Budget cuts at Walt Disney World

[jade1]

That is worrying, as is the Chinese economy generally.

Agreed. I think WDW drags it feet all the time simply because of possible recessions.

That way they can slow further and/or trim when one hits somewhere.

We "might" get a discount here and there, but we "might" get less or scaled down expansion.

 

[DSLRuser]

20 years of relative stability and no changes has run it's course. We will have to deal with 2-4 years of construction to get another 20 years.

I have no problem with it.

 

[Budshark]

This is depressing. This trip has been the busiest, craziest, dirtiest, rudest trip ever. No magic, cast members overwhelmed, rides with over a hour wait running reduced loads. Monorail down for a whole day, mine train down, Pirates down multiple times, buzz down after opening multiple times. Food options becoming increasingly consistent. Fireworks finale a fraction of what it was.

Cost up, waits up, crowds up. Rides down, food options down

Standing here today, I honestly don't want to come back in October. It's been miserable this trip is the best way to say it. And if they cut the budgets even more? Wow.

 

[Eoghann]

This is depressing. This trip has been the busiest, craziest, dirtiest, rudest trip ever. No magic, cast members overwhelmed, rides with over a hour wait running reduced loads. Monorail down for a whole day, mine train down, Pirates down multiple times, buzz down after opening multiple times. Food options becoming increasingly consistent. Fireworks finale a fraction of what it was.

Cost up, waits up, crowds up. Rides down, food options down

Standing here today, I honestly don't want to come back in October. It's been miserable this trip is the best way to say it. And if they cut the budgets even more? Wow.

The thing is none of this is really new. It's basically more of the same. But everyone's threshold is different.

 

[rteetz]

I think it was poorly designed from the begining. The working studio elements were almost doomed to fail. The layout (because of the working studio elements) is fundamentally flawed. There's no thematic cohesion to it. The balance of rides is woefully off for families.

I had fun there even in 2014... but it's not a great park.

Personal opinion:

Magic Kingdom - Great park
Epcot - Great park left to rot
DHS - Fundamentally flawed
Animal Kingdom - Thematically great and I love it but the concept was never fully realized and it doesn't have universal appeal

It was a good idea but it was like you said never really executed correctly.

 

[rteetz]

20 years of relative stability and no changes has run it's course. We will have to deal with 2-4 years of construction to get another 20 years.

I have no problem with it.

This is more than construction for 2-4 years.

 

[rteetz]

This is depressing. This trip has been the busiest, craziest, dirtiest, rudest trip ever. No magic, cast members overwhelmed, rides with over a hour wait running reduced loads. Monorail down for a whole day, mine train down, Pirates down multiple times, buzz down after opening multiple times. Food options becoming increasingly consistent. Fireworks finale a fraction of what it was.

Cost up, waits up, crowds up. Rides down, food options down

Standing here today, I honestly don't want to come back in October. It's been miserable this trip is the best way to say it. And if they cut the budgets even more? Wow.

Not to single you out or anything but a lot of course is put on the CMs and I know you know that but many people complain about the CMs as of late. In January I experienced great cast at both the Magic Kingdom and Beach Club and nothing below average anywhere else. It just seems an overwhelming consensus on the boards is that CMs aren't good anymore but they are just stuck with so much.

 

[jade1]

This is more than construction for 2-4 years.

I picture a 7 to 10 year run, esp with recession implications here and there, and actually more like a 15 year run starting with NFL.

But similar DSRLuser, I have no problem with that long either. I'm hoping for G Kids-they will not care when anything was built.

 

[Travis B]

They're absolute fools if they skimp on Star Wars. Pandora and Star Wars need to be spectacular or they might as well hand money directly over to Universal. What REALLY sucks is that CMs at profitable, successful parks are having their hours cut, and that patrons of said parks are also losing out in order to finance parks they may never see. How about some incentives and deals for US visitors to visit Hong Kong or Shanghai?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

So I'm just wondering how does Disney decide where to build a new location for their parks? Obviously they pick a location years in advance but I just didn't know how they determined that a certain place is the most likely THE place to build.

 

[rteetz]

I picture a 7 to 10 year run, esp with recession implications here and there, and actually more like a 15 year run starting with NFL.

But similar DSRLuser, I have no problem with that long either. I'm hoping for G Kids-they will not care when anything was built.

None of this is about construction timelines though this is all about park operations and potentially even more major cuts not only to current construction projects but also future ones. I don't care if it takes 1 year or 10 if it's done right but I do care if we get less than originally planned.

 

[rteetz]

They're absolute fools if they skimp on Star Wars. Pandora and Star Wars need to be spectacular or they might as well hand money directly over to Universal. What REALLY sucks is that CMs at profitable, successful parks are having their hours cut, and that patrons of said parks are also losing out in order to finance parks they may never see. How about some incentives and deals for US visitors to visit Hong Kong or Shanghai?

You won't get incentives for Asia parks because we aren't the target audience. China has a higher population that the US and they want that population to pack those parks. Obviously that's not happening like they want.

 

[sachilles]

Budshark,

This is a hugely busy week. Not an excuse, but that much humanity together really pushes everyone to the limits. One reason why I won't visit during the busy periods.

 

[rteetz]

So I'm just wondering how does Disney decide where to build a new location for their parks? Obviously they pick a location years in advance but I just didn't know how they determined that a certain place is the most likely THE place to build.

A lot has to do with the potential amount of people Disney sees coming to that park. China is a unique situation. Take Paris for example, they built that where it was because people from all over Europe could potentially easily travel to that resort.

 

[jade1]

This is depressing. This trip has been the busiest,

Exactly what WDW wants.

craziest, dirtiest, rudest trip ever. No magic, cast members overwhelmed, rides with over a hour wait running reduced loads. Monorail down for a whole day, mine train down, Pirates down multiple times, buzz down after opening multiple times. Food options becoming increasingly consistent. Fireworks finale a fraction of what it was.

Cost up, waits up, crowds up. Rides down, food options down

Standing here today, I honestly don't want to come back in October. It's been miserable this trip is the best way to say it. And if they cut the budgets even more? Wow.

A week ago things seemed pretty good and clean.

But that's a bummer.

Not a fan of CP taking over so much, even the most elementary questions couldn't be answered, but can see why its done. Completely friendly as ever though.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

A lot has to do with the potential amount of people Disney sees coming to that park. China is a unique situation. Take Paris for example, they built that where it was because people from all over Europe could potentially easily travel to that resort.

Ohhhh ok I see. They are banking on there being enough people within a close enough radius to travel there. Maybe that's why they decided to build 3 parks that are relatively close together (Toyko,Shanghai, and Hong Kong)?

Having never been to any other parks but WDW and DLR personally Disneyland Paris made the most sense to me..there is a strong enough liklihood of the locals visiting but also you are in a strategic position where you can get tons of outside visitors who can easily make the trek there and even some people from United States and Canada have made the trek out there.

 

[Budshark]

To those replying to my post - we travel this time of year nearly every year (4 out of past 5) because of my sons birthday. So I am very familiar with the crowds.

I also was specific in stating the cast members are overwhelmed. I didn't say they were rude or mean - I said the trip was rude (mostly other guests) and the cast members were overwhelmed. I was very specific about them being overwhelmed. They were training, understaffed, and had to work around many rides being down. They didn't have time to be nice or magical. They were trying to keep their heads above water and that was very clear. As a result everyone was pushed to their limits.

Again. Travel every year this time. This was something different. All week long we kept talking about staffing and even had a few CMs say they didn't have enough. Busses were late (40 mins for an MK bus at resort). The impact of packing the parks and cutting staff are showing in an extreme sense this week.

 

[Eoghann]

Ohhhh ok I see. They are banking on there being enough people within a close enough radius to travel there. Maybe that's why they decided to build 3 parks that are relatively close together (Toyko,Shanghai, and Hong Kong)?

Having never been to any other parks but WDW and DLR personally Disneyland Paris made the most sense to me..there is a strong enough liklihood of the locals visiting but also you are in a strategic position where you can get tons of outside visitors who can easily make the trek there and even some people from United States and Canada have made the trek out there.

Well it has been speculated that Hong Kong which is a small park was something of a trial run for Shanghai. Shanghai is probably the one that Disney expects to pull the biggest native Chinese audience. Shanghai and Hong Kong really aren't that close together except when you compare them to the raw size of a country like China.

Tokyo makes sense simply because it's Japan and the Japanese love Disney. But also, it doesn't cost Disney anything because it's licensed not owned.

 

[sachilles]

To those replying to my post - we travel this time of year nearly every year (4 out of past 5) because of my sons birthday. So I am very familiar with the crowds.

I also was specific in stating the cast members are overwhelmed. I didn't say they were rude or mean - I said the trip was rude (mostly other guests) and the cast members were overwhelmed. I was very specific about them being overwhelmed. They were training, understaffed, and had to work around many rides being down. They didn't have time to be nice or magical. They were trying to keep their heads above water and that was very clear. As a result everyone was pushed to their limits.

Again. Travel every year this time. This was something different. All week long we kept talking about staffing and even had a few CMs say they didn't have enough. Busses were late (40 mins for an MK bus at resort). The impact of packing the parks and cutting staff are showing in an extreme sense this week.

Fair enough.

In your opinion, is the understaffing apparent due to ride malfunctions and the backlog it creates.....or less staff than normal as well as the bad fortune with the attractions. Do the resorts seem short staffed? Do the busses seem less adequate than before? IE, is it across the board or only in the parks?

 

[tstidm1]

I think this means it takes longer to build Star Wars and Toy Story lands. This maybe guarantees we don't see either until 2019-2021. They will want to spread the costs of these projects over more years. This may mean that Star Wars popularity cools down in the interim.