Is Bob Chapek ruining Disney already?

Running Disney is a big task. It’s not like Lucasfilm or Marvel Studios where you’re simply overseeing the many movies and TV shows in the pipeline. Disney is that, plus Walt Disney Studios, Disney+, Pixar, Disney Parks and so much more. So I get it, it’s not an easy job. It’s almost like being the president. (At least in my mind.) So many people are looking up to you and counting on you. It’s not a democracy, unfortunately, which means you weren’t chosen by them. But you still have a duty to make the people happy.

Current Disney CEO Bob Chapek has had a messy time of it so far. To be fair, former CEO Bob Iger’s announced exit just before the coronavirus pandemic struck was nothing but ill timing. And to save Chapek from the squall they were heading into, Iger kept his duties as CEO a little longer just to ensure that the boat was being steered by someone who could weather the storm. In the early coronavirus days, Disney did what they had to do: close down parks, delay movie releases, put a hold on filming. But eventually, once all that was under control and things began operating as normal as could be, Iger officially handed the baton to Chapek, and he was on his own from there.

This is definitely the “too long, didn’t read” version of this history, but it helps catch us up to speed where we are now, with Chapek in the captain’s seat. And already, things aren’t looking good.

As an avid Disney fan, I enjoy staying tapped into the Disney Parks community. I feel like Disney Imagineers are some of the most creative and best inventors, artists, etc. that humankind has to offer. And so it’s worth keeping tabs on all the new creations they come up with. But still, sometimes, decisions have to be made at the top. And a controversial decision made recently was the new change to the FastPass system.

In a nutshell, the FastPass system is (or was) a way for virtually any guest to enter an express queue that would take them to the front of the line for a ride. It was a first-come, first-serve system, but it was fair enough; anyone at the park could choose to skip the line for a ride or two of their choosing. I remember in my pre-pandemic visit, we used the passes for Jungle Cruise and Space Mountain.

Following the re-opening of Disney Parks, FastPass was gone. And fans had been eagerly awaiting its return. But now, FastPass is being rebranded as Lightning Lanes, and guests will have to pay if they want to use these express queues. It’s complicated. But, essentially, some rides fall under a system where anybody who buys a “plus package” with their ticket will have access to the Lightning Lanes. But if you don’t buy a plus package, there are other rides you can enter the Lightning Lanes for; you just have to pay (per ticket, per ride) to use that lane.

That’s a lot to sum up in just a few words. But clearly, fans weren’t happy knowing that a service that was once free is now something you have to pay for. Pair that up with the rising costs, the new reservation system, and removal of staples like the NBA Experience and the Magic Express bus service at Disney World, and it’s starting to look like a downward spiral for Disney, at least when it comes to their parks.

So, will things continue to spiral downward from here? I think the YouTuber Offhand Disney makes a good point in his video “The Problem with Disney Right Now.” On one hand, having someone pay for something that was free before is never going to make people happy. And it’s understandable that the guests are feeling the outrage. But there are still great improvements going on at Disney Parks, such as the addition of Avenger’s Campus at Disneyland and the new improvements coming to EPCOT.

This could all just be a matter of raising prices to ensure that their new projects can be funded. But the consensus from the average fan is that they’re starting to feel priced out of Disney Parks. I was just looking at hotels for both Disneyland and Disney World recently, and there’s hardly any chance that you can snag a room for under $200 a night. So to me, it does feel like Disney is starting to price out the average family. Guests argue that Walt Disney himself would never want that for his guests, for them to feel priced out. I can neither confirm nor deny this. But in my heart of hearts, I would like to think that’s true.

Bob Chapek is definitely stirring the pot already, and it leads me to wonder if and how this will translate to other Disney operations. Will the cost of Disney+ go up? Disney+ already has a premium on top of a premium service — Premier Access — but will there be even more? To be honest, I don’t even want to imagine the other possibilities, at the risk of thinking up some egregious new scheme for Disney and putting it out there in the ether. But I will say that I’m reluctantly standing by. To me, there’s still enough good to outweigh the bad right now. And maybe Chapek has the potential to pull an opposite-Michael Eisner: start bad but finish strong.