YESSSSSSSS! Disney needs to get through their heads that they need to stop trying to appease locals so much and start acting like a tourist destination. Sure, it's close to actual residents and SoCal has so many people. But the monthly payments, SoCal resident ticket promotions are ruining the guest experience IMO. Not because locals are poor guests but because the millions of passholders are becoming where they don't appreciate the park as much (I'm generalizing, I know MANY are not this way and I myself am a passholder but not local).
Disneyland is starting to feel like it's a right instead of a privilege or something to work towards. Whenever I suggest eliminating the monthly payments for CA residents, I can't tell you how many people say "then I can't afford to take my kids like I do now"... okay, totally get that. But who says your kids should go to DL 5-10 times a year? I know I'm going to get a lot of flack for this. And I totally get on a soapbox tangent about that. I just think Disney is afraid for the bad publicity the locals will give them for eliminating the monthly payments and no more SoCal pass. Or they no longer care about the guest experience. Okay I'm done. I hope I didn't offend anyone. It's just observations I have found over the past handful of years.
I can't stand the monthly option. I'm perfectly happy to pay full price up front for it. It's expensive, but worth it.
What bugs me the most is NOW they introduce this Flex pass and it just invites MORE hoards of people to the park. Doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
The #1 complaint from guests is that the price is too high and it's too crowded. So what do they do? Add a pass that's cheaper, allow monthly payments on it AND have reservation days for almost any day they want. They literally created a monster. This is just asking for peak capacity days. Remove the monthly pass option!
As for the OP - I kinda liken it to people from New York who come to LA. When they get here, they are very confused, as LA is on a whole different vibe and has a very odd way of how the county and cities work (freeways, cars, traffic, etc). But if you grew up in SoCal, you eventually understand it and appreciate it for what it is. Same goes for WDWers who come here. It's definitely a Disney culture shock. But you gotta remember, there is no WDW without DL, and this is where it all started. Areas are smaller, outside traffic can be heard outside, bums walk the streets right up to the entrance, CMs wait for buses and locals crowd the park like crazy, but that's the charm of the DLR. It's very old-school.
DLR will never be a tourist destination because people in in SoCal make up the majority of the park attendance. 80% locals, 20% tourists, while WDW is the opposite. People in LA and OC grew up at the park, especially OCers, as this is our home away from home. This is where we hung out as kids with our families, then when High School came around, this is where we hung out every Fri and Sat night, smoking cigarettes, trying to get girls, go on rides, eat bad food, and live life. Some of us got our first kiss here (not me, mine was at Knotts!), or was the first place where you got to hang out with your friends without parents around, etc. And this was during the school year because when Summer came around, forget it! It was mayhem. Teens ruled the park in every which way. Can you imagine 100-200 kids smoking and hanging out in front of the castle every Fri/Sat night? I remember those days. DL security couldn't do anything, so they eventually had to renovate Tomorrowland, remove benches to ease loitering and ban kids smoking cigarettes... ah, the days...
For a lot of SoCal residents, the DLR is home, life and everything else wrapped into one. If they start making this a tourist destination, it will backfire badly for them.