'Disney's Celebrate America!' Fourth of July Fireworks Return to Magic Kingdom on July 3 and 4 2025

mysto1 day ago

Hey if any of you hear that accounting shenanigans are about to be exposed please let us know. Asking for a friend.

MisterPenguin1 day ago

Saying current bookings of future reservations are up is a matter of fact that can be proved or disproved by paperwork. Faking the numbers of last quarter can land you in jail or paying tens of millions in fines. And maybe a stockholder suit. And loss of job. Future numbers based on projects could indeed be wrong without even the intent to be wrong, they're just educated guesswork. Future capex has been very publicly announced and is part of a handshake agreement with Florida and Anaheim. You don't very publicly promise it and then not go through with it. (Especially since we see the capex being spent right now on refreshed rides, new attractions, and new shows.) Also, the following years' financial statements will show that you're a big fat liar if you don't spend the capex you promised. Projecting an overly rosy future will bite you in the behind if it doesn't pan out. The financials of the next few quarters will show that... you're a big fat liar. This works both ways. In order to make the conspiratorial claim that WDW hides away wings of their resorts to make their attendance rate look good is a moronic argument because it needs to be made quarter after quarter to keep up the claim that Disney is failing. But you can't keep closing off wings of hotels quarter after quarter... there'd be no rooms left.

JMcMahonEsq1 day ago

It tells me they are just another tin hat internet conspiracy theorist, just shouting nonsense with no facts. I mean sure the sec, internal auditors, external auditors, the activist shareholders, the board challengers, none of them have any evidence, but someone from your mom’s basement have the real truth. It’s like people talking about bein surprised with earning reports or attendance figures. It’s not that they are surprised, it’s you have no real clue. They have no real access to numbers or data. But they see a YouTube clip, or can find a reservation on line and all of a sudden they know attendance is down

Jrb19791 day ago

What people are saying is not so much they are fudging the billions they made or faking the numbers of last quarter attendance. What people are saying is future numbers can be fudged in terms of future bookings, or capex.

Chi841 day ago

It tells me there’s no evidence. Or it could be a Pixie Dust conspiracy.

MisterPenguin1 day ago

Not to mention Chapek is being sued for the claim of moving money around to make D+ (at that time) look better. That's what happens when you fudge the numbers. Either the SEC or the shareholders come after you. To anyone who thinks Disney is doing monkey business with their financials: Drop the dime on them. Report it to the SEC. Oh, what's that? I've been saying that for over a decade and no one has actually reported anything that led to an investigation? What does that say?

Sirwalterraleigh1 day ago

I think that is agreed upon by everyone now… But what’s it doing? Option A: “it’s so magical and everyone loves yet another great disney product!!” Option B: it’s covering for the losses they’re taking across the board on a day to day basis…but until that dries up we won’t have any definitely evidence of how the sausage is being made? I’m 50/50 on which option I’m leaning towards 😎 I’ll say this about lighting lane…they have managed to make easy money. It’s not the first or last time something they did has succeeded beyond reasonable expectations. It’s Disney…they get that benefit a lot. LL is literally money for zero cost…none It’s the second biggest racket lb for lb in the park. Impressive for sure.

Sirwalterraleigh1 day ago

The last part is key… So they surprised us. That happens all the time. But what about next quarter? We’re talking very light park attendance (there really is no way to deny it…hell, the head of this board just said it - which isn’t often seen), bombing movies more than the IRA…and a lot of overall economic uncertain that has resulted in a reduction of discretionary spending this year (that is as fact) due in part to happy Gilmores crazy unhinged economic ramblings and daily flip flopping. Not at all good for a high price leisure peddler, is it? So we shall see what the cards say this time?

HauntedPirate1 day ago

LL revenue is doing a lot of heavy lifting. IMHO.

Dranth1 day ago

I don't disagree with a lot of that but, you can only BS so long before the numbers just don't agree with what you are saying. For example, let's say they lied about attendance being up last quarter. Okay, then you would expect to see a drop in revenue for the segment. If there isn't one, people ask questions. Management could very well have an answer, even a good one, that makes sense, but that only works for so long without lying on your actual filings. If they keep saying attendance is up quarter after quarter yet revenue (which we see and know about price increases) keeps dropping disconnected from costs (which we see) we know something is off. As for the numbers themselves, sure, there is a lot of accounting black magic you can do, but it still doesn't hold up over time. Combine that with Disney being willing to admit and even mention when bookings are down repeatedly over the years (including recently) and I see no reason to currently doubt them on that point. I was one of the folks that was very much expecting attendance to be down in the last report, it wasn't. So, either I made a wrong assumption, or they are lying. Given the track record of their reporting, I see no reason to currently doubt them. None of that means they don't have problems. They obviously do, it just didn't manifest in the way many of us thought it would last quarter.

MisterPenguin1 day ago

You mean like when your streaming service loses $1.5B in one quarter and you say everything's great?

Sirwalterraleigh1 day ago

I’m not arguing with you on this point…but public companies are NOT well regulated in 2025. Banks rip people off intentionally to the tune of billions and nobody gets the hook…they pay a fine…maybe? Kinda the new normal is modern robber baron But to your point…they’re not gonna fudge hard numbers…but the whole point of grouping like 1,000 unrelated business items in one segment is it provides a completely legit way to praise the good things while burying the bad. That doesn’t cover “bookings are up”…that is has nothing to tie them too. It’s “guidance” for sure but can be splained away. As is “we’re gonna spend like a bazillion dollars on our parks…sometime”. That’s like trying to capture a cloud in a butterfly net. Nobody is tied to any part of it. “Things changed” covers such statements. What happened with that last quarterly call definitely falls in the “enigma” category. Nobody expected that. And not just we hacks on this board…the actual stock wonks were rather shocked that day. So it creates a certain “doubt” as to where it came from. I think we all can understand the confusion… “Their parks are lagging and their streaming is just above red line and they tank like 85% of their movie releases each year…so no wonder things are GREAT! Yay, Bob” My slightly (I’ll admit) conspiratorial take is he REALLY needed that. Yutz had reappointed himself 2 years prior and nothing was better on the bottomline…there was public bad PR on a proxy fight and clashes with governments…and they were lagging way behind the market for quite some time…so the calls for retirement/replacement were going to get VERY real. And then R2D2 fixed the hyperdrive just in time. Lying? From a fiduciary take no “Hey guys…this one has to be a good show”? You decide

Dranth1 day ago

I want to add a little here and perhaps push back a bit on the reporting. Traditionally, it is pretty rare for the filings themselves to be C-suite fan fiction and from conversations I have had over the last few months, many are looking to go above and beyond typical measures to make sure they are being accurate on those filings. People don't want to leave any potential opening in case they draw the attention of the current admin for any reason. Now the calls, those allow for a lot more spin but there are still limits. Investors, analyst, market reporters, the public, etc. are all sitting there with the data in hand as we listen. More than one CEO has lost their position from trying to paint a rosy picture while everyone is looking at the disaster plainly spelled out on paper.

Sirwalterraleigh2 days ago

I don’t know Some of it is hotel tactics and that isn’t necessarily a “Disney thing” But I think it’s more primal. To bust prices down or reverse mistakes like DME would be to show vulnerability and it won’t be allowed to happen. It’s hubris. Textbook. One thing they affects TWDC now is what happens in most if not all businesses. Rich people have a few commonalities: Ambition, Brains and luck. They can be highly effective if it’s in balance. But as they get older…they become a slave to ambition and deny that luck ever existed…which leads to where Disney is. Time is the other thing 20 years is WAY too long. They already learned that lesson and are less prepared to deal with ir now than they were in 2005. Cults of personality never last. This is the biggest issue. They’re incapacitated to deal with mistakes because big boy no longer believes mistakes are possible. Look at the track record. They have tossed some pretty laughable excuses for troubles (minor ones) In the overall portfolio. Which isn’t an embarrassment…all business have failures with some regularity. It just makes it worse. But that doesn’t get inside the echo chamber. Mmm hmmm…I’m Glad you said it..cause I’d get torched🔥 These SM “creators” are a bad thing for consumers. I suspect 99% of them are either locals who aren’t digging UCF or college program boomerangs who Weren’t digging Ohio anymore And to believe clickbait as “official” makes for a really gullible group of customers