Imagineers are now a flippin' joke

[Disneyhead'71]

To what little I can do will be exactly that. I currently have a reservation for 7-nights at the Contemporary Resort in September for $7500. What with food and shopping I would easily spend over $10,000 and every penny of it on Disney Property. I thought that is what Disney wanted.

But, as I have posted in other threads, I refer to Disney these days as "Disney Diminished" and as such calls for "Spending Diminished". So unless the fireworks, the EPCOT Monorail, and some greater reason to stay on property comes back by July, then I will cancel and stay at the Embassy Suites on International drive for $2500 (includes $$$ for tickets). Also, even some of the Disney Restaurants that have opened back up have done so with IMO pitiful menus nothing like what they had before; so I will likely leave some nights for dinner and try some of the places I have scoped out local to the hotel like Boston Lobster Feast, Maggiano's Little Italy, and Brazilian Steakhouse.

Bottom line is that I may go to Disney in September with low expectations to ride the best rides since no FP+ and we always walk away from 2-hour lines. That is simply how Disney is right now. But I will also spend much less on Disney property and in that way I will feel better about getting so much less than I did in 2016 or 2018. So currently Disney is pretty much primed to get $7,000 - $8,000 less out of me.

That is the best I can do not that it matters or Disney cares.

What ever you do, avoid The Boston Lobster Feast. It is impressively bad. If you do the I Drive thing, there are some really good restaurants I can recommend.

 

[spock8113]

Granted, Imagineering is not what it used to be, but neither is the technology they work with. Also, budgets are vastly different as well.
But keep in mind, up close and personal on animatronics in daylight is something no one usually sees and here is an animatronic from the 90's that is really no less scary than Trump:

Then look at Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln in 1964:

 

[Magenta Panther]

I love the Carpetbagger. His recent Las Vegas series where he spent one night on a couple of hotels and toured them is so entertainment. There was one hotel where where he entered his room for the first time and there were still people occupying it. Hilarious. Unfortunately, he got a lot of negative comments when he posted a vlog when he was vaccinated.

I don't think imagineers are a joke but sometimes they are taking a nap too long that someone needs to wake them up.

Yeah, the Carpetbagger's videos are a lot of fun. And to anybody reading this - go to Youtube and enter this into its Search bar: Carpetbagger Meow Wolf. That will lead you to his videos that relate his experiences with a group of attractions called, well, Meow Wolf. And what are they? Well, they're a sort of cross between a dark ride and an art installation...but really, words cannot describe the experience; you've gotta see them to believe them. They are likely where dark rides are headed in terms of execution. You wanna be transported to unbelievably original, strange worlds? Meow Wolf will deliver that for you. Seriously, look up those videos. You will be amazed.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Granted, Imagineering is not what it used to be, but neither is the technology they work with. Also, budgets are vastly different as well.
But keep in mind, up close and personal on animatronics in daylight is something no one usually sees and here is an animatronic from the 90's that is really no less scary than Trump:

Then look at Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln in 1964:

As I understand it, that...AA...is not the animatronic Ellen from the attraction Ellen's Energy Adventure. Her TV show created it for laughs. As for the original Lincoln...yes, AAs have come a long way since then. And yet...somehow, I think the original Lincoln AA looks a lot more like Lincoln than the current one. The hair color alone on the new one doesn't look right - it's lighter. And the gestures on the new AA seem too extravagant. I find the original Lincoln more effective. But that's just me.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Those LCD TVs in Tower of Terror have been there for years now, maybe almost a decade? The worst part is OLED displays are so common now and can display proper black. There's no reason they couldn't find the budget to buy two OLED screens.

 

[monothingie]

There's no reason they couldn't find the budget to buy two OLED screens.

Four words that universally summarize the problem with WDI and WDW OPS: "It is good enough"

 

[Poseidon Quest]

I think that the problem is that they're trying to turn Disney into a shopping mall at this point. It seems like their focus is on the shopping, dining, and drinking, and not on the rides. Surprise surprise, those are three things that all cost money, while they ignore the rides that we're actually paying admission for. I just don't know why people pay $140 for the rights to pay for overpriced food and drink. Go to a restaurant or bar locally if that's what you want. Why go to Florida for that? Guests need to start holding the parks accountable and let them know that they're there for the rides, and if they're having a great time, they may throw you a few bucks for some food or drink occasionally.

Well, this is topical. I just published an essay addressing these kinds of issues.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Well, this is topical. I just published an essay addressing these kinds of issues.

I’ll definitely watch it later.

 

[BaconPancakes]

So I just watched something on YouTube called The Carpetbagger series. It's about a dude who visits roadside attractions, amusement parks, theme parks etc. And in one episode he went to WDW and rode the Tower of Terror. And sure enough - just like some on this site mentioned - the "Imagineers" replaced the screens of the vintage analog TV sets in the Library. Which means that, instead of the dark screens such TV sets actually had when turned off, they now display like a freaking blue COMPUTER SCREEN. Which kills the 1939 vintage vibe that's part of the Tower's charm and character!

Apparently it's not bad enough that the Imagineers are incapable of replacing/fixing something like the infamous Yeti in Everest. They have to "improve" (screw up) existing rides that were fine the way they were. What the hell is wrong with these people? They can't fix the Yeti, they can't resist effing up perfectly good existing rides, and they can't even sculpt new Presidents for the HoP that resemble their real-life counterparts. (The Carpetbagger also visited the HoP in an earlier episode - apparently this was during Obama's presidency. And oh my god, Obama's AA really is as laughably hideous as the Trump AA, just like I remembered it. Holy crap! You should see the thing in close-up. Again, what the hell is wrong with today's Imagineers?)

Sounds like you need a snickers.

 

[Poseidon Quest]

I’ll definitely watch it later.

Out of curiosity, did you happen to form positive or negative opinion on my arguments if you've managed to watch it?

 

[Brer Oswald]

Out of curiosity, did you happen to form positive or negative opinion on my arguments if you've managed to watch it?

It was a very good video. I think there were minor points I disagreed with (I might skim it again to refresh my memory and post them here later), but it communicates the general feeling many of us have regarding the current state of the company and the parks.

I shared it with some of my “not so park savvy” friends, and will probably share it around more.

 

[Phonedave]

Those LCD TVs in Tower of Terror have been there for years now, maybe almost a decade? The worst part is OLED displays are so common now and can display proper black. There's no reason they couldn't find the budget to buy two OLED screens.

The Wall Street Journal just published an article about one of our company executives about her mentors and the people who guided her career. One of the items in her office is a light bulb signed by our ex-CEO. When she was in charge of our retail stores, he noticed that one of them had a sign with burned out bulbs. He took the burned out bulb, signed it, and gave it to her as a reminder that the details matter. While she may be dealing with multi billion dollar budgets and product launches, small items like burned out bulb in a store still matter. She keeps that bulb in her office to this day as a reminder to keep up with the small things.

WDI used to have that mentality from what I have heard, but it seems to be missing now. It sounds like a lot of these problems are "small problems" that are glossed over.

"The TVs in ToT are dying, should I go source some matching CRT's and have them installed"

"No, just grab some bog standard computer monitors and stick them in there. We don't have time to go sourcing a vintage CRT, we have Star Wars Land to build"

Small stuff gets ignored for the larger, higher visibility projects.

 

[Mesa Azul]

The Wall Street Journal just published an article about one of our company executives about her mentors and the people who guided her career. One of the items in her office is a light bulb signed by our ex-CEO. When she was in charge of our retail stores, he noticed that one of them had a sign with burned out bulbs. He took the burned out bulb, signed it, and gave it to her as a reminder that the details matter. While she may be dealing with multi billion dollar budgets and product launches, small items like burned out bulb in a store still matter. She keeps that bulb in her office to this day as a reminder to keep up with the small things.

WDI used to have that mentality from what I have heard, but it seems to be missing now. It sounds like a lot of these problems are "small problems" that are glossed over.

"The TVs in ToT are dying, should I go source some matching CRT's and have them installed"

"No, just grab some bog standard computer monitors and stick them in there. We don't have time to go sourcing a vintage CRT, we have Star Wars Land to build"

Small stuff gets ignored for the larger, higher visibility projects.

That's a good story, and really important to remember.

 

[Poseidon Quest]

It was a very good video. I think there were minor points I disagreed with (I might skim it again to refresh my memory and post them here later), but it communicates the general feeling many of us have regarding the current state of the company and the parks.

I shared it with some of my “not so park savvy” friends, and will probably share it around more.

I've gotten that reaction quite a bit and I'm surprised. It took me a while to articulate what I was really thinking, but apparently a surprising amount of people also feel the same. Hopefully it will start a larger discussion in the Disney community and what we should expect from leadership.

 

[Model3 McQueen]

How will I sleep tonight?

And here it is, 4 comments down. Always somebody gotta make a smart remark when somebody is calling Disney out on their shortcomings. Nevermind how much they charge people for a good show.

 

[Minthorne]

And here it is, 4 comments down. Always somebody gotta make a smart remark when somebody is calling Disney out on their shortcomings. Nevermind how much they charge people for a good show.

And he would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling kids!