The 6% Letter

Dear Bob Iger,



You will never read this. You will never see this. You won’t acknowledge this. And that’s fine, that’s acceptable and expected considering how many layers of the hierarchy separates us. I will safely assume that this letter will get thrown to the side and will be forgotten. Nonetheless, this has to be said: you’ve neglected Walt Disney World for a very long time, and the latest round of labor and product cuts provides nothing more than frustration to the amazing cast that has helped make Lake Buena Vista one of the top vacation destinations in the entire world.

We can be honest: Hollywood Studios has been mostly abandoned for an eternity, Epcot has become dated, the water parks hasn’t seen any major updates in years (please don’t reply with the MagicBands...), and Magic Kingdom has now become the only park with a parade, and the only park with an actual expansion within the past decade. Still no South America or Australia in Animal Kingdom, still no new pavilions in Epcot, Hollywood Studios is a fraction of what it used to be, and we’ve reached a point in which Magic Kingdom has become the only park worth visiting.

The numbers can back this up: Magic Kingdom’s attendance continues to increase at a higher rate than the other parks. The nearly 20 million that visit Magic Kingdom trickles down to 11 million for Epcot and worse for the others. And while this sounds gloomy, all four parks at Walt Disney World rank in the top 10 in worldwide attendance. You can argue it’s because of location in Florida---but Sea World can debate that. You can argue it’s because of the actual quality of the parks---but the THEA and Golden Ticket Awards have different opinions. Side-Note: Europa-Park, a park influenced heavily by Disney World, ironically has now been surpassing the master by becoming the park voted the best in the planet. The real reason why people keep coming back is the service: which boils down to the awesome cast members.

Cast members keeps this place afloat. The millions of fun and inspiring stories within the confides of Lake Buena Vista spreads through the news, the internet, and other outlets and keeps the guests and soon-to-be vacationers intrigued enough to return. The diversity, the freedom to create nice moments, and the plethora of people that go through blood, sweat, and tears to keep the dreams possible are major components to why guests pay the hefty prices to vacation here. For every bad incident someone might complain about at Disney, there are dozens of delightful magical moments that will pop up left and right. From the moment you step into the Magical Express to the cast members saying good-bye to you as you leave the resort, you will witness hundreds of smiles throughout your vacation. Go ahead and count them. Universal can keep piling on the great attractions and expansions (Nintendo is on the horizon, that should be fun). So for Disney to cut back on labor on top of everything else in Orlando is quite sad.

Yes, we are aware of the 6% goal. We are aware that Shanghai Disneyland is absorbing more money and resources than originally anticipated. And yes, on a business sense it makes sense to do some cuts. But to see part-timers have their hours reduced to nothing around the same time as Disney announcing in its parks that Florida received 102 million visitors in 2015 is pretty much a contradiction. We have become the victims of our own success---because the reputation is so high and people are more likely to show up regardless of what major (and subtle cutbacks) we might be making. We have become too big to fail, and the only victims of this revelation are the cast members in the front lines witnessing major cutbacks in their weekly hours, and who knows for how long.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has revived the Star Wars brand and has made $920 million in the United States box office alone, with 2.5 billion worldwide a possibility---and I’m not even including the merchandise and video game sales. Marvel’s Deadpool has now earned $500 million and although it’s not all going to you, I bet you all my money that this is wonderful momentum leading up to the next Marvel movie: Captain America: Civil War. That will probably net you at least $800 million. Of course we can’t forget Zootopia and Finding Dory coming out within the next six months, which will also give you at least another billion dollars to count when the dust settles. None of these are industry secrets; I am just bringing up the movie department, I haven’t even touched upon merchandise, licensing, media sales, and other sources of income. Disney is watching money flying from every direction imaginable, yet in the next couple weeks we won’t be selling any specialty pretzels because of the 6% cutback.

So despite the constant upswing and outpouring of money, we are seeing less characters in the parks, fewer entertainment options, fewer merchandise locations open within the resorts, less types of food being offered (only regular pretzels in the park now), fewer available cast members to help and greet you, and just overall a less friendly and engaging experience in the Resort. All this to save 6% of money that you will probably earn regardless as soon as Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Disney Springs, Shanghai Disneyland, and Animal Kingdom receives their expansions?

Yes, everything I have said can be rebutted with one simple phrase: its business. And I may not be educated enough to know the ins and outs of American economics and business, but I do know that usually when one or two areas is suffering you need to slice back from other regions. But Disney doesn’t lose money (ever, seriously), they just sometimes don’t earn as much as they would like. We never operate at a loss, and will never operate at a loss—we are not Sea World or Six Flags. So why are we watering down so much of the Disney experience and complicating the lives of so many cast members over a loss that has not happened yet? Why are we willing to sacrifice the quality and reputation of the Walt Disney World resort over 6%? Why are we willing to mess around with thousands of lives over 6%?

Shanghai Disneyland might be a mess, but it won’t break Disney. As of now, nothing is going to break Disney (not even the silently-sinking ESPN). But you take enough hits to crack the shield, and eventually you won’t be able to protect yourself. We are built and maintained on reputation, and we shouldn’t afford to damage it to save pennies.

During the last round of labor cuts years ago, this incident actually happened at Magic Kingdom: an autistic adult that was huge fan of Disney was misinformed as to where his favorite princess was going to be at a specific time. The man had a breakdown as Snow White was not at the location. Full grown man, on the ground, crying hysterically because his world had been shattered. The coordinators had tried desperately to calm him down, but nothing was working. They called the coordinator in charge of Snow White, begging for her to come out to greet the man and end the sad scene. Keeping with the magic, let’s just say she never left the enchanted forest behind the park because of lack of availability. The poor man’s day was ruined, and will remain a dark mark on his life.

If you are perfectly fine with more incidents like the one I just described to continue happening, then by all means keep doing what you are doing. Keep the profit margin high, and the cast member quantity rate low. But if you want to prevent awful moments like this from happening, we need to keep Walt Disney World constantly running with the correct amount of cast members. Attendance constantly increasing and worker numbers constantly shrinking will lead to some major breakdowns and problems, no matter how well you run Walt Disney World.

I’m not going to stand outside holding anti-Disney signs, I’m not going on strike, I’m not really going to do much of anything besides this letter. I will still work for your company, and will scrap around for some hours until the situation in Shanghai is more subdued. I will continue to try to make guests in the Hollywood Studios feel welcome and feel satisfied that they picked Orlando as their destination. My demeanor within the parks will not suddenly drop. But I will point out my disappointment and frustration over cuts that I feel are unnecessary. I will be using this platform as my first and only request that you, your stockholders, and your other bosses reconsider all the scaling back being unfairly done in Disney World—the largest, most successful, and highest-rated theme park link in the Disney parks chain.





6% to you and the company is gratuitous weight that needs to be cut off.

6% to us is a part of our lifelines—whether we are clocked in or not.



Sincerely,

Tired and Worried Cast Member