On the one hand, he fucked up Star Wars pretty badly. On the other, Chapek fucked up pretty much everything else.

If you have a problem with the current state of Marvel/Lucas Film/Pixar and the wisdom of going all in on Disney+ and the Fox Acquisition then you can put all that blame on Iger. There hasn't been enough time for Chapek to do much of anything with that stuff he inherited all of that. If you have an issue with the state of the domestic parks that's for the most part Chapek. I really only care about the later so I'm glad he's gone and I'm hoping they roll a lot of his decisions back. I doubt they do but a guy can dream.

Could you expand on that? I don't know anything about the parks or how they changed under his leadership

Most of the free perks are gone. Transportation from the airport to the Disney Hotels was free now you have to pay. If you stay on property at a hotel you have to pay to park your car now. Fast Pass which allowed you to skip the lines was free now you have to pay. The new system is called Genie Plus. You're on your phone all day booking stuff. There are certain rides that don't fall under the paid Genie Plus/Lightening Lane system and if you want to get on those you have to pay even more. You can't just go to a park on a whim anymore you have to get a reservation and they are limited. If you have a park hopper which allows you to go from one park to another you have to wait until 2:00pm to use it. The experience is highly regimented now. They raise ticket, food and hotel prices multiple times a year instead of every few years. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of other things. Basically what they are dong is trying to price the average customer and the locals out. They don't spend enough at the parks. They want high end customers that drop a lot of money. It's not sustainable. Especially at the Cali Parks those are locals parks I'm not sure why they are alienating their main customer base. That strategy makes a little more sense in the Florida Parks because that's more of a Regional and International destination. A lot of customers that do the one big trip and are willing to spend. Disney Land is mostly Californians why would you price out the locals that's the only people that go there? I live on the East Coast so it doesn't matter to me but it seems pretty short sighted. I make a pretty good living and it's getting cost prohibitive. If my wife and kids weren't so into it I would stop going. I imagine they will keep squeezing until the economy bottoms out and all the money people saved during the covid lockdowns is gone. Then they'll do some token price drops maybe.

We’re checking in right now. World, not Land

Yeah despite my complaining we are going in April lol.

You could put most of it on Iger. Chapek may have only been put there to keep Iger blameless when the bottom fell out.

It sounds like streaming is a bust all around, or in need of an overhaul, but that's true for the whole industry. No one has figured out how to make money in streaming yet.

Was the free fast pass a perk for buying something else or part of a package? Otherwise everybody would have it and it would be pointless, no?

It was for everyone. You could have three fast passes. You had to use them during a timed block so it was spread out. So say you wanted the Haunted Mansion you might not be able to get a fast pass for a couple hours but you could wait in line for another attraction(s) in the meantime and then walk on to Mansion when your time came. Once you used all three you could get another one. Way back you didn't have to wait until you used all three that was awesome. Believe it or not it worked great and was a fair system.

That makes sense.

Take me to Disney with you.

Sure send me your information.

Thanks. Ttyl.

Like the Green Ranger to the White Ranger...

We’ll be back then too

don't go, guys. Disney tells your kids to have imagination and the only thing they can think to do is ask to go to Disney World? Go to Six Flags or Las Vegas or something

Take our kids to a place known as Sin City?

ugh

it reeks of desperation.