Concept art for the lobby at the new Luxury Hotel at the Disneyland Resort.
Bob Iger confirmed on the Disney Company quarterly earnings conference call that Disney will be building new resorts in both Disney World and Disneyland. We already knew that Disney was building a new flagship luxury hotel in Disneyland, and from everything we’ve seen about it so far it looks like it’s going to be “the place” to stay when visiting Disneyland California.
Besides the on-going work at the Wilderness Lodge in Walt Disney World however, we haven’t heard anything official about new resorts coming to Orlando. It has been rumored that the Caribbean Beach Resort will be getting a DVC add-on, however that hasn’t been officially confirmed by Disney yet. Here’s what he said:
“We also have other kinds of expansion opportunities, like hotels, for instance,” Iger said. “Not only do we have the property, but we’ve seen such high occupancy rates in Orlando and California, we believe it would be smart for us to build more hotels out … at both sites.”
Was Iger referring to the Caribbean Beach Club DVC expansion or entirely new resorts?
This is coming off the news that Disney reported attendance decreased at the domestic resorts for the fourth quarter compared with the previous year. Disney’s theme parks and resort division reported a 1 percent increase in revenue to $4.4 billion. Operating income decreased 5 percent to $699 million. There are many reasons for the decrease in attendance in attendance, terrorism worries, alligator attacks, Hurricane Matthew, etc. However looking forward, Bob Iger and the rest of the Disney company is extremely positive for the future of the company, and this news about building new resorts is proof of that.
Disney has also had increased competition from Universal Studios in recent years, and likely feels the need to pick up the pace a little and not let the parks get stagnant. New resorts would help, along with the new Avatar Land opening in the Animal Kingdom next year, as well as Toy Story and Star Wars themed lands being developed in Hollywood Studios.
Could a 5th gate also be in the plans in Disney World? Whatever the plans for the company are, I have a feeling we will be finding our a whole bunch this summer at D23 in Anaheim.
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Your Thoughts:
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Photo Credit: Disney Parks Blog
My name is Ziggy and I love Disney, everything Disney! I grew up on Disney and it has and continues to be a huge part of my life. I started young when my parents took me to Disney World when I was 18 months old. Little did they know that would be the first of an uncountable number of trips we would take. I have so many amazing memories going to Disney with my family and friends and it has been interwoven into my DNA.