News Round Up 2020

[sachilles]

May or may not be related to WDW’s monorails, but Bombardier, the company that made the current monorails, is really hurting in the rail market: (and why would a company place an order for new monorails with them?)
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1ZN24ZBombardier (BBDb.TO) has approached France's Alstom (ALSO.PA) and Japan's Hitachi (6501.T) to find a merger partner for its rail business as it struggles to contain costs that have eaten into margins,

It has been reviewing several rail merger scenarios in recent months which also involved a possible deal with Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE) and a Chinese counterpart, but these options failed to gain traction, one of the sources said.

Iger is probably wondering if Disney should go into the transportation manufacturing business.(I'm joking).

 

[jknezek]

Neat idea, but I don't see disney IT making that one happen.

I think a similar solution that might be easier to pull off, is to retain the first set of boarding groups process as is. Then the back up boarding groups assigned randomly those entered into the the park that day similar to the above. Or make the back up boarding groups only available as the 4th or 5th fast pass in a day, and make it a "fastpass" to a boarding group.

Oh I absolutely agree. Disney tech is... messy. But they built out the software for boarding passes. Could have done a lottery but yeah, tying it to the park entry system might be more than they can handle.

 

[NoTime42]

Are they just being cautious with capacity for the ride? Shocking to me that a ride fills up for the DAY in minutes just from people that are there before rope drop but a ride like MFSR can operate all day without FP and have 60-70 minute wait most times of day.

I mean .. if EVERY slot of the ride fills up in minutes from people just PHYSICALLY there, I cant see this ride ever being in FP+ anytime soon. At least this way, you have a shot ---

I guess I dont know a better solution either besides an optional paid event to spread out the demand. This is essentially the old paper fastpass days on steroids (since there is no standby), but at least you dont have to sprint to the ride entrance to grab a ticket. I just dont like potentially going there super early and not getting in.

Maybe spread out the boarding group reservations? Where only some of them are available at 7:00 am ... and they just make more available every hour after .. giving people who just cant or dont want to come early a shot?

Maybe another solution is to make Runaway Railway a boarding group ride -- thus forcing you to pick one or the other (but that would stink too, since then you would have NO option to do both on the same day.)

My main gripe is that it just doesnt fit well into the whole FP+. It is the exact opposite and worse than the old paper FP days.

I mean .. Disney seems to be missing an opportunity here. This craziness would mean sellouts of a Star Wars Early Morning magic!

That’s an interesting question about EMM.

Of course, RoTR would have to be reliable enough to open with EMM.
They would have to have a hard cap on EMM tickets (about 1200 per EMM hour) and would EMM guests still be limited to (1) RotR/day?
I wonder what the cost/hour of running SWGE now is? I would think if it was obviously profitable, they would already be selling EMM.

 

[tlmadden73]

That’s an interesting question about EMM.

Of course, RoTR would have to be reliable enough to open with EMM.
They would have to have a hard cap on EMM tickets (about 1200 per EMM hour) and would EMM guests still be limited to (1) RotR/day?
I wonder what the cost/hour of running SWGE now is? I would think if it was obviously profitable, they would already be selling EMM.

Agree -- .. RotR it still may be too young and too unreliable for EMM .. but it would shock me if it isn't in the works or coming soon. If anything as a test for the Star Wars hotels exclusive access to SWGE.

Id pay for it, I mean .. I booked an entire last minute vacation just for the exclusive AP preview access back in August. Way more expensive than $70-80/head for an exclusive morning access of the land.
Probably the best morning my family has had at WDW ever (despite the heat).. and that was without Rise. I mean Disney is banking on people paying HUNDREDS (thousands?) of dollars to stay at a super immersive Star Wars Hotel, I am sure there is a LOT more demand to just be able to get into SWGE an hour or two early with limited capacity.

I know I would pay for early access to SWGE (as an immersive themed land) over just doing a few rides in Fantasyland.

 

[rteetz]

News

https://blogmickey.com/2020/01/sporks-now-on-sale-in-star-wars-galaxys-edge

 

[TheMaxRebo]

News

https://blogmickey.com/2020/01/sporks-now-on-sale-in-star-wars-galaxys-edge

honestly surprised it took them this long after people were stealing them and selling them on eBay when they were just using them when GE first opened

 

[OSUZorba]

I mean .. if EVERY slot of the ride fills up in minutes from people just PHYSICALLY there, I cant see this ride ever being in FP+ anytime soon. At least this way, you have a shot ---

Yeah, the effective capacity on this ride must be really low right now. With the park being open 13 hours, even 1,000 pph would give 13,000 slots. That would mean over 40% of DHS's average daily attendance was inside the park at 7 am. It'd also be far more people that I've ever seen at any 9 am RD.

 

[The Pho]

Yeah, the effective capacity on this ride must be really low right now. With the park being open 13 hours, even 1,000 pph would give 13,000 slots. That would mean over 40% of DHS's average daily attendance was inside the park at 7 am. It'd also be far more people that I've ever seen at any 9 am RD.

Last I heard last week, It’s been getting up to 1400/hr at Studios and 700/hr at Land when it’s running.

 

[CastAStone]

Last I heard last week, It’s been getting up to 1400/hr at Studios and 700/hr at Land when it’s running.

DL is up to 1000/hour according to Len Testa On today’s Disney Dish podcast

 

[The Pho]

DL is up to 1000/hour according to Len Testa On today’s Disney Dish podcast

Well that’s good news.

 

[CastAStone]

Disney stock having a rough day with the China park closures...

 

[MommaBerd]

Disney stock having a rough day with the China park closures...
View attachment 468815

Great time to buy! Although, it could go even lower...

 

[CastAStone]

Great time to buy! Although, it could go even lower...

Earnings call is a week from Tuesday! I suspect if Disney+ has 15 Million paying users, the theme park attendance could be down 20% and the stock would pop anyway. All estimates to date have been projections based on surveys...

 

[MommaBerd]

Earnings call is a week from Tuesday! I suspect if Disney+ has 15 Million paying users, the theme park attendance could be down 20% and the stock would pop anyway. All estimates to date have been projections based on surveys...

Good to note. Not gonna lie, I am hoping it drops a little more. We’ve been looking for an opportunity to buy in.

 

[flexoidar]

FP signs installed at MMRR. Not that it means anything with respect to the opening.

https://blogmickey.com/2020/01/fast...-runaway-railway-at-disneys-hollywood-studios

 

[tlmadden73]

Disney stock having a rough day with the China park closures...
View attachment 468815

I think it is the market in general skittish from the virus fears (that slows tourism in general). It will probably get hit a bit harder than the general market because of Shanghai closure though

 

[Brianstl]

Earnings call is a week from Tuesday! I suspect if Disney+ has 15 Million paying users, the theme park attendance could be down 20% and the stock would pop anyway. All estimates to date have been projections based on surveys...

The problem isn't going to just be the Asian theme parks. Theaters are being shut down. Plus, we could be looking at some major travel restrictions that would hurt non-Asian parks/resorts and DCL.

 

[ksdave]

May or may not be related to WDW’s monorails, but Bombardier, the company that made the current monorails, is really hurting in the rail market: (and why would a company place an order for new monorails with them?)
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1ZN24ZBombardier (BBDb.TO) has approached France's Alstom (ALSO.PA) and Japan's Hitachi (6501.T) to find a merger partner for its rail business as it struggles to contain costs that have eaten into margins,

It has been reviewing several rail merger scenarios in recent months which also involved a possible deal with Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE) and a Chinese counterpart, but these options failed to gain traction, one of the sources said.

Bombardier is in big trouble financially. They have sold off almost all of their commercial aircraft businesses and just announced that they may withdraw from the Airbus A220 program that they started as the C-series airliner program. With $9 billion dollars in debt, they may not be around very long, unless the Canadian government keeps propping them up.

 

[The Pho]

https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/george-lucas-reportedly-return-star-wars-full-control/
I don’t exactly trust the source here but this would be a very interesting turn. George Lucas is one of the largest shareholders, so not crazy for him to get his way if this is true.

 

[rteetz]

https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/george-lucas-reportedly-return-star-wars-full-control/
I don’t exactly trust the source here but this would be a very interesting turn. George Lucas is one of the largest shareholders, so not crazy for him to get his way if this is true.

Oh George...