Media Briefing on What's Next at The Magic Kingdom

[casey@bat]

I already told my kids about the magical room. My DD4 is sooooooo excited! She asked me how they would shrink us. I said,"I don't know." She can't wait to go and neither can I!!! I will be videoing and taking pix the whole time!

[lockedoutlogic]

The important thing i take outta this is that Disney has their priorities right....

Instead of bothering to development new attractions that appeal to a broad audience....

They have instead decided to throw down a few thousand a year on employees to "create" new photo ops and street parades that are aimed exclusively at 8 year old girls and to encourage the movement of product from gift shop shelves....

Sorry to be a downer.....but this is another salvo fired in the role out of Disney's "Depression Mode" gameplan....

eliminate shows.....marketing campaigns aimed at nothing and costing nothing....."interactive character experiences"

and only construction for timeshare units...

I know i'll get sneered at for this....but let's face it: many...if not most of you are thinking the same thing

[SurferStitch]

Harsh.

There are plenty of non-8 year olds who have been wanting a Tink meet and greet for a while now. I think it's a wonderful addition. I also think the other fairies are beautiful.

I will agree, though...I am sick of the time shares.

As for more attractions, I'm satisfied. Toy Story Mania is new, and apparently, very well liked by adults and kids. MK has the Laugh Floor (somewhat new) and updates to HM and PotC. Epcot has Nemo (again, not brand new, but new), and AK has EE and Nemo. I don't expect big, new, amazing additions to every park every year. Even after 12 or 13 days on a WDW vacation, DH and I are FAR from bored with what's offered.

Then again, I tend to be a glass half full girl, and I appreciate WDW and everything it has to offer. DH and I have nothing but magical vacations there, and getting to see one of my very favorite characters for a photo op (after Stitch, of course) is magic to me.

[SFTrny]

Harsh.

There are plenty of non-8 year olds who have been wanting a Tink meet and greet for a while now.

Eight year olds?!?!? I know a lot of 30 and 40 year olds who are dying for a Tink meet and greet!

[SurferStitch]

Eight year olds?!?!? I know a lot of 30 and 40 year olds who are dying for a Tink meet and greet!

My point exactly.....and I'm one of them!!

[lockedoutlogic]

meet tinkerbell?

ok.....hmmmm

[lockedoutlogic]

just a clarification....

I'm not suggesting big new shiny rides every 6 months.....anyone with even a passing interest in WDW would know that that is not going to happen....

But don't laud them with all this credit for "new stuff"

they have toy story mania.....which is a good achievement....even if it's a recycled ride concept....

but it takes Disney's braintrust years to construct anything slightly innovative at this point.....years.....

so if no dirt is being moved now.....we're looking at 2011-12-13 for anything interesting....

If you take that into perspective....how satisfied are you now?

Again....i don't bore so easily that i need something with a fastpass kiosk everytime i'm there......but no development means a somewhat significant dryspell....

any incase anyone has caught 30 seconds of CNN over the last couple of weeks.....i'm told the economy is not so good....

disney built nothing of value from 1999-2005....that is the truth....rehashes and cookie cutter rides from third party machine shops....

we could be looking at a 5 or 6 or 7 year lull....i kid not

[vizsla]

Thanks for the update

[LarryBoy]

Unrelated but interesting: No word still on what will become of the Cinderella Suite in the castle. Since we're still in the Year of a Million Dreams, don't expect to hear anything until after the first of the year, we were told.

If they need me to, I can take care of that for them. I could move in with the fam, keep it looking real nice. I could even host some great parties. Sounds like a great plan to me.

[lockedoutlogic]

I would think that the Cinderella suite would become somekind of walkthrough tour....

that would be my guess....logistically....it's not feasible to board paying customers up there under guard on a nightly basis

[AnnetteFan]

Disney just can't seem to win. If they build tons of new attractions they have to either expand to the point that it would take two weeks to be able to do everything that they're offering which just wouldn't be realistic or feasible or they have to replace older rides which some guests are going to be inevitably dissapointed about. I just don't know what people expect from them. Disney of course has the money and resources to embark on all kinds of new and wondeful expenditures even in slow economic times but would that really be the wise thing to do? It just seems to me like it isn't such a bad idea to have several years in between major new additions and in the meantime focus on less costly and maybe less impressive endeavors.

[BMan62]

Disney just can't seem to win. If they build tons of new attractions they have to either expand to the point that it would take two weeks to be able to do everything that they're offering which just wouldn't be realistic or feasible or they have to replace older rides which some guests are going to be inevitably dissapointed about. I just don't know what people expect from them. Disney of course has the money and resources to embark on all kinds of new and wondeful expenditures even in slow economic times but would that really be the wise thing to do? It just seems to me like it isn't such a bad idea to have several years in between major new additions and in the meantime focus on less costly and maybe less impressive endeavors.

Of these two choices, in the weakened economic position the US finds itself, the opportunity to build new park(s)/resort(s)/attraction(s) is almost too tempting to pass up. Cheap(er) materials and labor would keep construction costs down. Unfortunately, this would mean increasing staffing and that would be a big concern. How many more people in the central Florida region can Disney pay low wages to?

Second, your point about making it take two weeks to see everything would be a dream for Disney. Since most domestic trips are one week or less, it would "force" people to make multiple trips so that they could experience all that is offered. This would increase bookings and therefore increase $$$ in Disney pockets.

In my opinion, expansion in this (dare I say it) depressed economy would be a wise move for Disney in the US markets.

[SFTrny]

I'm not sure that the economic analysis is correct. This a weird sort of economic environment that we are in. Stock prices are low and banks are failing. This means that there is less capital available in the market for Disney to use unless they dip into their cash reserves. Reaching into cash reserves when there is a questionable economy is not the right decision.

The other weird thing is that inflation and employment rates have actually been pretty good. I know a lot of us have seen or been affected by layoffs, but across the market, employment rates are pretty decent. That means that wage rates haven't dipped. Same for the cost of goods. If anything, the cost of goods is going up, in particular food staples which is a big part of the parks and resorts expenses.

I think that domestically, travel is down, but since the dollar has been going down against foreign currency, international tourism is up and Disney has had an increase in international visitors. I don't know if that offsets the drop in domestic visitors. My guess is that those travel patterns and spending habits are very different. Also, I've heard that some of the US travel has shifted from international to domestic, so at the upper level, Disney may actually have higher attendance rates from domestic vacationers who would have otherwise travelled out of the country.

Kind of a confusing area without any real insight into the realities of WDW finances. But most business that I know are taking a more conservative approach and are delaying any major investment projects until they see what the next 6 months hold.

Of course, if Disney wanted to get into the financial market...it's a good time to buy a bank. I hear they are going cheap!

[bwgens]

We can't forget however, that the Walt Disney Company is in the process of spending a ton of money on California Adventure. That is a huge undertaking trying to take a poor park done by the previous regime, and turning it into something people really want to go to. So yes, there will be less money available for WDW. I am willing to give them a pass for that seeing what it is they are trying to accomplish at DL.

I for one have much faith in Lasseter and company to turn this thing around not just at DL but at WDW as well. Not to say that either place is on the verge of anything horrible either. I'm just saying that I believe Lasseter knows more of what makes Disney Disney than Eisner did at the end of his tenure, and probably more than Iger. At least Iger had the business sense to see that Lasseter is someone that can put that Disney touch on anything he's involved in.

[Mackflava99]

Excellent update- thanks!!

["SULLEY "RULES!!]

Harsh.

There are plenty of non-8 year olds who have been wanting a Tink meet and greet for a while now. I think it's a wonderful addition. I also think the other fairies are beautiful.

I will agree, though...I am sick of the time shares.

As for more attractions, I'm satisfied. Toy Story Mania is new, and apparently, very well liked by adults and kids. MK has the Laugh Floor (somewhat new) and updates to HM and PotC. Epcot has Nemo (again, not brand new, but new), and AK has EE and Nemo. I don't expect big, new, amazing additions to every park every year. Even after 12 or 13 days on a WDW vacation, DH and I are FAR from bored with what's offered.

Then again, I tend to be a glass half full girl, and I appreciate WDW and everything it has to offer. DH and I have nothing but magical vacations there, and getting to see one of my very favorite characters for a photo op (after Stitch, of course) is magic to me.

I agree 100%