food IS a theme park
Layoffs have hit Disney once again.
©Disney
On Wednesday, July 31st, Disney announced a massive round of layoffs. The cuts will affect roughly 140 employees – – or 2% of the company’s workforce – – across the television division according to Variety.
Disney parks are changing in a major way and more updates are on the horizon.
Magic Kingdom
The DisneylandForward project has officially been approved and will bring a $1.9 billion expansion to Disneyland Resort. The first permits have been filed for Disney World’s massive Animal Kingdom expansion, and Magic Kingdom’s Beyond Big Thunder overhaul will breathe new life into the original Florida park. Bob Iger has a new plan for Disney parks, and we happen to be pretty excited about it.
Bob Iger has been very busy since taking over as CEO of The Walt Disney Company for the second time in 2022.
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Since then, he’s announced his #1 priority for the company (streaming), as well as announced some future movie and Disney Parks projects (which will invest $60 billion in the parks over the next ten years). He even announced a mega sports streaming service that would bring sports content from ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Now, Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, are teaming up to purchase a professional soccer team.
Since Disney CEO Bob Iger returned to the company in 2022, he knew he had some incredibly important tasks to check off his To-Do List.
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But, there’s one task that might prove to be the most integral to the future of Disney — choosing a successor to replace him once his contract expires. Though his contract has already been extended once since his return, it’s set to expire in 2026. Rumblings of who’s on Iger’s shortlist to replace him have been swirling for a while, and it’s possible we could get an announcement sooner than we originally thought.
So how do we feel about changes at Disney World?
Magic Kingdom
There are all kinds of changes we could talk about — new rides, hotels, and restaurants just to name a few. All that being said, if we look at two sources (historical data and recent comments made by Disney CEO Bob Iger) you’re going to want to brace yourself for two big changes that are most definitely going to come to the restaurants sooner than you thought — Increased Prices and More IP-based restaurants. Yep, it’s going to happen. Let’s talk about it!
If you were following Disney news a few weeks and months ago, then you probably watched the company’s proxy battle unfold.
The Walt Disney Company headquarters in California
For many months, we watched activist investor Nelson Peltz and his Trian Partners attempt to secure a spot on The Walt Disney Company board. It all culminated in a very important vote during Disney’s annual shareholders meeting, and Peltz ultimately lost the election. But now, we have one major update on the situation.
There sure are a lot of changes happening around Disney World and the other Disney parks, right?
Magic Kingdom
About that, we’ve seen so many construction projects across all of the parks in their various stages, and that all has us wonder what your thoughts were on all of it. To that point, you shared all of your thoughts on how you truly feel about Disney’s expansion plans!
Disney World might be in for a bit of a rough year by the time 2025 rolls around.
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Sure, the EPCOT Transformation will be complete by then and we may even know more about the theme park expansions Disney has planned. But, Universal’s Epic Universe is opening in 2025 and the hype has already been building for quite a while now. Disney has been criticized for not responding to Epic Universe in any significant way, but recent comments from CEO Bob Iger promise that Disney isn’t worried.
Bob Iger just dropped a TON of information on Disney’s recent past and the company’s immediate future.
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Iger, the two-time CEO of Disney who had the position from 2005 to 2020 before retiring and anointing Bob Chapek as his successor only to return to the role in 2022 after Chapek was ousted, recently participated in a Q&A session at the MoffettNathanson Media, Internet & Communications Conference.
We’re about to learn a lot about the plans The Walt Disney Company has for the near future!
Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom
Disney CEO Bob Iger is set to speak at the SVB MoffettNathanson Technology, Media & Telecom Conference and we imagine he’ll be bringing updates on everything from Disney+ to the Disney Cruise Line. Let’s go over a few of the announcements we think he’s going to drop at the conference!
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