Amen, posts like these make me appreciate this community, not the ones that try to detract Disney over finances with incoherent arguments. It’s not that bad here but reading the wdwnt comments as a guilty pleasure, my goodness they make no sense are only there to rant I swear. The first page made me scared this was going to turn into that.
Anywho this is why I hibernate after every trip from this site, reading this day to day and then actually being there makes me realize “ok now what. Going back is as if your trip wasn’t good enough, and also makes you miss it even more”
I mean, there are some things that are obviously due to finances - but that's glaringly obvious to me. Yes, Disney is a business and if Walt were still alive, I guarantee one of his Top 3 priorities would be making money. And I think we see so much handwringing over changes that WE perceive as earth-shattering because this is a Disney message board (or WDWNT is a Disney blog) and we care deeply about more of these memories than the general public or the casual fan. We care enough to create an account, read this board daily and participate in discussions ...
But not EVERYTHING is financially motivated. With the labor force in Orlando being so slim on bodies to fill available full-time positions (just look at the job postings on the Disney jobs site - they're offering signing bonuses for many positions ... bus drivers, housekeeping, even all manner of back-house positions in dining), it's definitely an employment climate that favors the individual over the company. And with Disney not yet willing to offer a more competitive wage over minimum to attract new hires, they're forced to rely more on "rotational" staffing - College Program, Seasonal Hires, etc. And it just makes it very difficult to keep staffing at a consistent, optimum level when a large portion of your workforce changes over entirely every nine months or so.
And even on top of that, Disney still wants that workforce to provide the highest level of service - so, that involves lengthy training periods and the ability to pass "tests" to be approved into positions. Just like not every student passes a class, not every employee passes the required evaluation to fill the position they are hired for.
One of my most favorite bartenders - she works at Yacht Club - was granted a transfer to the Polynesian back in January. Even though she was going to be doing almost all of her hours exclusively at the pool bar or Tambu Lounge, she was required (like all bartenders at the Polynesian) to train out at every available bartending position available at the Polynesian, in the event that she needed to cover a shift, so that included passing a "animation" exam at Trader Sam's. Unfortunately, while guest service is definitely her strongest suit (along with making OUTSTANDING drinks), her ability to "animate" up to the standards required to pass training at Trader Sam's was not good enough. So even though the likelihood of her ever working a single hour at Trader Sam's was slim-to-none, she didn't pass Poly training and is back at the Yacht Club. And after talking to her again in April, and talking to other bartenders and servers I've made friends with, this happens WAY more often than people would think. Selfishly, I'm happy she's back at YC because that where I always stay and hang out, but I know she wanted to work at Poly more than anything and would've been a wonderful addition to their staff.
Another server at Disney Springs that I've become friends with wants nothing more than to work in a position that allows him a chance to make "memorable moments" for guests - any kind of pixie dust he can create. Right now, the easiest way for him to get to a restaurant position like that is to spend another bid season cocktail waiting at Disney Springs to earn status/seniority so he can transfer to a resort restaurant - but even then, some of the restaurants require either special training OR are not available to be bid as a full-time employee.
Now, I have no insider knowledge if any of these reasons could be behind the change at WCC - but having worked at Disney in the past myself, having so many friends that still work at Disney now and making so many new friends across different areas at WDW, it really helps to look at all sides of the picture.
Personally, I think Walt would want guest-facing things to be done to almost absolute perfection or not done at all - I think he'd rather have the shenanigans at WCC canceled entirely than to have guests not all get the same magical experience 100-percent consistently across the board. It definitely sounds like the guest experience at WCC recently definitely fell into the realm of "Bad Show" for a lot of people.