Josh

What does Fortnite have to do with Hurricane Milton? As I hunkered down this week during Hurricane Milton (more on that shortly), I had time to reflect and read up on some news I first heard about back in February, Disney making an investment with Epic Games in the popular video game Fortnite. Just this week, Forbes reported some on some of the details, like how some Disney characters will not be allowed to hold guns in the game (1). The Verge reported Disney's investment with Epic Games was at least $1.5 billion (with a b). That's a staggering amount to invest in someone else's video game. So why is Disney investing so much, and what does it have to do with a hurricane? Well, certainly all of Florida was laser focused this week on Hurricane Milton. Making landfall late Wednesday night in Sarasota County, the hurricane came just weeks after Hurricane Helene and has caused extensive damage across the state (3). Both Disney World and Universal Studios closed mid-day Wednesday...

 Layoffs Just this week, Disney reported more layoffs, this time 75 people at ABC News (1). ABC Stations Chief Chad Matthews wrote "It’s no secret that our industry is undergoing a transformation unlike any other, and we’re seeing headlines every day about streamlining across every major media company." Matthews is correct that across the news media industry, there is a transformation underway. For example, back in February, the BBC reported how Vice Media also cut hundreds of media jobs after filing for bankruptcy (2).  But the layoffs at Disney are broader than just the news media roles at ABC. Earlier Hollywood Reporter (3) and Wall Street Journal (4) articles wrote about how Pixar was laying off about 175 people. They also referenced how last year CEO Bob Iger talked about a multiyear plan to cut over 7,000 employees across the company (of about 225,000 employees).  The layoffs haven't been as impactful on Walt Disney World cast member morale as I expected. Because I ...

Having Some Fun Too! While the college program is hard work, it can also be fun. Especially on days off, there are opportunities to take advantage of fun activities offered through the college program, through the general cast member program, as well as in the greater Orlando area. Yesterday was a particularly fun day. As promised in an earlier blog post, I wanted to start off by talking about behind-the-scenes opportunity I was able to snag through the college program. I got lucky and was able to join a small-group early morning tour of Rock "n" Roller Coaster. Set up through the college program, we caught a 5:30am bus over to Hollywood Studios. The cast members who oversee the ride then took us on a 90 minute tour of the entire ride building, explaining the history, the guest experience, as well as some funny stories about different cast member and guest moments. While I can't share any "secrets" or photos, it was a really neat opportunity, and I hope to snag ...

 It's All About the IP One fun experience I had in the college program was being able to watch a cast member only livestream of Disney's D23 Parks and Resorts panel last month. Disney posted a summary of some of the big announcements on their website. Here in Orlando at the Magic Kingdom, the expansions include two new themed lands at the Magic Kingdom, Cars and Villains (1). Over at Animal Kingdom, there will be a new Tropical Americas land with an Indiana Jones ride and an attraction based on the movie Encanto. Hollywood Studios will get a new land based on Monsters Inc.  At Disneyland in California, Avengers and Avatar will be the theme of two new attractions. Over in Paris, a new Lion King area will be built. In Shanghai and Hong Kong, new Spider-Man attractions will be built (2). All of these investments are part of the $60 billion dollars Disney plans to spend over the next 10 years on theme park and cruise line expansion (3). While some of this investment is certainly t...

 A Day in the Life of Being a "CP" When I first arrived back in May, I was assigned a role in custodial at the Yacht & Beach Club. It was an interesting first week, as it turned out I was allergic to some of the cleaning chemicals. Thankfully, with the aid of my physician and Disney HR, I was reassigned to a new role, attractions at the Magic Kingdom, specifically Big Thunder Mountain (2). For this week's blog post, I wanted to describe a bit about how onboarding worked, as well as what it's like to work at world's most popular theme park (3). Training started all the way back in May. During the first week, we went through general company onboarding, going through compliance and other general learning sessions. We also went through Disney specific training for several days that covered the history of the company, and how cast members are expected to be "on stage" and treat guests exceptionally well, creating magical experiences and memories. We were ...

Lightning Lane: Changes and a Big Leak Back in 2015, Wired Magazine published an article about Disney's then-unprecedented $1 billion investment in technology for Walt Disney World (1). While the focus then was on magicbands, the core of the technology was integrating attractions, dining, character meet-and-greets, shopping, and more. The article describes how "People spend less time in line. They're doing more, which means they're spending more and remembering more." Back then Disney was not yet monetizing the convenience, but perhaps the vision was already in place. Fast forward to 2021, and Disney rolled out a new service called "Disney Genie", which included "Lightning Lane" (2). While the core service was free, if guests wanted to skip the line, they needed to pay $15 per person per day to get faster access to rides. The change was not popular, "On social media, many have pointed out that charging extra for what once was a free perk...

With the Success of Deadpool & Wolverine, will Disney Release More R-rated Films? For my first blog, I want to talk about the movie Deadpool & Wolverine. It is the first Deadpool movie under the Disney brand since Disney purchased Fox, and the first R-rated movie Disney released in the Marvel cinematic universe [1] . The movie is already the top grossing R-rated movie of all time and is approaching $1 billion in worldwide receipts [2] . Disney has always been considered a family-friendly brand, and now the question is whether Disney start to make more R-rated films. My prediction as a cast member: yes, without question. For example, Disney has already brought Deadpool to the Disneyland Park as a roaming park character, the first time an R-rated character has appeared in any Disney Park. I’ve also been seeing quite a bit of Deadpool & Wolverine merchandise in the parks. So the movie is not only helping Disney with box office returns, but with all the Intellectual Property an...