WDW Cuts and Upcharges

[Nick]

Seems like a lot of staffing cuts/park hour decreases are scheduled/on the way at WDW. Water Park hours and Future World hour decreases have already been confirmed and it is now rumored that across the board staffing cuts at attractions, merch, etc will be cut and overtime only allowed if absolutely necessary.

Having worked for the mouse on the DCP last year and knowing all I know as a fan, this comes as absolutely no surprise. It also comes in the wake of record profits.

Cuts coming to every area of parks and resorts - thanks to Shanghai and Paris | WDWMAGIC - Unofficial Walt Disney World discussion forums

 

[violarum]

this is really disheartening. why don't all the fancy high-up execs cut their salaries instead? stingy, stingy.

 

[Mad Dog]

Penny wise pound foolish policies. While the WDW experience slowly degrades it leaves a huge opening for Universal to continue taking advantage of. My perception is that there's a number of causes 1)Shanghai/Paris/Hong Kong drains resources 2) Disney trying to prop up profit ratios in the wake of ESPN problems. Disney stock has dropped from the $120'splus per share to low $90's per share. That's significantly more than the general market drop. And note that executive compensation is strongly tied to stock prices 3)The new Parks head, Chapek ,comes from a Paul Pressler type background and it seems, so far, that he has the same cost cut philosophy. And he has absolutely no theme park experience. 4) It's starting to look like they want to pay for the expansions by cutting labor, services, entertainment, attractions instead of using outside monies 5) The entire Disney management compensation structure is largely based on profits/profit ratio and thus bonuses and stock options. Unfortunately this gives executives incentive to think and act short term instead of long term. Their yearly bonus checks are more important to them than the long term viability of the Disney brand 6)The Disney brand is extremely strong. So the present management is living off of that. But the truth is the strength of the brand name was put together by people in the past. This present group has little to do with it. They're just basically leeches living off of other people's successes..................I still enjoy the Disney experience. But it's evident it isn't what it once was. Their excellent marketing team keeps the parks successful. How long can they maintain the facade? That's the question.

 

[JoeCamel]

With the new head guy you can see how his tenure will be. Return to the Pressler era to hit the numbers and the guest experience be dammed. No one has brought MM+ into the picture but I am sure that is not paid for yet either.

 

[Mad Dog]

So far the funniest comment on this I've read is from a poster on Magic. He said they are selling all of the Animal Kingdom safari animals. They'll be replaced by cardboard cutouts, for the Kilimanjaro Safari attraction.

 

[UNIrd]

Record attendance.. Budget cuts all over the resort. Makes sense.

 

[captainmoch]

Yikes!!!

(Insert clever comment about Universal being better here. I'm too tired currently to actually think of something right now.)

 

[Parkscope Joe]

This is the other shoe. As someone I know said "the roosters are coming home".

 

[JoeCamel]

So far the funniest comment on this I've read is from a poster on Magic. He said they are selling all of the Animal Kingdom safari animals. They'll be replaced by cardboard cutouts, for the Kilimanjaro Safari attraction.

Absoutely they are, they will animate them to pop up like the shooting gallery in Frontierland. But remember - No toy guns in the world!

 

[Shadow Carelli]

Absoutely they are, they will animate them to pop up like the shooting gallery in Frontierland. But remember - No toy guns in the world!

--Maybe not guns! But the excess of leftover Iron Man gauntlets from the failed Avengers Playmation toy line. It'll have a laser to zap the cut outs

 

[Mad Dog]

You know, it's been interesting reading the various Disney oriented internet sites since this news came down. Observations from my readings: Prior to last summer's leaking of WDW expansions for Star Wars & Toy Story Land, there was a lot of general doom & gloom about what was happening at WDW among the Disney faithful. And lots of people were even saying nice things about Universal. But then Star Wars & Toy Story announcements, along with a possible 2017 opening of Pandora changed the mood. The Disney posters became happy & emboldened for the most part. All of a sudden Disney was great again and the new Shanghai Park was going to kick butt with great new innovative attractions, and Disney was many times better than Universal. And negative comments about Universal started to permeate the forums again and there was a lot of Universal bashing. I guess after the past few years of gloom Disney fans were feeling their oats again...... But, myself, I felt good for the Disney people. I enjoy WDW and hoped they were finding their way again. I like the Universal experience better myself, but that's just my personal opinion. Anyway.....Since the news hit this week of the huge staffing & budget cuts, after a record profit quarter no less, the mood on the Dis boards seems to have shifted back to the doom & gloom mentality that was present previous to all of this expansion talk. And now, instead of praising the so called innovations of the great Shanghai Park, they want to bury it (like Julius Caesar). And I think they're also finally questioning why deconstruction/construction of the expansions is almost absent. Things like why it took 18 months to finally start working on taking down Catastrophy Canyon, or relocating Costuming etc. . And again, why does corporate always pick on WDW to make up for shortfalls. Now, I'm hardly reading any comments belittling or dissing Universal. Actually, some people are saying nice things about Universal, kind of like before people got haughty over the announced expansions.............I'm glad I spend the bulk of my vacation time at Universal, a resort I love for it's intimacy, convenient close layout making leisure & relaxation a prime focus, innovative attractions, continual expansions, no necessity to overly pre plan, great hotel resorts that are affordable priced, hotel express, and employees that are friendly and actually seem happy. And thank you Comcast for buying Universal from a train wreck Blackstone that ran the Uni resort like Disney is now running WDW. How quickly things change in this business.

 

[UNIrd]

The thing is that Disney and Universal are not just magical or extraordinary places where you have fun, make great memories, and "dreams come true." They are businesses, businesses that hope to profit heavily from both fans like us and the general public. We're not going to understand or agree with every business decision that's made. But for the most part, Disney or Universal, we're all along for the rides.

 

[IzzyB]

I thought Disney had turned a corner too especially with rumors of fast tracked TSL and SWL. But when those rumors faded and delays rumors began along with some saying TSL wouldn't be until 2019/2020 my heart sank. Honestly I love all of the parks and enjoy my time at all the parks. I really wanted Disney to start to care more and add more things for the fans.

Also, being on a Disney Facebook fans page has made me Realize how crazy those people are and why nothing Disney does phases them one bit. Lol

 

[Mad Dog]

I thought Disney had turned a corner too especially with rumors of fast tracked TSL and SWL. But when those rumors faded and delays rumors began along with some saying TSL wouldn't be until 2019/2020 my heart sank. Honestly I love all of the parks and enjoy my time at all the parks. I really wanted Disney to start to care more and add more things for the fans.

Also, being on a Disney Facebook fans page has made me Realize how crazy those people are and why nothing Disney does phases them one bit. Lol

Yeah, Disney really knows how to take advantage of those people. It's kind of like Jones & the kool aid. Kind of sad really.

 

[IzzyB]

Yeah, Disney really knows how to take advantage of those people. It's kind of like Jones & the kool aid. Kind of sad really.

I really had no clue, I don't go to any online sites but this one. So it has been eye opening. I really need to figure out how to stop the notifications, my phone was going crazy and I had to turn the sound off because last night someone was posting like 100 times with just Disney pictures and asking questions like what movie or where am I crap.

 

[deathcab4cutie]

does this feel like a fake out.Disney has spent so much money and gone way over budget on the shanghai park and suddenly they announce cut due to Disneyland Paris and shanghai even though anyone with half a brain could tell that shanghai Disney is the cause of the cut backs by itself what is it like a billion dollars over budget now

 

[Tobias]

Also, being on a Disney Facebook fans page has made me Realize how crazy those people are and why nothing Disney does phases them one bit. Lol

When it comes to anything that has a fandom, you're going to find people in the absolute extremes. You're going to see people who are diehards with rose colored glasses who think the company can do no wrong.

An' on the flipside, you're going to find people who think Disney does EVERYTHING wrong. The most encounters I've seen is the SoCal Disneyland "fans", I write that in quotations since with the amount of complaining they've done it really makes you wonder why they keep going in the first place. These are the people who think a window that's slightly off-centered in New Orleans Square is a massive travesty, or they're acting like the RoA is closing for good when in reality it's just getting altered along with the railroad to put in SWL. These are the people who will tear Disney a new one over a possible miniscule sightline issue, yet see no issue with far worse and actual sightline issues in USH.

While for me if you do truly love something you're willing to acknowledge it's faults, but with some group of fans things are really off-kilter.

 

[Disneyhead]

And thus, we have the word "fan". Which is short for "fanatic".

 

[shiekra38]

When it comes to anything that has a fandom, you're going to find people in the absolute extremes. You're going to see people who are diehards with rose colored glasses who think the company can do no wrong.

An' on the flipside, you're going to find people who think Disney does EVERYTHING wrong. The most encounters I've seen is the SoCal Disneyland "fans", I write that in quotations since with the amount of complaining they've done it really makes you wonder why they keep going in the first place. These are the people who think a window that's slightly off-centered in New Orleans Square is a massive travesty, or they're acting like the RoA is closing for good when in reality it's just getting altered along with the railroad to put in SWL. These are the people who will tear Disney a new one over a possible miniscule sightline issue, yet see no issue with far worse and actual sightline issues in USH.

While for me if you do truly love something you're willing to acknowledge it's faults, but with some group of fans things are really off-kilter.

Yes...but the Disney fanatics are so much more annoying than any other fan base I know..

 

[Tobias]

Yes...but the Disney fanatics are so much more annoying than any other fan base I know..

Wasn't exactly disagreeing on how bad the fan base is, heck my post is backing up the opposite end of that fan base is just as bad as the positive extreme end.