50 MAGICal Enhancements for the 50th ...

[COProgressFan]

Despite their reputation among snobby business travelers, SWA is probably the best domestic airline out there today now that the legacy carriers are engaged in a race to the bottom.

Free bags, no change fees, and the ability to cancel and still reuse all of the funds you paid without penalty within a year have made Southwest our top choice for probably the last 15 years. Unlike the other carriers, they have not raced to the bottom to charge for what was once free. In many ways, I have always found many similarities in their business approach with old-school Disney. I've found that their nonstop Orlando flights are almost always the cheapest available.

Sadly, I'm just waiting for the day they give in to Wall Street pressures to meet "industry standards" to the detriment of their customers, in which their competitive advantage is gone.

 

[rushtest4echo]

SWA will need to follow suit soon enough. They won big on fuel hedging when jet fuel was climbing exponentially thoughout the 2000's and early 2010's, but not that it's collapsed- SWA is bleeding. It was a great gamble for more than a decade, but now those same risks are killing them.

 

[Ripken10]

Free bags, no change fees, and the ability to cancel and still reuse all of the funds you paid without penalty within a year have made Southwest our top choice for probably the last 15 years. Unlike the other carriers, they have not raced to the bottom to charge for what was once free. In many ways, I have always found many similarities in their business approach with old-school Disney. I've found that their nonstop Orlando flights are almost always the cheapest available.

Sadly, I'm just waiting for the day they give in to Wall Street pressures to meet "industry standards" to the detriment of their customers, in which their competitive advantage is gone.

SWA has begun to slowly change their rules. If I remember correctly, at one time it was you had to use the fees within one year of flight, now it is within one year of when you made the original booking. That can take as much as 6 months off the time you have to book. They also have added the "buy priority seating" and have increased the number of seats in that. Still my favorite airline to go, but wish they would actually assign seats. I don't like the idea of having to stand in line just to get a seat next to someone I am with. And with the increase in the priority seating, it is even more aggressive. Unfortunately, Southwest too is heading the same way as others, just very slowly, and in a way many don't notice.

 

[COProgressFan]

SWA has begun to slowly change their rules. If I remember correctly, at one time it was you had to use the fees within one year of flight, now it is within one year of when you made the original booking. That can take as much as 6 months off the time you have to book. They also have added the "buy priority seating" and have increased the number of seats in that. Still my favorite airline to go, but wish they would actually assign seats. I don't like the idea of having to stand in line just to get a seat next to someone I am with. And with the increase in the priority seating, it is even more aggressive. Unfortunately, Southwest too is heading the same way as others, just very slowly, and in a way many don't notice.

Much like Disney -- still better than anything else out there, but no longer by leaps and bounds, as a new mindset slowly seeps into the way they operate. While Wall Street sees all the "lost" revenue from not charging fees and not charging for bags, they don't account for all the business Southwest earns precisely because they don't do those things. There's very little reason to choose them vs. another carrier when all else is equal.

 

[Goob]

Should we create a travel thread if we don't have one?

 

[ford91exploder]

Wow that is impressive. Never seen this software before will be using it for travel from now on.

ITA software is also used by the airlines themselves to optimize routing, Agree on SWA being the best domestic carrier not a lot of frills, cattle car loading but they work REALLY hard to get you to your destination on time no matter what, They are not the typical - we've got a flight for you in 48 hours till then you are on your own.

 

[ford91exploder]

Much like Disney -- still better than anything else out there, but no longer by leaps and bounds, as a new mindset slowly seeps into the way they operate. While Wall Street sees all the "lost" revenue from not charging fees and not charging for bags, they don't account for all the business Southwest earns precisely because they don't do those things. There's very little reason to choose them vs. another carrier when all else is equal.

Except for one tiny detail, Their core value is getting you to your destination ON TIME, Something the rest of the US airline industry stopped caring about long ago. I fly for buisiness and use SW as my primary US carrier because of that.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Man...Can you imagine if they did this commercial with "50 New reasons to visit Disney World"....

 

[brb1006]

Man...Can you imagine if they did this commercial with "50 New reasons to visit Disney World"....

How WDW had fallen since then.

 

[Jeffxz]

Free bags, no change fees, and the ability to cancel and still reuse all of the funds you paid without penalty within a year have made Southwest our top choice for probably the last 15 years. Unlike the other carriers, they have not raced to the bottom to charge for what was once free. In many ways, I have always found many similarities in their business approach with old-school Disney. I've found that their nonstop Orlando flights are almost always the cheapest available.

Sadly, I'm just waiting for the day they give in to Wall Street pressures to meet "industry standards" to the detriment of their customers, in which their competitive advantage is gone.

Since we're talking airfare deals and Southwest, I'd like to mention the "Chase Visa Companion Pass" deal. Southwest will give you a companion pass after earning 110,000 points. If you get both the premier and plus chase visa's with the 50,000 point bonus, you can already be at 104,000 points (100k bonus + 4k spending requirement). Then you will only need to hit 6,000 more points for the companion pass. If you time it correctly, you can get the companion pass for up to 23 months. If you google around for this, there are explicit instructions available with all the details.

You can then use the points to book your ticket and get a second ticket for free (actually around $5/each since you have to pay the taxes). I normally get 4-6 round trips for 2 of us out of 110,000 points, so that is 8-12 round trip tickets for $20/each.

I'm just about to start my 3rd cycle (5th year) of my companion pass and I would recommend it to anyone who flies Southwest frequently.

 

[uncle jimmy]

Man...Can you imagine if they did this commercial with "50 New reasons to visit Disney World"....

Classic Disney Commercial I remember...
Somewhere Disney went from Exciting Entertainment to Emotional Entertaining storylines. I enjoy the commercials nowadays, but since the 7DMT days, they all kind of feel and look the same. Something about the 80's and 90's, they were so different and fun to watch, waiting to see the next new one.

 

[admiral-ari-x]

Splash Mountain was still looking pretty good to me. Didn't notice about the blue bird though.

Just got on Splash Mountain yesterday after a thunderstorm- I did notice the bluebird at the end didnt speak, but I also noticed that some of the animatronics' eyelids were freaking out... especially on some of the geese at the beginning

 

[theRIOT]

Time to break this little gem out again I think-


1989 (well before things started falling in 94 but also well after the park could be considered "new") with no drunkytown events to artificially inflate crowd levels. Epcot today only wishes it could attract that level of attendance without relying on the lure of alcohol.

As for the lack of "thrills", I would have liked to have seen a few sure but it wasn't a desperate need by any means. Regardless, there was plenty planned for subsequent phases after the park was first built. World Showcase was intended to get a Matterhorn and Mt Fuji coaster during the 80s. I don't know what stopped these additions, I suspect there were several factors at play. One at least being that the park was a massive success without any additions for a very long time, it took until the mid 90s for its success to actually begin even cooling off at all. The execs may not have seen a dire need to expand an already massively successful park, especially since it had so much to do as-is. Another is that Eisner and Wells took over soon after EPCOT was finished, they ended up having radically different plans for the park, plans which would later contribute to its ruination.

It would have been great to have seen EPCOT continue down the path it began in its first decade with the same imagineers and leadership who created it in the first place. There is a vault full of wonderful ideas they never went through with. They would be fresh even today if only dusted off and built.

WhatI wouldn't give to have the original Living Seas mural back (amongst other things, too).
What a shell the park is today.
I never got to see it in this state.
I am sad for that.

 

[Bocabear]

WhatI wouldn't give to have the original Living Seas mural back (amongst other things, too).
What a shell the park is today.
I never got to see it in this state.
I am sad for that.

It was beautiful, the attractions were thoughtful and provocative... It was the newest and best...

 

[RobbinsDad]

You know what that commercial reminded me of? When you had to consider the long distance charges to book a Disney vacation, LOL.

 

[ford91exploder]

Movie Studios are not obliged to keep alive outdated formats. They should not be criticized for stopping silent films in favor of 'talkies.' They should not be criticized for stopping black and white films in favor of color (even though some like the artistry of B&W). They should not be criticized for stopping hand-drawn animation for computer assisted animation or CGI.

When the state-of-the-art transitions from one medium to another, you'll always have nostalgiacs crying over what is passing away. Their plaint is somewhat justified that new mediums start off a little choppy: bad sound, bad color, uncanny valleys. But once the new medium is mature, there really isn't any going back to the old medium except for a few exceptions (e.g., The Artist).

The age of hand-drawn feature-film mass-market animated cinema has pretty much come to an end. It's never coming back except for the few exceptions to the rule. If you don't move on, you'll be carrying this disappointment with you for the rest of your life.

Is Studio Ghibli 'outdated' because it's hand drawn I don't think so. The STORY has to come first the tools used don't make the story good or bad they do however create the atmosphere and personally I'm not a fan of much of the 3D animation out there

 

[WDW1974]

Please don't get me started about the trees. I'm about this close to going over to WL and planting poison oak around all those god awful generic cabins that ruined the best resort in my opinion and killed it's charm and feeling you were in different place than swamps of Florida.

I was actually over there for drinks at the Territory Lounge last week and took in some of the 'improvements' and it was just a sad, sad mess. The cabins, btw, appear to be three different colors alternating ... how this fits into the history and theme of the resort, I have no clue.

And peaked through the fences and gates of new pool area and it just looks so ordinary versus the old Hidden Springs pool, which was set back against a pine forest that no longer exists. Sad.

 

[WDW1974]

Nostalgia is a dirty liar that insists things were better than they seemed.

Sorry, but having been going to WDW since 1978 as an adult, I can state that it was never as good as people remember. Especially those that went as kids in the 70's when everything was new and shiny to them. Was it kept clean? Yes. Is it kept clean now? Yes.

We were there just last week and the week before and saw not one single bathroom that wasn't clean, and not one overflowing trashcan. Was there some litter on the ground? Well, yes, and if it wasn't wet, we would pick it up, even when a CM was walking over to do it. People seem to think that a CM magically appeared in a few seconds if someone made a mess on the ground back then, and sorry, but that simply isn't true.

We can go back (or you can) and forth on this point forever. But if you are saying WDW in 2017 is kept to the same standards the WDW of 1977 or 1987 or even 1997 was, I'm just going to tell you that you are flat out wrong. I've had people all the way up to the current Prez of WDW tell me about cutbacks and 'new initiatives' and ways of doing things (including outsourced work and positions that were simply eliminated). So, while WDW may not be a dump and usually is fairly clean, it in no way is kept to the standards it was in the 20th century.

That's not a matter of nostalgia, rose-colored glasses or opinion. It is fact. I won't argue facts.

 

[WDW1974]

It is always style vs. substance with the spirit. I don't defend his style, but he does have a point. Why wouldn't they start with the oldest / closest APs to schedule the previews with? All of that info should be available at the touch of a finger with the MDE infrastructure. Of course maybe they did, and he is simply too far away to qualify. South Florida isn't Central Florida.

They don't have a clue what they doing, even after the multi-billion dollar NGE boondoggle. They still can't tie up my WDW account with my DVC ... with my DCL bookings ... with my new DLP AP ... with much of anything.

A friend who lives in Maryland, has never had an AP, visits on average probably once every 3-5 years and was at WDW when I was last October has in the last week been solicited by DVC to buy the new IKEA Villas at What Used to Be Disney's Wilderness Lodge with glossy ad card and DVD and sent another mailing inviting him to explore the new world of Pandora.

I own at that resort and have that streak of owning an AP since 1982-83 and ... nothing at all.

Now, I fully realize that Disney would like to ... what is the phrase? ... oh yeah, 'fire my a$$ as a Guest' Why? I guess they just don't handle criticism better than an ill-mannered tween. But I have been a whale and other companies in hospitality actually reward their whales.

I won't even be on this continent when the previews happen, but that isn't the point. I damn well should have had a guaranteed slot and Disney should have taken care of however many charter APers they have left with special offers and, yes, freebies. Before some Millennial (or just fan of mine) starts crowing 'entitlement mentality', I'll say damn straight. Sometimes, you are entitled to feel entitled. I've bought my way into that. The clueless clowns running Disney P&R, like Chappie, should wake up to the fact that you take care of loyalty. It is simply smart business. Anyone want to tell me what Chappie was doing back in '82? Had he even set foot on WDW property?

 

[WDW1974]

Too True. There are definitely dark times, I didn't visit much in the early 2000's but started up again in 2008. And I can say that I was supremely disappointed in service and cleanliness...but I also noticed it got better every year afterwards. But I also remember some pretty crappy service and upkeep around 88-90 and being amazed at how good everything seemed from 93-95. There are waves...and I would argue that the parks are generally well kept over the long term.

There are always ups and downs. And you and I could have both visited EPCOT on Friday and both had completely opposite experiences. It doesn't make either of us wrong. BUT ... in general WDW was in great shape in the 80s, showed some issues by the mid-90s, improved a bit for DAK's debut and the Millennium and then took a giant 21st century nose dive (partially overlooked by people because of things like Mission Space, Everest, Soarin etc opening in the early-mid 00s). Largely, WDW has been crap under Iger, but in certain aspects has been trending upward the past 2-3-4 years (but not overall).