Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

Shame on you! Muppet Babies was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid!

Same!

 

[scpergj]

But TDO stupidity and greed seem to know no bounds so, it would NOT surprise me if offsite indeed got no access to headliners at which point the lifestylers will become TDO's greatest nightmare ever. When hundreds of blogs all excoriate Disney for its greed and shortsightedness. The PR disaster will be EPIC.

Nah...they'll give 'em a free cruise or two, maybe a few more $50 gift cards, and they will all write about how much better the experience is. Pretty much because that's how they roll...well, how they roll over.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Posted this already in Martin's thread, but FoxxFurr, the operator of the Passport to Dreams Old and New blog had this to say on MiceChat's Long Forgotten Haunted Mansion thread.

I walked through the interactive queue the other day and it's amazing how ratty it's gotten in... what? Two and a half years? The popping books are just plain off and a lot of the material the various setpieces are built out of has started to look crappy and weatherbeaten in the sun. The busts never came online, nor did the proposed decor additions to the ride (I know WDI commissioned a bunch of stuff that will apparently never be seen, including a painting of the Headless Horseman to appear in the library).

According to a friend of mine who is generally reliable, all of the WDW interactive queues have been cancelled. Pirates of the Caribbean, set for last October, quietly never happened. There's been no movement on Peter Pan's Flight or Small World. Supposedly a combination of poor reception to the Mansion queue, operational challenges at the Dumbo queue, cost overruns at the Big Thunder Queue (which I actually really like) and high maintenance costs put the kibosh on them. Disney's "NextGen" initiative is now 120% overbudget and still a disaster, and the interactive queues are the fat that was trimmed. At D23 Expo, Tom Staggs was doing an about-face on NextGen at Disneyland, where suddenly he was saying that it was not a "one size fits all solution".

Apparently WDW didn't expect the beating guests subject the queue-pieces to and is balking at the bills. I wouldn't be surprised to see most of these "enhancements" scrapped entirely in the next ten years. Golf claps for Disney all around, please.

The CGI hitch-hikers also look kinda cruddy right now. They're hazy and supposedly the effect never quite worked as well as intended. I wouldn't be surprised to see that effect replaced as well eventually. WDW has proven themselves to be the grand masters of throwing good money after bad these past few years.

 

[Figments Friend]

I thank God that there's no more Muppet Babies!

The magic of birth control....

 

[flynnibus]

If you want an example of DL fan attitude... look at how upset some fans are getting over the simple Court of Angels change. Let's be real.. it's a nook in the park with a picturesque staircase. Yet people are fired up over it. And less about the actual Club 33 changes and what that means to the Club (which David K actually writes about).. but people upset that a nook in the park is going away.

Meanwhile we have entire side streets of Main Street taken away and WDW fans don't even blink an eye.

 

[Captain Neo]

So October 1st. is upon us. The dawn of a new fiscal year (and a new day for America!) isn't Disney supposed to be releasing funds and beginning closures to prepare for Star Wars Land and also the alleged redo of Imagination Pavillion? Has anyone heard anything?

 

[asianway]

So October 1st. is upon us. The dawn of a new fiscal year (and a new day for America!) isn't Disney supposed to be releasing funds and beginning closures to prepare for Star Wars Land and also the alleged redo of Imagination Pavillion? Has anyone heard anything?

FY started today-it's always on the Sunday closest Oct 1

 

[HMF]

Posted this already in Martin's thread, but FoxxFurr, the operator of the Passport to Dreams Old and New blog had this to say on MiceChat's Long Forgotten Haunted Mansion thread.

I am telling you we have a voice on this board. If we can just speak our mind we can make things happen. We do have allies in the company, All you have to do is make your opinion known. Fear and apathy never got anything done.

 

[HMF]

If you want an example of DL fan attitude... look at how upset some fans are getting over the simple Court of Angels change. Let's be real.. it's a nook in the park with a picturesque staircase. Yet people are fired up over it. And less about the actual Club 33 changes and what that means to the Club (which David K actually writes about).. but people upset that a nook in the park is going away.

Meanwhile we have entire side streets of Main Street taken away and WDW fans don't even blink an eye.

I personally think that the DL People can take things to an extreme all-or-nothing level sometimes but I prefer that to the total apathy of the WDW Blogosphere. I firmly believe that a balance between pracicality and sentiment is the way to look at things. You can't listen to the overly-cynical but you can't just blindly follow the leader either.

 

[misterID]

I personally think that the DL People can take things to an extreme all-or-nothing level sometimes but I prefer that to the total apathy of the WDW Blogosphere. I firmly believe that a balance between pracicality and sentiment is the way to look at things. You can't listen to the overly-cynical but you can't just blindly follow the leader either.

I agree, but until the tourism starts falling off a bit and UNI starts clearly eating into WDW (days) profits, where real figures and numbers can no longer be hidden and manipulated, TDO is going to continue operating on their own island. That's what will change things, not us so much.

 

[menamechris]

So October 1st. is upon us. The dawn of a new fiscal year (and a new day for America!) isn't Disney supposed to be releasing funds and beginning closures to prepare for Star Wars Land and also the alleged redo of Imagination Pavillion? Has anyone heard anything?

I was thinking this last week. It seems to be looking bleak...

 

[JAN J]

For Orlando in general, South America represents a large untapped market. Brazil in particular has a newly expanding middle class since about 2005 with the credit to afford vacations at WDW and Uni. Unlike the U.S. in recent years, most of the personal income gains have been in the lower and middle classes in Brazil.

Although a couple of years old and its projections for 2012 and beyond are out-of-date, the following GDP chart is revealing:

However, Orlando tourism is running the risk of a precipitous decline. In recent year's, Brazil's growth has ground to a halt. Growth was an impressive 7.5% in 2010 but only 0.9% in 2012. From a tourism in Orlando perspective, Brazil's main saving grace in the last couple of years has been relatively high inflation, making vacations to Orlando (where inflation is in check everywhere but WDW ) more appealing.

WDW is playing passive, banking on those Brazilian tourist dollars remaining. Uni is more aggressively planning for the future, planning continued hotel and theme park expansions to capture a larger percentage of Orlando tourism no matter which way the economy heads in South America.

Universal is investing in the future, WDW is cashing in on the past.

Allow me to speak for my people (a.k.a Brazilians). I was glad to see that all the information you posted was extremely accurate. However I`d like to give you a little more intel about how that may impact Disney.

Although Brazil`s growth is coming to a stall, I don`t think this will really have a strong impact on dollars we leave at the US. You see most Brazilians who go to Disney belong to wealthier extracts of the population, and for those the impacts of low GDP growth are very limited (some people may lose their jobs but recollocation is not really that hard).

On a further notice, the biggest cities in Brazil (Sao Paulo and Rio) are just ABSURDLY EXPENSIVE!! And not on some things, on just about EVERYTHING! Your overpriced Disney burger is actually cheaper than most everyday restaurants, we have the most expensive Iphones, Starbucks, Cars, Gas, Clothing... include as many items as you wish, most of them will probably be right. With the Iphone 5, is actually cheaper to buy a ticket to Orlando, two days in a hotel and purchase the Iphone in the US than to buy it in here.

So trust me when I tell you that Brazilians won`t stop spending as much of their income in the US as they can so soon. I know I won`t.

 

[PeterAlt]

In this grim reality we live in, we have to decide what's worse, a vacuum that doesn't suck or a lightbulb that blows.

 

[ford91exploder]

Dateline Orlando, In other news you can now use one of your THREE FastPassMinus entitlements on a QS "Dining Experience" - Guess this is the meaning of being a "customer wallet"

 

[stevehousse]

Dateline Orlando, In other news you can now use one of your THREE FastPassMinus entitlements on a QS "Dining Experience" - Guess this is the meaning of being a "customer wallet"

The QS dining feature does not take away from your FP rides...it's an additional perk...

 

[ford91exploder]

The QS dining feature does not take away from your FP rides...it's an additional perk...

For now... until gate starts declining

 

[flynnibus]

Every year Knotts does some paradies as part of their Holloween stuff.. and Disney is a frequent target.

This year the parady takes on Disney's acquisition strategies with some clever reuse of Disney songs and characters. It's amusing.. and funny how in parady alone it hits so true to the motivations.. I love the cash register line near the end Given all the discussion on that topic here.. I thought it was fitting.. might even force @WDW1974 to actually smile

Watch the first 4mins...

 

[Atomicmickey]

I am telling you we have a voice on this board. If we can just speak our mind we can make things happen. We do have allies in the company, All you have to do is make your opinion known. Fear and apathy never got anything done.

I used to think that. But watching over many years, nothing that we talk about
on these boards ever gets directly addressed. I don't think they care. They may
read, but they don't care what anyone on this board thinks . . .

 

[GoofGoof]

I used to think that. But watching over many years, nothing that we talk about
on these boards ever gets directly addressed. I don't think they care. They may
read, but they don't care what anyone on this board thinks . . .

Part of the problem is the extreme negativity. It's hard for the company to take people seriously when they come across as just plain negative. There are many posters on here that have valid complaints and give a fair assessment of the situation whose view point should be taken seriously by the company. Their posts are often buried amongst posts calling people whores, critiques of guests weight and dress or accusing anyone who says anything remotely positive as being a plant for the company. That kind of stuff, while sometimes entertaining, hurts the possibility that someone working for Disney will take the valid complaints seriously. In other words we get dismissed as being doom and gloomers.

 

[Atomicmickey]

Part of the problem is the extreme negativity. It's hard for the company to take people seriously when they come across as just plain negative. There are many posters on here that have valid complaints and give a fair assessment of the situation whose view point should be taken seriously by the company. Their posts are often buried amongst posts calling people whores, critiques of guests weight and dress or accusing anyone who says anything remotely positive as being a plant for the company. That kind of stuff, while sometimes entertaining, hurts the possibility that someone working for Disney will take the valid complaints seriously. In other words we get dismissed as being doom and gloomers.

Any message board is like this, really. (or in the process of becoming like this) I go to message
boards that pertain to my industry and if you spend a bit of time you can sort out the moaning
from the 'oh, hey, that's a good idea'.

The fact remains there is no evidence that Disney is doing anything based upon what is said here.
It would be awesome if their social media were something other than canned sanitized stuff,
and we could actually engage. A true presence would probably engender more respect and less
name-calling.

Do you have inside info that Disney social media employees come here, and dismiss this all
as 'doom and gloomers', or is that just supposition on your part?