Disney Guests have been frustrated with the state of the Disney Park experience for a long time now. From the lack of proper maintenance on the rides causing frequent breakdowns, to the ever-increasing prices of food and park tickets, Guests have expressed time and again that Disney needs to get its act together sooner rather than later. While these issues certainly became exacerbated during former Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s tenure, Guests are demanding more frequently that current CEO Bob Iger fix these issues and work harder to restore the Disney magic.
Guest Frustrations with Disney World
For many years now, Guests have made their opinions clear on how Disney has ruined its relationship with its Guests. Recently, the Disney fan account, Disney Glimpses, took to Twitter to call this out once more.
They shared,
It’s amazing that The Walt Disney Company hired a CEO who was dumb enough to think they could charge more for less with no lasting repercussions. Remarkable, really. Your move, @RobertIger. I can think of a dozen things you can do to repair the relationship with your guests.
The account followed up its initial tweet with myriad suggestions that the Walt Disney Company could act on to fix its relationship with Disney fans and the community at large.
How Can Disney Fix the Situation?
Part of the suggestions included bringing back perks like complimentary airport transportation, acknowledging that services like FastPass+ weren’t actually free, (read: stop making Guests pay for Genie+ and Lightning Lane), removing Park Hopping restrictions and the Theme Park reservation system, and more.
The Walt Disney Company has certainly instituted some changes in this vein, but it’s clearly not enough, as Guests want the Mouse House to take their complaints and frustrations seriously. But the question is, has the damage already been done?
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One Guest shared,
I don’t have a lot of faith in the future of WDW. Even if they started serious construction tomorrow to help rapidly expand the parks, to justify the cost. However, that would take a least five year, for those expansions to open.
I don’t have a lot of faith in the future of WDW. Even if they started serious construction tomorrow to help rapidly expand the parks, to justify the cost. However, that would take a least five year, for those expansions to open.
— Dustin (insert check mark here) Harter (@Dustinmania) July 10, 2023
Another Guest added their perspective as well:
I agree with all those points. There seems to be a misunderstanding in Disney leadership of the relationship between stockholder and guest. This is not Nike, but they treat it like it is. It is more complicated and requires a long term vision, not a short term strategy.
— Jake Shasta (@Wraithlaw42) July 10, 2023
It’s unclear if the Walt Disney Company will be able to backtrack some of the decisions that have already been rolled out, especially because they will likely never reduce prices after increasing them. What they have done is introduce more discounts and added on more days that the lowest priced ticket is available for Guests to purchase.
However, the reality is that days and times of the year that should have been among Disney’s busiest fell short this year, and it’s clear that the Mouse House has a long and bumpy road ahead of it to regain the trust of its Guests.
