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Walt Disney World Will No Longer Offer Park Tickets and Discounts to Some Third Party Cast Members

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Starting October 1, Walt Disney World will reportedly no longer offer standard Cast Member perks to a number of employees of third-party vendors.

Several third-party vendors (operating participants) employ Cast Members throughout Walt Disney World, so it will likely impact many employees.

The terminated perks include Disney merchandise discounts, food and beverage discounts, theme park admissions passes and tickets, and Disney family holiday tickets.

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We do not yet have a list of those companies that will be affected, but it will include some of the larger, per sources.

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Shannen Michaelsen
Shannen has been a Disney Parks fan and lover of dogs since childhood, despite Pluto's attempt to eat Shannen's Minnie Mouse doll the first time they met. They've made up now. You can email Shannen at [email protected]

24 Comments

  1. Wow the hits keep on coming, this is unbelievable. How much revenue could they possibly be losing or now gaining from offering these perks to CM’s. You cant tell my the increase in AP’s wouldn’t off set any money they might be losing and I’ll use that term loosely. Cause I’m sure the markup on merch, food etc…is huge

  3. Wow. So shortsighted they’re almost legally blind. Since we’re taking away perks making it less valuable to the consumer now let’s try it with 3rd party cast and make it less savory to work there too. So weird. As a little kid my dream was to be a carpenter working at Disney. Even as a kid I was impressed with the maintenance Of the parks. 😂 Glad I never pursed that.

  5. Releasing an article like this without a definitive answer really creates a bunch of stress to cast. IF you are a true lover of Disney, that includes all the Cast Members that work so hard there. Making you aware of what this article just did to them without all the facts.

    2. This really had me panicked. I’ve been here at AKL for 11 years and that would’ve been horrible if it was me.

  6. They seem so desperate to pinch every dime and nickel now. People don’t realize just how much of the experience at Disney parks can be “third party” employees like these. This is very tragic IMO.

  7. I was surprised to hear partners ever received these benefits. Seems overdue considering how demand has gone.

    1. Those “partners” are often working in the parks, wearing a Disney name tag. So yes, they are very much Disney cast members. I worked at Jellyrolls on the Boardwalk for 6 years and had a maingate pass, even though we were third party. Most people don’t realize how many locations are actually third party. Most of Epcot, even

  9. Another dumb Chapek move. During downturns they depend on cast members and third party cast members to fill in empty tables at restaurants, theme parks etc by giving them larger discounts. Now they will eliminate 40% of those people. Short sited money hungry = long term financial impact to the company.

  10. Wow, us third party cast members who literally were open months before Disney opened their doors, making money for them, taking their discounts for their guests during a literal plague won’t be able to enjoy their parks anymore. I mean, this checks out, Disney has never actually cared about their own employees, so why would they care about us. I’m glad I’m not apart of the Disney cult who will continue to abuse the cast members, and only work in the Springs because it’s a convenient drive for me. I wonder if this means our companies don’t have to honor Disney reservations or Disney discounts anymore?

    1. Sarah, it is an opt in program and you are right, I hope they do take that loved discount away if it is extended to CM in the parks themselves. I enjoy receiving the 20% on F&B but would not even complain if 3rd party pulled it from the restaurants they run if this is the case. Also, just a note, speaking with several GM of Epcot restaurants, they have not heard this or been talked to as of yet. Disney also hires several third party tech people and I could see them pulling it from them. I will be shocked if they pull from the hard working CM at the parks.

  11. Why anyone would still want to work for them after the way they treated and mistreated the thousands of employees during the pandemic is beyond me. They care about nothing and no one but making money no matter the cost. The magic is DEAD.

  13. The writing was on the wall with this on. With the expansion of Disney Springs especially, there are now thousands of more OPs that have been getting the admission perks.

  14. This is going to cause a huuuuuge loss of employees at places like the springs. They’re really dooming themselves at this point with the fast passes and now this? It’s ridiculous.

  15. They just removed some of the biggest reasons why people take these jobs. You can get the same or greater paycheck almost anywhere, doing the same work. So you have to work at Disney , uphold the same standards for service, but get less? They’re going to bleed employees in droves. Bad move. There are a LOT of people in these jobs.

  16. I can see the justification for many of the changes recently and agree with most. But this, this just seems cheap and bad press. When I go to the World, every employee to me is a Cast Member and have never been treated as otherwise no mater where I was in the parks. Thats because they hold all members to the same standards, hence all should receive the same benefits (which are already too few for full-time work anyway).

  17. Screw Disney. They use third party employees do they don’t have to pay benefits to begin with. Getting sick of the richest companies in America presenting themselves as so wholesome when it turns out they are actually the most greed driven of American companies who deserve to have a major boycott to show them Americans are tired of slave labor. Make Disney hire their own employees.

  18. nice way to reward those that went back to work instead of waiting for the extra thousand bucks perk to go back to work, eh? but under cheapact and josh, it seems they wish to play the everybody is a sucker game. even barnum and bailey went under with that as their business model.

  19. they seemed to have slipped in the 6th key
    screwing over cast members to help execs earn that 5th yacht for their shoes

  20. The no free passes is including the disney intern program. The kids in the program currently do not have access to the parks starting October first until January 1 st due to the 50th celebration. Nice. What a jip! Those kids work slave labor, have very little time off and now are told if they want to go on their day off to a park they can pay for a ticket. What a way to reward your staff.

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