The Walt Disney Company has seen a tumultuous year. From attempts to take out their current CEO to doubling down on divisive policies, has Disney’s pixie dust gone dull?
A convergence of different data points is all lining up for a rough story coming out about Disney. While the company has held strong on the Disney Parks side of its business, other areas have been quite shaky. In spite of the Chinese parks having been largely shuttered, Disney World has carried the company with awesome revenues as the world comes back to life post-pandemic. Yet other parts of the company have not done quite so well. Leadership has touted Disney+ numbers, but much of that has been driven by increased subscribers in areas that don’t pay very much for the service — and a major warning flag is that Disney+ subscribers in North America seem to have essentially stalled. That screeching halt to growth is happening at about half of Netflix’s domestic subscription numbers.
So if Disney were to lose its park perceptions, that would be a major hit to the company. Yet that is what one surveyor is finding in their polling:
But even if a family is able to save up for admission tickets, food, and lodging, they’re still not entitled to everything the parks have to offer. In 2021, Disney World ditched its Fast Pass system after more than 20 years in favor of the new Genie service, and its paid companion service Genie+. This change has been poorly received by most park loyalists, including those we surveyed. In fact, 66.9% report feeling they won’t get the full Disney World experience if they don’t upgrade to Genie+ and purchase additional Lightning Lane entries. But the disillusionment doesn’t stop there, 68.3% said rampant price increases and nickel and diming have made it feel like Disney World has lost its magic.
— Ben Treanor, Time2Play
“It’s really unprecedented. We haven’t seen this sort of anger about price hikes in — we can’t remember the last time something like this caused this much anger from Disney fans.”
— Len Testa, Touring Plans
This has all sort of culminated in an article on Fox Business taking on Disney over this issue. But is there truth to it?
Well, yes and no. The parks continue to do exceedingly well in many ways. Yet as international travel has gone back to normal rates and domestic families are sending kids back to school, we are definitely noticing that crowd levels have crashed. The Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser is also struggling to fill its voyages in September. Yet leadership continues to tout record-breaking revenue for Disney World.
We’ve discussed many times on That Park Place the issue of the breaking-point. At what price level does Disney finally push the average consumer to rethink a trip to Disney World and cause families to begin viewing the company in a different light?
One of the things that worries most is Disney’s recent push into the idea of virtual reality as an alternative for families that can’t afford a trip to the parks. Like other writers here, I think that’s just a recipe for disaster if Disney wants to go down that road. And as some friends of the site have suggested, there’s danger in Disney pricing middle class America out of the experience because they need children to build those memories of the castle and Spaceship Earth and the Tree of Life in order to want to return with their kids one day too. If they never walk down Main Street USA, they’ll never feel that tug to come back one day with their own, young families.
Hopefully Disney is looking that far into the future. Hopefully they remember that for better or worse, they’re more than just a numbers corporation for profit. If they stop making memories for all those kids whose parents can’t afford the trip, the magic will be gone for many. And that magic makes a ton of money.
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