John Bull, author of the 'Trust Thermocline' theory here. This is the point where I admit I'm a closet Disney/theme park history nerd, right? 😆 So firstly, I want to quote a section from an article on it that I just wrote for a major business publication, on the Thermocline: "It’s about businesses addressing the grumbles of consumers early and not diluting the value of the product. A feature isn’t a feature unless it was asked for, and just because a consumer swallows a new charge or price rise doesn’t mean they accept it as necessary. These are lessons that big businesses like Twitter, Netflix and Disney’s Parks’ Division would do well to heed, as much as smaller businesses or start-ups just beginning their product journey." Which is my way of saying you're absolutely right. I believe the principle does extend to Disney's Parks. I don't need to explain why, because I think you've covered here almost everything I would say. Broadly, that the current management has forgotten why the Parks were successful and why they exist - which is not to act as brand proxies, but as real-world experiences. Walt wasn't looking to create theme parks, he wanted to create a permanent "World's Fair" experience (running in parallel, and pseudo-competition with his work with Robert Moses on the New York fair). The corporate memory of that has been lost, and with it a dilution of the Disney Parks experience into being theme-parks-with-brand. That's an INCREDIBLY dangerous place to be, from a Trust Thermocline perspective. Because it's not sufficient differential from the Universals of this world in the long run. Disney is lowering itself into its competitor park space, rather than maintaining its USP. If there's two points of mild disagreement, or perhaps just food for different thought, I'd add to this excellent video though it's this: - Don't bracket Disney Parks with Disney's other products. This is the mistake they, themselves, are falling into. They're seeing Disney Plus as a driver of park traffic and the film division the same way. They WANT them to be a joined up experience because that sounds like a nice, data-driven consumer experience. But its a shallow one and I don't think there's a lot of evidence for the overlap being beneficial. At least not to a level that persuades someone to save for the 'trip of a lifetime' to a Disney Park. You don't do that because you watched a Star Wars series, or a Frozen sequel. You do that because YOU WANT TO GO TO DISNEYLAND. You go because it is a near-mythical place to go to, regardless of the individual brand presence. That's almost secondary. - Don't underestimate the impact of generational draw. This is, to my mind, one of unique issues Disney has with their own Trust Thermocline and why they may see a delayed impact, but a particularly catastrophic one when it happens. This is that one of the biggest drivers of parents saving to take their children to a Disney Park is their OWN experience of that park as a child. It's a happy memory of being taken to a magical, unique place. One filled with wonder and experiences they didn't get elsewhere, and of being treated (in their mind) to all the wonders within that place. It is a happy childhood memory. This is a considerable trust factor for parents - they loved Disney Parks as a kid. They want to replicate that experience for their OWN kids despite the high cost. As long as premium cost creates premium experiences they don't mind. Because, again, this is a key part of the Trust Thermocline. It only exists in products that have a high emotional engagement factor in the product. This is why I suspect DIsney Parks have a LOWER Trust Thermocline than you would think - because that generational element plays in their favour - but also that if they do cross it (and I suspect they are, at the very least, close to that) it will be particularly fatal. Because it may only be in 20 years time that we, and they, see the true impact. That's the point at which the crop of kids being nickel-and-dimed now, or waiting in long queues, picking up the dissatisfaction of their parents as kids do, decide that they don't see value in putting their own children through the same experience. Now by that point Disney may have diversified things to a point where they don't care. But as the inheritors of Walt's magical kingdom gamble, that will be a real shame I think. Anyway, hope that adds some useful info. Great video, as always, and if you're ever looking for a guest to explore this topic with again, do just ask. This is one of my secret areas of nerdery, beyond the obvious tech ones. And one I don't normally get the pleasure of talking about it, as I've done here!
Absolutely fantastic insight and I appreciate you chiming in on the subject! I would also be highly interested in the article you wrote once it's published.
Twenty years seems generous to me. I took my child to Disney when he was eight. I finally got to see AK and Disneyland. I'm not sure if being able to take grandchildren there will be a possibility due to cost. I liked Norway better before Frozen Ever After (Norway movie was one and done). Original rides/attractions in Mexico and the Imagination pavilion were superior to current offerings. IP isn't everything and just shows cheapness and lack of imagination on Disney's part.
Generational draw is not as big as you think. I went to Disney world twice in the late 90's, early 00's during the Eisner years thanks to their band programs. My parents already did not like the way the parks were headed. My biggest memory was my mother yelling it me to pick a ride cause she would spank my ass if she wasted all that money just for me to walk around. My parents are now grandparents, the only thing Disney they have thought about is the Cruises but they have cruised before and don't like the options Disney has, because they sell it as luxury but it's luxury to kids not parents. Additionally my oldest sister has said they will only go once and that's it, but even that may not happen. My niece had leukemia and had tried to go thru Make-a-wish but due to the pandemic they now limit it to be an "experience" that's within 200 miles of you. Chapek is an imitation of Iger, who is an imitation of Eisner. Eisner bought a Football team and now runs Tops trading cards? There is some generational draw bit there is a significant more generational withdrawal.
I have a friend who goes to Disney so much she practically lives there, she’s considered an “unfavorable” by Disney apparently. She told me that supposedly Bob’s plan was to increase prices to get the regulars out and get ppl like me who only go like 1-2 a year bc we tend to spend more, but all he did was out-price me and my family to the point we’ve been doing Universal
Ha, that's hilarious. The repeat customers are viewed as "unfavorable" so they try to out price them. This just ends up hurting the once a year ones as it just aren't worth the cost. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
@@spritemon98 If you cut prices by 20% but only get, say, 10% more volume that's an overall reduction in revenue. Economists call this concept _elasticity._ You might get 30% more, but you might not. So it's garbage to assume it. Also, it's _en masse,_ Einstein.
For the past several decades, Disney (and a ton of other companies) have been building their wealth on "Jenga economics." They increase their profits by running their companies on the equivalent of "I want my tower to be higher, but I don't want to _actually pay_ for more bricks... Oh, I know! Let's save on money by taking out bricks from our lower floors, and use _those_ to build the tower higher!" They cut a lot of costs this way, but it's an unsustainable, _dangerous_ tactic that puts a lot of strain on those lower floors.... sooner or later, the entire structure is going to collapse.
As an animation fan I’ve long been burned, and I hold very little nostalgia towards them anymore. After Chapek’s comment on animation in the same interview, saying that “after the kids are put to bed, parents are not going to want to watch another animated movie” and how Walt Disney LITERALLY warned that just catering to kids would be the start of a downfall, it’s obvious that he doesn’t even understand WHY Disney got where it was in the first damn place. Through its ANIMATION.
This is the same company that thought a realistic CGI animation of the Lion King was a good idea. It's like they don't even understand what makes good animation anymore.
@@jandoelWhat really matters is good storytelling, regardless of the medium. Do you know why it’s so painful for adults to sit through a single episode of kids show like Dora, tellytubies or Blues clues? Because there is zero plot or character development to be found in those shows. Even as an adult, I can appreciate an animated movie as long as it’s telling a compelling narrative.
Pixar sucks but I guess everyone else likes it. When Toy Story came out I thought it was the ugliest animated movie I ever saw, but everyone else ate that slop.
Bob Iger shouldn't have been buying up IPs like they were Monopoly properties for one thing. And, this is a strictly personal opinion, I don't think Marvel and Star Wars fit well with the Disney brand. It was one thing to have good ol Star Tours and it's a totally different thing to make that entire IP a major cornerstone for the entire company. Disney's become the Walmart of entertainment and it shows.
And what they've done, or haven't done, with the Muppets is just depressing to me. If they want to remake their classic properties then JUST ADD MUPPETS. Imagine how much more *fun* the Pinocchio remake would have been if it had starred Gonzo as Pinocchio and Pepe as Jiminy. Kermit as Geppetto could be really interesting and meta, and make Miss Piggy the Blue Fairy.
@@CinnamonGrrlErin1 Now THAT would be fantastic. I love how you cast it. Great idea. Disney is sleeping on the Muppets. I was a huge fan of the Muppets in Liberty Square with the "Great Moments in History but only the American parts". Once again, Disney execs are so out of touch with what we want as fans.
Step 1 own the female children-princesses (ALL OF THEM) and fairies. Step 2 own the male children-Marvel and Star Wars. Step 3 neglect you already own their childhood. Step 4 rose colored glasses will make grandparents/parents take their children/grandchildren due to previously owned childhood.
Disney is wildly out of touch with consumers as it’s running on ego based on nostalgia & goodwill; lacking the awareness to recognize both are dwindling & in short supply. Disney is like a celebrity that doesn’t know he’s a has been & everyone is too polite to tell him because they remember that amazing thing he did 20 years ago.
and there movies with there stupid remake live action films like the mermaid... even chinda of all place calling out Disney why they force race into there film clearly
@@TheDragonfridayits not about race bro stop revealing your true colors the remakes in general are just cheap ways to get free money off of nostalgia :P people disliking disneys newer stuff is entirely based in their poor business practices and making bad remakes instead of what race the actors are!
@@kyaing9047 always poor direction never follow the original source material I had countless experience of that with anime live action.... very frustrating whenever the director want to change everything to the point it not even the original show anymore like death note..... wtf the main character in live action is an normal person in the original he is an genius teenager. while changing the race because they felt like it
I don’t necessarily think Iger was incompetent. Imo, he was forced to follow the culture. Notice how he didn’t try and state his opinion initially with the whole Florida fiasco?? It was only when the “strongly-feeling” people on the L complained and forced his hand that he made his statements. It was under Iger that Disney became what it’s become, and Chapek, imo, was the fall guy so Iger could come back in a golden king
The problem was, he was a big improvement from Eisner, so people gave him way more credit than he was due. Being better than the worst CEO prior to you doesn’t automatically make you good.
Also, hearing Chapek talk about guest-cast interaction is making my blood boil. The way things were my last couple years with the company made it clear that those interactions were to be kept to a minimum. Our job was to keep the line moving and give you a fast pass if you were upset. We didn't have the staffing to interact. On purpose.
Several years ago, we went to Disney World and my 7-year-old daughter got separated from us. After looking for several minutes we went to the first Disney cast member we saw and told him we had gotten separated from my daughter. We instantly became his full-time job. He told us that he was going to stay with us until our daughter was found. He stayed with us until a supervisor/manager wearing a suit showed up. Then that person told us that he was going to stay with us until we were reunited with our daughter. He also told us everything they had done in order to locate my daughter. In the meantime, my daughter gave up looking for us and went into a shop, approached a cashier and told her she couldn't find her parents. The cashier closed her register and told my daughter that she was going to stay with her until she was with her parents again. Disney security had gotten a report of a lost child and a report of a found child so one of their security officers them escorted the cashier and my daughter to where we were waiting. And then we were given a 'head of the line pass' to any ride my daughter chose. Needless to say - I was impressed by how they handled the situation. That earned a lot of goodwill on my part. I really hope that they still operate the same way when a child gets lost.
I feel like the Disney brand is starting to become a chore. It’s an obligation for a certain class of people, a cultural touchstone we can’t escape. They made themselves so permanent in the American psyche that they don’t even have to be good to keep us consuming.
And as a fan of the Owl House, a genuinely good show that airs on Disney (same goes for Ducktales' reboot, etc etc), I'm starting to wonder if the "not our brand" isn't a misphrasing of "too serialized for Disney Channel", but "too diverse and challenging for Disney". I mention Ducktales' reboot as well as it seems interesting how it was cancelled shortly after introducing a same-sex couple, implicitly with the dynamics of Webby and Lena as well (worded as "sister-like"), the whole Penumbra situation, and so forth. I'd love a 2017 Ducktales merch, Owl House likewise, but outside of its initial promotion, 2017 Ducktales is disposed of. I still remember getting Club Penguin and Phineas+Ferb merch. I think merch only slowed down due to the late Funkos for Star Vs and Gravity Falls. No Randy Cunningham, no Amphibia, nothing much. Update regarding a later comment: Webby and Lena may just have an affectionate friendship, this is entirely up to the reader. However, this does not mean to discredit any other inclusion, especially all of Owl House.
Disney peaked in the 90s and early 2000s, back before they owned Marvel and Star Wars. The Disney brand specifically was successful with their legacy characters alone, Disney doesn't even use the Mouse anymore in their marketing.
@@amesstarline5482 duck tales getting axed after its third season is pretty on brand for Disney reaching its syndication limit as well as only running slightly longer than the original DuckTales
@@creed8712 As a counterpoint, look to both Kim Possible and Phineas&Ferb. It doesn't excuse cancelling Owl House, or trimming its 3rd Season, nor does it excuse not notifying some other staffs, as we see in Wonder Over Yonder's case.
I go to Disney because I love Walt and his vision. I'm in a middle class all the way in CANADA and we used to go yearly! For what we got and all the little secrets we knew, we made it affordable and fun. Now .jpeg is making it impossible for that entire community of generations of park lovers to love the park. I don't go because I love the IP, I go because I love the feeling of being somewhere else. Of not being on earth anymore. I think the first sign of decline was a Starbucks on Mainstreet, U.S.A. It was a jarring reminder that this wasn't a fantasy kingdom in another world, but earth, just dressed up a bit. That's the OPPOSITE of what Walt originally intended with this park. He was the guy who watched how long people held on to litter before dropping it, in order to determine that trash cans should be no more than 30 paces apart (the average length of time someone would hold on to garbage) Sure, he wasn't perfect, but he was the middle class american that had nothing but a suitcase and a dream. Jpeg, Iger, all of them are trust fund babies or whatever who bought their way into the job and know nothing of reality or the people they serve. If they really wanted to see profits, put a turbine next to Walt's grave. All that rolling he's doing would generate enough electricity to power the parks for free.
This isn't just a Disney problem it's a political problem it's a management problem it's a leadership problem they're all disconnected from the people that make this nation work. An excellent example of how endemic this problem is comes from something you would never associate with Disney. The Wall Street journal investigating the truck driver shortage found that nobody in the Federal department of transportation heavy truck division knew how to drive a big truck or could legally do so. Right now we're being managed ruled and led by a bunch of trust fund babies that have no idea what they're doing whether it's Disney, Facebook, power companies, government agencies the list goes on and on. If we don't get the brats out there will be dire consequences!
When he says he is focused on the 35 and under crowd it tells me just how out of touch with what Disney represents. Disney represents family and shared experiences/nostalgia. When you lose that you lose the entire family, the 60 year old all the way to the 3 year old grand kids. Once those shared family traditions are broken you're just another Six Flags. Bad decisions now are going to last for generations.
You said it perfectly!!!! I totally agree with you! I am sick about Disney now! What really completely ruins the magic is that you have to be on your damn cell phone all day long for every single thing you do in the park That is NOT a vacation!
And not even a good six flags. Six Flags and cedar fair parks get that they aren't Disney. They're thrill parks with intense rides. Disney doesn't have anything like that, they have artistic and amazing experiences but not something like El Toro etc
I really agree with your comment. It made me think of when Walt famously said he didn't make films for just children, he made them for the child in all of us. His parks were made in the same spirit and it's horribly depressing to hear a CEO of Disney not understand that.
Ya Disney is for family if I want to have fun myself there’s much cheaper and more interesting ways to do that than Disney. If I want to go somewhere with my parents it’s Disney
32:05 That situation is exactly what happened to me and my family for Disney World. I'm from Washington State and we went to Disney World for the first time a year or two ago. My mom planned everything from the plane tickets, to the hotel, to what parks we'd go every day. The first day after we got there we went to Hollywood Studios and that's when we were told at the gates that we didn't have reservations for the parks and we couldn't get in. After some back and forth from the cast member at the ticket window they miraculously told us they'd let us in for the day but they couldn't help us for any of the other days for our trip and if we're lucky, the other parks would let us in for the day too if we got there on opening but it's not likely at all. On one hand, this was great because we got in, but on the other my mom couldn't enjoy herself the whole day because of how disappointed she was for not knowing about the reservations and flying the family over here for probably nothing. She even had to sit down after getting in to cry. The next day we did what the cast member said and went to Animal Kingdom before it even opened. We talked to the person at the ticket window. I was sitting away but my mom and them and a pretty lengthy conversation. When she came back, she explained to us that the cast member said she'd usually never do this for anyone but they helped us out because she could see how much it meant to my mom and made sure we had gotten reservations for our family for the rest of our trip (and even got us an extra one for any one of the parks we wanted!) Sorry for the long story but this was just surprisingly relevant and was a really sad experience to see happen to my mom especially. We ended up having an absolute blast of a time at the parks and my mom started to enjoy herself :>
Your poor mom :( She put in so much effort for everything to go as smoothly as possible, no wonder she got upset. Glad that it worked out ok, but geez that sucks.
I'm so sorry for your mom! This shouldn't happen... The cast members are really the heart of the park and try to do whatever they can, but so often it's hard for them to do anything with management the hell that it is. I feel sorry for them, because it's obvious they have so much love for the movies and experience.
Our family has reached the tipping point. We average 2 Disneyland trips per year from out of state. Just got back week ago after 5 days in the parks - BY FAR THE WORST trip we've ever had. Insane crowds, constantly broken rides, poor condition of rides, skyrocketing food costs, ridiculous wait times, etc. Loved Disneyland but even decades of goodwill won't get us back.
@@admiredgsu1217 which is funny because I've been to both Universal resorts in the USA and Disney resorts on three continents. Universal isn't even close to the quality of Disney pre-Covid. I can't speak for the decline in Disney since then, but the idea that Universal is better is laughable.
I have been visiting Disney Parks for 58 years. Taking family and friends many times. I have given Disney a lot of money. I can no longer continue this. The current and previous management have ruined a place that I love. Pricing the parks out of the reach of the average Joe is, imho, disgusting and heartbreaking.
I’m really unhappy that Bob Chapek is aiming to make Disney Parks out of reach of tourists and more for Influencers I’m a foreign tourist with enough money to go to Disneyland 8+ times in my life, and even I feel the drop of quality
The problem is, if they lower the prices, then the parks become even MORE unbearable because there's now that many more people there and fighting to go there. The price hikes are the only rational way to keep supply and demand in check. Its just also really "convenient" that they get more and more money and offer less and less for it. What would be a better solution is to build more parks throughout the country, but then Disney wouldn't be "special" anymore so people would stop paying for it.
@@keeleon Well consider that Walt Disney World is located in regulation-free Florida and yet Disneyland in California is more dense with rides and attractions Not to mention, the ideas like Disney’s America or WestCOT were either incredibly disrespectful or blatantly too expensive
Solid video, I’m glad that you’re also trying to affect the narrative with holding companies accountable. Personally, I think that’s the best consumer practice you can possibly do.
I love seeing my disney youtuber documentarian avengers assemble. A full collaboration between bright sun films, poseidon, and Mickey Views would be amazing
Hearing about them tapping into your Disney profile to improve your park experience and using your behaviour in the park to improve your Disney profile was chilling on a Westworld level. This is not the dystopian future William Gibson promised us.
Don't forget Spaceship Earth in the late 2000's asking Kids to send an email to themselves from disney AND taking their pictures. What DID disney do with our kids information?
I wrote an essay for my English class in college 2005 and my topic was how Disneys innovation shaped American lives. Starting with Disneyland's opening. By the time I did all my research I had to change my topic to how Disney has shifted their focus to entertainment only and making money. It was a really lame realization through researching a completely different topic. I had my Mickey shades on and couldn't see the decline over the years.
Its sad but true...once roy disney was gone so was the innovative and artistic spirit walt tried to foster. Granted walt realized it was still a business and compromises needed to be made. And that spirit did last a bit longer...at till the mid 2000s. But now dosney doesn't care about art and creativity any more. It's not the same company.
When to Epcot the other day and I rode the guardians ride and it’s fun but it was so abound they went cheap on A LOT of elements. How they got rid of animatronics and so on. Prices go higher but rides and experiences feel more cheap
It's just a more advanced Space Mountain. That would be fine in a new castle park or an updated version of the ride in a pre-existing park, but definitely not necessary for Epcot.
@@PoseidonEntertainment a *worse version of Space Mountain. One with an ugly and uninspired aesthetic and incomprehensible story, and too much on-ride lighting and poor effects.
@@PoseidonEntertainmentthis is the perfect way to sum up my feeling on this. It's not a terrible attraction, but does not fit here. And what was here before fit perfectly. The attraction does lack imagination, though. But the park does have one big problem, at least to Disney. Too many children want thrills, and EPCOT was never designed for thrills. So I do get why Disney wanted this. Now each of their Florida parks has a big(ish) coaster. But is one thrill ride in a huge park, like EPCOT, enough to satisfy teens? Disney is chasing a group that will still find the park a disappointment. EPCOT is in the top 2 largest theme parks on Earth, yet a large group avoids the park. I'm not sure Disney can truly ever satisfy the masses with thrills, short of replacing the entire park with Islands of Adventure.
@blakea.wittenberg5685 wwll the ride is a hell of a lot better than space mountain. One of my favorite coasters out of over a 100 across the country. They cheaped out on theming though and I hate how they don't build big, stand out structures anymore. Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Spaceship Earth etc. Just an ugly warehouse
I think when Epic Universe opens its going to have a bigger impact then disney realizes. The park is trying to focus more on family's with only 1-2 intense rides, most of the attractions will be family friendly which is something universal lacks right now. The park might be IP heavy but unlike disney, who just slaps IP willy-nilly on rides, universal is taking you fully into the world of the IP. Each land is going to be an attraction of its own and the rides within will be an extention, not necessarily the main draw. Like with diagon alley a lot of people go there for the experience of being in the world, the shops, the food. The Gringotts ride is something to do but you can have an enjoyable time without ever going on the ride. If they put the same attention into the other areas of the park as we see in Super Nintendo World, I think they will have something that, while IP driven, will rival early disney park imaginering
I’ve seen the videos for universal Japan and the Mario expansion is insane! I’m looking forward to having Mario here in the states. I’m curious to see the damage that Disney is not prepared.
I live in the UK and my whole life my family would go to Orlando every 2-3 years and do Disney World for most of the trip and a couple days at Universal - I’ve always been a devoted fan of the Disney experience. After watching in horror from overseas how quickly Disney has declined post Covid, I decided to book my first Orlando trip since the pandemic and only go to Universal. We saved so much money, enough that we could afford the premium hotels so free fast pass at the parks, and it was an absolutely brilliant holiday. Unless Disney do a drastic overhaul of their current practices I can’t see myself going back there for a very long time indeed.
If that's how you feel and if you haven't seen it, I've done a video discussing Universal's new park and how it will change the resort, along with general entertainment throughout Orlando. You might be interested if you have the time: th-cam.com/video/glmi6VDaLUM/w-d-xo.html
Defunctland’s Fast Pass episode actually does a good job of refuting the idea that Genie+ being cheap is the issue… the real issue is that it costs money at all.
Posiden addresses this in the video when he talks about the previous offering being free. The service either needs to cost nothing so people don't feel the need to squeeze value out of it, or incredibly expensive so only a fraction of guests use it.
It's been a while since I've seen that video, but I don't recall that particular information. If that's how he framed it though, I'm going to assert that he's probably incorrect. I go to theme parks often enough to see first hand how these different pricing philosophies affect consumer behavior and park experience.
@@PoseidonEntertainment His basic argument was that by barring Fast Pass behind a premium fee that requires the use of a clunky app you’re ensuring the least informed customers - in his opinion, families who go to Disney once in a lifetime - have the worst possible experience, the average customer - who knows how to use the system but either opts not to due to price or just doesn’t know how to use it optimally - has an unsatisfactory experience, and the high level customer - those who know how to use the system, opt in, and do all the research to make the most optimum use of it (I.e., theme park fanatics and bloggers) are the only ones who have a good experience, a small fraction of the total customer base, and a percentage of the customer base who are most likely to know how the old system worked and understand that Genie+ is a downgrade in every way.
It costed 25 dollars per person per day for a fast lane pass at disneyland around Halloween this year. It'd be worth it if the fast lane lines didn't also have Horrendous wait times like the normal line. My boyfriend and I hated the wait times but the two lines were so similar that we sucked it up and waited forever for rides to save money to keep on our budget. 50 for us wasn't too bad if we did it. But my family did do the fast lanes. My father spent 200 dollars for just four people to get through a few lines faster IN ONE DAY. For two days that's 400 dollars, just to get faster lines and even then you'd be stuck waiting, and the fast line sometimes got so much more priority that you could be in the normal line and wait right at the entrance for ten minutes. This wouldn't be an issue if they could figure out how to handle it better
@@no0nefamouss that explains a lot. Paired with Halloween weekend rush and that explains why we waited so long in standby lines for rides that I remember being able to ride so much faster in 2017 when I last went. I felt bad because my boyfriend was visiting from.michigan and went with us. And it was his first time at the Disney and California adventure parks. I had an impression of what it'd be like. I knew there was a holiday so it'd be hectic that day, but the whole four days was hectic. The last day wasn't as busy but we still waited 40 minutes for pans flight. We saved the ridiculously long wait time rides for the last day so we could at least enjoy the ones that had a justified long standby wait like guardians of the galaxy. Outside of that I felt like I was unintentionally lying to my significant other everytime he asked a question. I answered and then was immediately proven wrong. I was trying to use that stupid app the best I could to map out our days and figure out what we would enjoy most. I didn't entirely hate it and I'm grateful to my mother for spending so much for not only our family and my boyfriend to go but also her two friends families to go, one of those families however barely entered the parks and their hopper passes aren't expired yet because they didn't go to the park rhe first Day or the last day and apparently left to go back to Utah the third day, they didn't enter the parks really at all and wasted my mother's money she worked hard for to use to so something nice for a friend and that also really soured our moods on top of the park issues. Thar family issue isn't entirely on the park but it certainly wouldn't have lead to them leaving early if the park had been what it normally would have been in 2017. It's disheartening. I'd like to bring my boyfriend again but just me and him this time and choose a very slow time of the year to enjoy the park before it gets worse
This video was so well done! I make a great salary, my fiancé and I have been insanely fortunate that we’re able to basically weather the storm of insane price hikes EVERYWHERE without much change to our daily lives, so when I went to look to book us a week at Disney and saw how absurd everything has gone up in the 3 years since I was there last, I literally booked 2 weeks in Europe instead…. And it was about 1/4 the price I would’ve spent at Disney. I don’t do things cheap, my fiancé always jokes there are “no half measures” with me so why was it thousands less to stay in an actual castle in a fairly expensive part of Europe for 2 weeks… I don’t mind paying for a luxury experience, but it is such a blatant “death by a thousand cuts” business model to squeeze every last cent out of its patrons it makes me sick. So my DINK “family” of the two with basically nothing but disposable income even thought “yeah I’m not doing this” despite us being able to afford it, why would I want to? Maybe I’ll go for a day or two/long weekend since we’re on the east coast but that’s nothing compared to the spending I would’ve done in a week had they not tried to nickel and dime me to death.
Do you remember when Eisner shut down the Orlando animation studio, the one that had just finished making Lilo & Stitch and Brother Bear? Yeah, we shouldn't be surprised at what is happening now.
As a former Disney employee, I have to say that you hit the nail on the head. Also, I have to say, that all the money flows to the top. The senior executives keep the workers working slavishly hard, where they are poorly paid and sometimes viscously competing among each other for minuscule, poorly paid promotions. Your assessment of the reservation system and the Genii service is really accurate. I have seen families who traveled from foreign countries get turned away because they didn’t know they need a reservation!. Also, I have waited 2 hours and 45 minutes for ONE ride, and wondered why the line moved so slowly. Then I saw that “the express line” which cost an extra $ 20 Per Person per single ride was the reason for the slow regular line because they were letting anyone in that line on before moving my line., which was now labeled “ standby” (even though it was the regular line). Remember, entrance to the park itself can be as much as $125 to $165 per person per day. So the cost for a family of 4 is starting to get ridiculous, especially if you only get to ride a few rides during that entire day! I concluded, after that experience, that, unless you had a season pass, it simply was NOT worth the money!! It is now priced as a luxury for only the wealthiest families. This is so disappointing!!! It wasn’t like that when I took my whole family 10, 15 or 25 years ago. Now it’s just about the money and the cost for a good experience is prohibitive while the senior executives get multi- million dollar bonuses. It’s really sad. I can tell you that it’s definitely NOT the happiest place on earth.
Our family left our Disney goals for Universal's theme park back in 2015 after hearing of the incredible expense it was for a close friend of mine in 2013, and how the stress of ending up attending a very busy day lead to a huge argument between her & her husband, which took a long time to recover from well after the trip ended. Universal felt "safer" on our marriage and experience, was easier to plan, and my middle age children wouldn't really be deprived of anything since it was all about the experience - like you said - not the brand per se. The fact that attending a Disney theme park is now "a marriage test" has become a full-blown meme is especially comical considering my close friend had it happen to her years before the meme and reaffirms the trouble for Disney that you describe.
I worked for DCL for 5 years as fleet wide Cosmetologist (wigs), my dream job, it was perfect, I loved it, then they told me I was going to help open the WISH... What a nightmare. Seven months in Holland/Florida, no organisation, no plans or schedules, covid regulation madness, no equipment, especially for the cosmetology/costume department where we rely on tools and equipment. Nothing was ordered for us, even though they knew the ship would have a cosmetology/costume department. There were Alot of Crew Member disputes and issues, being told by managers to "just get on with it"... Not being able to do my job efficiently because of lack of basic equipment was difficult... They demanded perfection without spending money or checking in on their crew members... And they big up HR dept. Which basically runs narratives onboard and are a waste of time in my opinion. I would work 10hr days most days, 1 because I loved my job, 2 because no one checked on my hours, I wish I knew about silent quiting... Opening the Wish was slap dash and mayhem, after 7 months, they were only going to give me five weeks break after, which isn't enough time to schedule health appointments at home/rest... I asked for more time off and to not be put on the Wish again... I got fired by email after 5 years of loyalty. That was in August, and I'm still simmering. They are buying/building more ships, there is no way they will aquire competent talented enthusiastic backstage technical crew after the Wish, we all quit/got fired (my generation of fellow technical crew) Their not interested in talent or creativity anymore, they just want your money and the souls of crew members. I idealised the Disney brand from a young age, but after being in the front line of their entertainment work force, thinking I was living my dream job, making a name for myself on the fleet as a Cosmetologist who cares and is competent... They don't care if your good at your job or not, as long as stuff is done to a mediocre level at that time and place, they are satisfied... Standards are dropping. My recent work colleagues in recent jobs since, turn their noses up to Disney standards, and Iam one of them. I'm so sad because I was literally in love with Disney... And now I feel like I've been worshiping a false profit. Go somewhere else for your family vaycay, I'm learning there's more to life then Disney guys. I miss my princesses and guest interations, but I'm glad Im out now to pursue other work practices.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. I have encountered a few other former cast members in non-Disney locations around Orlando telling a similar story and feeling betrayed and heart-broken. I myself am a long ago cast member who had planned my entire life thinking I would be living out my golden years as a cast member once again but now I just don’t know what will happen. 💔
Read about housekeeping cast members who also paid union dues and we're hired full time but Dizz shorted those folks to no more than 30 hours a week effectively legally cutting cast member benefits to zip. One woman, living out of her car in Anaheim according to the LAT article died of known cardiac issues ten year employee,54 years old. The other side of the coin is my admiration for Abigail Disney who has given to charity 60% of her wealth and would be my pick in the same genre as Liz Chaney of Wyoming for reasonable Republicans. Be well✌🏼
7:53 you are going to position that Disney's problems are a few waste of money projects with no mention of the deeper issues that are or rather have IMO destroyed this once great experience. How can you explain a problem you won't talk about until you hit your own thermocline? Strike up the fiddle while Rome burns 😢
Something that stuck out to me with John Bull's analysis: Once companies pass the "trust thermocline", they can't just simply roll-back the last few changes and everyone will come back. The trust was already broken. Also, to touch on the lightning lane: This is making it so much worse for the attractions cast members! It was already tough with FP+, but at least that was free. Now the CMs are taking from both sides: the angry guests that are barely moving in the standby line, and the angry guests that paid to skip and are sill to wait in a long line. God forbid the ride breaks down, because now you have to deal with people that didn't just "pay" with their time by waiting, but also paid real money!
Every business person understands it's more expensive to earn a new customer through advertising than it is to keep a current customer, but virtually none understands how to telescope that sentiment out to a more meta view of a whole company.
The major shareholder and LBO parasites don't care. If they can sell the trust someone else built before them for a quick buck that is all they wanted.
You are right about Disney's decline. Reservation system is insane. Park hopping is a joke. Genie+ was a terrible idea. Making guests hoop jump, taking away benefits, and charging more money will be Disney's downfall. It is too bad that Disney isn't utilizing their "new toys" to pay down their debt load. I don't need multiple streaming services. I like physical media. I don't go to WDW to shop.
Re. multiple streaming services, "Mousecorp" obviously thinks differently, and not just them. TimeWarner etc., Paramount, Disney's current rivals at Universal (Peacock+), and so on. The e-critic Tim Brayton (one of my favorites) opined that if theaters are to go extinct (still a strong possibility), the alternative may be each major studio starting their own $100/month streaming channel. Oh brave new world.
Have been a Disney family since 1978. DVC members since 1996. Disney Cruiser since 2000. Last visit Aug.2022. When will we go again? Possibly never. Felt like we were just there to spend more and more money. No more street performers, impromptu surprises. Cannot see why we spent so much to go to parks and then were expected to spend more to get into an attraction. We should all be treated equally. Never have been able to go to extra events because of the extra costs. Walt would be so horrified that his dream has turned into little more than a money trap.
Finally the theme park TH-camrs are starting to realize chapek is not quite as responsible for ALL the trouble disney is in and that much of what he is blamed for instead stems from iger decisions.
Yes. Iger has been a problem for a long time. Seeing what he was doing to the company and parks was why I let my annual pass expire in 2019, after 20 years.
After hearing more of Cheapek's interview with WSJ, it makes me understand another purpose of the genie/genie+ apps--the user has to select rides/experiences they most want to visit, giving Disney valuable info for targeted marketing of Disney+ content to the user.
I think the question there is 'does that actually translate well?' because, I'm not gonna lie, while I enjoy all the various rides as a kid, it was because they were RIDES! I'm not a huge Indiana Jones Fan, but I made sure to jump in that jeep every time we went. And we used to hit all the old standby dark rides in fantasyland.
Thank you for mentioning the Cast Members… on our recent trip, I have never seen so many Cast at WDW stressed out of their minds, snappish, running around, not to mention so many things still closed that help absorb some of the crowds like gift shops and restaurants due to low staffing. If Bob Chapek really did believe the Cast are at the heart of the experience, he wouldn’t be running the parks on a shoestring (and that Jeff Vhale guy who is Parks President right now isn’t impressing anyone, though at least he’s backed off on some of the least popular decisions like Harmonious BargeVille and Disney+ IP plug fireworks). They claim the attendance is controlled by park passes but the crowds still feel oppressive and excessive. Still Cast Members try to bridge the gap, and are holding the Parks up on their backs. Many good Cast of many years seem to be leaving too, according to who I talked to, and working at Disney World used to be a good job that paid well. Now Cast are not able to afford apartments nearby and are living in motels! Not a good look, Disney. I hope they wake up before they destroy themselves. Thanks for the video!
Part of me wishes Disney cast members would get together and quit en masse. That would hurt Disney. It sucks for whoever reserves a Disney trip at that time but Disney needs to wake up and treat their workers properly. They can't seriously think its viable long-term to have employees who live out of motels. But could cast members, who mostly have Disney as part of their core identity, ever band together and walk out? I think they could out of love for the brand.
@@dreamiicloud1179 I wonder why they don't have employee housing on site? They have land, they have a lot of employees, they have utilities, they even already have experience putting up hotels. You'd think they'd be able to house them at relatively little per-person cost with scale of efficiency. There'd be a lot less stress on people if they didn't have worry about making rent or commuting.
@@Veylon They actually do provide housing (for a price of course) to cast members who come from far away, like those in the college program. But I know that’s not what you’re talking about. I would say the answer to your question is money. If Disney doesn’t have to spend it, they won’t. They’re a very greedy company. They don’t seem to care much about the stress and well being of their employees
I'll miss magic hours so much. The poor kids will never know the magic of walking around Disneyland/Magic Kingdom late at night, with no one around except your love, the lights twinkling and all the rides empty and ready to be walked on. It truly was magical. I'll miss it so much. And the morning magic hours were great too, you could get 2 or 3 insanely popular rides done quickly before the park even opened to Gen pop. That freed up so much time in your day it killed so much stress and hassle trying to fit everything in.
Back in the early 2000s I had the unpopular opinion (at the time) that Universal Studios was a much better park. At the time Disney didn't have these catastrophic issues, and Universal seems to have a lot of new things now (went to both in both US locations), but I didn't see any of their movies or know any of their brand stuff. From that perspective, Universal felt more real, like I had walked into a wacky cool movie set, and everyone there was having way too much fun with it. A lot of the line waits did a great job of catching me up on the storyline of the ride themes, so I never felt out of the loop. Disney World felt more like this play pretend place where if you couldn't mentally buy into what was going on or you didn't know the characters, it lost a lot of its charm. Disneyland's charm was more authentic, and I appreciated the art more than anything, but it was also an absolute nightmare to be in compared to Universal Hollywood in terms of crowds and lines. Point is, I'm not surprised to hear that Universal has improved a lot more and Disney has not. As someone who never had the exposure to give a damn about their movies, even in the early 2000s, Universal seemed to care a lot more about people having a fun time, the rides (and crowds) were more balanced, and they didn't imply that I should already have a level of endearment or familiarity with things in order to fully enjoy the park. I'm kind of glad they're less of an underdog now, because I'm not gonna lie, Disney gave me the vibe that they thought guests should assume their parks were special, and it felt oddly stiffy.
I went to Disney world in about 2002 when I was 12, and even to me, it felt like just "buildings and concrete." I remember seeing a little cobblestone building (maybe in Epcot?), and thinking "oh neat, what's in there?" only to find out it's a gift shop, and up close, the cobblestone was shiny and plastic looking... The most magical experiences I had there were space mountain (great, easy rollercoaster) and swimming in the Disney hotel swimming pool at night, lol. There was way too much walking with nothing to really see, many things looked REALLY fake or cheap which prevented immersion, and Cinderella's castle felt like a somewhat nicer, sit down food court (always packed). I ordered a special drink that was advertised as being served "in a glass slipper" that you could take home as a souvenir. It sounded like I was going to get an actual glass slipper with a straw sticking out or something, which I thought was awesome and hilarious to my child brain! But it turned to just be a glass mug... like a beer Stein. It was very high quality, but such a let down from what was described and what I imagined. Though, I'm also autistic, so maybe I just took things too literally? idk. They also had a throne in the castle that you could use as a photo op, which I got excited for, but ultimately didn't do because the actual throne was crappy looking and small (some adults wouldn't fit in it) and there was like no decor around it. It was really lame. The tower of terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster were too much for me, so I didn't ride them (the latter was severe sensory overload, so I had to leave the line). And everything else was like kiddie rides. Most of the time, I just remember walking around, or waiting around while people did other things. There was very little to excite me. The whole trip was honestly a bummer.
It's funny you mention this. When I think back to my family vacation to Orlando in 2003 when I was 12 I have a few memories that stand out. Many are of the rides and experience of Universal Orlando with The Hulk, Dueling Dragons and the Spider Man ride. Disney, I only really remember Space Mountain and the amount of walking we did bouncing around end-to-end of the park. I also remember how similar the experience was to Disneyland in California that I had visited 5 years prior.
Eh, we went to both earlier this year and preferred Disney. Universal did a worse job at crowd control, and there were things that were included or cheaper at Disney than at Universal. We felt nickle-and-dimed at Universal - we had to pay to rent lockers on every single ride, and the fast pass equivalent was ridiculously expensive compared to Genie+. We also preferred the immersive environments of the Disney parks versus the Universal parks, even taking into account the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Since we went because we are both Star Wars and Harry Potter fans, I decided to price compare equivalent merch. The HP wizard robes at Universal were made of a cheap polyester and cost around $150, the Jedi robes at Disney were made of cotton and cost $100. When you think of the cool things from both IPs, you think of HP wands and SW lightsabers. The interactive wands at Universal are $63, with the cheap wands being $55. Now if you do the lightsaber experience at Disney, then your lightsaber will cost you $260, and fancy replicas will cost you between $100 - $200. But we bought some decent replica lightsabers for $40, and you can go even cheaper for little kids with their non-Savi's lightsaber building for $30. Also, to see all of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, you have to buy 2 park tickets for the single day, and constantly move back and forth between the 2 parks with ticket checks all day. It was a huge hassle. To see all of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, we only had to buy 1 park ticket and could spend the day there.
Where I come from, this is called "eating your seed corn". You can fill the parks with people who will spend a lot of money because it's a couple-of-times-a-decade experience but they don't have any connection, and when the shine wears off they won't be coming back.
I feel like the sudden drop will come with the openings of Super Nintendo world. Once fans of those IPs go and see what a creative world is there, and how much easier it is to have a vacation at Universal vs Disney.
@@millabasset1710 Are you talking about Orlando? Because Super Nintendo World in Epic Universe is not only three attractions but is also going to be one land in a whole new park, so...
Super Nintendo World will be two full immersive lands (Mario and Donkey Kong) with three attractions and plenty of interactive experiences. It will certainly be on par with Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. There is an expansion pad beside Super Nintendo World that could hold additional attractions themed around other Nintendo properties. Universal will also integrate Nintendo properties and Pokémon into the other parks. For example, there are longstanding rumors that Universal will retheme The Lost Continent to The Legend of Zelda.
Someone I know was addicted to gambling and had to stop watching sports at bars with friends cause everyone is on their phones checking their bets. I hate that Disney is getting into that awful business but I am not surprised
They got rid of something REALLY GREAT to make room for the NBA Experience - "Disney Quest". It was basically 5 stories of video games. You paid for entry and could play as much as you wanted. There were a few snack bars scattered around that also served alcohol. For me, Quest was a great deal and loads of fun. I was sad to see it go.
I never really thought highly of Disney Quest, other than through how I remember it nostalgically. If they had actually invested in updating it though, I think it could actually still be a staple of Disney Springs.
@@agon1963 My opinion: Disney Quest = revenue from the entrant. NBA Experience = revenue from the entrant + the NBA. Some joint marketing BS. With Disney now, it's all about the money. The experience no longer matters. (Edited to fix terrible grammar and spelling!)
I have great memories of the Disney World of my childhood, which no longer exists. Lately, they've taken ownership of unrelated but formative influences on my youth ( Star Wars and Indiana Jones ) and actively pursued their ruin. I have not merely passed a tipping point with Disney, or withdrawn trust. I have come to despise what they have become.
i did the disney college program fall of 2021 after having my 2020 program canceled. I dreamed of doing it for years, but it was quite literally the worst few months of my life. disney has changed and it makes me sad.
@@MarketingMovies1337 I had covid or severe colds at least 3 times. Plus I was recast three times in my first month. By the time I was at my third location I felt uncomfortable and fearful that a new role was a week away. As a result I didn’t fit in with the other CP’s in my home location. Leadership team at the third location was a nightmare. Once I was fully trained and working in that location for a month, it was time for a change. I found a group of people to trade with every week. In the end, I spent 2/3 of my program at other locations without the ability to enjoy the program. I studied broadcasting in college with the hope of developing a strong connection with the company. The icing on the cake was knowing that my attendance points were to high for a transfer by the end of the first five weeks of my program. I was forced to finish the program to leave on good terms for the opportunity to be instantly rehired.
When it started, I believe that Disney offered classes in hospitality, guest service and even offered actual college credit (I believe it doesn't anymore?). Now it's literally just a ploy for cheap labor.
Growing up in SoCal with a mother who worked at the park (Storybook Land guide and Snow White), I have countless positive memories of Disneyland. As a parent raising his children less than an hour from Anaheim, I very much wanted my children to have similar indelible experiences at the Magic Kingdom, and spent a large pile of money to that end...All for naught. Even twenty years ago when my kids were little, something was going haywire at Disneyland. Our trips were overcrowded, high-stress nightmares, with many of the legacy rides non-functional, lousy food insanely overpriced, and lines for the rides that were working stretching off into the horizon. When I was young, we (my brothers and I) were always eagerly anticipating and nagging our parents about our next trip to Walt's Wonderland. My children never once made a similar inquiry, even while simultaneously devouring Disney video offerings and toys. Standing in line for two hours in the blazing son in a crush of people is not something anyone in their right mind seeks to reexperience. Now that they have their own families, I find it interesting to note that they avoid Disneyland with cause. One son of mine with three younger children just spent three days at Legoland and they all had the time of their lives. They are also enthusiastic about Universal and Sea World, and although my kids are all huge Star Wars nerds, they are uninterested in overcoming the well-ingrained downsides of Disneyland to check out the Star Wars themed areas and rides now available there. I myself now only go to Disneyland as part of my or my wife's professional association's functions there where a land (last time it was Frontierland) is rented by the association for it's members exclusive use. These are great fun and a little taste that is still possible of what Disneyland once was because of the low numbers of people to contend with and not feeling like you are being fleeced at every turn. I have a booklet from Disneyland's opening day (I wasn't even born yet, it was a gift) that is a prized possession, and when looking at it I can't help but ponder what Walt might think of what his magical creation has morphed into. Money isn't everything and the relentless seeking of ever-greater profits has been slowly strangling Disney's golden goose for decades now. 'Trust Thermocline' in decline indeed.
You're far from alone. Myself, I had exactly ONE good experience in the new Star Wars land. Got to pilot the Falcon into hyperspace. Hit peek Star Wars nerd right there and I'm good forever. The rest of it just doesn't vibe with me for some reason and I saw SW in theaters in the 70's! They're definitely doing so many things wrong.
EPCOT was fantastic when it first opened in the 80's. I had the world at my footsteps and could visit other "countries" in World Showcase and meet people from the country in the cast members. I loved Innoventions East and West. There was so much new technology and hands on learning exhibits. It was fun when it was educational. Then Disney execs ruined it and now it's only good for the restaurants and Spaceship Earth.
Back in the 80s Innoventions was CommuniCore. But yeah I miss the "permanent worlds fair" theme Epcot used to have. They need to bring it back if they want people to get excited about Epcot again.
I always see people today defend the World Showcase because of the food, but I don't even think of it as a food park anymore. I definitely paid $30 for Panda Express at Nine Dragons when I went a year ago.
EPCOT used to be my favourite when I was a kid, but it really seems like a ton of wasted space + World Showcase now. I always thought it started going downhill when they converted The Living Seas to Finding Nemo, and it's only continued to replace unique attractions with IP placement.
Great vid, as usual. You know, I kept wondering, with all the money the parks are making, where the hell is it going? They aren't making new animated movies (when I was a kid, there was a new hand-drawn Disney flick in the theaters every three or four years, and when they re-released one of the older ones every 7 years, it was an EVENT), and they sure as hell aren't keeping up the park maintenance; we used to go to Disney World every summer with my grandparents, and the rides were NEVER broken, even though they were 10-20 years old by then. And for families traveling from out of state, there was ALWAYS the option for us to buy tickets BEFORE the trip and we were never turned away from the gate. We'd buy 4 days' worth of park-hopper passes, and there were only so many of those sold I remember, because at one point we were told there were no more park-hopper tickets for the time we were going to visit, but we could get the single park tickets instead. Because, in an effort to control crowd sizes, they only sold so many park hoppers each day and so many single park tickets each day. And you know what, that was fine with us because back then there was no REASON to hop parks. It took an entire day to see everything in EPCOT (it was the mid-80s, after all, and Future World was FULL of stuff to do) and honestly it was pushing it to get the entire park squeezed into one day (I kept trying to convince the grown-ups to let us skip the circlevision films in all the World Showcase pavilions, because you had to stand, first of all, and second of all as a kid I was always too short to get a good view.) And it always took *at least* 2 days to see everything in the Magic Kingdom. I honestly can't remember what we did with the 4th day because we never went to Typhoon Lagoon and Animal Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney Hollywood Studios) weren't a thing yet. (I think we might have spread out the MK into 3 days.) Sure, the lines were always long, but we never waited more than 45 mins for anything, because the idea of making everybody wait so certain families who paid more money could skip ahead of the rest of us in line wasn't something that was done. Waiting in the queues was the great equalizer. No matter how rich and privileged you were, or how hard your family had to save to make that trip, we were all in line together, reading the maps to decide which ride to go to next and discussing how fun the last ride was or how much we were looking forward to the one we were waiting for. The parks were CLEAN--there was never trash in the street or an overflowing trash can, because a cast member was scooping it up before you could blink--there were plenty of staff there to be sweet and kind to you and help you find your way, and the gift shops were SEPARATE from the rides rather than being something you had to walk through to exit the ride. It was a magical experience that I adored. But about 15 years ago, we took my nephews when they were little kids. Fastpass was just becoming a thing, or maybe it had been there a while and we never heard of it before, and we did use it for the Haunted Mansion, getting a paper ticket that told us what time to return to ride. But the parks were not as well staffed as I remembered, the characters were no longer wandering the park streets as much as they had before, so we had to stand in line for the boys to meet Mickey. I can understand that; poor Mickey and Minnie used to get absolutely MOBBED before and it was hard to get a pic with them. But then we walked out, and the smell from the trash can outside the pavilion just knocked me over. There was a lot of trash actually in the streets, the park was not as beautifully landscaped as it had been in my childhood (I have tons of pics Grammie took to prove it), and overall there seemed to be fewer cast members around to ask for help or report a full trash can to. I thought maybe my memories were tainted by the fact that I had been a kid at the time and maybe it was idealized in my head, but when I asked Mom, she said no. She saw a huge difference between when she brought us as a harried single mom dealing with two kids and now as a grandmother handling 2 grandkids, but with the help of their grandpa, their aunt, their great-aunt, and their dad. She said the fact there was more family to help with wrangling the kids should have made the trip more relaxing and enjoyable, but she had a better time when we were little because the parks were just nicer then. She had been looking forward to sharing the magic with her grandkids, and she said it seemed like a lot of the magic had gone out of the parks, and it felt that way to me. Now, when I look into the WEEKS of planning that has to go into a Disney park trip, deciding which park to visit on which day and having to *reserve a table in advance for a counter-service restaurant or quick-service sit down meal* I mean what the actual f*** (reservations used to be just for the fancy places) and having to plan out every single ride and no where you are going to be every minute of the day, and spend most of the day on your damn phone pre-ordering your meals and checking the ride wait times (which, as it turns out, aren't truthful anyway), I just cannot fathom spending what basically amounts to $2,000 for a 4-day trip. I could take a 6-day cruise for less money. It's bad enough that they gauge you with parking fees in the parks, but now, even if you stay in one of their hotels, you have to pay a daily parking fee?? I'm coming from metro Atlanta, not the midwest...I'm not flying in. So I can't leave my car behind and catch a ride from the airport to a Disney hotel, then rely on the park transportation to get around. I really wanted to stay at a moderate resort and get the whole experience, but the more I look at it, I wonder...why? What is there to experience? Epcot is half empty and has lost its mission statement, There is not enouh to do at Hollywood Studios anymore, and Batuu/Star Wars land doesn't live up to the promise of the Star Wars weekends held every May in the park before Disney bought out LFL and stopped holding the event (where are the aliens? The characters we came to know and love over the 20 years of movies? Where are the cool rides we were promised? (There are only 2 of them, and one is always broken, the other is a glorified video game.) Where are the immersive "experiences" we were told we would get? Ok, sure, you can "build" a droid or a lightsaber...if you shell out over $100 bucks. And the options are limited (extremely limited for the lightsabers) and don't change very often. The rest of it is behind a paywall in the "hotel" which only gives you a half a day experience in the park, and the rest of it is, again, a glorified video game/escape room combo. And btw, the rooms on this supposedly "luxury starliner" SUCK, and you get better luxury rooms on an _actual_ cruise ship. (Also, any Star Wars nerd--and only us true SW nerds would pay for that experience--can tell you that it takes more than a couple of 15-second hyperspace jumps to get from Coruscant to the Outer Rim where Batuu is supposed to be, so the LED screens pretending to be windows should be showing the hyperspace effect for most of your stay. But whatever...I'll never pay that much money to stay there.) The more I look at the cost of a Disney trip, the more I think I would be better off going on a cruise so I can visit a place I haven't been before, have a longer trip, and spend less money for better accommodations and experiences. There are so many ways Disney could implement crowd control--they used to do that--but they would rather stuff as many people as they can into the park, sucker them into paying more money to supposedly get through the lines quicker, stress them out by making them throw out any scintilla of spontaneity and put them on a schedule where they have to watch every second of their day, and HOPE that when they get fed up because the ride they want to ride is broken, they will spend money in the gift shop to kill time until they can go to the next ride. And the idea that you would force that family from Denver who makes Disney their once every 5 years vacation to stand there and watch *10* other groups get on the ride before they can and then tell them, "Oh, well you should have spent $15-$25 more *per person* so you can get on this ride faster, and btw, you have to pay that out per ride, too," and think this will make them return to your park is NUTS. When Disneyland opened, you had to pay for your tickets per ride, just like any county fair, and btw you had to pay more depending on whether the ride was A-ticket, B-ticket, C, D, or E-ticket ride, with the E-ticket rides being the most desirable ones and therefore costing the most money. That model was sharply criticized, which is why they did away with it when the opened Disney World. Now, it seems like they have gone back to that ide. You wanna ride Rise of the Resistance? Hey, that's E-ticket ride, you are going to need to make a reservation to ride that, and you're really going to need to spend $25 bucks more so you can get on it early in the day before it breaks down. DW/DL doesn't sound like FUN anymore. It sounds like a chore and a headache.
Disney is one of the companies that could stoop very low and still receive loyal customers. Still, they are digging themselves a grave right now because they obviously do not care about customer experience and long as it is enough to keep them coming.
a good way to know if consumers are enjoying your park is by going undercover and seeing how the park truly is, see how everything works without others telling how it works, then you can truly understand how consumer feels and make the changes to it, or just ask the community lol
We are at Disney right now. Seeing what is going on here, the prices, the cast member moral... we opted to stay out of parks and look for off property options. It's a sad state.
i just finished my disney college program and if you're wondering why, cast members are incredibly overworked with no benefits, and the most crucial ones are college students working 40-50 hours a week. i had 9 day weeks. at the beginning of my program we weren't even able to access the parks. the benefits for being a cast member are not at all what they used to be, and these problems are put on the backbone of the disney cast to deal with. i've had grown men verbally assault me over these changes. it sucks.
i came into my program with so much love and enthusiasm for this company and the state of things really crushed that. i always wanted my career to be disney and now i'm questioning if that's even a safe bet.
As a lifelong resident of the Tampa area and born to Disney lovers, my first visit to WDW was in my first few months of living in 1974. We were literally at Disney every weekend, vacation, holiday, school break, birthday, death, birth, graduation, wedding, divorce and just because… Over the years we have stayed at every resort, ate at every restaurant, attended every special event and partook in every attraction and activity available in the parks and resort area. Our family photo albums look more like Disney memorabilia then a families memories and I as well as my 3 younger sisters were proud to carry on our family Disney legacy. That was until our last trip in 2015 when none of us renewed our annual passes. The writing was clear to us that the Disney that was had been altogether destroyed and what had emerged was nothing we were intrested in. Though my parents have been back twice since then I am glad that we have not and according to them the last time was their last time. Though we never had it, I wouldn’t have ever believed this possible but my parents even canceled their DisneyPlus. I’m sad to see where the Bob’s have taken the Disney Co but am happy to have the memories and thankful to have gotten out without having to experience the worst, especially of what’s coming… At this point it wouldn’t matter what they did or offered, we have simply moved on and found bgreener pastures!
They sure burned through my trust. They used to be all about "the guest experience" but no more. Born in the early 1950s I was raised on Disney, Disneyland was my happy place. Even when I wasn't living in California I visited once a year. But Disneyland is not a place to be governed in your movements. Reservations and paying for things that were once free broke the Disney experience for me. They would install pay toilets now if it were legal. Disney greed was the nail in the coffin.
It bums me out that they changed Epcot so much. I’m glad I got to experience the park when I was a kid a couple of times. Maybe I’m a dorky outlier, but I loved feeling like I was talking a “trip around the world” since I had never left the US. I loved Norway, Japan and China. The food was also really good. (I have heard it’s pretty awful now.) Now it just seems like a ✨CaPiTaLiSm✨theme park. 😭
Remember Maelstrom and the old ride in the Mexican pavilion that was a blissful, short journey around the country? Now it’s Donald Duck and the Three Caballeros screaming at me 😭 and even as a little kid I loved it, I didn’t need cartoons to enjoy it.
All of these videos leave out the one entity that could have stopped everything. The Board of Directors. Disney has an horrific board. They all come from three distinct industries. Finance. Technology. Consumer Good. There is no one on the board from the entertainment or hospitality industries. I think there is a clear reason for these omissions on the board. Chapek and the executive team think they know so much about these industries that they don’t want anyone looking over their shoulders telling them how screwed up things are at the parks and resorts. It’s dumb and dumber at the top making all the decisions. Just my two cents.
This is my theory for the games industry too; why it's been in a constant decline over the past decade. When the CEO only cares about money, that bleeds into the products or experiences the company makes. They don't care if it's not the best, they only care about the profits.
I think park attendance is high after the pandemic shutdown. People were going stir crazy and then after reopening, a surge of interest to go. However right after is when the Genie + started so it's created this initial push but will not entice return visits. Great analysis video! Keep up the great work
While Universal has been making leaps into providing better experiences to guests over the years since the success of Harry Potter in the parks, having worked there on two separate occasions I am sad to say that their treatment of employees has dramatically worsened over the past few years. The culture went from surviving together against ornery, tired guests (understandable, its hot and they have long days of walking and standing) and instead employees fighting with management on the daily over nitpicks, incorrect write-ups, and general hostility. All of the major theme parks in Florida (I've worked at two and have friends that work in the third) have been worsening their treatment of their employees. Disney and SeaWorld/Busch Gardens have been doing it for years, Universal was the last one standing with decent employee relations and it sucks to see it fall too. I became privy to some big decisions surrounding the park before I left and it was odd seeing how indecisive the new leadership was after the CEO left the company earlier this year. I hope that Universal gets itself back up with employee treatment and becomes the leader in employee relations again in the theme park industry, but from what I heard about the new upper management... I don't have high hopes. Anyways, Disney has been my least favorite sets of parks for a long while and their recent actions have cemented that. The brand is so over-inflated with IPs that don't mix well that it lacks the special spark of inspiration. It just feels so stale, bloated, and overwhelming.
My family and I used to be crazy about Disney. We went to Disneyland multiple times a year for vacations, it was the one thing we could all agree on and have fun together. It started to lose its shine for me a few years ago, but when my grandparents and my dad had nothing but negative things to say about their latest trip, I knew it was bad. It's sad to lose that connection with all the wonderful times we shared at the park (literal decades of memories for my parents and grandparents) but I would rather put my money towards a real vacation instead of chasing the nostalgia and being disappointed
Ugh. I cringe whenI hear Chapek pretend that it’s all about the guest’s experience. Funny how he said that the best feedback about the guest experiences were their interactions with castmembers. Yet nothing seems to get better on that end. It’s never been about people. It’s been about profits. They are still underpaid and overworked. I think it’s disgusting. What little bonuses they get sometimes are a total joke. They do that so they don’t have to give any cash. Oh! But they do get a special preview to what new merchandise is coming out. All the money they wasted on scrapped projects and all the unreasonably high price hikes, and they couldn’t give their cast members a livable wage. Yet the company wants them to be available all hours, yet guarantee them part time work. But that’s corporate greed for you. I just wish they would cut the bs about how it’s about the guest experience. Here’s a guest experience. Paying $65 a day to stay at a Disney Hotel in Disneyland property. I’m sure they will be doing backflips with that experience.
“Guest Experience” Half of Disneyland was shut down (the rides across half the park were not working) when I last visited and that was Christmas Day 2021. Think about it: Disneyland park was bogged down by bad maintenance on CHRISTMAS DAY. On the 120th anniversary of Walt Disney’s birth
I was very very young when I first experienced Disney, MGM Studios, Universal Studios. so I'll admit that I wasn't fully aware of the tricks they were pulling on perspective and my senses, but the scale and detail of things like _The Great Movie Ride_ or _Splash Mountain_ or especially _Kongfrontation_ blew my MIND. I will never forget standing in the queue line for Kong and seeing all the grimey, dirty wall details filled with graffiti to look like a '70s New York Subway station with the news reports blaring on TVs and sounds of roars in the distance as being one of the most epic and engaging experiences of my young life. I'll never forget that. small details make a big impact. and I see _so many_ videos these days of modern attractions which all seem to be built around the idea of "Video Screens And That's It." _impressive_ screens, absolutely no doubt. it's amazing what they can do these days with digital projection. absolutely incredible. I'd sure love to see a movie that plays around with that stuff. if done right. but to wait in line for hours to see a series of screens? where's the magic in that - where's the _trickery_ in that? and another question: why did Disney backpedal so furiously (at first) on the Star Wars Prequel's famous green screen nightmare zone of cheap CGI in favor of marketing heavily the use of real props, practical effects and a more old-fashioned approach for that first Star Wars sequel? (and that _Was_ a movie!) that Buzz Lightyear "attraction" just looks pretty sad. cardboard cutouts in front of a very nice, wrapping digital screen and the guests are in a slowly moving tram. that's it. like _The Movie Ride,_ only without the real sets, the real smoke, smells, lights, performers, imagination and verve. people have been talking about The Decline of Disney for decades. and while I'm not so convinced they're about to drop off a cliff like everyone else seems to think (or hope), I can say this with absolute certainty: a Disney Theme Park is not at all a place I'd want to visit as an _adult._ not even with kids. and if I'm not nearly the only one who thinks like this, well, we'll see. I know our _entire generation_ is united in feeling burnt out on Disney stuff, yet the profits - as you state here - only seem to rise. so are they doomed? nah, probably not. maybe. we'll see. they've been for me, though. and it seems for many of us. be well, everyone. we'll get there.
I so agree with the nightmare green screen and CGI. It's such a cheap and less remarkable way of movies these days. Even if the audience could see things as props the inventiveness made it all so magical.
Empty suits like Iger and Chapek don't care what consumers want, only shareholders. They simply take consumers for granted until they no longer show up.
Even though Chapek was forced out just after you made this video, I can't think of a more accurate and prophetic analysis of just what will happen to Disney. Park attendance is down this summer, and I think it will continue. Disney burned through consumer trust on all fronts, and now they are going to suffer for it
The best Disney Park is without a doubt the one in Japan. It’s hands-down now the best one. The atmosphere, the food, the merchandise, the celebrations, the rides and just the attention to even the smallest details have made that park so much better than anything they offer here in United States. Of course if you know anything about the situation in Japan and the reason why it has become by far the best it is due to the fact that Disney executives do not run that park! Oriental Land Company runs it and runs it the way it should be ran and the way Disney many years ago would run their parks. They don’t cut corners or reduce budgets or just put something up so something fills the space. They want it to be the best and look the best and want it to be the way they know consumers and their customers want it to be. I wish here in United States just the way the parks look in Japan on the outside would be amazing to see here. The attention to details on the rides and the fact that they want to use animatronics and do things the right way is what I wish we could get back to here.
When I see Japanese tourists at the parks here, I almost feel embarrassed. They always seem to look like they're having a good time, yet I have to wonder if internally, they're thinking that the quality is so much lower.
"It's not like Disney's going to remake Oliver and Company or the Black Cauldron." Ironically, remaking their worse movies would give them the opportunity to redeem ideas that didn't turn out well the first time around. I mean, I could make an argument against revisiting Black Cauldron/Prydain: too expensive to make, Narnia never had legs, it nearly bankrupted the company last time, it's like a more simple LOTR while simultaneously being too scary for small kids. But on the plus side, if they improved on the script and pacing of the first movie, I think it might have a large audience and give them a chance to make further books in the series.
@@keithlarsen7557 I only read Black Cauldron but I liked Oliver... I think they're both just thought of as risky properties and Disney is currently risk-adverse and they don't want to do anything too high-concept.
Ironic that TH-cam suggests this video to me on the day that Iger announced Disney is open not only to selling off ABC, Nat Geo, Freeform, and FX but also equity in ESPN. With the Box Office failures of their recent Blockbusters and the ongoing writers strike / SAG strike, they're in dire straights and starting to feel the squeeze of lost consumer trust predicted in this video
Great analysis! My family had a conversation about many of these issues recently and cancelled a ten-day trip for next year. We're going to Europe instead and it will be cheaper. I think more and more stories like this will add up over time and eventually company execs will take notice. We may revisit the parks again in decade or so if they begin fixing some of the problems. It would take years to breathe creative life back into the parks department and then years after that to actually construct anything meaningful.
Asuming creative life can be pumped back in. Once the imagineers go and the creative department becomes an empty shell there is no guarantee it can be brought back to life.
I am local to Orlando and I can’t imagine spending ten days at DisneyWorld. I think you’re making the right choice. Hell, maybe consider a trip to Japan for next time lol I heard their parks are great.
Another interesting detail with Disney vs. Universal is Brightline. Brightline is a privatized passenger rail service with stations along South Florida. A few years ago, Brightline announced plans to expand into Orlando, with the first stop being at MCO and the second one being at Disney Springs. The original route would've completely bypassed Universal and I-Drive, so the I-Drive Chamber of Commerce managed to not only persuade Brightline to build a third station in the area, but also managed to secure funding for the station to happen. The cherry on top, though, is that Universal donated (for free) land from their Epic Universe project for the third Brightline station. Well, when the new route was finalized, Disney actually pulled out of the project, essentially telling Brightline to not build a station at Disney Springs (not sure why that makes any business sense). I am unsure if they will build a station around that area and off Disney property. I personally support the new route, as with a station near Epic Universe, it allows for our commuter rail (SunRail) to access the airport, and by extension, Universal and I-Drive, allowing for a greater range of accessibility throughout the Orlando Metropolitan Area. As I wrote this, I think the reason why Disney pulled out is because with SunRail access (I don't think the original plan had SunRail access), it gives guests a greater range of hotel options, as they could simply stay at a hotel near a SunRail station, and then take the train to the parks rather than pay for parking. I also think that it would have made it easier for guests staying at Disney to leave Disney property for Universal, which I'm sure is a big no-no to upper management. Anyways, I figured its something that you might find interesting especially considering the topic of poor business decisions and anti-consumer practices on Disney's part.
I do actually cover that in another video. It's not a huge part, but it plays into the narrative of how Universal's new park will change the entertainment landscape of Orlando. You'll probably be interested in it: th-cam.com/video/glmi6VDaLUM/w-d-xo.html
I totally agree with you; I read a comment allegedly at one time there was a rumour that around 2008. Bob Iger was actively shopping the Disney Parks to foreign investors and hoping to dump and license them like the Tokyo Disneyland is operated at this time. While this did not happen I am curious about having the domestic parts being run fully by a third party like Tokyo Disneyland is run totally by The Oriental Land Company and/ or an American company that is equivalent who will care about the Disney park name. Another option is for there to be a partnership between the Walt Disney Company and another company similar to the deal of Hong Kong Disneyland which Disney owns 47% and the government 53%.Then there is Shanghai Disneyland were in this case, Disney owns 43% and China 57% and park operations are tasked to a management company that is 70% owned by Disney.
I can't say I would disagree, at this point in time. But TOLC is very differently run. When Tokyo Disney Sea was being designed, Disney asked for input on budget(s), and ideas. OLC told Disney they didn't care about costs nearly as much as Disney does, as long as solid attractions were delivered. The only times the two companies disagreed was when it came to maintenance. OLC told Disney to make changes to Indiana Jones Adventure, to replace unproven effects (that broke too frequently) with effects that were much more reliable. (And possibly better as well.) Disney for their parks has only worried about costs (maintenance, staffing, etc.) and profit margins. How is it that OLC is more profitable then? (And that's after paying Disney's royalties, design fees, and even a % of profits!) Walt himself said to not worry about the profits. Build what people want, and attractions that impress, and the profits will follow.
@@jheiden2 well TOLC is just insane. I mean Japenese People love Disney.TOLC just understands their crowd. I mean DisneySea is on another level. The Theming, the Staff, the Food and overall the Feeling in the Park is absolutely insane. The Main Disney just is completely out of touch. They showed it with Disneyland Paris for the first time and now in in their Mainparks
I'm a big supporter of Disney. I have owned Disney stock for 20 years or so, I have Disney Vacation Club, Disney+, and I've taken frequent trips to WDW from out of state. What I've watched the Disney parks decline into is heartbreaking. I first began to really notice about 9 or 10 years ago and it just keeps getting worse. I agree with everything said in this video. I am currently at a breaking point with Disney. I have a trip planned, but the majority of that trip will not be spent at Disney parks, but instead checking out the other parks in the Orlando area. It's not as easy for me to just break off all contact because I have a teen with intellectual and developmental disabilities who certainly doesn't understand the ways that it has changed and the added stress involved now. He has always loved Disney and enjoys the themed slower family rides compared to the thrill rides at most other parks. His physical limitations also keep him from riding the more extreme rides He also loves all the original Pixar movies and a few of the sequels. The fact that I'm hoping to find an alternative park for him to visit for future vacations is a major red flag.
I would definitely recommend SeaWorld if you treat it like an aquarium/zoo. It seems that the big coasters wouldn't be appropriate for him but I can certainly see someone getting a lot of value out of the zoological exhibits and shows. The same goes for Gatorland as well if you can handle the heat. Another interesting attraction might be The Wheel at Icon Park. I don't think it's a great value by itself, but when you bundle the ticket in with Madame Tussauds and the SEA LIFE Aquarium there, you can easily spend a few hours in the area and it's a much better value. I also recommend the dinner shows like Medieval Times as well. I went earlier this year and was surprised with how entertaining it actually was (and the food was far better than expected as well).
@@PoseidonEntertainment SeaWorld is on the list of parks to try because he loves zoos/aquariums and because they have a Sesame Street area as well. I've watched a few videos on the Sesame Street themed part. Even though the rides aren't as themed as Disney's, I think he will recognize and enjoy the area as a whole. We're also going to try Universal even though I know they don't have as many rides that he can do. He enjoys themed areas and seeing everything. Universal has definitely been working hard to compete in that aspect.
I appreciate someone cutting through the BS and not sitting on the fence. Always an interesting eye opener on the current state of play by the Disney executives.
I remember Eisner getting dunked on so much when I was growing up. People really thought he was the worst possible CEO a company like Disney could have. Then along came Iger and Chapek... A lot of Eisner's ideas might've been garbage, but at least he *had* ideas.
This video is bittersweet for me. I love the content you create, however I'm saddend by continued downward spiral of Disney Parks and experiences. Nothing on your part of course but im baffled that no one in the PR department for Disney. I'm relatively new Disney fan but my first experience as an adult at Disney World 4 years ago was nothing but short of wonderment. (Except for Hollywood Studios felt like It was the most non disney park imo) Keep up the good work it shows that you are passionate of the topics you cover.
Man this idea of a "trust thermodrop" really makes alot of sense, not just for Disney but alot of other big, bloated companies that still see high profits and high returns, even when employee and customer satisfaction is at record lows. Really shows how much of monopoly Disney has had for a long time on the theme park industry, and the entertainment industry as a whole. Especially watching this back-to-back with an Offhand Disney video covering the Disney Decade under Eisner, where we are with company now makes alot of sense. Decades of building trust just to throw toss it aside to make up for losses, all while banking that the name on the side of the building will keep you afloat... It's the oldest trap in the history of capitalism.
What makes me personally especially sad about this, is I never went to a Disney park as a kid. I've always wanted to but never could afford it cuz of where I am geographically. Now everyone that went as kids and has gone back years later say the same thing, it's not the same magical place they went to when they were younger. I'll probably never get to experience the vision for the park Walt had dreamed of and created, that's clearly been lost now. It really frustrates me how money focused our society has become. It sickens me.
Before I saw the alert for this video, I was watching a video about Disney charging $10 for a tiny sliver of cake at Blue Bayou restaurant. So yeah, the title of your video looks painfully on point. And now to actually watch your video!
Clownfish TV, I assume? I remember them pointing out that if they wanted to cut costs they could have gotten a deal with a company like Little Debbie to produce cheap snack cakes for them to serve to customers. But, nope, just reduce the already tiny portion sizes. It's just sad seeing the Disney brand being devalued.
@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 yes it was Clownfish TV lol. I actually stopped watching their video as soon as I saw the Poseidon Entertainment video had been posted because I definitely think he makes higher quality videos that I want to watch as soon as they post! Haha
@@AuthorCertifiedGoof It's been a long time since I've seen one of their videos, but Clownfish really puts a bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps it has changed, but it seemed like a lot of manufactured outrage and playing to culture wars.
@@PoseidonEntertainment no, they really haven’t changed much. I rarely make it through an entire video. Bad taste in my mouth is a perfect way of describing them!
I’ve watched many of this channel’s videos but this is my first time commenting. I wanted to say that the two segments on the Disney movie studio are spot on. Disney is only making movies like the ones that have hit a billion dollars, and they have no business owning the whole Fox catalog. This video is also right about Bob Iger. I don’t think he’s ever going to fascinate people the way Eisner does, but he is worth reconsidering. Great work, as usual.
I just don't understand why they've decided to just throw their original films to the grave. Strange World is coming out soon and they've decided to not even bother marketing it? Do they just hope to release it quietly and minimize marketing costs, then throwing it on Disney+ to see if it drives subscriptions?
@@PoseidonEntertainment Looks like it. Which would mean that some of their movies are expected to sell tickets, and others are meant to drive subscriptions. It’s wanting to do the Netflix model, while still keeping one-to-one transactions alive.
I'm hearing very few positive things about Disney lately, and I personally thing that's very good, as it means that all of my friends and family are viewing them as a less and less trustworthy company.
I’ve cut ties. Our last trip to Disney World was shocking. Nothing like I remember even a short 10 years ago. Park was filthy and over crowded. Expensive and low quality food. I’ve had it. Cancelled Disney plus and we choose to take the family elsewhere now. Living in Arizona we’d take them to Disneyland once a year for a night or two. Not anymore. Disney will never get another dime from me.
As someone whos dreamed of going to Disney, I think you summarized it well. I watch a lot of vloggers who go to Disney, and listening to the cost of things in the parks. It just isn’t worth the price any longer. Though I do like how Epcot is just because of the cool things to eat, but none of the rides hold my interest at all. I also don’t like that Disney really pushes their very overpriced hotels on you so you can get maximum value fir your park stay. When I do go to Florida in the next two years the only parks I plan to visit are the universal ones.
Thank you for the interesting breakdown of the current trajectory of Disney as a company. Disney is so emotionally loaded for so many people that they cannot look at it objectively and react with incredibly hostility when someone says anything negative. The fact is that Disney is a massive mega-corporation that exists to take your money. It's not your friend or your childhood, it's soulless, mindless and entirely corporate. That would be fine if they were still providing the premium experience that people have come to expect, but once that goes away, you should put your wallet back in your pocket.
I’m a huge Disney fan. But I will tell you, Universal Orlando has gotten THOUSANDS of more dollars from me this year in comparison to Disney. I struggle understanding the lack of progress Disney has made, I suspect EPIC is going to make a bigger dent than they think.
It's like some of the leadership are forgetting that the entire point of Disneyland is to teleport you into unique surreal experiences where you will be fascinated and maybe even learn something. Add in genuine effort and pay your employees well and you have an amazing park. Look at the entrance to disneyland into fantasy land. It's amazing after so many years!
I'm glad someone like you with a platform can see what the truth is with this company as a former cast member It was a horrible experience keep doing gods work sir. They should make you ceo, you at least get it!
It sounds weird to hear that there's still a lot of affection for Bob Iger around, because I never liked the man to begin with. And to think, I wasn't even aware of half the stuff you brought up about him, like why he may have green-lit the NBA Experience (RIP, DisneyQuest). The company's cannibalization of Fox was the final straw for me, the thing which I will never forgive him or Disney as a whole for, if only for the principle of taking such a chunk of competition out of the market. Still, I'm glad we can all agree that Bob Chapek is an even worse CEO.
As a non-theme park fan, who recently had a casual vacation to Disney with my family, and spent a day in Universal, we were all pleasantly surprised by Universal. Disney just felt exhausting and broke our bodies. Walking into Diagon Alley felt like the magic that I expected at Disney.
Universal actually cares about good guest experience. Meanwhile Disney has stopped caring about making good rides and lands. All they care about now is driving merchandise sales
Well, as someone who grew up going to Disney A LOT, I suddenly hit a point where I never cared to go back. And it wasn’t because I was bored or outgrew it, the parks started changing and I no longer enjoyed them the same. It’s sad bc I’m now at a place where it would be a blast to bring nieces or nephews to Disney parks if they’d been like in the past. Instead I take them to do other things, so Disney has really lost out on my family’s money we are spending elsewhere.
I think this is interesting because you think Disney hasn't yet passed the trust thermocline. For me and many of my family&friends, we're LONG past that point. A good friend of mine is local to Disney World, and has had annual passes for over 20 years. 2021 was the first year she didn't renew her pass. And while Disney Quest was showing it's age due to neglect, it was a long-time favorite of my family since it opened.
As much as I respect and appreciate you for your professionalism and descriptive quality of your content, I also appreciated how palpable and apparent your anger and frustration toward Disney management was most notably when calling out the disingenuousness of Iger's assertions in that recent Wall Street Journal interview: particularly that people don't go to the Magic Kingdom for the castle and that the park is fully invested in caring for its crew. And it's by not holding back in expressing that anger that reinforces just how deeply you love Disney and genuinely want to see it move in the right direction again and makes your commentary all the more resonant. Keep up the great work! I sure hope this video catches fire and is heard loud and clear!
48:46 can confirm. Last trip to Orlando was going to be Disney but the genie system killed our interest. We went to universal instead and it was one of my favorite trips ever. They’re great
I always love hearing your breakdowns of where the parks/company is going wrong- it's really interesting to really see where a lot of these issues are actually stemming from instead of just observing them occurring
I’m literally on my drive back from a Disney trip lol. Like you I’ve also had my issues with Disney, their parks, business decisions, and policies, but unfortunately there is still that little (well, not so little it seems) corner of people that no matter what will continue to go to Disney. This is my family. Now I’m not gonna lie, ofc I love the Disney parks even in their recent decline. However, it’s because of families like mine and so many others that Disney will have no real incentive to change their methods of operation. Though, this recent trip has kinda changed my family’s perspective the most. Until some way somehow these families can lose their trust with the company, Disney will continue to do what they’re doing, but ultimately, it’s not gonna look pretty for them in the end…
I’m dealing with something like this. My family went to Walt Disney World nearly every year for decades. As a result, I was a huge Disney fan, but in the last few years, I’ve lost enthusiasm and no longer trust them to put out quality entertainment. All I can see now is the price gouging and the decline in quality that has abandoned the foundations and traditions of the company. I don’t care if I ever go back. My family and I just got back from Universal Orlando a month ago, and we had a great time. It was so much easier to navigate and doesn’t require the insane amount of planning and frustration that Disney does. Now, however, a couple of my family members are wanting to go back to Disney after not having been since 2019, and l’m just apathetic about it. I may end up going for their sakes within the next couple of years, but I’m not thrilled with the idea, particularly in regards to cost.
Some of us are quitting our Disney habit. We were one of those Disney families. We are DVC, were annual pass holders for a decade + even though we don't live in Florida. We went to WDW at least once a year for over a week each trip. It was a major investment of time and resources but we loved it. That said after our last trip in 2019 we saw the writing on the wall. Every new addition from park ride, general space, or resort was increasingly designed as a marketing ploy for an IP just for the sake of squeezing the last dime out of consumers and lacked any of the original creativity or innovation that was the hallmark of Disney. The much valued Disney service we had become accustomed to over the decades was non-existent, staffing numbers were abysmal, and staffs attitude was just bad. We haven't been back since and have no plans to return. Iger's vanity and Chapek's complete ineptitude at reading his market have ruined what was quite simply the most trusted name in family entertainment the world over. We have now chosen plane/land trips in the US and overseas as family vacations and we are pleased with this choice.
_Some_ people lol I’ve been fortunate to have been going to WDW and DLR parks since the late 80s; did the marching band appearance down Main Street thrice; two times former cast member…. and I wholeheartedly refuse. Not. A. Dime. Shall. Be. Spent. Until they get it together. And I say this having worked through periods of “theme park austerity” myself….i know what it does at ground level. To the cast especially. they gotta do MUCH better, for me to even consider
Man the most disappointing thing about the Fox deal is we lose out on all of the Fox titles. Disney has become very anti-physical media, so the hopes of getting an upgrade of classic films is quickly fading.
John Bull, author of the 'Trust Thermocline' theory here.
This is the point where I admit I'm a closet Disney/theme park history nerd, right? 😆
So firstly, I want to quote a section from an article on it that I just wrote for a major business publication, on the Thermocline:
"It’s about businesses addressing the grumbles of consumers early and not diluting the value of the product. A feature isn’t a feature unless it was asked for, and just because a consumer swallows a new charge or price rise doesn’t mean they accept it as necessary. These are lessons that big businesses like Twitter, Netflix and Disney’s Parks’ Division would do well to heed, as much as smaller businesses or start-ups just beginning their product journey."
Which is my way of saying you're absolutely right. I believe the principle does extend to Disney's Parks. I don't need to explain why, because I think you've covered here almost everything I would say. Broadly, that the current management has forgotten why the Parks were successful and why they exist - which is not to act as brand proxies, but as real-world experiences. Walt wasn't looking to create theme parks, he wanted to create a permanent "World's Fair" experience (running in parallel, and pseudo-competition with his work with Robert Moses on the New York fair).
The corporate memory of that has been lost, and with it a dilution of the Disney Parks experience into being theme-parks-with-brand. That's an INCREDIBLY dangerous place to be, from a Trust Thermocline perspective. Because it's not sufficient differential from the Universals of this world in the long run. Disney is lowering itself into its competitor park space, rather than maintaining its USP.
If there's two points of mild disagreement, or perhaps just food for different thought, I'd add to this excellent video though it's this:
- Don't bracket Disney Parks with Disney's other products. This is the mistake they, themselves, are falling into. They're seeing Disney Plus as a driver of park traffic and the film division the same way. They WANT them to be a joined up experience because that sounds like a nice, data-driven consumer experience. But its a shallow one and I don't think there's a lot of evidence for the overlap being beneficial. At least not to a level that persuades someone to save for the 'trip of a lifetime' to a Disney Park. You don't do that because you watched a Star Wars series, or a Frozen sequel. You do that because YOU WANT TO GO TO DISNEYLAND. You go because it is a near-mythical place to go to, regardless of the individual brand presence. That's almost secondary.
- Don't underestimate the impact of generational draw. This is, to my mind, one of unique issues Disney has with their own Trust Thermocline and why they may see a delayed impact, but a particularly catastrophic one when it happens. This is that one of the biggest drivers of parents saving to take their children to a Disney Park is their OWN experience of that park as a child. It's a happy memory of being taken to a magical, unique place. One filled with wonder and experiences they didn't get elsewhere, and of being treated (in their mind) to all the wonders within that place. It is a happy childhood memory. This is a considerable trust factor for parents - they loved Disney Parks as a kid. They want to replicate that experience for their OWN kids despite the high cost. As long as premium cost creates premium experiences they don't mind. Because, again, this is a key part of the Trust Thermocline. It only exists in products that have a high emotional engagement factor in the product.
This is why I suspect DIsney Parks have a LOWER Trust Thermocline than you would think - because that generational element plays in their favour - but also that if they do cross it (and I suspect they are, at the very least, close to that) it will be particularly fatal. Because it may only be in 20 years time that we, and they, see the true impact. That's the point at which the crop of kids being nickel-and-dimed now, or waiting in long queues, picking up the dissatisfaction of their parents as kids do, decide that they don't see value in putting their own children through the same experience.
Now by that point Disney may have diversified things to a point where they don't care. But as the inheritors of Walt's magical kingdom gamble, that will be a real shame I think.
Anyway, hope that adds some useful info. Great video, as always, and if you're ever looking for a guest to explore this topic with again, do just ask. This is one of my secret areas of nerdery, beyond the obvious tech ones. And one I don't normally get the pleasure of talking about it, as I've done here!
Absolutely fantastic insight and I appreciate you chiming in on the subject!
I would also be highly interested in the article you wrote once it's published.
Twenty years seems generous to me. I took my child to Disney when he was eight. I finally got to see AK and Disneyland. I'm not sure if being able to take grandchildren there will be a possibility due to cost.
I liked Norway better before Frozen Ever After (Norway movie was one and done). Original rides/attractions in Mexico and the Imagination pavilion were superior to current offerings. IP isn't everything and just shows cheapness and lack of imagination on Disney's part.
Generational draw is not as big as you think. I went to Disney world twice in the late 90's, early 00's during the Eisner years thanks to their band programs. My parents already did not like the way the parks were headed. My biggest memory was my mother yelling it me to pick a ride cause she would spank my ass if she wasted all that money just for me to walk around. My parents are now grandparents, the only thing Disney they have thought about is the Cruises but they have cruised before and don't like the options Disney has, because they sell it as luxury but it's luxury to kids not parents. Additionally my oldest sister has said they will only go once and that's it, but even that may not happen. My niece had leukemia and had tried to go thru Make-a-wish but due to the pandemic they now limit it to be an "experience" that's within 200 miles of you. Chapek is an imitation of Iger, who is an imitation of Eisner. Eisner bought a Football team and now runs Tops trading cards? There is some generational draw bit there is a significant more generational withdrawal.
Thank you for a much more educated take on this!
The sad part is - they'll still be around for many years to come, and always the powerhouse that they are.
I have a friend who goes to Disney so much she practically lives there, she’s considered an “unfavorable” by Disney apparently. She told me that supposedly Bob’s plan was to increase prices to get the regulars out and get ppl like me who only go like 1-2 a year bc we tend to spend more, but all he did was out-price me and my family to the point we’ve been doing Universal
Ha, that's hilarious. The repeat customers are viewed as "unfavorable" so they try to out price them. This just ends up hurting the once a year ones as it just aren't worth the cost.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
It would make sense for them to cut prices so that they would make even more money since more people can afford them on mass
@@spritemon98 If you cut prices by 20% but only get, say, 10% more volume that's an overall reduction in revenue. Economists call this concept _elasticity._ You might get 30% more, but you might not. So it's garbage to assume it.
Also, it's _en masse,_ Einstein.
@@himoffthequakeroatbox4320 guess your just as rude as he was if you cant explain something without insulting the other person -_-
Disney empire is superfictial , the company survive only in 2000 and 2010 because PIXAR , MARVEL and Star Wars , who disney DESTROYS your franchises
For the past several decades, Disney (and a ton of other companies) have been building their wealth on "Jenga economics." They increase their profits by running their companies on the equivalent of "I want my tower to be higher, but I don't want to _actually pay_ for more bricks... Oh, I know! Let's save on money by taking out bricks from our lower floors, and use _those_ to build the tower higher!" They cut a lot of costs this way, but it's an unsustainable, _dangerous_ tactic that puts a lot of strain on those lower floors.... sooner or later, the entire structure is going to collapse.
This is the best explanation of this yet!
As an animation fan I’ve long been burned, and I hold very little nostalgia towards them anymore. After Chapek’s comment on animation in the same interview, saying that “after the kids are put to bed, parents are not going to want to watch another animated movie” and how Walt Disney LITERALLY warned that just catering to kids would be the start of a downfall, it’s obvious that he doesn’t even understand WHY Disney got where it was in the first damn place. Through its ANIMATION.
I agree wholeheartedly. Disney lost the magic when it turned to so much CGI. I miss the whimsy and innocence of the old animated films.
Chapek and Iger do not understand the company they have respectively run, that much is clear. They only see in dollar signs and data
This is the same company that thought a realistic CGI animation of the Lion King was a good idea. It's like they don't even understand what makes good animation anymore.
@@jandoelWhat really matters is good storytelling, regardless of the medium. Do you know why it’s so painful for adults to sit through a single episode of kids show like Dora, tellytubies or Blues clues? Because there is zero plot or character development to be found in those shows. Even as an adult, I can appreciate an animated movie as long as it’s telling a compelling narrative.
Pixar sucks but I guess everyone else likes it. When Toy Story came out I thought it was the ugliest animated movie I ever saw, but everyone else ate that slop.
*”A lifestyle brand in the metaverse”*
Someone get Merriam-Webster on the phone. We’ve just found a new definition of “dystopia”.
Bob Iger shouldn't have been buying up IPs like they were Monopoly properties for one thing. And, this is a strictly personal opinion, I don't think Marvel and Star Wars fit well with the Disney brand. It was one thing to have good ol Star Tours and it's a totally different thing to make that entire IP a major cornerstone for the entire company. Disney's become the Walmart of entertainment and it shows.
And what they've done, or haven't done, with the Muppets is just depressing to me. If they want to remake their classic properties then JUST ADD MUPPETS. Imagine how much more *fun* the Pinocchio remake would have been if it had starred Gonzo as Pinocchio and Pepe as Jiminy. Kermit as Geppetto could be really interesting and meta, and make Miss Piggy the Blue Fairy.
"Disney's become the Walmart of entertainment"... well said. 100% nailed it.
@@CinnamonGrrlErin1 That would have been something I would have been willing to pay to see.
I certainly agree I don't think marvel particularly works well in the parks avengers campus is kind of lame compared to other areas
@@CinnamonGrrlErin1 Now THAT would be fantastic. I love how you cast it. Great idea. Disney is sleeping on the Muppets. I was a huge fan of the Muppets in Liberty Square with the "Great Moments in History but only the American parts". Once again, Disney execs are so out of touch with what we want as fans.
To be honest I actually hope Disney reaches the trust thermocline. They’re a monopoly and need to be broken.
I think we are at rhe actual breaking point
I see Disney as The Empire and I'm a rebel.
Disney's goal is to just own everything so they don't have to try anymore.
You hit the nail on the head right there
And then there was this theory
Except for the fact that they have a real competitor right now who is currently building a brand new park. Epic Universe could really shake things up.
Bingo.
Step 1 own the female children-princesses (ALL OF THEM) and fairies. Step 2 own the male children-Marvel and Star Wars. Step 3 neglect you already own their childhood. Step 4 rose colored glasses will make grandparents/parents take their children/grandchildren due to previously owned childhood.
Disney is wildly out of touch with consumers as it’s running on ego based on nostalgia & goodwill; lacking the awareness to recognize both are dwindling & in short supply.
Disney is like a celebrity that doesn’t know he’s a has been & everyone is too polite to tell him because they remember that amazing thing he did 20 years ago.
Disney is wildly out of touch with consumers (I agree 1000%) It's no longer great!
and there movies with there stupid remake live action films like the mermaid... even chinda of all place calling out Disney why they force race into there film clearly
@@TheDragonfridayits not about race bro stop revealing your true colors
the remakes in general are just cheap ways to get free money off of nostalgia :P
people disliking disneys newer stuff is entirely based in their poor business practices and making bad remakes instead of what race the actors are!
@@kyaing9047 always poor direction never follow the original source material I had countless experience of that with anime live action.... very frustrating whenever the director want to change everything to the point it not even the original show anymore like death note..... wtf the main character in live action is an normal person in the original he is an genius teenager. while changing the race because they felt like it
@@kyaing9047 sometimes race does matter if you want to follow the source material....
I’m so glad people are finally waking up not just to Chapek’s incompetence but also Bob Iger’s aggressive mediocrity.
Eisner did warn for that agresive mediocracy
I don’t necessarily think Iger was incompetent. Imo, he was forced to follow the culture. Notice how he didn’t try and state his opinion initially with the whole Florida fiasco?? It was only when the “strongly-feeling” people on the L complained and forced his hand that he made his statements. It was under Iger that Disney became what it’s become, and Chapek, imo, was the fall guy so Iger could come back in a golden king
The problem was, he was a big improvement from Eisner, so people gave him way more credit than he was due. Being better than the worst CEO prior to you doesn’t automatically make you good.
@@loganlove9986Speak properly or you won't even get to spout your braindead takes. No one is going to shoot you by saying the left.
Cannot believe I live in a world where I miss Micheal Eisner. Like, at least a bit man.
Also, hearing Chapek talk about guest-cast interaction is making my blood boil. The way things were my last couple years with the company made it clear that those interactions were to be kept to a minimum. Our job was to keep the line moving and give you a fast pass if you were upset. We didn't have the staffing to interact. On purpose.
Just so sad.
Several years ago, we went to Disney World and my 7-year-old daughter got separated from us. After looking for several minutes we went to the first Disney cast member we saw and told him we had gotten separated from my daughter.
We instantly became his full-time job. He told us that he was going to stay with us until our daughter was found. He stayed with us until a supervisor/manager wearing a suit showed up. Then that person told us that he was going to stay with us until we were reunited with our daughter. He also told us everything they had done in order to locate my daughter.
In the meantime, my daughter gave up looking for us and went into a shop, approached a cashier and told her she couldn't find her parents. The cashier closed her register and told my daughter that she was going to stay with her until she was with her parents again. Disney security had gotten a report of a lost child and a report of a found child so one of their security officers them escorted the cashier and my daughter to where we were waiting. And then we were given a 'head of the line pass' to any ride my daughter chose.
Needless to say - I was impressed by how they handled the situation. That earned a lot of goodwill on my part. I really hope that they still operate the same way when a child gets lost.
What??? This is the opposite of how Disney is supposed to function.
I feel like the Disney brand is starting to become a chore. It’s an obligation for a certain class of people, a cultural touchstone we can’t escape. They made themselves so permanent in the American psyche that they don’t even have to be good to keep us consuming.
And as a fan of the Owl House, a genuinely good show that airs on Disney (same goes for Ducktales' reboot, etc etc), I'm starting to wonder if the "not our brand" isn't a misphrasing of "too serialized for Disney Channel", but "too diverse and challenging for Disney".
I mention Ducktales' reboot as well as it seems interesting how it was cancelled shortly after introducing a same-sex couple, implicitly with the dynamics of Webby and Lena as well (worded as "sister-like"), the whole Penumbra situation, and so forth. I'd love a 2017 Ducktales merch, Owl House likewise, but outside of its initial promotion, 2017 Ducktales is disposed of.
I still remember getting Club Penguin and Phineas+Ferb merch. I think merch only slowed down due to the late Funkos for Star Vs and Gravity Falls. No Randy Cunningham, no Amphibia, nothing much.
Update regarding a later comment: Webby and Lena may just have an affectionate friendship, this is entirely up to the reader. However, this does not mean to discredit any other inclusion, especially all of Owl House.
Welcome to capitalism!
We're in Hell. Literally Hell.
Disney peaked in the 90s and early 2000s, back before they owned Marvel and Star Wars. The Disney brand specifically was successful with their legacy characters alone, Disney doesn't even use the Mouse anymore in their marketing.
@@amesstarline5482 duck tales getting axed after its third season is pretty on brand for Disney reaching its syndication limit as well as only running slightly longer than the original DuckTales
@@creed8712 As a counterpoint, look to both Kim Possible and Phineas&Ferb. It doesn't excuse cancelling Owl House, or trimming its 3rd Season, nor does it excuse not notifying some other staffs, as we see in Wonder Over Yonder's case.
I go to Disney because I love Walt and his vision. I'm in a middle class all the way in CANADA and we used to go yearly! For what we got and all the little secrets we knew, we made it affordable and fun. Now .jpeg is making it impossible for that entire community of generations of park lovers to love the park. I don't go because I love the IP, I go because I love the feeling of being somewhere else. Of not being on earth anymore.
I think the first sign of decline was a Starbucks on Mainstreet, U.S.A. It was a jarring reminder that this wasn't a fantasy kingdom in another world, but earth, just dressed up a bit. That's the OPPOSITE of what Walt originally intended with this park. He was the guy who watched how long people held on to litter before dropping it, in order to determine that trash cans should be no more than 30 paces apart (the average length of time someone would hold on to garbage) Sure, he wasn't perfect, but he was the middle class american that had nothing but a suitcase and a dream. Jpeg, Iger, all of them are trust fund babies or whatever who bought their way into the job and know nothing of reality or the people they serve.
If they really wanted to see profits, put a turbine next to Walt's grave. All that rolling he's doing would generate enough electricity to power the parks for free.
I think that Starbucks is gone now actually
This isn't just a Disney problem it's a political problem it's a management problem it's a leadership problem they're all disconnected from the people that make this nation work. An excellent example of how endemic this problem is comes from something you would never associate with Disney. The Wall Street journal investigating the truck driver shortage found that nobody in the Federal department of transportation heavy truck division knew how to drive a big truck or could legally do so. Right now we're being managed ruled and led by a bunch of trust fund babies that have no idea what they're doing whether it's Disney, Facebook, power companies, government agencies the list goes on and on. If we don't get the brats out there will be dire consequences!
The last line caught me by surprise. Got a good chuckle.
I go to Disney because I love Walt and his vision. That's Why we all go. I am in tears thinking how they ruined the Basic concept.
@@Agtsmirnoff Still there at Disneyland. Can't say about Florida.
When he says he is focused on the 35 and under crowd it tells me just how out of touch with what Disney represents. Disney represents family and shared experiences/nostalgia. When you lose that you lose the entire family, the 60 year old all the way to the 3 year old grand kids. Once those shared family traditions are broken you're just another Six Flags. Bad decisions now are going to last for generations.
You said it perfectly!!!! I totally agree with you! I am sick about Disney now! What really completely ruins the magic is that you have to be on your damn cell phone all day long for every single thing you do in the park That is NOT a vacation!
And not even a good six flags. Six Flags and cedar fair parks get that they aren't Disney. They're thrill parks with intense rides. Disney doesn't have anything like that, they have artistic and amazing experiences but not something like El Toro etc
I really agree with your comment. It made me think of when Walt famously said he didn't make films for just children, he made them for the child in all of us. His parks were made in the same spirit and it's horribly depressing to hear a CEO of Disney not understand that.
Ya Disney is for family if I want to have fun myself there’s much cheaper and more interesting ways to do that than Disney. If I want to go somewhere with my parents it’s Disney
@@hazeldavis3176 oh I agree and I am sick about it! The Bob Paycheck crew does not get Walt's vision at all!
32:05 That situation is exactly what happened to me and my family for Disney World. I'm from Washington State and we went to Disney World for the first time a year or two ago.
My mom planned everything from the plane tickets, to the hotel, to what parks we'd go every day. The first day after we got there we went to Hollywood Studios and that's when we were told at the gates that we didn't have reservations for the parks and we couldn't get in. After some back and forth from the cast member at the ticket window they miraculously told us they'd let us in for the day but they couldn't help us for any of the other days for our trip and if we're lucky, the other parks would let us in for the day too if we got there on opening but it's not likely at all.
On one hand, this was great because we got in, but on the other my mom couldn't enjoy herself the whole day because of how disappointed she was for not knowing about the reservations and flying the family over here for probably nothing. She even had to sit down after getting in to cry.
The next day we did what the cast member said and went to Animal Kingdom before it even opened. We talked to the person at the ticket window. I was sitting away but my mom and them and a pretty lengthy conversation. When she came back, she explained to us that the cast member said she'd usually never do this for anyone but they helped us out because she could see how much it meant to my mom and made sure we had gotten reservations for our family for the rest of our trip (and even got us an extra one for any one of the parks we wanted!)
Sorry for the long story but this was just surprisingly relevant and was a really sad experience to see happen to my mom especially. We ended up having an absolute blast of a time at the parks and my mom started to enjoy herself :>
Your poor Mom. Ugh I feel so badly that happened to her!!!
Your poor mom :( She put in so much effort for everything to go as smoothly as possible, no wonder she got upset. Glad that it worked out ok, but geez that sucks.
I know that feeling. Why add layer on layer to a *theme park?!* Reservations? Are you kidding me??
I'm so sorry for your mom! This shouldn't happen...
The cast members are really the heart of the park and try to do whatever they can, but so often it's hard for them to do anything with management the hell that it is. I feel sorry for them, because it's obvious they have so much love for the movies and experience.
The dream of Disney is dead :( That does not sound like a magical wonderland
Our family has reached the tipping point. We average 2 Disneyland trips per year from out of state. Just got back week ago after 5 days in the parks - BY FAR THE WORST trip we've ever had. Insane crowds, constantly broken rides, poor condition of rides, skyrocketing food costs, ridiculous wait times, etc. Loved Disneyland but even decades of goodwill won't get us back.
Examples of poor conditions of rides I’ve never been to a Disney park
May I recommend Dollywood or Silver Dollar City? Not as themed as Disney but they hit it out of the park with guest experience
@@nightisright1873 Indiana Jones ride constantly has effects that don’t work. Rise of the resistance has dodgy effects and animatronics. List goes on.
try Universal, went there once, went to Disney once. I can tell you its much better
@@admiredgsu1217 which is funny because I've been to both Universal resorts in the USA and Disney resorts on three continents. Universal isn't even close to the quality of Disney pre-Covid. I can't speak for the decline in Disney since then, but the idea that Universal is better is laughable.
I have been visiting Disney Parks for 58 years. Taking family and friends many times. I have given Disney a lot of money. I can no longer continue this. The current and previous management have ruined a place that I love. Pricing the parks out of the reach of the average Joe is, imho, disgusting and heartbreaking.
I’m really unhappy that Bob Chapek is aiming to make Disney Parks out of reach of tourists and more for Influencers
I’m a foreign tourist with enough money to go to Disneyland 8+ times in my life, and even I feel the drop of quality
The problem is, if they lower the prices, then the parks become even MORE unbearable because there's now that many more people there and fighting to go there. The price hikes are the only rational way to keep supply and demand in check. Its just also really "convenient" that they get more and more money and offer less and less for it. What would be a better solution is to build more parks throughout the country, but then Disney wouldn't be "special" anymore so people would stop paying for it.
@@keeleon Well consider that Walt Disney World is located in regulation-free Florida and yet Disneyland in California is more dense with rides and attractions
Not to mention, the ideas like Disney’s America or WestCOT were either incredibly disrespectful or blatantly too expensive
Thats called taking on water - the company that is- they’re taking on allot more all the time and cannot maintain quality.
Imagine the family on their dream vacation only to find the park oversold 😐
The problem is that Disney used to be run by creatives -like Walt Disney- and now, it’s run by “negotiators” and egotists. Well, there you go.
Solid video, I’m glad that you’re also trying to affect the narrative with holding companies accountable. Personally, I think that’s the best consumer practice you can possibly do.
Any new abandoned videoes coming up?
Can you make an abandoned video on the Lone Star Brewery in San Antonio?
pog BSF
That moment when a channel you like comments on another channel you like. 😮😂
I love seeing my disney youtuber documentarian avengers assemble. A full collaboration between bright sun films, poseidon, and Mickey Views would be amazing
Hearing about them tapping into your Disney profile to improve your park experience and using your behaviour in the park to improve your Disney profile was chilling on a Westworld level. This is not the dystopian future William Gibson promised us.
Where are my numbing happy drugs!!
Don't forget Spaceship Earth in the late 2000's asking Kids to send an email to themselves from disney AND taking their pictures. What DID disney do with our kids information?
I wrote an essay for my English class in college 2005 and my topic was how Disneys innovation shaped American lives. Starting with Disneyland's opening. By the time I did all my research I had to change my topic to how Disney has shifted their focus to entertainment only and making money. It was a really lame realization through researching a completely different topic. I had my Mickey shades on and couldn't see the decline over the years.
Its sad but true...once roy disney was gone so was the innovative and artistic spirit walt tried to foster. Granted walt realized it was still a business and compromises needed to be made. And that spirit did last a bit longer...at till the mid 2000s. But now dosney doesn't care about art and creativity any more. It's not the same company.
When to Epcot the other day and I rode the guardians ride and it’s fun but it was so abound they went cheap on A LOT of elements. How they got rid of animatronics and so on. Prices go higher but rides and experiences feel more cheap
It's just a more advanced Space Mountain. That would be fine in a new castle park or an updated version of the ride in a pre-existing park, but definitely not necessary for Epcot.
@@PoseidonEntertainment a *worse version of Space Mountain. One with an ugly and uninspired aesthetic and incomprehensible story, and too much on-ride lighting and poor effects.
@@PoseidonEntertainmentthis is the perfect way to sum up my feeling on this. It's not a terrible attraction, but does not fit here. And what was here before fit perfectly. The attraction does lack imagination, though.
But the park does have one big problem, at least to Disney. Too many children want thrills, and EPCOT was never designed for thrills. So I do get why Disney wanted this. Now each of their Florida parks has a big(ish) coaster.
But is one thrill ride in a huge park, like EPCOT, enough to satisfy teens? Disney is chasing a group that will still find the park a disappointment.
EPCOT is in the top 2 largest theme parks on Earth, yet a large group avoids the park. I'm not sure Disney can truly ever satisfy the masses with thrills, short of replacing the entire park with Islands of Adventure.
They seriously got rid of the Rocket Animatronic?! He was without a doubt the best part of that ride!
@blakea.wittenberg5685 wwll the ride is a hell of a lot better than space mountain. One of my favorite coasters out of over a 100 across the country. They cheaped out on theming though and I hate how they don't build big, stand out structures anymore. Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Spaceship Earth etc. Just an ugly warehouse
I think when Epic Universe opens its going to have a bigger impact then disney realizes. The park is trying to focus more on family's with only 1-2 intense rides, most of the attractions will be family friendly which is something universal lacks right now. The park might be IP heavy but unlike disney, who just slaps IP willy-nilly on rides, universal is taking you fully into the world of the IP. Each land is going to be an attraction of its own and the rides within will be an extention, not necessarily the main draw. Like with diagon alley a lot of people go there for the experience of being in the world, the shops, the food. The Gringotts ride is something to do but you can have an enjoyable time without ever going on the ride. If they put the same attention into the other areas of the park as we see in Super Nintendo World, I think they will have something that, while IP driven, will rival early disney park imaginering
I’ve seen the videos for universal Japan and the Mario expansion is insane! I’m looking forward to having Mario here in the states. I’m curious to see the damage that Disney is not prepared.
I've been telling people that Universal has been angling to eat Disney's lunch. Nobody believes me.
I expect to have the last laugh.
Oh you mean how they have used Transformers? Universal has nothing good to offer. The company is a waste.
Universal is beating the crap out of Disney, and they are still clueless! Disney is headed for a massive death spiral.
The Super Nintendo World and that Donkey Kong mine train coaster are gunna be amazing.
I live in the UK and my whole life my family would go to Orlando every 2-3 years and do Disney World for most of the trip and a couple days at Universal - I’ve always been a devoted fan of the Disney experience.
After watching in horror from overseas how quickly Disney has declined post Covid, I decided to book my first Orlando trip since the pandemic and only go to Universal. We saved so much money, enough that we could afford the premium hotels so free fast pass at the parks, and it was an absolutely brilliant holiday.
Unless Disney do a drastic overhaul of their current practices I can’t see myself going back there for a very long time indeed.
If that's how you feel and if you haven't seen it, I've done a video discussing Universal's new park and how it will change the resort, along with general entertainment throughout Orlando. You might be interested if you have the time: th-cam.com/video/glmi6VDaLUM/w-d-xo.html
Defunctland’s Fast Pass episode actually does a good job of refuting the idea that Genie+ being cheap is the issue… the real issue is that it costs money at all.
Posiden addresses this in the video when he talks about the previous offering being free. The service either needs to cost nothing so people don't feel the need to squeeze value out of it, or incredibly expensive so only a fraction of guests use it.
It's been a while since I've seen that video, but I don't recall that particular information. If that's how he framed it though, I'm going to assert that he's probably incorrect. I go to theme parks often enough to see first hand how these different pricing philosophies affect consumer behavior and park experience.
@@PoseidonEntertainment His basic argument was that by barring Fast Pass behind a premium fee that requires the use of a clunky app you’re ensuring the least informed customers - in his opinion, families who go to Disney once in a lifetime - have the worst possible experience, the average customer - who knows how to use the system but either opts not to due to price or just doesn’t know how to use it optimally - has an unsatisfactory experience, and the high level customer - those who know how to use the system, opt in, and do all the research to make the most optimum use of it (I.e., theme park fanatics and bloggers) are the only ones who have a good experience, a small fraction of the total customer base, and a percentage of the customer base who are most likely to know how the old system worked and understand that Genie+ is a downgrade in every way.
It costed 25 dollars per person per day for a fast lane pass at disneyland around Halloween this year. It'd be worth it if the fast lane lines didn't also have Horrendous wait times like the normal line. My boyfriend and I hated the wait times but the two lines were so similar that we sucked it up and waited forever for rides to save money to keep on our budget. 50 for us wasn't too bad if we did it. But my family did do the fast lanes. My father spent 200 dollars for just four people to get through a few lines faster IN ONE DAY. For two days that's 400 dollars, just to get faster lines and even then you'd be stuck waiting, and the fast line sometimes got so much more priority that you could be in the normal line and wait right at the entrance for ten minutes. This wouldn't be an issue if they could figure out how to handle it better
@@no0nefamouss that explains a lot. Paired with Halloween weekend rush and that explains why we waited so long in standby lines for rides that I remember being able to ride so much faster in 2017 when I last went. I felt bad because my boyfriend was visiting from.michigan and went with us. And it was his first time at the Disney and California adventure parks. I had an impression of what it'd be like. I knew there was a holiday so it'd be hectic that day, but the whole four days was hectic. The last day wasn't as busy but we still waited 40 minutes for pans flight. We saved the ridiculously long wait time rides for the last day so we could at least enjoy the ones that had a justified long standby wait like guardians of the galaxy. Outside of that I felt like I was unintentionally lying to my significant other everytime he asked a question. I answered and then was immediately proven wrong. I was trying to use that stupid app the best I could to map out our days and figure out what we would enjoy most.
I didn't entirely hate it and I'm grateful to my mother for spending so much for not only our family and my boyfriend to go but also her two friends families to go, one of those families however barely entered the parks and their hopper passes aren't expired yet because they didn't go to the park rhe first Day or the last day and apparently left to go back to Utah the third day, they didn't enter the parks really at all and wasted my mother's money she worked hard for to use to so something nice for a friend and that also really soured our moods on top of the park issues. Thar family issue isn't entirely on the park but it certainly wouldn't have lead to them leaving early if the park had been what it normally would have been in 2017. It's disheartening. I'd like to bring my boyfriend again but just me and him this time and choose a very slow time of the year to enjoy the park before it gets worse
This video was so well done!
I make a great salary, my fiancé and I have been insanely fortunate that we’re able to basically weather the storm of insane price hikes EVERYWHERE without much change to our daily lives, so when I went to look to book us a week at Disney and saw how absurd everything has gone up in the 3 years since I was there last, I literally booked 2 weeks in Europe instead…. And it was about 1/4 the price I would’ve spent at Disney. I don’t do things cheap, my fiancé always jokes there are “no half measures” with me so why was it thousands less to stay in an actual castle in a fairly expensive part of Europe for 2 weeks…
I don’t mind paying for a luxury experience, but it is such a blatant “death by a thousand cuts” business model to squeeze every last cent out of its patrons it makes me sick. So my DINK “family” of the two with basically nothing but disposable income even thought “yeah I’m not doing this” despite us being able to afford it, why would I want to? Maybe I’ll go for a day or two/long weekend since we’re on the east coast but that’s nothing compared to the spending I would’ve done in a week had they not tried to nickel and dime me to death.
I've talked to people about Disney Feature Animation and PIXAR becoming homogeneous and been told I'm crazy. Nice to see someone else agree with me.
Do you remember when Eisner shut down the Orlando animation studio, the one that had just finished making Lilo & Stitch and Brother Bear? Yeah, we shouldn't be surprised at what is happening now.
As a former Disney employee, I have to say that you hit the nail on the head. Also, I have to say, that all the money flows to the top. The senior executives keep the workers working slavishly hard, where they are poorly paid and sometimes viscously competing among each other for minuscule, poorly paid promotions. Your assessment of the reservation system and the Genii service is really accurate. I have seen families who traveled from foreign countries get turned away because they didn’t know they need a reservation!. Also, I have waited 2 hours and 45 minutes for ONE ride, and wondered why the line moved so slowly. Then I saw that “the express line” which cost an extra $ 20 Per Person per single ride was the reason for the slow regular line because they were letting anyone in that line on before moving my line., which was now labeled “ standby” (even though it was the regular line). Remember, entrance to the park itself can be as much as $125 to $165 per person per day. So the cost for a family of 4 is starting to get ridiculous, especially if you only get to ride a few rides during that entire day! I concluded, after that experience, that, unless you had a season pass, it simply was NOT worth the money!! It is now priced as a luxury for only the wealthiest families. This is so disappointing!!! It wasn’t like that when I took my whole family 10, 15 or 25 years ago. Now it’s just about the money and the cost for a good experience is prohibitive while the senior executives get multi- million dollar bonuses. It’s really sad. I can tell you that it’s definitely NOT the happiest place on earth.
“How did you go bankrupt?"
"Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Our family left our Disney goals for Universal's theme park back in 2015 after hearing of the incredible expense it was for a close friend of mine in 2013, and how the stress of ending up attending a very busy day lead to a huge argument between her & her husband, which took a long time to recover from well after the trip ended. Universal felt "safer" on our marriage and experience, was easier to plan, and my middle age children wouldn't really be deprived of anything since it was all about the experience - like you said - not the brand per se.
The fact that attending a Disney theme park is now "a marriage test" has become a full-blown meme is especially comical considering my close friend had it happen to her years before the meme and reaffirms the trouble for Disney that you describe.
I worked for DCL for 5 years as fleet wide Cosmetologist (wigs), my dream job, it was perfect, I loved it, then they told me I was going to help open the WISH... What a nightmare. Seven months in Holland/Florida, no organisation, no plans or schedules, covid regulation madness, no equipment, especially for the cosmetology/costume department where we rely on tools and equipment. Nothing was ordered for us, even though they knew the ship would have a cosmetology/costume department. There were Alot of Crew Member disputes and issues, being told by managers to "just get on with it"... Not being able to do my job efficiently because of lack of basic equipment was difficult... They demanded perfection without spending money or checking in on their crew members... And they big up HR dept. Which basically runs narratives onboard and are a waste of time in my opinion. I would work 10hr days most days, 1 because I loved my job, 2 because no one checked on my hours, I wish I knew about silent quiting... Opening the Wish was slap dash and mayhem, after 7 months, they were only going to give me five weeks break after, which isn't enough time to schedule health appointments at home/rest... I asked for more time off and to not be put on the Wish again... I got fired by email after 5 years of loyalty.
That was in August, and I'm still simmering.
They are buying/building more ships, there is no way they will aquire competent talented enthusiastic backstage technical crew after the Wish, we all quit/got fired (my generation of fellow technical crew)
Their not interested in talent or creativity anymore, they just want your money and the souls of crew members.
I idealised the Disney brand from a young age, but after being in the front line of their entertainment work force, thinking I was living my dream job, making a name for myself on the fleet as a Cosmetologist who cares and is competent... They don't care if your good at your job or not, as long as stuff is done to a mediocre level at that time and place, they are satisfied... Standards are dropping.
My recent work colleagues in recent jobs since, turn their noses up to Disney standards, and Iam one of them. I'm so sad because I was literally in love with Disney... And now I feel like I've been worshiping a false profit.
Go somewhere else for your family vaycay, I'm learning there's more to life then Disney guys. I miss my princesses and guest interations, but I'm glad Im out now to pursue other work practices.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. I have encountered a few other former cast members in non-Disney locations around Orlando telling a similar story and feeling betrayed and heart-broken. I myself am a long ago cast member who had planned my entire life thinking I would be living out my golden years as a cast member once again but now I just don’t know what will happen. 💔
Read about housekeeping cast members who also paid union dues and we're hired full time but Dizz shorted those folks to no more than 30 hours a week effectively legally cutting cast member benefits to zip. One woman, living out of her car in Anaheim according to the LAT article died of known cardiac issues ten year employee,54 years old.
The other side of the coin is my admiration for Abigail Disney who has given to charity 60% of her wealth and would be my pick in the same genre as Liz Chaney of Wyoming for reasonable Republicans. Be well✌🏼
What is your native language?
@@himoffthequakeroatbox4320 Scouse.
7:53 you are going to position that Disney's problems are a few waste of money projects with no mention of the deeper issues that are or rather have IMO destroyed this once great experience. How can you explain a problem you won't talk about until you hit your own thermocline? Strike up the fiddle while Rome burns 😢
Something that stuck out to me with John Bull's analysis: Once companies pass the "trust thermocline", they can't just simply roll-back the last few changes and everyone will come back. The trust was already broken.
Also, to touch on the lightning lane: This is making it so much worse for the attractions cast members! It was already tough with FP+, but at least that was free. Now the CMs are taking from both sides: the angry guests that are barely moving in the standby line, and the angry guests that paid to skip and are sill to wait in a long line. God forbid the ride breaks down, because now you have to deal with people that didn't just "pay" with their time by waiting, but also paid real money!
Confucius he say: trust arrives walking, departs on horse.
Every business person understands it's more expensive to earn a new customer through advertising than it is to keep a current customer, but virtually none understands how to telescope that sentiment out to a more meta view of a whole company.
The major shareholder and LBO parasites don't care. If they can sell the trust someone else built before them for a quick buck that is all they wanted.
You are right about Disney's decline. Reservation system is insane. Park hopping is a joke. Genie+ was a terrible idea. Making guests hoop jump, taking away benefits, and charging more money will be Disney's downfall.
It is too bad that Disney isn't utilizing their "new toys" to pay down their debt load. I don't need multiple streaming services. I like physical media. I don't go to WDW to shop.
Re. multiple streaming services, "Mousecorp" obviously thinks differently, and not just them. TimeWarner etc., Paramount, Disney's current rivals at Universal (Peacock+), and so on.
The e-critic Tim Brayton (one of my favorites) opined that if theaters are to go extinct (still a strong possibility), the alternative may be each major studio starting their own $100/month streaming channel. Oh brave new world.
@@andyjay729 theater is fun but expensive and sometimes audience dependent. I just like physical media.
Have been a Disney family since 1978. DVC members since 1996. Disney Cruiser since 2000. Last visit Aug.2022. When will we go again? Possibly never. Felt like we were just there to spend more and more money. No more street performers, impromptu surprises. Cannot see why we spent so much to go to parks and then were expected to spend more to get into an attraction. We should all be treated equally. Never have been able to go to extra events because of the extra costs. Walt would be so horrified that his dream has turned into little more than a money trap.
Finally the theme park TH-camrs are starting to realize chapek is not quite as responsible for ALL the trouble disney is in and that much of what he is blamed for instead stems from iger decisions.
Yes. Iger has been a problem for a long time. Seeing what he was doing to the company and parks was why I let my annual pass expire in 2019, after 20 years.
Even a lot of the theme park vloggers/influencers are having a harder time masking their dismay. It's been wild to watch.
Yup.
Atleast Eisner did great things is his early years.
Iger cheapened everything.
After hearing more of Cheapek's interview with WSJ, it makes me understand another purpose of the genie/genie+ apps--the user has to select rides/experiences they most want to visit, giving Disney valuable info for targeted marketing of Disney+ content to the user.
I think the question there is 'does that actually translate well?' because, I'm not gonna lie, while I enjoy all the various rides as a kid, it was because they were RIDES!
I'm not a huge Indiana Jones Fan, but I made sure to jump in that jeep every time we went. And we used to hit all the old standby dark rides in fantasyland.
Thank you for mentioning the Cast Members… on our recent trip, I have never seen so many Cast at WDW stressed out of their minds, snappish, running around, not to mention so many things still closed that help absorb some of the crowds like gift shops and restaurants due to low staffing. If Bob Chapek really did believe the Cast are at the heart of the experience, he wouldn’t be running the parks on a shoestring (and that Jeff Vhale guy who is Parks President right now isn’t impressing anyone, though at least he’s backed off on some of the least popular decisions like Harmonious BargeVille and Disney+ IP plug fireworks). They claim the attendance is controlled by park passes but the crowds still feel oppressive and excessive. Still Cast Members try to bridge the gap, and are holding the Parks up on their backs. Many good Cast of many years seem to be leaving too, according to who I talked to, and working at Disney World used to be a good job that paid well. Now Cast are not able to afford apartments nearby and are living in motels! Not a good look, Disney. I hope they wake up before they destroy themselves. Thanks for the video!
Part of me wishes Disney cast members would get together and quit en masse. That would hurt Disney. It sucks for whoever reserves a Disney trip at that time but Disney needs to wake up and treat their workers properly. They can't seriously think its viable long-term to have employees who live out of motels. But could cast members, who mostly have Disney as part of their core identity, ever band together and walk out? I think they could out of love for the brand.
When your cast has lost faith it's the beginning of the end.
@@dreamiicloud1179 I wonder why they don't have employee housing on site? They have land, they have a lot of employees, they have utilities, they even already have experience putting up hotels. You'd think they'd be able to house them at relatively little per-person cost with scale of efficiency. There'd be a lot less stress on people if they didn't have worry about making rent or commuting.
@@Veylon They actually do provide housing (for a price of course) to cast members who come from far away, like those in the college program. But I know that’s not what you’re talking about. I would say the answer to your question is money. If Disney doesn’t have to spend it, they won’t. They’re a very greedy company. They don’t seem to care much about the stress and well being of their employees
@@VeylonPls do not try frame on site housing as a good thing for any company to offer for their staff
I never thought Bob Igor as a good CEO being a viewer of Defunctland. I never heard anything good about him so I am surprised he was so well regarded.
To be fair, if your only source of Disney history is Defunctland, then you'd probably consider Michael Eisner as the devil in human form!
I'll miss magic hours so much. The poor kids will never know the magic of walking around Disneyland/Magic Kingdom late at night, with no one around except your love, the lights twinkling and all the rides empty and ready to be walked on. It truly was magical. I'll miss it so much.
And the morning magic hours were great too, you could get 2 or 3 insanely popular rides done quickly before the park even opened to Gen pop. That freed up so much time in your day it killed so much stress and hassle trying to fit everything in.
Back in the early 2000s I had the unpopular opinion (at the time) that Universal Studios was a much better park. At the time Disney didn't have these catastrophic issues, and Universal seems to have a lot of new things now (went to both in both US locations), but I didn't see any of their movies or know any of their brand stuff. From that perspective, Universal felt more real, like I had walked into a wacky cool movie set, and everyone there was having way too much fun with it. A lot of the line waits did a great job of catching me up on the storyline of the ride themes, so I never felt out of the loop. Disney World felt more like this play pretend place where if you couldn't mentally buy into what was going on or you didn't know the characters, it lost a lot of its charm. Disneyland's charm was more authentic, and I appreciated the art more than anything, but it was also an absolute nightmare to be in compared to Universal Hollywood in terms of crowds and lines. Point is, I'm not surprised to hear that Universal has improved a lot more and Disney has not. As someone who never had the exposure to give a damn about their movies, even in the early 2000s, Universal seemed to care a lot more about people having a fun time, the rides (and crowds) were more balanced, and they didn't imply that I should already have a level of endearment or familiarity with things in order to fully enjoy the park. I'm kind of glad they're less of an underdog now, because I'm not gonna lie, Disney gave me the vibe that they thought guests should assume their parks were special, and it felt oddly stiffy.
I went to Disney world in about 2002 when I was 12, and even to me, it felt like just "buildings and concrete." I remember seeing a little cobblestone building (maybe in Epcot?), and thinking "oh neat, what's in there?" only to find out it's a gift shop, and up close, the cobblestone was shiny and plastic looking...
The most magical experiences I had there were space mountain (great, easy rollercoaster) and swimming in the Disney hotel swimming pool at night, lol.
There was way too much walking with nothing to really see, many things looked REALLY fake or cheap which prevented immersion, and Cinderella's castle felt like a somewhat nicer, sit down food court (always packed). I ordered a special drink that was advertised as being served "in a glass slipper" that you could take home as a souvenir. It sounded like I was going to get an actual glass slipper with a straw sticking out or something, which I thought was awesome and hilarious to my child brain! But it turned to just be a glass mug... like a beer Stein. It was very high quality, but such a let down from what was described and what I imagined. Though, I'm also autistic, so maybe I just took things too literally? idk. They also had a throne in the castle that you could use as a photo op, which I got excited for, but ultimately didn't do because the actual throne was crappy looking and small (some adults wouldn't fit in it) and there was like no decor around it. It was really lame.
The tower of terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster were too much for me, so I didn't ride them (the latter was severe sensory overload, so I had to leave the line). And everything else was like kiddie rides. Most of the time, I just remember walking around, or waiting around while people did other things. There was very little to excite me. The whole trip was honestly a bummer.
It's funny you mention this. When I think back to my family vacation to Orlando in 2003 when I was 12 I have a few memories that stand out. Many are of the rides and experience of Universal Orlando with The Hulk, Dueling Dragons and the Spider Man ride. Disney, I only really remember Space Mountain and the amount of walking we did bouncing around end-to-end of the park. I also remember how similar the experience was to Disneyland in California that I had visited 5 years prior.
Eh, we went to both earlier this year and preferred Disney. Universal did a worse job at crowd control, and there were things that were included or cheaper at Disney than at Universal. We felt nickle-and-dimed at Universal - we had to pay to rent lockers on every single ride, and the fast pass equivalent was ridiculously expensive compared to Genie+. We also preferred the immersive environments of the Disney parks versus the Universal parks, even taking into account the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Since we went because we are both Star Wars and Harry Potter fans, I decided to price compare equivalent merch. The HP wizard robes at Universal were made of a cheap polyester and cost around $150, the Jedi robes at Disney were made of cotton and cost $100. When you think of the cool things from both IPs, you think of HP wands and SW lightsabers. The interactive wands at Universal are $63, with the cheap wands being $55. Now if you do the lightsaber experience at Disney, then your lightsaber will cost you $260, and fancy replicas will cost you between $100 - $200. But we bought some decent replica lightsabers for $40, and you can go even cheaper for little kids with their non-Savi's lightsaber building for $30. Also, to see all of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, you have to buy 2 park tickets for the single day, and constantly move back and forth between the 2 parks with ticket checks all day. It was a huge hassle. To see all of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, we only had to buy 1 park ticket and could spend the day there.
Where I come from, this is called "eating your seed corn". You can fill the parks with people who will spend a lot of money because it's a couple-of-times-a-decade experience but they don't have any connection, and when the shine wears off they won't be coming back.
We took our son to Europe for Mediterranean cruise because it was cheaper than a week at Disney. No joke.
NO
@@Aaaadisiznejddososydbs YES
I feel like the sudden drop will come with the openings of Super Nintendo world.
Once fans of those IPs go and see what a creative world is there, and how much easier it is to have a vacation at Universal vs Disney.
I don't think so, because Super Nintendo World is more of an attraction, it's not a full on theme park like Islands of Adventure or Hogwarts.
No Star Fox or Pokemon at a Nintendo world? Just missed potential.
@@millabasset1710 its just the first phase
@@millabasset1710 Are you talking about Orlando? Because Super Nintendo World in Epic Universe is not only three attractions but is also going to be one land in a whole new park, so...
Super Nintendo World will be two full immersive lands (Mario and Donkey Kong) with three attractions and plenty of interactive experiences. It will certainly be on par with Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade.
There is an expansion pad beside Super Nintendo World that could hold additional attractions themed around other Nintendo properties. Universal will also integrate Nintendo properties and Pokémon into the other parks. For example, there are longstanding rumors that Universal will retheme The Lost Continent to The Legend of Zelda.
Someone I know was addicted to gambling and had to stop watching sports at bars with friends cause everyone is on their phones checking their bets. I hate that Disney is getting into that awful business but I am not surprised
They got rid of something REALLY GREAT to make room for the NBA Experience - "Disney Quest". It was basically 5 stories of video games. You paid for entry and could play as much as you wanted. There were a few snack bars scattered around that also served alcohol. For me, Quest was a great deal and loads of fun. I was sad to see it go.
I always thought NBA experience was a bad idea.
I never really thought highly of Disney Quest, other than through how I remember it nostalgically. If they had actually invested in updating it though, I think it could actually still be a staple of Disney Springs.
They did the same with Illuminations ROE - They replaced one of the best if not the best nighttime show with a sub-par Harmonious
@@agon1963 My opinion: Disney Quest = revenue from the entrant. NBA Experience = revenue from the entrant + the NBA. Some joint marketing BS. With Disney now, it's all about the money. The experience no longer matters. (Edited to fix terrible grammar and spelling!)
Our family LOVED Disney Quest!
I have great memories of the Disney World of my childhood, which no longer exists. Lately, they've taken ownership of unrelated but formative influences on my youth ( Star Wars and Indiana Jones ) and actively pursued their ruin. I have not merely passed a tipping point with Disney, or withdrawn trust. I have come to despise what they have become.
I was a huge Star Wars/Lucas film fan for 20 years. After Disney got its hands on it star wars has been dead to me. I genuinely hate Disney now.
i did the disney college program fall of 2021 after having my 2020 program canceled. I dreamed of doing it for years, but it was quite literally the worst few months of my life. disney has changed and it makes me sad.
I did the DCP in Spring ‘22 and it was a horrible experience.
What happened? I was said I cancelled that i didnt go
@@MarketingMovies1337 I had covid or severe colds at least 3 times. Plus I was recast three times in my first month. By the time I was at my third location I felt uncomfortable and fearful that a new role was a week away. As a result I didn’t fit in with the other CP’s in my home location. Leadership team at the third location was a nightmare. Once I was fully trained and working in that location for a month, it was time for a change. I found a group of people to trade with every week. In the end, I spent 2/3 of my program at other locations without the ability to enjoy the program. I studied broadcasting in college with the hope of developing a strong connection with the company. The icing on the cake was knowing that my attendance points were to high for a transfer by the end of the first five weeks of my program. I was forced to finish the program to leave on good terms for the opportunity to be instantly rehired.
When it started, I believe that Disney offered classes in hospitality, guest service and even offered actual college credit (I believe it doesn't anymore?). Now it's literally just a ploy for cheap labor.
@@PoseidonEntertainment when i tell yall i literally had to go home and enter inpatient therapy because my mental health got SO bad
Growing up in SoCal with a mother who worked at the park (Storybook Land guide and Snow White), I have countless positive memories of Disneyland. As a parent raising his children less than an hour from Anaheim, I very much wanted my children to have similar indelible experiences at the Magic Kingdom, and spent a large pile of money to that end...All for naught.
Even twenty years ago when my kids were little, something was going haywire at Disneyland. Our trips were overcrowded, high-stress nightmares, with many of the legacy rides non-functional, lousy food insanely overpriced, and lines for the rides that were working stretching off into the horizon.
When I was young, we (my brothers and I) were always eagerly anticipating and nagging our parents about our next trip to Walt's Wonderland. My children never once made a similar inquiry, even while simultaneously devouring Disney video offerings and toys. Standing in line for two hours in the blazing son in a crush of people is not something anyone in their right mind seeks to reexperience.
Now that they have their own families, I find it interesting to note that they avoid Disneyland with cause. One son of mine with three younger children just spent three days at Legoland and they all had the time of their lives. They are also enthusiastic about Universal and Sea World, and although my kids are all huge Star Wars nerds, they are uninterested in overcoming the well-ingrained downsides of Disneyland to check out the Star Wars themed areas and rides now available there.
I myself now only go to Disneyland as part of my or my wife's professional association's functions there where a land (last time it was Frontierland) is rented by the association for it's members exclusive use. These are great fun and a little taste that is still possible of what Disneyland once was because of the low numbers of people to contend with and not feeling like you are being fleeced at every turn.
I have a booklet from Disneyland's opening day (I wasn't even born yet, it was a gift) that is a prized possession, and when looking at it I can't help but ponder what Walt might think of what his magical creation has morphed into. Money isn't everything and the relentless seeking of ever-greater profits has been slowly strangling Disney's golden goose for decades now.
'Trust Thermocline' in decline indeed.
You're far from alone. Myself, I had exactly ONE good experience in the new Star Wars land. Got to pilot the Falcon into hyperspace. Hit peek Star Wars nerd right there and I'm good forever. The rest of it just doesn't vibe with me for some reason and I saw SW in theaters in the 70's! They're definitely doing so many things wrong.
EPCOT was fantastic when it first opened in the 80's. I had the world at my footsteps and could visit other "countries" in World Showcase and meet people from the country in the cast members. I loved Innoventions East and West. There was so much new technology and hands on learning exhibits. It was fun when it was educational. Then Disney execs ruined it and now it's only good for the restaurants and Spaceship Earth.
I absolutely loved original Epcot. It was my favorite park by far.
Back in the 80s Innoventions was CommuniCore. But yeah I miss the "permanent worlds fair" theme Epcot used to have. They need to bring it back if they want people to get excited about Epcot again.
Definitely dropped off steeply around the mid-00s
I always see people today defend the World Showcase because of the food, but I don't even think of it as a food park anymore. I definitely paid $30 for Panda Express at Nine Dragons when I went a year ago.
EPCOT used to be my favourite when I was a kid, but it really seems like a ton of wasted space + World Showcase now. I always thought it started going downhill when they converted The Living Seas to Finding Nemo, and it's only continued to replace unique attractions with IP placement.
Great vid, as usual. You know, I kept wondering, with all the money the parks are making, where the hell is it going? They aren't making new animated movies (when I was a kid, there was a new hand-drawn Disney flick in the theaters every three or four years, and when they re-released one of the older ones every 7 years, it was an EVENT), and they sure as hell aren't keeping up the park maintenance; we used to go to Disney World every summer with my grandparents, and the rides were NEVER broken, even though they were 10-20 years old by then. And for families traveling from out of state, there was ALWAYS the option for us to buy tickets BEFORE the trip and we were never turned away from the gate. We'd buy 4 days' worth of park-hopper passes, and there were only so many of those sold I remember, because at one point we were told there were no more park-hopper tickets for the time we were going to visit, but we could get the single park tickets instead. Because, in an effort to control crowd sizes, they only sold so many park hoppers each day and so many single park tickets each day.
And you know what, that was fine with us because back then there was no REASON to hop parks. It took an entire day to see everything in EPCOT (it was the mid-80s, after all, and Future World was FULL of stuff to do) and honestly it was pushing it to get the entire park squeezed into one day (I kept trying to convince the grown-ups to let us skip the circlevision films in all the World Showcase pavilions, because you had to stand, first of all, and second of all as a kid I was always too short to get a good view.) And it always took *at least* 2 days to see everything in the Magic Kingdom. I honestly can't remember what we did with the 4th day because we never went to Typhoon Lagoon and Animal Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney Hollywood Studios) weren't a thing yet. (I think we might have spread out the MK into 3 days.) Sure, the lines were always long, but we never waited more than 45 mins for anything, because the idea of making everybody wait so certain families who paid more money could skip ahead of the rest of us in line wasn't something that was done. Waiting in the queues was the great equalizer. No matter how rich and privileged you were, or how hard your family had to save to make that trip, we were all in line together, reading the maps to decide which ride to go to next and discussing how fun the last ride was or how much we were looking forward to the one we were waiting for. The parks were CLEAN--there was never trash in the street or an overflowing trash can, because a cast member was scooping it up before you could blink--there were plenty of staff there to be sweet and kind to you and help you find your way, and the gift shops were SEPARATE from the rides rather than being something you had to walk through to exit the ride. It was a magical experience that I adored.
But about 15 years ago, we took my nephews when they were little kids. Fastpass was just becoming a thing, or maybe it had been there a while and we never heard of it before, and we did use it for the Haunted Mansion, getting a paper ticket that told us what time to return to ride. But the parks were not as well staffed as I remembered, the characters were no longer wandering the park streets as much as they had before, so we had to stand in line for the boys to meet Mickey. I can understand that; poor Mickey and Minnie used to get absolutely MOBBED before and it was hard to get a pic with them. But then we walked out, and the smell from the trash can outside the pavilion just knocked me over. There was a lot of trash actually in the streets, the park was not as beautifully landscaped as it had been in my childhood (I have tons of pics Grammie took to prove it), and overall there seemed to be fewer cast members around to ask for help or report a full trash can to. I thought maybe my memories were tainted by the fact that I had been a kid at the time and maybe it was idealized in my head, but when I asked Mom, she said no. She saw a huge difference between when she brought us as a harried single mom dealing with two kids and now as a grandmother handling 2 grandkids, but with the help of their grandpa, their aunt, their great-aunt, and their dad. She said the fact there was more family to help with wrangling the kids should have made the trip more relaxing and enjoyable, but she had a better time when we were little because the parks were just nicer then. She had been looking forward to sharing the magic with her grandkids, and she said it seemed like a lot of the magic had gone out of the parks, and it felt that way to me.
Now, when I look into the WEEKS of planning that has to go into a Disney park trip, deciding which park to visit on which day and having to *reserve a table in advance for a counter-service restaurant or quick-service sit down meal* I mean what the actual f*** (reservations used to be just for the fancy places) and having to plan out every single ride and no where you are going to be every minute of the day, and spend most of the day on your damn phone pre-ordering your meals and checking the ride wait times (which, as it turns out, aren't truthful anyway), I just cannot fathom spending what basically amounts to $2,000 for a 4-day trip. I could take a 6-day cruise for less money. It's bad enough that they gauge you with parking fees in the parks, but now, even if you stay in one of their hotels, you have to pay a daily parking fee?? I'm coming from metro Atlanta, not the midwest...I'm not flying in. So I can't leave my car behind and catch a ride from the airport to a Disney hotel, then rely on the park transportation to get around.
I really wanted to stay at a moderate resort and get the whole experience, but the more I look at it, I wonder...why? What is there to experience? Epcot is half empty and has lost its mission statement, There is not enouh to do at Hollywood Studios anymore, and Batuu/Star Wars land doesn't live up to the promise of the Star Wars weekends held every May in the park before Disney bought out LFL and stopped holding the event (where are the aliens? The characters we came to know and love over the 20 years of movies? Where are the cool rides we were promised? (There are only 2 of them, and one is always broken, the other is a glorified video game.) Where are the immersive "experiences" we were told we would get? Ok, sure, you can "build" a droid or a lightsaber...if you shell out over $100 bucks. And the options are limited (extremely limited for the lightsabers) and don't change very often. The rest of it is behind a paywall in the "hotel" which only gives you a half a day experience in the park, and the rest of it is, again, a glorified video game/escape room combo. And btw, the rooms on this supposedly "luxury starliner" SUCK, and you get better luxury rooms on an _actual_ cruise ship. (Also, any Star Wars nerd--and only us true SW nerds would pay for that experience--can tell you that it takes more than a couple of 15-second hyperspace jumps to get from Coruscant to the Outer Rim where Batuu is supposed to be, so the LED screens pretending to be windows should be showing the hyperspace effect for most of your stay. But whatever...I'll never pay that much money to stay there.)
The more I look at the cost of a Disney trip, the more I think I would be better off going on a cruise so I can visit a place I haven't been before, have a longer trip, and spend less money for better accommodations and experiences. There are so many ways Disney could implement crowd control--they used to do that--but they would rather stuff as many people as they can into the park, sucker them into paying more money to supposedly get through the lines quicker, stress them out by making them throw out any scintilla of spontaneity and put them on a schedule where they have to watch every second of their day, and HOPE that when they get fed up because the ride they want to ride is broken, they will spend money in the gift shop to kill time until they can go to the next ride. And the idea that you would force that family from Denver who makes Disney their once every 5 years vacation to stand there and watch *10* other groups get on the ride before they can and then tell them, "Oh, well you should have spent $15-$25 more *per person* so you can get on this ride faster, and btw, you have to pay that out per ride, too," and think this will make them return to your park is NUTS.
When Disneyland opened, you had to pay for your tickets per ride, just like any county fair, and btw you had to pay more depending on whether the ride was A-ticket, B-ticket, C, D, or E-ticket ride, with the E-ticket rides being the most desirable ones and therefore costing the most money. That model was sharply criticized, which is why they did away with it when the opened Disney World. Now, it seems like they have gone back to that ide. You wanna ride Rise of the Resistance? Hey, that's E-ticket ride, you are going to need to make a reservation to ride that, and you're really going to need to spend $25 bucks more so you can get on it early in the day before it breaks down.
DW/DL doesn't sound like FUN anymore. It sounds like a chore and a headache.
Disney is one of the companies that could stoop very low and still receive loyal customers. Still, they are digging themselves a grave right now because they obviously do not care about customer experience and long as it is enough to keep them coming.
The higher the disposable income, the higher the loyalty.
They thanked a concentration camp.
Imaging watching a movie made in Africa and you saw “And thanks to Kony for his support”
Shits disgusting
That's because they catch their consumer since childhood, so creating an emotional connection with the brand is easier.
@@Jose04537 yup, even though Disney has changed a lot, in which most would argue for the worst.
a good way to know if consumers are enjoying your park is by going undercover and seeing how the park truly is, see how everything works without others telling how it works, then you can truly understand how consumer feels and make the changes to it, or just ask the community lol
We are at Disney right now. Seeing what is going on here, the prices, the cast member moral... we opted to stay out of parks and look for off property options. It's a sad state.
The cast are really trying. They are still the best part of Disney!!
i just finished my disney college program and if you're wondering why, cast members are incredibly overworked with no benefits, and the most crucial ones are college students working 40-50 hours a week. i had 9 day weeks. at the beginning of my program we weren't even able to access the parks. the benefits for being a cast member are not at all what they used to be, and these problems are put on the backbone of the disney cast to deal with. i've had grown men verbally assault me over these changes. it sucks.
i came into my program with so much love and enthusiasm for this company and the state of things really crushed that. i always wanted my career to be disney and now i'm questioning if that's even a safe bet.
I'm so sorry I felt the same in August with my son. He is 9 and said can we go to legoland next year.
As a lifelong resident of the Tampa area and born to Disney lovers, my first visit to WDW was in my first few months of living in 1974. We were literally at Disney every weekend, vacation, holiday, school break, birthday, death, birth, graduation, wedding, divorce and just because… Over the years we have stayed at every resort, ate at every restaurant, attended every special event and partook in every attraction and activity available in the parks and resort area. Our family photo albums look more like Disney memorabilia then a families memories and I as well as my 3 younger sisters were proud to carry on our family Disney legacy. That was until our last trip in 2015 when none of us renewed our annual passes. The writing was clear to us that the Disney that was had been altogether destroyed and what had emerged was nothing we were intrested in. Though my parents have been back twice since then I am glad that we have not and according to them the last time was their last time. Though we never had it, I wouldn’t have ever believed this possible but my parents even canceled their DisneyPlus. I’m sad to see where the Bob’s have taken the Disney Co but am happy to have the memories and thankful to have gotten out without having to experience the worst, especially of what’s coming…
At this point it wouldn’t matter what they did or offered, we have simply moved on and found bgreener pastures!
They sure burned through my trust. They used to be all about "the guest experience" but no more. Born in the early 1950s I was raised on Disney, Disneyland was my happy place. Even when I wasn't living in California I visited once a year. But Disneyland is not a place to be governed in your movements. Reservations and paying for things that were once free broke the Disney experience for me. They would install pay toilets now if it were legal. Disney greed was the nail in the coffin.
Reservations and paying for things that were once free broke the Disney experience for me. (I AGREE WITH YOU AND AM SAD)
It bums me out that they changed Epcot so much. I’m glad I got to experience the park when I was a kid a couple of times. Maybe I’m a dorky outlier, but I loved feeling like I was talking a “trip around the world” since I had never left the US. I loved Norway, Japan and China. The food was also really good. (I have heard it’s pretty awful now.) Now it just seems like a ✨CaPiTaLiSm✨theme park. 😭
You’re not alone at all! Words can’t express the feeling that was there!
Remember Maelstrom and the old ride in the Mexican pavilion that was a blissful, short journey around the country? Now it’s Donald Duck and the Three Caballeros screaming at me 😭 and even as a little kid I loved it, I didn’t need cartoons to enjoy it.
All of these videos leave out the one entity that could have stopped everything. The Board of Directors. Disney has an horrific board. They all come from three distinct industries. Finance. Technology. Consumer Good. There is no one on the board from the entertainment or hospitality industries.
I think there is a clear reason for these omissions on the board. Chapek and the executive team think they know so much about these industries that they don’t want anyone looking over their shoulders telling them how screwed up things are at the parks and resorts. It’s dumb and dumber at the top making all the decisions.
Just my two cents.
This is my theory for the games industry too; why it's been in a constant decline over the past decade. When the CEO only cares about money, that bleeds into the products or experiences the company makes. They don't care if it's not the best, they only care about the profits.
I think park attendance is high after the pandemic shutdown. People were going stir crazy and then after reopening, a surge of interest to go. However right after is when the Genie + started so it's created this initial push but will not entice return visits. Great analysis video! Keep up the great work
While Universal has been making leaps into providing better experiences to guests over the years since the success of Harry Potter in the parks, having worked there on two separate occasions I am sad to say that their treatment of employees has dramatically worsened over the past few years. The culture went from surviving together against ornery, tired guests (understandable, its hot and they have long days of walking and standing) and instead employees fighting with management on the daily over nitpicks, incorrect write-ups, and general hostility. All of the major theme parks in Florida (I've worked at two and have friends that work in the third) have been worsening their treatment of their employees. Disney and SeaWorld/Busch Gardens have been doing it for years, Universal was the last one standing with decent employee relations and it sucks to see it fall too. I became privy to some big decisions surrounding the park before I left and it was odd seeing how indecisive the new leadership was after the CEO left the company earlier this year. I hope that Universal gets itself back up with employee treatment and becomes the leader in employee relations again in the theme park industry, but from what I heard about the new upper management... I don't have high hopes.
Anyways, Disney has been my least favorite sets of parks for a long while and their recent actions have cemented that. The brand is so over-inflated with IPs that don't mix well that it lacks the special spark of inspiration. It just feels so stale, bloated, and overwhelming.
My family and I used to be crazy about Disney. We went to Disneyland multiple times a year for vacations, it was the one thing we could all agree on and have fun together. It started to lose its shine for me a few years ago, but when my grandparents and my dad had nothing but negative things to say about their latest trip, I knew it was bad. It's sad to lose that connection with all the wonderful times we shared at the park (literal decades of memories for my parents and grandparents) but I would rather put my money towards a real vacation instead of chasing the nostalgia and being disappointed
Ugh. I cringe whenI hear Chapek pretend that it’s all about the guest’s experience. Funny how he said that the best feedback about the guest experiences were their interactions with castmembers. Yet nothing seems to get better on that end. It’s never been about people. It’s been about profits. They are still underpaid and overworked. I think it’s disgusting. What little bonuses they get sometimes are a total joke. They do that so they don’t have to give any cash. Oh! But they do get a special preview to what new merchandise is coming out. All the money they wasted on scrapped projects and all the unreasonably high price hikes, and they couldn’t give their cast members a livable wage. Yet the company wants them to be available all hours, yet guarantee them part time work. But that’s corporate greed for you. I just wish they would cut the bs about how it’s about the guest experience. Here’s a guest experience. Paying $65 a day to stay at a Disney Hotel in Disneyland property. I’m sure they will be doing backflips with that experience.
“Guest Experience”
Half of Disneyland was shut down (the rides across half the park were not working) when I last visited and that was Christmas Day 2021.
Think about it: Disneyland park was bogged down by bad maintenance on CHRISTMAS DAY. On the 120th anniversary of Walt Disney’s birth
@@mariomouse8265 I am so sorry that happened to you. That’s just awful.
@@mariomouse8265I went last year, the lines were so long, each of them took over at least an hour to two hours, I don't feel like to go anymore.
I was very very young when I first experienced Disney, MGM Studios, Universal Studios. so I'll admit that I wasn't fully aware of the tricks they were pulling on perspective and my senses, but the scale and detail of things like _The Great Movie Ride_ or _Splash Mountain_ or especially _Kongfrontation_ blew my MIND. I will never forget standing in the queue line for Kong and seeing all the grimey, dirty wall details filled with graffiti to look like a '70s New York Subway station with the news reports blaring on TVs and sounds of roars in the distance as being one of the most epic and engaging experiences of my young life. I'll never forget that. small details make a big impact.
and I see _so many_ videos these days of modern attractions which all seem to be built around the idea of "Video Screens And That's It." _impressive_ screens, absolutely no doubt. it's amazing what they can do these days with digital projection. absolutely incredible. I'd sure love to see a movie that plays around with that stuff. if done right.
but to wait in line for hours to see a series of screens? where's the magic in that - where's the _trickery_ in that?
and another question: why did Disney backpedal so furiously (at first) on the Star Wars Prequel's famous green screen nightmare zone of cheap CGI in favor of marketing heavily the use of real props, practical effects and a more old-fashioned approach for that first Star Wars sequel? (and that _Was_ a movie!)
that Buzz Lightyear "attraction" just looks pretty sad. cardboard cutouts in front of a very nice, wrapping digital screen and the guests are in a slowly moving tram. that's it. like _The Movie Ride,_ only without the real sets, the real smoke, smells, lights, performers, imagination and verve.
people have been talking about The Decline of Disney for decades. and while I'm not so convinced they're about to drop off a cliff like everyone else seems to think (or hope), I can say this with absolute certainty: a Disney Theme Park is not at all a place I'd want to visit as an _adult._ not even with kids. and if I'm not nearly the only one who thinks like this, well, we'll see. I know our _entire generation_ is united in feeling burnt out on Disney stuff, yet the profits - as you state here - only seem to rise.
so are they doomed? nah, probably not. maybe. we'll see. they've been for me, though. and it seems for many of us.
be well, everyone. we'll get there.
I so agree with the nightmare green screen and CGI. It's such a cheap and less remarkable way of movies these days. Even if the audience could see things as props the inventiveness made it all so magical.
Chapek really has really taken us to that point. Iger set him up, but chapek has shown to have no idea what consumers want
Empty suits like Iger and Chapek don't care what consumers want, only shareholders. They simply take consumers for granted until they no longer show up.
Even though Chapek was forced out just after you made this video, I can't think of a more accurate and prophetic analysis of just what will happen to Disney. Park attendance is down this summer, and I think it will continue. Disney burned through consumer trust on all fronts, and now they are going to suffer for it
The best Disney Park is without a doubt the one in Japan. It’s hands-down now the best one. The atmosphere, the food, the merchandise, the celebrations, the rides and just the attention to even the smallest details have made that park so much better than anything they offer here in United States. Of course if you know anything about the situation in Japan and the reason why it has become by far the best it is due to the fact that Disney executives do not run that park!
Oriental Land Company runs it and runs it the way it should be ran and the way Disney many years ago would run their parks. They don’t cut corners or reduce budgets or just put something up so something fills the space. They want it to be the best and look the best and want it to be the way they know consumers and their customers want it to be. I wish here in United States just the way the parks look in Japan on the outside would be amazing to see here. The attention to details on the rides and the fact that they want to use animatronics and do things the right way is what I wish we could get back to here.
When I see Japanese tourists at the parks here, I almost feel embarrassed. They always seem to look like they're having a good time, yet I have to wonder if internally, they're thinking that the quality is so much lower.
"It's not like Disney's going to remake Oliver and Company or the Black Cauldron."
Ironically, remaking their worse movies would give them the opportunity to redeem ideas that didn't turn out well the first time around. I mean, I could make an argument against revisiting Black Cauldron/Prydain: too expensive to make, Narnia never had legs, it nearly bankrupted the company last time, it's like a more simple LOTR while simultaneously being too scary for small kids. But on the plus side, if they improved on the script and pacing of the first movie, I think it might have a large audience and give them a chance to make further books in the series.
Oliver and Company wasn't a bad movie.
They should make a live action version of Black Cauldron and follow the book.
I loved both those movies as a kid.
Dragon Prince has a lot of similarities to the books Black Cauldron was based on and it's awesome.
@@keithlarsen7557 I only read Black Cauldron but I liked Oliver... I think they're both just thought of as risky properties and Disney is currently risk-adverse and they don't want to do anything too high-concept.
An hour-long video from Poseidon Entertainment voicing his opinion on modern day Disney leadership, a PERFECT way to spend an hour lunch break at work
Ironic that TH-cam suggests this video to me on the day that Iger announced Disney is open not only to selling off ABC, Nat Geo, Freeform, and FX but also equity in ESPN. With the Box Office failures of their recent Blockbusters and the ongoing writers strike / SAG strike, they're in dire straights and starting to feel the squeeze of lost consumer trust predicted in this video
Great analysis! My family had a conversation about many of these issues recently and cancelled a ten-day trip for next year. We're going to Europe instead and it will be cheaper. I think more and more stories like this will add up over time and eventually company execs will take notice. We may revisit the parks again in decade or so if they begin fixing some of the problems. It would take years to breathe creative life back into the parks department and then years after that to actually construct anything meaningful.
Asuming creative life can be pumped back in. Once the imagineers go and the creative department becomes an empty shell there is no guarantee it can be brought back to life.
A Europe trip definitely sounds cool. Are you planning to visit any parks over there?
If you are visiting parks, don't skip phantasialand and efteling! And perhaps puerta ventura or the uk depending where you go in europe.
@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 and europa park in germany, not to be missed
I am local to Orlando and I can’t imagine spending ten days at DisneyWorld. I think you’re making the right choice. Hell, maybe consider a trip to Japan for next time lol I heard their parks are great.
Another interesting detail with Disney vs. Universal is Brightline. Brightline is a privatized passenger rail service with stations along South Florida. A few years ago, Brightline announced plans to expand into Orlando, with the first stop being at MCO and the second one being at Disney Springs. The original route would've completely bypassed Universal and I-Drive, so the I-Drive Chamber of Commerce managed to not only persuade Brightline to build a third station in the area, but also managed to secure funding for the station to happen. The cherry on top, though, is that Universal donated (for free) land from their Epic Universe project for the third Brightline station. Well, when the new route was finalized, Disney actually pulled out of the project, essentially telling Brightline to not build a station at Disney Springs (not sure why that makes any business sense). I am unsure if they will build a station around that area and off Disney property. I personally support the new route, as with a station near Epic Universe, it allows for our commuter rail (SunRail) to access the airport, and by extension, Universal and I-Drive, allowing for a greater range of accessibility throughout the Orlando Metropolitan Area.
As I wrote this, I think the reason why Disney pulled out is because with SunRail access (I don't think the original plan had SunRail access), it gives guests a greater range of hotel options, as they could simply stay at a hotel near a SunRail station, and then take the train to the parks rather than pay for parking. I also think that it would have made it easier for guests staying at Disney to leave Disney property for Universal, which I'm sure is a big no-no to upper management. Anyways, I figured its something that you might find interesting especially considering the topic of poor business decisions and anti-consumer practices on Disney's part.
I do actually cover that in another video. It's not a huge part, but it plays into the narrative of how Universal's new park will change the entertainment landscape of Orlando. You'll probably be interested in it: th-cam.com/video/glmi6VDaLUM/w-d-xo.html
Disney should honestly give the theme park management rights to The Oriental Land Group
I agree. That company is something else.
I totally agree with you; I read a comment allegedly at one time there was a rumour that around 2008. Bob Iger was actively shopping the Disney Parks to foreign investors and hoping to dump and license them like the Tokyo Disneyland is operated at this time. While this did not happen I am curious about having the domestic parts being run fully by a third party like Tokyo Disneyland is run totally by The Oriental Land Company and/ or an American company that is equivalent who will care about the Disney park name. Another option is for there to be a partnership between the Walt Disney Company and another company similar to the deal of Hong Kong Disneyland which Disney owns 47% and the government 53%.Then there is Shanghai Disneyland were in this case, Disney owns 43% and China 57% and park operations are tasked to a management company that is 70% owned by Disney.
My impression is the parks are making money but they are putting the profits into streaming over the parks.
I can't say I would disagree, at this point in time. But TOLC is very differently run. When Tokyo Disney Sea was being designed, Disney asked for input on budget(s), and ideas. OLC told Disney they didn't care about costs nearly as much as Disney does, as long as solid attractions were delivered. The only times the two companies disagreed was when it came to maintenance. OLC told Disney to make changes to Indiana Jones Adventure, to replace unproven effects (that broke too frequently) with effects that were much more reliable. (And possibly better as well.)
Disney for their parks has only worried about costs (maintenance, staffing, etc.) and profit margins.
How is it that OLC is more profitable then? (And that's after paying Disney's royalties, design fees, and even a % of profits!)
Walt himself said to not worry about the profits. Build what people want, and attractions that impress, and the profits will follow.
@@jheiden2 well TOLC is just insane. I mean Japenese People love Disney.TOLC just understands their crowd. I mean DisneySea is on another level. The Theming, the Staff, the Food and overall the Feeling in the Park is absolutely insane. The Main Disney just is completely out of touch. They showed it with Disneyland Paris for the first time and now in in their Mainparks
I'm a big supporter of Disney. I have owned Disney stock for 20 years or so, I have Disney Vacation Club, Disney+, and I've taken frequent trips to WDW from out of state. What I've watched the Disney parks decline into is heartbreaking. I first began to really notice about 9 or 10 years ago and it just keeps getting worse. I agree with everything said in this video. I am currently at a breaking point with Disney. I have a trip planned, but the majority of that trip will not be spent at Disney parks, but instead checking out the other parks in the Orlando area. It's not as easy for me to just break off all contact because I have a teen with intellectual and developmental disabilities who certainly doesn't understand the ways that it has changed and the added stress involved now.
He has always loved Disney and enjoys the themed slower family rides compared to the thrill rides at most other parks. His physical limitations also keep him from riding the more extreme rides He also loves all the original Pixar movies and a few of the sequels. The fact that I'm hoping to find an alternative park for him to visit for future vacations is a major red flag.
I would definitely recommend SeaWorld if you treat it like an aquarium/zoo. It seems that the big coasters wouldn't be appropriate for him but I can certainly see someone getting a lot of value out of the zoological exhibits and shows. The same goes for Gatorland as well if you can handle the heat. Another interesting attraction might be The Wheel at Icon Park. I don't think it's a great value by itself, but when you bundle the ticket in with Madame Tussauds and the SEA LIFE Aquarium there, you can easily spend a few hours in the area and it's a much better value. I also recommend the dinner shows like Medieval Times as well. I went earlier this year and was surprised with how entertaining it actually was (and the food was far better than expected as well).
@@PoseidonEntertainment SeaWorld is on the list of parks to try because he loves zoos/aquariums and because they have a Sesame Street area as well. I've watched a few videos on the Sesame Street themed part. Even though the rides aren't as themed as Disney's, I think he will recognize and enjoy the area as a whole. We're also going to try Universal even though I know they don't have as many rides that he can do. He enjoys themed areas and seeing everything. Universal has definitely been working hard to compete in that aspect.
How you haven't given up on the corporate conglomerate is astonishing and I admire your sheer loyalty good sir.
Your boy is lucky to have you as his father.
That's especially sad given how Disney has historically been a leader in accessibility. Sad that they're letting themselves go like this
I appreciate someone cutting through the BS and not sitting on the fence.
Always an interesting eye opener on the current state of play by the Disney executives.
I remember Eisner getting dunked on so much when I was growing up. People really thought he was the worst possible CEO a company like Disney could have. Then along came Iger and Chapek...
A lot of Eisner's ideas might've been garbage, but at least he *had* ideas.
This video is bittersweet for me. I love the content you create, however I'm saddend by continued downward spiral of Disney Parks and experiences. Nothing on your part of course but im baffled that no one in the PR department for Disney. I'm relatively new Disney fan but my first experience as an adult at Disney World 4 years ago was nothing but short of wonderment. (Except for Hollywood Studios felt like It was the most non disney park imo) Keep up the good work it shows that you are passionate of the topics you cover.
Ah, you definitely joined the community too late. Disney is an unfortunate shell of what it was.
Honestly if you had a good time and you only first went there recently, imagine how amazing the parks used to be a couple decades ago.
Come on over to team Universal! The place Hollywood studios was designed after
Disney execs right now are just so trapped in their own sad little worlds that they are incapable of accepting the views of others.
Man this idea of a "trust thermodrop" really makes alot of sense, not just for Disney but alot of other big, bloated companies that still see high profits and high returns, even when employee and customer satisfaction is at record lows. Really shows how much of monopoly Disney has had for a long time on the theme park industry, and the entertainment industry as a whole. Especially watching this back-to-back with an Offhand Disney video covering the Disney Decade under Eisner, where we are with company now makes alot of sense. Decades of building trust just to throw toss it aside to make up for losses, all while banking that the name on the side of the building will keep you afloat... It's the oldest trap in the history of capitalism.
Let me tell you the ski industry is on the exact same hot rails to hell as Disney.
What makes me personally especially sad about this, is I never went to a Disney park as a kid. I've always wanted to but never could afford it cuz of where I am geographically. Now everyone that went as kids and has gone back years later say the same thing, it's not the same magical place they went to when they were younger. I'll probably never get to experience the vision for the park Walt had dreamed of and created, that's clearly been lost now. It really frustrates me how money focused our society has become. It sickens me.
I feel the same way jake, my parents couldn't afford it as working class people in the UK. feels like that bucket list goal is gone.
Before I saw the alert for this video, I was watching a video about Disney charging $10 for a tiny sliver of cake at Blue Bayou restaurant. So yeah, the title of your video looks painfully on point. And now to actually watch your video!
Clownfish TV, I assume?
I remember them pointing out that if they wanted to cut costs they could have gotten a deal with a company like Little Debbie to produce cheap snack cakes for them to serve to customers. But, nope, just reduce the already tiny portion sizes.
It's just sad seeing the Disney brand being devalued.
@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 yes it was Clownfish TV lol. I actually stopped watching their video as soon as I saw the Poseidon Entertainment video had been posted because I definitely think he makes higher quality videos that I want to watch as soon as they post! Haha
@@AuthorCertifiedGoof It's been a long time since I've seen one of their videos, but Clownfish really puts a bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps it has changed, but it seemed like a lot of manufactured outrage and playing to culture wars.
@@PoseidonEntertainment no, they really haven’t changed much. I rarely make it through an entire video. Bad taste in my mouth is a perfect way of describing them!
I’ve watched many of this channel’s videos but this is my first time commenting. I wanted to say that the two segments on the Disney movie studio are spot on. Disney is only making movies like the ones that have hit a billion dollars, and they have no business owning the whole Fox catalog.
This video is also right about Bob Iger. I don’t think he’s ever going to fascinate people the way Eisner does, but he is worth reconsidering.
Great work, as usual.
I just don't understand why they've decided to just throw their original films to the grave. Strange World is coming out soon and they've decided to not even bother marketing it? Do they just hope to release it quietly and minimize marketing costs, then throwing it on Disney+ to see if it drives subscriptions?
@@PoseidonEntertainment Looks like it. Which would mean that some of their movies are expected to sell tickets, and others are meant to drive subscriptions. It’s wanting to do the Netflix model, while still keeping one-to-one transactions alive.
I'm hearing very few positive things about Disney lately, and I personally thing that's very good, as it means that all of my friends and family are viewing them as a less and less trustworthy company.
I’ve cut ties. Our last trip to Disney World was shocking. Nothing like I remember even a short 10 years ago. Park was filthy and over crowded. Expensive and low quality food. I’ve had it. Cancelled Disney plus and we choose to take the family elsewhere now. Living in Arizona we’d take them to Disneyland once a year for a night or two. Not anymore. Disney will never get another dime from me.
As someone whos dreamed of going to Disney, I think you summarized it well. I watch a lot of vloggers who go to Disney, and listening to the cost of things in the parks. It just isn’t worth the price any longer. Though I do like how Epcot is just because of the cool things to eat, but none of the rides hold my interest at all. I also don’t like that Disney really pushes their very overpriced hotels on you so you can get maximum value fir your park stay. When I do go to Florida in the next two years the only parks I plan to visit are the universal ones.
Thank you for the interesting breakdown of the current trajectory of Disney as a company. Disney is so emotionally loaded for so many people that they cannot look at it objectively and react with incredibly hostility when someone says anything negative. The fact is that Disney is a massive mega-corporation that exists to take your money. It's not your friend or your childhood, it's soulless, mindless and entirely corporate. That would be fine if they were still providing the premium experience that people have come to expect, but once that goes away, you should put your wallet back in your pocket.
I’m a huge Disney fan. But I will tell you, Universal Orlando has gotten THOUSANDS of more dollars from me this year in comparison to Disney.
I struggle understanding the lack of progress Disney has made, I suspect EPIC is going to make a bigger dent than they think.
It's like some of the leadership are forgetting that the entire point of Disneyland is to teleport you into unique surreal experiences where you will be fascinated and maybe even learn something. Add in genuine effort and pay your employees well and you have an amazing park. Look at the entrance to disneyland into fantasy land. It's amazing after so many years!
I'm glad someone like you with a platform can see what the truth is with this company as a former cast member It was a horrible experience keep doing gods work sir. They should make you ceo, you at least get it!
This video aged very well. He looked into the future. Great Job!
It sounds weird to hear that there's still a lot of affection for Bob Iger around, because I never liked the man to begin with. And to think, I wasn't even aware of half the stuff you brought up about him, like why he may have green-lit the NBA Experience (RIP, DisneyQuest). The company's cannibalization of Fox was the final straw for me, the thing which I will never forgive him or Disney as a whole for, if only for the principle of taking such a chunk of competition out of the market.
Still, I'm glad we can all agree that Bob Chapek is an even worse CEO.
As a non-theme park fan, who recently had a casual vacation to Disney with my family, and spent a day in Universal, we were all pleasantly surprised by Universal. Disney just felt exhausting and broke our bodies. Walking into Diagon Alley felt like the magic that I expected at Disney.
Universal actually cares about good guest experience. Meanwhile Disney has stopped caring about making good rides and lands. All they care about now is driving merchandise sales
Well, as someone who grew up going to Disney A LOT, I suddenly hit a point where I never cared to go back. And it wasn’t because I was bored or outgrew it, the parks started changing and I no longer enjoyed them the same. It’s sad bc I’m now at a place where it would be a blast to bring nieces or nephews to Disney parks if they’d been like in the past. Instead I take them to do other things, so Disney has really lost out on my family’s money we are spending elsewhere.
I think this is interesting because you think Disney hasn't yet passed the trust thermocline. For me and many of my family&friends, we're LONG past that point. A good friend of mine is local to Disney World, and has had annual passes for over 20 years. 2021 was the first year she didn't renew her pass. And while Disney Quest was showing it's age due to neglect, it was a long-time favorite of my family since it opened.
As much as I respect and appreciate you for your professionalism and descriptive quality of your content, I also appreciated how palpable and apparent your anger and frustration toward Disney management was most notably when calling out the disingenuousness of Iger's assertions in that recent Wall Street Journal interview: particularly that people don't go to the Magic Kingdom for the castle and that the park is fully invested in caring for its crew. And it's by not holding back in expressing that anger that reinforces just how deeply you love Disney and genuinely want to see it move in the right direction again and makes your commentary all the more resonant.
Keep up the great work! I sure hope this video catches fire and is heard loud and clear!
48:46 can confirm. Last trip to Orlando was going to be Disney but the genie system killed our interest. We went to universal instead and it was one of my favorite trips ever. They’re great
I always love hearing your breakdowns of where the parks/company is going wrong- it's really interesting to really see where a lot of these issues are actually stemming from instead of just observing them occurring
Holy shit I just watched this a couple days ago and Chapek just got the can tonight!
I’m literally on my drive back from a Disney trip lol. Like you I’ve also had my issues with Disney, their parks, business decisions, and policies, but unfortunately there is still that little (well, not so little it seems) corner of people that no matter what will continue to go to Disney. This is my family. Now I’m not gonna lie, ofc I love the Disney parks even in their recent decline. However, it’s because of families like mine and so many others that Disney will have no real incentive to change their methods of operation.
Though, this recent trip has kinda changed my family’s perspective the most.
Until some way somehow these families can lose their trust with the company, Disney will continue to do what they’re doing, but ultimately, it’s not gonna look pretty for them in the end…
I’m dealing with something like this. My family went to Walt Disney World nearly every year for decades. As a result, I was a huge Disney fan, but in the last few years, I’ve lost enthusiasm and no longer trust them to put out quality entertainment. All I can see now is the price gouging and the decline in quality that has abandoned the foundations and traditions of the company. I don’t care if I ever go back. My family and I just got back from Universal Orlando a month ago, and we had a great time. It was so much easier to navigate and doesn’t require the insane amount of planning and frustration that Disney does. Now, however, a couple of my family members are wanting to go back to Disney after not having been since 2019, and l’m just apathetic about it. I may end up going for their sakes within the next couple of years, but I’m not thrilled with the idea, particularly in regards to cost.
Some of us are quitting our Disney habit. We were one of those Disney families. We are DVC, were annual pass holders for a decade + even though we don't live in Florida. We went to WDW at least once a year for over a week each trip. It was a major investment of time and resources but we loved it. That said after our last trip in 2019 we saw the writing on the wall. Every new addition from park ride, general space, or resort was increasingly designed as a marketing ploy for an IP just for the sake of squeezing the last dime out of consumers and lacked any of the original creativity or innovation that was the hallmark of Disney. The much valued Disney service we had become accustomed to over the decades was non-existent, staffing numbers were abysmal, and staffs attitude was just bad. We haven't been back since and have no plans to return. Iger's vanity and Chapek's complete ineptitude at reading his market have ruined what was quite simply the most trusted name in family entertainment the world over. We have now chosen plane/land trips in the US and overseas as family vacations and we are pleased with this choice.
_Some_ people lol
I’ve been fortunate to have been going to WDW and DLR parks since the late 80s; did the marching band appearance down Main Street thrice; two times former cast member….
and I wholeheartedly refuse.
Not. A. Dime. Shall. Be. Spent. Until they get it together.
And I say this having worked through periods of “theme park austerity” myself….i know what it does at ground level. To the cast especially. they gotta do MUCH better, for me to even consider
Man the most disappointing thing about the Fox deal is we lose out on all of the Fox titles. Disney has become very anti-physical media, so the hopes of getting an upgrade of classic films is quickly fading.
Always like seeing a new video from you. Completely honest and says what most people think. Keep up the great work!
“They’re not going to remake ‘Oliver and Company’ or ‘The Black Cauldron.’””
Give them like five years. They’ll be mad desperate by that point.