WSJ: Even Disney Is Worried About The High Cost Of A Disney Vacation (gift link)

[Baloo124]

…greatest game ever

Life altering

I was going to like this, but as someone who loved (and misses) the glory days of this gem, I'd like to say in classic RCT fashion:
"This post from Sirwalterraleigh is really good value!"

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

And that’s the crux of it, well over 50% of its income… but only a third of the revenue. The stock price is floundering because of all the other segments.

I know this board thinks otherwise, but it’s not the Walt Disney World company. WDW makes up like 15% of the companies revenue. It’s important… but it’s not the company and it’s most certainly not the sole stock price determinant.

Don’t misunderstand me…I totally agree with you. 101%

Which is why I bang away at their parks mismanagement. You cannot chase unlimited profits - what short round would say “fortune and glory, Dr. jones” - based on parks as your backbone enterprise.

It’s not an unlimited increase product. It’s a 100% disposable consumer product. They can leave it just as easily as they took it.

So the more you squeeze it…the more it leaks

 

[Laketravis]

I think his point got a bit muddled. Cruise ships aren’t a better deal in 2025 than they were in 2019. In fact I think they’ve largely declined even faster than Orlando parks.

But they were an exceptional deal in 2019 versus land vacations are now are a reasonable deal today.

I’m actually not a DCL champion, the product has always been overpriced. But it’s actually been a lot less impacted by cuts than the broader industry. If you think OG WDW fans are a disgruntled lot you should see the seasoned cruisers thoughts on their prior preferred brands decline. Royal, NCL, Princess and Carnival particularly. They are all playing musical chairs as people swear off line x to defect to y, even though the problems are largely the same.

Celebrity, DCL and Virgin appear to have kept most of the quality afloat, but they are all a little upmarket. Even within each brand there’s a ton of ship class to ship class variability. Icon has way higher quality food than the average of the brand.

Spot on.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I was going to like this, but as someone who loved (and misses) the glory days of this gem, I'd like to say in classic RCT fashion:
"This post from Sirwalterraleigh is really good value!" View attachment 843572

Well I feel honored you didn’t say

“Can’t find a bathroom” or “there’s too much litter”

 

[monothingie]

Disney loves to gaslight and obviously doesn’t get it

I have always said if those making the decisions had to experience the parks how most of us and our families and friends do, they might understand it more

The company loathes guests.

 

[Laketravis]

The price of Cruise ships has risen…

But what hasn’t happened is a loss in what you’re paying for.

On cruise ships…you pay more for your fare and you pay for upsells

But you don’t pay for things that previously were included.

Except for lobster! It disappeared from the main dining halls, and if it does reapear there's a limit of one each, if you want more you have to pay for each additional one!

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The company loathes guests.

Park guests? Absolutely…they want them moved past the spinning Mickey heads as fast as possible and never been seen/heard from

Now dvc annual meetings? D23?…different story…they can fake caring about them all day long (once a year)

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Except for lobster! It disappeared from the main dining halls, and if it does reapear there's a limit of one each, if you want more you have to pay for each additional one!

Royal still has lobster night…at least the ones I’ve been on…

But I get the point…no doubt the cruise industry has squeezed its margins too…as all are paid to do.

It’s just not as egregiously looking as what Disney has stumbled into.

I can’t back it up (I bet Len can?) but there is a disturbance in their “force” since genie showed up…it’s more of a feeling than something you can point too.

It hangs over the parks each day…an attitude shift. I don’t go for mine train…I people watch/ look for the ambience.

Maybe I’m just crazy? (Rhetorical)

 

[Laketravis]

I can’t back it up (I bet Len can?) but there is a disturbance in their “force” since genie showed up…it’s more of a feeling than something you can point too.

It hangs over the parks each day…an attitude shift. I don’t go for mine train…I people watch/ look for the ambience.

Maybe I’m just crazy? (Rhetorical)

Same here and totally agree.

 

[monothingie]

Park guests? Absolutely…they want them moved past the spinning Mickey heads as fast as possible and never been seen/heard from

Now dvc annual meetings? D23?…different story…they can fake caring about them all day long (once a year)

I've really never seen a company that puts more resources and spin into saving face, than actually acknowledging problems and look to fix them. They may be able to satisfy the cupcake brigade high on pixie dust with their carefully orchestrated lines of BS, but lipstick on a pig is still just that, and more and more people are seeing it and can't unsee it.

 

[lentesta]

…you might want to let them know they’re a media company foremost

Chapek tried to position them as a technology company.

 

[Tha Realest]

Food prices in malls are the same prices you will find in equivalent restaurants outside of malls. I swear some people here haven't visited a fast casual restaurant in half a decade or something.

Because many of the fast casual chains are going out of business

So, isn't the best option truly to build a third U.S. destination and pump it full of a ton of clones? Building more in Orlando will only get more people to go to Orlando making the current issues worse. Building a third destination in Texas or the North East that is full of stuff you can already find in Orlando or LA gives guests in those regions less reasons to visit Orlando (improving the overcrowding issues in Orlando) as often while putting more money in Disney's pockets (especially if people don't have to travel as far and can spend more at the parks). Would seem like a situation where canibilazation of your own business may be a good thing...

That involves a sizeable investment, considerable risk, and the very good likelihood it would cannibalize WDW, DLR, and DCL.

I think the company is resistant to expanding in the US/NA in places other than those three.

 

[Tha Realest]

Just as a single data point, but I refuse all housekeeping. I don't like strangers in my room. Just my personal opinion.

It’s not “your” room. It’s a room you and 150+ other families use in the course of a year. And you don’t want it cleaned as frequently as possible? That’s kinda nasty.

 

[James Alucobond]

Because many of the fast casual chains are going out of business

That has nothing to do with your statement about malls. The point is that food prices are high everywhere, and relative to other establishments, F&B prices within the parks have actually risen more slowly, to the point that quick service often seems quite reasonable if you're used to going out for lunch in your everyday life. Yes, prix fixe and character dining are as absurd as ever, but you can easily make it out of the parks these days feeling like you spent a "normal" amount on food.

 

[DCBaker]

Seems this may be Disney's response to the WSJ article:

“To all who come to this happy place, welcome. Disneyland is your land,” Walt Disney said when he dedicated Disney’s first theme park in 1955. It’s been the company’s motto ever since, and the reason why Disney has remained the leader in family travel for seven decades and counting.

“The number-one thing we hear from the millions of guests who visit our parks each year is how much a Disney vacation means to them, and we intentionally offer a wide variety of ticket, hotel, and dining options to welcome as many families as possible, whatever their budget,” Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Experiences, said. “We also know that, in inflationary times, it’s especially important to give families ways to save on their visits. We haven’t increased the lowest-priced ticket to Disneyland since 2019, and we recently introduced a kids ticket for as little as $50, just to name a couple of examples.”

Ever since opening day at Disneyland nearly 70 years ago, generations of families have been making memories with Disney that last a lifetime. And through the decades, Disney has always created new ways for guests to save on their vacations.

“We know our parks create life-long memories for families and we’ve worked hard to make a Disney vacation accessible to guests of all income levels,” Hugh Johnston, Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company, said. “With strong guest satisfaction scores and intent-to-visit ratings, our parks remain the most popular offering in the industry.”

We understand the financial pressures that families face across every part of their spending, including how they travel. We listen to our guests and use that feedback to introduce new offers and promotional deals, which provide significant savings.

In fact, a recent survey of 3,531 U.S. adults by Morning Consult, commissioned by the Walt Disney Company, revealed that a strong majority of families with children under five:

• Said nothing compares to a Disney vacation…
• Said that a visit to a Disney park gives memories that last a lifetime and can’t be replaced…
• …And those that had visited Disneyland or Walt Disney World felt the vacation was worth the expense

Here's the full post with more details on current offers at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort:

Disney Offers: Everything You Need to Know | The Walt Disney Company

Prepare for your next visit to a Disney resort by learning about the promotional deals and offers available across a variety of ticket, dining, & hotel options.

thewaltdisneycompany.com

 

[Ayla]

Reminds me of when hotels started prompting guests to reuse towels and only the towels left on the floor would be replaced - for the good of the environment, of course.

Certainly had nothing to do with substantially reducing laundry costs.

I re-use towels at home. I don't on vacation. Actually, let me amend that to say, I won't re-use towels on vacation.

 

[Dranth]

One point I think a lot of folks are glossing over is that according to the numbers Len presented, the middle class has less purchasing power now vs. when WDW opened in 1971 when adjusted for inflation. So, if your target demographic is physically incapable of providing growth or even maintaining profit levels what do you do given the realities of being a publicly traded company?

People keep acting like all they have to do is be affordable and every thing will be great when that is 100% not the case. I am sorry but if you are a company that relies solely on disposable income your main focus can't be on the groups that don't have any.

The actual mistake they made was gutting the perceived value while they drove pricing upwards.

 

[lentesta]

From Disney this morning:

Disney Offers: Everything You Need to Know | The Walt Disney Company

Prepare for your next visit to a Disney resort by learning about the promotional deals and offers available across a variety of ticket, dining, & hotel options.

t.co

I'm just going to point out that the sentence that starts with "The thing we hear from millions of guests who visit our parks..." is the definition of survivor bias.

 

[Dranth]

Chapek tried to position them as a technology company.

IMO, one of the dumbest moves a CEO has ever made and a colossal misunderstanding of the company.

 

[lentesta]

IMO, one of the dumbest moves a CEO has ever made and a colossal misunderstanding of the company.

I was at guitar practice when he said it and I screamed "Do you pay your IT team like a tech company???"