In just two days, The Laughing Stock Company and Pixar Philharmonic over at Disneyland Resort will be having their final performances due to extensive entertainment cutbacks throughout the resort. But it seems that cutbacks have also made it to Walt Disney World, starting at the Magic Kingdom.
The Royal Majesty Makers, featuring retired knight Sir Sterling, his clever niece Bridget, squire Tobias and the kind Lady Llewellyn, will be ending their performances in Fantasyland nearing the end of September if not the start of October.
Currently, the calendars for their performances only show times through September.
Another fan favorite scheduled to end is “The Muppets Present… Great Moments in American History” over in Liberty Square, with a similar lack of scheduling on the Entertainment calendar.
It is rumored that both these Entertainment offerings will be closing on October 6th, 2019, with presentations of the Move It! Shake It! Mousekedance It! Street Parade being scaled back to just two showings a day after entertainment cuts are implemented.
Other scheduled cuts include the end of Lightning McQueen’s Pit Crew over at Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
2018 was a big year for cuts in Disney Entertainment, and we’re definitely seeing a similar trend this year. The Red Car Trolley News Boys were canceled amid a wave of cutbacks and hiring freezes at the Disneyland Resort due to low summer crowds this July. Even Galaxy’s Edge opened with just a handful of characters, with frontline Cast Members essentially made to fill in for those roles by performing as “Batuuians” while also fulfilling their usual park ops duties.
Here at WDWNT, we’re huge fans of all the talented live performers and improv artists who help make each park experience a unique one, and regret the loss of these shows greatly.
When they jacked up our annual pass prices this year, they said that they were going give us “more magic.” Now they’re raising a bunch of restaurant prices, including character meals, on October 1st. I guess the attitude is that we’re seeing fewer cows… Better milk ’em harder.
Where do we find these price hikes? We are supposed to do chef Mickey’s and Ohana in December but $55($60) a person is pretty much all I can take.
That’s the magic. Higher prices are magically giving us less live entertainment experiences. They started pulling the “equity” performers several years ago from Epcot … starting with the very popular World Showcase Players and the Ziti Sisters. It’s very disappointing to see this trend continuing.
Add to that they are beginning to use stationary cameras at meet & greets instead of live photo pass photographers. Pay more, get less again. The personal experience with the photo pass photographers cannot be duplicated by a timed camera hiding in a bookcase.
No,no, no. They said, #NowMoreThanEver” That only referred to the cost: it cost more now than ever
Higher prices mean less people are buying. They should have left well enough alone.
This is such a shame. Entertainment is a far cry from what it used to be 10 years ago. I was skeptical of the Muppets in the magic Kingdom but they were truly fun and a definite favorite of my kids. Interesting their appearance did coincide with the reboot of the Muppet babies on Disney Jr. When will management hear us that entertainment makes the park?!! It was why I became a CM, because I had that first experience in a parade at the age of 5! More characters, more parades, less projections please!!!
I am crushed the Muppets show is being canceled before I get to see it in person. I am an 80s kid who grew up on Muppets and this was my #1 thing I was looking forward to for our MK day for our June 2020 trip. :-(. Spending a ton on this trip and hate seeing things I like being cut. Maybe we should just spend one less day at WDW and one more day at Universal.
You can still see Muppet*Vision 3-D at Studios …. for now.
John my family is going in June 2020 too. Any tips or ideas? With all these cuts is it worth going?
Maybe, just maybe the price increase saturation point has been met. It’s certainly not due to the economy. People are still buying but when a value point has been met, people will look elsewhere to fulfill their dreams and fantasies.
Amazing. Prices keep going up, but quality and what they have to offer is going down. All the things that make Disney magical are being eliminated.
This is genuinely unfortunate. This kind of stuff is what made disney world special…
Got to love bobby chapik hes a boy wonder.
What a shame. My highlight at Hollywood Studios was the improv comedy by Citizens of Hollwood and the Department of Public Works. Public Works is gone and the Citizens staff cut. I guess animatronics don’t get health insurance and vacation time so the human entertainment are victims of Bob Iger’s financial plan. This is a very sad trend.
When the Muppets were first added to the MK, I was skeptical – but I’ve come to appreciate them as one of the more creative additions in recent years.
I love Disney attractions, but the parades and shows are always the highlight of my day. With these cutbacks – and changing trolley to a single show routine instead of seasonal variations – we’re losing something truly special
I’m finishing a 5 day trip to DW, and didn’t watch one live show. I’m just not interested in live park theatre. I walked into the racecar show by mistake, and there were 20 people tops watching it. The employees beg guests to watch. I think DW is saturated with entertainment to the point that people just shrug and walk on by.
What is the true shame is what Brian mentions below. Prices continually rise, yet things go away.
A normal process for sure, but all the money spent on new lands (that seemingly not many want to go to or just don’t have shade in florida), the live entertainment should not be a consideration.
Disney never used to nickel and dime. Since Bob Iger, the NandD have been in FULL swing at the expense of a pricier ticket or a bill for parking your car.
Is the lack of the muppets show on the calendar really likely this will be cancelled? Wife and I moved here a year ago and have been contemplating buying a home because of our love of the parks, but for us the Muppets History Show is one of those deal breakers, in that it adds so much flavor to the americana of that section of the park it makes no conceivable sense to get rid of it. other than Chapek is a colossal moron.
This is heart breaking. Every year, my family and I searched out Lady Llewelyn. She has always been so special to us! I cannot believe she won’t be there anymore. The Cast Members and the Performers bring the true magic. I hope this is not true. If you see this, Lady Llewelyn….your Royal Reindeers love you and will miss you!!
Disney does this all the time. It is obvious that summer crowds were lighter so Disney always cuts back on entertainment in the parks. There are constant layoffs in the company that are never announced and reorganizations every year to save money. They didn’t get this big by being nice. They also cut hours for all the staff in the parks and people struggle to pay their rent. Once they do this, they don’t have enough people to staff the minimum and ask everyone to work a 6th or 7th day. It is crazy! I didn’t know the company was hurting so bad while acquiring multi-billion dollar companies that aren’t doing well that cutting the Muppets would fix everything.
Unbelievable. This is quickly becoming no longer the company I cherished. Bob Iger and Co are ripping the soul out of the company.
Random Person: Park attendance is down, how do we get people to come to the parks?
Disney: Offer less and charge more.
We will see how long they can get away with this before Universal opens its third park.
Hey, folks…a Big Shock here, but DISNEY IS A GREEDY BIG CORPORATION! Why care about their actual PRODUCT?!!
i think we should start a live entertainment protection program
Disney will not be winning people back to the parks if they keep cutting the LIVE entertainment. At this rate, if we didn’t already have a trip scheduled for January, we may not go again.
Hey, as long as Iger gets his gazillion a year that’s all that matters right?
Caroline, I think the thumbs-down you received were given for the lack of understanding that you were being sarcastic. I totally agree with your point… well said!
They should lower the gate prices & seasonal pass prices to encourage families to return to the park; lower the price of food at stands & restaurants, as well as lower the price of their merchandise. Also, chopping the higher ups personal salaries might be considered as well. This is ludicrous.
Everything you are suggesting means even more crowds for Guests and less money for the company. Who’s ludicrous?
If you check the Walt Disney World website, you will see that no live entertainment of any sort is scheduled after October 1st, including the Dapper Dan’s Citizens of Hollywood, etc. Which seems they have just not updated anything yet, rather than all of the entertainment been canceled property-wide. Let’s wait and see.
Entertainment cast has confirmed
Muppets Great Moments In History was the best show at MK. The puppeteers were extremely talented and nailed each character’s personality through movement. My whole family are big Muppet fans and this show along with MV3D are one of the main factors that we have visited annually for the past three years.
SAM EAGLE
Will you stop this foolishness?!
GONZO
What foolishness would you like to see?
SAM EAGLE (Yelling)
Will you get out of here?!
(GONZO screams and exits right.)
GONZO
Yes. Excuse me, sorry.
Disney workers: “We want $20 per hour minimum pay!!!”
Disney: “Okay, but it’ll cost some of you your jobs.”
Disney workers: “Make it $25 an hour!!!”
Disney: *facepalm*
You are correct. As wages are forced to rise as quickly as they are, companies faced with the rise to $15 are cutting cutting cutting people, adding more technology to replace people, and stretching those people still there further than they’ve ever been stretched before. I’ve seen it at several retailers, chain fast food restaurants, and other places where $15 is the minimum. Disney is at $13 now, $14 in 2020, and $15 in 2021. The cuts and rising prices are going to keep on coming through 2021 for sure.
This is ridiculous. I’m going for my first time in January with my wife and 8 year old, and we’ve been planing it for over a year and a half. I’m a huge Muppets fan, and a history major, so this was (I know odd for many) one the top 5 things I was excited for. Adding this to ALL the closing in Epcot, I’m starting to feel a little bait and switch.
Epcot isn’t closing.
I’m becoming disgusted by Disney’s need to cut costs! And in doing so they cut so many unique and special things out of the parks. It is genuinely disgraceful! This is the kind of stuff that made The Disney Parks special, It’s ludicrous how they spend billions and billions of dollars on both Galaxy Edge, buying 21 Century Fox, building the NBA experience, and not make any profits for their losses. My advice: Bombard Disney with complaints Stop by Guest Relations, Write a letter or an email, make a phone call or something!
They can’t get away with this for long, It’ll come and bite them in the bum once Universal opens its third theme park.
Yeah right “budget cuts”. Disney claims while attendance was down profits were up. The company makes $50 million + gross profit a day.
I’ve been working for a couple of years to get some of my Harry Potter loving friends to come over to WDW. My best argument is how well Disney fills in the white space between rides. The new Galaxies Edge is a great example. So it seems contradictory that on the one hand Galaxy’s Edge was designed from the ground up to be the attraction more than the ride or two and then cancel the entertainment that serves this purpose in the other parks. Maybe new entertainment will be introduced shortly.
I hope so, Galaxy’s Edge really does need entertainment, and lots of it!
“Great moments in history… but just the American ones!” is one of the funniest, most creative shows in any Disney park. This will be a huge loss to MK. Especially since Disney doesn’t seem to have any idea what to do with the wonderful Muppets IP.
I hope Bob Iger $75 million bonus is not cut I would hate to see that
The muppets barely has anything as it is. Not ok with this. It was such an excitement to have this newer show to have my kids grow up with & for newer muppet fans now growing up with muppet babies & this show among the little to no muppet attractions in the parks. DISNEY PLEASE keep this show!!!!!!
With Iger making $65 million a year there’s no wonder why all the prices are going up and entertainment is being cut back and photographers being replaced by box automated cameras.
Disney should keep the Muppet show. They can make cuts to other things, including getting rid of that Dinosaur Whirl ride at Animal Kingdom that keeps breaking. The show is good for kids and adults. If they aren’t going to utilize the muppets, they might as well sell them back to the Jim Henson Company.