Losing a Bit of Magic
My wife and I went on our honeymoon to Walt Disney World just over 12 years ago. Thinking back on it now, I’m still not entirely sure what inspired us to land upon this location. At the time, I’d visited Disneyland just once (when I was a little boy who wanted to be a big boy, circa age 5), and Walt Disney World twice, including a high-school class trip. We didn’t live near Orlando, and we weren’t big parks people. We loved Disney movies, of course. No matter: we visited for a week and a half on our honeymoon.
I remember being pretty well blown away on that trip. I couldn’t help but wonder how the living, breathing ecosystem of the parks had to function so precisely and carefully at every turn, in ways I couldn’t even imagine. Being a guest meant I only saw a sliver of that ecosystem — the Cast Members who appeared on the front lines, whether they were performers or custodial staff or restaurant workers. But I just kept imagining how quickly that ecosystem could split apart if a wrong move was made, if one Cast Member pushed the wrong button on a ride operating system, etc.
I’m thinking again about that ecosystem because of the news last night — well, let’s be honest, it’s the culmination of news from the last couple months — regarding Equity Cast Members being informed they were being laid off.
These are the performers from shows like the Festival of the Lion King, Finding Nemo—The Musical, and others at Walt Disney World. These are the layoffs that likely have a maximum impact on guests, because this is evidence of the ecosystem splitting apart in ways we can detect. It’s easy to quantify the loss of a show we like, much easier than it is to understand or fully grasp the ripple effects these losses will have to those behind the scenes. (The performers in these shows were enormously talented, true. But what will happen, or what has already happened, to the Cast Members who made costumes, or did makeup, or worked on lighting and sound, and on and on?)
My vantage point, like that of anyone who doesn’t work at Disney, is limited. I can only see that many thousands of good, hardworking people are losing their jobs at what is perhaps literally the worst time. Leave aside the election — just for a second. These are people from the vast spectrum of life being laid off for the cardinal sin of…living during the middle of a pandemic, trying to scrape on by. I can only wonder what decisions have been made, or are being proposed.
It is, though, awfully hard not to see this as craven and intensely frustrating. We’re months removed from when Disney’s executives got their high salaries and pay cuts reinstated, the kind of decision that’s awfully head-scratching when you consider the pittance Cast Members on the other side of this make. The reinstatement of pay cuts came a ways before the big announcement of 28,000 Cast Members being laid off — and this recent story is, I believe (though I could be wrong), part of that 28,000.
But the optics are quite terrible, especially since it’s one gutting thing to see Disneyland Cast Members lose their jobs. Right? Disneyland’s closed. We can talk all day until our faces turn Na’Vi blue about who’s to blame there. But the parks are closed. Laying off those Cast Members is cruel but ever-so-slightly (if equally cruelly) understandable. But you can visit Walt Disney World right now. It’s open. Laying off Cast Members on the East Coast is both maddening and a touch confusing.
Anyway. It’s a horrible time, and my heart is with all of those who have lost their jobs at this precarious moment. I encourage the rest of you to visit the link below and donate (if you can). Tom and Sarah over at the Disney Tourist Blog have helped organize these funds and it’s the least we can do to donate.
