Late last week, Disney CEO Bob Iger openly admitted that the company has recently made choices that ended up charging consumers exorbitant prices for the entertainment titan’s theme parks and merchandise.
While speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Iger explained that the Disney brand needs to be very “accessible,” as reported by The Daily Mail. The CEO, who was forced to come out of retirement this past November to once again take over the reins of the company, and stated that lower prices were what was needed to assist in expanding the consumer base for the company.
“In our zeal to grow profits, we may have been a little bit too aggressive about some of our pricing,” stated Iger. “I think there’s a way to continue to grow that business, but be smarter about how we price so that we maintain that brand value of accessibility.”
Iger was quick to speak up and suggest that it was the high prices that had assisted in making the experience of the theme parks much more enjoyable for those that could actually afford them.
“One of the things that we had to do was we had to improve the guest experience by reducing crowding,” tacked on Iger. “It’s tempting to let more and more people in, but if the guest satisfaction levels are going down because of crowding then that doesn’t work. We have to figure out how we reduce crowding but maintain our profitability. And we did that well.”
Recently, Disney made the move to drop various prices throughout their theme parks, once again setting back up overnight free parking for Disney World and choosing to offer more days at Anaheim’s Disneyland in Anaheim when the adult park goers could purchase tickets at the lowest price available.
Priced for Disneyland have spiked to a rate as high as $244 for a one-day pass. The preferred parking for the parks sat at close to $50 per car, with self-parking for $30 per vehicle. Disney Genie Plus, which allows the booking of selected time windows for various rides, would see another $25 fee added on.
For Disney World, Disney recently created and opened a Star Wars-themed hotel sporting the name “Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser” back in March 2022. It has issued charges to guests at insane prices between $5,000 and $20,000 for two nights. The hotel is known to charge $13.50 for a single beer and $23 for cocktails.
Throughout the global pandemic, when the parks were closed, the Annual Passport system for the parks was also canceled. After the park managed to reopen, all of the Annual Passports ended up being replaced by Magic Keys, which included the Dream Key, the Believe Key and the Enchant Key, then became temporarily unavailable.
A highly upset fan stated in response, “i am HEARTBROKEN about disneyland canceling annual passes. (i mean who knows when they’ll reopen & i wasn’t planning on going to disneyland during the pandemic) i can’t afford to go to disneyland 1-3x a month without my pass, so this totally sucks.”