Kevin Rafferty out in April 2021

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Nobody is upset with anyone for choosing to retire.

That’s two park vp’s, and two high level imagineers since August. That’s in addition the large number of layoffs in the parks and Imagineering.

It’s even more telling that he and Joe are retiring together.

Exactly. Significant defections from Disney are indicative of a corporate direction. It’s rare multiple high paid people become “tired of Disney” at the same time.

Also Michael Colglazier who went to be CEO of a company that takes guests into space Virgin Galactic and Phillipe Gas who went to be CEO of the billion dollar venture sports, entertainment , leisure lands in Saudi Arabia financed by Prince bin-Salam. Not retiring but moving on.

....that may be more damning

 

[VJ]

Steve’s beloved by me! But when was the last project he’s had in Florida? Festival of Fantasy right?

Did he do Magic Happens in California?

It's not listed under him, but I think he oversees everything.

His last was Dreaming up supposedly in Tokyo.

I think his latest project will be Harmonious. Before that, Dreaming Up.

You can hear him talk briefly about Harmonious here:

 

[rreading]

I think his latest project will be Harmonious. Before that, Dreaming Up.

You can hear him talk briefly about Harmonious here:

I liked him a lot more before he put all the garbage all over WS lagoon. Hoping that the fountains are running constantly adding to the lagoon ambiance rather than just looking like a construction site

 

[tirian]

Steve’s beloved by me! But when was the last project he’s had in Florida? Festival of Fantasy right?

Did he do Magic Happens in California?

Quick tangent: My gosh, I hate Magic Happens. It’s an ugly parade whose only bright spot is seeing some rare characters who used to be common in the parks before Disney based all decisions on toy sales. Make a better parade and put the rare characters into that.

And now Epcot is proud to present Harmonious, a dumbed-down celebration of Disney movies that loosely tie into the pavilions—because somehow it makes sense to chase affluent, educated, big spenders yet dumb down the entire resort for preschoolers.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Quick tangent: My gosh, I hate Magic Happens. It’s an ugly parade whose only bright spot is seeing some rare characters who used to be common in the parks before Disney based all decisions on toy sales. Make a better parade and put the rare characters into that.

And now Epcot is proud to present Harmonious, a dumbed-down celebration of Disney movies that loosely tie into the pavilions—because somehow it makes sense to chase affluent, educated, big spenders yet dumb down the entire resort for preschoolers.

I didn’t see Magic Happens so I can’t comment.... is Steve still part of Harmonous? I thought I heard he wasn’t but it’s hard to know for sure what’s going on.

Also do we know that Steve designed Magic Happens?

 

[Magicart87]

This is EXACTLY what’s going down

Until Universal doubles down and puts Disney on the defensive. But that's still a good 5 years out.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Until Universal doubles down and puts Disney on the defensive. But that's still a good 5 years out.

They may try...Comcast has benefitted from this period more than most non-pure tech companies...

Comcast is a great friend to the Disney park fans...in truth

 

[peter11435]

I think what these veteran imagineer retirements actually signal for us is that the company is not expecting to invest in large projects in the next few years. Who else is left at this point? Just Tom Fitzgerald, but he is in the middle of the Epcot project so I would expect him to stick around until at least that project is complete.

Important to point out that Kevin’s retirement was already well known and planned before Covid

 

[brb1006]

Quick tangent: My gosh, I hate Magic Happens. It’s an ugly parade whose only bright spot is seeing some rare characters who used to be common in the parks before Disney based all decisions on toy sales. Make a better parade and put the rare characters into that.

And now Epcot is proud to present Harmonious, a dumbed-down celebration of Disney movies that loosely tie into the pavilions—because somehow it makes sense to chase affluent, educated, big spenders yet dumb down the entire resort for preschoolers.

And by rare characters, it's Merlin and recently Wart/King Arthur.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Important to point out that Kevin’s retirement was already well known and planned before Covid

When the announcement went out the other day I had to check the date on the article - I was sure it had been announced already.

 

[JohnD]

Quick tangent: My gosh, I hate Magic Happens.

Well, **it happens.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Yep, he said something to the effect of this during an episode of DisInsider on Disney + that is at least what I remember. He could of said it elsewhere.

That’s where he said it.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

because somehow it makes sense to chase affluent, educated, big spenders yet dumb down the entire resort for preschoolers.

Ain’t that the truth.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

because somehow it makes sense to chase affluent, educated, big spenders yet dumb down the entire resort for preschoolers.

Based on what you see in the parks and hotels I think it's safer to say Disney's chasing after people with questionably high credit card limits who've never been to Europe, because people with real money and travel experience don't have any interest in WDW.

 

[Tamandua]

I met rafferty at an event around the time cars land opened. They had him signing autographs at the Glendale campus for a D23 event. He couldn't possibly have been less happy to be there and it really stuck in my mind how unpleasant he was. He's got an impressive resume but they should never have put him out with the public.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I met rafferty at an event around the time cars land opened. They had him signing autographs at the Glendale campus for a D23 event. He couldn't possibly have been less happy to be there and it really stuck in my mind how unpleasant he was. He's got an impressive resume but they should never have put him out with the public.

Interesting. Maybe that’s why I’ve never seen him at events? He’s one of the few I’ve never met or seen speak at an event.

 

[JJJ]

Exactly. Significant defections from Disney are indicative of a corporate direction. It’s rare multiple high paid people become “tired of Disney” at the same time.


....that may be more damning

I'm not sure about this first point. Joe Rohde, Kevin Rafferty, they're both of retirement age. With Disney pushing project timelines out because of the pandemic, it seems like now would be as good a time as any to retire. Same with the park VPs.

Maybe you're right about the other execs moving on, but a less cynical reading would be they felt career progression at Disney was starting to slow down for them and decided to take a higher-up, possibly more lucrative position at other companies.

I mean, you could totally be right about the first point too, but it's possible that now's just a good time to retire.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I'm not sure about this first point. Joe Rohde, Kevin Rafferty, they're both of retirement age. With Disney pushing project timelines out because of the pandemic, it seems like now would be as good a time as any to retire. Same with the park VPs.

Maybe you're right about the other execs moving on, but a less cynical reading would be they felt career progression at Disney was starting to slow down for them and decided to take a higher-up, possibly more lucrative position at other companies.

I mean, you could totally be right about the first point too, but it's possible that now's just a good time to retire.

I agree with you...
...and as a consumer, it’s the worst case scenario.

 

[Lilofan]

I met rafferty at an event around the time cars land opened. They had him signing autographs at the Glendale campus for a D23 event. He couldn't possibly have been less happy to be there and it really stuck in my mind how unpleasant he was. He's got an impressive resume but they should never have put him out with the public.

Six figure salary, maybe seven with his annual bonus? It comes with the territory. Does one think that the cast members are always displaying that natural smile? Its called the customer service industry. Smile.

 

[tirian]

Six figure salary, maybe seven with his annual bonus? It comes with the territory. Does one think that the cast members are always displaying that natural smile? Its called the customer service industry. Smile.

Barbie in TS2: “My cheeks are killing me!”