"Disney has plowed $5 billion into improving its theme parks"?!

[DVCBob]

Laughing Place is quoting a Forbes Magazine article that states "Disney has plowed $5 billion into improving its theme parks".

Is this money that has been set aside for future improvements or is this money that has been spent recently?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Hmmm...the price of paint must have gone up.

 

[toefungus]

$5 billions seems pretty high. Things I can think of right now that it could be going to is Disneyland's 50th, A Bug's Land, Tower of Terror, Aladdin Stage show, 100 years of magic, new parades, Mission:Space, Philharmagic.....Plus rumors of a Spaceship Earth Overhaul, Forbidden Mountain, and whatever else there is.

 

[Jeff in BigD]

Perhaps they're buying from the same supplier that requires $50 for a hammer from the government?

 

[roymccoy]

They must be including the price for California Adventure and the infrastructure (ie parking garge, Downtown Disney, Hotel, etc.) in that figure because I would doubt that Disney has even spent a tenth of that number in the last few years. If they DID pump $5 billion dollars into the parks recently, we had better look around...there must be quite a bit of it still laying around!

Roy

 

[DC7800]

The Laughing Place summary didn't specify domestic parks, and if we count Tokyo DisneySeas and maybe Hong Kong in that total, together with California Adventure (plus Downtown Disney) and the likes of Mission:Space, then $5 billion sounds a bit more accurate. Of course, not only is most of that investment outside the U.S. parks, but the majority of the money spent wasn't even Disney's!

If this reflected actual spending within Walt Disney World and Disneyland, park attenance would likely be setting all-time records. In fact, for that figure, you could actually build many (perhaps most) of the rumors we hear about on these boards.