They say that we’re in a new wave of the pandemic. I don’t know if that is true but I do know that cases are reportedly going up around the country. As to the severity or what you should do with that information, I’m not a doctor. What I do know a little about is Disney World — and, in particular, I’m impressed with the way that Disney World is navigating the difficulties of staffing shortages in the current environment and economy.
According to All Ears, even as recently as February, Disney World was struggling to find the cast members needed to run the park at all the hours and capacity they would like. According to Sarah McOmber, the giant resort in Central Florida has been climbing out of a hole created by pandemic layoffs.
Disney laid off about 33,000 employees between 2020 and 2021. That took their total number of employees from 223,000 in 2019 to 203,000 in 2020 (an 8.97% decline). In 2021, it decreased by another 13,000 to 190,000 (a 6.4% decline).
That’s about a 15% total retraction in labor force that Disney has had to work to restore during the current year. And though live performers have been severely lacking up until recently, Disney continues to release new announcements of returning acts and fully-functional shows. Take this revelation out of WDWMagic for example:
The modified ‘A Celebration of Festival of the Lion King’ will close at the end of July 4, with the ‘Festival of the Lion King’ beginning July 16 2022. No shows will be performed July 5 through 15. When the show reopens on July 16, Genie+ access via the Lightning Lane will continue as before.
The tumble monkeys are a team of acrobats that adds a lot of energy to the show and are especially popular with the younger members of the audience. Although the show will be called by its original name, the audience participation elements will not be back in the show from July 16, but may return later.
You could be negative about the whole situation and ask why Disney couldn’t reinstate these features sooner. There’s validity in that complaint. But there also needs to be recognition that restarting Walt Disney World has been a huge process. It’s also a process that has been taking place in exceedingly difficult times. For example, Disney had to work very hard to find cast members to staff their food services divisions. That difficulty was so bad that they almost couldn’t staff the Galactic Starcruiser in time for its opening. It’s been so rough that they’ve only recently announced the reopening of the premiere restaurant at Disney World: Victoria and Albert’s. Then it was also the house keeping services that fell far behind in their hiring goals. Do you remember when Disney was offering huge signing bonuses for housekeepers? We certainly do.
With the latest round of increased sick calls, Disney World continues to find ways to stay open and provide the required services for guests. That isn’t always easy. Though Park Operations can move cast members around for easy-to-fill positions, there are highly technical roles that can sometimes result in major delays if too many people call out:
Extremely long wait at TTC security this morning – 9:30am pic.twitter.com/UqyDE54Nby
— WDWMAGIC.COM (@wdwmagic) May 23, 2022
It is taking about an hour to get through security
— WDWMAGIC.COM (@wdwmagic) May 23, 2022
And though there are often issues behind-the-scenes with finding the personnel needed for each day, you have to admit that they do a great job of keeping it out of view of guests and the press. There’s something to be said for the excellent work performed by the day-to-day managers of the Walt Disney World theme parks. They truly are the magic that makes the machine go.
So if you’re in the parks this summer and you get the chance, make sure to be kind to cast members. They’ve been through a lot, many are working crazy hours, and it’s not easy dealing with all the guests who are coming off of two years of stress. Everyone is on edge. But at the end of the day, it’s the ingenuity and professionalism of Disney World cast members that makes another day be just a dream away.
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