WSJ: Even Disney Is Worried About The High Cost Of A Disney Vacation (gift link)

[Agent H]

I am sure the journalists were told Bob was gone, gone, gone even though he kept his office with shower

Beside that, we should always believe journalists.

Uh-huh sure now why exactly do you think the journalists are lying?

 

[orion54]

I think people are especially tired of the overused "this is the best time there's ever been to visit!" trope that not only did they end the article with but consistently push every year. For over a decade now they've relied on big summer attraction openings to encourage people to visit and while that happened in the past too, most often people would just visit simply because it was a nice place and experience to visit. In this way, Disney has kind of shot themselves in the foot by promoting that its only "the best time" to vist when something new is there. You need to keep people coming back even without new things. Then you realize things that keep people coming back are the cohesiveness of a park, pleasant staff, pleasant guests and not being rushed. All of which have been lost or not invested in at all.

Not to mention that the "Disney Bubble" basically doesn't exist anymore with the nonstop staring at phones and removal of streetmosphere and theming.

 

[DisneyNittany]

We are heading down in a few weeks, because as of now WDW still provides value to us, and there is still a nostalgic pull (although that is quickly fading). However, with that said, with the way they are trending, they will soon be pricing us out for our perceived value.

Currently, we have a 4y and 1y, so anything that they want/like to do (well, the 4y; 1y is free anyway and just along for the ride), doesn't require any additional purchases/fees (classic rides, spinner rides, M&Gs, parades, pool time, etc.). As long as we rope drop a few of the popular non-thrill rides, we can easily accomplish everything we want to do. As they get older, and all the attractions are available to them, that won't be the case. With my wife and I going through our "Disney Adult" phase when FP+, Magical Express, (actual) EMHs, later park hours, etc. were a thing, it's going to be very hard for us to justify spending money on all of those items.

Right now, there's value in taking our small children, mostly because Disney provides the entertainment and allows dad/mom to sort of zone out and just enjoy a family vacation (as opposed to say a beach where you're constantly on to make sure they're safe), and international travel is out of the question at their age. We did a DCL vacation in the fall and absolutely loved it. Only reason we're going back to the parks is because daddy needs a break from the beach and would rather have a more active vacation at this time (going back to the above point that I can push my 1y in the stroller and she'll be distracted/entertained instead of me providing the entertainment).

The way the parks are trending though, it's very likely in the not-so-distant future that we get our Disney fix in via DCL every now and then and start spending our time and money elsewhere*.

I doubt their surveys and numbers account for people like us, who had every intention of being park-lifers, but are now turned off. All they see now is that I'm still spending money, without knowing our expiration date is approaching.

*To be fair, we already do/have for a long time spend time and money elsewhere. We don't vacation exclusively to WDW. However, WDW was an annual trip, with other trips sprinkled here and there. The feeling of being nickel-and-dimed to get what was once free is not something we are interested in though.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I am sure the journalists were told Bob was gone, gone, gone even though he kept his office with shower

Beside that, we should always believe journalists.

Fixed it for @Agent H As I said I am sure the journalists were told Bob was gone even though he kept his office with shower. The journalists were just repeating what they were told

You are right, journalists should not be blamed if they are just repeating misinformation they were told.

 

[monothingie]

Uh-huh sure now why exactly do you think the journalists are lying?

Many Hollywood journalists and orgs don’t want to be blacklisted by a powerful global media company.

So many will tow the company line to stay in good graces.

 

[Agent H]

Fixed it for @Agent H As I said I am sure the journalists were told Bob was gone even though he kept his office with shower. The journalists were just repeating what they were told

You are right, journalists should not be blamed if they are just repeating misinformation they were told,

Many Hollywood journalists and orgs don’t want to be blacklisted by a powerful global media company.

So many will tow the company line to stay in good graces.

You are still presuming that Disney is lying about iger leaving for that year why? Only you know for sure

 

[Disstevefan1]

You are still presuming that Disney is lying about iger leaving for that year why? Only you know for sure

Yes, and its a good presumption We know he still held some position (I don't know the title) and he did keep his office with shower.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Many Hollywood journalists and orgs don’t want to be blacklisted by a powerful global media company.

So many will tow the company line to stay in good graces.

Except for all the times they didn't toe the line making this conspiracy theory a conspiracy theory.

You know, how in this thread people are pointing out how the media is repeating the new meme that Disney parks are too expensive.

Guess those news sites aren't afraid of Disney.

 

[monothingie]

You are still presuming that Disney is lying about iger leaving for that year why? Only you know for sure

Bob Iger as part of his contract remains as a special consultant to TWDC for a period of 5 years after his separation. That clock resets itself whenever Bob leaves again.

Bob never really left. He was in constant contact with the C-Suite execs after his departure as Chairman. This close contact allowed him to slip right back in.

 

[monothingie]

Except for all the times they didn't toe the line making this conspiracy theory a conspiracy theory.

You know, how in this thread people are pointing out how the media is repeating the new meme that Disney parks are too expensive.

Guess those news sites aren't afraid of

Notice I said Hollywood and Entertainment outlets.

Seemingly only The WSJ and NY Times have been the only two outlets willing to look into the dark recesses of the Bob Iger Company.

But hey just cover your ears with your flippers and say it’s a “conspiracy theory” and you’ll feel better.

 

[UNCgolf]

…Myrtle beach is the yinzer riviera

Only 3 states are really allowed to go there

The amount of construction in Myrtle Beach is insane. Apartment complexes and sprawling housing developments everywhere -- population is skyrocketing.

I've gone to beach in NC north of Myrtle my whole life (the NC coast there is also booming with residential construction; it's almost unrecognizable from when I was a kid, but it's still not remotely like Myrtle Beach) and often head into Myrtle for golf; it baffles me that so many people are moving there. I can't imagine wanting to live in Myrtle Beach... but like you alluded, it's mainly people from New York and New Jersey.

 

[Agent H]

Notice I said Hollywood and Entertainment outlets.

Seemingly only The WSJ and NY Times have been the only two outlets willing to look into the dark recesses of the Bob Iger Company.

But hey just cover your ears with your flippers and say it’s a “conspiracy theory” and you’ll feel better.

The dark recesses? It’s fairly obvious to anyone playing attention

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The amount of construction in Myrtle Beach is insane. Apartment complexes and sprawling housing developments everywhere -- population is skyrocketing.

I've gone to beach in NC north of Myrtle my whole life (the NC coast there is also booming with residential construction; it's almost unrecognizable from when I was a kid, but it's still not remotely like Myrtle Beach) and often head into Myrtle for golf; it baffles me that so many people are moving there. I can't imagine wanting to live in Myrtle Beach... but like you alluded, it's mainly people from New York and New Jersey.

Then New York and New Jersey have fallen on hard times…because for 50 years they had second houses in their own areas of straight to Florida

The area that went…and sadly still go to Myrtle…are Ohio, western pa and West Virginia

The “Mountain Dew triangle”

Myrtle got a lot of pub in the 1970s ans 1980’s as “the new Florida”

It never got there

Mini golf is fun though

 

[Agent H]

Notice I said Hollywood and Entertainment outlets.

Seemingly only The WSJ and NY Times have been the only two outlets willing to look into the dark recesses of the Bob Iger Company.

But hey just cover your ears with your flippers and say it’s a “conspiracy theory” and you’ll feel better.

Bob iger DID leave it was an admittedly short period and I don’t think that in that time paycheck did anything he wouldn’t have done anyway I’ll admit it’s even possible he was always going to come back but he did leave that is a fact

 

[larryz]

Fixed it for @Agent H As I said I am sure the journalists were told Bob was gone even though he kept his office with shower. The journalists were just repeating what they were told

You are right, journalists should not be blamed if they are just repeating misinformation they were told.

Except that Journalists should be looking for corroborating sources to confirm what one is telling them... notice the capital "J" referring to real journalists and not bloggers/vloggers/prime-time hair-do's that read someone else's copy.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Except that Journalists should be looking for corroborating sources to confirm what one is telling them...

 

[brettf22]

Don’t let the bean counters run your hospitality business. It never works out well.

I’m trying to remember a very famous person who is often quoted about not getting all your business advice from “sharp pencil guys.” Let me see, who could that be?

 

[thomas998]

I remember my first trips as a kid when we got ticket books for the rides. They could and probably claimed that it made the park affordable to more people by doing it that way... and it probably did technically... But what family that could only afford the cheapest ticket books was going to have an enjoyable enough time to want to return when they would basically be reminded at every turn that they couldn't really afford to be there. And with the new pricing you get that same effect. Sure you might be able to get in if you buy the cheapest option but if you feel you aren't getting the full experience do you want to return for that in the future? Their CFO is clueless... Then again most of Disney's management is clueless.

 

[MrPromey]

It wasn't said explicitly in the article, but there have been multiple high-level meetings where Disney exec asked for ideas on how to attract the "young families" demographic, who are not visiting the parks like their parents did.

The concern there, besides the short-term revenue, is that the parks operate a lot on nostalgia: your parents took you, you take your kids, and so on. Like DVC, that's something that guarantees a certain level of base business every single year.

For decades after World War II, each generation of American kids could look forward to being slightly better off, economically, than their parents. And that meant more visits to Disney World, because they had more money.

That's not true for Millennials - those born between 1981 and 1996 - ages 29 to 44, smack-dab in the middle of the largest demographic of Disney World visitors. They're worse off, financially, than their parents.

It's more bad news for Gen Z - those between the ages of 18 and 34. This CNBC article says that 45% of them still rely on their parents for financial support.

Back to the Disney meetings about "young families" (YFs).

The execs asked a wide range of groups for ideas on how to get more YFs into the parks.

I won't name the person or the group, but one of them had a presentation with data similar to the WSJ article, and said "Lower prices. They can't afford it otherwise."

That message was not well-received. As I said earlier, the outcome of the meeting was to task Marketing with coming up with better ad campaigns.

This same meeting happened regularly for a couple of years. The "lower prices" person eventually got tired of it and quit.

So this generation of young families can't afford the parks. The next generation? No way.

Eventually, through inheritance, those kids will be part of the largest wealth transfer in history. But that's decades from now, and they won't have fond memories of the parks because they didn't go.

We went frequently when I was a kid.

I started out taking my son a few times a year.

The last time we went was in 2020 right before the pandemic shutdown and I was already starting to consider drastically slowing things down just because as the planner and spender and keep everyone happy person, it had crossed the line from fun despite the hassle to headache for me.

I went back in late 2022 without him with free admission for a specific purpose.

He's now spent nearly the most recent half of his life not going and he was young enough when we stopped to not have clear memory of a lot of it.

Now, about to enter his teens, even if we were to start going back regularly, today, the emotional nostalgia isn't going to be there.

I've been saying for years that they've been frittering away the goodwill past management had worked hard to create and maintain. I'm not happy it's come to this but I'm happy they finally seem to be aware, internally.

It's funny how their whole plan was to figure out ways to get people to spend more - separating things out to make people pay for what they were accustomed to having included while continuing to raise base prices like nobody was going to notice and like somehow, nobody was going to have trouble finding the money to pay for the upcharges. Apparently, all they thought they had to do was trick people into paying more by making a base ticket or a base stay less inclusive without ever thinking people's inability to pay the extra to get back the experiences they'd lost would be an issue and how upset they might get when they get there and realize how bad the experience is if they can't/won't pay up.

It sounds like they effed around and when someone saw that a serous course correction was needed, they wanted to pretend that wasn't true because it meant an end to the gravy train.

Now they're finding out.

 

[MrPromey]

...

I’ll say it again, I think there’s wildly inappropriate optimism about Universal Kids and how unappealing the majority of this forum will find the finished product.

It's a regional park, designed to cater to young children, though.

The overwhelming majority of us will never set foot in it.

Seems like it's intended for people that may never make it to Orlando or at least won't while their kids are still young.

That's kind of the point of it, right?

If so, who cares what we think if we were never the target audience to begin with?