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Very well written. We’ve been saying for a few years now that the focus has clearly shifted.

Great article. Also see Jenny Nicholson's YT video on this, which cuts to something even closer: the slow paywalling of everything, Disney as a Service.

youtu.be/T0CpOYZZZW4?...

This is basically what I already know from my own experience, but the contrast of the family that scrapes for money to get a lower tier of access to the family who buys the Premiere Pass really puts things in perspective. More damning than I already thought about the direction of the company.

Disneyland isn't quite this bad, yet.

But the way they're expanding and building more attractions...they will become as bad as Disney World.

Agree- thoughtful and well done

Good article, but I do think he looks at the past a bit through rose-colored glasses. No mention that the hotels were always expensive or the need for lower income visitors to ration ride tickets in the early years of the parks.

It’s not like there weren’t hotels off the property. When I was a kid we did a day trip from Sarasota, where we were staying.

(Totally off-topic, but just wanted to drop in and say "Hi!" because it's been too many years...)

I wanted to take my dad to Disneyland for his 75th Birthday. I haven't been there since before I had object permanence. Reading this, especially the Lightning Lane and the 5k to do everything. Absolutely not. Disney gets nothing from me or my dad. I'd rather take him anywhere else.

The opening paragraph and slide down into the absolute soul crushing proof that companies have moved to where the money is, is the most disgusting part of the article. I felt ill reading it, because it's obvious in so many thing we as Americans witness now. There's no flat option for everyone.

As long as your wallet and spending account are stacked, who cares? I make 40k a year, I can't throw away an 8th of that just for four nights? "Magic has a price?" Bite me. Let me go ahead and throw this into a space I understand.

A comic costs 5 to 7k to make. At that range, you probably don't break even if you're producing or writing it, and paying everyone involved their rightful shares. So for the price of the big dick swinging Disney Vacay, a comic can be in the hands of everyone I know and then some, bringing joy.

Life isn't fair, something I've accepted with bitterness and consternation. Life is also about experiencing things and hopefully finding something in those moments. If Disney is selling that to the highest bidder, they lost me. The line about "When you wish upon a star" is so correct, it's painful.

Sorry for ranting, this just makes me infuriated because it sucks away something that could be a huge experience for anyone. As a kid, I went to Disneyworld like three times, I had the hat and shirt and rode all the rides. Knowing more things getting taken away because you're poor just sucks.

I knew it was going to be good a few grafs in when writer mentioned the old Disney rule that “every Guest is a VIP” because the company has actively erased this over the last 2 decades. No more in PR, never been mentioned in social media, that Walt quote hasn’t been on a construction wall in forever

This is a great article. Would have loved an even more explicit connection to the bigger picture of today's economic realities

Fuck Disney, so hard. Almost nothing I would like better than to wake up and for them to be bankrupted. It’s honestly shocking how many people still think Disney is somehow good and not a monstrous predator.

This made me cry? Thanks for this. Damning and spot on.

“All the magic has a price”. I’m so happy I didn’t grow up a Disney kid. That being said, any other kind of vacation would be way more expensive for them. Theme parks are still is the lower-middle class vacation.