Here's the real problem: The Walt Disney Company had its best quarter EVER! That, according to Bob Iger himself. How do you follow that? How do you make the next quarter even MORE profitable? Cut, cut, cut! Import cheap labor to replace nominally paid labor (and make the folks you're laying off train the new people), reduce full timers to 32 hours instead of 40 hours, use non-benefit College Program kids to make up the difference, fire painters and hotel staff, and finally jack up the prices through the roof on everything! Yup, that ought to do it! And whenever anyone says "Disney isn't the only one", well, that's no excuse for overly greedy behavior. This type of behavior is something a struggling company does, not a hugely, vastly profitable company like TWDC.

I will make the most of any trip to Disney World...if a park closes early, more time to eat and drink in Disney Springs. It's all about what you make of something...it's not going to ruin my trip. Unfortunate for the employees though

Stuff like this is why we stopped annual passes and resort visits. The return on the visit cost has reduced and Universal or other vacation options provide a better return on the overall cost. I envision Disney to build up to the 2013-2014 crowds but due to actions like mentioned above and the huge price increases that the numbers of visitors will plummet negative and they will loose money in a few years as people realize and move on.

The writer has little understanding about business management.

You don't cut staff at a retail establishment to "save money", you do so because you anticipate fewer customers, which is what will happen now that WDW enters off-season, as it does every year. Cutting staff at a retail establishment will mean less income, and only a complete fool would do that.

Many of the "cuts" he mentions are due to be replaced by other, newer things and cutting operating hours on a few attractions may be a way of concentrating guest intent into fewer hours to make those (unpopular) attractions seem less empty, to make their experience more efficient, or even to allow longer maintenance shifts at night.

None of it has anything to do with Shanghai or EuroDisney. Each of the parks, even each of the 4 within WDW, has a separate operating budget.

My main concern with the cuts of cast members.I've lived in Orlando since 2006 and have been visiting the parks regularly since that time and over the last few years there is a noticeable difference in customer service. At one time you would go to the parks and be greeted with smile and waves and now the cast members are just as rude and inexperienced as someone working at Universal or Walmart for that matter. I've heard from friends who work at Disney that training has been reduced significantly and you can tell. I've walked out of the park and two cast members were too busy having a conversation to wish anyone a good evening. Having responsibilities falling on fewer cast members is only going to increase stress for both the cast members and the park attendees and rudeness will be wide spread.

If the Disney Company is having trouble at the Shanghai Disneyland with budget and building time, it seems to me they should scale back the theme park AT Shanghai, not at the more popular parks in the U.S. This is a sign of very poor management by Disney, (cutting off their nose to spike their face). Paris is failing because the French culture is not attuned to Disney's, nor will the culture of Shanghai. Maybe Disney ought to liquify some of its MONEY DRAINING, non-theme park holdings, i.e. ABC, ESPN.

Take it from someone who works for a very large publicly traded company like Disney. If the cuts work they will be permanent.

Bob Iger sent an email two weeks ago thanking and congratulating his Cast Members and employees for the parks and resorts having record breaking profits. A week later these Cast Members, who rely on 40 hour or more work-weeks to survive, have their hours cut. Then a new stage show, which we all know costs money, is announced to come to Magic Kingdom Park in Florida. This is all in addition to Bob Iger's $40,000,000 salary. I get it. He's the CEO of basically the biggest company in the world so he probably deserves it but this is all bad business for employees. Nasty. Disgusting.

I understand the global impact on the Disney Company, but maybe they were a little piggish in the market place determined to give the Disney experience in Paris, Hong Kong, and China. Not every country has to have a Disney park ( as evidenced by the declining revenues in two listed above). Maybe before Disney goes off to conquer the world, they should take care of business at home. The promised expansion at Fantasy Land was nothing more than a way to alleviate traffic flow issues. The new attractions are flat and without the quality of what Disney built years ago. In Orlando, the creativity and experiences at Universal's two Harry Potter parks far exceed anything Disney has done in decades. Time to refresh the quality that put Disney on the map to start with...not making cuts and reducing the experience.

I really find it hard to believe that at $100+ per day, per person that Disney isn't making a ton of money. They need to get their act together before they lose more customers.

"It's a small world after all"

Hum,.....Raise Ticket Prices, Raise Parking Prices, Reduce Staff, Reduce Live Entertainment, Get rid of Cheaper quick service Foods Such as Waffle sandwich's, Replace cheep meals with new over priced sit down restaurants,....Yeah, Great ideas Wdw,.....If you're end goal is pushing even more middle class customers out of you're parks, or helping Universal and Sea World, over yourself.

What is the basis of the author's analysis here? She provides a lot of numbers and statistics about various segments of the company, but the only connection between the cuts she mentions and the figures she provides seems to be that she is declaring the former to the the cause of the latter.

All of this comes as no surprise. Disney has built a reputation of top notch customer service, and now they rest on that while killing it. The bottom line is that Disney has been reducing the level of customer service and the cuts being made are just in line with what has been happening. Ticket price increases, DVC point price increases, merchandise price increases, and perks being diminished along with general cuts all speak to the change in priorities. Sad - very sad. The Florida resort will not be the top tourist destination long the way things are going.

Very sad. We hav e been going to Disney since 1973 and were gust there in December. Yes we are a lot older but we had the grandkids with us and it just wasn't the same. Something is missing the magic is less. Please don't kill the golden goose. We went to Universal this month to see Harry Potter and it was nice but it will never take Disney's place. So please think of us your tried and true loyal fans and don't price us out .

It does seem as though, if these hypotheses and rumors are to be believed, they are cutting off their nose to spite their face.

One thing Disney could do, is reduce prices. If that were done you'd get more visiting, you'd make more...

I think we need to calm down with the worry. We lose a few shop hours and some access to wildly under-used sections of epcot. A few less characters (which can EASILY be replaced in one day, or even within hours). In the mean time, WDW is building out 2 new lands in Hollywood studios, a new nighttime spectacular in DAK, as well as an entire new land in Pandora in DAK. Add to this the expansion of DLR Magic kingdom to include star wars land and extended hours in Animal kingdom to accommodate the nighttime features. I call that a very good tradeoff. The parks division is doing JUST fine.

2021 is my next and last trip to Walt Disney World. Celebrate the 50th anniversary. This current management team ha ruined the parks. Say what you will about Michael Eisner (the CEO before current CEO Bob Iger) but under his leadership the parks were NEVER in the condition they are currently in requiring massive refurbishments and closures. Not to mention they never tore up every park at the same time. They also didn't wake up one morning and realize how neglecting the parks for 2 years would cause things to be soo bad. Now they are scrambling to try and get the park back to its usual perfect condition and its not as quick and easy as if they did daily maintenance.

Poor Robert Igers, WDW CEO only earned $46.5 million last year, and that poor chap recieved only a 36% raise! Walt must be turning in his grave.

Have visited WDW twice since October and after many years of being an annual passholder have decided not to renew this year. The cuts are obvious to long time attendees and as a result the "magic" is gone!

The cuts have already determined that our family will not return to WDW. We typically go twice a year and usually have between 10 to 25 family members with us. We did not go last year due to all the construction and will not return this year due to all the cuts and constructions. We did go to Universal and had a wonderful time. It looks as if Universal will be our "go to" vacation spot from now on.

I can totally see your first two points. They make a lot of sense but, the ESPN problem. ESPN last made something like 3.4 million a day in 2015. Dare we say that this is the slow period in the parks and Disney is spending money domestly like never before. Example StarWars and Toystory lands. Which is forcing Disney to spend money on demolition which everyone knows they hate doing (river country). Not to mention Avatar land and a frozen theam ride plus meet and great. Plus I hear that inoventions East and West simply had their sponsorships not be renewed and they are now moving most meet and greats to West. So The ESPN problem is not a problem.

I wouldn't mind the cuts if the hours and reduced attractions were announced in the same time frame they demand dining reservations now be made. They've made guests plan their days around fast passes in advance and dining in advance, why can't hours and rides have the same expectations. The epcot attractions closing 2 hours early may be due to low interest, but I planned my dining around seeing THOSE attractions after dinner the 1 half day we planned to be in that park. Now we will miss out next month.

I feel like this is def going to be a problem for guests. A lot of the magic is being lost. I could feel it when we went in December to WDW. I would of my 15 or so trips this was the least magical and my overall experience fell way short of what I expect of disney

Even though I understand the need for cuts to save revenue, but here is another example of a company whose too management has no clue about how to run a company. You have issues at other park's yet let us be the ones who suffer. Yes. There are areas you can cut back on; underutilized areas or attractions. Such as a kiosk or experience few use. However, cutting hours at shops or park's that are exceeding expectations is not the proper approach. Since Disney is supposed to be " the happiest place on earth", does it make sense to cut things for the same of possibly having said " guests" be unhappy and complain? I think not. You afterall are in the hospitality industry. So my advice to you is to tread wearily.

Before Disney fans press the panic button and take out their pitchforks, please note that the attractions with reduced operating hours at Epcot are not the most popular ones, perhaps it's just a reflection of how not popular they actually are.

On a side note, they really should turn Innoventions into a Giant Meet and greet location