News and observations from the past month

[draybook]

Oh and I know this is a slight hijack but from what I've heard from friends who have just been to MNSSP and Halloween Horror Nights that the staff quality and training have almost flipped. With Uni having a near perfect event staff - and MK CM directing traffic unleashing a couple of swears.

We are at Halloween nightnight's right now and I have to say that this blows MNSSHP out of the water. I'll take awesome haunted houses and rides over bags of Wal-Mart candy any day. Even with the dramatic price difference this is WAAAAY more worth it and fun. My kids even agree.

 

[ChrisFL]

Test Track... nice idea. The pre show however just slows down the line too much. Fastpass delays standby even more. Wait times don't tally. Total uncontrolled chaos and guests who don't understand two or three to each circle. The ride itself however had all effects working each time we rode, and the design followed us consistantly from design to postshow.

Yeah, I love the style of it, the look of the queue, but clearly there's some real crowd control issues and just too many customization options in the pre-show build.

Keep it simple, keep it short and keep it moving.

 

[ChrisFL]

Are you saying that when the TTA goes through SM it's supposed to hear/see/do something? It was completely, utterly pitch black when I was there. Unfortunately it was my first time (at MK, and on TTA) so I'm the Rizzo who doesn't know any better. :\

Yes, it used to be FUN riding through SM even after seeing the lift hills and upside down astronauts...now it's PITCH BLACK and probably scary for those smaller kids who are afraid of the dark. Heck even I'm afraid of it when I'm with immature friends

Edit: I know there's black panels that cover a good portion of the right side when moving through SM on TTA....make some small images that move across with the vehicle, something that won't affect the darkness of SM itself.

 

[SirLink]

This isn't a judgment or comparison, but this trip we noticed far more Disney CMs not enjoying their job. Far far more than previous trips. Commented on by michelle and both local and UK friends we were with too. There were wonderful ones too of course, but more grumpy or jobs worth ones than before. But anyone can be a little jaded from time to time can't they?

I guess so but some sort of professionalism is a must at any customer service job, even before Potter you would get 10-15% great staff with around 30% garbage staff - whilst you would get the opposite at WDW with more great than garbage. According to friends that feels like it has now 100% flipped.

It would be interesting if Disney were committed as Comcast to drop $500million a year at parks what impact it would have on a staff level.

 

[ChrisFL]

It would be special to go with Martin to his first trip to the Asia parks...that would be a cool group meet up.

 

[Figments Friend]

-

Oh my...

 

[draybook]

This isn't a judgment or comparison, but this trip we noticed far more Disney CMs not enjoying their job. Far far more than previous trips. Commented on by michelle and both local and UK friends we were with too. There were wonderful ones too of course, but more grumpy or jobs worth ones than before. But anyone can be a little jaded from time to time can't they?

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.

 

[Figments Friend]

I was thinking the same thing! @marni1971 did such a great job summarizing the current state of WDW parks, but one thing I have loved doing for the last 10 years or so is making a trip to WDW and then following it up within a day or two of my arrival back in SoCal with a visit to Disneyland. That's how you really do a compare/contrast on the current state of the parks in California and Florida. The differences are always noticeable, and sometimes shockingly so.

It's fascinating to me in this "One Disney" era that was supposed to bring consistency between the six American theme parks that they standardized napkins between Epcot and Disneyland, but the daily operation, maintenance and future planning between Disneyland and WDW seems to have never been more different on a day to day basis.

A compare/contrast trip of Disneyland vs. WDW in their current states from a knowledgeable and rational fan like @marni1971 would be a wonderful read!

Agree.
Just returned from DL myself almost two weeks ago. I purposely blew off my usual September WDW visit to explore the Original and i am very happy i did.
DL really is something special.
Already making plans to return in the early half of next year.

Never thought i would blow off *home* there in the swampland....but after this last visit*s experiences i am hooked on the Cali magic.

I highly recommend WDW fans cut ties and venture out there...even if just ONCE...to experience DL.
You will not be dissapointed !

 

[englanddg]

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.

I had similar experiences...especially with suits (they nearly ran me over getting off an elevator)...

But, the attitude comes from the top down.

 

[aeillill]

This post pretty much pointed out every single issue I noticed on my trip, glad to see it wasn't just me being overly critical.

Also I noticed TONS of management all over the place, almost a 1:1 ratio to regular cast members at time. They weren't very friendly either, I wish one would have asked me my opinions on fastpass+

 

[TubaGeek]

This isn't a judgment or comparison, but this trip we noticed far more Disney CMs not enjoying their job. Far far more than previous trips. Commented on by michelle and both local and UK friends we were with too. There were wonderful ones too of course, but more grumpy or jobs worth ones than before. But anyone can be a little jaded from time to time can't they?

3 things motivate a Cast Member: making magic, good working conditions, and being able to be proud of your company...
One out of three is bad.

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

It would be special to go with Martin to his first trip to the Asia parks...that would be a cool group meet up.

That's what fan girl dreams are made of....touring the parks with someone who has an eye for detail (and killer camera skills)

 

[Lee]

And we really need to get you off the WDW dust and out to Anaheim more often and certainly to Asia.

Asia. Yes. Let's start a sign-up sheet now.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Having just seen most of that stuff two days ago, I also have to say Martin is right.

Most of MK during MNSSHP doesn't "feel" like Halloween, just the park at night with weaker music loops (as much as I love hearing "Swamp Fox", "Old Yeller" and so forth in Frontierland). Guests put more effort into their costumes than Disney does into the event. Still a better "deal" than a day's admission to MK.

More concrete in MK? Are there not enough flat textures to make the park look cheap? At least we're getting an arcade (only took 'em 20 years to realize it was a good idea).

Lots of Epcot is indeed, dated. Those Odessy restrooms look like they haven't been touched since '82, and are kinda creepy with no music loop and an almost staff-room like entrance. But Malestrom is looking better. Now we can go back to just complaining about how short it is.

MM+ worked fine for me, but the thing didn't fit my wrist so well, and I'm used to wearing a watch. The add-ons they're selling are really useless and only make this problem worse (was given a free one and never wore it).

 

[Bairstow]

As for the leaking Pirates boats-

These aren't the new ones, are they?
My understanding is that the new ones hadn't been installed yet.
When I rode in early September the boats were certainly leaking, but on the Backstage Magic tour I saw several of the new Pirates boats that had just come in. They were sitting in the prep bay and were still bright orange or pink as they had not yet received any paint.


Are those to be the new, new boats?

Also, when I rode Space Mountain the music was still playing, but very faint, and obviously still a very poor substitute for actual onboard audio. It may be hard to hear over the clatter of the lift hill.

 

[KC00]

3 things motivate a Cast Member: making magic, good working conditions, and being able to be proud of your company...
One out of three is bad.

Agreed. And not to make excuses for the CMs because it is their job to offer friendly and even magical service no matter what, but I do wonder if some of the magic for the CMs has been taken away through all of the NextGen rollout. I am not yet ready to make my own judgements on the MB and FP+ system, since I haven't used the whole system yet. However, I've heard of so many buggy testing experiences since the testing started that I imagine that a lot of the frontline folks are getting the brunt of the guest frustration with the new systems.

My career is in the service industry and I have worked all types of frontline jobs. I always tell people that the months I spent on the CP at WDW (10+ years ago now!) were the easiest and most fun months of my working life. With a few exceptions, the bulk of the guests I encountered were happy, friendly, polite and enjoying their vacation. That made it easy to provide the kind of service that Disney is known for. Had I been faced with frustrated guests who have spent hours of their vacation trying to sort out tech issues with their Magic Band everyday, I might not have had the same experience.

 

[Captain Neo]

This isn't a judgment or comparison, but this trip we noticed far more Disney CMs not enjoying their job. Far far more than previous trips. Commented on by michelle and both local and UK friends we were with too. There were wonderful ones too of course, but more grumpy or jobs worth ones than before. But anyone can be a little jaded from time to time can't they?

It's because Disney is too corporate now they don't give a crap about their employees anymore.

 

[englanddg]

It's because Disney is too corporate now they don't give a crap about their employees anymore.

Staggs is an example of this...

 

[HMF]

Before 2009 you could. A poor excuse rendered them invisible.

The official WDI reason- We wanted to limit the amount of light in the ride to make it feel more like you are in space.
The real reason-It was the only way to actually be creative because TDO refused to give us a proper refurbishment budget so we used what little budget we had on re-painting all signage from Orange to Green, creating a bunch of StarPort Seven-Five stickers and signage, Shoving generic Space Invaders-style Video Games into the queue, blocking the view from the Peoplemover and several months after the fact composed some stock- Spacey music and shoved a few speakers in the dome to create at least some illusion that there is an on-board musical score.

 

[DznyGrlSD]

Yes, it used to be FUN riding through SM even after seeing the lift hills and upside down astronauts...now it's PITCH BLACK and probably scary for those smaller kids who are afraid of the dark. Heck even I'm afraid of it when I'm with immature friends

The only "fun" I've had riding TTA through SM was when SM was 101 and the lights were on. Otherwise...*yawn*