Disney, nostalgia, and the future

[Mainahman]

Let me leave this here:

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen boys and girls. All of us at Epcot center are glad to have you as our guests today, we welcome you and hope you find your day with us to be a most enjoyable one Walt Disney was a dreamer and a doer, a man who cared about the world and its
problems he believed that people could develop solutions to problems if equipped with information, technology, and opportunity. Epcot center has been created to showcase prototype concepts and technologies that may someday serve people everywhere. This is the essence of Epcot Center a collective endeavor by people, for people in the hope for a better world.
From all of us in the Disney family we hope you enjoy
your stay in Epcot center.
and now we ask for your safety and those around you that you walk slowly and carefully to your first destination.
Have a great day and welcome to the 21st century"

 

[danyoung56]

...and now we ask for your safety and those around you that you walk slowly and carefully to your first destination....

This line has always bothered me - it's grammatically incorrect. It should be ". . .for your safety and the safety of those around you . . ."

Ain't I just the picky one?

 

[Mainahman]

This line has always bothered me - it's grammatically incorrect. It should be ". . .for your safety and the safety of those around you . . ."

Ain't I just the picky one?

ive been listening to the original opening loops a lot lately, and you know your right!

 

[Lets Respect]

From a personal perspective I disagree with this. I'm a single visitor, and have been storming WDW a couple times a year for over 20 years. And I'm always made welcome - I've never had the sense that they were trying to discourage me in any way. You may be right about company policy, but I've not seen any evidence of it.

Of course repeat visitors are welcome. I just don't think they care anymore about their loyalty.

 

[The_Jobu]

Nostalgia can be truly powerful when it's earned and not marketed. That's one of the best things Disney has going for them. Universal doesn't have anything (aside from ET).

 

[Walt Disney1955]

But here's the thing Phil, humans can do that and it works. like you my family has those type of storys but let me say as a business gal, businesses pretty much have to stay current or they die. Now the reality is the real connection is not so much the attraction but the connection to the loved ones. So to play devils advocate, your grandparents loved it, now your kids have kids (you are now the grand dad) and they go. The thing is in all probability these kids have cut their teeth on a whole different type of fun. The country bears now are more "cute" or "quaint" than anything, the powers that be NEED to be concious of this.
Whether we like it or not unless your parents actually go out and get a copy of Dumbo, the kids today aren't going to watch it. They don't want to watch Peter Pan flying through the air, not when they've been weened on Iron Man and Luke skywalker.

lol, my family story.. below is a picture of a couple of my cousins and kids at Disney world. We were there celebrating my Aunts 100th birthday. yep my aunt had a ball at 100 at the mouse world, now of course she did not go on rides but she had a ball. One of things she always says when people ask her about her age is to "hang around" the youngins. she has an ipod lol, is learning technology. Morale of the story is if you don't change and keep up with the times, you die.

Now maybe they could have updated the Great Movie ride instead of just getting rid of it but the ride was dated. sure us adults who knew about Humprey Borgart got a kick but the newbies to the park? I'm betting not so much.
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I'm a dvc member so my goal when I purchased in 2001 was to be a continuous visitor, my love of the world is not connected to a ride, it's more of a feeling we get when we are at the world. Love, happiness and all the other cliches but again, no I do not want to see the same old stuff year after year. Does every thing have to be IP? no. that maybe a legitimate gripe but jeez what is the problem with updating the "Carousel of Progress" lol that ride was developed for the 1964 Worlds fair by GE. guess what, we've got the hang on the whole electric light and electricity thing. update it.

The point is that there is a noticeable nostalgia with Disney that you don't see with anyone else. Universal has torn that from their parks, and what happens in 2040 when Harry Potter isn't "cool"? My kids love old Disney movies. Dumbo? Yes. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, they've seen them all and love them. Why? Because they are all 7 and under. I wasn't born when those movies came out either but I still loved them. Nothing beats the movies Walt made. They had a touch to them that hasn't been there since.

Disney needs to be aware of things, but that is why the whole "one foot in the past, one in the future" idea is the best. Why do you think Disney still gets millions of people every year? Why are their 60 year old people on these boards? It is simple, because they can still visit a park that hasn't sold out to the flavour of the month (at least not on EVERYTHING) and Disney itself knows that there is something to the whole "I rode this when I was your age" type of thing. It sells. Or it has for 60 years at least. My guess is it will continue to.

 

[HauntedPirate]

It's been mentioned in another thread that there are more kids who are choosing Universal over WDW, that WDW is "losing mind-share" with more and more kids today. That's the problem that no one in Burbank wants to face, because they are too busy worrying about how to make the next quarterly financials look as good or better than the last. They think they can put out some slop with the hot IP of the month/year attached to it and print money. What happens when more and more people get tired of paying a big premium for an average experience? Or when kids today aren't into Star Wars because the movies Disney has produced just aren't all that great?

 

[DfromATX]

As an adult, I'm living through my children's experience with their first time. I see their love and joy grow and I share in it. So when my family goes back in 15-20 years (regardless of how many times in between we go) my wife and I will always have memories of our first few times going to the park.

Same here. My husband and I didn't start going to Disney World until we had kids. So... we don't have the nostalgia that others have on here. I don't know the toad ride or a lot of the older things that are mentioned here. Our memories start from 2006.

Now our 4 kids range from 15-22 - and yes, we ALL still love going. Everyone has nostalgic feelings for something from "years gone by," but I agree, we parents are now living it with our kids. I hope years from now we are still going, but I also hope when our kids have kids of their own, THEY will have the fond memories and nostalgia from THEIR childhood. I hope one day, maybe when I'm slower and perhaps won't be able to handle Tower of Terror, that I'll still be able to go and my "job" will be to watch my grand kids while their parents go on it.

 

[TwilightZone]

It's been mentioned in another thread that there are more kids who are choosing Universal over WDW, that WDW is "losing mind-share" with more and more kids today. That's the problem that no one in Burbank wants to face, because they are too busy worrying about how to make the next quarterly financials look as good or better than the last. They think they can put out some slop with the hot IP of the month/year attached to it and print money. What happens when more and more people get tired of paying a big premium for an average experience? Or when kids today aren't into Star Wars because the movies Disney has produced just aren't all that great?

Untrue statement, disney is much more crowed than universal during all my double trips. Really universal is a teen and adult thing.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Untrue statement, disney is much more crowed than universal during all my double trips. Really universal is a teen and adult thing.

No one is questioning that WDW is busier than Universal.

 

[TwilightZone]

No one is questioning that WDW is busier than Universal.

My bad! But still, I don't think kids care much about the movies the rides are based on as much as we do. They see the new star wars and marvel, and they love it, then good for them. If they get older and dislike the movie, or still like it, who cares? Plus I don't think kids particularly like harry potter or transformers anymore, they just like the rides because they are fun. But I could be wrong with that assumption. One has to remember what it was like to be a kid to understand them, and that is how I was like as a kid.