This is upsetting 😠
Disney got more and more crowded, until it was nearly impossible to get around. Lines were extremely long. Guest experience was getting dismal.
So they started raising their prices dramatically, with the result of reducing the middle class crowds, while increasing guest experience for wealthier guests.
Disney’s favored customer is no longer the average American family, it is the wealthy. They are currently building their next park - in Dubai.
arnt they raising prices in order to discourage overcrowding, apparently it hasnt worked.
What’s the problem, lines too long? Just buy one of their ride skipping options. The lowest level is only $15-25 extra per ride, but the top tier program is significantly more.
The most desirable guests can buy line cutting privileges, of course. If one of you lowlifes who are spending your retirement savings on this once-in-a-lifetime vacation (because you can’t afford another one) want to go on a ride, you can just wait in the Florida sun for 90 minutes, and if YOU try cutting the line without paying the Mouse for the privilege, you’re kicked out of the park without a refund of your expensive daily ticket.
It’s the Happiest Fucking Place on Earth, got it?
Just like the “American Dream” it’s all just smoke and mirrors bullshit.
I haven’t been to a Disney park since the early 90s, and everything I hear about the experience now sounds like hell.
Same. I went as a child, but I have no desire to go as an adult. A friend of mine spent one afternoon texting me at work while he was waiting in line for the Avatar ride. There was a sign estimating his remaining wait time. 184 minutes in the July heat.
Fuck. That.
The most obvious indicator I experienced with Disney was when they opened Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland in 2019. I wasn’t able to go the opening weekend, but within a couple of months I was able to visit.
Growing up I’d had the luck of being able to visit the park usually at least once per year.
This was the very first time they hadn’t figured out the queuing for a ride. Disney used to be known for their ability to efficiently wrangle people and queue them properly for rides with long lines without confusion… but this time half the queue was neon masking tape placed on the ground. It lead to confusion, line cutting, and a weird vibe all around.
That wasn’t the last time I had visited, but considering the price of entry has increased by 30% since, I’m not so interested anymore.
Galaxy’s Edge feels emblematic about the issues of design under Iger versus Eisner.
Eisner vastly expanded park capacity, but he didn’t just focus on E-ticket attractions. He intentionally built some parts of the parks to entertain but cheaper to add capacity and give people a place to be entertained if they didn’t want to wait in long lines.
In contrast, most of Iger’s expansions were generally a lot more costly and didn’t have the throughout of previous E-ticket attractions. This ended up pushing Disney into being a more premium experience.
The budget for Galaxys Edge was cut by Chapek, it was only part of what was planned and what did get implemented was often less than originally planned.
Other than cutting the budget, I think were they went wrong with it was making too high a concept for a theme park and centering it around the less popular sequel franchise time line. It made for a confusing experience for a more casual Star Wars fan.
I stand by RotR being an S tier ride, when it isnt operating broken, because its over complicated and the maintenance budgets were cut.
The problem is that Galaxy’s Edge got descoped later in the design process while Eisner made decisions early on in the design process to ensure a cheaper park.
I have been there once, in 2019, for the Star Wars opening. I must say this is an impressive set for a fan!
Everything there is super expensive. I was in the campground and made my lunch to bring them in the park.
I feel like this is a symbol of the difference between the Eisner and the Iger CEO tenures. Eisner built out a massive expansion of the parks under his leadership, doubling the gates in Anaheim and Orlando while planning international expansion. Iger didn’t, choosing smaller expansions with premium experiences over capacity expansions.
It is part of the reason that Universal has been able to grow so much, Disney doesn’t have the capacity that it needs to meet high end theme park demand.
