First the napkins, now the cups?

[ParentsOf4]

8 year old girls dont notice cups

My 6 year old twin daughters loved the cups and the napkins and a lot of other little details. We still have a collection from those trips. I'm sure your 8 year old loves other things at WDW. How would she feel if corporate Disney started taking those away?

Let's remove the Welcome to WDW sign, it's rotting and costs too much to replace.

Let's stop painting the buses and monorails with Disney theming, nothing but an expense.

Let's get rid of all those silly meet-and-greets, they don't generate any revenue.

What's your threshold? At what point will corporate Disney take away something that you care about?

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

What's your threshold? At what point will corporate Disney take away something that you care about?

Im safe the bars bring in too much money.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Im safe the bars bring in too much money.

Now that one had me laughing.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

My 6 year old twin daughters loved the cups and the napkins and a lot of other little details. We still have a collection from those trips. I'm sure your 8 year old loves other things at WDW. How would she feel if corporate Disney started taking those away?

Let's remove the Welcome to WDW sign, it's rotting and costs too much to replace.

Let's stop painting the buses and monorails with Disney theming, nothing but an expense.

Let's get rid of all those silly meet-and-greets, they don't generate any revenue.

What's your threshold? At what point will corporate Disney take away something that you care about?

Joking and sarcasm aside, Disney has pushed my buttons, thats why we will be visiting elsewhere in your good land in a couple of weeks, and why we will no longer be visiting WDW annually as we have done since 98. As the ubber fans point out if your not happy with the product dont go, so were not. Im sure it wont bother Disney, but then not visiting WDW isnt bothering me.

 

[Glasgow]

I heard they were going to be moving to large troughs and you just scoop out some Coke with your hands. Bet you'd all be wishing for the non-Disney cups back then!

Seriously though, pitchforks for cups? Maybe these ones are better for the environment or much cheaper to produce, yielding more money for the parks .. (read: execs) lol

Edit : incidentally, Disney has started to price me out as well (as compared to the offerings). We will not be going this year either, first time since 2000

 

[alphac2005]

Joking and sarcasm aside, Disney has pushed my buttons, thats why we will be visiting elsewhere in your good land in a couple of weeks, and why we will no longer be visiting WDW annually as we have done since 98. As the ubber fans point out if your not happy with the product dont go, so were not. Im sure it wont bother Disney, but then not visiting WDW isnt bothering me.

We're there along with you. We'll be going down to Orlando next week and it's not to Disney. There has never been a year in the past 25 years that I've not gone to WDW, but that streak is over this year. When they return to the standards that they created (and still generally operate by in Anaheim), then we'll return, otherwise, elsewhere gets our business.

 

[rioriz]

So are the park maps and time sheets. Are you ready to trade those in for black and white xerox copies?

I think that is a little different than a toiletry and a disposable drinking cup

 

[flynnibus]

I think that is a little different than a toiletry and a disposable drinking cup

Justification was simply they are 'throw away items'.

So are popcorn buckets - yet Disney has made those into a collectors fad...
So your tickets and fast passes.. yet people love to collect and hold onto those for mommentos..

See a trend anywhere? It's not the monetary value to the guest that dictates it's impression or value as a collective whole.

 

[rioriz]

Justification was simply they are 'throw away items'.

So are popcorn buckets - yet Disney has made those into a collectors fad...
So your tickets and fast passes.. yet people love to collect and hold onto those for mommentos..

See a trend anywhere? It's not the monetary value to the guest that dictates it's impression or value as a collective whole.

Sorry I was unaware of the napkin collecting that has been going on (not sarcasm). Again do you believe this is a generational thing? As a younger person this is one thing where I care very little and I know other peers would care less also. Maps are different to me cause I will not just pitch it or wipe my mouth with it. They are also re-usable. Not wanting to nitpick but if they wanted to cut down cost on something I have zero problem with it being napkins...but hey just me...Whats good for Universal is good for Disney?

 

[ParentsOf4]

Sorry I was unaware of the napkin collecting that has been going on (not sarcasm). Again do you believe this is a generational thing? As a younger person this is one thing where I care very little and I know other peers would care less also. Maps are different to me cause I will not just pitch it or wipe my mouth with it. They are also re-usable. Not wanting to nitpick but if they wanted to cut down cost on something I have zero problem with it being napkins...but hey just me...Whats good for Universal is good for Disney?

I wish you could see my daughters' collection, which they started when they were 4 years old. They noticed things that went right past me. They've got mouses & WDW patterns on all sorts of "free" items from WDW including a large number of different cups and napkins.

P.S. And as so many like to remind us on these threads, isn't WDW supposed to be better than Universal?

P.P.S. Our twins are now 14 years old and still were adding more of those "silly little details" to their collection during our last trip less than a month ago. No napkins though. Those are all plain brown now.

 

[TowerOfTerror]

Walt Disney's annual compensation in the 1960s was about $140K, which equates to about $1M in 2012 dollars. Are you suggesting Bob Iger is doing a 53 times better job than Walt Disney?

Bob Iger is doing an excellent job. The company recorded its largest quarterly earnings in history with revenue at $11.1 billion. So yes he is worth that much in my opinion.

And new cups are coming in.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Bob Iger is doing an excellent job. The company recorded its largest quarterly earnings in history with revenue at $11.1 billion. So yes he is worth that much in my opinion.

And new cups are coming in.

So you'd rather have Bob Iger for $53M than Walt Disney for $1M?

 

[googilycub]

So you'd rather have Bob Iger for $53M than Walt Disney for $1M?

You making a big assumtion in Walt Disney working for only 1 million. Things have changed since those days, just doing a inflation change is not a valid argument.

 

[rob0519]

Disney once set the standard for excellence in family vacations. It was those little touches, the butter figurines, the napkins, the cups, the luggage tags, the lady bug release at the Wilderness Lodge, the wide variety of resort specific merchandise where an adult as well as a child could find something that would interest them. This current issue of napkins is just the latest symptom of a bigger issue.

Slowly, but surely, that standard of excellence is eroding. The napkins, the cups, the burned out light bulbs, the elimination an hour from EMH, the disrepair of many attractions, is a sign of things to come. If you had never been to WDW before the place would seem wonderful and magical to you today, just as it seemed to us decades ago. There will always be new people to experience what passes for "magic" at any time in the resort's present and future. Not knowing any better they will sing the praises of Disney, but for those of us who remember what true excellence was like, all we have are our pictures, our memories and a few illustrated, but faded napkins and coasters stuffed in a box.

We will continue to visit as often as possible and enjoy the current offerings the best we can. For those that can see past the current faults and can afford the ever increasing prices, WDW is still the most magical place on earth.

 

[ParentsOf4]

You making a big assumtion in Walt Disney working for only 1 million. Things have changed since those days, just doing a inflation change is not a valid argument.

Yes, what has changed is the idea that a CEO's compensation 50 years ago should be about 20 times the average factory worker now has to be about 340 times the average factory worker. What has changed in the last 30-to-40 years is that compensation boards (whose role was supposed to be to monitor executive performance and make the appropriate adjustments) have been taken over by those same executives they are supposed to monitor. In effect, senior executives put together their own compensation packages and set standards based on short-term milestones they can control by reducing maintenance and cutting staff rather than focus on long-term growth.

Just imagine what your pay would be if you got to decide how much you got paid.

The fallacy of this entire line of thought is that somehow executives need to be paid 17 times more (adjusted for inflation) than what they were paid 50 years ago to do a good job. That somehow it's not possible to find good leadership if they are only paid 2 or 3 times more than they were paid 50 years ago. That somehow executives 50 years ago must have been doing a bad job because they were paid 17 times less.

Overall, the business community was in much better fiscal shape 50 years ago than it is today. Clearly, paying CEOs 17 times what they used to make is not having the desired effect.

Returning to the thread, let's hope the cups come back but how many other things have to suffer neglect so Disney's top 100 executives can be paid hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation? How many more things that were there 30 years ago have to be taken away from us while ticket prices have increased 10-fold over that same period? Perhaps a better use of this money could be found at Disney.

 

[TowerOfTerror]

So you'd rather have Bob Iger for $53M than Walt Disney for $1M?

That argument doesn't seem to make any sense. We are talking about the media conglomerate now versus the 1960's company were the assets were hardly a fifth of what it is today.

 

[ParentsOf4]

That argument doesn't seem to make any sense. We are talking about the media conglomerate now versus the 1960's company were the assets were hardly a fifth of what it is today.

So you'd rather have Bob Iger running Disney today than Walt Disney? You think Bob should be paid 53 times more than Walt to run a company 5 times the size? That somehow Walt couldn't handle it for $52M per year less?

 

[TowerOfTerror]

So you'd rather have Bob Iger running Disney today than Walt Disney? You think Bob should be paid 53 times more than Walt to run a company 5 times the size? That somehow Walt couldn't handle it for $52M per year less?

Walt Disney would only need a salary of $1 per year if he was CEO, since he hopefully would be largest shareholder of the company sans Steve Jobs. In perspective his brother Roy's valuation is in the 1.2 billion. I made a mistake saying a fifth, its nowhere near that. Revenue was in 2010- 40.8 billion vs 1960- 100 million.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Walt Disney would only need a salary of $1 per year if he was CEO, since he hopefully would be largest shareholder of the company sans Steve Jobs. In perspective his brother Roy's valuation is in the 1.2 billion. I made a mistake saying a fifth, its nowhere near that. Revenue was in 2010- 40.8 billion vs 1960- 100 million.

I really hope you're not comparing two entrepreneurs (i.e. the Disney brothers) who founded a company with their own sweat and money, who took numerous risks along the way, who redefined at least 2 industries (animated film & theme parks), and who nurtured a business for almost 50 years with a TV weatherman who rose through the corporate ranks and his doing his 9-year stint as CEO before he runs for governor.

 

[alphac2005]

I really hope you're not comparing two entrepreneurs (i.e. the Disney brothers) who founded a company with their own sweat and money, who took numerous risks along the way, who redefined at least 2 industries (animated film & theme parks), and who nurtured a business for almost 50 years with a TV weatherman who rose through the corporate ranks and his doing his 9-year stint as CEO before he runs for governor.

Thanks for your posts as you've saved me the time to write virtually exactly what you've put in the aforementioned posts. I just want to quickly add that I've been in business for years and my father was a top corporate executive for many years and has recently retired.

The compensation packages for the executives are absurd, the stock options and other incentive bonuses that my father qualified for were simply ridiculous, and the CEO, President, etc., those made his look like peanuts. Some of the numbers of exit packages for outgoing executives (many of them after their failure in the job) rivaled major professional athletes contracts and this was for Fortune 100 companies that he was at. It's disgusting. I could go on and on, but don't want to get into a bore-fest. For anyone to seriously think that an executive such as Iger is worth $50 million+ in a yearly compensation is kidding themselves. Yes, Disney is a behemoth now, but each division has many layers of corporate, and they essentially act as if they're their own companies, and most (not all, but most) of the CEO's today are broad picture, you report to me, I make some finally decisions on certain issues, but for the most-part, let each division run as its own.

What really gets me are the apologists as they don't seem to understand is that in the end, we are paying for these bloated salaries. The average consumer pays more, time after time.