I don't think so.
If it was a major change, like transitioning the Walt Disney World annual pass program towards Florida residents only, then no, it would not be in the hands of Josh D'Amaro. Such a change would have been staffed with the top three executives at least; Iger, D'Amaro and McCarthy. Interestingly enough, those are the three who have made comments.
When compared to the hypothesis that this is the new normal, the comments and responses to interviews of all three of these people falls in line with this is "the new normal." When Josh responds to direct questions about when the sale of new annual passes will resume at Disney World, he responds with explaining how
Disneyland and Disney World are very different parks to manage. Disney World is an international destination resort. Disneyland is more of a locals park.
It appears to me from the context of his response and the way he delivers his response, Josh is explaining an executive decision and a new direction.
McCarthy responds to questions about recession and attendance not with an answer that they will start selling annual passes again, but with an explanation that they have many levers. Some of those levers include special ticket sales or discounts on rooms. They have special ticket sales in the UK for admission below the prices of sales domestically, even to Florida residents. Chapek and Iger talk about the mix of attendance and making room for the tourists. Not one of them indicated that continuous sales of new annual passes at Disney World, other than the Pixie Pass was imminent or even a mid-term expectation.
Yet, through all this time, Disney continues to sell new Pixie passes and then makes it so passholders can enter parks after 2 p.m. without a reservation, clearly favoring the local passholder who likes to attend spontaneously.
The executives also talked about how a reduction of 17% in 2021 from the crowd level of 2019 and a reduction of 20% in 2022 has resulted in increased profits per guest per day. The spend rate of tourists is 40% above the passholder so they are seeking the right "mix."
If they have talked about the spend rate, dynamic pricing for crowd days vs lower prices other days, dynamic pricing for
Genie+, the entire concept of monetizing line-jumping (with Genie + and $ILL), discount sales targeted at foreign visitors, a year's waiting period for buying at a higher tier for Pixie passholders and price increases like we have seen, you can "bet your believe it" that the highest levels of the company also talked about the annual pass program at Walt Disney World. I think there has been a decision here.
Do you know what "circumstantial evidence" is? For example, if you look outside and everything is wet, the trees are dripping water, the streets are wet and there are clouds in the sky and puddles on the ground, a reasonable person would say it has rained. That's circumstantial evidence. Generally, trustworthy circumstantial evidence can be relied on as evidence the same as direct evidence. I think that there is plenty of circumstantial evidence here to indicate some executive decision might have been made already. It is enough evidence to form a hypothesis in that direction, at least until somebody directly announces new annual pass sales are open to all, including non-Florida residents at the higher tiers. I no longer anticipate the "pause" is "temporary." I think there are clues this is a new normal.
