No they don't.
They just
have to do what would be best for their owners. And the other venues provide insight into how incremental amounts of market-captivity affect pricing.
I'm not sure how else to explain it. Perhaps someone else could take a crack at it.
Regardless. The distinction between this and the above is that whether Disney does "do better" is a matter of personal opinion, while what Disney "needs to do" is not. It's important to draw that distinction, because many people in this thread disagree with us about our assertion that "they do".
As I said, my comment wasn't so much about "is WDW food affordable" as it was a response to PP who post, basically "I paid the same or more at such-and-such and the food was worse than at WDW".
Here's an example of why I think WDW
has to do better than those venues:
Family is going to a ball game. "What should we do about supper?" "Oh, let's have hot dogs and soda in the stands. It'll be fun"
Familly is going to WDW for a week.
Day 1: "What should we do about lunch?" "Oh, let's have hot dogs and soda in the park. It'll be fun".
Day 1: "What should we do about supper?" "Oh, let's have hamburgers and soda in the park. It'll be fun."
Day 2: "What should we do about lunch?" "Oh, let's have hot dogs and soda in the park. It'll be fun". "But that's what we had yesterday." "You can have a hamburger instead." "We had hamburgers for supper last night." "Well that's all they have."
Day 2: "What should we do about lunch?" "Well, since all they have is hot dogs and hamburgers, you have a choice." "I am so sick of hot dogs and hamburgers. Why did we make the mistake to stay on site and not rent a car?"
Day 2: "What should we do about supper?" "I've got an idea: Let's rent a car for the rest of the week so we can go off site and have a decent meal! The amount of money we save will pay for the car! Maybe we can check out that Harry Potter land at Universal, or spend a day at Sea World. And remind me never to stay on site again because all they have to eat is hot dogs and hamburgers!"
And on their next visit to Orlando, the familiy stays off site. They don't visit the Disney parks every day of their vacation like they would if they stayed on site and didn't rent a car, and instead explore Universal and Sea World. No resort revenue for the mouse. Less theme park admission revenue for the mouse. Probably less in-park spending for the mouse.
So yes, I think WDW does
need to do better in food service than a ball park or a place where a family might spend only one day. People would get very tired of limited/horrible/overpriced food very quickly, and would take their money elsewhere.
I think the same could be said for pricing the food too high. A day or two is not too bad. But a week of way overpriced food will drive more people off site. I am not saying I think the price has become outrageous across the board, but there are some things
I won't pay for. $52 pp for Fantasmic
lunch package for example...but other people evidently will.