News Round Up 2021

[sabrecmc]

Paid FP, lol (not that he said that, but talking about making money off guest experiences...)

 

[mrsap]

Thank you @zeferjen for posting the play-by-play!!! I appreciate it!!

 

[mrsap]

I mean, obviously our laundry lists of wishes didn’t come true (lol) but hopefully with the mention of capacity increase, this will also mean more good things to come!!!!! And since we didn’t get to play our drinking game, I’ll have a drink for everyone
And tomorrow I promise to have a spectacular dance prepared for the News Gods!!!!! This is only the beginning of good news to come!!!

 

[OSUZorba]

Re tickets: Okay. In terms of park and in terms of the relative profitability, as you know, we have -- there's a lot of negative impacts, of course, with COVID. But one of the things that it gave us a chance to do as we were forced to stop operation was to completely reexamine how we priced and programmed our tickets. And as you all know, we ended our current annual pass program at Disneyland, and that gives us a chance to sort of create a modern version of a park loyalty program, an affinity program that isn't necessarily governed by legacy. And as you know, the net contribution back to the company varies tremendously and was one of the levers that we use to grow yield over the past several years, depending on what type of tickets structure a particular guest came in. With the ability now for us to sort of completely reconsider how we go about our loyalty programs, and our frequent visitor programs, we have the chance to make even more advancements not only in terms of the guest experience and make sure that guests have a tremendous experience no matter what day of the year they come, whether it is a high demand day or a relatively low demand day, but also the ability to increase our per caps and yields, and we've already seen tremendous growth in those, as you're seeing over the last couple quarters. But I don't think we have even scratched the surface in terms of what we can do when we finally restart with some of our programs in terms of making sure, again, that not only do we improve the guest experience, but at the same time get an adequate return to our shareholders for the type of experience that we do give to our guests. So very positive on those factors.

I.e. ticket prices going up, with worse terms.

 

[hereforthechurros]

Okay. So in terms of the parks demand domestically, our intent to visit at Walt Disney world is growing and is actually already flat with 19 which is obviously our last pre-COVID year. So that's really good news for us. And since we've opened up Disneyland Resort, intent to visit is actually growing as well. So we're thrilled with the guest response to that. So, as capacity limits increased we don't think we're going to have any problem at all sort of increasing our attendance to match that capacity. That is not something that keeps any of us up at night. In terms of our yield management, as you know, we've been practicing yield management for a while. And it's really become an art form with this extraordinarily limited capacities that we've been operating at. But you've seen the margins very healthy, our yield is growing up from a very healthy standpoint, consumers are spending more, and we're doing it under some tremendous cost management parameters, because everything's become automated. So we've sort of got the perfect positive storm, if you will, where we've got plenty of demand, we've got really great yield management gains, and the cost management at the same time. In terms of labor, we had about 80% of our cast members return that we've asked to return. And obviously one of the gating factors is to continue to get more and more cast members back, it thrills us to be able to do that. We've had no problems whatsoever in terms of trying to get our cast to come back and make some magic for our guests.

Flat meaning demand matches up with 2019? Wow. Confirming they are in the milk it state. Offer the least amount possible while extracting the most out of the consumer. My takeaway anyway. And that’s how it’s felt to visit recently but with more CMs and CP coming on board I hope this won’t last much longer. Annoyed however by the amount of resorts unopened or those without an opening date while they funnel people to very limited options.

 

[hereforthechurros]

Re tickets: Okay. In terms of park and in terms of the relative profitability, as you know, we have -- there's a lot of negative impacts, of course, with COVID. But one of the things that it gave us a chance to do as we were forced to stop operation was to completely reexamine how we priced and programmed our tickets. And as you all know, we ended our current annual pass program at Disneyland, and that gives us a chance to sort of create a modern version of a park loyalty program, an affinity program that isn't necessarily governed by legacy. And as you know, the net contribution back to the company varies tremendously and was one of the levers that we use to grow yield over the past several years, depending on what type of tickets structure a particular guest came in. With the ability now for us to sort of completely reconsider how we go about our loyalty programs, and our frequent visitor programs, we have the chance to make even more advancements not only in terms of the guest experience and make sure that guests have a tremendous experience no matter what day of the year they come, whether it is a high demand day or a relatively low demand day, but also the ability to increase our per caps and yields, and we've already seen tremendous growth in those, as you're seeing over the last couple quarters. But I don't think we have even scratched the surface in terms of what we can do when we finally restart with some of our programs in terms of making sure, again, that not only do we improve the guest experience, but at the same time get an adequate return to our shareholders for the type of experience that we do give to our guests. So very positive on those factors.

Again stuff investors love to hear but as an AP, ouch. Translation - enough APs are just taking up space in the parks and not spending and COVID gave us a chance to correct that.

 

[mrsap]

Disney World Cast Member Honored for Saving 4-Year-Old Child Trapped in Flooding Car that Flipped Into a Pond

 

[hereforthechurros]

Thanks to those providing updates! I couldn’t listen and I know it’s a lot of work to listen in and track down exact quotes for us. Appreciated!

 

[flipflopmom]

Yes, huge thanks! Let the speculation begin... again... still..
For anyone wondering, I arrive May 24-May 31. Nothing exciting will happen until June 1, because that’s how my family typically rolls.

 

[hereforthechurros]

Count me as one of the people that figured WDW would be slow to make any health measure changes. I do feel much differently after today’s news which is exciting.

 

[figmentfinesse]

Any mention at all of Typhoon Lagoon?

 

[fatmanatee]

Any mention at all of Typhoon Lagoon?

Nope.

 

[mrsap]

Recaps for anyone interested:

Key Takeaways from Disney’s 2nd Quarter Earnings Call

Disney World Demand Returns to Pre-Pandemic Levels

Disney CEO: New Mask Guidelines from CDC Are “Very Big News”, Hints At Summer Changes to Policy

Walt Disney World is Increasing Capacity

 

[TikiTikiFan]

"There's going to be a lot more comfortable people this summer in Orlando, you can only imagine what it would be like in 95 degrees and 95% humidity wearing a mask so we're thrilled to be able to do that"

https://twitter.com/x/status/1392960096980946952

Woosh, if that's not a confirmation I don't know what is.

 

[Leigh L]

*Runs to check park pass availability to switch my park on June 1.* Apparently they are not increasing capacity that quickly. All the AP park passes are open that day. Can't I trade you a MK for HS??

I just got home from a game and did the same thing!! lol

 

[mrsap]

I just got home from a game and did the same thing!! lol

I’ve been checking as well, out of curiosity, and no change as of yet. Now I’m wondering if the increase started when the park pass availability was replenished originally a couple weeks ago.

 

[Leigh L]

I’ve been checking as well, out of curiosity, and no change as of yet. Now I’m wondering if the increase started when the park pass availability was increased originally a couple weeks ago. It’s been replenished twice now.

Hmmm, that's a good question! It did seem to come rather randomly, although maybe not so randomly on Disney's part!

 

[disny_luvr]

So, park capacity increased or will be increasing and an update to the mask policy is looking likely. Any other news shared today?

 

[Kelly014]

"There's going to be a lot more comfortable people this summer in Orlando, you can only imagine what it would be like in 95 degrees and 95% humidity wearing a mask so we're thrilled to be able to do that"

https://twitter.com/x/status/1392960096980946952

Woosh, if that's not a confirmation I don't know what is.

AHH I am so happy. We are going in late July and are familiar with late summer vacations (hello fellow educators on summer break ). The idea of doing food and wine or waiting in outdoor queues with masks in summer heat sounded miserable, but I would have done it to get my Disney fix. He is really not beating around the bush with this quote!

 

[disny_luvr]

AHH I am so happy. We are going in late July and are familiar with late summer vacations (hello fellow educators on summer break ). The idea of doing food and wine or waiting in outdoor queues with masks in summer heat sounded miserable, but I would have done it to get my Disney fix. He is really not beating around the bush with this quote!

I’m right there with you! Fellow educator here! I’m really starting to get excited about our August trip.