Interesting. You have not noticed outside of Epcot, the complete depopulation of topiaries on property?
Where is the serpent that used to be in the central hub mk? Moved else where or just gone?
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The swans at the Grand Floridian ?
The highly manicured trees of the Contemporary?
Did you know there used to be topiaries just randomly placed around the property? There's a great article on All Ears in that regard with a few pictures of driving or riding the bus in between two destinations within Walt Disney World and there's a topiary on the side of the road.
Where did they go? Where are they now? It started Decades ago with the roadside topiaries. "Why is it there" said someone, "how much money can we save by removing and who will notice if we do?"
They are removed. Almost no one notices and the manager working that year is very proud to share the financial results at their year end review.
Some time goes by, perhaps a few years, and they're looking to save a little money again. Someone suggests that maybe this particular resort doesn't need this many topiaries. And so it gets reduced. No one ever says "hey we already saved money on temporaries when we cut them out of the roadways".
They say how do we save even more now. And hence the cut at the resort is made. Only a few of the repeat guests of that resort notice and even fewer mention it. A manager at that resort is very excited to share during their year end review how they saved money without impacting the guest experience.
A few more years pass and now there's just one topiary left at this resort. Occupancy is a little low at this time and so they're looking to save a little money.
No one says " hey we already cut them from the roadways and this resort used to have lots of topiaries but now we have just one." Now a justification must be found.
Maybe its Topiaries are for the park. People aren't spending money at x resort to look at the topiary, they're spending money here to spend the night.
What ever the found reasoning they now they have no topiaries.
A few more years go by and once again they're looking to save a little bit of money. No one says "we've already cut most of them from the resorts". No one says " we've already cut them from the other areas around the resort..." So now they need to find a justification.
No one's coming to the park for the topiarys they're coming for the world class attractions they tell themselves. They're not going to notice. Besides, it's going to make the Epcot Flower and Garden festival even more special with all the seasonal topiaries on display (which most are fake now.)
Now the WDW is moving a few topiary around the resorts "as needed"
For example......
Also super recently the Minnie mouse was in front of the 1929 Cadillac of the Grand Floridian. And as already noted before being here together they were over at the international gateway. In all likelihood next time one comes to this courtyard, it will not feature these topiaries as they will be loan somewhere else where they are needed.
Why?
Because most people will not notice, it will absolutely save money, and when they do notice they notice it will be in the same positive light that you have experienced and expressed here. Disney as successfully pulled it off. They have absolutely cut the topiaries, they have absolutely cut the manicured gardens, and a quick google search really could confirm this but instead almost no one has noticed.
Same thing (was/is??) happening with Christmas decor.
I will say imo both studios and DAK have definitely plus there holiday decor package vs. A decade or so ago. But dreams lights are gone and I for one think they aren't coming back. The resort decor at the resorts themselves is a fraction of what it used to be. And there are literally people on this forum that are explaining that projections are actually more expensive and are an upgrade from the dream lights. Doubtful Disney would choose to go with a more expensive package even though the feedback is bring dream lights back? They went with projections because on a spreadsheet somewhere they are much more versatile and cheaper. And since they're used to year around it's no longer just a holiday expense but rather an expense spread out to the holidays, to special events, and to regular park operations.
haha.
