I've always supported Disney and while others complained about their pricing I thought it represented good value when you factored in the Parks, transport , property maintenance, roads, lighting and everything.
But recently I find my view changing.
I was reading recently about how Disney concentrates it's resources on attractions that can somewhat fund themseives by selling lightning lanes. Attractions that don't are maybe getting cut.
It got me thinking about the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer's Island that were there but didn't need a LL. So no revenue stream from them. What they've done is replace them with something that will require a lightning lane to sell us.
Then I started to think about the posted wait times for rides. Guests see a published wait time in excess of their needs and buy a lightning lane. But what if those times are exagerrated ? How often do you get in a line with a published wait time of 90 mins and yet you're on sooner ?
Many will blindly accept that the forecast wait times are genuine but could they be just panicking people into parting with their money for an unnecessary fast pass ? I realise that I've become cynical but back in the 90's and noughties Disney , I thought , played pretty fairly. but not so much now. The management today worries me. How long before they start looking at the costs of maintaining Bay Lake and running the Ferries and think that maybe that they should charge extra for the ferries or worse still that the lake should be drained like ROR and replaced with an attraction with a lightning lane to transport guests from TTC to Magic Kingdom ?
Why not ? Walt's dreams are being ignored and it's just about the money right ?
We've got a Cars attraction coming to MK yet the sign on the door tells us that we enter a world of yesterday , tomorrow and fantasy. Not a world of today.
It has really gotten disheartening to see how much companies bow to the pressures of Wall Street. It has gotten to the point where it's no longer about creating successful products, experiences, or ensuring employee satisfaction, it's all about pleasing investors. While all of those are interconnected, and that having happy employees who create successful products and experiences for customers typically leads to financial success, there are ways to be financially successful while completely ignoring your products, experiences, and employees. It's increasingly turning into an every 3-months race to find additional revenue/profit to either meet or exceed the previous quarter's projections, which often has NOTHING to do with the actual business. The cycle then starts all over again with investors expecting more and more every period regardless of the prevailing economic conditions or business cycles.
That is why Disney has been doubling down on their Parks and Experiences division, because that is where the company can routinely squeeze extra money to meet/exceed projections and where there is actual room for organic growth. All of these marketing videos and "behind the scenes" documentaries are nothing but Wall Street propaganda to influence investors who drive the valuation of the company as a whole.
No you can't trust them... hahahahah
Universal is Trustworthy.
They have been a PIA for a while Now - Lets say you get a 1 day pass for AK Then you have to pick the day also. What if it is pouring rain and I want to go a different day?
The company has gotten too greedy - and yes it is all because of investors.
In my opinion, the quality of the experience Disney offers started to decline in the mid-2000s as the parks started focusing less on being a special place of their own and more as an additional branch used to push Disney's properties. This was also around the time that Disney started focusing on programs encouraged to drive repeat visitation, such as monthly payment plans on annual passes and significant increase in the vacation club. A lot of this was slow enough that many overlooked it, but after the pandemic disrupted normal Disney visitation patterns it became more apparent, then massive cuts in the early 2020s combined with significant price increases have broken the illusion of Disney for many.
This isn't just a Disney issue, though, but is more symptomatic of a broader industry trend to focus on guaranteed revenue and premium upcharges rather than driving profits by providing a high quality experience. Whether it's through creating attractions featuring popular IP or offering deals that seem like a bargain, the parks are just trying to get people to buy in, and once they've got your money they don't care if you feel satisfied. It's a very short-sighted strategy that will make financial numbers look good in the moment, but as visitors form a mixed or negative opinion of your product, your customer base declines and profits erode away. This creates a need to invest in new attractions to get them to return, but if declining income means there's no money to do that or the investment can't generate returns, it turns into a death spiral for the operator. Unfortunately, I have a feeling the industry (at least in North America) has passed that tipping point and is slowly trending toward a major collapse, one which could potentially be accelerated by world events depending on how things play out over the next few years.
Well, here's another question, what about the famed imagineers? I would like to get in the theme park designing and building business, but I have come at a cross- roads. Either take imagineers, the famed theme park professionals who design amazing technology... that don't usually get used at all, especially in theme parks, despite the occasional Star Wars or avatar world. Or on the other spectrum, working for universal creative, who from what I can tell have their hands full of new and exciting projects, not only designing a new ride, not only a new land, but countless theme parks chock full of new rides to design. anyways, what I'm trying to say is has imagineers gone down with Disney?
I live right next to Disney, literally five minutes, and rarely ever go anymore. I've gone a total of one day this year and that's just because there were some friends in town that are DVC members and I wanted to spend the day with them. And I have a small child who loves Disney.
Disney is a perfect example of what happens when something becomes too popular, the management gets cocky and thinks they can just do whatever they want and continue to be successful. Now its way too expensive, has way too many arbitrary policies that take all the fun out of it, and in regards to new additions they keep doing the same thing over and over again (everything has to be IP and promote some franchise) and there is no creativity whatsoever. Its a content factory. I really, really miss the days where Disney would build stuff and you'd be like "WOW only Disney would do that..." Now its "Disney and Universal doing the same things over and over again...another IP land...another IP conversion of an attraction/hotel, another big box hotel" over and over and over. The absurdity of what they did at the Polynesian would be funny if it wasn't so sad, its like they are purposely trying to shout at people: "Hey everyone, look at how much better we were in the 1970s than we are now!"
TBH I think one of the main drivers of WDW, UO, and SWO's success in the last decade has been the huge influx of people/wealth of people moving to Florida and the Southeast region in general. There's just a lot more people and a lot more money than there used to be.
As long as you can keep Disney in the proper context, you can trust Disney. They're a business and they've got to make money to pay their investors and employees and to build the attractions and experiences that bring us to the park. If you expect more than that from them, you're probably going to be disappointed. If you modify your expectations according to the business that they are, Disney will meet if not exceed your wishes.
I've had my complaints about Disney in the past, but it usually centered around their cheapness and lack of investment in the parks (second half of the Eisner era). Now, they're building parks and attractions with vigor, and I'm extremely pleased with them. Sure prices have gone up, but I've always advocated for that as long as I got something of value in return, and I have. A Disney park is a wonderful premium experience, but you will fork over the money if you want to experience it.
My wife and I went to the Magic Kingdom yesterday, and we had a great time. We used Lightning Lane to ride some favorites that we love, and the queue times for the other rides weren't bad at all. The food was terrific, and we left after about six hours in the park feeling very pleased with our visit. Yes, it was pricey, but it was worth every penny.
Another great question, Rob P. And the responses are all further excellent reading. Keep the questions and responses coming.
The power of the $ has been and will continue to drive decisions. We have to accept it as it will only change if people stop going and they have to re-define their model.
While I have been vocal against their pricing for several years on here I also marvel at what they have done at WDW to influence guests from never venturing off-property to maximise guest spending. No matter how I look at it, it is genial.
It's pretty common knowledge that wait times are usually inflated by five to fifteen minutes. That way, guests get off the ride sooner than expected, and it improves the experience. However, if Disney is doing it for the lightning lanes. . .well, that's a scary thought. . .