Splash and BTMR closed again this morning? [Thursday Feb. 22nd]

Colleen27 said:

But these things aren't as unknowable as some like to pretend they are. We do know some things. Some because they're a matter of public record or widely reported as news, some because they're reported in Disney's disclosures as a publicly traded company, some because we hear first-hand reports from cast, some because we see them with our own eyes. You can look at annual earnings reports and see how the parks division has essentially subsidized less/unprofitable segments of the company, keeping the bottom line on target to meet expectations and keep stock prices chugging along despite issues elsewhere in the company. You can read, in the company's own words that WDW is performing well because of lower costs and higher ticket and room prices. You can read about increased capital spending due to the Shanghai park, partially offset by lower spending on domestic parks. This information is all out there and public for anyone who wants to look (and like a lot of fans, I own a small amount of Disney stock so I tend to bother reading it from time to time).

But even if it wasn't, some of this stuff is just weak excuses. For example - Disney is having such a hard time attracting housekeeping staff that they're offering huge sign-on bonuses... but at the same time, they're withholding their promised (and widely reported for all that good press) tax-cut bonuses to as leverage to try to get the union to concede to keeping hourly wages flat. It is disingenuous to pretend that is out of their control. They are consciously striving to keep wages down, even if it means being chronically understaffed, despite market conditions that demand increases. When unemployment is low, wages are expected to rise; Disney is trying to fight Econ 101 here, either for the sake of short-term profit goals or because they anticipate an impending economic downturn and don't want to be "stuck" paying higher wages that they feel will soon be unnecessary, and in the meantime the guest experience suffers.

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Colleen27 said:

But these things aren't as unknowable as some like to pretend they are. We do know some things. Some because they're a matter of public record or widely reported as news, some because they're reported in Disney's disclosures as a publicly traded company, some because we hear first-hand reports from cast, some because we see them with our own eyes. You can look at annual earnings reports and see how the parks division has essentially subsidized less/unprofitable segments of the company, keeping the bottom line on target to meet expectations and keep stock prices chugging along despite issues elsewhere in the company. You can read, in the company's own words, that WDW is performing well because of lower costs and higher ticket and room prices. You can read about increased capital spending due to the Shanghai park, partially offset by lower spending on domestic parks. This information is all out there and public for anyone who wants to look (and like a lot of fans, I own a small amount of Disney stock so I tend to bother reading it from time to time).

But even if it wasn't, some of this stuff is just weak excuses. For example - Disney is having such a hard time attracting housekeeping staff that they're offering huge sign-on bonuses... but at the same time, they're withholding their promised (and widely reported for all that good press) tax-cut bonuses to as leverage to try to get the union to concede to keeping hourly wages flat. It is disingenuous to pretend that is out of their control. They are consciously striving to keep wages down, even if it means being chronically understaffed, despite market conditions that demand increases. When unemployment is low, wages are expected to rise; Disney is trying to fight Econ 101 here, either for the sake of short-term profit goals or because they anticipate an impending economic downturn and don't want to be "stuck" paying higher wages that they feel will soon be unnecessary, and in the meantime the guest experience suffers.

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whiporee said:

I don't think it's the complaints nearly as much as it is the statements behind the complaints -- ie, WDW is penny pinching and not living up to its own standards, yada yada yada -- when in fact NONE of us here understand why things happen at WDW the way they do. Maybe they can't hire people to work the late-night shift to repair rides, or do housekeeping or be polite to every single guest that walks in the gates. Unemployment is at a relatively low level these days. Or maybe the higher influxes of people wear the rides down faster and because most of the headliners at WDW are 25+years old which makes them even more susceptible to breaking down, and there's no real way to replace them, because they need rebuilds, not repairs, but doing so disappoints and angers people who made their vacation plans two years ago. Maybe all the people in scooters need more time to get in and out of cars. Maybe FP+, while having the advantage of cutting down on individual wait times, has increased wait times across the board because people get ore spread out. You call them "cutbacks" without a single bit of actual evidence that a) budgets have actually been cut and b) those hypothetical cuts are the reason for problems. We don't see WDW's operating budget; we have no idea where this year compares to last years or compares to two or three decades ago. Yet people have absolutely no issue saying as fact WDW is cutting back in order to increase profits.

We don't know why bad things happen at WDW -- why rides get taken off line or don't run perfectly -- but the assumption is always because WDW is not doing the best they can to increase guest satisfaction. Just like you say every single complaint is defended, I'd say that every single complaint is taken both as gospel and an example that WDW is only out to steal as much money as it can from its guests. I'd also say that the commentary in a thread like this is aggressive in both its tone and assumptions. Many of the people commenting are not in the park at all -- they're watching the app and making commentary and criticism based on things they are not actually experiencing, and extrapolating into pretty wholesale condemnation.

I'd also add this -- I've been at WDW when rides have been down. it's disappointing. But its not a long-time and reoccurring issue for most of us. A lot of people here have gone to the parks without wholesale outages, and they want to make that point to people reading. Like you said earlier, you're nervous about an upcoming trip, and some people are just trying to point out that maybe, just maybe, those worries might not be as legitimate as these boards sometimes make it seem.

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Louie7080 said:

If Disney isn't paying enough people to fix things, clean things, etc... because there is no one to hire, then why do they keep increasing the prices of everything? For other types of businesses, shoddy results don't get a bunch of customers defending them. Grocery stores that are dirty and can't keep things stocked? Who is going to defend that? Airlines with delays, lost baggage, bad customer interactions.... nobody is defending them. Why is Disney above complaint and speculation of greed or ineptitude?

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Mich Mouse said:

Has anyone else heard that this was a union issue/sick out? I was told yesterday that the negotiations have not been going well with the electrical union and Disney. A Teamster shared this information with me yesterday at the BWV pool. Not very magical if this is true- but it seems believable as this is exactly the way some unions operate when negotiating unfortunately.

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marcyleecorgan said:

Ride closures are ALSO because misbehaving guests do stupid things like stick hands out and touch stuff, drop belongings on the tracks, etc....
If people are constantly doing activities to set the security sensors off, well, I mean, I just don't know what anyone expects Disney to do!

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marcyleecorgan said:

Ride closures are ALSO because misbehaving guests do stupid things like stick hands out and touch stuff, drop belongings on the tracks, etc....
If people are constantly doing activities to set the security sensors off, well, I mean, I just don't know what anyone expects Disney to do!

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