The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Nick Franklin, Executive Vice President for Next Generation Experience at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, will leave the company this July. Nick led the project that would become MyMagic+ since 2009. He joined Disney in 1996. This comes after supervision of the rollout of MyMagic+ moved from his team to the theme park operators six months ago. At that time, it was said that Franklin would transition to further product development including rolling out MyMagic+ to other Disney destinations.
A Disney spokesperson said, “Nick let us know that after 17 successful years with Disney, he wanted to help other companies innovate in how they provide products and services to their customers, much like he did here in leading the development of MyMagic+. We want to thank Nick for his tremendous accomplishments throughout his tenure with Disney.” Regarding the future rollout of MyMagic+ the spokesperson said, “There has been a team working on how best to incorporate elements of MyMagic+ into our other locations and businesses, and that is work is continuing.”
The MyMagic+ project encountered several delays, but finally rolled out in April. This is about a year behind original analyst projections. While Disney has never commented on the budget of the project, rumors persisted that the project ended up over budget costing over $1 billion.
In recent comments, Bob Iger said that he believes that MyMagic+ will improve the guest experience, which in turn will encourage guests to visit more often.