Many other posters have done a far better job then I can outlining the necessity and reality of current operations. For right now, the situation is what it is... with perhaps a few exceptions that might signal some future intent (...RoL, Dreamlights, parts of the Epcot plan, some entertainment decisions).
But as fast as 2020 is moving, it’s all any management team can do but try to stay on top of the situation and try to figure out what the rules are today... never mind what they think the rules might be tomorrow. Things are moving that fast, not just in hospitality but in every other sector with widespread supply and distribution challenges at the very least.
That being said, I’m sure it’s not lost on Disney or any other major company that this situation also could be seen as a once-in-a-business-lifetime opportunity to hit the reset button and rebuild certain things from scratch. For decades these boards and others have, perhaps rightly, accused Disney of ‘declining by degrees’ - trying to find small cuts that can be snuck in without drawing attention to themselves, while quietly working in the background to foster new streams of revenue. We have reacted loudly when one of those changes hits our personal magical place, but from a business perspective it’s been a textbook study across the board on how to successfully leverage brand loyalty while running a modern business empire.
Now, instead of declining by degrees, the opportunity presents itself - even necessitates - to build by degrees. Which means it’s just not ever going to be entirely the same, because you don’t build business the same way in 2020 that you did in 1972, and so much of WDW business was cruft kludged creatively (or not) on top of 1972. Instead of getting there the scenic route of small adaptations that we have grown accustomed to, we may find ourselves restored indirectly to the new reality of where the company wanted to be all along.
Many of us knew in mid-March that you can’t just ‘turn it off and back on again’... that the old way of doing many things just wouldn’t make business or practical sense in the modern era, even outside of the unique demands of Covid. The magnitude of difference between 2019 and 2022 WDW is a story yet to be written and I’m sure one that will feature dramatic twists and turns. Likely there will be some strong positives alongside the negatives, but I think a reality is that major change - reworking, and reimagining - is inevitable. In many ways, ‘you can’t go home again‘ from a situation like this, and now the challenge for Disney is to make some magic out of the opportunity. There’s enormous potential to get some critical things right, finally... along with enormous risk that they can’t find that all-important spark in quite the same way again.
But as fast as 2020 is moving, it’s all any management team can do but try to stay on top of the situation and try to figure out what the rules are today... never mind what they think the rules might be tomorrow. Things are moving that fast, not just in hospitality but in every other sector with widespread supply and distribution challenges at the very least.
That being said, I’m sure it’s not lost on Disney or any other major company that this situation also could be seen as a once-in-a-business-lifetime opportunity to hit the reset button and rebuild certain things from scratch. For decades these boards and others have, perhaps rightly, accused Disney of ‘declining by degrees’ - trying to find small cuts that can be snuck in without drawing attention to themselves, while quietly working in the background to foster new streams of revenue. We have reacted loudly when one of those changes hits our personal magical place, but from a business perspective it’s been a textbook study across the board on how to successfully leverage brand loyalty while running a modern business empire.
Now, instead of declining by degrees, the opportunity presents itself - even necessitates - to build by degrees. Which means it’s just not ever going to be entirely the same, because you don’t build business the same way in 2020 that you did in 1972, and so much of WDW business was cruft kludged creatively (or not) on top of 1972. Instead of getting there the scenic route of small adaptations that we have grown accustomed to, we may find ourselves restored indirectly to the new reality of where the company wanted to be all along.
Many of us knew in mid-March that you can’t just ‘turn it off and back on again’... that the old way of doing many things just wouldn’t make business or practical sense in the modern era, even outside of the unique demands of Covid. The magnitude of difference between 2019 and 2022 WDW is a story yet to be written and I’m sure one that will feature dramatic twists and turns. Likely there will be some strong positives alongside the negatives, but I think a reality is that major change - reworking, and reimagining - is inevitable. In many ways, ‘you can’t go home again‘ from a situation like this, and now the challenge for Disney is to make some magic out of the opportunity. There’s enormous potential to get some critical things right, finally... along with enormous risk that they can’t find that all-important spark in quite the same way again.
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