Equity firms are downgrading Disney stock now too from "buy" to "hold" or "neutral"...
https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/nyse-dis-a-buy-or-sell-right-now-2021-11-2-3/
It isn't just one firm either, Atlantic Securities, Rosenblatt Securities, Zacks Investment Research, Wells Fargo...
Ouch.
I'll.admit.this gave me a not small amount of satisfaction. Looks good on them.
They definitely are just another company. But they sell themselves as more than just another company. A lot of the backlash comes from that dishonesty.
This!!!! When you have spent a lifetime (theirs) selling yourself as being totally different from the competition, as always going above and beyond, about caring for the guest,.claiming to be an industry leader etc... and then follow that up with recent actions. Nope. You start to lose your credibility and people start to see you for the greedy company you are.
People may not stop going entirely, but they may stop staying as long. I don't know how that would affect profits overall, and I'm not so stupid as to think Disney execs haven't thought all of this out and done the math, EXTENSIVELY.
BUT I do know I have an upcoming 11 day trip (on dvc rental so non-refundable and I can't make adjustments to the length of my stay now). But when doing my planning it has occurred to me that going forward, it would be cheaper for me to stay only 5 nights or so, and buy
Genie+ which would make it easier for me to accomplish all the things I used to accomplish in over a week, in only a few days. That cuts down on my hotel costs, food costs, park ticket costs, merchandise spending etc... all of which MORE than makes up for the $400 I'd blow on Genie+/LL expenditures instead.
I've said it before on another thread, but our June trip is our LAST trip. We are DONE giving Disney our money. At least until there's a major course correction on their part. And the only reason we're even taking the June trip is because it's DD's birthday gift from her grandfather. If it weren't for that, we'd have canceled. Neither DH or I have any excitement or interest in the trip - at least not the Disney portion. We'd far rather be going elsewhere.
So, as it is, the following changes have already been made:
- We cancelled our on site stay
- We will not be buying any Disney food, and that includes character meals - something we've always done
- We won't be paying for any extra experiences (again, something we've always done)
- We definitely will not be buying GP+/LL
- We currently have 4 days booked, but we may drop one of them and spending the money elsewhere
Bob can spout and shout all day about guest satisfaction being up,
but that would be a complete lie.
I've been here for 4 days now and never, across 9 trips in 7 years have I ever heard so many people complaining. Food prices, mobile ordering issues, Genie + / no more fast passes, no parades, lack of live entertainment, no face to face meet and greets. Just yesterday I talked to a family at Hollywood studios. I'm not going to judge a book by its cover, but if they were wealthy they didn't flaunt it. Honestly it was heartbreaking as they asked me about things like Genie + and if there's a way to do something like the fast passes without having to pay extra. If I would have had the $100 in cash that I always bring on trips on me I would probably just given it to them and told them to buy Genie + and try to have a great day.
It's simply
NOT possible that guest satisfaction is high or "up". But again this is where they can work their numbers and say "well compared to our guess satisfaction scores right after reopening last year they are up." I would wager satisfaction numbers compared to the 2015-2019 average are down pretty decently.
WDW needs to course correct in the next few years or
the damage could be decades long. Disney die hards are typically created when they're young. If you have a lot less young people going due to cost, etc their odds of growing up and turning their family into Disney die hards obviously goes down significantly.
I've rambled on long enough.
Fire Bob.
Agree. There is no way satisfaction is up. That's just a lie he's selling to try and cover his butt. I have never seen as many complaints and unhappy people (online) as I have lately. There's a lot of people out there not feeling like they got a good return on their investment.
Take my nieces as a great example. They are 12 and 13 and find Disney boring. All they want to go to is Cedar Point. They went to Disney when they were 5 and 6 but have been brought up on parks like Cedar Point
Our two oldest nephews didn't like Disney. Now to be fair, they had never really "grown up" on Disney movies the way some kids do (like mine lol), so that attachment was already missing. Then, their first trip wasn't until they were 13 and 9. They were bored. Not enough thrill rides. Apparently the oldest told their Mom, "You kinda missed the boat on this one Mom." They definitely enjoyed their other vacations better (cruises, Caribbean trips, Europe) - said they got more for their money. And that was 7 years ago - I can't imagine what they'd think now!
Which is a good point - to create that Disney die-hard, that guest that will want to keep returning, what do you need? Do you think it has more to do with early exposure? Being raised on the movies so you have that connection? Or were some die hards made just because once upon a time, Disney really was all that?