Today during the Goldman Sachs 30th Annual Communacopia Conference, Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke about the theme parks. He praised the Park Pass reservation system instituted by the domestic parks upon reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As he has mentioned before, the company saw the temporary closures as an opportunity to “reconceive the guest experience and increase return to the shareholders.” Chapek considers the reservation system the “backbone” of the operations and praised the increased yield it has produced.
While the reservations themselves do not turn over a profit, they allow the company to better allocate resources. By requiring every guest to have reservations, including Annual Passholders, Disney can know precisely how many people will be in each park each day. They use this information for a myriad of things, from Cast Member scheduling to food and beverage stock. With the “right mix of guests in the park,” Chapek said (referring to the mix of Passholders, Resort guests, and regular ticketed guests(, they can “control demand.”
Chapek specifically mentioned Passholder programs, noting that by rebooting the programs at both domestic parks to incorporate reservations, it allows them to know “who comes on what day.”
As Chapek has confirmed before, the Park Pass reservation system is here to stay.
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half the magic for twice the price. the new cheapact business model for sure.
I’m glad it’s profitable for Chapek. It’s just another example of his “Remove the Magic!” Campaign.
The Chapek era continues to suck
Lol worst system ever I just stop been a anual pass holder for more than 12 years and paying $4200 a year because instead of taking care of the passholders and the employees they have taken away all perks raising the prices and taken aways photo pass and even water parks because they want to make more money ndbcharge $100 dollars for each one that’s called been greedy!! Universal Orlando has never done that instead they have taken care of there annual pass holders and added perks not take it away very disappointed for loyal pass holders !! After pandemic not good.
After being a WDW pass holder for years we finally had enough and went to UO… What a difference! UO has been better on every single front than Disney and I will never, ever, step foot on a Disney piece of property again (even cancelled the cruise).
Lol he’s praising himself with the only one good thing he’s done for the parks.
Haven’t been since this has been in place, but it is a terrible addition to vacation. Having to pre-schedule your daily plans is not what vacations are supposed to be about. Yuck. Get rid of this. Stop adding to the reasons to not to choose Disney as a destination.
Just awful.
Waiting on the new book to come out titled, “Bob Chapek and the decline of Disney”.
Though passholders can know who comes in what day. Out of state passholders can still be blacked out of the park of their choice from capacity issues. If course the can park hop, but it should be as simple as pick a park and just go to the park. I hope it’s still that simple
booo!
Can we actually get this man out of this office?! He’s one more strike away from destroying everything as we know it.
Notice how nowhere does he address what the guests think, only what advantage the park reservation system benefits the shareholders and his bottom line… that’s seriously telling
Don’t pretend you are all outraged when you continue to pay lots of money on annual passes, continue to patron all the restaurants, and continue to encourage family vacations to WDW. You keep paying, so there is zero reason for Chapek to back off.
Psst…so, this just happened, so unless said person has been to the park in the last month, they haven’t paid any more money to the park. The next year will be telling when AP renewals are up, vacations without stimulus checks are being planned, as well as the decline of the Disney brand which is already a bit tarnished with a vaccine mandate, a cast member strike, at least one talent lawsuit (black widow), all happening on chapeks watch within the last three months. All this on top of what was once free, now costs money-(magic bands, lightning lanes, magical express, etc) will not sit well with those Disneyheads. Disney is one of the best, but even the best can over-value their own brand.
how to tell if this is true or not
is chepek saying it then it’s a lie
It’s all getting too complicated… not my idea of a vacation.
Let’s see how long this stays if others feel as I do and start spending our vacation dollars elsewhere — I know we already have.
The man is completely deaf to his “guests”. He just doesn’t get it. Even profit has a cost and its the diminishment of your brand and the franchise, which are your most valuable asset. Walt Disney and Michael Eisner understood this concept. The man is myopic!!
Just returned from a week in Kissimmee. I must say we spent 2 days at Universal and 3 at WDW. The 2 days were so much better then the 3. We are passholders at both and I have to say WDW was a bummer from what we are used to. The prices have shot way up at WDW I mean when 2 people have lunch and the cost is over $100.00 that is just wrong. I believe that Chapek no longer wants the parks to be available to the average US Family as is evident with the 4 club 33s that have been or will be in each WDW Park. I truly hope that some of the comments here make it to Chapek so he can see that he is making it harder for the average family to visit the parks as Walt Disney wanted.
“reconceive the guest experience and increase return to the shareholders.”
Chapek is doing what too many CEOs do: focusing on the next fiscal quarter at the expense of long term returns (which won’t matter to him or his compensation).
Note he’s saying “reconceive” the guest experience, not improve it.
I detest the park reservation system. It’s a pain in the rear end for guests. But what does Chapek care? It does nothing but good things for his bonus.
2021. The year Disney used a pandemic to “reconceive” its relationship with its guests.
He looks like a live action Toy Story’s Mr. Potato Head in a suit. The AA on Midway Mania would run this company better – including when it wasn’t turned on.
Congrats bob. You’ve officially turned Disney into six flags. the “backbone” arguement is tepid at best, and it doesn’t have to be the “backbone”
Can we draw up articles of impeachment against this guy?? That should be something that guests of all political persuasions can support!
At what point is your park reservation checked during the arrival process? Do the parking attendants check as you’re driving into the parking area for whichever park you’re visiting? Do the agents at the Ticket and Transportation Center check that you have a reservation before selling you admission passes for the day? If various such checkpoints aren’t in place, I can imagine a lot of awkward and tense exchanges at the turnstiles as “guests” are told they can’t enter with the tickets they just purchased after also paying to park for the day. I feel for people who think they can just show up impulsively to enjoy a magical day, especially if they don’t learn the bad news until they’ve been made to jump through the several hoops of the arrival process first.
Build a new Disney resort in America Chapek!!!
Maybe Chapek should take his “reconceive the guest experience and increase return to the shareholders” to the next level.
In addition to requiring guests to schedule in advance which park they visit each day, why not require reservations for each attraction to be booked a couple of weeks out? And popcorn stands and Dole Whips?
If he can completely regiment guest behaviors, think of how precisely he could then apportion cast member staffing and allocate resources? The shareholders would love him even more.
Chapek is damaging guest relations worse than any Disney CEO in my extensive lifetime.
Being on holiday at WDW it used to be nice to say ‘I fancy going to Epcot today’. I don’t want to plan what I’m doing every day just so it makes it slightly easier for Disney to budget. And anyway I’m sure they have a pretty sophisticated set of stats going back years that can tell with a pretty high degree of accuracy how busy a certain park will be on a certain day and at a certain time.
Companies that focus too much on short-term profit rarely succeed long-term. Kodak being probably the best example!