Miceage 12/5 Kevin Yee: Declining by Degrees
http://www.miceage.com/kevinyee/ky120506a.htm
I don't know if you have read Kevin's latest article but I think he really puts into words what is going wrong with WDW while also mentioning things they are doing right.
I think that Declining by degrees in my opinion really describes what has been going on at WDW. I hope he really keeps up with what he says about putting a more critical eye. WDW has really lacked from having someone in the Disney website community pointing out the serious problems going on with the parks. While he may not be Al Lutz a spotlight really needs to be pointed at WDW to point out the things that are wrong but at the same time praise Disney when they get it right.
http://www.miceage.com/kevinyee/ky120506a.htm
I don't know if you have read Kevin's latest article but I think he really puts into words what is going wrong with WDW while also mentioning things they are doing right.
Al's recent article on his visit to Walt Disney World sparked a lot of discussion on MiceChat and in emails. I did some soul-searching as a result. Have I been too "easy" on Disney World? Not really—I shared pretty much all of Al's beliefs in the staleness of parts of Disney World, and have said so from time to time. But I don't point them out week after week. My first mental protestations were that it would make for boring reading online to read the same thing over and over. What I've realized is that I was missing a metaphor, a way to symbolically capture what's been going wrong at parts of Disney World, even while other things are progressing swimmingly.
Then it hit me. There was a PBS special on higher education in 2005 called "Declining by Degrees." The pun about diplomas aside, the point was that expectations from professors were decreasing steadily over time, as a consumer-mentality begins to dominate the entire educational spectrum, and "grade inflation" becomes increasingly common. I see a lot of parallels to the modern era at Disney World. Tourists, by far the largest type of visitor to the Orlando parks, have been subjected to a steadily decreasing emphasis on excellence from Disney for some time.
I think that Declining by degrees in my opinion really describes what has been going on at WDW. I hope he really keeps up with what he says about putting a more critical eye. WDW has really lacked from having someone in the Disney website community pointing out the serious problems going on with the parks. While he may not be Al Lutz a spotlight really needs to be pointed at WDW to point out the things that are wrong but at the same time praise Disney when they get it right.