News Round Up 2016

[rteetz]

News

All new adventures by Disney trips including one to central Florida.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...ey-announces-new-american-vacations-for-2016/

 

[twebber55]

Well... Some not so great news here. Its now being said this will be affecting the DHS budget. It shouldn't affect toy story much but what comes after with Star Wars and the possible phase 3 or 4 is really what it could hurt.

calling bunk on this
respectfully in my opinion of course
both star wars lands will basically be identical

 

[Fantasia79]

Looking for info on Disneyland Food & Wine, it looks as if they haven't run it since 2010.

Am I correct here?

Doesn't look to be as big as WDW Food and Wine, but still seems fun.

 

[rteetz]

Looking for info on Disneyland Food & Wine, it looks as if they haven't run it since 2010.

Am I correct here?

Doesn't look to be as big as WDW Food and Wine, but still seems fun.

I had a parks blog post on here yesterday. Yes it's been a while since the last one and won't be as big as epcots.

 

[rteetz]

calling bunk on this
respectfully in my opinion of course
both star wars lands will basically be identical

These cuts and what is potentially going to continue is really alarming though.

 

[sachilles]

These cuts and what is potentially going to continue is really alarming though.

Don't get too worried. If a company the size of disney, there is fat that needs to be cut. It will make waves in the company. There will be disgruntled folks. It's the natural cycle of business. In moderation, it's healthy.
As much as we'd all love them to put a gazillion bucks, and infinite man hours into the park, it's not realistic.
There is a lot of deferred maintenance. We've seen a spurt of spending to fix some of those ills. It's easy to feel like they are pulling way back with cuts, but that is likely a long time coming. Some of this is the fruits of the magic bands, it's provided a lot of business info. Some of the info might be misleading, and will be acted on anyway. Eventually a happy medium will be found. There will be some pain. There will be lost customers. In the end, they'll either survive and improve.....or die off.

 

[rteetz]

Don't get too worried. If a company the size of disney, there is fat that needs to be cut. It will make waves in the company. There will be disgruntled folks. It's the natural cycle of business. In moderation, it's healthy.
As much as we'd all love them to put a gazillion bucks, and infinite man hours into the park, it's not realistic.
There is a lot of deferred maintenance. We've seen a spurt of spending to fix some of those ills. It's easy to feel like they are pulling way back with cuts, but that is likely a long time coming. Some of this is the fruits of the magic bands, it's provided a lot of business info. Some of the info might be misleading, and will be acted on anyway. Eventually a happy medium will be found. There will be some pain. There will be lost customers. In the end, they'll either survive and improve.....or die off.

I understand I'm just mainly worried about how this could affect DHS. To me cutting some hours doesn't affect me too much and I know going in crowds are crazy but the potential on the future has me worried.

 

[sachilles]

Look at it this way. These cuts are likely pro-active, so that they can afford to make the changes needed at DHS.
It's no different than the average park visitor. You know you have a trip to wdw in the near future, so you make spending cuts on the home front, so you are free to spend on your vacation. Same principle.

They know they are going to have a lot of bills to pay in the next few years, so they must get their house in order prior. Better to do it know, rather than half way through the project.
If they end up really hurting, expect more phased openings, but the opening will still happen.

I suspect overtime has been poorly controlled in the past. With the prevailing wages climbing, and the pressure to have a livable wage....it will backfire on the workers, as they may raise the average wage....but kill any prospect at Overtime(1.5x pay).

 

[wareagle57]

I agree. To compromise a little bit I started putting the bold headline to show that this is news or a photo update for example.

I think that was a great idea. I don't want the discussion to stop. More often than not I love reading through it and participating. But sometimes when I come back after a day or two away and there are 6 new pages, I don't really want to read through it all just to find what I missed.

 

[Eoghann]

I suspect overtime has been poorly controlled in the past. With the prevailing wages climbing, and the pressure to have a livable wage....it will backfire on the workers, as they may raise the average wage....but kill any prospect at Overtime(1.5x pay).

Well if they were being paid a decent wage they wouldn't need to work extra hours in the first place...

 

[wareagle57]

Speaking of those cuts... I thought this graph of CapEx as a % of Revenue posted over on WDW Magic by Parentsof4 was quite telling:View attachment 151620

We're not at the lowest ebb ever but clearly Disney isn't straining themselves right now.

As someone else noted however, OPEX (Operational Epenses) and CAPEX (Capital Expenses or new building) are separate, so it would be interesting to see if OPEX has been increasing or decreasing during this timeframe...

Could you help a dummy like me figure out how I should read and interpret this chart?

 

[sachilles]

Well if they were being paid a decent wage they wouldn't need to work extra hours in the first place...

I don't agree with that statement.

Lots of folks want overtime when the opportunity presents itself. Extra money, for extra things in life. Salaried folks don't always get that option, but often get the extra work anyway.

 

[Eoghann]

Could you help a dummy like me figure out how I should read and interpret this chart?

Well first off you're looking at percentages not raw dollars keep that in mind. Building Epcot was cheaper than many current projects, but Disney also had a lot less revenue to spend back then.

Basically revenue is the amount of cash Disney is bringing in (I'm simplifying somewhat I know) and CAPEX is the portion of it they are spending on new resorts, new rides etc. Not show on that chart is OPEX wish would be the other major draw on their revenue.

But what you can see clearly is (and what LoL has been shouting for a long time) is that starting near the end of Eisner's run and for the majority of Iger's tenure CAPEX hs been extremely low in comparison to the revenue the company has been pulling in. Or... they weren't reinvesting in the parks. Things have improved in the last four or five years, but whereas historically Disney would commit huge portions of their revenue to improving the parks, now they don't.

Or to put it another way. Disney has plenty of money, they could easily be rejuvenating Epcot at the same time they work on AK and DHS. They just don't want to. Instead they are penny pinching so they can show a greater profit margin.

 

[Eoghann]

I don't agree with that statement.

Lots of folks want overtime when the opportunity presents itself. Extra money, for extra things in life. Salaried folks don't always get that option, but often get the extra work anyway.

Which just takes me right back to my statement. If they were paid a decent wage, they wouldn't need the overtime. They would have that money for the extra things in life.

Overtime is fairer certainly than exempt which is what salaried workers like me generally are, but I don't believe there's ever a need for more than 40 hours work in a week. People should not be spending the majority of their life at work.

 

[Spacedog1975]

Or to put it another way. Disney has plenty of money, they could easily be rejuvenating Epcot at the same time they work on AK and DHS. They just don't want to. Instead they are penny pinching so they can show a greater profit margin.

Given the amount of complaints around here about walls and comments about "maybe I/you should just put off your trip until construction is done, I understand why they'd want to have a park or two to be operating without significant construction projects while the others were in major overhaul mode.

Which just takes me right back to my statement. If they were paid a decent wage, they wouldn't need the overtime. They would have that money for the extra things in life.

Overtime is fairer certainly than exempt which is what salaried workers like me generally are, but I don't believe there's ever a need for more than 40 hours work in a week. People should not be spending the majority of their life at work.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

 

[Maineiak]

...Overtime is fairer certainly than exempt which is what salaried workers like me generally are, but I don't believe there's ever a need for more than 40 hours work in a week. People should not be spending the majority of their life at work.

Unfortunately, technology has had a huge impact on this. With cellphones and laptops, we're always connected to work. Unfortunately, I'm in one of those roles where it necessitates that I bring both with me on vacation, but I do try to unplug as much as possible.

 

[Eoghann]

Unfortunately, technology has had a huge impact on this. With cellphones and laptops, we're always connected to work. Unfortunately, I'm in one of those roles where it necessitates that I bring both with me on vacation, but I do try to unplug as much as possible.

Oh believe me I understand. I'm sitting here right now with my company provided smartphone buzzing at me on a regular basis. On the plus side they gave me a laptop too and I was able to work from home today rather than drive through freezing rain...

But I draw very clear lines. I work extra hours when there's an actual emergency or (given my line of work) when there's a proposal submission due. Otherwise it waits until the next day. And it turns out most of those "urgent" things... they wait just fine.

 

[Eoghann]

Given the amount of complaints around here about walls and comments about "maybe I/you should just put off your trip until construction is done, I understand why they'd want to have a park or two to be operating without significant construction projects while the others were in major overhaul mode.

Well the problem there is the 10 years where nothing was really being done in the parks. It's hard to make up for that without a lot of construction walls.

But really do we think that Epcot would really be any worse with construction walls than it is now?

 

[sachilles]

Which just takes me right back to my statement. If they were paid a decent wage, they wouldn't need the overtime. They would have that money for the extra things in life.

Overtime is fairer certainly than exempt which is what salaried workers like me generally are, but I don't believe there's ever a need for more than 40 hours work in a week. People should not be spending the majority of their life at work.

So I understand this correctly. Lets say you are perfectly happy with your wage. It provides with everything you want in life. Things get busy at work, and you are the only person that can help, and it means you have to work an extra 10 hours that week. You'd probably want that 1.5x pay for the inconvenience, wouldn't you? You shouldn't have to work 50 hours every week of your life, but if you get the opportunity, you are free to take it. It's an opportunity.
You don't need a disney vacation, but it's nice to have one. It's nice to have the financial freedom to afford one. Some times you have to work extra to afford the luxuries you'd like but not need.

If you'd rather work consistent 50 hours a week at disney rather than 40 hours a week at Megalomart with the same take home pay, you are free to do so. Some people do enjoy work, and enjoy being at work. Some people enjoy working at certain place more than others, even though the compensation may not be the same.

 

[rteetz]

Rumor

Speculation based on the new florida ABD trip is the Welcome show at the Magic Kingdom will be ending...