Your Predictions re Changes to DVC now that Iger is back as CEO

[DonMacGregor]

Second of all, the flagship theme park creative group in the world should be HQ'ed in Central Florida. It just should. I get that's a lifestyle change for people, but it's what makes sense.

We're going to have to agree to disagree on that one. Disney, all of Disney, belongs in Burbank and Glendale. Putting one division 2,500 miles away from the studio and television production HQ's, in a place that isn't going to see any more theme park development than Southern California makes zero sense. Disney thrives on synergy and storytelling is still a hands-on, let me see it and feel it process.

Theme park development in the 21st century requires the participation of so many creative disciplines that it really is closer to film and television story telling than simply slapping some IP on a roller coaster. You won't find a greater wealth of resources than those found in SoCal.

 

[OKW Lover]

Second of all, the flagship theme park creative group in the world should be HQ'ed in Central Florida. It just should. I get that's a lifestyle change for people, but it's what makes sense.

Interesting. I'm not sure I agree, but perhaps could be persuaded. What gives FL the edge?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Interesting. I'm not sure I agree, but perhaps could be persuaded. What gives FL the edge?

 

[zavandor]

Second of all, the flagship theme park creative group in the world should be HQ'ed in Central Florida. It just should. I get that's a lifestyle change for people, but it's what makes sense.

Are you saying that with WDI HQ located in California, they wouldn't be able to work on theme parks in Florida (Or Paris, Tokyo, Shangay, Hong Kong), like they did in the last 50 years?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Are you saying that with WDI located in California, they wouldn't be able to work on theme parks in Florida, like they did in the last 50 years?

I'm saying there's no reason whatsoever to have anyone in Glendale. People should be in proximity to their projects, meaning the bulk of people should be in Florida with a small, permanent crew in Anaheim.

 

[zavandor]

I'm saying there's no reason whatsoever to have anyone in Glendale. People should be in proximity to their projects, meaning the bulk of people should be in Florida with a small, permanent crew in Anaheim.

People are people, not puppets. Companies have to look at the people wellbeing. Something that might look like a small optimization, may not be worth it if you need to eradicate everyone (and their family) and risk to lose a good portion of them.
For example, for some companies it makes more sense to have people working in an office everyday, but other companies will have a better choice of talent if they can offer flexible or remote working.

 

[Chuck96]

I’m late to the party here, and agree that any actual changes will be slow trickles. I get was brought back to appease creative leads and fix D+ bleeding. That said, it’s hard to ignore the damage done to the brand with their recent “least for the most” philosophy for park/resort guests.

If I had a wishlist, it would be:
1) Fully staff the parks with empowered and compensated cast members (improve experience and throughout). The people are the difference…they smooth over the rough spots, they deliver the experience
2) Fix the process for ride management - I know FP/FP+ are never coming back, but if you are going to charge for some version of that, at least improve the user experience, preferably with some degree of planning mechanism (let me have some opportunity to schedule in advance at least a ride or two per day)
3) Move the hopper time to noon, instead of 2
4) Annual passes; and if I had my druthers some sort of Resort Annual Pass, where it costs a little less but allows access to parks with an active resort stay
5) MDE - this was absolutely a pennywise and pound-foolish decision. Start the bubble at the airport for those that want it.

As to the corporate locations and management, I’ll defer to the analysis and experience on that.

I expect almost none of this, btw. Except maybe annual passes (slightly more expensive).

 

[CaptainAmerica]

People are people, not puppets. Companies have to look at the people wellbeing. Something that might look like a small optimization, may not be worth it if you need to eradicate everyone (and their family) and risk to lose a good portion of them.
For example, for some companies it makes more sense to have people working in an office everyday, but other companies will have a better choice of talent if they can offer flexible or remote working.

I agree, quality of life is much higher in Florida than California. Bob C. was a hero!

 

[zavandor]

I agree, quality of life is much higher in Florida than California. Bob C. was a hero!

I have no direct experience of either, so I cannot judge (as a tourist California is so much better, if only for the weather). But since the move hasn't happened yet, maybe your enthusiasm wasn't shared within WDI

 

[Skywalker3]

They might throw a few bones.
Like discounts on the Starcruiser.....something only a very small group of DVC folks will take advantage of, but they can say 'look we offered discounts,'
Hope they'll throw a bigger bone, like APs! Preferably w a discount, but I'd forego the discount just to be able to buy an AP (but would much prefer a nicer price,)

 

[karatstravels]

Yes. Good will and magic ARE what Disney is all about and Chapek pretty much destroyed it. Bob Iger stepping in is a unique opportunity (and only IMO) to reestablish Disney. I don't see prices decreases and frankly don't care as long as we get a Disney experience. We are heading over to AK at some point today so we'll see what's going on. We're blacked out for Thanksgiving but will be around all next week watching with hope!

Exactly - most of us are willing to pay. But we want the magic and that Disney feeling you cannot get anywhere else. That is what keeps us coming back year after year.

 

[eticketplease]

I suspect we’re all going to be getting 30 percent discounts soon. (D+ subscribers, Annual pass holders, people born in a month that ends in ‘Y’). It is not doing well.

If only I was born in January, February, May or July!! I guess I'll have to use my D+ for the discount

 

[Jgc014]

Using only data numbers and dollars to assess the parks was Chapek’s mistake. That kind of management looks only backward. Leadership must look forward. The parks are not running fine right now. If the parks issues are not addressed and revenue is continuously pushed by excessive pricing and raided for other branches of the business there will be trouble across all branches. A free fall could result if a perfect storm appears, like; base loyalty customers (passholders) are angry, domestic recession, staffing inadequacy, supply shortages, global conflict disruption, lingering effects of a pandemic or even relapse into a global pandemic, culture wars, increasing on-property violence, poor enforcement of line cutting while charging for a line cutting service, development permitting problems with government, water supply, natural disaster from hurricanes, AP non-renewals break the generational bond growing future Disney fans, rejecting good story material solely over lack of diversity, political wars, activists, artist and employee discontent, wage wars, corporation wars and possibly a hostile takeover attempt, inter department in-fighting, unexpected loss of talent without a trained replacement, key person risks, problems with a foreign government over censorship or content, scandal and more. Any CEO, interim or permanent, cannot just look backwards on the numbers.

Omgsh YES!! I am surprised by all saying the parks are making money, so they are fine.

I think the parks are much slower to react than other areas of the business, but over time they will certainly react to a diminished product at a higher price point. Not thinking longer term on such an important part of their revenue would be a huge oversight.

Think about it - most people in this thread are probably DVC owners. These are some of Disney’s and their parks biggest fans, most won’t just jump ship right away, which keeps park revenue up even with dissatisfaction. Plus through real estate investments, they are somewhat tied to visiting these parks year after year. Parting ways involves selling real estate, which while not overly complicated takes some time and a real commitment to moving away from Disney. However, if dissatisfaction keeps up, I think in say 5 years, this could be a different picture.

Then there are the more occasional visitors, many of these guests may have never stepped foot into the parks since some of the changes. Therefore, their recent trip or their next trip may not even have taken into consideration some of these changes, but if their expectations aren’t met, they may not be back in 3 years or whatever cadence as they planned.

Plus travel on a whole has been way up since Covid has cooled down, which is positively effecting Disney parks as well right now, but won’t last forever.

And this is coming from someone who still enjoys going to the parks currently and thinks the magic is still there, but I also think there are certainly things that need to be addressed, and I would hope someone in a CEO position could see this.

And it looks like I am in the minority here, but compared to other things, I really don’t mind park reservations. If other things are addressed, I would be fine with booking reservations for all future Disney trips. I could see this as a bigger pain point if I was more local though.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Someone on FB this morning showed a picture of an old Fast Pass machine installed at one of the attractions. Genie+ at $29 one day, FP the next? Too much to hope for?

 

[SG131]

Sigh. As I posted my comment I just knew it wasn't going to be understood. The point I was trying to make is that he first needs to focus his attention on stopping the bleeding. The Parks can continue the way they are for now.

I agree with you here. I do think we will eventually see some changes in the parks as the way the parks are operating now is not sustainable long term, but it's not the biggest problem to tackle. I think it will be awhile until he turns his attention to the parks. Maybe make some minor changes to improve the optics of the company for the long-term fans like us.

Personally, I would love to see the top of the world lounge go back to the way it was. It wasn't costing them that much money to run it. But it also wasn't making them money like it is now so I'm guessing that's wishful thinking.

 

[Jwaire]

I'm saying there's no reason whatsoever to have anyone in Glendale. People should be in proximity to their projects, meaning the bulk of people should be in Florida with a small, permanent crew in Anaheim.

I'm not sure location matters anymore. If you want an insight into the current sad state of Imagineering, just watch the IAAPA EPCOT panel with Bob Weiss and Jodi McLaughlin. They did most of the EPCOT remodel via Zoom (and it shows?).

Also, I don't always agree with his take but MickeyViews went to IAAPA and you can see just how much Imagineering outsources now. It's unbelievable. I don't think they do much of anything in-house anymore.

 

[Brian Noble]

quality of life is much higher in Florida than California.

There are some objective measures of quality that we could debate. But, those of us who have the luxury of being able to choose where we live often make those decisions based on a lot more than tax rates and property values. Indeed, I suspect that luxury of choice often comes with the financial resources that allow one to weigh the qualitative factors more heavily than the quantitative.

It's not hard to imagine that many of the core creative folks at WDI have that luxury, and that for some non-trivial fraction of them, the idea of living in Florida is not an option. Of course, that can go both ways, and some people might be ready and raring to make the move, but your guess is as good as mine about how large the draw is in each direction. Tom Bricker had a few paragraphs on this exact topic in a recent blog post. For a number of reasons, the WDI move was not likely to happen even before this change. It was Tom's opinion that "officially" calling it off is a quick win for Bob v1.0/v3.0.

 

[sipnride]

You have to pay for at least one person with points. I looked at January 21-23 (I think). With the discount its 234 points plus $95 which on the rental market is worth about $5200. For one person. Yes you could do the rest with cash at a discount but this is still a pretty bad deal unless you have a gluttony of points to use up.

That pours a little cold water on it for sure. Realistically most people get around 16-18 per point, so on the low end $3,744 and on the high end $4,212, so it's not quite that bad, but definitely not as great as it seemed. With the cash part costing $3,450 - $3,750, the total would be around what 4 people would have paid anyhow, so this is only really a decent deal for people with expiring points who are unlikely to use or rent them out, meaning what, they don't have time to visit for a week but can visit for a couple days? The universe of people who would benefit from any of this starts getting pretty small, especially if this is exclusive to blue card members as it appears to be.

 

[Mle8308]

Probably silly to just give Iger the credit for it, but one exclusive direct member perk to report:

30% discount on Galactic Starcruiser cabins - a savings of more than $2k off regular prices!

Having gone in September, it's a great value. 4 Adults can split the cost and have it come out to somewhere between $1150 and $1250 each.

Yes, they're not selling out and so Disney needed to do something to get them to capacity, but they could have just put that out to the general public and sold out pretty quickly, but that they're at least giving DVC members first crack is a good sign.

That pours a little cold water on it for sure. Realistically most people get around 16-18 per point, so on the low end $3,744 and on the high end $4,212, so it's not quite that bad, but definitely not as great as it seemed. With the cash part costing $3,450 - $3,750, the total would be around what 4 people would have paid anyhow, so this is only really a decent deal for people with expiring points who are unlikely to use or rent them out, meaning what, they don't have time to visit for a week but can visit for a couple days? The universe of people who would benefit from any of this starts getting pretty small, especially if this is exclusive to blue card members as it appears to be.

One of the better Disney bloggers did a post on this and she analyzed the actual cost and it came out to not be a good deal at all. It's only certain voyages and yes, one person has to be booked using points. Cash can be used for the remaining people.

 

[DonMacGregor]

There are some objective measures of quality that we could debate. But, those of us who have the luxury of being able to choose where we live often make those decisions based on a lot more than tax rates and property values. Indeed, I suspect that luxury of choice often comes with the financial resources that allow one to weigh the qualitative factors more heavily than the quantitative.

It's not hard to imagine that many of the core creative folks at WDI have that luxury, and that for some non-trivial fraction of them, the idea of living in Florida is not an option. Of course, that can go both ways, and some people might be ready and raring to make the move, but your guess is as good as mine about how large the draw is in each direction. Tom Bricker had a few paragraphs on this exact topic in a recent blog post. For a number of reasons, the WDI move was not likely to happen even before this change. It was Tom's opinion that "officially" calling it off is a quick win for Bob v1.0/v3.0.

Keep in mind that a great many of the senior creative people at WDI HAVE been to Florida, many on numerous occasions, or know of other cast members who have, and yet they STILL had almost zero interest on the part of those CM’s to make the move.