1- I am sure they calculated this move.
2- I do not think it is just to cut something,
3- how evil do you think Iger really is, and 1% you are talking about maybe not exactly the right number, just like we do not know how many people will actually consider it a loss.
1- They also calculated the move with the early monorail closures.
It didn't go over so well with guests.
In fact, they made some reversals.
2- I've seen corporate middle management's go-to plan
of "do something... do ANYTHING" for decades.
No stretch of the imagination, there.
3- You jumped to the CEO? I hadn't given him a thought.
I'm thinking this management decision is a bit below his radar.
My calculations:
Disney has decided to cut the parks being open by 3 hours a week.
Divide that by the average posted number of hours they are open in a week,
and you've got a percentage number.
Granted it's rough, but give-or-take, it's close enough.
It's a savings to Disney in staff and on-line attraction operations of roughly 1.1%
(One and one tenth percent) per week.
But-
This is a direct loss for the on-property GUESTS (the EMH perk) of
21% cut, if you count AM EMH
30% cut, if you count only PM EMH (and many guests ONLY do PM EMH.)
(Numbers)
Prior to 2013:
AM EMH 5 hours/week (avg.)
PM EMH 9 hours/week (avg.)
Total EMH 14 hours.
After the 2013 cut:
AM EMH 5 hours/week (avg.)
PM EMH 6 hours/week (avg.)
Total EMH 11 hours.
so-
21% cut, if you count AM -and- PM EMH, together.
30% cut, if you count only PM EMH (and many guests ONLY do PM EMH.)
Not a catastrophe... just another negative move.
.