Walt’s vision of his parks was that it was something that every guest could access equally. Yes you had different tickets for the type of attraction, but the experience was the same for every guest.
The Bob Iger company, has thrown that all out and your experience now directly correlates to how much more you pay. They said the quiet part out loud and are not at all shamed by it. They want the higher margin guests, the rich people and the Disney Adults.
Having theme parks that are empty during the summer or during major holidays, was unheard of, but when your Park is busier during random weeks in February, then it is in July or during major holidays it shows the families have left and The accessibility is gone. LL had a large hand in that. Now the driving market strategy is FOMO, trick the customer by raise the prices to peak levels indicating that would be max crowds, when the reality is the exact opposite.
The revenue extracted from lightning lane in part displace is revenue from restaurants, merch, and hotels. You can see certain operations are struggling, especially the table service restaurants. This creates more pressure to raise revenue which means more pricing increases and more cuts, which mean fewer guests. A vicious cycle.
