#ThanksShanghai
So i dont know if disney has noticed but disney fans have pretty much figured out that most of these strange changes, like entertainment disappearances and shrinkages, parking and resort fees being implemented, and events with lack of well...excitement are because of money issues.
and this has caused the hashtag among disney fans on twitter "#thanksshanghai"
if you have been paying a bit of attention, you will have known already that Disney's latest international park, Shanghai Disneyland, opening this summer, has been WAY over budget and because of this the domestic parks have suffered to a degree that has become extremely noticeable and upsetting to guests who are frequent visitors and even those who have just been wanting to visit as a trip.
Disney has not commented besides saying that these changes are normal for their business but some things just simply make no sense.
Let me start from the beginning where I personally first noticed things.
As an avid character hunter at the parks, i simply love interactions with characters. It's the best part of the memories you can make at the parks.
I was told by a few sources that characters were being taken away at EPCOT which was Aurora, Chip and Dale and Pooh and Tigger.
Now i was given a possible explanation for Aurora which i will not reveal until confirmed but there was no real reason for why the others were being taken away. Then we hear about others such as fan favorite Marie from Aristocats being replaced by Stitch.
I soon learned that this was due to the zootopia characters that would be joining MISI at magic kingdom, thereby replacing stitch and genie.
We were also devastated t hear about the loss of between 10-12 Citizens of Hollywood Entertainers.
Among other news we discovered that the number of parades and shows went down significantly. only 1 fantasmic show a night at Hollywood Studios and 1 Main street Electrical parade a night during one of their peak seasons. I personally had the chance to experience the 1 fant show a night and it was just bad. Bad and not organized in the best way. The show was completely full of course but it got pretty chaotic at times and especially during their peak season, 1 fant show just is not enough.
Then we hear the possibility of Disney considering a daily resort fee of $15 per night and the possibility of giving guests the option to pay about $30 to park closer to the parks, as well as parking prices being raised again slightly.
The cast members have been suffering a bit as well. Before it was announced i had a few friends complain quickly about the labor cost cuts for themselves. some friends even went down to 1-2 shifts a week depending on the role.
quickly bloggers and disney sites discovered that because of shanghai, cuts to CMs , particuarly front desk roles, had been noticeably cut. Even contractors were being cut drastically.
As a former College program participant i have had few fellow alum and first timers come to me with questions, concerns and news regarding a noticeable difference in the way recruiting has been handled this season and we can assume its only because of shanghai.
They have changed the final response date for acceptances and rejections twice, the final date being April 15th and it was originally sometime in March, leaving many anxious and concerned. It has also been seen that only certain roles have been taken in smaller numbers than usual like Quick service, custodial and merch.
I had also experienced the unprofessionalism in which it is being handled. They offer a summer alumni program similar to the college program for former participants for both domestic parks and rather than sending standard emails they simply had a rep for the program announce in the alumni facebook group that anyone who had not been accepted at the time of the announcement was not being considered for the opportunity. in short anyone who had not been accepted were to be considered rejected.
The numbers of acceptances for each program has changed due to the cuts because of shanghai.
The latest news is the cancellation of Disney Parks 24 hour day and their "replacement" for the event from what i am seeing.
Slightly backtracking, we will look over why 24 hr day just simply failed.
In the past 24 hr day worked pretty well until last year's which i had the chance to sadly experience. I have attended the last 2 events. I attended the heroes and villains themed 24 hr day which was fantastic! loved the theme, the experiences offered, merchandise and food offerings as well. Plus getting to see everyone and their awesome costumes and creativity shine was a treat!
Last year's 24 hr day was simply terrible and not worth the time and money. To no one's surprise it was Frozen themed but i will keep my opinions on that to myself haha.
But they offered nothing special to entice guests to stay 24 hrs or to really purchase merch for the event.
First there were no good character offerings compared to previous years. It was frozen themed yet you could not meet characters besides Anna and Elsa yet they helped kick off the event with Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf. They just had there regular character offerings they had during the day Food and merchandise was basic at best. People could still wear costumes which was fun. I also had the opportunity to join the disneyparks blog's meetup and "Tomorrowland" movie experience along with breakfast at cosmic ray's. I was slightly confused as to why they chose frozen as the 23 hr day theme rather than promote tomorrowland. but i quickly realized why as im sure most people by now know the answer as well.
So as we found out recently it was canceled and I'm pretty sure it was for the following reasons
Disney released information on a new replacement offering called "Disney After Dark."
For select nights between March and May you can have exclusive access to certain rides, characters and food and beverage for an extra 3 hours.
the cost?
$149
At this point currently, based on the details being given it seems not at all worth the money for what they are offering. It is way more expensive than the halloween and Christmas party tickets yet offer less than both.
This is also being speculated to replace Extra Magic Hours if successful. I have been told that they have been trying to get rid of EMH for a while now and that this event will be the trial run of whether or not it will happen.
Finally with the annual increase in ticket prices at the parks, it is getting a bit harder for families and fans to make visiting the parks a reality. I recently was a first time Annual passholder but because prices have gone up so much i know i personally will have to wait before i can even renew. even with the passholder discount for renewal it is still way higher than before the price increase for APs. I know a few families had made note that they will not be renewing because of the same reasons along with others.
I hate painting Disney in a negative light but with what has been happening recently it really does need to be said that guests and cast members alike are not really being satisfied with most of the changes being implemented.
but as fans we can only hope that these changes will be temporary until shanghai makes its debut and its success will be shared with the domestic parks as well.
and this has caused the hashtag among disney fans on twitter "#thanksshanghai"
if you have been paying a bit of attention, you will have known already that Disney's latest international park, Shanghai Disneyland, opening this summer, has been WAY over budget and because of this the domestic parks have suffered to a degree that has become extremely noticeable and upsetting to guests who are frequent visitors and even those who have just been wanting to visit as a trip.
Disney has not commented besides saying that these changes are normal for their business but some things just simply make no sense.
Let me start from the beginning where I personally first noticed things.
As an avid character hunter at the parks, i simply love interactions with characters. It's the best part of the memories you can make at the parks.
I was told by a few sources that characters were being taken away at EPCOT which was Aurora, Chip and Dale and Pooh and Tigger.
Now i was given a possible explanation for Aurora which i will not reveal until confirmed but there was no real reason for why the others were being taken away. Then we hear about others such as fan favorite Marie from Aristocats being replaced by Stitch.
I soon learned that this was due to the zootopia characters that would be joining MISI at magic kingdom, thereby replacing stitch and genie.
We were also devastated t hear about the loss of between 10-12 Citizens of Hollywood Entertainers.
Among other news we discovered that the number of parades and shows went down significantly. only 1 fantasmic show a night at Hollywood Studios and 1 Main street Electrical parade a night during one of their peak seasons. I personally had the chance to experience the 1 fant show a night and it was just bad. Bad and not organized in the best way. The show was completely full of course but it got pretty chaotic at times and especially during their peak season, 1 fant show just is not enough.
Then we hear the possibility of Disney considering a daily resort fee of $15 per night and the possibility of giving guests the option to pay about $30 to park closer to the parks, as well as parking prices being raised again slightly.
The cast members have been suffering a bit as well. Before it was announced i had a few friends complain quickly about the labor cost cuts for themselves. some friends even went down to 1-2 shifts a week depending on the role.
quickly bloggers and disney sites discovered that because of shanghai, cuts to CMs , particuarly front desk roles, had been noticeably cut. Even contractors were being cut drastically.
As a former College program participant i have had few fellow alum and first timers come to me with questions, concerns and news regarding a noticeable difference in the way recruiting has been handled this season and we can assume its only because of shanghai.
They have changed the final response date for acceptances and rejections twice, the final date being April 15th and it was originally sometime in March, leaving many anxious and concerned. It has also been seen that only certain roles have been taken in smaller numbers than usual like Quick service, custodial and merch.
I had also experienced the unprofessionalism in which it is being handled. They offer a summer alumni program similar to the college program for former participants for both domestic parks and rather than sending standard emails they simply had a rep for the program announce in the alumni facebook group that anyone who had not been accepted at the time of the announcement was not being considered for the opportunity. in short anyone who had not been accepted were to be considered rejected.
The numbers of acceptances for each program has changed due to the cuts because of shanghai.
The latest news is the cancellation of Disney Parks 24 hour day and their "replacement" for the event from what i am seeing.
Slightly backtracking, we will look over why 24 hr day just simply failed.
In the past 24 hr day worked pretty well until last year's which i had the chance to sadly experience. I have attended the last 2 events. I attended the heroes and villains themed 24 hr day which was fantastic! loved the theme, the experiences offered, merchandise and food offerings as well. Plus getting to see everyone and their awesome costumes and creativity shine was a treat!
Last year's 24 hr day was simply terrible and not worth the time and money. To no one's surprise it was Frozen themed but i will keep my opinions on that to myself haha.
But they offered nothing special to entice guests to stay 24 hrs or to really purchase merch for the event.
First there were no good character offerings compared to previous years. It was frozen themed yet you could not meet characters besides Anna and Elsa yet they helped kick off the event with Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf. They just had there regular character offerings they had during the day Food and merchandise was basic at best. People could still wear costumes which was fun. I also had the opportunity to join the disneyparks blog's meetup and "Tomorrowland" movie experience along with breakfast at cosmic ray's. I was slightly confused as to why they chose frozen as the 23 hr day theme rather than promote tomorrowland. but i quickly realized why as im sure most people by now know the answer as well.
So as we found out recently it was canceled and I'm pretty sure it was for the following reasons
- Too popular at Disneyland: there simply was not enough space and they reached capacity extremely quickly
- Not popular enough at Disney world : this is due to lack of entertainment offerings, theme, etc. in short this was their fault that they dropped the ball in recent years
- Budget cuts : #thanksshanghai
Disney released information on a new replacement offering called "Disney After Dark."
For select nights between March and May you can have exclusive access to certain rides, characters and food and beverage for an extra 3 hours.
the cost?
$149
At this point currently, based on the details being given it seems not at all worth the money for what they are offering. It is way more expensive than the halloween and Christmas party tickets yet offer less than both.
This is also being speculated to replace Extra Magic Hours if successful. I have been told that they have been trying to get rid of EMH for a while now and that this event will be the trial run of whether or not it will happen.
Finally with the annual increase in ticket prices at the parks, it is getting a bit harder for families and fans to make visiting the parks a reality. I recently was a first time Annual passholder but because prices have gone up so much i know i personally will have to wait before i can even renew. even with the passholder discount for renewal it is still way higher than before the price increase for APs. I know a few families had made note that they will not be renewing because of the same reasons along with others.
I hate painting Disney in a negative light but with what has been happening recently it really does need to be said that guests and cast members alike are not really being satisfied with most of the changes being implemented.
but as fans we can only hope that these changes will be temporary until shanghai makes its debut and its success will be shared with the domestic parks as well.
As a long time Disney fan, I can say all of these changes seem a bit scary. It may be me, but I feel like Disney is making a lot of new decisions that seem quite risky. (I always pour one out for my homie Maelstrom. R.I.P.) Disney parks, particularly in Orlando, are going through quite a long "construction" phase. Between the lengthy changes at DAK, DHS, and EPCOT, (Hell, all the parks are going through some sort of physical change) I feel as if Disney seems to be throwing up new things so fast and frequently that budgeting is finally catching up to them. There is an episode of NBC's The Office that reminds me of these recent price increases and scrambling attempts to make more money from guests. Michael Scott creates his own paper company and lowers the prices in order to gain a lot clients; then once his business grows immensely, as do his costs to maintain the company. He then calls his clients and literally asks them for "more money" for their past orders. It makes me cringe each time I watch it and I seem to get these similar feelings when I hear almost every day of a new character cut, cast member cut, or new attempt to upcharge ticket pricing. How long can this last before Disney's "clients" begin to back away slowly? Especially when these parks are cutting shows, character meets, and have so many attractions undergoing maintenance? It's starting to reveal to Disney fans that Disney might be in over their heads with these new park additions, upgrades, and grand openings. Now don't get me wrong, as I said before I have been a huge fan of Disney for years. I believe they truly do wonderful things and have changed millions of lives in wonderful ways. Changes are great. And Disney parks should continue to change. (Walt said it best!) But let's just hope these new decisions are being made by the right people with the company's best intentions. Let's hope this "nervous scrambling" for money is brief and some day soon the majority of the parks can climb out of the lengthy "construction" phase so that when these families who have to save for years to take their children can truly enjoy everything (really, EVERYTHING!) Walt worked so hard to achieve. I really enjoyed your article, Thanks for your insight!
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