I am more of a lurker on this board and very rarely post, but this article has inspired me to post my thoughts and I hope I don't get flamed for it.....
My impression from reading Hill's articles is that he likes to blow steam, he theorizes, he has no fact for these articles, at least he doesn't state any facts in the article. And there are too many fallacy's in his theories.
For example, He states at the beginning of the article that Disney has focused on building 3 times the number of resort rooms it had in 1984, but Disney has created four times the number of parks it had since the 80's as well.
I read the posts on this board on a daily basis, and as a business owner, I believe in many good business practices, one of which I learned young -- concentrate on the part of your business that is successful. (it doesn't mean ignore the parts that aren't, but moreover capitalize on what you KNOW works, while you work on fixing the rest).
Disney has done this. The demand for the wheel and spoke rides are there. The lines for dumbo are LOOOOOOOONNNGGGGGGGG, so they have built another. And, because it brings people to fantasyland they figure it will bring people to AK too.
Then last night I read this post about how they are going to expand MK. Some of the posts basically said why would Disney expand MK when they are struggling with AK, and others even said they NEED a 5th park. the answer is the same as why they are building another value resort (with 5700+ rooms) because its popular and it brings in money -- IT WORKS! The value resorts are a huge success, build another and more people will come to stay there and spend money in the parks (the good ones and the bad ones). The MK is a very popular park, it has the highest attendance-- It's successful -- It Works. Expanding it will raise attendance, raising attendance will bring in more money. Disney is abusiness and it is in the business to entertain -- hopefully it can manage to be successful AND continue to entertain us.
Now don't get me wrong, while I believe they are focusing in the parts of WDW that work well, I do believe that they are doing a poor job of fixing the parts that are not. And, I know I am not telling you anything you don't already know. I guess sometimes as a lurker on this board I get frustrated with the sometimes pessimistic attitude that exits in some (and I stress some) of the posts on this board. JMHO!