As lined in Walt Disney World is Apprehensive About Its Excessive Costs, there are issues about Disney pricing out the center class. That is now a debate inside the corporate amongst leaders, with rising fears about how value will increase and unpopular choices are angering followers and dropping visitor goodwill.
We’ve already mentioned all of that (twice!), however there’s one morsel from the WSJ that we haven’t but mentioned. Shortly after Chapek’s ouster, Iger referred to as a gathering and requested D’Amaro to provide you with a listing of issues the corporate might do to win again the goodwill of followers, undoing a few of the harm of the Chapek regime.
Amongst that dialogue, there was this quote: “Disney eradicated some perks that was free of charge, just like the Magical Specific airport shuttle and the FastPass ride-scheduling system. It stated solely a few third of lodge friends had been utilizing the airport service when it was canceled.” Clearly, Disney’s Magical Specific was not one of many issues Iger picked from the checklist of visitor perks to be restored, however that is nonetheless the primary time the corporate has ever disclosed ridership numbers for Disney’s Magical Specific.
Let’s break this down. On January 11, 2021, Walt Disney World formally introduced the choice to discontinue the free Disney’s Magical Specific airport shuttle service. The corporate defined that “vacationers have extra choices to select from than ever for transportation, together with ride-share providers that save time and provide extra flexibility to go the place they need, when they need.”
In mild of this transportation choice shift, Disney defined that when lodge bookings opened for stays in 2022, they’d now not provide Disney’s Magical Specific service for brand spanking new arrivals. Walt Disney World continued to function the service for brand spanking new and present reservations made for arrivals all through 2021, and departures into early 2022.
Disney’s Magical Specific airport shuttle service was operated by Mears, a transportation firm with coach buses and taxis that loved a digital monopoly on the Orlando marketplace for years. Throughout COVID, Mears struggled. It furloughed 83% of its workforce and completely laid off 200 staff.
Mears got here again from the brink, saying Mears Join only some months later, in April 2021. The service was launched in direct response to overwhelming demand and inquiries by friends. Mears Join promised the “identical secure and dependable service the corporate has supplied hundreds of thousands of friends for many years.”
Shortly thereafter, a newcomer entered the world, with Sunshine Flyer additionally launching in 2022. Whereas it was a improbable and distinctive train-themed twist on airport shuttles, it didn’t final lengthy. Sunshine Flyer and Mears Join merged in August 2023. Though the businesses didn’t state as a lot, the explanation was apparent to me: inadequate demand to maintain each.
The mixed firm, Mears Join Pushed by Sunshine, nonetheless operates as of 2025. In Mears Join Pushed by Sunshine Evaluate: Is Disney World’s Airport Shuttle Nonetheless Good?, I point out that the variety of stops has elevated. That assessment was from precisely one yr in the past, and this subject has solely worsened throughout non-peak instances.
It’s value studying that full assessment in the event you’re on the fence about Mears Join, however the final line is probably the most pertinent half for our functions: “A part of me wonders if the one approach an airport shuttle is viable in any respect within the long-run is by being an on-site perk supplied by Walt Disney World.”
With regard to Walt Disney World’s assertion that “solely a few third of lodge friends had been utilizing the airport service when it was canceled,” the very first thing that stands proud to me was it was cancelled through the peak of COVID. If solely a 3rd of friends had been utilizing Disney’s Magical Specific from July 2020 to January 2021, that’s not indicative of something.
We heard from numerous readers then who had been renting vehicles or driving all the best way all the way down to Walt Disney World for the primary time to mitigate danger. Others opted for personal transportation to scale back their publicity to different friends. This was all pretty cost-effective as a result of not many individuals, interval, had been visiting Walt Disney World on the time. Even inner transportation was barely used throughout that ~6 months.
The underside line is that if Walt Disney World had been making the idea to discontinue Disney’s Magical Specific on the idea of ridership numbers in mid-to-late 2020, oof. That might be very flawed methodology, to say the least.
Whereas no poorly-reasoned choices through the Chapek years would shock me, I’ll give Walt Disney World the good thing about the doubt and assume that the one-third stat for Disney’s Magical Specific was not from late 2020, however quite, late 2019 or early 2020.
That retiring DME had been on the desk for some time, and Walt Disney World used the “cowl” afforded by the tender reset of the phased reopening to lastly pull the set off on what it knew could be an unpopular resolution. That is exactly how we ended up with paid FastPass, which had been rumored for years however Disney by no means had the “braveness” to maneuver ahead with beforehand.
By Disney’s personal admission (contemporaneous interviews with Chapek and Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro), the closure and phased reopening offered a singular alternative for the parks to reevaluate its enterprise practices and make tough choices. At the moment, paid in a single day resort lodge parking was pretty current, and Walt Disney World most likely was already in search of different methods to enhance margins on its resorts with out rising rack charges.
No matter when the choice to eradicate Disney’s Magical Specific was made, my response to the one-third ridership statistic was: “wow, that’s the next quantity than I anticipated!”
Not everybody flies to Walt Disney World. Florida residents doing “staycations” most definitely should not. Similar goes for these in different Southern states for probably the most half. There are lots of common friends, even these residing farther north, who don’t fly as a result of it’s not cost-effective or for different causes. My household by no means fly to Walt Disney World after I was a child–we made the lengthy drive from Michigan!
Though the chances most likely fluctuate by season, I’d conservatively estimate that 20% of on-site Walt Disney World friends should not flying. That quantity may very well be as excessive as one-third, I’ve no clue–it’s not a statistic I’ve ever seen Walt Disney World launch.
Inside the remaining bucket of friends, there are those that don’t need to use an airport shuttle for no matter motive.
Many need to be the masters of their very own destiny by having a rental automobile, permitting them to not be beholden to Walt Disney World transportation. Not simply Disney’s Magical Specific, however all of it. That is widespread on the unfold out Disney Trip Membership resorts and different accommodations reliant on all-bus transportation. There was a interval between the time Sarah and I had been broke faculty college students and the rise of rideshare when this described us, and we rented a automobile for these journeys.
Others desire non-public pickups. The limo and city automobile firms have performed large enterprise at Orlando Worldwide Airport for so long as I can keep in mind. It’s at all times been the case that some share of friends most well-liked a non-public switch versus a public shuttle.
The underside line is that there’s one other large chunk of friends airport-arriving friends for whom Disney’s Magical Specific was at all times a non-starter. For so long as we’ve been visiting Walt Disney World, the lodge parking heaps have seen moderately excessive utilization, taxis had been at all times round, and personal switch firms existed. The rise and fall of Disney’s Magical Specific didn’t meaningfully change the equation on any of this.
With all of that stated, it will be silly to fake that the rise of rideshare didn’t change issues for Disney’s Magical Specific. It very clearly did.
Uber and Lyft have been massively disruptive not simply to the taxi trade, however presumably to demand for Disney’s Magical Specific. I’d hazard a guess that as these rideshare providers turned extra mainstream, so did their utilization round Central Florida. That is one thing we additionally noticed and skilled firsthand.
We had been early adopters of Uber, and observed that for a number of years after we first wrote about rideshare, readers had been nonetheless “discovering” it and debating whether or not to make use of rideshare for the primary time. This may shock some, however it is smart. The experiences of those that stay in Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago are very totally different than these in rural areas. Rideshare continues to be not a “factor” in my hometown.
This isn’t nearly what number of friends had been utilizing Uber or Lyft for transportation to and from the airport, reducing into Disney’s Magical Specific ridership numbers.
Equally vital, if no more so, was the freedom that rideshare supplied. Uber and Lyft opened the door for on-site friends to enterprise off-site, together with those that had used Disney’s Magical Specific for transportation to Walt Disney World from the airport. This meant doing meals off-site, however extra critically, it meant spending days at Common Orlando and different Central Florida theme parks.
This was the entire motive why Disney’s Magical Specific got here into being within the first place. Similar to the Disney Eating Plan, it was initially a play to maintain folks on-site. Way back, Walt Disney World decided that the rise in common per visitor spending with Disney’s Magical Specific plus the perceived comfort and goodwill obtained from providing the service outweighed the common per visitor price of providing the service. It was a ‘tender lock’ in maintaining folks within the Disney Bubble. Uber and Lyft punctured that.
Despite the fact that I’ve lengthy accepted the above reasoning about rideshare, I’ve maintained my perception that Disney’s Magical Specific was nonetheless a web optimistic for Walt Disney World. That it was most likely a short-sighted resolution to finish DME even when rideshare elevated the mobility of friends to movement off-site.
Nonetheless, the final time I wrote about Disney’s Magical Specific, we had been a frugal, tech-savvy couple of Childless Disney Millennials. At this time, we’re mother and father to a small youngster. Being a Disney Dad has modified my perspective on lots of issues, together with Disney’s Magical Specific.
Earlier than, I overestimated how large of game-changers Uber and Lyft had been for Walt Disney World transportation. Despite the fact that I had heard from many households that rideshare wasn’t a viable possibility for them, I most likely discounted this attitude. And as a frugal couple, we most likely overemphasized the distinction between rideshare and taxis on the idea of price (and it’s now not the case that Uber is considerably cheaper than taxis!).
Suffice to say, there by no means has been a ‘tender lock’ on the Disney Bubble as a result of taxis have existed so long as Disney’s Magical Specific existed. Whereas it’s simple that the associated fee, ubiquity and ease of Uber elevated its uptake versus taxis, the extent to which that is true is debatable.
What I now perceive is that there are different components that create that ‘tender lock’ for households. Automotive seats are a giant one, as neither taxis nor rideshare in Central Florida come outfitted with these. So households with young children must journey with their very own, which is a non-starter for a lot of.
We do journey with a automobile seat and, actually, rideshare or taxis have additionally change into a non-starter for us. One other factor I by no means appreciated till ~16 months in the past was simply how recklessly folks drive. There was like one time, ever, after I was involved for my security in a whole lot of instances utilizing rideshare previous to final yr. Now, I’m a nervous wreck every time I get into an Uber or Lyft, and that’s when it’s simply me! (Past the scope of this publish, however being a mum or dad has positively modified my danger tolerance in a giant approach.)
There is no such thing as a approach we’ll use Uber or Lyft with Megatron except it’s an absolute final resort. We’ll “endure” by means of nevertheless many stops Mears Join throws our approach. We’d quite be on the safer and far bigger bus quite than play russian roulette in an everyday car with another person behind the wheel.
I now “get” why so many households liked Disney’s Magical Specific regardless of it being objectively inefficient. I additionally perceive why households love Minnie Vans, for that matter, regardless of it being objectively rather more costly than different rideshares. You may’t put a value on peace of thoughts or your child’s security. Humorous how views change with lived expertise!
I can also plainly see that Mears Join ridership numbers are nowhere close to the extent of Disney’s Magical Specific when it was discontinued. (I’d be shocked if greater than 10% of on-site friends are utilizing Mears Join, on common.) Because the shuttle service has gotten much less and fewer environment friendly, it’s change into a vicious cycle of individuals abandoning it. Within the case of households, I can solely assume they’re largely opting as a substitute for rental vehicles. And nothing bursts the Disney bubble like a rental automobile!
In different phrases, the “swap” from Disney’s Magical Specific to Mears Join isn’t merely a 1:1 change, with Disney seeing the upside of upper lodge margins with none draw back in not providing the “free” shuttle. And it’s not simply that they’re dropping trip time and spending by advantage of those self same households renting vehicles.
They’ve undoubtedly misplaced some households fully, as the associated fee or inconvenience of paying for airport transportation was their tipping level. Or, it might’ve been the straw that broke the camel’s again from a nickel and diming perspective even amongst households that might afford different airport transportation.
Bringing issues full circle with the commentary to our final publish on Walt Disney World pricing out the center class, all of this pertains disproportionately to households with young children. A lot of what’s mentioned within the few previous paragraphs is our personal previous anecdotal expertise as a childless couple (or me as a solo traveler) versus us presently as a household of three with a child/toddler.
Nonetheless, I doubt any of that is distinctive to us. I’ve been listening to related sentiment from readers and oldsters for years, it simply by no means absolutely “clicked.” Simply going off my very own observations, I strongly suspect that extra convention-goers, honeymooners, and different members of the Childless Disney Millennials cohort are utilizing rideshare or non-public transportation that had been utilizing Disney’s Magical Specific or now Mears Join.
The flip aspect of that’s that I’d additionally strongly suspect {that a} disproportionate share of Disney’s Magical Specific ridership was center class households with kids. That one-third quantity might seem low on its face, but when it spikes to two-thirds or extra of all MCO-arriving households with children, that’s really a large share of Disney’s bread and butter! And, as defined above, a giant chunk of these friends nonetheless aren’t venturing off-site even with rideshare–provided that they weren’t with taxis.
Finally, given what we now learn about inner issues that Walt Disney World is pricing out center class households plus this Disney’s Magical Specific ridership stat plus my very own life expertise within the final couple years, I’m much more satisfied than ever than ending DME was a mistake.
I nonetheless couldn’t make sense of this resolution 2 years in the past, and that’s doubly true immediately. I’ve mentioned this repeatedly and at size in posts just like the checklist of High 10 Visitor Complaints About Walt Disney World. It’s gotta be a type of issues that made sense on a spreadsheet or as a brief time period increase through the interval of pent-up demand, however is doing incalculable harm to Walt Disney World. I firmly consider the beancounters bought this one improper, and the long-term penalties to the corporate in ending Disney’s Magical Specific will far exceed no matter cash they saved and to no matter diploma it juiced margins for a couple of years.
Eliminating Disney’s Magical Specific was short-sighted. The transfer will price Walt Disney World on-site lodge stays, visits to different theme parks, meals outdoors the resort advanced, and extra. One among Walt Disney World’s biggest strengths was its bubble, and the corporate voluntarily punctured that. The captive viewers that was considered as advantageous for years is gone–and at a time when Walt Disney World’s #1 competitor retains rising and getting stronger.
One other factor that resurfaced with this WSJ article was how, upon returning as CEO, Bob Iger made it clear that he had been “alarmed” by value will increase at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, and was involved that Chapek was “killing the soul” of Disney. Again when Iger’s “alarm” first leaked, we wrote 7 Good Modifications CEO Bob Iger Might Make to “Repair” Walt Disney World.
To his credit score, he has completed most of that, with solely 2 entries remaining. Because it’s as soon as once more clear that one thing substantive must be performed–past ineffectual press releases–and as Epic Universe is just months away from opening, it’s time to interrupt the glass and do one of many ultimate two issues: restore Disney’s Magical Specific.
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Your Ideas
What do you concentrate on the statistic that round one-third of Walt Disney World resort friends used Disney’s Magical Specific? Increased or decrease than you anticipated? Assume that quantity was disproportionately the very center class households that Disney is now frightened about dropping? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we might help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even once you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
