Okay, I admit I waited entirely too long to post this, but after we got back, it' was a hectic year (we have our own home business and both work regular jobs too). Things have calmed down for a bit, so I'm finally going to write this up as best I can.
For those of you on here that know me, you'll know a bit about my background, for those that don't, I'll put the important bits on here just so you know the perspective I'm coming from. I've been going to WDW since I was a kid starting in 1981. There were a few years where I didn't go back, but then turned it into an almost annual thing from the early 2000s. I then came in on the CP in 2007 working Operations at Hollywood Studios (Epic and Sounds Dangerous) and went full time as an Entertainment Tech at MK shortly after (eventually going on to the Wishes crew). I injured my back and was released after that and I moved back home to Texas in 2009. This past September, I finally made my first trip back to WDW as a guest. This was going to be a different experience for me since I had been "behind the curtain" for awhile and wasn't sure how it would feel to just come back as a guest. My girlfriend had never been, so this was her first time at WDW. Her friends were pretty jealous that she had a decent tour guide with her for her first time since I had traveled quite a bit of the backstage areas and knew the ins and outs pretty well from being a tech.
We chose to drive there from Dallas, TX. When I grew up, the road trip there was one of my favorite things. I loved the journey just as much as the destination, but I usually flew there in recent times. We took a leisurely two day trip to WDW. Our original plan was my usual routine, we would arrive there, check in, head to DTD and maybe do some DisneyQuest and then call it a night and get ready for an early morning in the parks. We also planned to spend one day at Universal at the end of the week. We arrived the Sunday before Labor Day.
We checked into our room at Pop Century. The check in was the usual - great greeting and my GF wanted her 1st visit button but they were out so they gave her a generic "write in" button and told her she could get one at Guest Services at the park. We actually got there earlier than expected and we found out that MK had an extremely late EMH that night. I asked her if she wanted to just "go for it," and head to MK. I wanted her to see as much as possible for her "initiation to WDW," so I figured that would be the perfect time. She said, "sure," and we headed to MK on the bus. We got there around noon. I had wondered when I arrived if I would still have the old feeling of amazement I used to get as a guest every time when I got through the tunnel the first time and saw Main Street or if I'd have that feeling of familiarity from spending lots of time working in MK and knowing what's "behind all the doors," so to speak. Strangely enough, I felt BOTH at the same time. My inner child still had the sense of awe and the feeling of "being at home," I always got when I stepped foot in MK (since my very first trip to WDW as a kid ONLY consisted of MK - Epcot hadn't been finished yet) but I also had that same feeling I used to get coming into work - looking around and feeling comfortable knowing all the ways around the park like the back of my hand. Being "behind the curtain" didn't diminish it for me. It also helped having a first timer with me to enhance things. The park was pretty crowded, but I knew the routine - go grab a fast pass and head to another ride with less wait time. We grabbed a Splash Mountain FP and headed to POTC. That would be her first ride. I loved the new expanded queue. It looked nice. I won't go through each and every activity, but we hit all the major ones (that I like) - all the mountains, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Pooh, etc. The only "hiccup" was Big Thunder being down for a bit, but they had it back up within a couple hours. We ended up going hard till about 1am when we were shot and headed back to the room having been up waaaay too long for our first day.
Day two, she woke up with blisters on her feet and I was pretty sore. Ok, we may have pushed ourselves a BIT too hard. We scaled it back a bit. We hit Epcot and a little bit of Studios. I should also add that I used to be a hardcore pin trader. We did have pins to trade and she decided she wanted to get into Vinylmations. We were hitting up all the lanyards and mystery boxes we could find. It did make me a bit sad that it seems like the "golden era" of pin trading is over and it doesn't seem nearly as big or pushed as hard as it used to be. What did confuse me a bit was that Vinylmation trading - being relatively new, seemed confusing to more CMs than it should've. Many of them had no clue on how the trading worked, etc. Now, let me say, I do know that the Fall CP had just started so I know some of them were new, but I did talk to quite a few of them and they either were not CP or had been there long enough that they should know. I won't break down everything day to day here, but just bring up some highlights at this point.
During the trip we dined at some of my personal favs - Biergarten, Garden Grill, Boma and Earl of Sandwich. She loved them all, but it was nice to see she shared the same overall favorite as me - Biergarten. All of them were great - no complaints at all there. The service at Boma wasn't up to the usual standard, but that was because our waiter was training some new people and had his hands a bit full.
Now we get to the part where my GF got a little "spoiled" on the trip. I still had quite a few friends still working at WDW from the days when I worked there. I won't mention too many specifics on them (don't want them to catch any grief). We went to the backstage store behind MK with one of them and stocked up on tons of "clearance" Disney merch - nothing like gift giving on a budget. Was nice being able to go in there again - I used to go in there almost weekly when I worked there, just to see what was new. Spent waaay too much in there, but nothing wrong with that. Was great to see an old friend as well. We also had gone to the Studios to see my old CP location - The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. I spent my very first CM hours at that place, so it holds a special place in my heart. I knew the routine for getting VIP seating, so I went up to the CM there and asked her. She was a bit rude and said she didn't know if there was anything available and come back closer to show time. We got there about an hour before the show (by that point, we have a pretty good idea if there is room in VIP) and asked her again. She said we would have to go to guest services if we wanted to try and get VIP - once again, rudely. From my days of working there, I knew that wasn't purely factual and she definitely could have handled it better. Right then, I saw one of my old trainers in the distance. I went over to her and talked a bit with her. She first started saying how she trained so many people so it was hard for her to remember everyone, but we chit chatted for a bit about how things have changed, etc. I then brought up how rude the CM was at the entrance and asked her if VIP procedures have changed. She said, "no, not really," and then said, "you want VIP in the next show?" I said, "yes," so she said, "hang on." She gets on the radio and asked if there was room in VIP. The CM on the other side said, "yes," and then to my amazement, she said, " ok, put down 2 for..." and then said my name with a smile (I hadn't told her my name at that point). She just looked and said, "that's right isn't it?" I just laughed and said, "yes." I couldn't believe she remembered me after 4 years and I DEFINITELY look different than I did during my CP. She just smiled and said, "you remember certain people. Not too bad for my old age, huh?" We thanked her and went and saw Indy in VIP. The main reason for this part is to talk about the CMs behavior (more on that later). I also had another friend who is part of the stunt team at LMA. VIP at LMA was always difficult to get - even as a CM. I had talked to him a few weeks before the trip and he said he would get me into VIP no problem and even meet us after the show. Sure enough, we got to LMA and went straight to the VIP section - no waiting. After the show, we went and met him at the stage. He took both of us backstage and gave us the full tour of LMA, we even got pics of my and my GF sitting in the stunt cars. Keep in mind, this is my GFs first trip ever to WDW and she is getting a private tour of the LMA backstage. We talked a bit about the tech dept and how things have been at the Studios and got a little bit of inside info (at least what he knew). Of course we spent different nights watching the end of night displays. The first night we caught Wishes. Since I was VERY familiar with that show (having worked it), I got some great pics of the fireworks (knowing the exact timing of when things are going to happen helps ;-) ) My GF liked them all, but loved Illuminations the best. We both love Wishes, but since I do pyrotechnics still for a living (and have been for quite awhile before Disney) and she helped me the previous season with some fireworks shows, the "standard" type fireworks shows aren't as big of a deal (trust me, when you've seen them from the shooting position, it's never quite the same to watch them from a distance).
Now for the bad...these are the parts that made me sad....
Overall, I felt disappointed by a lot of the CMs. I don't know if its lack of training or what, but many of them do not seem nearly as knowledgeable or even sometimes as friendly as they did a few years ago. I'm referring to even before I was a CM and knew what they SHOULD act like. For instance, take this example with the Vinylmation trading. We went to D street to do some Vinylmation trading. Now, some CMs are very particular and follow the mystery box trading rules to the letter (i.e. you hand them the Vinylmation you wish to trade, you pick a number, and you get that number - no changing your mind), but some of them are more "Disney" about it and know that many times there's a lot of "crap" Vinylmation - a lot of the same stuff that has flooded in from Outlet stores and such, and will give you another pick or let you change your mind. I don't mind either, but BE CONSISTENT. We had a couple in front of us do a trade and she did the more "lax" version - allowing them to change their mind. She even did the same with me when it was my turn. Then, my GF walks up, she puts up the box and asks for her Vinylmation first (which she hadn't done with anyone else). She says, "ok," and hands her one. She then pulls out one that wasn't all that great. My GF said she really didn't want that one and the CM rudely says, "too late, you have to take it." We watched the other couple do the same thing (change their mind) with no issue at all. My GF was a little miffed she was treated different, but took a whatever approach. Later, we took the Vinylmation somewhere else to trade it. When she tried to, a CM looked at it and noticed a VERY tiny scuff on the back. She then explained she couldn't take it because it was damaged (part of the rules). My GF wasn't happy because she had got it from D Street, but figured we would take it back the next day and trade it back to them and explain what happened. We took it back, told the CM and the CM just basically said, "sorry, but I can't take it back." We explained what happened the day before and the CM just pretended to do something else and walked off.
Also, MANY of the attractions were working at level far below what I remember was "acceptable" for Disney. Dinosaur was much more lit than normal (you could see scenes from quite a bit away which destroyed a lot of the illusion) and many of the animatronics didn't even work. Same thing with Haunted Mansion - many of the animatronics didn't work at all. Those were the most notable. The others I attributed to the fact that I knew how they should work to the letter so the casual guest might not. There were several other minor things that CMs did that really surprised me (like a certain CM at Toy Story Midway Mania). Any one of those things wouldn't be a bit deal, but the sum of it all added up to an overall bad impression of the current state of training at WDW.
As a final "blow" to the trip, on the last day I decided to make a purchase I had been struggling with the whole trip. There was a special, limited edition Haunted Mansion Vinylmation that came in its own display case, complete with a HM themed pocket watch. It was really nice and super limited, but cost $175. At first it seemed silly to me to pay that much, but I'm a huge Haunted Mansion fan (I've spent a few years as a technician/set designer at a large haunted house here locally) and thought it would be nice to have a special Haunted Mansion collectible for my display shelf. I decided to go to D-street and take the plunge. I get there, and tell the cashier I want to get it. They had two. The first one she handed me was scuffed like crazy and cracked on one part of the case. I asked to look at the other one. It appeared to be ok, so I got it. When I got home, I looked it up online to find out more info on it. When I did, I noticed I was missing a clear stand that the watch was supposed to sit on. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal, but when you spend that much for a limited edition collectible and pay full price, you want it to be complete. I called Disney and went through a huge difficult process to finally get it replaced.
While I loved going back, I was saddened to see how far WDW had fallen. I won't even go into the sad state that my old friend, DisneyQuest had gone into. It's in worse condition that many "regular" arcades are these days. I used to love DQ, but I'm sad to say that I'll probably never return there again after how bad it was. I took time to write one of the Guest Service managers at WDW. I explained all the things that had happened. He apologized and said that they do take things like that seriously and would be forwarding all my info to the appropriate site managers. He also gave us a free one day park hopper pass for both of us that is good till 2032 (I'm sure I'll find a way to squeeze that in between now and then) as an apology.
Overall, it didn't make me love WDW any less, but I can say that a lot of what you see on here about the state of WDW being less than it should be is definitely true. Hopefully the latest management changes will fix a lot of that.
But as I said, I don't love it any less. In a few months (May to be exact), we'll be on a Disney Cruise and making a one day stop at WDW to see some of the new stuff we had missed (like the FLE and Test Track 2.0). I will always eventually come back to Disney, but I can say that we are already planning that our next park visit might be our first trip (for both of us) to Disneyland - just to give WDW a bit of time to heal its wounds with the new management they've brought in.
For those of you on here that know me, you'll know a bit about my background, for those that don't, I'll put the important bits on here just so you know the perspective I'm coming from. I've been going to WDW since I was a kid starting in 1981. There were a few years where I didn't go back, but then turned it into an almost annual thing from the early 2000s. I then came in on the CP in 2007 working Operations at Hollywood Studios (Epic and Sounds Dangerous) and went full time as an Entertainment Tech at MK shortly after (eventually going on to the Wishes crew). I injured my back and was released after that and I moved back home to Texas in 2009. This past September, I finally made my first trip back to WDW as a guest. This was going to be a different experience for me since I had been "behind the curtain" for awhile and wasn't sure how it would feel to just come back as a guest. My girlfriend had never been, so this was her first time at WDW. Her friends were pretty jealous that she had a decent tour guide with her for her first time since I had traveled quite a bit of the backstage areas and knew the ins and outs pretty well from being a tech.
We chose to drive there from Dallas, TX. When I grew up, the road trip there was one of my favorite things. I loved the journey just as much as the destination, but I usually flew there in recent times. We took a leisurely two day trip to WDW. Our original plan was my usual routine, we would arrive there, check in, head to DTD and maybe do some DisneyQuest and then call it a night and get ready for an early morning in the parks. We also planned to spend one day at Universal at the end of the week. We arrived the Sunday before Labor Day.
We checked into our room at Pop Century. The check in was the usual - great greeting and my GF wanted her 1st visit button but they were out so they gave her a generic "write in" button and told her she could get one at Guest Services at the park. We actually got there earlier than expected and we found out that MK had an extremely late EMH that night. I asked her if she wanted to just "go for it," and head to MK. I wanted her to see as much as possible for her "initiation to WDW," so I figured that would be the perfect time. She said, "sure," and we headed to MK on the bus. We got there around noon. I had wondered when I arrived if I would still have the old feeling of amazement I used to get as a guest every time when I got through the tunnel the first time and saw Main Street or if I'd have that feeling of familiarity from spending lots of time working in MK and knowing what's "behind all the doors," so to speak. Strangely enough, I felt BOTH at the same time. My inner child still had the sense of awe and the feeling of "being at home," I always got when I stepped foot in MK (since my very first trip to WDW as a kid ONLY consisted of MK - Epcot hadn't been finished yet) but I also had that same feeling I used to get coming into work - looking around and feeling comfortable knowing all the ways around the park like the back of my hand. Being "behind the curtain" didn't diminish it for me. It also helped having a first timer with me to enhance things. The park was pretty crowded, but I knew the routine - go grab a fast pass and head to another ride with less wait time. We grabbed a Splash Mountain FP and headed to POTC. That would be her first ride. I loved the new expanded queue. It looked nice. I won't go through each and every activity, but we hit all the major ones (that I like) - all the mountains, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Pooh, etc. The only "hiccup" was Big Thunder being down for a bit, but they had it back up within a couple hours. We ended up going hard till about 1am when we were shot and headed back to the room having been up waaaay too long for our first day.
Day two, she woke up with blisters on her feet and I was pretty sore. Ok, we may have pushed ourselves a BIT too hard. We scaled it back a bit. We hit Epcot and a little bit of Studios. I should also add that I used to be a hardcore pin trader. We did have pins to trade and she decided she wanted to get into Vinylmations. We were hitting up all the lanyards and mystery boxes we could find. It did make me a bit sad that it seems like the "golden era" of pin trading is over and it doesn't seem nearly as big or pushed as hard as it used to be. What did confuse me a bit was that Vinylmation trading - being relatively new, seemed confusing to more CMs than it should've. Many of them had no clue on how the trading worked, etc. Now, let me say, I do know that the Fall CP had just started so I know some of them were new, but I did talk to quite a few of them and they either were not CP or had been there long enough that they should know. I won't break down everything day to day here, but just bring up some highlights at this point.
During the trip we dined at some of my personal favs - Biergarten, Garden Grill, Boma and Earl of Sandwich. She loved them all, but it was nice to see she shared the same overall favorite as me - Biergarten. All of them were great - no complaints at all there. The service at Boma wasn't up to the usual standard, but that was because our waiter was training some new people and had his hands a bit full.
Now we get to the part where my GF got a little "spoiled" on the trip. I still had quite a few friends still working at WDW from the days when I worked there. I won't mention too many specifics on them (don't want them to catch any grief). We went to the backstage store behind MK with one of them and stocked up on tons of "clearance" Disney merch - nothing like gift giving on a budget. Was nice being able to go in there again - I used to go in there almost weekly when I worked there, just to see what was new. Spent waaay too much in there, but nothing wrong with that. Was great to see an old friend as well. We also had gone to the Studios to see my old CP location - The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. I spent my very first CM hours at that place, so it holds a special place in my heart. I knew the routine for getting VIP seating, so I went up to the CM there and asked her. She was a bit rude and said she didn't know if there was anything available and come back closer to show time. We got there about an hour before the show (by that point, we have a pretty good idea if there is room in VIP) and asked her again. She said we would have to go to guest services if we wanted to try and get VIP - once again, rudely. From my days of working there, I knew that wasn't purely factual and she definitely could have handled it better. Right then, I saw one of my old trainers in the distance. I went over to her and talked a bit with her. She first started saying how she trained so many people so it was hard for her to remember everyone, but we chit chatted for a bit about how things have changed, etc. I then brought up how rude the CM was at the entrance and asked her if VIP procedures have changed. She said, "no, not really," and then said, "you want VIP in the next show?" I said, "yes," so she said, "hang on." She gets on the radio and asked if there was room in VIP. The CM on the other side said, "yes," and then to my amazement, she said, " ok, put down 2 for..." and then said my name with a smile (I hadn't told her my name at that point). She just looked and said, "that's right isn't it?" I just laughed and said, "yes." I couldn't believe she remembered me after 4 years and I DEFINITELY look different than I did during my CP. She just smiled and said, "you remember certain people. Not too bad for my old age, huh?" We thanked her and went and saw Indy in VIP. The main reason for this part is to talk about the CMs behavior (more on that later). I also had another friend who is part of the stunt team at LMA. VIP at LMA was always difficult to get - even as a CM. I had talked to him a few weeks before the trip and he said he would get me into VIP no problem and even meet us after the show. Sure enough, we got to LMA and went straight to the VIP section - no waiting. After the show, we went and met him at the stage. He took both of us backstage and gave us the full tour of LMA, we even got pics of my and my GF sitting in the stunt cars. Keep in mind, this is my GFs first trip ever to WDW and she is getting a private tour of the LMA backstage. We talked a bit about the tech dept and how things have been at the Studios and got a little bit of inside info (at least what he knew). Of course we spent different nights watching the end of night displays. The first night we caught Wishes. Since I was VERY familiar with that show (having worked it), I got some great pics of the fireworks (knowing the exact timing of when things are going to happen helps ;-) ) My GF liked them all, but loved Illuminations the best. We both love Wishes, but since I do pyrotechnics still for a living (and have been for quite awhile before Disney) and she helped me the previous season with some fireworks shows, the "standard" type fireworks shows aren't as big of a deal (trust me, when you've seen them from the shooting position, it's never quite the same to watch them from a distance).
Now for the bad...these are the parts that made me sad....
Overall, I felt disappointed by a lot of the CMs. I don't know if its lack of training or what, but many of them do not seem nearly as knowledgeable or even sometimes as friendly as they did a few years ago. I'm referring to even before I was a CM and knew what they SHOULD act like. For instance, take this example with the Vinylmation trading. We went to D street to do some Vinylmation trading. Now, some CMs are very particular and follow the mystery box trading rules to the letter (i.e. you hand them the Vinylmation you wish to trade, you pick a number, and you get that number - no changing your mind), but some of them are more "Disney" about it and know that many times there's a lot of "crap" Vinylmation - a lot of the same stuff that has flooded in from Outlet stores and such, and will give you another pick or let you change your mind. I don't mind either, but BE CONSISTENT. We had a couple in front of us do a trade and she did the more "lax" version - allowing them to change their mind. She even did the same with me when it was my turn. Then, my GF walks up, she puts up the box and asks for her Vinylmation first (which she hadn't done with anyone else). She says, "ok," and hands her one. She then pulls out one that wasn't all that great. My GF said she really didn't want that one and the CM rudely says, "too late, you have to take it." We watched the other couple do the same thing (change their mind) with no issue at all. My GF was a little miffed she was treated different, but took a whatever approach. Later, we took the Vinylmation somewhere else to trade it. When she tried to, a CM looked at it and noticed a VERY tiny scuff on the back. She then explained she couldn't take it because it was damaged (part of the rules). My GF wasn't happy because she had got it from D Street, but figured we would take it back the next day and trade it back to them and explain what happened. We took it back, told the CM and the CM just basically said, "sorry, but I can't take it back." We explained what happened the day before and the CM just pretended to do something else and walked off.
Also, MANY of the attractions were working at level far below what I remember was "acceptable" for Disney. Dinosaur was much more lit than normal (you could see scenes from quite a bit away which destroyed a lot of the illusion) and many of the animatronics didn't even work. Same thing with Haunted Mansion - many of the animatronics didn't work at all. Those were the most notable. The others I attributed to the fact that I knew how they should work to the letter so the casual guest might not. There were several other minor things that CMs did that really surprised me (like a certain CM at Toy Story Midway Mania). Any one of those things wouldn't be a bit deal, but the sum of it all added up to an overall bad impression of the current state of training at WDW.
As a final "blow" to the trip, on the last day I decided to make a purchase I had been struggling with the whole trip. There was a special, limited edition Haunted Mansion Vinylmation that came in its own display case, complete with a HM themed pocket watch. It was really nice and super limited, but cost $175. At first it seemed silly to me to pay that much, but I'm a huge Haunted Mansion fan (I've spent a few years as a technician/set designer at a large haunted house here locally) and thought it would be nice to have a special Haunted Mansion collectible for my display shelf. I decided to go to D-street and take the plunge. I get there, and tell the cashier I want to get it. They had two. The first one she handed me was scuffed like crazy and cracked on one part of the case. I asked to look at the other one. It appeared to be ok, so I got it. When I got home, I looked it up online to find out more info on it. When I did, I noticed I was missing a clear stand that the watch was supposed to sit on. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal, but when you spend that much for a limited edition collectible and pay full price, you want it to be complete. I called Disney and went through a huge difficult process to finally get it replaced.
While I loved going back, I was saddened to see how far WDW had fallen. I won't even go into the sad state that my old friend, DisneyQuest had gone into. It's in worse condition that many "regular" arcades are these days. I used to love DQ, but I'm sad to say that I'll probably never return there again after how bad it was. I took time to write one of the Guest Service managers at WDW. I explained all the things that had happened. He apologized and said that they do take things like that seriously and would be forwarding all my info to the appropriate site managers. He also gave us a free one day park hopper pass for both of us that is good till 2032 (I'm sure I'll find a way to squeeze that in between now and then) as an apology.
Overall, it didn't make me love WDW any less, but I can say that a lot of what you see on here about the state of WDW being less than it should be is definitely true. Hopefully the latest management changes will fix a lot of that.
But as I said, I don't love it any less. In a few months (May to be exact), we'll be on a Disney Cruise and making a one day stop at WDW to see some of the new stuff we had missed (like the FLE and Test Track 2.0). I will always eventually come back to Disney, but I can say that we are already planning that our next park visit might be our first trip (for both of us) to Disneyland - just to give WDW a bit of time to heal its wounds with the new management they've brought in.
