Disney CEO Bob Iger Responds to Rising Costs, Crowds & Capacity Criticism
The Walt Disney Company held its 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders on Thursday, and CEO Bob Iger highlighted a year of successes at the box office, via the streaming services, and at the theme parks–while also looking forward at the billions of dollars of planned investments in the coming years.
During the Q&A portion of the meeting, Iger fielded an investor’s question expressing concern about the impact of price increases on affordability and attendance, and the need to further increase capacity to prevent losing fans in the long term. This line of questioning was expected, as Walt Disney World is Worried About Its High Prices has been an ongoing topic since bombshell reporting by the Wall Street Journal last month.
That report revealed concerns about Disney pricing out the middle class, not just among fans, but that alarms are also being sounded inside the company, as executives fear price increases are alienating fans and souring sentiment. According to WSJ, “some inside Disney worry that the company has become addicted to price hikes and has reached the limits of what middle-class Americans can afford.”
Responding to a question that Disney’s domestic theme parks have not been able to keep up with rising attendance, need more capacity, and that this has created affordability issues, Iger acknowledged that this is something he thinks about all the time. “In fact, I was just at Walt Disney World on a weekday in March, and the place was really busy, really across the whole property,” Iger said. We mentioned encountering heavy crowds in Pandora – World of Avatar, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, TRON Lightcycle Run, Toy Story Land, and even at Disney Springs.
Iger indicated that “consumer demand for our parks and resorts remains extremely high, as is the value we offer, which is tremendous when you compare it with other forms of entertainment such as sporting events and concerts.” He pointed out that the additions made to Disney Parks worldwide, like those he referenced, provide more capacity and more value to guests.
Iger further stressed that these expansion efforts are ongoing. “In fact, we have more being designed, developed, and built today than at any other point in the 70 years since we’ve been in the theme park business.” At the same time, he said the company also appreciates that the parks create lifelong memories for families.
With that in mind, Disney is constantly considering, developing, and implementing new ways to make the theme parks more enjoyable, but equally important, more accessible to guests on tighter budgets.
“We provide several options for families looking to spend less, including our lowest price ticket to Disneyland, which we’ve kept at the same level since before the COVID pandemic,” Iger added. He added that since his return as CEO two years ago, Disney tripled the number of days that this lowest priced ticket is available.
“So with strong guest satisfaction scores and intent to visit metrics remaining very high, our parks remain the most popular offering in the industry and a solid growth business for the company, as we continue to introduce new experiences that I just referenced,” Iger concluded.
Our Commentary
Most of what Bob Iger had to say is wholly unsurprising, and perfectly “on script” with Disney’s Response to Rising Costs Criticism. As you might recall, the Walt Disney Company put out a press release on its corporate website the day after the WSJ report that offered an indirect response explaining how the Disney’s theme parks offer great value for money, affordable options for families, and most guests believe that Disney park visits create memories that last a lifetime and can’t be replaced or replicated.
As with the question about Figment, the company likely anticipated this question or one like it, and Iger was prepped on how to respond. That press release likely served as the blueprint for his response given the tremendous amount of overlap. In other words, not much new “new” to report here.
Nevertheless, there are a couple things I thought were briefly worth addressing.
The first is Iger’s comment that he was just at Walt Disney World last week and, even on a weekday in March, it was really busy.
Late last week would’ve been the start of spring break season for Central Florida (and beyond) school districts. Even prior to that, it was early spring break for plenty of other schools, including many colleges. Sure, it’s not the heart of spring break season, but it’s also not as if those dates were random weekdays during the off-season when all schools are in-session.
Moreover, the first few months of the year have been outperforming even in the post-pent-up demand period, which is presumably in part due to travelers with flexibility shifting visits to these more comfortable times of year. I’d be curious to hear Iger’s unfiltered thoughts if he were to visit Animal Kingdom on May 22 or August 19. Something tells me he wouldn’t feel quite as confident, even if he wouldn’t say as much publicly.
Second, this was a multifaceted question (a rare really good one from the Q&A!) about the intersection of capacity and affordability.
In response, Iger pointed to several completed projects. I will happily concede that every single one of these was a major addition that expanded capacity. Even the ones that replaced existing areas, as no one can argue with a straight face that the utilization of Camp Minnie-Mickey was the same as Pandora. Ditto Universe of Energy and Cosmic Rewind–and I say that as a fan of the former!
I’m not sure if the same can be said for all of the upcoming projects. All will definitely improve utilization, but with the exception of the Magic Kingdom projects, not nearly to the same extent as the last round of expansion. Animal Kingdom desperately needs Tropical Americas and it’s a great start, but that’s all it is–a start. The addition of Monstropolis at DHS is, on balance, a net of one new ride.
The bigger issue here is the purposeful throttling of capacity. Look no further than Disneyland, where crowds are currently crazy (more on that in a bit), but has multiple theaters sitting empty, a shortage of nighttime entertainment, no daytime parade, etc. There are examples like this with almost all of the parks (the #1 issue at Walt Disney World would be shorter hours at Magic Kingdom), and there are ample opportunities for the overnight introduction of crowd-absorbing capacity. In other words, the crowds and pricing are a choice that they’ve elected to make, not something unavoidable.
Turning to pricing, Iger once again points to the lowest-price 1-day tickets at Disneyland, which haven’t gone up in price for several years. It’s been since at least 2018, pre-COVID and pre-Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Disneyland has shifted things around and moved the $104 tickets to a new “Tier 0” a few years ago, but the starting price has not gone up.
It’s also true that, a couple of months after Iger returned, one of the major moves made by Disneyland was to expand the calendar to offer nearly two months’ worth of $104 park ticket dates. At present, there are only 20 such dates on the calendar for this year through September 2025, but it’s likely more will be added in November and December. Still, nowhere near two months’ worth in total.
The company loves to tout this. It always comes up as a talking point about their commitment to affordability, and makes its way into statements from the company to media outlets in otherwise negative pieces (like the WSJ one) as a counterpoint. To their credit, it’s an effective argument.
Honestly, I was really surprised when 2025 Walt Disney World tickets were released and the starting price for single day tickets increased for the first time since October 2018. From then until last September, single day prices started at $109, which had been the base price since the introduction of the date-based system back in October 2018. Starting this fall, those have now gone up to $119.
As with the Disneyland’s $104 starting price, this made for a great talking point. But if you paid attention, it also made for an amusing one. What Walt Disney World always declined to mention was that the $109 minimum was only for a scattering of dates during the off-season at Animal Kingdom, when the already hot park is surface-of-sun levels of scorching. Never mentioned was that 1-day ticket prices have continued to skyrocket at Magic Kingdom, the park for which most guests are actually purchasing single-day tickets.
I still wonder what led to that change at Animal Kingdom. It’s not like DAK is selling 1-day tickets during the off-season like hotcakes. It’s also not like 2025 is going to be a strong year for Animal Kingdom, what with the construction walls and closed rides and all. Was it really worth it to give up the talking point and perception of cheaper tickets? Or was this price increase done without consulting the corporate communications folks, who might’ve stopped the idea, wanting to maintain the narrative of “no base ticket price increases for 7+ years running”? I can’t imagine much money was being left on the table with $109 vs. $119 tickets to Animal Kingdom.
On the other hand, money is absolutely being left on the table with the $104 tickets at Disneyland.
This is hopefully going to come as no surprise, but Disneyland is a much stronger park than Animal Kingdom. I don’t think even the most zealous “Nahtazu” proponents can argue that, objectively speaking, Disneyland holds more appeal. I mean, c’mon, it has like quintuple the number of rides.
It’s just interesting to see this tactic maintained at Disneyland, where it really doesn’t need to be, and abandoned at Animal Kingdom, where it probably should’ve been kept. And if you need “proof” that Disneyland is leaving money on the table, just look at crowds in August and September on days when those $104 tickets make their return. There has been a growing trend for Disneyland to see significant spikes when tickets are cheaper, and a drop when they’re more expensive. This was evidenced last August and September (cheaper months) versus October (the most expensive month, on average).
It’s also evident right now. As we pointed out in the latest update to our 2025 Disneyland Crowd Calendar, the last 6 consecutive days have been 9/10 or 10/10 crowd levels, as have 10 out of the last 13 days.
This is busier than we anticipated, and on some dates, significantly so. You might say this is unsurprising given that it’s the start of spring break season, and–sure–crowds were expected to be elevated as a result. But not 9/10 or 10/10 crowd levels.
Spring break is only part of the equation–and arguably the smaller component. More relevant is the ongoing and aggressive Southern California Resident Ticket Deal as well as the end of the Kids’ Ticket Deal. As a result, the last week has been busier than the peak week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve!
Bringing things full circle, this illustrates a couple of points. The first is that Bob Iger’s comments about crowds would’ve been more apt if applied to Disneyland (but as illustrated above, even that is “solvable” with more entertainment). With few exceptions, it is busy most of the time in the California parks–far worse than Walt Disney World.
The second is that the biggest driver of attendance for Disneyland is lower prices. Whether it be ticket deals or Tier 0/1/2 prices, crowds often exceed expectations when pricing is lower and fall short when peak pricing is in place and more Annual Passes are blocked out.
You might even suggest that–despite the nearly-perpetual heavy crowds–Disneyland actually has a bit of a pricing problem because it’s so reliant on deals to achieve its attendance. When there aren’t discounts or lower prices, crowds underperform. With that said, “a bit of a problem” is pretty far from a five-alarm fire. Disneyland is doing just fine, and will be for the foreseeable future thanks to the 70th.
Anyone who has set foot in Disneyland over the last year-plus could tell you that the company has nothing to be worried about there, and contentions that it’s on the precipice of a major slowdown are wishful thinking at best. On the other hand, Walt Disney World might be a different story thanks to the exhaustion of pent-up demand, slowdown in tourism and international travel, and Epic Universe offering increased competition just down the road.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Disney CEO Bob Iger’s response to the concerns of price increases and a lack of capacity increases creating long-term affordability issues and return visits? What would you like to see done to improve the dynamic at Walt Disney World or Disneyland? Think that runaway price increases are the big concern, or is the value proposition an equally or more significant matter? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–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!
After the quote, “…highlighted a year of successes at the box office,” I’m sorry, but try as I may, I could not stop laughing through the rest of the article. Last I checked, Disney has gone from flop to flop in the last few years. So, maybe Iger was speaking of something else and I missed that?
My family of 4 went for the 1st time in 2023, we did all 4 parks and both Universal parks, it’s was in October a week after the hurricane and it was perfect. We went again in ’24, did all the same parks but during Thanksgiving week. Sure it was busier but still doable and we only purchased 2 LL passes and still did everything we wanted to do and left way before closing. We did MK on a parade day and that is literally the best advise I’ve read.
We NEVER stay on site, the perks aren’t worth the cost of a tiny room shared between 2 adults and 2 teenagers. We can get a really nice single family home with pool and jacuzzi for way less. At the end of the day everyone has their own space to chill. We just drive a bit more. We skipped ’24 bcuz YES indeed it is an expensive adventure but we just plan ahead a bit more, we try to ignore the political portions of the parks and just enjoy these parks for what they are.
We will be going back this summer, well, bcuz Epic Universe but we will be skipping AK, it’s a pretty park but it needs help. We’ve been planning this vacation for over a year and have made adjustments where necessary. I do believe Disney needs to start paying better attention to what Universal is doing and get moving on all of these projects they keep announcing that are taking way to long to start /complete meanwhile Universal built 5 areas within one park in basically no time at all considering Covid and everything else.
Everyone’s making good points about Costs, but I want to take a moment and focus on the second and third “C”s of Crowds and Capacity. The reason Iger wants to build more D- and E-Tickets is because they draw more crowds than they add to capacity, which brings him closer to his dream of two-day parks. Except maybe Disney Springs, everything he mentioned that was crowded fit that bill. A major reason I was overly excited about the carousel at Tropical Americas is because most A- and B-Tickets contribute more to capacity than they draw crowds through the gate. (I like the idea of two-day parks as an idea to induce more frequent visits, but the growing pains are probably going to be rough.) Crowd-absorbing entertainment of all types needs to return or be replaced at all parks to add capacity. I’d like to see longer hours return, not just to the MK, but past the nighttime spectaculars at EPCOT and HS as well.
I can’t imagine any WDW management team coordinated enough to think that AK ticket costs were specifically increased to lower crowds (and raise income) so that AK’s further diminished capacity isn’t strained. I certainly don’t think it’s necessary, given that at last public count the park had lower attendance than Universal … Hollywood.
My family has enjoyed Disney world many times over the years, but after visiting last Christmas and realizing we needed to pay more for the Christmas spirit, we came to the conclusion enough is enough. I feel taking the magic express, and then fast pass, and many other things we came to love about Disney was wiped out…what will be next? seems like Disney is working themselves right out of business.
I’m piling on now but what has been going on at the parks these past 5-6 years is frustrating. I’m a bit surprised that this Iger quote went by without a response:
“In fact, we have more being designed, developed, and built today than at any other point in the 70 years since we’ve been in the theme park business.”
He must have a poor memory given that his predecessor built 3 U.S. parks, 2 water parks, expanded Disney Springs, and built the majority of unique and highly themed resorts on WDW property including all of the values, moderates, every resort on Crescent Lake, The Grand Floridian, AK Lodge Wilderness Lodge, OKW and Saratoga Springs. And every one of those parks took less time to build than it took Igerks team to build “lands” with 2 rides in existing parks with infrastructure largely in place, or even Tron!
I think he means simultaneously. Which is still probably wrong, but it’s at least arguable when unadjusted for inflation.
Over a comparable amount of time, surely, since what’s happening over the past few years *or* the next 10 can’t be comparable to over two decades of construction… even properly penalizing the Eisner list for opening day DCA.
I’ve been going to Disney World for years, and endured all the varied FastPass/Genie/Lightning Lane changes. I was deeply unhappy about the end of free FastPass, but I felt like I’d mostly made peace with it.
Buying Lightning Lanes for my recent trip, I felt a sudden overwhelming sense of frustration. I’d already spent $$$$ on this trip, and now, one week out, I was paying hundreds of dollars more. I didn’t want to pay it. I also felt like I had to – I have a kid who is probably on the edge of qualifying for DAS, but not quite there, a husband who recently recovered from a serious unexplained hip injury that left him on crutches, and my own hip issues that can leave me in too much pain to sleep. I have no issues waiting – I have serious issues standing while waiting.
In the old days, booking Fastpasses gave me thrill. They were part of the fun of planning a Disney trip. This time, I felt frustrated every time I had to approve a total cost (once per day) and a sense that maybe I should just be done. Maybe Disney isn’t fun anymore. (Really, it just reminds me of booking airlines and the seat/baggage/etc fees… not a pleasant experience).
When I went to Disneyland last year, I was able to bundle LLMP into my ticket price. No such frustrations, and Disney got their $$$. Universal was even better – I got the expensive Annual Pass that included after 4 PM Express passes. I now think back fondly on our Universal trips – we slept in, enjoyed a laid back morning, wandered over to the parks around 2 or 3 PM, hit ET (the one queue we actually enjoy spending time in), and then made good use of the Express pass until the parks closed. The whole thing was frictionless. Heck, we even spent an hour watching a mama squirrel try to teach her baby how to jump from the roof of a building onto a tree. We didn’t feel rushed, or like we needed to do a million things to get our money’s worth.
I have an AP at Disney, so I’m going back one more time. And then… I think I’m taking at least a few years off. I’ll do Disneyland, assuming I can bundle LLMP upfront. Honestly, while the $$ is frustrating, the feeling of being nickel-and-dimed is at least as bad. It is sucking all the fun out of vacation planning.
I agree with this 1,000%. When you feel like you are getting gouged, it does leave a sour taste in your mouth. Just bought 5-day park passes for 4, at a cost of $3,500 (park hopper +), and this includes zero line-skipping. It’s insane! I am a long-time hard core Disney fan with 2 kids (9 and 11), and for the first time we are splitting our 10 day trip between Disney and Universal Studios. I am excited to experience Universal for the first time, and we will have the express passes with our hotel stay, so I love the simplicity and up-front, all-in pricing. If the Universal portion of the trip is a success, I will likely do split stays from now on, and rent some of our DVC points to offset the obscene Disney pricing.
Over crowding won’t be a problem this fall.
I work for a major hotel and timeshare chain with campuses on Disney property and our reservations have been HALVED.
As of today, we are running a 30% discount for paid confirmations starting in AUGUST!
AUGUST!
What hotel is this?
Is there a clear reason for this? (e.g., reduction in international visitors?)
Bob Iger is the worst CEO in company history. His precious legacy will be his bland themeless resorts, the monetization of valued perks, elimination of things that couldn’t be monetized, and reductions. He inherited a company from his predecessors that had an unassailable reputation and worldwide goodwill and brought abounding controversy to it. The only Disney building that should be named after this arrogant CEO is the empty Star Cruiser building. Hoping he finally gets succession planning right, and soon. At 40 million a year, he should at least do this one thing correctly.
Iger’s no saint, but how have we already forgotten Chapek?
The first thing that popped into my mind when reading about crowds and capacity was exactly what you mention later, “multiple theaters sitting empty, a shortage of nighttime entertainment, no daytime parade, etc.” When my family talks about a trip the biggest problem we have “pulling the trigger” is the lack of entertainment. I really feel this is not talked about enough among the Disney exec. It is such an easy thing to accomplish and would make so many Disney fans happier. We were even thinking about making a trip so we could see the night parade at Disneyland. But the parade is only going to go until mid August. Disappointment again.
E for Effort Mr. Iger!
But referring to initiatives that increase capacity at worldwide Disney theme parks doesn’t address investors’ questions about domestic park capacity issues and affordability.
Referring to the Disneyland ticket prices does nothing to address affordability at Disney World.
58 million people visited Disney World in 2023. 14 million people visited Shanghai Disney and almost 28 million people visited Disneyland resort in 2023. If the topic is capacity, then by volume alone I Disney World is in need of attention since it draws more visitors by far than any other Disney resort in the world.
As an east coast resident and DVC owner at an Orlando resort, the vast majority of my Disney vacation plans revolve around Disney World. I’m happy for anyone who visits other Disney resorts and benefits from cheaper tickets and better capacity. But Disney World in Orlando needs attention, too.
I don’t agree that Disney parks compared with concerts and sporting events are an apples to apples comparison.
We don’t travel by air to get to concerts and sporting events and stay in a hotel for a week to experience them. By nature, concerts and sporting events aren’t normally spread out over multiple days requiring multiple days worth of admission media. And, if I pay for a concert or sporting event, I am guaranteed to get what I paid for. I get to watch the game or listen to the concert and then go home.
By contrast we travel hundreds of miles to Disney World and stay in a hotel/villa for a week. There is no guarantee that once I’ve paid admission to the parks that I will get to experience the attractions I want to. Perhaps there isn’t enough time to experience them all, or maybe the attraction isn’t available because it broke down.
To be fair, we won’t overpay concerts or sporting events, either. But I wasn’t the person who suggested they were an appropriate comparison to Disney World to begin with. To me, they are fundamentally different.
My family is willing to be patient until Disney World offers a better value proposition. Right now, Disney World parks have the highest price of entry, multiple experiences out of service, and increased rates of downtime for attractions that are still operating.
That shiny new park on the other end of town is likely to earn our vacation dollars this year if our visit coincides with a soft opening of some kind. We will use our annual passes to the other two Universal parks.
We hope that Disney World parks will offer a better value in 2026 with more available attractions, less downtime, increased hours, more entertainment and better prices. We’ll be there when Disney meets us halfway.
Agreed, we were every other year people from the Midwest. We travelled with 2 other families and we all drove. Our last visit was 2021. We all know Disney is expensive, but what we got in the past made up for it. Granted our last trip was during the covid/mask indoors phase but it was nothing like the previous trips. Rides breaking down, the little or very expensive 50th merchandise, waiting forever on the busses. The magic was gone and from what I read, its never came back.
Last year we went to Universal for the first time. Its not Disney, we did not feel immersed or in a bubble. Most of the rides are cool but for someone like me with motion sickness I spent most of the time on the sidelines. The Royal Pacific Hotel was ok and it was nice to be able to walk to the parks. But they did get a lot of things right, express pass was good when it worked, we were not on our phones all day and we rode everything we wanted. Hagrids did open late one day but we managed to get on it later. No rushing around to get on rides, we took breaks and it was more relaxed. We did run over to Disney Springs to get our fix.
Now we go to other places, we recently returned to Gatlinburg TN for the first time in awhile. It has changed so much, we can spend more time there, be more relaxed, spend more on shopping and attractions and come home refreshed knowing we spent less and got more for our dollars. We miss Disney but like you we are going to pause them until someone realizes that milking the one and done families instead of taking care of the repeat customers will not sustain them in the long run.
Disney annual gross profit for 2024 was $32.663B, a 9.99% increase from 2023. Disney annual gross profit for 2023 was $29.697B, a 4.86% increase from 2022. Disney annual gross profit for 2022 was $28.321B, a 27.07% increase from 2021.
Reading and hearing his responses are horse . Very out of tune with their customer’s.
Prices Rising and Magic of Disney is Fading.
Everything has gone up – it is getting too expensive for a middle class family to go more often than every 5 years. I’ve never had in state advantage however I had a military advantage until 7 years ago. I used to go to Disney World on average about every 8 months- now I’m at 2 years and wishing it was 8 months. I’ve always considered myself truly blessed for having been able to visit so often.
I will say when going more often I didn’t mind if something broke down or if a change was made. Now, I’m just flat out frustrated with new changes like FP, LL, Virtual queues, club levels at hotels to get basic services (when you are already paying premium rates), the constant need to ALWAYS use your phone for even the simplest things like read a menu at a premium restaurant, etc. (as the list goes on and on)!!!
It’s so hard to just RELAX and enjoy Disney for the truly special moments I still hope to recapture- like looking at all the details on buildings and landscaping or just watching my family enjoy a stroll on Main Street listening to the music playing in the background and smelling the wonderful smells from the candy store. The most Magical place on earth has been removing the magic for years and it makes my heart ache!
I want the nostalgia back!!!!!
Ditto.
I expect that there is a room of MBAs working for Disney who are in a constant argument regarding Disney’s pricing at its parks. Too many people tells an economist to raise prices. But then another MBA says it’s not just the parks. We sell IP and the streaming and all the stuff so we need the middle class to keep coming to the parks so we can’t make WDW just for the top 20%. And so on and so on. Not sure who is right here and what is the answer for Disney. It does suck to spend 90 minutes in any line in August in Orlando …..
This is almost certainly the case, although it’s not just MBAs (they sure do get a bad rap).
The WSJ report struck me as this internal argument spilling out into public.
When I hear people say that Disney is too expensive, I don’t think about the park tickets so much as everything else. Specifically the resorts. Seeing room prices go up and up and up, meanwhile you get Mousekeeping every other day, no longer have the Magical Express, and I can’t remember if they’re still charging for parking or not. (I never drive.)
My main gripe with the park ticket prices is that it seems you get less for your money than you used to. If we still had the Citizens of Hollywood at DHS, and a nighttime parade at MK, and longer park hours, and free FastPasses, and all that stuff that I miss so much, I don’t think I’d begrudge what they’re currently charging.
Ultimately, I didn’t mind paying premium pricing for a premium experience, but it’s no longer a premium experience.
I agree with your general points, but I think park tickets are a far bigger issue than resort pricing.
You cannot get the Disney experience without purchasing tickets. It’s a literal barrier to entry. You can, however, get the experience without staying at a Deluxe or other expensive resort. From my perspective, the All Stars offer attractive value for money, and their rate of increases are right around inflation since 2019.
That’s a fair point. Maybe I’m desensitized to ticket pricing because everything is so high – concerts, theatre, sporting events, and on a smaller scale movie theaters. I don’t think it’s a problem unique to Disney parks. It’s a problem, I agree, just maybe not specifically a Disney problem. The prices of everything are far outpacing my annual 3% raise.
It bothers me that the Disney talking points about ticket prices are so intellectually dishonest. Perhaps most bothersome is that Disney knows the media and investor class will lazily believe and parrot those same talking points, despite that even minimal investigation/analysis proves it’s technically BS. Guests/consumers are feeling the pain of these ticket prices and there are a select few families that can arrange their vacations around the lowest-priced days (which, as noted, also happen to be the most undesirable/uncomfortable in terms of weather, etc.)
I’m not even that upset with Disney deciding to continually raise prices, considering both supply/demand and the impact inflation has had on pretty much every product, service, or experience one might want to purchase. That reality might really hurt someone who can’t afford regular trips anymore, but at least it’s not a patronizing half-truth.
Basically Disney PR is playing the odds that most media/investors don’t bother to follow up on what’s actually happening on the ground, and most middle-class consumers won’t pay attention to the deceptive/offensive narratives woven by Iger and Disney brass at events like these. Sadly, they’re probably right on point with that strategy and people writing and reading blogs like DTB are in a very select minority of the “aggrieved enlightened”.
Sarah wants the website to get a new logo, and I now have one condition for that–so long as our motto can be: Disney Tourist Blog, Planning Resources for the Aggrieved Enlightened.
please make t-shirts and hats for this new logo….
I wholeheartedly agree on extending the park hours! Especially at night at Walt Disney World.
I am glad about Walt Disney World getting expansions and more rides for all ages. Whatever keeps more of that going on works for me. The sooner the better!
The most important thing left out perks gone like the fast pass but was implemented the lighting lane and plus other tickets instead of goi g on just 3 rides all day you purchase these tickets at a very high price. Bad enough a family of 4 hopper pas will run $3000 then add the other tickets you have to purchase or the hopper pass is a waste. transportation has been taken off a few years back that cost anther 200$ round trip to your hotel. Special events that years ago were free now its a charge up to 250 a person ridiculous how the people affoafford it!! Im a DVC member love how Disney was before affordable perks not now for especially young family!! The has been like this since Civid it haven’t changed!!
Something tells me you didn’t randomly pick May 22 as a date Iger should visit his parks. The more I hear about Epic Universe, the many great reviews I’ve read and the personal accounts I’ve heard from Universal Team Members, the more I’m sure it will give Disney a run for the money. Literally.
I now go to Universal every year, staying at Dockside Inn, one of the nicest and best affordable hotels of all the theme parks. We usually take a day to visit Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival, but not this year. We’re done with Disney, sorry to say.
Not “the parks,” but Animal Kingdom, specifically.
I still think there’s probably some truth to the “rising tides lifts all boats” thesis. But I think it’ll apply to Magic Kingdom mostly, and maybe DHS. But people only have so much vacation time, and Animal Kingdom is going to be the first park on the chopping block for guests wanting to “make room” for Epic Universe. And many will.
It boggles my mind that we still don’t have an announcement for something big (entertainment-wise) coming to DAK this summer.