What is going on with Disney parks?

[EmJ]

I was in high school at the time of the first Harry Potter movie, or close to done high school somewhere in there.... I think I'm on the "old" end of millenials at almost 36 though... ?

We’re the same age and yep, I consider myself a “grandma Millennial”. Millennials today are between 23-38 years old. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the book, was released in the US in 1998, when Millennials were between 2 and 17 years old. The movie was released three years later. So for those of us on the older end, “grew up” with Harry might be a little strong of a statement, but not for most Millennials in the younger or middle part of the spectrum.

Anyway.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming

 

[Iralyn]

As far as myself, we are not an annual Disney trip family, not specifically because of the cost but that there are other places we also want to travel. But after this trip (with the higher general costs plus my daughter being a Disney adult), I'm not sure when we'll be back. We went over to the dark side (Universal) with the draw of Harry Potter and now I am far more inclined to return there. Not because of cost but it just was so much more relaxing and easy. No chasing dining reservations and fastpasses (though I also know there can be some sporting fun in that). And I wonder how much those Disney complications are turning people off.

On the other hand, there will always be something magical about Disney....

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

It's a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that I may not get a FP for the 7dwarvesMineTrain coaster( 2 visits and nada), or FoP, SDD and now GE. For the price of admission it is ridiculous to think I have to stand in line for HOURS if I want to ride. WDW isn't Great America

 

[Viking7641]

As a member of that generation I don't know anyone who is stretching themselves over any of these things.

I'm stretching myself on student loan payments........trying to save to get on the property ladder (1-2 bedroom Condo) in an absurdly inflated housing market/move to a cheaper area, and taking care of an elderly parent. I travel when I can because I know I'm not gonna be doing it when I eventually maybe, possibly retire in 35 years.

LOL. Keeping up with the neighbors is prototypical baby-boomer behavior, it is far from the "Instagram generation". Instagram is creating an artificial image of yourself, but you do it by selective showing of experiences, keeping up with the Joneses is buying a mcmansion you cant afford and 2 SUVs

 

[Mikey15]

It's a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that I may not get a FP for the 7dwarvesMineTrain coaster( 2 visits and nada), or FoP, SDD and now GE. For the price of admission it is ridiculous to think I have to stand in line for HOURS if I want to ride. WDW isn't Great America

Am I the only one who has never planned dining at 180 days and been able to wait 30 minutes to ride most rides if I didn’t get a FastPass at 30 days for it?

I get it, the nature of this site is going to attract the planners. The average guest is probably winging it and still enjoying themselves.

 

[mab2012]

What is your breaking point in which you would not return or take an extended break?

Already there. We had APs a couple of years ago when DVC had the 13 month Gold Pass offer, followed by the free Platinum Plus upgrade. We did a 9-day trip plus two short trips on those APs, the last being in March 2018. We haven't been back since, and have no immediate plans to return. The absolute earliest I see a return trip now is March 2021, and maybe not even then. There are a variety of reasons, but the price increases are definitely one of them. We will have a couple days in Southern California next March, and thought about going to Disneyland (never been), but decided against, almost entirely for cost reasons. Or, more precisely, insufficient value.

I rented out a few DVC points this year, and might well do it again next year.

I am also curious about the effects of the current political situations. For International travelers, do you put the US on the back-burner for a couple of years and holiday somewhere else you've wanted to go? Is Brexit ruining your exchange rate?

Notwithstanding a previous poster's opposite opinion (obviously not everyone will agree), I would say yes, and yes. I know many Canadians who are either minimizing trips or outright boycotting trips to the US right now due to the current political situation. It was a factor in my family's decision to go west this past March instead of south. And while Brexit won't be directly affecting my country's currency, our exchange rate sucks just the same.

I'll be honest with you, i never believed they line that they were increasing pricing for crowd control reasons. They want those parks filled at the highest price every single day.

100% agree.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

GREAT thread. I hope Disney is reading.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

A Topic for another day but I'd give anything to go back to getting FP's in the park the SAME day I'm there. I was always the runner, it worked great. And giving away a few FP's once in awhile was always a moment

 

[Happyinwonerland]

An economic downturn has been looming for awhile. We are overdue, and I think we are starting to see signs that the economy is at its breaking point.

 

[mab2012]

I can't speak for every international visitor, but for us (and many of our friends / family), no, the "current political situation" has not had a negative effect on our U.S. travel plans. To be frank, we were all a lot more nervous about traveling to the U.S. under the past administration. Driving through or flying from Detroit (the main route many Canadians take) was much more of a nightmare 5-10 years ago during the recession than it is now. Our dollar is doing better than it was under Obama.

Of course you are entitled to your own opinion on the political situation, and I certainly wouldn't try to dispute your personal experiences. But your statement regarding the USD/CAD exchange rate is just factually inaccurate. Aside from a relatively brief dip in early 2016, the CAD ranged from around its current level to much higher during Obama's term from 2009-2017.

Not that I'm suggesting politics is the only (or even primary) driver of the current exchange rate, just pointing out that the current situation for Canadians travelling south is much worse from a financial perspective than it was for most of the 8 years ending in 2017, objectively speaking.

 

[Spaceguy55]

An economic downturn has been looming for awhile. We are overdue, and I think we are starting to see signs that the economy is at its breaking point.

Watch how fast MK gets a nighttime parade when it happens...

 

[Jack_Sparrow_NJ]

Despite the recent news about entertainment cutbacks and the Powell resignation, I wonder how worried Disney really is. They haven't released any discounts for the new year yet, and continue to raise prices on up-charge events like the dessert parties (I suppose to counteract the lower attendance). I'm a huge Disney fan and a DVC member, so I guess I'm not the best gauge. We only go once a year or every-other year, so our travel patterns haven't changed that much...yet. Disney should care about brand loyalty and a positive guest experience to encourage future revenue. But in the end, they are striving to meet current earnings expectations (however out of whack they might be) and increase shareholder value, sometimes cutting off their nose to spite their face.

They will get into a cycle of raising prices and then when attendance drops try to raise them more to meet budgeted revenue. It becomes a vicious cycle which doesn’t work. Then they will cut back on the little things to try and save a few dollars but the little things won’t add enough to the bottom line. Then they will try to reduce prices on ancillary costs that people don’t really care about ie a dollar discount on magic bands. The one thing they will not do is what would bring guests back and that’s roll back the cost of admission and APs

 

[firefly_ris]

We’re the same age and yep, I consider myself a “grandma Millennial”. Millennials today are between 23-38 years old. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the book, was released in the US in 1998, when Millennials were between 2 and 17 years old. The movie was released three years later. So for those of us on the older end, “grew up” with Harry might be a little strong of a statement, but not for most Millennials in the younger or middle part of the spectrum.

Anyway.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming

*waves cane around and hopes people stay off her lawn*

 

[Jack_Sparrow_NJ]

Watch how fast MK gets a nighttime parade when it happens...

I’m expecting that for the 50th

 

[CT Yankee]

Great thread. So there is a double edge sword. For years Disney lovers cried about the lack of investment in the Parks. Disney started a few years ago with investment in Magic Band technology, the reimaged Fantasy land, Avatar land, New Hollywood studio lands-toy story and SWGE. With Tron coming in Magic Kingdom, the Mickey ride in Hollywood studio, the total re do of Epcot we are talking Billions of dollars. These do not come cheap, the result is higher costs-a lot higher costs. Do we complain, of course. The alternative would have been to keep the stale status quo. Personally I prefer the updating and re imagining, that is why I can go twice a year and still find new things to do. Luckily I can afford, but am not stupid enough to realize that many cannot even go once (my parents Never could afford to take me when I was young). So, we each have are own take on how to view Disney's action.

You have a point - they have to pay for all of this new construction somehow. We do lose sight of that sometimes. That said, Disney has been reporting phenomenal profits in recent years, so it certainly has some cash to spend.

 

[JaxDad]

You have a point - they have to pay for all of this new construction somehow. We do lose sight of that sometimes. That said, Disney has been reporting phenomenal profits in recent years, so it certainly has some cash to spend.

I don’t recall the exact number, but their financial reports indicated approximately $3B in savings the first year of the recent tax cuts.

 

[SaharanTea]

Yes!

I mean we all want to pay less but they’re not going to roll anything back, IMO. One of my biggest gripes that majorly impacts experience more than any one ride is the decrease in hours and artificially increasing waits by not running attractions at full capacity.

Imagine that, Disney added 2-3 hours to 3/4 parks operating hours and crowds became less dense throughout the resort and the day. Who knew that could happen!

Spot on. I was going to say staffing to the question of what I'd change.

Why is pirates half open in the first hour or hours and at the end of the day AND during EMH? You can't pay for three extra college kids for a couple of hours? More nickels and dimes.

Oh, and take away the resort parking fee.

 

[Mikey15]

Of course you are entitled to your own opinion on the political situation, and I certainly wouldn't try to dispute your personal experiences. But your statement regarding the USD/CAD exchange rate is just factually inaccurate. Aside from a relatively brief dip in early 2016, the CAD ranged from around its current level to much higher during Obama's term from 2009-2017.

Not that I'm suggesting politics is the only (or even primary) driver of the current exchange rate, just pointing out that the current situation for Canadians travelling south is much worse from a financial perspective than it was for most of the 8 years ending in 2017, objectively speaking.

Not to get too OT but CAD was above par for part of the first Obama term and mostly in the 1.10-1.20 band (0.83-0.89 USD). It didn’t really get worse until the oil price crash late 2014 / BoC rate cut Jan 2015 when it spiked above 1.25 (or dropped below 0.80 depending on your perspective). Still all to do with the economy rather than politics, but the present conditions of 1.30+ didn’t exist for 6 out of 8 Obama years.

Next week’s trip is my first in years without a Canadian discount and it’s definitely steep to pay nearly $600 CAD per person for park tickets. My wife and I can manage but I feel bad for the others in our group. Meanwhile <$250 CAD for a Discovery Cove day plus up to 14 days at SeaWorld and Aquatica.

 

[maranara]

This is such an interesting thread. We're planning our January trip now and I'm honestly feeling a little defeated. We last visited in 2017 and have been saving up to go again to celebrate our anniversary. It feels like every week something that I was looking forward to or enjoyed last time has been cut. We'll still go & we'll still have a good time, but we also won't be doing the math of "maybe we'll buy annual passes and come back again."

I don't think it's just Disney. We live in Virginia and used to be passholders at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Every summer we would notice things getting worse. Rides closing. Fewer shows. Fewer character opportunities in the Sesame Street area. Higher prices for worse food. Horribly understaffed areas of the park (there's an area that's geared to little kids and there would often be one person running 2 different rides - like, literally she would run a ride, let the kids off, then sprint to the other ride to run a cycle on that one - back and forth all day while families waited). We would go during spring break and most of the shows weren't running yet. And we would go in August and things were shut down so that they could start setting up for Howl-o-Scream. It's been a couple of years since we've been, which makes me sad because it was my daughter's happy place for so many summers.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Am I the only one who has never planned dining at 180 days and been able to wait 30 minutes to ride most rides if I didn’t get a FastPass at 30 days for it?

I get it, the nature of this site is going to attract the planners. The average guest is probably winging it and still enjoying themselves.

You can’t wing it and get 30 minute waits at the mega headliners the majority of the time. Even if you don’t plan FP, it’s going to take some sort of strategic touring to make it happen (like arriving at a park an hour before opening, using the refresh method, or hopping in the line right at closing) or if you had a September 2019 trip booked.

Almost nobody is casually strolling into a park and finding a 30 minute wait at 7DMT, FoP, or SDD by chance. The shorter GE waits will surely be “fixed” once FP gets added.