Chapek out - Iger back

[starlite_]

So you are happy having to be up at 7am on your hard earned holiday? They need to think of something else besides people battling it out at 7am, it's ridiculous. If you are a resort guest you get to pick a couple of rides and pre book say a week before your holiday for each day? Something needs to happen to make your holiday less stressful each day. Open to ideas.

See my previous post.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

Everyone that thought it was a good idea to extend his contact for 3 years should be carted out too. He didn't even make it to Feb 2023, his original contract expiration date. Now he will walk out with tens of millions for NOTHING while they are laying off others. Lots of leadership failures all around.

i am curious what clauses they added to his contract, they could have extended his contract to get better leverage over him to let him go. It was going to cost a pretty penny either way, but maybe they added a gag order to his contract or something of the like to make sure he didn't damage Disneys reputation on the way out the door.
Just a guess

 

[GAN]

i am curious what clauses they added to his contract, they could have extended his contract to get better leverage over him to let him go. It was going to cost a pretty penny either way, but maybe they added a gag order to his contract or something of the like to make sure he didn't damage Disneys reputation on the way out the door.
Just a guess

I agree... they knew at that time that he probably wasn't going to make it -as did Chapek. I think it was a charade for the market, until they could get Iger locked back in. Which bought Iger some time to hit the ground running

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

That my friend is a WDW problem. Here at DLR, you cannot choose until you are inside the park. Much more fair imo.

Well, I know I'm biased because Fastpass+ was to my benefit as an on-site guest. But I will say I did and still do think it's appropriate to offer guests who are coming in from other places, or who pay the premium to stay onsite and plan an entire vacation around Disney, or who make a once a year (or in many cases, one in a lifetime) trip to WDW, the opportunity to book in-demand rides ahead of time. It's like having insurance that you'll be able to get on your priority rides and know you're getting what you came (and paid) for. I think in that way it makes sense to give that perk to out-of-towners over passholders who can come back next week, and I think it behooves Disney to incentivize resort stays in that way.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

To me the WDW parks felt more crowded in 2021, what I would call second tier rides consistently had longer lines than I’ve ever experienced. We were there 10 days & it was brutal. We’re returning next week for our annual trip w/ the thought that we’re giving it another chance, but if it’s as bad as last year maybe we’ll need to reconsider going forward.
At DL you can hop at 1 pm & it’s nice if you decide to have a sleep in, slower morning you can just head to the park you planned to hop to w/out ‘tagging in’ at your reserved park.

When we were going in 2019, early 2020 even the smaller rides were long lines. FP+ started making them worst with people feeling they had to pick fast passes for rides they don't normally worry about. We have been regularly going since 2008 and from 2008 to to 2020 each year felt more crowded than the last. But now while still not empty it feels more manageable then it was. It feels like a different crowd though like a bunch of people roaming around not sure what to do or how to do things its so odd.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I agree... they knew at that time that he probably wasn't going to make it -as did Chapek. I think it was a charade for the market, until they could get Iger locked back in. Which bought Iger some time to hit the ground running

In hindsight, that contract they gave him looks a lot better considering it was never going to come to fruition

 

[HokieRaven5]

In hindsight, that contract they gave him looks a lot better considering it was never going to come to fruition

They apparently tried to reach out to Tom Staggs (Iger’s original successor) and Kevin Mayer to return as well while his contract renewal was in motion. In those conversations they would’ve had to acquire their start-up companies as well which Chapek would’ve had to sign off on.

Getting a 3 year deal where previous CEOs got longer second contracts with the company definitely made clear they weren’t fully committed to Chapek.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

They apparently tried to reach out to Tom Staggs (Iger’s original successor) and Kevin Mayer to return as well while his contract renewal was in motion. In those conversations they would’ve had to acquire their start-up companies as well which Chapek would’ve had to sign off on.

Getting a 3 year deal where previous CEOs got longer second contracts with the company definitely made clear they weren’t fully committed to Chapek.

we'll never get to see it, but i'm sure there will be leaks in the coming weeks

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

So you are happy having to be up at 7am on your hard earned holiday? They need to think of something else besides people battling it out at 7am, it's ridiculous. If you are a resort guest you get to pick a couple of rides and pre book say a week before your holiday for each day? Something needs to happen to make your holiday less stressful each day. Open to ideas.

I'm with you on this. I like to choose ahead of time, or at least I prefer that to setting an alarm to book rides while I'm on vacation. I have two little kids who NEVER sleep past 5:30am. Except in Disney, where they are tired enough to give us a dang break. The idea of setting an alarm, which wakes up everyone in the room, on the rare occasion my husband and I might get to sleep in a little bit, it just stinks.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I agree. Whoever thought that up is possibly the dumbest person in Disney history. I'm up at 5am every morning anyway, but it is still insane to force that kind of planning on people EVERY DAY of their vacation. I much prefer the 60 days planning. Get all the stress of scheduling out of the way and over with months before, and just show up and enjoy your vacation.

Precisely. It's a ride at Disney World, not a hip replacement surgery. Pick a couple of popular rides 60 days out and if you change your mind in the interim, or the ride goes down or life happens, who cares?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I personally feel that the current crowding at the MK can be traced pretty directly to the end of free park hopping on all tickets. In the old days, crowding at the MK tended to naturally even itself out on most days, as people took the littles to Fantasyland in the morning, but left MK for other parks when the crowds got thick, but these days it stays packed like a sardine can until the last firework fades. (I have never understood why, [pre-reservation system] WDW didn't use the tactic of declaring a "free hopping day" on occasion when MK got too crowded. With the app it would be no problem to do it on the day of.)

Over time you've had parties at MK lengthen the amount of evenings unavailable to day guests which has put pressure on non-party days. That would have the biggest impact to fireworks attendance. If you only get 1 shot (maybe 2 depending on your length of trip) welp that's what it is.

When I read comments from a lot of parents over the years park hopping tends to not be high on the priority because of their kids. Because they can't get there at rope drop, or the kids tire out or get over stimulated so they go back to the resort for pool time or nap time, because the time spent park hopping eats out the time they realistically have.

When FP+ came around and you pre-selected attractions there were different strategies involved there, in the morning gave more opportunity for rolling 4th, mid-afternoon to early evening gave opportunity to have a quicker way to get on rides when wait times were longer on average.

Collectively there's probably a lot that has contributed to MK being more crowded. Even the design of the parks interacts as funneling of crowds when there's more of them functions differently. You absolutely don't want to go through the hub if you can avoid it but New Fantasyland gets really clogged easily with people even during the day. Parades add to it as well. The attendance has def. gone up over the years. I disagree that removal of park hopping being included is why MK today is what it is. Epcot's World Showcase is a great and awful design at the same time. It's expansive but leaves only the boats to get from one side to the other without wading in the sea of people which are usually plentiful when the festivals are going on (which are a large part of the year these days between the two of them).

 

[fatmanatee]

So you are happy having to be up at 7am on your hard earned holiday? They need to think of something else besides people battling it out at 7am, it's ridiculous. If you are a resort guest you get to pick a couple of rides and pre book say a week before your holiday for each day? Something needs to happen to make your holiday less stressful each day. Open to ideas.

I’ve been up at 7 am for these trips for as long as I can remember, even as a kid in the 80s. Its one unfortunate aspect of Disney World “vacations” and they know it. They’re catering to hyper planners here and all signs point to it being an extremely successful venture for them, probably too successful, given how many people buy it.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

I’ve been up at 7 am for these trips for as long as I can remember, even as a kid in the 80s. Its one unfortunate aspect of Disney World “vacations” and they know it. They’re catering to hyper planners here and all signs point to it being an extremely successful venture for them, probably too successful, given how many people buy it.

Being a hyper planner doesn't mean you're always up at 7am on vacation. I AM a hyper planner, I am also THE planner for my family and our extended family when they join us. I preferred doing my hyper planning ahead of time so that while I was ON vacation, I was able to kick back and relax. Now I am having to do that planning on the fly every day of my vacation, starting at 7am. I'm not saying I hate Genie+ overall because I don't, but I do have hopes that some aspects of the system will be revamped.

 

[DLgal]

So you are happy having to be up at 7am on your hard earned holiday? They need to think of something else besides people battling it out at 7am, it's ridiculous. If you are a resort guest you get to pick a couple of rides and pre book say a week before your holiday for each day? Something needs to happen to make your holiday less stressful each day. Open to ideas.

At Disneyland, you can not buy nor start making reservations with Genie+ until you scan into the park.

Why can't WDW just do this? It makes the system much more fair and G+ return times don't disappear so quickly. You can arrive at noon and still get your money's worth.

WDW is obsessed with making people work harder than they need to. They love overcomplicating everything.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I’ve been up at 7 am for these trips for as long as I can remember, even as a kid in the 80s. Its one unfortunate aspect of Disney World “vacations” and they know it. They’re catering to hyper planners here and all signs point to it being an extremely successful venture for them, probably too successful, given how many people buy it.

I've never heard of anyone ever coming back from a WDW vacation, and saying they were relaxed. it's not that type of vacation unless you lounge at the pool all day

 

[fatmanatee]

I've never heard of anyone ever coming back from a WDW vacation, and saying they were relaxed. it's not that type of vacation unless you lounge at the pool all day

I have VERY vivid memories of grumpy wake-up calls during spring break. I liked sleeping in and that wasn’t happening on these trips.

 

[starlite_]

Well, I know I'm biased because Fastpass+ was to my benefit as an on-site guest. But I will say I did and still do think it's appropriate to offer guests who are coming in from other places, or who pay the premium to stay onsite and plan an entire vacation around Disney, or who make a once a year (or in many cases, one in a lifetime) trip to WDW, the opportunity to book in-demand rides ahead of time. It's like having insurance that you'll be able to get on your priority rides and know you're getting what you came (and paid) for. I think in that way it makes sense to give that perk to out-of-towners over passholders who can come back next week, and I think it behooves Disney to incentivize resort stays in that way.

You do realize this is part of the cause of your problem right? Back when fastpass+ was going on most of the good rides were near impossible to get because they were hoarded months in advance. If folks could simply only book when at the parks then chances to get your preferred ride are much better. Like at DLR, whose LLs don't sell out at 10am but you can get even at night for the most popular rides.

 

[HokieRaven5]

At Disneyland, you can not buy nor start making reservations with Genie+ until you scan into the park.

Why can't WDW just do this? It makes the system much more fair and G+ return times don't disappear so quickly. You can arrive at noon and still get your money's worth.

WDW is obsessed with making people work harder than they need to. They love overcomplicating everything.

Disneyland also has the benefit of having more attractions than WDW.

I do agree that a compromise would be once tapped in you can make a Genie+ selection. Extend the early entry for hotel guests to an hour that gives them a head start over off-site on their attraction selections.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

I've never heard of anyone ever coming back from a WDW vacation, and saying they were relaxed. it's not that type of vacation unless you lounge at the pool all day

I can vouch for the fact that a relaxing WDW can in fact be done. Our pre-kid trips were relaxing of course, but we also took our toddler in 2019, and that also was relaxing, which surprised me as much as it probably surprises you.

But I think being able to relax on a WDW vacation depends on a number of factors, including your expectations, length of stay, and where you stay. Our 2019 could be relaxed because we had 11 nights, so no need to rush, and we stayed at DVC resorts that had easy access to the parks.

Beyond that, though, it was relaxed because it WAS pre-planned with Fastpass+. I was able to book our fastpasses ahead of time, I was able to think it through, book all three in a certain block of time so that we could get in and get out of the park if the kiddo had a melt down or needed to nap. I booked fastpasses so that they were geographically close to one another, and we weren't running back and forth across the park. There was no killing 2 hours until our next LL came up, because my kiddo can't tolerate standby and there was no standby less than 40 minutes anywhere in the park. There was no worrying about whether the ILL I wanted would wind up overlapping my Space220 ADR later in the day, or whether RoR would go down and if I couldn't make it back at whatever time it opened, I just lost my money. Park-hopping was flexible, so we could just go where we wanted to on the fly. It was by far an EASIER, less stressful vacation than what we experienced on our 2022 vacation. That was a tough one, largely because of the phases our kids were in at that point, but also because of the inflexibility of the current system.

 

[BrianL]

I've never heard of anyone ever coming back from a WDW vacation, and saying they were relaxed. it's not that type of vacation unless you lounge at the pool all day

I typically feel relaxed after a WDW trip. For me they are a "reset" that really help me releive some stress. That said, being there can be stressful, and isn't really relaxing, though I see it more as energizing. I like active vacations in general though and I have no issue getting up early.