Aha! Disney Parks were never perfect...or were they?

[dreamscometrue]

I enjoyed this blog/editorial by Jack. I never think much about the "What would Walt do?" line of thinking, but I found the information in the blog about Walt's 'questionable decisions' interesting. A quick read will show you where I'm coming from with this post.

http://land.allears.net/blogs/jackspence/2012/06/what_would_walt_do_1.html

Although the issues of which Jack writes are well know, including the part about financial limitations, it is important to be reminded occasionally that the things about which people sometimes complain, have been present since Disney opened the first park in 1955.

Sometimes reading these boards, we are given the impression that WDW was perfect, or really friggin' close to it, in the 80s and 90s. I have no doubt that there was more 'vision' back then. I mean, there was even a place called Future World, which had a unifying theme. Now, it's a jumble of left over attractions and some thrill rides.(All of which, by the way, I enjoy...it should just drop the false 'Future World' moniker). I also have no doubt that there was more money spent on maintenence. Apparently, everything worked or was quickly repaired. Cool, I hope that happens again in the future.

What that article did do though, was remind me that there have always been significant problems, a fact that never, ever seems to come up when people talk about the WDW good 'ol days. Sounds to me like a branch falling of the Tree of Life, an empty 'Hot Set' in Pixar place, a new Dumbo with scraped knees, a shuttered 'Sounds Dangerous' or WoL pavillion, could have all been realities at any time since Walt started this whole deal.

For the people who do rave about the 'golden years' at WDW, I have serious questions. How did it get so perfect for all those years? Who made it so? Was it Eisner, who many vilify for rapid growth without vision? (You know, the guy who let the forced perspective of the Eiffel Tower get destroyed by the hotel in the background.) If not Eisner, who? How did we go from Walt's imperfect park, to a near perfect WDW, to a less than perfect 'World' today?

Sounds like we might be back to what Walt created 57 years ago. Hmmm, if that was good enough for Walt Disney, then...

 

[Mr.Skunkape]

Some people will find stuff to complain about no matter what Disney does. I do not see how you could make 40+ million visitors a year all happy about everything.

 

[flynnibus]

Two words for you

Direction...

And

Pattern...

It's not about one problem.. It's the trend and escalations

 

[powlessfamily4]

Nothing is perfect or even close to it. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder and exists in only in our minds.

 

[Master Yoda]

For whatever reason, we tend to remember the good and forget the bad. When someone can show me actual data (maintenance reports, procedural changes, etc) proving that the XX was the "golden age", I'll believe it.

 

[CaptainWinter]

Outstanding article. I think new users on these boards should be required to read it as part of registering for an account

 

[CaptainWinter]

More fun facts about Disneyland '55 (these from Gabler's book):

- When DL opened, "Tomorrowland" consisted of a dirt path that ended nowhere. They hadn't finished building it in time.

- To pad the number of things to see around the park, Walt had various weeds around the park labeled with little signs displaying their Latin names -- so they seemed like part of the show!

 

[jlsHouston]

good article..

 

[lazyboy97o]

The Walt Disney Company is the most experienced theme park operator in the world today. Nobody denies past mistakes. The issues is when lessons go unlearned and once learned lessons are tossed aside. Disney today has the experience and resources.

 

[dreamscometrue]

Two words for you

Direction...

And

Pattern...

It's not about one problem.. It's the trend and escalations

Would you care to elaborate?

 

[Motorpro]

Was it perfect ? Of coures not but was it better? YES There are no facts ot fiqures to prove it.You have to have seen how clean it was,how happy and friendly the cast members were, how with no fast passes people would stand in long lines and never complane or try to cut through. Why would you, you knew you were in the happiest place on earth.

 

[jaredliu]

I was thinking it was because other family members of Disney Park has catching up to its big brother. People here are used to believe that WDW was the best, is the best, and will be best of all. The king, the most spectacular that Disney company has ever created. But after DisneySea came out, after DL catching up, after HKDL is making something really cool after its bumping start, and after Universal is able to not only make single attraction great, but made a harry potter land that argubaly surpassed anything Disney has ever done state side, things are different. I have seen lots of footage of the WDW in its 70s and 80s, I would say lack of competition plays a bigger factor than its sheer perfection. Today, if ever been to DisneySea, and you go back and look at MK, you will be amazed how far WDW is falling behind.

The problem is, it was supposed to be a healthy competition except TDO's management style destroy that. They have a lot to catching up and that is going back to the basics. The basics is to create a land like CarsLand, Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch, Mysterious Island and WWOHP fromUniversal. If you ever have a chance to step into those land, you will be amazed that not only how good Unviersal can be, but Disney itself can be when it has a vision.

Take a look at a day in DisneySea and think big!

 

[rodserling27]

Good read. Excellent read. The "What would Walt do?" philosophy is a good way to hold WDW and related things to high-standards and good show, but not to "backtrack" or to overly criticize. "What would Walt Do" is not a good excuse to say "bring back 20k" or "get rid of FastPasses" necessarily..(Though I'm not saying there aren't valid arguments for either of those!). Thanks for the post.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Two words for you

Direction...

And

Pattern...

It's not about one problem.. It's the trend and escalations

Exactly.

None of these examples will ever justify the current mistakes and quality control issues of current management, or change them for the better. We can talk about Crane's Bathroom of Tomorrow for hours, but it won't fix the Yeti or bring back Lights of Winter or the uncut HalloWishes.

And what's the point in citing anything relating to Tomorrowland '55 when a decade later it was almost completely changed? I don't really care what Disneyland looked like on opening day, because the circumstances (in budgeting, funding, expectations and timing) we're radically different from what they are today. It would be more productive to look at how the park evolved during the rest of his life to see what changed for the better or worse.

There's also a difference between trying something (like the Cricus) and failing and just...not bothering to fix something or making a budget cut. There's more than one type of "mistake/problem", you know.

 

[koryadams]

I am a perfectionist, and I can tell you, nothing and no one is perfect, but WDW I think has grown and has gotten better because of new ideas and trial and error! I mean look when it opened...and now look! (maybe I shouldn't have said that to you lol)

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Good read. Excellent read. The "What would Walt do?" philosophy is a good way to hold WDW and related things to high-standards and good show, but not to "backtrack" or to overly criticize. "What would Walt Do" is not a good excuse to say "bring back 20k" or "get rid of FastPasses" necessarily..(Though I'm not saying there aren't valid arguments for either of those!). Thanks for the post.

I agree with this too. I'm pretty sure Walt wouldn't have approved of something like ToT, but it shows that public tastes in things can change over time.

 

[bethymouse]

Walt's big thing was to new things and redo things that aren't working pretty quickly if possible. If left to his own he probably would have gone bankrupt. It's always good to have another person around who will stop you from going to far in your own direction. Always a balance in business.

BTW I've been to WDW in the 70's 80's 90's and 2000's. The only thing I noticed is more rides having problems and lower maintenance in the last 10 years. On the other hand I'm almost getting annoyed with the amount of construction going on the last few years, it's needed but everywhere I go in MK there seems to a wall I'm looking at. MK is old and I would expect it to falling apart by now so ..... I do miss the cigarette picker uppers, the park was cleaner when you could smoke every where since there was always a herd of CM's with brooms and dust pans picking up butts continually. I see more trash laying around since they came up with smoking areas.

Really? I see them picking up buttes all of the time as well as trash!

 

[Figment2005]

Everything that I have read points to the fact that Walt wasn't afraid to change or adapt around what the customer wanted. We as fans think that the best thing for WDW is what we remember and enjoy, but there is one problem with that line of thinking. That problem is that we are a small minority in a much larger group of people that visit the property. Just because something gets added that we completely dislike and we claim the company is moving in the wrong direction doesn't mean we are right.

What I am seeing from the Disney Company right now is the same adaptation that occurred when Walt was in charge. To me the company is fully aware of what will bring in the largest crowds and they are capitalizing on it. To me, that's exactly what Walt would have done.

 

[dreamscometrue]

I agree with this too. I'm pretty sure Walt wouldn't have approved of something like ToT, but it shows that public tastes in things can change over time.

I'm not so sure Walt would have approved of anything in the E.P.C.O.T Center, including the beloved Future World, that was built either. It was very far from his vision for an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. As Jack notes, we really have no idea whay he would have thought.

My interest in the article is about the challenges and lack of perfection that has always existed, despite some people trying to suggest that wasn't the case. Furthermore, the same Disney Parks issues with budget constraints, quickly 'thrown together' projects, lack of direction, etc. existed in Disney's 2D world as well. Love it or hate it, Dumbo, for example, was short, thrown together rather quickly, and created with the main purpose of making the studio some money. Not exactly an exercise in vision, creativity or perfection.

 

[dreamscometrue]

Was it perfect ? Of coures not but was it better? YES There are no facts ot fiqures to prove it.You have to have seen how clean it was,how happy and friendly the cast members were, how with no fast passes people would stand in long lines and never complane or try to cut through. Why would you, you knew you were in the happiest place on earth.

Here's the thing. I think it's immaculate now, and in 10 trips in the past 5 years (with daily visits to the parks and staying onsite), the number of rude CMs our family has met could be counted on 1 hand. Maybe it's us....we're nice people.

I did mention on another thread a few months ago that I can't convince my father in law to come with us to WDW because he went 35 years ago and remembers being bored in sweltering 2 hour queues and rude CMs.That was 1977 I believe he said. If only there were some sort of 'hold your place in line' system so you could wait only 15 minutes, or some indoor queues with interactive elements, or air conditioned queues for the little ones waiting for attractions like Dumbo. Man, if someone could come up with some of that stuff, I'm sure he'd go back. If only...oh well, never hurts to dream and imagine what could be.