Bob Iger Says Disney Is Committed To “Listening to Guest Feedback” and “Working To Improve the Quality and Value of Their Experience” in Its Parks

Disney CEO Bob Iger took back his old position in November of 2022 and has made several major changes since his return.

In the most recent earnings call for The Walt Disney Company (Iger’s first since his return), we heard several major updates about how the company will be restructured immediately to “confer greater creative control and authority to [Disney’s] creative businesses.” Iger also discussed the theme parks, indicating that more changes will be on the way soon.

Bob Iger announced during the earnings call that he feels “very, very bullish about [Disney’s] parks.” He said, “We had an outstanding quarter in Q1, while we continued our purposeful efforts to control capacity to preserve guest experience.” This is likely in reference to Disney’s Park Pass Reservation system, which executives have hinted will not be going away anytime soon.

Iger also noted that Disney “announced some price adjustments in [the] parks” recently, which he says shows that the company is “listening to guest feedback.” He stated, “We are continuously working to improve the quality and value of [the guest] experience.”

The “price adjustments” that Iger is referring to may be returning perks, such as free parking at hotels in Disney World, or new ones, like free ride photos included with Genie+ purchases. While park ticket prices have not been decreased overall, Disney did recently add more days to the lower pricing ticket tier for Disneyland.

Disney also recently announced the return of the Happily Ever After and EPCOT Forever fireworks show, which many fans were excited to hear. The new Disney Enchantment fireworks show in Magic Kingdom was received with mixed reviews, so this is another example of the company catering to fans.

Iger mentioned in the call that he has “guided the Walt Disney Company through two significant transformations” since he first became CEO in 2005. The first involved the acquisition of Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, and the second was the creation and launch of Disney+. As Iger looks to the future, he said, “We must return creativity to the center of the company, increase accountability, improve results, and ensure the quality of our content and experiences.”

Although Iger confirmed that his “number one priority” is “to improve the economics of [Disney’s] streaming business,” he reassured the audience that the theme parks would continue to change according to guest feedback.

Theme parks have been a huge asset to Disney, especially as revenue from that area has made up for losses in streaming and entertainment. Disney CFO Christine McCarthy reported that operating income of the Parks, Experiences, and Products division increased “25% versus the prior year to over $3 billion.” McCarthy said, “At Domestic Parks and Experiences, significant revenue and operating income growth in the quarter was achieved.” She confirmed that Disney reduced capacity at the parks during peak holiday periods “by approximately 20% versus pre-pandemic levels in order to prioritize the guest experience.”

Like Iger’s previous statements, this confirms that Disney believes the Park Pass Reservation system is essential. By using that system to control capacity, Disney is able to address guest complaints that the parks are too crowded and ride wait times are too high. Lower capacity means fewer people in the parks and thus lower ride wait times.

Disney is prioritizing the guest experience by limiting capacity even as demand for the theme parks continues to grow. McCarthy stated that “park attendance at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort are pacing above prior year” and “based on reservation bookings, [Disney] expect[s] to see this trend continue.”

Iger confirmed this statement: “Demand on the parks is extraordinary right now.” He also confirmed that Disney will not allow that demand to lower the quality of guests’ experiences: “Now we could lean into that demand easily by letting more people in and by more aggressively pricing. We don’t think either would be smart. Because we let more people in is going to reduce guest experience, and that’s certainly not what we want.”

Iger told investors and shareholders that limiting capacity has not hurt Disney’s bottom line. He said, “If you looked at our results this past holiday season, we actually reduced capacity, certainly improved guest experience, and we’re able to maintain profit — not just profitability, but a very, very successful or robust bottom line.”

This pattern of limiting capacity is likely going to continue in the future, which means Park Pass Reservations are here to stay. According to Iger, Disney is “going to continue to look at opportunities like that, which is essentially to simply get more creative in terms of managing the capacity that we have.”

One of the ways that Disney will “get more creative” with managing capacity is to “shift mix […] from annual pass holders to people who may come just once in a lifetime.” Those people who don’t come to the theme parks as often tend to spend more when they visit, which means they’re more profitable guests for Disney. About those guests, Iger said, “They tend to be good customers of ours because of their per-cap spending when they’re there.” The previous Disney CEO Bob Chapek also suggested this change when he was in charge.

Another way Disney plans to manage capacity is to add more space in the theme parks. Iger gave the examples of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Pandora in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. He also briefly mentioned a new Avatar experience coming to Disneyland — could a west coast Pandora be on the horizon?

Iger said, “I’ve talked to Josh D’Amaro about this very recently, like this morning, again, to really look at all the great franchises of the company and see where we can invest in them in the parks to increase capacity while — by preserving guest satisfaction.” It seems that new lands and possibly even new theme parks are on the table when it comes to Iger’s vision for the future of Disney.

We’ll continue to watch for more updates from Disney, so stay tuned to AllEars for more of the latest news.

Click here to see more MAJOR updates from Disney’s earnings call.

What do you think of Iger’s statements? Let us know in the comments.

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