A Spirited Dirty Dozen ...

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

She said she was bored with all the current offerings, and I asked what she suggested. So I'll ask you the same thing. What kind of merch should they offer? Unless you are bringing a solution to the table, don't bring a perceived problem. Hopefully, that won't sail over your head either.

What should they offer? Personally, I'm a bit (ok, alot) of a nerd- I'd like anniversary specialty items, like kitchenware, marker sets (told you, nerd) and something for the office.... you can't really have enough Disney stuff around the house. I know they have year-dated items like picture frames- do they do that for anniversaries too?

What I'd like and what they'd like to sell are obviously two different things. More resort or park-specific merchandise, esp. for the anniversary would be nice.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

What should they offer? Personally, I'm a bit (ok, alot) of a nerd- I'd like anniversary specialty items, like kitchenware, marker sets (told you, nerd) and something for the office.... you can't really have enough Disney stuff around the house. I know they have year-dated items like picture frames- do they do that for anniversaries too?

What I'd like and what they'd like to sell are obviously two different things. More resort or park-specific merchandise, esp. for the anniversary would be nice.

OK, those are good suggestions. I agree that more office stuff would be nice. Maybe-hopefully-this is the first salvo, since they said it would be available this fall. We can hope that more will come out. Since they have the parks shopping app now, it doesn't matter if it can fit into a suitcase like in the past.

 

[MuteSuperstar]

Walt Disney once said, "When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say, 'But why do you want to build an amusement park? They're so dirty.' I told her that was just the point — mine wouldn't be."

Walt Disney took out a mortgage on his house and reportedly went $100K into personal debt to help pay for Disneyland, at a time when median household income was under $5K.

You know what?

Disney was a business in 1955 when Disneyland opened to rave reviews and financial glory.

Brilliant, spot-on post. Bravo.

 

[Mike S]

The messenger app did have that functionality baked in, secretly, but it's only functional on Android. On iOS, because it's a closed system, nothing can activate services like location or microphone in the background without the user actively allowing it.

Things like that keep me on iOS, for now.

*sigh of relief*

The concept that the Merch is more important than the anniversary, i.e. it's more important to push cheap tat than celebrate the anniversary and as an extension of the celebration have souvenirs available to purchase as a reminder.

To @CaptainAmerica, you wouldn't think 40th and 60th anniversaries were big but look what happened at Disneyland for those. The 40th gave them Indiana Jones Adventure. There could be much more than peddling merch for WDW's 45th. Heck, I would take big refurbs at this point. As pointed out in this thread there's plenty of things in Magic Kingdom that could use them.

 

[Cesar R M]

It's definitely bokeh. Source: I'm a photographer.

I yield then, 2 with experience in photography say so.

Hate to get into forum trivialities, especially w/ someone so respected, but there shouldn't be a debate here. It's clear it's bokeh. Probably some white wicker chairs in the foreground or something. I'm as untrusting as anyone of Disney's PR foolishness but this isn't trying to hide anything. It's just someone trying to add depth and get fancy with their Nifty Fifty.

EDIT: It's the white chairs at the table. 110%. Means it was more likely a 70-200.

I agree, I imagine they either had some extremely high light hitting the chairs (flash or filling light?) or a terrible photoshop job.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

....... and? Lots of us are.

I used to teach it does that make me top trump?

 

[Cesar R M]

Those who have a valid ABR (Advanced Bathroom Reservation will get warm water from the faucets...they are activated by the chip in your magic band....lol

DEAR GOD .. YOU GUYS SHOULD ALL DELETE THIS NOW.
Disney Accountants might be watching this thread! D:

 

[Cesar R M]

What would you suggest?

exclusive figurines or adornment. 3d poster or relieve style poster with authenticity holograms and signatures of the WDI team.?
just a few suggestions.

 

[Cesar R M]

'Ready when you are, C.B. !

View attachment 142241

RIP Kodak... you rode the film too long despite being the first to create a working photo digital sensor.

I used to teach it does that make me top trump?

Well, you know the saying.. good workers work in what they were trained to, bad workers.. teach.

 

[ford91exploder]

I yield then, 2 with experience in photography say so.

Paid for school by being a photographer, Minored in it as well and learned to retouch photos with ink, vibrating pencils and airbrushes and then along came Photoshop where had you been all my life baby!. It was a crappy retouch job and no Bokeh is THAT ugly even a Holga (cheap plastic lens camera which uses 120 film) has better bokeh.

 

[ford91exploder]

OK, those are good suggestions. I agree that more office stuff would be nice. Maybe-hopefully-this is the first salvo, since they said it would be available this fall. We can hope that more will come out. Since they have the parks shopping app now, it doesn't matter if it can fit into a suitcase like in the past.

45'th Anniversary Photo Album, still have YOMD and 100 Years of Magic albums which contain prints from trips those years.

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

....So I know that we shouldn't expect much from construction (subsequently, cell phone) pics... but man, that troll face is scary. Maybe the nose should have been digital-image mapped too?

(photo Tom Corliss)

 

[MKCP 1985]

45th anniversary, well the obvious merchandise is a Peg Leg Pete Colt .45 to be sold at the all new Wild West Guns and Ammo store to be opened in Frontierland.

What else was big in 1971? Inexpensive turntables and what would better memorialize the 45th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom than all your favorite Disney songs released on 45s in the Retro Music Corner tucked into a corner of the Emporium on Main Street USA. (A retro music store on MS-USA would be too much to ask for in the absence of a magic shop, right?)

Seriously, there will always be tee shirts, pins and shot glasses, err. . . toothpick holders. The 45th anniversary gives Disney a chance to be imaginative. What are the odds of that happening?

 

[ford91exploder]

45th anniversary, well the obvious merchandise is a Peg Leg Pete Colt .45 to be sold at the all new Wild West Guns and Ammo store to be opened in Frontierland.

What else was big in 1971? Inexpensive turntables and what would better memorialize the 45th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom than all your favorite Disney songs released on 45s in the Retro Music Corner tucked into a corner of the Emporium on Main Street USA. (A retro music store on MS-USA would be too much to ask for in the absence of a magic shop, right?)

Seriously, there will always be tee shirts, pins and shot glasses, err. . . toothpick holders. The 45th anniversary gives Disney a chance to be imaginative. What are the odds of that happening?

Zero, Zip, Nada.

 

[brb1006]

...Well, since new features in the parks, ride refurbs, new rides, more benches, more trees to provide shade, cleaner bathrooms, happier staff, and lower prices is out of the question....

Who else miss seeing the trees in front of Cinderella Castle to have twinkling lights back in the 90's?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

To @CaptainAmerica, you wouldn't think 40th and 60th anniversaries were big but look what happened at Disneyland for those. The 40th gave them Indiana Jones Adventure. There could be much more than peddling merch for WDW's 45th. Heck, I would take big refurbs at this point. As pointed out in this thread there's plenty of things in Magic Kingdom that could use them.

That's a gimmick. They were getting Indiana Jones whether it was the 40th or the 43rd, it was just time for a new attraction in that space. When a new development happens to coincide with an anniversary year, they slap the number on the marketing. It's not a causal relationship.

 

[baymenxpac]

Who else miss [pretty much everything about the resort from] back in the 90's?

edited your question to reflect my feelings.

 

[HM Spectre]

Walt Disney once said, "When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say, 'But why do you want to build an amusement park? They're so dirty.' I told her that was just the point — mine wouldn't be."

Walt Disney took out a mortgage on his house and reportedly went $100K into personal debt to help pay for Disneyland, at a time when median household income was under $5K.

You know what?

Disney was a business in 1955 when Disneyland opened to rave reviews and financial glory.

Wanting to honor his brother's vision, the 73 year-old Roy O. Disney postponed his retirement for 5 years in order to oversee the construction of Walt Disney World, which opened in October 1971. Roy died 2 months later.

Disney was a business in 1971 when operating margin was actually higher than what it's averaged under Bob Iger.

Struggling to find a direction for the company, Card Walker reportedly invested $1.5 billion in Epcot at a time when the entire company's annual revenue was $1.0 billion.

Disney was a business in 1982 when this bold investment grew company revenue by 60% in 2 years.

With Disney's film industry in tatters, Roy E. Disney fronted the effort to bring in Michael Eisner, who not only managed to turn Disney into a film juggernaut but also built Disney-MGM Studios, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, Disney's Animal Kingdom, more than a dozen hotels, shopping districts, and a sports complex.

Disney was a business in the 1980s and 1990s when Eisner created The Walt Disney Company megacorporation and built the modern Walt Disney World.

In recent years, the Disney "business" under Bob Iger has made quality cut after quality cut, price hike on top of price hike, and project delay after project delay, turning Walt Disney World into a shell of its former glory. This in a decade that has seen company revenue grow by a paltry 5.1% annually under Iger.

No one had to explain away bad corporate behavior for Disney's first 50 years in the theme park industry, yet for some reason the "Disney is a business" crowd thinks it's OK to trot out this tired cliché every time the Disney "business" does something to bring Walt Disney World down.

Amazing post, well done.

Just because Disney is a business doesn't mean it needs to be run in this manner. Avoiding healthy risk, resting safely on IP instead of pursuing innovation, jacking prices through the roof while cost cutting at the expense of QUALITY, etc. is not the Disney way. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

“Well, I think by this time my staff are convinced that Walt is right. That quality will win out. And so I think they’re going to stay with that policy because it’s proved that it’s a good business policy. Give the people everything you can give them. Keep the place as clean as you can keep it. Keep it friendly, you know. Make it a real fun place to be. I think they’re convinced and I think they’ll hang on after… as you say… well… after Disney.” – Walt Disney

Still 100% true to this day. Too bad the current executive "staff" seems to have lost the message.

 

[Quinnmac000]

These Miyzaki rides remind me of that artist at Disney Animation who insists on doing this horrible Star Wars-Calvin and Hobbes mashup "lil kylo". Completely misses the point of Miyzaki's stories by shoehorning them into Fantasyland plot regurgitation rides. If Miya San's work inspires you, dig deeper.

Its quite annoying and ignorant how people are praising and begging for Miyazaki rides to be made without even fully realizing the source material and the story it is trying to tell. You can't put Totoro in the ride without telling the story and how he came into their lives with their mom being sick and how he represents hope and fun which signs during darkness or you can go with the actual real story that inspired it about the two girls who died in Japan in the 60s and how Totoro is suppose to represent an angel of death. You can't make a ride based on Spirited Away when its a story about human trafficking and the possibility of hope and freedom later on just by showing a dark ride with all the fun parts.

The only somewhat empty film that Disney could do a classic dark one is Ponyo.

 

[evilzorac]

I agree alcohol doesn't go with the Flower and Garden theme. They should sell marijuana instead.

Less fights and puking