@SuddenStorm I broadly agree with your points. However, I do have thoughts on a few of them:
Disney has made it a habit to reduce the guest experience since covid, all while raising prices.
To be honest, this is not a Disney problem, this is basically an industry-wide problem. Universal is the exception here, and clearly it has paid dividends for them. They are to be commended for their handling of everything thrown at them in 2020. But go to pretty much anywhere that
isn't a Universal park and it's the same situation as Disney-or, as is often the case, worse.
Fastpass, a once free perk? That's gonna be an extra $30 per person if you don't want to wait in artificially inflated wait times.
Obviously I would prefer that we were still in the days of free, paper FP, but the industry has basically abandoned free line-skipping systems. I would prefer we went back to free FP, but that's probably not going to happen. If that's not going to change, than we need to look at what will make G+ more functional, which relates to pricing. The big miss with Disney's strategy is that they have decided to try and price it low enough so that everyone buys it, which causes all sorts of issues. If they're going to keep upcharge FP, they need to
dramatically raise the prices-a la every other park-so that it is cost-prohibitive for most guests, which would allow the standby queues to actually move clower to how they're supposed to and get more guests off of midways. They
do need to fix Genie, and sooner rather than later. I just don't imagine there's a universe where they don't accomplish that without pricing most people out.
And don't even bother trying to order food at the register. They'll only have one open, and the line will be backed up. You have to download their app and schedule a time to get food. That also costs the most it ever has, all while the portion sizes continue to shrink. Thanks Christine!
Again, this is an industry wide issue and Disney is not the only one doing this. As said, Universal is doing this, but so too are Six Flags and Cedar Fair. Food prices are up and quality is down industry-wide. That said, I actually have to commend Disneyland's food service right now. It is comparably priced to other parks and considerably
better quality with more interesting options than pretty much any other park (or set of parks) than I can think of.
Next time you see him, inquire about this please.
Many workers at the profitable theme park say they are underpaid, struggling to pay rent and even buy food as they await a new contract: “It’s a constant battle, tearing at us mentally.”
www.hollywoodreporter.com
This is heartbreaking, but I was under the impression that things were pretty similar for many people working at Disneyland as well. I don't know that we can uniquely pin this on Universal.
If everyone stayed at their highschool job they would also be having a cost of living crisis.
I do feel bad for anyone in a bad situation but minimum wage jobs don't cut it for living in Southern California. Whether they did in the 50s or 60s is irrelevant. People should better themselves with school or training to put themselves in better living situations.
Frontline themepark employee hasn't been a way to support oneself in a very long time, and to me when I read these articles, be it Disney or Universal I always am lost on what the staying longtime employees expect.
Loyalty in employers is also no longer a thing, do they think the 10 years working the parking lot will lead to a corporate job? Sadly despite their hard work and longevity they will earn the same wage as a brand new hire.
I once worked at Six Flags, thankfully I didn't stick around and have any notion it would become a fruitful career.
I don't like empathy for them but I also feel these people are stuck and don't have to be.
People like to assume that theme park jobs are all for unskilled high schoolers, but 1) that primarily applied to smaller scale theme parks that were largely open summer or weekends only, and 2) even those parks don't have all that many high schoolers working there anymore. Kids are being pushed to think about how every single summer activity might make them stand out to a college or future career, and unfortunately, working at a theme park is not seen as something that will help them to do that. Most of the seasonal parks near me have shifted many of their employees to either adults or international workers.
But parks that are open year round (especially in the way Disney parks are operated) cannot run primarily on high schoolers or college students. The parks have to run when kids are in school, so this long-enduring stereotype that it's all high schoolers is not and has never been true (same for fast food workers-someone has to run the restaurant when the kids are at school, y'know?). If the parks are going to have enough staffing, and good staffing, it needs to be adults, and generally speaking, if adults are compensated well and treated well by guests and their employer, it's going to result in better service. So you can say you don't have empathy for them, but that's not going to result in a better experience for you or anyone else. You should want them to be well compensated, because service will be better if they are.
What is the solution?
We want dependable, responsible, and hardworking cast members and team members working in these high profit world class theme parks, and we complain when they are no longer like they used to be, and the service is not what it used to be. So what do you want? High schoolers who could care less and minimum wage is all they need when starting out, or a work force who is dedicated and passionate about your company, and who you treat fairly and pay well enough to at least get by in the community your theme park is located in? We need people to work these jobs, and it's a fact that cost of living has far outpaced wages.
It's very easy to say go to school, get a better paying job, but not everyone is going to be afforded the opportunity to get to post-secondary, and not everyone should need to. And even if you get through post-secondary, it's not like there are enough well paying jobs for everyone to have.
We need people working in theme parks, fast food, and numerous other similar industries. Regardless of the job, workers should be afforded enough to survive. It's not an unreasonable ask, especially when we are talking huge companies who can definitely afford to pay their workers more.
100%. It's amazing how many don't get this. There are only so many high tech, high paying jobs out there, and even people who did what their parents told them and got a college degree are often struggling to make ends meet in today's world. Many respectable, living class jobs (ex.: nursing, teaching, among others) don't pay the bills quite as effectively as they once did, and now many face far more debt than their predecessors would have. For a long, LONG time, most job growth has been in the service industry while other once reliable/profitable jobs or industries continue to contract or disappear.
You can't just dismiss an entire complex of employees with "eh, you don't deserve to make a livable wage because some 18 year old can do it" if those are some of the only ways that people can get work.
People are weirdly preoccupied with whether or not strangers are employed, but when people actually go out and get a job, then many of those same "get a job" people will just look for an excuse to look down on those workers so that they can deny them a living wage.
If the only job around and that will take them is service work, even if people have the education and credentials to do "more respectable work" on paper, than what are those people supposed to do?
