Some thoughts and opinions that have been bouncing around my head for a while.
WDW has been "running" on nostalgia since at least 2005, when Bob Iger took over as CEO, and possibly for several years prior to that. They are have been cashing in on nostalgia for years, as evidenced by the increasing profits of the Parks & Resorts division, and believe they can continue to do so for decades to come. However, there are already a growing number of former and potential guests who make comments in social media that they can't, or won't, visit WDW because of how expensive it has become. It used to be a vacation destination that was within reach of the middle class to be able to visit annually, or at least every 2 years, and that included my family growing up. I was able to visit every year, sometimes more than once a year, with my own family until around 2009. We would almost always take a 7 night vacation at WDW, even after we bought in to DVC in 2005. But prices increased to the point where we had to scale back our vacations starting around 2009 to 4 to 5 nights. But that was OK with us, as we had been there enough times, and there really wasn't anything new to experience, that we knew we weren't missing out on anything if we didn't get to ride a particular ride, or see a particular show. We did what we liked to do, and knew because of our DVC ownership that we'd be back if there was something we didn't get to do and wanted to do it. On top of that, we sometimes stay off-site if we find a great deal and had used up our DVC points for the use year. And a rental car is almost a given these days, as it allows so much more freedom while on vacation, not to mention the cost savings of being able to buy your own food and beverages to have in the room instead of paying the over-inflated Disney prices. Thankfully, as DVC members we are not (currently) subject to the new parking fee being foisted onto those staying overnight at a Disney resort.
How much longer can Disney cash in on the nostalgia of guests who visited in the 70's, 80's, and 90's? They used to blaze new paths around the theme park experience. They used to create *original* rides and attractions that would blow you away. They used to do things that you didn't know you'd like or want or expect until you experienced it. Now, everything is run with a "de-risk" and "cost containment" mentality. One need look only to their wrist while walking around WDW and seeing the wait times for most rides and attractions to understand "cost containment". MagicBands and FP+ have allowed Disney to scale back operations and increase wait times, and guests are now simply expecting long waits, sadly. They use known quantities - movie IP - rather than creating something new and original (De-risk). Movie IP means merchandise, and merchandise means higher profit margins. "Universal did it with Harry Potter, and they're making lots of money, and we have lots of movie IP now, so that has to be the model to follow" seems to be the strategy they've moved to now. And by descending to the lowest common denominator (read: movie IP/hot-property-of-the-minute all over the parks), they cheapen the overall theme park experience. It's becoming a fancy, expensive version of any other park you can visit around the country. They aren't creating "magic" like in decades past. They aren't creating those memories, that nostalgia, which the theme parks used to create. There used to be a true "Disney difference" to your theme park visit. That is no longer the case. You are now treated like a customer, a number, and a source of revenue instead of a valued guest. What do many guests remember now? How expensive their vacation was. How long the lines were. How packed the parks were. How below-average the food was. That's not "creating magic", or giving guests a reason to come back in the future, no matter how much marketing and PR they put behind "the MAGIC!!!". I heard recently (second-hand, admittedly) that Disney asked Google to run some surveys and analytics on recent guests and what they remembered. Take a guess as to what the top 2 things were that kids surveyed remembered? The monorail and the pools. For a place that projects themselves as a "premium expeience" (and they certainly charge a premium price for it) that is both telling and cannot be good. To me, that also exhibits just how important the monorails are and why they need to invest in them rather than doing the minimum required to keep them running. "Good enough" is now the Disney standard, whereas that was unacceptable in the past. "Good enough" gets you by to the next fiscal quarter, but sacrifices long-term strategy.
Disney used to set the standard. Now, they simply follow the pack. Everest was the last original attraction built, and I fear it may be the *last* original attraction built unless there is new blood at the top and they get rid of this "de-risk/cost containment/movie IP-only" mindset of the Iger and Chapek era. I think many believe there can and is a happy medium between quarterly financial results and being a creative company, but the Bob's won't even entertain the thought. Look at the rides being built and/or have been built at WDW have been/are being based on in the past 12 years - Tron. Ratatouille. Frozen. Pandora. Star Wars. Toy Story. Little Mermaid. Seven Dwarves. The example is even greater when you expand and look at other Disney theme parks around the world. More Pixar. More Marvel coming seemingly everywhere. Not to mention, most of those are Iger acquisitions, which could be its own interesting in-depth analysis. But where are the Figments? Where are the Great Movie Rides and Towers of Terror? Where are the Haunted Mansions and Pirates? Where are the original ideas/rides/attractions Disney used to excel at, like Spaceship Earth and Horizons and the Great Movie Ride, that created the good will and nostalgia they are happily cashing in on today? There is no appetite for creativity in the upper levels of TWDC, and that's a problem. Disney is somewhat unique in that it has traditionally been at its best when there was a creative type helping run the company alongside a "money guy". That ying/yang balance has been missing since Frank Wells' death in 1994, and I think it's quite reflective in what we see in the theme parks today. No longer do we get grand attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean (Especially the original at Disneyland), Splash Mountain, World of Motion, the Great Movie Ride, Horizons, Universe of Energy, etc. We instead get rides that last 3-5 minutes, if we're lucky. Not to mention, those new, shorter rides don't usually have the per-hour capacity of those which they replaced. In my opinion, replacing grand attractions with 3-5 minute rides isn't a sustainable direction, as eventually guests will tire of those short rides sooner rather than later (such is the case when using what's hot today, it likely won't be hot long-term), likely sooner than later if/when leveraging the hot-property-of-the-month. If that happens, then they will need to spend more to "keep up with the times". It becomes a vicious cycle that I don't think Disney truly has any appetite for, but it's the direction in which they seem to be heading.
If extracting maximum dollars out of every guest is now their goal, I guess they are knocking it out of the park. But how much longer will that continue? What happens when the next recession hits? They are acting like one will never come again, or if there is one, guests will simply continue to fill up the parks unabated, and spend like they are spending today. What happens when more and more potential guests see the price tag and simply say, "No thanks", particularly if there is a recession? Sure, they'll offer up discounts and deals in an attempt to lure guests to Orlando, but with Universal upping their game and theme park offerings, will that be enough next time?
From my perspective, Disney needs to get back to what made the company and its theme parks great - Creating new and unique rides, attractions, and experiences. It needs to take chances. It needs to be "Disney" again, and not just "the Disney brand" that Iger is so laser-focused on. Until that happens, until they can live up to the standards they set in decades past while creating the goodwill the current management team is happily cash in on today, I am setting my expectations low (Except for food/ticket/room prices, of course). I think their focus is solely on pleasing Wall Street and not on being a great company any longer.
WDW has been "running" on nostalgia since at least 2005, when Bob Iger took over as CEO, and possibly for several years prior to that. They are have been cashing in on nostalgia for years, as evidenced by the increasing profits of the Parks & Resorts division, and believe they can continue to do so for decades to come. However, there are already a growing number of former and potential guests who make comments in social media that they can't, or won't, visit WDW because of how expensive it has become. It used to be a vacation destination that was within reach of the middle class to be able to visit annually, or at least every 2 years, and that included my family growing up. I was able to visit every year, sometimes more than once a year, with my own family until around 2009. We would almost always take a 7 night vacation at WDW, even after we bought in to DVC in 2005. But prices increased to the point where we had to scale back our vacations starting around 2009 to 4 to 5 nights. But that was OK with us, as we had been there enough times, and there really wasn't anything new to experience, that we knew we weren't missing out on anything if we didn't get to ride a particular ride, or see a particular show. We did what we liked to do, and knew because of our DVC ownership that we'd be back if there was something we didn't get to do and wanted to do it. On top of that, we sometimes stay off-site if we find a great deal and had used up our DVC points for the use year. And a rental car is almost a given these days, as it allows so much more freedom while on vacation, not to mention the cost savings of being able to buy your own food and beverages to have in the room instead of paying the over-inflated Disney prices. Thankfully, as DVC members we are not (currently) subject to the new parking fee being foisted onto those staying overnight at a Disney resort.
How much longer can Disney cash in on the nostalgia of guests who visited in the 70's, 80's, and 90's? They used to blaze new paths around the theme park experience. They used to create *original* rides and attractions that would blow you away. They used to do things that you didn't know you'd like or want or expect until you experienced it. Now, everything is run with a "de-risk" and "cost containment" mentality. One need look only to their wrist while walking around WDW and seeing the wait times for most rides and attractions to understand "cost containment". MagicBands and FP+ have allowed Disney to scale back operations and increase wait times, and guests are now simply expecting long waits, sadly. They use known quantities - movie IP - rather than creating something new and original (De-risk). Movie IP means merchandise, and merchandise means higher profit margins. "Universal did it with Harry Potter, and they're making lots of money, and we have lots of movie IP now, so that has to be the model to follow" seems to be the strategy they've moved to now. And by descending to the lowest common denominator (read: movie IP/hot-property-of-the-minute all over the parks), they cheapen the overall theme park experience. It's becoming a fancy, expensive version of any other park you can visit around the country. They aren't creating "magic" like in decades past. They aren't creating those memories, that nostalgia, which the theme parks used to create. There used to be a true "Disney difference" to your theme park visit. That is no longer the case. You are now treated like a customer, a number, and a source of revenue instead of a valued guest. What do many guests remember now? How expensive their vacation was. How long the lines were. How packed the parks were. How below-average the food was. That's not "creating magic", or giving guests a reason to come back in the future, no matter how much marketing and PR they put behind "the MAGIC!!!". I heard recently (second-hand, admittedly) that Disney asked Google to run some surveys and analytics on recent guests and what they remembered. Take a guess as to what the top 2 things were that kids surveyed remembered? The monorail and the pools. For a place that projects themselves as a "premium expeience" (and they certainly charge a premium price for it) that is both telling and cannot be good. To me, that also exhibits just how important the monorails are and why they need to invest in them rather than doing the minimum required to keep them running. "Good enough" is now the Disney standard, whereas that was unacceptable in the past. "Good enough" gets you by to the next fiscal quarter, but sacrifices long-term strategy.
Disney used to set the standard. Now, they simply follow the pack. Everest was the last original attraction built, and I fear it may be the *last* original attraction built unless there is new blood at the top and they get rid of this "de-risk/cost containment/movie IP-only" mindset of the Iger and Chapek era. I think many believe there can and is a happy medium between quarterly financial results and being a creative company, but the Bob's won't even entertain the thought. Look at the rides being built and/or have been built at WDW have been/are being based on in the past 12 years - Tron. Ratatouille. Frozen. Pandora. Star Wars. Toy Story. Little Mermaid. Seven Dwarves. The example is even greater when you expand and look at other Disney theme parks around the world. More Pixar. More Marvel coming seemingly everywhere. Not to mention, most of those are Iger acquisitions, which could be its own interesting in-depth analysis. But where are the Figments? Where are the Great Movie Rides and Towers of Terror? Where are the Haunted Mansions and Pirates? Where are the original ideas/rides/attractions Disney used to excel at, like Spaceship Earth and Horizons and the Great Movie Ride, that created the good will and nostalgia they are happily cashing in on today? There is no appetite for creativity in the upper levels of TWDC, and that's a problem. Disney is somewhat unique in that it has traditionally been at its best when there was a creative type helping run the company alongside a "money guy". That ying/yang balance has been missing since Frank Wells' death in 1994, and I think it's quite reflective in what we see in the theme parks today. No longer do we get grand attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean (Especially the original at Disneyland), Splash Mountain, World of Motion, the Great Movie Ride, Horizons, Universe of Energy, etc. We instead get rides that last 3-5 minutes, if we're lucky. Not to mention, those new, shorter rides don't usually have the per-hour capacity of those which they replaced. In my opinion, replacing grand attractions with 3-5 minute rides isn't a sustainable direction, as eventually guests will tire of those short rides sooner rather than later (such is the case when using what's hot today, it likely won't be hot long-term), likely sooner than later if/when leveraging the hot-property-of-the-month. If that happens, then they will need to spend more to "keep up with the times". It becomes a vicious cycle that I don't think Disney truly has any appetite for, but it's the direction in which they seem to be heading.
If extracting maximum dollars out of every guest is now their goal, I guess they are knocking it out of the park. But how much longer will that continue? What happens when the next recession hits? They are acting like one will never come again, or if there is one, guests will simply continue to fill up the parks unabated, and spend like they are spending today. What happens when more and more potential guests see the price tag and simply say, "No thanks", particularly if there is a recession? Sure, they'll offer up discounts and deals in an attempt to lure guests to Orlando, but with Universal upping their game and theme park offerings, will that be enough next time?
From my perspective, Disney needs to get back to what made the company and its theme parks great - Creating new and unique rides, attractions, and experiences. It needs to take chances. It needs to be "Disney" again, and not just "the Disney brand" that Iger is so laser-focused on. Until that happens, until they can live up to the standards they set in decades past while creating the goodwill the current management team is happily cash in on today, I am setting my expectations low (Except for food/ticket/room prices, of course). I think their focus is solely on pleasing Wall Street and not on being a great company any longer.
