Another Voice
Charter Member of The Element
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2000
The expectation has been for a long time that WDW would grow to a point where it wasnt a single resort anymore, i.e. people dont go there to power march through all of the parks and all of the gates on a single trip. If you notice the development around Epcot, there was a deliberate attempt made to create two resort areas. Week-long family vacationers going to The Magic Kingdom, adults on long weekends and conventioneers heading to EPCOT Center (the attendance model here was Las Vegas).
Mr. Scoop is right when he says the average guest visits every 5-7 years. The problem Disney faces is that new rides dont change that pattern. Its not that Orlando is saturated the entire country is saturated with themed roller coasters, trendy themed shopping malls and restaurants that look like the Amazon. The Disney brand itself is super saturated with every strip mall in the country with a Disney Store, the Mouse on everything from bathroom soap to milk products to bottled water (thats coming in a few weeks) and most of the people who want to go to WDW already making a least one trip. The sad fact is that WDW aint that special anymore for most people.
This came crashing down on Disney with the openings of Animal Kingdom and California Adventure. The general public has received both with less than enthusiasm and both management teams were left scrambling. If it wasnt for park hopping, both would have closed by now. The company had based its plan on the premise that new rides wont get people to visit more often, but new parks - any kind of new park - would. It was a given that people would show up (after all, both new parks had Disney's in the title - what else could insure success). The emphasis was on maximizing profit, profit and profit.
But Disney forgot to put one factor into their profit spreadsheets quality counts. Both parks were far too interested in fine tuning the guest-spending-per-square-foot factor they forget to build in any appeal. Being simply just one notch higher than Busch Gardens and Six Flags doesnt thrill people into spending thousands of dollars. People in general are far better at calculating their value per dollar spent levels than Disney is at figuring out their own perceived value to investment numbers.
So, DisneySea. For the last two years the restaurants around town have been filled with Mouse-suits chortling over how much money they were bilking from those stupid Japanese. The ones foolish enough to build such an expensive park while they were the smart ones in the game who were soon to be rolling in rooms of cash trucked in from their economically sound California Adventure.
Now I read here an argument that says, basically, Disney shouldnt build a world-class experience because it will be too competitive for the mediocre parks that already exist. At best, the tightly and coherently themed park should be drawn and quartered and its severed bits distributed around on the assumption that the parts somehow function all on their own.
People will pay for quality as witnessed in Tokyo. And people will avoid shames and sloppy work as seen in Anaheim and Orlando. Build something worthy of the publics money and they will flock in droves to WDW. Continue to ignore that fact and WDW will continue to close resorts.
Mr. Scoop is right when he says the average guest visits every 5-7 years. The problem Disney faces is that new rides dont change that pattern. Its not that Orlando is saturated the entire country is saturated with themed roller coasters, trendy themed shopping malls and restaurants that look like the Amazon. The Disney brand itself is super saturated with every strip mall in the country with a Disney Store, the Mouse on everything from bathroom soap to milk products to bottled water (thats coming in a few weeks) and most of the people who want to go to WDW already making a least one trip. The sad fact is that WDW aint that special anymore for most people.
This came crashing down on Disney with the openings of Animal Kingdom and California Adventure. The general public has received both with less than enthusiasm and both management teams were left scrambling. If it wasnt for park hopping, both would have closed by now. The company had based its plan on the premise that new rides wont get people to visit more often, but new parks - any kind of new park - would. It was a given that people would show up (after all, both new parks had Disney's in the title - what else could insure success). The emphasis was on maximizing profit, profit and profit.
But Disney forgot to put one factor into their profit spreadsheets quality counts. Both parks were far too interested in fine tuning the guest-spending-per-square-foot factor they forget to build in any appeal. Being simply just one notch higher than Busch Gardens and Six Flags doesnt thrill people into spending thousands of dollars. People in general are far better at calculating their value per dollar spent levels than Disney is at figuring out their own perceived value to investment numbers.
So, DisneySea. For the last two years the restaurants around town have been filled with Mouse-suits chortling over how much money they were bilking from those stupid Japanese. The ones foolish enough to build such an expensive park while they were the smart ones in the game who were soon to be rolling in rooms of cash trucked in from their economically sound California Adventure.
Now I read here an argument that says, basically, Disney shouldnt build a world-class experience because it will be too competitive for the mediocre parks that already exist. At best, the tightly and coherently themed park should be drawn and quartered and its severed bits distributed around on the assumption that the parts somehow function all on their own.
People will pay for quality as witnessed in Tokyo. And people will avoid shames and sloppy work as seen in Anaheim and Orlando. Build something worthy of the publics money and they will flock in droves to WDW. Continue to ignore that fact and WDW will continue to close resorts.
