FYI: More Cuts Coming

[JimmyV]

The old non-digital ticket books are way before my time but don't people seem to reminisce favourably about those?

People wax nostalgic about them the way the love to recall red M&Ms with red dye #2. We went many times with the old ticket books and when Disney moved to the multi-day ticket that you tied to your belt loop allowing unlimited access to rides, we were very, very happy.

 

[sachilles]

Disney is a large company. In order to stay competitive, they know they must become more efficient. The cuts are part of that, trimming of the fat. Absolutely stinks for the those individuals directly affected in the wallet by that.
That being said I think many are jumping the gun on how it might affect the service of the guests. Positions may be cut, but it doesn't mean the role/task is being cut. Likely a case of a supervisor will be tasked with covering that missing task, or other jobs will take a portion of the cut position. It's common everywhere.
Even if you have record profits, it doesn't mean you shouldn't try to run better and more efficiently. If it hurts the guest experience, then you have to evaluate the harm it causes and decide what is more important.
Aside from the painters, I'd wager that these cuts were envisioned with the implementation of the my magic + system.
With the painters, do you need as many if a portion of the property is under construction and the painting is being subbed out to contractors? Likely some redundant savings worked into construction contracts.

 

[Hannahinwonderland]

People wax nostalgic about them the way the love to recall red M&Ms with red dye #2. We went many times with the old ticket books and when Disney moved to the multi-day ticket that you tied to your belt loop allowing unlimited access to rides, we were very, very happy.

I wasn't around during the days of ticket boots, but I think this is a good analogy. Would I love a souvenir gold-plated Jungle Cruise E ticket to display in my collection? Yes. Would I actually like to have to pay more to ride a particular attraction? No thank you. The idea of returning to that type of pricing scheme sounds horrifying to me.

 

[JimmyV]

With the painters, do you need as many if a portion of the property is under construction and the painting is being subbed out to contractors? Likely some redundant savings worked into construction contracts.

Or...Disney has just decided that it doesn't need everything to be as perfect as it used to be.

 

[EricInPA]

No it doesn't mean they aren't overstaffed. But, I would still argue that when you're there, and you can see that every single CS member that is working, is busy serving people and you have to wait in line... it certainly doesn't suggest they they are overstaffed, either.

My point - I highly doubt these cutbacks are due to over-staffing.

Speculating on the cause of the cuts could go on forever. We'll never know.

What we have seemed to agree on is that the length of the line isn't an indication of whether or not they should hire (or fire!) more customer service staff.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I don't know what goes on behind the scenes, but as a customer, I didn't see any "fat" on our last trip. I didn't see any park CMs standing around with nothing to do. Every single one of them seemed to be working their tails off. As far as the resorts, our room was barely clean, so I'm assuming either the housekeeper was lazy or she had a lot of rooms to do per day. I'm going with the second option. Ditto for the parks, clean but not sparkling. So what happens, does the work get cut, or do less people have to do more work? Both are unappealing from a value standpoint and a human standpoint.

 

[sgtdisney]

The old non-digital ticket books are way before my time but don't people seem to reminisce favourably about those?

Most people liked the old tickets because you could get into the park for a very small price and just visit and not go on any rides or only go on a few. So, for example you could get into WDW in 1971 with no tickets and pay 3.75 just to get in. Maybe about 20.00 in today's dollars. That was why a lot of people were sad when then went away, as you could control how many rides you wanted to go on, or people who just wanted to come in and soak up the atmosphere or hit a few shops or restaurants couldn't unless they paid for rides. In the early 80s when then came in with passports, it was a value as you could go on any ride for maybe 15.00 which is may be 40.00 in today's money.

I am guessing Disney isn't going to be so magnanimous to let people into the parks for 20.00 and buy individual tickets. I am guessing they will charge over a 100.00 and then only allow you to go on a few rides and have to pay more to go on more.

 

[sachilles]

Most people liked the old tickets because you could get into the park for a very small price and just visit and not go on any rides or only go on a few. So, for example you could get into WDW in 1971 with no tickets and pay 3.75 just to get in. Maybe about 20.00 in today's dollars. That was why a lot of people were sad when then went away, as you could control how many rides you wanted to go on, or people who just wanted to come in and soak up the atmosphere or hit a few shops or restaurants couldn't unless they paid for rides. In the early 80s when then came in with passports, it was a value as you could go on any ride for maybe 15.00 which is may be 40.00 in today's money.

I am guessing Disney isn't going to be so magnanimous to let people into the parks for 20.00 and buy individual tickets. I am guessing they will charge over a 100.00 and then only allow you to go on a few rides and have to pay more to go on more.

That really needs to be the model for disney springs. Put an attraction or two there, that require tickets, to help bring people into the shops. Doesn't need to be anything too elaborate, but enough to keep the kidlets occupied while Mom and Dad can either shop or enjoy some more adult oriented time.

 

[11290]

It appears to be referring to FP loader CMs for attractions where FP isn't a necessity. So far, there are reports of Wishes, BatB, and Flights of Wonder not having FP availability beginning mid-April.

Post removed

 

[MermaidMommy]

Disney is a large company. In order to stay competitive, they know they must become more efficient. The cuts are part of that, trimming of the fat. Absolutely stinks for the those individuals directly affected in the wallet by that.
That being said I think many are jumping the gun on how it might affect the service of the guests. Positions may be cut, but it doesn't mean the role/task is being cut. Likely a case of a supervisor will be tasked with covering that missing task, or other jobs will take a portion of the cut position. It's common everywhere.
Even if you have record profits, it doesn't mean you shouldn't try to run better and more efficiently. If it hurts the guest experience, then you have to evaluate the harm it causes and decide what is more important.
Aside from the painters, I'd wager that these cuts were envisioned with the implementation of the my magic + system.
With the painters, do you need as many if a portion of the property is under construction and the painting is being subbed out to contractors? Likely some redundant savings worked into construction contracts.

I don't see how cuts in entertainment and park hours is trimming the fat. That's not a case of eliminating labor redundancies, or some facet of MM+ master planning. It's not about Disney trying to run the parks smarter - it's about them grubbing for every penny at the expense of their guests and their employees. There's no way these cuts won't lead to a diminished experience for guests, and Disney knows that. They just don't care.

 

[mshanson3121]

Or...Disney has just decided that it doesn't need everything to be as perfect as it used to be.

I know we can't expect EVERY attraction to be in pristine condition. But honestly... some of those look worse than the rides at our local carnival.

 

[mshanson3121]

Disney is a large company. In order to stay competitive, they know they must become more efficient. The cuts are part of that, trimming of the fat. Absolutely stinks for the those individuals directly affected in the wallet by that.
That being said I think many are jumping the gun on how it might affect the service of the guests. Positions may be cut, but it doesn't mean the role/task is being cut. Likely a case of a supervisor will be tasked with covering that missing task, or other jobs will take a portion of the cut position. It's common everywhere.
Even if you have record profits, it doesn't mean you shouldn't try to run better and more efficiently. If it hurts the guest experience, then you have to evaluate the harm it causes and decide what is more important.
Aside from the painters, I'd wager that these cuts were envisioned with the implementation of the my magic + system.
With the painters, do you need as many if a portion of the property is under construction and the painting is being subbed out to contractors? Likely some redundant savings worked into construction contracts.

If these cuts were because of your typical "trying to be cost effective", that *might* me one thing. But it's not. We all know that. It's because Disney has a problem with staying on budget with their projects, because DLP is doing horribly, because ESPN is going down the toilet, and because they have greedy people in charge who are trying to recoup costs with little concern for their customers.

As for the painters - the painting that is being subbed out to contractors will be specific to the construction zone only. So one, has nothing to do with the other.

 

[sachilles]

....we all know it?!
Let's be honest. We know very little about how the business is run. We know what we see from the guest experience side of things. A few forum members work there in more entry level areas, and may have greater than average insight, but even they are kept in the dark.

 

[mshanson3121]

Let's be honest. We know very little about how the business is run.

Considering the finances are all public info, there's been several articles on all of this mess, and add in some common sense, not to mention those that actually have business sense and can see plainly what's going on.... But hey, if you want to believe that Disney is merely doing all of this just because they're trying to be more efficient and run their parks smarter... Well, I guess hey, it is a nice fantasy, I'll give you that. Who wouldn't want to think that of the "most magical place on earth"?

 

[sachilles]

and add in some common sense, not to mention those that actually have business sense

:shrug: Having worked 18 years with directly related experience, I like to think I fit in that category. Just because the company is public, it doesn't mean we know anything of real substance.
We all suspect certain things, but we don't really know. Educated guesses, sure.

 

[JimmyV]

We all suspect certain things, but we don't really know. Educated guesses, sure.

It is a mistake for a company to be tone deaf to the chatter or blind to the optics, known or not. It is simply a very, very bad idea for a company to announce record profits on a Monday and layoffs on a Tuesday (followed soon by price increases). A good business leader has to figure out a better way to attack the problem, assuming that there is one. Optics do matter. You are correct that we don't know everything, or even much. And yes, we have our educated guesses. But it is shortsighted to not take those into account. The WDW cuts coming so soon after the quarterly earnings report was simply dense.

 

[mshanson3121]

:shrug: Having worked 18 years with directly related experience, I like to think I fit in that category. Just because the company is public, it doesn't mean we know anything of real substance.
We all suspect certain things, but we don't really know. Educated guesses, sure.

Ah. We'll then with 18 years directly related experience, you would have enough knowledge to realize that successful businesses are in the habit of making routine efficiency evaluations and typically make small adjustments here and there as needed. However, when rather drastic cuts start happening in several areas, it's typically in response to a financial need. But sure hey, that's just an educated guess looking at the variables and probabilities. Your scenario is possible too, just not probable.

 

[rteetz]

So if they were to try this ridiculous scheme, how would it likely be? You can do any 12 attractions you want, when you want? You can only ride something 1x? Would you still book your FP+ for 3 of the rides?

You get 12 "experiences" characters, rides, shows. After that if you want to do more you need to pay more. It likely will be less than 12 though. No word on how it will work with FP+ but apparently this was supposed to roll out with it but because there were so many problems with the roll out it didn't happen.

 

[sachilles]

"The painters were hired by Buena Vista Construction Co, which is an branch of the Walt Disney Co. Typically they see employee layoffs after Christmas but that this group of layoffs is out of sync with the other according to the report from the Orlando Sentinel."
above is a quote from here. http://www.chipandco.com/more-layoffs-coming-to-walt-disney-world-230090/

 

[capegirl]

Or...Disney has just decided that it doesn't need everything to be as perfect as it used to be.

Theses pics tell me that Disney's attention to detail has one foot in the grave. So much for cutbacks; bring back the painters. Sad.