News Round Up 2017

[jaxonp]

So that's what I heard from my room at the Grand last Thursday Night.... Man it was poor timing last week to go to DLR for the race looking at all the things that were closed, just ended or were just about to begin. We just missed the last Paint the Night performance and the closing of Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise.. two week off from the last drop of ToT and then we just missed the first show of MSEP and this new opening to WOC. Man... timing sometimes. Too bad Disney couldn't have at least had Haunted Mansion go through the weekend of the race and show one of the darn parades last weekend.

 

[rteetz]

News

An interesting article on how Disney competitors are copying Disney.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/trav...ands-technology-elsewhere-20170112-story.html

 

[rteetz]

News

ABC is considering a Black-ish spin off

http://www.laughingplace.com/w/news/2017/01/19/abc-reportedly-considering-black-ish-spin-off/

 

[jade1]

News

An interesting article on how Disney competitors are copying Disney.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/trav...ands-technology-elsewhere-20170112-story.html

Love it.

 

[soniam]

OK - that's a good point I missed....yes the FOTL wouldn't "run out", and would be particularly valuable on high crowd days, but from my point of view, the only thing that justifies the price of the high-end hotels at Universal is the FOTL and to a lesser degree the early park entry. A system that would allow you to not stand in hour long lines for free would definitely make me think twice about choosing a $400-500 a night hotel.

I would love to stay at one of the Universal hotels that doesn't have EP, like Cabana Bay. However, I can't justify the cost of the room plus EP for 2 or 3 people. We go during busy times, so no EP is out of the question. This would really make me question the expensive hotels. Also, once they open the water park, since it's really so close and convenient to the hotels, the need for a nice pool with a water slide is kind of diminished.

 

[andyw715]

I think it is a seasonal uptick, and similar to this time last year. Nothing sells like sunshine and happiness when half of the country just came inside to warm themselves after shoveling their walkway.

I'm sure it's dependent on the regions. I don't notice anymore now than I have in the past two years.

It totally is - now is the time to travel! Here in New England we see TONS of commercials for the Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Jamaica, etc every January-March. I haven't noticed any more Disney World commercials - we get a good amount of those throughout the whole year actually.

6 months from now is peak summer travel time, and 6 months is the general planning time frame with dining reservations available at 180 days

Maybe there is some market research pointing to SE NC. or something, because I remember starting to plan 4 or 5 years ago for a WDW trip (we kept putting it off) but noticing there was never any TV spots in our area even if there were current promo's going on.....until this past month....

 

[andyw715]

News

An interesting article on how Disney competitors are copying Disney.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/trav...ands-technology-elsewhere-20170112-story.html

Also interesting that they focus (the photos) on the Magicband/MyMagic+. WDW spent a ton of money on it, and it hasn't really been a success for them. I'm sure they would want a competitor to copy that system and throw a bunch of money at it. Keep 'em occupied for a while

 

[sachilles]

Also interesting that they focus (the photos) on the Magicband/MyMagic+. WDW spent a ton of money on it, and it hasn't really been a success for them. I'm sure they would want a competitor to copy that system and throw a bunch of money at it. Keep 'em occupied for a while

I think it is more successful than most of the public realizes. It's the back end data that it provides to management. It's obvious they are using it for business decisions.

 

[rteetz]

Also interesting that they focus (the photos) on the Magicband/MyMagic+. WDW spent a ton of money on it, and it hasn't really been a success for them. I'm sure they would want a competitor to copy that system and throw a bunch of money at it. Keep 'em occupied for a while

Well Disney expected to get a return for MyMagic+. Technology improvements don't always have returns and an infrastructure change like this keeps costing Disney forever until they change it again. Other companies are taking pieces of the system that work and using them to make their systems better. Notice nobody is copying the whole system.

 

[rteetz]

News

Emeril's Florida to feature 3 Disney Springs restaurants

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...t-disney-springs-at-walt-disney-world-resort/

 

[afan]

I'm sure it's dependent on the regions. I don't notice anymore now than I have in the past two years.

I don't think it is. I'm in the Seattle area so I would expect to see more DL and Aulani commercials yet there's far more for WDW than the other 2 combined. It's also not a matter of watching different stations because I see DL and WDW on the same stations. Today was the first Aulani ad in awhile.

During the 60th there was way more commercials for the others and when Aulani was opening, but I imagine it was that way everywhere. Now its probably 65% or more for WDW, 5% for Aulani and 30% or less for DL.

Alaska has 1 nonstop per day to MCO and back so they know people from here go there.

 

[luisov]

I don't think it is. I'm in the Seattle area so I would expect to see more DL and Aulani commercials yet there's far more for WDW than the other 2 combined. It's also not a matter of watching different stations because I see DL and WDW on the same stations. Today was the first Aulani ad in awhile.

During the 60th there was way more commercials for the others and when Aulani was opening, but I imagine it was that way everywhere. Now its probably 65% or more for WDW, 5% for Aulani and 30% or less for DL.

Alaska has 1 nonstop per day to MCO and back so they know people from here go there.

Well, DL probably focuses most of its marketing efforts in the Southern California area, since it heavily relies on locals and AP's, whereas WDW needs to appeal to a much wider audience. Who knows what's their strategy for Aulani, though.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I don't think it is. I'm in the Seattle area so I would expect to see more DL and Aulani commercials yet there's far more for WDW than the other 2 combined. It's also not a matter of watching different stations because I see DL and WDW on the same stations. Today was the first Aulani ad in awhile.

During the 60th there was way more commercials for the others and when Aulani was opening, but I imagine it was that way everywhere. Now its probably 65% or more for WDW, 5% for Aulani and 30% or less for DL.

Alaska has 1 nonstop per day to MCO and back so they know people from here go there.

Well I'm in the middle of the country and I don't believe I have ever seen an Aulani commercial. I don't recall ever seeing a commercial for DLR it's always WDW.

I do get Caribbean commercials especially Atlantis and Sandals a lot (sometimes Beaches) and WDW and they are usually shown much more often in winter and springtime.

I would highly suspect it is regional but also certain areas too. I would suspect that a Disney commercial would be shown more often in my metro area than the rest of the state considering our close proximity to a large airport, KCI (even though it's on the other side of the state line) and the population concentration we have here. Wichita, while it has a large population as well,has an airport but had 736,220 passengers in 2014 compared to KCI's passenger count in 2015 of 10,472,461.

 

[rteetz]

I don't think it is. I'm in the Seattle area so I would expect to see more DL and Aulani commercials yet there's far more for WDW than the other 2 combined. It's also not a matter of watching different stations because I see DL and WDW on the same stations. Today was the first Aulani ad in awhile.

During the 60th there was way more commercials for the others and when Aulani was opening, but I imagine it was that way everywhere. Now its probably 65% or more for WDW, 5% for Aulani and 30% or less for DL.

Alaska has 1 nonstop per day to MCO and back so they know people from here go there.

I'm in Wisconsin and I'm not noticing anymore WDW commercials now than there were 2 years ago.

 

[rteetz]

Well I'm in the middle of the country and I don't believe I have ever seen an Aulani commercial. I don't recall ever seeing a commercial for DLR it's always WDW.

I do get Caribbean commercials especially Atlantis and Sandals a lot (sometimes Beaches) and WDW and they are usually shown much more often in winter and springtime.

I would highly suspect it is regional but also certain areas too. I would suspect that a Disney commercial would be shown more often in my metro area than the rest of the state considering our close proximity to a large airport, KCI (even though it's on the other side of the state line) and the population concentration we have here. Wichita, while it has a large population as well,has an airport but had 736,220 passengers in 2014 compared to KCI's passenger count in 2015 of 10,472,461.

I've never seen a Aulani commercial here either.

 

[PaintsWithAllTheColors]

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask but, does anyone else notice the large uptick in WDW TV advertising? Here in NC its been quite the barrage the past 6 weeks. We hardly watch any commercials (TiVo and Netflix) but it seems whenever we catch one its for WDW. I don't remember seeing these at all hardly in the past 5 or 6 years.

I've definitely noticed it here in So Cal. Between WDW commercials, Aulani commercials and the huge promotions (billboards, radio ads, etc.) for "MSEP is coming home!", there's been quite the deluge of Disney advertisements in the past month!

 

[elizabethswan]

Currently no nighttime parade at MK and no plans for one at this time

Still have the new projection show (Once Upon a Time) and Wishes for nighttime entertainment

thank you to everyone for the replies. have to say i am surprised they haven't stepped in with a replacement but guess that is how it goes. i actually really enjoy all of the night time spectacles and will feel like something is missing, but what can we do, right? thanks again for bringing me up to date everybody : )

 

[elizabethswan]

Rumor

And then we have this...

http://wdwnt.com/blog/2017/01/rumor-paint-night-electrical-parade-still-possibility-magic-kingdom/

hmmmm just saw this. i would love to think that ptn might come to wdw. fingers crossed : )

 

[rteetz]

 

[Sweettears]

Am I crazy to think that MSEP may find it's way back to MK/WDW? Why would they devote the expense to refresh all the floats if they were planning on just using the parade for 6 months and then retiring it. Paint the Night is down for a lengthy modification. (Some indication that CMs were getting injured from some of the positioning on the floats.) However, PTN is supposed to be back by this summer. DLR has no need for two parades.

If they bring MSEP back to WDW...they get to sell it as "back by popular demand!" You get people more excited by taking something away and then returning it than by just keeping it there all along. (Sadly, humans will fall for this as something to be excited about.) WDW saves expenses for a year, DLR gets a temporary parade while PTN is down, and everyone wins.

Don't forget "new and improved".