Schadenfreude: a feeling of enjoyment that comes from seeing or hearing about the troubles of other people.
Well, good. All of us here have seen this train wreck coming for years, now, and the 'testing rollout'
has made it even worse. I'm a 'glass half full' guy who took a 'wait and see' approach to NextGen--could
it possibly be a positive thing, that we were knee-jerk reacting against? I try not to prejudge these
things--sometimes we the consumer don't know what we want until we have it.
But the rollout thus far has been disastrous, and as far as I'm concerned, all the naysayers had it right
this time. It's an unmitigated disaster. Nothing about it sounds good to fans or casual users. The problems
with the rollout are symptoms of the greater disease.
Meanwhile, up the road, the good news is at Universal. I still have to swallow hard to say that, and
whack the pixie dust out of my addled brain, but it's true. They are doing everything that I used to
love about what Disney did. Only Disney doesn't do it now.
And so it has come to this. So why the feeling of enjoyment? Perhaps this signals that our long
nightmare is ending. Not over, but the beginning of the end. It won't happen soon enough, and
may cause further damage. I'm just not ready to say that it's over, for good. Let them go through
their gyrations, let senior management flail and twist in the breeze. I'm taking the long view, this
too, shall pass. We've all been through this before, when Eisner was in his "Richard III" phase. It
was ugly. 'Save Disney'!
NextGen: Too Big to Fail? Let's hope not. Let it crash and burn. And out of the ashes, possibly,
a return to basics, to new attractions, to maintenance, to real guest service. It seems so
simple on the outside.
I can't say I clearly see that bright future. It's pretty far off, and the coals we are walking on are
still hot. Much heaving and buckling and wreckage to go through. But after watching this happen for a few years, it's not too much, I think, to take some pleasure in their misfortune, to wag our fingers and have a round of I-told-you-sos.
And hope, still. And dream, still.
And in the meantime, visit Hogwarts. Sounds really cool.
Thanks for nothing, Burbank. Keep fiddling . . .