I’m such a dunce. This morning I wrote that Downtown Disney Orlando update and left off the best part. FoxxFur has posted a retrospective look at Walt Disney World’s Village, listing the initial shops and vendors of Disney’s outdoor shopping mall through to the ones… Read More »Downtown Disney Retro
Occupying the spot usually known as “Christmas Tree Point” in Town Square at Disneyland, is a new photo opportunity Disney’s calling “Celebration Point”. The festive Mickey Balloon and invitation sculpture offers guests a new place to take photos and mark their special occasions while celebrating… Read More »New Disneyland Photo Spot – Celebration Point
Scott Joseph at the Orlando Restaurant Guide has one of the first actual signals of change occurring at Disney’s executive level. In this case it’s Dieter Hannig, who was the Vice President of the Food & Beverage Division. Dieter Hannig, who is credited with changing… Read More »Executive Layoffs brings change to Disney Dining Leadership
You know the economy is bad when the New York Times is telling its readers how to save money. This weekend the Times ran a report on all the great discounts being offered by Disney’s theme parks and resorts to attraction guests. It’s a pretty… Read More »Do your travel plans include Disney this year?
The change that we all knew was coming has been announced. Once Disney announced that they would be offering severance packages to hundreds of Parks and Resorts Division Executives, I knew the next shoe to drop would be a further consolidation of the east and west coast management structures.
Frankly, Disney has been trending this way a long time. Disneyland lifers have been holding out against the move fearing they would lose some of what makes Walt Disney’s original park special, but the economic crisis has given Jay Rasulo the ammunition to install the changes.
This new action will result in some job loss even below the executive level that was offered severance packages. Unfortunately the details were not announced so we don’t know how deep job loss will go.
Two areas we know are going to get hit hard are: Imagineering and Theme Park Operations. At Walt Disney Imagineering everyone will be consolidated into a single group that handles design for all parks.
The operating infrastructure at Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort will also be merged to create a single domestic organization and “back-of-house” operation.
Disney execs were putting the final touches on these changes last week while in town for the American Idol Experience launch.
The changes announced today are effective immediately.
Disney’s Press Release on the reorganization is below the cut and don’t miss Jason Garcia’s coverage at the Orlando Sentinel.:
Read More »Disney Parks and Resorts Division Restructures for Cost Savings
Here’s a great slide show of photos from the Gala Premiere of Disney’s The American Idol Experience including many shots I’ve not seen anywhere else. Also included are a few videos you may have seen before. The gala premiere was attended by all seven previous… Read More »American Idol Experience Premiere – Slideshow
The two finalists, Vanessa Quillao and Jenna Rubaii, await the final vote of The American Idol Experience audience. Yesterday was Valentines Day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the park celebrated the grand opening of its newest attraction. By the end of the night a dream… Read More »American Idol Experience awards first full day ‘Dream Ticket’
Ahhh February. In Central Florida that means one thing… the Daytona 500. So I wasn’t at all surprised to see this photo of four-time Nascar Champ and three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon with his wife and daughter enjoying the Magic Carpets of Aladdin attraction… Read More »Nascar Champion Jeff Gordon at Disney World