Is Disney Too Commercial Now

[BeachyMouse]

I've been going to Disney World for about 45 years now. I've missed a year or two throughout, but pretty much have made it a yearly trip.
Well it's been about 3 years since my family's last visit. This being for a couple of reasons.
Cost - Prices have steadily increased. Almost to the point where the average goer like my self, can no longer afford going yearly. Both the parks and property hotels have priced themselves out of my family's income, and we aren't poor by any means.
Slowly Deducting Freebies - There were times that there was magic to be had throughout the Disney properties, AND at no cost. Now there seems to be a surcharge for every little thing you want to do.
Crowds, Crowds, Crowds - Wow, how things have changed. The parks have been crowded, but this is a year round problem now. There really is no Slow Time of year anymore. Now is this Disney's fault? No, and in no way am I saying it is.
Planning vs. The Whim - Yeah remember those days. Several of our trips as a family were weekend getaways. To be reasonable now. There is no way to do that anymore. I have tracked some weekends over the past couple of months. No chance on doing it. Or if you do, it's a Deluxe resort available.
Fast Pass- Let's not even get started on this. If you don't plan a year in advance of where you're going to be at an exact day and time you're *&^%. This kind of goes into the category above also. If you do the Whim you're going to be waiting in hour long lines for a 3 minute attraction.
Dining - To be honest this is one of the things that hasn't really changed, but has improved over the years. I remember a time when there were just a couple nice places to eat, and cheap eats were the main meals of your day.
Characters - Gone are the days of walking through the park and having a chance encounter. If it isn't between breaks you can forget it. And even then you are told to wait in line, when you weren't even planning to meet the character in the first place. Then there are the special events when select characters come out. They are all Disney characters right? Why hold one back for a year. Now it's lines for 3 hours, or using a Fast Pass.

This isn't meant to be a complaining post. I was just wondering if anyone else misses the days of not long ago. When will our family return? I really don't know. We don't have plans to in the near future. With the cost of everything I am looking at waiting till they have completed Star Wars land and Pixar land. Which knowing Disney's speed at construction will be about 5 more years. What's your thoughts? Just missing those days of childhood running through the parks, with a new dream right around the corner. Now you have to plan your dream 5 years in advance.

 

[Accident]

When was disney not commercial?

Characters - Gone are the days of walking through the park and having a chance encounter.

my experience the last 6 months is this is back here and there along with many other little touches some of which WDW has never seen before (main street vehicles all day long for example). I can honestly say I've seen lots of little touches and an effort to bring back that old style magic (and some disneyland flare) to WDW.

 

[SorcererHeidi]

I have to sadly agree with the OP, as I've said many times here. Haven't been since '12, don't know when I'll be going again (used to go just about every year, sometimes blessed to go twice in a year), and I MISS the 90's, which is when I started going regularly.

 

[T_O]

When was disney not commercial?

This.

 

[k5jm]

#thankswalt

 

[*NikkiBell*]

Fast Pass- Let's not even get started on this. If you don't plan a year in advance of where you're going to be at an exact day and time you're *&^%. This kind of goes into the category above also. If you do the Whim you're going to be waiting in hour long lines for a 3 minute attraction.

Characters - Gone are the days of walking through the park and having a chance encounter. If it isn't between breaks you can forget it. And even then you are told to wait in line, when you weren't even planning to meet the character in the first place. Then there are the special events when select characters come out. They are all Disney characters right? Why hold one back for a year. Now it's lines for 3 hours, or using a Fast Pass.

I visit the parks several times per year - almost always during the most crowded seasons - and can assure you that this is not true. You can get FPs on a whim for most attractions. Many people give up if they don't see what they want first thing in the morning. However, if you check back in the afternoon, you typically can get what you are looking for. I've gotten Mine Train the day of and another time the day before, just as an example. One time I was in the England pavilion of World Showcase at Epcot and got a Soarin' FP for 30 minutes from then. It's possible.

As for characters, they are starting to bring this randomness back. Most recently it was with the strolling Flynn Ryder in new Fantasyland.

 

[Tonyz]

If you're complaining about crowds, you can't complain about price increases, because that's one way to moderate crowd numbers. Prices are high, but they offer hotel discounts nearly year round.

What free things are you missing out on that you used to get?

You can still do a trip in the whim. No one is telling you that you can't.

Fast Passes are fine. Move on.

Quick service dining has gotten exponentially better over the years. And they are adding more and more table services every day. There are a lot of good, great, and incredible places to eat.

Characters are still around. They can't walk around the parks because the parks are too crowded and people can be jerks to the characters. Disney isn't to blame for that.

Disney is Mecca for capitalism. It's never not been commercial. And I have zero problem with that. It's beautiful, wonderful, incredible commercialism - the best that capitalism has to offer the world - but still commercialism.

 

[2buzzboys]

I have to also agree with op. To me it seems more about the money then the magic. The latest being charged to come in early or to stay late. Disney used to stay open late in the summer for free. This was the main reason I decided to not renew my annual passes this year.

 

[Tonyz]

I have to also agree with op. To me it seems more about the money then the magic. The latest being charged to come in early or to stay late. Disney used to stay open late in the summer for free. This was the main reason I decided to not renew my annual passes this year.

You realize Extra Magic Hours still exist, right?

 

[T_O]

Joking aside, I sometimes wonder if Disney doesn't want people of a certain economic class at their parks. Looking at the new shops that were added to D. Springs only strengthened this idea for me.
I foresee a time, with our country's diminishing middle class, when Disney becomes a destination exclusive to the upper class. They've already all but priced out low-income families.

 

[2buzzboys]

You realize Extra Magic Hours still exist, right?

You do realize that everybody has been complaining about the times right? Also that's great if you spend money to stay at a disney resort. I live local so doesn't help me.

 

[Tonyz]

You do realize that everybody has been complaining about the times right? Also that's great if you spend money to stay at a disney resort. I live local so doesn't help me.

It's tough to feel for someone who lives local.

 

[Irish_Mike]

Joking aside, I sometimes wonder if Disney doesn't want people of a certain economic class at their parks.

I wouldn't say that - like Pete always says on the podcast, Disney is a business who wants to make a profit. And if they see area that they can make more in (ticket prices, stores in Disney Springs, etc), they are going to.

Yes, that may negatively impact the lower economic classes, but that's what the world is like these days.

 

[Lisann]

When was disney not commercial?

I believe the OP meant that Disney was getting too commercial, not that it had just become commercial.

BeachyMouse raises some good points, and has 45 years of visits to the parks. I agree with a lot of what was said in the OP.

 

[k5jm]

As for characters, they are starting to bring this randomness back. Most recently it was with the strolling Flynn Ryder in new Fantasyland.

In all his, um, glory?

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Flynn Ryder was just a test in Fantasy land that failed spectacularly. I think he was out maybe 2 or 3 days and each time he just had mobs of people following him wanting a picture and an autograph. Disney has people too well trained that that is what you do when you see a character.

Roaming characters might also work better with characters who aren't pretty rare and super popular.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I don't disagree with the points the OP makes - but I think a lot of it comes down to the crowds. Disney is in a weird position in that they are "too popular" - they raise prices and yet crowds increase and because of the crowds they add additional extras (for an extra charge) and created FP (and then FP+) to try to help with the crowds and increase chance people can get on at least some of the big rides in their trip without huge waits (we can argue if it is the best way to do that or how implementation has gone, but that is the goal)

They can build more parks but MK will still be the most attractive (Star Wars Land should help some, but it's still not MK) ... if it wasn't for the crowds I think a lot of the other complains would at least be lessened

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Flynn Ryder was just a test in Fantasy land that failed spectacularly. I think he was out maybe 2 or 3 days and each time he just had mobs of people following him wanting a picture and an autograph. Disney has people too well trained that that is what you do when you see a character.

Roaming characters might also work better with characters who aren't pretty rare and super popular.

They still have the, somewhat at least, roaming characters at Disneyland and personally I prefer how they do it at WDW - again, due to crowds. People mom them and they come back to not the exact same spot so even if you are waiting you won't be first, and people cut

I am sure back in the day with low crowds it was awesome (and it is still great when they come out at the Disneyland Hotel) - but crowds make roaming characters really not realistic, at least on a large scale

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

They still have the, somewhat at least, roaming characters at Disneyland and personally I prefer how they do it at WDW - again, due to crowds. People mob them and they come back to not the exact same spot so even if you are waiting you won't be first, and people cut

I am sure back in the day with low crowds it was awesome (and it is still great when they come out at the Disneyland Hotel) - but crowds make roaming characters really not realistic, at least on a large scale

I've seen it work pretty well at DL. I think that is solely because most of their visitors are local and so the characters are nothing new to them. I once walked with Alice and the Mad Hatter all the way from their ride to somewhere near the subs and nobody bothered us.

I think DL and WDW are just very different with very different types of visitors.

I do agree though, I like orderly lines. I love characters but I won't shove in front of kids in a mob to meet them, so lines are much more agreeable to me.

I am thinking of some of the last few times I visited WDW and I have to agree about how unrealistic it would be to have roaming characters. I think Flynn was supposed to be 'running away from the guards' and such in the Tangled area, that would have been impossible the last few trips I was on because it was hard to move at all.

 

[SarahDisney]

I'm kind of a newcomer to Disney by some standards, so I guess I have a different perspective.
My first trip was 16 years ago. Growing up, my family couldn't afford Disney trips, so that was really supposed to be a "once in a lifetime trip for me." I started doing Disney regularly about 8 years ago, mostly because I had my own income and saved up my money to be able to do Disney (apparently it's a lot easier to afford Disney when you don't have kids to clothe and feed). Yes, things have changed over the years, but I haven't found that my experience has lessened at all. In fact, many things have gotten better - including FP for me, because I was barely a paper FP user, but we've really found that FP+ works well for us.

Have the crowds gotten worse? Probably. We tend to go during slightly less popular times, so it's not as big of a deal for me, because sometimes I have the luxury to plan my trip at a time when I know the crowds will be a little smaller (and yes, I know that today's "low crowds" are probably more crowded than 10 years ago's "maximum crowds"). Our most crowded trip was probably March 2011 (spring break), and that was way more crowded than I liked, but not impossible.

Cost ... honestly, for me the increase in plane tickets is worse than the increase in Disney prices. In 2008 we stayed at Pop Century for 2 nights for about $715 (incl. 3 day tickets). In 2016 we stayed at Pop Century for 7 nights for $1485 (incl. 5 day tickets). The ticket situation was different (the 2008 trip we had hoppers and did parks every day, and the 2016 trip we had a few non-park days), so it's hard to compare them on a day-by-day basis, but still ... more than three times as many nights, almost twice as many park days, and only a little over double the price? That's really not a terrible price increase to me. My plane tickets have gone up more than that. We always go on a budget, and we can make it work for us.

I haven't tried to do the parks "on a whim" recently ... but part of that is because I'm not in a position to do that right now. If I had the opportunity to fly down to Orlando tomorrow and spend a few days in the parks, I'm sure I could make it work. Maybe it wouldn't be the same as my pre-planned trips, but it would still be a magical experience.

I don't think Disney is too commercial. I think it's essentially the same as it has always been to me. But realize that I'm someone who hasn't been going for 45 years, so I am going to have a different perspective - I don't have those nostalgic memories of being a kid at Disney in the 70s. I love Disney the way it is now. I'm sure it can be better, but I prefer to look at it now and decide based on whether or not my most recent trip (a mere 4 months ago) was enjoyable - and it really was. I'm really looking forward to my next trip, even though I don't know when it will be.
For me, that's enough. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be magical enough for me to enjoy my trips, and I have enjoyed every single trip I've taken. (I do understand that not everyone feels the same way ... just wanted to share my personal view)