You have indeed said that in person! We need to have another one of those walks next time you're in O-town!
Yes, Kevin, we absolutely do. My recent trip wasn't conducive to meeting since much of it was business-related (didn't even hit Studios or DAK at all). My one full park day was at .... IOA!
I have the feeling next time we see each other, I'll just be blathering on about how amazing TDR was and we'll never even get to rag on WDW.:drevil:
There are certainly times I agree with you, that I ought to be lowering the boom far harder. At the end of the day, I just feel wrong if I haven't "called it as I see it"... and the truth is, there is still a lot which is positive to see.
I get that. I still see plenty of positive (less though than the other Disney resorts) ... it's just I don't think Disney needs to know (from a blogger's perspective) what it's doing well. First, you have the blogging/podcasting whores who will take anything from The Mouse (see Disney Dream launch, which I have a feeling you weren't invited on!) to puke forth the WDC's talking points/PR. Second, it's usually not hard to tell when you're doing something right. You don't get guest complaints. CMs tell you 'it's working' . You get guests telling you ... etc ...
I could blather on about how nice Mansion looks now ... or how tasty the food is at the California Grill. But why? It doesn't address the issues (and WDW has plenty) and I think Disney knows.
I'm not blind to the cumulative effect: if you say the good with the bad, it implies the bad isn't so bad. It probably would be more effective to harp only on the bad. But that isn't entirely 'honest' to my experience, which is why I don't do that. I'm really only comfortable relaying what I see.
But a lot of that needs to be put into context ... for instance, I really liked your column today, but it's such a complex issue ... and you nailed the key point (even if it was buried a bit) in that if NEXTGEN is really all about adding capacity to address guests' biggest complaint (lines, waits, not able to do it all) then wouldn't it have been better to spend the billion plus on adding new attractions that actually ADD capacity to the park ... instead of virtual queues that will send more people into the packed walkways? (BTW, am thinking of starting a thread here about the whole idiocy of it all)
The reason the Board of TWDC approved such a large investment in NEXTGEN wasn't to add capacity to the parks like MK or to improve the guest experiences by having them book meet-and-greets and FPs in advance along with meals (and soon bathroom breaks and churro stops!) ... it was approved because it will generate revenue and profit from Day 1 as at its heart is datamining and using the info to get guests to spend more in all manner of ways. It's to move the revenue model almost to a virtual ticket book where everything is a la carte and your value at the table is based on where you are staying, what rate you are paying, what services you have taken advantage of (from DME to DDP etc).
Disney isn't investing a billion plus (I've heard the actual number is closer to $1.5 in the real world) because it wants to improve people's MAGICal WDW vacations. That may well happen for some people, but that's not the purpose.
It's totally opposite to say UNI adding WWoHP to IOA to attract guests, which also has amazingly enough done wonders for the bottom line.
The Mouse still doesn't get it.
