New DVC General Manager

[RivShore]

She's now a senior VP of commercial strategies for Signature Experiences. DVC is part of Signature Experiences. That doesn't mean that he reports directly to her or that she is further up the food chain from him. But there is probably going to be some interaction between the two on a regular basis.

Actually she is SVP over Commercial Strategy which sounds like a sub-department of SE so it sounds like it might be a pretty narrow department/position.

Someone find us an Org chart

 

[RivShore]

If real park hopping comes back, I would expect to pay more for it just the way that Disney seems to be going with nickel and diming everyone. Especially if you're an Annual Passholder who gets park hopping included.

The ME could have continued without baggage delivery, it has been doing so since WDW re-opened in 2020. The company behind baggage delivery, BAGS Inc. actually didn't go out of business, but they did layoff hundreds of people in 2020. https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2020/10/09/orlando-company-bags-lays-off-hundreds-of.html

https://www.bagsinc.com/

Interesting, thanks.
And in case you want to see that "insiders" thoughts - https://www.disboards.com/threads/corporate-disney-has-lost-the-vision.3850314/post-63316131

 

[Marionnette]

Actually she is SVP over Commercial Strategy which sounds like a sub-department of SE so it sounds like it might be a pretty narrow department/position.

Someone find us an Org chart

The only thing I could find directly related to Terri's new position was a LinkedIn profile for an individual who held that position. I won't put that person's name out there but they described their responsibilities as marketing for Disney's premium travel brands which include DVC, ABL, Golden Oak, and Nat Geo Expeditions (which I wasn't even aware was a thing).

 

[RivShore]

The only thing I could find directly related to Terri's new position was a LinkedIn profile for an individual who held that position. I won't put that person's name out there but they described their responsibilities as marketing for Disney's premium travel brands which include DVC, ABL, Golden Oak, and Nat Geo Expeditions (which I wasn't even aware was a thing).

Interesting, thanks for the detective work!!

I had no idea about Nat Geo either.

 

[T-i-double-guh-er]

And as been pointed out, she is over DVC so yes this is a promotion.

Where does anything say she is over DVC?

Working in an office that is part of the next level up on the org chart doesn't mean she has any role in overseeing components of that organization. In my organization, an office director is a higher grade than the HQ marketing director, even though the marketing director is organizationally part of a higher echelon and provides services to multiple offices.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Sounds like she was given the Penske file.

 

[Liquidice]

Interesting, thanks.
And in case you want to see that "insiders" thoughts - https://www.disboards.com/threads/corporate-disney-has-lost-the-vision.3850314/post-63316131

Interesting read - I don't know if I agree that DME had to end because the luggage delivery and airport checkin side had broken. They were able to run it for more than a year without those functions, and plenty of people are still using DME.

I assume some of the reason for ending it had to do with Mears wanting to charge a lot more to renew the contract and this wasn't Disney just wanting to end more perks for customers. It is probably one of the only perks where Disney (or as many would like to believe, Chapek himself) wasn't totally responsible for ending or charging for what once was included.

But I bet even the person in the post you linked doesn't know for sure - they are just speculating based on there being a lot of issues with the luggage handling and airport checkin side of the house.

I will definitely miss the complete service though - I was only fortunate enough to use it one time fully operational and it was great to drop off my bags and just have them show up in my resort hotel.

 

[Sandisw]

Interesting read - I don't know if I agree that DME had to end because the luggage delivery and airport checkin side had broken. They were able to run it for more than a year without those functions, and plenty of people are still using DME.

I assume some of the reason for ending it had to do with Mears wanting to charge a lot more to renew the contract and this wasn't Disney just wanting to end more perks for customers. It is probably one of the only perks where Disney (or as many would like to believe, Chapek himself) wasn't totally responsible for ending or charging for what once was included.

But I bet even the person in the post you linked doesn't know for sure - they are just speculating based on there being a lot of issues with the luggage handling and airport checkin side of the house.

I will definitely miss the complete service though - I was only fortunate enough to use it one time fully operational and it was great to drop off my bags and just have them show up in my resort hotel.

The luggage delivery and airline check in pieces never returned. The only thing going right now is just the Mears bus.

 

[Liquidice]

The luggage delivery and airline check in pieces never returned. The only thing going right now is just the Mears bus.

Right isn't that what I said? Apologize if I didn't state it clearly enough - but that was my point, they could have kept MDE running without the luggage delivery and airline checking pieces just like they have for more than a year.

 

[Sandisw]

Right isn't that what I said? Apologize if I didn't state it clearly enough - but that was my point, they could have kept MDE running without the luggage delivery and airline checking pieces just like they have for more than a year.

I think I read it wrong. But I had also read that the contract for Mears was ending and so without those pieces it made sense to discontinue it.

 

[Liquidice]

I think I read it wrong. But I had also read that the contract for Mears was ending and so without those pieces it made sense to discontinue it.

Yeah I heard Mears wanted to raise the prices significantly to renew the contract too - that is why I was saying I think it was maybe the only perk that was not entirely Disney's fault to get cut, they may not even have wanted to cut the perk, assuming Mears kept the contract price the same.

 

[Nabas]

So does this mean that with Disney no longer incurring the cost of Disney's Magic Express, they are going to lower the prices of their hotel rooms to take into account all the savings?



No two ways about it, Disney dumped DME because of money.

 

[Liquidice]

So does this mean that with Disney no longer incurring the cost of Disney's Magic Express, they are going to lower the prices of their hotel rooms to take into account all the savings?



No two ways about it, Disney dumped DME because of money.

Yeah and our annual dues are going to go down too!

 

[DonMacGregor]

Yeah I heard Mears wanted to raise the prices significantly to renew the contract too - that is why I was saying I think it was maybe the only perk that was not entirely Disney's fault to get cut, they may not even have wanted to cut the perk, assuming Mears kept the contract price the same.

That makes zero sense for Mears. Post contract, they’d have to charge more for a service providing less, and with no marketing and support from Disney and no steady flow of guaranteed riders, courtesy of Disney.

I’d be curious how many buss leases Mears is left holding too.

 

[Sandisw]

That makes zero sense for Mears. Post contract, they’d have to charge more for a service providing less, and with no marketing and support from Disney and no steady flow of guaranteed riders, courtesy of Disney.

I’d be curious how many buss leases Mears is left holding too.

Mears didn’t provide those other services so maybe they felt it was better to do on their own?

I bet they continue to have good success.

 

[Liquidice]

That makes zero sense for Mears. Post contract, they’d have to charge more for a service providing less, and with no marketing and support from Disney and no steady flow of guaranteed riders, courtesy of Disney.

I’d be curious how many buss leases Mears is left holding too.

I guess it depends on what the terms of the contract were with Mears. Lets say it was a flat rate contract to operate a certain number of buses per day - not per guest. I would imagine at the volume Disney had they could have written a contract that was based on the number of buses operating not the number of guests. Mears could have said - we want to change the contract so we get a certain amount of money per guest which would have raised the price significantly for Disney, and Mears may have also done the math and felt they could run their own version of DME at a per guest price and make out better. I'm also not sure the Mears Connect service offers less? Right now the DME service is just a bus to Disney and back to MCO, that is what Mears Connect will offer as well. Disney also seems to be implementing a policy of charging more for less and thinks it will be successful. maybe Mears hired one of Disney's bean counters?

I'm just hypothesizing here on the contract - but without knowing the details of the contract and what Mears was trying to renew at, I don't think we can say if it makes zero sense for Mears. They are after all offering a DME replacement service. They can also expand the service to offer it to offsite hotels and Universal hotels as well.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Mears didn’t provide those other services so maybe they felt it was better to do on their own?

I bet they continue to have good success.

Exactly. But THAT was what made it so easy and seamless. Mears won’t have a link on MDE to easily add a reservation. They won’t have a Disney-themed kiosk at MCO, they won’t have every single guest who reserves a room at a Disney hotel enjoying the simple option of adding DME to a resort reservation.
There’s no way not having their service fully integrated into the Disney hotel reservation experience will prove easier for them to market their version of DME.

 

[ABE4DISNEY]

Just search these forums for dwarves. the DVC booking website is a nightmare with many known issues. I'm at over many hours on the phone in the last couple months trying to deal with this incompetent website, and I STILL missed several bookings.

The Magical Express reservation page is also having issues...per a CM that I chatted with tonight. It failed to recognize my multiple contracts and had to be manually added. It seemed like it was a known issue that has being going on for some time.

 

[dsanner106]

Where did you see that Bill reports to her under the re-org? I don't read the announcement that way, unless your sure DVC reports up thru Commercial Strategy?

I read the responsibilities reported for her in the new role and they pointed out that it included being over her former position with DVC.

 

[wnielsen1]

Yeah and our annual dues are going to go down too!

While annual dues will go up for other reasons (mostly an increase in labor costs), technically the DME expense they were passing on to owners will be removed from the 2022 budgets.