Disney Responds to Rising Costs Criticism
As we discussed earlier this week in Walt Disney World is Worried About Its High Prices, concerns about Disney pricing out the middle class are no longer just a controversial topic among fans. Now alarms are also being sounded inside the company, as executives fear price increases are alienating fans and souring sentiment.
This was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which spoke with current and past employees of the Walt Disney Company who were involved with discussions about pricing and corporate strategies for the theme parks. 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.”
People within the company who are familiar with pricing say that “internal discussions over whether Disney parks may be losing their grip on the hearts and wallets of families with young kids have become more frequent.” And then there’s this: “Starting in late 2023, the company’s own internal surveys of Walt Disney World and Disneyland guests found that the number of them planning return trips had ticked sharply down.”
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The full piece delves into the average vacation costs and contains much more color commentary from inside the company about pricing. The WSJ article also strikes us as strikingly similar to a previous WSJ piece from November 2022 that was published shortly after the Chapek ouster.
In that, Bob Iger made it clear that he had been “alarmed” by price increases at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, and was concerned that Chapek was “killing the soul” of Disney. That article opened the floodgates for other pieces from the New York Times, CNBC, Hollywood Reporter, and other outlets I’m probably forgetting.
Even more notably, a little over a month later Walt Disney World made 3 big changes to restore value and improve flexibility, including the return of free overnight parking at the hotels. Mere months after that, the company announced 5 major improvements to make your visit easier. More recently, there was the switch from Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass along with other queueing changes aimed at better balancing the interests of all guests. Otherwise, not a whole lot has happened to improve the guest experience in the last 365+ days.
Suffice to say, we’re expecting two things as fallout from the WSJ article. The first is similar reporting from the NYT, CNBC, THR, etc. Many of the journalists at those outlets are well-connected, and they’ve undoubtedly already reached out to their sources for fresh angles on this story.
The second is a response from Disney, much in the same vein as they responded in early 2023–with action. Well, the second thing happened before the first, at least on a superficial level. On its corporate website, the Walt Disney Company indirectly responded to concerns and criticism about costs with the following:
“To all who come to this happy place, welcome. Disneyland is your land,” Walt Disney said when he dedicated Disney’s first theme park in 1955. It’s been the company’s motto ever since, and the reason why Disney has remained the leader in family travel for seven decades and counting.
“The number-one thing we hear from the millions of guests who visit our parks each year is how much a Disney vacation means to them, and we intentionally offer a wide variety of ticket, hotel, and dining options to welcome as many families as possible, whatever their budget,” Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Experiences, said.
“We also know that, in inflationary times, it’s especially important to give families ways to save on their visits. We haven’t increased the lowest-priced ticket to Disneyland since 2019, and we recently introduced a kids’ ticket for as little as $50, just to name a couple of examples.”
Ever since opening day at Disneyland nearly 70 years ago, generations of families have been making memories with Disney that last a lifetime. And through the decades, Disney has always created new ways for guests to save on their vacations.
“We know our parks create life-long memories for families and we’ve worked hard to make a Disney vacation accessible to guests of all income levels,” Hugh Johnston, Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company, said. “With strong guest satisfaction scores and intent-to-visit ratings, our parks remain the most popular offering in the industry.”
The company went on to explain that it understands the “financial pressures that families face across every part of their spending, including how they travel” and that they listen to guests and “use that feedback to introduce new offers and promotional deals, which provide significant savings.”
Disney went on to list the many special offers currently available at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, including the usual suspects, such as Florida and California resident discounts on tickets, free water park day at WDW, and various room discounts on both coasts. They also mentioned the popular Free Dining Plan Deal at Walt Disney World and the Kids’ Ticket Deal at Disneyland.
Of those, the only one that’s persuasive as being a good value for the average family is the $50 child’s tickets. That’s the only admission deal for the general public, and still presents the problem of how non-Californian adults are supposed to visit on a budget. It’s not like the kids can go unattended, which is precisely why Disney offers this deal–it’s a promotional hook to get families to visit and spend more on everyone else.
All of the other discounts for the general public require large financial outlays. No one is staying on-site at Disneyland to save money. Both Free Dining and the up to $200 off rooms promos lock guests into pricier packages, so that’s not a good example if you want to underscore bottom dollar prices to visit Disney.
Ironically, the best deal of all to feature would’ve been the room-only discounts at Walt Disney World, highlighting how inexpensive Value Resorts can be and what they offer versus comparable off-site accommodations. Disney could’ve boasted about how, after currently-available general public discounts offering up to 30%, you can “stay in the magic” for rates starting at only $125 per night this spring and summer (at All Star Sports).
That’s precisely what I discuss in my analysis of these discounts when encouraging those on a tight budget to consider the Value Resorts because their inclusive offerings can make them less costly in the long run. You’re going to be hard-pressed to do better than the rates Walt Disney World is offering at Value Resorts. For instance, ~$125 per night for the All Stars–with the new rooms, Early Entry, transportation, and free parking–is inexpensive enough that we don’t even recommend readers consider staying off-site to save money (peak season when rates explode is a different story).
If I were Disney, I probably also would’ve used that press release to tease the return of the 4-Day, 4-Park Magic Ticket at Walt Disney World. That’s an exceptional general public admission deal, and it’s almost assuredly returning within the next month or so. (Last year, it was announced on March 12 and valid for use from April 2 through September 22.)
Following that last point in the press release, Disney continues by explaining that offers like a child’s ticket for as low as $50 at Disneyland “can make that first trip to Disney possible for many young families. And the memories they make are one-of-a-kind.”
Disney went on to cite a recent survey of 3,531 U.S. adults by Morning Consult, commissioned by the Walt Disney Company, revealed that a strong majority of families with children under five:
- Said nothing compares to a Disney vacation…
- Said that a visit to a Disney park gives memories that last a lifetime and can’t be replaced…
- …And those that had visited Disneyland or Walt Disney World felt the vacation was worth the expense
The “commissioned by the Walt Disney Company” part is probably all you needed to read. Even so, we’re not particularly concerned with surveys–just as we weren’t in the previous article. Word questions the right way and you can use them to make whatever point you set out to “prove.” Disney is masterful at this, and many of its surveys are less fact-finding missions and more supporting a preordained conclusion.
My reaction to the press release is mostly confusion. I’m surprised that Disney opted to “refute” the article, even if indirectly. I’m even more surprised that they did so in such a superficial manner, not by making any meaningful changes but by pointing to things that already exist. I suspect they’re going to have to do that as well, at some point soon.
If the status quo were a compelling argument, Americans wouldn’t have concerns and criticism about costs and Disney pricing out the middle class. People would simply be taking advantage of the existing special offers, attendance and occupancy would be booming, there would be no concerns about guest goodwill or brand damage, etc.
The very existence of this press release is proof of the problem, not the other way around, and it will allay zero concerns about high costs and Disney. Since it’s on the corporate website, I can only assume the intended audience is Wall Street. Will concerned analysts and investors find this a persuasive rebuttal? I assume not. In general, Disney’s responses–both here and to WSJ–have felt a bit Bluthian.
This response reminds me a lot of the infamous “Nahtazu” campaign–if you have to make a concerted effort to explain why Animal Kingdom was not like a zoo…it was too much like a zoo. Here, if Disney needs to explain how the parks are accessible to guests of all income levels…they actually are not.
There’s a fancy phrase that I like, res ipsa loquitur, which means “the thing speaks for itself.” It’s normally used in other contexts, but I’ve taken to it when debating Disney. I like the saying because fans have a tendency to get too in the weeds with all things Disney; we can forget that the regular park going public doesn’t put as much thought or have as extensive knowledge as we do, ability to work the system, etc.
My favorite example is using it to argue that Dino-Rama sucks (because it does), despite fan claims to the contrary about backstory and other assorted nonsense. The thing, a rundown roadside carnival, speaks for itself. Or at least, it did before it met its demise. Which is why it met its demise. (Rest in pieces, Dino-Rama.)
Anyway, same applies here with Disney Parks’ pricing. I would take that a step further and argue against their specific example of young families. The whole reason Disneyland is offering that $50 kids ticket deal, or that Walt Disney World lowered the price of the Disney Dining Plans for children last year, or any number of other offers targeted at kids, is because fewer families with small children can afford to visit the parks.
This isn’t just me theorizing. One of the reasons Disney has been building more bars & lounges, adding adult-centric attractions & entertainment, and otherwise chasing the convention-goer and childless millennial demographics is because they’re making up an ever-increasing slice of the pie for Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
We first heard this explanation back in 2017 or 2018, and if I recall correctly, one of those years was the first time ever that guests without children surpassed those with. Although I haven’t heard much since, I highly doubt the trend has reversed itself. It makes sense, at least for the short-term. Twenty and thirty-something DINKs have more disposable income than their cohorts with children.
It should go without saying, but there are negative long-term consequences of this approach.
One of the key points we buried towards the end of the very lengthy ‘Disney is Worried About Its High Prices’ article is that “intent to recommend” metric is very important–on par with guest satisfaction and intent to revisit. We have heard from more and more fans who, even though they’re still going to Walt Disney World for emotional or sentimental reasons, have stopped recommending it to friends. This was reinforced in the reader comments to the high prices post, where several people said this describes them perfectly. Some admitted to hiding their trips from friends or being embarrassed about them.
It used to be the case that current Disney fans were excellent, unpaid brand ambassadors for the company–introducing Walt Disney World to others, making new fans in the process. What we’ve heard is that–due to higher prices, greater complexity of visiting, less value for money, and more–fewer readers of this site are recommending Disney Parks to others. This is really significant, and under-discussed. People trust the word of one person in their own social circles more than that of one-thousand social media influencers.
As a retired Childless Disney Millennial and current Disney Dad, I’d take this a step further and say there are a couple of unique ways this ‘intent to recommend’ angle applies to families.
The first is that, as a general matter, I would hazard a guess that childless adults are less of brand advocates for Disney in their real life social circles. When we were in that position, we weren’t proactively extolling the virtues of the Disney Parks to our normie friends. People knew us as Disney Adults, but it just didn’t come up. Separately, in our Disney friend circle, it came up constantly. But no one in that group needed a sales pitch in the first place. They were in just as deep as us.
Now that we have a daughter, we’re in parents groups and that sort of thing. We have a new social circle that is, unsurprisingly, families with children our daughter’s age. In these groups, Disney and other family-friendly activities come up constantly, with people soliciting advice and feedback from one another about things to do and products to purchase. (This constitutes a surprising amount of conversations!) I can only speak to our own anecdotal experiences, but I’d imagine that an enthusiastic recommendation of Disneyland or Walt Disney World in these groups would go much further than in a social circle without kids.
While I suppose that angle is arguable and anecdotal, there’s also the more obvious and undeniable one. Parents take their kids to Disney, those kids form emotional bonds, grow up visiting, and take their own kids to Disney. Rinse and repeat. This is ‘intent to recommend’ in its most organic and unadulterated form. Countless multi-generational ‘Disney Families’ exist due to this dynamic, including both of us–and probably many of you!
Pricing out families with small children is the surest way to break the cycle, resulting in future generations that have no emotional connection to Walt Disney World or Disneyland. There are hugely negative long-term ramifications to pricing out families, and it seems like there’s some degree of concern about this internally.
However, it’s not a problem that will play out in the short-term. So Wall Street, with its quarterly myopia, may not care. And given the average life cycle of corporate leadership, current Disney management may be long gone before those particular chickens come home to roost. Accordingly, there may not be much of an incentive for anyone to reverse this.
For what it’s worth, all of this is not to cast aspersions on Disney Adults or suggest the company should turn its back on them in favor of families. Absolutely not. DINKs are incredibly lucrative and U.S. demographics trends alone suggest they will be increasingly instrumental in the future. If anything, Disney should be doing even more to cater to these adults with disposable income. But at the same time, the company needs to figure out how to maintain accessibility for families, as they are Disney’s bread & butter, and will ensure generational nostalgia continues to drive future visits.
Bringing things full circle, all of this is also why it’s worse for Disney to lose fans on an emotional level than a financial one. Many people from both cohorts–the Childless Disney Millennials and the Disney Families–are there because we grew up hooked on Disney, forming that sentimentality and nostalgia as kids. If costs were all that mattered, the damage would be easy to undo. Disney could turn its big pricing dial down, or pull that giant discount lever and entice people to return in greater numbers. But when you lose fans emotionally, the likelihood of that damage being undone is far lower–and it can become generational.
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 of Disney’s (indirect) response to the criticism of price increases pricing out the middle class? What would you like to see done to improve the guest experience and satisfaction at Walt Disney World? 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!
Would you prefer 2015 Walt Disney World or 2025 Walt Disney World? For frequent super fans, that’s an easy answer. What’s that saying? When someone is trying to show you who they are you, should believe them? LOL!!! Iger being concerned that Chapek was “killing the soul” of Disney as he monetizes and reduces once complimentary perks, builds the ugly Island Tower sandwiched between the iconic and beautifully themed Polynesian and Grand Floridian resorts. Then he eliminates “problematic” Zip A Dee Doo Dah from the park play list and the words “boys and girls” from announcements or friendly cast member greetings as we enter and exit the parks. Iger’s concern for Disney’s soul is empty words. They can discount the tickets and meal plans all they want but until they reverse 3 things (that they are very unlikely to do) guest will rightly feel that Disney has slipped and offers way less for way more these days. Those three things: restore complimentary fast pass, restore Magic Express, and increase park hours and closing times while cutting the number of paid parties in half. That Veterans Day week where the MK was open late one night only ( Wednesday) was ridiculous and frustrating. All while Hollywood was hosting another paid party and the other two parks closed early. That’s the type of stuff guests encounter and makes them question why they went and makes them feel ripped off.
Ditto
I wrote this intending to comment on the original post but decided against it. It seems more appropriate for this post, though, so I decided to share.
We just returned from 9 days at Disney World. We are a relatively high income family of two adults and one 6-year-old. I have been to Disney World 4 times previously, roughly once a decade, the last trip being in the early 2010s. I knew this trip would be different (for one thing, I was paying for it and not staying on free family DVC points), but I expected to have a good time as I had on all previous visits.
We stayed for a somewhat long 9 nights, bought park hopper tickets, and purchased LLMP for 5 days of our trip; but we did not rent a car, stayed some nights on DVC points rental and ate mostly quick service meals and grocery store snacks. We found value in some costs (LLMP, quick service food) and found other things to be somewhat overpriced (admission tickets.) All in all, we saved in some areas and spent in others, spending roughly what we had anticipated, which was “more than it should be.”
If the worst I had to say was that it cost more than it should, I would not be commenting. I am commenting because, despite intensive planning and spending more than we typically do on a single vacation, the adults really just … didn’t enjoy it. My son enjoyed it, and we were happy to be able to provide the experience to him so I don’t know that I regret going, but if I am going to be spending luxury level amounts on a vacation, I want to personally enjoy it and, on the whole, I didn’t, and neither did my spouse.
I had hoped that the untold hours I spent reading this (very helpful) blog learning about the IT systems and reservation rules, best times to go, places to stay and places to eat (including how and when to make reservations and how, even, to order counter service food), which rides and other attractions to experience and in what order, etc., would make for a relatively seamless experience once there. (As an aside, I honestly don’t think people – Disney execs, frequent visitors, etc. – who are well acquainted with the parks and their systems can understand what an absolutely overwhelming amount there is to learn prior to visiting for someone who isn’t intimately familiar with it all. It is stressful and I didn’t experience any of the travel anticipation I usually do when planning our vacations). To some extent the preparation did help with our enjoyment in the moment and we were able to go with the flow as needed (and it was often needed due to excessive ride downtime.) Even so… while there were moments of fun for the adults, we were mostly just trying to appear to be enjoying ourselves for our son and honestly counting down the days until we went home. Unfortunately for Disney, the adults are the ones making the vacation choices in our family, not the six-year-old (who, incidentally, doesn’t appear to be all that into Disney IP anyway), so, regardless of income, we aren’t planning on a repeat visit anytime soon.
It’s not just that it was a poor value (which I think it was, but that’s debatable), it’s that it just wasn’t enjoyable for the people paying for it, regardless of price. Maybe if our experience had been bathed in the nostalgia of having grown up visiting regularly, it would have been different (and I can see how others who make yearly or more frequent visits would enjoy themselves with a more leisurely trip and relatively no prep time). It wasn’t different, though. It was something to “get through.” So despite the nice short flight and what should be relative ease of vacationing there, we won’t be penciling Disney World into our vacation schedule anytime soon.
Hilary, I am more than a little afraid that we will feel similarly in a couple months. My husband and I haven’t been to WDW since we were kids in the 90s. Now we have children that will be 6 and 4, so we decided we’d go at least once…mainly for them, but partially out of nostalgia and curiosity. It was IMPOSSIBLE to understand how steep the learning curve would be before really diving into everything post-booking. I have been religiously reading this blog, Reddit, etc and watching YouTube in my spare time for months, trying to prepare and soak up all the info so I’ll (hopefully) know how to navigate everything easily. I’m roughly planning out each day months in advance so I know what to book at 60 days out and 7 days out. I have notifications set up on my phone so I’m up at 4:45a central time to grab popular ADRs. I’m considering which parks typically have extra evening hours on which days when making choices. (The official info isn’t available yet.) I’m trying to figure out when exactly the monorail starts up in the morning for early entry. (Times seem weirdly nebulous when it comes to transportation and park openings.) We’re taking a crack-of-dawn flight so we can use the free waterpark admission on check-in day. Our oldest child is missing school for a week so we can go during shoulder season. All of this feels necessary to ensure we have a good trip. It’s a part-time job, and I can’t use a travel agent because we rented DVC points. It’s insane how complicated the whole endeavor is for first-timers/infrequent visitors! And I’m concerned that after all that, I’m still going to have to be referring to my notes and messing with my phone to maximize LLs, look at maps and wait times, order food, etc. I find myself wondering if this trip can possibly be worth all the hassle on top of the ~$7k expenditure for six nights, even if everything goes perfectly. And we aren’t straining financially to make this happen, but it’s still a lot of money (the most we’ve spent on a vacation in our adult lives), so the stakes automatically feel high. It seems like Disney is ultimately doing fine at filling the parks and many people are tolerating the current business practices even amongst the complaints for now, but I really cannot believe leadership is okay with this being the current experience for people just trying to take a satisfying kid-centric vacation. I’d argue that all this stuff is roughest on people who have little ones going for the first time because, with so many variables, flexibility is necessary. It feels like there is realistically very little of that. And like you said, even if our kids do have the time of their lives, they’re not the ones with the money…at least not for the next 20 years. I’m still excited to see them experience everything, but a vacation should not be this hard, and it’s increasingly possible that’ll be my main takeaway from the whole thing. I can’t imagine there’s enough “magic” for us as non-Disney Adults to erase the pain points, and if we don’t decide to return, our kids will eventually barely remember any of it. It’s no surprise intent to recommend or return is plummeting, or that a lot of kids today won’t have that powerful Disney nostalgia to motivate future trips.
Bluthian speak all over the place by Disney! As a literal lifelong Disney fan (my first trip to DLR was when I was a few months old), it is sad for me to feel like I am sheepishly starting to “justify” our Disney visits and trips to other people. The main reason is because others feel the cost is not worth it or Disney is just “greedy”. In other words, brand damage. It sucks to feel that way.
Besides the desires to continuing luring DINKS and families it surprises me that Disney does not do more of a push for destination vacations for extended families that live far from each other. We do an annual visit with families that live across the country from us and it is a blast! We get to see family and have fun together at Disney! I know Disney will tout such marketing in printed or video materials, but I feel like they could be doing something more to showcase that opportunity. I am not a marketing person, but I feel it’s a missed opportunity.
Tom- side note, thank you for your varied topics of all things Disney here- whether it’s a post about the Country Bears, Chapek’s hippo history, the law, financials, or inclusion, it is always a nice getaway from the world we are in now. Informative, interesting and fun!
They used to do something very similar to what you’re describing–it was called “Grand Gatherings.” If I recall correctly, it started around 2000 and continued until 2008 or so. Wishes was tied into the campaign at one point. You might still be able to find limited info about it online.
In any case, I agree with you that it’d be a smart idea. I’d hazard a guess that the coming years are going to be filled with more and more trips funded by baby boomer grandparents, millennial parents, and young children. Having a ‘special’ product offering or campaign for this type of multi-generation trip or family reunions would be savvy.
And thanks for the kind words!
Disney should bring back extended hours for all the Disney hotels like it used to be. Not just for those who stay at a Deluxe Disney hotel.
They could easily make it for value and moderate hotels on certain days and certain days for deluxe hotels so everyone staying at a Disney hotel gets to enjoy extended hours!
My wife and I just returned from DisneyWorld yesterday. I am not sure anybody cares about us since our children are in their 40’s, we have already taken our children and grandchildren to DisneyWorld multiple times and we have gone alone more than 25 times. We clearly love Disney and want to continue going as two fun and fit adults for 5-10 more years at least. Our age is irrelevant. We are not that much different than two 35 year olds with no kids.
But I have some really bad news for Disney. Last year and this year we were actually bored more half the day. We arrived at rope drop every day. We did what we could in that park of choice before we had to face the reality that we are not waiting in 50-60 minutes lines to go to Haunted Mansion or Pirates or the Jungle Ride or Kilimanjaro Safaris or Soarin. We found our selves essentially forced to leave the parks from around 12-2PM or even earlier and come back at 7:00PM or so. I have no desire to spend more than $100 – $125 – $150 a day for what this year was. Too many things shut down. Rides that were not functional at all. We love DisneyWorld. But this year was awful. There is almost no street entertainment anymore. I could go on for pages. We are just as interested in riding rides and experiencing things as we ever were. With or without children. We love Pop Century and the Skyliner. We still love DisneyWorld. But for the first time in 35 years we are seriously planning to either not go next year, or stay only half as long. AND, there was no discount available to us at all (their claim of limited availability for discounts as it is now is nonsense) and I feel cheated on how much money we spent. Weekend days at Pop Century were $220 – 260 a night. And that us during January and February. And food costs are absolutely nuts! Almost $7.00 for a Mickey Ice Cream bar. $8.50 for a pretzel. (my wife and I spent almost $25.00 for 2 soft pretzels and a shared bottle of Coke.) $5.50 for a 20oz bottle of coke. A Cinnamon Roll is $7.50. A funnel cake is $10.00 at EPCOT. Whether we can afford it or not is really not the point. Feeling taken advantage of it the real point. We could never take our 3 kids and 5 grandchildren to Disneyworld now for a week – even at Pop Century.
I totally agree with you. We are older and have been many many times. We took my son’s family and daughter last year. It was unbelievably expensive. Paying extra for fast pass (or whatever it’s called now) is crazy. It should not be. I remember when we could go and not look at our phones. Now everything is on your phone. Took some of the fun out of the trip. We love Disney but it’s just too expensive for the middle class.
I’m considering our next family trip will be to Universal. Hopefully, that’s still in our price range.
We are DVC members at BLT. The last time we went to Disney World was in 2014 when my husband and I took our two daughters. Since that time, we have sold our points and used it for a family vacation in which we can spend less money but include many more family members. We have rented places in the summer in Newport, RI, coast of Maine, VT, and NH for 10 people and made amazing memories. For summer 2026, we are selling our points and renting a house and taking everyone to Dollywood and TN for a week. Our points will cover everything. Disney is fun, but it can be a trip with 3-4 of us or a trip of 10 for a week with our daughters and their significant others, my niece and her husband and their son, and another family member. I’m not sure that we will ever go back to Disney or at least anytime in the near future.
I agree with much that has been said. I am a 13 year Disney passholder and do enjoy our yine there but……. the 8 families who go there with us are not happy about prices but more about the lightning lane cutting the lines. None of us financially able to purchase LL every time we go and therefore we along with many other families who can’t afford the additional costs wait in the standby lanes. A close passholder friend called it financial discrimination. I agree. My son and his family were so disappointed about the Lightning Lane extra cost that they have sworn never to go back. Get rid of it all or go back to the old free fastpass. You can make up the lost revenue by charging everone a few dollars more. Let all people wait in the same lines. Everyone will be much happier.
I am tired of people dismissing annual passholders. We are VALUABLE to Disney regardless if anyone from outside of Florida thinks we are or not. MY ENTIRE famiiy has annual passes and we go at least 30 times a year, eat and drink EVERY TIME we are there and bear the brunt of yearly cost increases ourselves. Our perks of percentages off for food or sundry items for being passholders does not apply to everything..Not even 50% of the items available for purchase, if that, for any food, souvenirs, t-shrts, toys, etc., qualify for 10% off. The best perk is the free parking. Parking at the parks goes up nearly every year.. BUT we still stick by Disney’s side because it is a fun experience alone, with friends and family and we can come and go as we please. Stay all day or go for an hour, see every festival and special event. And we DO attend a lot of those and SPEND! It is one of the only places I can go and pretty much be guaranteed that if I ask for an allergy friendly menu I am going to be accommodated, satisfied and not get sick So before anyone looks down their nose at Florida pass holders and the fact we don’t matter much in the grand scheme of things you need to think again.
As a former loyal fan, I feel extremely betrayed and screwed over by Disney. Disney has lost the majority of my travel budget each year. I’m now spending my roughly $20,000 per year at Universal and Dollywood . I advise my friends and family to never go to Disney. Disney, you lose and it’s all your fault. Enjoy the fall!!!!!!
Hi, we have been considering Dollywood. Do like it as much as you used to like Disney World? What recommendations do you have for a good trip there?
I greatly dislike the age they switch from child to adult pricing at Disney World. My 50 pound, 10-year old daughter is not an adult. Heck…my 17-year old daughter is not an adult. I understand that if I were to register her as a child and get a dining plan she’d have to eat off the kids menu, but give me the option to register anyone under 18 as either and let me decide. If a person isn’t old enough to book a Disney resort on their own then they shouldn’t be automatically billed as adults.
This whole article is ridiculous. Disney gives you the best bang for your buck anywhere. It costs m more money to go to a Broadway Djow that lad
Ya about 3 hours. Quote far from all day entertainment either no other in park costs!
Disney can chsrge what they see fit just like any other company does. Those who can afford to go should. Those who can’t shouldn’t. We should be worried more about the outlandish food prices and people being able to eat more than a Fisney vacation!
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Cari, I don’t think the core problem is the overall cost or the cost per hour or day. I think the essential problem is not meeting expectations. Disney set expectations for the entire theme park industry (heck, Disney invented the theme park industry) from 1955 through about 2010 or 2013. And now, for the past 11 to 13 years, Disney has been unable to exceed or meet the expectations they set almost entirely on their own. The people paying for Disney vacations have nostalgic memories of ideal days in the Parks–and Disney is no longer interested in delivering something approximating or exceeding our idealized memories. (Whether or not Disney, or any other theme park company is capable of this, although Universal and the Asia Land Company are sure working on it diligently.) On top of that, Disney continues to feed unrealistic expectations with their advertising and the use of the word “magic” every 5th word of Disney Parks copy–guaranteeing disappointment.
“Pricing out the middle class” is a flawed discussion. To come to that conclusion would require so many assumptions that it becomes pointless. If there are enough “non-middle-class”, whatever the definition, then the parks will stay full. If enough people save or borrow, the parks will stay full. Whether guests can / should afford the trip, is an entirely different discussion, and won’t change the outcome.
What I find more interesting is the family / affordability angle. Because that’s the group that seems to be the hardest hit but also the hardest to address. The majority of families visiting the parks will be limited to the most in-demand time windows via school schedules. As in Spring, holidays or blazing-heat-inferno. With summers becoming more intolerable every year, perhaps that creates an opening. But otherwise, the options are limited as demand is already highest at those times. Discounts would logically go towards times when parks are less full, and not much incentive to discount families during peak demand times.
One thing I’d like to propose if the whole family-friendly notion is serious – to ease up on the 10year old “adult” silliness. That’s about as family-unfriendly as it gets, and I don’t think makes a lot of business sense. That is, if families will continue to be part of the target demographic.
Just as Wall Street tends to value stocks according to how well the company in question meets investor expectations, rather than by the company’s intrinsic value… Disney Parks guests assign value to parks experiences according to expectations, not the intrinsic value is the experience itself.
Since Disney has come to rely on the Parks division as the company’s cash cow, its profits fund most of the rest of the company’s non-earning businesses. This means the Parks are expected (within the company and possibly among shareholders) to turn more profit than they have in the past. And since increased attendance being recent levels tends to take in fewer experiences per day, decreasing the quality of the experience for most guests, Disney has sought to meet all expectations by increasing revenue-per-guest, resulting in the current criticism. Some will call this greed; others call it survival (mindful that Disney now has competition that the didn’t have twenty years ago).
The questions are: will Disney find a way to meet all expectations or continue to sacrifice the guest experience for corporate survival? Will Disney sell off or reform the non- and low-profit divisions to avoid Parks being dragged down with the rest of the company? Or will guests have to manage their expectations instead, probably leading to a continuation of poor attendance and the perception of elitism?
Something clicked reading through this blog – I am a dad with two daughters, and I’ve had conversations with other dads who enjoy beating the house (or mouse in this case). Coming up with park game plans, maximizing (then) Genie+, ordering food for pickup so it’s there when you arrive – I enjoy that almost as much as seeing my kids’ faces light up meeting Mirabel. Truly, Tom, I credit your blog as a huge reason as to why I’ve enjoyed going twice in the last three years.
But many people do not approach vacations this way and it’s incredibly hard to pivot when you have kids in tow. But for DINKs, it’s easier for them to handle that adjustment, or simply just having more free time to plan for vacation.
I am not a person who wants to relax on vacation, I want an active experience. Disney does not cater to that crowd. It’s funny, my wife and I showed our kids YouTube videos of what Disney was for our childhood in the 90s and it feels like the parks are sleepy. But I think a big reason is there were more families and less DINKs – you just move slower with kids! It’s created a faster environment and makes people feel like they’re falling behind.
Really, and you hit on this, it all comes down to value. When you feel like you’re gaming the system, you’re maximizing the value out of the vacation. But if you don’t like playing the game, it’s harder to win.
(I don’t know if that last line made sense, but I thought it sounded good lol.)
Makes complete sense!
Honestly, I’m kind of surprised more Disney Dads don’t feel the way you do. Not to make this a gendered thing, but the numbers don’t lie, and Disney planning is very mom-centric. It seems like it’d be right in the wheelhouse of more dudes, as a successful rope drop run makes you feel like the quarterback driving down the proverbial field of the Magic Kingdom.
I’m not even kidding–I feel like there’s a reasonable number of parallels between strategizing for Walt Disney World and managing my fantasy football team.
I agree with you guys that this is enjoyable, but I’ll be honest: I’m as gamified as most people, but I don’t want to be doing this day-of. Or at least not all of it; I agree that mobile ordering food is great, and easy to do as needed. But I need a ride/greet/attraction plan to build around, and I don’t want to make the plan that day or even that week. I want to plan it way out, and then modify it as needed as it gets closer, and then be able to look for changes or upgrades on the fly. Changes and upgrades are fun last-minute; making the whole plan last-minute (even relatively) is stressful. I think the Local Lobby won this battle, but at the expense of ticking off a whole bunch of people who might not GO to WDW as often, but who TALK about WDW on the internet a lot more. And that’s… a problem for Disney, I think.
Full agreement here (Disney Dad). I enjoy the planning aspect and optimizing the experience. We only go infrequently to Disney and planning allows me to enjoy the (too short) trip many times over. We generally travel a lot (besides Disney) and pre-planning is just natural for all travel. That doesn’t mean committing every free minute, but I want at minimum understand what to expect so we can make the most out of the trip, whatever that means in the end.
I do all the planning/pre-planning for our Disney trips and honestly, my wife loves it because she can just take a back seat and enjoy the ride. Everyone on the trip gets to pick their top thing to do in each park, and I have at least one place to eat pre-picked out. We start out the mornings rope-dropping (a Disney vacation is NOT a sleep-in vacation!) and focusing on hitting that one thing for each person so no matter what, everyone has done their ‘must do’. We only do quick-service, and I mobile order ahead while we’re waiting in our last line before eating. I tell the app we’re at the restaurant when we’ve got a few minutes walking left and it’s usually ready by the time we get there. I even have a Google Doc that lists the quick-service food choices/what they offer, rides with height requirements, etc. That way if we’re in the mood for a particular food or want to know if someone can ride something I have a quick reference point for everything in the park.
I’m a Disney Dad who does all the planning (other than planning on how to get everyone out of bed, fed, and out the door….thanks to Mom for that) and I definitely get a rise out of the feeling of “accomplishment” from maximizing value, gaming the system, whatever you want to call it. When my wife and daughter were in Orlando with a group last year I still helped plan out their strategy for a day at MK from halfway across the country.
But it’s the same way I approach a National Park vacation, a trip to Europe, a visit to New York, etc. Which is NOT planning out every minute of every day, as one might think. Aside from certain things that require reservations/tickets/etc, I try not to schedule an itinerary, but instead absorb/analyze as much information as possible in advance, so in any given situation I can execute what I call “informed spontaneity”. Which is essentially the ability to follow your heart (or stomach), navigate through unexpected delays, and/or pivot on a dime, without having to stop (for long) to figure out your next move.
Pete, the “informed spontaneity” line is a great one. Because those moments where people who have their minute-by-minute plans breakdown is when you see panic set in. Instead of just letting it go and heading toward an attraction you’ve heard was good.
Sometimes I just want to go up and tell people, relax – you’re on vacation!
I haven’t wanted to admit that this is true, but reading these comments and the ones on the other post, as well as thinking about the discourse since these changes were made, makes me realize that most of the downturn in the general WDW “don’t live in FL” parkgoer mood can be attributed to: Magical Express and FastPass going away. These aren’t the biggest (or easiest to fix) problems, IMO, but they are the ones that made the general mood go from “I have some issues, but overall still pretty magical!” to “ugh this is not great and it’s getting worse.”
I don’t know about the contractual stuff with Mears, but I think the intangible benefits of the Magical Express were worth keeping even if Disney was taking a loss on it, and I don’t think anybody in the leadership at that particular moment understood that.
And as for FastPass: literally just making FastPass+ as it was in 2019 a paid upcharge would have been 99% fine. I get that locals hated it; locals don’t drive the WDW discourse, and literally everyone who has to stay overnight to visit would have paid happily (well, semi-happily) to be able to continue to set it and forget it, and then arrive and enjoy being on vacation. Anxiety waking up at 6:50 every morning to kick off a day of trying to figure out your day on your phone all day… is quite frankly The Worst.
This is a great point, Matt. The anxiety of 7am (especially if you’re not on East Coast time) is awful, and there’s no way I’m getting up that early for a day that is supposed to be relaxing and fun. (Even law school or medical school exams don’t start so early!) It is no longer. It is stressful and you won’t know in advance how your day is going to turn out. At least with Fastpass, you could plan in advance, and if you weren’t happy with your selections, you could change them over time, check back for cancellations, or even just mentally plan your day differently! I can’t recommend that to anyone! The lack of Magical Express is also a huge loss in just the “value” of it being an all-inclusive, immersive sort of Disney vacation. They could have had people pay a small fee if they wanted to take the Magical Express and even that would have been fine.
I agree, Matt. Discontinuing Magical Express and Fast Pass are the big issues I have with WDW these days. Magical Express was a magical way to start your vacation. I loved going to a park, then going to our room and finding our bags there – it was magical! And we don’t spend as much time in the parks now that there isn’t Fast Pass. I loved being able to make our choices in advance. We spend a lot more time in lines now, and frankly, there are many times when we leave the park rather than waiting in another line.
I am in total agreement with all of the points made. I took my family of 4 (Myself, husband & 2 teen boys) and their girlfriends on out family vacation. the next year no one had a suggestion of where to go. The gf brought up Disney. We were not a Disney family. But we went. we were AMAZED the value we felt we received. This was 2016. we went back 2017 skipped 2018 and went back 2019 and 2020. After covid we went in 2023 Shocked by the price and loss of “perks” We stay at Pop. used to have 2 per room so 3 rooms. We had to have all 4 kids in one room drop 2 days of park tickets just to help out. We still paid close to 2k over our pre covid trips. Left such a band taste in our mouths. From 2017-2020 I had talked to so many friend considering a Disney trip. I had helped 7 family’s with fast pass, reservations, tips ect. After covid I have “helped” 1 family and I say helped but noticed it only made me hyper aware of now having to rent a car, up early to try to get LL. ect. The Disney bubble has definitely been deflated. The price for a trip was not cheap. but I loved to explain to people you can literally get off the plane and board the bus, your fast passes are all set to go for your whole trip. Room pakg delivery, EMH, free magic bands. I loved feeling like a valued Disney Guest, now I feel like a Disney Customer I start paying for vacation the day I make a reservation and continue paying for things until I arrive back home. Disney Magic is now Di$ney Ma$ic. Higher cost to keep the perks is much more reasonable than higher costs for less.
Tom, This is an excellent and insightful article. A core point is this: “We first heard this explanation back in 2017 or 2018, and if I recall correctly, one of those years was the first time ever that guests without children surpassed those with. Although I haven’t heard much since, I highly doubt the trend has reversed itself.” I think this trend has only accelerated. Every time I go to WDW, I am shocked at the low percentage of elementary and middle school age kids. They are who the parks were originally made for, and if they make up a diminishing % of the guests, that will be disasterous long term. DINKs and Dis adults are lucrative short term, but they are also the ones that are always going to want new things–new lounges, new food items, etc. A kid can feel the magic much more simply, and the park will be an indelible life-long mark. There are things that the company can do to try to reverse the attendance trend. That has to be kid-targeted discounts, and new attractions to delight kids, rather than whatever 3-4 new bars they have coming out soon. Walt made the parks for the family. As you note, we have nothing against DINKs and Dis adults. They are as welcome as anyone, and I hope they enjoy. But they are not the target audience.
It really does my heart good to hear people talk about value for money spent, and not just cost and affordability. There needs to be a distinction between fans and suckers. When there isn’t, something important is lost. It’s not unlike any other relationship. In any kind of healthy relationship everyone involved needs to respect themselves enough to insist that they be treated decently.
The other aspect of these discussions that strikes me is how much of the value of a Disney vacation is owed to visitors’ own life and life choices – genuine connections among family and friends. Guests bring all of that real value with them to Disney parks. Maybe we give Disney too much of the credit for the magic of Disney vacations. Thinking of theme parks as platforms, every guest is a content creator and largely responsible for the platform’s appeal and success. In that sense guests are true partners, not mere consumers from whom to extract profit. Partners working together to achieve ever greater success, multiplying returns on investment, sounds like good business to me.
I agree with the sentiment about the high prices and can’t confidently recommend Disney to others, especially those who are not meticulous planners. Our last truly magical Disney vacation was in the fall of 2019 at the Yacht and Beach Club with the free dining plan. Back then, it felt much easier to experience the magic—Magical Express took the stress out of airport travel, ADRs and FastPasses were manageable, and the parks had longer hours to fit in more experiences. But post-2020, everything feels more complicated and expensive, making it difficult to recommend for casual visitors.
Disney has become a destination where, to get your money’s worth, you have to do research, plan extensively, and know the system. I will still recommend it to those like me—planners who will spend time creating a strategy to maximize value—but for those who just want to “show up,” I honestly can’t recommend it anymore. Like you’ve mentioned on the blog, 95% of people aren’t reading blogs, they just show up. My sister’s family is a perfect example. They went to Magic Kingdom during busy spring break, arrived at 10:00 a.m. with no plan, and left frustrated, vowing never to return. They are going to Florida again this year but not to the parks. I wonder how many first-time post-COVID visitors fall into that same category. I feel like those of us that started going to the parks pre-COVID still have that emotional attachment… if I was to visit with my family for the first time right now, I don’t think I would have that same feeling. So not only is Disney not getting return visitors that had a poor 1st visit experience, they aren’t getting people to recommend them to visit in the first place!
A few thoughts..
“We know our parks create life-long memories for families” Disney CFO
Upon reading this, a statement I’ve seen a million times, a little light finally went off.
ALL things create life long memories.
People do not need Disney to create life long memories.
If you never leave your state, you will still create life long memories. Little League, school, snowstorms, broken hearts, falling down, losing a favorite thingamabob, mom and/or Dad sitting with you when you’re sick, camping, board game night, Nintendo, Nerf gun fights, band practice, sport practice, schoolyard fights, the first kiss, the first serious love.
LIFE creates memories. And it doesn’t stop until you do.
99% of 8 billion people in the world are not making any Disney memories. And they are perfectly fine.
The question for Disney is, “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?”
Disney must revisit why it exists, what purpose it seeks to serve and how it can accomplish that in a meaningful way.
My thoughts from the bridge photo.
How beautiful is that picture?
The water, the trees, the boardwalk, the braided rope railing, the old school wood light posts and lanterns, the promise of a ride in the distance, your smiling wife and child.
How perfectly it captures the tranquility of an idyllic day.
That can be Disney.
This is the reason we are returning in May.
To see these things one last time.
We may not return till the walls come down but that’s not a threat. More of a wait and see possibility.
PS I can never get over how much Sarah looks like Carolyn when we were younger. They could have been sisters.
As to you and I? Well, I was obviously better looking, and to this day have more hair, but people were flummoxed as to why a woman so attractive would end up with me.
As to your question regarding price increases and the value proposition. They are linked at the hip. That goes for anything. A meal, a movie, a game, the sofa you bought?
Subconsciously they are inseparable.
Two weeks ago I travelled down to CitiField for a special event. It was ok but it wasn’t until the panel with Mike Piazza, Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry, Doc Gooden and David Wright (the newest Met to have his number retired) came out to talk that I felt it was worth the travel, time and money.
Disney has a lot of work to do to find that balance.
Last December it was a 4 hour wait for Avatar Flight of Passage at AK and almost 3 for Kilimanjaro Safari. There’s your entire day at the Park.
How much fun was that? If that’s the only day you can get there in your once every two years vacation, how many people are you recomending WDW to? If you’re a first timer are you using that bounce back off?
You ask our opinion of Disney’s response.
Sounded to me like an accidental mea culpa.
What would Il ike to see done?
I think this response is already WAAAAY too long.
getting tired of saying how much I enjoy your comments mickey1928 without you ever acknowledging my compliment, so I am not going to do it! (smile face emoji)
Ro (May I call you Ro?),
If I were younger and single….
mickey1928 well, shucks,.. but since you are erudite in many cultural realms, in order to delicately provide contextual illumination I will simply refer you to the final scene in Some Like It Hot,..
Ro,
Best closing line in film history.
Let me rephrase my last statement, if I were younger, single and switched teams…
in that case, mickey, that might have been the beginning of a beautiful friendship!
Yet another great closing line.