Disney recently hosted their shareholders meeting a few weeks ago, which was when new Disney CEO, Josh D’Amaro, took the reins and answered multiple questions about the company’s direction, goals, concerns, and more.
During the meeting, we heard The Walt Disney Company comment on many things, including, but not limited to, the accessibility inside Disney parks, release dates of upcoming Disney film sequels, as well as the name of one of the new Disney Cruise Ships on the way. A shareholder also asked D’Amaro a very important question, one that many of us have also been wondering — how is the company balancing the price of tickets with a positive guest experience? Josh’s answer? Well, it was both what we expected and a little surprising.
To be extra specific, the question from the anonymous shareholder was “How does Disney Experiences (the parks department) balance revenue growth from ticket pricing and attendance with maintaining positive guest satisfaction?” Josh began his answer by saying that he knows that a Disney vacation is a “meaningful investment” for the families that visit, and that it should be the best day of the guests’ lives, so their goal is that every person who walks through the parks feels that their experience was worth the cost.
D’Amaro continued to say that Disney is constantly looking at their experience ratings, as well as intent to return surveys, which ask guests their feelings on the parks, the experiences inside, and if they feel they would be willing to return in the future. According to Disney, these ratings are high across all of their parks, indicating the majority of guests feel comfortable paying the price they get for their experience, and do intend to return.
When it comes to pricing, D’Amaro said that the company focuses on “offering a wide range of options and different price points” so that families can visit during whatever season or timeframe works for them. He went on to mention the special offerings you can often find on the Disney parks’ websites, as well as the multi-day ticket deals (basically, you pay less per day the longer you stay). He then specifically mentioned the $50 a day ticket for kids visiting Disneyland, calling it “pretty good,” as well as the free kids’ dining plan deal at Disney World.
Josh closed out the question by saying that at the end of the day, the company wants to “provide a fair amount of choice and flexibility for our guests, while at the same time making sure that we’re managing daily attendance and overall experience.” Now, this answer makes complete sense, but we read your comments every day on our posts, and we know that for many families, Disney is no longer in their budget, when it was about 5-10 years ago. That’s why, if you ever receive a survey from Disney and you really want to give your feedback, it’s important to fill it out — the company won’t make changes if they don’t know what the average consumer is feeling.
We know Disney vacations are VERY expensive, even if you take advantage of all the deals possible, and that’s why we’re here to help! We here at AllEars have created a FREE simple planning series all in one place, where you can make sure you’re not only getting the best bang for your buck, but you can also plan out what you’d like to do in the parks ahead of time, so you know what to prioritize on your trip!
If you’re looking for a travel agent to help with your vacation, we recommend our friends at Mouse Fan Travel. They’re experts in the field with over 20 years of vacation planning experience, and they can help take a bunch of the stress out of the entire booking process for you!
We’ll be sure to keep you updated on all the latest Disney news, to keep you in the know, so stay tuned to AllEars!
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How do you feel about Josh D’Amaro’s answer? Tell us in the comments!
Here is a thought for you; FREEZE prices on everything until some sort of balance is reached between what we mere mortals actually make and what Disney charges.
It’s pretty obvious that they don’t have anyone reading the reviews on sites that follow Disney like All Ears. If they did they would realize that his comment about people not worried about the pricing is false at least on the sites I read. I recently read that people coming down from European countries is down. At this point they only care about people with money and are not worried about the Middle Class who would love to take there kids to Disney but can’t afford it. My family belong to DVC and us to come every year now maybe every 2 years and eventually will probably sell back their membership. It’s no longer worth the experience.