Economic Crisis affecting Disney World
Walt Disney World: how the economy is affecting the most succesful theme park resort in the world
I work seasonally at Walt Disney World, but I am moving back to Florida in November, so I want to go back to full time like I used to be...but my manager informed me that due to the nation's economic crisis and the unstable condition of the current economy, the entire Walt Disney World Resort has put a freeze on hiring...this means NO new people will be coming in, they wont replace any full-timers that leave, and seaonal or part time cast members will not be able to be hired full time...the parks have slowed down tremendously because of the crisis, and there just arent enough hours to go around because of lack of man-power needed with smaller crowds...and they obviously see this trend continuing for a while
I just thought this was an interesting tidbit to share with you all, to show that even the Mouse is being hit hard by the crisis....it should be interesting to see what happens come holiday time, if the parks' attendance picks up enough for WDW to lift the freeze...plus it sucks for me, because I reallly wanted to go back to work
Yeah, I work at the Disney Store and they are not hiring that many perminant part time cast members either. To tell you the truth, we are probably more lucky that Disney picked us up again.
I think the hit will be in 2009.
The crisis is starting to hit overseas as well as stateside, so those international tourists won't be as easy to come by as they recently were. The domestic tourists are starting to embrace the idea of the "staycation"...Which is to say that the local amusement park is seeing a little more business because of tourist hesitance to travel long distance. Disney ain't cheap, and they will figure that out soon enough when their attendance and bottom line take a hit.
Not to get totally political here, but I would personally like to thank the Democrats and Republicans for getting us into this mess. I'm done with both parties.
From Rob P
Posted October 8, 2008 at 2:36 AM
The way things are going the only people in the Parks will be bankers spending their bonuses.
hahaha, you may be right Rob
From Tony Duda
Posted October 8, 2008 at 8:25 PM
I attended the first night of Epcot Food & Wine Festival on September 26 starting in the late afternoon and staying until Illuminations was over. I don't know if what I saw was a result of the economic downturn but there were some cutbacks. The biggest cutback was Illuminations had only about half of the previous number of fireworks. The part of the show before the globe arrived really cut back the fireworks with the propane barge very active instead. The finale was OK but seemed smaller too. There were huge lines at all the food booths leading to the register with little lines at the pick-up area itself. This could be due to cutbacks on experienced money takers or just bad computers. There are also about half the number of free wine seminars compared to last year but many more extra charge seminars. I also stayed off-property at a motel and they said there are a lot fewer people checking in. I would say the whole area is hurting for tourists.
From Gareth H
Posted October 9, 2008 at 8:01 AM
I think next year, and 2010 will suffer a lot more than this year due to the economic status here and abroad.
Next year, and 2010, you will see a lot less British tourists, and the reasoning behind this follows.
This year people will continue to come, as most Brits pre book their holidays at least a year in advance. They'll make the most of it knowing next year may not be so easy.
The British housing market went crazy. Property prices went so high that people had so much equity in their homes, they were taking out 2nd mortgages to free up some of that extra cash. Now the prices dropped, and will continue to drop, so that eventually the house prices will drop below the amount that is owed on them.
This means people can't afford to move and there is no longer an option to take a loan on the equity in the property.
Of course this means that there will be no more extravagent holidays to Florida, where money isn't an issue.
Yes its still cheap for Brits to travel here, but who wants to take that financial risk anymore!!
Even if the property market recovers, banks will be hesitant to loan money so frivolously as they did before.
And lets face it, most of the homes shouldn't have ever been valued so high.
I made a killing by selling my house in the UK and moving to the US. I got out at the right time, but others aren't so lucky!!
So expect a quiet 2009 and an even quieter 2010.
It looks like the economy has finally led to some delays in the attractions that were planned.
According to Jim Hill Media, the supposed Fantasyland expansion has been delayed till 2014 or 2015. It seems that the 40th anniversary of WDW might be a barren one.
We're planning a June 2009 trip to WDW and the other area parks. The economy is a mess right now and I'm curious as to what this will do for attendance at parks next summer. We always plan in advance for our trips... this year we decided to start planning even earlier so everything is paid prior to our departure. I'm real curious to see what things will be like by the time we get down there.
From Chaz B
Posted October 9, 2008 at 2:04 PM
The Busch Entertainment Parks are going through the same thing. They have put a hold on almost all hiring right now. Most of this year was a great success due to the travel from European visitors, but since all economies are starting to fall that means next year will be a definite challenge in bringing locals to the park more.
So I think the theme parks need to rethink their ticket pricing strategy, they all just keep pushing up their prices without thinking of how the economy will look next year. I'm sure that is why Disney went with it's "Come Celebrate" slogan this year, it doesn't cost as much to implement. Although I think Disney will still make their money off of their movies as that is a cheap form of entertainment for most families. I think we will also see an increase in the local theme parks, which could help Six Flags and Cedar Fair turn around.
Cedar Fair had an up year this year. Attendance was higher and guest spending was up. Six Flags stock is going for about 50 cents right now, and could even go lower than that.
The full effect of all this mess won't be felt by the people for a little while. It's not too late for it to turn around, but if the economic madness continues, the middle class (aka a huge percentage of park visitors) are going to be feeling it big time sooner rather than later. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect I'm not. It doesn't help that the media throws gas on the fire by scaring people into selling out of the market and pulling their investments. If that continues, some parks will be at least temporarily closing the gates.
Once again special thanks to the morons in Washington. There are plenty more people to thank, but I'll get off of my soapbox. Good luck to all of the parks out there this winter.
Yeah, Disney is cutting back from the parks, but they are still going full force on the movies, becase they know that a depression like this actually helps the movie industry....more people will be forced to look toward cheap entertainment, such as the movies...as history shows, the movie studios had some of their biggest fiscal successes during the Great Depression...so overall the Walt Disney Company wont be hurt too much...but unfotunatley, the Parks and Resorts segment will
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