theGib95
New Member
I meant younger, as in an actual child. Just following my parents around.
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What's Disney doing better now than it's done in the past?
- Thread starter durangojim
- Start date
rodserling27
Well-Known Member
WDW is getting better at concealing the constantly failing dragon in Fantasmic!...even running alternate projections sans Maleficent dragon. Hooray for mediocrity!
Eddie Garrison
Well-Known Member
I believe as others have stated in reference to what is better now than the past would be:
MagicBands
There are so convenient and easier to use than having to dig out a ticket every time I need it. I know people have had some issues with theirs in the past. However, we have never had issues with any of ours. Just reminded me of going on cruises when Disney finally rolled out something similar. I just wish I as an AP holder, could load a credit/debit card on there as guests can. I mean you let me put on on there for dinning reservations. Why not for other charges as well? And yes I know the reason (not staying at a resort) and I get it. Still. You'd think they have the means to do so.
My Disney Experience App
Booking FastPasses, Dinning, etc. on the fly is really nice. I have never really had issues with the app itself. It certainly beats having to call 407 W Disney for dinning reservations if we need them.
More Immersive Themed Lands
With Pandora & of course Star Wars, they are taking the immersive attractions (to me) to the next level. I am certainly ready to see what and how Star Wars turns out. Pandora looks awesome and the Flight of Passage attractions is equally awesome. No other ride like that at Disney right now or in the past. The only other attraction I can say was that immersive was when Star Tours opened. They put you in the Death Star trench run. Anyone who likes Star Wars always wanted to be in that scene and Disney made that a reality.
More Dinning Options
I for one really like Disney Springs. This could be more to do with us living less than 5 miles from there, still. The more dinning, drinking & entertainment options for us are really nice. We're there a few times a week. Some think it's more of a shopping mall type atmosphere, and that's fine of course. Funny, that is what is originally planned for and opened as when it was The Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village, but that's neither here nor there now.
MagicBands
There are so convenient and easier to use than having to dig out a ticket every time I need it. I know people have had some issues with theirs in the past. However, we have never had issues with any of ours. Just reminded me of going on cruises when Disney finally rolled out something similar. I just wish I as an AP holder, could load a credit/debit card on there as guests can. I mean you let me put on on there for dinning reservations. Why not for other charges as well? And yes I know the reason (not staying at a resort) and I get it. Still. You'd think they have the means to do so.
My Disney Experience App
Booking FastPasses, Dinning, etc. on the fly is really nice. I have never really had issues with the app itself. It certainly beats having to call 407 W Disney for dinning reservations if we need them.
More Immersive Themed Lands
With Pandora & of course Star Wars, they are taking the immersive attractions (to me) to the next level. I am certainly ready to see what and how Star Wars turns out. Pandora looks awesome and the Flight of Passage attractions is equally awesome. No other ride like that at Disney right now or in the past. The only other attraction I can say was that immersive was when Star Tours opened. They put you in the Death Star trench run. Anyone who likes Star Wars always wanted to be in that scene and Disney made that a reality.
More Dinning Options
I for one really like Disney Springs. This could be more to do with us living less than 5 miles from there, still. The more dinning, drinking & entertainment options for us are really nice. We're there a few times a week. Some think it's more of a shopping mall type atmosphere, and that's fine of course. Funny, that is what is originally planned for and opened as when it was The Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village, but that's neither here nor there now.
pax_65
Well-Known Member
I think the app works pretty well now too (better than a year or two ago) but I'm curious... do you prefer things the way they are now to what they were before MM+? The reason I ask is the loss of spontaneity. For a person who makes occasional trips you either love the advanced planning or hate it, but even if you hate it (like me) it's generally something you can deal with. But as a local I wonder how it is. I was in Florida earlier this year with my family and we kicked around the idea of just popping into the Magic Kingdom for the day. But with no advanced planning, we felt it would be difficult to impossible to get FPs or ADRs for the most popular attractions/restaurants so we didn't even bother. This is for 4 people, I know for singles or doubles it's still possible to do (sometimes).
SyracuseDisneyFan
Well-Known Member
I like the My Disney Experience app.
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
DAK
Cosmic Commando
Well-Known Member
If this really happened to you, surely you kicked it up to management or something? What happened? What time was your room ready?
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Room (the one we got) was finally ready at 9pm. It was marathon weekend and as I understand some VIP's were 'upgraded' by 'The Powers that Be'
Remember this was the 25'th anniversary of the event so in addition to having more runners than usual Disney invited the social media crew and mommy bloggers. Draw your own conclusions i have no hard evidence other than WDW's history of catering excessively to the social media brigade
in addition check in was a complete cluster fark due to the sheer volume and computer issues
The CM's that day had a distinctly un-magical attitude i got the impression that management was forcing them to do stuff they would rather not do.
If you deal with people enough you know when theve been backed into corner and pushing is not going to yield positive results
I took it as a message from the universe that WDW is at the moment not a place to spend time any longer.
Registration for next years WDW Marathon went by without us bothering to register.
SyracuseDisneyFan
Well-Known Member
On my recent trip, I was able to find a t-shirt and mug with the Animal Kingdom Lodge logo.
Eddie Garrison
Well-Known Member
We do spur of the moment visits all the time and as you stated, it's a LOT easier to grab FP's for just two people than it is a party of say four or more. We very rarely make ADR's unless it's something we plan. Again, for just two people, we typically never have to wait longer than 15-20 minutes to sit down at table service restaurants.
If we cannot get FP's for what we want, we some times just hit all the shows or do all the rides we typically would not do on a planned/regular visit to the parks. It's actually fun to go to say the Studios and do Beauty and the Beast, Indy, Little Mermaid & The Frozen Sing Along all in one day. Different visits call for different experiences and we find that is one of the best parts about living so close and visiting so often. It may be the "same" parks. But each visit always offers up something different and/or unique.
Overall though, yes I do like it better than before because you can still do spontaneous trips and enjoy yourself with no planning at all. Yes. You may not get to do some things but overall I like it better now than the old FP system for sure. I disliked the paper tickets and the way you had to go about getting them.
I equate people's either like or dislike of Disney systems to any other holiday you may go on. If you were to plan any trip, would you just wing it with no reservations, no planning just show up to [insert destination here] and hope for the best? To me, that just seems like too much a chance you would get to do nothing if you would have just planned a little bit in advance. I wouldn't book a trip to Europe and just hope for the best and we get in to restaurants and/or attractions when we get there. I'd plan ahead to make sure we did. But I am a huge planner and that is my thing, for lack of a better term.
Same principal here to me with Disney. They are offering you the ability to do so -- Why not take advantage of that option?
Cosmic Commando
Well-Known Member
I'm not one to complain much... room ready late, have to be moved to a different resort, downgraded, etc. I'm not one to make much of a fuss... but if they downgraded me and didn't refund the difference between what I paid and what I got, they'd have made an enemy for life. Did it ever get resolved? I would make them get a restraining order against me.
Walt Disney1955
Well-Known Member
I guess the Fastpass comes to mind right away. But is there something they do BETTER than before? Hard to say. Taking away stuff like Tower of Terror at Disneyland is an example of things that are just downright dumb, and a bit of a snub to the guests. I think they have gotten far worse with nostalgia and such. The experience with Disney is riding things your parents did, or even grandparents. You can't do that at Six Flags.
I think the money is an issue too. In 1997 I remember my dad sort of complaining how a day at Disney was $40. Should it have more than doubled in 20 years? I don't think it should have.
I think the money is an issue too. In 1997 I remember my dad sort of complaining how a day at Disney was $40. Should it have more than doubled in 20 years? I don't think it should have.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Never got fully resolved, CM who checked us out did comp our room charges so that helped, hope he did not get into trouble for doing it.
But as i said i took it as a message that the universe would prefer I stay away from WDW. So our DVC points are rented out until we decide what to do.
Had a good marathon and got a couple personal best times as i did all the races except for half which got cancelled due to weather.
PizzaPlanet
Well-Known Member
Queues
jakeman
Well-Known Member
Something similar happened to me.
We did online check in and said we would be there at 9:30-ish a.m. Got there around 9:15 a.m. and the room wasn't ready. No problem. We'll just go eat some breakfast. Went back to the front desk around 10:00 a.m. and it still wasn't ready. Was basically told they had a few "Wall Street" types come in and bumped our reservation. It was a pretty large party, so they actually had to rebook us offsite. I mean, they comped the rental car we had to pick up and it was the JW Marriott on John Young, but it still sucked. They didn't even comp our parking.
I'm just glad we didn't lose our FPs or ADRs we had to get right at 180 days.
Pretty upset about that week long 3 bedroom worth of points we were forced to forfeit though.
SyracuseDisneyFan
Well-Known Member
I like the interactive line at The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh.
Cosmic Commando
Well-Known Member
I had a verbose post in mind, but "Crazy!" sums it up well. I would be livid to not get the points back. I would be almost imperceptibly below livid being sent offsite, even if I did get the points back. Is there really nothing to be done? Some kind of lawsuit? The dues on that many points must be a pretty penny.
IanDLBZF
Well-Known Member
Did you complain to the Better Business Bureau about this? Which hotel was this anyway?
Beacon Joe
Well-Known Member
The MM+ system has reportedly resulted in improved guest distribution throughout the parks and decreased times at entry turnstiles. Though we can debate whether or not the resulting ability to increase park capacity created a better guest experience.
My impression is that the MDE app and site have improved, and booking ride times is slightly less of a chore. Or they've successfully trained me.
After a few years that had me scratching my head as to what was going on with the Parks Division, park cleanliness seems to be front and center again.
My impression is that the MDE app and site have improved, and booking ride times is slightly less of a chore. Or they've successfully trained me.
After a few years that had me scratching my head as to what was going on with the Parks Division, park cleanliness seems to be front and center again.