Official WDW Facebook page opens the floodgates to MyMagic+ comments

[ford91exploder]

Well, there you have it. It's not a system intended for us, so therefore none of us should be upset about it. That's it, boys... Let's pack it up and go home.



Trust me... I totally get that this system is aimed about as far away from us as possible. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Also, I think that's part of the problem. This all could be done slightly differently and alienate a lot less people. But that's not what they'll do. And I believe that's largely because the people making these decisions are out of touch with their parks. I don't even know that I think they're ACTIVELY trying to screw over people like us... I just think they're so far out of touch that they might not even know any better. Which to me is actually WORSE, in a way.

I agree - but Burbank and Celebration Place are so far out of touch with what actually goes on in the parks because most of the execs in charge of the parks have never VISITED the parks. So decisions made in the conference room which appear logical there - have no basis in reality and are completely unworkable.

 

[GrumpyFan]

Well, there you have it. It's not a system intended for us, so therefore none of us should be upset about it. That's it, boys... Let's pack it up and go home.



Trust me... I totally get that this system is aimed about as far away from us as possible. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

I never said you or anybody else had to like or accept it. But, it doesn't appear they're going to just get rid of it either, especially not after spending so much on it. As I said, I'm not crazy about it myself, but I'll make the best of it and go enjoy the parks. I'm optimistic that over time it will evolve as they add more features to it and work out the kinks. I'm hopeful, because I've watched Disney with these kinds of things in the past, like the original Fastpass which also had issues, but they worked them out and it evolved. There were still a lot of people who whined and complained that they didn't like it, but again, they still went to the parks.

 

[CDavid]

I really don't understand where all this hate is coming from.

Expressing perfectly valid criticisms and concerns - even being openly critical of the direction Disney is headed - is not the same thing as hate.

 

[flynnibus]

Disney's system was created to save DISNEY money, What I object to is it took away many things that we used for years on our vacations which made them more enjoyable and replaced them with nothing but price increases. The NGE is not customer centric it's Disney centric and I tried it twice it failed utterly both times and i really don't want to give it a third go.

MM+ wasn't just about 'saving money'. There are aspects that enable that... but it's not a cost cutting program at it's core. Benefits as part of it? Yes.. Motivation? No. MM+ evolved from the Next Gen initiatives to leverage new tech in the park experience. R&D Initiatives to advance the park experience. Now I'm not saying there are not self-serving aspects to the program, but to paint it blankly as a 'created to save Disney money' is wrong. The forecasting elements the program enables are not the pillars of it. The ability to improve efficencies and deal with issues like crowd management and people movement are tools that are not necessarily tools for evil cost cutting - but simply applying the right resources where needed. But some people will always see the glass as 'half empty'.

 

[Captain Chaos]

I never said you or anybody else had to like or accept it. But, it doesn't appear they're going to just get rid of it either, especially not after spending so much on it. As I said, I'm not crazy about it myself, but I'll make the best of it and go enjoy the parks. I'm optimistic that over time it will evolve as they add more features to it and work out the kinks. I'm hopeful, because I've watched Disney with these kinds of things in the past, like the original Fastpass which also had issues, but they worked them out and it evolved. There were still a lot of people who whined and complained that they didn't like it, but again, they still went to the parks.

The one thing you are not taking into consideration is up until 2010, people really didn't have much of a choice in Orlando... Mostly it was WDW or die... Now, there is a choice... Now there is competition.. and that competition is improving while the "king" rests on its laurels, declines, takes experiences away from guests, tries to squeeze every red cent out of you, and mocks you are "stupid tourists, what do they know?"... One is working hard to EARN your money, the other one expects you to just hand it over, and if you refuse, they will make your experiences a living hell... One is doing it the right way while the "king" is holding guests hostage, shaking them down... One makes vacationing there easy and stress free... The "king" has taken what was supposed to be fun and turned into in a stress filled nightmare...

 

[disney4life2008]

The one thing you are not taking into consideration is up until 2010, people really didn't have much of a choice in Orlando... Mostly it was WDW or die... Now, there is a choice... Now there is competition.. and that competition is improving while the "king" rests on its laurels, declines, takes experiences away from guests, tries to squeeze every red cent out of you, and mocks you are "stupid tourists, what do they know?"... One is working hard to EARN your money, the other one expects you to just hand it over, and if you refuse, they will make your experiences a living hell... One is doing it the right way while the "king" is holding guests hostage, shaking them down... One makes vacationing there easy and stress free... The "king" has taken what was supposed to be fun and turned into in a stress filled nightmare...

I do not think I agree with this statement. I think many times we (on here) think Orlando and our immediate response is disneyworld. But to say people did not have a choice through 2010 is a loaded claim. I know lots of people who traveled to Orlando just to shop or relax. If you speaking specifically parks - well yea WDW was the place to be but I would say that USF received its fair share of attention. It is very true though that Harry Potter changed the game of both Orlando and USF.

 

[GrumpyFan]

The one thing you are not taking into consideration is up until 2010, people really didn't have much of a choice in Orlando... Mostly it was WDW or die... Now, there is a choice... Now there is competition.. and that competition is improving while the "king" rests on its laurels, declines, takes experiences away from guests, tries to squeeze every red cent out of you, and mocks you are "stupid tourists, what do they know?"... One is working hard to EARN your money, the other one expects you to just hand it over, and if you refuse, they will make your experiences a living hell... One is doing it the right way while the "king" is holding guests hostage, shaking them down... One makes vacationing there easy and stress free... The "king" has taken what was supposed to be fun and turned into in a stress filled nightmare...

No, I understand this, fully and I'm taking into consideration, for what it's worth. But, as far as Disney is concerned, they're still on top, and still growing incrementally. Guest spending is up, DVCs are still selling out, number of visitors are still way higher and increasing, so they're not terribly worried as far as I can tell.

We all like to get worked up over Disney's lack of innovation and building new attractions, but why? Looking at it from their standpoint, why should they build more new attractions when things are continuing to grow even without adding new stuff every year? Mind you, I would love it if they did build something big, fast and new every 2-3 years, but there really isn't a case for it for them, not as long as we the crazy fan-boys keep coming back so frequently and the average guests do the same.

As far as competition is concerned, Disney benefits from it when Uni builds too. People coming to Orlando still spend more time and money at Disney, at least for now. If the table starts to tilt, things might change, but I wouldn't put any money on that happening. I think the only park that will suffer from something like this, might be AK where a lack of attractions might lead people to shave a day of their trip off from visiting that park and go to Uni. All the others have enough to sustain current crowd levels.

 

[WDWDad13]

Yeah, and I'm sure all of Justin Beiber's followers on twitter are all real too, right?

As stated by someone else, you apparently have to "like" the post to see the comments. Tell me how those "likes" are real. And if you think Disney employees aren't flooding the page with "likes", you're nuts.

then I must be nuts... but I do know you don't have to "like" something to view the comments...

and if you want to play that game... what makes you think Uni employees aren't the ones bashing FP+?

 

[WDWDad13]

The likes aren't real if they are Disney management/employees clicking like to make it look as if WDW fans actually like this system, when the negative posts say otherwise... That is what he meant...

If you want to question things that may or may not be real though... how about those praising FP+ without having used it (and claiming they have)... hmmmmm

ok... so how about those negative comments being from Uni employees... or is that not possible?

 

[marni1971]

ok... so how about those negative comments being from Uni employees... or is that not possible?

Oh, Uni employees are laughing at MM+ and then some.

But really? Hell of a conspiracy suggestion.

 

[WDWDad13]

Oh, Uni employees are laughing at MM+ and then some.

But really? Hell of a conspiracy suggestion.

I have a feeling they may not be laughing down the road when they want to do something like this too after they realize what possibilities exist


and that's not more of a conspiracy than Disney employees liking that post on facebook just to get the like count up... I mean cmon,...no one wins a prize for the most likes on facebook

 

[ford91exploder]

MM+ wasn't just about 'saving money'. There are aspects that enable that... but it's not a cost cutting program at it's core. Benefits as part of it? Yes.. Motivation? No. MM+ evolved from the Next Gen initiatives to leverage new tech in the park experience. R&D Initiatives to advance the park experience. Now I'm not saying there are not self-serving aspects to the program, but to paint it blankly as a 'created to save Disney money' is wrong. The forecasting elements the program enables are not the pillars of it. The ability to improve efficencies and deal with issues like crowd management and people movement are tools that are not necessarily tools for evil cost cutting - but simply applying the right resources where needed. But some people will always see the glass as 'half empty'.

Flynn

There is nothing inherently evil about cost cutting almost everything I do as part of design work is about cost cutting can I replace two components with one and keep MTBF the same or higher?. Can I build a device that performs the same as our more expensive ones and sell it to my customers for less thereby increasing the value proposition for them and squeezing out my competitors at the same time.

Where Disney gets it wrong is they take away from the guest experience, add stress and raise prices all at the same time. Whether its a CM with english as a fourth language in GR, Dumbed down menu choices, no more park hopping with FP privs.

Or in my case being unable to USE MDE because Disney cannot link it's premium ticket media to their OWN new system. Where is the value proposition in favor of the customer?

 

[marni1971]

I have a feeling they may not be laughing down the road when they want to do something like this too after they realize what possibilities exist

Gotcha.

They realise exactly what it can do. There are plans for something.... but not this. But that's too much thread drift.

 

[flynnibus]

Where Disney gets it wrong is they take away from the guest experience, add stress and raise prices all at the same time. Whether its a CM with english as a fourth language in GR, Dumbed down menu choices, no more park hopping with FP privs.

But now you are falling back to generalizations to back an argument of specifics. That doesn't work. You don't like the choices... got it.

Or in my case being unable to USE MDE because Disney cannot link it's premium ticket media to their OWN new system. Where is the value proposition in favor of the customer?

If that continues to be a problem a year plus from now.. then I'll subscribe to the generalizations. But for now, it's a transition state (with it's own technical failures) that negatively impacts the customer so Disney *should* be helping the customer as appropriate. If they do not, those are customer service issues... not reasons to describe the overall vision and intention of the program.

The whole 'my ticket doesn't work' stuff are areas Disney should be fixing in customer service. If they don't... it's more descriptive about Disney as a whole... vs MM+.

MM+ is a technical disaster in many ways.. but people are putting WAY too much time into attacking what are transition states. I totally get when people say 'well my trip is impacted' - ok.. so focus on that trip and what Disney is doing about it. Not leap off the cliff for all of time based on what the system is 'now' vs what it will be.

This is like people writing off Disney Resorts because on a particular trip their toliet overflowed. The toilet doesn't overflow all the time or necessarily on your next trip.. so why are you setting your impression of Disney Resorts based on a temporary thing? What matters is what it will be next time and how Disney handled you during that troubled time.

I hear lots of complaining.. but not lots of factual negative impacts.

 

[Voxel]

Wake up.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/techno...witter-users-are-a-nightmare-for-advertisers/

And that took me 10 seconds to find. MAYBE.

Read what I wrote.. I said that THAT IS WHAT HE MEANT... And you don't think Disney is beyond paying employees to LIKE a status on FB if they are seeing a lot of negative feedback? How many employees are on payroll? 8000 to 26000 are a fraction of the employees for Disney.. I'm not saying Disney paid employees to purposely click LIKE... But is it out of the realm of possibility that most of those likes ARE Disney employees who are trying to stem the negative tide??? No, it isn't out of the realm of possibility... Just like the minute a negative thread is started here, certain posters come out of the woodwork to try to discredit the OP who mentioned the negative news, and to try to stem the negative tide... It happens all the time on here and other message boards.... So how come it cannot happen on FB????

Of course, I could care less.. I used the system... it sucks just like Iger, Meg, Rasulo, Staggs, the BoD.... Disney could pay 1 million people to go click LIKE on FB... Won't change my opinion that this is a horrible system for 4 theme parks which are boring and stale, and need a lot of work...

WDW fanbois are brainless drones who would click LIKE if Disney announced they were going to start serving dog food to guests... As long as you book it 60 days in advance, you'll get to chow down on your slop in a dog bowl with Mickey ears!!!!!

I would agree that Disney was boasting Facebook numbers expect for one issue. This post has barely a third of the likes the average Disney world post would get. If Disney was gonna be boastin post wouldn't this be one they wanted to boast instead if hey look at te inside of the monorail post which had over double the likes of the mm+ post under discussion. Just a rational thought to those who are calling me a fanboy. I am bringing flux no pessimism or optimism. Dear lord way to pounce on someone while this post was no rude. Atleast one person quotin was quiet rude

 

[Captain Chaos]

No, I understand this, fully and I'm taking into consideration, for what it's worth. But, as far as Disney is concerned, they're still on top, and still growing incrementally. Guest spending is up, DVCs are still selling out, number of visitors are still way higher and increasing, so they're not terribly worried as far as I can tell.

Guest spending up: because of higher prices maybe? Is there proof guests are buying more though? Of course, when you jack prices, spending will be up.... Are the DVCs selling out with NEW members or current members just buying more points into the new hotels to expand their own choices? I get it, selling points is selling points, not matter what... But it would be telling if the points were going to a load of new members or the same existing members adding on points... Also, DVC points have been taking longer and longer to sell out... To me, and this is only an opinion as I don't have facts to back me up (YET), this shows not many members are new, and the points are being sold mostly to those who already own DVC points looking to add on...

And no one has once disputed the attendance... But it is also a fact many people are leaving WDW property in larger numbers than once before... THAT is telling...

We all like to get worked up over Disney's lack of innovation and building new attractions, but why? Looking at it from their standpoint, why should they build more new attractions when things are continuing to grow even without adding new stuff every year? Mind you, I would love it if they did build something big, fast and new every 2-3 years, but there really isn't a case for it for them, not as long as we the crazy fan-boys keep coming back so frequently and the average guests do the same.

Why? Because what was fun in 1974 may not be fun in 2014... What worked in 1974 may not work in 2014... Resting on laurels will only get them so far... There will eventually be a decline... And then it may be too late to stop the bleeding...

As far as competition is concerned, Disney benefits from it when Uni builds too. People coming to Orlando still spend more time and money at Disney, at least for now. If the table starts to tilt, things might change, but I wouldn't put any money on that happening. I think the only park that will suffer from something like this, might be AK where a lack of attractions might lead people to shave a day of their trip off from visiting that park and go to Uni. All the others have enough to sustain current crowd levels.

I think DHS would suffer more than DAK, in my opinion...

 

[WDWDad13]

Guest spending up: because of higher prices maybe? Is there proof guests are buying more though? Of course, when you jack prices, spending will be up....

when you jack prices up... if people don't like it...spending would be down right? I think they question we don't know is are they looking at spending as revenue or spending as charges made or items purchased

 

[nor'easter]

then I must be nuts...

FP+?

Finally, you get it!

 

[Buried20KLeague]

then I must be nuts... but I do know you don't have to "like" something to view the comments...

and if you want to play that game... what makes you think Uni employees aren't the ones bashing FP+?

You may be right about the comments, I have no idea. I'm not on Facebook. I was going off the comment made by someone else earlier in the thread that said you did.

And I don't think Uni employees NEED to get online and bash anything. That seems to take care of itself.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I have a feeling they may not be laughing down the road when they want to do something like this too after they realize what possibilities exist


and that's not more of a conspiracy than Disney employees liking that post on facebook just to get the like count up... I mean cmon,...no one wins a prize for the most likes on facebook

And if Uni watches this rollout and the different ways it fails and alienates and improves upon those with a system of their own, I think you'll see one heck of a positive response.

The problem isn't that the system EXISTS. It's that it exists POORLY, by many peoples' standards.

And my earlier link from a google search proves your second point has no merit.