Central Florida Oversight District reconsiders its plans to eliminate Walt Disney World Annual Pass benefits for its employees

Sep 13, 2023 in "Reedy Creek Improvement District"

Posted: Wednesday September 13, 2023 6:15pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

During tonight's Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board meeting, CEO Glen Gilzean revealed that the district continues looking for a new solution to the proposed changes to its Walt Disney World Annual Pass benefit for district employees.

In an email sent to Central Florida Tourism Oversight District employees in August, administrator Glen Gilzean said he is ending the Walt Disney World Annual Pass program benefit.

The removal of the Walt Disney World Annual Pass benefit follows the Ron DeSantis-appointed board receiving a bill from Walt Disney World for $2.5 million in theme park tickets and discounts given to employees of the district.

Gilzean said in his email, "In the proposed FY 2024 budget, I have incorporated funding for a new stipend program that allows for individualized flexibility rather than underserving employees with a one-size-fits-all approach."

The stipend program would give district employees approximately $1000 per year. The district said in the email that only 50% of employees used the Walt Disney World Annual Pass benefit.

Walt Disney World Annual Passes range in price from $400 to $1400, depending on the tier of pass chosen.

Not surprisingly, the proposal received significant pushback from the district employees, most notably the fire fighters and retirees.

Speaking today, Gilzean said that the board is making significant progress in developing reasonable solutions. He said, "We received feedback on the stipend amount, and we're working with the board of supervisors to increase the initial proposal now and making it more equitable."

One of the plans in consideration is the possibility of allowing teams to purchase passes directly from the operating participant program. Gilzean expects to unveil these numbers during the September 27 board meeting.

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

    View all comments →

    lazyboy97o2 days ago

    This is not normalcy nor should we lie and pretend it is. Development and building are local concerns and this structure remains abnormal and completely outside the construct of what are supposed to be legal taxing authorities. The threats remain clear, even if they’re just more loudly coming from others at the moment, and Disney is actively complying.

    JoeCamel3 days ago

    I think I would like to know Gilbert's campaign contribution history he seems to fit the bill of a Florida real estate salesman. Those and car dealers seem to gravitate to being politicians. Oh and lawyers too. I guess I yearn for the days of citizen service where the motives were clear but the money is way too high a bar for most.

    Stripes3 days ago

    These seem like decent appointments. Certainly better than the departing board members. With these appointments, it would seem to me that the new board will have members that are all qualified to be there. With the showdown over, things have returned to normalcy.

    DCBaker3 days ago

    Ron DeSantis has appointed 3 new members to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board of Supervisors: TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the appointment of Alexis Yarbrough as Chair, John Gilbert, and Scott Workman to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Alexis Yarbrough Yarbrough is the current Chair of the Broward College District Board of Trustees. She previously served as Chair and Commissioner on the Fourth District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission. Yarbrough earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Miami and her juris doctor from Nova Southeastern University. John Gilbert Gilbert is the Executive Managing Director at Stream Realty Partners. He was recognized as the 2007 and the 2012 Orlando Office Broker of the Year by the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks, Commercial Real Estate Development Association. Gilbert earned his bachelor's degree in real estate from Florida State University. Scott Workman Workman is the Owner of Workman Transportation and Owner and President of Workman Travel. He has been active in the transportation industry in Orlando for over 25 years. Workman attended the University of Iowa. These appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate. https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2025/governor-ron-desantis-appoints-three-central-florida-tourism-oversight-district

    lazyboy97o6 days ago

    The FCC is investigating Comcast over their internal corporate practices that have nothing to actually do with broadcasting. Make no mistake, this is why Iger capitulated.

    JKick9523 days ago

    Do we have any updates on what this plan entails?

    MR.DisJan 11, 2025

    To give an example, I am retired from JP Morgan Chase, the provider of Disney Visa charge cards. I was eligible to purchase WDW and Disneyland tickets thru a portal for 20% off the rack rate. I do not know if that is still the case. While I was an annual pass holder purchasing thru DVC, I would purchase tickets for my kids when they visited WDW with their families. It was a significant savings.

    flyakiteJan 11, 2025

    Should anyone be interested and would like to attend:

    michmousefanDec 29, 2024

    cranbizDec 28, 2024

    Not really a distortion of facts. Yes, RCID was a legally a separate entity from TWDC. In reality, it was controlled by WDW, which is why DeSantis had a hard on for getting revenge on TWDC for "don't say gay" and other woke policies by trying to revoke the district. He couldn't do that for many reasons so he got the law changed to appoint his own governing board. As we know, that really did fail miserably and there is now a board that is not antagonistic towards Disney. There is a charge for those benefits to the third party entities in some way, shape or form. WDW doesn't give anything away for free. RCID (and many third party operating participants) pay for those benefits (usually at a very reduced rate). So, in the case of RCID, Disney paid for those benefits through it's tax assessments because RCID has no income of it's own except for income received from it's taxpayers (of which TWDC is it's largest and majority taxpayer). So, what I said was true. WDW paid for the benefits granted by RCID to it's employees and RCID, by granting those benefits paid WDW back for them. This keeps everything legal. Yes, CFTOD wanted to stick it to Disney by refusing to pay WDW for those benefits, which in turn stuck it to the employees. RCID and CFTOD employees were never WDW Cast Members, they were employees of RCID or are/were employees of CFTOD.

    LAKid53Dec 28, 2024

    It takes little time to release a completed report. Unless that report didn't say exactly what you wanted it to say....

    LAKid53Dec 28, 2024

    Governor's office receives a FOIA (govt in the Sunshine) request... "What's sunshine?" 🙄

    LAKid53Dec 28, 2024

    🤫