How far

How far we have come...

The older you get,  the more you see how far we have come. 
Changes are the natural progression in life. 
Many things are much better. 

Being optimistic ... actually most things are better. 
But some things change making you wish for the good old days. 
Changes that deminish the quality or experience over time.

Disney reached the Pinnacle of a quality experience in the late 1990's and early 2000's. The best got better and the quality of your experience,  the value for your dollar, was never better. The cost/value and the guest experience rose together.  One might say that level of the overall guest experience increased faster the the cost. Disney was a quality product at a reasonable price.

Then,  slowly at first, things changed as the value decreased with the raising costs. The past 5 years have seen prices increase more than 3-4 times the normal rate of inflation. Not only did prices increase well beyond the experience,  but more things disappeared.  Sure new things were added,  but many things were eliminated to cut costs. Then things that were once provided with the price of park admission... now came with extra fees. Was it greed that now superceeded the guest experience?  Notably,  the overall consensus is that the Disney" magic" was fading fast. Disney found ever increasing ways to get more money out of every guest. The last 5 years have seen what was once affordable climb to levels pushing the total price tag out of reach for the average family.   The latest estimate places that a family of four , staying for 7 days is now close to $10,000. What was once a 7-10 day visit every 2-3 years... It's now a 3-4 day visit every 5-6 years. And for some,  going to Disney at all is now economically and financially a hardship or impossible.

I don't think that was what Walt envisioned as a happy place for family's to enjoy. Prices are up,  value is way down, and the magic that once was the hallmark of Disney clearly tarnished and fading fast.

And while this is my perception,  clearly it is not mine alone. Social media bares out this perception.  Attendance in the parks has dropped significantly supporting this perception. Even CEO Bob Iger conceeds that this is the case. 

So what's the future? Disney is drastically cutting costs.  Thousands of jobs eliminated. Productions cancelled. And selling off Disney assets is rumored. Even strong speculation that is even possible that Apple will buy Disney. So,  what will the future hold?

We will not be returning to Disney. Too many things have changed.  Too many great memories of family visits that would be diminished by seeing those changes... And paying more for it. 

As for us, we have great memories of past visits , and are happy to keep this memories intact. And the older you are,  and the more memories you have had over the years... the more the changes will be seen as negatives. 

Well,  that about sums it up. If you have never been to Disney before,  or visits have only been in recent years... You will have a good experience... Not knowing how much everything has changed.