Disney wasn't in a low prices mode. They still were the market leader in high prices and charging obsurd markups over their normal peers. They were in a conversion mode of trying to convince people to be frequent visitors in a quest to increase revenues by 'filling in the low spots' and encouraging frequent visits. They did this with all their endless events and big push for DVC and APs. The entire time they were raising prices aggressively year over year. But the key point is they were finding their growth through price increases and trying to fill in low spots.
Note, they weren't growing their actual ability to drive future volume, but rather trying to drive growth by increasing utilization of what they had. And in other areas they sold their futures to get money now (hotels to DVC).
So after 10 plus years of driving to eliminate their low spots... they end up blocking themselves from utilizing low periods for upkeep and they struggle to keep up with the necessary upkeep.. either through lack of time or lack of increasing investment to match the increased use. We get the Monorail fiascos, Splash Mountain falling apart, etc.
So instead of a business ready for steady continued growth - now you have a business with a product that resists actual volume increases. Management has painted themselves into the corner that now the only way to sustain revenue growth is with continued monetization, price increases, and cutting expenses. The ability to actually organic growth is hindered by time and a mentality to squeeze every last drop out of the existing before actually growing. They don't have an elastic business - they have a business that if they don't keep raising prices, they look like they are failing.
It's a management mindset to resist increasing overhead while there is any area they could possibly drive growth without increasing costs. You can spin all you want about trying to paint critics as morons who don't understand what Disney really wants... but you can't actually retort the real observations of the company's strategy.
They can't grow because of cutbacks and operations
They can't efficiently renovate under utilized facilities, so instead they push customers to them with 'its the only thing open' incentives
They can't efficiently grow the product because their bloated budgets and timelines
They are creatively bankrupt in many areas
They've got little room left to 'fill in the gaps'
So what does that leave them with? Keep cutting and keep raising prices.
It's not customer surveys driving this behavior - it's the aggressive leadership strategy of believing the best PnL strategy is your success rather than a runaway product. They are trying to find every last nickle in the couch rather than trying to create things people will happily pay more for.
