Disney Parks laying off 28,000 cast members

[rteetz]

Really awful... this all better be temporary.

Depends on your definition of temporary.

 

[Tonyz]

Depends on your definition of temporary.

Back by mid-2021?

 

[rteetz]

Back by mid-2021?

One would hope but I am also leaning on the pessimistic side.

 

[skeeter31]

One would hope but I am also leaning on the pessimistic side.

Yeah I’m leaning more pessimistic as well. To go full lay off rather than indefinite furlough leads me to believe these shows being closed stretches into 2022.

 

[Jrb1979]

For those interested in who has been laid off here is the list.
Beauty and the Beast
Citizens of Hollywood
Finding Nemo
Indiana Jones
Laugh Floor
Equity Green Army Men
Citizens of Main Street
Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire dancers
Move it Shake it singers
Hoop de Doo
All gone.

 

[pixarfan24]

For those interested in who has been laid off here is the list.
Beauty and the Beast
Citizens of Hollywood
Finding Nemo
Indiana Jones
Laugh Floor
Equity Green Army Men
Citizens of Main Street
Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire dancers
Move it Shake it singers
Hoop de Doo
All gone.

The shows/entertainment at WDW are my favorite parts of Disney. While I like the attractions, that's not why I go to Disney. This breaks my heart, but hopefully they will be back at some point. My guess would be mid-to-late 2021, maybe 2022 depending on how things work out.

 

[Figvention]

my wife and i probably spend about 25% of our park time on rides, 50% on character based attractions/experiences and 25% dining on a typical day.

Can't help but feel that 50% characters experiences is essentially gone. I mean really, what's left? Just the roller coasters? I only like the midsized ones like mine train and slinky and my wife is disabled and can't do most of the attractions. We've been taking trips there together for two decades and for the first time i'm honestly wondering.... why should i go?

The people of Disney matter, and the people are all being systematically eliminated. This harsh austerity might help them minimize losses in the short term but they aren't going to return to the profits of 2019 and before by taking the entertainment out of the parks. in the long term they are just going to make it worse for themselves. but hey. they can show the investors they are doing more to protect their dividends.

This is why I stand by my Six Flags comment.

 

[randumb0]

For those interested in who has been laid off here is the list.
Beauty and the Beast
Citizens of Hollywood
Finding Nemo
Indiana Jones
Laugh Floor
Equity Green Army Men
Citizens of Main Street
Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire dancers
Move it Shake it singers
Hoop de Doo
All gone.

Add Lion King to the list

 

[Brett Wyman]

Ugh. Heartbreaking.

 

[jamos14]

I had planned a May 2021 trip. This news has killed my hope of things being normal by then. I was hoping with "hopefully" multiple vaccine options for early 2021, that Disney would be almost 100% by summer.

This news shows they feel differently. And I will likely not be going back until 2022.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Thoughts on why Disney found a way to make Frozen work but not the other indoor shows with similar space?

 

[Eric Smith]

my wife and i probably spend about 25% of our park time on rides, 50% on character based attractions/experiences and 25% dining on a typical day.

Can't help but feel that 50% characters experiences is essentially gone. I mean really, what's left? Just the roller coasters? I only like the midsized ones like mine train and slinky and my wife is disabled and can't do most of the attractions. We've been taking trips there together for two decades and for the first time i'm honestly wondering.... why should i go?

The people of Disney matter, and the people are all being systematically eliminated. This harsh austerity might help them minimize losses in the short term but they aren't going to return to the profits of 2019 and before by taking the entertainment out of the parks. in the long term they are just going to make it worse for themselves. but hey. they can show the investors they are doing more to protect their dividends.

I don't think the entertainment cuts are permanent. It's just a sad part of our current reality that there is no safe way to do character interactions or shows on the scale that we were used to pre-pandemic. I expect these will start to come back once COVID is behind us. However, it will probably be a slow trickle due to the economic conditions in the country and around the world. I think it will eventually get back to the way things were pre-pandemic but that will take years.

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

Thoughts on why Disney found a way to make Frozen work but not the other indoor shows with similar space?

Not sure. I am surprised by Indiana Jones since it’s outdoors and Hollywood studios really needs to get more shows back to alleviate the crowds.

 

[rteetz]

Thoughts on why Disney found a way to make Frozen work but not the other indoor shows with similar space?

Limited actors and Frozen popularity. Something like Indy and BatB have more people involved. So I have to think overall costs of running those are higher.

 

[BrianL]

I get the feeling that these shows may not be coming back. I'm not saying there won't eventually be entertainment offerings in their stead, but they may be different shows. Some of these losses really hurt!

 

[tlmadden73]

I don't think the entertainment cuts are permanent. It's just a sad part of our current reality that there is no safe way to do character interactions or shows on the scale that we were used to pre-pandemic. I expect these will start to come back once COVID is behind us. However, it will probably be a slow trickle due to the economic conditions in the country and around the world. I think it will eventually get back to the way things were pre-pandemic but that will take years.

I feel the entertainment cuts are primarily cost saving at this point. They don't NEED the extra entertainment, so killing a show (with dozens of higher-paid talent cast members (than ride staff), saves the company a lot of dough.

They could easily and safely have any of these shows if they felt they were needed to .. with heavy testing and maybe some slight changes in blocking (obviously social distancing for some things wouldn't be possible .. and frankly it doesn't need to be .. (look at the NFL playing tackle football without masks or social distancing).

It's sad .. the entertainment options is what (I feel) makes Disney stand out among theme and amusement parks. But I get it .. most of the entertainment is probably not consumed by your typical Disney guest and probably won't even be missed(by those guests) ... rather skipped in favor of rides or eating or shopping. I know, even as a frequent Disney visitor, a lot of the shows were always the first to be skipped because of the scheduling constraints on your day.

I never saw Beauty and the Beast (despite that park being my favorite), I only recently saw Little Mermaid, Nemo, Lion King. I had to make special plans on a non-park day to go see Hoop De Doo (worth it!).

What makes the entertainment cuts tough is that shows were good FAMILY entertainment, especially for little ones. The reason I saw the above shows was it was a good attractions the whole family could watch and enjoy without splitting up to go on a ride due to being scared or height requirements.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Limited actors and Frozen popularity. Something like Indy and BatB have more people involved. So I have to think overall costs of running those are higher.

Also just seemed pretty easy to enable the actors to always be socially distant from each other in Frozen

Not staying they couldn't make some of the others work as well, but Frozen seems easier than others

 

[Brett Wyman]

Also just seemed pretty easy to enable the actors to always be socially distant from each other in Frozen

Not staying they couldn't make some of the others work as well, but Frozen seems easier than others

True. 3-5 people on stage max I guess.

 

[gatour]

I consider things like the Citizens of Hollywood to be ancillary so can kind of understand. However Lion King, Indiana Jones etc are attractions like Tower of Terror so really don't like this.

 

[jknezek]

I do believe this is mostly temporary. Now does that mean mid 2021 or late 2022 I don't know. But there is too much infrastructure here, and too much capacity, for these shows to be gone for good. From WDW's point of view, it makes no sense to keep the actors around, on furlough or otherwise, if you are looking at 6-18 months more of limited operations.

To my mind this all stinks. Stinks for visitors, for Disney, and, most especially, for Cast Members. These shows, and Cast Members, are a huge part of WDW and the only way WDW ever gets back to entertaining even 3/4th the crowd they had in 2019 is with these kinds of people eaters open and running full speed. So to me, it is inevitable that the vast majority of these theaters will again be put back in play at some point. Maybe they take this time to review these offerings and make changes or updates for when it does reopen.

On the flip side to the theater shows, the ancillary streetmosphere like Citizens of Hollywood... I wouldn't hold my breath. I think a lot of that stuff, the kind of thing that draws crowds blocking streets in unstructured ways... well, I think that is gone for good.