If you’ve been hit by a Disney World vacation bill that nearly made you cry or ever priced out a dream trip and thought “I can’t afford that!”, you’re probably not alone.

Disney World vacations can be incredibly expensive. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a great Disney trip on a budget — we’ve shared a number of resources and posts that can help you plan a magical vacation for MUCH less. But, given recent ticket price increases, the surge pricing associated with Genie+, and ever-increasing snack costs, you may still feel a bit of Disney sticker shock. So how does Disney’s current CEO, Bob Iger, feel about the increasing prices in the parks? We just got an answer.

Disney’s earnings call for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023 was held on February 8th, 2023. During that call we got some HUGE updates about the financial standing of the Walt Disney Company, just how well the parks are doing, news about a slight DROP in Disney+ subscriber numbers (and high streaming losses), and more.

But we also got some more insight into Iger’s view on pricing in the parks. Now, to be clear, we had seen some comments from Iger on this in the past. Some reports had indicated that Iger felt Chapek had “given priority” to Disney’s streaming business “at the expense of other parts of Disney, like cable television and the theme parks.” And Iger was reportedly “alarmed by increases in prices at Disney theme parks,” which Chapek felt would “boost revenue and limit overcrowding.”

So what did Iger himself say during the earnings call on February 8th? Well, he addressed the issue had on by saying, “It’s clear that some of our pricing initiatives were alienating to consumers.” (Quotes obtained thanks to the transcript from The Motley Fool)

Iger shared, “I’ve always believed…that accessibility is a core value of the Disney brand.” But he shared that Disney was “not perceived to be as accessible or as affordable to many segments as we probably should have been. So, after basically paying heed to what we were hearing, we started to address it.”

Iger noted that they’ve taken some steps to correct the issue already and the steps have been “very, very positive.” He noted that one thing they’re working to do is provide “more flexibility for the consumer in terms of how much it cost them to go.” He specifically used Disneyland as an example, noting that how their core ticket price has not increased that much, “maybe slightly ahead of inflation over the last few years.”

But he said that he examined pricing and noticed that the lowest pricing was only available for a very limited number of days each year. So, he said, Disney’s new pricing strategy makes those cheaper tickets available during substantially more days in the year. He said, “we greatly increased accessibility to our lowest price, and it is really well received. So, we’re going to manage capacity very, very carefully.”

We actually saw this change regarding Disneyland tickets and making their cheapest ticket available on more days announced back in January of 2023.

While Iger’s comments may come as a positive note to those who are worried about price increases, it does contrast some other things done in the past few months. Ticket price increases and changes hit Disney World in December 2022, at which point Iger had already returned to the CEO position. Iger had only just returned to the role, however, so it’s possible these were planned during Chapek’s term and simply could not be reversed.

Genie+ has also continued to utilize surge pricing and hit its peak $29 price since Iger’s return. So it’s not as though he has stopped that from taking place. In fact, the earnings report for Q1 of FY 2023 pointed out that the operating income growth at the parks was partly due to increased guest spending, which was “due to an increase in average per capita ticket revenue driven by Genie+ and Lightning Lane.” In other words, Genie+ is making Disney lots of money, so that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.

And it’s not as though price increases didn’t take place under Iger’s “reign” during his first time as CEO. Still, his comments about pricing and making things more accessible could point to more steady/subtle increases as opposed to sudden spikes. Only time will tell.

We’ll continue to watch for more Disney news and let you know what we find.

Click here to learn more about when Disney could raise prices in 2023

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What do you think about Iger’s statements? Tell us in the comments.

The post Bob Iger Admits Disney’s Theme Park “Pricing Initiatives Were Alienating” first appeared on the disney food blog.