Are you a Disney local? Whether you moved closer to a Disney park or grew up living close to a park in Southern California or Central Florida, our collective Disney experiences have likely been fairly similar. Yearly birthday trips. School field trips. Resort hopping. Vacations. Day trips. Grad Night. Date night. Weekend getaway. Etc.

For both Disney and theme park fans, having an annual pass as an adult is almost a right of passage. I’ve had a pass all of my adult life and we went 3 times yearly growing up for vacations. We’re what you could call “Disney Spoiled”. Having dinner at Epcot for date night is a regular thing. Or switching it up and doing a Magic Kingdom date night, so we can ride the carousel and Dumbo and act like kids is an option. Some would call the people who go weekly “Lifestylers”. Because, for many, going to Disney is a way of life.

But this is changing.

Locals are where bloggers are born. Locals are what built up the economies of Orlando and Anaheim. Locals are what fuel Disneyland attendance and locals are what staff the 60,000 employees at Walt Disney World.



When I think of locals of any place, not just Disney, I think of the people who preserve the history of a place. Locals are the people that try to save a water tower that has always been there. Locals are the ones who save a famous house and turn it into a museum. Locals eat in the divy-est dives because the food is good. Locals keep the kitsch. Treasure the charm. They staff the living history museums across the country. Faithfully churning butter and reenacting the wars. They volunteer as tour guides. They create the culture.

Letting a local show you around their town is the best way to get a feel for a place.

The people in charge at both resorts used to be locals. People like Jack Lindquist, John Lasseter, Joe Rhode, Tony Baxter and others are beloved by the fan community for their work in carrying the torch. We lost Walt a long time ago, but with locals, we have kept much of classic Disneyland through the years. Even through the struggles of the 90s, much of Disneyland remained vintage and charming. I like to pinpoint the fall of [the idea of] Westcot and the rise of Disney’s California Adventure as when some of that started to die.

This was around the same time that Disneyland changed to The Disneyland Resort. A world-class tourist destination with onsite hotels and an entire Downtown Disney district. Walt’s park became something bigger and began to really market itself as a vacation destination – similar to Walt Disney World’s transition during its “Eisner renaissance”.

In the 90s, when Walt Disney World was expanding and building hotels left and right, it continued to be marketed as a playground for locals. It aggressively worked on marketing itself as a tourist destination, worthy of a week-long vacation by offering many relaxing options. Nestled on the shores of Bay Lake, one could go on a fishing charter or ride a horse. Go to River Country or one of the new water parks. Relaxing at Downtown Disney became a thing as we all explored the newly opened clubs. Some of us found our calling at the Adventurers Club. We loved the old-style Disney Imagineering mixed with alcohol and improv. These places didn’t suffer from a lack of clientele. They were regularly busy. But Disney decided they didn’t like the kind of clientele they were attracting.

These concepts gave birth to the new Disney Springs. Disney has given Disney Springs a quaint little backstory, so we all feel like we’re visiting a small town reminiscent of the towns that existed before Disney came to Central Florida. You can actually buy water bottles from this imagined place. Because as theme park fans we love being immersed in story.

But something feels cheapened. It feels to me, that Disney doesn’t care about the actual locals that staff and frequent the parks, hotels and Disney Springs – or at least doesn’t cares as much as they once did. And whether or not you agree with that statement, I’m gonna tell you why I believe it’s true and why it matters to me.

Let’s start with Walt Disney World. You would think that being an Annual Passholder would be some sort of valuable status at the resort, but it’s not for a few reasons. On the guest side, we’ve been seeing our perks fluctuate throughout the years. Top tier passes used to get a 20% discount. Now its 10%. We used to get more discounts at more restaurants. Now its very few and only during lunch on weekdays. Popping over to a hotel for dinner used to be easy and painless. Fireworks on the beach of the Polynesian or at the top of the Contemporary.

Tickets to get in the parks were reasonable for many years. On the cast member (CM) side, I’ve heard horror stories about people who try to use their annual pass status as a privilege when speaking with cast members. I took my little AP marker off my magic band because I don’t want cast members to assume I’m rude before I speak. It’s easier in the hustle and bustle to play “tourist” than it is to explain you’re knowledgeable but not a jerk about it. There aren’t many social gatherings and we are rarely celebrated by Disney Parks, oh except for commemorative merchandise. There is always a Limited Edition (LE) Passholder pin or LE shirt. I don’t buy any of it and I often see it end up at the Orlando outlet stores. We don’t have AP meet-ups. It feels like a sleepy community of AP’s but we’re just not organized at all outside of the blogger community.

At Disneyland it’s a different community of passholders. There are fan groups, social clubs and lots of special days like Dapper Day and Bats Day and Pin Up Parade (Walt Disney World has some of these days too, but the vibe and attendance levels are incredibly different). Disneyland’s top-tier passes get you 15% off all food (even quick service) on most days and 20% off souvenirs. Passholders at Disneyland are also frequently celebrated with parties, previews and special events. They currently pay a premium price to do so, but I want to leave cost arguments out, as it’s not where I’m going with this.

Corporate goals have been shifting to place an emphasis short-term gains over guest experience. I personally place the blame on the stock market and shareholders. As it’s now more important to please these investors every quarter, than it is to please the guests who are going to the park. And you may own Disney stock, but if you love Disney I’d argue it’s more sentimental to you than to the Wall Street people who want Disney’s stock price to keep rising so they can sell it and make quick gains. When people cry out “Disney is a business” in defense of price increase, they are right. Business has been good. Stock prices are up, attendance continues to grow, people are spending lots of money in the parks and people love Frozen and Star Wars. But something is off.



At Walt Disney World I’ve long thought that Disney didn’t care about the annual Passholders and locals. It was a feeling. Then the Magical Express was announced. No need to get a car while you’re on vacation! Lock yourself (and all your money) at the resort. But that didn’t affect me, because I’m not flying in. Then they closed Adventurer’s Club and all of Pleasure Island. Okay. They want to make it more “family friendly. Then they closed classic dark rides to make way for meet and greets. Passholder discounts began changing and even the deals you could find for resort hotels started to go away. We used to stay at Disney all the time. 5 years ago I booked the Polynesian for $150 a night on a FL resident discount. We were able to regularly pay $100 for Coronado Springs and $79 for the Value Resorts. We stayed overnight once a month (at least) and took advantage of the free transportation by dropping $100 each on alcohol. Now? We stay off-site and Uber if we’re drinking, which isn’t too often. I can get a clean bed and shower for $59 on Hotwire or Hotel Tonight. The Uber ride is $20 round trip. I’m still paying $79 but it’s not going to Disney. If we’re going with a big group, we’ll use Airbnb to rent a big house with a private pool and hot tub because it’s much cheaper than thinking of booking a 2 bedroom anything or renting points.

I’ve been living in this mindset for years. Quietly telling myself that it was okay, Walt Disney World was REALLY becoming a vacation destination, and I tried finding new ways to enjoy WDW without becoming overly negative about my situation. But now that I visit Disneyland twice a year and I see what happened at Walt Disney World beginning to happen at Disneyland — I must speak out about it. I can’t be asked to quietly grieve these losses. We are losing the heart and soul of the parks and it’s because locals are being pushed out.

The parks have increased parking fees yearly and arguably, Disney sets the trends for all the theme parks when they raise prices. They now offer preferred parking at Walt Disney World. But, at Magic Kingdom, it’s almost laughable since getting to the park is an hour journey no matter how close you park in the lot. Tourists don’t know that! And Disney wants them to feel like throwing money at their vacation is the way to have the best experience.

Through surveys it was revealed that Walt Disney World is considering charging for hotel parking. It’s interesting because Disneyland already charges to park at their hotels. Even their Downtown Disney. (It’s free for 2 hours, more if you validate) And industry insiders argued that they should. Most “world-class” resorts do. But who do you exclude when you charge for parking? The locals. Do they not want locals eating and drinking at the resorts? Many people feel passionate that if you aren’t staying at a Disney hotel, you shouldn’t be allowed on the property. But If I’m spending money there, doesn’t Disney want me there?

Disney recently announced two special before and after-hours events at Walt Disney World. First, the Disney After Hours event. A ticket gets you into the park at 7pm, gives you access to 25 of the most popular attractions, special characters, ice cream, soda “and more” all for the cost of $150. Who is this ticket for? A family of four would cost $600. Is it a singles event? A Date night? We will know after we see what it looks like on the first night, April 14, 2016.

Then they announced Disney Early Morning Magic, a morning event that consists of 3 rides being open and a continental breakfast. The rides are Winnie the Pooh, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Peter Pan’s Flight. This one costs $69 and doesn’t include park admission. Just ask the tourists to throw money at the situation so they can knock out the three most popular Fantasyland attractions and get some breakfast.

I’m going to plan my own mourning event for my wallet if I want to continue to make Disney my favorite hangout. Many people on social media told me that I shouldn’t be upset about these events. “If you don’t like it, don’t go” they said. And I mean, I don’t have plans to go to either of these cash grab events, because they’re not events for locals. They’re events for the tourist with disposable income. When I go on a cruise, I pay the $50 to be first on the ship. I think it has a great benefit. I can unpack, relax and get a drink while everyone else waits in line. Cruises don’t have annual passes, and locals of a port don’t go on cruises as regularly as I go to the parks (I assume). I don’t need to be concerned with paying to stay in a park late as a perk, since I can pick any night they’re open late to go. I don’t need the access to a less crowded park, since I can pop over there any time it’s not busy. I don’t need priority access to rides because I can choose any rides, three at a time, on any given day. I’m not showing off, I just live here.

What worries me is that a great deal of people go to Walt Disney World promising to spend whatever they have to (on credit cards, most of us) to give their families a once-in-a-lifetime vacation and happy memories. And good for them. Throwing money at something doesn’t always equal happiness, but at Walt Disney World it can get you (or at least your family) a lot happiness and good memories. But if these programs where Disney gives you very little for a lot of money are successful, it could mean entirely new ways of experiencing the parks for everyone. In all honesty, we’re probably already heading that direction.

#ThanksShanghai has been trending, after cuts started rolling out at Walt Disney World and subsequently at Disneyland. Cuts that left cast members scratching their heads. Why cut things when the parks are packed? Shanghai Disneyland, which is supposed to open on June 16, after five years of construction, has been the scapegoat as Disney fans blamed a late opening and inflated budget for the cuts back home.

And while that may be very true, this was the direction well before the cuts. Really, I think it’s thanks to the direction of Bob Chapek. You know Robert Chapek, right? He used to be President of Disney Consumer Products, which has in my opinion been out of touch with what average theme park consumers want out of Disney products until the last year or so. But before that he was President of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and was the “genius” behind the well-known Vault Strategy, where Disney only releases their movies for a set period of time, and then they are locked in the vault, until released in a new edition of course. Chapek was brought into Parks and Resorts to cut overhead, increase margins, and find new business models, a.k.a. monetize the hell out of everything. That’s been his entire career with Disney. He’s really good at it.

This plays well in the short term. And this is where Bob Iger wants the Parks and Resorts to go. More separate priced options, less labor overhead, and find ways to have technology implement it all in increasingly less-expensive methods. But in the long term, I feel like this will not go well for locals and we will continue to be pushed out of the resort and turned into less frequent visitors.

So what do you think? Are we living in times of decreasing Disney value? Have recent changes made playing in the parks difficult for you? I want to hear from my locals. Tell me your thoughts. And please be kind to the opinions of others in the comments.



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