Don't get me wrong. I wish and expect disney to do better than it is doing. I just think some folks here need perspective. Uni is playing catch up. Disney will need to change its ways, but it's not in danger of closing up shop as some here would suggest.
I absolutely agree. My personal experience is not in regards to adding rides at whatever rate it is from experiencing first hand that feeling. That feeling is the one that I had when I first drove on WDW property back in 1983. It was a feeling of vitality and joy. It was a feeling of exhilaration and discovery. It was a feeling of belonging.
When WDW started to close attractions for whatever reason that they had, when they didn't fill them up and it became obvious that it was closed because it "costs" money to operate is when I started to feel the difference. Disney didn't feel like we, the guests, were worth the expenditure, that we would just accept everything however they wanted to present it.
Many moons ago I ran a troubled retail variety store. I was hired fresh out of the service with no experience in retail and my job, I came to find out was to save a sinking ship. I'd look around at 15000 Sq. Ft. of retail floor space that had all the merchandise pulled up to the front edge of the shelf so that it looked full when actually there was hardly anything there. I couldn't save it. I didn't know how. I was hired because I worked cheap. I know what it feels like to watch helplessly as something dies due to incompetent operation.
When I first went to WDW there was no such thing as a closed building, be it a restaurant or attractions unless it was down for remodeling or fixing. Everything was stocked, vibrant and alive. Then all of a sudden these empty locations started to show up. The wonderful thing that was EPCOT was basically gutted to make way for some good, but mostly downgraded, attractions with a park that had no purpose anymore, no mission, no feeling. Then the same thing happened to DHS. Like it or not that feeling also was picked up either consciencely or unconsciencely by the CM's who tried their best to be upbeat and happy, but knew that they were in a place that very strongly resembled a place that was going out due to lack of business. Like the retail store I ran. It looked like it was dying and was being run like it was dying. There was money being made and there was no danger, at that point, that there was any severe problem but a lot of the life was gone. It looked like a park on it's way out with boarded up buildings that they could no longer support.
During that time when it was the best, many of us, me included, made side trips to Uni. I liked the place but it was always a Disney wanna be to me. Then about a year ago I went back to Uni after an absence of about 6 years. Much to my surprise and upset, that feeling that I had when I first entered WDW all those years ago, was at UNI. It looked like a healthy, vibrant, alive happy place. It reflected in the faces of the "Team Members". They were working for a growing, healthy and optimistic place. It was felt by people like me. It made me sad because that was a feeling that I had hoped that I would always have for Disney, but, they downsized. Yes, they were still bigger then Uni, but they were missing the one thing that Uni now had and that was chemistry.
I know that those that have not been making WDW a stop off point for the last 30 years are not going to be able to see that. Even many of those that do have not yet been able to correctly identify what the problem is and feel that maintenance has declined and the property is deteriorating. It's not that at all. The places that are operating are actually in better shape (other then CoP) then it was 30 years ago. But the Magic that was there back then is no longer there. We know it because we lived it. Those that are more recent visitors do not have that basis of comparison and don't understand why some of us are negative.
Yes, Uni is playing catchup but they are also doing something that they weren't doing 3 or 4 years ago and that is impressing people. They are taking Disney's playbook and playing it better at this point. I don't get upset about Disney doing the MM+ project because they needed a technical upgrade, but that is their baby, not the guests. To the guest that whole system is about the same as how a cash register in a grocery store affects them. It's a tool that they use to conduct their business and financial parts. We, as guests, only come in contact with it because we have too. We didn't drive/fly thousand of miles to have the honor of wearing a magic band. We know that, they know that...it's all spin.
I don't fear the possibility that Uni will overtake Disney in size or visitors. If that ever were to happen it will be many years in the making, but, if they want to stay healthy, alive and vibrant they need to get that look and feel back. They need to have people feel it again without knowing that is what they are feeling. They had it locked up once and I really believe that they can get it back, but now they might just have to share it with their neighbor up the road. They may never be the only game in town again. The sooner that they recognize that and take steps to correct it, the stronger they will be in the future, but, as I said before, Mr. Disney has been dead for 46 years now. His coattails have held for a very long time but they won't last forever. Disney is living on a legacy left by a unique individual. They have no one like that currently and sooner or later those coattails are going to fray.
