News Josh D’Amaro Named Next CEO of The Walt Disney Company

[BrianLo]

As one example, Connections should have never been opened in its current form. You don't need 6 years of runway to stop that.

I’m unaware he had a 6 year runway.

The day he walked into the job.


I’m not trying to take away from your other points, I just think your timelines are very wonky.

 

[flynnibus]

He should have pull, influence, and power. Either he agrees with a lot of this stuff or he has zero presence to step in and save it from being horrible.

Or smart enough to know how to give the bosses what they wanted without getting brown stuff on his nose or shoes...

Just because he didn't fight the leader before doesn't mean he's gonna parrot him now that he's the one in charge.

 

[Stripes]

I still enjoy Epcot but I wish Disney had come up with a better idea for redoing Future World.

Well…WDI did, but it was budget cut right to the bone by Chapek.

 

[JD80]

I don’t know why you have a hard time accepting parks projects don’t simply manifest the next day.

Does the next unnamed parks exec really deserve much blame or credit for building villainsland, partnering with Miral, having a full slate of ship orders through 2032? And do you really think they are going to talk their boss out of them?

Why are you engaging with someone who shoves so much hyperbole and vitriol into their posts as they can. This person is not engaging you in good faith and these interactions are pollution.

 

[FiestaFunKid]

I think the center of Epcot and Communicore Hall are a disgrace. Given his persona, I was somewhat disappointed in Josh within his previous role, with some small recent wins in there (Test Track, Epcot Entrance, Frozen Animatronics and Castle repainting since they are not a 'bottom line' driven decisions ,etc).

However, I am 100% willing to judge his CEO tenure with an open mind and cautious optimism. We don't know how much final descision making power he had on budgets and creative direction. I love the rumor of him kicking back the Villians proposals as not good enough. Sets a great tone with Imagineering on his expectations - feels like an Eisner move. I hope he carries this level of creative standard into resorts.

Both Piston Peak and Villians are such huge changes to their flagship park. These executions may define his tenure, irrespective of whatever else he does. at least earlier on if he lasts, - so they better get them right in both attraction quality and atmosphere.

 

[BrianLo]

Why are you engaging with someone who shoves so much hyperbole and vitriol into their posts as they can. This person is not engaging you in good faith and these interactions are pollution.

I have a little too much patience I guess.

I think honest errors are sometimes made, I make them too. People sometimes defensively dig in as a first reaction and require a few responses to consider a different position.

I try to be conscientious that it’s limited to 3-4 back and forths before it’s just annoying for observers.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

I still hate that 50-60% of older Disney content is nowhere to be found

When D+ first came out, I joined up thinking that we could watch all the old classic disney films. I found out pretty quick that was not the case! So, I quit the D+ and haven't been back. I wonder if they offer the classics on there now?

 

[Stupido]

When D+ first came out, I joined up thinking that we could watch all the old classic disney films. I found out pretty quick that was not the case! So, I quit the D+ and haven't been back. I wonder if they offer the classics on there now?

What were you feeling was missing? If you give some examples, I'd be happy to check for you.


Or you could check out this archive that has everything currently on Disney+.

 

[MisterPenguin]

When D+ first came out, I joined up thinking that we could watch all the old classic disney films. I found out pretty quick that was not the case! So, I quit the D+ and haven't been back. I wonder if they offer the classics on there now?

Over the years, many old theatrical and TV content was added. Certainly not all of it yet.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

What were you feeling was missing? If you give some examples, I'd be happy to check for you.

That was WAY back when, lol. I checked it for classic movies at that time and couldn't find any, so we let our subscription go. Thanks for responding.

 

[Vinnie Mac]

This was a fun surprise. Looks like the gave D'amaro the dock already at castaway cay lol

 

[MK-fan]

When D+ first came out, I joined up thinking that we could watch all the old classic disney films. I found out pretty quick that was not the case! So, I quit the D+ and haven't been back. I wonder if they offer the classics on there now?

I really think Disney needs to please the vintage Disney fan as well as the current Disney fan when it comes to Disney+. Currently there are about 36 films from Walt’s time missing and about 30 more thereafter into the mid 80’s. As for classic animated shorts, there’s only about 20% available out of the entire library. The Disneyland/Wonderful World of Color show is non-existent as are countless classic Disney shows, specials and TV movies.

 

[_caleb]

I really think Disney needs to please the vintage Disney fan as well as the current Disney fan when it comes to Disney+. Currently there are about 36 films from Walt’s time missing and about 30 more thereafter into the mid 80’s. As for classic animated shorts, there’s only about 20% available out of the entire library. The Disneyland/Wonderful World of Color show is non-existent as are countless classic Disney shows, specials and TV movies.

Isn’t most of the Disneyland/WDWWoC anthology series stuff available on YouTube?

I don’t understand it, but this must somehow be a strategic decision on Disney’s part.

 

[Chef Mickey]

I didn't even think his first half was that good, generally speaking. Those were the days of "Disney Parks" and letting the marketing department vomit on the monorail.

Nicely written.

 

[Chef Mickey]

I’m unaware he had a 6 year runway.

The day he walked into the job.


I’m not trying to take away from your other points, I just think your timelines are very wonky.

Doesn't look finished to me. You seem unaware that projects aren't set in stone when powerful, influential people want to change them, particularly when the company isn't poor. A lot of this is clearing and prep work that can be tweaked. I don't have an issue with them making changes. They just sucked. This isn't a nuclear reactor. Changes can be made.

I work at a company much bigger than Disney and you wouldn't believe what was changed when the new leadership took over. Disney is incompetent, but they aren't without resources to make changes on the fly to terrible ideas. This company and its incompetent leaders flushed $200M+ on the Acolyte and more on other content due to incompetence. You think cancelling that show was a "change of plans" but the wrong kind?

They can do anything. Josh just didn't have a good idea or thought this was fine.

Again, I see what's happened. Acting like he had nothing to do with what's been going on since 2020 is a joke. I walk in the picture day and say, yeah, we're not doing this.

You also aren't addressing the operational stuff and pricing decisions that can instantly be changed. Park hours, CM quality, training, food, etc are all worse than 10 years ago.

 

[Stripes]

Doesn't look finished to me. You seem unaware that projects aren't set in stone when powerful people want to change them. A lot of this is clearing and prep wprk that can be tweaked. This isn't a a nuclear reactor.

Yeah, but his predecessor was literally the CEO…

“Oh hey, boss man! You know that project you directed, supervised, and approved, it sucks and I want to change it! What do you say?”

Knowing how sensitive Chapek was to criticism, that wouldn’t have gone over well.

 

[Chef Mickey]

Yeah, but his predecessor was literally the CEO…

“Oh hey, boss man! You know that project you directed, supervised, and approved, it sucks and I want to change it! What do you say?”

Knowing how sensitive Chapek was to criticism, that wouldn’t have gone over well.

Do you work at an extremely large company? CEO is in charge, but there are MANY "Boss mans" with immense power to manage UP to the CEO, who doesn't have time to make every decision.

I'm waiting on the price cut announcement from Josh, now that he should be able to make that decision.

All y'all are saying is Josh is a pushover with no clout and blame Iger for every bad decision. I'm blaming Josh and think he's a bad pick.

 

[_caleb]

All y'all are saying is Josh is a pushover with no clout and blame Iger for every bad decision. I'm blaming Josh and think he's a bad pick.

Why cast it in extremes like this?

It isn't EITHER "Josh was a puppet/figurehead with no influence whatsoever" OR "Josh forced everyone to do exactly what he wanted with no input or limitations from anyone else." There are a thousand degrees of in-between that are far more likely to represent the realities.

This is true of Walt Disney, Michael Eisner, Bob Iger, Tony Baxter, Joe Rohde, Kathleen Kennedy, and heck, even Bob Chapek! It's easy to lionize and vilify from the cheap seats, and these folks all certainly knew what they were signing up for, so no pity from me.

But it seems a little more realistic (and conducive to the conversation) to acknowledge the complexities of leadership in a massive company like Disney.

 

[Stripes]

Park hours,

January 2016

https://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours/jan16.cfm

January 2026

A FULL List of Disney World Park Hours for January 2026 | the disney food blog

UPDATED February 1, 2026 Aaaah, Disney World in JANUARY! The New Year delivers some of the year’s coolest weather to Central Florida and welcomes EPCOT’s first Festival of the calendar year……

www.disneyfoodblog.com

CM quality,

Subjective and unquantifiable. Not to mention, most Cast Members are union. With over 80,000 CMs, you’re talking about the population of an entire suburb. I have no idea how you’ve come to the conclusion that CM quality is down from 10 years ago. Even if your subjective experience tells you so, all humans are prone to rosy retrospection bias.

training

You work at Disney? How would you know?

food

Depends on where you go, IMO. Some places have gone up (or serve great food and the restaurant didn’t even exist 10 years ago), and others have gone down. Overall, I’d actually say quality has stayed about the same, even a little better in certain categories.

I'm waiting on the price cut announcement from Josh, now that he should be able to make that decision.

Demand for Disney’s parks and resorts was quite clearly inelastic 10 years ago and even today they have significant pricing power.

But there’s an entire thread about all the deals available this year to attract more domestic visitors in order to offset the decline in international visitation to the United States.

You’re just upset Disney found a fantastic executive from inside the company, and for you an insider is bad news because you want all the heads to roll. It’s a pretty myopic and foolish perspective, in my opinion. And, frankly, I think your take is going to age very poorly.

 

[brb1006]

That was WAY back when, lol. I checked it for classic movies at that time and couldn't find any, so we let our subscription go. Thanks for responding.

They added two Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons and added a few older Disney Animated Shorts in high quality during the Disney's 100th Anniversary (notably a couple Silly Symphony shorts and two Figaro cartoons).