Worst Disney Decisions of the Past 25 Years
When a company exists for 100 years, it’s bound to make a few mistakes along the way.
In the case of The Walt Disney Company, many of its failures are public and heavily mocked…and deservedly so in some instances.
Here are the worst Disney decisions of the past 25 years.
Disney’s America
In a weird way, Disney’s lucky that this particular project blew up in the 1990s.
If it still existed within the past five years, it’d be Song of the South times 1,000.
For some reason, Disney wanted to create an authentic theme park about the early days of American civilization.
Here’s the thing about the early days of American civilization. Much of what happened then isn’t stuff we like to think about today.
The potential racial connotations of Disney’s America alone should have made it a non-starter. Somehow, that wasn’t what killed the project, though.
Instead, the locals near Manassas, Virginia, revolted against the idea of a Disney theme park so close to their homes.
Disney should be grateful to these stubborn Virginia residents because Disney’s America was a terrible idea.
DisneyQuest
For a brief time in the 1980s, kids flocked to mall arcades to entertain themselves with their favorite games.
We’re talking about all the hottest action available in Space Invaders, Dig Dug, and Galaga.
How attractive did those games seem in 1998? That’s when Disney went all in on the concept of the video game arcade.
The company planned DisneyQuest indoor interactive theme parks in at least four metropolitan cities.
Almost immediately after the project started, Disney recognized that demand bordered on non-existent. The heyday of the arcade had come and was long since gone.
DisneyQuest would open in only two cities, Chicago and Orlando… and the Chicago one lasted just two years.
The DisneyQuest at Disney Springs survived much longer, but I can confirm it was a ghost town those final few years.
People at Disney already enjoyed a plethora of entertainment options.
Virtual Jungle Cruise and Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride weren’t as good as the real thing and somehow felt dated rather than cutting edge.
Ironically, due to the recent rise of places like Dave & Buster’s and Main Event, DisneyQuest would probably do better today than it did ten years ago.
Then again, that’s not saying much.
The Lake Nona Headquarters
Someone on Twitter referred to Disney’s May 18th as killing Bob Chapek’s final two Horcruxes.
I giggled incessantly at this statement because Bob Iger has successfully ended Chapek’s remaining two initiatives from his tenure as Disney CEO.
On the same day, Disney announced the closure of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser and the cancellation of the Lake Nona headquarters.
Hilariously, Iger managed to blame Ron DeSantis for the Lake Nona cancellation, which is akin to murdering someone you hate and then framing someone else you hate for the crime.
Back when Bob Chapek and Ron DeSantis were friends, the governor doled out $570 million in tax breaks for a new Disney headquarters near Walt Disney World.
Chapek callously forced some California employees, particularly in Walt Disney Imagineering, to move to Florida.
If they hadn’t, they would have lost their jobs.
Now, Iger has stopped development on Lake Nona and promised to help the impacted workers move back to California.
It’s a little late now, Disney.
Chapek recklessly prioritized tax incentives over the lives of cast members. Then, he managed to alienate his only business ally, DeSantis.
Not coincidentally, Chapek is no longer CEO at Disney.
NBA Experience
This one baffles me. I recognize that any sort of development requires a natural optimism.
Disney strategists envision something where nothing currently exists, and they’re almost always right.
Then, we have instances like the NBA Experience, where a bunch of reasonable people badly miscalculate.
Specifically, Disney took the failed DisneyQuest building and thought, “What if it were just basketball instead?”
Sure, fans had already indicated for years that they didn’t want to play games in this building, but Disney management somehow convinced itself that an NBA combine-type experience would prove successful.
Using this logic, Disney might as well greenlight Strange World 2.
Within days of the NBA Experience’s opening, it was already struggling to attain foot traffic.
Disney begged influencers to appear, but all their videos confirmed was an empty building.
The company misfired because it prioritized the wrong thing. It wanted to strengthen its relationship with the NBA rather than provide a Disney experience guests would love.
Out of everything we discuss today, this was the project that was doomed from the beginning. It should never have made it out of the blue-sky phase.
Rocket Rods
Look, I know that theme park design is a tough gig with a lot of unprecedented challenges.
Still, I’m a little worried when Disney can’t do the basics.
For example, let’s say that you’re going to close an existing ride and place a thrill ride on the same track layout.
You’d at least consider whether heavier ride carts traveling at faster speeds could cause infrastructural issues, right?
Somehow, somebody at Disney missed that step, which made Rocket Rods almost accidentally the most exciting Disney ride ever.
It came with a legitimate threat of danger.
The Rocket Rods themselves were too heavy for the PeopleMover track, and there was nothing Disney could do to fix it.
Rocket Rods lasted barely two years, and that was only because it tore down and went offline so often that it couldn’t do any real harm to the foundation.
Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser
Score this round to the haters.
In the lead-up to the opening of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, a combination of anti-Disney and anti-Star Wars commenters on social media banded together.
They spent the body of two years talking smack about the upcoming Star Wars hotel.
After Galactic Starcruiser opened, these vocal critics refused to concede that the resort was a blockbuster hit at first.
During the Star Wars hotel’s first ten months in operation, it achieved maximum capacity.
Early on, we recognized there were chinks in the armor, though. Disney priced Galactic Starcruiser at cruise line levels, even though you didn’t go anywhere.
Meanwhile, some of the promised features at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, like Crown of Corellia Dining Room, became upscale options at the hotel instead.
Basically, this project reeked of Bob Chapek’s micromanagement. Disney overcharged for the experience and then failed to adapt later.
As we entered 2023, I noted that passion for the outer space cruise died seemingly overnight.
Management suddenly couldn’t book its inventory, which is problematic for a place with just 100 rooms.
Also, the company never offered a legitimate discount for this experience.
The only offer Disney provided was for a discount at a different hotel after your stay at Galactic Starcruiser.
Yes, that’s ridiculous.
Disney aimed too high with its pricing and too low with its ambitions.
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Feature Photo: Disney.wikia