Disney CFO says its planned $60 billion parks and experiences investment will ramp up in the back half of the next ten years

Nov 08, 2023 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California

Posted: Wednesday November 8, 2023 5:15pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney's Interim CFO Kevin Lansberry has shed more light on Disney's previously announced plans to invest $60 billion in theme parks and experiences over the next ten years.

Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California

Lansberry said that while domestic parks and experiences is expecting solid growth for the next year, that growth will occur towards the end of 2024 due to continued comparisons in the first half of the year from the 50th anniversary at Walt Disney World and inflation.

He reiterated Iger's comments that the company continues to be bullish about the parks with plans to make significant investments over the next ten years to turbocharge growth in this area.

The outgoing CFO said to "expect those investments to ramp up towards the back half of that 10-year period with more gradual increases in the first few years."

Speaking in April 2023 at the Walt Disney Company Annual shareholder meeting, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that Disney plans to spend $17 billion over the next ten years, specifically at Walt Disney World, bringing 13,000 new jobs to the area.

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wannabeBelle3 days ago

Forbes Travel just announced their winners for this year and four of the Celebrity Ships made the cut. Two of the ships, The Ascent and The Millenium have made the 4 star rating and two others, The Apex and the Flora have made the Recommended rating. I have been on the Apex and the Millenium and both were awesome ships. The Apex just seems to keep going to where I want to go so I have been on that one three times and the Millenium twice. Marie

DisneyHead1233 days ago

On vlogs, it’s usually explained as being a positive because your server gets to know you. I can see the extroverts in my family liking that a lot. On the other hand, for my socially anxious self, the group dining situation every night is a potential dealbreaker from ever cruising Disney. Depends a lot on the personalities involved I guess. I also wonder if the rotational dining was originally part of a general overall community theme, when paired with the “neighborhoods” (lounges in one area, shops in one area, etc.) Group dining, getting to know your server, smaller “neighborhoods” - I could see that being a great environment for extroverted, sociable types. That was the environment where things like fish extenders started, after all, so I imagine there was a community feel there. I think with the impersonal environment of the bigger ships some of that is probably lost though, and people getting excited about having the same server suddenly makes less sense.

rd8053 days ago

MSC is a miserable company, with some of the poorest reviews & experiences around. You did the right thing by going to Yacht club though, as they really do cater to you as opposed to virtually ignoring / awful service in anything else.

Sirwalterraleigh4 days ago

Even if they spend that (they won’t…at least not the way fans hope)…it’s diluted by the timeframe As you mess around…what you already rots. The only way to actually sttengthen parks is to let it rip and get things done

Sirwalterraleigh5 days ago

I don’t get this fascinating this fascination with “rotating dining” That’s Disney’s gimmick because they don’t have the upsell locations…which is the way to go Unless you’re on a better line like celebrity

wannabeBelle5 days ago

There is something similar to the rotational dining in the Edge class ships In the Celebrity brand. There are four different dining rooms with the same dishes in each of the four that change each day. Each of the four has a few items that are exclusive to that location and those items do stay the same for the length of the cruise. So for example, in the Normandie dining room they have Coquilles Saint Jacques as one of their specialties on the appetizer selection. The other locations don't have this item on their menus, however they have the items that are on the main dining options for that night and their own specialties. It is a nice option to kind of have the best of all worlds. Also if nothing on the Main Dining suits, the buffet is open for dinner as well and on the last few sailings I have been on, had some excellent choices. The Edge class of ships is the only grouping that have this option of the different dining rooms so far though. Marie

Sirwalterraleigh5 days ago

And of course…there is not one bit of guarantee behind this. TOTS Indeed…you are correct But as the bird said above…it was catchup for nuttin for along time. That decade of basically nothing prior is what has caused most of their park problems which they can’t get back ahead of now.

CJR5 days ago

I hear that, actually. MSC doesn't split either, if I recall correctly. Completely agree though that all lines have their strengths. For us, MSC gave us a butler, private pool area with two hot tubs, premium food and snacks, premium beverage package, a bottle of alcohol in our room, access to the thermal suites, and a few other things like wifi, for about the same price as a non-suite on DCL. The biggest downside for us was the shows and loss of rotating dining rooms. The food was fantastic, but it's in the same place each night. I believe Disney is the only cruise line with rotating dining rooms, Virgin is good too, but it's adults only and we have a kid. We still sail on multiple lines. We're doing Disney in April, Royal Caribbean in the fall, MSC again next year. Royal is fun too, just because of the Aqua Theater and ice skating shows, solid full Broadway shows on some ships too. I actually love the entertainment on Royal more than any cruise line, including Disney. Still, Disney is great all around (especially in service), but at a price.

wannabeBelle5 days ago

A few years back some of the other agents at Kingdom Konsultant and I were talking about this very thing and we priced out a cruise for a number of different family groups and it was crazy on the pricing difference between Royal and Disney. I have done Disney as well, as some of the other brands (Havent gotten to MSC yet) and certainly each has it's positives. There are a few negatives for me with Disney, pricing is among them, as well as limited itineraries as they only have a certain number of ships. Also the beds on the DIsney ships do not split, and as I usually travel with friends or family, I prefer a bed that can be split into two as opposed to sleeping on a pull out bed. The Wonder and the Magic had that when they were first out, but with the Dream and the Fantasy, that changed and when the bedding was replaced on the older ships they switched that over as well. Not a plus for my style of travel at all. Every other line out there does have the option to split the beds into two twins, into the higher end river cruises as well. That is pretty much industry standard, but when I asked about it I was told that this is what the Disney Cruise line clients wanted. Marie

CJR6 days ago

Don't forget MSC. We got status matched straight up to their Diamond status with just ten Disney cruises behind us. Got some great benefits, but the Yacht Club experience was cheaper than an inside room on DCL (at least at the time). We went straight to the top area of the ship for the same budget. Nice private island too.

HauntedPirate6 days ago

I wish I could find my post with the combined net profit of the Parks division for the decade before it became DPEP, and thus muddled with consumer products, compared with what they invested in the domestic parks. The numbers, IIRC, were astounding. And not tipped towards park investment in the slightest.

JD806 days ago

Someone should list all the stuff built right up to the start of COVID which also includes the capitol outlay for what was about to happen at EPCOT. It's a lot.

BrianLo6 days ago

Yup, meant the latter! Just that outside the US I suspect the price of steel goes slightly down.

JoeCamel7 days ago

That was my question, if it is being made in Germany why not use German steel it is (or was) some of the best in the world. I can understand that steel through Canada would be cheaper and that is the largest cost in a ship but I'd think when in Germany do like the Germans do Maybe you mentioned Canada as an influence on the world market not that they were shipping steel to Germany to be used and I didn't get that