Disney Parks laying off 28,000 cast members

[Dean Marino]

When you run a business, whether its the Mom & Pop place down the street, or a big corporation like Disney, the survival of the BUSINESS is the top priority. A business is not a charity, and to run a business you need to be ruthless and be able to make business and financial decisions without emotion. Right now every business is in survival mode, and they can not afford to think about the emotional effect of their decisions.

I think many people are having their Disney feel good bubble burst, this is business folks, and you all just got sucked into the guest PR image spin.

Very good - but there is another side to this, from the Consumer. "No Parks? NO MONEY". "A business is not a charity" - totally correct. DW & I (DVC owners), refuse to treat them like a Charity.

Tell me what you have to SELL - and if you have anything? You get Money. Else? No cash for you. Canceling our APR 2021 trip due to lack of Park, not COVID. No longer a health issue.... there IS no WDW. Management has done a GREAT job, commiting Corporate suicide.

"All personal opinion - I'm not necessarily right, no one else is necessarily wrong."

 

[BrianL]

Very good - but there is another side to this, from the Consumer. "No Parks? NO MONEY". "A business is not a charity" - totally correct. DW & I (DVC owners), refuse to treat them like a Charity.

Tell me what you have to SELL - and if you have anything? You get Money. Else? No cash for you. Canceling our APR 2021 trip due to lack of Park, not COVID. No longer a health issue.... there IS no WDW. Management has done a GREAT job, commiting Corporate suicide.

"All personal opinion - I'm not necessarily right, no one else is necessarily wrong."

While I do understand your point of view, it's not like they wanted to do this. Had it not been for the pandemic they would not have cut Festival of the Lion King, Finding Nemo, Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones (Okay, Indy's been on the rumored chopping block for a while). What I'm saying is that while it definitely sucks, it wasn't "corporate suicide" so much as murder. What choice do they have right now?

 

[Eric Smith]

While I do understand your point of view, it's not like they wanted to do this. Had it not been for the pandemic they would not have cut Festival of the Lion King, Finding Nemo, Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones (Okay, Indy's been on the rumored chopping block for a while). What I'm saying is that while it definitely sucks, it wasn't "corporate suicide" so much as murder. What choice do they have right now?

Also where else can you go right now that hasn’t been modified in some way due to COVID? It’s also not like these things won’t eventually come back.

 

[Jrb1979]

Also where else can you go right now that hasn’t been modified in some way due to COVID? It’s also not like these things won’t eventually come back.

If you believe that then I have a bridge to sell you. Fireworks, parades and some shows will return. Things like Citizens of Hollywood are doubtful. Did you not read what @andyman8 posted?

 

[disneygirlsng]

Very good - but there is another side to this, from the Consumer. "No Parks? NO MONEY". "A business is not a charity" - totally correct. DW & I (DVC owners), refuse to treat them like a Charity.

Tell me what you have to SELL - and if you have anything? You get Money. Else? No cash for you. Canceling our APR 2021 trip due to lack of Park, not COVID. No longer a health issue.... there IS no WDW. Management has done a GREAT job, commiting Corporate suicide.

"All personal opinion - I'm not necessarily right, no one else is necessarily wrong."

I said this in another thread, but my trip in August was about 95% a normal trip for me. It very much is still alive and well. If you (general you) expect the parks to be like they were in February, you will likely never be happy, or at least will have to wait a very long time.

 

[Eric Smith]

If you believe that then I have a bridge to sell you. Fireworks, parades and some shows will return. Things like Citizens of Hollywood are doubtful. Did you not read what @andyman8 posted?

If all we lose is citizens of Hollywood, then we’ll come out ok. Believe it or not, people can disagree about what will happen in the future. You comment a lot about Disney for someone who swore they would never go back to Disney World a few months ago.

 

[Tink-osophy]

Here is a local based cappella group (many of which you could recognize from Voices of Liberty) that are likely effected by the layoffs.

https://voctave.net/

They have some incredible voices. I just bought a couple of their real-life, 3 dimensional CDs!!!!

 

[bianca]

Very good - but there is another side to this, from the Consumer. "No Parks? NO MONEY". "A business is not a charity" - totally correct. DW & I (DVC owners), refuse to treat them like a Charity.

Tell me what you have to SELL - and if you have anything? You get Money. Else? No cash for you. Canceling our APR 2021 trip due to lack of Park, not COVID. No longer a health issue.... there IS no WDW. Management has done a GREAT job, commiting Corporate suicide.

"All personal opinion - I'm not necessarily right, no one else is necessarily wrong."

We feel the same. We are going from 3 trips a year to once every 2 years ..... WITH NO PARKS! We will take an entourage and book how ever many rooms we need to have a nice relaxing 2 week visit. I refuse to reserve my day in the park for a very diminished park experience. Having watched Disney reduce guest experiences very gradually for the last 20 years, it has made me come to the conclusion that we would have ended up in this place regardless of a pandemic. I am well aware that most people would disagree with me, but I took off my rose-colored glasses where Disney is concerned long ago.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

Having watched Disney reduce guest experiences very gradually for the last 20 years, it has made me come to the conclusion that we would have ended up in this place regardless of a pandemic.

You think they would be limiting capacity? You think they would have closed resorts? Have closed restaurants? You think they would have eliminated ALL shows except for Frozen, ALL live entertainment, ALL fireworks shows, ALL parades? You think they would have eliminated all meet and greets?

While I agree that some cuts were on the table already, you are kidding yourselves if you thought the parks would look like they do right now without a pandemic. This is not what they planned.

 

[Jrb1979]

You think they would be limiting capacity? You think they would have closed resorts? Have closed restaurants? You think they would have eliminated ALL shows except for Frozen, ALL live entertainment, ALL fireworks shows, ALL parades? You think they would have eliminated all meet and greets?

While I agree that some cuts were on the table already, you are kidding yourselves if you thought the parks would look like they do right now without a pandemic. This is not what they planned.

Yea shows, restaurants fireworks and parades wouldn't be eliminated but they have working in cutting things like Citizens of Hollywood for awhile.

 

[Eric Smith]

We feel the same. We are going from 3 trips a year to once every 2 years ..... WITH NO PARKS! We will take an entourage and book how ever many rooms we need to have a nice relaxing 2 week visit. I refuse to reserve my day in the park for a very diminished park experience. Having watched Disney reduce guest experiences very gradually for the last 20 years, it has made me come to the conclusion that we would have ended up in this place regardless of a pandemic. I am well aware that most people would disagree with me, but I took off my rose-colored glasses where Disney is concerned long ago.

I've seen Disney build tons of new rides and new themed areas in the parks over the past 20 years. Also, even with this "diminished guest experience", attendance was higher in the parks pre-covid than it had ever been before.

 

[andyman8]

Welp, this is likely about to get a whole lot more attention (deservedly so). That’s the last I’m going to say on this.

 

[Eric Smith]

Welp, this is likely about to get a whole lot more attention (deservedly so). That’s the last I’m going to say on this.

very cryptic....

 

[rteetz]

Welp, this is likely about to get a whole lot more attention (deservedly so). That’s the last I’m going to say on this.

I’m going to assume you mean the political ad out today?

 

[Eric Smith]

I’m going to assume you mean the political ad out today?

I just watched it and it doesn't seem that bad for Disney. It basically blames the leadership of the country for the layoffs.

 

[Brianstl]

This is where I would look at that executive "jumping ship" to chase >$ and question his/her allegiance to the new company. Will this employee be in continual hop-mode leaving me to scour a replacement? It's a major red flag when looking to hire C-level resources.

I've seen companies (and worked for one) that amidst an industry downturn offered our executive lucrative stock options to keep them grounded; some left and some stayed.

Disney already pays most of their executives less than people in similar positions at other media companies. They have been suffering talent bleed already because of that. A 20% pay cut to a junior VP making $150,000 at Disney with the cost of living in SoCal, makes jumping ship look even more attractive.

People see Iger’s compensation and figure every exec at Disney has a Scrooge McDuck swimming pool. That’s not the case. Even Chapek is currently underpaid by huge media conglomerate CEO standards.

 

[rteetz]

I just watched it and it doesn't seem that bad for Disney. It basically blames the leadership of the country for the layoffs.

I’m just going to point out that we likely shouldn’t take this discussion further than this.

 

[Brianstl]

I've seen Disney build tons of new rides and new themed areas in the parks over the past 20 years. Also, even with this "diminished guest experience", attendance was higher in the parks pre-covid than it had ever been before.

People like to talk about Chapek eliminating jobs for years, but the actual numbers don’t show that. In 2014 WDW employed around 60,000 people. It employed 77,000 at the end of last year.

 

[Eric Smith]

I’m just going to point out that we likely shouldn’t take this discussion further than this.

Sorry about that

 

[rteetz]

Sorry about that

No worries I just don’t want it to get out of hand.