
clarker99 said:
A new industry buzzword has been born: Covid pull-forward
Click to expand...
I'm trying to figure out what he meant. "Forward" sounds like a good thing, but does "pull-forward" mean that post-Covid revenge travel was condensed into a small time frame and didn't last as long as they expected?
 
clarker99 said:
A new industry buzzword has been born: Covid pull-forward
Click to expand...
Yep!

Other industries have used it too - like Home Depot/Lowes/Best Buy - during Covid everyone was fixing up the house and upgrading their PC's, TV's, appliances, theoretically before they really needed upgrading in the normal life cycle. So now, they won't be needing replacement for a while longer, damaging revenue at those home improvement stores. At least that's the WS excuse of the current times...lol
 
irlandaise said:
I'm trying to figure out what he meant. "Forward" sounds like a good thing, but does "pull-forward" mean that post-Covid revenge travel was condensed into a small time frame and didn't last as long as they expected?
Click to expand...
RivShore said:
Yep!

Other industries have used it too - like Home Depot/Lowes/Best Buy - during Covid everyone was fixing up the house and upgrading their PC's, TV's, appliances, theoretically before they really needed upgrading in the normal life cycle. So now, they won't be needing replacement for a while longer, damaging revenue at those home improvement stores. At least that's the WS excuse of the current times...lol
Click to expand...
Needed an esoteric term to keep people confused.

'Post-Covid Boom' was likely skipped over due to most people knowing that a bust always follows a boom. Lol.

Hard to know if this is even a down cycle given we have no clue what attendance was in 2019.
 
RivShore said:
This kind of supply hitting the market doesn't help either:

Disney's shareholder Perlmutter sells his stake after proxy fight loss, WSJ reports​

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/disneys-shareholder-perlmutter-sells-stake-190420778.html
Click to expand...
I've not been able to get around the paywall of the original WSJ article on this, but it looks like Perlmutter's sell price was around $115/share. DIS hasn't seen that price since May, so his sale had to have been in the April/May time period, and wouldn't likely account for the current price weakness.
 
wabbott said:
I've not been able to get around the paywall of the original WSJ article on this, but it looks like Perlmutter's sell price was around $115/share. DIS hasn't seen that price since May, so his sale had to have been in the April/May time period, and wouldn't likely account for the current price weakness.
Click to expand...
Other news outlets pick up relevant stories from the WSJ. In this case, it's relevant to the entertainment news outlets like Deadline.

https://deadline.com/2024/07/ike-perlmutter-sells-entire-disney-stake-1236019211/

"Perlmutter sold his entire position of 25.6 million shares in the months after that vote, said the WSJ, citing communications with an investment adviser seen by the publication. Specifically, he sold his stake between early April and mid-July at an average price of just under $115."

Variety and THR also picked up the story.
 
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