The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[flynnibus]

I'm so glad I don't use ignore. I'd miss all the fun. Its a shame so many others do.

There is nothing to gain when it's not a fair fight and victory means proving what everyone already knows

You wouldn't send your local Premier league team to your primary school to beat them at football.. it wouldn't prove anything beyond what you already know and there is no glory in picking on the those who never had a chance ("taking candy from a baby")

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

I can tell you as a kid... getting that pirate rifle and double barrel pistol was a defining memory of my WDW visits. That, and in later years when I got the full sized Figment plush? That thing was a most prized possession. There are probably lots of other bits over the years, but those are stand outs in my young life... and a large part of that was the concept of the shopping experience, where you could get them, how they tied into what you just rode, etc.

I can never understand why people are so quick to discount things as insignificant simply because it happened before their time and they never got to experience it.

I wouldn't say I "discounted" your point at all. In fact, I provided a pretty reasonable counterpoint regarding the state of merchandise at Universal. You apparently glossed over that.

But I've gotten the message. If it's so taboo to have both positive and negative opinions of WDW and Universal, I won't bother sharing my thoughts anymore. I know what I like (and I know a lot of people here still enjoy WDW), so it doesn't matter if insiders 'validate' my thoughts one way the other.

 

[marni1971]

There is nothing to gain when it's not a fair fight and victory means proving what everyone already knows

You wouldn't send your local Premier league team to your primary school to beat them at football.. it wouldn't prove anything beyond what you already know and there is no glory in picking on the those who never had a chance ("taking candy from a baby")

Indeed. I've only had one person on ignore. And they came off years ago.

Nowerdays its worth sticking around for the laughs.

 

[aladdin2007]

600 pages almost, thats a lot of info, thoughts, and opinions

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

600 pages almost, thats a lot of info, thoughts, and opinions

We should celebrate!

 

[lazyboy97o]

Not defending the rest of his post, but Hogwarts is in fact a mock train. It's not an insult to call it such and it looks like UNI did a pretty good job with making them seem like real trains. The monorails are just monorails that don't pretend to be anything else.

How is it a mock train? Are other cable cars and funicular railroads also mock trains?

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

I think we all just want Disney to WOW us - like they used to in days of old!

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

...Make that even as recently as the 80s and early 90s!

 

[marni1971]

...Make that even as recently as the 80s and early 90s!

Funnily enough, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

The last true fully immersive, technologically advanced E ticket built in WDW.

Two decades....

 

[the.dreamfinder]

So I have some bad news.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne....hollywoodreporter.com/?mobile_redirect=false
To the extent Marvel has a public face — and it controls media access as carefully as it controls everything else — it is Feige. But even though Perlmutter sold the company to Disney for $4 billion in 2009, he retains an iron-man grip on Marvel's operations and influences Disney's decisions on licensing, film-studio management and potentially even the looming question of CEO Robert Iger's successor (he is said to favor Disney CFO Jay Rasulo over Thomas Staggs, who leads the parks division).

 

[FigmentJedi]

So I have some bad news.

 

[wogwog]

I've stayed in Disney hotels a few times in the past few years. Nothing like we used to. Usually it's a convenience thing with getting multiple people together coming from multiple starting points. We use DME as a tool, really. I haven't spent a dime on entrance into the 4-parks in almost 3 years. In that time I've been on 6 Disney cruises, a non-Disney cruise, and been to Disneyland. Thru the end of 2015 I have 3 cruises to do. I'm hoping to squeeze a rafting trip in the Grand Canyon in, too. If something has to be sacrificed to do the rafting trip, I'm good with dumping the last Disney cruise. I'm not sure beyond 2015. Think I'm ready to go do some other things for a bit.

Never been to Uni. I know I should. WDW isn't interesting to me now.

Listen to wogwog now @sweetpee_1993. You are not alone in being what many pixie dust folks would call radical. You would enjoy Uni, please do visit, but it will make you even more upset at the present WDW. We have some of the same preferences. DCL to the max and RC in a pinch. Disney still gets some of my money but not at WDW. Like you I take multiple trips on DCL a year as Disney knows how to make a great cruise. I usually get to Disneyland once a year for a week or so. I lived near Disneyland for decades and have visited all of the other parks in Asia and Europe multiple times. I now live near WDW. Not for the parks but for the weather and proximity to multiple cruise ports. All of the cruise lines give generous discounts to Florida residents allowing me to cruise many times a year. I visit WDW only when I have friends from out of town visiting to be social and friendly. I might enjoy one attraction on a visit.

The majority of my friends here in Florida work for the Mouse. I know front line Cast, manager level, a couple of GMs and a VP. Like @WDW1974 I am able to gain free admission any time I ask. I only ask two or three times a year to accompany friends. WDW depresses me now. DCL and the other parks make me happy and nostalgic. You are not alone. Enjoy your themed cruise coming up @sweet_pee. But beware, you might see me aboard again.

 

[spacemt354]

Funnily enough, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

The last true fully immersive, technologically advanced E ticket built in WDW.

Two decades....

The American Idol Experience was two decades ago??

 

[crispy]

The American Idol Experience was two decades ago??

I almost had a heart attack until I saw the wink. Good one!

 

[flynnibus]

I wouldn't say I "discounted" your point at all. In fact, I provided a pretty reasonable counterpoint regarding the state of merchandise at Universal. You apparently glossed over that.

I didn't gloss over it. I excluded it because comparisons to Universal serve no purpose when discussing Disney against Disney and the "intangibles" that made WDW what it was. You introduced Universal - which honestly has no bearing to this discussion... so instead of saying so explicitly... I focused on what mattered. But now you can have it both ways and I'll say it for you explicitly... What Universal does with merchandise means nothing to this discussion about WDW it's "intangibles" and the significance of merchandise to that.

What you discounted was the relevance of shopping and merchandise as part of the experience. And how haphazard handling of it can actually detract from the park experience. You threw out merchandising with "The Frozen DVDs and homogenized Disney merchandise do nothing for me" - what I was trying to say was merchandising and shopping can be very much part of the experience... and as you noted, when done badly can actually detract from other things. So it is very relevant to the overall experience you leave with.

But I've gotten the message. If it's so taboo to have both positive and negative opinions of WDW and Universal, I won't bother sharing my thoughts anymore. I know what I like (and I know a lot of people here still enjoy WDW), so it doesn't matter if insiders 'validate' my thoughts one way the other.

Spare me your martyrdom. If you don't want to discuss feelings and opinions, don't hang out in threads centered around them.

 

[flynnibus]

I completely agree with you about DCA, but your overall point is basically what I'm trying to say. The WDW parks don't need to improve that badly, because there are tons of visitors who'll continue boosting attendance and sales figures[...]That's why I believe TDO has a few more years to mess things up even further; they're still getting away with it

That mindset ignores that it is far more costly (time/energy/resources) to REPAIR images than it is to build them. By coasting on their past (because hey.. people are still buying!) and failing to prepare for the future.. the company dooms itself to never recover it's past position.

Pick your cliche of choice... "If you are aren't winning, you're losing" or whatever. Every day WDW throws away coasting is a day the competition is getting stronger and a day you lose preparing for the next thing.

 

[xdan0920]

Funnily enough, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

The last true fully immersive, technologically advanced E ticket built in WDW.

Two decades....

There was a thread here a while back, vote on your favorite attraction....

It's crazy to see the results. Pretty much nothing built in the past 20 years makes the cut. If that's not an indictment of the direction WDW has been heading, then nothing is.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Funnily enough, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

The last true fully immersive, technologically advanced E ticket built in WDW.

Two decades....

Kilimajaro Safari?

Everest too, despite everything.

 

[SJN1279]

Kilimajaro Safari?

Everest too, despite everything.

Test Track, Mission Space, Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Rock N Roller Coaster.

 

[marni1971]

Kilimajaro Safari?

Everest too, despite everything.

Kali is an E no doubt. But not much tech involved, which is what I was thinking of in my quote.

Everest? Not in my opinion. Could have and should have been though. Dark empty spaces, light leaks, visible structure knock it back. It's very good, but not great. If it had been a Matterhorn on steroids it'd be one of WDWs best.