I understand how escalating prices work, but I do hate it when prices go up and portions also drop. When businesses lose focus on serving their customers, then all sorts of troubles ensue. Based on this information, I would say that in a few years Disney will be suffering as customers go elsewhere.

What a great analysis and example!

I’d never even thought of Disney making a tradeoff between the truly loyal local customers and those coming for a one-time vacation… probably because I didn’t realize that people who go to Disney once a week! And if you buy everyone a $3 bottle of water, wow…. that really adds up to profits for them.

It will be interesting to follow this story and to see if, in another few years, you’ll be able to say you saw it coming first. Not that we want Disney to do poorly– more, we want Disney to keep focused on the family, and not excessively on financial gain. For what it’s worth, I don’t think that Disney is or needs to continue to feel more responsible for double-digit growth if that means eroding what they actually are there to provide. Which matters more? Money, or Magic?

Unfortunately, as your post describes, some of the magic is being lost in the name of profit. Between the price hikes, my perception of the “big business” greed that has insinuated itself into Disney, the greater focus on attracting conference/business customers than the families for whom Walt Disney created the parks in the first place, etc. I find all of these things to be eroding that love I have for Disney and while I understand they’re a public company and have a responsibility to deliver double-digit growth to their shareholders; that intangible magic is being lost.

I think executives at Disney are going to be sitting around scratching their heads in a few years baffled by shrinking attendance and they won’t realize they had been “slowly killing Tinkerbell” all along.