Walt Disney Parks and Resorts chairman Tom Staggs unevils the future of DisneyWorld

Full transcript can be found at the following link:

http://corporate.disney.go.com/news/...Conference.pdf

Some snippets:-

Meanwhile, we’re also investing for growth at Walt Disney World… which
is, of course, our biggest and most profitable asset. For most of our
guests, the centerpiece of a Walt Disney World vacation is a visit to the
Magic Kingdom. And the most popular land in the Magic Kingdom is
Fantasyland, with its iconic characters and popular characters. But
Fantasyland has seen relatively little expansion since the park opened in
1971. Consequently, it can be extremely congested and difficult to
navigate on busier days. That decreases the number of experiences
guests can enjoy, which in turn directly impacts guest satisfaction. With
this in mind, we are well into the expansion that is the largest in the
Magic Kingdom’s history, and it will double the size of Fantasyland once
complete. By expanding the offerings of our most popular land, we have a
real opportunity to drive guest satisfaction even higher.
And we know that when we increase guest satisfaction, guests spend
more time and more of their vacation dollars with us… and intent to
return and positive word of mouth increase as well. We also have an
opportunity to better utilize some of our most beloved stories and
characters in new attractions, dining experiences and immersive
environments to create a differentiated experience that no one else can

match, like Under the Sea: Journey of The Little Mermaid, which will
take guests into the world of Ariel, Sebastian, Flounder and all their
friends.
Not far from Ariel’s new home, guests will be able to relive their favorite
moments from Beauty and the Beast in Belle’s Village and Beast’s Castle.
One of the most popular attractions of the Magic Kingdom, Dumbo the
Flying Elephant, will double in guest capacity, and will also feature a
circus-themed interactive queue that will delight guests of all ages as
they enter the Big Top.
Finally, we’re adding an innovative new mine coaster based on one of our
most iconic and enduring films, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This
attraction will feature a new ride vehicle that we patented, which twists
and turns on its track… adding atmosphere, kinetics and adventure to
Fantasyland.
We have additional opportunities at our resorts as well. In 2013, we’ll
open our new Art of Animation Resort at Walt Disney World. This new
property celebrates some of our most popular animated stories, including
The Little Mermaid, Lion King, Finding Nemo, and Cars. The resort will
have nearly 2,000 rooms, including 1,200 family suites, giving us
significant boost in our attractive value-priced room inventory. Now our
value resorts, and especially our family suites, play an important part in
providing our guests with a broad range of hotel and pricing options.
They’ve been extremely successful and have generated some of the
highest occupancy rates on our property.
We believe these initiatives in Florida and California will allow us to
deliver attendance growth that outpaces population growth by several
percentage points. By delivering better value, we also feel we can
generate real increases in per capita spending. For example, we’re
already seeing a pricing benefit from World of Color. While previously,
crossing between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure was
essentially free for people on a two-day passes, there is now a $10
premium to park hop.
In addition to focusing on expanding and enhancing our physical assets,
we’re also spending considerable time and energy to fundamentally
change the way our guests experience our properties. As we’ve discussed
in the past, consumers are changing: they have increasing access to
information, an increasing array of choices, and an increasing desire and

expectation for recognition and personalization and recognition. So we
need to transform the guest experience to reflect that.
We know that our guests love creating great Disney memories with their
friends and their families. We also know that they don't exactly relish
waiting in line, checking at the resort, worrying about missing their
favorite attractions or feeling uncertain how to best navigate and access
our properties. In the coming years, we’ll introduce a broad, integrated
set of systems and tools that will help us create a more seamless,
personalized experience, and help guests to get more out of their visit
with us. That’s our ultimate goal – to welcome more and more people,
while making their experience more satisfying, more personal and more
immersive.
We’ve launched a number of initiatives over the years, including
FASTPASS and Magical Express, and they’ve been incredibly popular
with our guests. But we plan to take these kinds of enhancements even
further. Giving our guests faster and better access to the fun is the
centerpieces of our investment in technology. As a result, we are
currently developing an innovative system that will, in essence, create a
version of FASTPASS for their entire Disney vacations. Now we define the
guest experience as beginning from the time a potential guest sits down
at a computer or picks up a phone to make a reservation. Our new tools
will help them better understand all that we have to offer and better plan
their time with us. They’ll be able to create a personalized itinerary that
gives them the exact Disney vacation they want.
Guests will be able to reserve times for their favorite attractions and
character interactions… secure seats at our shows and spectaculars…
make dining reservations… and pre-book many other favorite guest
experiences – all before even leaving their house. We also plan to simplify
the check-in process so that guests will arrive at the resort with room
key in hand. They will be able to go straight to their room or a theme
park – again, allowing them to get to the fun faster.
We are also creating innovative new ways to pull guests into our stories.
A picture with a Disney princess is a quintessential part of a Disney
experience for many of our guests. So, in Fantasyland at the Magic
Kingdom, our Disney princesses will soon have dedicated homes
complete with Disney magic. And the tools that we’re creating will allow
them to greet and interact with our guests in an immersive and highlypersonalized
way.


We are rethinking the queue lines at many of our attractions, and are
enhancing them in ways that make them part of the show, essentially
creating a new “Scene One” for the attractions, if you will. For example,
the Winnie the Pooh attraction in Florida we just opened has a new
hands-on area where our younger guests can explore and play in the
Hundred Acre Wood. It’s been so successful that we’ve heard kids asking
their parents NOT to use FASTPASS in order to enjoy the new first scene
that much longer. You know we are doing something right if kids are
asking to wait in line.
We’re also developing the means to better assess and manage guest
traffic throughout our theme parks so that we can use entertainment
experiences, characters, and other forms of Disney magic to help improve
the flow of guests during peak periods… and drive increased utilization
as a result for our parks. Through this work, we will put better
information into the hands of our cast, so they can deliver even better
and more personalized service for our guests. Now, it will be some time
before we roll out the bulk of these initiatives, but we are well into
development, and in fact have a number of patents pending on our
approach. So it’s too early for me to say much more than that… but our
vision here is clear, and we see a real opportunity to further enhance and
differentiate the Disney vacation experience.