Firebird060
Kilted in Disney
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2014
I apologize first this post is going to be a bit everywhere I enjoyed the article alot and it has got me thinking about a bunch of things that I am just going to kinda blurt out in one disjointed post so thank you in advance.
I also liked that article and the idea of nostalgia does have its part to play within the Parks to some extent. I was pleased to actually see they acknowledged the pieced together IT system at Disney that could really use a overhaul. Sure there are other things that Disney can throw money at that has a more visible effect on the guests. Transportation, Monorail, Pathway improvement and what not as well as other construction projects world wide but a solid IT infrastructure rework would allow Disney to do even more things easier, in real time.
The magic band, mde thing was a ambitious and actually great Idea in concept but Disney never fully implemented it due to costs and the ever changing advancements in technology. Sure I love my Magic bands and I collect some of the more unique ones when I can but over all what they are currently used for is only a small portion of what they could truly accomplish even if RFID is now a bit long in the ears in the IT sense.
Eventually Disney will have a major downturn or event that will cause tourism to drop for a bit at least Domestically and although Diversifying and haveing more Parks in other Major markets can help counterbalance some of the losses that might happen when WDW experiences these events. Yet Disney does rely heavily on WDW to make a large portion of the Theme Park Profits. I am curious what the back up plan is for WDW encase they see a heavy loss of attendance. I think currently we are seeing Disney reaching closer and closer to the tipping point of what even the upper middle class feels it can afford on a vacation, and they are even slowly getting to the point they are pricing out some of the locals you would typically rely upon to help your numbers during a downturn especially since Florida ranks so low on average Salary nationally compared to other States. Will DVC be enough to save the bottom line or will a economic downturn cause even the DVC market to fall, we all know Disney has slowly been chipping away at the benefits of DVC resale to help drive people to buying Direct while they continue to increase prices there. Will Disney have to start buying back more contracts if a downturn happens just to help prop up the value or will they have to rethink the pricing structure again.
To me it feels like Disney in its rush to buy all the Shiny new things and keep investors happy have kinda started to be a bit of short sighted in the past decade in regards to WDW at least in the pricing aspect. The rush to "plus" the parks and build more hotels while spending is up makes complete sense, even a small increase in pricing to help off set the costs makes alot of sense yes what we have seen over the last decade is not a small or even a moderate price increase. A 4 day magic your way park ticket with PH was only 286 without PH it was only 232 today that same ticket if you were to buy it lets say the first week of April is 547 with Park Hopper or 467 without. Granted it could be a couple dollars lower or higher depending on what time of the year you go but overall thats pretty much a doubling of park tickets in a Decade inflation for the same period is only 17.85 percent and wage growth was pretty much stagnet during those same years. Now I am not upset for Disney making as much money as they can over that period of time, after all they are no different than most major Corperations. I just feel that pushing the prices as high as they have been although allowing for them to also double the amount of profit they have made on the parks and resorts world wide since 2010 also puts them in a sticky situation if another downturn were to happen. Disney has already been slowly cutting back on things since really Shanghai was built, and the cost of labor is going up. How will Disney deal with a downturn this time. Its hard to scale back wages, sure you can cut the number of cast members, but you have to have a certain number to get by. Its hard to cut prices, sure you can do limited time ticket deals like the 4 parks 4 days option that Disney also has been running for a bit of time now, but even then that is only a window dressing since historically you rely on local AP holders to help keep the numbers up, so those tickets discounts are only going to help so much, to entice more people you would have to either lower APs across the board or just for the locals. You just sometimes need to get more bodies through the turn style to keep up the numbers and at the prices they currently have I do not see what promotion they could run if a major economic event were to occur that they could run that wouldn't adversely have the stock holders clamping at the bit and wouldn't require other Parts of the Disney empire to help offset potential losses in the event of a a weak vacation market.
I also liked that article and the idea of nostalgia does have its part to play within the Parks to some extent. I was pleased to actually see they acknowledged the pieced together IT system at Disney that could really use a overhaul. Sure there are other things that Disney can throw money at that has a more visible effect on the guests. Transportation, Monorail, Pathway improvement and what not as well as other construction projects world wide but a solid IT infrastructure rework would allow Disney to do even more things easier, in real time.
The magic band, mde thing was a ambitious and actually great Idea in concept but Disney never fully implemented it due to costs and the ever changing advancements in technology. Sure I love my Magic bands and I collect some of the more unique ones when I can but over all what they are currently used for is only a small portion of what they could truly accomplish even if RFID is now a bit long in the ears in the IT sense.
Eventually Disney will have a major downturn or event that will cause tourism to drop for a bit at least Domestically and although Diversifying and haveing more Parks in other Major markets can help counterbalance some of the losses that might happen when WDW experiences these events. Yet Disney does rely heavily on WDW to make a large portion of the Theme Park Profits. I am curious what the back up plan is for WDW encase they see a heavy loss of attendance. I think currently we are seeing Disney reaching closer and closer to the tipping point of what even the upper middle class feels it can afford on a vacation, and they are even slowly getting to the point they are pricing out some of the locals you would typically rely upon to help your numbers during a downturn especially since Florida ranks so low on average Salary nationally compared to other States. Will DVC be enough to save the bottom line or will a economic downturn cause even the DVC market to fall, we all know Disney has slowly been chipping away at the benefits of DVC resale to help drive people to buying Direct while they continue to increase prices there. Will Disney have to start buying back more contracts if a downturn happens just to help prop up the value or will they have to rethink the pricing structure again.
To me it feels like Disney in its rush to buy all the Shiny new things and keep investors happy have kinda started to be a bit of short sighted in the past decade in regards to WDW at least in the pricing aspect. The rush to "plus" the parks and build more hotels while spending is up makes complete sense, even a small increase in pricing to help off set the costs makes alot of sense yes what we have seen over the last decade is not a small or even a moderate price increase. A 4 day magic your way park ticket with PH was only 286 without PH it was only 232 today that same ticket if you were to buy it lets say the first week of April is 547 with Park Hopper or 467 without. Granted it could be a couple dollars lower or higher depending on what time of the year you go but overall thats pretty much a doubling of park tickets in a Decade inflation for the same period is only 17.85 percent and wage growth was pretty much stagnet during those same years. Now I am not upset for Disney making as much money as they can over that period of time, after all they are no different than most major Corperations. I just feel that pushing the prices as high as they have been although allowing for them to also double the amount of profit they have made on the parks and resorts world wide since 2010 also puts them in a sticky situation if another downturn were to happen. Disney has already been slowly cutting back on things since really Shanghai was built, and the cost of labor is going up. How will Disney deal with a downturn this time. Its hard to scale back wages, sure you can cut the number of cast members, but you have to have a certain number to get by. Its hard to cut prices, sure you can do limited time ticket deals like the 4 parks 4 days option that Disney also has been running for a bit of time now, but even then that is only a window dressing since historically you rely on local AP holders to help keep the numbers up, so those tickets discounts are only going to help so much, to entice more people you would have to either lower APs across the board or just for the locals. You just sometimes need to get more bodies through the turn style to keep up the numbers and at the prices they currently have I do not see what promotion they could run if a major economic event were to occur that they could run that wouldn't adversely have the stock holders clamping at the bit and wouldn't require other Parts of the Disney empire to help offset potential losses in the event of a a weak vacation market.
