Is the future bleak for Disneyworld, Disneyland, etc?

[el_super]

Isn't the current Disney sliding in that direction?

By the time Disney moves to blue polos and khakis ... Six Flags uniforms will probably be at t-shirts and swim trunks.

 

[jloucks]

Ah, but you have to understand the Six Flags Mentality

• Replace all park music with raunchy top 40 jukebox music
• Slap advertising all over ride vehicles and buildings
• Have a bring a friend for $20 for 3 months straight
• Have 45% of your shops and dining closed until 4pm.
• Host and Hostesses on their phone while operating rides
• And of course the removal of all themed outfits and go with the one park one uniform blue and khakis outfit.

I was sooo annoyed when they started closing the restaurants at 7 (don't recall 4pm). We had the AP with the food plan and it became dang near impossible to make it to the park, park, enter, and make it to the front of the food line in time.

Oh, and closing time was 11pm.

Even with all those bullet points, the park was jam packed! The bring a friend days were to be avoided at all costs.

Full Disclosure - Have not been in 4 years... since kids moved out.

 

[AdventureHasAName]

Very bleak. They've burned through almost all of their goodwill. Goodwill is what has propped up the company for 25 years.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

Times change, but I went to WDW in 2006 as an example.

We got free dining when it still included appetizers and tips. It was highly affordable.

The parks were far quieter than they are in any current "off-season" I've seen.

Disney theme parks are hugely profitable. This sky is falling mentality because attendance is down a bit compared to a few years ago? I don't get it.

Attendance is always going to ebb and flow a little bit. Attendance is unequivocally UP compared to 10 or 20 years ago.

If they were in no danger of going under then, they certainly aren't now.

 

[John park hopper]

WDW has had problems going on long before the DeSantis/WDW feud. Rising prices, lower quality, less on site resort amenities, to many attractions out of service. Construction the goes on forever, concentrating on DVC and not new resorts.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

I was sooo annoyed when they started closing the restaurants at 7 (don't recall 4pm). We had the AP with the food plan and it became dang near impossible to make it to the park, park, enter, and make it to the front of the food line in time.

Oh, and closing time was 11pm.

Event with all those bullet points, the park was jam packed! The bring a friend days were to be avoided at all costs.

Full Disclosure - Have not been in 4 years... since kids moved out.

My park SFGAm I had decided to buy the diamond pass (which i regret) your lucky if any attraction opened 2 hours after the park opened let alone even opened that day, many of the stores and dining didn't open until late afternoon, Our park promised a Coca-Cola VIP lounge for members In a former Firehouse pizza buildling it never opened and all the items were all still bagged up not even set up.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Nope.
Will it be different than what we see? Yes
Will people here like them?? Probably not.

Disney will be fine.
10 years from now we'll be having this same discussion.

 

[Thepuma]

Times change, but I went to WDW in 2006 as an example.

We got free dining when it still included appetizers and tips. It was highly affordable.

The parks were far quieter than they are in any current "off-season" I've seen.

Disney theme parks are hugely profitable. This sky is falling mentality because attendance is down a bit compared to a few years ago? I don't get it.

Attendance is always going to ebb and flow a little bit. Attendance is unequivocally UP compared to 10 or 20 years ago.

If they were in no danger of going under then, they certainly aren't now.

I'm not sure the attendance is down. I don't know who is pushing this narrative, but I've been in Orlando for almost 3 weeks, doing parks daily, and I can say, this has been the busiest I've ever seen Disney and Universal Parks..and we've been in December!

 

[MK-fan]

I was there 3 weeks ago and it was busy

 

[Jrb1979]

I'm not sure the attendance is down. I don't know who is pushing this narrative, but I've been in Orlando for almost 3 weeks, doing parks daily, and I can say, this has been the busiest I've ever seen Disney and Universal Parks..and we've been in December!

The forecast for fall and winter is looking down. It's all based on dining availability and that they are closing sections of resorts.

Maybe people are still going but staying off site instead

 

[Disstevefan1]

The parks could have Six Flags standards and still be popular so long as the global economy provides enough discretionary income to visit.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Not bleak. I think I heard there was a 5 hour line for the Figment meet and greet in EPCOT.

 

[JIMINYCR]

Bleak forever for those who only see Dis in a negative light. Those who cant imaging anyone finding anything positive about Disney. They wont go to Dis and want everyone else to abandon Dis as they have.

Not bleak forever for those who understand Dis has problems, going through tough times, some self inflicted, some not their fault. Some because of missteps taken long ago and has now caught up with them. But they will recover and will remain in good shape as long as the economy doesnt tank or we go to World War III, or we find ourselves inundated by zombies.

 

[Graham9]

Not sure if things are bleak at the moment, but I would guess they will be in future. Genie+, soaring ticket prices as well as hotel accommodations, park reservation nonsense, restrictions on extended hours based on hotels...let's not forget that Universal are building a massive third park with hotels for 2025 opening, which is going to give theme park goers more options outside WDW.

Our last trip to WDW was in 2015 and the price of coming to WDW today is astronomical and well beyond inflation where Chapek has squeezed the financial life out of coming to the parks and hardly anything has been done to attract people back in.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Bleak forever for those who only see Dis in a negative light. Those who cant imaging anyone finding anything positive about Disney. They wont go to Dis and want everyone else to abandon Dis as they have.

Not bleak forever for those who understand Dis has problems, going through tough times, some self inflicted, some not their fault. Some because of missteps taken long ago and has now caught up with them. But they will recover and will remain in good shape as long as the economy doesnt tank or we go to World War III, or we find ourselves inundated by zombies.

Lol except for they still do go, which is absolutely baffling to me.

 

[Jrb1979]

Lol except for they still do go, which is absolutely baffling to me.

Not us. We haven't gone since well before COVID and no plans to return. We went to Disney for the unique attractions they once had. We don't go for coasters or family thrill rides.

The Disney you hated is the one we loved.

 

[Walt Disney1955]

My guess is they'll eventually start going in the right direction again. You can argue they already are figuring that out. There are people within the company that seem intent on Disney "Bud Lighting" themselves at all costs. If they can get back to the roots that Walt laid down and stick to the family values and guest experience and not gauging the guest at every turn then I think they'll not only be fine but be far and away the standard to be measured by.

Right now, there isn't a Super Mario Bros. movie Disney can hang their hat on. Their movies are................well, let's not go there. They ought to follow the lead of how things were done 50, 60, 70 years ago with their company. It worked. Say what you want, but it worked. And they stood on the shoulders of that for a while and not only still should but should add to it.

 

[Thepuma]

The biggest issue is that it's now all about the money. And it's more obvious than ever. Disney are giving less and less for more and more money.

It's the Nickel and Diming that's fitting out of hand

 

[crawale]

Seems like everything that could go wrong for Disney has done just that. Disney has had a string of box office failures, and is facing a loss by spending too much on Disney plus content. The parks are the only ones bring in the dough and unfortunately, they will probably suffer the most.

How did we get here? Well Iger has a lot to do with that with his $71.3 Billion dollar purchase of Fox a couple of years back which in my opinion, was a bad move. Also Disney is spending Billions to gain full control of Hulu. The Lockdown really put a huge dent in Disney’s future plans and they’re trying to save where they can with cost cutting, employee firings, etc.

Many attractions that were announced at the 2017, 2019 expos have been canceled or shelved including new additions at Epcot. This includes the Cherry Tree Lane area and Mary Poppins attraction, an update to Spaceship Earth, PLAY! Pavilion and a more futuristic ambitious look to World Celebration. Other parks felt this such as Disneyland Paris as their Galaxy’s Edge plans were canceled. Also, some attractions have been in constant limbo such as the new Avengers attractions for DCA and Hong Kong as well as Epcot’s new Japan film.

The parks have gained a significant amount of attractions the past couple of years all the way up until 2025 but these are rides that were announced, started groundbreaking and properly financed before the lockdown. Many of them have taken long amounts of time to be built, longer than usual. TDL is the only one getting things done by adding 3 new lands with 4 new rides along with a new space mountain but that is because they are owned by OLC.

What’s the future looking like? Well we have Tiana’s Bayou Adventure that was announced during the lockdown but this was necessary do the social climate and Disney didn’t want the bad press for keeping Splash Mountain. Attractions that have been announced at the expo and Destination D have been lackluster at best. This includes small updates to attractions like Country Bear Jamboree, Haunted Mansion, and new character meet and greets. They are also adding a new Zootopia 3D film which is significantly cheaper then buying a new attraction. The new Test Track’s bill will mostly be taken care of by GM. The reason why they show these “bluesky” attractions and lands is because they don’t have anything concrete to show us for the future so they’re trying to get us excited by shooting out possible ideas which they see as being better than showing nothing at all.

Do you think Disney will come back from this? Will Disneyworld, Disneyland, etc suffer for long? What do you all think of the current situation the parks are in?

Until Iger understands who his customer is then Disney will continue to decline. Appeal to 1% of the population and you will lose 99%. That seems to be Disney's current course. Disney's customers want to be entertained NOT groomed.

 

[celticdog]

Ah, but you have to understand the Six Flags Mentality

• Replace all park music with raunchy top 40 jukebox music
• Slap advertising all over ride vehicles and buildings
• Have a bring a friend for $20 for 3 months straight
• Have 45% of your shops and dining closed until 4pm.
• Host and Hostesses on their phone while operating rides
• And of course the removal of all themed outfits and go with the one park one uniform blue and khakis outfit.

Busch Gardens is using this same strategy.

Right now Disney is still way better than both Six Flags and Busch Gardens. At least the Disney employees are engaging, friendly and enthusiastic.