Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek stands by his Disney parks price increases in his memoir, Behind the Castle Walls, out Sept. 29, 2026, per The New York Times. He also blames Bob Iger for his 2022 firing.
Bob Chapek isn’t sorry about the prices.
The former Disney CEO defends his strategy of raising prices at Disney parks in his new memoir, according to The New York Times, which got an early copy. Reporter Brooks Barnes wrote about the book Wednesday, Sept. 23, and Disney reporter Scott Gustin shared screenshots of the story on X.
“He offers no mea culpa,” the Times wrote.
The book, Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth, comes out Tuesday, Sept. 29, from Gallery Books.
Gustin's post with the Times screenshots is here on X.
What does Bob Chapek say about Disney park prices?
That they worked.
Per the Times, Chapek proudly recounts bringing “airline-style dynamic pricing” to Disney parks. That’s the system where ticket prices go up and down depending on how busy a day is expected to be.
He argues that higher prices helped cut down on crowds and made guests happier.
“We’d been, at a minimum, leaving revenue opportunities on the table to avoid stirring the hornet’s nest,” he writes. He points to 18% compound annual profit growth during his time running the parks division.
What prices went up under Bob Chapek?
A lot of them, and fans remember.
The Times noted that under Chapek, Disney “sharply raised prices for annual park passes and food.” The company also started charging for things that used to be free, including skipping lines and parking at Disney hotels in Florida.
That era brought Genie+, the paid line-skipping service that replaced the free FastPass system at Walt Disney World in 2021. Disney’s Magical Express, the free airport shuttle, also ended in early 2022, per WDW News Today.
Technically, Bob Iger was CEO when hotel parking stopped being free, and when Genie+ was greenlit and developed, but Chapek was in charge of Parks and Resorts. So they are technically both at fault.
But I digress.
For a lot of families, that period is when a Disney trip started to feel like it cost a lot more.
Why does Bob Chapek blame Bob Iger?
Because he says Iger pushed him out.
Chapek became CEO in February 2020, handpicked by Iger. The board fired him in November 2022 and brought Iger back.
According to the Times, Chapek doesn’t blame COVID, Wall Street or Florida politics for his ouster. The paper wrote that he “places all blame on a relentless sabotage campaign” by Iger, which aligns with reports made over the years in other major news outlets.
Chapek writes that his firing left people “trying to figure out what I did wrong.” His answer: “The answer, again, is nothing.”
He also admits the way it ended still makes him angry. “I didn’t get a chance to finish what I started,” he writes.
Has Disney or Bob Iger responded?
Not publicly so far. The book isn’t out until next week.
Iger has said before that picking Chapek was a mistake he regrets.
Did Iger undo Chapek’s price changes?
Some of them. In January 2023, a couple of months after Iger returned, Disney announced a set of changes aimed at winning fans back, per Yahoo Finance.
Free parking came back for guests at Walt Disney World resort hotels (again that change was initially under Bob Iger in 2018 not Bob Chapek)
Disneyland added more dates with its lowest-priced tickets
Some annual passholders could skip park reservations on weekday afternoons
Photos from attractions became free with Genie+ at Disney World
Ticket prices didn’t go back down, though. Disney still uses date-based pricing today.
Who is running Disney now?
Josh D’Amaro, who took over from Iger as CEO on March 18, 2026.
Chapek wants some credit for that too. D’Amaro ran Disney’s parks after Chapek, and in the book Chapek says he pushed for the promotion. “I consistently suggested the idea of promoting him,” he writes. “He had been a relative unknown in the corporate hierarchy before I singled him out.”
Chapek wrote the book with Don Yaeger. It covers his whole Disney career, starting in 1993 in home video marketing.
Expect a lot more excerpts to surface once the book is out. And expect Disney fans who paid for parking to have opinions.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
The New York Times (Sept. 23, 2026), via Scott Gustin’s screenshots on X, the price quotes and memoir details
WDW News Today (Sept. 23, 2026), the Iger quotes, the D’Amaro quote and the book details
Simon & Schuster (Aug. 12, 2026), the title, publisher and release date
Yahoo Finance (Jan. 11, 2023), Iger’s rollback of Chapek-era changes
CNBC (Feb. 3, 2026), D’Amaro’s start date as CEO
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