DHS Pixar Expansion/Sound Stage 1

[Skipper Justin]

It seems like they are closing things left and right with little to no replacements. Animation is closing soon and there is already hardly anything to do at the Park.

 

[Mad Dog]

Next Gen was sold to the Disney board of directors as a means to increase revenue. The Disney exec. was famous for saying we're going to get more money out of our customer's wallets. At the beginning they touted it was going to make major revenue differences. Now, when approached on what those revenue increases are, they either go silent or change the subject. Why, because it drained a few billion that could have been better spent. and there is no measurement it increased revenue. And the top two execs. that pushed for the concept & implemented it, are, as the end of July, no longer with Disney. Both forced out primarily for the debacle.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

Yeah.. rfid... Disney is pushing it though. I would love to see 60 Minutes do an investigative piece on both Nexgen and MM+. To see a map of the MK and the rfid readers dotting the park generally would be cause for concern. Even the sheep and cattle would have second thoughts I think.

Well like I said, love it or hate it, it is impossible to deny the fact that it was a HUGE project, one that took a lot of effort, and yet we call Disney lazy.
It's also much more than just tracking people. The fact that they have WiFi that actually works is unprecedented in the world of theme parks. Hotels everywhere are taking note of the MagicBand idea and making it so that a guest's whole wallet can be put into a single key card. And as much as we all hate Fastpass Plus, the fact that they basically eliminated a major facet of their huge operation and gave it an extensive renovation (for better or worse) without closing anything down is pretty impressive to me.
Creepy? Eh…I don't know. I mean, where do you draw the line? Even before MM+, Disney could more or less track everything you did. Your credit card info was stored everywhere you went, your hotel room info, etc. Yeah, they know where you are and can attach a name to you now, but don't all companies do this to some degree? Is it creepy that Universal knows I'm an Annual Passholder and sends me discounts, news, and offers via E-Mail? All companies keep track of their customers to some degree, yes Disney looks a little more closely now but it's not as personal as I think you're making it out to be.
I'd also be pretty interested to see a 60 Minutes piece on it too--I still think it's a technical marvel, arguably more impressive than any ride that's been opened as of late (even though I haven't really been to Disney to fully use it). Again, this all being just my opinion.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

Next Gen was sold to the Disney board of directors as a means to increase revenue. The Disney exec. was famous for saying we're going to get more money out of our customer's wallets. At the beginning they touted it was going to make major revenue differences. Now, when approached on what those revenue increases are, they either go silent or change the subject. Why, because it drained a few billion that could have been better spent. and there is no measurement it increased revenue. And the top two execs. that pushed for the concept & implemented it, are, as the end of July, no longer with Disney. Both forced out primarily for the debacle.

Yeah, I mean, I can't tell you what it did for revenue because I don't work there. But I'm saying that it was still (regardless of the outcome) a HUGE undertaking that took a lot of balls…so let's give credit where credit is due. Just because you can't ride NextGen doesn't mean Disney's sitting on their butts doing nothing. They DID do something, and it was incredible in scope and ambition. Moreso than a roller coaster or another dark ride, for instance.

 

[Vyrus]

I was an annual pass holder until April, and with the constant increases in cost of visiting the park, the lack of new upgrades, and new consistent experiences, and trying to nickel and dime you everywhere I had to give up my passes to WDW. It almost got to the point that I was using my passes to go have dinner in the parks!

NextGen did nothing except burn a HUGE hole in their pockets and that money could've been better spent, and now everyone is paying for it, I mean really?? $100 for a one day pass in the park is ridiculously steep.

Yea the bands are easy to use and convenient, but even at a store I still had to pull out my hard plastic card pass to prove I was a passholder, so its for nothing.

 

[JungleSkip]

They DID do something, and it was incredible in scope and ambition.

I get that your teachers really like it, but come on. Its scope and ambition was to increase Disney's bank accounts, not to increase guest satisfaction

 

[OrlandoGuy]

I get that your teachers really like it, but come on. Its scope and ambition was to increase Disney's bank accounts, not to increase guest satisfaction

It's college, dude. You don't learn what the teachers like, you do case studies, watch interviews with industry leaders, test based on real data. Come on now.

And I'm not even denying the reasoning behind it. EVERYTHING any business does is to increase bank accounts. Increasing guest service increases bank accounts. Universal didn't build Diagon Alley to make people happy, they did it to make money. You've added nothing to the conversation, which didn't contradict anything you said anyway because like I said, people's reaction to the addition have nothing to do with the fact that it was a large addition. I hate the parade and the nighttime show at Universal but I'm not gonna discredit the fact that they spent time and money on it.

 

[JungleSkip]

Universal didn't build Diagon Alley to make people happy, they did it to make money. \

Sure. It was done to make money. By making people happy.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

Sure. It was done to make money. By making people happy.

And your general dislike of NextGen doesn't mean that people aren't happy with what Disney has done either. In fact, attendance increases seem to prove the opposite.

But you all are missing the point. You all say Disney is lazy and doesn't do anything to their parks. I said they did. Opinions about whether or not an addition is good or bad was never the point because, like I said, I've never even really used the thing. From my standpoint (a graduate entering into grad school to study the industry rather than a fan) I simply can appreciate the innovation Disney brought to the table. Just because JungleSkip doesn't like something doesn't take away from what it takes to build it and what it means for other hospitality companies moving forward.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

A quick search on Google turns up hotels such as Starwood deploying RFID and check-in less entry starting in 2006. Public scale wifi has been an ongoing project for years in many cities larger than a single WDW park. No one is arguing against Disney needing to do infrastructure improvements, people are arguing against the final amount of time, money, and lack of attractions build along side of the roll out. People don't visit theme parks to book a reservation, get into the park using a wrist band, or use wifi: they go for attractions. The world of Disney parks and TEA number isn't scientific, it's Alice in Wonderland.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

Ok, a quick Google search > a Bachelor's degree, you're right.

C'mon, I may not be as passionate as you guys are but I know what I'm talking about you can give me that much.

 

[HailSouthern84]

Ya, I've got a couple of college degrees, professors do not ever make tests with the slant they have on the topic, ever. (Sarcasm)

 

[Teebin]

Why? Are people really creeped out by it? Does it really matter if Disney knows what I'm at on property?

They are not aware of it because they are not aware of its potential abuse. Just my assumption. And yes, if they are able to determine where a large number of people linger indecisively, they can abuse that location with any kind of product. On top of that, they can manipulate you like a cookie works on the internet. They can slam you with any product you purchased and attempt to sell you something similar.

So, it is like the internet, yet with humans pushing you, yet unlike the internet, you cannot shut your cookies prefs to off.

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

I was an annual pass holder until April, and with the constant increases in cost of visiting the park, the lack of new upgrades, and new consistent experiences, and trying to nickel and dime you everywhere I had to give up my passes to WDW. It almost got to the point that I was using my passes to go have dinner in the parks!

NextGen did nothing except burn a HUGE hole in their pockets and that money could've been better spent, and now everyone is paying for it, I mean really?? $100 for a one day pass in the park is ridiculously steep.

Yea the bands are easy to use and convenient, but even at a store I still had to pull out my hard plastic card pass to prove I was a passholder, so its for nothing.

Spot on. I'm probably going to get one again in Fall or December 2016 to check out Frozen and be in the timeframe for Avatar, until then I'm just going to the hard tickets. I really wish Disney would allow you to split reservations in a day across two parks, it makes park hopping a pain unless you go to AK.

 

[GAcoaster]

Hard tickets have RFID as well.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

Hard tickets have RFID as well.

It's not the technology itself, it's the utilization of it itself that hotels and such have taken notice of.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

They are not aware of it because they are not aware of its potential abuse. Just my assumption. And yes, if they are able to determine where a large number of people linger indecisively, they can abuse that location with any kind of product. On top of that, they can manipulate you like a cookie works on the internet. They can slam you with any product you purchased and attempt to sell you something similar.

So, it is like the internet, yet with humans pushing you, yet unlike the internet, you cannot shut your cookies prefs to off.

This is like everything though, you just don't realize it. The ads you see on this site are a result of the same principles only on a much wider scale (not just on Disney property) and you can't shut it off as easily as you think. Of course, companies aren't going to say they're slamming you with products, they'll say they're enhancing the guest experience by suggesting things they might like to do while on vacation. Yes, every company is greedy and slick like that lol

 

[RonaldsModernLife]

They are not aware of it because they are not aware of its potential abuse. Just my assumption. And yes, if they are able to determine where a large number of people linger indecisively, they can abuse that location with any kind of product. On top of that, they can manipulate you like a cookie works on the internet. They can slam you with any product you purchased and attempt to sell you something similar.

So, it is like the internet, yet with humans pushing you, yet unlike the internet, you cannot shut your cookies prefs to off.

I think guests should be aware of it, but afraid of it? I think that's technopanic. The same people that would be afraid of that are the same people who cry "Oh, Google is tracking me!!", who cares? The fact that Disney knows I'm standing in line for It's A Small World doesn't matter. So Disney could put ads where people linger, and? Everything in a theme park is laid out to catch your eye and grab your money. There's a reason why rides empty out into a store. There's a reason there is a Butterbeer cart right in the middle of the street in Hogsmeade. If Disney knows I brought an Elsa doll, and then somehow they serve me products similar, fine. Maybe I might actually like to buy similar items. If I don't want to buy the items they're pushing me, I can easily ignore it. I'm an adult who has the capacity to say "No thank you". In the Fallon project thread, I mentioned about how people seem ok about projects like Fallon and Hello Kitty that are made for the sole purpose of making money and the reply I got was "As long as they put it back into the parks, it's ok". So Universal can make money but Disney can't? Of course, Universal is actually giving us attractions, but both are in this business to make money and I'm not so sure that Disney is just raking in the money without spitting things out (though they could spit out more, of course) NextGen was expensive, but at least they did something, and I think that's the point @OrlandoGuy is trying to make. It might be a failure, but at least Disney spent some money with something I'm sure they thought was going to help the parks, but hindsight is 20/20.

This feels so wrong, me defending Disney. What is going on?

 

[Brian G.]

Hey. DHS thread. Take the MM talk to that thread please.

 

[Jon84]

$100 for a one day pass in the park is ridiculously steep.

It really isn't.

One of the UK parks (Thorpe Park) is $70 per head entrance fee, and you're completely not getting anything near the level of a Disney park. I never pay $70 (£45) per person because there is ALWAYS a 2 for 1 offer, I don't know many people that would go there and pay full prices.

Same as at WDW, how many people actually go buy a 1 park 1 day ticket? Not as many as those that have multi day tickets surely!?