Years after the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District leadership called the Disney theme park pass program a “scheme to funnel millions of taxpayer dollars to Disney”, the very same District has reinstated passes for its employees. The District has seemingly looked past a scathing 2023 report where it said that the special Disney benefits that District employees enjoyed were “akin to bribes”. It’s the latest move from the Oversight District as it significantly softens its position against Disney. Here’s what BlogMickey.com can exclusively report.
DeSantis’ Oversight District Offers Disney Passes to Employees Again
BlogMickey.com has exclusively learned that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is, once again, offering Disney passes to employees. As you may remember, the passes were a cornerstone of complaints from Governor DeSantis and his hand-selected Board of Supervisors after they took over the former Reedy Creek Improvement District.
Back in August 2023, the Board of Supervisors of the renamed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) called the Disney pass program a “scheme to funnel millions of taxpayer dollars to Disney”. In the press release, CFTOD said that the passes “cost taxpayers over $2.5 million” in 2022 alone. The press release from the District called the passes “unethical benefits and perks”, saying that the “scheme raises significant questions regarding self-dealing”.
In a December 2023 report, the District concluded that “RCID employees received numerous special privileges from Disney that were not available to members of the general public and far exceeded the discounts available to ordinary annual passholders”. Furthermore, the District said that it was “inappropriate for Disney to gift these benefits to the very people charged with regulating Disney. Indeed, receiving these special privileges was inconsistent with the public’s expectations for governmental entities serving the public and demonstrates that the RCID was ‘captured’ by Disney, whom it was charged with regulating. Indeed, the RCID effectively acted as a subsidiary of Disney rather than as an independent government entity”.
The report goes on to call the Disney passes and perks “akin to bribes”.
In a self-congratulatory February 2024 press release, DeSantis’ office provided an update on “the troubling findings of the first comprehensive, independent audit of the former Reedy Creek Improvement District in its 55-year history”.
“I worked with the Florida Legislature to bring accountability to a corporate-run government that sacrificed the people’s interests to the interests of a single corporation,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.
The DeSantis press release called Walt Disney World a “Corporate Kingdom”, listing problems of the Disney passes as:
- Millions of dollars of annual passes for entry to Disney theme parks worldwide.
- 40-percent discounts on Disney cruises.
- Free transferable single-use tickets during the holiday season.
- Steep discounts on Disney merchandise.
- Steep discounts on food and beverages in the Disney theme parks and resorts.
- Access to non-public shopping reserved for Disney cast members, where merchandise was steeply discounted, and items were made available that were otherwise not available for public purchase.
The press release accused Disney of creating “a self-serving system where the District would use taxpayer dollars to purchase benefits, and those taxpayer dollars were funneled back to Disney by the District”.
Now, BlogMickey.com has learned that the District has done a complete 180 and is offering Disney passes to employees again. That said, we understand that this pass type does differ from the pass type that District employees previously enjoyed. From what we understand, the pass that CFTOD employees can opt into allows for theme park access at Walt Disney World and other participating theme parks around the world. The pass also allows for a discount on merchandise, similar to what Annual Passholders would enjoy.
CFTOD spokesperson Chad Colby confirmed that Disney passes had been reinstated in a statement shared with BlogMickey.com. “After carefully considering employee input, CFTOD has reinstated a new pass that is similar to passes offered to others that operate within the District,” Colby said. Colby also noted that the new agreement fixes the issues that the former Reedy Creek Improvement District didn’t have correct in previous agreements. Colby said that includes employees properly paying taxes on the passes.
Just like before, the District is purchasing these passes from Walt Disney World, similar to how other agreements are structured for third-party companies that do business with Disney. An exact cost for the new passes was not available. Previously, the District paid more than $2.5 million for Disney passes.
As someone who has followed this story from day one, it’s obvious that the District has been changing a lot since the settlement was reached. That includes a complete shedding of the old Board of Supervisors. To be clear, the current Board is still comprised of DeSantis-selected members, but the mission has seemingly completely changed. The shift occurred while the ink was still drying on the March 2024 settlement, as outlined in our piece titled “From State Prison to 5th Gate: DeSantis’ Vision for Disney World Shifts Following Oversight District Settlement“.
The reintroduction of passes that the District previously referred to as bribes is, perhaps, the cherry on top of the cupcake that the District and Disney have rebuilt following the settlement. While the District and Disney still very much operate as two separate entities, District employees will soon be able to take a walk down Main Street USA, and Disney has been able to move forward with major expansions knowing that the District has dropped its adversarial stance.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
They have not reinstated the passes to the fire department yet.