News Disney domestic theme park attendance now at 2019 levels with per capita spending up 40 percent

[Poly1974]

Check my siggy, I've had it for a long time

Yeah, I sold my DVC in 2016 because I could see where things were headed. Constantly paying more for less. I never could have imagined that it would get to the current state.

 

[disneyfireman]

Everything thought or said about Disney pre-covid regarding Park performance is irrelevant. This is a situation we've never been in before. Trillions in debt, rates unsustainably low, global supply chains are broken (maybe irreparably).

Times have been bad before, but never like this. Things could get a lot worse. Guess we'll see.

I would say there is examples of many.. many of times historically where times were 100% worse...Great Depression...which no global economy will ever see again..not in the free world anyways..or the free East..Japan and South Korea. You can go back to the early 1600's and there was world economic collapse...so to say "never like this". Is a massive stretch.. Then throw in the debacle of the mid to late 70s...as recent...we had a misery factor lol. So, even though times aren't perfect...It will all get back to good times soon. Things economically always has a way of working out in the free markets. As for supply chains...thats also getting better. There are more and more new cars on lots...just goto lowes for example...pretty much all is back..to being supplied.. sadly, this was all avoidable...covid and the whole debacle of that....didnt need to happen...the shut downs. etc. We now know...it didnt work and caused MORE harm...hope its a lesson.

 

[Dan Deesnee]

I would say there is examples of many.. many of times historically where times were 100% worse...Great Depression...which no global economy will ever see again..not in the free world anyways..or the free East..Japan and South Korea. You can go back to the early 1600's and there was world economic collapse...so to say "never like this". Is a massive stretch.. Then throw in the debacle of the mid to late 70s...as recent...we had a misery factor lol. So, even though times aren't perfect...It will all get back to good times soon. Things economically always has a way of working out in the free markets. As for supply chains...thats also getting better. There are more and more new cars on lots...just goto lowes for example...pretty much all is back..to being supplied.. sadly, this was all avoidable...covid and the whole debacle of that....didnt need to happen...the shut downs. etc. We now know...it didnt work and caused MORE harm...hope its a lesson.

I agree with much of what you say. I meant more never like this as in, we've never been more globally connected, those connections are very stained and in some cases broken, and the world has never been collectively in more debt with no chance of ever paying it back. Something will crack, like it always does, but instead of Rome falling, it may be the entire world.

Now granted things always seem worse than they actually are. You're probably right and that within a year or two things will be mostly back to normal, I hope at least! But the easy money and low rates were never sustainable. I hope they can figure this out.

 

[Javier Antonio Nisa Avila]

But 1999 didn't last, and it's arguably the tail end of what people think of when they imagine the peak of Disney's domestic parks. The shifts in management strategies (particularly at WDW, but also at DLR) can be directly traced to reactions to outside forces beyond Disney's control, and has rarely led to improved guest experiences.

The dot-com bubble followed by the post-9/11 travel slump had real, drastic, and immediate impacts to the parks. This era ushered in dramatic reductions to the hours of operation, entertainment schedules, food variety and quality, and countless other across-the-board cuts. Entire buildings and wings of many hotels and the entire Port Orleans complex were temporarily shuttered, Pop Century's Legendary Years construction was halted in its tracks, and River Country was permanently closed. Nearly all of the "declining by degrees" changes can be traced back to Disney's reaction to the collapse of the travel industry during this period; these sorts of changes (and certainly the frequency of them) are a considerable from the general management philosophies prior to that downturn.

The 2009 recession led to Iger's "blue ocean" strategy, where he proclaimed that the parks had reached maturity, and any potential for growth would be from increased spending rather than increased attendance. This was the logic behind WDW's NextGen/My Magic+ system, which aimed to redistribute crowding and congestion rather than increase capacity, and DLR's sharp pivot toward catering to annual passholders. This era brought us the (failed) OneDisney mindset and the bland DisneyParks branding, trying to share overhead costs as much as possible, under the impression that there was limited growth potential. Yet, as park attendance recovered with a recovering economy, little effort was made to grow capacity to match, leaving us with parks that are more miserable than ever, even during "slow" periods.

1999 is an interesting year to call out, since it seemed to be a turning point in Disney's general management and operational philosophy. Prior to that that, the goal had been to give guests as much as they could at a reasonable price. But since then, there has been a slow but steady shift toward charging ever-increasing higher prices for ever-decreasing product quality.

It seems that in Disney's mind, their parks are a luxury. However, unless we're defining "luxury" so broadly as to mean anything non-essential (which would include all leisure travel), their parks really don't fit the notion; they're clearly high-volume attractions intended for the middle class. There's nothing luxurious about waiting 25 minutes to order a cheeseburger and chicken nuggets and waiting another 15 minutes for them to be ready, spending an hour staking out a spot on unshaded pavement for the parade, or shuffling through a crowded queue for a ride that hasn't seen significant upgrades in decades.

Even Disney's once-famed customer service, with it's trademark smiling, cheerful, clean-cut cast members is geared more toward mass markets than actual high-end experiences. True luxury service tends to disappear into the background, anticipating your needs without drawing attention to itself. Disney has always been an above-average option that's within reach for large swaths of the American public: Disney isn't Prada, it's not even Nieman Marcus; Disney is Target.

My only hope from all this is that more and more people realize this and broaden their travel horizons. For years, a week at WDW has been more expensive than a week in Europe, and Disney's ever-increasing prices make the comparison even more stark. Combined with the noticeable decline in quality in the last few years, there the value-for-money proposition just doesn't compare to so many other destinations that seem extravagant, but are actually attainable on the same budget.

You are absolutely right. A vacation in Europe is much cheaper than Disney and there are wonderful things to discover.

 

[Doberge]

I'm not happy about it but it is impressive how they have squeezed so much out of people. Compare pre-pandemic WDW to now. At resorts prices are up and discounts are very limited. I believe the most available discount requires being a Disney+ subscriber and is no longer a general public offer, and the limited discounts that do exist are less than pre-pandemic. At restaurants prices are up, portions are down, and Tables in Wonderland is gone. In parks prices are up and we pay for what used to be included in tickets. Within DVC the "active resorts" are up about 11% in cost and the cheapest resorts are up 30%. All this without new AP sales "hurting the mix" by driving down per guest spend. Onward the machine goes.

 

[Javier Antonio Nisa Avila]

Who ever said that would happen?

Taking into account Bob Chapek, I could imagine. However, I've never thought it could be true. I hope people realize that this is not real Disney.

 

[Kirby86]

I mean of course spending will be up if you raise the prices of stuff and charge for genie plus.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I mean of course spending will be up if you raise the prices of stuff and charge for genie plus.

And I bet it goes up a lot very soon. Bet me

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I'm not happy about it but it is impressive how they have squeezed so much out of people. Compare pre-pandemic WDW to now. At resorts prices are up and discounts are very limited. I believe the most available discount requires being a Disney+ subscriber and is no longer a general public offer, and the limited discounts that do exist are less than pre-pandemic. At restaurants prices are up, portions are down, and Tables in Wonderland is gone. In parks prices are up and we pay for what used to be included in tickets. Within DVC the "active resorts" are up about 11% in cost and the cheapest resorts are up 30%. All this without new AP sales "hurting the mix" by driving down per guest spend. Onward the machine goes.

I’m incredibly impressed they can sell it…

…but it’s not on them. People don’t need to go far to find “the causes” of the entire Iger/Slaperian tale

 

[JoeCamel]

I'm not happy about it but it is impressive how they have squeezed so much out of people. Compare pre-pandemic WDW to now. At resorts prices are up and discounts are very limited. I believe the most available discount requires being a Disney+ subscriber and is no longer a general public offer, and the limited discounts that do exist are less than pre-pandemic. At restaurants prices are up, portions are down, and Tables in Wonderland is gone. In parks prices are up and we pay for what used to be included in tickets. Within DVC the "active resorts" are up about 11% in cost and the cheapest resorts are up 30%. All this without new AP sales "hurting the mix" by driving down per guest spend. Onward the machine goes.

It's just Chappie getting back at Bob for the comments by showing how much money Bob left on the table for all those years....
Revenge is sweet said the bald guy

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It's just Chappie getting back at Bob for the comments by showing how much money Bob left on the table for all those years....
Revenge is sweet said the bald guy

And it’s working too…

Bob stands to get “fired” with hundreds of millions of dollars if he can just stick out the 3 years they just gave him.

I think Disney fans are overlooking/overthinking the end game here. They’ve been spoiled by every other guy (even that weasel Iger ) that came before him. Just consider the possibility he has no long game. Warning.

 

[JoeCamel]

And it’s working too…

Bob stands to get “fired” with hundreds of millions of dollars if he can just stick out the 3 years they just gave him.

I think Disney fans are overlooking/overthinking the end game here. They’ve been spoiled by every other guy (even that weasel Iger ) that came before him. Just consider the possibility he has no long game. Warning.

Thats what set Disney apart for so long, when you got home you didn't need a screwdriver to remove the hardware. Now you better have an electric one to pull out all the screws they put in you.