I'll be there in December as well and I did the show once way back when, but have been wanting to do it again. Fingers crossed things are back to mostly normal by December
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Hoop Dee Doo?
- Thread starter MEyeSeeKayEY
- Start date
DoleWhipDrea
Well-Known Member
Oh so HE'S the one that came up with that garbage?
It irks me every time I see that happening in the parks.
MadTeacup
Well-Known Member
Merchantainment was a BIG thing under Phil. He never saw value in having entertainment in the parks. Like SO many higher-ups, he saw entertainment as a money pit with no real return on investment. If he could hack away at the entertainment offerings in a park, he would and he did. He did a lot of damage to the parks during his tenure and the announcement of his retirement was one of the only positive things to come of 2020.
Zummi Gummi
Pioneering the Universe Within!
Has anyone heard an update on this?
Update: Phil Holmes still isn't liked
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Was he ever?
MadTeacup
Well-Known Member
Union agreements have resulted in a delay in bringing the restaurant staff back to work. Entertainment is ready to come back, but there wouldn't be enough staff to serve food. Hoop is on hold for the time being.
Zummi Gummi
Pioneering the Universe Within!
Any idea on a timeline for that situation to resolve itself? Are we talking summer? Fall? Beyond?
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MadTeacup
Well-Known Member
Nope. Disney seems to be picking and choosing which union agreements they want to honor and some of those agreements have made it difficult to reopen certain offerings and venues. In this case I believe that many or most of the servers at Hoop De Doo are part-time. None of them can be called back until ALL full-time servers are called back from furlough. Then from there they still have to go by seniority of part-timers. This has created lots of issues with entertainment technicians, which is one of the reasons (just one) why more shows have not opened yet - All the younger technicians who know how to operate and maintain the technology are the ones who aren't back yet.
val002
Member
All full time, and over half of all part time, servers have been recalled.
MadTeacup
Well-Known Member
Then I'm not sure what they're waiting for. I only know that they were gearing up to reopen and Entertainment was notified that it was put on hold due to restaurant staffing issues. Perhaps it's another area of operations that is the struggle.
castlecake2.0
Well-Known Member
It could just be having to shuffle everyone around so much to get them to their home location. A lot of the restaurants in world showcase are using displaced servers from other places and I can see it being messy right now in regards to whether they wait it out till they can hire CRPs back for those venues or hire externally. For example Le Cellier has servers from hoop, akershus, Ohana, citricos, and Sebastian’s, if they all get recalled to their homes, do you hire externally to fill those spots or do you just wait a couple more months to hire CRPs to fill in those spots. It really is a messy process.
DznyGrlSD
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Isn't (wasn't) Hoop THE MOST tenured wait staff on property? Where'd they all go? Elsewhere? With guaranteed tips I'm shocked this is an issue.
Zummi Gummi
Pioneering the Universe Within!
It was always assumed to be, because of what a sweet gig it was. I’m curious about this, too. Maybe many of them simply retired?
CastAStone
5th gate? Just build a new resort Bob.
Disney has had food and beverage job postings up for like a month at this point. They need bodies. Are there really still F&B awaiting recall? Others had posted on these boards that Disney had recalled everyone back in April. Losing all their international workers at Epcot has created a massive hole even if everyone came back, and according to public statements by the company, 20% of workers have told Disney no they’re not coming back
My understanding, is even with all restaurant staff recalled, they don't have adequate restaurant staffing. Chapek recently did a glass half-full statement, about 80% of recalled workers returned!
But 20% failing to return is HUGE. And supposedly the labor market is EXTREMELY tight.
I've heard that's why Patina is delaying opening Space 220 -- They know it would be nearly impossible to get enough staff for a "new" restaurant opening in this environment.
Just look around at dining reservation availability: There is MORE than enough demand to justify opening every restaurant at WDW, yet many restaurants still don't have re-opening dates.
Best guess: Hoop De Doo recalled restaurant staff were re-assigned to other dining venues.
Or re-located during the pandemic. Or changed professions, or took other jobs.
EeyoreFan#24
Well-Known Member
Do we know if the recall was filled with operational changes that may have unsweetened the gig. Can they even do that?
zakattack99
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
I don't think the recall was area specific, only that they would put them back/get first dibs on the area they where laid off from when that area began to reopen. The problem is that 20% of people in Food and beverage did not come back. 20% does not sound too bad but when you operate at the scale Disney does its pretty significant. I don't have real numbers but lets just say my quick Google search is accurate and WDW employs 77,000 people, again for argument sake lets assume 30,000 of those people work in Food and Beverage. All 30,000 lost their jobs last year. They have since all been asked back 20% or 6,000 people chose not to return. Now management has to decide where they put those people that did come back. Should they put them at Hoop or do they staff the popcorn cart at MK? A QS at AK, TS at HS or the bar at the resorts that are open. You can see how Hoop falls down the list quickly. However as I said these are just spit ball uneducated guess numbers but if more people work Food and Bev the problem gets worse, less the problem gets slightly better but no matter how it shakes out you need more people to fill these roles.
Regardless we have a trip end of Aug, would love to spend an evening at Hoop-dee-doo. Was starting to be optimistic when I heard the cast was recalled but if these staffing issues don't resolve soon, we may not be visiting Pioneer Hall till next year unfortunately.