Article: How The Mouse Stumbled........

[JD80]

Not quite sure where this recent dislike of Filoni is coming from. Clone wars, rebels, bad batch all have been overseen by him. It’s as if when anybody finds anything they don’t like about the Mandalorian and its spinoffs, they blame it on Filoni, rather than Favreau.

I’m not saying he’s perfect, Asoka was too boring for me to stay interested. I think he’s just making a difficult transition to live action.

Blame Favreau too.

 

[JD80]

But character meet n greet halls with multiple rooms and back-to-back sets are expensive to operate from a labor standpoint. Between characters, their handlers, queue attendants and photopass photographers, it's a lot. And for not much capacity either. The push from management to have them is to satisfy guest demand and sell photos, autograph books, pens, costumes and such.

But it has taken away resources and funds for park ops from other things and I agree the heavy focus on them is not necessarily to the benefit of all park guests.

I'm going to guess that Fairytale Hall is more expensive to operate and has a lower throughput than Snow White's Scary Adventures, but contributes more to merch sales and guest satisfaction. That does not mean that replacing a ride with a meet and greet was the right decision, especially in the long run. A park like MK shouldn't have to chose between the two.

Absolutely. I think Disney should allocate those funds elsewhere. Little girls (or boys) really don't need to meet princesses.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I have always been dismayed by the meet and greets. Not for the children that are still in their Santa Claus/tooth fairy/easter bunny era but adults. That worries me. Not the ones that think it is just fun to have a picture taken with one as a personal souvenir, but those that actually get all excited about it and make it a long wait for those kids that truly believe they are meeting something special. A functioning adult should be ok with the souvenir situation, but not the autograph and excitement value. Fortunately, when my kids were small they didn't have those stand in line in the hot sun and wait to see some college kid in a costume and foam head pretend to be a cartoon character. That would have taken up way to much time that could have been used to stand in a line in the heat for hours to ride a ride that lasts for two minutes and it back into another line. Now that's the fun part especially after you had to take a second mortgage just to pay to get into the place. That last part might have had a touch of sarcasm attached.

 

[DisneyHead123]

I have always been dismayed by the meet and greets. Not for the children that are still in their Santa Claus/tooth fairy/easter bunny era but adults. That worries me. Not the ones that think it is just fun to have a picture taken with one as a personal souvenir, but those that actually get all excited about it and make it a long wait for those kids that truly believe they are meeting something special. A functioning adult should be ok with the souvenir situation, but not the autograph and excitement value. Fortunately, when my kids were small they didn't have those stand in line in the hot sun and wait to see some college kid in a costume and foam head pretend to be a cartoon character. That would have taken up way to much time that could have been used to stand in a line in the heat for hours to ride a ride that lasts for two minutes and it back into another line. Now that's the fun part especially after you had to take a second mortgage just to pay to get into the place. That last part might have had a touch of sarcasm attached.

I have horrendous social anxiety so character meets are a nightmare. I suck it up for my son at the character meals but interacting with a stranger in a costume is super anxiety provoking, lol.

That said, I think young people today get into cosplay and all that kind of stuff, right? Wasn’t that the idea behind the Star Cruiser hotel? Again, having through the roof social anxiety I completely don’t get it at all, but I think it’s a thing for millennials and younger. I recall seeing a bunch of stuff about cosplay in the D23 promotional material.

 

[Piebald]

This sentence jumped out at me.

According to two former corporate employees, the company eschews hiring what one referred to as “superfans,” viewing a love for the brand as “a huge turnoff.”

I think it goes a long way towards explaining what they have done with the parks in recent years. They do not understand why we value the experience and they don't want to. They see us weirdos as nothing more than a money spigot that can be tuned and turned ever higher.

When I interviewed at Disney for a corporate position I was interviewed by 2 senior managers and the juxtaposition was hilarious. One had been there for like 30yrs and basically said they just kinda fell into it and never expected to be there that long. The other had a Happy Birthday Donald Duck zoom background and came off as big super fan. Said it was their dream to work for the company and they moved to Florida to make those dreams come true.

I think ultimately it depends on who interviews you but I can see how hiring super fans is a turn off for many.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

I have always been dismayed by the meet and greets. Not for the children that are still in their Santa Claus/tooth fairy/easter bunny era but adults. That worries me. Not the ones that think it is just fun to have a picture taken with one as a personal souvenir, but those that actually get all excited about it and make it a long wait for those kids that truly believe they are meeting something special. A functioning adult should be ok with the souvenir situation, but not the autograph and excitement value. Fortunately, when my kids were small they didn't have those stand in line in the hot sun and wait to see some college kid in a costume and foam head pretend to be a cartoon character. That would have taken up way to much time that could have been used to stand in a line in the heat for hours to ride a ride that lasts for two minutes and it back into another line. Now that's the fun part especially after you had to take a second mortgage just to pay to get into the place. That last part might have had a touch of sarcasm attached.

Agreed. And lots of party tickets are sold just for the rare meets.

 

[TrojanUSC]

Having worked both in the parks and in Team Disney in Burbank, I can tell you that this article is 100% right in how the company looks down upon true fans of the brand, particularly as it relates to employment on the corporate level. On the parks side, nobody really cares if you're a fan or not, but in Burbank/Glendale, I don't think I met one single person over my three years there who really was a diehard fan of Disney or who cared to understand what makes it special. Hiring mangers were so focused on hiring out of top schools or from consulting firms that any love of Disney would nearly immediately make them reconsider a hiring decision if a candidate professed such a love.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I have horrendous social anxiety so character meets are a nightmare. I suck it up for my son at the character meals but interacting with a stranger in a costume is super anxiety provoking, lol.

That said, I think young people today get into cosplay and all that kind of stuff, right? Wasn’t that the idea behind the Star Cruiser hotel? Again, having through the roof social anxiety I completely don’t get it at all, but I think it’s a thing for millennials and younger. I recall seeing a bunch of stuff about cosplay in the D23 promotional material.

Yes, that was the idea behind that, however, it is obvious that was a reach far beyond what the public is willing to pay for a cosplay. I wonder how much money Disney lost off that erroneous investment. That was a prime example of misjudging, the extent of the fan dedication to Star Wars. In fact, the whole Star Wars Land has yet to live up to the expectations they imagined.

 

[John park hopper]

I much preferred when the characters walk freely around MK I hate the meet and greet and I despise the character meals. It seems when they did the character meals they jacked the prices up

 

[Goofyernmost]

Having worked both in the parks and in Team Disney in Burbank, I can tell you that this article is 100% right in how the company looks down upon true fans of the brand, particularly as it relates to employment on the corporate level. On the parks side, nobody really cares if you're a fan or not, but in Burbank/Glendale, I don't think I met one single person over my three years there who really was a diehard fan of Disney or who cared to understand what makes it special. Hiring mangers were so focused on hiring out of top schools or from consulting firms that any love of Disney would nearly immediately make them reconsider a hiring decision if a candidate professed such a love.

That may be why the Parks have lost their sparkle. In the 80's there were lines of people, huge fans, that were working for Disney. It certainly never was the pay or the hours or the lifestyle. I know I wanted to do that. I wanted to somehow find a way or a skill that I might have that would draw attention to me and make them want me to be there as much as I wanted to be there.

That feeling was what prompted my change of careers as I approached retirement age. I decided that it would be fun to be a bus driver there so I got a job that taught me how to drive buses and get my CDL after years of management positions. Even before that I had aspirations to do Disney events where I could speak to groups of people about going to WDW in particular. That was based on how many people that I had convinced to go there.

The bus driver thing got me a fun good paying job driving municipal buses. Then I went into the personnel building at WDW and found out that I had to take the risk in order to get the job. I had to move from Vermont to Orlando with no guarantee that I would be hired. They insisted that I have a local address and then they would talk to me. I also found out at the same time that in order to take that job I had to take a $19.00 per hour cut in pay from my present driving job. I'm so glad that I didn't take that risk of living in poverty just to be close to a cartoon mouse.

I'm now a little bitter since they priced and downgraded my experience out of having any desire to even go there much less work for them.

 

[larryz]

...and he seemed to have his thumb on the pulse of some of these issues...

When you read a pulse with your thumb, you can confuse your own thumb's arterial flow with that of the subject.

I'm not sure that's the picture you meant to convey.

 

[larryz]

We are ALL adults until we get on a Disney forum

FTFY

 

[larryz]

If you’re a grown man who has “his breath taken away” by seeing a UCF sophomore in a Cinderella costume, weird would be a generous term.

Breathtaking beauty is breathtaking, no matter how "grown" you are.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Decent article but boy, that author thinks pretty highly of themselves. Love the part where they describe Walt as a "probable antisemite" while in the same sentence noting that he was a frequent collaborator of two Jewish immigrants.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Is there a tl;dr of this?

 

[Jrb1979]

Hard disagree. Disney has never been better. It has moments like anything, but the ship has been righted.

It depends on how you look at it. For me who started going to the parks since the mid 80s, they have gotten worse. What made them different is not just IP or attractions but each park had its theme. They have slowly made all the parks blend together. They focus too much on E tickets for new additions. The parks need filler attractions too. Not everything needs to have a 2 hour wait.

 

[Jrb1979]

In some ways yes. DCL is where you get service like it used to be, but it has gotten better in Orlando.

Go during off-peak crowds, and there's no world where the past was better, outside of the "park in theme park” experience it used to be which is eerily similar to Europa Park, and what WDW is trying to bring back since Universal has done it with Epic.

Otherwise, I agree with everything you said.

I disagree. IMO dark rides like Horizons were much better than a lot of the dark rides they make now.

My other problem is the thrills they do add are lackluster compared to what Universal does. IMO if you going to add thrills make it worth while.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Hard disagree. Disney has never been better. It has moments like anything, but the ship has been righted.

Did you hit your head?

It’s never been more rudderless…across the board

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You're just misinformed.

…ohhhh….i love a challenge…

Do tell?

 

[DisneyHead123]

Hard disagree. Disney has never been better. It has moments like anything, but the ship has been righted.

I agree that the parks and cruises are doing very well. Still places I want to visit, certainly. I’m going to quibble over “never been better” because I think it’s more nuanced than that. Like most things in life, it’s about trade offs, not absolutes. I don’t think anyone would say, for example, that Disney has the level of customer service it did in the 1970s. Given their staffing needs and various cultural changes, just ain’t no way that’s going to happen. But, they have expanded their offerings exponentially since that time, and that is greatly appreciated.

I think for many things, it depends on what a person values. The parks are bigger now, more technology oriented, less personal - in much the same way society is. But they offer an amazing array of food, experiences, resorts, and so on. It’s not for me to tell someone what to value, but I still really enjoy the parks and would love to do a cruise in the next few years.