WDW has lost much of its magic.

supersorrell

supersorrell

Member
OP your not wrong, its your opinion, but putting these comments on a fan-board like this and your bound to get a ton of responses.
but you cant say that our opinions are wrong either.

Disney World has been growing year upon year like any business - business has to turn profit and make bigger crowds. sadly over recent years the crowds don't disperse like they used to due to the amount of construction going on at Disney world.

In regards to crowds it really does depend when you go but yeah crowds have been getting bigger but I think its all about how you manage the experience. We tend to tour the morning park hours then return to the hotel for the afternoon before coming out in the evening this way I think we break up the crowds and the hottest-busiest points of the day.

The food comment you made, there are tons of options other than burgers even in magic kingdom, I don't touch a burger my entire trip there are soo many options.

epcot is one of my favourite parks especially world showcase, I don't spend too much time in England as im from there and don't get the need to stay there as I can get that stuff at home. but twinings tea and fish and chips.... what else do you want from an English experience lol

all in all, what im trying to get across here is that you get out what you put in, ive been going to Disney world since the early 00s and never ever felt like the magic has gone, and im at a point in my life where its only going to become more magical as my daughter has her first trip and I get to experience my childhood memories and create hers.

ive already said to my wife the moment I don't get excited to see mickey is the year I get put out to pasture lol
 
The Empress Lilly

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
Astro_Digital said:
I do not kid myself when the Star Wars area expands like Avatar there maybe one attraction tops worth the hype and you will never get close to it. Animal Kingdom the Avatar Land like I said been there 3 times and I am too old and fat to run to the one worthy attraction, and I am not waiting over two hours to try it.
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I love this! :hilarious:

I know the pain. I sorta see FaP from the distance and wave at it as I walk past the 915 minute wait time sign yet again.
 
D

Disforever

Member
Missing_Aria said:
I'll add my 2 cents as someone who never got to go until she was 30 (I'm 32 now):

I think it's still magical. I think for people who go more often or get that 'back in my day' syndrome anything loses it's magic.

We have an amusement park where I'm from called Carowinds and let me tell you that place has lost a heck of a lot of wonder for me over the years. They're lucky enough to have great engineers making amazingly ahead of the curve rides for them which keeps people coming back but I was pretty much done when they tore down Thunder Road. The only time I really go there anymore is with my niece (where I can live vicariously through her sense of wonder), or for the holiday events like Scarowinds where they really go all out. I look at the spot where Thunder Road used to be that is now a couple of stupid water slides and I nearly cry every time though. Oh and they completely tore down the old, historic entrance that's been there since the park opened. It also doesn't help that Fury put us on the map and now people come in from across the globe just to ride it. It's cool to have a coaster like that but it also means far more crowds and far more traffic in an area that really isn't designed to handle it. These things tend to make someone resentful and resentment interferes with anyone's sense of wonder.

I think anyone who has been going to WDW (or any Disney Park) forever is going to lose at least some of the magic. And then there are the pangs every time you see a place where an old ride used to be or where a new ride that used to be something else is now. That said you still have weirdos like me who are so awestruck by the place that they tackle hug the Beast upon finally getting to meet him. Its a hard balance for any park unfortunately, keeping the old alive while still changing enough to keep the loyal customers of their past coming back.

I think if you want to feel that magic again maybe you should try one of the foreign parks. From what I hear DisneySea is truly magical.

But really I think if its so bad that you're 'sick' of other people enjoying it for being 'great' in their eyes then there's another issue and it's not Disney. I hope you can find that magic again but a big part of it really is a state of mind.
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We average going once a year because we now live 1000 miles away. I believe those that are saying they are sick of people saying great is because they saw what it was and could be. Its not that they have simply closed this or that ride its what they have replaced it with. I think one of the all time great examples is Sea base alpha vs Finding Nemo ride. My kids were just old enough to experience Sea Base and loved it. They came home and told friends about what an adventure they had but after going back and riding Nemo they did not even want to return let alone tell the other kids. No one should want to take any ones magic but at the same time it would be wrong to discount the corporate way that WDW has gone. By the way I used to live within 4 miles of Carowinds at CLT to me it was just an amusement park nothing special, ok for a day but nothing you would rave to friends about
 
pax_65

pax_65

Well-Known Member
disney4life2008 said:
If you think that is bad. You now have to pay for parking at the outlet malls on International drive.
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I did not know this! I promise you, if I pulled into an outlet mall and was told I had to pay to park, I would be OUT OF THERE. Unless they gave me some kind of voucher worth at least what I paid to park (since we'd spend the money anyway), there is NO WAY I would ever pay to park at a shopping mall. I reject it on principle.
 
pax_65

pax_65

Well-Known Member
I think the OP makes some valid points, and I've posted before about "vacation value" - what you get for what you spend. Despite high prices I used to argue that Disney provided tremendous value because you got so much for what you spent. This is still true, but due to many of the things the OP mentioned, the value is not as high as it used to be. With FP+ you can't get FPs for everything. If I spend more time in standby lines because the attraction pulls primarily from the FP line, that's less time I am spending doing things that I enjoy doing. So the vacation value goes down.

All that said, we had an amazing trip in May and found the Magic very much alive. The Cast Members were excellent as usual. Flight of Passage is now my favorite theme park attraction of all time. While I missed "Wishes" I absolutely LOVED "Happily Ever After" (I still miss having a nighttime parade though). Epcot needs new attractions but the park looked beautiful for the Flower & Garden Festival. Food and transportation were all good. Crowds were moderate but mostly manageable. I'm still not a fan of the planning required of FP+ but my kids handled it (I swore I wouldn't even download the app but reluctantly I did - but used it primarily for photos).

We were able to get a discount on APs for the trip in May (long story), so we MIGHT go again next year since we still have the passes and we're DVC members (so it would be a cheap trip). But after that trip we'll probably wait until Star Wars Land opens and the hoopla dies down a bit. So I guess that's 2 or 3 years or so...
 
mrdcball

mrdcball

New Member
there are many things I would change and some things that used to be better but...............we are heading back again (4th time in last 9 months) because we love it, get great value for the money (and yes its expensive!), get a better vibe in WDW than anywhere else, and generally makes us happy when we are there.
 
courtneylynnx3

courtneylynnx3

Member
I sort of agree with this post. I went for my 30th birthday last year and we went on a "downtime but it was still so crowded it was hard to move and almost every ride had a 40 min wait. Disney is still very magical for me, but it does lose some of the magic when you can barely move or get on anything without waiting 40 min. I'm going back this winter the week after thanksgiving. Its my first time going during the christmas time so I'm hoping some of the magic comes back!
 
KBLovedDisney

KBLovedDisney

Well-Known Member
Had a thought this morning actually, it really wasn't pertaining about Disney but I think it may relate. When we were kids, everything was different. We perceived things much differently than adults. We saw greatness and had less understanding of the man behind the curtain so to speak. As we got older, we thought daily that things were better yesterday. Honestly, no matter how old we get, we will all at some point look at today and think of a better yesterday.

Maybe this same thing can be said for Disney. You have kids of today's time that will one day look back at the rides of today when they are much older and think how great they were after more changes have been made for the kids of that generation to come.

Think it is a human cycle. We are born. When we are adolescent, we can't wait for tomorrow. And then we end up missing yesterday.

There. There's my philosophical moment of the day.
 
Shouldigo12

Shouldigo12

Well-Known Member
PurpleDragon said:
...While I agree that the parks don't have the same magic as they did back in the day when it was still somewhat of an undiscovered gem...
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I just jumped in to this thread so I'm sorry if someone already asked this, but when was WDW ever an "undiscovered" gem? It's been one of the most popular theme parks for a long time now. Honestly curious, please don't read this as a snarky comment.
 
Missing_Aria

Missing_Aria

Active Member
Disforever said:
We average going once a year because we now live 1000 miles away. I believe those that are saying they are sick of people saying great is because they saw what it was and could be. Its not that they have simply closed this or that ride its what they have replaced it with. I think one of the all time great examples is Sea base alpha vs Finding Nemo ride. My kids were just old enough to experience Sea Base and loved it. They came home and told friends about what an adventure they had but after going back and riding Nemo they did not even want to return let alone tell the other kids. No one should want to take any ones magic but at the same time it would be wrong to discount the corporate way that WDW has gone. By the way I used to live within 4 miles of Carowinds at CLT to me it was just an amusement park nothing special, ok for a day but nothing you would rave to friends about
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I'm gonna quote my mother here "no one has the right to ruin someone else's love". I think she was talking about food a the time but it applies here too lol. As you said no one should want to take anyone's magic. That should be the end of it though. If someone comes up to me at Disney and starts complaining about how corporate Disney is "today" (they always have been, you just didn't realize as a kid) I'm going to ask those poor unfortunate souls to either let it go or see themselves of to a whole new world. <3

Also you must not have lived near Carowinds back in the day then, cause trust me Smurf Island was a whole other planet for a little kid. :) Heck even the Paramount days offered things like Wayne's World that was like stepping into the movie. I've been going to Carowinds for well nearly 30 years now (since it was only just Carowinds) so I've seen almost every face the park has to offer. For pure rides it's a good park, but it's lost most of the 'theme' aspect that it used to have and for me it lost that magic that only someone who experienced it as a child decades ago would be able to feel towards it. The people who still call the kids coaster Scooby Do instead of Woodstock Express because that's the part we remember fondly.
 
geekza

geekza

Well-Known Member
Missing_Aria said:
If someone comes up to me at Disney and starts complaining about how corporate Disney is "today" (they always have been, you just didn't realize as a kid) I'm going to ask those poor unfortunate souls to either let it go or see themselves of to a whole new world. <3
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You are absolutely correct that they have always been corporate. However... up until the Eisner era, their business as far as the theme parks went was in creating new forms of entertainment experiences with an eye on quality, rather than capacity and synergy. The Disney parks gained the reputation they have based upon the pre-Eisner era. Walt's original impetus for wanting a park was that he wanted to provide a place where people could go as families that was the opposite of dirty and, often, shady amusement parks and carnivals. Was either Disneyland or MK perfect when they opened? Heavens no! They were laboratories for experimentation with entertainment. Walt was always eager to try new things and failure was almost more of a learning experience than success. He never shied away from eliminating or changing things that didn't work. The main difference between Disney of old and Disney of today is that, originally, the goal was to always strive to "plus" things in order to achieve something as close to perfection as possible. You know what? It worked. People LOVED the Disney parks and they developed a fanatical following all over the world.

Now, the goal is monetization and if something legitimately great happens, it's usually either by accident or because whomever was in charge of the project was able to figure out a way to let the skills and artistry of the Imagineers shine through whilst under tremendous pressure and, often, with a budget that is much smaller than would be desirable in order to fully realize the project.

Please don't misunderstand me. I truly believe that the folks at Imagineering are incredibly talented and, given the proper funds, time, and creative control, could likely create new attractions that stand shoulder to shoulder with the greats. The reality, though, is that the current corporate leadership do not provide an environment wherein quality is more important than a quick buck.
 

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