The Biggest Problems Disney Faces in 2022
The holidays have arrived at Disney theme parks, which means a new calendar year is right around the corner.
Disney officials have overcome many seemingly impossible challenges during the pandemic. However, the company still faces an uphill battle in some regards.
Here are five of the biggest problems that Disney faces in the new year, along with some suggestions on addressing them.
Imagineering Turnover
2021 started with Joe Rohde retiring from The Walt Disney Company. Often, when you hear that someone is retiring, you think they’re done with work.
Photo: MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images
Rohde found a new job within months. He’s now plotting the future of luxury space travel. It’s a dream job, but he didn’t leave Disney for it.
Rohde believed that his time had ended at the company he loved. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one, either.
Disney announced that it expected the overwhelming majority of Walt Disney Imagineering employees to move from California to Florida.
When a company does this, it doesn’t genuinely expect most employees to do it. I mean, you may love your job, but would you move 2,500 miles for it?
For whatever reason, Disney wanted a changing of the guard, complete with new leadership at the top. So Bob Weis just accepted a new ambassador role.
Barbara Bouza is now the head of Imagineering, a stunning change given that she has only worked at Disney for 18 months.
Photo: edensdealmakers.com
Disney wants new blood in Imagineering. The belief is that hosting everyone in the same building in Lake Nona, Florida, will help them plot the future.
I suggest that Disney does everything it can in 2022 to avoid negative headlines about Imagineering. It’s the most historically significant part of the company.
Image Credit: Marvel
The last time Disney disrupted Imagineering too much, Walt Disney’s nephew all but disavowed the company. We don’t want history repeating itself.
Pricing Perception
For whatever reason, Disney works as a colossal target for its critics. Moreover, the company’s revered pop culture status breeds cynicism from outsiders.
Disney vacations have undeniably gone up in price during the past calendar year.
Disgruntled fans point out that annual passes, when available, cost more than they previously had. Even worse, they come with fewer benefits.
Credit: Disney
Park admission has also increased, although not as much as some of the other stuff we’ll mention.
Instead, Disney has increased its park revenue by switching from the free FastPass system to the paid Disney Genie+/Lightning Lane setup.
Also, many after-hours events cost more than they did two years ago. This is because Disney sells fewer tickets at a higher price as a crowd control tactic.
Finally, Disney has ended Magical Express, which will vanish forever in a matter of days…unless park officials reconsider later.
We still don’t know whether Disney will face any sort of attendance backlash over this decision. I doubt it will, but critics believe otherwise.
In totality, all these complaints add up to a bunch of irritated Disney fans. They feel that the cost of a Disney vacation has grown too high.
Disney’s attendance rates don’t support this argument, but that’s not the point. Unfortunately, some people feel this way.
As a solution, I would strongly suggest that Disney bring back some cost-saving measures in 2022. The Disney Dining Plan should lead this list.
(Matt Stroshane, photographer)
PR Problems
Some criticisms prove temporary, while others go down in Disney lore. It’s too early to say where Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will fall.
However, as I type this, credible sites that usually cut Disney substantial leeway have gotten into the act here.
The reality is that the Star Wars Hotel matters to people. So, the company needs to get this one right.
Disney’s already gone through this recently. When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened, attendance didn’t match people’s unrealistic expectations for it.
Somehow, Disney took the blame for that, which was patently absurd. Stuff like that sometimes happens in the social media era, though.
For the past few years, Disney has promised an immersive experience unlike any other. But then, it showed a video that…didn’t dazzle anyone.
Photo: Matt Stroshane
That’s the latest in a recent series of unforced errors that the company has made.
In 2021, the most notable one was the public escalation of words between Disney executives and Scarlett Johansson.
Source: @theblackwidow
Disney’s PR wizard, Zenia Mucha, washed her hands of that one. Now, she’s retiring alongside her buddy, Bob Iger.
The new PR team at Disney must learn how to control a media cycle in our 24/7 society where something negative could trend at a moment’s notice.
Image Credit: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC
My suggestion here is to avoid fights whenever possible. Disney took a massive PR hit because of a few million dollars in the ScarJo battle.
That’s couch cushion change to a company worth $300 billion.
Bob Chapek’s Popularity
Bob Chapek’s PopularityThe prior conversations all spill into this one. Some people really dislike Bob Chapek.
I find most criticisms of him vastly overblown for an obvious reason. Bob Iger effectively abandoned his post at the start of the pandemic.
Iger suddenly promoted himself to Executive Chairman and assigned Chapek the unenviable task of CEO just as the world collapsed.
Realistically, Chapek has performed beyond anyone’s best realistic expectations in this job. He has secured the company at a time when Disney could have collapsed.
Photo: Marc Piasecki/Getty Images
I’m not speaking hyperbolically here. Disney lost virtually all of its expected income from theme parks, cruises, and movies.
To Iger’s credit, he had anticipated the company’s future and started Disney+ a few months before the pandemic.
Photo: Chesnot/Getty Images
If not for that, the company’s 2020 and 2021 would have been bleak.
Still, Chapek used his wits to uncover several ways to generate revenue during impossible circumstances.
Photo: Getty Images
For his troubles, Chapek has faced an uphill climb with his popularity. People blame him for all the price increases Iger had set in motion.
Iger had famously considered a Presidential run in 2020, and this turn of events demonstrates his political acumen.
Photo: MasterClass
Chapek looks like a fall guy even though he’s done more than his fair share to save Disney. People don’t like him for reasons that should earn him gratitude.
The course of action here is to engage on a positivity tour where some Disney executives stress what Chapek has done for the company.
Photo: Disney
This step doesn’t need to happen all at once. After all, people barely knew Iger’s name during his first several years in office.
People respect winners. So, Chapek’s best play is to win…and have his cohorts talk him up in the process.
Photo: Matt Stroshane/Courtesy Disney Parks
Overwhelmed Cast Members
Oof. I try hard not to dwell on the negative, but some of the stories I’ve heard make me weep for humanity.
You’ve heard the phrase “a few bad apples….” Unfortunately, that’s the life of a cast member over the past 18 months.
Disney has faced understaffing issues due to layoffs early in the pandemic combined with The Great Resignation.
The lack of extra hands has added secondary stress to park and customer service workers.
These cast members find themselves on the front line against disgruntled customers. It’s…a lot.
Some (admittedly questionable) reports suggest that complaint messages to Disney have stockpiled due to the staffing crunch.
A few guests aren’t receiving the same level of customer support they’ve always had with Disney.
Photo: Disney
Sure, the cause is the pandemic, but it still makes people cranky. In return, they behave less reasonably with the cast members trying to help.
This vicious circle will likely diminish in 2022, but it’s undeniably a problem for now.
Photo: Walt Disney World Cast and Community
The solution here is simple. Disney must hire new workers and pay them a wage that persuades them to stay long-term.
Hopefully, decades from now, we’ll hear about countless cast members who joined Disney in 2020-2022 and spent the body of their careers here.
Experience breeds excellence. Disney knows this and should emphasize it as the hiring goal in the new year.
