This is upsetting 😠
My extended family has worked for companies in the Disney umbrella and as part of one’s retirement package, gets free admission to Disney parks for them and family members. They get half price hotels in the area.
My sister and brother in law make real good money. Over a third of a mil a year between the two of them. They said it was pretty much breaking the bank/almost out of reach. With all that saved, it was about $10k per person for the 5 day trip. $40k vacation. Coulda bought a car.
Just like the “American Dream” it’s all just smoke and mirrors bullshit.
I haven’t been to a Disney park since the early 90s, and everything I hear about the experience now sounds like hell.
Always has been
Same. I went as a child, but I have no desire to go as an adult. A friend of mine spent one afternoon texting me at work while he was waiting in line for the Avatar ride. There was a sign estimating his remaining wait time. 184 minutes in the July heat.
Fuck. That.
The most obvious indicator I experienced with Disney was when they opened Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland in 2019. I wasn’t able to go the opening weekend, but within a couple of months I was able to visit.
Growing up I’d had the luck of being able to visit the park usually at least once per year.
This was the very first time they hadn’t figured out the queuing for a ride. Disney used to be known for their ability to efficiently wrangle people and queue them properly for rides with long lines without confusion… but this time half the queue was neon masking tape placed on the ground. It lead to confusion, line cutting, and a weird vibe all around.
That wasn’t the last time I had visited, but considering the price of entry has increased by 30% since, I’m not so interested anymore.
Galaxy’s Edge feels emblematic about the issues of design under Iger versus Eisner.
Eisner vastly expanded park capacity, but he didn’t just focus on E-ticket attractions. He intentionally built some parts of the parks to entertain but cheaper to add capacity and give people a place to be entertained if they didn’t want to wait in long lines.
In contrast, most of Iger’s expansions were generally a lot more costly and didn’t have the throughout of previous E-ticket attractions. This ended up pushing Disney into being a more premium experience.
The budget for Galaxys Edge was cut by Chapek, it was only part of what was planned and what did get implemented was often less than originally planned.
Other than cutting the budget, I think were they went wrong with it was making too high a concept for a theme park and centering it around the less popular sequel franchise time line. It made for a confusing experience for a more casual Star Wars fan.
I stand by RotR being an S tier ride, when it isnt operating broken, because its over complicated and the maintenance budgets were cut.
The problem is that Galaxy’s Edge got descoped later in the design process while Eisner made decisions early on in the design process to ensure a cheaper park.
I have been there once, in 2019, for the Star Wars opening. I must say this is an impressive set for a fan!
Everything there is super expensive. I was in the campground and made my lunch to bring them in the park.
I feel like this is a symbol of the difference between the Eisner and the Iger CEO tenures. Eisner built out a massive expansion of the parks under his leadership, doubling the gates in Anaheim and Orlando while planning international expansion. Iger didn’t, choosing smaller expansions with premium experiences over capacity expansions.
It is part of the reason that Universal has been able to grow so much, Disney doesn’t have the capacity that it needs to meet high end theme park demand.
