“I’m going to Disney!”
Well, not so much nowadays.
The House of the Mouse used to be synonymous with the place to go celebrate. Going to the park and wearing some mouse ears, eating too much food, and grabbing a picture with Mickey and Minnie.
You can almost hear this phrase in Mickey’s iconic voice: “Oh boy, it sure was fun!”
But the current ticket sales have painted a different picture.
Josh D’Amaro is the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and gave a very illuminating interview with travel site The Point Guys.
“I’ll repeat the same thing I said before: We don’t always get it right,” D’Amaro stated.
And no, Disney really hasn’t gotten it right — at all — to say the very least.
Forbes reported in November 2022, Disney World decided to raise its ticket price for the theme park. The outlet did the math to see just how much it might be for an average family to visit the part.
Will Disney be forced to go back to its family friend agenda?
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“Depending on their travel dates, a family of four — let’s say two parents and 10-year-old twins — could now pay as much as $756 per day for a Disney World vacation, even before hotel, meals, transportation or souvenirs,” the outlet noted.
D’Amaro told Point Guys, “I want to make sure there are as many choices presented to you as simply as they can be. You could stay at a value resort if you choose to, or you could stay at the Grand Floridian or the Grand Californian if you’d like to.”
Just look at the two-day “immersive experience” that was the Galactic Starcruiser at Disney World. If a family of four wanted to take the voyage to a galaxy far, far away they would have had to shell out close to $6,000. Related: Disney announced in May the Starcruiser would be shutting down permanently.
Disney World also experienced its slowest six-week stretch since 2021, according to Disney Tourist Blog. They also noted spring break was less busy, as wait times were down from the past year.
In May CFO Christine McCarthy warned the upcoming quarter’s numbers were not going to be good for the company.
“Please keep in mind that in the back half of this fiscal year, there will be an unfavorable comparison against the prior year’s incredibly successful 50th anniversary celebration at Walt Disney World,” she said.
“We typically see some moderation in demand as we lap these types of events, and third quarter-to-date performance has been in line with those historical trends.”
That’s all perfunctory corporate-speak, but the numbers really do speak for themselves, particularly in the film industry that Walt Disney cut his teeth in all those years ago.
Disney has abjectly failed to have much recent success at the box office, outside of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” The two animated films “Strange World” and “Lightyear” reportedly lost the company over a quarter of a billion dollars. Both films pushed woke ideology. “Stange World” had a character have a same-sex crush and “Lightyear” included a same-sex kiss.
With the lower attendance in the parks and the gut-punch box office losses, Disney is going to have to figure out a solution.
And probably a fast one.
