Josh D’Amaro leaving DL for WDW

The podcast that came out yesterday was very entertaining. Pete Warner just eviscerated Disney's mismanagement of the Star Wars and the nickel and dime mentality at the parks. Especially Bob Chapek's role in it all. Around 17:26 Pete starts off and goes on about 20 minutes ripping into Disney and it was all the truth.

 


The podcast that came out yesterday was very entertaining. Pete Warner just eviscerated Disney's mismanagement of the Star Wars and the nickel and dime mentality at the parks. Especially Bob Chapek's role in it all. Around 17:26 Pete starts off and goes on about 20 minutes ripping into Disney and it was all the truth.

You know what I love about Walt Disney? He never gave up. Laugh-o-gram Studios, his earlier endeavor, went bankrupt. People thought he was a failure. But he ignored the nay-sayers and pressed on. And that is why we have what we have today.

Disney still doesn't hit a home run every time. But they've actually had a pretty good year. Their market cap is just shy of $240 billion today, up from $196 billion at the beginning of the year. As a shareholder, I approve of Disney management. And what's more important, I know Walt would approve, too.

Walt didn't suffer fool gladly, and I think we all know what he would think of the likes of Pete Werner.
 
The podcast that came out yesterday was very entertaining. Pete Warner just eviscerated Disney's mismanagement of the Star Wars and the nickel and dime mentality at the parks. Especially Bob Chapek's role in it all. Around 17:26 Pete starts off and goes on about 20 minutes ripping into Disney and it was all the truth.

I listened to that podcast this evening on my way home from work. I really enjoyed that part of it where they were talking about the change in management. I've heard about the AI cameras that have shown up in WDW. I **really** love the photopass photographers. Like 99% of the time, they are friendly & accommodating & they work hard. They always ask how you're enjoying your visit or what's been your favorite attraction so far today...stuff like that. But AI cameras? Sorry, I'm not going to spend upwards of $200 for Memory Maker at WDW if it's basically going to be a bunch of automated cameras. Forget it. Give me back those PP photographers instead. They are part of the experience...the human interaction. It's what sets Disney parks apart from your run of the mill Magic Mountain or Sea World or any other regular amusement park.

Our family hasn't been to Star Wars Galaxy's Edge yet (we're going next March - CAN'T WAIT!). I really don't care about other people's opinions of whether or not they liked SWGE. But, then again, our family LOVES Star Wars. My kids are saving up their money to buy a droid or a light saber. *I* am saving up my money for a light saber! I want to decode and translate all of the foreign "language" signs. I WANT to go up to the CMs and ask them where the bathroom is, or ask them what it's like living on Batuu. I'm looking forward to an interactive experience. And if it's not jam packed with people? Hey, that's great! Because you know what? When it's wall to wall people and you can hardly move...it's a horrible experience and not enjoyable at all.

I don't think that Bob Chapek will end up going away until after Bob Iger leaves. Or until the crowd #s decline even further.
 


I agree that the 'DIS Unplugged Podcast – 09/24/19 – Disney World Show' is a juicy episode. I watched it twice simply because I enjoy listening to Pete (who is clearly concerned about this) go through his explanation of what may be going wrong with 'Star Wars: Galaxies Edge' and what he predicts will happen to more Disney executives if 'Rise of the Resistance' ends up being a disappointment.
I looked at the photos and videos of 'Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge' and I wasn't terribly excited about it, but I am excited (so far) about what I've seen (in artist renderings and promotional videos anyway) of 'Rise of the Resistance.' The sad part is that I'm not excited enough about it to make me want to go to WDW in 2020. I'm more a fan of the 'old' Star Wars [Luke, Leia, and Han era]; that may be the reason I feel this way.
I'm more excited about the 'Tron' ride, so I think I'll wait for that to open in 2021 which will probably be, regrettably, WDW's busiest year with record-size crowds.
 
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Enjoyed the debate about the management changes and Galaxy's Edge. Personally, I think 2 main factors are working together to cause the attendance problem for Galaxy's Edge.

1. They decided to open it partially and add the major attraction launch later.
2. Ticket prices

For me, I can't afford to do two separate trips to see Galaxy's Edge. I originally planned to go a few weeks after it opened but I did not do so because to me it isn't fully open. As it is, we're coming down to do one day at Galaxy's Edge before our DCL cruise and not a long trip at Disney World due to the cost being prohibitive. In fact, when we originally booked our room for this trip, we told our travel agent to wait to buy our park ticket because if the cost didn't come down and waits were 3 hours plus like Avatar was and no fast pass, we were going to Universal instead. We still don't have our park ticket... although we will buy it soon so we can book fastpass reservations. I am a HUGE star wars fan and cannot wait to visit this land, but I think the rollout was poorly thought out and everything they did leading into DL and WDW's launches screamed "we think we will be flooded by people". The parks in my opinion are already overcrowded... we went to a MNSSHP last year that had longer waits than the park had had all day before the party started and was so packed you could barely walk around... it was not fun at all and not worth the surcharge.

For reference, this is because, for the most part, although we love WDW, we are limiting our trips to the parks because the ticket prices have risen beyond what I'm willing to pay for what used to be annual/biannual trips for our family. The biggest issue I have is the ticket prices are going up and the service level is going way down. Just not a tradeoff I'm prepared to make as often as we used to. Case in point... instead of WDW we have been going on other trips... we went on a 7 day cruise that was cheaper than 4 days at Disney, and we went on a trip to England for 7 days that was only about $500 more than a trip to WDW for 4 days would have been.
 

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