All of this makes sense to me in combination with the arguments on the other thread about tilting toward first-time or "once in a lifetime" visitors. If your product is geared toward someone who is new to it all, what does it matter if parades and shows are a decade old? There is no need to innovate.
Sadly true, and even sadder because the folks in charge of running the Parks are seemingly all too well aware of this.
The assumption is that there is enough newbies coming through the gates to warrant not having to change/update anything, and that the numbers are rosey enough to suggest that Worldphilles and APs and are just fine with the currant offerings.
Nothing could be further from the truth in many cases.
The newbies are just not aware of what they have missed out on, and have nothing to compare the currant experience with. It would be like taking a younger friend to EPCOT, and trying to get them to understand how much better that Park used to be back in the day. Fairly impossible to understand that, unless you experienced it firsthand yourself. So the first-timers are just bedazzled by the Magic because it is all new to them, and they have nothing to compare it with.
I agree that the shift these days is focused much more on targeting the newbies and first-timers.
It seems now more then ever...or maybe that is just the impression i am getting now that i am older.
One look at WDWs newly redesigned website seems to scream this, exspecially now. Sometimes i wonder if Disney is also well aware of how confusing booking a vacation is for most newbies..and that this is in itself a coy business stratgety they are exploiting.
I mean think about it....a first-timer is more apt to buy more then they really need ( exspecially ticket options..) and fall into many of the sly traps hidden in there ( Preferred Rooms, trip insurance,etc).
Surely they are aware of how much easier it is for a greenhorn to fall for such ploys.
