My Magic comments

A long article by Tim Grassey at MiceChat.com talks about the strategy behind the MyMagic+ system and how it represents a change in thinking by Disney executives compared to several years ago. Tim goes into great detail with major developments and WDW and year to year attendance figures.  The premise of the article is that Disney is on a long road to failure with the new system which, like many other developments, is intended to keep people at the parks and spend more money.  Rather than invest in new attractions as Universal is doing, Disney is reportedly spending over $1.5 billion on this technology to keep people from going off property.   

For 35 years, Disney World had steady organic growth generated largely by continued reinvestment into the parks themselves. However since Expedition Everest debuted in 2006, Disney has failed to innovate in Central Florida. Financiers have taken over the company from the creative minds that made it great.

Led by Iger and now CFO Jay Rasulo, the company has sacrificed guest satisfaction in favor of getting the most money out of a guest on their current trip. This shortsightedness sacrifices future profits for current cash flow. In Disney’s eyes there will always be a new crop of guests to replace those they lose. Repeat visitors aren’t as profitable as the first timer. Every corporate decision is made with the next quarter’s balance sheet in mind while five, ten and twenty year plans are seemingly non-existent.

Strip mining Walt Disney World is not a long term plan, and it’s one that will eventually catch up with those doing the mining. There are no diamonds left to uncover, no matter how many Dwarfs are sent to look for them.

The article is obviously highly critical of Disney's current strategy.  According to the article, Disney is trying to avoid getting into an attraction war with other theme parks and get people to spend more money instead.  But this may be a losing strategy as the novelty wears off and the supply of first time guests starts to decline. The problems will be more obvious if the MyMagic+ system fails to generate enough revenue to compensate for the replacement and upgrade of the technological components.  Then Disney will have sunk over $1.5 billion (pun intended) into technology without having new attractions to attract people.