News Disney CEO Bob Chapek reiterates his belief that park reservations are now an essential part of Disney's theme parks business

[Disney Analyst]

Princess Cruise lines had a fantastic commercial this summer for Alaska cruises vs. Disney parks.

Right, I wouldn't call that an attack ad by any means. Seems different then what the other post suggested.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Right, I wouldn't call that an attack ad by any means. Seems different then what the other post suggested.

No, the poster was, I believe, suggesting a similar type of ad that highlighted the advantage of Universal vs. Disney.

I’ve been begging friends to vacation at Disneyland instead of WDW personally. It’s such a better experience right now.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Target and Starbucks executives have been missing the boat by not charging admission all these years, apparently.

I'm beginging to think this person has never actually been to a theme park and just enjoys arguing on the internet for it to reach a place in discussion where someone has to point this out to them in a counter-argument.

He has straight up admitted that his starting point is that Disney makes the right decision, that the structure of a publicly traded corporation prevents them from making bad business decisions (completely ignoring that they can and do go bust). So it ends up being like the followers of a false prophet. It’s not that they’re making some weird choices, they have a secret plan that we just don’t understand. Basic fundamentals discussed by industry veterans are dismissed as incorrect. Complete 180s are just ignored.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I’ve been begging friends to vacation at Disneyland instead of WDW personally. It’s such a better experience right now.

I think familiarity breeds contempt, we were Disneyland regulars until a couple months ago when we didn’t renew our keys and I’d 100% recommend the opposite, we’ve found the Disneyland lines and crowds unbearable since they implemented Genie+. We enjoyed our WDW trip last Nov far more than any of our dozen or so trips at DL since it reopened.

It‘s possible WDW has become just as unbearable as DL over the last year though and we just haven’t experienced it yet.

If our Jan WDW trip is as bad as our 2022 DL trips I could see us giving up on the US Disney parks altogether. We are hoping to return to Paris (and DLP) in late 2023 though.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

I think familiarity breeds contempt, we were Disneyland regulars until a couple months ago when we didn’t renew our keys and I’d 100% recommend the opposite, we’ve found the Disneyland lines and crowds unbearable since they implemented Genie+. We enjoyed our WDW trip last Nov far more than any of our dozen or so trips at DL since it reopened.

This brings us back to the beginning of this thread: I don't think I have seen anyone say that they have found the guest experience has improved since they implemented all of these post-Covid changes. The best anyone seems to be able to say is that a Disney vacation is still worth it to them.

If the idea behind all of these changes really was to improve the guest experience, then it was an epic failure.

 

[flynnibus]

WSJ really called out the message boards, haha:

What a liar... fearmongering about having to turn people away?

Wow... if only you weren't sitting on a property that has the capacity to avoid doing that minus a handful of days a year... and the ability to add capacity so you never have to do that. But noooo... we gotta throttle and shape demand 365 days a year. You don't fool anyone Chapek...

 

[MrPromey]

... You don't fool anyone Chapek...

Evidence around here would suggest there are some he's fooling.

 

[flynnibus]

Evidence around here would suggest there are some he's fooling.

I don't sweat the hopeless... you can't fix stupid. Or brown-nosers.

 

[flynnibus]

That's what it sounds like is going on here. They can push guests to at least start their day at a certain location as a means of spreading out the crowds. That also makes it so they don't have to build more in the MK or DHS if they can force people to EPCOT and DAK. It also means that they don't have to build more in EPCOT and DAK to increase demand if they can force people there.

Simply put.. it's not really 'spreading out the crowd' -- It's about SHAPING DEMAND. Moving it where you want it, not necessarily spreading it equally. Shaping allows you to manage your assets and expenses better... which is exactly why it's powerful for Disney.

Instead of reacting to customer patterns - they get to lead the customer patterns.

 

[MrPromey]

I feel like we need a special "Bob Sez" thread somewhere on this forum (from the same interview):

Disney CEO Bob Chapek Suggests Adults Don't Like Animated Films

“I always say that when our fans and our audiences put their kids to bed at night after watching Pinocchio or Dumbo or Little Mermaid, they’re probably not going to tune into another animated movie. They want something for them.”

gizmodo.com

 

[flynnibus]

There's one school of thought that says Universal is missing the mark by not doing a targeted series of ads that call out all of the Guest Satisfaction issues at Disney (Genie+, Park Reservations, Parking trams, etc). The counter argument here is that if Universal calls it out, Disney may actually take notice and make changes. If I'm Universal, I want guests to leave Disney dissatisfied.

Years ago, Disney was the rising tide that raised all boats, now that's less of a factor.

Uni is past aspiring to pickup Disney leftovers. They've taken the posture that they are beyond Disney and even better. Trying to market as 'Disney is not what it was.. consider us' is beneath that current posture. UNI is building a 'us first' image and portfolio and will continue to market based on their strength and areas of investment. They are beyond just trying to 'us too' things.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

we’ve found the Disneyland lines and crowds unbearable since they implemented Genie+

Interesting. I only saw crazy crowds on a Monday when they started some new locals promotion. I don’t like Genie+ but honestly it didn’t affect my visit much. If I can ride Rise with a 45 minute wait not much to complain about!

 

[lazyboy97o]

I feel like we need a special "Bob Sez" thread somewhere on this forum:

Disney CEO Bob Chapek Suggests Adults Don't Like Animated Films

“I always say that when our fans and our audiences put their kids to bed at night after watching Pinocchio or Dumbo or Little Mermaid, they’re probably not going to tune into another animated movie. They want something for them.”

gizmodo.com

This is a great example of the contradictions inherent in the assumption that Disney must be right. Bob Chapek, with no prior experience in film, must be right and Pete Docter, creator of several highly successful animated films, must be wrong.

 

[flynnibus]

You know not everyone is an AP holder, right?

He's been too busy trollling the DLR threads he's forgot to fully switch modes in the WDW threads.

 

[Chi84]

I don't sweat the hopeless... you can't fix stupid. Or brown-nosers.

People visiting WDW don’t know what Chapek says. People visiting WDW don’t know who Chapek is. When you’re labeling people stupid or brown nosers you’re going after a minuscule number of people who don’t make a difference. So why the vitriol?

 

[DonniePeverley]

He really hasn't endered himself to Disney fans has he ?

Utterly horrific start to his tenure.

NO ONE LIKES TO GO ON VACCATION AND HAVE TO DO THIS MUCH PRE PLANNING, ALSO RISK MISSING OUT ON GOING TO A PARK ON A DAY IT MAY BE FULL (ie low staff levels). UTTERLY HORRIFIC.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You're essentially just talking about Magic Kingdom, though. Even the massively reduced 2021 numbers suggest an average of almost 100,000 people showing up every day to visit their 4 parks, ignoring the water parks. That's a lot of people to lure to Central Florida to pay premium prices day in day out when people have plenty of other options for how to spend their leisure time. They also have to lure them away from competing world-class theme parks nearby.

Perhaps demand for Magic Kingdom is such that it can remain successful for the foreseeable future. They have three other theme parks, two water parks, a shopping district, and tens of thousands of hotel rooms they also have to keep busy, however. In that context, I can entirely imagine the scenario outlined by @lazyboy97o a few pages back where the company manages to alienate too many of its customers and then flails around not knowing how to attract enough people back to make a resort the size of WDW viable.

Ummm…there should be like a 15 question PowerPoint presentation you have to pass before you’re allowed to talk about park history…

Good news: you passed.

Others? Nah…not so much. Like understanding how and why they built in wdw seems rather rudimentary to me…

But still slips down the drain…I guess?

 

[flynnibus]

People visiting WDW don’t know what Chapek says. People visiting WDW don’t know who Chapek is. When you’re labeling people stupid or brown nosers you’re going after a minuscule number of people who don’t make a difference. So why the vitriol?

Once again you laser focus on something in isolation vs follow the conversation. Look at the post I was responding to... the post is about the evidence and conversation here.... not the population who visits WDW.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

 

[MrPromey]

Once again you laser focus on something in isolation vs follow the conversation. Look at the post I was responding to... the post is about the evidence and conversation here.... not the population who visits WDW.

To be fair, they're viewing this conversation while actually on vacation at Disney so missing some of the flow of this conversation feels understandable under the circumstances.