Sea World Profits Soar by 300%

[lockedoutlogic]

Disney World has huge fixed costs, and relatively low variable costs. So when someone goes offsite for lodging, food, or entertainment it takes a big bite out of profitability.

I agree with the rest but on the excerpt above...

Disney World is a gigantic revenue AND profit source for one of the world's largest media companies....year in and out.

So there's that...which kinda is a big deal.

 

[DRDISNEYMD]

I love sea world, even though I hate that there is no more free beer.

Once again, they are truly trying vs. Disney who is truly coasting. Disney will feel the effects of sea world and universal for real in the next couple of years.

~I love Sea World, too. But, why is it okay for one to indulge in "free beer" at Sea World who struggled to stay out of the red, but not "free dining" at WDW, who reports record breaking profits?!? I think those who live in fabulous glass ocean front houses, should not throw stones. IMO, there is nothing wrong with using "free beer" or "free dining." Mr. Pirate, please stop struggling & learn to embrace your inner Walmart! And, I do agree with you, that Disney has been coasting for far too long!

 

[lockedoutlogic]

~I love Sea World, too. But, why is it okay for one to indulge in "free beer" at Sea World who struggled to stay out of the red, but not "free dining" at WDW, who reports record breaking profits?!? I think those who live in fabulous glass ocean front houses, should not throw stones. IMO, there is nothing wrong with using "free beer" or "free dining." Mr. Pirate, please stop struggling & learn to embrace your inner Walmart! And, I do agree with you, that Disney has been coasting for far too long!

oh boy...

the underlying complaint for all anti "free dining" crusaders is that they are all also anti "dining" in general...

dining plans allowed them to streamline the once good meals at restaurants to hell, lower quality, and charge a fortune for it.

so it sucks...and if we all just accept it and stop taking/buying it...that would be only path to eliminating this blight.

And i know...its never going to happen. But its still the choice for the greater good...and "free dining" going away is a start to perhaps shedding the light on the warts that have grown out of the "fabulous, money saving" dining plans.

They can't even really claim savings since they gutted the plan (about 5 years ago...cause they said waiters hated guaranteed tips...yeah, and there's a bear using my bathroom as we speak) and they have jacked up the price ever year.

come on now, this whole thing is CODE

 

[DizCaptain]

the underlying complaint for all anti "free dining" crusaders is that they are all also anti "dining" in general...

dining plans allowed them to streamline the once good meals at restaurants to hell, lower quality, and charge a fortune for it.

This x100.

Not only has free dining/dining plan destroyed the quality of food, but its made that lower quality a standard for them. Case in point, I finally got around to Be Our Guest a couple weeks back and while the atmosphere and service were top notch, the food was good. Just good. Disney's king restaurant that is booked for months ahead of time... the food was just good.

Looking at the menu it all sounds real nice, but the dishes being served look and taste mass-produced, because they probably are. Disney has streamlined this assembly line mindset into all their food service, even signature dining sadly. I tried four dishes between my family's and my own and none of them really stood out as a fantastic, amazing item.

So, when it comes to all this free dining and dining plan stuff, it's just supporting this mindset. Sure a vast majority get a bargain, but you really do get your money's worth since the quality of food is nowhere near what it used to be in the pre-dining plan days. Oddly enough, my best meals on property last trip were from quick service locations, and the few signatures I did go to were not that good at all.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I heard the same exact things about Be Our Guest...

The place looks great and the the little dramatic show (every 20 minutes from what i'm told) is really impressive...

but the food is completely uninspiring and average at best. and that is pretty standard for restaurants these days and is always standard at MK...where food just never acheives a high standard of quality...i've always wondered why it seems to be that way though

I can only speak for myself - as a person who has eaten in every existing WDW establishment...most at least 2 or 3 times...many over 10 times...
Our next trip is the first where the restaurant is available...having been down last august. And i didn't bother to make the effort to book it. certainly could have and just didn't feel like it. I'll get to it later. That was entirely due to early revues of the food and my hard learned experiences over the last 10 (really 8 cough DINING PLAN cough) that disney food has been diminished by accounting intentionally and just doesn't stack up to what my belly remembers from the 80s and 90s. It just don't.

So if I - an admitted disney food fan - can't be bother to go on their website and book a table...what does that say for what they are presenting?

 

[DRDISNEYMD]

oh boy...

the underlying complaint for all anti "free dining" crusaders is that they are all also anti "dining" in general...

dining plans allowed them to streamline the once good meals at restaurants to hell, lower quality, and charge a fortune for it.

so it sucks...and if we all just accept it and stop taking/buying it...that would be only path to eliminating this blight.

And i know...its never going to happen. But its still the choice for the greater good...and "free dining" going away is a start to perhaps shedding the light on the warts that have grown out of the "fabulous, money saving" dining plans.

They can't even really claim savings since they gutted the plan (about 5 years ago...cause they said waiters hated guaranteed tips...yeah, and there's a bear using my bathroom as we speak) and they have jacked up the price ever year.

come on now, this whole thing is CODE

~Awww, was I too hard on Mr. Pirate? Maybe. But, why say things like "nothing is free" while indulging in "free beer" elsewhere. I just *love* that grumpy pirate -- but you can't have it both ways, right??? You can't blame people for getting hooked on "free dining" -- just like you can't blame people for indulging in "free beer" -- the drawbacks from any promotion lies with the company, so let's direct most of the blame there --that's all I'm saying.

~I'm not a fan of "free dining" -- I've seen it bring out the worst on both sides. With that said, I loved the first dining plan, now it's just okay -- the value aspect for me has diminished tremendously -- now, it's just a matter of convenience.

~I know you don't like the dining plan but it was necessary for Disney to intervene because the resale of vouchers on ebay had gotten out of hand. An individual could get up to thirty meal vouchers from hotwire.com for 7 -10 bucks per voucher (each voucher including an appetizer, full entree, drink, dessert and gratuity) and people were reselling them for 3 or 4 times that.

~So, when Disney introduced the dining plan, this immediately terminated the voucher program. Most people weren't even aware of the dining plan until the free dining promotion -- as it became wildly popular, that's when we started to experience the significant decline in dining for a brief period.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

~I know you don't like the dining plan but it was necessary for Disney to intervene because the resale of vouchers on ebay had gotten out of hand. An individual could get up to thirty meal vouchers from hotwire.com for 7 -10 bucks per voucher (each voucher including an appetizer, full entree, drink, dessert and gratuity) and people were reselling them for 3 or 4 times that.

~So, when Disney introduced the dining plan, this immediately terminated the voucher program. Most people weren't even aware of the dining plan until the free dining promotion -- as it became wildly popular, that's when we started to experience the significant decline in dining for a brief period.

The free beer thing was a cute little gimmick because Anheiser owned the park.
The dining plans are an orchestrated ten year scheme that has been very deliberately been turned as a weapon against ALL the paying customers...all of them..."free dining" or not.

So with all due respect...you're dishing for herring on that and you know it. (You even coped to it: "it's not really a value now, just a convenience"...WHOMP!...there it is. That was there whole damn goal in the first place. Institutionalized repeat customers)

BUT...you've got me interested with the uncovering of this "Hotwire, voucher scheme" above.

I'm certainly not all knowing...not by a nautical mile...but I like to try and keep abreast of most things and check boards and the news pretty frequently to see what's going.

But I gotta ask....WHAT?!?!??!!?!

Oh do tell...what did I miss? opcorn:

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

~Awww, was I too hard on Mr. Pirate? Maybe. But, why say things like "nothing is free" while indulging in "free beer" elsewhere. I just *love* that grumpy pirate -- but you can't have it both ways, right??? You can't blame people for getting hooked on "free dining" -- just like you can't blame people for indulging in "free beer" -- the drawbacks from any promotion lies with the company, so let's direct most of the blame there --that's all I'm saying.

~I'm not a fan of "free dining" -- I've seen it bring out the worst on both sides. With that said, I loved the first dining plan, now it's just okay -- the value aspect for me has diminished tremendously -- now, it's just a matter of convenience.

~I know you don't like the dining plan but it was necessary for Disney to intervene because the resale of vouchers on ebay had gotten out of hand. An individual could get up to thirty meal vouchers from hotwire.com for 7 -10 bucks per voucher (each voucher including an appetizer, full entree, drink, dessert and gratuity) and people were reselling them for 3 or 4 times that.

~So, when Disney introduced the dining plan, this immediately terminated the voucher program. Most people weren't even aware of the dining plan until the free dining promotion -- as it became wildly popular, that's when we started to experience the significant decline in dining for a brief period.

You're comparing apples and oranges. Sea world was (and still is) owned by a beer company. Free beer = future customers. Free dining at WDW means the once famous, world wide recognized chefs now must include Mickey mac'n'cheese to their menus. Future customers? Yeah, the Walmart crowd (I know you'd appreciate that DR.).

 

[DRDISNEYMD]

The free beer thing was a cute little gimmick because Anheiser owned the park.
The dining plans are an orchestrated ten year scheme that has been very deliberately been turned as a weapon against ALL the paying customers...all of them..."free dining" or not.

So with all due respect...you're dishing for herring on that and you know it. (You even coped to it: "it's not really a value now, just a convenience"...WHOMP!...there it is. That was there whole damn goal in the first place. Institutionalized repeat customers)

BUT...you've got me interested with the uncovering of this "Hotwire, voucher scheme" above.

I'm certainly not all knowing...not by a nautical mile...but I like to try and keep abreast of most things and check boards and the news pretty frequently to see what's going.

But I gotta ask....WHAT?!?!??!!?!

Oh do tell...what did I miss? opcorn:

~lockedoutlogic, I agree with your harshly worded post -- but, "Institutionalized repeated customer?!?" Is there not a friendlier term you can coin? Anyway, I like the dining plan, but I'm on the fence about using it again. That being said, I love the all inclusive model -- I use Magical Express, stay exclusively onsite, and book my entire trip with one click -- everything paid for in advance -- guilty as charged.

~Yes, the vouchers were HOT on ebay -- they would sell within seconds and auctions became viscous bidding wars where the winner(s) were awarded the privilege of paying a high premium. With a little research, I discovered how people acquired them. Hotwire was the easiest and most popular site to purchase the vouchers. I believe this is the reason Disney created the regular dining plan. I found a couple of old websites that must have sold the vouchers at one point.

~Disney Meal Vouchers 1~

~Disney Meal Vouchers 2~

You're comparing apples and oranges. Sea world was (and still is) owned by a beer company. Free beer = future customers. Free dining at WDW means the once famous, world wide recognized chefs now must include Mickey mac'n'cheese to their menus. Future customers? Yeah, the Walmart crowd (I know you'd appreciate that DR.).

~Ouch. Again, I don't like Wal-mart, so I don't think so. I am not the enemy, I am on your side (for the most part). The underlined definitely puts things into perspective -- so you win, but only by a small margin. I don't know, part of me feels like you're getting away too easy with this "free beer" analogy thing. But, I'll concede this time, Mr. Pirate.

 

[mm1971]

http://www.wdwinfo.com/news/seaworld/SeaWorld_profits_up_300_percent.htm

I'm glad to see them doing so well. We love SeaWorld and try to visit every few years. They have done a good job expending the offerings and providing a better all around experience. We are heading to DC in August for a day and will most likely do at least one more day at the other parks as well. Of course we'll still be doing the Disney parks for 5 days as well.

 

[mm1971]

http://www.wdwinfo.com/news/seaworld/SeaWorld_profits_up_300_percent.htm

I'm glad to see them doing so well. We love SeaWorld and try to visit every few years. They have done a good job expending the offerings and providing a better all around experience. We are heading to DC in August for a day and will most likely do at least one more day at the other parks as well. Of course we'll still be doing the Disney parks for 5 days as well.

 

[Rumors Rocks]

I'm glad to see them doing so well. We love SeaWorld and try to visit every few years. They have done a good job expending the offerings and providing a better all around experience. We are heading to DC in August for a day and will most likely do at least one more day at the other parks as well. Of course we'll still be doing the Disney parks for 5 days as well.

Seaworld Entertainment Rating Increased to Buy at Citigroup Inc. (SEAS)

http://www.wkrb13.com/markets/225355/seaworld-entertainment-upgraded-to-buy-by-citigroup-inc-seas/

Posted by Kristian Gore on Nov 12th, 2013 // No Comments

Seaworld Entertainment (NASDAQ:SEAS) was upgraded by Citigroup Inc. from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday, TheFlyOnTheWall.com reports. The firm currently has a $40.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $30.00. Citigroup Inc.’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 28.21% from the stock’s previous close.

The analysts wrote, “Recall, in June 2013 the IRS formed a new working group to examine pending REIT conversions more closely. The mere existence of the working group cast a long shadow on a number of publicly held firms considering a REIT conversion (Lamar, Iron Mountain, Equinix). SeaWorld currently benefits from NOLs. Those tax assets will likely shield the firm from becoming a full cash taxpayer until 2017. But, investors must still decide if they should a) Fully-tax SeaWorld’s cash flow and add the NPV of the NOLs or b) Assume SeaWorld will permanently shield the bulk of its cash flow from cash taxes via a REIT conversion. Thus far, SeaWorld hasn’t said much about its long-term tax strategy.”

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Analysts at Zacks upgraded shares of Seaworld Entertainment from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note to investors on Tuesday, October 15th. They now have a $32.80 price target on the stock. Separately, analysts at Hanson initiated coverage on shares of Seaworld Entertainment in a research note to investors on Monday, October 14th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, analysts at Barclays cut their price target on shares of Seaworld Entertainment from $40.00 to $39.00 in a research note to investors on Wednesday, August 14th. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $38.59.

In other Seaworld Entertainment news, Director Alessandro David F. D unloaded 43,179 shares of the stock on the open market in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.54, for a total transaction of $1,275,507.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.
Shares of Seaworld Entertainment (NASDAQ:SEAS) traded up 2.56% on Tuesday, hitting $32.00. 343,580 shares of the company’s stock traded hands. Seaworld Entertainment has a one year low of $27.48 and a one year high of $39.65. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $29.76 and a 200-day moving average of $33.85. The company has a market cap of $2.986 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 98.11.
SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc is a theme park and entertainment company. The Company is engaged in delivering personal, interactive and educational experiences that blend imagination with nature and enable its customers to celebrate, connect with and care for the natural world.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

I wonder how the profit will be if they stop the whale shows like the courts are looking at now.

AIK

 

[Dznefreek]

They don't have to stop just continue the way they are currently. Guess not having trainers in the water with the whales hasn't hurt their business model as they would have you believe . . . . .

 

[lucyem]

I wonder how the profit will be if they stop the whale shows like the courts are looking at now.

We will not go back until the orca shows stop.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I wonder how the profit will be if they stop the whale shows like the courts are looking at now.

AIK

No court is trying to stop the whale shows at the SeaWorld parks.

There is a current case in U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. SeaWorld wants the court to overturn OSHA restrictions imposed after an orca at SeaWorld Orlando killed trainer Dawn Brancheau.

SeaWorld still has orca performances, but trainers can no longer go in the water with the orcas.

If SeaWorld is successful in getting the restrictions lifted -- and then another trainer is killed in front of thousands of guests, many of whom are children -- SeaWorld faces a very bleak future.

In any case, SeaWorld needs to plan on a future without performing orcas. My guess is that public opinion, not the courts, will eventually put an end to orca performances.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

No court is trying to stop the whale shows at the SeaWorld parks.

There is a current case in U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. SeaWorld wants the court to overturn OSHA restrictions imposed after an orca at SeaWorld Orlando killed trainer Dawn Brancheau.

SeaWorld still has orca performances, but trainers can no longer go in the water with the orcas.

If SeaWorld is successful in getting the restrictions lifted -- and then another trainer is killed in front of thousands of guests, many of whom are children -- SeaWorld faces a very bleak future.

In any case, SeaWorld needs to plan on a future without performing orcas. My guess is that public opinion, not the courts, will eventually put an end to orca performances.

Horace, I went back and checked, you are indeed right, the court hearing is not actually trying to shut the shows down (but there are groups looking to do that, b\however not in the courts as yet). Sorry my error.


I do totally agree with your last para.! It will hurt their attendance.


AKK

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Nothing is perfect...

My opinion is that sea worlds orca program...on the whole... Has done much more good than harm.

I have tried to educate myself and others about marine mammals... Including my kids... And donated to a variety of conservation projects in my adulthood.

Part of that starts with the Shamu show when I was 5 in Cleveland...no question

I do think that the human/orca shows are at an end soon. They are just too powerful and instinctive hunters...few things hunt at the level of the killer whale...
The name should tip you off.

But that doesn't mean I think they should not be included in zoos/aquariums/sea world/ etc.

Captivity and display helps the species...my opinion.

Are they not "born free" and where the belong? Of course not.

But they're also not harpooned or searching for food around diminishing ice packs...and that is far worse.

I'll take the "helpful" bad over the just plain bad anyday

 

[lockedoutlogic]

No court is trying to stop the whale shows at the SeaWorld parks.

There is a current case in U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. SeaWorld wants the court to overturn OSHA restrictions imposed after an orca at SeaWorld Orlando killed trainer Dawn Brancheau.

SeaWorld still has orca performances, but trainers can no longer go in the water with the orcas.

If SeaWorld is successful in getting the restrictions lifted -- and then another trainer is killed in front of thousands of guests, many of whom are children -- SeaWorld faces a very bleak future.

In any case, SeaWorld needs to plan on a future without performing orcas. My guess is that public opinion, not the courts, will eventually put an end to orca performances.

If she were alive today and had the choice to do something else instead...I bet she wouldn't.

Somethings are more dangerous...that doesnt mean you have to protect the Shamu show like the Alamo...but education was always as big a part of that program as profit...no doubt.

And wait for it...
Like Disney USED to be like.

Yeah...I went there

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Nothing is perfect...

My opinion is that sea worlds orca program...on the whole... Has done much more good than harm.

I have tried to educate myself and others about marine mammals... Including my kids... And donated to a variety of conservation projects in my adulthood.

Part of that starts with the Shamu show when I was 5 in Cleveland...no question

I do think that the human/orca shows are at an end soon. They are just too powerful and instinctive hunters...few things hunt at the level of the killer whale...
The name should tip you off.

But that doesn't mean I think they should not be included in zoos/aquariums/sea world/ etc.

Captivity and display helps the species...my opinion.

Are they not "born free" and where the belong? Of course not.

But they're also not harpooned or searching for food around diminishing ice packs...and that is far worse.

I'll take the "helpful" bad over the just plain bad anyday

As always, Lockedoutlogic is right on!

We've been to SW more than WDW or Uni this year. Why? It's been more fun, they're more local friendly and they care more about their main focus. Some may disagree with the "zoo" aspect, but IMO caring animal environments are the only future for many species. The new Antarctica exhibit is phenomenal! Disney should aspire to create such a spectacular animal exhibit.