Good gravy. Even Busch Gardens Tampa has tile in their Morocco section that looks better:
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I'm sorry, everyone involved should be fired. Especially those who inspected the finished work and allowed it to be visible onstage. It's another symptom of the ongoing collapse of institutional knowledge, care and concern WDW management (and those in the Disney corporate suite) have for their own brand. It's bad if Imagineering wasn't involved-- but much worse if they were.
John Hench wrote an entire book about the importance of placemaking called "Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show." On page 20, he talks about what is supposed to be a key element of Imagineering-- standing up and fighting for quality as a sign of respect for the guest:
"Liking the guests is the key to everything we do.... To build effective story environments [we had to] take the guest's interests to heart and defend them when others didn't think that it mattered."
Hench then relates a story about when he worked for another film studio, doing special effects for a title that required an eagle to land on a rock and fold its wings. Hench continues:
"I was provided with an eagle that was too old to do the stunt, and stumbled on the rocks. We watched the dailies in a dark sweatbox. When the lights came on, I saw that one of the studio executives was in the booth watching with us. I said, 'I'll do this over again. We'll get the eagle to land right, so that it looks like a conquerer.' The executive said, 'No! we will use it. That's okay, the bastards won't know any different.' That was his attitude toward the people for whom he was supposed to furnish entertainment and amusement. He didn't like them. He didn't care. I have often since wondered how many people in business really like their customers."
