Is the franchise getting bigger then the magic?

[The Empress Lilly]

Well since our first trip in 2004,again I'll state,I've never seen overflowing trash cans,or came across rude CM,s. infact Iam always amazed how clean everything is compared to back home.Maybe Iam comparing WDW to where I come from,here's an example. Stayed overnight in a well known hotel in Dunfermline,Scotland.

Don't undersetimate the difference between Europe and America. Americans do service. It is the local custom. People smile, ask how you are doing, and shop assistants are all over you so much one would think they are trying to get into your pants.
Europeans, by contrast, don't do service. It is considered servility. In America service is considered part of the job, sometimes even a job.

Here's me entering a shop in Europe, the shop assistant being on the phone as I walk in:
Me: 'Good morning....'
Shop assistant: 'Excuse me...this a te-le-phone. That means I am ca-lling', he says as he turns away.

Me entering a store in America:
Me: 'Go....'
Shop assistant: 'Good morning! How are you today! One second please, I'll be with you momentarily', he says with a big American-white-teethed smile.


Personally, I always feel treated very well in WDW. Great CM's, friendly people everywhere, many going out of their way to make my stay memorable. I don't notice much trash either.
I get great service in WDW. But I also get great service when shopping at the mall, or on my off-site hotel. So to a large extent, I can't help wondering what is Disney and what is just being in a service-orientated country. (This effect is even more pronounced in Tokyo Disney. What is simply the extraordinary high standards of Japanese courtesy, and what is specificly TDL service?)


Still, WDW is friendlier and cleaner than the shopping mall. But...the team members at Universal are great too, and Sea World looks absolutely spick-and-span. Does WDW still write the book on these subjects, or has the competition caught up? To some extent, I think WDW has not been slipping so much, as that everybody else has been catching up. The difference between Disney-service and 'everybody else' was palpable in 1982, but not so much anymore today.

 

[MKCP 1985]

We too have had mostly positive trips, but to expect people not to report the negative stuff is absurd. When I check out off site hotels I always read the reviews. Would you rather have all of the negative reviews taken away and have people shining you on about how nice everything is?

We didn't start visiting until 2008, so we never came close to visiting the WDW that Martin and others make mention of, but I sure wish we had. This September will be our 6th trip and even then we are starting to noticing more and more faults with WDW. There's nothing wrong with highlighting the faults of something you love, it just shows that you care.

The problem with reading negative reviews is that in a 600 bed hotel open 365 nights per year (366 on leap year), with 90% occupancy, one person had a horrible experience and you read every detail of that experience. I've read some reports like that about every hotel at Walt Disney World. What you don't read are the reports of the hundreds of others who had a great time the same night. The other hundreds of good experiences doesn't take away from that person's bad experience, but when you don't hear about all the good, it skews the perspective.

As for hearing kids outside the door at 3 am, that is going to happen at most any motel with outdoor corridors where people with children are staying. I have never worked in the hotel industry, but expect it must be frustrating for the workers as well as the guests.

Finally, I have visited Walt Disney World as a kid in the 70s, as a cast member in the 80s and as a parent from the 90s to today. In my opinion, the golden years for most anyone are the years when they themselves were a kid. There's something to think about.

 

[HM Spectre]

I know part of why I'm somewhat numb to deteriorating coniditions is because I never experienced the glory days. WDW is still much cleaner and well maintained than most parks I'd been to growing up. I guess it's just the norm for me to have ride malfunctions and deal with less-than-clean conditions so I tune it out but when I actually paid attention to those things last trip, I was definitely surprised.

I think a lot of the issues come from people not considering others. I try not to litter in the parks because I don't want someone else to have to pick it up and have my trash make the parks less beautiful. I try to avoid doing things that ruin other people's experiences because I wouldn't want it to happen to me. In general, I try to be respectful because I enjoy the parks and I care about them. Not trying to sound self-righteous at all because no one does a perfect job but a better attitude and effort goes a long way towards making things better for everyone. I just see more and more people nowadays who care only about themselves and their own experience regardless of how it impacts others. When that happens, bad things tend to pile up and become more noticeable while the "magic" becomes harder to maintain.

Of course, all this might just be reality in today's world but I'm sure it's noticeable to people who experienced things before they got this bad.

 

[ParentsOf4]

I feel like the Magic is being watered down by big buisyness more then usual within the past few years, is that me or am I on to something?

The Walt Disney Company has been a large corporation for many decades. It was large even when Walt and Roy ran it. What's different is leadership.

For Walt, the company's many projects were passions, DL an obsession. After their deaths, the company was run for many years by those who knew the brothers well. Major decisions were often based on "What would have Walt done?" But they lacked Walt's drive to explore new frontiers, new technologies. The company stagnated.

Michael Eisner took over in 1984 and got the company moving again. The Walt Disney Company underwent tremendous growth. But Eisner lacked Walt's artistic talent. Eisner had considerable experience in TV programming and wanted to inherit Walt's mantle, wanted to be thought of as a modern day Walt Disney but he lacked Walt's creative genius. Very few people have as much talent and drive as Walt. I suspect those that do would find it impossible to rise to the top of an existing mega corporation such as Disney. They wouldn't fit in well in the traditional corporate world and would need to start their own companies to completely realize their dreams.

Robert Iger took over as CEO in 2005. Iger is primarily a businessman who, IMHO, is interchangeable with most other Fortune 500 chief executives.

WDW is still a wonderful place to visit. It's still full of wonder and excitement. However, there are others who feel that WDW is not as "magical" as it used to be. At least part of this might be familiarity. To use an example, let's say that I see a movie for the first time and think it's great. The second and third time I see it, I may think that it's even better, picking up many of the details that I missed the first time. However, even the best movie becomes "tired" after the tenth or twentieth viewing. Perhaps some of what you feel is simply because you have become so familiar with WDW that it has lost some of its magic. Perhaps now you have started to notice some of the imperfections that were there all along.

 

[jlevis]

...
At least part of this might be familiarity. To use an example, let's say that I see a movie for the first time and think it's great. The second and third time I see it, I may think that it's even better, picking up many of the details that I missed the first time. However, even the best movie becomes "tired" after the tenth or twentieth viewing. Perhaps some of what you feel is simply because you have become so familiar with WDW that it has lost some of its magic. Perhaps now you have started to notice some of the imperfections that were there all along.

I think, for many, that is true. We have been to WDW some 40 times going back to the opening of EPCOT. We have kept the magic alive by not concentrating our visits on rides. Sure, we do Splash, Big Thunder, Tower of Terror, Rock 'n Roller, Toy Story, Everest etc. but the rides are only part of the experience. People who talk about AK as being a half day park often miss the trails, the detailing, the shows. One of my favorite examples is the time we were walking toward Africa, it was crowded and this guy is trying to push his way through while shouting "let's move it folks. There is nothing to see here." Well, there was - DeVine was slowly moving through the trees. Slow down and see what is there. We always try to find new things to do. A restaurant we've never done. A ride or show we haven't done. A couple of years go we did Dumbo for the first time. It was a blast. Last visit we did the Tiki Room. Our next visit I'm going to finally get a hot dog at Casey's.
Let me add, that we stay off site at our timeshares. We are not immersed in Disney 24/7. We do breakfast in our villa, lunch at the parks and dinner either back at the villa grilling something or at an off site restaurant. Because we drive to Orlando we have the freedom to get away if we want. We'll often spend a day doing something non Disney maybe drive to one of the coasts for some beach time. Anyway, we are not smoothered in Disney.