On Wednesday, July 23, at exactly 6:55 a.m., Scarlett Cressel, a 60-year-old school bus driver, opens her Disney app on her phone with nervous excitement. She is traveling with a group that includes her daughter, her grandchildren and her mother to Disney World the following week. In five minutes, Ms. Cressel will gain access to Disney’s ride reservations system, where she hopes to snag three bookings for their visit.
This moment was years in the making. Ms. Cressel requested Disney gift cards for several birthdays and Christmases, dug up discounts and paid for her park tickets in installments. Her mother arranged space in a timeshare nearby, and a friend will take Amtrak’s Auto Train from Virginia to Florida with the group’s luggage to avoid airline baggage fees.
Yet for all her planning, Ms. Cressel enters the reservation system at a disadvantage. The system dispenses front-of-the-line spots and gives priority to travelers who book a guide, purchase expensive passes or stay at a Disney property. As a visitor on a budget, Ms. Cressel is near the bottom of a pecking order in which, on many days, thousands of spots for the park’s premier rides are reserved for the big spenders.
The recently renovated 1,863-square-foot King Kamehameha suite at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, which offers a huge bi-level great room, views of Cinderella Castle and a soaking tub, can go for $3,000 a night. The sleek GEO-82 Bar and Lounge in EPCOT offers a package that includes a tower of small bites, champagne or cocktails and a table with views of the park’s fireworks show for $179 a person (entry to the park not included, but required). A wine-paired prix fixe meal at the Michelin-starred Victoria & Albert’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian hotel starts at over $1,200 for two. And so on.
For most of the park’s history, Disney was priced to welcome people across the income spectrum, embracing the motto “Everyone is a V.I.P.” In doing so, it created a shared American culture by providing the same experience to every guest. The family that pulled up in a new Cadillac stood in the same lines, ate the same food and rode the same rides as the family that arrived in a used Chevy. Back then, America’s large and thriving middle class was the focus of most companies’ efforts and firmly in the driver’s seat.