Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[Tim_4]

People dressed better and acted better at UNI. Period. This wouldn't be such an issue except for as long as I've been part of the internet fan community I have heard about the lower level clientele that UNI has supposedly attracted.

It's just hogwash. The lower end clientele is part and parcel of the Walmarting of WDW. The guests at UNI are now higher end.

When I see the Honey Boo Boos at deluxe WDW resorts I used to wonder where they got their money too. But WITHOUT getting the mods knickers in a twist, it's pretty obvious that many of them are living on high paid government and contracting jobs that have opened in the defense sector since 9/11.

When exactly were you at Universal? Any chance you happened to be at CityWalk on a Saturday night when every skank and wannabe thug in Orange county were there? I'll buy what you're selling about the ADULTS at WDW vs. Universal, but the cheap annual passes at Uni makes it the place to hang out for teenagers and alcoholic UCF students who are "too cool" for Disney. DisneyQuest is the same thing but for younger kids. Local parents who are too lazy to raise their kids dump them at DisneyQuest all summer.

 

[cslafferty]

That is a stereotype and wasn't always that way. That's media influencing people shortsighted thinking.

That's a comment you expect from friends, co-workers and family not a WDWMAGIC board. :lookaroun

Sorry. Basing my comment on my twenty-something kids (who are Disney fanatics) and most of their friends, and the twenty-something teachers at my school who would rather go to Uni/Six Flags/Cedar Point where the big coasters are and the atmosphere is a bit more "adult" if you know what I mean. Obviously if you're on this forum and in that age bracket, that wouldn't apply to you. I would venture to guess, tho, that most 18-30 yo who are amusement park goers aren't on Disney forums.

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

You're on a roll!

Just adding some info with regard to the chip and pin system in Europe (and Canada)...it's great. Not only is it more secure, but all of the portable machines (namely in restaurants) are much more consumer friendly.

Unfortunately, chipped cards are incredibly rare in the US, and the ones you can get here are almost all "chip and sign," which is fairly confusing to merchants in other countries.

Just thought I'd throw that in there. Great series of posts.

Learned this the hard way after buying a TGV pass online with a standard Visa card. I couldn't use the self print machines when I got there and nobody spoke English to help me! Needless to say, all future passes were booked using my Amex Blue and had no problems after that .

Anyway, yes, fabulous post. For better or worse, I'm not a huge DVC fan even though I'm a member but the one aspect that I still love and appreciate is that the boo boo crowd hasn't infiltrated many of the resorts.... Yet. We used to absolutely love many of the moderate resorts back in the day but couldn't take it anymore (not to mention the sky rocketing cost!) after seeing this change take place. And no, I'm not being one of the elite few. It's freakin common decency and not feeling entitled to do whatever you want with no care as to how others around you might feel.

Regardless, I sincerely enjoy all the points if view in these treads and can only say that I look forward to what's down the road and will simply use our points and $ elsewhere until things pick up.

 

[BrianLo]

From what i've seen of both, I think Madagascar looks superior to Mermaid. And i'd put Mermaid more on the C ticket scale from my standards. I don't dislike Mermaid, but I find it extremely disappointing considering what they were hyping it to be.

Didn't mean to make it a comparison between the two, just meant to say it was merely an ok dark ride. The Madagascar figures are for the most part pretty stationary things with single points of articulation and moving lips. Similar to problems Mermaid suffers outside of its few good animatronics.

I want to see Universal go all out and provide a better animatronic dark ride experience than WDW seems to be capable of doing since the 90's.

Fortunately, for those who can travel - Mystic Manor, JTTCOE, 20k leagues, Pooh, Monsters Inc Ride and Go seek, Sindbad and Carsland (others I am likely forgetting) all at least prove Imagineering is capable when they have the money and drive to do so.

 

[doctornick]

Sorry. Basing my comment on my twenty-something kids (who are Disney fanatics) and most of their friends, and the twenty-something teachers at my school who would rather go to Uni/Six Flags/Cedar Point where the big coasters are and the atmosphere is a bit more "adult" if you know what I mean. Obviously if you're on this forum and in that age bracket, that wouldn't apply to you. I would venture to guess, tho, that most 18-30 yo who are amusement park goers aren't on Disney forums.

Yeah, the thing is, those people never were on Disney forums. If someone is 18-30 and they want to ride coasters, then WDW was never for them. It's not like there's been some change in the past 10 years to WDW that has made the parks unappealing to that segment where it was a draw before. WDW has never been a thrill ride destination and has always had that "stigma".

I mean, WDW has always had the "too cool" issue with many teens and young adults. It's not like the Edutainment at Epcot in the 80's was packing in this crowd.

The bigger issue is that there were people in the 18-30 year old bracket who went to WDW because they enjoyed the themed environment, the classy atmosphere and perhaps even to learn a little -- but have been turned off more recently due to the parks "declining by degrees" and becoming stale in terms of offerings.

 

[Andyjshort]

The ONLY reason I am not currently planning a Uni trip is that my youngest is under 48". She's actually on the short side, so it may be a while. On the upside, by the time I get to go back Uni will have opened a bunch of new attractions for me to check out.

And Disney will still be there with the same old same old if I need a theme park fix in the meantime.

I suspect when the kids are old enough, we'll be done with Disney. I'm looking forward to our Uni years.

My 4 year old is gutted that he is only 41" and can't do the big rides at Uni. Just hope I've still got the bottle when he is big enough and I'm pushing 50.

 

[flynnibus]

Add to the mix the Chinese, who are in full retro mode, as they prefer to only pay in cash. That includes buying luxury vehicles. It's quite something to read about car buyers in China bringing in suitcases of cash to pay in full for a vehicle.

Corruption does wild things

People flock to cash when there is no trust...

 

[Viget]

Sorry, Neo. Not ready go out out DL info just quite yet. But Iron Man is a no go.

Sorry, still wading through 40+ pages, not quite caught up. But, why is that? Disney *is* allowed to use Marvel in theme parks west of the Mississippi, no? And something is coming to innovations, no? Is it that they just want to focus on SW, full guns blazing? What if Ep 7 is no good? Avengers seems to just print money....

Or is there some creative language in the Marvel contract that we don't know about and Disney legal is just paranoid about putting anything Marvel stateside? It seems like they are a-ok with it on the Disney Magic, which I think is going to be a HUGE hit with the 6-10 yo boys on the cruise.

 

[The Mom]

Corruption does wild things

People flock to cash when there is no trust...

Or they're just 50 years behind the times. My father never had his own CHARGE card (they were not originally called credit cards) and my mother obtained one in the 1970s - when she was in her 50s with 30+ years of work history, and had already paid off a mortgage.

She never carried a balance. I have very rarely carried one, and only to split an unusually large payment into two.

 

[danv3]

Will guests still be able to fill up reusable water bottles?
With water of course!
Why didn't they pair this with Coke Freestyle machines?

Coke Freestyle machines FTW! I'm just back from a cruise on Royal Caribbean and they had Coke Freestyle machines paired with an RFID drink cup. $50 for the package but I still bought it.

 

[willtravel]

Or they're just 50 years behind the times. My father never had his own CHARGE card (they were not originally called credit cards) and my mother obtained one in the 1970s - when she was in her 50s with 30+ years of work history, and had already paid off a mortgage.

She never carried a balance. I have very rarely carried one, and only to split an unusually large payment into two.

It's amazing how much more money you have when you don't use a credit card or even purchase 6 months same as cash.

 

[bugsbunny]

next year my kid will be tall enough to go on all the thrill rides at Universal. That means a split trip to wdw and uni. A 9 year old who likes thrill rides. I can only guess where he will want to go from now on. And hes in love with the Simpsons.

Basically, wdw is losing the "tall enough" crowd and won't see them back until they are old enough to drink around the world.

 

[TalkingHead]

If reading Epcot Explorer's tweeted reactions to his first trip to Disneyland doesn't warm your heart, then you ain't got no heart to warm, I say.

That's my way of saying he's sorta excited. (Rightfully so, it's Disneyland after all.)

 

[Wikkler]

If reading Epcot Explorer's tweeted reactions to his first trip to Disneyland doesn't warm your heart, then you ain't got no heart to warm, I say.

That's my way of saying he's sorta excited. (Rightfully so, it's Disneyland after all.)

Then I don't have a heart...

 

[marni1971]

How feasible are customizable ride systems? (And I don't mean simulators, I mean actual vehicles that physically go somewhere.) I've been thinking that if this would lead to something like that-- think Horizons, probably imaginary version 11.0, where you could 'choose your future' by actually moving along sections of the ride that you selected and put in a particular sequence.......Has anybody at WDI mentioned, either officially or off-the-record, any kind of blue-sky vision for these things?

Certainly not trying to stir the pot, but Universal have indeed looked with third parties at this possibility.

 

[djlaosc]

Sorry, still wading through 40+ pages, not quite caught up. But, why is that? Disney *is* allowed to use Marvel in theme parks west of the Mississippi, no? And something is coming to innovations, no? Is it that they just want to focus on SW, full guns blazing? What if Ep 7 is no good? Avengers seems to just print money....

Or is there some creative language in the Marvel contract that we don't know about and Disney legal is just paranoid about putting anything Marvel stateside? It seems like they are a-ok with it on the Disney Magic, which I think is going to be a HUGE hit with the 6-10 yo boys on the cruise.

It was later mentioned in the thread that they are looking at Marvel as a DL third gate, so are now looking at Star Wars for Tomorrowland.

 

[JenniferS]

Yeah, the thing is, those people never were on Disney forums. If someone is 18-30 and they want to ride coasters, then WDW was never for them. It's not like there's been some change in the past 10 years to WDW that has made the parks unappealing to that segment where it was a draw before. WDW has never been a thrill ride destination and has always had that "stigma".

My husband grew up in WDW. His family stayed at the same hotel in St. Pete's every year, so MK was a once-a-year day trip. When Epcot opened, WDW became a 2-day day trip.

I didn't go to WDW for the first time until he took me when I was 23 - in the early fall of 1990. We bought a 4 day pass and used 2 days that trip, and 2 days the following year.

Boy oh boy, was I disappointed. I was accustomed to Canada's Wonderland, which was jam-packed with coasters and thrill rides. In the pre-internet days, I was expecting WDW to be like CW, except bigger, badder, and prettier ... with a castle.

Looking back, that first trip should have been magical! We got day-of ressies at CRT (then called King Stefan's Banquet Hall), and rode all the rides, including the Skyway, 20,000 Leagues, and Mr. Toad.

Instead, I was disappointed. Disney did not meet my expectation for thrills. When we returned the following year, I started to "get it". We returned to Florida two more times before we had kids, but did not visit WDW.

But once we had kids, I was counting the days until we could take them. Once I was able to see the parks though their eyes, I was hooked. We have now been almost every year since. Hubby and I don't even have to take the boys any more. And for the past two trips, I don't even take Hubby, due to work conflicts. Last trip (and this upcoming one) are with my SIL, who is hooked, and a borrowed niece or nephew from another brother.

I love thrill rides. Correction, I love coasters. I still buy annual passes to Canada's Wonderland; and when we do take the boys, we still go to Uni every other Florida trip. But my heart is in Disney, and I doubt that any amount of high octane additions to USO/IoA will change that. I am Disney's ideal guest. I stay on site; I get the DDP (but only for free, so there!); I rent a car, so I am not a strain on the transportation system; when I do stray up the I-4, it is only for 2 days; I sniff the pixie dust; and I start planning my next trip the day I get home. The current stagnation is all my fault. Blame me.

But not so deep down, there is a part of me that wants WDW to come out with their guns blazing, and really give Uni their come-uppance. C'mon Disney, you can do it. Bring us some big time magic back. You owe me! And you owe Walt and Roy.

 

[flynnibus]

Or they're just 50 years behind the times. My father never had his own CHARGE card (they were not originally called credit cards) and my mother obtained one in the 1970s - when she was in her 50s with 30+ years of work history, and had already paid off a mortgage.

She never carried a balance. I have very rarely carried one, and only to split an unusually large payment into two.

I was speaking specifically about the reason Chinese like cash - and it's not about resistance for change. Same reason you see lots of cash deals in Russia still as well. These emerging 'free markets' are still struggle with HUGE corruption - in all three areas, government, b2b, and b2c environments. It's just a fact of business there still.

 

[flynnibus]

Indeed. Good point. But if the budget hasn't almost tripled and hadn't started to have a direct effect on attraction investment (as it has) it would be a slightly less bitter pill.

I agree - but when we start talking about how much is spent on the project, and ongoing costs, etc.. we must keep in mind how much of this is offset spending, and how many pots is it really covering. The whole 'spending a billion dollars on FP+!!' posts..

 

[71jason]

Ive noticed the crowd at Universal to be a tad more rowdy, mainly because it appeals to more teenagers. (Thats my personal observation)

The flip side? Universal doesnt put up with any Bull(POOH!) from its guests.

And the teenagers tend to be locals (or South American) and don't stay at the Lowes hotels.

But now that I have a real keyboard, I want to reiterate--the WDW hotels are odd ducks. Just as Aluani and Adventures by Disney cater to people who would NEVER go to Hawaii or Europe if Disney wasn't running the show, just as PI (well, the Adventurers Club) was filled with guests who would NEVER set foot in a bar back home--plenty of fanbois who wouldn't go above a Quality Inn normally stay at the Disney deluxes. Because, "you know, it's Disney, it's different--PIXIE DUST!!!."

Universal doesn't really have that sort of fanboi, and the Lowes hotels aren't really extensions of the parks like at WDW (no Spongebob meal at Tchoup Chop), so they remain fairly normal. Just like The Ritz and the JW, and even the Swan and Dolphin. Slap the Disney logo on a building, perceptions of it change.