Is Disney World Eroding Fan Goodwill?
While reading the comments to the recent news about Walt Disney World charging for parking, I noticed many readers indicated that this was their tipping point: they were done with WDW. This has been a trend I’ve in comments to stories of this kind the last couple of years. More and more one-time fans seem fed up with what they view as nickel and diming, and practices that don’t value them as customers.
It’s easy to write off these comments as hollow words that won’t be backed up with action when it comes time to book their next vacation. Impassioned initial responses will give way to cooler thinking or ways to adjust behavior and ‘make it work’ to continue feeding the Disney addiction. The internet being what it is, there is no doubt some (a lot) of that.
However, dismissing the chorus of complaints out of hand would be foolish. I’ve been around the fan community a while, and have seen a lot of people move on the last few years; fans with thousands of posts suddenly disappearing or social media accounts changing their focus. These are just the prominent, visible examples. If even the most passionate fans felt alienated, no doubt more casual lurkers have reached their own tipping point. For me, this raises a couple of interesting questions: has Walt Disney World eroded fan goodwill, and if so, will that have negative ramifications down the road?
For those unfamiliar with the term, goodwill is basically the consumer relationship with and perception of the brand “Disney.” What you think when you hear the word, the loyalty you have as a result of past experiences, and how likely you are to be an advocate for the company. (This is all reductionist, but it provides a working understanding of the term, and why it’s a significant intangible asset for Walt Disney World.)
In Walt Disney World fandom, this manifests itself in myriad ways. People accumulate thousands of posts on fan forums, spend their hours discussing the parks on social media, and even descend upon the comments sections of articles critical of the parks. People spread the ‘Disney gospel’ to family and friends. Heck, it even leads the most overzealous fans to start blogs about Disney, documenting every experience, no matter how insignificant.
Historically, the Walt Disney Company as a whole has enjoyed exceptional consumer goodwill. Last year, Forbes ranked it as the #6 most powerful brand in the world (#1 was LEGO). The year before that, Disney claimed the #1 spot in Forbes’ measure of goodwill. Those impressive rankings sort of beg the titular question here. However, I’d argue that there’s a significant difference between goodwill for Disney and goodwill for Walt Disney World, which is a subset of the former.
For Disney as a whole, it’s easy to see why goodwill is so high. The company has a solid reputation as being family-friendly, producing toys and television shows that kids love. Then there are the Disney and Pixar-branded animated films; both studios have enjoyed an impressive streak of films that are well-received by families. (I’m inclined to withhold Star Wars and Marvel from consideration here, as I’m not entirely sure the average consumer associates those with Disney.)
Evaluating the theme parks is a bit trickier. Whereas every first-run movie, regardless of quality, costs the same amount to see, theme parks exist in a world of vacation destinations that are not exactly apples to apples comparisons for a multitude of reasons. Pricing, crowds, nature of the experience, etc., all vary dramatically, making head to head comparisons exceedingly difficult.
It’s entirely possible that Walt Disney World enjoys a similar level of goodwill as the Walt Disney Company as a whole. Given the prevalence of “Disney parks are overpriced, tourist traps” articles and sentiment in the mainstream, I find that a very difficult premise to accept.
Walt Disney World does enjoy its own unique reputation, earned from decades of its–and Disneyland’s–existence. The United States Disney parks are viewed as rite of passage vacation destinations where parents, even the most cynical and Disney-averse, take their children. Hugging Mickey Mouse (and capturing the photo to prove it!), getting that first flight on Dumbo, being tall enough to ride Space Mountain, etc., all are experiences that have become ingrained in our culture. Suffice to say, Walt Disney World is an American institution, and a place many people aspire to visit.
Among the general public–the ones who don’t read blogs like this–experiencing this cultural touchstone is important. In today’s strong economy, it’s also easier to justify. Sure, there will be sticker shock when seeing hotel prices, but they’ve heard brand advocates like us touting Walt Disney World for decades.
As a culturally-important, rite of passage vacation at a time when unemployment is at historic lows and they have record high confidence in the economy, Walt Disney World is very appealing for casual consumers. This is true even if the vacation costs $6,000 to $8,000 and requires going into a bit of debt to fund.
These first-time visitors who will spend big on their vacation, doing everything they can to ensure that their important trip lives up to expectations, are a lucrative audience for Disney. These guests generally don’t know hacks to save cut costs, and generally spend more money than regular guests. (Obviously, there are exceptions to every generalization–we know plenty of Annual Passholders who are merchandise-addicts.)
A compelling argument can be made (one that I’d agree with) that Walt Disney World is tailoring its business strategy towards one and done visitors, eager to score big financial results in the short term. Right now, it’s also quite conceivable that Walt Disney World is not particularly interested in loyal customers. It doesn’t need them to fill hotels, and doesn’t recognize their long-term value.
The first problem with this line of thinking is what happens when another recession hits or an event negatively impacting the tourism industry. Since 2000, this has occurred twice. Even if you think the fundamentals of our economy are sound (I don’t), it does not take a vivid imagination to envision a time in 5 years or less when things are not so rosy.
During both of the past recessions, Walt Disney World discounted heavily and was very much reliant on its ardent fans to pick up the slack. Following the last recession, the argument was made that Walt Disney World is ‘recession-proof’ in light of its healthy performance.
I’d retort that this misses the mark. Historically, Walt Disney World fans have had an ironclad passion/addiction that they would prioritize going to Disney over other discretionary expenditures. More casual middle class families with kids of the ‘right age’ would do likewise since the parks enjoyed such a strong rite of passage reputation. Sound promotional strategies plus these demographics meant that a recession was not enough to discourage robust attendance numbers.
This raises several questions. Are there still just as many fans with that ironclad passion today as there were a decade ago? If not, can those one-time fans be lured back with aggressive discounting? Is Walt Disney World raising new generations of fans in the same number as it raised my generation and those before mine? Does Walt Disney World’s longstanding institutional rite of passage reputation outweigh its newfound “Walt Disney World is a playground for the wealthy” reputation?
I don’t have the answers to any of these questions. I’m guessing Disney does not, either (if they’re questions even being asked within the company). While I can understand Disney’s eagerness to capitalize on short term trends, I’m weary of what some of the company’s decisions mean in the long term. There are obviously still a ton of things I love about Walt Disney World, and I’m incredibly enthusiastic about what’s on the horizon between now and 2021. I also have a bit of trepidation about pricing trends, and find myself a bit disenchanted with a business plan that, in my opinion, does not hold a whole lot of regard for loyal customers.
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Your Thoughts
Has Walt Disney World lost some of the goodwill you once held for the parks? Do you agree or disagree with our analysis? Other thoughts on this topic? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Your article is spot on. My adult daughter & I have been doing a week long vacation for 10 years now. It is not exclusively my vacation each year but prices are causing me to rethink this tradition. We only stay at the Yacht Club as it is our favorite but my goodness, we could go many wonderful places for the same money. Disney is rapidly losing its appeal. At some point the cost outweighs the excitement and we are reaching that point. It’s sad to see that many families are missing out on the joy of seeing the castle for the first time because they are lost in the steadily upticking cost. Love your blog and look at your guidance over any others. Thank you!!!
As big WDW fans, I am sad to see all the price increases. We had a trip planned for November of 2018 and cancelled it d/t all the price increases and all the changes. Seeing the plan to charge for parking at the resorts, even though we usually fly and use the Magic Express, just the plan to charge for this on top of all the other increases, we have decided our days at WDW are over. We have decided and done other vacation plans. As older adults we have started cruising and NOT on Disney ships. So sad!
We come from the UK and it’s already costing us so much to do these trips… If they keep gouging we’ll soon be priced out
People complain about the crowd size a lot. Disney has done everything they can to longer have “slow” times of year. The groups that come to compete at WWoS, the parties, the festivals, etc., all bring people in more and more. On top of that, when a park adds or expands a land they raise occupancy cap. It used to be 75,000 for MK when I worked there and after the Fantasyland expansion it was raised to 90,000. That is 90,000 people in 4,660,773 sq. feet. I grew up in a town of 55,000 people in 9 square miles.
It’s just too many people in such a small space but those tickets are what pays for the parks. Doesn’t leave Disney much choice. Animal Kingdom added a new land their guest capacity went up and the same will happen to DHS. People complain about ticket prices (and they are very high, if we didn’t have access to a main gate we wouldn’t go) but there is a great amount of things to see and do in each park. So much, in fact, that you can’t possibly do it all in one day or even one visit. I think that is the aspect that helps to bring people back. Guests want to re-experience the attractions that they loved and try the ones they didn’t get around to doing on the last trip.
Maybe it is because I am a relatively new Disney parkgoer so don’t have the old prices to compare (first trip in 2016, by have gone back three times and planning a fourth), but it all still feels very magical and has the “Disney difference” to me. Every time I’ve gone we experienced exceptional cast member service, stunningly beautiful hotels at a variety of price points, pristine parks, great dining variety, and free transportation that, although sometimes not the most efficient, worked fine for us. I compare this to our one and only non-Disney vacation to an expensive all inclusive highly rated family resort in Mexico at club level where we had barely edible food (and food poisoning), rooms in disrepair, and a kids club staff that was completely checked out. I think everything is getting more expensive everywhere due to the economy, but Disney did a good job of making it special. I’ll nevertheless forget how every CM made my twins feel special on their birthday with birthday pins. And every time I call Disney the representatives are so cheerful and helpful. I might not love their prices, but I still feel their customer service is second to none.
For what it’s worth, I think the parking charge brings Disney in line with the parking fees other local high-end hotels charge -and that’s who Disney wants to compete against. It also drives more guests to Magic Express (which makes it more costly for guests to visit other area attractions or to purchase food/beverages from other stores). So, while not thrilled, I can understand the reasoning behind the charge.
I agree with MiMiL5, the rudeness of those obnoxious guests now who don’t care, know about the parks. They don’t appreciate sights, sounds. They throw trash everywhere, are loud, brats. Any change is met with “good” or “why dont they tear that out”. Castmembers have been cut, they can’t argue with these folks who turn toddlers loose as though it’s the local playground. The scooters, strollers are ridiculous. Impossible to get resevations to eat and I am not paying that price for a Sysco frozen patty.
I have seen these ill mannered creatures at the State and National Parks, acting the same as at WDW.
My parents 1st brought me in 1976,steyed at the Polynesian such beautiful place that cost around $30/night through theMagic kingdom Club. Parked his Cadillac for$0, never moved until we checked out. At thatime only MK, Fort Wilderness, Contemporary were only things there and Da gave us our ticket booklets, hardly acrowd at all in July. I took my kids through my union each ticket was $30, forget if I paid for parking. It was stillmagical as when I was a kid but so many people in the 90s and 2 more parks plus so many hotels. I don’t know my total visits but have been AP for 5 years. Since 2013, the crowds are unbearable (there are cheer groups for 5months now)yet Disney continues to add more rooms, increase costs everywhere now this park at resort fee would make sense in a bg city, not here. Very rarely are hotel lots full. My Bday trip in April, there are no AP discount rooms and the price for theirs are awful for what you get(Knight’s Inn @$39 is equal to last AS room I had that cost $196 in February. So I will not pay to stay on property, I can get a great room for that price even paying for parking. My husband’s ticket will be $455, no discounts except military who deserve. And Shades of Green not as damaged as Value, moderates. Refuse to pay for Deluxe. There is very little benefit to stay on property to feed their greed.
And there will be another recession, squeezing more out. Hope B. Chapek is fired then, he ruined merchandise. Wrote too much but angry as Donald Duck
A random personal observation that may impact Disney’s future target guest demographics:
While my generation ( younger baby boomers) has strong associative memories with all things Disney ( pre 2010, before the lessening quality saturated WDW,) the same seems less true for Millenials we know.
The generation who are parents today isn’t seeming to value the Disney experience as we did. Those we know seem much more inclined to take their kids on “real” experiences, as they put it….Skiing, hiking, camping, sporting events, West coast ocean, Hawaii, NYC, even other countries.
We could never have afforded these kind of vacations with our children due to high mortgage interest rates during the decades we raised our family.
Today, we know of even sizable families who would rather give their children activities & adventures of higher quality at a lower cost. Disney in our day gave us removal from the real world, which was a good thing. (Highly controlled, very pleasant, with guests who behaved well, knowing they were on a special vacation at a dreamed-of location that was well designed & maintained.)
Currently the increasing frequency of obnoxious guests and the lowering of Disney standards of quality across the spectrum has changed both our views and a few Millenials’. We know of quite a few steering clear of the parks.
For the same cost as staying on property at a delux resort with multiple rooms & generations, taking our entire family to Hawaii instead is looking better and less expensive.
(Without the hassle of now truly ridiculous lines, surging crowds, and lowering standards in hotel decor… not to mention new comic style, preteen boy-based attractions.) We, too, are now sadly passing on future Disney trips with grandkids, and their parents don’t mind at all.
I completely agree with this. My kids are 6 and 8 (both boys), and don’t have the “disney bug” that people had long ago….perhaps because they’re very anti-princess ;-), but still. In preparation for our first (and probably only) trip to WDW this coming June, I’ve had to show them videos and start prepping them – since they didn’t even know who Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, etc were!
We’ll be spending quite a bit for this trip, not because I haven’t done the research on how to save, but because I want to make our “one and done” trip as great as possible. Staying at the Poly, and paying extra for things like Early Morning Magic…..as well as PPO breakfast reservations, and getting the dining plan so that we can mainly do buffet dinners, eliminating some of the table service wait time. I’m not spending money on those things because I have it laying around to burn….. I’m spending it because the crowd pictures I’ve seen lately make my skin crawl, and I want to maximize our time in the parks with as few people as possible, and utilize the monorail to head back to Poly during the hottest/busiest time of day.
I’m certainly hopeful we’ll have a great time, but am mainly going to WDW to let my kids experience it, and “check it off the list.” For the same amount of $$ (or less), our future vacations can be awesome adventures with far fewer crowds. And as an aside, I completely understand Disney’s business model, and why it makes sense to charge for parking….but if I wasn’t grandfathered in by already having made my reservation, I’d be pretty ticked, most especially because I’m already paying significantly more for the Poly, and think the higher parking rate for deluxe resorts is a bit out of line.
It seems to me that Disney is experimenting with turning the parks into a two level experience. I’m looking at the proliferation of “dessert parties”, special seating, VIP tours, etc. I know people say not to care if you don’t want to pay for these extras. But I can see how it might reach the point of the high-cost options crowding out the ordinary guests. For example, the MVMCP means that MK closes at 6pm nearly half the days for people who haven’t bought the evening ticket. Or the EMM and its late evening counterpart, whose name I’ve forgotten.
So maybe we wind up with the regular guests crowding into the park for part of the day while the premium guests pay a much higher price but get a park without crowds where they can walk onto all the rides, no lines for the characters, etc. Disney could cut staffing for this smaller crowd and yet provide them with a better cast experience because the guest-to-cast ratio would be so much lower.
I don’t think we’re there yet, but it looks to me like the trend is in this direction.
I think Disney wants to get.rid of it’s long time customers who remember when we really were guests, when cast members greated us with a smile no matter what their position. When there were more extra magic hours and parks were spotless. I think their new model is, get them here and milk every last dime they’ve got.
We had to move our reservations to earlier in August, so we wouldn’t have shorter hours because of MNSSHP. This will be our last trip for quite some time I believe. I don’t feel like a welcome guest, I feel like I’m a mark about to be fleeced
Stongly agree with the main points. The only thing I would add is the RATE of acceleration of price gouging. As an adult, I started taking my family in 2010 and watched it go up every year.
I won’t say that this is the tipping point but it’s definitely yet another reason to spend my money elsewhere.
Our family has been to Disney World seventeen times☺ï¸. We have always stayed on property for all but the first time. I am very sad to say that I don’t think we can afford to ever return. We cannot afford the resorts anymore. We have stayed in the trailers at Fort Wilderness (fun), the Polynesian, the French Quarter, Caribbean Beach (several times), Pop Century, Dixie Landings, All Star Movies, All Star Sports and more. I am very sorry that growth continues to the point of everything going beyond what people can afford! I really, really feel bad for the children who will never get to experience this magical place because their parents just simply cannot afford it. I am so sorry it has come to this! Think long and hard Disney Execs!!!
I’m taking my two youngest grandkids to WDW in a few weeks. Three years ago I took twenty family members for a week. Since 1978 we’ve spent about 35 weeks at WDW and always looked forward to the trip. It’s gotten to the point that it is a greater financial sacrifice each new trip. After reading now about paying to park at Disney resorts it was indeed a tipping point. Disney won’t care about me or my family or how I feel. And that is the point. After 40 years of promoting, attending and spending, it is disappointing to know they just don’t care. And that’s sad. But I promised my grand daughter I’d take her when she was five, and I keep my promises. My adult kids, all professionals with children, are being priced out. They and their kids ranging from nineteen to three, will have some great memories. But they won’t be back.
Like many others, we are huge WDW fans. We have been going since the park opened, love the history and magic, and have spent probably $50k+ over the years on vacations. I am starting to feel that it has gotten out of hand. Way out of hand. The past few years I haven’t even bothered looking at WDW hotels- we stayed at the Hilton across from DS and loved it, at a fraction of the price. I am a die-hard AKL fan, but it is getting to be ridiculously out of reach for us. It makes me very sad, and I’m sure we will still take the occasional trip, but it really puts a damper on my enthusiasm. I cannot imagine how it makes sense in the long run to alienate your longtime, loyal customers who do show up year after year. At this rate, it will be a long time before we take another full-blown WDW trip. I miss the old days!
My advice for the WDW “loyalists” is to take a break from the parks in Florida. You’ve become desensitized to the magic and hypersensitive to price increases because of the frequent visits. This happened to me in Disneyland when I was an annual pass holder for two years. So I decided to limit my stateside vacations to Disney property to once every two years. In the meantime I discovered how absolutely awesome the Disney parks in Tokyo and Hong Kong were. Even as a foreigner I feel a great sense of Disney magic and receive wonderful service from over the top cast members. They do it right and I can’t wait to visit Shanghai. I feel Tom would agree with me as he is an avid supporter of the international parks…not to mention a great resource. So take a step back…wait four years or so and then go back to Florida. In the meantime find other ways to celebrate being a Disney fan…study the history, get into the magic of the early live action films, visit the Walt Disney Family Museum in SF or take a trip to Marceline, MO. I get more of my Disney fix outside the parks! Then when that trip comes up once a year it is so much more enjoyable because everything seems fresh.
This is a really good suggestion. Last November, my daughter and I visited Tokyo Disneyland for a day, and had a really good time. I’d been to WDW about a dozen times, so it was fun to see different versions/interpretations of rides I’d been on many times (Haunted Mansion, Pirates, etc.) Tokyo Disneyland was surprisingly affordable as well (about $70/person for a 1-day pass). Euro Disney is next on the list, when we go to France in 2020.
Leveraging off of another previous comment about Millenials wanting their kids to have real experiences – though I’m Gen X, as my kids have aged, I’ve wanted them to see more of the world and experience more – as they grow up, let our experiences with them grow up too…and that’s why our calendar is full of trips to Paris, Montreal, Rome, Dublin, Tokyo, etc. instead of WDW, Cedar Point, or Hershey Park. If you plan those trips carefully, it’s about the same price as a trip to WDW…
Does that mean we’re “done” with WDW? Probably not! But it’s not a priority for us anymore…
The economy will tank again at some point and WDW will need to once again need to rely on their most loyal customers but this time they may be in for a surprise.
Parking fees were indeed the proverbial straw on the camel’s back for us. While we had planned to repurchase four annual passes at the end of this month ($3300) and planned a six day stay at BW in May ($2500/hotel + $1200-$1500 food) we will now be spending $0 at WDW. We are your classic loyal customers with multiple trips over the past 30 years and have spent more than $100k for WDW vacations in the past 15 years. But we’re done making excuses for tired parks, less than deluxe “deluxe” hotel rooms and not insubstantial price increases on an annual basis.
It makes me very, very sad. We live Walt’s dream, we know the history of the company and the parks, we’re company shareholders, our daughter spent time their interning in the DCP program. But, tho sentimental, we’re not stupid. We know when we’re not wanted and there are other places in the world to see.
I did send an email to several top executives last week including Mr. Iger and received a phone call this past weekend from a junior assistant in the office of WDW President George Kalogridis. I was impressed that they called but after a 20 minute conversation I simply had to wish them well with the future. I did not hear anything that would entice me back at this point.
It’s not the money. It’s the message. The only way WDW can actually get my response is to vote with my feet. We will not be booking another trip to WDW in the foreseeable future.
I am very surprised they called you back!
I wonder how many call he has to make a week like yours??
I feel the same way you do and will be following in your footsteps! I just wish enough people would make a stand as we are.
I know of at least one other person who received a call on Sunday and the caller told her he’d been at it all weekend. I can’t really even imagine what the purpose of the calls were. My only guess is that the company was caught completely off guard by the overwhelming negative wave that this policy touched off and is trying to evaluate what made this price increase different from the last dozen they’ve implemented.
I am a huge Disney fan. Been 15 times in the last 17 year’s. We have not been since April 2016 because of a job loss. Looking at on-site hotel prices this past weekend for a future trip, my mouth dropped. We don’t have kids & we usually stay at moderate resorts. The prices were running $125 more a night than our visit 2 years ago and then add on $20 a night for parking too. Then I searched & discovered that I could stay on property at Universal in a suite for less money than a small room at a moderate resort at Disney. I am not saying that I won’t go to Disney while I am there, but with a lot of the benefits of staying on property at Disney, I am ready to go somewhere else. We have been renting a car the last few times we went to WDW because the bus system in property has just gotten horrible! Just not what it used to be. Sad!
Great article. I agree that Disney doesn’t really seem to care about their loyal customers. My family loves Disney. We’re DVC members and annual passholders and between WDW & DCL, we spend $20,000+/yr on Disney vacations. The magic is starting to fade for us and we’re looking at non-Disney options for this and next year. The one benefit of Disney’s greed is the ability to sell our DVC contract for a lot more than we paid if we decide we’ve had enough.