Whats Wrong with Disney?

[flicx]

This sentence can only be true if resources are limitless. Otherwise, a dollar spent one way cannot be allocated to something else. If you believe that Disney has sufficient capital to:

• Make all necessary repairs to all infrastructure;
• Design and introduce MDE; and
• Build all the attractions that the visitors want

and yet chooses not to do the latter, then your view of the company is far more dim and cynical than mine. I think they found that the 40 year mark was a good time to step back and take care of what they already own and pull back from creating anything more for the time being. But neither of us is on the Board, so who knows. On the other hand, if you are saying that the decision to allocate money to the $1.5B MDE initiative was a mistake and they should have left the old systems in place, well, that is an opinion that may in fact be very rational, but we would have to have seen all the numbers and projections on cost savings and cost recovery to know for sure.

It is a little of both. Disney in my view, is trying to maximize profits at the cost of many things they once held dear, ie customer service, experience etc. I think that is coming from current management (the Iger group). I also think the MDE at 1.5 billion was a big mistake, and quite frankly the old system with enough money to build 10 to 20 attractions was the better route to go. There is no turning back for Disney now. They are all in! We shall see what happens. I personally like universals strategy better!

 

[btk2333]

It is a little of both. Disney in my view, is trying to maximize profits at the cost of many things they once held dear, ie customer service, experience etc. I think that is coming from current management (the Iger group). I also think the MDE at 1.5 billion was a big mistake, and quite frankly the old system with enough money to build 10 to 20 attractions was the better route to go. There is no turning back for Disney now. They are all in! We shall see what happens. I personally like universals strategy better!

Not necessarily negating you but is $1.5 billion really enough to build 10-20 attractions? I don't really know...

 

[DisUniversal]

Not necessarily negating you but is $1.5 billion really enough to build 10-20 attractions? I don't really know...

It's enough to build the kind of attractions that Disney seems to build lately. Figure at least half a dozen of those will be 'Dumbo' type rides.

 

[JoshuaShaw]

Not necessarily negating you but is $1.5 billion really enough to build 10-20 attractions? I don't really know...

You could build 15 Expedition Everests with that much money. $1.5 billion is an astronomical amount of money, even for a theme park.

 

[ChrisFL]

Disney, though doesn't need a true answer- Universal still has a lot of ground to make up. That being said I"d love for Disney to pull out the big guns and go all out with Star Wars

I'm not so sure...it seems the discussion of WDW as a whole is always including MK which can't be stopped, attendance-wise. But the other 3 parks and the 26+ resorts on WDW property CAN be affected.

I love Epcot for nostalgia reasons and I love the food and wine festival, though Future World is a mere shell of its former self, DHS and DAK are really not that interesting to me (I prefer Busch Gardens to DAK ).

I'm in a weird spot with this whole thing, as I keep hearing how Diagon Alley is the best themed land in the world.... possibly even better than DisneySea, but I LOVE DisneySea and I can't imagine anything beating it, as far as theming goes.

 

[flicx]

You could build 15 Expedition Everests with that much money. $1.5 billion is an astronomical amount of money, even for a theme park.

Actually you picked the ride I based my estimate on. 15 attractions the caliber of EE. Now that's something I think we can all agree would get people through the gates. Four new attractions for 3 parks and three for one of them. Sounds like a winner to me!

 

[trainingupmy4princes]

Because universal waits until they're ~5 months before opening to announce (even though everyone knows about it long beforehand - I knew about the new wands two years ago and they announced them last week - they're really horrible at keeping secrets over there) whereas Disney announces them in the concept stage. They take about the same time to build and develop, Disney just announces them earlier in the design process.

Universal likes to copy and paste rides from other parks too. That's why transformers took so little time. It's easier to build a copy than something new.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Soarin, the popular ride at Epcot, copy from DCA. Little Mermaid was copied from DCA as well. I heard the big rid in Avatarland will actually be just another Soarin type ride.

 

[Mad Hattered]

Soarin, the popular ride at Epcot, copy from DCA. Little Mermaid was copied from DCA as well. I heard the big rid in Avatarland will actually be just another Soarin type ride.

Soarin’ Over Avatar

The ‘E-ticket’ is an enhanced version of Soarin’ and will be a massive, multi-level show building with four independent theaters. The ride will take guests on a 3D flight over Pandora. Disney is known for adding elements like scents, blasts of air, and water sprays to enhance the experience of 3D movies. It is entirely likely that these types of effects will be used in this new 3D ride experience.

Oh, the anticipation!!! And I can't believe that Disney would resort to stupid screens like Universal uses.

 

[Mad Hattered]

And here is an interesting article (to some, I suppose) that came out today. Here is a small section of it...

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/universal-s-diagon-alley-opens-july-8-131552766.html

A boost to Florida

The Harry Potter franchise, needless to say, has been extremely lucrative for J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., Universal and even the state of Florida. The state’s economy, decimated by the housing crisis, has rebounded in part because tourist operators such as Universal invested heavily during the downturn. Since the Wizarding World opened, leisure and hospitality jobs in Florida have increased by 16%, according to The New York Times. More than 54,000 leisure and hospitality jobs were added statewide in 2013, with 14,800 in Orlando alone.

Dennis Speigel of International Theme Park Services, Inc. predicts Universal could profit from the Potter series for at least a decade, even though the last movie hit theaters in 2011 (and the final book in the series was published in 2007).

“Harry Potter has been a phenomenal addition to the Universal product line,” Speigel says. “This investment is not a one-off. Harry Potter has legs.”

Universal management never expected the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to become as successful as it has – and neither did Disney (DIS). The media giant dropped its bid for the licensing rights to Harry Potter in 2006. “That was [Disney’s] biggest mistake in the last 20 years,” says Neil Begley, senior analyst at Moody’s Investors Services. Disney passed on Potter because it was costly and J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. controlled the intellectual property, which goes against Disney’s modus operandi. “Universal was the beneficiary of that,” Begley adds.

Wizarding World’s popularity may have driven Disney to sign a long-term licensing agreement with "Avatar" director James Cameron, his producing partner Jon Landau and 20th Century Fox, to build an “Avatar”-themed land based on Cameron’s mythical planet of Pandora (expected to open at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 2017).

“Disney did not want another ‘Harry Potter’ on its hands and is now playing catch up,” says Begley. The "Avatar" deal shows Disney is “willing to break the formula where essentially they had to own all the intellectual property and all the films and the rights around it, and they're doing what's necessary to remain fresh and attractive for consumers.”

 

[ChrisFL]

Wizarding World’s popularity may have driven Disney to sign a long-term licensing agreement with "Avatar" director James Cameron, his producing partner Jon Landau and 20th Century Fox, to build an “Avatar”-themed land based on Cameron’s mythical planet of Pandora (expected to open at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 2017).
[/I]

Thats impossible! Disney always makes all of their decisions in a vaccuum with no outside influence from supposed competitors!

 

[sethschroeder]

In the end like Universal if you want but Disney is king and that isn't changing for a long time. Oh and don't forget even if the Theme Park makes bad decisions they have 200 areas of business that can bail them out and get them back on track....

To all the Harry Potter fanboys that seem to be on here please come back in 30 more years after a 2 generational turnovers.... You realize that kids today that love Star Wars are THIRD GENERATION Star Wars lovers.... Harry Potter is a very young franchise right now and needs to survive the next 25 years after the main saga has ended. The new movie comes out but there is no guarantee that its not looked upon as a failure by fanboys like that of Episode 1-2-3.

In the end Star Wars is not "Disney" but is Hollywood Studio which is the rumored home of the area so whats the issue? Did I miss the turn when Disney went to an African Village?

In my mind:
MK = Classic Disney (1950's movies)
Epcot = Futuristic / World's Fair
HS = Pop culture
AK = Universe and Nature

 

[trainingupmy4princes]

To me you can't compare what Universal has opened to what Disney has opened- Disney has so much more on the ground right now. Disney can't expand at the rate Universal does because it needs to maintain and upgrade existing attractions. Do I wish Disney would move faster on Star Wars and Avatar? Sure, but word is that they're waiting to open things when the new movies come out to synchronize them together. Can I blame them for that?

.

Yet, when we went maintenance was severely lacking. The Yeti has been broke forever it seems (and from what people have said may never be fixed) and our last trip Splash was soo in need of repair the laughing place was down right laughable. Now I am not saying this because I prefer Universal. I love Disney and have great childhood memories as well as memories with my 4 older boys. But, I am disappointed that Disney may not be as good an experience for my last child, our only DD. I sincerely hope that HP gives Disney enough pause to make them realize why they were in the lead for so long. IMO It was providing innovative imagineering and great customer service and the fact they were so well maintained in comparison to your local 6 Flags. Now their imagineering seems to have left the building so to speak and no one has enough rose color in their glasses not to see the declines in maintenance and customer service. We had so many problems our last trip, my mom doesn't ever want to go back even with her new grand child( from my younger sister).
I'm not the kind of person to want compensation and have had a few instances where other people would have demanded financial compensation. All I was looking for is a CM to genuinely be concerned and simply put fix the problem. I should not have to chase down CM after CM looking for someone to fix what they did wrong on my valuable vacation time. After all, a Disney vacation costs a lot, even more so for my family's size.

I think most of us love Disney and want them to continue to be all that they can be.

 

[trainingupmy4princes]

Where are the Avatar fans? The week the new theme park addition was announced I wondered if there was a hotbed of Avatar fanatics somewhere comparable to what Harry Potter has and looked for a message board or a subreddit but couldn't find anything with more than a few hundred members (and most of those were out of date with few recent posts). In fact, the TV show Avatar, the Last Airbender looks to be vastly more popular now, every time I thought I had found something it turned out to be a fan site for that. I was especially surprised that there was no subreddit for it on reddit.com, I thought there was a fan site there for everything.

That's funny, my boys loved that show. In fact when the Avatar movie came out that's what they thought it was. They were like what's up with the blue people in the commercials. I had to explain to them it was a different movie.

 

[DisUniversal]

In the end like Universal if you want but Disney is king and that isn't changing for a long time. Oh and don't forget even if the Theme Park makes bad decisions they have 200 areas of business that can bail them out and get them back on track....

You do realize that Universal is owned by Comcast with pockets that are pretty much just as deep (and diverse) as Disney? Also, did you count exactly 200 areas of business or is that just an estimate?

To all the Harry Potter fanboys that seem to be on here please come back in 30 more years after a 2 generational turnovers.... You realize that kids today that love Star Wars are THIRD GENERATION Star Wars lovers.... Harry Potter is a very young franchise right now and needs to survive the next 25 years after the main saga has ended. The new movie comes out but there is no guarantee that its not looked upon as a failure by fanboys like that of Episode 1-2-3.

I see very few Harry Potter fanboys here. What I do see are people who appreciate when a company invests in improving a product that they are delivering to their customers. You'd have to be blind to not appreciate what Universal has done with the Harry Potter franchise.

I could be wrong here, but I think the real fanboys are on the Disney side. If Universal does something well, they seem to refuse to accept or acknowledge it. If Universal fails at something, they seem to find joy in the failure and celebrate it. On the other hand, I think you'd find that most people who appreciate what Universal has been doing would actually be happy to see Disney step it up and do something equivalent to what has been done with the Harry Potter franchise. I also don't think you'll find many fans of Universal who would actually celebrate or find some sort of perverse joy in seeing Disney fail at something.

Doesn't matter if it's Harry Potter, Avatar, Star Wars or whatever. If either Disney or Universal is building a new attraction or area, I want it to be great.

 

[JoeA]

Dis and Uni are theme parks. And that is where the comparison ends. Both have different business models, and both are very much in a different phase of their business maturation.

What's wrong with Disney? Judging from profits and attendance - nothing (if you're running the business, which we're not). We all have an emotional attachment to the "World" at varying degrees and want more but us not getting what we want doesn't make it "wrong".

I tend to think of it as, not what is Disney doing wrong but what is Universal doing right. They are mutually exclusive.

I think Disney will continue to be just fine and Universal will continue to grow.

 

[Reddog1134]

I could be wrong here, but I think the real fanboys are on the Disney side. If Universal does something well, they seem to refuse to accept or acknowledge it. If Universal fails at something, they seem to find joy in the failure and celebrate it. On the other hand, I think you'd find that most people who appreciate what Universal has been doing would actually be happy to see Disney step it up and do something equivalent to what has been done with the Harry Potter franchise. I also don't think you'll find many fans of Universal who would actually celebrate or find some sort of perverse joy in seeing Disney fail at something.

But I also see the opposite. The Universal fans (not all, but some) dismiss anything Disney does because it's not on par with Harry Potter.

I've read many posts where people state that New Fantasyland was supposed to be Disney's "Potter Swatter" but they failed miserably. First, I don't think NFL was a response to Potter. I think it was a response to capacity issues. Second, people say "the themeing is nice but New Fantasyland only gave MK a net gain of 1 new ride". That could be used to describe Hogsmeade, too. Nice themeing with 1 new ride.

Don't get me wrong here. I love Universal and really enjoyed Hogsmeade.

 

[vek239]

I must be the only person on the planet who has never read a HP book, seen a HP movie, or had a desire to do so. Going to Universal to see all the HP stuff would be wasted on me.

 

[disneymac000]

Y'all seem to forget the same people that own Universal tried to buy Disney back in 2004 and Disney even thought about it before rejecting the offer.

What's wrong with Disney isn't the IPs or their focus. Whats wrong with Disney is their lack of taking risks. Take a chance. Get Messy. If you always go with whats safe, you will never ever grow. As much as you want to say how great Harry Potter is as an IP, its probably one of the toughest because Potterheads are a rough crowd to please. They had to take a risk with new ride technology because they HAD to top what they had done in the past. They had to create a place even more immerse than they had done in the past.

Star Wars Land if disney decided to make a dueling coaster like the dueling dragons. People we see on this board would complain that Disney its not about thrills its about the story, however in Star Wars, things are fast, things are violent. There is a reason why the last one was rated PG-13 and the rest were related PG. But in the original 80s plan for Star Wars, a roller coaster was proposed.

As much as I complain about Disney, I believe that Disney if its executive and staff truly believe in their message of not only creating family parks but new experiences and innovations in parks, then WE should let them. Its never about the IP, its about the vision, the actual passion put into the ride. Imagineers who love what they are making will spend more time making sure everything is perfect but make sure the process moves fast to show off the thing they love. Someone who is creating a project they don't believe in won't put as much heart into it.

Disney wants to change. Let the Imagineers do their job. Stop buying new IPs and let your creative team actually be creative. Lets get back to the days of the original Disney with attractions that we only see overseas now and bring it back to the states where Disney started.

 

[trainingupmy4princes]

Well, HS was crazy crowded on a Thursday afternoon. Didn't have time to get to AK. Epcot was crowded until it stormed. Furthermore, I don't think HP alone is going to draw crowds AWAY from WDW. It is simply significantly cheaper for most people, especially first-time/one-time visitors to just stay at WDW for 5 days rather than do 3 days at Disney and 2 at USF.

We found that HS felt crowded simply because there's not enough attractions for the number of people attending. I assume that's why the tiering of FP+ there.

 

[disneymac000]

But I also see the opposite. The Universal fans (not all, but some) dismiss anything Disney does because it's not on par with Harry Potter.

I've read many posts where people state that New Fantasyland was supposed to be Disney's "Potter Swatter" but they failed miserably. First, I don't think NFL was a response to Potter. I think it was a response to capacity issues. Second, people say "the themeing is nice but New Fantasyland only gave MK a net gain of 1 new ride". That could be used to describe Hogsmeade, too. Nice themeing with 1 new ride.

Don't get me wrong here. I love Universal and really enjoyed Hogsmeade.

NFL didn't match the original hype shown in the concept art. So when you got there and saw it, it wasn't OMG this is amazing. But more so oh this is nice. Where as Hogsmeade, Universal didn't have to do much to amaze people. People had saw this in movies and then you get in there and its practically the same, its like wow, tear drops like the ones some people get when they get to Magic Kingdom for the first time and see Cindy's castle.