I feel compelled to pipe in here because I worked for the company seven years and just returned from a trip yesterday.
WDW is definitely being improved in many areas. Is it the "best it's ever been"? No. That honor belongs to the late 80s and early 90s, when each year welcomed multiple blockbuster attractions and maintenance was at an all-time high. (D-MGM, Norway, WoL Pavilion, Splash, AE, fully functioning EPCOT Center, fully functioning MK, Spectromagic, PI, various resorts—Great Scott!)
But last week, WDW was shining like it hasn't for over a decade. Animatronics were moving smoothly. The new-ish FoF day parade is fantastic. Overall maintenance (except for IASW) was superb. I contend that with its short ride time, SDMT is dangerously a near-miss; but its atmosphere is worthy of TDS, and the kiddie coaster will be more enjoyable when the initial hype wears off and it doesn't command two-hour waits. I couldn't be happier to see the BAH come down. The updated Illuminations is better than any other Disney night show, including World of Color. My heavily discounted room at the Boardwalk was in good shape.
The entire resort is not falling apart like it was a few years ago. Things are definitely on an upswing. I agree with
@Goofyernmost that WDW is acting like a world-class resort again. He still needs some scrubbing, but Mickey is finally getting a much-needed bath.
My impressions of the parks from my visit a couple of months ago (early October) was considerably different. I visited MK and Epcot only (didn't have tine for the other two). Some things have improved, others have gotten worse than i've ever seen them. The new attractions are still in pretty good condition overall, particularly Mine Train which is still a very recent attraction. As they should be, I expect them to look at least somewhat decent for the first year or two. Give it a few years and we'll see what condition New Fantasyland is in (the facial projections worry me). I did already have one complaint with Mermaid that wasn't technically show related (though it kind of matters particularly in this case)- the air conditioning was almost nonexistent. I had heard complaining about this, but didn't understand how bad it was until an unpleasantly sweltering ride on it (the first time I rode it). It's awful, hope they change their tune before the weather heats up again.
Other rides were far more mixed. Splash Mountain and Spaceship Earth are the oddball outliers of quality, both were in very good condition overall last time I rode. Splash has remained in pretty good condition since its big refurb a few years ago, we'll see how long it stays that way (generally only one or two animatronics work inconsistently). Other rides were much more negative. Pirates was in pretty dire condition, I gather this is still the case now (it's supposed to get a big refurb soon, we'll see what happens). Big Thunder was in better condition than last time I rode a few years back (it got a moderate refurb since), but the waterfall was off on the first lift and the third lift is in pitiful shape. Spirit said we'd probably get Disneyland's new effects sometime this year but we'll see what happens.
Main Street is looking pretty nice from the outside. They've started adding new LED trim lighting starting at the Crystal Palace section (the rest of the buildings still appear to have traditional incandescent), hopefully it will lead to fewer broken lights. I stayed at the park until the lights started coming on at dusk to see what they looked like. The quality of the LED lights are quite good, but a number of the new bulbs were already not working. I have to wonder what's going on when relatively brand new LED's are already apparently broken (they can easily last for decades of even constant use provided they're built with decent quality materials). I can't figure out why they were out, unless each light can be switched on individually and they weren't all on yet or if they've deliberately switched some of them off to pinch pennies (an already pathetic excuse that becomes even more ridiculous considering how little LED's cost to run).
Grand Floridian's trim lighting situation looks awful. Only Narcoosies' trim lights were functioning, the rest of the resort was entirely dark. Looked terrible a few years ago, looks far worse now.
I've noticed a huge drop in cleanliness in the bathrooms. I mentioned this a while back and I apologize if this is too much information, but food poisoning caused me frequent visits during my trip. In the past (2012 and prior) it was common for cast members to constantly patrol the bathrooms and keep them clean. My most recent trip however I spotted no cast members in ANY of the bathrooms. There was a perpetual and growing amount of filth and stench inside and in the general vicinity around the MK bathrooms. Even the new ones at Gaston's and the Tangled area were filthy, several stalls were unusable and remained uncleaned throughout my time there. The one near guest services on Main Street was particularly nasty, and the stink carried to the upper seating area at the train station. Future World's bathrooms weren't as bad, but most of the crowds were at World Showcase and I didn't visit the bathrooms there.
Except for SSE, EPCOT wasn't in very good condition from my visit. Caught a final ride on Maelstrom shortly before its closure, it was in AWFUL condition. The building i'm guessing has been leaking for some time, there was mold and water damage on the walls, carpet and other elements (there was black mold visible on the ceiling a few years back until they replaced the white ceiling tiles with black ones which mask the issue). Several AA's weren't moving (including the troll before the drop). Guess they had just given up on keeping the ride up in recent years and didn't bother since it was closing. Living With The Land has gotten far worse since 2012, most of the AA's were either non-moving or only slightly moving (particularly the buffalo and ALL of rainforest animals). The doors separating the farm scenes and the greenhouse were non working and left constantly open. Soarin's film quality has been awful for years, it still looks terrible and desperately needs help. Test Track I believe is supposed to have some fog effects during one of the scenes that is already broken. I didn't ride Universe of Energy, but there was a topic recently that stated some of the AA's were missing.
I'm considering a visit either this month or next month (though we'll see, things often get in the way). I'll see if any of the issues I had have been fixed yet.
