Disney Doesn’t Want Lower Crowds.
Don’t believe everything Disney tells you. If the company never misled, every menu item everywhere would actually be “yummy” or “tasty.” Each new attraction would be the first-of-its-kind somehow. All upcharge experiences would be “magical” and “enchanting.” We’d still have Maelstrom, Universe of Energy, and other attractions they indicated were not slated for reimagining “at this time” shortly before announcements to the contrary.
Disney is incredibly adept at corporate communications, masterfully employing wordsmithery to obfuscate or excite fans, as the case may be. A lot of this strikes me as condescending and cloying with too much feigned enthusiasm and corporatespeak, but fans seem to eat it up.
Nevertheless, the company always stays on the right side of the marketing puffery v. false advertising line. I think most of us recognize this for what it is, and don’t put too much weight in it. We parse press releases and social media posts from Disney for the substantive details, disregarding the colorful language, and taking subjective claims with a grain of salt.
The same is true when assessing corporate earnings calls or interviews with executives. SEC rules prohibit companies from fraudulent, false or misleading statements to investors. This prevents Disney or any other company from releasing reports with inaccurate data or the CFO, for example, from making incorrect claims that analysts might rely upon.
In other words, when Disney asserts that per guest spending is up by 40% as compared to 2019, this impressive number is materially accurate. That’s pretty black and white. Then there are grey areas. A claim that hotel occupancy numbers have increased might be technically correct, even though it’s predicated in part upon rooms being taken out of the active inventory. Then there are the wholly subjective statements, such as cutting portion sizes being good for guest waistlines.
These distinctions are more difficult, but many fans intuitively understand the difference between fraud, favorable framing, and subjective commentary. Even if you don’t brush up on SEC rules in your free time, you probably have the ability to differentiate all of these types of statements and weigh them accordingly.
For whatever reason, this often does not happen when it comes to Disney’s statements about attendance. Otherwise intelligent fans take the company at their word on this, believing that Disney truly intends to reduce crowding. Maybe it’s a matter of wanting to believe. We hope that, if we’re going to pay higher prices for tickets or whatever else, at least there’s upside for us. (I certainly want to believe this!) Yet, despite ample evidence to the contrary, many fans continue to believe Disney cares about crowding. They do not.
When it comes to taking Disney at its word regarding crowds and pricing, this has been happening for decades. Literally. Back in 2010, then-chairman of Parks & Resorts Jay Rasulo stated that Walt Disney World planned to “slowly wean our guests off discounting.” Rasulo and then-CEO Bob Iger talked about ending deep-discounting on countless earnings calls. They indicated that these extreme measures put in place by Disney to prop up attendance and occupancy during the height of the recession were no longer necessary.
That line was repeated ad nauseam by fans for years. Whenever the release of a special offer was a few weeks late by historical standards or a room-only discount was 5% worse than the previous year, fans made reference to this remark. That it was finally happening, for real this time. And then, like clockwork, Free Dining and 40% off rack rate deals would roll out a few days later.
As recently as 2018, we were still addressing this comment about weaning guests off discounts when discussing the future of Free Dining. (It turns out that our prediction that “Free Dining, as we know it today, probably won’t exist come 2020” was correct, but definitely not for the reasons we expected!)
Eventually, that goal was realized. Free Dining hasn’t been offered for the last two years…due to the Disney Dining Plan being temporarily unavailable. Resort discounts have also dropped off due to a mix of pent-up demand and more limited room inventory. Probably not quite what Rasulo and Iger had in mind when planning to wean guests off discounts a decade earlier!
Back in 2016, Walt Disney World adopted seasonal pricing on 1-day tickets. Although that was effectively a price increase by a different name, the company pitched it as positive for guests: “the demand for Disney Parks continues to grow, particularly during peak periods. At the same time, we have an unwavering commitment to exceeding the expectations of all our guests.
Disney spun this as providing maximum “flexibility” and “customizability” as guests could simply choose to visit on less expensive days (tell that to teachers or students!) and save. This pricing model was billed as a way to “help spread out visitation” more evenly throughout the year. This was now ~6 years ago, but more recent press releases and comments from Disney spokespeople strike the same familiar notes about date-based pricing for Genie+ and other price increases.
Prior to the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Bob Iger mused that “maybe I should just tweet ‘It’s opening!’ and that will be enough” during an earnings call, saying that marketing wouldn’t be necessary to draw attention to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, as it would be in “incredibly popular and in-demand” regardless.
When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge debuted to low crowds in Disneyland and then again at Walt Disney World, Iger explained this away with a laundry-list of reasons as to why guest interest was low. Iger did, however, concede that “attendance was below what we would have hoped it would be” in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge during an earnings call.
Bob Chapek stuck to spin. He claimed that Disney was happy with the crowds and that was part of the plan. “The deep secret is that we don’t intend to have lines. If you build in enough capacity, the rides don’t go down and it operates at 99% efficiency, you shouldn’t have 10-hour lines…So, 10-hour lines are not a sign of success,” he said. “It should be seen as a sign of, frankly, failure.” (Note: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has never operated at 99% efficiency and had a 7-hour posted wait time 2 weeks ago.)
Since then, it’s been widely-rumored that Disney is contemplating changes (no, not turning it into Aladdin Land!) to make Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge more appealing. A version of the land slated for the Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris was also quietly cancelled. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has been an unequivocal success, but results are more mixed with the rest of the land. You can be the judge of its success v. spin–that’s not really the point of this post.
There is an old adage among attorneys: “If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts; if you have the law on your side, pound the law; if you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table.” I’ve always liked that expression, as it can be applied to all facets of life. With its corporate communications, Disney is often pounding on the table.
The point, which is hopefully illustrated by all of the above, is that Disney emphasizes the things that make the company look good and more valuable to shareholders, while also attempting to spin those into positives for consumers. When every other metric was abysmal in mid to late 2020, Disney emphasized guest satisfaction and ‘intent-to-return’ metrics on corporate earnings calls. (As we’ve mentioned before, there’s a reason they stopped sharing that post-Genie!)
If per guest spending is up, it’s due to the strength of Disney’s brand and the premium experience being delivered. If hotel occupancy is up, it’s due to the unparalleled storytelling power of a Disney resort. If prices are going up, it’s due to a supposedly-benevolent desire to deliver an exemplary guest experience and reduce crowds.
“If ___, then [insert hollow corporate buzzwords suggesting a positive for shareholders and consumers].” It’s a pretty simple formula, and we see it used time and time again. If Disney’s Hollywood Studios were invaded by literal aliens tomorrow and they started eating everyone on Alien Swirling Saucers, Disney would proudly tout the 98% of visitors who were not consumed by creatures from outer space as a massive win. The underlying idea remains constant: everything Disney does is good…for you!
As for why we shouldn’t take Disney at its word that the company is doing us a favor with price increases in the name of reducing crowds, quite simply, because there is ample evidence to the contrary.
Across the board, Walt Disney World attendance increased almost every single year from 2007 to 2019. Cumulatively, the increase was by tens of millions of guests, with attendance at Magic Kingdom alone climbing from 16 million to nearly 21 million guests. Animal Kingdom did even better in percentage terms, jumping from 9.5 million to 14 million–with almost all of that coming post-Pandora World of Avatar. Disney’s Hollywood Studios was to have its own coming-out party in 2020 with the completion of expansions, but that didn’t materialize for obvious reasons. Still, its attendance was up by 2 million from 2007 to 2019. EPCOT was just under that.
If the goal was to cut crowds or redistribute attendance, Walt Disney World has proven itself spectacularly bad at that over the course of the last decade-plus!
As we’ve pointed out repeatedly, higher prices do not necessarily translate to lower attendance. There are certain times of year that experience higher demand for a number of reasons–school schedules, seasonal events, weather, etc. Teachers or families with school age children can’t switch their vacation from summer break to mid-September to take advantage of lower prices. That’s not a real solution that works with the schedules of this demographic of guests, which is Disney’s core audience. They will simply pay more to visit in June or July.
Charging incrementally higher prices for these times of year allows Walt Disney World to capitalize on and profit from that inherently higher demand. That’s the goal–not redistributing attendance or whatever the talking point might be. This is the reason spring break, summer vacation, and fall/winter holidays continue to see heavier attendance than any other time of year and have not leveled off with random dates in mid-January, early May, late August, etc. Increasing prices on that quasi-captive audience is simply savvy business or opportunism, depending upon your perspective.
With that said, there are other ways to reduce crowds while increasing attendance. One would be large scale expansions that increase capacity rather than redeveloping or reimagining existing attractions. (Which typically have the opposite effect–adding demand while keeping capacity flat.) Pandora, Galaxy’s Edge, and Toy Story Land are good examples of this. Even though some of those redeveloped existing real estate, they did so in a way that effectively increased capacity.
Magic Kingdom is the best example of insufficient expansion during that time. Although New Fantasyland was a huge addition, nothing has been added since 2014 despite attendance increasing by millions more guests. Still, there are other ways to reduce crowds while increasing attendance.
Beyond physical park expansion, another option is adding entertainment. This is something that can be done on a quicker timeline, with stage shows, atmospheric acts (“streetmosphere”), parades, nighttime spectaculars, all helping to absorb or redistribute attendance. This was one of the goals of Rivers of Light and the whole Animal Kingdom after dark initiative. We’ll also soon see it play out as Hollywood Studios suddenly becomes much busier the last few hours of the day once Fantasmic returns.
However, Walt Disney World has largely gone the other direction in the last several years. Even pre-closure, entertainment cuts were occurring with regularity even as attendance increased. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios alone, here’s a list of entertainment that will not be running this holiday season: Citizens of Hollywood, Jedi Training Academy, Jingle Bell Jingle BAM!, and Voyage of the Little Mermaid.
If someone complains of the high crowds once Fantasmic returns and cites them as “evidence” that prices need to increase more as the only solution, kindly offer that list as a counterpoint.
The other solution is extending park hours, which increases park capacity and reduces crowds. This occurs in effect because the average guest does not stay for the duration of the operating day, but rather, a subset of it. Most people are not commando tourists who can go from rope drop to park close regardless of hours. They’ll do about 8 hours of the day on average, arriving early or staying late. Extending hours decreases the overlap–and thus crowds in the process–and allows attendees to “redistribute” crowds in a natural way.
This is a time-tested solution, and precisely the reason why Magic Kingdom used to open at 7 am during peak season dates and stay open until midnight in the summer. Even then, Main Street was busy until 1 am, as plenty of people will stay out until 2 am or later unless the weather is prohibitively cold. It’s also why Magic Kingdom used to have Extra Magic Hours until 3 am (back when evening Extra Magic Hours were 3 hours long).
Summers during the Great Recession, park hours as a whole were longer (with the exceptions of Animal Kingdom and World Showcase). Both water parks were open daily until 8 pm. The “Summer Nightastic” celebration brought special fireworks to Magic Kingdom, and nightly performances (sometimes twice) of the Main Street Electrical Parade. Speaking of parades, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom each had daytime parades back then.
Now, attendance is significantly higher (by several millions of guests per year) and regular park hours have been reduced by several hours per day–most notably at Magic Kingdom. There’s also less entertainment due to the stage shows and atmospheric acts that have been cut, as well as the loss of 3 different parades.
All of that should undercut any arguments that Walt Disney World is serious about reducing crowds. In reality, Disney has little desire to reduce attendance; they want to “optimize” wait times, staffing, and pricing to improve margins. That’s precisely why the company has reduced hours and entertainment with ever-increasing attendance instead of adding more to help absorb crowds. It’s not that Disney is inept at cutting congestion–it’s that the actual goal is yield management, and they are incredibly efficient at that!
Ultimately, this isn’t passing judgment about Walt Disney World’s approach to attendance or anything else. It’s simply refuting the misconception that Disney is doing guests a favor with price increases by (supposedly) reducing demand, crowds, improving the guest experience, or whatever else they’ve claimed. The company’s actual focus is on revenue and profits, and the maximization thereof.
To that end, Walt Disney World is trying to thread the needle by incrementally increasing prices in an effort to keep demand relatively inelastic. In short, Disney wants both high crowds and higher prices. That much should be clear by now. (If not, just look around–have you seen crowds decrease since Disney adopted this supposed-strategy in 2016?!)
From a business perspective, it’s hard to fault Walt Disney World for not leaving money on the table. While we hate all of the price increases of the last 2-3 years, it’s also obvious that Disney has pricing power and no shortage of demand right now. Why wouldn’t they continue raising prices?!
Beyond that, complaints overlook the role of the consumer in all of this. If Walt Disney World is overpriced, consumers should vote with their wallets. The onus is on all of us, if we believe we’re not receiving commensurate value for money for a product or service, to not purchase it. Complaining about rising costs while continuing to pay them does not absolve us from collective culpability.
With all of that said, there’s a case to be made that Walt Disney World is inflicting long-term brand damage, eroding decades of goodwill, and running the risk of alienating lifelong fans. These are all points we’ve discussed repeatedly, wondering if there will be irreparable issues once the current pent-up demand has resolved itself.
There’s also the fundamental question of whether having fewer people–and by extension, children–experience rite of passage vacations to Walt Disney World is a bad thing. (I’d argue that it is and definitely should not be the company’s strategy–it’s clearly at odds with why Walt Disney got into the theme park business.)
However, that’s all beyond the scope of this post. This is simply intended to demonstrate why Walt Disney World is not actually interested in reducing crowds. Perhaps I’m wrong, and this time Disney is super-duper serious about reducing crowds. I guess we’ll find out when Thanksgiving rolls around and Walt Disney World is either jam-packed with people or on par with a random day in September!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about Disney’s supposed goal of reducing crowds? Do you agree with the company that price increases show an “unwavering commitment to exceeding the expectations of all our guests” or are they simply a way to increase per guest spending? Think there are better ways to improve guest satisfaction or addressing congestion than price increases? Any other considerations we failed to take into account or details we missed? Do you agree or disagree with my 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!
As always, a well thought out article from Tom.
Let me start off by saying my family is fortunate for price to not be the problem. We would pay more if Genie were more user friendly (i.e., daily hassles at 7am are not consistent with the notion of a vacation). We would pay for the VIP experience if there was a guarantee we could plan it into the rest of our stay in central Florida, but Disney customer service is lacking even for obtain this extravagance. And I cannot extract value from the cost of Galactic Starcruiser at 40% discount (simply allow these guests to run around Galaxy Edge alone in costume and other VIP access would cost Disney $0).
But I digress, …..
Tom’s analysis was most poignant by telling us that attendance has increased while Park operating hours have decreased. By definition, this cannot be a way to enhance the customer experience. Parks feel more crowded because they are; more people fewer Park hours.
What exacerbates the problem is also what Tom pointed out – less entertainment means the only place to be is waiting is to experience an attraction. Live, often impromptu, entertainment is what makes/made Disney better than all the other amusement/theme parks. Disney uses Covid as an excuse, but Chapek was moving in this direction before he was CEO.
Certain customer efficiencies like mobile ordering are double-edged. If customers don’t wait on lines for food, and entertainment options are lower, lines for attractions increase.
Many ‘old-time’ Park goers who went to Disney regularly spent far less time in the Parks than the 8-hours Tom described. We were mostly 4-hours at rope-drop, relaxing afternoon, and then we’d pay extra for add-ons (i.e., dessert parties, Cirque de Soleil, a pricy dinner, etc.), but it now requires far more energy with Genie+ to achieve less than we ever could in the Parks. We would even do some of the other tie-in options – like the meal at Tiffins that gained VIP access to the Lion King show & safari ride. Those too are mostly gone.
Mine was the type of family Disney wants/wanted – we paid extra when we could receive extra. Those options are gone, Genie ain’t FastPass, and fewer Park hours are causing crowd congestion. This is not about Covid, these were things Chapek was planning and/or doing before the pandemic.
We have made a decision to act with our pocketbook. We have no plan to return to Disney any time soon. When next we return to central Florida, it will be to enjoy the Universal expansion. Universal offers a Park(s) experience with far fewer hassles.
We are the type of family for whom Chapek is ruining the Disney brand for the long term, because we were willing to pay for to get more.
I have chosen to vote with my wallet. We were the once a year WDW type family. We have not been there since 2018. First because it was too expensive and post Genie+ because it seems way too tedious to go. We did make a Disneyland trip last year and loved it. So I am still currently supporting the Disney company with my money, but I don’t really have any desire to return to WDW. The Guardians roller coaster looks pretty cool, but not cool enough to deal with the hassle and extreme expense. Thanks for the commentary!
Don’t kid yourself. Disney is looking for that magical ouch point while trying to capitalize on the post Covid travel surge. There wasn’t one adult ride that was less that an hour wait, thank god it was the slow season. I wasn’t even able to get to Tomorrow Land. Don’t get me started about the lack of 50 year merchandise. I remember when the kids were young, 25 years ago we would go the first week of December. If we waited 15 minutes that was a long wait, most of the kid rides we would get off and then get right back on again. I’ve never seen wait time like that in a long time. I found a old spreadsheet from 2003 where I paid $800 for a family of four. This time it cost $1200 for two. I was there the week before the hurricane and had such a bad experience I think I’m done with Disney.
I agree with you. Our first vacation in 10 years is winding down, and I am looking forward to leaving. Was at Magic Kingdom today for two hours and couldn’t do much due to crowds. We had tickets for MNSSHP tonight, but we are all miserable and had enough. I went to the guest relations and requested a refund. What was supposed to be a special and memorable trip for my daughter, has evolved into a miserable trip where you pretty much can’t do anything but roam the parks aimlessly. I sure hope I get sent a survey. I would love to tell Disney how un-enjoyable this vacation is. Sadly, perhaps pathetically, this was our first true ‘vacation’ in 10 years. If I could give it minus stars, I would.
I have a question than to all those who say it is all about greed, want lower crowds etc, etc….
If the demand is there, especially now with the revenge travel, how is Disney supposed to control the numbers? Raise prices? Tried that, still coming. Reservations? Tried that, still coming.
Maybe they need to put hard stops on the number of people allowed in the park.
Once that number is hit with reservations tell the locals you are not allowed in, hotel guests only. Sounds fair to me since I am an out of town traveler and will likely stay at the hotel anyway.
You know what they have not tried in a long time? A global recession! That always worked in the past and who knows looks like we might be there soon. Maybe we should all hope for that to hit because nothing bad comes with that does it?
I don’t think you got the message. What they are say!ing is that Disney doesn’t want to cut crowd because they are making millions off the crowds. Have you been
to Disney lately? They are letting more people in than ever before. Disney is all about the money not the guests! What bothers me most is they are constantly lying to us! Walt would have NEVER operated like this! He was all about making it affordable for families!! Shame on them!
@Christine Robertson while I am in agreement with the sentiments you have, it is a corporation and WDW is a massively expensive operation to run each day. I know, as I worked there. People often only look at one or two things as costs and then think prices are outrageous. But look at what a ‘value meal’ at Yuckdonald’s or somewhere costs you now. The world has gotten very expensive thanks to the massive over-response to the virus fears and some incredibly foolish policy actions at government levels. Disney must run the parks at some profit.
As for our hero Walt, it’s really hard to know what he would think of the world today or current parks operations. It’s a vastly different world than he lived in, and even our culture would be alien to him if he suddenly reappeared at the entrance one day. Sadly, he’s gone and at this point so are almost all of those who actually knew and worked with him. I think he would not have allowed most of the politicization of policies and such we are barely seeing the fallout from, but he was not racist or anti-Semitic regardless of what some folks try to claim. Ultimately, what we think he would say or do is colored by our own experiences and desires, so who can say? I am thankful for the many trips I made in the past prior to the current state of affairs.
I realize there are many nay-sayers that Disney doesn’t listen or they do not read these post, but I disagree. Based on my recent meetings with senior Disney cast members and having a couple of Disney cast member friends, you can’t be more wrong. The posts and numerous other Disney related sites are constantly being monitored. As someone stated in a previous post, being politically correct in how you state your grievance makes a huge difference. If you REALLY want to make a difference, send them a note via this site: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/contact-us/ or take a look at several other non-Disney affiliated website as there are similar comments posted everywhere. Hopefully the collective voice of these posts and the voice of reason by Tom, we will all get our WISH for much better days at Disney World and Disneyland.
I forgot that a lot of “Disney doesn’t want long lines” nonsense comes out when Universal opens up a new ride that gets long, long lines.
BTW, that’s a good point of comparison! Universal Florida has a lot of cheaper prices and discounts because they don’t typically have WDW crowds and need to entice them. It’s clear that Comcast is a company that doesn’t leave money on the table, so I assume those will eventually increase more, but it’s clear that they’re not going to until they have higher crowds. (Tom, the 2021 annual theme park attendance estimates are out, and if you’re interested in making that into a post I’d love to hear your thoughts.)
I keep seeing comments about the way things ‘used to be.’ However, that doesn’t impact me (or thousands of other guests) because I never took a Disney Vacation before 2020. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything when I went in August 2020 when NOTHING was open, because I didn’t have any expectations for something in particular to be open. Each time I’ve gone since then I’ve felt like it was worth the cost, and each time I’ve managed to find an experience that was magical. When it wasn’t magical, I told Disney about it and found myself compensated in some way that made it magical again.
This is not to say that anyone who feels that the magic is gone is incorrect, or that the value is no longer commensurate. Just that the average ‘once in a lifetime’ guests right now aren’t comparing their trip now to a trip they took four or five years ago because their last trip was probably 10+ years ago, if that. Guests like me can only look at what is in front of us and decide if it is worth the money spent, and for the most part…my memories at least are based on what I got to do and not what I didn’t get to do.
However, with that said? None of my party of 8 relative newbies had fun at the Halloween Party this past September and ALL of us remember the crowds. So…there is absolutely still a tipping point, and anyone going during a week with 10/10 days will feel the pressure and know there’s something not-quite-right and be much less inclined to do it again. I’d happily pay more for a limited event…which is what I thought I was getting with the party, but which turned out to be incorrect.
So…to wrap up… I might not notice whether or not times are better or worse now than some arbitrary date in the past, and I get frustrated hearing about it over and over again because it’s not like I can jump back in time and have that memorable, crowd-free day in 2017. I don’t feel like it’s a total rip-off to pay 120 dollars to get a great day at a unique place, because that is what the price is. But I DO feel like there’s an implicit contract inherent in a ticket that I, the guest, will be able to enjoy a reasonable sampling of the theme, since I am in a theme park. Unless that theme is ‘sweaty t-shirts 2022,’ it’s going to vanish quickly when the crowds reach a certain threshold. That’s when I get bothered that I’m missing out, and even more bothered that there’s no real way to strategize around it. I will definitely reach out to Disney, so I can share this perspective with them and add another voice to be heard.
@Maggie that is an excellent point, and I think something many of us old-timers often fail to consider when bitching about our glory days trips. I think this is something corporate does consider, that with the almost total domination around the world of the Disney brand and the leader in theme parks, there will (maybe) always be a ready supply of first -timers who have no frame of reference for being in say MK and never waiting more than 20 minutes for anything all day, with the park being open 8-midnight, etc. Maybe they figure the rest of us can just suck it up and deal with it, and our memories of the glorious 80s will keep enough of us coming back to balance the ebb and flow of newbies.
Even with Disney parks losing a bit of their edge, others are still pretty far behind. But Universal does have some pretty amazing stuff. The Harry Potter area is up to Disney level with some very, very cool rides, even though most of the rest isn’t quite there. The Velocicoaster is insane!
Seaworld is pretty good, and has their own copy of the EF&WF which is nice. The park in San Antonio is pretty smallish, but annual passes are cheap, like $8/mo for TX residents.
Six Flags is still pretty much just a big amusement park with a few themed rides, crappy food that is MORE expensive than at WDW, but even that is fun. So YMMV.
Glad to hear you enjoyed WDW. It’s always been one of my all-time favorite places, which is why I jumped at the chance to work there in teh College Program back in college. I call it an 8 month paid vacation…
Just have to salute Maggie for her prose.., so refreshing!!
Crowds were insane at Disneyland this last Sept. We hadn’t been since 2017. I have to say the biggest problem we encountered, as far as crowds, were ride break downs. Constantly, consistently. Many were same rides several times a day. I believe it’s partly because Disney is not keeping up on maintenance but more so they are shutting down rides on purpose for 45 minuted to an hour to save money. It was so bizarre. Then they open back up and the G+ line is a mile long and goes first. Obviously, that makes crowds and ride lines horrible on top of unbearable. Never did we have this problem with ride break downs pre 2017. Maybe one or two. I looked on the app one day and 8 rides were down. Just in Disneyland. Your comment about ROTR line 7 hours long. Maybe because so many other rides were shut down.
@J, I have to disagree. Disney isn’t shutting any rides down for 45 minutes to save money. That wouldn’t make any sense. Cast members are there for shifts and opening an attraction and startup takes a while every morning, with test runs, etc. The labor cost would still be there all day, and cast cannot (generally) just go to another attraction for a half hour and then back. It’s not like the carnival rides at fairs. Managing queues and safety, etc preclude the ability to do as you suggested.
But I do agree on maintenance being an issue causing far too frequent shutdowns, and it was very dumb for them to not do a whole lot of long-term repairs during the closures in 2021..
Disney has driven the bus off the cliff. Our family has traveled to WDW at least once a year from 1973 until December 2021. This includes four generations that will not return. Disney’s greed is anything but magical!!!
Great post Jay! They had more than enough time, but chose instead to send everyone home. They are so consumed about making more money they don’t care about safety anymore.
Complaining to Disney is a waste of time.
As a corporation, They Don’t Care!
The only employees that do care are the long term cast members and some low level managers. They feel your pain and they too are not happy with the direction Disney has gone. Unfortunately their hands are tied.
Corporate greed has destroyed Walt’s dream of a fun, safe place the average family could afford to go to escape the real world and have a great time.
The whole idea was to bring the whole family and leave stress and worry back in the real world. With the way Disney is currently set up, that’s an almost impossible task. because of how much you have to pay to go to Disney it only natural people want to squeeze out as much as they can in the time allotted. It used to be you had time to “enjoy” the parks. You could wonder around, explore, interact, be entertained, and still enjoy rides. Now if you add up the price of a stay and all the add on cost you are paying way more per hour you are inside a park. So, in the back of your mind, you can’t help being frustrated at what a 4, 5, or 7 hour wait in line is costing you.
Overcrowding, long waits, mechanical breakdowns due to lacks of maintenance and feeling you have to squeeze more in with less time are counterintuitive to the reason of going to Disney.
Disney only cares about how much money it can get from you while giving you less with each visit. They know if you get fed up and stop coming there are ten people willing to stand in line to replace you and your money.
Disney isn’t concerned about you, your opinions, your feelings, your frustrations, your ideas, or anything else you have other than money. Money talks. It’s the only language Disney hears.
“Complaining to Disney is a waste of time.”
You’re welcome to believe what you want, but I know for a fact that this is false. There are people at high levels of Walt Disney World leadership who care and want to make a positive impact. You are right that their hands are often tied, but not when they have specific feedback and survey data to support the changes they want to make.
It all depends on how you complain. If it’s an ALL CAPS tirade or dripping with sarcasm about corporate greed and Walt would’ve or wouldn’t have wanted, that will accomplish exactly nothing. The letter/email needs to be actionable and not just a rant (that won’t even be read all the way through).
If you give examples of what caused frustration or disappointment and where WDW fell short, that can absolutely make a difference.
You are 100% correct Nick. It is all about Corporate Greed.
Basically what you get now for outrageous prices is unreasonable wait times and prices for fast food that would buy a high end meal at home. They may think that people will keep coming. and it may take a few years, but the rich only make up 1% of the population and they can’t get by on that. There are many more average income people than rich people. Stay home until they do something about it.
I agree with all the a previous posts. We have voted with our wallets and quit going to WDW completely! I admit I miss it, but can’t justify it with all the changes.
Our family was the one known for all things disney. We helped several people with their plans, and we went every year like clockwork. Our kids and grandkids all loved disney too.
Now? Disney has lost not only our family, but our kids and grandkids. They have no interest in disney as it is now and prefer other places. The grandkids prefer Universal and never mention disney.
When people ask us about Disney, we tell them dont’ waste your time or money. They are shocked at what disney has become and find it hard to believe that disney has changed so much.
So, disney has lost our big family forever, and lost all of the people who we could have turned into disney fans. No more. Word of mouth is worth a lot; something disney has forgotten apparently.
I feel they have definitely ruined their brand name. Once a brand name is ruined it is historically difficult to ever get it back. Remember Sears, anyone? Just to name one.
I wonder, Tom, what their end game is in all this? They have to know what they are doing. Are they getting all the money they can before selling it off? I don’t know, but feel there must be an end game to this ruining of an icon such as disney.
Seems like the business model continues to be, “Look! We’re so popular we don’t have enough to go around.” They do this with everything- merch, ADRs, park reservations, APs, ride VQ and ILLs, etc. They love manipulating us.
But the formula has changed from a decade ago when WDW enticed us back with promises of even better trips than the last. Guests would get more and more advantages with trip experience and planning ahead. Guests could have even better experiences if they just spent a tad more. It was very effective. Gone now. A guest doesn’t even have a clue how *this* trip will turn out, nevermind if the next will be better because it’s a total crap shoot now. Spend a big pile of money and maybe, just maybe, you won’t go crazy between resort prices, trying to get on rides, getting to eat where you’d like, or not being swallowed by crowds and ride closures. Consumer confidence is dwindling for good reason. Can’t trust the current high costs will result in success. Can no longer trust that Disney won’t knowingly sell flawed products they figure most people will suck it up or have to find time to complain for any hope of recovery. The goodwill Disney spent decades building is definitely being eroded.
Tom I feel like you are one of the only ones that cares about live entertainment. I think you are bang on that it absorbs the crowds. We just got back from Disneyland and in one morning saw 4 different bands (Pearly, Bootstrappers etc) AND the Dapper Dans. It just brings so much life to the park. But the average WDW doesn’t care either. They want to get on the most rides in as short a time as possible and can’t be bothered with things like the Citizens of Hollywood. I really hope these come back. Even though I agree with your article on many points we have had 2 fantastic trips to WDW in 2022. The magic is back but we have the benefit of being long time AP and DVC. There is no need to rush or hurry anywhere. Just soaking it all in is worth it to us. Nothing was a slog. Bring back the boat from Wilderness Lodge to Contemporary too!
No boat from wilderness to contemporary and vice versa? Wow. Didn’t know that. That’s how we got to hoop de doo when I was a kid. And river country. What a shame.
There is a dedicated bus directly to the Wilderness Campground which takes the back road… about 8 minutes. Its a continuous loop that runs every 15 minutes or so.
I’m ok with them increasing prices now .. if they use that capital to open a new park. it would allow distribution and greater attendance.
Who are you kidding? Disney has zero interest in opening a new U.S park. They aren’t even interested in expanding capacity within their current parks. Disney’s goal is to maximize its profits.
“Now, attendance is significantly higher (by several millions of guests per year) and regular park hours have been reduced by several hours per day–most notably at Magic Kingdom. “
Higher attendance, shorter hours combined with crazy prices is making for unbearable crowds. We have been going to WDW for decades. We used to make it a weeklong vacation, visiting most parks multiple days, one being an open to dinner day and one a dinner to fireworks. The rest of the time was spent at the resort swimming and dining. Now, most of our trips are multigenerational. To be able to afford it, the young parents need to make it a three-day park hopper affair, trying to squeeze it all in.
Instead of a vacation for these young families, it is a marathon. I follow several WDW groups on Facebook. The biggest discussions ( well, except for arguments about DAS pass abuse) arise when a poster asks which double stroller they should rent for their 8 and 9 year olds because they will not be able to keep up at the pace they need to go to get it all done, especially since Genie+ Has them cross crossing the parks. Fortunately, we are the grandparents/great grandparents now. We can say “See ya later. have fun!”
I took my wife to WDW for her first time as an adult in January 2017. We stayed at Port Orleans and hit all four parks. I felt like the trip was a bit pricy, but absolutely worth it. We took the Magic Express from the airport. We enjoyed all of the free entertainment available in the parks. We got to ride our favorite rides using the free FastPass system, and the parks weren’t crowded. I was able to make ADRs so far out there was no problem eating wherever we wanted.
My wife surprised me with a trip this January. We stayed in Port Orleans and hit all four parks. The experience was not at all the same. No Magic Express. Missing entertainment at the parks. Genie+ replaced Fastpass. Hard to get food, and you had to pre-order everywhere. We had our room cleaned once in the 4 days we were there. Most of all it was crowded to the point of not being enjoyable. Hey, at least I got to ride the Skyliner…
I have to go to Orlando for work in early February next year. Even though I swore I wasn’t going to go back to WDW anytime soon because of all the negative changes, I looked up pricing for Port Orleans to see if we could swing a couple days before my work trip. The room prices have gone up over 70% in 6 years.
70%. With far less perks.
I know I’m preaching to the choir but Disney is doing their best to erode customer goodwill. They’ve certainly done so with me.
Similar situation, went May 2016, family of 5 , stayed at Port Orleans.
We have gone a couple of times since, just for a couple of days, and it is not the experience 2016 and prior provided.
2016 – $2300 ( room & tix ) + ~$800 food and souvenirs
2022 (planning) 4300 + ??? ($1.5k) food
And there has been no value added in that time, only reductions in the experience. UO will be eating Disney for lunch in 2-3 years
This article clinched my decision to actually really honestly truly just cancel our immanent trip because I worried it would turn me off to Disney entirely .., now hoping for a change before March.. one can dream! (gives ironic meaning to the constant Disney mantra about ‘dreams’.) Haha
Great article. Even with all the factors mentioned, there are many others to deal with as well. Add the proliferation of hard ticket after-hours events, mobile ordering, and the barriers put up to park hopping, and reduced value of on-property resorts to the list of factors that lead to long lines.
1. After hours events have eliminated several park hours out of a day guests’ ticket value. What used to be 8am-12am at the MK is now 8am-6pm.
2. Meals used to absorb high numbers of guests — both table service but also the time spent in line, ordering, finding a table, and eating at quick service. Now these guests are out in ride lines, mobile ordering, grabbing food, and heading back into the park quicker.
3. Park hopping was a bit of a panacea when it came to an individual’s crowd tolerance. It used to be cheap and easy to ride some rides, then hop to the park with lower attendance for the rest of the day. That’s harder to do now, with hopping costs rising, Genie+ ride reservations becoming a hurdle, and park reservations coming into play.
4. Ask any Disney fan the best way to experience WDW in the 90s, 00s, and 10s, and they’d say rope drop, knock out popular rides, leave the park during the 2pm-4pm crowd crush, enjoy the resort pool/rest, then head to a different park for the rest of the day (which would be open fairly late). Call it the great crowd reset. Since the benefits of staying on property have diminished, the ability to break from the parks mid-day has also decreased. It’s one thing to grab a boat, monorail, bus, skyliner to take a quick break from the crowds, but much more disruptive to schlep the family in a rental car and drive back to Kissimmee, I-drive or wherever.
Add these all up, plus the factors mentioned in the article, and I don’t see any end to open-to-close chaotic crowd levels for some time. Capacity is getting crushed from all angles.
Its getting harder to be a Disney fan these days 🙁
Like so many others my family is voting with their wallets. For the first time since 2002 we have no trip to WDW scheduled nor do we anticipate going anytime in the foreseeable future.
Here is my question: is there any avenue by which we can communicate this to Disney? I’m not sure they care but I would still like to convey to someone in the company that they’ve alienated a decades long family.
I would encourage you to respectfully express your disappointment, and how the company’s decisions and practices have impacted your vacations or future business (or lack thereof) with Walt Disney World by emailing [email protected].
Given all of the negative changes and guest unfriendly policies that Walt Disney World has enacted in the last couple of years, it might seem like the company no longer cares about guest satisfaction and feedback. It’s probably true that there are some at the highest levels of leadership who don’t, or focus more on objective KPIs, but there most certainly are leaders on the ground in Florida who do care.
In many cases, it’s simply a matter of them being able to show “support” when fighting for things, budgets, etc. Emails from people like you can actually be quite impactful in effectuating positive changes.