Most of us have heard plenty of news about staffing shortages and how they are affecting all kinds of industries, including theme parks. At the beginning of November, Disney World had more than 350 job openings posted, and Universal Orlando had about 270 job openings, according to the Orlando Business Journal.

The staffing shortage is a main topic of conversation among food and beverage industry leaders attending the IAAPA convention in Orlando this week.

Bernie Campbell, chairman of the IAAPA Food & Beverage Committee, noted that many theme parks and other attractions had to keep some of their restaurants and snack stands closed this year, simply because they didn’t have enough staff to run them all.

“These staffing issues are the same around the globe,” Campbell said in an educational session on food trends. Whether you realize it or not, you are seeing the results of this labor shortage when you visit theme parks — as they change their menus and more to use less labor. Here’s a look at what’s happening:

Prix Fixe Menus

We have seen the introduction of many prix fixe menus at Disney World, in its “fanciest” restaurants such as Be Our Guest, California Grill, and Space 220. Prix fixe menus allow guests to pay a fixed price for their meal — they then have a handful of choices for each course.

While Prix Fixe menus can offer value to guests and can sometimes be a way for restaurants to manage crowds and turn tables at a faster — or at least more predictable — rate, there is something else behind the prevalence of prix fixe: the labor shortage. 

Food Trends Expert Suzy Badaracco said in an interview with DFB that fine dining restaurants that serve more complex dishes are suffering from a “brain drain,” as experienced cooks left the restaurant industry during the pandemic.

Prix Fixe menus turn the kitchen into an assembly line. “They are a way to deal with labor that doesn’t have the talent or experience they need,” said Badaracco, the president of food industry consulting firm Culinary Tides, Inc.

Self-Serve Drinks

More and more theme parks are also asking guests to make their own drinks. While this trend has been prevalent in fast food restaurants and other locations for some time, some theme parks have been reluctant to switch to self-serve — largely because in their crowded food and drink locations, they have been worried about losing some of their product to theft.

While preparing a drink may seem like a small thing, theme parks need to do it thousands of times each day, and that time adds up to a lot of needed labor. It takes 19 to 22 seconds to fill a drink, according to Campbell. Pouring 5,000 drinks in a day would require more than 26 hours of labor at a minimum.

That adds up to thousands of hours of needed labor that could be eliminated in a labor shortage — even in a smaller theme park only open half the year.

Festival Changes

Another place where culinary talent is needed is inside festival food booths. Nancy Hamlin, a senior vice president with Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, said that while her company’s parks — which include Knott’s Berry Farm, Kings Island, and Cedar Point — rely on festivals to drive visitors, they do create a “staffing situation.”

The festival food items are “special” and require experienced culinary staff, Hamlin said. With the labor shortage, Cedar Fair and other theme park companies have to decide between pulling culinary talent from its restaurants and putting them in festival booths to prepare food, or going without booths and serving their festival food from regular dining locations.

In releasing its predictions for the food service industry in 2023, the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association said it expects labor shortages to continue in the new year. Industry leaders say the theme park industry needs to rise to the challenge, because good theme park food drives visitors to the parks.

“If you can up your culinary game, you’re driving a whole different guest into the park, said Campbell. 

Here at DFB, we’re prepping to cover all the new food offerings coming to the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays, which starts November 25th. Stay tuned for the latest theme park food news!

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Have you noticed labor shortages in the restaurants at your favorite theme park? Tell us about it in the comments!

The post How Staffing Shortages Are CHANGING Theme Park Menus first appeared on the disney food blog.