News and observations from the past month

[ford91exploder]

NextGen is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Ordinarily, I'd tell you that I wouldn't FastPass Haunted Mansion. Between the longer wait and the interactive queue which totally does not exist, an FP+ is now a reasonable proposition in my eyes.

But you can only HAVE 3 per day, so a day at Disney parks is a 3 attraction day + shopping and dining, FAIL

 

[ford91exploder]

That is my understanding as well. You will likely be required to pay the portion of union dues attributed to collective bargaining on your behalf and the union must provide the employer with the correct "right to work" amount for withholding from paychecks.

And they cannot use any portion of the RTW payment for political purposes.

 

[Darth Sidious]

Seriously, we think alike. We had not ONE single Universal employee nit be friendly or say hello or some form of greeting. I wish I could say the same for Disney.

At Epcot on Wednesday morning we had 7 suits walk right past us without the slightest acknowledgement. On Pirates, we had one CM that just waved her hand and said "go on". Another Pirates CM didn't even tell us which side to go to because he was too busy chewing his gum. There were others but I'll address that in my TR.

@marni1971 I noticed this as well in January and I had hoped I just had a few bad eggs, but I did experience some truly great ones as well.

 

[ford91exploder]

@marni1971 I noticed this as well in January and I had hoped I just had a few bad eggs, but I did experience some truly great ones as well.

Well when TDO spends most of it's time figuring out how to abuse their CM's, What do you expect the CM's attitude to be??

An airline example Southwest takes having happy well paid employees as JOB #1, That attitude works its way down the line and Southwest people usually will go the extra mile, Mechanics fix planes quickly, ground service is FAST etc and the the in flight crews are uniformly friendly and helpful.

Compare to American/United where Mgt is always trying to put one over on the staff and the staff take great pleasure in screwing stuff up.

 

[dreamscometrue]

Just back from 10 days on property and, as is always the case, we had great CMs outnumber poor ones 50 to 1. Seriously. We chatted with so, so many who were wonderful. And we do like to talk to them...in shops, restaurants, photopass, etc. We like people.

And, at the 'Villains' night Sept 13th at DHS, 3 'suits' asked how how the evening was going, so we told them the event was great, but traffic woes were insane and not well thought out. They thanked us and gave us 3 fastpasses good at DHS for up to 5 people, with a Sept 30th expiry.

Maybe I'm just a pleasant looking fellow( ) and people want to be nice to the family and I, but honestly, in the past 6 years (12 trips), the rude or poor CMs we encountered numbered about a dozen, compared to hundreds of great ones.

 

[alphac2005]

Well, we were over visiting my parents after they returned from visiting Orlando for more than week and they had several observations. First of all, they used to snort Pixie Dust like cocaine, so to hear the negative things that they say about WDW says plenty. Without getting into a whole trip report here and since we're talking about Cast, that was one of their biggest complaints. They encountered many very nice Cast Members, in particular at Epcot, but what stood out to them were the numbers of poorly speaking English Cast Members. They said that it was a noticeable problem as they encountered several Cast Members that didn't have adequate enough English speaking skills to communicate properly with the guests. They said that the Cast at Universal reminded them of how it used to be a WDW.

Two things that really stood out to them: Over at Universal Studios, on the way out to exit, the Cast Member at the gate starts waving to my dad from a distance. Upon getting closer to him, he remembered my father from their last trip (about three and a half months ago) and wanted to say hi and hoped that their trip was great. Ok, my dad is in a wheelchair, but my goodness, there are plenty of people in wheelchairs in and out. Over a Despicable Me one day, my mom said that this lady and her two kids were in front of them. The Cast Member asked the family if they had a great day yesterday and that she remembered them from the prior day and addressed the kids by their names, which she remembered from the prior day as well. Those are two examples of the little things that add to a vacation experience regardless of whether it's at Universal or WDW and it would be nice that if the place that originated those special type of moments to get back into the business that they created.

 

[ryguy]

TDO deals with two factors that create corporate malaise:
1. Many Americans, especially white middle/upper class, feel its their parental duty to go to Disney World at least once. I would say the vast majority of my children's classmates have been to Disney at least once, and many have been multiple times. Back in the 80's as a kid I would say that number would be less than half of my classmates made it to Disney. To be fair I am basing this on the White middle class, since that is what I am primarily been exposed to my entire life.

2. I know DVC is a small number in regards to percentage of daily crowd totals. But as DVC expands and it's membership grows you have a growing number visitors who are going to come to Disney no matter what because they spent the money already.

I think these are small factors, but do play into the corporate mindset.

 

[ford91exploder]

TDO deals with two factors that create corporate malaise:
1. Many Americans, especially white middle/upper class, feel its their parental duty to go to Disney World at least once. I would say the vast majority of my children's classmates have been to Disney at least once, and many have been multiple times. Back in the 80's as a kid I would say that number would be less than half of my classmates made it to Disney. To be fair I am basing this on the White middle class, since that is what I am primarily been exposed to my entire life.

2. I know DVC is a small number in regards to percentage of daily crowd totals. But as DVC expands and it's membership grows you have a growing number visitors who are going to come to Disney no matter what because they spent the money already.

I think these are small factors, but do play into the corporate mindset.

On 2 they are coming to Orlando, not necessarily going to DISNEY

 

[azox]

Ghost Galaxy is AWESOME!

Moving projections built to creat the most disorientation as possible. I had to bend over for a few minutes to stabilize on my first ride and retrain myself on how to experience it.

I agree with you on that. I thought SM at DL was so much better than WDW. Smooth, fun and the GG overlay is great to see on the inside as well as the projections on the outside look great!

 

[dreamscometrue]

Seems like this thread has really drifted from comments on Martin's news and observations. I'm certain there's a CM bashing thread or two elsewhere on these boards.

 

[Darth Sidious]

Well when TDO spends most of it's time figuring out how to abuse their CM's, What do you expect the CM's attitude to be??

An airline example Southwest takes having happy well paid employees as JOB #1, That attitude works its way down the line and Southwest people usually will go the extra mile, Mechanics fix planes quickly, ground service is FAST etc and the the in flight crews are uniformly friendly and helpful.

Compare to American/United where Mgt is always trying to put one over on the staff and the staff take great pleasure in screwing stuff up.

My uncle works for Southwest and he loves working for them.

 

[rioriz]

Seems like this thread has really drifted from comments on Martin's news and observations. I'm certain there's a CM bashing thread or two elsewhere on these boards.

This is a common occurence...once a thread gets over 5 pages then you can pretty much bet that all the content then on will have very littl to do with the OP.

 

[dreamscometrue]

This is a common occurence...once a thread gets over 5 pages then you can pretty much bet that all the content then on will have very littl to do with the OP.

Good point; and I've been around here long enough that I should know that. ;-)

 

[NowInc]

And, at the 'Villains' night Sept 13th at DHS, 3 'suits' asked how how the evening was going, so we told them the event was great, but traffic woes were insane and not well thought out. They thanked us and gave us 3 fastpasses good at DHS for up to 5 people, with a Sept 30th expiry.

I can attest to a strong (positive) management interactivity during this event. Me and my party (4 of us total) were there all day and were obviously showing signs of fatigue. We were walking (slowly) around the area for the meet and greets 3 hours before the event officially started (the line was already long at this point..and no one even knew who they were meeting as they had yet to announce it), when a suit came up to us and asked us how our day was going. We told him we were excited for the event but can't see the point of waiting in line for a meet and greet for characters we weren't sure of...so he took out his iPhone and in a low voice read off the list of characters to us. May not seem like a big deal, but remember that there were tons of people who would not find out this information for hours who were just waiting in line. He gave us advice on who would be where, and a good game plan to try to maybe not wait in line (at that point he didn't know how popular the event would end up being). Later in the night he saw us sitting around the stage area and he came up and asked us how our luck was...we told him we didn't even try and he was very apologetic and hoped we at least enjoyed the rest of the night (we did)

 

[dreamscometrue]

I can attest to a strong (positive) management interactivity during this event. Me and my party (4 of us total) were there all day and were obviously showing signs of fatigue. We were walking (slowly) around the area for the meet and greets 3 hours before the event officially started (the line was already long at this point..and no one even knew who they were meeting as they had yet to announce it), when a suit came up to us and asked us how our day was going. We told him we were excited for the event but can't see the point of waiting in line for a meet and greet for characters we weren't sure of...so he took out his iPhone and in a low voice read off the list of characters to us. May not seem like a big deal, but remember that there were tons of people who would not find out this information for hours who were just waiting in line. He gave us advice on who would be where, and a good game plan to try to maybe not wait in line (at that point he didn't know how popular the event would end up being). Later in the night he saw us sitting around the stage area and he came up and asked us how our luck was...we told him we didn't even try and he was very apologetic and hoped we at least enjoyed the rest of the night (we did)

That's good to hear; not the part about you not meeting the characters, but the rest of the story. That entire event was great and I hope they do it again. With a traffic plan like New Year's Eve (which we've done at DHS 4 times), and a better sense of what to expect, I think it could be a fun thing each year since there is at least one (and as many as three) Friday the 13ths per calendar year.

 

[marni1971]

Let me recount the Omnimover incident....

A group of us rode Aerials Undersea Adventures. Myself and a friend sat in one clamshell Omnimover, Michelle and another friend behind us. All was well through the first scene with Scuttle. As we rotated to face backwards to descend, and expecting to see the back of the Omni behind, we were surprised to say the least to see Michelle and Harold still facing us, now leaning towards us due to the incline and against the safety bar. As if that weren't enough, their vehicle instead of leveling off proceeded to swivel to face a blank wall, as it did for the first Aerial scene Part of your World. Imagine the hysterics. For the rest of the ride it rotated at will, obviously throwing a gear or a cog and loosing all idea of which way it should face. Naturally we reported all this as unload and tagged the vehicle. Not bad for less than a year old.

And naturally I have it all in HD

 

[TP2000]

Let me recount the Omnimover incident....

And naturally I have it all in HD

Great story, I love it! I do hope you'll share that with us.

 

[dreamscometrue]

Let me recount the Omnimover incident....For the rest of the ride it rotated at will, obviously throwing a gear or a cog and loosing all idea of which way it should face.

You sure it wasn't a possessed Doom Buggy?

In my trip comments, I stated that we rode it 5 times and didn't feel it deserved the bashing it takes by some on these boards. The 'omnimover incident' notwithstanding, what are your thoughts on this attraction?

 

[luv]

Let me recount the Omnimover incident....

A group of us rode Aerials Undersea Adventures. Myself and a friend sat in one clamshell Omnimover, Michelle and another friend behind us. All was well through the first scene with Scuttle. As we rotated to face backwards to descend, and expecting to see the back of the Omni behind, we were surprised to say the least to see Michelle and Harold still facing us, now leaning towards us due to the incline and against the safety bar. As if that weren't enough, their vehicle instead of leveling off proceeded to swivel to face a blank wall, as it did for the first Aerial scene Part of your World. Imagine the hysterics. For the rest of the ride it rotated at will, obviously throwing a gear or a cog and loosing all idea of which way it should face. Naturally we reported all this as unload and tagged the vehicle. Not bad for less than a year old.

And naturally I have it all in HD

Thats very funny on the one hand...but kind of sad on the other. How funny that you filmed it all!

I really like the Ariel ride. I know it isn't a groundbreaking thrill ride, but it's nice for what it is and she deserved her own good attraction.

 

[TP2000]

I agree with you on that. I thought SM at DL was so much better than WDW. Smooth, fun and the GG overlay is great to see on the inside as well as the projections on the outside look great!

Odd thing is they could do the exterior projections on the dome at WDW year round, even if they didn't want to do the Ghost Galaxy full overlay they do in Anaheim and Hong Kong. Most of the dome shows they do are Halloween themed, but they could reprogram them to be just cool spacey instead of creepy spacey.