Cristina Olivero reshelves costumes, including Belle's formal dress from 'The Beauty and The Beast' show. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) One of the original attractions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, the Jungle Cruise is a tongue-in-cheek voyage that, on both coasts, carries riders past robotic lions, zebras, snakes and hippos. And yet, for years, the boat captains in California wore different costumes than their Florida counterparts. That changed just a few years ago, when Disney adopted identical outfits for both Orlando and Anaheim — the same ones, in fact, now used in Disney’s Animal Kingdom by drivers in the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction. Such moves are discreet examples of the cost-cutting under way at Walt Disney Co.’s domestic theme parks in an effort to merge many operations at Disney World and Disneyland. Dubbed “One Disney,” the initiative rapidly accelerated early last year when Disney, its profits under pressure amid the global recession, eliminated 1,900 jobs at its U.S. resorts. Now, in at least one corner of Disney’s theme-park empire, the steps are bearing fruit. Disney’s creative-costuming unit, a $55 million-a-year business with approximately 500 designers, tailors and other employees, says it has been able to wring substantial savings out of changes such as the unified Jungle Cruise costume. PHOTOS: Inside the Disney costume workshop Meanwhile, managers say technological advances have helped the unit shave even more from its production costs — reducing the cost of manufacturing a Buzz Lightyear costume, for instance, from $23,000 a suit to $12,000. Disney says the changes have not undermined the overall presentation to resort guests. Noting that Disney has whittled about 20 varieties of black trousers used in the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and aboard Disney Cruise Line down to just four styles, Vinny Pagliuca, director of creative costuming and cosmetology for Walt Disney Entertainment, said dryly: “Honestly, it’s black pants.” “We’re not going to force-fit garment consolidation,” Pagliuca said, adding, “As long as the costume works with the theming, they [guests] are not going to notice if there is a frill or a tab on an apron.” When “One Disney” was launched in 2005, costumes proved a ripe target for cost savings. Disney World and Disneyland even had separate clothing-size scales; a size-12 set of pants in Anaheim might have been half an inch wider around the waist than the same size in Orlando. Shared attractions were obvious targets for the program. In addition to unifying the Jungle Cruise costumes, Disney also adopted identical costumes for rides such as the Haunted Mansion and Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Designers also devised new outfits using pieces already in use elsewhere — for example, creating a costume for workers at a Playhouse Disney attraction in Disney California Adventure from the pants worn by baggage handlers at Disney’s All-Star Resorts, the shirts worn by employees in the ABC Commissary restaurant at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and the suspenders from merchandise employees in Hollywood Studios. The many changes have allowed Disney to reduce the variety of garments and types of fabric ordered from clothing vendors — and to wring greater volume discounts out of vendors for the remaining clothing. Disney says it has cut approximately 500 garment pieces from its wardrobe, reducing the overall figure to about 3,500. And it has reduced the number of fabrics used by 150, to approximately 1,050. Aprons alone have been cut in half; Disney says it now uses fewer than 250 styles of aprons, down from nearly 500 a few years ago. The savings can be substantial: A pair of universal black trousers, for instance, now costs Disney $10.21, down from a range of $12.75 to $21.49 a pair previously. “It allows us to gain some leverage with our vendors,” Pagliuca said. Combining wardrobes between Disney World and Disneyland has also forced the company to go looking for more real estate. This spring it leased a 100,000-square-foot warehouse in southeast Orange County to store surplus costumes for the two resorts. The facility is also designed to hold the extra costumes Disney Cruise Line will need as it adds two new cruise ships to its fleet during the next two years. While One Disney has been popular with corporate accountants, it has earned many critics among Disney’s vocal fan base. Many have complained that Disney is sapping its resorts of their unique identities in favor of resorts marked by identical rides and “Disney Parks”-branded merchandise. Though adopting the same costumes between multiple attractions may seem like a minor change, it risks adding to an increasingly bland experience, said Kevin Yee, an author who writes about Disney. “Now the experience feels all the more cloned. It’s a subtle effect, but it’s a real one,” Yee said. “These little details do add up.” Pagliuca said Disney tries to be mindful of such risks; for instance, the bulk of the costume changes have been made “from the waist down … because that’s not where the guest is looking.” And not all of the cost-cutting has come from consolidation. Costume managers say they have been able to reap savings in other ways, such as by developing new plastic-manufacturing techniques in which colors are fused directly into the material, rather than painted on after the costumes are molded. There are several advantages to such a change. Painting on color can double or triple the weight of a character costume — and heavy costumes, particularly when worn in sweltering summer conditions, are a chief source of employee injuries across Disney’s parks. Thanks to the new technique, the weight of a pair of Minnie Mouse shoes has been reduced from 1.6 pounds to 1.1 pounds. The lower-leg portion of a Buzz Lightyear spacesuit has dropped from 6 pounds to 2.1 pounds. More importantly to Disney’s bottom line, the plastic is also cheaper to make because hand-painting is no longer necessary. That’s the reason the cost of a Buzz Lightyear costume has been cut almost in half, or by about $11,000. The company manufactures between 12 and 15 Buzz costumes each year. Also, because the color on the costumes no longer peels or fades, maintenance costs have also fallen. Pagliuca said Disney has cut its spending on costume maintenance in half, from nearly $9 million a year to about $4 million. Jason Garcia can be reached at jrgarcia@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5414.
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Disney finds big savings inside Buzz Lightyear’s spacesuit
