Bob Chapek ‘Pissed Off’ He Couldn’t Finish What He Started as CEO, Defends Disney Parks Price Increases.
Disgruntled ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek is breaking his silence ahead of his tell-all memoir that covers his rise, fall, and supposed scapegoating. We had previously questioned whether the book would actually tell his side of the ‘Battle of the Bobs’ saga or be mostly fluff to avoid Iger’s wrath. It appears Chapek’s chosen the scorched earth approach, and with that, the Days of Our Disney Lives soap opera is renewed for another season.
If you’ve just joined Bob vs. Bob already in progress, you’re in for a real treat. We aren’t going to recap everything that has transpired, but here’s a quick refresher. After being named CEO in early 2020, Disney Fired CEO Bob Chapek and Rehired Bob Iger as CEO back in November 2022. That article recapped this saga dating back to 2020 and covered why we weren’t surprised by this development.
There were a lot of subsequent developments in the Battle of the Bobs that trickled out over the course of the last four years, but the Disney drama had been colored by Bob Iger bias. It was obvious that the Iger camp was providing background, while Chapek kept pretty much completely silent.
That is, until around this time in September 2023 when news “broke” that Bob Chapek Claimed Being Disney CEO Was 3 Years of Hell, But He Pet a Hippo. That was very clearly written in coordination with the Chapek camp, and frankly, it still made him look incredibly incompetent.
Although I will say that Chapek’s enthusiasm for petting a hippo did give me a newfound respect for the man, and proved to me that perhaps he was human after all. The big difference was that article also made Bob Iger look bad! Our assumption is that his book will be more of the same, as Chapek seeks to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he truly does have low emotional intelligence, while taking down Iger along with him.
Bob Chapek’s memoir, titled Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth, will be released on Tuesday, September 29, 2026. Ahead of that, the New York Times obtained a copy of the book and shared some of its key throughlines.
My sincere hope is that Chapek’s memoir is like a modern day Moby Dick, with the dramatic narrative fueled by his manic desire for revenge against the white sperm whale CEO that bit off his leg bruised his ego, and the book fleshed out with a bunch of haphazard hippopotamus facts.
Obviously, the book is biased and it’s hard to say Chapek can be trusted as a reliable narrator. It’s nevertheless quite the treat to hear the story straight from the horse’s mouth. He knows where some of the bodies are buried, and seemingly has nothing left to lose (as evidenced by this book’s existence) as he tries to re-establish himself as a leader.
Here are some of the most interesting takeaways per the NYT, and our ‘assessment’ of each claim that Chapek makes…
It Wasn’t Chapek’s Fault
What wasn’t Chapek’s fault? Any and all of it! If something bad happened during the Chapek era, it was either your fault as a fan for not understanding his big-brained strategy, or those those meddling kids executives who messed up his master plan. Chapek rejects any personal responsibility for his downfall. He places all blame on a “relentless” sabotage campaign by Bob Iger.
“My abrupt dismissal hurt my reputation, leaving those close to me, outsiders and some within the kingdom trying to figure out what I did wrong,” Chapek writes. “The answer, again, is nothing.” He proudly embraces the mantle of “disrupter,” a moniker he invokes repeatedly throughout, while acknowledging that his “legacy wasn’t memorialized in a positive way.”
I’m not the least bit surprised by this. Towards the end of his tenure, it became increasingly clear that Chapek had lost the plot. He became increasingly defensive, openly faulting fans for not comprehending his approach. I was never a fan of Chapek, but I’ve previously pointed to this October 2022 WSJ conference as being the point where he completely and irrevocably lost me. The book sounds like a continuation of that. It’s unfortunate that, he hasn’t taken the time for self-reflection or introspection.
Iger Set Him Up to Fail
Obviously, it wouldn’t be Disney’s Battle of the Bobs without an underlying feud, and Chapek fans the flames on that. He claims that Iger played “an intentional and preconceived role in abruptly ending my ride as Disney C.E.O.” Chapek asserts that Iger disparaged him in private conversations with Hollywood elite and loyalists within Disney, sharing that Chapek had iced Iger out of the process.
Chapek portrays Iger as manipulative and egotistic, maneuvering in a calculated manner to preserve his own authority after stepping down, before ultimately seizing back the CEO seat. “I didn’t get a chance to finish what I started,” Mr. Chapek writes. “In truth, it pisses me off.”
Just based on the voluminous coverage of the Battle of the Bobs to date, all of this strikes me as more or less true. Even the leaks that clearly came out of the Iger camp suggested that he was bitter about being excluded by Chapek and aired his grievances all across Hollywood and within Disney. The only question I have here is what exactly is Chapek pissed off about not finishing? Burning it all down behind him?!
Chapek Unapologetic in Quest to Ruin Parks
Chapek faced criticism that he had taken his drive for higher revenue too far, both during his tenure as Parks Chair and subsequently as CEO. Under Chapek, Disney sharply raised prices on admission and monetized previously-free perks, all while ruthlessly cutting costs.
In the book, he’s unapologetic about this approach. Rather, Chapek proudly recounts bringing airline-style dynamic pricing to Disney’s parks and argues that higher prices helped reduce crowding and increase guest satisfaction. “We’d been, at a minimum, leaving revenue opportunities on the table to avoid stirring the hornet’s nest,” Chapek writes, pointing to the significant profit growth during his tenure as parks chairman.
None of this is remotely surprising, and comports with Chapek’s contemporaneous comments throughout his tenure as CEO. (Look back at that October 2022 WSJ conference if you don’t recall.) It was also supported by Bob Iger making it clear that he had been “alarmed” by price increases at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, and was concerned that Chapek was “killing the soul” of Disney.
A little over a month after Iger’s return, Walt Disney World made 3 big changes to restore value and improve flexibility, including the return of free overnight parking at the hotels. Mere months after that, the company announced 5 major improvements to make your visit easier. Then there was the switch from Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass along with other queueing changes aimed at better balancing the interests of all guests.
Obviously, prices have not decreased since Chapek left. Fans will be quick to point that out. However, the rate of increases decelerated dramatically; Walt Disney World tickets, for instance, did not increase between late 2022 and 2024, after going up twice per year (and by pretty big jumps) during the Chapek era.
Despite worsening inflation since, Disney price increases have cooled, discounts have become more abundant, and the value proposition has generally improved. It’s still nothing like 2019, but few things are anywhere, and the bulk of the damage was undeniably done under Chapek. I can only imagine how much worse off we’d be were Chapek allowed to “finish what he started.”
Iger Left Due to COVID
Chapek questions the purported reasons for Iger stepping down abruptly as CEO in February 2020 and advance a more conspiratorial explanation. “I have been told by several high-ranking people both in government and private business that in their opinions, the real reason he left the company so abruptly was his anticipation of the arrival of Covid,” Mr. Chapek writes. He also suggests that Iger believed he could reclaim the CEO role whenever he wanted.
We’ve questioned the transition timeline from the beginning, since literally the very day the announcement was made back in early 2020! Disney has disputed it since, and tried to paint a picture of a tidier succession process than actually existed. That’s clearly revisionist history, and Disney’s official story has more plot holes than middling Star Wars fanfic.
The whole sequence of events defied Disney’s normally meticulous and methodical approach under Iger, and was complete at-odds with his repeated extensions. Given that there was no turmoil in his personal life, it was clearly about COVID. Iger saw the writing on the wall based on what had happened with the parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong, along with other business interests in China.
My surprise here, as before, is that Chapek didn’t realize all of this at the time! Chapek was clearly chosen as a matter of expediency. He was picked to be the hatchet man who made unpopular and difficult decisions to get the Walt Disney Company through a tough time, presumably before the company hit refresh with a clean slate (or the triumphant return of Iger). Previously, whether Chapek was set up as a fall guy or a witting and willing participant in the process was more of an open question. I guess now we have our answer.
Chapek Takes Credit for D’Amaro
According to Chapek’s telling, new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro was his protégé and “the tip of my spear” in all of his disrupting. “I consistently suggested the idea of promoting him,” Chapek writes. “He had been a relative unknown in the corporate hierarchy before I singled him out.”
This is a bold claim, and perhaps the most interesting of all in the teaser because it’s the one that wasn’t already well-established. We have long wondered about D’Amaro’s role in the Chapek regime, the extent to which he supported or actively advocated for dubious decisions, and which ones he fought.
With certain policies, it’s obvious. Park reservations, for instance, were D’Amaro’s baby and something he’d launched at Disneyland pre-COVID. This is one reason why the parks have stubbornly clung to them well past their sell-by date. However, we also know that D’Amaro was not on board with Chapek’s plans for more aggressive layoffs, which Iger “overruled.”
Without having any inside information here, I’m disinclined to believe any of Chapek’s claims here. Again, he’s an unreliable narrator. Latching onto D’Amaro’s success to take partial credit would make Chapek look more competent by proxy, so he has a vested interest in inflating his involvement with D’Amaro’s ascension.
It’s a near-certainty that D’Amaro was not a Chapek loyalist or protégé, which we can say confidently even from the outside. Iger purged pretty much everyone who had allegiances to Chapek, starting with Kareem Daniel and continuing with lower-level leaders.
Meanwhile, Iger actively sought out D’Amaro to work on ‘fixing’ what Chapek had broken on the parks side (the direct result of which were those flurry of guest-friendly changes in 2023), and then worked closely with him to grow that business unit. On top of that, there were reports back in 2022 that Disney’s board was worried that D’Amaro and Alan Bergman were on the precipice of quitting over Chapekian decisions.
If that’s not enough, Iger was too calculated and smooth of an operator to align with a Chapek loyalist like this, and the Experiences division had a deep bench even back in 2022-2023. Iger would not have tapped D’Amaro as architect of the $60 billion investment in Parks & Resorts if he felt D’Amaro was another Chapek.
Maybe Chapek did help D’Amaro advance up the ranks (or at least not impede him), but D’Amaro was a park VP even while Chapek was still at Consumer Products. D’Amaro subsequently became President of Disneyland and then Walt Disney World while Iger was still in charge.
It’s very hard to imagine Mr. Low E.Q. having much of a hand in that, and being a top tier evaluator of talent. Especially when D’Amaro was positioned as Parks Chair-in-waiting even while Iger was still CEO.
All in all, some titillating palace intrigue so far, and the kind that was clearly written from within the fantasyland of Bob Chapek’s own mind. Maybe he is a “Parks Guy” after all! You can read the full preview of his upcoming memoir in the New York Times. Or, you can preorder Bob’s book itself:
Bob Chapek Memoir Teaser
Here’s the full description from the publisher of Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth:
For the first time ever, Bob Chapek breaks his silence on his tenure as the Walt Disney Company’s CEO, offering a behind-the-scenes account of the challenges he faced—from getting the job just weeks before a worldwide pandemic, to the shifting political landscape, to his ousting given Bob Iger’s apparent desire to return.
In 1993, Bob Chapek began his career at the Walt Disney Company as the marketing director for home video. After twenty-seven years of hard work, climbing the corporate ladder, and garnering respect across the wide variety of businesses that Disney has, he earned the most coveted (and scrutinized) position of all: In 2020, he was named CEO of the Walt Disney Company.
Born and raised in small-town Indiana by a World War II–veteran father, Chapek learned early in life that grit, resilience, and curiosity can take you far. These values are what got him to Disney.
However, within weeks of starting at the top, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down parks, resorts, cruise ships, live sporting events, and film and television production, forcing Chapek to steer the billion-dollar empire through unprecedented times. The stakes were high, the decisions unforgiving, and the backlash often inordinate, leaving him wondering whether he had become the corporate scapegoat of it all. In 2022, he got his answer—Chapek was out, Iger was back in.
Was he really given a fair shot or was he set up to fail? What drove his ousting and Bob Iger’s return? What happened behind the scenes at Disney during COVID, and how did those decisions impact what we see today? Four years later, after reflection and healing, Chapek is ready to tell his story, sharing what he hopes will be his true legacy.
Even now, after everything, he’s still a lifelong fan, and wants the magic of Disney to endure for generations.
Behind the Castle Walls is a revealing and thrilling memoir of ambition, power, and corporate intrigue in the happiest company on earth.
I absolutely cannot wait to read Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth when it’s released on September 29, 2026.
Chapek’s memoir is being published by Gallery Books, a major publishing imprint of Simon & Schuster. It’s co-written by Don Yaeger, a New York Times bestselling author and longtime associate editor at Sports Illustrated.
Ultimately, I am looking forward to reading Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth. I’m a sucker for the palace intrigue that unfolded behind the scenes during this tumultuous time. It was rough to live through, and I still have an intense dislike for Bob Chapek, and his whole attitude. It seems that, 4 years later, he hasn’t changed much.
However, enough time has passed that it’ll be cathartic to hear Chapek’s side of the story, and see the extent to which it causes reevaluation of him. Probably not much given his complete refusal to take any responsibility for the many things that went wrong.
I’m also admittedly excited about the book inevitably going off the rails, as Chapek breaks free of his muzzle. It should be a train-wreck that’s more delightful to watch unfold the second time around, and it’ll be interesting to see whether he aims more for image rehabilitation or taking others down with him!
Just from this brief teaser, it’s very clear the passage of time hasn’t healed his wounds, so we’re guessing it’s the latter. In the end, Chapek’s memoir will probably do a better job of making Bob Iger look bad than making its author look good. That much is already true from the teaser, too.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your thoughts on Chapek finally breaking his silence? Will you be buying Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth? Do you feel more sympathetic to Chapek now than you did in 2022? Anything to add about Disney’s Bob Swap™️, replacing Chapek with Iger, or the Battle of the Bobs? What about anything else covered here? Agree or disagree with the firing of Chapek? Hearing your perspective–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Even controversial characters/people often have a small minority of fans, but I haven’t ever come across a Disney fan who was a fan of Chapek. I don’t know if anyone else has?
As another commenter posted, I won’t be buying this book because that will indirectly support him (and his bank account, and the ratings/popularity of the book, etc.) Instead, I will also be waiting for your CliffNotes, Tom!
What’s clear to me is Iger controlled Chapek from afar. Disney’s slate of films and Disney+ series were burnt into their schedule and couldn’t be modified. Chapek had no control of their content that destroyed the major franchises. Woke content was at the height of influence and unpopularity. Chapek was forced to address their rebellion at Burbank headquarters to his actual embarrassment and backlash. This destroyed Reedy Creek district. The fiction of their self government was exposed to all to see. Disney’s arrogance at Anaheim was especially galling. They couldn’t even get a parking structure and bridge approved. The multi billion dollar company just lost so many battles in the public arena. Iger’s reign continues Disney’s inadvertent tradition of staying too long and almost destroying the company. Chapek broke that tradition briefly. D’Amaro just has to replace the BOD with his own hand picked members to ensure he outlasts everyone else.
Agree with this 100%. Chapek had issues, but he was set up to fail from the start.
Calling him “disgraced” in the first sentence of the post is pretty unfair. It’s reasonable to state that he wasn’t successful in leading the company, but to my knowledge he hasn’t had any personal or professional scandal that would merit that description.
You’re right–poor word choice on my part.
Tom, I am having trouble understanding one aspect of your article. With regard to Chapek being the hatchet man, do you think he understood why he was being hired and then did what he thought was expected of him or do you think grasp the situation. I’ve long believed Chapek was hired to be the hatchet man but took the job with eyes wide open and knew exactly what he was getting into. It sounds to me like you think he either didn’t realize that or at least is trying to claim he didn’t realize that.
That’s a perfect reading of it. Hard to say whether he actually didn’t know his role at the time, or is trying to rewrite history now.
Not surprised Chapek is going scorched earth and ignoring the hippo….I mean the elephant in the room and address his contribution to his demise. I can’t imagine not taking any accountability for his actions at all. Even for the comments Chapek said on record….you can’t spin those! He did not even humor us with any indications that creativity was important to a company such as Disney. He did not read the room at all regarding customers or cast members with no apologies. It feels very cheap, disingenuous and pretty pathetic to hang on to credit for the rise of D’Amaro. Speaks a lot to validate the character flaws that were pretty transparent.
Of course, we know Iger has a degree of fault in this fiasco of Chapek tenure and the revisionist history regarding the resignation in February 2020. When Iger abruptly resigned, it was a headscratcher in the sense that a man who carefully curated an image would make a move that was so uncharacteristic. I knew it was about Covid, but it gave me pause, thinking what does this guy know that we don’t know yet? Thankfully as bad as things got, it did not get as catastrophic as my public health/epidemiology background was scaring me into (not minimizing the pandemic, but he made my head catastrophize even worse!).
Overall, it sounds like there will continue to be no redeeming qualities to be found for Chapek, which is no surprise to me. I am petty enough to admit that I do not want to contribute to his bank account, as little as a contribution that my purchase would be. I am a sucker for palace intrigue, however, and I am hoping the library will carry a copy for me to borrow soon!
“I knew it was about Covid, but it gave me pause, thinking what does this guy know that we don’t know yet?”
It’s odd to me that Chapek frames this in a conspiratorial way (and he absolutely does–he doubled-down on it in another interview), because he should’ve known as Parks Chair that Bob Iger was the architect of bringing Shanghai Disneyland to fruition, and had a lot of political and business relationships in the region.
Iger would’ve been more intimately familiar with what was happening in China as of February 2020, and it was already very bleak there! (Shanghai Disneyland closed on January 25, 2020, for reference.) He saw the business environment rapidly deteriorating in China, was probably hearing from people in that region about how bad it was…and assumed the same would soon be true in the United States. I think it’s as simple as that.
Your “Battle of the Bobs” was stolen by Drudge Report – “BATTLE OF BOBS: DISNEY’s Fired CEO Returns to Settle Scores With Iger…”. They could have at least given this site credit for the name LOL.
Unfortunately, I’ve found this type of thing happening a lot in the era of AI. There are actually a few terms I’ve coined that I’ve found used elsewhere…that I’ve then stopped using as a result.
AI trains its datasets on long form content (like this site), which then ends up elsewhere when others use AI to write their content.
In this case, I can’t complain too much. For one, ‘Battle of the Bobs’ is the type of phrase someone else could’ve also thought up. Not only that, but I’ve used a lot of (properly sourced and attributed) reporting from mainstream media reporting on the Iger vs. Chapek drama.
Unlike almost every other CEO of large corporations these days, Chapek does not come from an ultra-wealthy family and did not attend exclusive, private schools. Based on what I’ve read, Chapek comes from a middle class, blue collar family. I like to root for guys like him.
But sheesh. In every other way, Chapek was the proverbial inept executive who ruled via spreadsheet and outright refuses to accept any accountability for his actions while blaming all his problems on everyone else. Yawn. His level of delusion is apparently eclipsed only by Elizabeth Holmes; and not by much.
I recall Chapek was fired via a phone call while he was at Alauni with his family for Thanksgiving. That had to hurt and I can understand why he’s so pissed off. But again, sheesh. Boy did he have it coming.
“Based on what I’ve read, Chapek comes from a middle class, blue collar family. I like to root for guys like him.”
I know, right?!
He’s from Northern Indiana, right between where Sarah and I grew up (and subsequently went to college); he attended a state school. Chapek absolutely could’ve positioned himself as a champion of the middle class, even while making some difficult decisions that wouldn’t be well-received.
Instead, he took that to the absolute extreme and was openly antagonistic towards fans.
Nothing illustrates Chapek’s deafness to his former customers better than him saying he incorporated “airline-style dynamic pricing” at Disney. The nickel and diming of that industry, while tottering on bankruptcy, has cratered any customer satisfaction or good will they ever had.
It’s almost as if Chapek saw our headline last year and took it as a compliment! https://www.disneytouristblog.com/is-bob-chapek-running-southwest-airlines/
It’s a total coincidence but my family decided to re-watch Marlon Brando’s Mutiny on the Bounty last night, and I think there are certainly parallels to be made between Chapek and Captain Bligh, who was also middle class and tried to impress the crown with a ruthless commitment to efficiency, to the detriment of his crew. He also lacked social niceties and couldn’t read a room even if he was an expert navigator.
So-ooo: The question in my mind is did Bob Iger reverse any of the Chapek-era decisions that are relevant to me?
– Ticket price increases: As you said, they are now less often. But they have NOT been reversed (as in prices reduced). Plus I keep looking at all the perks given to Florida residents that I don’t get and find them very insulting (but still in place).
– Restructuring of DVC, making new resorts not eligible to resales and vice-versa, plus the elimination of other perks to resale buyers. Was this all done under Chapek? Not sure, but I know Iger didn’t reverse them.
– Elimination of the Magic Express. Still no sign of that coming back!
– Cancellation of Brightline rail stop at Disney Springs. And the possibility of a new stop “near” DS. No indication that a compromise is in the works. I still believe that the Magic Express was a stop-gap effort to tide us over till high speed rail from MCO to DS became a reality. Anyway, nothing from Iger on this.
So you have a great dislike of Bob Chapek. I get that. But why do I still have that bad taste in my mouth – a feeling that the Disney board wanted to initiate a bunch of unpopular changes but Bob Iger didn’t want his name on them. So Iger leaves and Disney promotes the fall guy – the one nobody really likes – to be the skapegoat. The changes are implemented and Disney blames the fall guy and dumps him while at the same time brining back the white knight. Think that doesn’t happen in the real world? Oh my – so now who’s living in Fantasyland?
Your last point is directly addressed in this article and others about Chapek. That is absolutely what happened. I describe him as a hatchet man, as I think fall guy is too harsh to him and paints him in a worse light, but same idea.
Changes that have been undone and perks that have been restored are discussed here (see the links to the early 2023 changes).
Ticket prices are never coming down, just as menu prices aren’t. The simple real-world reason for that is inflation, which has raised the price of everything due to higher input costs. Labor is a big part of that. The flipside is that household wealth has also increased, so no one should be expecting 2019 pricing in the first place.
Whether inflation-adjusted prices are higher in 2026 or 2022 is a good question, though! My bet is that they’re lower, but that’s just a guess.
I wouldn’t blame DVC changes or Brightline on Chapek. Those are decisions that likely get made regardless.
Chapek is like the general manager of a pro sports franchise who gets hired and then is told to tank so the team can cut salary and build draft capital. So he trades the team’s few remaining good players, gets rid of the higher priced contracts, and the team proceeds to lose a lot of games. The hope is that all of draft picks acquired in the trades enable the team to rebuild and become competitive. The thing is, the guy who gets hired to do the tank job rarely gets to stay around and execute the rebuild and his departure is rarely on good terms but he usually does leave the team with a fat exit package (just like Chapek did).
This is a good analogy!
I would add that it’d be more apt if that GM insulted the fanbase and verbally abused the players while doing the tanking, as opposed to trying to put a positive spin on it and keep people optimistic.
Maybe this is what the Oilers are doing with Mike Babcock!!!
Such a stunning lack humility and accountability. Do you think if he was captain of the Titanic he would have ordered them to turn around and hit the iceberg again? And then charged the women and children a fee to use the lifeboats!
Oh my gosh….YES!!!!! This says it all!!! I’m so glad he was NOT allowed to finish what he started! What a disaster.
For me, it was increasing prices for everything, adding in fees for everything that used to be free that made the “Disney Experience” what it was (parking, bus rides from the airport, etc.), that turned me off. We were diehard Disney fans– now, not so much. We took our family every four years, but haven’t been back for the last 8 years. How sad that middle America is now being priced out of what was an amazing experience.
Unfortunately I have to agree! The price increases, the Lightening Lanes+++, the nickel and diming us and taking away the perks of why to stay on sight at one of their hotels! Disneyland is even more of a joke than WDW! Disney has become a RICH MANS play ground and that is not what Walt wanted at all.
Everything aside, that photo of the ducks having a skirmish is a classic.
“He was picked to be the hatchet man who made unpopular and difficult decisions to get the Walt Disney Company through a tough time, presumably before the company hit refresh with a clean slate (or the triumphant return of Iger). Previously, whether Chapek was set up as a fall guy or a witting and willing participant in the process was more of an open question. I guess now we have our answer.”
The conspiracy theorist in me has believed all along that Chapek was hired to be “that guy.” Someone a company hires when unpopular decisions are going to be made and he is hired to make them and be the villain and while he leaves essentially hated by everyone, he gets a sweet payoff in the end (which he did).
Have you seen Chapek’s leaked memo to his ghost writer?
“And another thing: I’m not mad. Please don’t put in the memoir that I got mad”
I about spit my water out on my keyboard reading this. Many won’t get the reference, but I very much appreciated it. Well played.
Although now I am wondering about Chapek’s candle budget…
I really do not want to put another dime in Chapek’s pocket. I’ll pass on the purchase.
I remember the Roy Disney Jr. vs. Michael Eisner era. It feels a lot like that except the company lost a lot when Eisner left instead of gaining. Look at Roy Jr’s.book sometime. He was a self serving jerk who mistreated his wife and married a trophy wife. Walt was right for not particularly liking Roy Jr. My opinion only.
I’m not wasting what time I have left on our planet reading this book.
That’s what Tom is for. I’ll get the cliff notes from him and MAYBE one day when it’s in the bargain bins along with Iger’s book, Ride of a Lifetime (which is probably shorter since it only covers 15 years as opposed to 30), I might grab it for a buck.
Bottom line, if you hate (and you shouldn’t hate anyone or anything) but if you really really really dislike Chapek then maybe you should rethink how you feel about Bob Iger. In the Battle of the Bobs, picking a favorite Bob is like trying to choose who to root for between Dr Frankenstein and the Monster. Hard to pick one.
I’m going with Ygor.
I have high hopes for d’Amaro and if you want a book with a happy ending check out, Storming the Magic Kingdom: Wall Street, the Raiders, and the Battle for Disney by John Taylor.
It’s scary when you realize how close we came to losing Walt Disney World.
I won’t read it but I applaud your enthusiasm!! Can’t wait to hear your take. Here’s a thought….. even if Igor stepped down for Covid with a plan to return making Chapek the patsy. That just makes Igor look brilliant and Chapek look clueless…so
Chapek’s claims about D’Amaro strain credulity. It was D’Amaro that advocated undoing the stupid resort parking charges. And Chapek would never greenlight the amount of spending and expansions on the parks that got D’Amaro the CEO job.
Accurate on both counts.
There are so many holes that can be poked in that story. I wish I remembered more of them from reporting at the time, but it’s been nearly 4 years!
The only answer is Iger writing his own book to refute all of these claims.
With the caveat that I have not and will not read the book, I find it interesting that all I see him talking about and defending is dollar and cents stuff and nothing creative.
And yes D’Amaro is the CEO of a multibillion dollar corporation so of course he’s focused on the dollars and cents too but he at least at the bare minimum can pretend to be interested in the creative side as well (and I do think it is a genuine interest, but I can’t read his mind so it’s just a guess)
As someone who listened to a lot of Chapek earnings calls and interviews, both as CEO and Parks Chair, the only time I can recall ever hearing him express sincere enthusiasm was for Encanto.
…after it was a success, “vindicating” his DTC strategy at the time.