It’s safe to say that things feel a little… off at Disney parks right now.
It’s not just the arrival of sweeping changes or the tension of a world still learning to navigate the lingering effects of a global pandemic. Across the board, longtime Disney fans have taken note that visiting Walt Disney World or Disneyland feels strangely different compared to years past. Some elements of the parks experience that were just givens have shifted in unexpected ways or disappeared. In some ways, it even feels like some of the company’s core values have been changed.
One of the biggest causes of these changes has been cost-cutting tactics. While Disney has claimed to resist pressure from outside advisors urging drastic cost-cutting, evidence suggests that many belt-tightening measures we saw begin after the 2020 closures are here to stay. While some signs of cost-cutting have been subtle, others are getting painfully obvious—to the detriment of the overall Disney parks experience.
Speaking of which, does it feel hot in here?
1. What happened to the air conditioning?
Back in 2017, I remarked in an article that it seemed like Universal Islands of Adventure suffered from a seeming lack of air-conditioned spaces compared to Walt Disney World. This seems like such a necessity in Central Florida. I hated the idea I was seeing Universal cast members sweating like they’d run marathons inside stores and restaurants. You just couldn’t find anywhere to cool down properly across the park. This was a dramatic shift from our normal experience at Walt Disney World, where many restaurants and attractions are kept at cozy, cool temperatures, even during the hottest times of year.
It seems that times have changed…
On a recent visit to Walt Disney World during the blazing summer months, we noticed a weird shift—Disney’s restaurants and rides appear to be operating at hotter temperatures than they used to.
We first noticed the phenomenon during a lunch at Katsura Grill. We’d chosen to eat at an indoor location to get some relief from Florida’s heat, but halfway through our meal, we realized the restaurant didn’t seem to have much air conditioning. At first, we assumed this might just be a quirk of the location.
As a very-pregnant Disney fan, moving from AC to AC had become an essential skill for a Disney visit, so I started paying attention. Across the board, it seemed most of our usual havens to retreat from the summer heat were all operating at hotter temperatures. Even old faithful stops like Spaceship Earth felt weirdly warm and muggy.
I was ready to write this off as a pregnancy issue when I did some research—I wasn’t the only one who had noticed this. Other Disney fans remarked the same issue, and the assumption is Disney has started operating indoor locations at higher temperatures to save on AC costs.
I get the push for energy efficiency, but this is a pretty frustrating change considering Florida’s relentless humidity and Disney’s longstanding reputation for going above and beyond for their guests. It was strange having difficulty finding relief from the heat short of planning a detour to First Aid (which should be a last resort). This is definitely one cost-cutting measure we are not a fan of.
2. “Alright you baa-aa-d boy… but no more freebies!”
There’s no question that a visit to Disney parks is expensive. That being said, part of the benefit of visiting Walt Disney World or Disneyland over the years has been the consistent availability of all-inclusive services bundled in your base cost as well as the occasional surprise freebie to be found throughout the parks.
Freebies and included services aren’t totally gone at Walt Disney World—celebration buttons are still a thing, Passholders still get new magnets, and Club Cool still exists, but options for free perks have waned overall.
Most of these changes took place after the closures of 2020, when Disney was scrambling to reclaim lost revenue and find sustainable ways to operate their parks in the midst of an unsteady world. This in and of itself wasn’t a particular shock, but the way many of these changes have become long-term policy was. The most well-known examples were the elimination of free MagicBands, the Disney Magical Express airport shuttle, and of course, Fastpass+ in favor of the still-controversial paid Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane system.
Small freebies like stickers, occasional festival goodies at Epcot, and special event items (like those given away on Disney+ day) can still be found by savvy guests, but these are trickier to find than before and sometimes require a paywall (such as the gifts one can get at Epcot festivals for food scavenger hunts). Overall, Disney just seems a little more tight-fisted than before, both with services and surprise perks. We are definitely not in the midst of a season like the Year of a Million Dreams.
3. The whole concept of Parks Pass Reservations
The most dramatic change to the Disney parks experience has definitely been the arrival of the Parks Pass Reservations system. Originally put in place in 2020 as a way of controlling attendance in the midst of the pandemic, the system introduced required park-specific reservations in order to enter any Disney park.
While many guests had hoped otherwise, it appears the Parks Pass Reservation system is here to stay for the foreseeable future. This change definitely has not been without controversy, as park reservations have definitely put the kibosh on much of the spontaneity that used to be possible visiting Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort. The system only offers one major benefit for park guests: it has made a significant positive difference in limiting park attendance to manageable numbers, preventing some of the wild gatebuster days (like 4th of July and New Year’s Day) that we used to see prior to 2020. While this change is good, it has come at the high cost of reducing flexibility.
It doesn’t take rocket science to discern that the reason Parks Pass Reservations are still here is because it benefits Disney’s bottom line. With the ability to tell exactly how many guests may be in a park on a given day, Disney can allocate resources with extreme precision. While this is a good thing to a point (you don’t want to be short on cast members or restaurant supplies on a busy day, for example), the problem is it has given incentive for Disney to make noticeable cuts on days when attendance is lighter.
Some ways we’ve noticed this trend affecting visits is things like more shops and restaurants being unavailable on lighter days. Certain entertainment options may be thinned or closed, you might see fewer characters, and perks related to seasonal events may not be as easily accessible.
Most frustratingly, park hopping remains very limited, only allowing guests to start jumping between parks after 2PM. With the worst of the pandemic behind us, there is little excuse for maintaining this arbitrary hurdle except to benefit Disney financially. Rumors have even persisted of Disney has considered expanding throttling on park hopping to require secondary reservations, rather than lightening the restrictions to allow park hopping earlier as guests want.
4. Bizarre maintenance problems
Maintenance issues are par for the course at theme parks to a point. Hundreds of complex technological and mechanical systems are utilized to make the magic of Disney attractions happen. Sometimes these systems just don’t cooperate, such as is frequently seen on advanced rides like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
What has felt different is the nature of the maintenance issues people are starting to notice at Disney parks—many are downright bizarre. A few border on scary.
Prior to 2020, I never heard of a situation where a Jungle Cruise or Splash Mountain boat straight up sank in the middle of a ride. That’s not a normal maintenance issue. Guests at Disneyland Resort recently recorded a situation where an Indiana Jones Adventure ride vehicle started shooting sparks. One family reported feeling traumatized after they got stuck at the top of Splash Mountain for an extended time—another batch of guests got stuck for over an hour on It’s a Small World (oof). We’ve had a visit to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge earlier this year where almost every major animatronic in the land was covered or shifted into B-mode.
Some of this may just be the nature of social media—ride malfunctions didn’t necessarily go viral a decade ago—but there’s no question some of the issues are eyebrow raisers. Disney has prided themselves on their thorough ride inspections, and it’s hard not to feel like they are having trouble keeping up with basic ride maintenance in some situations. If that’s a result of cost-cutting measures, it’s an area the company definitely needs to address expediently to avoid a major incident or continued bad press.
5. Dining prices, portions, and quality
This is a very, very broad one, and it isn’t necessarily anything new—there’s been controversy about shifts in dining quality at Walt Disney World for a pretty long time now, ever since the arrival of the Disney dining plan. I would not go so far as to say this is an area of dramatic failure on Disney’s part necessarily. There are still a lot of great dining options throughout Walt Disney World and Disneyland, and the company continues to expand dining selections with the return of fan favorites like the Tusker House buffet and Victoria and Albert’s.
That being said, there are situations where cost-cutting measures have been noticeable in Disney’s dining line-up.
These shifts have largely been subtle. At one location, prices may have risen. At another, portions seem strangely smaller. Those with a keen eye for culinary details may notice dishes that have been adjusted or ingredients swapped for the sake of cost-effectiveness. We’ve seen this on occasion with slight alterations in versions of popular dishes at Epcot’s seasonal festivals. New restaurants and counter-service locations are tending to lean towards playing it safe with their menus, sticking to familiar favorites likely to please picky eaters rather than embracing more adventurous offerings that might provide something truly unique you’d expect from visiting a Disney park.
Many of these areas of wobbling quality appear to be location specific. Still, it does bear mentioning being the root of the issue is tied to cost-cutting.
6. Tired cast members
Cast members are the heart and soul of what makes Disney magical. Machines can break down, and technology can easily cause just as many frustrations as it solves, but cast members exemplify the personal touch that has earned Disney their high reputation–providing warmth, hospitality, problem-solving skills, maintaining clean parks, personal connections, and keeping guests safe all at once.
Over the years, most Disney cast members we have encountered are full of life, friendly, and seem to enjoy their jobs. These last few years seem to have definitely weighed on many cast members, however. It has become more and more common, in our experience, to encounter cast members who seem tired and more cautious to engage with guests. Some might even border on coming across as tight-lipped or harsh.
Much of this is a result of the expected aftermath of a global pandemic—Disney is still in the midst of a sloth-slow crawl back towards normalcy with things like drawing cultural representatives back to World Showcase or rebuilding entertainment options. Other issues have had more acute effects on cast members, however. Continued worker shortages have caused higher turnaround rates and possibly some shifts in Disney’s hiring standards (we think this may have affected some of the reduction in role-play interactions at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, for example). Attraction crews may be operating with much fewer cast members than before, increasing the weight on those in key positions.
Most significantly, many cast members have been worn out by the increase in guests acting out unpredictably in reaction to basic instructions or inconveniences—a similar phenomenon to that which has affected flight attendants regularly contending with unruly passengers who just seem to have lost all courtesy and sense these last few stressful years. Having someone scream at you, threaten you, or call you names just for doing your job can be a pretty traumatic experience, let alone if it happens often. This sort of repeated stress has most definitely had a negative effect on front line cast members throughout Disney parks.
On top of that, Disney continues to be called out in the media (particularly by major figures like Abigail Disney) for overworking and underpaying cast members in many positions, particularly in the midst of increasing pressures working in the entertainment/travel industry. At the same time, some cast members have allegedly reported frustrations with not having as much freedom to deliver “pixie dust” moments to guests as they used to for fear of getting in trouble for cutting into demand for Disney’s various paid services.
In short, cost-cutting measures affect cast members in myriad ways, for they are the ones who end up absorbing guest frustrations. They need lots of love, respect, appreciation, and gratitude from guests to continue to bolster morale, but guests only play so much of a role in the picture. It’s ultimately up to Disney to take measures to ensure that cost-cutting doesn’t place such a burden on cast members that they can’t maintain an encouraging work environment and a steady base of workers who want to make Disney parks their long term career home.
What do you think is the best and worst thing about each US Disney park? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook! Thanks for reading!
